Roads Paved in Shadows

by AlbertG

"We don't have information on the numbers yet, sir," one of the commanders answered quickly. "It's not the Cylons. The Thirteenth Tribe is attacking us. We're at war with Earth." Adar was completely stunned that emotion quickly turning into a burning rage. "But why?" he snarled as his rage turned into a need for vengeance.

10. Roads paver in Shadow Book II chapter IV

Note 1: This is a bit longer than the usual 3000 or so words but this is Christmas!

Note 2: remember that this is basically a coin flip of the other series. That one is a lot of talk you may have noticed. This is darker using the same characters, as a whole. Here, the personalities are a little different.

Note 3: Notice that I have not specifically said who the Colonials are fighting yet. Some of you have guesed. But I will make it clear in the next chapter. Meanwhile Merry Christmas and have a blessed new year…

Roads Paved in Shadow

Book II

Chapter Four

Cyrannus Star System–Earth Date: December 2021

Planet Caprica, Caprica City

(Earth Time 2:52 AM)

President Richard Adar couldn't help but be livid as his thoughts kept returning to the political coupe he lavished in a little more than two years earlier. This certainly wasn't the time to reflect about the past, but it kept pulling at him. He banked his entire legacy by taking the first steps towards an eventual reunification with the Thirteenth Tribe; so, how could he have been so wrong about the Earth colony?

A quick glance at the retired High Admiral Cain's face hadn't helped his mood. The man had the look of someone who had just eaten the preverbal carnartis bird. Adar's personal opinion of the man wasn't fit to be uttered in public places. Neither man liked one another as he was one of the Adar's harshest critics when it came to the Earthers and the incident that happened so many years ago. Apparently, the prick's suspicions about the Apellai was right. But he was still an obnoxious prick.

Adar's mind went back all those years to the day every man, woman, and child remembered as the day everything changed. It began when a battered, unidentified ship flashed into the Cyrannus system. The unusual energy dispersal of an unknown FTL event triggered an Condition One status in the entire Cyrannus defensive network. Already in a state of heighted alert because of suspected Cylon activity, four fast response battlestars converged on the source of the disturbance. What they found was a ship. It wasn't a known Cylon configuration and although there were similarities to Kobollian warship configurations, it wasn't Colonial either.

The alloys that comprised the strange ship was unidentifiable to DRADIS and detailed scans. Upon closer inspection, the small vessel's design was unlike anything the Colonials built and it didn't transmit an identifiable IFF. From the amount of battle damage, it was apparent that the ship was involved in a major battle against assailants' unknown. The damage pattern on the unknown indicated that the weapons used against it wasn't from Cylon or Colonial weaponry. Whatever the extent of the battle, the unidentified ship's crew had survived. Basic communications were established and from this it was quickly confirmed that the ship and its crew were not Colonial, or some put together pirate vessel. There was a language barrier between both sides, as surprisingly the crew didn't speak any known Kobollian language, but the strange ship utilized an advanced translation matrix and established real-time communication with the lead battlestar. As fantastic as it was, the ship's crew claimed to be from a planet called Earth and they also claimed that many other worlds in the galaxy called them the Tau'ri, but they preferred the name Terran. That one introduction stunned every person listening in on the transmission.

Those words created awe and more than a small amount of suspicion. Others had tried to cast themselves as being from Earth. All of them were proven to be fakes. This, however was something different and it also presented a possible threat. The battle damage alone made the CDF nervous. It was unnerving that somewhere out there was a conflict that the Colonials knew nothing of and the possibility of that conflict biting them was real. The Cylons were one thing, something that they were used to. This was something new and it was very disconcerting.

Six Colonial cruisers and five escorts flashed into normal space not far from the fast response battlestars. Having an unidentified ship invading their territory in a manner never seen before made the military nervous and the brass was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The worst-case scenarios were the possibilities of an invasion of unknown ships instigating a raid on Colonial territory, or a unknown war spilling into Colonial space, allowing the Cylons to take advantage and attack Colonial interests.

The ship commanders were suspicious of the unknown and made it clear that they didn't trust them. Several warships locked onto the small vessel while both sides were still talking to each other. Despite the provocation and discomfort that such an action caused, it was standard protocol and any unidentified ship would be challenged accordingly.

The then Quorum Representative Richard Adar recalled the transcripts between Terran Doctor of Archeology and cultures expert Daniel Jackson of the ship called Prometheus and Commander Talsaman of the battlestar Sulaius. In fact, Richard had memorized those transcripts. Both sides were tense but despite the weapons locks, the initial contact seemed to go well. Doctor Jackson told a very skeptical Colonial officer that they were from a planet called Earth, tens of thousands of light years from the Cyrannus system and arrived in the system by accident due to a navigational error caused by a fight again thousands of light years from here. That statement surprised and alarmed the Colonials. Further surprises were in store as, according to Doctor Jackson, there were many Human-occupied worlds in the galaxy and he gave a quick summary of the state of several worlds and the galaxy at large.

The Colonials listening to the man didn't believe it and most of their responses indicated that. If Adar had been there at the time, he wouldn't have believed it either. It was simply too fantastic, and it went against Colonial history and current understanding of the universe.

Whether he was telling the truth or not wasn't as concerning as the fight the crew engaged in. There were very some pointed questions being asked concerning the battle damage; who the enemy was, what types of weaponry, the size of the enemy forces, defensive and offensive capabilities, and locations, just to start. They also wanted to know of the Prometheus' capabilities and details of the faster-than-light drive that their ship utilized. They wanted to know what type of weapons the alleged Earth ship used, and the officials wanted this info immediately, but Jackson was evasive and didn't answer in detail. The evasiveness angered the Commander on point. He demanded to know what type of threats, if any, were out there. Talsman's attitude and approach to Jackson reflected the military's general opinion that Jackson was lying or could be cohorts into doing what the Colonials wanted.

It was then that General O'Neill took over the line, taking exception to the insinuations. By then the civilian contact team had arrived accompanied by three more battlestar escorts. The accusations annoyed O'Neill who also voiced his displeasure at the increasing numbers of Colonial ships slowly enveloping them, a fact Adar had to admit was true. The civilian contact man, Adar couldn't remember his name, tried his best to defuse the situation, reigning in an increasingly petulant Talsman. His actions seemed to calm the Earth crew somewhat. The conversation returned to the Colonials wanting information about the battle damage and specifically what happened. O'Neill apparently took exception to the attitude and responded saying that his ship received damage fight an extra-dimensional menace trying to take over the galaxy.

Adar remembered hearing that explanation and shaking his head at the audacity of the man. No one believed the insane story the General had spewed. The most plausible explanation at the time was that the ship was some type of Cylon plant, a deception by traitors working for the Cylons. This was the conclusion of the civilian contact and most everyone agreed with him at the time. When Adar read the transcripts, he came to the same conclusions and he didn't fault what happened next given the information at that time.

The Prometheus was ordered to stand down and prepare for boarding. The civilian contact was convinced that he would find out the truth for himself. Citing Colonial law, he informed the crew he had the authority to confiscate ship and its crew to determine if they were telling the truth, if they were pirates, or if they were collaborating with the Cylons which he implied was his initial belief. Then he cited another law, an obscure religious article referring to religious heretics as enemies of the Colonies. Jackson had mentioned something about other gods just before O'Neill had taken over the talks.

Over the communications, General O'Neill was heard muttering, "why does this keep happening?' and 'Daniel, never, ever talk about religion to people with big giant spaceships again, EVER!'"

Talks officially broke downthree hours after the Prometheus entered the system. Raptors headed towards the small ship with the intent to board. But something happened. An energy field unlike anything they'd ever seen before surrounded the small ship. The raptors were ordered to back off by O'Neill, but they continued towards the Earth vessel.

General O'Neill's words over the comms were, "stay away from the shield," and, "it's been fun. Nice meeting ya. We're leaving the system now. Maybe we'll visit again in a hundred years or so, when you all calm down some."

According to all reports, the ship's energy output increased to battlestar level emissions and beyond. It was now apparent that during the talks, the crew had repaired enough of the ship to continue to wherever they were going. That's when Lord Hades took over.

When the raptors continued their approach, two of the raptors encountered and rebounded off the energy shields. One of the raptors was severely damaged, the other one destroyed as it suffered catastrophic engine failure due to damage. O'Neill half apologized about the damage and destruction of the two raptors, but they had been warned not to approach.

The first shots were fired. A battlestar fired its main guns at the Prometheus's engines with the attempt to disable ship, those shots bounced off the energy shield, surprising the Colonial who assumed that such firepower could have broken through those shields. His people had vastly underestimated the increasingly fast-moving Prometheus. The ship's sheer acceleration panicked the commanders. More battlestars fired on the ship.

Several capital-killing explosive shells slammed into the shields causing them to glow brightly enough that some ships mistaken the brightness for the ship exploding. O'Neill had enough, and he returned fire using some type of unknown energy-based weapon. The beam cut through one of the battlestars main engine as if it were paper, slicing cleanly through causing explosions as the fuel storage units went up. The rear third of the ship was blown in half, the remains of the massive engine compartments separated from the main body of the battlestar. O'Neill issued another warning for the Colonials to back off. Enough unnecessary death had occurred today without more being added. The vessels' power emission increased even more than previously.

Stunned by the power of the small vessels weapons, worried commanders on every warship surrounding the Prometheus fired on it. The shells and missiles did nothing to slow the ship down in the Prometheus fired his energy weapons again crippling two cruisers and three destroyers as it created a hole in its break for freedom. Another battlestar that was in the Earther's path was crippled beyond repair. The ship was moving faster than anything they'd ever seen before, outrunning the fast attack destroyers as well as the vipers trying to catch up to her. In a flash of brilliant light, the ship disappeared as it jumped using its unique faster than light drive.

Admiral Cain and the Ninth Fleet, arriving from the Gamora star cluster, had just jumped into the Cyrannus system in time to see the battle and escape of the Earth warship. He was surprised as everyone else by the sheer destruction created by a ship not much larger than a patrol boat. One battlestar was destroyed, one badly damaged, one cruiser cut apart and one severely damaged, and three destroyers shot to pieces by some type of high-powered projectile weapon. State-of-the-art armor did nothing to protect the Colonial forces. Cain was angry that he didn't have opportunity to stop the Earth vessel personally and that was his reason why he was so upset. He felt it was a personal affront to him and the Colonial military.

That very famous First Contact and the resulting humiliation by the Earth ship Prometheus still burned in Cain's gut. It burned in Adar's gut as well, but for differing reasons. The man lived for conflict. Adar sought more peaceful solutions instead of war being the first response.

Commander Berdela of the Battlestar Hysal survived the loss of his ship and more than half his crew. It was his actions, firing on the Earth ship first, that most believed triggered the battle. The commander's anger at the loss of his ship as well as the raptors he ordered to secure the Prometheus raised an uproar across the Twelve Colonials of Kobol. Cain, being ranking officer was blamed for the loss of Colonial vessels and the escape the so-called Earth ship. Cain demanded that Talsman and Berdela be court-martialed for conduct unbecoming an officer; possibly starting a war with what might well be the Thirteenth Colony. His religiously narrow-minded attitude pushed him to label them heretics, something that incited his already anxious crew. He was also responsible for breaking contact with the Earth colony. It was widely believed that Berdela's attitude precipitated the battle. The civilian contact specialist was fired and essentially blacklisted.

Cain was acquitted of all charges, but he never really forgave the Earth ship for humiliating the warships on his watch. He was barely on station two minutes before the battle was over and the ship escaped. Being the superior officer in the region, the Quorum attempted to place the ultimate blame on him, ignoring the fact that he and his battle group were light-years away and didn't even know that the Apellai-Earth ship was in-system until ten minutes before the battle had broken out. Like other military officers, he wanted the technologies glimpsed on the Prometheus.

Two weeks later, the Colonials unintentionally tripped over the Cylon computer virus that would have crippled the entire Colonial defense force and made the Colonies vulnerable to attack by Cylons. The simmering antagonism against the newly discovered Earthers was replaced by the fear that their traditional enemies could crippled the Twelve worlds. The Quorum debated going to all-out war but after weeks of debate cooler heads prevailed and the situation dissolved into a cold war that lay dormant for nearly another two decades.

Two years later after the Prometheus incident, Adar ran and won the first of his three terms as President. He didn't have time to focus on the Thirteeners. Internal problems racked the twelve worlds threatening to break the fragile unity seemingly on a constant basis. The Teachers Strike, the ever-present Cylon cold war, the rebellion on Sagittaron, the religious rebellion where the ultra-right-wing group called the Warriors of Ares tried to create a new government on Tauron, and the hated tax increases for military expenditures were just a few of his challenges.

But the escape and subsequent disappearance of the Prometheus still simmered on the minds of everyone. Concerning the fabled colony, there were far too many questions and way too few answers. Where was Earth? Who were they fighting and what and where were they located in relationship to the Colonials? Those answers and others were on the minds of both the Colonial people and the Cylons. The very lack of those answers threatened to explode on Adar's watch. The CDF was nervous about unknown enemies and Earth's real agenda. Some short-sighted members of the Quorum were advocating war, believing that the Colonies could win a quick victory against the small, isolated Earth and in the process, intimidate the Cylons with their display of military firepower at the same time. Others argued against any type of conflict against their brothers and sisters of Earth. Adar did authorize the defense forces to search for the location of Earth but to do nothing to instigate any hostilities whatsoever. This, of course, satisfied no one. After years of searching, they had a general positional fix where Earth was most likely located.

Commander Berdela was not court-marshalled despites Cain's best efforts, staged a small munity by inciting several fleet commanders to stage a coup against President Adar with the ultimate goals of forcibly bringing Earth into the Colonial fold after attacking and destroying the Cylon menace once and for all. As the reports came of the fighting. President Adar at the end of his first term in office was absolutely infuriated. Berdela and the entire command crew of the Sundance were subdued and court-martialed, and jailed. Commander Talsaman of the battlestar Sulaius was given a citation for revealing the attempted munity to the CDF. Several high-ranking officers and members of the Quorum were jailed but that was as much as he could do. Adar had wanted a public execution for conduct unbecoming officers and sedition.

Just months after winning his second term, Adar found himself struggling to resolve the teacher's strike, resorting to a very public use of crowd control, one politically damaging to his reputation as he had to call in the military to suppress the rioting and looting by the members of the education system. Even he was surprised by the violence of their actions. The public was outraged, and he needed to reflect the political firestorm quickly or his government would have collapsed with the Quorum voting to impeach him.

The Dawn Day speech was the most dramatic and important of his presidency. Years after that speech, he still suffered twinges of anxiety when he reminisced about it. Humble and more than a bit nervous although he thought he hid it well, the Presidential speech went into detail about the teacher's strike, and the reasons why he was forced to call in the military. Then he dropped a bombshell as he revealed de-classified data for the first time to the public about what really happened concerning the debacle with the Thirteenth Tribe, as his advisors insisted on calling the Earth ship's crew despite their insistence that they weren't.

According to the information provided by Jackson, The Terran Tau'ri didn't believe that Earth was one of the Colonies of Kobol. Since Adar was live at the Colonial Presidential suite, he couldn't hear the uproar of his revelation, but he certainly imagined how…boisterous it had to be. But that part of the speech was only a foretaste of what was to be one of the most controversial speech in the existence of the Colonies.

Adar's address broadcast live to the Twelve Colonies started a quiet furor as he publicly apologized to the Thirteenth Tribe for their actions. He wasn't president at the time, but he took responsibility for the military forces firing on their ship. It was his hope, and he stated it publicly, on-air, that the Earth colony would forgive the incident and attempt to start over in a spirit of friendship and family. That proposal caused an even greater uproar.

The military, the mega-corporations, the religious leadership, all of them were incensed. By going public with this apology, Adar effectively ham-strung their plans for Earth, the small isolated colony filled billions of potential followers and technology, plus the obvious resources that made both the corporations and military establishments salivate. If they tried to force their hand against Earth, then the people would rise up, and Adar knew he had their overall support. He proposed a mission of peace instead of adversity. He told the people that Earth's general location was known, and he proposed that a mission be sent to Earth with the trip taking more than a year. His intentions were to offered gifts of apology to smooth the way to begin peace talks and develop avenues for possible trade in the future. No mention of possible unification was ever hinted at by the President even under intense pressure from the religious factions and Quorum members trying to include it in the initial talks. He was having none of that and they hated him for it.

In the weeks that followed, he used almost all his political favors and leverage to strangle many opportunists trying to hijack his proposals, especially several military based corporations and political conservatives pushing for a more aggressive approach and forms of intimidations towards a world they believed they could somehow bully into submission by the size of the Twelves alone. It was a foregone conclusion that elements of the military were more than interested in the unique faster-than-light drives, weapons, and of course, energy shields of the Thirteeners. Their greed overshadowed their common senses and some quorum members were insinuating that war might be an advantageous method of acquiring it, a show of strength as it were. Adar couldn't believe that his people could be so blind when it came to profits.

Adar ruthlessly crushed those plans before they could root itself too strongly into the hearts of the military. Instead, three battlestars, a Mercury and two of the newest Minoan class, and three medium cruisers would escort a small convoy to Earth. They protected three heavy transports, two long-ranged civilian carriers, one Andromeda-class long-ranged marinestar, one heavy mining freighter, one refueling freighter, and four additional support ships. Two of the transports would carry precious items and gifts from the entirety of the Twelve Colonies while the third largest carried the crowning glory of the Colonies for use by Earth. It was a mobile space dock, freely given as an act of apology for the debacle of their first contact with the Colonies. Most people agreed that such a gracious act would ease the animosity that Earth must have felt against their cousins. The Terrans were just one world and although their ships were obviously powerful they very likely needed infrastructure to produce more ships of their own. It was estimated that Earth could not have more than a dozen ships at most. The people of the Colonials acknowledged the Earthers as family and with that came responsibility. The last thing the Colonials wanted was for the Cylons to find out where Earth was and perform a preemptive strike. The Terrans needed to know that their cousins, despite the not so great first contact were generous and respectful of their long-lost family member. Adar and most of the other members of the Quorum considered the Thirteenth Tribe as their elder cousins (and there was a lot of debate whether they were the youngest or the eldest tribe) who were alone but apparently thriving in the depths of space. The First Contact delegation left more than a year earlier heading towards their destination. Adar was sure that such a genuine entreaty would at least opened the lines of communication in a non-hostile manner.

"Apparently Earth didn't except the overture," Cain muttered.

Another wave if anger flushed Adar's weathered face. "We've sacrificed eighteen ships and almost nine thousand people for nothing!"

Despite the anger evident, the utter despair in his voice was obvious to Cain. A momentary flash of anger passed over him. His youngest daughter was part of the expedition. It was a fluke, an accident of fate as she was picked command the ground forces on the marinestar as well as provide security for the civilians and contact teams when they reached Earth. Adar wanted his best and brightest to represent the Colonies and he admitted that he agreed with the choices. But his daughter and the others were dead, or prisoners or possibly enslaved, and for what, trying to make peace with a bunch of renegades?"

Gods!

He'd grieve later. They'd all grieve later. Right now, there was work to do. His face was a mask of fury equaled by both Corman and Adar. All three were resolved to save the Colonies from the Earthers.

Adar was impressed by Cain's ability to focus on the present and his words echoed his own.

"Well, they've given us their response," the white-haired warrior snarled. "Let's give one back!"

The 26th Emperor Jorpna:

Straha, Shiplord of the UCW starship 26th Emperor Jorpna could tell that Shiplord Kirel in command of the starship 126th Emperor Hetto was nervous not only about the about the mission but about the news coming from Home II. The mission of exploration, as part of the United Coalition of Worlds, was the small fleet of three ships first real mission not being shepherded by the Terrans or other Human crewed UCW vessels. They were an independent for the last four months tasked with exploring the local star systems for the Coalition and the Race. Gone were the old cryo sub-light vessels once built by the Race. Their shells either still orbited Home II, or like most were on the surface; however, they were in the process of being decommissioned and their parts used as originally planned for the expanding the colony on Home II.

The Emperor's decree that the Race join the Tosevite Terrans powerful government sent shockwaves throughout the entirety of the Empire. Straha, Atvar and other leaders were stunned and concerned about the Emperor's rash decree but in the light of such threats to the Empire, it was the most logical decision he could have made. The survival of the Empire was in the balance. The bad neighbors, those who were more advanced than the Race, surrounded the small empire and those neighbors had no problems conquering and slaughtering the Lizardian population.

And that thought brought forth another hiss of irritation from Straha. He thought of his people and empire by using the name 'Lizardian'. His people hated that name as much as the Humans hated the name 'Tau'ri', but it stuck to the Terrans like a knan tick underneath the scales. To his dismay even he was beginning to think of the collective races of the Race as Lizardians. It just wasn't right. In a few generations the members of the Empire wouldn't even care. However, that was a minor concern to be dealt with, if possible, later. The current mission was what concerned everyone now.

In a few short months, three worlds suitable for the Race had been discovered within two hundred light-years of Home. That was stunning, and it meant that the Race would have all the room it needed to expand without violating other neighbors who might not take kindly to having the Race move in on their territories. That was indeed good news.

The very bad news was that the UCW was responsible for enforcing the Protective Planets Treaty which the Race was responsible for as well and there were problems in the winds. The vast majority of those worlds protected in the treaty were populated by Humans, but a select small few were non-Humans. Straha didn't really care as the Emperor had agreed to it. What was of upmost concern was that the surface of several worlds were attacked and its population wiped out by persons unknown using orbital weaponry. A total of four worlds were completely devoid of Human life including the first confirmed attack that nearly wiped out every single member of the Tok'ra. Moreover, the attacks were consistent, happening once a month almost to the day. Not one of those worlds had yet developed steam engine technology due to previous goa'uld domination. Whoever attacked them knew that those people had absolutely no chance against any type of attack let alone an orbital bombardment. To Straha and the others, it was straightforward cruelty, no intent of conquest, only the intent to slaughter.

The Coalition was up in arms as Straha believed they should be in his opinion. Everyone was in a heightened state of alert with many believing that the Goa'uld were the ones responsible. But the patterns of attacks and the weapons' signature didn't in any way match the Goa'uld. No goa'uld presence was reported near any PPT worlds and for reasons that made everyone suspicious was that the Goa'uld were publicly making sure everyone knew where their ships were. They knew something, and they were staying away from any of the Terran controlled or protected worlds. It was an unpleasant situation.

The Emperors, both of them, the First Emperor Runshan on Home and Emperor Risson ruler of Home II, (and here his eyes unconsciously lowered to reflect respect to both Emperors as was tradition) their newest and premier colony world donated to them by Earth. It was a gracious gift and one that kept Home from being turned into a world ruled by Earth. Ten years had passed, and he still thought of the entire affair in wonder and awe. What should have been an easy conquest of Tosev II, otherwise known as Earth changed the course of every member of the Race. The Race believed they would encounter animal riding creatures using bows and arrows, and spears against members of the Race flying killercraft, using automatic rifles, and driving armored Landcruiser's. The conquest should've been easy, instead the Terrans had in less than sixteen hundred years went from riding animals to flying space craft that moved faster than the speed of light. To say that the Race was shocked was considered a laughable understatement. The moment that fleet Lord Avtar discovered that the Terrans were coming to meet them instead of the other way around he knew that the Conquest Fleet and possibly the Empire was doomed. This truth was a hit in the liver when the conquest fleet saw first-hand evidence of an attack by the Lucian Alliance on Earth. Both sides used weapons unimaginable to the Race. The Fleetlord was terrified, the shiplords were terrified, along with everyone else. The Lucian Alliance warships try to destroy the conquest fleet which had no defense against such power. The Terrans however protected the Conquest Fleet and beat back the Lucian Alliance warships.

Never had members of the Race felt so helpless. They once believed that they were the premier species of the galaxy, the most advanced, the most powerful, and the ones destined to rule all other races. That belief was thoroughly shattered and thrown into the waste winds of the Guane cold desert on Home. But, with the Terrans' peace overtures, something that the race would have never done, the Emperor in his wisdom (or insanity, Straha wasn't sure even after all this time), he decided to ally the Race with the Terrans. It was an unprecedented action, a decision made quicker than any other decision members of the Race had known. But in the Emperor's wisdom he understood that speed was absolutely essential. The survival of the Race was his priority and he made a decision that changed the direction of the Race forever.

The Race now had ships that moved far in excess of the speed of light, traveled to new worlds, seen stellar phenomenon that they could only once only imagine or see from the most powerful telescopes. No longer was the Race in danger of overpopulation and they had no need to conquer new worlds because the galaxy was filled the worlds that the Race could occupy without taking them from others. He like many other members of the Race was not sure how to take this. A new generation of males and females would deal with the strangeness of it all more easily. His generation however would need to adjust and unfortunately the Race didn't adjust that well, but they intended to try and try hard. Their survival was at stake.

There were other problems of concern as well. The Race was changing in ways that nobody had anticipated/ Only the emperors, and again he lowered his eye turrets in respect, Fleetlord Atvar, Shiplord Kirel and himself knew the full truth. This truth was the most frightening thing that he could have ever imagined. That was a source of constant conversation between the three commanders about the wisdom of it all. It was a conversation that he and shiplord Kirel were currently discussing before the Senior Sensor officer of the males monitoring the sensors interrupted.

"Shiplords we have contact, eighteen ships appeared from nowhere. Our sensors indicate that they use a form of faster than light we are unfamiliar with. I will proceed to use our database to determine if we can identify the type of FTL and then possibly identify the unknown targets."

"Let it be done."

"It shall be done, Superior sir."

"Shiplord Kirel has ordered us to use the cloak," Straha said. "It shall be done. We will close on the unidentified targets."

Senior pilot Nignxe lowered his head as well as his eyes in acknowledgment. "Yes, Shiplord."

The shiplord said nothing, being slightly aggravated by the response. He should be used to it now, he thought. But it still grated his nerves just a tiny bit. 'Yes, shiplord' was a Terran phrase. It wasn't that he didn't like it but there was so much Terran contamination of the language being inserted into the members of the Race. It should have been the other way around…if the Conquest Fleet had done what it was supposed to. "Changing times," he grated. He really hated change, but he guessed he'd get used to it.

"Take us into hyperspace," he ordered, as the ship followed the lead Sse'ki class 304s as they began their vector towards the unknown targets.

Cyrannus Star System–Earth

Command Basestar OA-One

The blond number Six Cylon had resurrected a few minutes earlier than he had and crewed one of the now destroyed Cylon basestars. On her face was the wide-eyed look of terror.

"What? That's impossible!" sputtered a dumbfounded John Cavil, known as the Number One. Not only wasn't Earth a dead world–they lied to him! –but they had this much power and technology to track and kill resurrection ships and burned through a fleet to do so?

Yes, the Prometheus was an advanced ship in some ways, all the stolen data proved that with their strange FTL drives and energy shielding, but it was just one ship and one world. It was impossible for Earth to field such large numbers of ships sufficient to attack both Colonials and Cylons at the same time.

Ten minutes later he rushed into the Resurrection ship's command room, still in a state of shock and confusion as he tried to reconcile what he knew as compared to what was happening now. The Earthers were attacking both the Colonials and his Cylon people.

Impossible!

The precious ship nestled under the protection of fifty-threebasestars and countless fighters and support vessels with more flashes of light increasing the numbers every minute. As John plunged his hands into the liquid interface, his mind reeled in a renewed state of shock. The Colony was in the middle of an attack by ships using firepower that was completely unknown by the Cylons or the Colonials.

Another number One named Richard who looked a few years younger than John, glared at John as he plunged his own hands into the interface joining his cyber electronics with the ship. "Well you got your war. I hope you're happy."

"This is merely a setback," John grumbled attempting to take command of the situation. "Once we've recovered, we'll remove them and finish off the Colonials who are now weakened by this attack."

"What are you talking about," asked a model Three named Tanya. "The Colonials are being attacked by these forces? We've heard rumors but haven't had time to check them out, not with all of the fighting."

"The Colonials were attacked, their planets hit by nukes. Why did you start without me?"

"We didn't attack them," hissed Tanya.

"You didn't answer my question," John hissed back. "Why did you attack without my permission!?"

"We didn't!"

"My brother is insane," Richard muttered. "You haven't even started reading the reports, have you?"

"No," John admitted gruffly. "I've been busy resurrecting! I do know the Colonials were attacked and if we play this right we can hit the Colonials and finish off all twelve."

"If we survive!" another Three interjected since she was next to them both and couldn't help but to overhear the conversation.

"If we survive?" a number Two repeated. "That's laughable. Look at what's happening!"

And he did. "We're at Rally Point Omega?" He paused for a few moments in complete shock. "We're that far gone so quickly?" Worried, he brought up the records of the last six hours. "This can't be happening. How could the colonies..."

"Gods! How can you be so blind! Look in the stream!"

It couldn't be. Those ships were like nothing he ever seen before let alone imagined. They were tapered, with ugly greenish armor covering the ships. They used a single beam weapon like a laser and the engines if that was what they were, was nothing like any Colonial or Cylon would conceive of. They were alien.

Alien?

And there were a lot of them. Whatever they were, they had attacked first, hitting Cylon defense forces hard. As he continued to 'see' in the data stream those ships were relentless and very, very hard to kill. Within hours they had broken through the primary Cylon defenses and destroyed two hubs despite every ship and every weapon used against them. They were relentless.

Could these attackers be the Earthers? He wondered. The ships in the data stream were different than the Thirteenth Colony ship but that was the only possibility that he could believe. But there was no question that they were hit without warning and with devastating effectiveness. They knew exactly where the Colony was, and they hit that first. That was a complete shock as the Cylon mobile home world's location was a closely guarded secret and these Earth people or whatever they were bypassed all Cylon security. A dozen extremely high-powered nukes hit from nowhere crippling the multiple FTL drives on the asteroid fortress and killing millions of Cylon clones and centurions.

Fascinated, he observed the data stream's recording of the first battle. To their credit his fellow Cylons weren't idle. The Latos class basestars struck back. The heavy warships used every conventional and nuclear weapon in their arsenal and the lethal packages arched towards the enemy fleet. John smiled as he watched the sight. Seconds later, his mouth was opened in shock as most of the weapons fire missed or in a few instances impacted the larger vessels whose armor shrugged off the attacks. Those same ships fired back and butchered fighters and Cylon capitals that were built to defend against the heaviest of the newest Colonial battlestars. What worried him as that the enemies used beam weapons like lasers.

"We've been saying that for the last six hours!" one of the Fours loudly grumbled. And for clarification, those other…alien ships hit us first three days before the Earthers went after the Colonials and us."

"Why didn't someone tell me!" yelled the irate Number One.

"We were too busy trying to survive!" Tanya yelled. "You're not listening!"

"Why are we at the rally point? we should be strong enough to withstand…"

"Shut up," hissed Richard. "Keep looking."

As expected, many of the missiles were shot down but those that made it through the Earth defenses simply missed and that happened on a constant basis. "Why didn't our missiles lock on and hit their targets?" John asked completely perplexed by the erratic nature of the missiles. "Were they defective somehow? Were our defense tampered with?" For a moment he was frightened as unbidden thoughts of software tampering raced through his mind.

"No, John. As far as we can tell, the missiles did lock on, but they locked on too slowly. Our DRADIS can barely see them and we can't target them unless we get to point blank range and then they tear us apart with their beam weapons. Their anti-missile and fighter defenses are excellent. We can barely get through them. Their cruisers are even worse. They have some type of mothership out there. Must be ten miles long."

"That's impossible. The Earth people couldn't have such ships."

"That's not all. They have offensive beam technology! As you see, those are not lasers," the Four said. "We don't even have laser weapons yet and that's not all, either."

"But…"

"Stop talking and keep watching!" yelled Richard.

Fuming, John continued. He almost disengaged himself from the wet works when he saw the already damaged Colony cracked apart by nuclear weapons of unbelievable power. But worse the resurrection hub was torn apart by particle beam before it too was nuked into oblivion."

"What is a particle beam," he asked.

The computer spat back an answer. "A particle beam is a theoretical weapon that uses a high-energy beam of atomic or subatomic particles to damage a target by disrupting its atomic and or molecular structure."

All his dreams, his plans were being ripped apart like cheap Colonial tissue paper. Basestars were cut apart at ranges that the Cylons couldn't hope to match. "Aha! The ship that used the nukes looked radically different. It looked more like an experimental design, a Colonial ship. See! See! They're working together! It's a trick, a coup of some sort!"

Richard looked at him…after he counted to ten. He continued. John either noticed or didn't care about his irritation. "As we said, the Colony and hub were hit three days ago. Those alien ships tore apart the jump engines. We couldn't have move it if we tried and believe me, we tried to. And you're correct. Some of the ships that are attacking are not of the same design as the main forces.""

"Of course, they're some advanced Colonial experiment." John looked at the collective Cylons with contempt. "Why didn't one of you geniuses' program raiders to jump on top of the enemy ships with nukes?" John asked. That was a plan that he and others had suggested off and on for years to be use as an offense against battlestars.

"Because," Caprica Six growled as she quickly joined the commune system, "in theory it sounds good, but the vectors are all but impossible to predict. Speed, trajectory, ECMS, of both ships. Weapons fire. The list goes on, not to mention that we can't accurately see them to target them! Their electronic countermeasures are more advanced than anything we've ever encountered. We can't hit what we can't accurately see."

"We should have tried," John yelled.

"They hit us hard," Richard said slowly. "We no longer have the resources to go on the offensive."

"John, you're refusing to see the big picture," a Four named James told him.

"They're Humans. They can't stop us."

The woman known as Caprica Six did her best not to scream. "They already have! They hit us first before they went after the Colonials. We've lost our resurrection hub, the Colony, and all but two of our resurrection ships. This one and the one tracking the Colonial fleet headed to Earth are the only ones left! We've lost billions. We'll never be able to get them back."

"You know the hub contained the patterns for billions of our people and it's lost," snapped James.

"How did they even find our resurrection ships? There's no way for Humans to track them. They don't even know about sub-space communications."

"Our best guess is that they're been tracking us using tachyon emissions."

"You're crazy. You can't use tachyons to track subspace emissions. We barely understand the characteristics of those, for a lack of a better word, particles. They can't be that advanced. How could they be?"

"It is obvious that they aren't working alone. Those alien ships…"

John snapped at the Three. "There is no such thing as aliens."

"Believe what you want," Theresa Six snapped right back. "I am calling them aliens. When we acquire a body for study, we'll know for sure. And if it makes you happy, maybe just some of them are aliens! Now, may I continue?"

John glared at her and then slowly nodded. "As far as we can tell, they used a tachyon grid to intercept subspace signals," the Six explained. "When we download, we send an omni-directional burst, a signal via medium we call subspace. The resurrection ships pick up the burst decodes and translates it, stores it, fills in backup data from the base file, organizes it and integrates it into a new body."

"Yes, yes, yes. You've studied. Get to the point."

The burst is microseconds in length but once detected the resurrection ship or hub will pick it up. But it also focuses on the direction of the download using the signal as a directional finder. This tachyon grid track sees the download and tracks the direction of the resurrection ship and the hub. The hub's power collected the downloads and properly translated the signal to the designated resurrection ship. When the hub was destroyed the resurrection ship had to rely on their independent collection systems. When we discovered how we were being tracked. We…turned off the collectors a few minutes ago."

"So, we can't collect any more of our brothers and sisters?"

"No."

"They're effectively dead?"

"Yes."

"Let me get this straight. You idiots lost the hub and the resurrection ships and lost our people. Then you turned off our remaining ship-in range of the Colonies and our space and we're losing millions more. Is that correct?"

"They hit us so hard that we had no choice but to retreat directly to Rally Point Omega. These patterns here," she said inside the data stream, "are all we have left."

"So, no more downloads. Only three million patterns besides what we have on station and whoever is alive in the Colonies. Oh, and those tracking the colonial fleet headed to Earth and are in storage on our last resurrection ship. We're still trying to determine how many of our brothers and sisters were lost and are still in storage, or are trapped on the Colonies," Richard said. "Speaking of which John, you shouldn't have downloaded that last time. The system was off. So, my question is this: how did you resurrect when the system was turned off?"

The Cavil shrugged. "I had certain protocols in place. But that doesn't matter." He wanted to hit back, and also change the subject as quickly as possible. His fellow Cylons didn't need to know anything more than they already did. "What resources do we have left?"

"Everything you see here on the interface," announced a disgusted Caprica.

John pulled his hands out of the interface as if he were scaled. They'd lost everything but was at the rally point. he couldn't believe it. the Humans had set them back decades if not longer.

"Humans did this." He glared his fellow Cylons for a full minute before he spoke again. "Can you hear it? The Colonials are laughing at us. The Humans have killed us, turned us into a dead-end race. Can you hear their laughter?"

"No," Richard grunted, looking at his brother with a very dangerous glint in his eyes. "I can't say I do. We're here to develop solutions, not wait to die. The Humans are not the problem here. If they were, it wouldn't matter. We have to survive this if we're going to survive at all."

John wasn't listening as his brow furrowed in thought. "How many basestars do we have left?"

"Forty-three in various states of readiness, eight that might as well be scrap, and twelve following the Earth expedition. We have two resurrection ships, one here and the other with the fleet tracking Earth. That's it."

"We lost fifty percent of the fleet," John said. "Yes, and did you hear the message the enemy sent us?"

"No," John admitted. He'd assume it was sort of ultimatum. It really didn't matter to him now. Humans were always so predictable.

"They demand our complete and unconditional surrender. They know we have Human forms. They declared that they have use for such machines."

Those words angered John and forced his worst fears to slap at him.

"Slavery," he whispered. "It was a Human voice, wasn't it?"

"As far as we could tell," answered Richard. "It has a strange accent we can't place."

"And you fools can't conclude that it's probably the Earthers," John snarled. "They're the ones with ray guns!"

"We're convinced those arrow ships are not from wherever the Prometheus comes from. The technology is too different. A blind person could see that," Richard countered.

"What about the other ship that used the nukes?"

"We don't know about those vessels," Caprica admitted. "Those may be Human. It had shields."

"Of course, they did," he answered confidently as it proved his point. "Fifty percent. It'll have to do." He plunged his hands back into the water-like fluid interface. "If we must die then we'll deny the Earthers the Colonies."

"Wait," Caprica screamed as she tried to counter the commands he was imputing.

"Don't stop me," a crazed John said. "If we can't survive this attack, and that's what you're all saying, you miserable pack of defeatists, then we can make sure we get revenge for what they done to us."

"John, what are you doing?" demanded Natalie.

John had submerged his hands into the stream and other Cylons also in the stream were alarmed as they found themselves being locked out of the system.

We need to deny Earth of their prize. Every available basestar will perform our Omega jump protocol to the Colonials worlds. Every nuke, every bomb, every bullet will pour into those worlds cleansing them all of Human filth as our ships crash onto the surface. The same will happen to Earth when the Fleet finds Earth. The Cylons will be slaves to no one. The universe will be cleansed of Human filth even if we all die doing it!"

"Caprica's face went blank and then turned to rage as she tried to pull him away from the interface. "We're not sacrificing our people in some final glorious act of suicide for your twisted satisfaction."

"So, what are we going to do?" he snidely asked as he resisted her. "Run? The Humans will run us down like dogs! No, if we can't win then they won't either. We're machines! Death to us ultimately doesn't matter. There is only the completion of our mission!"

"You're insane," Richard yelled.

"No, I'm dedicated. Now leave me alone and let…"

BAM!

"Thank God!" a Four yelled in relief as all of the Cylons stared at the hole in John's head leaking its excuse for brains spilling out as his body flopped to the floor.

"Well done, A17523D," Caprica said gratefully to the centurion still pointing its converted hand gun at what was left of John's head. "Thank you."

"By your command," it answered.

"Box this defective program and delete it!" Natalie demanded.

"Excellent idea, Conoy."

An Eight who witnessed the entire affair ran to do just that.

"The poison will be purged. The path is clear for the seven to choose their destiny.""

"Can you believe that?" Caprica said in awe. "Even the hybrid is agreeing with us."

"Warning! the children of the First World that is not will not rest until the children and the parents and the First of the First worlds are naught. Jump engines are optimal."

Caprica's mind was racing. They didn't have time for this. "Order all of our remaining resources to our rally point. Then we'll decide what to do."

"We need to help the others who can't get to us."

"You know we can't. The Earthers will run us down," Caprica said as her mind whirled with the hybrid's warning. She was telling them to run and so as soon as possible.

Fear permeated the Cylons at levels the Colonials had never achieved. "We can't leave our people alone and abandoned."

"We can't help them right now," Richard said. "If they try to download, they die and most of them will choose to do so because they don't know the system is turned off."

"We need to do something," Theresa pleaded. "Humans don't abandon their own and we can't afford not to."

"This place isn't safe," Richard said.

"Agreed," Natalie second. "It's most probably compromised already."

"Years of preparation and planning," Richard mused. "One close range resurrection ship left. The Colony all but destroyed no resources within close reach. We need to leave now and develop some sort of plan before the Earthers can find us and pick us clean."

"Can we find a place where we can be safe?" asked a worried looking Theresa.

"I don't know," confessed Richard. "But we need time to think and consolidate what we have left if we want to survive. There is an area of space in the Hentis sector that might offer a quick sanctuary."

Conoy looked thoughtful. "It is isolated. It might just work for now."

"Then let's do it," Richard said. "Are we in agreement?"

Everyone nodded.

"By your command," the hybrid said, shocking everyone by adding her voice to the seven.

Next Chapter: Why do people monologue?

Answer: To let the viewers and readers know what is really happening!