The road to 2064
Prior to the appearance of the Velos above Earth it was unlikely that any major efforts in space travel would appear in the near future, economic downturns and wars shifted most funding sources away from investment in outer space.
When the raptor containing the five survivors landed the world held it breath, the popularly theorized first contact was with non human life, surprisingly the survivors were all human, from twelve worlds of humans, initial reactions among the public thought it was some kind of giant hoax.
The truth came out fast though, leaders around the world were quick to identify the threat of the Cylons, Earth was totally helpless against any space-borne aggressors, Alien, Cylon or Human.
The nature of the Cylons had knock on effects in Earths tech sector, up to that point AI research was a top priority, after the Velos governments around the world enacted legislation to curtail research in that direction, fearful of creating their own Cylon analogue.
The threat spurned major paranoia among the citizens and leaders of the world, wars stopped almost overnight as all effort was put into making Earth safe, major investments went towards the aerospace industries and reverse engineering the colonial raptors systems.
The first hurdle was the fuel used by the raptor, Tylium didn't exist anywhere on Earth, extensive study produced a substitute based on its chemical composition but it was lacking a key ingredient which didn't exist in current Earths science. The Synthetic Tylium fuel was still far and away the best chemical fuel produced to date, its creation enabled the relatively cheap access to space currently employed today.
The raptor was the best gift Earth received, its hull material led to massive advances in heat resistant metals, eliminating the need for special tiles or heavy heat shields for reentry, new engine designs based on the raptors, artificial gravity, life support systems and the Jump drive itself.
The Jump drive would remain a major obstacle to Earth science, even artificial gravity didn't pose much problem, it wouldn't be till 2049 that a working prototype would be finished, limited in range to 0.7 astronomical units, it mass production variant allowed the full exploitation of the sol systems vast resources, the last 15 years have seen major improvements to Earth based drives, now boasting a full 2 light years of range with 1 hour recharge times but its still far behind known colonial technology.
Other changes occurred in the political realm, working through the UN nations joined together to form the Earth space defence force by 2034, a military alliance similar to NATO but focused on space and eventually reorganised into the Terran Union by 2049, a successor to both the UN and ESDF, a system to govern the sol system and any eventual colonies beyond.
An amalgam of the old UN and EU systems, a council of representatives of the most powerful nations made all the major decisions with the smaller and weaker ones represented by the general assembly similar to the UN, by 2060 the union was expanded to include an assembly of elected politicians in a parliamentary system with a president elected by the parliament but from candidates selected by the council thus giving some democratic power to the citizens of earth.
The introduction of the new parliament in the Union has led to an increase of powers granted to it, in the near future the merging of the national space forces into the EDSF is guaranteed with only token coast guard type forces left, the Union also has responsibilities for human colonization and any foreign policy decisions regarding non Earth powers, this new Parliamentary system has yet to be tested in any serious manner, the first four year term of the parliament is soon to end, it remains to be seen how the new elections will turn out.
The discovery of the first inhabitable planet beyond Earth in 2058, located 14 light years away in the Wolf 1061 system, was a milestone in history, unfortunatly the planet was lacking in land based life, being a rocky barren world, most life was single cellular sea creatures, fortunately it had near Earth gravity at 0.963 g's and a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere.
The first major political decision of the Union was the colonization of the world, named New Hope by an internet survey (The winning name PlanetmcPlanetface was rejected by the council), massive funding was poured into the effort in a plan titled Exodus, the idea is to move 1 billion people to New Hope in order to relieve the stress on Earth ecosystem, to date 3 million people are in residence mostly in the construction sector, building massive amounts of housing for the incoming population, the rest are in agriculture to ensure food self sufficiency.
Major investments in constructing a massive amount of jump capable passenger transports were also made, currently thousands of such ships have been constructed to the detriment of the defence forces, the ESDF having since been renamed to the Terran Defence Force in 2055, most military power still lies in the member nations space forces, the TDF only having one fleet to their name as of writing.
Excerpt from Earth and the new space age, published March 2064.
Sentinel Station
Earth Orbit
April blinked her eyes as the canopy of her simulator pod opened, the bright lights outside blinding her as she adjusted to the brightness, she quickly climbed out and looked around the room, around 20 pods were inside with other pilots exiting their own pods, others who had been destroyed earlier in the sim were already exiting the room.
She spied Durant's pod near the door, he was already outside talking to some of his squad, April caught his eye, her expression caused him to finish up with a clap on the back of his subordinate, she quickly made her way over through the maze of pods on the floor, her lithe frame easily dodged other pilots and machinery.
Thomas Durant looked down on her from on high, according to her five foot two inch height anyway, his expression genial in response to her scowl, "April, don't start I know that sim was utter crap"
"What shit was that Tom, who the hell designed that scenario, we all just died before we even got to fire off a shot" Her scowl had morphed into annoyance, not at Tom, he was alright for a CO, they were friendly during off hours, his relaxed method made him popular with the squadron.
She looked up at Durant, handsome even though he was in his mid 40's, still had all his hair too grey as it was, she took a calming breath, "meh, this whole thing is stupid, the early sims were too easy now this impossible stuff, why are we even doing this Tom?"
Durant raised a bushy grey eyebrow over his tanned face, "No idea really, a week of these sims, I heard they've been pulling people in from all over Earth space for this too, there's American, Russian, Chinese and every other nations ships here, seems odd" He shrugged his shoulders, "I even saw them painting the Union flag on some of them", He paused in thought for a moment, "anyway, head over to briefing room 3 for the after action, that sim was the last one so we're due that week's leave we were promised, I have a meeting with Admiral Borman afterwards, I'll let you know if I find out anything"
April gave a small nod, her shoulder length auburn hair barely moving as she sauntered out the door, she'd ask around the station about these wargames that were so odd, she remembered the abnormal amount of military traffic she saw as they first arrived a week ago, some large jump capable freighters were there too, she knew some people in the command staff she could ask.
Admiral Borman's Office
10 minutes later
Borman was still getting used to being called Admiral, the equivalent rank in the USSF (United States Space Force) was General, which he was used to being addressed as, he sat down in his sparsely furnished office, having only occupied it for the previous week, and began to peruse his computer.
A quick glance at his schedule showed his next appointment was in 10 minutes, with one Commander Marcus Baltar, son of one of the survivors of the Velos, one of the youngest commanders in the Union fleet at 36 years old.
James brought up his personnel file on the computer and reviewed the information, Baltar was born in Ireland on a small farm, his father moving there while working with the teams developing Earths jump engines, supposedly it reminded him the most of his home world of Aerilon, he had several siblings including one who he never met, being born before the Velos incident Baltar's other brother was still in the Kobolian Colonies, status unknown.
According to the file Baltar joined the Terran Unions space force in an effort to get on any expeditions towards the Colonies, thus far the political will was lacking for any exploration efforts for fear of encountering the Cylons, Earth unaware if the colonies still existed or if they won their war.
Borman sat back in his chair as he considered the current situation, he was nearing retirement when told he had one last job, the details were amazing to him and he accepted immediately, transferring to the Union Fleet was no issue, he always did want to explore distant planets, they even offered a sweetener of being the man to discover the Colonies, the risk they felt was worth it even with the Cylons.
That was the whole reason for this farce of a wargame, it was just to get the right candidates and material to Sentinel Station, he even let one of the techs load up an impossible scenario for the last sim, it was totally pointless as a learning experience but the look on the face of the pilot exiting the pod gave him a good chuckle, she looked like a real firecracker.
He was interrupted from his musing by a beeping coming from his intercom, he reached over and hit receive, "Sorry to interrupt sir but your next appointment is here" the secretary informed him, "Send him in", he sat up straighter in his chair and straightened up his uniform and pretended to be looking at his computer.
The door opened and in stepped Baltar, Borman looked up and saw him in person for the first time, short shaved brown hair, pretty thin build and around 6ft tall, grey uniform immaculate.
"Have a seat Commander" Borman waved to the chair opposite his desk.
"Thank you Sir" Baltar's voice was clear and even, almost monotone, and he was quick to sit in the offered seat.
"Right Commander I'll get right to it, these wargames were just an excuse to vet people for an upcoming mission, long range, we're looking at a thousand light years minimum and before you ask its not to the Colonies"
Baltar's composure faltered a bit, a hint of surprise on his features, "That'd be the furthest we're ever gone sir, the record is only 20 light years currently" he mused, "Why me sir?, my destroyer doesn't have the newest jump drives yet"
Borman waved his hand, gesturing towards space, "I cant tell you much yet, it's still classified, but I've looked at your record, its spotless, your perfect for this, no spouse or children, this mission might be up to a year before we return to Earth, and another thing is PR, your father came from the Colonies, this will be the first major long range expedition Earth does, if it goes well the next will be to the Colonies and you'll be in it too"
Baltar took a few seconds to process that, his major ambition was to go to the colonies and open the way for his father to return home, also to visit his unknown brother Julius Baltar, this could be the path to it.
Borman continued "Its a lot to take in I know, you have a week to decide, go visit the family and think about it, but to sweeten the pot there's also a promotion to Captain and command of one of the newest Sword class cruisers in it too"
Baltar was ready to accept right then but the Admiral was right, better to take a week to think it over first, his father would be excited too if it led to the colonies In the long run.
"Thank you for the opportunity sir, You'll have my answer before the week is out" Baltar stood, feeling the interview was over.
"Right son, don't let this opportunity slip by" Borman waved Baltar out of the office.
Sentinel Station Pilots Bar
4 hours later
Thomas Durant had a quandary, Admiral Borman had just given him a job opportunity but he had to leave the USSF to do it, join the Terran Union Space Force instead, he was currently thinking it over while nursing a beer, his thoughts were interrupted by April Phillips sitting down beside him.
"Why the long face Tom?"
"A new job, far away and for a long time, the whole squad is invited" he took a swig of his too expensive space brewed beer.
"Well that's not cryptic" was the sarcastic response, "anyway I've been asking around, apparently all the ships and sims and things started when Admiral Borman came aboard the station, one of the command crew even said they let the techs design some of the scenarios"
Durant looked to the panoramic windows, the brand new USS Enterprise was floating serenely several kilometres outside, at 700m long she was the first proper space carrier developed by Earth, she even came with new experimental technology, fusion reactors and gauss weapons, she was supposed to be assigned to first fleet last week after her trials, after Borman's talk he knew she was going somewhere else.
"See that ship out there, the Enterprise, I've been offered the CAG spot, and there's a spot there for you too, you'll just have to join the Unions fleet though" he took a swig "and it'll be Commander Durant not major from now on, I think I'll accept, its a once in a lifetime chance"
He looked to April, flabbergasted was the best description of her face "Grab a beer and I'll give you the sales pitch"...
Earth and modern space warfare
Many historians dub the current era the second space age, starting in 2024 with the arrival of the colonial cruiser Velos over Earth orbit the new era showed massive growth in technology and industry in the new frontier of space, before just a dream of science fiction.
The critical issue for the worlds leaders was the possible threat of the colonials enemy the Cylons, AI robots make by the colonial world of Caprica, the complete lack of information, except from the few survivors, on the Cylon military and the complete lack of any experience fighting in space in Earths military powers led to a relatively underwhelming response in the beginning.
The first defences were simply armed satellites launched in the first years as scientists and engineers studied the colonial raptor shuttle, the version on the Velos was setup for passenger transport but information gained from the survivors indicated it was also available as a support gunship, the fruits of such labour would be available in the coming years.
The first successful space craft were large fighters, roughly the size of a passenger plane depending on which country produced it, the size necessary for fuel capacity, launched from ground bases these craft were primarily missile buses, few were equipped with any kind of close range weapons, once in orbit they would volley off their missiles, usually nuclear weapons of some type, and return to rearm, they were never intended to dogfight, their agility very poor.
New fuels and materials led to advance in space plane technology, reducing the price to an affordable level, comparable to business class on expensive airlines, the cheaper access to space led to a massive push from governments to setup industry to better defend Earth from the perceived threat of the Cylons, many experts argue that it was also to counter any possible Colonial threat to Earth too, their political disposition unknown.
This industry quickly led to space shipyards being build and following on the first Earth capitol ships, at this time effort was also expended to recover the front half of the Velos, it trajectory placed it leaving Earth Lunar space.
These first large vessels were a far cry from those of today, they had no jump engines, minimal armour only able to stop low caliber weapons, most of the volume was taken by fuel reserves, the designers seeing the need for these ships to patrol the Sol system without FTL, their primary armament usually being missile systems adapted from wet naval tech, and some small caliber auto cannon for point defence purposes.
These ships were usually less than a 100 meters long, very few were bigger and there was no standardised design, each being a one off as designers and engineers came to grips with an evolving understanding of colonial technology and practical experience.
The recovery of the remains of the Velos changed the direction of space ship design over night, analysis of its components and structure led to a radical rethinking of how to fight in space, an emphasis on heavy armour and guns, documents recovered in the wreck also shed more light on colonial science, culture, religion, history and technical documents pertaining to the operation of a Virgonian cruiser, even more details emerged on the Cylons, the first images of Centurions and Cylon space craft emerged.
One of the more notable items recovered was the computer core of the Velos, its design helped to improve Earths computer technology immensely, careful analysis led to the discovery of the Cylon back door programming inside it, fortunately Earth computers use completely different architecture and programming languages but the look into Cylon programming helped develop new electronic countermeasures.
The new generation of ships heavily copied design element from the Velos, gone was the thin armour and lack of heavy cannon, the next gen would be though and hit like a sledgehammer but suffered from the yet to be reverse engineered jump drives.
Political developments at the time led to changes among the militaries of Earth, treaty's were signed that standardised all military designs, no longer would nations develop on their own, this was primarily to reduce costs and increase compatibility of part and training, this was a part of the growing power of the Terran Union, at the time a new global organisation replacing the UN.
The ships after the recover of the Velos favoured Colonial design features, the first to enter service was the Shield class frigate, other languages typically used their own word for shield, weighing in at 180m it featured 2 twin turreted 460mm cannons, scaled down versions of the main weapons of the Velos, mounted dorsal and ventral, 24 600mm long range missile tubes with nuclear capability, multiple point defence auto cannon and interceptor missile turrets typically 20mm and 100m respectively, and 2 meter thick sloped armour, power is provided by a nuclear reactor with 4 chemical thrusters fuelled by synthetic tylium, a small shuttle bay with two small space only transports is located port side aft.
The Shield class was the first Earth space vessel to enter serial production and is still being produced today with minor revisions, most notably the inclusion of a jump engine, refits feature a distinctive bulge amidships containing the engine while new productions are extended by 10 meters to fit it internally.
Following the success of the Shield, designers proceeded to design 2 other classes, the Armour class Destroyers and the Sword class cruisers.
The Armour class was an evolution of the Shield, lengthened to 300 meters, featuring 6 twin turreted 600mm main guns evenly distributed top and bottom, 48 600mm missile tubes and 12 1600mm torpedo tubes, the torpedo's can include multi megaton warheads and are capable of targeting planet side but their main purpose is anti capitol, point defence is only slightly improved over the Shield as the ships purpose isn't to escort, the main armour belt is 4 meters thick composite sloped armour giving the ship its distinctive angular appearance. Only 4 Armours were completed by the advent of jump engines, the ship was designed with FTL capability from the get go so space was available internally without redesign.
The Sword was intended as the brawler of the Earth fleet, heavily inspired by the Velos itself it resembles a smaller version of it, at 500 meters it has the same weapons layout as the Armour but with larger guns, 6 twin turrets with 1200mm cannons, the design a straight copy of the recovered ones on the Velos albeit fewer of them, it also features 12 turreted 460mm cannons and the same missile and torpedo armament as the Armour, and similar point defence systems, the biggest difference is the sheer amount of armour on the Sword class, 10 meters at its thickest at the prow, 6 at its thinnest rear and sides, it also features two of the same small shuttle bay as the Armour and Shield classes, all Swords began production after jump drive technology was introduced.
Of course Earths scientists were not idle during the trove of colonial technology, Earths biggest disadvantage was the lack of any tylium deposits in Earth space, synthetic tylium being a far cry from the real thing, heavy investment was made in fusion technology, the colonials having tylium meant research into fusion was considered a waste of money according to recovered military reports on the Velos (such information is currently unverifiable and only speculation as the primary sources were never released to the public), Earth didn't have the luxury of tylium and fusion was the only option to close the performance gap between Earth and the Colonials and Cylons, this research culminated in the X-156 space test platform, a small one man test craft equipped with the first fusion torch engine, developed by General Electric in 2056, based on their commercial fusion reactor technology released in 2054, the first use was in the new 2061 Boeing Stellar Stratos space plane, Airbus and other competitors are planning to release their own fusion powered craft the following year.
Military designers were also involved in the development of fusion technology, the first military design being the Luna class Carrier, funded mostly by the United States, the first ship the USS Enterprise is due to enter service in 2064, the name is a deliberate PR move invoking the popular science fiction ship from Star Trek and the historical carrier USS Enterprise, the ship will be the first dedicated carrier vessel constructed, prior to this no ship had fighter capabilities as they were all based on stations and planet side. The ship will also feature experimental Gauss cannons in place of the standard main projectile weapons and rumours also imply a supplemental laser based point defence system, the full details are yet to be released.
Small craft have also evolved from the early days, experimental anti gravity lift engines are equipped on the Lockheed Sky Marshall troop transport, based on the similar system of the Caprican Raptor shuttle, the design is currently undergoing rigorous trials to fully test this new system, if successful it could lead to a revolution in space to planet lift capability, further reducing the cost of reaching orbit
Fighter craft have also underwent design improvements from the early massive craft, the current mainstay fighter, the SF-05 Angel, was designed with carrier operations in mind. At only 16m, it has similar dimensions to the old atmospheric F-16, comes with 2 forward mounted 20mm auto cannons, multiple missile hard points and magazine fed launchers for a truly impressive payload, large engines allow performance similar to estimated Cylon raider velocities at the cost of huge fuel expenditure, and estimated superior agility in dog fight situations, its major limiting factor is endurance as it can only operate for 10 minutes at such output, the design was future proofed in a way as a simple engine reprogram will allow it to use real tylium fuel if it ever becomes available.
A rumoured new fighter is also in development, dubbed the Valkyrie this new design supposedly uses fusion thrusters and features 4 guns instead of 2, details are sparse currently and it remains to be seen if it even exists.
Excerpt from the Second Space age, Earth and space warfare, circa 2062.
Sentinel Station
24th July 2064
1 week later
Baltar took his assigned seat in the largest briefing room on sentinel station, it was almost like a university lecture hall in its setup with a lectern on a raised podium with large screens behind, the seating was in raised tiers in front of it, he was 10 minutes early the room still not even half full, he noted a pretty blond woman messing with a computer connected to the large screens, she looked uncomfortable in her grey Terran Union uniform, like she wasn't used to wearing one, he spied her rank of Lt Commander from his seat.
With nothing better to do till it started he examined the data pad he was given by the ensign who showed him his seat, a quick mess about showed it was locked down, "they must be waiting for the briefing to start to unlock, its probably still classified till then".
As the room filled up he noticed lots of new faces and some he saw during the wargames a week earlier, he also noticed another branch of the military, the Union marines were in attendance, entirety made up of member nations national armies on loan to the Union, they were normally deployed as peacekeeper troops, the Union still fulfilling the UN's old mandates, they even still wore the blue helmets. A Major and a Lieutenant had seated themselves on the chairs behind the podium, deep in conversation with each other and a stern looking colonel was in the front row near Baltar.
The murmuring in the room grew as more people entered the room. Baltar thought back to his visit to the family farm, his older brother Owen ran the farm now his father getting on in age, their younger sister Lucy living in the city working in a hospital, his father Lucius was quite excited about a possible expedition to the colonies in the future and gave his full support to Marcus's decision to join the Prometheus Expedition, a name he only learned today, his mother Evelyn was also proud of his promotion to Captain, even Owen was behind it saying "You get to meet our lost brother first, Mark, make it happen".
Baltar's musings were interrupted by Admiral Borman taking the podium, he didn't even notice that the room had filled.
"Alright people, settle down and lets get this started"
The lights in the room dimmed slightly as the big screen came on behind the admiral, a triangular logo with the words the Prometheus Expedition written underneath appearing on it.
"I'll give a brief overview before we dive into the details, first though" he pointed a remote at the screen and clicked, the image changed to a computer rendered molecule, "This is tylium" another click and a rather large atom appeared "and this is what scientists have named kobolium, the thing missing from our synthetic tylium, so far there was no trace of it or tylium in the space Earth has explored, that is until a month ago"
A low murmuring was audible around the room, Earths lack of a comparable fuel was their biggest deficit compared to the Cylons and Colonials, the strategic value was immense, Baltar was intrigued, leaning forward in his chair.
"Quiet now, we haven't even got to the good parts yet" Borman was jovial in his rebuke, he clicked again and the screen showed a map of the local galactic sector, a system had a circle drawn around it, "This system has a habitable planet where the mineral was discovered, its one thousand light years away from Earth and the locals call it Abydos" a louder murmur happened with the word locals, Baltar was unphased, there were humans in the Kobolian colonies too, "Yes people, locals, Humans to be precise, we'll go into more detail later"
Borman turned to the blond woman and waved her over, "This is commander Carter, she'll be going over how we even got to Abydos" Borman moved away and took a seat behind the podium.
"Greetings, I'm Commander Samantha Carter, formerly of the United States Air Force, I was one of the researchers involved with Project Blue Book", Baltar though she seemed a bit nervous, probably not used to talking in front of big crowds, she produced a remote of her own and the image changed to a large circle made of metal, Baltar couldn't tell its scale from the image.
"This" she paused "Is the Stargate, it can generate an Einstien-Rosen bridge, also called wormholes, between two linked devices, Stargates" a diagram of cones and lines appeared, a diagram of a wormhole he supposed, before it was replaced with the image of the Stargate again this time with a watery substance filling the centre, "The Stargate can transport any object that fits nearly instantaneously between themselves, it is also composed of almost pure kobolium".
Another image appeared, this time an old photograph, it showed the Stargate in what looked like a dig site in a desert region, Baltar thought it looked like Egypt based on the workers clothes, "First discovered in Giza in 1928 by professor Paul Langford …." Baltar was amazed as he listened, this was almost as big as the arrival of the Velos, the US had the Stargate since the 1930's but only recently got it to work, thanks to one Dr Daniel Jackson, an archaeologist, who figured out some cartouche had constellations on it, Baltar remembered meeting Jackson once at a conference about the colonies, he had some theory about ancient aliens bringing humans to Kobol, Baltar thought he was probably right at the time, the Stargate looks to have proved it.
Another thought clicked for him, The US Air Force, one would think the stargate would have been transferred to the Space Force given its purpose, he realised it was probably a way for them to get more funding, ever since the Velos planet side military organisations had their funding slashed massively as governments went full bore for space, he wondered what went wrong for the stargate to be revealed to the Union or why not just use the gate to secure Abydos.
Admiral Borman had retaken the podium while Baltar was lost in thought, "Thank you Commander Carter, most of you should have realised by now the purpose of the Prometheus expedition, namely, to acquire the kobolium deposits, this is a top strategic priority for the Union council and member nations, you might ask why there are not shipments of kobolium coming through the stargate at this very moment" Borman paused and hit the remote, the screen changed to show a still image of a large object burning its way through a planetary atmosphere.
"This image was captured by the body cams of the expedition through the gate, an Alien starship" Borman looked to the side "Major Kawalsky was the second in command of that mission, he'll give you a rundown of what happened" One of the men sat behind Borman approached the podium while the admiral sat back down.
"Colonel O'Neill led us through the gate" Kawalsky looked lost in thought "It was all fine at first, the locals were friendly, Dr Jackson had a good rapport with the local leader Kasuf, we were invited into their city as friends, Nagada they called it" The image on the screen changed again, this time showinga primitive open pit mine "Problems became apparent quick, the Abydonians were mining a metal they called Naquadah, we later learned it was kobolium, we learned they were mining it for their master, the alien Ra".
Kawalsky continued "Ra's men were brutal, death was their response if quotas weren't met, escape for us impossible, his ship had landed right on top of the stargate".
"So we did the only thing we could, we fought, of all the men sent to Abydos only three returned" Kawalsky's morose form perked up now "But we sent that bastard Ra to hell".
"Ra did capture us and revealed some information, he claimed to be the Egyptian sun god, to have visited Earth thousands of years ago and somehow took possession of a human body, took slaves to work the mines in Abydos, and revealed that naquadah could be used to enhance nuclear warheads" Kawalsky looked abashed now "General West had ordered us to take along a nuclear warhead as a contingency".
"In a way West was right, we managed to sneak the bomb aboard his ship and blow him to pieces, the Abydonians providing a distraction that allowed us to do it".
"Only Colonel O'Neill, my self and Lt Feretti here", he waved to the other soldier he had been in conversation with earlier, "returned, Dr Jackson elected to remain on Abydos, no one else survived"
he had a solemn look on his face as he returned to his seat.
Baltar was alarmed by this new information, first the Stargate now aliens, he'd have to wait for details, others in the audience had looks ranging from angry to disbelief.
Borman was at the podium again "Details will be available on the pads you received along with further specific briefings in the future, suffice to say we may be looking at an actual alien threat"
"Colonel O'Neill has retired since his return, the powers that be are content to let that happen, unfortunately attempts since their return to reconnect to Abydos have been unsuccessful, experts have suggested that their Stargate has been buried" Borman's power point presentation changed again, this time bullet points, "So these are our objectives, journey to Abydos and setup a base, recover their Stargate and reconnect to Earth, recover any remaining alien technology left by Ra".
"The leaders of the expedition are myself in overall command, Colonel Méndez is in charge of ground operations" Borman pointed to the Colonel Baltar saw earlier, "Dr Elizabeth Weir is in charge of the civilian side of things", he indicated a woman in her 40's wearing civilian attire, "including diplomacy with the natives, Commander Carter is head science officer, and Major Kawalsky and Lt Feretti are advisors on the locals and the aliens".
"We leave in one week on the dot people, further detailed briefings will be on your itinerary's, expect details on Ra's troops, local Abydonian culture, all recovered video footage will be made available, remember that all information discussed is still classified, talk to no one about what you heard" Borman tone had gone from kind to commanding at the end, he looked directly at Baltar, "Captain Baltar meet me at dock four in one hour",he turned to the audience "Dismissed" With his final word, people began the slow shuffle out of the room, confusion the most prevalent emotion in the crowd.
Dock 4
1 Hour later
Baltar stood looking out the window at the ship occupying dock 4, his mind still going over the unbelievable information, "stargates and aliens, its almost unreal, the Cylons are bad enough".
The ship before him was a Sword class, the name unreadable from where he stood, it bore the telltale signs of having its jump engine replaced, the armour in the midsection was clean and new from where they had cut open the belly of the ship, the claimed modularity of the design only really showed up during the initial construction phases, modifications afterwards not easy at all.
He felt a presence behind him, Admiral Borman coming to stand by his side, "There she is Marcus, your new chariot, one of the first produced" Borman stared out the window at the ship "Just transferred from the Euros, the Dublin, I thought it was fitting she went to you"
Borman turned to Baltar, "Your going to have a mixed crew, someone from everywhere" Baltar frowned, it was unlikely any of his old crew would be available for this, even if they had clearance, but the opportunity was too great for him to complain. Borman must have sensed his disquiet though, "don't worry too much" he handed Baltar a pad "Take a look, these are the candidates for the officer positions, they'll be on the expedition anyway but pick who you want for yourself"
Baltar glanced at the pad in his hands before looking back at Borman, "I'll get right on it sir,"
"Don t take too long, we have a week of meetings to get through and I have to sort every aspect of a fleet on a long range mission" Borman looked at his wrist, an old school watch evident on it "speaking of, I have a meeting with colonel Méndez in a few minutes" he looked to Baltar "there's also a ship commander meeting at eight tonight, ill see you then" he finished as he strolled off.
Baltar took one last look at the ship and made his way to the docking port, he had some research to do.
Colonel Méndez's Office
Later that day
Juan Méndez sat back in his chair deep in thought, he had just returned from a meeting with Admiral Borman, infront of his desk was Major Kawalsky and his second in command Major Chen, formerly of the PLA, Méndez had served in the USMC before but things in the Union were different.
He went over the ground force contingent coming on the expedition, a whole battalion, half mechanised half engineers, the idea was the engineers set up a base and the rest would be stuck guarding it.
"Kawalsky, tell me about Ra's men, details, equipment, tactics" Juan focused on Charles Kawalsky as he recounted the mission.
"They had some kind of energy weapon, looked like a staff, our armour didn't do anything to stop it, theirs on the other hand didn't even scratch from our guns"
"Hmm, I'll have to see if we can get some AP rounds then"
"They also had a flying machine, fired a bigger version of the staff, hits like a tank, otherwise their tactics were sub par, I don't think they fight peers, only put down slaves, physically they were strong and fit, stronger than normal" he finished
"We did manage to down one of the flyers, they have an open canopy, one shot in the right spot takes em out"
Méndez considered "we'll take AP rounds for sure, the Russian company has an air defence platoon, they have those anti orbital missiles now, should be able to handle the flying things, and the Chinese are bringing some SPAAG's too"
He brought up his commands composition on his desk computer, a mix of units from different countries, American, Russian, Chinese and Euros, the main players on the Terran Council, the Russian and Chinese mostly air defence and infantry for guarding the mine and base when built, the Euros handling the engineering and construction, America came with some armoured power in the form of a Striker 2 Platoon and mechanized infantry, only equipped with 25mm guns though, the only difference from the original was the hybrid multi fuel engine.
As long as they don't just explode us from space we should be able to handle it, he thought.
Command Meeting Room
20:00 local time
Borman was the last into the room, everyone else already sat around the large conference table in deep talks.
He took a mental tally of the commanders of his fleet, there was Baltar of course, in command of the Dublin, Captain Sergei Chekov of the Korolev the other cruiser in the fleet, and the four destroyer commanders, Emile Dupont, Suko Nobuyuki, Wan Jing and Issac Archer, rounding it out was Captain Judith Andersen of the Enterprise.
The frigate commanders were not present, Borman would be having a separate meeting with them later and the captains of the civilian ships after that, it was going to be a long night.
"Alright cut the chatter people, lets get down to business" he said as he sat at the head of the table.
A flick of a button brought up the fleet composition of the expedition.
"This is the finalised fleet list, were going with the Enterprise, 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers and 6 frigates for the military side of things" A rather neat carrier battle group he thought, and also a large percentage of Earths total tonnage, there was only 14 cruisers built to date, but that looked to change as the Exodus initiative's first stage was winding down, soon those shipyards would be building military ships instead of passenger transports.
"How many civilian ships are coming" Archer asked, his British accent apparent.
Borman brought up his notes "two 500 meter Colossus freighters, on loan from the Exodus initiative, they only things that size with modern jump drives, they'll handle supplies and equipment transport, including a deployable mining and refining station we need to setup in Abydos's system, it should be able to produce replacement parts and refine fuel if its supplied, an asteroid mining ship is coming along for that reason, a fuel transport ship, Ganymede class"
"What's a Ganymede class? Ive Never heard of one" Dupont asked, her English crisp and without accent despite her French nationality, Terran Union cross training included extensive classes on English, the language chosen as Earths standard.
"Its a Colossus converted to fuel transport, everything in our inventory was too small for the journey to Abydos, we also have one of the passenger transport variants along too, it'll house the ground troops and some of the civilians, there'll be a hospital aboard too".
"I also pulled in some favours with the Council, we'll have two of the prototype Skymarshall landing ships and the freighters are packing some heavy lift spaceplanes"
"A survey ship is coming too, we have a mandate to investigate any potential habitable planets we encounter along the way" Commander Jing interjected, China was interested in exporting more of its population to the stars, having had a population boom in response to the Velos's arrival.
"Four large transport ships, two 100 meter landing ships and this survey ship together with the military fleet, this is quite a lot of effort for a journey into the unknown", Nobuyuki input his thoughts too, the Japanese government not quite as onboard as the others.
"The strategic value of kobolium is immeasurable, even with fusion technology finally becoming available, if these reports from Abydos are right, its power to enhance nuclear weapons is invaluable" Baltar was the last to speak, quiet till that moment, he continued, "If the Cylons still do exist such weapons could level the field, we know our fleet will be no match for them right now".
"Quite right Captain, the mines on Abydos are the councils top priority, otherwise a much smaller expedition would be sent, we'll be taking control of them even if the locals object" Borman looked the commanders in the eye "Make no mistake, the military might we're bringing is not for show, but we will show restraint"
"Colonel Méndez men are bringing along riot gear in case the locals become intransigent but we will try diplomacy first, the bigger issue is more of the aliens coming, Union intelligence believes there must be more of them, regardless of Ra claiming to be the last of his people, his ship came from somewhere, he was mining kobolium for a reason"
A sober mood overcame the room at that news, they had seen the reports about what Ra's ground weapons were capable of, his large ship easily able to land on a planet, a fight with that technological difference was a losing one.
"Anyway, we're looking at a three month journey to Abydos, we're not going to push our engines too hard, its the first time any Earth ship has gone that far so I don't want to deal with engine failures, it'll also give us time to do surveys as we travel".
"Once we arrive the first priority is to recover the stargate and contact Earth, we should be able to be resupplied through it after".
"What's going to happen to the stargate on Earth, Admiral?" Captain Anderson asked.
"Ive been told its going to be transported to Pluto, their building a station there right now for it, the threat of an enhanced nuclear bomb coming through scared enough people"
Borman checked his notes again "One more thing before we finish, the PR department was working on our cover story but the council in all their wisdom has decided to declassify some of our mission once we leave, I don't know the details but the existence of the stargate is likely to be public by the time we return, its too hard to hide the Prometheus expedition from the public or the media Ive been told".
Earth Orbit
One Week Later
Borman stood behind Captain Anderson as the crew went through their final pre jump checks, the fleet was arranged around the Enterprise, drives synced and waiting for the signal. They had one additional ship foisted on them by the Council, a courier ship, usually filled with massive hard drives, they travelled between Earth and distant stations and New Hope, holding as much data as they could, acting like proxy servers to bring the internet to distant locations, theirs was in case they encountered disaster, it would take their logs back to Earth if anything unfortunate happened, Borman suspected the ship was to keep tabs on the expedition.
"Admiral, all stations report ready"
Borman nodded, time to get this show on the road then.
"Begin jump countdown Captain, signal the fleet to proceed to the first jump coordinates"
"Aye Sir, Lieutenant Silva, initiate jump countdown, ten seconds on my mark, comms inform the fleet to sync timers"
A few tense seconds followed, everyone nerves were strung due to the enormity of the expedition.
"Mark"
Silva began his countdown as Borman looked at the main screen, the fleet arranged around him.
5
4
3
2
1
And then there was only empty space, their journey had begun.