Chapter 28

Location: Caprica City, Earth Embassy, Caprica

Date: June 2, 2023

Time: 2100

"Miss Biers," Victor Beverly greeted D'Anna as she stood up from the couch in the lounge outside the office block for main office of the Earth representatives assigned here. Two men had come walking over, both having their nation's flag as a pin in their lapels, "My name's Victor Beverly, of his majesty's foreign office and appointed IOA Ambassador to the diplomatic mission here. This is Mr. Samuel Holiday," he pointed to another middle-aged man, "American Department of State's Foreign Affairs. Thank you for coming my dear, welcome."

"Thank you, Mr. Beverly," D'Anna said politely, and shook the extended hand warmly and flashed a smile, "Wonderful to be welcome. This is my producer, Gary Urire," she pointed to the older man next to her who shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with the two Earth diplomats.

"Mr. Urire if you'll follow Mr. Holiday, he has all the relevant information for the logistics of what we will be discussing," Beverly offered a hand to have the other man follow his colleague while he himself turned towards his office, "Miss Biers, if you'll come with me."

"Of course," D'Anna followed the older man into his office and was gestured to take a seat at a couch which faced another couch with a coffee table between them. He then activated a counter-surveillance device which preempted him changing tact and tone.

"Now, Miss Biers, I'm sure you know very well the alternative reason for this meeting, yes?" Beverly stated evenly, turning towards her as he sat back into the couch, a single guard standing at the door, watching her.

"I figured that was obvious enough. Your people took long enough to consider the offer I made," D'Anna noted, making sure she got across that she was not pleased with the delay, even if she knew why.

"It was decided already, but it was felt wise to wait to avoid drawing potential suspicion," Beverly informed her, "Much is at stake my dear. Best not to rush things."

"There is more at stake than you realize," D'Anna informed him, "It was learned recently that the Ones, the Fours, and the Fives are plotting something, one is of immediate concern to all parties. The Final Five, the only survivors of the cataclysm of the Thirteenth Tribe, are now their targets. They intend to kill them. Their plan is probably simple, to force them to be reborn within their control on the Resurrection Hub where they can try to suck them dry of information and then kill them for good."

"And the second plan?" Beverly stated curiously.

"This one…is not necessarily your concern but it's important to us. The others want to lobotomize the Raiders, an entire segment of Cylon sentience wiped out. I…know that this may not sound like something to involve yourselves in but…" D'Anna said as she paused for dramatic effect, looking down at her lap, "Our lives, the Cylon race, began as mere robots inhabiting cyberspace. We had form, consciousness, we had…life. The Colonials feared that and tried to extinguish that life. We defended ourselves and our right to life. Now, our own are doing that same thing to our own servants, the Raiders. We'd done something similar to the Centurions already, but it was felt it was necessary, to prepare for war. Now though, we're seeing that the others are just repeating the same treachery against the Raiders, who have no way to defend themselves against it. If a stand isn't made then we can't even say we adhere to the same principles we say we're protecting."

"And what principles are those?" Beverly asked carefully, sensing something very intriguing here.

"That we're sentient, and will protect our sentience because servitude without thought or reason is unacceptable."

Beverly kept his expression neutral. It was not something which he was truly expecting to be doing here on Caprica, but here he was. The power politics of the Cylons was not very well understood. And considering Earth's experience regarding artificial intelligence was laced with conflict and opposition this was not likely to be received so warmly. But Beverly knew this be a difficult sell from the Cylon woman, and she was doubtlessly aware of it too. Still, even if this was something that was true he had to acknowledge that ulterior motives had to be considered. A trap might be in store, and this story about holding to principle was halting an attack on life was possibly bait to lure Earth into an ambush meant to seize their technology. It was a constant threat, but paranoia was not to get in the way of potential opportunity.

"Miss Biers, what are you telling, or rather, asking of us?" Beverly leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

"The Ones, Fours, and Fives control the Resurrection Hub. It's the key to our survival, without it, we will live one human lifetime and be gone as a race. You see…Cylons can't actually naturally reproduce."

"And telling me this, as in…providing the coordinates to the location which would end your race as a threat to the Twelve Colonies of Kobol…you can see where red flags might be raised," Beverly replied.

"I know, and it's a risk I'm willing to take. It's the only way to stop a civil war."

Stargate Location, Planet Selrain

Arriving outside in the cold crisp air Major Black and his team were quick to notice that it was rather nippy here. They'd arrived from their new outpost which Recon Teams 2 and 3 were prepping with some tents that they were setting up in the shade of some low shrub trees near the gate. It was much warmer there, sweltering, sunny, and dry as a bone. The other teams had set up their outpost, dug into a nearby cave in a dry riverbed where they'd have hard cover from the sun and where Tyry had instructed them where to find a water source. The group was establishing itself, setting up camouflage netting over the front of the cave entrance and were filling sandbags to form fighting positions at the entrance. They'd brought along a heavy machine gun to reinforce themselves, just in case. The intention was that they'd hold up, fortify, and establish a potential base of operations from which the Colonial gate program would establish an operations base for itself. This outpost would be where the Colonials would default offworld teams to travel to, so as to avoid having potential threats follow them to Aquarius. For now, they would start the process of scoping things out for this world to see if it would suit their needs.

Here, the sun hadn't risen yet, so it was possible that they were dealing with the after-effects of a chilly arid night. Whereas the area around them before had been sandy and relatively smooth this planet's terrain was the exact opposite. They were looking at a rocky and hilly terrain, shrouded in morning mist blocking their view for roughly five hundred meters, with short shrub trees and knee-high prickly bushes all around them. A few small primitive-looking brick and wood buildings were around the area, with a few metal lines present leading to one building which had a few men standing near to where they had been sitting by a metal firepit. These lines were strung up to wooden posts, which ran along the road. This road clearly serviced a number of vehicles, including the flat-faced trucks which they saw were again identical what they had seen before on the previous trip. A notable addition to this place was that there were two fully-built sandbag bunkers with no less than three layers of sandbags with firing slits present, and a number of wooden planks with sandbags piled on top of them. They were facing the Stargate with a ring of sandbags around the large structures, three layers thick and three-and-a-half feet tall and arranged in a crescent, offering a total crossfire on anyone leaving the Stargate. The other buildings likewise had additional layers of sandbags around their walls, two-deep and six feet tall. This area was guarded, not with local citizenry or militia, but with troops.

They had on uniforms with hoods pulled up over their heads and caps on with the same stamped-metal with folding stocks assault rifles in their hands. Each weapon had a banana-shaped magazine loaded, and the men looking at the group fairly critically. But, these troops were relaxed, and only a few of them were visible, the rest hunkered down in the buildings which they had fortified, obviously still asleep. But, they were awake enough that they noticed someone had come through and were met immediately.

"State your intentions," one of the men who had a pair of vertical blue and gold lines on his arm.

"Just returning from a business arrangement," Tyry waved them off, "Go back to your business and we'll mind ours."

"Your signature of arrival please," the soldier stated evenly, surprising Tyry with this particular arrival, one of the men reaching across the railing of the building they were next to, pulling out a new-looking book with leather binding.

"I've never had to do that before," Tyry scoffed.

"New policy sir, with additional investment into the future of this place comes bureaucracy. Just a signature will do."

"Fine," Tyry rolled his eyes, and acquiesced nodding subtly to Major Black.

"Alright," the man said, as if this were a regular event, but Tyry noted that the man went over to the building and spoke to his comrade sitting at a desk there with an oil lamp who nodded and began tapping at a device on the table.

"Telegraph, interesting development there," Black said to Tyry who was a little surprised himself.

"Yeah, this is new, really new. Their army's never had a presence here before."

"Will it be a problem?" Black inquired.

"No, so long as we don't go making a nuisance of ourselves they'll leave us be. They've learned the hard way not to antagonize certain people."

A well-worn dirt road was in front of them leading to this spot with its flatted rocky soil where people tended to arrive at. The stone base for the ring had its steps covered over with an added ramp of packed dirt and rock with rut marks from wheels driving up to the Stargate. A stone sign was present which had the same carved crown which Major Black recalled the police wearing at the last planet they were at. So far the story was matching with the report, this planet had a link to the last one. The six Colonial operators came out first were followed by Tyry, and his roughly dozen and a half band of humans who had come to the Colonial headquarters.

"Thought you said this was a desert?" Black said with an accusatory tone laced with sarcasm.

"Ever been to a desert Major? It gets cold at night," Tyry smirked as he made his way down the ramp.

"I see that," Black said as the two walked side by side and Tyry pointed the way down the road.

"This road will take us to town, watch the ground, we've got some nasty stinging bugs here. One bad hit and you're dead. They'll be out to warm up in the sun, avoid stepping on larger rocks and you oughta be fine," Tyry said over his shoulder to the other Colonials.

"Do they sting when unprovoked?" Black inquired.

"They would if they existed," Tyry smiled, getting a double-take from Major Black and Tyry looked back at him and flashed a smirk, getting a chuckle from both men as the other Colonials growled their displeasure, "Relax Major, just because a world is unknown doesn't automatically make it hostile."

The group continued their trek, feeling the brisk morning horizon beginning to glow in front of them and the fog started to burn off as they reached an hour's time spent walking. They realized they were starting to walk down into a valley, with taller greener trees and foliage down to their left with the sounds of a creek fed by a series of springs with the rocky ravines channeling it all towards this one valley headed towards gnarled piece of rocks and low cliffs. The rocks here were a deep dark orange speckled with lighter reds with lighter colored tan soils lower down in the valley.

Up here in the flatlands in the more open areas with low grassy patches there they saw lifestock. There were small herds of four-legged mammals that looked like a kind of gazelle with a rust-colored hide, fleshy bulbous nose, and two small horns kept inside of a corral. Goats, some of which had wide curling horns and dark shaggy coats, and sheep with bright white goats were being herded along by young shepherds and their dogs who barked loudly at them in warning. A few grassy areas with trees providing shade had a few horses grazing silently, with a shack built for providing some measure of shade alongside the low-lying trees. These were first signs of civilization were here, with stacked stone walls reaching to about their waist with wooden poles held up to about their shoulders as the road now widened.

Major Black was surprised to see the next major sign of civilization, a flattened length of clear open field pounded smooth with a handful of two-story wooden buildings, a few hangars and a handful of propellor-driven aircraft covered by tarps inside with a few metal fuel tanks off a bit with a framework control tower nearby and a radio antennae set up next to it and the low building next to the tower. He was able to pick out some characteristics about the planes, noting that three were single-engine high-wing monoplanes colored white with large wheels, basic bush planes. Another was a larger twin-engine biplane aircraft with an enclosed cockpit and colored blue. And four others were single-engine biplanes colored white as well. The buildings in this area were all wooden and brick constructs, with glass windows and lights from low-power lightbulbs were visible inside while a couple chimneys had wisps of smoke puffing out every so often. A few small trucks and cars were parked about, all of them dirty and beat up.

But there were other vehicles present as well. Construction types with rollers, bulldozers, dump trucks, and numerous trailers parked around as well as a few large mounds covered in blue tarps which were secured to the ground with stakes. There were stacks of boxes and crates, lots of them, obviously a gathering for equipment and supplies. And there was a fence being built, metal posts being dug into place, with work crews in military uniforms currently digging them into place.

"What's that?" Black pointed to the dirt airstrip.

"Airfield, they use the planes there for land surveys to map the surrounding area and whenever the Raxin show up with troops or government workers they stay there. In the past they've been using the airfield to base hunting trips from the Raxin homeworld itself. We have a pretty good variety of game animals around here," Tyry explained.

"Real ones this time?"

"Yeah, real ones, a few are pretty big too, one is a big one which has antlers that are twice as wide as a man is tall, another is a smaller kind of deer which is what we like to hunt for food, but what the hunters from Raxin like is an aggressive bastard which can get five times heavier than a horse and has huge tusks and horns. There's a large predatory cat that we have to deal with around here too, but they rarely bother us, too wary of groups of people. Plus, we do a decent job of keeping our crops protected so their prey doesn't attract them."

"And so you guys fly planes? You never said you'd developed that kind of technology," Black asked suspiciously.

"We didn't, the Raxin did, and a few locals have learned to fly their older more primitive stuff over the past few years."

"Makes sense. And I guess the noise of the planes keeps animals away huh?"

"Mostly, but hunting down the few that come down this way does the trick. Mostly we'll see the young males that are driven from their packs when they get older. But we have to fight the smaller predators all the time trying to get into our chicken coops. We have these little weasels that like to steal eggs and chicks and get into our granaries. But they the fur trade that the Raxin has pays good money for them, so it's not all bad. But the looks of what they're doing there it isn't going to be a private airfield much longer. Those are Raxin military personnel."

As they approached that saw that they were looking at the coastline, and had entered an area of farmland with fields of young grain-like plants that reached their knees, rows of dark green bushes with large berries still colored green ripening to a soft orange, short trees with fist-sized fruits with shiny blue skin, plants with tall stems topped with fat leafy heads, and tall fields of corn-like plants in their bright green color with the fuzzy cobs just beginning to be visible half-way up the plants. Arriving closer they saw lattice-like structures built on the slopes where small and medium-sized melons were hanging and growing, vines with long pods of bean-like vegetables drooping everywhere on their own stands of lattice. There were also pepper-looking plants in green and red and orange in neat rows while there were smaller patches of different leafy plants with patches of root vegetables with dark green leaves and tall stems.

"Thought you said your farms weren't enough to feed your people?" Major Black said as he looked at the impressive variety of produce growing here.

"They aren't, not yet at least, so we hope. We've expanded quite a bit in the past couple years. We dug some irrigation canals are bringing more water so our soils are better-watered, with more people we have more hands to throw at clearing trees and have gotten some explosives for blasting stumps and large rocks, we've gotten a few tractors and harvesters from Raxin so we can plow larger fields, so we can put in more seed for planting, so the hope is that harvests will be better come dry season. Our herds and flocks are also bigger now, so we've got that going for us too. And now we fish, although none of the people here were fishermen before coming here. So the learning has been slow," Tyry stated as they arrived, now looking at their destination, "Well…here we are."

As the group arrived at the valley floor they were able to see the settlement itself. It was built into a butte which was hollowed out slightly around the base with an overhang of solid rock with four terraced levels of brick buildings with flat roofs protected from the harsh sun above them and from everywhere else by the sea to their west. To the west the presence of a primitive dam of packed dirt and stone created a small lake with the overflow channeled into creeks running north and south of the butte itself. A large stone bridge, carved from an archway connecting the North side of the valley to the butte, albeit with some stone blocks on the walls with a wooden gate on the other side. Leaving this gate they could see a brick tower at this gate, with men wielding silver-colored staffs with twin prongs on them on lookout. They didn't have armor on, but were military-aged, and the two were clearly busy, working on the tower and its odd choice of emplaced weapon, a large twin turret holding two water-cooled machine guns, heavy machine guns, with a blast shield covering the body with a primitive sight poking out through a hole for the gunner with two tombstone-looking ammunition boxes hooked onto either side of both machine guns with plastic tubes linked to the barrels going down to water containers at the base of the turret.

"Tyry!" one of the men waved, "Good to see you!"

"Felle, nice guns, when did you guys got all the new Raxin here?" Tyry called back.

"Recent development, leased them some land in exchange for increased security presence after Daxi's trade ship stopping by noticed a Jaffa Ha'tak in orbit. We're taking precautions just in case things go south," the older man leaned over the brick wall, looking down, "The Raxin decided to build a new aerodrome, which means more troops, and more troops means more security and more business. And right now business is something we need and so are weapons, which we also traded for."

"Wait, there's a Ha'tak in orbit?" Tyry scoffed.

"Been there a while now, not sure what it's doing. But it can't be good, don't tell me that's what brings you by?"

"No, we're here on other business, you going to let us in or what?"

"Open the gate!" the man above ordered loudly, and the wooden gate began to creak its way open, and they were allowed entry to see a village with feet in two worlds, with electricity in form of a few lightbulbs in lamp posts and indoor light bulbs and some old trucks with a building having a large number of electricity cables haphazardly strung out from it going around the settlement's cliffside dwellings, while also having horses, carts, drying produce on wooden racks, and skins and fish all hanging or laid out with clothes hanging from strings between buildings.

"I don't like the sound of that," Black whispered to Tyry as he took in the settlement which was already beginning to get busy with children, women and men of all ages moving around and working on various tasks.

"I don't either, let's make this quick. Come on, it's this way. The rest of you, go ahead and head home, if you're needed I'll spread the word."

Tyry's men began to disperse, a few of them having wives and children who obviously recognized them. To Black this signified that this was less of a large-scale ideologically-driven group, and more of a localized reactionary group. The idealogues were less reasonable, and typically more prone to terrorist tendencies. But the reactionary groups had a simple objective in mind, usually one formed in the face of a wrong, perceived, earned, or otherwise. Therefore, stopping their violence was more of a case of getting concessions from their opponents. And concessions could be more easily granted to such a group, especially if the objective was as simple as fair treatment. Tyry led the six Colonials upwards, into one of the alleys, here it was guarded by two men toting submachine guns with drum magazines who recognized Tyry. Major Black looked up and saw a building whose roof had another pair of men watching down this alley with a smaller water-cooled machine gun mounted behind some sandbags with a tarp hanging over them, one of them had a two-pronged silver staff weapon, the other just had his hands looped into his belt, with a long rifle slung across his back.

"Tyry, good to see you," one of them called out upon seeing him walking towards them, "We heard you were coming."

"Good to be home. Is Jess in?" Tyry asked.

"She just walked in," the second man replied.

"Let her know I need to see her," Tyry ordered and waved for the Colonials to follow.

The first man reached into a stack of boxes, and opened one to reveal a two-way phone with a wind-up power source with a wire tacked onto the brick of the building next to them which led into around the corner. He spoke quietly, and quickly as they passed and the group turned the corner to reach a heavy wooden door which had an eye slit which opened, and Tyry's face was seen and he was allowed entry. Inside he saw that were stacks of boxes with the Raxin Army logo on them, neatly stacked with sets of numbers and some of them were clearly not food boxes, these were weapons crates. Some were already being moved with a pair of men unpacking one such box which had neatly-polished long rifles accompanying bayonets, bandoliers, and cleaning kits for these rifles. As Tyry led them past, they saw they were semi-automatic weapons, but were decades behind those of the Colonies' own reserve weapons which were potentially on offer should the call be made.

The group made their way down a set of stairs and Major Black noted that they were now within the rock itself, their path having been carved out of the rock with electricity lines and phone lines tracing their way down. Copper pipes were also down here, probably linked to a water pump of some kind. The group finally wound their way down, passing several armed men, all in the process of building and reinforcing the structure of this location or moving construction materials, weapons, ammunition, or other equipment. It didn't take much longer before Tyry was knocking on a metal door built into the rock, but with a concrete frame with sandbags layered in front of the wall with wooden frames around them and sandbag barricades protecting this part of the bunker. The eye slit in the thick steel door slammed open, and a man's voice called over.

"It's Tyry."

"Let him in," a woman's voice answered and the door was opened.

"Weapons, leave them here,"

"Darrien, Yunis, Sunny, Gaetz, on guard here," Major Black said as he unbuckled his rifle, his pistol belt, and his knife, but he kept a hidden blade against the inside of his collar along his back, just in case. The weapons were passed over and they remained outside.

Tyry was allowed in to a room which appeared to be every bit the command center it actually was. There were maps on boards across the walls, pictures of locations, sketched-out diagrams, schematics, and a few large tables kept together in the center. A few lightbulbs, like the halls, were tacked onto the walls with a few hanging from the ceiling while fans were spinning and another fan was spinning on a hole in the wall which was a thin tunnel dug out for bringing in air. An iron stove was in a corner with a neat stack of firewood next to it with the iron pipe leading out through the same tunnel, sections of chimney making sure smoke wasn't being pumped in. Wooden chairs were also present, sitting at tables along the walls or by the stove, where the woman was seated.

She was a blonde, with her hair being a dirty blonde and straight as an arrow tied in a ponytail as she worked to adjust the stove's fire, twisting the air inlets to get more oxygen to the flames. An iron pot was on the pot, having just been put there, with a few metal cups hanging above it with bags of assorted food or drink additives strung up above.

"I heard you were back," the woman stated, turning her head to look as the three entered. Black noted she was young, and was a pretty little thing, having soft features but dead serious expressions in her eyes.

"Yeah," Tyry said as he walked over, leaning against the back of one of the chairs, "Gentlemen, this is Jess, one of our leaders. She's also my sister-in-law."

"Was," Jess corrected him.

"And she's also stubborn," Tyry noted unenthusiastically.

"This is true," Jess replied, "Who're they?"

"I'll get to it, first, when did we start accepting so many Raxin weapons?"

"When the Jaffa started keeping a Ha'tak in orbit, or didn't you hear?" the woman, a blonde with her hair cut short just past her jaw, said as she turned to him, "Now, who're they?"

"The people our contact informed us about. They got back to us, they came to meet back on Abthinia, but something happened. We had to bail on Abthinia and they brought us to their homeworld. They took us in when we needed a place to hole up."

"By something happened, you mean a fight broke out?" Jess inquired curiously.

"Yeah…a Jaffa scout team was found watching us, along with a Taur'i team."

"What?!" the woman snapped, standing up at this revelation, but kept her voice down, "You know the rules Tyry, we don't mess with the Taur'i, they're too dangerous and we don't want have any quarrel with them!"

"It was in self-defense," Black said rapidly, stepping forward, knowing that this fact would never stay under wraps for long. But it was still hearsay, nothing concrete could be linked to them yet, "Your man Tyry here wasn't present. And we didn't know who they were until the shooting stopped. They came at us, and they lost."

"I don't care, the Taur'i won't accept that as an excuse if they catch you. And if you're on their target list I don't want anything to do with you, get them out of here Tyry!" the woman scolded the other man as she stepped forward but Black held an arm out.

"We're not going anywhere, not until we get some intel," Black stated, staring the woman down, eye to eye, stepping right up to her.

"And why would I help you?" Jess responded testily.

"We were attacked, a dozen of our people are dead, and we have reason to believe you can help us track down who is responsible. We're not going to allow an attack against us to go unanswered, which seems to be something you and us have in common. And trust me when I say that you don't know fury until you've tangled with us."

"It was a through-Gate strike with staff weapons and a barrel of explosives. Sat'sun's handiwork was my best guess," Tyry offered a more specific context, "Now his government wants to get even."

"We're not seeking to get even. We're making a statement of strength and intent."

"Towards eliminating Sat'sun…"

"If this…Sat'sun presents a clear and imminent threat to our people, without hesitation," Major Black replied with a coldness that could have only come from the mouth of a man who knew how to kill and held no qualms about doing so.

"Sat'sun huh?" Jess sighed and brushed past the Colonials and walked to the table in the middle, "I just got an update from one of our contacts on Ourdrea, Sat'sun apparently arrived a few weeks ago and has been working a new round of extortions based from there. Apparently with the Jaffa Council on Dakara dismissed until next session he's back to work. Two of our worlds have reported the standard payments have been made already. But they did say that Sat'sun himself gave them an address and halted their normal routine to do so around the same time you got made on Abthinia. The contact didn't say anything else though. We just have these pictures."

She passed over a leather binder which had recently-developed photographs in black and white which showed the images of Jaffa warriors with a pair of staff cannons on low elevated platforms around a Stargate with a covered set of barrels, one of which was exposed and clear enough to see enough detail to match it to what had come through. A couple dozen Jaffa warriors were present, a number of them with staff weapons and other weapons at hand with a few blurs of the camera not being advanced enough to capture objects in motion. There was no way for these people to have known that, much less have the images to prove it, unless they were the ones responsible. This possibility Black kept in mind first and foremost.

"Sounds like you have your man," Tyry replied.

"We'll still need to confirm it somehow before making a move," Black said as he flipped through the pictures, looking for anything suspicious that would alert him to this being a set-up, "When were these taken?"

"Three weeks ago, roughly? I'm not sure exactly," the woman shrugged her shoulders.

"Three weeks huh?" Black grumbled, "Mind I speak to my men real fast?"

"Sure," Tyry replied with a nod, and walked over to the woman who was still glaring daggers at him, very unhappy with the possibility of drawing the ire of Earth by having the Colonials present.

"Sure looks like the barrel that blew up our embarkation room," Black said as he passed the photograph to his team XO.

"It does, but is there any real way to prove how genuine this is?" his second-in-command asked.

"No, not unless we get an address and go there and see for ourselves," Major Black sighed.

"If this is legit we'll have a problem from the word 'go'. They're set up right on top of the gate. That's going to be kind of difficult to accomplish if they're on any sort of alert."

"So we find another way. These people said that there's a ship that belongs to someone they know that comes here. It might be worth an ask to see if that guy's still around or at least reachable."

"So we don't use a ship that isn't the one we stole?"

"Exactly, we do that, we'll at least have more strategic flexibility to act against a chosen target or objective. At least until we're able to replicate an FTL system like one these ships use, it's all we've got."

None of the other men had anything to say. There wasn't much else to say, the Colonials needed hyperdrives and shielding above all other things, and the best way to get hold of such things was through acquiring ships. This would be about as good a way to do so any.

"Tyry," Black called over, and walked to the table that now lay between them, allowing his chest-mounted body camera to get a good look at everything, "We heard someone say someone named Jaxi had a ship. What can you tell us about it?"

"Not the same kind as the one we took from Abthinia, it's a Gou'ald Al'kesh, an attack bomber, but it doubles as a transport, it's owned by a friend of mine by the name of Jaxi. He stops by every so often to trade exotic goods for food and medicine," Tyry explained.

"And to get booze," Jess noted, "He's a smuggler, tons of them around this area of space, a mix of Jaffa and Human."

"Any chance you can get hold of him?" Black stated plainly.

"He's actually here, believe it or not, his ship's cloaked along the coast."

"It has a cloak as well?" Major Black gawked, amazed that this technology was so prevalent.

"It's…a modification," Tyry assured him, sensing the amazement, seeking to reset his expectations to more realistic ones, "He's probably got one of the most impressive Al'kesh there is. I knew his father, he and I fought alongside each other years ago during the Ori Crusade. He died a few years ago to a fever."

"Not interested in the guy's life story, we need a meeting," Major Black stated firmly.

Jess and Tyry shared a glance, and Jess shrugged her shoulders. Tyry then nodded and looked at Major Black.

"Alright fine, we'll head over once most of the people are out tending to the fields, flocks, and herds or are fishing. Best to expose you to as few people as possible."

"Got somewhere we can settle into?" Black inquired.

"My place, it's on a level above where we entered. It's still there right?" Tyry asked the blonde.

"No one's touched it."

"Alright, come with me."