Chapter 17

Location: Virgon, Boskirk

Date: February 29, 2022

Time: 1530

"Colonial Heavy 431, welcome to Virgon, you are cleared to land at Pad Six, vector in at zero-nine-zero, standard speed, you have the right of way," the comms said coolly with a tinge of a unique accent to the medium-sized Intersun liner which had the small Earth diplomatic party and its vehicles on board.

Escorting the ship down were four Mk. VII Vipers, which had been present for the whole trip as protection. They'd had a very quiet trip, with the Earth diplomats having a whole deck to themselves with their security detail splitting time between their eight diplomatic staff and their vehicles in the cargo deck. It was beginning to get a little old to the Colonials to see the heavily-equipped and heavily-armed Earther security detail everywhere they went. To many, a vision of a highly-militant Earth culture was emerging, and they weren't liking it. However, if there was a colony that didn't like to be one-upped by such displays it was certainly the planet that Brenda Jackson found herself being sent to. There was a reason Virgon's nickname was 'Imperial Virgon'.

From the notes she had been taking she knew that Virgon was home to the headquarters of the Colonial Army, and was also home to the majority of the heavy industry relating to this branch of the united planets' core ground combatant units. The lead military industrial group that produced the tanks, APC's, IFV's, heavy weapons, and complex equipment of the Twelve Colonies was headquartered here in the capital city. Most of the Colonies' best training grounds were also here on Virgon, with almost all Colonial soldiers having at least one phase of their intense basic and specialist training take place here. In fact, the Army's flagship officer's academy was on the ground of Virgon's elite Imperial War College campus in the countryside of the pristine and ideal pastureland and woodlands outside the capital.

From here Brenda could see what Daniel had meant when he'd said that the capital city, Boskirk, was the first city of the entire system for a thousand years. The architecture looked as if someone had taken ancient Rome and given the Roman architects access to modern building techniques. A city of brick, marble, and glass towers with numerous large and small columnated buildings spread across the land. There were also great columns topped by golden statues of deities and heroes of legend with a meticulous attention to detail. But there was one, which had the entire Colonial pantheon atop it, that it was incredible to behold from where it sat upon a tall cliffside overlooking the sea and the harbor before the city. It looked to be the height of the Burj Khalifa from the water to the top of the observation deck of the pristine white and gold column that had large banners of all twelve planets flapping below their patron deities' golden statues. The roofs were almost all orange or red tile, with wide streets that were lined with palm and cypress-looking trees, and colorful raised terraces in the road medians loaded with carefully-manicured flowers. There were roundabouts and large public squares and parks present where one could see hundreds of different water fountains and fields of grass. This was a city that had benefited from enormous wealth and the obvious imperial desire to spend it on glorifying their people and power.

Normally, Boskirk was a sunny and warm paradise, with a reputation for being what Earth could equate to Monte Carlo. The numerous marinas holding many large and expensive-looking yachts and sailboats were evidence enough of this. But today, there was a dreadful pall over the city. Fog and misty rain made the normally Mediterranean-like weather feel more akin to dreary London during fall. The water droplets that streaked across the window as the transport descended into the brightly-lit spaceport, a modern and impressive complex built along the shore outside the city.

"Please take your seats, secure your seatbelts, and lock your tables in their upright and locked positions we are beginning our descent," the stewardess of their deck's cabin said over the intercom, and the assembled diplomats obliged although the security personnel politely declined, procedure dictating they remain mobile and able to respond at all times, even if it meant they were more at risk. But the steward crew had been politely informed of this well before-hand and made no fuss about it.

It wasn't long before the ship was landing, the landing struts comfortably absorbing the force with a smooth vibration that was felt in the cabin as Brenda looked around and saw that the two ports adjacent to their ship were marked in red, blocked for other ships' use while theirs had been on descent. Another ship identical to theirs but differently-marked with a commercial company's markings was now beginning lift-off, sending wisps of spray out in every direction as it did so. The seatbelt sign turned off, and the diplomats knew it was time.

"Thank you so much for flying with us, please enjoy your stay," the stewardess bid the group farewell and the door opened with one of their security people standing there.

"Ms. Jackson, Mr. Beverly, the Virgon government greeting is ready and awaiting you inside, we're ready to depart."

"Then let's begin," Brenda said as she buttoned up her suit jacket.

At this point, the group began to head out, traveling through the docking tube as the rain began to come down in a true torrent. The pitter-patter of the rain certainly seemed dismal, and almost outright ominous. Brenda didn't really pay this any mind usually, but something in the back of her mind was truly nagging at her. They had to go into a reception area where a group of Virgonese were currently gathered, all of them government officials, security, and a large number of press. The public was apparently not allowed here for some reason, they'd been told there'd be a large number of people there to greet them. But here, there was only this group of officials, all of whom were speaking quietly amongst themselves by the banners of their planet set up for their official arrival photo.

"Something's wrong," Brenda murmured to Mr. Beverly as the two led the way forward.

"Indeed, there must've been a security threat," the British man said, a cold seriousness evident in his voice.

"Best put out an alert then, just in case," Brenda replied succinctly, and pulled out her other phone, a subspace transponder. She opened the menu, and opened the alert app and then tapped the green alarm to the next level, yellow, as did everyone else to confirm it.

Green meant that there was no discernable threat to their safety, yellow meant that there was a possibility of a threat, and that the SGC and military forces needed to be on alert. Red was when there was a definite threat and that a ship be deployed to their assistance and a rescue plan readied, but that they were not in need of rescue. For immediate calls for assistance there was black, which was an immediate SOS, necessitating and immediate response from either the SGC or the fleet. This new system had been recently provided to unarmed civilian personnel in the past year, and had already saved the lives of a team of geologists on an exploratory mission on P4X-832 who'd been caught in a bad flash flood. These iPhone look-alikes were never to leave the team members' possession, and were in special protective cases for their protection which also had beacons on them as well as remote-operable cameras and microphones so that the phones could be activated via either touch or by pure voice, and even by the SGC or by an orbiting ship remotely. They had all the bells and whistles including Bluetooth compatibility and a battery life of three days of continuous high-use running and they had a simple recharge mechanism, solar panels on the back of the opened case that could be propped up to catch any visible light source for either a top-off or for emergency long-term charging. Needless to say, they were also ruinously expensive.

At the moment, Brenda was hoping that she didn't have to use it. Because as she arrived she received quite a welcome from the Colonial delegation, warm, heartfelt, and very familiar. For the most part, her worries alleviated as the visit began. But, the young woman was still concerned, she'd read too many of SG-1's mission reports to be comfortable. And something still felt off, and she wasn't shaking this feeling.

Delta Site

Colonel Mitchell was feeling slightly off being here, in total command of this, the latest major Earth offworld base, and future colony. But the Delta Site was already being set up to become so much more. Earth was setting its bases up in geographical zones where soil fertility was going to be at its highest. Here, the Delta Site was where the underground bunker complex was being dug out with a view of a truly ideal landscape, so Cam could already see why the IOA was so keen on this place.

It was beautiful, the climate was warm and pleasant, and there was a green grassy valley before him with isolated broadleaf forests along a wide and smooth river which led to a more swampy area with the ocean beyond it shimmering from the high afternoon sun. It reminded Mitchell of Southern England or Virginia, but completely unspoiled by the works of man. For a man who was used to being offworld it never ceased to amaze him just how relatable other planets could be. However, he also knew that bases like the one they currently inhabited, an assembly of prefabricated structures built on stilts with an H-Barrier wall and razor wire fence perimeter was still somewhat vulnerable although they did have a mobile shield generator, a small copy of what the old Prometheus had utilized. There was also a battery of six railgun turrets in depressed firing pits around the base along with a trio of Iron Dome CIWS missile launchers with a sensor station in a fortified bunker in the center of the compound plus eight M240B's in RWS turrets on telescoping mounts for perimeter security.

Around him, he had a predominantly American force of security troops, roughly a company in strength, alongside around a hundred engineers and a similar number construction crews from European nations while a plethora of SG Teams and scientists operated from the base daily, utilizing a wide variety of large and small UAV's, and Polaris Dagor UTV's and assorted ATV's with brand-new Rheinmetall Mission Master UGV's. These new German-made unmanned ground vehicles were the replacement for the SGC's old ROV's, they were bigger, faster, tougher, longer-ranged, and smarter than the long-in-the-tooth vehicles they were used to using. But beyond that, these new wheeled drones were able to be armed with a variety of weaponry, with some examples being fitted with RCWS turrets armed with weapons including fifty caliber heavy machine guns, 20mm and 35mm autocannons, 40mm grenade machine guns, ATGM's, or twin rocket pods able to act as artillery support. There were also the ubiquitous supply/cargo version, a communications relay version, a medical evacuation vehicle, an exploration vehicle with a variety of sensors, a loitering munition carrier able to launch six deadly kamikaze drones, and two UAV carriers holding either four quadcopter UAV's or a fixed-wing drone launched via a catapult. Mitchell only had nine cargo and three HMG-armed Mission Masters here. But he did have lots of UAV's, especially the octocopter cargo delivery kind which were already seeing some use in the civilian market but were quite prolific here at the Delta Site sending and receiving small parcels from the various science outposts on the periphery.

Down by the river their largest scientific outpost was the most well-established and was regularly utilizing its own small flotilla of RHIB's and flat-bottomed boats for exploring the river system and ranging out along the coast. But without doubt the biggest and most-obvious activity was the assembly of heavy equipment working on the underground structure the military intended to permanently inhabit here. The construction engineers had a new tool, Tok'ra tunnel crystals which had recently been introduced as standard for the SGC's digging projects as a cost-cutting and time-saving measure. They were worming their way through the mountain above them to make room for a facility that, in its official and top secret diagrams, was supposed to be as big as that of Cheyenne Mountain but with some uniquely SGC features. Already the engineers were lining in the large numbers of prefabricated rebar mats and cages and spraying in concrete mixtures via long hoses. This spray was going into the walls, and molds were assembled for support pillars and the walls while trinium-steel alloy arches were manhandled into position and bolted into place. At this point, only about thirty percent of the Delta Site's interior tunnel, corridor, and room spaces had been dug out by the crystals and had its preplanned and prefabbed rebar sections bolted into the walls for additional strength and redundancy. But only ten percent had received its initial coating of concrete. Although this was the easy part, and was progressing very quickly given the fact that tunneling was no longer done the old fashioned way. Plus, the SGC had been planning, preparing, and stockpiling the equipment for a period of five years anyway.

However a long road lay ahead, and Mitchell was to oversee much of this very important project. It was General O'Neill's idea to have Mitchell assigned here, so that he could prepare the Delta Site for Stargate Operations, and already Mitchell was learning the various ideas and measures that the eggheads, including Carter, had come up with. General Carter had stipulated that it would be best if the active heart of the SGC to be based out of the Alpha or Delta Sites, and made another recommendation. This was that no Earth colony possess a traditional DHD, replacing it with the same sort of unique Earth-built DHD system. It was already agreed that each of Earth's prospective colonies be built in such a way so that any virus that spread through the greater gate system would leave Earth and its colonies still able to connect with one another.

However, this was still a matter for others to worry about, Mitchell had the simple job of coming to grips with the Delta Site, the largest command that he had yet held. After all, he was a full Colonel of many years experience. As General O'Neill had quipped to him during his assignment brief, 'It's about time you had a Colonel's command that isn't SG-1'. So, here he was, at what he'd always loathed about the rank, reading reports. Although in this case he'd wormed his way out of his cramped office and was on the wrap-around porch beneath the corrugated tin shed roof that was built over the top of the command area's U-shaped trio of buildings. Down below he had three rows of chairs and tables with with officers and enlisted personnel down there getting some lunch in this outdoor mess hall.

Overall, the mood was relaxed, business-like, and efficient, leaving Mitchell to lean back in his fold-out chair against the wall of the building underneath his office's window with a small folding plastic end table having the stapled packets he had to read, plus a cold bottle of purple Gatorade and a sandwich. As he was reading however he got a sudden reminder of his position when the earpiece he wore went off.

"Colonel Mitchell?" the young Space Force staff sergeant who was his secretary said politely, and somewhat nervously, the young woman still incredibly intimidated by the legendary team leader.

"Yes Sparks? What do ya got?"

"Sir, the Amagi, the Atlantis, and the Zukhov just dropped out of hyperspace, General Carter and General O'Neill are ready to beam down along with our new equipment and supplies."

"Huh," Mitchell noted as he checked his watch and saw it was indeed time, "Right on time. Alright, Sparks, put on some coffee, we're gonna have company."

"Already done sir," she responded pleasantly.

"Of course…" Mitchell sighed silently, slightly unnerved by just how on top of things his staff here was as he stood up and flashing down before him in the designated painted box the forms of Brigadier General Carter and General O'Neill appeared wearing their usual multicam fatigues. Also next to them were two Space Force captains and two master sergeants, their own assistants and secretaries respectively.

"Hmm…didn't think it was this humid here," O'Neill quipped as he looked around.

"A rainstorm just passed through with another coming in the next hour," Mitchell greeted the two, saluting them alongside everyone else on the ground who did likewise, "Welcome to the Delta Site Generals."

"Hey Cam," Sam smiled up at him.

"Colonel," O'Neill returned the salute, "Nice place you got here."

"It's a regular home away from home sir."

"So I've heard," O'Neill noted with a nod.

"How was the trip sir? The new ships looking good?"

"The acceptance trials for these three new 304's should be finished here in the next couple weeks. Once they're cleared for duty we'll detach the Odyssey and the Hammond to the Cyrannus System while Atlantis and Amagi take their place in the Alaska group, the Zukhov will be headed back so it can be used for training the next Russian ship's crew and air group," Carter explained quickly.

"Things sure are coming along aren't they?" O'Neill said, pretty pleased with that particular fact.

The newest ships in the fleet were three BC-304's, the American Atlantis, the Russian Colonel Alexi Zukhov, and the Japanese Amagi. The Amagi was the first major asset given to the Japanese by Stargate Command, and would be heavily-utilized by future Japanese crews and pilots for training as the Japanese began their own building program of four additional BC-304's and two BB-305's. Meanwhile the Russians were fitting out two additional 304's while another pair were under construction so that the Borodino, the second of the BB-305's that had been built, would be able to finally flagship a fully-Russian battle group. They also had plans for building four more 304's and were building a second BB-305, the Navarin, in the eastern foothills of the Ural Mountains. The Chinese as well had two battlecruisers fitting out and another two under construction to add to their currently-active pair of 304's while four more additional ships were planned for construction in western China. The Chinese too had themselves a battleship, the Tang Taizong, that had just begun fitting out alongside its American sistership, the Hawaii, in Nevada.

Also in the fitting out stage were other new arrivals to the Earth Fleet, the German battlecruiser Karl von Müller named for the daring and chivalrous captain of the Imperial German light cruiser Emden in WW1, and the French battlecruiser Georges Guynemer, named for the equally-chivalrous WW1 French flying ace who was revered in French Air Force circles. The both of them were being worked on in Nevada alongside yet another trio of sisterships, the Japanese Akagi the American Columbia and the British Exeter. Nearby in the same area, were two under-construction battlecruisers, the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi, and the South Korean Yi Sun Shin. But Mitchell knew that he wasn't being briefed on that particular plan today, he'd already had that brief anyway.

"What brings you out our way Generals?" Cam asked the two as the generals summited the metal stairs and he unfolded a couple chairs for them.

"Well, we've got some news, turns out the traditionalist Wraith are on their way to the Milky Way, we just got confirmation from Todd, they caught one of their Hives and disabled it. It had a programmed hyperspace flight plan that would bring it straight to the Milky Way," Carter said to him, "We're bringing the Fleet to an alert status and we'll be alerting the Jaffa and the Tok'ra. They'll be able to cover more ground than we can."

"How'd the Wraith find out the Milky Way's coordinates?"

"A little birdy in a Ha'tak told 'em," O'Neill said quickly, "So there's no real way of knowing for sure. I've ordered the Wu Qi detached from the Borodino Battle Group so that the main force can be recalled to strengthen our home defense forces."

"All three battleships are gonna be in the Milky Way?"

"Yeah, the Alaska's group is having its training phase postponed while the Lion and her group are being made ready as our primary response force," O'Neill stated with a nod.

"If one of our allies catches sight of any Wraith ships we'll be able to get our ships there in a few hours and handle the situation," Carter nodded.

"As for you and your post Colonel," O'Neill said matter-of-factly, "You'll need to get your guys' butts in high gear. As nice as this basecamp is you'll still need to get your primary facility into operation sooner rather than later so that you have a hardened location to base yourselves from. We're also getting you an iris, its installation crew and equipment is currently on board one of the ships and will be beaming down to begin work."

"Any additional weaponry?" Mitchell inquired.

"Nothing that we can spare," O'Neill stated, "At least in terms of heavy stuff. But, we do have some neat stuff coming for ya."

"I like neat stuff," Mitchell noted.

"Me too," O'Neill smirked.

"We've selected the first school of candidates for the SG/S Teams. They'll be shipping from the SGC once your facility's able to take them. They'll be equipped with our latest weaponry and kit. Plus, the Army's chosen its new rifle, it'll be the Sig Spear design. So the Space Force has ordered us to evaluate the new 6.8x51mm XM5 Assault Rifle and XM250 SAW as well as the MG338 machine gun as potential standard issue weaponry. Plus a few new weapons."

"What other weapons?"

"A potential replacement for the P90 and MP5, we'll be trialing the Sig MCX Virtus in 300 Blackout for military personnel and the AAC Honey Badger for civilians and rear echelon personnel," Carter replied.

"The Joint Chiefs wanted to see if the new weaponry was viable for offworld operations. You'll be taking delivery of the first batch of new weapons as standard issue for evaluation as well as the initial first class from our initial candidate pool."

"How many we looking on that team?" Mitchell asked.

"A full team, hundred and sixty-eight enlisted and officers."

"The selection criteria included that all personnel must have earned the different proficiency badges of their home branches and passed basic and advanced leadership courses. Plus they need to pass security checks for clearance to even get considered. We got most of them from the Army Airborne and Ranger battalions plus a handful of Marines. So they're already some of the best."

"The new structure been approved then?" Mitchell asked, having been responsible for submitting the recommendation for the SG/S teams' structure and force composition.

"Sure has, Joint Chiefs have signed off."

"Sweet," Mitchell nodded in appreciation, "We going to be starting the training courses for the other SG Teams soon?"

"Not yet, SOCOM's still fighting us on allowing us pull candidates from their teams. Plus Daniel's contract is still under negotiation with the IOA, they want him to start here as soon as possible."

"Jackson's fighting it, he wants to stay at Caprica until things are fully stabilized," O'Neill shrugged.

"Well at least until the Colonials and the Cylons begin peace talks," Carter noted.

"Think they will?" Cam inquired.

"Hard to say, things in that area of space are far more complicated than we had anticipated. The IOA's got it covered though, all we need to do is…" Carter said as Mitchell's earpiece sounded off.

"Colonel, we've just received an alert, the IOA diplomatic away team has gone to status yellow," Mitchell's current duty officer at the operations center called over the radio.

"Roger that, we have a code yellow, the diplomatic team on Virgon," Mitchell said as he looked over at the now alert pair of senior officers.

"Atlantis, O'Neill," Jack tapped his earpiece, getting communications straight to the orbital ships, "Get a flash message to the Lion and her battle group to be on standby for deployment to the current code yellow."

"May want to deploy the Odyssey to orbit as well," Carter stated.

"And send a message for Odyssey to shift location to position in geosynchronous orbit over Virgon and establish communication with the IOA diplomatic team," O'Neill added before ending the transmission, "Well, never a dull moment huh?"

"Yeah, no kidding," Mitchell noted quickly.

"We'll have the equipment for the new team mustered and sent beforehand once the facility's completed," Carter said as they got back to business.

"It'll be done in time, in fact, we're ahead of schedule by a few days, those crystals make the digging quite a bit easier," Cam noted to the two.

"Good job Carter," O'Neill patted her on the shoulder.

"The Tok'ra did most of the legwork sir. We were just lucky that we had gotten them programmed in time when the IOA cleared the Delta Site's construction."

"Still, good job," O'Neill said, with a noted pause.

"We have an inventory for what we need to be ready for sir?" Mitchell asked.

"Yep, all the drones, vehicles, and weapons they'll need. Apparently the new Strike Teams are pretty expensive," O'Neill noted with a bemused tone, still used to their past small team sizes.

The new Strike Teams were slated to be larger-than normal company-sized formations, based upon a model of three rifle platoons each with three ten-man rifle squads and a ten-man weapons squad and the four-man platoon HQ section. There was also a mortar-heavy section of twenty men in three six-man sections with two M224 60mm tubes each with a two-man section HQ. Capping it off was the Company HQ, with eight men in it with two two-man sniper teams directly subordinate to them who utilized the Mk. 22 ASR in .338 Norma Magnum or alternatively the M107 anti-material sniper rifle. Each squad had a qualified medic assigned to it, and each radio operator, with the platoons having one and the company having two, each holding a quadcopter drone for reconnaissance and target call-outs for their mortars while the company HQ having two JTAC's for calling in fire support or air strikes using a more substantial octocopter UAV of their own which possessed a laser designator. Their teams also were slated to have three two-man anti-aircraft specialists armed with Stingers, usually attached to their platoons at the discretion of the team commander.

These teams also had the chosen capability to take armored vehicles with them, JLTV's of various versions. A force of thirty such assorted models were listed in their table of equipment allowing such a company to maneuver far and wide as necessary with quite a lot of firepower along with them. But these vehicles were not to be the only assets at the disposal of the SGC's premier combat units.

One thing that was already settled was that each squad was going to have its own Mission Master UGV assigned to it with two HMG's and two GMG's while the HQ would have a pair of similar vehicles, one being a cargo carrier and another having a 30mm autocannon under the platoon sergeant's direct command. Each of these each had two EuroSpike ATGM's mounted in the turret with the main weapon. The company HQ was slated to have ten UGV's, an ISR gathering Mission Master, one communication relay model, a rocket pod-armed model with a cargo model carrying spare rockets, a medical evacuation model, a version holding six tubes for launching larger loitering munitions, and a cargo carrier for the mortar section plus two Ripsaw M5 heavy UGV's armed the same turret that the Stryker Dragoon possessed. The mortar section were the personnel who were designated to care for these vehicles, but the JTAC's were in charge of the employment of the rocket pod vehicle and the company XO was in charge of one Ripsaw while the company first sergeant was in charge of the second one. With all these UGV's and UAV's the Strike Teams were very impressive forces on paper, their drones able to be utilized to guard Stargates or be left behind as a rearguard while the force retreated and of course used as a powerful force multiplier. And of course each platoon would have access to a number of Switchblade 300 and 600 loitering munitions that they'd either pack in on their backs or strap to their UGV's.

Although, these UGV's were slated to only be able to deploy with a so-far design-only stealth UAV that would be launched through the Stargate, accelerate into orbit, and act as a stealth GPS system and subspace relay while cloaked and await recovery from the Fleet. There were other plans in store as well, including RCV platoons of Milrem Robotics Type-X armored robotic vehicles in a whole slew of variants for heavier direct-action missions and for a dedicated loitering munition launcher at each SGC gate room for launching large-scale autonomous recon and strike missions. In the coming days, the SGC would need every bit of these new toys.

Aquaria, Iris Island Fleet Storage Facility

The lab was certainly a more spartan location than Gaius was used to, but he was certainly not complaining. This work was by far the most compelling and thrilling adventure he had yet to embark upon. Having already been familiarized with theoretical physics due to him winning the job for the winning bid of the Command Navigation Program he had been well-versed in the physics which the Ring of the Lords theoretically operated upon if the initial briefings were accurate. So, going back to the books, Dr. Baltar was making sure he was well-acquainted with the subject prior to beginning work on the potential computer core with which this program would need so badly to make it work.

He'd already been working on a similar program for an upgrade to the now deactivated CNP, which was meant for overall command of a computer system, in particular Gaius had been able to write and install new and far more efficient and accurate starmapping and FTL jump calculation parameters for the Fleet's navigation computers, which he had had also cut his teeth on upgrading when he had arrived in the industry. But of course, he wasn't perfect, with his specialization in navigation computers rather than a networked computer system he needed help with the CNP's major components. So, he brought along a trusted colleague and a lover, Natasi, the Cylon responsible for the massive security breach found in the program. Although she herself maintained her cover with great skill and poise, and now, found herself in the heart of the most lucrative of all Colonial programs, their version of Earth's Stargate Program.

However the woman was realizing something, the Cylons no longer possessed the clear and simple mission that she'd begun her own assignment with. This left her at quite an uncertain position. She could of course just walk to one of the icy cliffs near the cabin she and Gaius had bought and vanish into the roiling waves and be smashed against the dark rock. Then she'd be safe and among her fellow Cylons once again. But, there was another thing she was all-too-aware of: the Sixes, her sisters, along with the Eights and the Threes were hatching something big, and it could spell trouble for them if they didn't play their cards right. While the Ones, Twos, Fours, and Fives held the majority command over the Cylon Fleet, the undisputed masters of the Cylon intel network were the Threes and Sixes, while the Eights held the majority command of their faction's own substantial portion of the fleet. But while the Sixes and Threes needed to plot to gain advantage and avoid detection from the Colonials they also had to avoid their fellow Cylons, of which the other male models had their own network of agents.

So, Natasi maintained this cover and role, although despite her own sisters' attempts to assure her that what she was doing was merely for their own cause she herself knew this not to be entirely true. More was happening here than a simple infiltration. Gaius had happened, and despite the arrogant farmer's son turned millionaire tech genius thought he had started developing feelings of genuine affection that neither had really seen coming. The intellect which both shared was stimulating, the results of their labors and efforts driving their relationship along as they sought to win the other over in a back and forth seesaw of romantic gamesmanship. Few such driving factors were able to foment the sort of results that Baltar and his team were now seeing.

Sitting in a large concrete warehouse, once filled with rocket boosters and missile components for nuclear warheads, Natasi was overseeing her company's team of contractors as they built what could arguably become the most powerful computer in the Twelve Colonies or in the Cylons' own hands. There was a simple reason for this, if the Cylons ever found a Ring of their own, they needed to know what to do with it. Natasi first needed to make it work, so she was sauntering around, looking at the rows of computer towers as each one was assembled piece by piece, overseeing each wire and every board and liquid cooling tube and heat sink. A substantial series of pumps and tubes were installed already with a reserve tank of a special premix coolant for the computer cores being prefabricated offsite and assembled here. The server towers were already housed within a glass enclosure which was about two thirds of the total floor space. It was going to be treated as if it were an industrial clean room with all the associated separate ventilation and airlock enclosures already installed and running.

All networked connections ran underneath the on-stilts enclosure to a control and systems monitoring center. And a protected steel conduit was being assembled with the fiber optic wiring strung through with a jackhammer was chiseling its way through the wall to connect to the prospective embarkation room in the level below where another longer thinner warehouse was already being fortified and the control center built up as well. Ironically, the Colonials were setting up their gateroom in the exact same setup as that utilized by Earth, right down to the steel ramp to the Stargate itself.

"Good morning my love," Dr Baltar surprised her as he walked around the other side of the glass.

"Good morning," Natasi said pleasantly back as she bent down next to a fellow female tech, purposely showing her exquisite rear to Gaius as she corrected a misplaced connection for this tower's motherboard, "Been to your morning briefing yet?"

"Just came from there actually," Gaius said as he idly flipped a pen in his fingers, eyeing up Natasi's lovely figure from the other side of the glass.

"And?" she replied and after seeing the correction made nodded to the young tech, "Thank you, go ahead and power cycle and make sure it's hitting all ports."

"Yes ma'am."

The two women closed up the clear glass door and soon the soft blue lights powered on and began fading into their cascading rainbow colors as the pumps and fans hummed to life with the temperature-reactive coolant warming and changing color slightly as a simple method of visual indication of system temperature. The laptop that was already strapped on the tower's dedicated pivoting platform was soon being tapped on by the tech who Natasi left to her duties. She herself made her way out as Gaius followed her and talked as he did so.

"So, our staffs will be granted a cabin by the sea, supposedly it'll be a lovely gated community. It's clear that our benefactors in Colonial Intelligence are willing to spend the money on this project, so we'd best be able to produce what we promised," Dr. Baltar explained as the woman passed into the airlock and then into the locker room where she would change.

"Interesting, so long as I can get this server farm set up as planned we'll be able to get the programming upload underway immediately, I got my team working on a prototype dialing program," Natasi said as she put her clean suit into the laundry basket for it to be cleaned and ready again, seeing as no suit got used again until it was cleaned thoroughly.

"Excellent, we have our other projects ongoing as well, predicting stellar drift and ascertaining a measure by which we'll connect our system with that of the Ring, it should be fairly simple I think," Baltar noted confidently.

"Oh I'm glad you think so," Natasi said as she pulled her coat on and put her work heels back on and grabbed her tablet.

"We already have a working knowledge of wormhole-type travel thanks to our FTL system, so we should be able to transfer much of the knowledge and apply it here," Baltar said as he then took a drag on a nicotine vape, ignoring a protocol to not smoke, but getting around it slightly with the electric device.

"So, you picked a spot yet?" Natasi asked.

"Hmm?" Baltar looked up as she walked out to join him and they started walking, "What do you mean?"

"A place I mean? You said the military was providing the staff lodgings right?"

"I was thinking of building one from scratch, something tells me that this is it, my great project. The thing that will change the Colonies. So I'm willing to match investment with the military for a nice rustic alpine cabin, for two…"

"For two?" Natasi cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes well, it's not exactly secret that you spend more nights with me than at your own dormitory anyway, so…what do you say?" Gaius asked, having planned this question for some time, asking Natasi to move in with him was something he'd wanted for quite a while, and now had the chance to do so.

"That sounds quite nice," she said with a bright smile, a deep desire now come to realization, her hand now intertwining with that of Gaius.

"Now then, shall we go exploring?"

Virgon, Village of Eldersville

Their plan was potentially in jeopardy, but it was too late to turn back. The lethally-dangerous and radical sect known as The Crusaders of Kobol were a small and highly-secretive segment of Gemenese religious terrorists. This group of roughly twenty men and women were generational, part of a once-massive grassroots political movement that had plagued the planet of Gemenon for over a century before the design for the first Cylon was even put to paper. At their height vast swathes of Gemenon were under their control as they waged a bitter civil war which dragged in Caprica in the planet's first major conflict on Gemenon in over two hundred years. This group was driven into near-extinction by Gemenese government and Caprican military forces over the course of thirty years, but their reach and impact resulted in a dangerous precedent.

They'd adhered to a radical and horribly-intolerant interpretation of the Sacred Scrolls, with the view that atheists and monotheists were abhorrent blasphemers whose only salvation was through divine judgement, facilitated of course at the hands of the holy followers of the Gods. Their militancy spread from Gemenon, taking root in remote rural areas of the Colonies where they went to ground, occasionally executing a variety of terrorist actions since then against government, religious, and celebrity personalities whenever they could and had fractured and fragmented into separate and frankly uncooperative familial-based units whose ranks were impossible to infiltrate or even locate. In fact they found themselves so paranoid and secretive that others of their sect were unable to find each other with few exceptions. There were exceptions, such as now, with three families gathering together their adult ranks, armed and ready for their planned strike against those whom they perceived as the greatest possible blasphemers.

"What do we know so far, are we compromised?" the old woman asked from where she was sitting at the head of the dining room table the leadership of this crew was assembled at the countryside farming compound.

"No, if the reports we have are true the government's stooges would have already hit us. They're paranoid, any possible threat they are treating with enormous prejudice," the other patriarch responded calmly, getting murmurs of agreement from the elder sons also at the table, filled with food wrappers, bottles, and laptops with pictures on them from their recent activities performing reconnaissance on their target.

"Good, and their security?"

"They've got eight men, fully kitted with rifles and pistols and tactical gear, and they probably have body armor as well," another younger adult male stated firmly, spinning his computer around where he'd plugged in his camera's data chip. This treated everyone to the sight of the Earth diplomatic crew as they had taken their photo op with the parliament speaker and several high-ranking officials.

"Vehicles too, not military-looking, but are probably armored. There's also a lot more cops around as well, I saw probably twenty of them when they arrived at the hotel."

"Are we still able to get into the hotel?" the woman asked, her demanding tone making some of the other families rather annoyed at how authoritarian she was acting.

"Yes," the third patriarch replied, speaking for the first time, "We have our men on the staff in place and ready, they'll have the loading dock cleared of security by the time the first bomb goes off."

"And the bombs?" the woman looked at the two youngest members, two young adult women.

"The tankers are out back, filled to the brim," the elder of the two women stated.

"Will it work?"

"Just one will level everything within five hundred feet, easy."

"That'll take care of the cops' response force and send our message."

"And leave the heretics all alone. Once they're alone, they're ours, and we can begin the new crusade and finish what our ancestors began on Kobol."