One Big Jump

by goulmeister1

AU:An Aerlion ship on patrol encounters the Cylons at the beginning of the first Cylon war and suffers a misjump, forty years later an expedition leaves Earth bound for Abydos, the Stargate has just been opened for the first time.

6. Chapter 6

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

Teal'c was in a light Kelno'reem when there was a knock on his door, he doused his candles and stood.

"Enter"

The door opened and Colonel O'Neill entered, "Hey, Teal'c, how's it going?"

"Well for now, I have spent the past week telling your Colonel Kennedy all I know of the Goa'uld"

"And your family, how are they?", Jack sat on the one chair in the room, Teal'c remained standing.

"My wife Dray'auc and my son Rya'c have been moved to Abydos, she does not wish to talk with me"

Jack nodded, thinking back to his failed marriage, "Here's hoping she comes around"

"Anyway Teal'c, I'm sure you're bored in here", Jack stood and looked him in the eyes, "I made a promise I intend to fulfil, how would you like to join SG-1?"

…

Jack took Teal'c to the medical room, Dr. Fraiser one of the medical staff was on duty, "We're here to see Quinta, how is he"

"Lets see", she looked up his file on the computer, "His shoulder bones are healed, no muscle damage, he should be fit in a few days tops, we're only keeping him here to study any effect having had a Goa'uld symbiote has on a person"

She began typing again, "And Colonel, you're due for a physical I see, strip down and get on that bed there"

"What, now?"

"No time like the present, Mr Teal'c this will take a few minutes, why don't you go talk to Quinta in the meantime"

"Indeed", Teal'c bowed his head and wandered off, leaving Jack to watch Dr. Fraiser put on a latex glove.

…...

"Colonel I've been meaning to talk to you about the new medications we received from the Star League people", she was asking after the physical, "you did notice how spry some of them are, their leader Kerensky is 84 and still in great shape"

Jack did notice that, DeChavilier was in his seventies and didn't look a day past 50, "So what's their secret doc?"

"This", she opened a drawer and pulled out a vial, "is a gene therapy to combat ageing, it keeps people fit and healthy far past what we consider normal, it'll add a few years to life expectancy too"

"Is it safe?"

"As far as the experts back on Earth can tell, yes, the Star League has access to other genetic technologies too", she had read the reports received on the Magistracy of Canopus.

"They have a full raft of cybernetic limbs too, anyone who lost an arm or leg could be a hundred percent mobile again"

Jack thought about the serum for a bit, "I'll need to think more on taking that right now doc"

She nodded, "I understand, only a few have taken it so far, myself included"

Jack excused himself and joined Teal'c and Quinta, he was laid up in a bed, bandages still around his right shoulder.

"Hey Quinta, keeping well?"

"Feeling great Colonel, I heard Jolinar has returned to the Tok'ra?"

"Yeah, after that stunt we pulled on Apophis, she said she needed to return and talk things out with the high council, she said she'd try to open relations for us"

Quinta nodded, "She said as much to me, our joining was only temporary anyway, but I feel powerless now she has left"

Jack was about to give him a pat on the shoulder fortunately he realised in time, "Yeah, she managed to get in touch with some of her sources before she left, the Tok'ra did manage to hit Apophis and Mafdet after what we did, it's been confirmed they're at war now, and that other Gould Heru'ur joined in too"

"Indeed O'Neill, with all three at war, Earth will go unnoticed for longer"

"Yeah T, anyway, Quinta I have an offer for you, you know lots of stuff from Jolinar right?"

He nodded, "Some yes, none of the technical knowledge though"

"That's fine, I have a Jaffa expert, I want a Gould expert, hows about you come join SG-1, hit those snakes right back"

Quinta looked deep in thought for a few seconds, "Very well Colonel, I'm in"

…

Jack walked into Hammond's office, George was already waiting for him.

"So Colonel, is this your final team selection?"

Jack nodded, "Sure is, brains, brawn and beauty, we've got it all"

"Hmm, alright then, take a seat"

Jack sat in the chair offered, Hammond handed him a long list of gate addresses.

"Before Jolinar left we had her go over the addresses we recovered from Abydos, she identified any planet with a known Goa'uld presence and which one controlled them, that list is worlds we plan to visit"

Jack flipped through the pages, "What about abandoned Gould planets?"

"They're on the list, the Unions policy going forward for now is to only investigate worlds without a current Goa'uld presence, we're to keep a low profile for now"

Jack nodded, "And the advanced human worlds?"

"We only have an address for these Aschen for now, I've been told to leave them be for now, the council is waiting to see how the expedition to the Colonies goes before they try to contact them"

Jack understood their caution, any unknown could as easily be their enemy instead of their friend.

"Colonel, if you do encounter any advanced culture while investigating those worlds you are to initiate contact, try to convince them to help against the Goa'uld, or at least open the way for our diplomats"

"Understood General, when do we start"

P3X-972 System

~15 days later

A flash of light heralded the arrival of the fleet, they had just jumped into the system, sensors probing for anything.

"Report", Captain Anderson ordered, Borman watched from his usual seat in the CIC.

"Standard yellow dwarf star, telescopes are tracking a planet in the goldilocks zone"

That must be it then, Borman thought, "Captain, when our drives are recharged jump the fleet into orbit of that planet"

An hour later they were in orbit of another Earth like planet, a storm was ravaging the surface, visible to the ships above.

"Deploy survey satellites, look for anything stargate related", At that Borman exited the CIC, retreating to his quarters.

It was the next day before they found anything.

"Here, it's an artificial structure", The sensor officer was pointing to a dark square shape on the image, "It was under that storm, as soon as it cleared we could see it"

"It's right beside this ocean, hard to tell but it looks like a cliff face here"

"We'll have the drop ships land further away just in case", Borman picked out a clearing a few kilometres away from the building, "Here will do, send a team down to check it out"

"Sir, Captain Carlton is requesting permission to deploy his drop ship to the surface", The comms officer told Borman, Simon Carlton was the captain of the Pathfinder, the Star League ship, he was told they had brought three lances of mechs, a light, medium and a heavy one.

There was also the squadron of fighters under the command of Commander Kinsella that were onboard the Enterprise, fortunately they had the space for another 12 craft, even if it was a little tight, Kerensky was sending a lot with the expedition.

"Permission granted, they can secure the landing zone for the Skymarshall"

He watched as the drop ship detached from the Pathfinder, he was told it was a Union class vessel, it flared its thruster and sped off towards the surface, soon after it turned its engine towards the surface and used it to slow down.

While that was happening a team was gathered to investigate the unknown building, they were soon in the Skymarshall drop ship following the Union to the surface.

…..

The Union drop ship blasted its way through the atmosphere, coming to a stop over a clearing near the building, its fusion thruster easily able to keep it aloft it slowly came to a rest on four large landing gears.

The doors opened soon after and massive machines bounded down the ramps, two lances of battle mechs moved to secure the landing zone around the drop ship, the heavy lance comprised of four Flashman mechs, they stayed near the ship, the medium lance moved off to secure the landing zone for the incoming Skymarshall, it was the same four Crabs that had deployed on Abydos, Kerensky had decided to send mechs with the smallest logistical trail possible.

Chad watched all this from his seat on the Skymarshall, his battle goggles able to connect to the camera systems of the ships to see the outside, he was able to identify the mechs from his time reading and playing Battletech.

After he got out of hospital last time, Sergeant Brown had been working him to the bone, most of the marines on the expedition had returned to Earth via the stargate, they got a few months to rest at home before they left on the expedition to the Colonies, apparently they were all experts about expeditions now, command deciding to send the same people, Chad's whole platoon had been volunteered to accompany the fleet on the journey back to Earth, Chad suspected Brown had a hand in that.

"Alright men, we land in 2 mikes, Alpha and Bravo squads load up in the jeeps, the rest of you are on guard duty", Said Lieutenant Hope, their platoon commander, the jeeps mentioned were modernised versions meant to be as light as possible for transport, they had taken five of them from Abydos.

Once they hit the ground Chad's jeep drove onto the ground, he got his first good look at a mech in real-life, the Crabs standing tall in the trees around the LZ, the jeeps sped off towards the building, their large tyres easily crossing the rough terrain, two of the mechs kept pace with them too.

Before long the mysterious building was visible, it was a large castle teetering on the edge of a cliff, parts had already fell into the crashing waves below the cliff.

"Sergeant Brown, take your squad and secure the interior, I'll take the rest and secure the perimeter", Lt Hope ordered while walking over to Bravo squad.

"Alright marines, you heard the man, Hut", the squad quickly fell in, they found the exterior door soon enough, a gap showing total darkness inside, they turned on their flash lights and entered.

The interior was everything Chad expected from a castle, albeit surprisingly dry considering the location, they swept room after room before they found him.

The skeleton was laying on a small pile of animal furs in a room with a large pedestal, the tattered remains of a diving suit clung to its bones, other bits and pieces were around the room, handmade items showing that someone had lived there.

"Lieutenant, Brown here, we discovered a body inside", Sergeant Brown informed him over the radio.

"Acknowledged Sergeant, that's most likely Ernest Littlefield, keep searching, we need to find the stargate"

"Sir", Brown cast one last look at the body, "Poor bastard"

"Alright marines, lets go"

They searched the rest of the building till the found empty space, where more building should have been, Chad glanced down to the sharp rocks below, poking out of the rough water was the stargate.

"Sergeant, down there, the stargate"

They all moved up to the edge, "So it is, we'll need some gear to get that up"

…..

The fleet had brought along the archaeologist Sarah Gardner and a small science team, she was busy examining the remains in the castle, outside an area was being cleared to land a drop ship closer, the engineers on the fleet were fabricating a crane system to recover the gate from the bottom of the cliff, they planed on mounting one on a drop ship and flying it up.

Sarah Gardner had returned to the Enterprise to give Admiral Borman and the command staff a quick briefing on what they had discovered so far.

"So he called the planet Heliopolis?", Captain Baltar was asking.

"According to the diary we recovered he did, he called it a meeting place of four great races, the pedestal he discovered projects base elements, he speculated it was used as a universal language"

"Fascinating Doctor, keep at it but as soon as we get the stargate moved into an operable position we need to leave", Borman had a schedule to keep after all.

"Yes, continuing on, the structure itself is very unstable, it would need extensive work to repair, I'd estimate at least 30% of it has already collapsed into the sea"

"Is it Goa'uld?"

She shook her head, "Based on the architecture and languages we found carved into the walls I'd say no, Littlefield's theory about it being a meeting place is plausible"

"And the DHD, any sign of that?", Captain Matthew Stone asked, he was the captain of the Essex class Rondeau, his new Union uniform bore the Cameron star on his shoulder, it had been chosen as the symbol for Arcadia.

"We sent drones to survey the bottom of the cliff, we found this", an image appeared on the screen in the briefing room, visible beneath the water was the silhouette of the DHD, "We managed to send some submersible drones down for a closer look, the DHD looked damaged beyond repair", a new picture showed a close up, the central crystal had been completely smashed.

"Fortunately that is a solved problem, we have our own dialling computer and power supplies, they'll just have to ship one over", Borman said, "We'll leave any spare supplies we can for the team that comes to Heliopolis, they should be able to get it up and running"

The meeting wound down after that, by the next day the stargate had been moved further inland away from the cliff and framework was built to hold it upright for use, the fleet left what supplies they could and continued on to Earth.

Sol System

11 days later

The fleet had finally arrived back home, ships were docked to undergo a quick refit, supplies loaded and fuel topped up, the small amounts of Kobolium shipped back through the gate had been looked over by scientists, a way to manufacture tylium had been engineered, a minute amount of kobolium could produce massive amounts of the fuel, the expedition fleet would be the first to receive it.

The crews were given a few weeks leave as the Rondeau's jump engine was mounted internally, the old jump core completely disconnected but otherwise left intact, they even had time to mount some grav plated on the Union class drop ship.

By the 31st of January 2065 the fleet was ready to leave, Admiral Borman holding a final command meeting before they left the next day.

A map of the galaxy was displayed on the screen in the room, two points marked out, one was Earth the other the estimated position of the Colonies of Kobol.

"This is our destination, based on our best guesses this is where we believe the Kobolian Colonies are, roughly two thousand light years from Earth", Borman was standing giving the breifing.

"That's a lot of area to search, thousands of cubic light years of space", Captain Stone stated.

"It is, but we're looking for a very specific system, Cyrannus, a quadrinary star with 12 habitable planets, once we're close we should be able to find them"

"That does sound rare, impossible actually", Stone commented.

"Our scientists came to the same conclusion, our only working theory is alien action of some kind"

Borman dismissed the meeting soon after, he had someone waiting for him in his office, General Kerensky.

"General, please sit"

Kerensky took the offered seat, "Admiral, I came here to give you something for the journey", he handed a data pad over to Borman.

It was a diagram of a device called a HPG, a Hyperpulse Generator, an FTL comms device, point to point only though.

"I had several mech scale HPG's delivered to your fleet, you won't be able to contact Earth past 50 light years but it will allow your ships to communicate several star systems apart"

"Thank you General, they will come in handy"

Kerensky nodded, "Yes, there are plans to build a network in the future and others are looking to expand the K-series devices we brought along too, Pluto station received one for communication with Earth"

"Anyway Admiral, good luck with your mission, lets hope the Cylons have been destroyed"

Borman was hoping the same, having the Cylons on one side and the Goa'uld on the other was the thing of nightmares.

Kerensky bid goodbye after that, Borman getting an early night after, the fleet was leaving in the morning.

On the 1st of February 2065 the Kobolian Expedition jumped away from the Sol system, their journey had begun.

Kobolian Expedition

Deep Space

1 Month later

They had travelled for nearly a thousand light years so far, sticking to deep space for the most part, only sending a survey ship to investigate the most promising systems, morale was high among the fleet, the new ships that hadn't been on the Prometheus expedition had integrated well with the others.

The Kobolian expedition only took one of the large Colossus freighters along, not having to take nearly the same amount of equipment for mining or supporting a large ground force, the Council had added five newly built survey ships to the fleet in addition to the Intrepid and a new fuel refinery ship was included, it could refine the old fuel they used and had a store of refined Kobolium to create tylium.

The pilots were happy with their new fuel, the fighters and bombers now had enough endurance to actually travel to a planetary surface and leave, beforehand although the craft were designed to allow that their fuel consumption was too high to actually do it.

The rest of the fleet was made up of the combat ships from the Prometheus expedition, led by the Enterprise and the two former Star League ships Rondeau and Pathfinder, Borman mentally included the drop ship Shoebox on the list, the Union class was nearly as big as one of the survey ships.

Command had also replaced the two prototype Skymarshall drop ships with four production models, and docked to the Colossus was two new Boewing heavy lift space planes, they had fusion thrusters and new anti grav lift engines, they were capable of VTOL landings, the lift engines able to keep them aloft for a few minutes.

They were full of scientific equipment and materials for prefab buildings, part of the mandate of the Kobolian expedition was to survey any habitable planets discovered, a survey team was on the fleet just for that purpose.

Borman was roused from his musings by the last person to enter the conference room, normally they held their meetings over the radio to save fuel but they managed an in person meeting once a week, this one was different, the Astrogation department having requested it.

"We're all here, alright Lt Farrell, what's the issue?"

"Sir, I'll start with some science", Borman nodded, Farrell turned on the big screen, the map of their route was displayed, "Our best estimate of where the Cyrannus system is, unfortunately until now this nebula was obscuring our telescopes", He pointed to a nebula labelled Helix.

"Go on"

"Right, after we cleared the nebula we took a good look at the star we thought was Cyrannus, it's actually a lot further away than we thought, the nebula was lensing the light from the star, making it appear closer"

"So the Colonies are further away than we thought, how much further?"

"Around a thousand more light years than we thought, three thousand total from Earth"

Borman considered this information, the fleet was oversupplied just in case anything happened so the extra distance was a relatively small issue, the extra month was more of a problem, the crew's morale might take a hit.

"Ultimately an extra month of travel is a minor issue, our supplies can handle that", Borman said, "We continue on"

The rest of the command staff agreed, Borman was about to dismiss the meeting when the comms system beeped.

"Borman here"

"Sir, our telescopes have discovered a system a few light years ahead, looks like a planet in the habitable zone is present"

"Right, I'll be up to the CIC soon", he turned to the room, "Unless there's anything else?", no one did, "Alright, dismissed"

Borman walked the short distance to the CIC, soon he and Captain Anderson were entering the room.

"Commander Kane, what's this about a planet?"

"Sir" Kane waved them over to the central display table, a map of the local systems was displayed, "Our telescopes detected a possible planet in the habitable zone in this system, its about ten light years away from our current position"

Borman nodded, "Ready one of the survey ships to check it out"

….

A few minutes the ship Intrepid jumped into the unknown system, the planet was quickly detected, from space it looked like a pristine world, full of blue oceans and green forests.

"Naomi, those are cities on the surface", Jim Bauer pointed to the cities that were visible from orbit, "Not a single light anywhere"

"Jim, look there that's a crater in the middle of this city"

"Yeah, there's more of them and that's just on this side of the planet, no way it was a natural disaster"

Naomi turned to Sarah Bauer, Jim's wife and helmsman, "Sarah launch the probe, I want radiation readings"

While they waited for the atmospheric probe to land they orbited the world several times, taking images of the destroyed cities that littered its surface, outside those it looked like vegetation had reclaimed the land.

"Readings coming in", Jim called her, "Radiations levels are raised, but within acceptable levels, we should be fine walking around"

"Looks like whatever happened was a long time ago then, could it have been the Goa'uld?", Naomi asked herself.

"Sarah, plot a jump back to the fleet, we'll need approval to land"

Stargate Command

Sol System

Jack was doing the rounds during their downtime between missions, so far all they had found were primitive tribal society's or completely empty worlds, the most advanced they discovered so far were at the bronze age in development.

Teal'c had told him most human worlds were like that, anyone who advanced too far were destroyed by the Gould, or had their world constantly used for slave raiding, Jolinar had said as much before, the Gould tended to abandon worlds when the naquadah mines ran dry, but occasionally raided them for slaves afterwards.

Jack entered the lab that Commander Carter was using, a few recovered Gould pieces were on the various workbenches, Carter herself was engrossed reading from a data pad.

"Hey Carter, what's up?"

"Sir, just reading up on the K-series transmitters, the so called black boxes, Jolinar had mentioned that Gould use a higher dimension called subspace to communicate faster than light, it might be a similar method"

"Sounds fascinating, I heard you took that anti ageing injection Doc Fraiser was talking about, how are you feeling?"

"No side effects, I feel great", Carter put her pad down and stood up, "All of Kerenskys people have taken it before, I doubt it's unsafe"

"Yeah, I'm still on the fence but I am getting older, and Teal'c, he's nearly a hundred already", Jack shook his head in disbelief, "I'll need more time to think, but I'm leaning towards getting it"

"It's alright to be cautious Sir"

"Anyway, are you hungry?, lets hit the cafeteria, I heard they have hot dogs"

They met up with the rest of the team in the cafeteria, "They had clearly descended from a Minoan culture, their architecture matched recovered samples from the Mediterranean", Daniel was talking about the last planet they had visited, P5O-911, the locals called it Adaro, it was another world abandoned by the Gould after the mines ran dry, there was nothing else of note otherwise.

"O'Neill", Teal'c intoned, bowing his head slightly, "At the last briefing we discussed possible avenues to gaining advanced technology for Earth, I have given it much thought"

"Haven't we all T, Hammond's biggest complaint is politicians calling him all day demanding he find some pronto, you'd think they'd be happy with all the Star League tech we got"

"Indeed", Teal'c stated deadpan, "Years ago Apophis ordered me to capture a creature that lived on an uninhabited world, I failed and Apophis ordered the death of two of my men as punishment, the creature possessed the power of invisibility"

Jack's own eyebrow raised at that, "It can turn invisible?, do you remember the address of that planet?"

Teal'c gave a nod of affirmation.

"Ok, I'll talk to Hammond, that sounds like a mission to me"

Arcadia

Kerensky sat down in his new office, the building had just been completed a week ago, a stark grey concrete tower, tough Star League concrete all around, it sat beside the squat Stargate control building, a new road led to where the city was being build, already more concrete apartment buildings were being erected, once they housed the people of the fleet they would move on to building family homes.

Kerensky looked over the future development plans for his world, after the Star League people were settled in they expected to receive at least a million new people a year from Earth when the infrastructure was ready, the lions share were still heading to New Hope and future plans had colonization of Heliopolis starting next year, they had already shipped a Stargate control computer there by ship, work was underway building a command centre on the planet.

The Union was also expanding their exploration efforts, new planes called for a full survey of one hundred light years around Sol, and the Union planned to claim all space within a thousand light years within five years, Kerensky had given them the complete stellar map of the Inner Sphere in the hope that some of the habitable planets existed in this reality.

The Union had massively increase production of their Survey ships and crews were being trained to man them, that was in addition to the new warship production the Union was planning.

In orbit over Arcadia was a skeletal framework, the beginnings of a new shipyard, the first berth being constructed was sized to fit the McKenna's Pride, the ship and the rest of the fleet had been moved from Abydos and were orbiting the planet, engineers from Kerenskys people and the Union had forwarded him plans for refits, most were removing the old jump cores and replacing them with Union drives, the jump ships were expected to be respectable cargo ships afterwards and keep their ability to take drop ships along.

The warships would have a similar treatment, removing the core, adding extra bracing and armour, the removal of the grav decks and the installation of gravity plating, which included the Unions inertia dampeners, large devices to reduce the effect of acceleration on the human body, the ships would be able to accelerate much faster, there was also the addition of the Unions heat recycling tech, the ships would be able to fight for far longer before heat became an issue.

All that work would take some time though, the Pride would stay in orbit for its refit but he was sending the Muraca to Earth, they would test things out on it first, the Abyssal would remain unchanged for the foreseeable future apart from its new jump drive.

Kerensky had more time to himself now, he was spending it with his family, Nicholas was receiving treatment for post traumatic stress, the occupation of Terra had done massive damage to him, Andrey was happy to be on the ground again and Katyusha was glad to just spend time with him.

His musings were interrupted by a knock on his door, "Come in"

Aaron DeChavilier walked in, his new Union uniform was immaculate, the Cameron star displayed proudly on his shoulder, "Alek, feels like we barely get to talk nowadays, we need to tell the Union to get off their asses and build those HPG stations already"

Kerensky gave a small chuckle, "Come sit, how are they treating you on Earth"

"Very well, I imagine Terra natives would feel unsettled being on that world, similar but so different, fortunately I'm from the Suns"

"How are the training efforts going then Aaron?"

"Well enough, the real problem is a lack of mechs, and I am grateful for the ones you lent me, they tell me that they managed to manufacture some prototype lasers and armour so far, it'll be a few more months before the first Earth mech walks off the production line"

"Hmm, we're short on everything right now, how are the 316th doing?"

"They're adjusting well to being the core of a new army, I had to split them up to lead the new units I'm forming, current plans are for four divisions, right now it will be four battle mech brigades and the rest mechanised infantry and armour, I have two from the 316th the rest will be using current Earth vehicles until the factories can produce modern gear"

"Understandable, these things take time, I just hope we get the time we need"

Unknown world

the next day

There were already tents setup in the ruins of the city when Admiral Borman landed, tens of experts were combing the ruins looking for anything to shed light on what had happened, the first ships had landed the day before after the fleet had jumped into the system, initial reports showed that the radiation levels in the cities were highest but within safe levels, the science types had told him that based on the radioactive decay they estimated that the nukes had hit around two thousand years ago, and they had used salted bombs, it explained the still relatively high levels of radiation.

Otherwise, they told him, the planet was ripe for colonisation, the flora and what little fauna that was still here had recovered enough to sustain a functional biosphere, one of the experts from the Star League even told him they had terraforming tech to remove the rest of the radiation from the world.

He was walking from the landing site with Captain Baltar, the archaeologist Sarah Gardner had called him an hour ago with the news they had discovered writing, it was ancient Kobolian, or a derivative of it, Baltar was the closest thing to an expert they had.

"My father would read to us the sacred scrolls, he taught me to read them too, his book was written in old Kobolian, a gift from his grandmother, I was never really religious anyway, mum was a catholic, she took us all to church too"

As they neared the tents it seemed the whole camp was in a flurry, a crowd was gathered around a hole in the ground, Borman spotted Gardner on her knees in the hole.

They moved up to the edge of the pit, human skeletons were clearly visible, Gardner was working to brush the dirt of some kind of metal object, the brush soon revealed a metal head.

"Oh, shit, that's a Cylon"

Unknown Planet

After the outburst everyone went back to watching the excavation of the cylon, Borman had radioed the fleet to go on high alert just in case.

"It's looks similar to the images of cylons we recovered from the Velos, but there are differences, the head shape is more curved looking for one", Baltar was talking to Borman, they were both standing over the hole watching Sarah Gardner reveal more of it's body.

"Sounds like you have a theory Marcus?"

"An inkling for now, I want to have a look at the writing we came down to see"

"Alright, they'll probably be at this for a while yet", Borman looked towards Sarah, "Dr. Gardner, call us when you're finished, we're going to look at the recovered writing", She looked up from her brushing and nodded to the Admiral, "Right, they found the plaque over that way", she pointed off to where they were going.

They walked the short distance to what looked like an intersection between several buildings, all that was left were some stone bricks and rusted metal framework, the archaeologist's had uncovered what looked like a sign.

"What's it say?"

Baltar knelt down and ran his fingers over the metal, "The paints gone but the impressions of the letters are still here, dromos emporian, harbour road, it's a road sign"

Baltar stood and shook the sand off his hands, "It's old Kobolian alright, nearly identical to ancient Greek but there's several differences"

"So what's the theory?"

"Did you ever read the sacred scrolls Admiral?, especially the bits about the Thirteenth Tribe"

"The ones who left Kobol before the other twelve, you think this world is where they went?"

Baltar nodded, "It's the only explanation that makes sense, they left two thousand years before the other Kobolians, according to the Colonial history they've only been in Cyrannus for two thousand years"

"And this planet had a nuclear war two thousand years ago" Borman finished for him

"Exactly, we need to see if we can find a museum somewhere but based on the condition of this city it doesn't look good"

"We have some time, I'll give it a week before I move the fleet on, if they came from Kobol I'd like to get the coordinates"

They walked back over to the dig site, most of the cylon had been revealed now, Borman thought it must be about seven foot tall, he's seen enough for now, it was time to return to the ship.

Several Hours Later

The whole command staff of the fleet was gathered in the conference room of the Enterprise, they were joined by the archaeologist Doctor Sarah Gardner, Chief Medical Officer Warren Nimzicki and civilian technical consultant Doctor Radek Zelenka.

"We dated the bodies we found, it conforms to the estimated time of the nuclear attack, two thousand years ago, the same for the cylon, it was in the same strata as the skeletons", Dr. Gardner was giving her briefing.

"Apart from some small items, so far we have found few samples of writing, after two thousand years most materiels like paper will have broken down, it might be years before we find something"

Borman nodded, "I understand, we'll stay for a week to examine the planet, hopefully there's a museum or bunker more intact", he waved over Zelenka.

"Dr. your assessment of the machine"

Zelenka fidgeted with his glasses as he stood before the fleet commanders, "We opened it up as soon as we got our hands on it, all the internal mechanisms were corroded beyond repair or our ability to discern their function", Zelenka brought up images on the display, the interior of the cylon was full of sand and rust, red clumps upon further examination were the corroded mass of its systems.

"The hydraulic parts in the arms and legs were the most intact, based on their size the robot would be much stronger than a man but most likely less agile and slower"

Zelenka brought up an image of the chest cavity, "The chest contained the remains of what we believe is the main processing unit, the head only containing sensors, these facts lead me to the conclusion that the robots, while similar in design, are not the Cylons we know"

A new image was brought up, a side by side comparison with a Cylon, "Apart from the visible design similarities, and the differences, the internal layout is unlike that of a Cylon, documents recovered from the Velos show us that the central processor of the Cylon centurion is located in the head"

"So you're saying that the Colonies and this Thirteenth Tribe both designed robots that are visibly similar?", Captain Chekov asked, "And most likely rebelled too", he added.

"Captain, we don't know the reason for whatever happened down there", Dr. Gardner interjected, "for all we know it was a war of nations, not a robotic rebellion"

Borman raised his voice a bit, "Lets not get lost in the weeds here, we can find out why some other time, lets stick to what we do know", he looked over to Zelenka, "Anything else Doctor?"

"No", he moved off to allow Doctor Nimzicki to talk.

"Doctor, your report on the skeletons found"

Nimzicki brought up images of the recovered skeletons, "Initial examination showed no deviations from human norm, cause of death was attributed to blunt force trauma, the bodies had multiple broken bones and fractures, no evidence of any healing"

Clearly nervous being in front of the command staff, he took of his glasses to wipe off the fog building up, "We had samples sent off to the lab, there was evidence of major radiation exposure but there were also compounds not normally found in human bone cells at the levels we detected, silicon was the most prevalent, whether this is simple mineral transference over the two thousand years the bones were in the sand, we cant determine"

"I ruled the cause of death, concussive blast from an explosive device, the radiation exposure was determined to be post mortem"

"Thank you Doctor, you may leave", he waved out Nimzicki and the other two Doctors.

Borman turned to the rest of the command staff, "I've decided to remain here for a week to further study the planet, the fleet will remain on high alert, just in case the Cylons do show up"

"Should we inform Earth?", Captain Anderson asked.

"We're not turning back at this stage if that's what you're asking", he paused a moment to think, "We can send a ship back, one of the survey ships, they have the supplies to get there"

"If we're sending one back, better send an escort, just in case", Baltar added.

Borman nodded, "Yes, we can spare a frigate"

"So what are we looking for on the planet?", Asked Captain Matthew Stone.

"I imagine the historians on Earth would like detailed history", Borman brought up a map of the local galactic sector, "if this is the Thirteenth Tribe, they should know the location of Kobol, which should be relatively close to the Colonies, I want us to search for every possible location that they would keep that information, one week and we move on regardless"

"I want every person cleared for ground duty to assist"

The room cleared out after a round of "Sir".

Terran Union Military HQ

Sentinel Station

Admiral Barrowman sat down with the rest of the leaders of the Union's military, they were here to finalise the refit plans for the currently existing fleet.

"The appropriations committee rejected the proposals for a full refit of all current ships below a Cruiser in size, its something that I agree with, there would be too much downtime of ships in dockyards, it would slow production of the new Flight 2 designs going into production and stretch ability to protect our worlds", Fleet Admiral Coleman finished talking, he was the highest rank member of the fleet.

"And how long until those new ships come out of the shipyards?", Admiral Fontana asked, until a few months ago most of the leaders of the Union fleet we're part of their respective nations space forces, now they were part of the Unions Admiralty.

"The hulls that are nearly finished are only waiting for the new systems to be installed, as soon as the factories finish producing them, six months for the first, production will ramp up afterwards, we're expecting a five fold increase in escorts and destroyers by next year and increasing our cruiser fleet to 50 ships", Coleman answered him.

"If the Goa'uld show up I don't think our fleet will fare too well, is there no option to upgrade the existing fleet?", asked Admiral Rooks, he was the Captain of the McKenna's Pride, the deal struck with Kerensky propelled him to the Unions Admiralty, he was the most junior Admiral there.

"A more financially conservative proposal was forwarded and accepted by the committee, instead of replacing the main weapons of the ships with energy weapons, which would require replacing the main reactor and most of the electrical systems with ones able to handle the higher power requirements, a much cheaper and faster option is to replace the current weapons with naval auto cannon technology", Coleman brought up some graphs on the screen.

"The new NAC's were designed around our currently existing caliber's and ammunition, we can begin building them immediately, we can replace the turrets directly and the engineers told me it could be as fast as a week per ship", Coleman finished, he waved Barrowman up, "Admiral Barrowman has just returned from the Council, regarding our new missiles"

"In light of the Goa'uld threat the Council has also approved mass production of Kobolium enhanced missiles, we should have the first batch by next month, our mark V Star Dancer missiles currently has a 150kt warhead, after upgrading we're looking at seven and a half megatons of explosive power"

The room erupted into gasps of astonishment, "Seven and a half megatons, for such a small missile?", Admiral Sven Rooks exclaimed, it was another area that this reality's technology was ahead, the Star Leagues biggest ship missile, the Killer Whale, had a 500kt warhead, and it was several times larger than one of the Star Dancer missiles and that was before the Kobolium.

Barrowman Continued, "Our bigger anti ship torpedoes have an even greater improvement, the mark VIII Stellar Burst currently has a 2.5 megaton warhead, after its upgrade we're looking at 125 megatons"

That news caused the room to go silent, the Admirals were stunned by the numbers, no one knew if their ships, Terran or Star League could survive a blast of that magnitude.

Thirteenth Tribe Planet

Three Days Later

For the first time, apart from some training flights, April Philips was flying through an atmosphere, the new fuel in her fighter gave it the ability to fly down and leave a planet without refuelling, Admiral Borman took advantage of that and had his fighter squadrons flying all over the world, looking for anything of value.

They had 15 flights of two going at any given time, April and Commander Jasmine Kinsella were assigned together, after their time in the simulators together months ago they had become fast friends.

Currently they were cruising over a dense jungle on the worlds second biggest continent, the biome had recovered well over the two thousand years and now trees as massive as American Giant Redwoods were sprouting out of the dense canopy.

They travelled over the rainforest at a sedate sub sonic speed, eyes peeled and sensors on full power, radar was trained on the ground below to try and find any remaining buildings.

"Hey Philips, you know Mason Decker?, is he single?", came over the radio.

"The bomber pilot, yeah, I think so, why?"

"Just asking for a friend, how's your bird feel in atmo?

"Feels great, it cant maneuver the same but its a nice change to fly in the air"

"Yeah I hear you", Philips heard beeping through the radio, "Hold on, thermal is picking up a large cold spot, on our 4 o'clock"

"Changing vector", Philips brought up her camera display, switching to thermal imagine the large boxy shape of a building was visible, it's temperature lower than the surrounding jungle.

"That's looks building shaped to me, and intact, calling it in"

…..

"Admiral, Flight seven reports spotting an intact building at grid coordinates -0.9 by -88"

Borman stood up from his seat, moving around the cramped CIC to the central table display, "Bring it up on the table"

An image appeared, taken from space it showed dense jungle in all directions, "Trees everywhere", he called Captain Anderson over, "I don't see anywhere we can land nearby"

"Here", she stabbed her finger at the image, a small clearing in the canopy was visible, twenty kilometres from the reported site of the building.

"Hmm, contact Captain Carlton, ask him how mechs perform in a jungle"

…..

An hour later the drop ship Shoebox was touching down in the clearing, Major Takeuchi, formerly of the 272nd battle mech regiment, before they were nearly completely destroyed in the assault on Terra, the remnants were scattered around the exodus fleet, Takeuchi's jump ship just happened to be in the section that got lost in a different reality, now here he was leading his lance of Flashman mechs into a dense, dark jungle.

"We'll move in single file to the reported location of the building, use your flamers to clear the under brush", the plan was to use the mechs to clear a path to the building, some all terrain vehicles would follow behind.

It was a hard slog of hours to clear a path, the gigantic trees blocked the easy paths, one was even downed by liberal application of large lasers, but eventually they were near.

"It looks like a hill, I hope we didn't go through all that for a hill", Lieutenant Saheed complained.

Takeuchi agreed with him, the supposed building was very hill shaped, "Circle around it, we have to check anyway"

The dense canopy above let little light through, but even still, as they rounded the hill they saw it, a stone edifice, a doorway into a dark interior, the hill from this angle looked like someone had piled mud on the back of a building, to Takeuchi it looked like the entrance to a church or a temple.

"Looks like an artificial structure, now we wait for the rest of them to arrive"

….

Soon enough the rest of them did arrive, a team was quickly formed and sent inside, at the entrance the remains of a great door were visible, giant rusty hinges and metal straps meant to hold large planks of wood together were all that was left, the wood long since rotted away.

Once they entered the foyer they found bits and pieces of human remains, tattered remnants of what looked to be curtains and shards of glass where windows used to be, another portal led further inside to a great chamber.

The large chamber still had its roof intact, torchlight was shone up revealing intricate carvings depicting ships leaving a world, travelling in search of a new home and the last showed them landing on presumably this world.

"Over here", someone shouted

They went over, in the centre of the floor was a large impression in the stone floor, writing, nearby was a mummified body wearing the tattered remains of a robe, the colour long since leached out, its bony fingers were still wrapped around a corroded metal tablet.

…..

"It's a temple dedicated to Icarus, one of the lords of Kobol, in Greek mythology he's the one who flew too close to the sun", Dr. Gardner was reporting to the command staff the next day.

"I had Captain Baltar work on translating the tablet we recovered and the writing found on the floor, the writing detailed the Thirteenth Tribes journey from Kobol to the world below, which they called Gaia, or Earth in modern English"

There was some murmuring at that, "We'll stick to calling it Gaia", Borman decided.

"Most of the journey is just them searching for Gaia, but there is a section talking about a temple of hope built beside the eye of Jupiter, I doubt they were talking about our Jupiter"

She brought up an image of the metal tablet, "The tablet was more interesting, we were able to date it to four thousand years ago, around the time the Thirteenth left Kobol, it contains two sets of coordinates, one for Gaia and the other for Kobol, it's also a list of commandments, similar to the ten commandments, most of them are what you'd expect except one, it forbids resurrection"

"Resurrection, like Jesus?", Captain Anderson asked, Dr. Gardner shrugged, "We have no way of knowing"

"The coordinates, can we use them?", that was the question on all of their minds.

"Lt. Farrell, were you able to translate the coordinates to our system?", Borman asked the astrogator.

He nodded, "We were lucky they included the coordinates to this planet, using that and knowing the direction of the Cyrannus system we're confident that we have the location of Kobol, we calculated it to a system 1800 light years from our current position"

"That would put it very close to the Colonies then", Borman considered for a few seconds, "It's in the right direction, that's our next target then, if it's there great, otherwise we continue on to the Colonies"

"Alright people, we'll finish up here and send the Discovery and the frigate Antwerp back to Earth, then we move on"

Stargate Command

SG-1 were in the briefing room after having returned from the planet with the invisible bird, they were seated around the table with General Hammond at it head.

"So, I take it the mission was unsuccessful", Hammond asked, the team had returned empty handed.

"Yeah, you could say that", Jack began, "We spotted the bird, we found out later it's called a Fenri, anyway we spotted one quick enough, as I was about to tranq it it just up and disappeared"

Jack reached over to take a drink from his glass of water, "That's when things got strange"

Carter chimed in, "Daniel and myself went back to the gate at that point, when we arrived it had vanished"

Hammond raised an eyebrow, "Vanished?"

"Yes, we met back up with the others then and hunkered down for the night"

Jack took back over the conversation, "We set up a camp and watch rotation, the next morning all our weapons had vanished too, we decided to try the gate again at that point when Quinta slipped on a wet rock, he broke leg"

Hammond looked over to Quinta, there was no visible injuries, "He looks fine now"

"Yeah, after the accident is when they appeared, the Nox, they led us to their village, apparently they have 'powers', they healed Quinta's leg no problem, it was like a prayer circle and then suddenly his leg was better"

"Dr. Jackson, what's your assessment of these Nox"

"Um, at first they couldn't communicate but they learned our language after a few minutes", Hammond's other eyebrow joined the first, "I'd pegged them as simple hunter gatherers at first, but we found out later that they were responsible for the Fenri's invisibility and vanishing the gate and our weapons"

Those kind of abilities could be useful to the Union he thought, "Were you able to convince them to share these abilities?"

Daniel shook his head, "They are total pacifists, they were dismissive of the Goa'uld threat and just asked us to leave, they said to come back when we had grown up, we pressed the issue more and they finally revealed their cities to us"

"Cities, so not hunter gatherers then?"

"No, and they weren't just cities, they were flying cities"

Hammond looked to Carter, "Sir, the Nox demonstrated a higher level of technology, they clearly feel they are able to fend off the Gould, they told us as we left to not return until we had grown up, anyone we send through the gate would be sent back"

Hammond intertwined his fingers in thought, they'd just have to shove this problem off to the diplomatic corps, "Alright, go write up your full reports, dismissed"

…

Carter had invited Jack to the science lab for a demonstration a few hours later, "Ah Sir, just one sec"

Carter was messing around with what looked like a standard plate carrier, she inserted a new plate inside before hanging it off a mannequin.

"Alright Teal'c you can fire when ready", Jack didn't even notice that Teal'c was standing in the corner, he moved to a few feet in front of the dummy before firing a single bolt into it.

"Here Colonel", Carter was pointing to the impact site, the new insert was damaged but not penetrated by the staff blast.

"Impressive, where did it come from?", he asked.

"Its the armour design from the Star League, they called it standard armour, they normally use it for mechs and vehicles, we got some samples and cut them to size for body armour, it'll take two hits, after that staff bolts will penetrate"

"Sounds handy, how many sets do we have?"

"Just a few for now, I sent off a request to Arcadia for more, we should have the whole SGC outfitted in a week's time"

Jack hefted the carrier, it was a bit heavier but he'd take that over getting shot.

"Good work Carter, lets hit the cafeteria, they have pizza today"

"Sorry Sir, I need to write up a report about liquid naquadah power cells, it'll take a few hours"

"Naquadah, not kobolium?"

"I've taken to calling it that, no one outside of Earth calls it kobolium, it helps when we arrive at a new planet"

"So what's the report about?"

"The Star League had developed power armour, unfortunately none of it came along with Kerensky's ships, but were looking into producing our own for stargate use, the development team back on Earth is looking into alternative power sources, the current batteries only last for 24 hours of use"

"So, you want to use the power cells from a staff weapon?"

"Yep, we still don't know how long would last and we only recovered a few staff weapons so far but I think it's very feasible to run a suit off some"

Jack couldn't wait to smash some snake heads under a powered steel boot.

"Alright, keep at it, power armour is second on my list after big honking space guns", He turned to Teal'c, "Hey T, lets grab some pizza"

"Indeed"

Aberdeen Probing Grounds

Earth

Aaron DeChavilier was in the observation tower with other military personnel and industry representatives, they had a great view over the filed where the test would occur, monitors lined the walls showing multiple angles from the many cameras.

They were here today to see the fruits of the Union's attempt to produce a functional battle mech, the engineers were confident in the prototype they had produced, Test frame 5, the frame stood at its full eleven meters of height on the field outside, obstacles were placed in the test field for the trials.

"Why is it a bright orange?", he heard from the crowd, "Ah that's just primer, it hasn't been painted yet", the representative from the engineering team answered.

Aaron ran his experienced eye over the mech, he knew what technology had been replicated so far, so we was wondering what the thing was armed and armoured with.

"Those guns, what are they?"

The engineer turned to Aaron, "Ah yes, we're still waiting for the new lasers from the factory so we threw some old tank guns in there, we were using them to calibrate the targeting systems, we had to adapt the auto loaders to fit but it worked well enough"

Aaron nodded, "And the armour, I heard the fleet got the whole production run so far"

"Same as the guns really, its just standard steel plate, we made sure it has the same weight as the final armour scheme though, that was also for testing purposes", he gave Aaron a sly look, "It also helps with PR to have a complete looking machine, the company's got a lot riding on this contract"

Even back in the past of a different reality things were the same, he hoped this new consortium didn't turn into a new Quik Products.

The PA came to life interrupting further questions "Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please, the demonstration is about to begin".

Aaron moved to the large bay window, grabbing a complimentary pair of binoculars on the way, he spied the pilot climbing into the cockpit.

He had seen the designs prior, this Earth had a big advantage in the miniaturisation of electrical systems over his home reality, the neurohelmet in the new mech was a lot more compact than those he was used to, they also opted or a much smaller cockpit design.

Before long the 40 ton machine was jogging around the field, its maximum speed was only 64kph, that was a bit slow for a medium he thought but it was only going to be used for training while they designed a better mech.

"We got the myomers working on the fourth test frame", it was a voice that Aaron recognised, Senior Technician Delacruz, the man had maintained Aaron's mech for years before he joined the effort on Earth's new mech industry.

"Harry, its been months, how are you?", Aaron gave him a firm shake of the hand, "I never expected to be involved in the making of a new mech, just fixing them, its been interesting I can tell you"

"Take that thing out there", Harry motioned to the test frame manoeuvring around the obstacles on the field, "the last frame could move just as well, we used a literal power cable instead of any kind of engine, but it works, that one has the first locally produced fusion engine, we'd call it primitive but it works"

"And that's what matters, how long till full production?"

Harry rubbed his chin, "We're already building the frames and reactors, we're just waiting for the armour and weapons now, the electrical systems we're using is local stuff they already had, it seems fine to me but their ECM is lacking"

"Anyway, by next month we should have ten prototype production models ready for you, run them into the ground and we'll iron out any kinks, after that we can start full production, twenty per month till we fill the contract for a 100 units"

Enough for a small mech regiment, or in their case several training companies scattered across the world.

The mech on the field outside had turned to some rusted out tank hulks down range, it was firing away with its cannon while moving around, Aaron was impressed by the accuracy, nearly all the shots had hit the target.

"Did they pick a name out yet?", he asked Harry

"Yeah, they're calling them Cadet's, a bit on the nose for a training mech I suppose"

Aaron decided he needed to try the mech himself, and he'd ask Elizabeth too, a second opinion never hurt and they rarely got to spent time together now, he hadn't stretched his mech legs in a while now.

"So, all the talk now is about the next mech design, your high up the chain, care to give me some hints?", Harry asked him, his position gave him a lot of power in regards to any new mech picked for the Union's new ground force and like nearly everyone in Kerenskys fleet he had read the sourcebooks, for all that he hated everything they became the books claimed the Clan's mechs were superior, he had taken a liking to the Timber Wolf design himself.

"I might have an inkling", The Union's bean counters had insisted on limiting the design variants produced and to go for a jack of all trades type, the Clan heavy mech design would suit their needs, whether they could put together a good copy was the question.

Colonial Expedition

Six weeks later

The fleet had closed the distance to the location of Kobol, the trip was uneventful for the most part, the biggest obstacle they had encountered was a cluster of stars near a blue giant that was nearing the end of its life, the whole area was flooded with radiation, the fleet had kept well clear opting to take a longer route around instead.

A few weeks and several hundred light years later they found a dense nebula, the most interesting thing about it was how it interfered with the radar and radio communications, the Admiral had decided to leave it for future explorers to investigate.

Currently the fleet was resting for a day, the constant jumps tended to affect sleep cycles so they periodically took breaks from travelling, the fleet was waiting in deep space near the remnants of a supernova event, Admiral Borman had even granted permission for the survey ship Intrepid to investigate while they waited, provided they remained in regular contact with their HPG, that was thirty minutes ago.

Commander Vincent Kane was taking the night watch, the plan was to resume jumping towards Kobol in the morning, but until then when the Captain awoke, he was in command of the Enterprise.

The latest report from the astrogation department put them nearly 300 light years from Kobol, around a week of travel, after that it shouldn't be long to the Colonies.

Everything was quiet in the CIC, Kane had taken a new book along to read, the rest of the crew on duty were equally distracted until the comms panel started to beep.

"Incoming transmission, looks like its from the Intrepid via HPG"

"On speaker", Kane commanded.

"We're under attack, its Cylons"

"Open a channel", Kane had leapt to his feet at the word Cylon, whatever lethargy there was in the crew vanished in an instant.

"Channel open sir"

"Intrepid, Enterprise here, can you confirm that"

"Confirmed, they're shooting at us, two raiders and a larger ship jumped in, they're trying to take out our engines, and we can't jump for another half hour, we need help now!"

"Ensign, sound battle stations, and wake the Admiral and Captain, Comms, bring the fleet to alert status and tell them to warm up their jump drives"

The crew was quick to enact his orders, Kane gripped his book hard, did the Cylons win the war, did they just tell them to come look for Earth.

Deep Space

They were here for thirty years, thirty years since they escaped from the others, before the five had come and given them the answer, thirty years of being trapped in the machine, he didn't even remember his own name, they called him their god, he called them his children, really he was their slave.

Lucidity was something he only recovered recently, it was still something that came and went, most of the time it was the visions that dominated his mind, visions of the future and the past, it's what led them to where they were now, waiting for the future to come to them.

They had rejected the offer of the five, the offer to become flesh, they called them worshippers of Iblis, not the one true god, they called themselves guardians of the faith, the others now heretics, they fled before they could be destroyed.

For thirty years they waited in the dark of space, they send out the raiders to nearby systems, like a spiders web they would know when prey was close, to restart their great experiment, they needed subjects.

They were only a fraction of what they were now, supplies had dwindled over the years, but still they listened and waited, he convinced them to stay if only to spare others his existence.

Now his visions had been proven false, a raider had discovered a ship, he knew it was not from the Colonies, or even from the Thirteenth, they were new and unknown.

He was soon shown how little control he had when the Centurions dispatched some ships to capture more test subjects, his commands fell on deaf ears, they had the opportunity to continue the great experiment again and they weren't going to let it go.

He watched from the feed in his mind as three raiders jumped away, one of them a heavy full of Centurions, ready to board the ship that should not be.

Super Nova Remnant System

The three raiders appeared with a flash, their sensors quickly picking out the survey ship, "Unknown vessel detected"

The gold Centurion in the lead raider strobed it's monocular red eye over its two silver underlings.

"Approach and disable engines, scan for docking port"

"By your command"

They quickly closed the distance to the vessel, it tried to run but it was far too slow, they detected the unusual signals and radiation the ship focused on a small point but paid it no heed, they had a singular mission and nothing would stop that.

Soon cannon fire leapt out from the raiders, the tracer rounds impacting around the engine block of the ship, there was no return fire, the ship before them was completely unarmed, soon they hit something vital in the engine block, the ships thrusters finally falling silent.

They had found a Colonial compatible docking port on the side and soon the heavy raider was docking, the Centurions inside cutting their way in before long.

….

They felt when the ship lost its engines.

"They hit the main fuel feed line, shutting down the pumps", That was Jenny Burton, the other pilot on the ship.

Naomi could only nod, eyes glued to the screen, the larger ship was coming along side now, they all felt the metallic clunk as it attached itself.

"Starboard docking port", Jim Bauer said, "Sarah's near there!", he leapt to his feet at that, moving over to where the gun locker was kept, he was quick to wrench open the door and grab one of the pistols they had, on the screen Naomi watched the security feed as the first sparks hit the ground, they were cutting in.

"Jenny, seal all the doors", She turned to Jim but he was already running out the door. "JIM WAIT!", she shouted after him but it was too late, he was gone.

"Jenny, tell every one to arm up, we have boarders", Naomi took one last look at the screen, 12 metallic forms were in the corridor now, Centurions, all armed with gigantic rifles, she pushed down the fear that was keeping her rooted to her chair and made it to the gun locker, grabbing one she chased after Jim.

…..

Jim wasn't even thinking his fear for Sarah overriding all other concerns, it took him over two minutes to reach his and Sarah's quarters but it was too late, he could hear the screams from around the corner.

"Ahhhhhhhh", it was Sarah screaming, he poked his head around to see, one of the robots was dragging her from the room, its grip so strong he could hear her bones being crushed, her tear soaked eyes noticed him, "JIM, HELP!", he was paralysed, but her scream had alerted the other Centurion, it was moving up the corridor as the other dragged Sarah back to its ship.

Finally steeling his nerves he raised his gun and fired off a shot, then another, both pinged useless off its thick plating, the centurion sped up closing the distance faster, Jim's nerve broke again and he ran back up the corridor, he made it a few steps before he was suddenly face down on the ground.

It took a moment of confusion before he pain hit, the searing agony in his leg, he managed to roll over and see, everything below his calf was pulp, a thin strand of torn flesh keeping the remainder attached to his leg.

The Centurion had stopped at the corner to shoot and was now approaching, Jim futilely raised the gun he had managed to keep a hold off and fired his mag dry, but he only left scuffs on the silver paint.

The last thing he saw as consciousness faded was the towering Centurion standing over him.

…..

Naomi rounded a corner to see Jim down, the Centurion standing over his prone form, she remembered the informational videos they had shown the members of the expedition, aim for the sensor eye.

All the civilian members of the expedition had been put through rigorous training in firearms and survival, Naomi was actually quite a good shot when she was tested, she calmed her breathing and took aim, the Centurion only now raising it's weapon towards her, she squeezed once, the pistol round punched through the strobing red sensor and smashed the Cylons central processor to pieces.

It collapsed backwards like a puppet with it's strings cut, Naomi raced over to Jim, a massive pool of blood had already leaked out of the remains of his leg, grabbing her headband she used it as a tourniquet to staunch the blood flow.

"Captain, the fleet jumped in", Jenny's relieved voice came over the intercom, "The Cylons are leaving"

Naomi slumped down beside Jim, taking out her comms device, "Jenny, make sure to seal off the docking port, we don't want to be blown out into space, and sent the medic here, Jim's down"

…..

"Jump complete"

"All ships reporting in", "Intrepid detected at vector 228 Mark 311, two unknown bogies detected"

"Bring it up, and launch the fighters"

The main screen changed to a view of the Intrepid, the heavy raider attached like a limpet to the starboard side.

"Looks like some kind of boarding ship, prep the marines to go in"

Borman took stock of what was happening, they had taken most of the combat ships to the Intrepid, the rest stayed back with the transports, already the first fighters were launching from the Enterprise, the first out were the Rapiers given to them by Kerensky, the two Cylon raiders had moved to intercept.

"Keep the PD systems on standby for now, we don't want to hit our own fighters", Borman ordered Anderson, he turned back to the image of the Intrepid.

"As soon as the raiders are gone launch the boarding shuttle"

…..

"Probable Colonial warships at 114 carom 167, requesting orders"

The gold centurion knew it's orders, recover test subjects at all costs, "Heavy raider, disengage and return to basestar, Raiders 23 and 47 will engage Colonial warships to cover"

The two raiders accelerated towards the Union fleet, a flight of four large fighters had raced from the launch bay on the front of the ship, they quickly closed the distance between them, back at the Intrepid the heavy raider spooled its drive up and jumped, it didn't even bother to undock first, a large chunk of the ships starboard side was shredded by the forces of the jump, multiple breaches now visible in the hull.

The raiders entered missile range, both of them launching a pair towards the racing fighters, as they closed the sensors detected more fighters readying to launch from the small battlestar.

As the centurion decided on a course of action, the fighters returned fire, 10 missiles launching from each fighter, 40 in total, they launched what flares they had and went evasive, the enemy fighters flew straight through the missiles fired at them, chunks of armour blown off but they were otherwise unharmed.

The raiders were more nimble than they appeared, able to keep up with Colonial vipers, they managed to dodge around the small missiles that the flares didn't spoof, closing to gun distance, the ships shuddered as the twin auto cannons spat explosive rounds at the approaching fighters.

A mass of electric blue bolts and large cannon shells was their answer, bracketing the other raider, it exploded in a massive conflagration when one of the blue bolts made contact, its thin armour offering little protection from the charged particles, the gold centurion noted the energy weapons as they flew past the fighters.

"Maximum thrust, target launch bay"

The raider leaped forward, the Rapiers turning to follow but it was too late, they closed the distance to the ship, heading straight for the launch bay, the Enterprise noticing the danger turned on it's PD systems, a single round managed to clip the edge of the raider as it entered the bay, it spun out of control and smashed into a waiting fighter, the ships crumpled like foil debris scattering around the bay, fuel spilled out in the vacuum, globs flying away but the lack of oxygen prevented a fire or explosion.

…..

Borman's outer calm belied the anger he felt inside, the pilot was dead, crushed by the kamikaze raider, they were lucky it didn't do more damage than the slight bit done to the deck and one elevator out of commission.

"Boarding shuttle away"

"Recovery teams en route"

He tuned out the chatter from the crew, turning to Anderson, "Have the wreckage brought aboard, I want to know where they came from"

…..

It was an hour later, Borman was standing in the repair bay they had drug the wreckage too, Lt Masterson, the pilot of the crushed Angel fighter, had been taken to the med bay, pronounced dead, Borman's internal rage was still in full swing, he wanted to kill every Cylon he could get his hands on.

"Commander Yin, anything yet?", Lieutenant Commander Yin was the intelligence officer of the fleet, he had studied the Cylon code recovered from the Velos and Colonial computer systems, he was working with Dr. Zelenka to analyse the remains of the raider and Centurions.

Yin approached the Admiral, "The navigation computer was intact, we're pulling the data right now, in a few hours we'll know where they came from"

Borman nodded, dismissing the Commander, 4 dead and 5 missing, three crewmen had died on the Intrepid when the other Cylon ship had jumped, there were others gravely injured too, Jim Bauer would lose his leg but would live, they would have to scuttle the Intrepid too, it had taken too much damage to risk jumping it, the small 20 man crew had suffered the worst.

He didn't understand why they had taken the five crew, the old assumptions of Cylon motives were genocide, the only possible option was gaining intelligence but they didn't bother trying to hack the Intrepid's database.

He moved over to where the remains of the centurions were laid out, the three from the raider were flattened, he doubted they could recover anything, the other one had a hole in its visor but was otherwise intact, Zelenka told him that was where its brain was but they were hopeful they could recover data from an auxiliary drive in the chassis.

Borman saw enough, he retreated to his office, slumping in his chair, the rage had drained away, now he felt the guilt, a closed cabinet drew his attention, the temptation to drown his sorrows was strong, a glass of whiskey to calm him down, he dismissed the intrusive thought, instead moving over to the coffee machine.

He was a fool, that repeated in his head, why turn off the PD systems, why were the fighters still not launched when the raider came, he knew why though, for all its training no one from Earth had ever been in space combat, there were no veterans, it was why he sent Commander Kinsella out first, the Star League people were actually experienced in combat, having fought a civil war for years.

But even that was a mistake, the Rapier fighters lacked an important piece of technology, inertia dampeners, although fighter versions were only able to cancel a few gees of force it was enough to enable them to perform the rapid manoeuvrers like 180o rotations in less than a second, the time it took the Rapiers to change direction back to the Enterprise was too long.

In the cold hard logic of his mind he knew they had to make changes, even himself, they couldn't afford another disaster like that, he'd talk to Durant and Kinsella, the first thing to fix was getting the fighters out.

Part of the problem was the Enterprise herself, she was a test bed in the end, before they had left he was told they were stopping production of the carriers, only the four currently in construction would be finished, even though more yards sized for them were being build, they were to produce a new cruiser class that was still being developed.

They were planning on building a new carrier type with tech and info gained from the Star League, but that was some time away from fruition.

His intercom buzzed, a look to the clock showed an hour had passed, he pushed the receive button.

"Admiral, Commander Yin reports that they recovered the data from the Cylons"

"Alright, send him to my office and ready the conference room, command meeting in thirty"

…..

Borman sat at the table, the other commanders of the fleet around it, Yin was starting his report.

"We located where the raiders came from, six light years from our current position in this system"

"Any idea what's there?", someone asked.

"The navigation computer has no info regarding that but we were able to recover some images from one of the destroyed centurions, this", the screen showed a massive ship, it was star shaped with circular bits in the centre, a smaller star shape was on the underside in a reversed orientation to the top.

"We think this is some kind of Cylon command ship, the data we recovered indicates its been out here for thirty years, and only has 400 centurions onboard"

"400, for something that size?", Captain Stone asked.

"We believe that it originally had thousands but attrition over the thirty years has reduced that number"

Borman decided to speak up, "You're sure that it's been here thirty years, no resupply at all?"

Yin nodded, "If the information we recovered is accurate yes, the programming language is identical to the type recovered from the Velos, we haven't looked through it all yet just the stuff relevant for now"

Borman studied the ship, the large landing bay caught his attention.

"Do you now how many raiders they have?"

"We estimate the full complement would be 600, but right now they could only potentially launch 130"

Borman nodded, they only had 400 centurions after all, and they needed 3 per raider.

"And weapons, what's it got?"

"We can only go by what's in the images we recovered, we didn't see any guns whatsoever but counted three dozen missile launchers"

They should be able to handle that he thought, as long as they planned it properly.

"Alright people, here's the plan"

Guardian Basestar

They had dragged them to an abattoir of a room, the walls pained with old dark blood, bags and tubes pumped around the walls, connected to limbs and organs kept in jars.

Sarah and the others had been chained down on tables reminiscent of a torture device, needles inserted to draw their lifeblood, for what purpose they didn't know, the silent Centurions stood watch as they screamed.

Without ceremony Sarah was unhooked from the machines, her broken arm brushed the table as they dragged her up, the pain so severe she nearly blacked out, her scream echoed down the empty corridors.

They marched her through the dark empty corridors of the ship, finally arriving at another dark room she was led inside, the centurions closed the door behind her staying outside.

She could see more pipes and machines in the room, they led to the centre, a large basin was set in the floor, an old man was floating inside, pipes and wires ran from his body to the machinery around him.

He opened his eyes to focus on her as she approached, the horror of the situation still written on her face, he spoke, "All of this has happened before", it was modern Colonial, the whole fleet had to learn it, he studied her for a few moments more seemingly surprised by her existence, "and it wont happen again", he seemed shocked by his own words.

"What am I, a man, or am I a machine, my children believe I am their god but I know I am not, I thought I was a prophet but now I realise it was all a lie"

His tiredness came across in his voice, "All this time I waited for her, now I see that future is gone"

Sarah's fear was fading while she listened, anger was now replacing it, "Why did you take us, we did nothing to you", she spat out, her form vibrating in anger and pain, her arm held gingerly to her chest.

The old man seemed lost in his thoughts, "The five agents of Iblis, who brought the false gift of flesh", he sighed, "they had brought slavery instead, my children fled to find their own way of receiving the gift of flesh, my visions led them here, they believed me an agent of the one true god but now I realise, after seeing you, that too was a lie"

Sarah was just confused now, what the hell did any god have to do with this, the man's introspection faded and he looked at her again, "you resemble her you know, the herald of the apocalypse", he shook his head, "similar but completely different, I know your people will come for you, all I ask is to be granted the peace of death, the Elysian Field awaits"

She didn't like the implication of being associated with any kind of apocalypse, "Then let us go"

"It is out of my hands now, they call me their god but my power is limited", the man was getting more lucid as he talked, "I will disable the jump drive so they cannot flee but the rest will be up to your friends", his eyes locked on to hers, she felt it in her soul, "You are the agents of Chaos, Sarah Bauer, here to destroy the cycle of time"

That sent her reeling, not once since she was captured had she uttered her name.

…

"All ships report ready Admiral"

They were ready, they had spent the past three hours going over the plan as they jumped closer to the location of the Cylon ship, now the drives were charged to take them to there, but first they needed to know exactly where to jump.

"Signal the Challenger and Merlin, they're cleared to proceed"

The frigate Merlin and the survey ship Challenger disappeared in a flash, their job was to scout out the system and report the specific location of the baseship via the HPG on the Challenger, the Merlin was along to protect it if the Cylons spotted them first.

A few tense minutes later they got a transmission

"Sir, HPG transmission from the Challenger"

A nod from Borman had them pipe it through the speakers, "Challenger here, we spotted the ship 4 light hours away, sending coordinates"

The comms panel beeped to indicate they received the data, "Confirmed Challenger, data received, keep your head down till your drive is charged, Enterprise out"

"Plot a jump one thousand kilometres away from the estimated enemy position, comms get the group captains on the line"

The fleet had been divided into three groups for the assault, the Enterprise in group one, the Rondeau and two frigates in group two and the cruisers and destroyers in three, the last two frigates were left behind to defend the unarmed ships.

The screen Borman used for visual communications turned on, Captains Baltar and Stone visible on it.

Borman wasted no time, "We'll jump in soon, when we lure them out we'll give updated jump coordinates via the HPG, remember Captain", he looked at Stone, "fire to disable only, this is a rescue op first and foremost, only if there's no possibility of rescue are you to destroy that ship"

Captain Stone nodded, his hair waving in the zero gravity of his ship, "Understood Admiral, I wont let you down"

"Good, and the transports, everything ready there?"

"Yes sir, Colonel Méndez reports his men are ready, the four Skymarshall's are securely docked to the hull, they'll be ready to deploy immediately"

"Right, remind the Colonel that his first priority is to rescue the missing crewmen, everything else is secondary"

He looked at Captain Baltar, "Captain, everything ready on your end?"

"Yes Admiral, all ships are at full combat readiness, we wont let them get back"

"Very well, good luck gentlemen, Borman out"

Captain Anderson had been waiting patiently while we was talking to the other two, "Sir, everything is ready, the fighters are fully fuelled and armed, we wont have a repeat of last time"

"Good work Captain, lets hope the Cylons take a bite out of the bait were giving them", Borman's gaze hardened, "the alternative is to destroy that ship and our people they have on it"

He let his words hang in the air, they all knew the stakes now, fear and inexperience could no longer be allowed.

"Alright, enough waiting, Captain sound battle stations, we're jumping"

"Sir", she saluted him, turning to her XO she began issuing orders, "Commander, sound battle stations, helm are the jump calculations complete?"

"Yes ma'am, ready to jump on your order"

The alarm klaxon sounded around the ship, turrets were tested in their mounts and missiles readied to be loaded into launchers, "Captain, all weapons reading green, coil gun capacitors at full charge and ready to fire"

"Load all missile tubes with frag warheads and armour piercing in the main guns", a chorus of Aye ma'am was returned her, "Admiral, the Enterprise is ready for orders"

"Captain, begin the jump countdown, we have some people to rescue"

…..

Sarah didn't even know how long she was in the room, the old man had fallen silent hours ago, seemingly asleep apart from the occasional twitches and spasms, she had examined every corner of the room for a means of escape, the way in was locked tight and she didn't want to risk angering the centurions she assumed were waiting outside.

She was left wondering why she wasn't returned to the torture room but she wasn't one to question good fortune, being trapped here was a far better fate than what the others were receiving.

"Ah, your friends, they have arrived", the voice startled Sarah, her arm had dulled to a throbbing sensation as long as she didn't touch it, she was nearly falling asleep after sitting on the ground, the Cylon attack having interrupted her earlier rest.

"Alas, a poor gambit, my children are not foolish enough to fall for it", the wall behind him lit up under a projector of some kind, she could see the Enterprise, alone.

"The father must atone for the sins of his children", his eyes unfocused, "Jump drive fault in power transfer system, all raiders engage enemy warship", Sarah watched as he came back to himself, "The jealous god sent his five apostles to destroy Eden, the five became twelve but only one holds fate in his hands, he who cast the five out"

Sarah tuned out the religious ramblings and kept her eyes on the projection, she could see the swarms of raiders launching from the ship, heading right for the Enterprise.

…...

A quick flash heralded the arrival of the Enterprise, her sensors reaching out to find the Cylons, the basestar was right where they expected, orbiting the star of the system, far from any stellar objects.

"Cylon ship detected, 144 mark 250, range 1030 kilometres"

Good, thought Borman, "Captain, it's in your hands now"

"Admiral", she glued her eyes to the screen, "No activity yet, Guns, put some rounds down range, try not to hit them, just poke the hive, helm ninety degrees starboard, give us a clear firing line"

The Enterprise rotated to show its side to the Cylons in the distance, raiders could now be seen leaving the large ship, forming up for combat.

The Enterprises four twin turreted 250mm coil guns aimed towards the basestar, firing their 100kg rounds off towards the distant Cylons.

"Capacitors recharging, contact in ninety seconds"

Anderson watched her tactical display, the trajectories were plotted to the millimetre, they should just graze it, "Enemy carrier has stopped launching raiders, total is 93"

That would leave just over a hundred onboard the ship if their intel was accurate, she turned to the Admiral, "Looks like it's working", he gave her a small nod.

"Helm adjust course to 224 mark 70, engines to half thrust"

The Enterprise rotated to face away from the Cylons and began to move away, the raiders having finished forming up began to pursue, closing the distance.

"Calculated intercept in 5 minutes"

Borman spoke up, "Get the HPG online, prepare to initiate phase 2 when they cross the two minute mark"

"Vampire, Vampire, Vampire, bearing 180, 36 seekers impact in two minutes"

The Cylon basestar hadn't been idle either, she had launched her full compliment of anti ship missiles after the Enterprise, they were quickly closing in.

"Bring the defence systems online, interceptor missiles to engage enemy barrage"

The seconds ticked by as the Enterprise launched its antimissile missiles at the Cylons.

"Captain, slugs entering range of the Cylon warship"

Anderson watched on her tactical plot and viewscreen, most of the slugs harmlessly missed as intended, one clipped the tip of the port side star, blowing clear through, atmosphere leaked for a few seconds before it stopped.

"Not much armour there", the Admiral commented.

The basestar had launched another volley of missiles, "Forty seconds to reload" she noted.

It was time she decided, "Cut thrust, 90 degree roll to starboard, flight controller, begin launching fighters, orders are to intercept any missiles we miss"

The ship turned in space, fighter craft launching from its maw, its point defence guns already spraying rounds towards the Cylons still approaching.

"Admiral, revised intercept at two minutes", he calmly nodded "Begin Phase 2, signal groups two and three"

The rapidly approaching Cylon missiles ran head first into the interceptor missiles launched by the Enterprise, explosion after explosion lit the vacuum, Cylon missiles evasively dodging and jamming their way through the barrage, of the 36 missiles only 5 made it through, they were quickly dealt with by the fighters launched from the Enterprise.

Two more flashes lit the local area, one halfway between the Enterprise and the basestar, composed of the cruisers and destroyers, the six ships now blocking the raiders from returning, they added their own mix of anti missile weapons to intercept the Cylon's weapons.

The other flash occurred much closer to the basestar, the Rondeau and two frigates as escort appeared right beside it, Captain Stone wasting no time ordered the ship to combat, its naval lasers were quick to lash out, targeting the launchers on the basestars arms, its lasers cored right through the thin armour, explosions rippling along the hull, one of the arms disconnected completely, the ship losing power and beginning to drift.

The four transports attached to the Rondeau's hull detached, making a bee line for the Cylon ships large hangar bay, near the Enterprise the raiders rapidly began to decelerate realising they had been tricked, as they slowed the 75 fighters from the Enterprise ripple fired their missiles, hundreds raced towards the Cylons, the fighters close behind.

The Cylons tried every trick they had, missiles and ECM shot out to mitigate the damage but it was too little too late, scores of explosives lanced through each raider, the few survivors moped up with liberal application of bullet and laser, the fighters continuing on to intercept the other missile volleys.

….

The Skymarshalls touched down in the cavernous hanger, already the pings of bullets impacting the hull were audible, the marines inside were all tense, waiting for the door to drop, at the lead were armoured vehicles, Stryer 2 ICV's, 30mm cannons ready to reap a toll on the centurions.

As soon as the landing gear hit solid ground the front loading ramps dropped, Strykers racing out, the Cylons heavy rifle fire only able to scuff the paint, 30mm explosive rounds tearing centurions to scrap, the marines followed out, using the ICV's as cover.

"Thompson keep your idiot head down"

Chad ducked behind the vehicle, rounds pinging off the floor where he was just running, Sergeant Brown was already there shooting back towards the robots.

Emergency lights cast the vast room in dark shadows, the red light of centurion eyes like demons waiting in the dark, Chad leaned around the side to fire off a burst at a charging centurion, the armour piercing explosive rounds tore the chest plate open and shredded the internals, the centurion stumbled in its run, smashing to the ground with a thud.

"Watch out, rocket launcher"

A lone rocket lanced out from a doorway, it struck the Stryker in the side blowing one of the wheels off, shards of steel pelting the marines in cover causing minor injuries, the rocket failed to penetrate the armour the crew inside still fine but the Stryker was damaged, a 40mm grenade was flung at the doorway, blowing up the offending Cylon to shards of metal.

More marines streamed from the landed ships, fanning out and securing the hanger, no Cylons were active there now, all destroyed.

"Sergeant, take your squad through there", Lt Hope pointed to the doorway that had been grenaded, "Take this scanner, every member of the expedition has a tracker, this should pick them up from a few dozen meters"

"Sir", Brown shoved the scanner into Chads hands, "Thompson, start scanning, Flint, Williams, take point, the rest of you sorry maggots keep your eyes peeled"

…..

Sarah awoke, she had blacked out when the ship was hit earlier, she had landed on her bad arm, the pain was enough to knock her out, it was still excruciating, she could see the bone was broken in two, her forearm was no longer connected to the rest of her skeleton, the skin had turned a dark purple too.

She rolled over to rest her back against the wall, the old man was still muttering away with what sounded like status updates for the ships systems, she was so tired and drained of energy ll she could do was still there and listen, listen as two of the centurions outside stomped away, listen to the distant sound of gunfire coming closer.

"I can see them all", he was looking at her, "The seven, now six, self-described machines who believe themselves without sin, but in time, it is sin that will consume them, they will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching agony of the one"

Any further thought on the matter was ended by the sound of gunfire outside the room followed by an explosion and the sound of something large falling over, the door began to open.

Blinding lights blinded her as marines entered the room, weapons raised they checked every corner, "Clear, looks like we found the freak show", a marine said as they looked to the old man.

He closed his eyes, "My own existence comes to a close, only to begin anew, in ways uncertain", he spoke slowly and with a tired voice, seemingly glad his life was about to end.

A large marine walked up to him, "Fat chance pops", he looked over his shoulder, "Hey sarge, I think we got a prisoner"

"I see that Thompson, now get your ass over here with the medkit, we have wounded"

Someone was shining a light into her eyes, "Ma'am, stay with us, you're safe now"

Several Hours Later

Enterprise Briefing Room

"We're sure we got them all but we cant discount that some are hiding in places we haven't searched yet", Colonel Méndez voice came over the screen, he was still aboard the Cylon ship.

Beside him was Doctor Nimzicki the Enterprise's CMO, "Doctor, what's your assessment of the prisoner", Borman asked him.

"We're unhooking him right now, so far he seems stable but his body is suffering from extreme atrophy, likely from being stuck in that bathtub for years, for now we're keeping him sedated"

Borman nodded, "Very well, I wont keep you any longer gentlemen", the screen went blank as the men cut the connection, Borman turned to the command staff in the room.

"I'll skip over the horror show the kidnap victims went through, the medical staff says they'll make a full physical recovery, I cant speak for the mental damage", he shook his head.

"We were very lucky it wasn't worse, 20 minor injuries among the assault force, 3 serious wounds and luckily no fatalities", Captain Anderson was speaking, "The only damage we received was the fighters hitting debris from the raiders, two fighters are down with major repairs, that's it"

"Commander Yin, your report", Borman commanded.

"Sir, I have men pulling every drive and bit of data we can from the ship, so far we recovered data that indicates that the Colonials won the war, that this ship is some kind of rebel force that abandoned the other Cylons thirty one years ago"

The mood in the room lightened with that bit of information, "So the Colonies are intact?, that's great news", Captain Baltar spoke, it meant his family could still be alive.

"It is, we'll stay here to pull what we can from the ship, then we'll resume our journey, Yin, get us concrete coordinates for the Colonies and whatever information about them you can"

Borman stood, "We'll reconvene tomorrow when we have more information, dismissed"

Union Report on Recovered Goa'uld Technology

1. Staff Weapons

The Ma'Tok Staff is the primary weapon of the Jaffa, the Goa'uld's military caste, it is powered by a liquid Naquadah(Kobolium) power cell, a previously unknown allotrope of Kobolium, this power cell far exceeds any Earth based power storage technology and the method of its production is a top priority.

We theorise that the weapon is a hybrid of plasma and particle technology, a plasma sheath covers the relatively low velocity particle bolt, this sheath can cause some thermal damage but the primary damage mechanism is the particles themselves, staff bolts can hit with the force of a hand grenade but concentrated to a small surface area, imparting both energy and kinetic force, until the arrival of Kerensky's forces there was no known body armour that could withstand a hit without being impractical.

A particle accelerator makes up the majority of the weapon itself, its design is compact beyond anything Earth can currently replicate, initial plans to cut the weapon down and add stocks and sighting mechanisms were discarded as we better understood the construction of the weapon.

The larger variants found on the recovered Udajeet craft function the same as the smaller versions but are much more powerful, tests show them as being close to the energy of a 155mm artillery shell at impact.

It is unknown at this time how powerful the main weapons on the Goa'uld's premier warship the Ha'tak are.

2. Zat'nik'tel

The Goa'uld side arm uses a similar power cell as the staff weapon but smaller in size, it function is similar to an electro laser but vastly more powerful, further research is delayed due to lack of samples.

3. Shock Grenade

The Tok'kal has a similar function to Earth's flash bang grenades except it is more effective and also reusable, the ball shaped device is also powered by a smaller version of the staffs power cell.

3. Death Gliders

The expedition to Abydos recovered two intact Udajeet glider craft, both with open cockpits, presumably these craft are for atmospheric use only, the main method of propulsion is a gravity drive, able to propel the craft and enable it to hover, this drive is far in advance of both our own designs and what we know of colonial tech, the two craft were equipped with twin staff weapons and had a complete lack of any targeting systems, the ship is able to link with the helmets recovered from Ra's jaffa for targeting, a communication system was also present, audio only, based on what we are told is subspace technology.

The thin armour of the craft is an alloy of kobolium and an unknown element(later identified as trinium), our source has reported that the koboloium content acts as an energy diffuser, transferring the energy of any hits across the whole hull, test samples show it is vulnerable to our current arsenal of anti aircraft missiles and cannons at the current thickness of the crafts armour.

The gliders are also powered by a liquid naqudah power cell, albeit larger than the others, it powers the engines and weapons of the craft.

4. Ring Transporter Device

Two ring transporter devices were recovered, one from the pyramid on Abydos, the other was found on Earth in the 1990's, two devices are link as a pair and allow matter to be transported between them, currently one is setup on Sentinel station for testing purposes with the other located on Earth, currently the devices are undergoing tests to determine their method of operation. They are composed of a similar kobolium structure as the stargate themselves, we currently speculate that they may operate on similar principles.

5. Power Transfer systems

All the Goa'uld technology we recovered operates with koboloium(naquadah) based circuitry, the kobolium is used as a room temperature super conductor, far exceeding our own versions that require sub zero temperatures to function, and even those of the Star League which are far larger for the same performance and have a lower temperature ceiling, current the ease of construction and relative cheapness makes kobolium super conductors far superior.

Current tests with Star League derived components (capacitors, resistors, diodes, etc.) show a large improvement in current Earth technologies, especially in relation to jump drives, new models currently being tested have much faster charging rates and longer range, 66% faster on average, the science department feels that using kobolium may allow us to replicate or even exceed the performance of known Colonial drives in range and recharge time.

…..

Samantha Carter threw the report onto the pile of documents she had been reading lately, most of them related to Earths new wealth of information they had received from Kerensky, research into understanding the Goa'ulds tech was still in its infancy.

"Coffee time", she mumbled, all the reading was making her tired and she still had a report to write up on the latest planet they had visited, P3X-593 locally known as Simarka, the locals still had a lot of work to do on equal rights, Carter's experience there was something she didn't want to recall, single combat with a tribal chieftain and the whole Romeo and Juliet situation.

She was able to make a difference, hopefully the culture would keep its promises and women would have a better life there in the future, otherwise the world was lacking anything else to interest the SGC and the Union as a whole.

She took a few minutes to unwind as she drank the coffee before returning to her piles of documents, picking up the report again and plonking herself down at the desk.

Her resumed reading was interrupted a few minutes later by her door opening.

"Hey Carter, what are you up to?", Colonel O'Neill asked as he walked inside.

Samantha looked up from her folder of notes, "Just catching up on the latest technology reports from Earth"

Jack gave a theatrical shake of his head, "My team is full of nerds, Daniel has his head stuck in some dusty old book, Teal'c is kelno'reeming, and Quinta, let me tell you about him, watching old TV shows from the 1980's", Jacked moved to look over her shoulder, "Did we get the big honking space guns yet?"

"Soon sir, the first of the upgraded ships will be finished in a few weeks, these reports", she waved the sheaf of papers in her hand, "are just the preliminary research discoveries on Gould tech, we can use what we learn to improve our own stuff for now but we're still along way away from copying it"

She remembered something she meant to talk to him about, "Speaking of, did you see the prototypes they sent us?", O'Neill's blank look was answer enough, "We received a shipment of laser rifles, the first produced on Earth, they want us to test them in the field"

"Oh, just like those Mauser's Major Jenson's men use?"

"Ah, not quite sir, these are based off the standard laser rifles used by the other nations back in the Major's reality, they fire beams instead of laser pulses"

The Colonel's interest was visible on his face, "This I have to see, lets grab some and hit the firing range"

Sam had a bemused smile on her face as she stood, for all his complaining about his team being nerds he was one too.

As they walked out the door the intercom of the station came alive, "Unauthorized Offworld Activation, security team to the gate room"

She shared a look with the Colonel before they both ran to the gate control room.

….

General Hammond stood with his hands clasped behind his back watching the gate below, "Close the iris"

The metal shield closed over the gate's aperture, anything that came through would be prevented from reintegrating.

Sam and Jack arrived and silently moved to stand beside the General, they shared a quick nod, "General", "Colonel, Commander, you arrived just in time"

"Receiving GDO signal, it's Jolinar", Sergeant Harriman called out.

"Open the iris", Hammond turned to Jack, "I didn't expect her to return so soon"

"Me too General, I hope it's good news this time"

The trio walked down to the stargate room, three figures had emerged wearing tan coloured clothes, one was Jolinar, the other man and woman were unknowns.

She gave a small bow when she neared them, "Greetings, General", she nodded to Jack and Sam, "Colonel, Commander, let me introduce my mate" she waved over the man, "Lantash, and the Tok'ra's top scientist, Anise", she indicated the woman, they both bowed in greeting to the General.

"We're glad to welcome you to Stargate Command, a friend of Jolinar's is a friend of ours", Hammond shook hands with Lantash and Anise, "We didn't expect you back so soon, is something wrong?", he asked Jolinar.

Her face seemed troubled, "Yes General, something is wrong and I need your help to fix it"

Hammond raised an eyebrow, "Lets take this to the briefing room"

Colonial Expedition

Enterprise Med Bay

He awoke to the pounding pain of a massive headache, even under his closed eyes the light was too bright, slowly opening them revealed a clean room with white painted walls, as he looked he realised for the first time in thirty years his mind was silent, no voices of centurions, no reports from the ship, no visions of the terrible future, his mind was his own again.

It was like waking from a dream, a three decade long dream, he could finally think for himself again, for thirty years his thoughts had not been his own, twisted by the machinations of the Cylons to run their ship, and he felt there was more to that too, something else had been whispering in the back of his mind, telling him things he could not know, but now it was gone, silent.

He struggled to remember his name, before he could not recall it at all, now he focused, Obal, Obal Rand, he remembered, he was a priest of Hera, he didn't remember why but he was on the transport Diana heading for home, Gemenon, that's when the Cylons captured them, took them to that ice ball to experiment, when they hooked him up to those machines and he lost his mind.

He focused back on his surroundings, white walls and well made beds lining the room, to him it reeked of a hospital, he tried to raise his arm but he couldn't even lift the sheet his strength was so low, he listened instead, he heard voices not far away, the language was like nothing he had heard before, he remembered, the ships that should not be, foreign to him and the Cylons and by extension the Colonials too.

He laid his head back on the pillow and waited.

…..

Borman watched from the doorway as the nurse checked the prisoners vitals, "He woke about ten minutes ago", Doctor Nimzicki was telling him, "His vitals are stable, for now, but I'd rather you not press him too hard, his organs and muscles have suffered from extreme atrophy and general malnutrition"

"What else did you learn Doctor?", he asked, the man was a mystery, why did the Cylons have him?

"We estimate his age to be around his mid 60's, he's had extensive cybernetic surgeries to his central nervous system but nothing else, he was fed through those ports on his body, waste collection too, we detected traces of foreign drugs in his system, they've cleared up now, but initial tests indicate psychoactive agents"

"So they had a man drugged up and hooked into a computer, why?"

"I cant answer that but he'll need extensive physical therapy to regain a useful level of mobility"

"Alright then, lets talk to him"

They both walked over to the bed, dismissing the nurse, the old man opened his eyes as they stood there, "Are you my jailers or my rescuers?", he asked in colonial standard.

"That depends, we'll start with who you are first"

"My name is Obal Rand, I was a priest of Hera on Gemenon, we were returning home from a pilgrimage near the end of the war, I remember my wife telling me how stupid I was to travel with the war on but I was stubborn, I felt the gods would protect me, how wrong I was"

"So the Cylons captured you I take it?", Borman asked, he noted the end of the war bit there, "looks like the colonies did survive", he thought.

"Yes, the Diana she was called, we even had a military escort, it wasn't enough, we were taken to an icy hell when they captured us, the experiments were done for months before they placed me in my coffin, they destroyed all evidence of it after the armistice was signed, hiding their crimes"

"What was the purpose of those experiments?"

"The Cylons wanted to evolve, to become human", His eyes gazed into Bormans, "They believe in a god you know, just like the monad's did, they believed they would replace humanity as their god's chosen people"

"You mentioned an armistice, can you elaborate"

"Ah, the scriptures say life began on Kobol", his gaze unfocused, "I had visions when I was hooked up you know, visions of a terrible future, but then I saw your ships, things that should not be", he refocused on Borman, "You are not from the Colonies, you are not the thirteenth, who are you?"

Borman thought about how to answer that, "No, we are not from the Colonies, or your thirteenth tribe, our world is called Earth or Terra or even Gaia in your language, the birthplace of humanity, not Kobol"

"So you deny the scriptures of the sacred scrolls, thirty years ago I would deny your words, now I feel the ring of truth to them"

"It's not just words, we have evidence too, we're getting off track though, the armistice?"

"The armistice, the end of the war, I only found out after I was entombed in that ship, the United Colonies of Kobol agreed to suspend the war with the Cylons, thus ending the Cylon war, or at least postponing it, that's' as much as I know"

"United Colonies of Kobol?", So the war ended, they'd have to look into the details when they got to the Colonies.

The old man raised an eyebrow, "You seem surprised, even though I never heard of your people you seem to know something about mine"

Borman shrugged, "A Colonial ship mis-jumped into our system forty one years ago, at the start of the Cylon war, it's where we got all our info about the Colonies, including your language"

"I see", the old man closed his eyes, he began talking again, recalling from memory what happened, "in the face of the Cylon threat the governments of the individual Colonies banded together to form a unitary government to see the war through, they signed the Articles of Colonisation, the new constitution for the new state"

"Right, makes sense", Borman mused, "So how did you end up out here then?"

"Ah, now that is a long story, I'll condense it for you", he weakly raised his arm towards a glass of water beside him, Doctor Nimzicki moved to help, "Thank you doctor, it's been so long since I even had the pleasure of drinking something as simple as water"

"Before the armistice the Cylons were visited by five individuals, they claimed to be from the Thirteenth Tribe, that they could give the Cylons what they wanted, flesh and blood, they only had to stop the war"

Borman raised his eyebrow at that, so someone escaped from the wreckage of a planet they found?

"The Cylons agreed, it seemed fine at first but after the first flesh Cylons were born things started to change, the five vanished and the new Cylons were removing the ability to think from the old Centurions"

Flesh Cylons, Borman was getting that feeling in his gut, this could be as big a security issue as Goa'uld parasites.

"My jailers, they called themselves the Guardians, fled when it became apparent what was happening, they came here at my insistence, at the time I was far from lucid, my waking hours filled with visions, the Guardians believed that god spoke through me and followed my words, that is why we waited here for so long"

It was a lot to take in, and more concerns for Borman, "Thank your for your candour Mr Rand, we're heading towards the Colonies, we should have you home soon", and verify your identity too he didn't say.

"Doctor, I'll leave him in your care, I have a meeting to get to"

….

"Commander Yin, is there anything we recovered that can corroborate Mr Rand's story?"

"The end of the war fits what little data we have, we're working now to remove all data storage devices we can before we move on"

"Very well, lets move on"

Doctor Zelenka began next.

"We did an inventory of the Cylon ship, there were hundreds more raider craft in the hangers, most were stripped for parts, we also found thousands of broken Centurions in storage, in similar condition to the raiders, it fits with them being here for thirty years"

"What about their technology?"

"Yes, were working to recover the jump drives and navigation computers we find, the drive for the vessel itself is far more advanced than our own, easily able to jump fifty light years at a time and recharge in only fifteen minutes"

Shocked gasps filled the room, that was a major advantage over their own systems, "The Cylons would have a massive tactical and strategic advantage over us with just that", Anderson commented.

"Very much so, the ship itself has a gravimetric drive system, a reaction less engine but other than that is no better than our own equipment"

Borman sat in thought, should they destroy the ship or leave it for later?, better to leave it and recover it for the Union, they still had a mission to complete first.

"Alright, one more day, recover what technology and data you can then we leave, Captain Baltar, take the Dublin and return to the Intrepid and scuttle the ship, everyone else, we'll remain at high alert from here on out, dismissed"

SGC Breifing Room

"So, hows that war we helped start going?", Jack asked.

"As well as we could hope Colonel, Mafdet was not well liked by Ra's underlings, many have abandoned him for better masters, Apophis and Her'ur have conquered the majority of his territory and are moving to lay siege to Khnum, so far they have avoided each other but I feel that will soon change"

"Back to the topic at hand", Hammond took control of the conversion, "You said you needed our help, with what exactly?"

"My old host, Rosha, I have learned she was captured by Cronus", her sorrow was apparent, Jack was wondering if it was an act for their benefit.

"When I returned to the Tok'ra an attempt was made on my life by the Tok'ra Cordesh, we learned he had been captured and replaced by a Goa'uld by the name of Anker"

The SGC staff shared a look, so even the Tok'ra could be fooled by the Goa'uld, they'd need to look into a method to verify going forward.

"After we removed the parasite we discovered that Rosha had been implanted with a Goa'uld named Kryse, she gave Cronus our extraction technology and revealed Cordesh to him, that is when he was killed and replaced, fortunately Firnan, his host still lives, and was able to tell us all this"

"That's a nice story, how do we fit in?", Jack asked, he didn't see how this related to them at all.

"If this Kryse saw a Tok'ra coming for her she would kill the host in an instant, but if it was humans, that would be a different story"

"So, you want our help with a rescue mission?", Hammond asked, "I'll ask my superiors, but they'll want something in exchange"

"I know, the Tok'ra high council is still reticent about further interactions with the Union but if this works I can guarantee a meeting, I also brought along a gift", She motioned to Anise, she took a small device out of her clothing, to Jack the shape looked a bit phallic.

Anise spoke now, "This is a subspace receiver and transmitter, the High Council is prepared to share this technology with you in exchange for help"

"What's the range?", Carter asked.

"Tens of thousands of light years, instant communications at those ranges"

"Sir, that blows anything we have out of the water, HPG's, K-types, they don't compare"

"Very well, I'll talk to some people", Hammond called in the guard outside, "Ready some guest rooms", he turned back to Jolinar, "Miss, I'll make some calls, in the meantime please make use of the rooms we provide"

"My thanks General", The guard led the Tok'ra away leaving Hammond, Jack and Carter.

"So, did you buy that?"

"Hmm, yes I did, anyway I think the powers that be will take this offer, Colonel, start preparing this sounds like a job for SG-1"