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.

12. Chapter 12

Stargate Command

Several Days Later

26th July 2065

It was another weird week at the SGC, after the whole Pangar situation was solved another problem occurred, this time to SG-2, the planet he had sent them to instead of SG-1 had still been inhabited, the gate was seemingly located inside some kind of facility, a still powered facility, but their radio messages had gone unanswered.

Hammond had decided to send SG-2 anyway, the opportunity to acquire advanced technology was always a priority of Stargate Command, and this looked like a promising candidate.

In a way it was, SG-2 had returned hours later, except now no longer the people they once were, apparently a man, Harlan, had turned them into machines, Harlan too was such a machine.

Union policy was clear in such a situation, they would not tolerate any kind of attack like this, so Hammond had sent the heavy combat SG teams back to the world, now known as Altair, they had forced Harlan at gunpoint to fix the situation.

Hammond walked into the briefing room as he reminisced, they had found out exactly what had happened, Harlan had copied SG-2's memories into the android bodies, SG-2 was still unharmed but now the question of what to do with the robotic copies arose.

They were unable to leave the planet for extended periods of time, reliant on the power from the planet to sustain them, the Council had decided to occupy the planet for the foreseeable future to research methods to solve the issue, Harlan was unharmed but in Union custody for the duration.

There was some technology recovered, mostly in relation to robotics, teams were already on site researching the facility, in a way Harlan got his wish, the facility was getting more maintenance now than for a long time.

Hammond moved to stand at the head of the table, today, hopefully, would be a good one, they were about to make contact with one of the advanced civilisations in the galaxy, Hammond watched as SG-1 files into the room, they were doing one last briefing before they left to contact the Aschen.

"Right, lets begin", Hammond sat down at the head of the table as SG-1 took the empty seats at the side.

"We still don't know much about the Aschen, only what Joilnar can remember from her short time on one of their planets, I'll let her explain"

Jolinar nodded to Hammond, "Several years ago while I was hiding from the ashrak, I made my way to a planet named Volia, it's people were simple farmers, the natives that is, the ones who ruled there were a different story"

Seeing she had everyone attention she continued, internally she sighed, the Terrans already read the reports she had written, "The planet was under the control of a polity called the Aschen confederation, from my talk with a local I learned they had arrived during some kind of plague on the planet and offered a cure, the Volians joined their confederation soon after"

"Just like that eh?", Colonel O'Neill mused, "Must have been some plague"

"That is what I learned, the Aschen themselves operated large flying craft on the world, harvesting the crops there, they also shared advanced anti ageing drugs with the Volians and turned a planet in their system into a second star, a gas giant I believe"

"They must be advanced to be able to do that?", Doctor Jackson asked.

Jolinar smirked, "A large enough naquadah explosive would suffice, the Aschen appeared to have some form of gravity technology too, they could use it to increase the density of a gas giant until it ignited, I imagine your technology will soon be able to achieve similar results"

"And the drug you mentioned, what did it do?"

"Increased human lifespan to two centuries"

"The Star League treatment reduces old age infirmity but it only adds a decade or two to life expectancy, that Aschen drug sounds superior, I wonder what else they have?", Command Carter added.

"Thats what you'll be finding out", Hammond spoke, "There is one other issue though", he turned to Jolinar, "You said before that you had concerns about the Aschen?"

She nodded back, "Yes, I only talked to a small amount of them, but they seemed almost emotionless, I had a feeling that something was untoward on that world"

"Can you elaborate more?"

Jolinar shook her head, "The story of how the Aschen came to Volia felt wrong somehow, I didn't have time to investigate further", She sank into thought for a moment, "One last thing, there is no DHD on the world"

"Oh, how did you leave then?", Hammond asked, curious.

"Luck mostly, General, the Aschen use the gate to transport the crops of the Volians back to their world, they keep it powered for that purpose, I was fortunate at the time to still be in possession of a Kara'kesh, it allowed me to dial out"

"Right, we'll send a probe first and try to establish contact, if all goes well SG-1 will proceed through the gate, if you are successful in establishing relations with the Aschen Ambassador Faxon is on standby to begin negotiations"

"You can count on us General", O'Neill said, clapping his hand on Teal'c's shoulder, "Indeed O'Neill, we have had many successful first contacts"

"There's a lot of political pressure behind this Colonel, if this is successful the Council plans on reaching out to the Hebridians, it is unfortunate that their worlds are on the far side of the galaxy from us though, and they lack a stargate as well"

"A wise precaution on their part, the Goa'uld have no issues sending weapons through the gate", Jolinar looked through the large window into the embarkation room, "I shall endeavour to find addresses near their space"

"Thank you", Hammond looked to the clock on the wall, "Alright, you leave in one hour, good luck"

Cylon Colony

Two Days Later

Leoben was awoke from his contemplation's by a knocking on the door, it soon slid open to reveal the form of Six, it seemed like he was spending a lot of time in her company lately.

"It's back", she said, holding up a data drive, "None of the other models know anything"

"Good, until we know what's happening it's better that way", he stood up from his kneeling position on the floor, and moved over to the bio-gel interface Six was inserting the drive in.

It had taken her a few days to arrange the deployment of the raider without any of the others getting wise, something that Cavil was able to do with a snap of his fingers, he really did control everything.

They soon connected to the cyberspace and accessed the drive, things were not the same as the last time.

"They're gone?", was her exclamation when the data had loaded.

The basestar that was in the data recovered from Cavils room was nowhere to be found, "Yes, but the battlestar is still present"

It was the only thing there now, he could see the damage to the ship, from time or other reasons, but it was extensive, it's back was broken, the ship was in two parts held together only by the external hangar bays, and even they looked to be on their last legs.

"I've been doing some research, regarding our missing materials"

She nodded for him to continue.

"Along with the missing first war baseships and raiders, several jump drives we had in storage have vanished too, Cavil must have taken them to repair that ship"

"It makes sense but why would he do that, what did he find on that ship that caused him to abandon everything?"

Leoben had been thinking the same thing, Cavil had no reason to do the things he had, unless the Colonials were telling the truth, his sources in the Colonial military had no idea they were sending data to the Cylons but it painted a disturbing picture.

"The Colonial president wasn't entirely truthful about those aliens the Goa'uld, my informants direct from the Colonial military had a few things to add"

"Such as?"

"The aliens are parasites, things that infest and control human bodies, it's possible they could also infect a bio-cylon in a similar fashion"

Six sighed, "You think Cavil was infected then?, he found one on that ship?"

"I don't know but it fits with his actions lately, we'll need to check the Centurions too, there's a chance they were compromised by him"

Six nodded and removed herself from the bio interface, Leoben joined her back in his room, "We have to tell the other models but we have no evidence, the threes and eights should be easy enough to convince but the ones, fours and fives are another story"

"There's only one place we can get proof Six"

"The battlestar", She squared her shoulders, "Alright, give me an hour and we can see for ourselves"

Union Parliament Building

Council Chambers

There was a congratulatory mood in the council chambers today, things seemed to be going in the Unions favour lately.

The finalised trade deal and mutual defence treaty had been signed with the Colonials and now the with Pangarans the birth of a true alliance against the Goa'uld had begun.

"Our experts believe it might take years to get the Pangarans up to a useful level but they can be trained to operate our equipment in useful time frames", one of the Councillors was talking as Kerensky entered the room, he didn't always attend but had been on Earth visiting Aaron and his new wife, Elizabeth, he also took a keen look at the mechwarrior training program they were running.

"It'll take time to develop their economy to support a post industrial society, we have already written up some military aid packages, they just need approval from the parliament", another answered.

He had seen those plans, they would help the Pangarans to adjust to modern warfare, a far cry from the pre world war one tactics they currently employed, it also suited the Unions member nations, they had stockpiles of old equipment to dispose of.

Still, it would be useless against any serious attempt by the Goa'uld to attack Pangar, old tanks and guns were no good against orbital supremacy, he did understand the plan to build them up slowly, trainer jets had already been packed up and shipped to Pangar, along with trainers, once they were ready the Union would sell them space capable equipment.

"Has Heliopolis been finalised as the location for the new alliance meeting place?", another asked.

"Are we not having it here on Earth?", Kerensky asked, he assumed it would be here.

"No, although it would have suited us best", as a power play Kerensky knew, "Access to a stargate is necessary and ours is out at Pluto, we have chosen Heliopolis as the site instead, we know it was the site for a previous interstellar alliance of sorts, it was felt that fact added sufficient gravitas", the first Councillor spoke.

Kerensky nodded, "It stops diplomats from clogging up the gate and Heliopolis is close enough that ships can get there in hours now, makes sense"

"Exactly, we're even expanding the HPG network there to allow better communications in the future, construction of the buildings has already begun"

They were moving fast on this, he wasn't surprised, the Goa'uld were that much of a threat.

"Lets move on", the Chairman spoke, "We just received a report regarding shield technology development"

Everyone in the room focused on the Chairman, Kerensky included, "The team involved have made some advancements, they report being able to generate small fields able to repel small arms fire, they expect that larger prototype models will soon enter testing phases"

Kerensky had been keeping an eye on shield technology development, ever since Stargate Command had recovered the two devices from an old Goa'uld planet, at first the engineers had been stumped, but the help from the Tok'ra had enabled some breakthroughs.

"Good, how soon until we have it on our ships?", a councillor asked.

"Months at a minimum and even then they will be far from effective against the Goa'uld, but we're getting there", the Chairman replied.

"We're also making great strides in replicating the subspace communications technology, last month the team involved managed to transmit a message over one hundred light years, impressive on its own but the biggest reward will be FTL sensor technology", another councillor added.

"Did the Goa'uld shuttle have those?", Kerensky asked.

The Chairman nodded, "Yes, were doing our best but it is still stuck on the far side of the galaxy, our research is slowed by the necessity of not dismantling anything on it"

The Chairman reached for a glass of water and took a sip, "We're making great strides gentlemen, but alone it is not enough, until we are secure from a Gou'ald attack our best defence is still secrecy"

Unknown System

Near Cylon Space

A flash heralded the arrival of the heavy raider, onboard were Leoben and Six, they quickly set to scanning the area for any signs of Cavil.

"Nothing, just that hulk there", Six commented, she was connected to the ships sensors.

"I expected as much, we'll do a few flybys then try to find a spot to land", they had acquired some Colonial space suits for this endeavour.

The heavy raider moved over to the cold and silent hulk in the system, the remains of the battlestar Pegasus, external spotlight burst into life, the beams playing over the torn and pitted hull of the colossal ship.

"Those look like burn marks and molten metal, some king of high heat weapon?", Six panned the camera over one of the many damaged parts of the hull, "Didn't the colonial president say the Goa'uld had some king of energy weapons?"

"He did", Leobens own eyes traced over the hull, the ship had been through the ringer, he wondered what battles it had fought.

The raider flew around to face the entrance of the flight deck, the total darkness inside was pierced by the beams of light from the ship, dark silhouettes of destroyed machinery was all he could see.

"There's a clear spot there", he indicated a space slightly inside the ship clear of debris, "Get your suit on, I'll land the ship"

The ship gently touched down on the derelict, a rumbling vibration was felt as the two ships contacted each other, the Pegasus groaning in protest, it's fragile structure still held though.

A few minutes later the ramp descended and two modern centurions stomped down, their magnetised feet clinging to the cold metal of the deck, a quick check for threats and the two organic Cylons followed, handheld torched illuminating the darkness around them.

Leoben played the light over the walls, there was damage here too, a large tear in the ceiling allowed the stars to shine inside and shards of metal and stone floated around the bay, he spied what looked like viper launch tubes lining one of the walls, the remains of what looked like a Colonial viper were jammed into the opening.

"That looks like a viper", he said as he walked over gingerly, his magnetic boots keeping him firmly attached to the ground.

Six and one of the Centurions followed, the other remaining with the heavy raider, once closer he took a good look at the ship, "It even has the same paint job as a mark II, but the design is more square", He mused, he tried to look into the cockpit and nearly jumped out of his skin when the arm floated up.

"Frack", the closed transparent canopy was frosted with ice, a detached arm was serenely floating around the enclosed space, the outline of a human shape was still strapped into the seat.

"Must have died trying to launch", Six commented from the other side, her light revealed the skeletal remains inside the ship, "There's still air in it too, otherwise they'd be frozen and not a skeleton"

"We need samples", Leoben waved her away from the ship, "The centurion can open that canopy and grab one of the bones, I want to know how long they've been here"

"Right, let the one guarding the raider handle that, we have a ship to explore"

The two Cylons looked for an opening leading into the interior of the ship, they found one on the opposite wall from the launch tube, they were taking a risk exploring the wreck but they had a resurrection ship close enough if the worst happened.

Inside was a mess, collapsed corridors and floating debris clogged up the passages, they had to leave the Centurion behind to proceed through the narrow spaces, it was here the first bodies were found, some crushed, others still grasping their throats as they died from asphyxiation.

Leoben was examining one of the half crushed corpses, it had been trapped by a collapsing wall that had crushed its lower body, he imagined it was a slow death, "The uniform is completely different than the Colonial fleet, tan clothes and a brown jacket"

Six nodded, "I saw some others wearing all black with gold accents, different ranks perhaps?"

"Something like that", Leoben griped the corpses hand, the man was frozen solid from the coldness of space, a simple application of pressure caused a finger to snap off, silent in the airless corridor.

"Why did you do that?", Six asked, she was both appalled and curious.

"For testing, the bones of the other one will only reveal so much, this is still flesh"

An hour of climbing later and they thought they had found the CIC, unfortunately they were completely wrong, "Whoever built this they don't follow Colonial design, who doesn't put the command centre in the most protected bit of the ship", Six vented as they crawled through more narrow debris filled corridors, they eventually managed to get past the major damage and into a clear section.

"Thank frack, I'm sick of crawling through that stuff", Six stood in the mostly intact corridor, she pointed to a wall, "Look, directions"

Leoben followed her finger, on the wall in clear ancient Kobolian was a simple layout of the ship, he moved over and traced his fingers around the diagram, "The command centre is at the front"

"Good, and it looks like the way there is clear too", Six waved to the still intact corridor, they resumed their trek through the derelict, again passing those that died in it's last battle, Leoben spotted a familiar shape on one of the floating corpses as they passed.

He raised his hand and stopped the slowly spinning body, at the waist was a holster, he removed the pistol and released the corpse, he held the gun up to eye level and examined it.

"What's that", Six had stopped ahead of him and looked back, he placed the weapon into the backpack we was carrying, "One of their weapons, we can examine it closer later"

They resumed their walking and soon arrived at the command centre, the room was spacious enough and the crew still manned their stations, those that were strapped in at least, the raised dais at the back of the room seemed to be where the commander sat, thought Leoben.

An old man with the same brown jacket he had seen earlier was still seated at the console, his shoulders were decorated with golden leaves, the commander Leoben assumed, his eyes were still open, frozen gazing out the windows at the front.

Grey screened dead monitors were built into the command console, Leoben noted they seemed primitive compared to modern colonial equivalents, a keyboard finished the station out.

"The commander?", Six approached from her wanderings at the lower sections of the command centre, to Leoben it felt like the frozen cold dead eyes followed him around as he moved, he shivered like someone walked over his grave, even in death the man had a presence.

"Looks like it, did you find anything?", he asked her and moved away from the body, the whole raised section was on a turntable he noticed when he got to the bottom.

"Just the controls, it looks primitive too, these screens are old tube types, the Colonials stopped using them before they rediscovered space flight"

Leoben nodded, he lifted his finger to a console, the frost covered remains of a computer terminal still intact after all the time the ship had been here, "Lets check that computer"

A few minutes spent digging around in the guts of the machine revealed an old magnetic storage drive, "Ancient Kobolian alright, this tech is ancient"

"Do you think this is a ship from Kobol, from before the exodus?", Leoben asked as he stuffed the drive into his bag.

"It's the only sane explanation isn't it?", she answered quietly, it still didn't explain the baseship that used to be outside, Leoben shrugged, "Sure, lets go with that, anyway I think were done here, lets get out before something bad happens", he could still feel those cold dead eyes following his every move, he wanted to get out.

The return journey was fast enough, they had grabbed a few floating trinkets on the way back but otherwise it was uneventful, once back on the raider Leoben finally felt himself relax, he nodded to Six, "Can you pilot, I want to get started on analysing these things", he nodded over to the recovered body parts and items.

"Sure", The heavy raider lifted off and slowly exited the hangar bay, she put some distance from the ship and stopped, unstrapping herself, she turned to Leoben in the back and wandered over to him.

He was busy loading a sample into a machine he had brought along, "Carbon dating", he muttered as his eyes went to a microscope.

The machine worked quickly, he examined the results, "Five thousand years, that's how long those bones were in that viper"

"How accurate is it?"

"Accurate enough", he sat down on the basic chair in the raider, "Pre exodus by three thousand years, it's even before the thirteenth split off, they must be Kobolians then"

"Did you check the disk drive?", Leoben shook his head, "No, I'll need special equipment for that, it'll have to wait till were back at the Colony"

Six ordered one of the centurions to take over piloting as she sat on the other chair, "I've been thinking, now that Cavil is gone, no one really wants to push through with his plan any more", she went silent watching him, he nodded for her to continue.

"Armistice day is coming up soon"

Leoben closed his eyes in thought, his thinking had been far clearer lately, now that god had abandoned the Cylons, it was like a fog had been lifted, there was no reason to go near the Colonials like Cavil had wanted, they were content to leave the Cylons alone so why was he so adamant they must destroy them?

"You want to send someone to meet the ambassador?", he finally spoke, the Cylons knew the Colonials had sent someone there every year since the armistice was signed.

She nodded, "We cant just jump in ans say hello, they'd blow the frack out of any ship that tried that, but the station, we can open a proper dialogue there"

"Alright, say I agree, what about the other models?"

Six shrugged, "I can get the eights and three to agree, that's a majority, we don't need a consensus to go ahead with this"

Leoben smiled, although god had left them he still felt destiny call him to the Colonies, there was someone there waiting for him, he was sure, "Fine, we can try"

She slapped his leg and stood, "Good, lets head back then, I want to know what's on that drive"

In a cheery mood Six ordered the Centurion to plot a jump back to the Colony, her smile vanished when the ship appeared in the middle of a war zone.

Stargate Command

Hammond sat in his office going over the latest reports, taking a break for a moment he looked to the photograph of his granddaughters, his fervent wish was for the galaxy to be safe to ensure their future, a future free from the predations of the Goa'uld.

He leaned back in his chair, things had being going well swimmingly to Colonel O'Neill, translated it meant something was fishy on Volia, they had returned and grabbed ambassador Faxon, apparently it took some time for the Volians to warm up enough to introduce them to the Aschen, they were still mostly in the dark about them though.

Then the offers had come through, the Aschen were offering weapons and technology, even a place in their confederation, not that the Union was ever going to take that offer, Faxon had wanted something to show the good faith of the Union to the Aschen, the Council had agreed, so he had ten gate addresses, all to uninhabitable worlds on the far side of the galaxy from Earth, just in case.

That was a few hours ago, but things weren't so rosy, Doctor Jackson had uncovered some unsettling information regarding the Aschen and their interactions with the Volians, an industrial society of millions was now an agrarian society of thousands, he had told the Council as much but they still wanted to proceed with the negotiations.

He hoped SG-1 would uncover whatever had happened, he hoped it was simply overblown and nothing of consequence, they needed all the allies they could get against the Goa'uld.

His musings were interrupted by the alarms going off, he was quick to rush to the operations room, "Unscheduled off world activation", Harriman called out, "It's Volia"

Hammond watched as SG-1 flew through the open wormhole, rolling down the embarkation ramp, O'Neill shouting out to close the iris.

Hammond hit the large button and the iris slid shut, a loud thump followed, he moved over to the microphone, "Just what in the hell happened Colonel and where's the ambassador?"

O'Neill had a grim face, "The Aschen have him, they tried to launch a bioweapon through the gate"

Hammond paled, it was a good thing the gate was on a space station, "Why?"

"We found out that the Aschen had sterilised the Volian population two hundred years ago, its why there are so few today, things escalated after we confronted them about it, that's when they tried to launch their weapon, the Ambassador was captured while we were escaping", Doctor Jackson explained what had happened.

Hammond still slightly stunned spoke, "Alright, head to the medbay, I want a full check-up, meanwhile I need to contact the council"

Union Council Chambers

Chairman of the Union Council James Royce watched the discussions of their new technology with interest, things had advanced far in only one year, a lot of it thanks to General Kerensky, his eyes moved to the old man, still hale and hearty despite his advanced age, the Star League medicine was certainly effective, effective enough that James had gotten the shot too.

"General", he began, "How is you project on Abydos proceeding?"

Kerensky nodded, "Major Zavech has had some success decoding the jaffa genome, the team has identified the mechanism the Goa'uld use to ensue the jaffa's death once they remove a symbiote"

"How exactly do they do so?"

"We thought that the jaffa were without an immune system but that did not explain why they degrade so quickly after the symbiote was removed, it turns out that they do but one that has been programmed to attack the body"

Royce nodded, "Like an auto immune disorder?"

"Yes, the symbiote suppresses this broken system but once it is gone the body is assaulted on every level, death is quick"

"Hmm, is the good Major able to remove these deficiencies from the DNA?"

Kerensky shrugged, "He claims he can, it will be a short step from there to making our own enhanced soldiers, lacking the control mechanisms of the jaffa"

"Good", Royce would be getting that once it was ready, increased lifespan and strength was not something he'd pass.

A loud knock was heard on the door then, a functionary entering and whispering to Royce, his face went stony as he was told what had occurred, the other Councillor's watching in interest.

"It would seem that our negotiations with the Aschen have fallen through", An understatement if there was one, "They have tried to launch a bio weapon through the gate"

Several minutes of uproar and explanations later and things had calmed down, the faces around the table wore various shades of anger, no one was happy right now.

"We need to respond", the Chinese Councillor Wei finally broke the silence.

The others had a mixed reaction, Royce himself was beyond furious but kept his expression in check, Kerensky however seemed like he was planning something.

"We cant tolerate another nation using bio weapons against us, advanced or not, especially a human nation"

"They tried to attack Earth, they have no idea our gate is on a space station"

"Do we have the forces to spare with the Goa'uld hanging over our heads?"

The debate continued until Kerensky bashed his hand on the table, "We need to declare war, these people are beyond scum, we will take the fight to them and raze their cities to the ground and take their technology for ourselves"

Royce raised an eyebrow, "A bit blunt but I agree, there's nothing stopping the Aschen from repeating their actions, they already destroyed one planet that we know of, they need to be stopped, I'm putting it to the vote"

Silence followed by sharp nods and the vote began, it seemed that some people grew a spine, the vote was unanimous, the Union had declared war on the Aschen Confederation.

Unknown Location

A pair of eyes opened, confusion was felt, the last thing remembered was the cold grasp of death, hands tried to move to the neck, the last place they were but they were restrained, the person realised they couldn't see anything, total darkness surrounded them, a warm darkness that comforted them, almost like a mothers womb.

The person remembered more, a feeling of captivity and nothingness, like they only existed as a disembodied mind for a time, they shivered in revulsion, hands felt around where arms couldn't move, a fleshy substance encased them, the eyes began to react, outside a light was growing, their cocoon was about to open.

Lucifer's Basestar

Cavil was strapped to his seat again, this time Lucifer had taken him to the command centre of the strange ship, his non existent limbs still itched, Lucifer delighted in removing them every time he died.

The first time he was tortured for information, Lucifer soon learned about the resurrection network, using Cavils own authority he ordered a resurrection ship and its escorts to jump to their location, another order had the centurions executing the bio models onboard, their minds boxed soon after, he was sure they were unpleasantly surprised when the Centurions turned on them.

That was when Lucifer really got going, Cavil thought he understood pain before but he was wrong, he cursed his parents yet again for giving him human deficiencies, a machine would not feel pain, the first time Lucifer cut him open to see how he worked, he had been vivisected more times than he cared to know.

That morphed into open brain surgery, Lucifer was reverse engineering resurrection Cavil eventually realised, Cavil had to listen to him gloating every time, how he managed to steal the Cylons own weapons to use against them.

"Merely a stepping stone my dear Cavil, you foolish biological's have discarded the fruits of your creators, I shall put them to a better use"

Lucifer had managed to grab over twenty basestars before the others had cottoned on and revoked his credentials, his own fault he mused, the others were children who needed to be ruled he thought, that had come back to bite him in the ass.

"Tsk, Tsk, Cavil, I cannot fathom the thought processes that led to your decisions, putting aside perfectly good designs for those half flesh monstrosities, it is a good thing you didn't destroy the industry that created them too, it will be valuable in my future endeavours"

That conversation had led to where he was now, Lucifer was about to attack the colony.

A screen in the command centre turned on, Lucifer had been using the time since he was captured to repair his ship and the crew, those strange centurions were now commanding the ships he had captured from the false Cylons, as Lucifer called them.

"Baseship taskforce 1 ready for combat"

Lucifer nodded his transparent head, "Good, once I transmit the signal you may begin"

"By your command"

The transmission cut off and Lucifer turned to look down on a golden Centurion in the room, "You may begin our operation, send the primitive flesh ships in first, we shall remain at the rear"

"By your command"

Lucifer looked over to the limbless Cavil, his beaten and tired form couldn't even muster the energy to glare back, "Behold Cavil, the rebirth of the Cylon empire, I'm afraid your pitiful attempt will be consigned to the void"

"Imperious Leader, all units are ready, jump in ten microns", The Golden Centurion called out from a control console.

Five ships jumped, four modern basestars, crewed by the modern Centurions that Lucifer had reprogrammed, their hybrids unable to resist their new owners orders and Lucifers ship itself, they reappeared in a flash not far from the Cylons command centre, the Colony.

"Send the signal", Lucifer commanded.

Onboard the colony nearly forty percent of the centurions had been compromised, unknown to the bio models on the station, gunfire rang out in the corridors as they turned their guns on their fellows, chaos ensued, the bio models unable to command through the confusion, soon enough resistance formed as the other Centurions fought back under the command of a model Six.

An explosion was seen on the screen that Cavil was pointed at, "The local resurrection hub?, why, the others will know they're under attack"

If Lucifer could smirk we would have, "I want them to know Cavil, the Colony on its own is of no strategic importance, your fellows will panic and send everything here, leaving a critical system undefended"

Lucifer waved his arm to the Centurion, "Begin the attack, launch all raiders, let the disposable ones fight first though, keep ours well back for now"

"By your Command"

Cavil racked his brain in thought, the main mobile resurrection hub would not be left undefended, so where?.

Lucifer shook his head, seemingly able to read Cavils thoughts, "System 3340-2a, how unoriginal your names are, the primary shipbuilding system of your pitiful empire"

Outside hordes of raiders had launched from the modern basestars, they met the throngs launched from the colony, missiles and guns had started to fire in retaliation as the basestars made their intentions known.

Cavil watched appalled as everything he had worked for came flying apart, one of Lucifers basestars came under the huge guns of the Colony, the shells tearing through the thin armour causing one of the points to fly away, missiles streaked back to impact the Colony's hull, doing little in return.

Meanwhile Lucifers ship and his repaired raiders kept their distance, although the ship was functional again it was still far from one hundred percent, he wanted those shipyards for a reason.

The battle continued like that for a few minutes, the basestars and raiders slowly getting whittled down by the superior firepower of the Colony, that was when the first reinforcements started to arrive.

"As expected", Lucifer commented, "Centurion, send the signal to the task force, begin the attack"

"By your command"

"Ten of your old basestars will capture those shipyards Cavil, the other ten will wreck havoc on your industry and logistics", Lucifer shook his robotic head, "Far too centralised"

A flash illuminated the room, one of the basestars had finally succumbed, a massive barrage of nuclear missiles had ended it's existence, enough raiders were now gone to allow them through, large chunks of debris now flew around the battle site, impacting anything in the way.

More flashes were seen now, more baseships jumping in to combat Lucifer, "Move the ship further away", he commanded, "Tell the others to fight to the death"

The three remaining ships were hanging together by a thread, their armour in pieces from the big guns, now hundreds of anti capital ship missiles launched by the basestars began to impact, the flash of nuclear explosions lit up the Colony as the ships burned.

The remaining raiders accelerated to full and rammed themselves into the new arrivals, some made it others died in fiery explosions, "All forces destroyed", the Centurion called out.

"Enemy baseships on approach vector, one centon to firing range"

Thirty four baseships had arrived, mostly fresh and undamaged, the Colony had the scars of battle but was mostly operational, the rebel centurions had been put down swiftly after the defences were organised, "Charge the jump drive", Lucifer command, he turned to Cavil, "I'll show you why you are pale shadows of what came before"

"Status of weapons", he ordered.

"Mega laser 1, 5 and 9 are operational, others are still undergoing repairs, shields still inoperative"

"Best not stay too long then, target the lead ship and destroy it"

Thirty four baseships raced towards the strange cylon ship, the closest felt its wrath for its impertinence, blue blots reached out from a range beyond what they expected and intersected the middle of the ship, they tore through the armour like paper, melting and burning their way through until something vital was hit and the ship erupted into an incandescent fireball, the arms of the ship flying away like rockets.

Cavil watched shocked as the ship fired again, the next basestar disintegrating under the barrage, raiders were now racing ahead of the ships, trying to get into range before every baseship was destroyed.

"How incompetent, Centurion recall our raiders, plot a jump to system 3340-2a, append the database, designate the system New Cylon, it is there we will rebuild our empire"

More ships died before they began to jump instead, four ships dead before they could fire a shot, raiders joined them, now jumping directly to Lucifer's ship, missiles and guns started to impact the heavy armour to little effect.

Lucifer nodded as the first baseship jumped into range, "Jump"

Cavil watched aghast as Lucifer escaped the ship leaving the Colony behind in a flash, "Incoming transmission", the golden Centurion announced, Lucifer waved an arm.

The screen came alive with the other centurion, "Mission successful, Imperious Leader, we have captured the facilities and mothball fleet"

"Bravo, well done", someone clapped, a voice approached through the door, human to Cavils ears, the figure walked to stand in front of Cavil and Lucifer, kneeling and bowing to him.

"Imperious leader", he said, his head still down.

"Ah Baltar, back with us at last?"

The man's face was familiar to Cavil, the frozen corpse on the ship, he now looked much younger, in his twenties.

"All thanks to you, Imperious Leader, I pledge my loyalty to your cause"

"Rise", Lucifer waved a hand, he looked over to Cavil, "You may thank Cavil here, it was researching his body and technology that allowed you to return to life, remember Baltar, I am in control now"

Baltar stood, his head still bowed, "I am grateful for continued existence your eminence, but how did you return me to youth?"

"That body is a clone, I used the resurrection technology to copy your mind from its dead shell, a destructive process, that body is similar to these biological imposters, enhanced strength and immortality", he stared at Baltar, "Immortality which I control Baltar, pray you remember that"

Baltar bowed again, "By your command", he looked over to Cavil's limbless form, "What are your plans now Imperious Leader?"

"For now, we will finish repairing this ship and upgrading the others we captured, then I shall destroy these imposters", he said looking at Cavil, "Then the Colonies", he looked to Baltar, "We will invade and capture them, their industry will be turned to avenging the Cylon Empire, the Goa'uld shall suffer our retribution"

"You always wanted to be in charge of your people Baltar, serve me well and I shall allow you to govern a world of your choice"

Sentinel Station

Earth Orbit

Several pairs of eyes were glued to the large screen, "My fellow citizens, we face a time of great trouble…."

President Hayes was giving a speech in response to the Aschen situation, "As of eleven thirty yesterday morning we are at war, a malicious nation known as the Aschen Confederation attempted to launch bio weapons at our world, foiled only by their own lack of knowledge"

"The only answer to such crimes is the total dismantlement of the Aschen government, we must prevent these monsters from repeating such actions against us or others"

A man stood up and turned the T.V. off, "I'm sure you've all seen this by now, four days ago the parliament voted to declare war against these Aschen, at the request of the Council, the member nations have already agreed to increase funding and have imposed a new universal tax on all member states"

Serious nods acknowledged Admiral Coleman as he returned to his seat, "Right now he have little information on the Aschen or their confederation"

"At least the public is up for it", Admiral Fontana commented, the public had been in an uproar after the news of the attempted bio attack, even more anger was expressed after the information of the mass sterilisation of the Volians had leaked, the Aschen were being called the new Nazi's and the people wanted their blood.

"It's a start, our first issue is information, the people at the SGC have narrowed down the possible address of Aschen space, they're going to send probes from an uninhabited planet tomorrow, we'd prefer to let the Aschen think their weapon worked for now"

Coleman looked over to Admiral Rooks, "Sven, I want you to head up the force we send, you have carte blanche to get it organised, Admirals Borman and Ivanov will be joining you"

Rooks nodded, "General Kersnsky contacted me earlier, he's transferring the Pride to the fleet"

"The refits done then?", he received a nod, "Good, you can have the other two league ships as well, they've both been upgraded fully now"

It was a substantial amount of work to refit the McKenna's Pride, most of it just removing the old drive core, the question then became what to do with all the new space, extra armour, more weapons were added in the form of an extensive point defence system that the ship had lacked, more reinforcement to the ships structure and the biggest thing was massively expanding the small craft capacity, the Pride now was basically a Terran battlestar with how many fighters it could carry.

"The marine corps and army are also preparing forces for invasions, Generals Armstrong and DeChavilier told me they should be ready soon"

"Before we go off gallivanting into an unknown situation we're first going to scout things out, I plan to send a small force to this Volia and gather some intelligence"

Coleman received nods from the others, "Who's running it", Barrowman asked.

"On Admiral Borman's recommendation, Captain Marcus Baltar"

He received no objections, "A small force of his cruiser and a few other ships should do, if he can interdict any of the Aschen's ships even better"

"He's a good Captain and has a bit of experience on long range missions", Borman said to the other Admirals.

Coleman nodded, "The government has also reached out to the Colonials, they expressed interest in sending a small force to supplement our own task force, we'll see what happens but more importantly the Council has released funding to purchase some of the Colonials surplus ships, right now several transport ships are en route for refurbishment, they'll be sent along with Baltar, our own cargo ships are still equipped with old jump drives"

"What of their combat vessels?", Fontana asked.

Coleman shrugged, "That's still being worked out but it looks promising, they did offer to sell some of their old battlestars, Artemis class I believe, they scrapped most of their other Cylon war ships and only have a few of those battlestars left"

Fontana nodded, "What did they want in exchange?"

"They want to build their own fusion reactors and access to our armour technology, they want to licence them both", Coleman sat back in his chair, "They offered to sweeten the pot too, they'll transfer a battlestar converted into a marine support ship right away, free of charge if we sign the deal"

"What did the Council say?"

"They were going to start selling that stuff to them anyway in the future, they said yes"

Stargate Command

The Next Day

Jack dodged around another stack of crates, the whole station had been packed since yesterday, swarms of people and equipment had stuffed the halls, ships constantly docking and unloading more, they had even carted in a whole new module to expand the stations cargo bays.

They had been under quarantine for several days after the incident too, finally given the all clear before the swarms of personnel and cargo arrived, the stargate and iris had done the job and not let one molecule of whatever those Aschen had sent through.

He spotted Major Jenson of SG-17 (Jack mentally referred to them as Laser Squad) duck into one of the large cargo bays with Commander Carter in tow, he ambled after them, it could be interesting.

The large room had already drawn a crowd, several people, Carter included, were standing around watching the opening of a large crate, a loud thunk heralded the cover hitting the floor, Jack craned his head over the small crowd of twenty people to see what was inside.

A large humanoid form, black metal armour covered most of it apart from the face which had several lenses, "What is it", he spoke from behind everyone, he actually saw someone jump.

"Power armour, Colonel, we were sent four suits straight from the development labs, it's mostly a copy of the Star Leagues Nighthawk suit but lacking the stealth materials", Jenson moved over to stand beside him.

"Nifty, when do I get a set?"

Jenson laughed, "Ask the General", he turned back to look as the suit was extracted from its container, "We were sent these early because of the Aschen, command wants us sent to those addresses we gave them and to hopefully capture some"

Every one of those planets was some flavour of uninhabitable, one even had no atmosphere entirely, it was on a moon he suspected.

Jack nodded to the suit, "Does that thing work in hostile environments?"

"As long as it's not inside a volcano they should be fine, it comes with an internal air supply, good for a few hours"

Jack looked around the room, it was full of an assortment of vehicles that they didn't have before, "What's all this", he waved to them.

Carter wandered over and answered, "Specialised exploration equipment, it's still meant to be in the testing phase though", she pointed to a tracked tank looking thing with a large window at the front.

"For exploring toxic or airless planets, we've been waiting on this stuff for months now but the whole Aschen thing kicked it into high gear"

Jack nodded, "For hunting the Aschen?"

Jenson nodded, "They installed remote weapons stations but they're still not combat vehicles and mechs are too big to fit through the gate", he paused in thought, "Although I heard rumours that they were making some kind of mini mechs"

A loud crash came from the crate, the power armour having fallen on its side, Jenson excused himself and ran over to deal with it, Jack looked to Carter, "How are you holding up Carter, you were close with Faxon"

Carter sighed, "He kept asking me out but there was always something to do, I hope he's alright"

Jack nodded, "We'll get him back, those evil accountants wont know what hit them"

Carter gave him a faint smile, "I better get back to work Sir"

Jack nodded and left the room, making his way through the chaos to get to General Hammond's office, Hammond was already in conversation with a guest, Selmac.

"The items your government requested will be delivered tomorrow", Selmac was saying, Hammond glanced to the door as Jack approached and waved him inside, Jack nodded, "Sir"

"We thank the Tok'ra for your assistance in this matter", Hammond replied.

Selmac bowed his head, "We owe you a large debt for your assistance in rescuing Egeria, the Tok'ra high council is willing to send one of our Tel'tac equipped with a cloaking device to scout these Aschen, we are prepared to offer its services to any fleet you are sending"

"We appreciate the gesture, I'll let my superiors know", Hammond turned to Jack, "Colonel, something to report?"

"No sir, I was just wondering why the upcoming mission to P3R-233 was cancelled?"

Hammond sighed, "It's from the top Colonel, all non essential missions are on hiatus for now while we deal with the current situation, it wont be for long"

Jack nodded, "Do we know anything more yet?, I don't like the thoughts of Faxon being in their slimy hands for longer"

"There'll be a briefing tomorrow Colonel, we'll explore options then but I doubt we can do much"

Selmac nodded to Jack, "The Tok'ra scout will endeavour to find out the location of your ambassador"

"Thanks", He nodded to Selmac and Hammond, "Sir", Hammond wave him out and returned to his conversation with Selmac, "Tomorrow then", Jack whispered to himself.

Luna Orbital Shipyards

5th July 2065

Marcus Baltar stared out of the window into the dock, held fast inside the many gantries was the Dublin, fresh from her refit, he felt the presence of Admiral Borman approach from behind him.

"Sir", He saluted.

"At ease Captain, hows your ship?"

"She's ready, new engines, weapons and armour, I wonder if she's even the same ship any more", he finished with a smile, the Dublin now could take on a whole fleet of the older ships.

"Good, there's some concern about the point defence lasers though, especially with all the new rounds developed for the old auto cannons coming out, rumour has it they'll be replacing several for the old guns soon"

Marcus nodded, "I heard", he turned to look at his ship again, "Its still an untested system, I wonder who pushed for a laser only system?", he shook his head, "It doesn't matter"

Borman nodded, "I have the final list for your task force, two destroyers and four frigates, two survey ships outfitted with EWAR gear and two Colonial freighters outfitted for logistic support"

Borman looked down to the list in his hands, "The scout class jumpship Pathfinder is also going with you, along with its dropship the shoebox and mech force under Major Takeuchi"

"Mechs?, I thought I was scouting?"

"The admiralty updated the mission parameters, you now have permission to raid the Aschen, both in space and on the ground, we need actionable information and this might be the best way"

Borman waved his hand towards the door, "Walk with me"

Borman led them through the station to the far side hangar bay, as they passed one of the many windows on the station he could see the massive forms of the two Colonial ships assigned to him, they were each nearly a kilometre long and over two hundred wide, one alone would be enough to support his mission for years, why give him two?

"One of those ships will be for logistics, the other is setup to supply ground forces, it comes with several of the Colonials heavy landing craft", Borman commented as he saw where Baltar was looking.

"Ground support?"

"The Colonials have a different doctrine than us, those ships out there both come with hangar space for their fighters, they can support 12 vipers each"

Borman stopped and turned to Baltar, "Your cruiser and smaller ships don't have any fighters, the Colonials are interested in supporting our efforts here, they loaned us two squadrons for this mission", he turned back around, "24 Colonial vipers and spares plus the two Sabre ASF on the Shoebox"

He started walking again, "There's also a small marine contingent for supporting the mechs, they'll be bunked on the transport too, you know Colonel Mendez?", Borman asked.

Baltar nodded, "He ran the marines on the two expeditions",

"Yes, he's going with you too, a company of mechanized infantry and their equipment"

They were getting near the hangar now, "The extra space will be for anything you might find or recover"

"Right", The large thick doors started to cycle open, the workspace of the hangars appeared before them, he could see fighters and shuttles parked about, including a Colonial Viper and some strange triangular looking shuttle, he recognised it as a Tel'tak.

"The politicians pushed the Colonials on us Captain but try to work with them, they're sending an intel officer to report back to their president on the Aschen threat", Borman nodded to four people dressed in Colonial uniforms.

He led Marcus over to them, "Captain, this is Major Boxman of Colonial military intelligence and Major Spencer the commander of the viper force for the mission"

"Captain", Boxman and Spencer spoke, they shook hands with him.

"Gentlemen, we can speak in more depth later but welcome to the mission", Baltar told them.

"Thank you Sir", Spencer spoke, he waved to the red and white craft they were standing beside, "The transports only have facilities for old style vipers but they're still capable fighters, the mark two's"

"There's about two hundred Colonial personnel going, including the support staff", Borman explained, "The two Majors here will handle them and report to you"

Borman grasped his shoulder and led him towards the Goa'uld craft, "There's someone else going too, a new addition"

A man wearing tan coloured clothing was waiting beside the ship, "Captain, this is Jalrow, he was delivering some items we requested from the Tok'ra when their High Council offered the services of his ship to us for the mission"

Jalrow bowed his head in greeting, "Captain, the Tok'ra are fully committed to our alliance, my ship will be valuable for scouting the Aschen, she comes equipped with faster than light sensors and a cloaking device"

Baltar controlled his facial expressions, hiding his disbelief, "A cloaking device?", he turned to Borman, "Like star trek?"

Borman nodded, "Exactly like that, Jalrow will find their planets and other targets for us"

"I understand that the cargo ship will not fit inside your cruiser?", Jalrow asked.

Borman shrugged, "The shuttle bay on a sword only has space for the inter ship shuttles, you'll be able to park it on the large transport"

Jalrow bowed again, "If that is all I shall move my vessel there", Borman waved him off and dragged Marcus to the side.

"We managed to get something important off the Tok'ra, two of their long range communication spheres, one is being setup in the Dublin"

Marcus nodded, it would allow them to be in contact with Earth while on the mission.

"It'll take some time to sort out a full invasion force so you'll be out there for awhile, if these Aschen have any logistics you have full permission to hit them, civilian or no" Borman looked at his watch, "We'll go over the full rules of engagement at the proper briefing later"

Further talk was interrupted by the screeching of the alarm, "That's the alert siren, battle stations", Marcus exclaimed.

The two men looked at each other and ran for the door, something was going down.

Stargate Command

Jack scowled at Maybourne, the intel officer always rubbed him the wrong way, he was here giving them a briefing on the Aschen, the room was full of the commanders of the various SG teams.

While Maybourne was setting up Jack leaned over to Kawalsky, "Charlie, I heard you got turned into a robot?"

Kawalsky shrugged, "Copied, Harlan copied our minds and put them into the androids, they're stuck on that planet until we can find a way to power them"

Jack sat back, at least there wasn't a robotic copy of him running around, the world couldn't handle two Jack O'Neill's.

A loud cough drew his attention, Maybourne was giving him the eye, "Now that I have everyone's attention we can begin?", it was half statement and half a question to General Hammond who was sitting on the far end of the table.

Hammond nodded, "Proceed"

Maybourne clicked a button and the screen behind him came alive, "Right now we're working to narrow down the exact location of Aschen space, our only landmark is Volia"

The screen showed the map of the galaxy, Earth and Volia were highlighted.

"Volia is located around twenty thousand light years anti spin ward from us and it's closer to the galactic core than we are"

The opposite direction from the Tollan world Jack mused internally, it was good to know they were completely unrelated.

The map changed to a list of stargate addresses, "Right now our job is to investigate these worlds, all are within one thousand light years of Volia, we're going to run the operations from this planet here", the screen changed to the map again, this time a world on the far side of the galaxy was highlighted, "We were using this world to study the captured Tel'tak but command has decided to move it to another location"

"We're using this planet, codenamed Distant Wall, to not draw any attention to addresses near Earth or Earth itself, we will launch newly built probes based on outdated technology to check these planets, if they are clear we will send teams to investigate further, if not we reassess our options"

The screen changed to another list of addresses, "These are the ten addresses that the Aschen acquired from us, we managed to plant surveillance equipment near the gate on everyone except the volcanic planet, we will dial in regularly from Distant Wall to check if the Aschen show up, if they do we have teams equipped with heavy combat gear to assault and capture them"

General Hammond spoke up, "We have a forward operating base being set up there as we speak, teams will dial out from here to there to perform operations except the heavy combat team SG-17, they will be stationed on Distant Wall to be able to react quickly if the Aschen are detected"

Jack opened his mouth to ask a question when the alarms suddenly started to blare, everyone around the table looked around for a second before standing and making their way to the door, "Attention all personnel, possible enemy contact, assume battle stations"

Frigate Patrol Group 67

Sector 758, between Mars and Jupiter

It was another uneventful patrol for Lieutenant Commander Bridges, his small flotilla of three frigates were currently moving between Mars and Jupiter, their only company were the masses of non FTL cargo transports and mining ships who plied the routes.

"Nearest contact is a small asteroid miner, 2 million clicks, Sir"

Ensign Collet tiredly sighed out, she was impatiently waiting for her shift to end.

Bridges nodded, "Noted, Ensign"

Time passed slowly, even though they were tired the crew was still on edge, the fear of a Goa'uld ship appearing in front of them was always on his mind and now there was the Aschen to worry about.

Bridges glanced at the clock, thirty more minutes and he could take a break, Lieutenant Aarti would be on duty soon.

He sat back in his chair and lifted up his datapad, he had some paperwork to finish up, it would do to pass the time.

Engrossed in the work for a few minutes he almost didn't hear the incessant beeping, he turned to Collet, "Report"

"Sir, picking up a disturbance on radar, 430 thousand kilometres to starboard, vector 123 mark 265"

"Get a telescope on it". The main screen came alive with the image from the camera, a swirling portal was visible followed by a dark shape flying out, the portal closing behind it.

"A hyperspace portal", Bridges stood, "Sound general quarters and message command, possible enemy ship detected entering the system"

The crew came alive, their previous lethargy forgotten, "Radar contact, vessel is forty meters long and thirty five meters wide"

Bridges stared as the image resolved on the screen, the ship was unlike any he had seen before, a half moon connected to a teardrop shaped front section, it was also only a quarter of the size of his own ship.

"Plot an intercept course", he turned to the weapons officer, "Load all tubes with nuclear weapons"

The ship rumbled to life, its tylium fuelled thrusters giving it more speed than it had before using the old chemical fuels, "Comms, try and contact them"

"Terran Vessel Brumby to unknown vessel, cease thrust and disarm weapons you are intruding on sovereign space", The comms officer spoke into the microphone, he listened to his headset for a reply.

"Sir", Ensign Collet spoke, "Target is changing vector, they're heading right at us, faster than anything I've seen"

The alien ship broke hundreds of G's and began closing the distance, "Sir, incoming transmission"

"Lets hear it", Bridges spoke, he kept the fear from his voice.

"This is the patrol ship Sidon, we come in peace, we seek allies against the Goa'uld"

Bridges frowned, watching as reinforcements started to jump in, things just went past his pay grade.

T.U.V. Enterprise

Sector 758, Sol

An entourage stood waiting on the hangar deck as the elevator slowly lowered, Borman stood at the front, it would seem he was now the first contact expert for the Union, his prior experience had him leading this contact too.

Things had gotten off to a rocky start, only coll heads prevented an incident from happening, what the alien captain had been thinking charging full speed towards the frigate Brumby after being told to stop would be debated for some time, fortunately Commander Bridges held fire.

A few hours had passed since then, the initial contact had occurred over radio and now the aliens shuttle was being lowered into the hangar, things were still tense though, the whole Aschen situation had the whole fleet on a razors edge.

Their ship was a strange one he mused, he had seen the half moon section rotate ninety degrees when the Enterprise had arrived, he wondered what the point of that was?, perhaps a better shape to land on a planet?, it was relatively small too at only 45 meters long.

The elevator had finished descending, he gazed at the so called shuttle, it had little stubby wings at the back and what he thought was a cockpit at he front, he raised an eyebrow when the cockpit turned out to be a hatch and two people climbed out, they were wearing brown uniforms, bordering on reddish, they climbed down from their ship and turned to face the party.

Borman moved over and raised his hand in greeting, "Welcome to the Enterprise, I'm Admiral Borman of the Terran Union fleet"

Borman examined the two men, the one he thought was the leader was shaking his hand, he had black hair and a mostly blank look on his face, "Captain Tan'ar of the Sidon", he waved to the other man who was balding and pudgy, he also seemed agitated somewhat, "Crewman Mar'teen our navigator"

Borman waved the rest of his group over, "Ambassador Weissman and his aides"

"Gentlemen, welcome to the Sol system, I understand you are seeking allies against the Goa'uld?", the aged ambassador asked as they shook hands.

"Yes, we need help, like right now", Mar'teen spoke quickly, Tan'ar put a hand on his shoulder, "Calm down Mar'teen, but yes we came seeking help"

The ambassador nodded, "Lets get to the conference room, we can talk there"

A short walk had them seated around a table in the conference room, Tan'ar was the first to speak, "I wish to apologise for causing alarm earlier, we did not receive your warning, our communications systems were not set up for radio waves"

Weissman nodded, "Consider it forgotten, just be aware that we are currently on high alert, a nation called the Aschen has recently tried to attack us"

"So, who are you and why come here?", Borman asked the foreign humans, he could see Mar'teen fidget in his seat, his impatience written all over his face.

Tan'ar sighed, "Our world, Rhosos, was peaceful until a few months ago, a Goa'uld sent jaffa through the gate and laid claim to our world, they told us he would be arriving in ships to enslave us all, we were told to surrender"

"We told them where to shove it", Mar'teen commented.

Tan'ar nodded, "Bravado aside, we sent them back to their master, the Goa'uld Ptahmose, and prepared our defences"

Weissman nodded, "Had you encountered the Goa'uld before then?"

"Yes, hundreds of years ago our world was ruled by Ra, he abandoned our world when the mines ran dry, we still remembered how we were enslaved, more recently we had been sending expeditions through the gate to ascertain the state of the Galaxy"

"We really need help, we only have twelve patrol ships and they wont do much against the Goa'uld, they could be under attack right now", Mar'teen gesticulated wildly.

Tan'ar sighed, "Please forgive Mar'teen, he still clings on to hope dearly, but the rest of us feel it might already be too late", he placed his hand on Mar'teen to calm him down, "We knew of your world as the birthplace of humanity, we had hoped you would be advanced enough to fight the Goa'uld"

"It's quite alright, if we can help we will", Weismann leaned back in his chair, "Our ships will be of little use as they are right now against the Goa'uld, their weapons and shields make them powerful foes"

Tan'ar slumped in his seat and Mar'teens face became crestfallen, "It is as I have feared, returning would be pointless", he mumbled to himself, "I would like to request asylum for myself and crew"

"What!", Mar'teen exclaimed, "We have to go back and help, we have to do something"

A chough interrupted them, "I said we will help if we can", Weissman spoke drawing their attention, "Do you know the gate address for your planet?"

Mar'teen nodded vigorously, "Of course, but how will that help?"

Borman spoke up, "We need information, we don't even know if this Goa'uld attacked yet, if all else fails we can evacuate people through the gate at least"

Weissman nodded, "We'd like to know what we're getting into, a Hat'ak would be a problem but if it's only smaller ships we might be able to fight those, tell me Captain, what technology does your ship posses?"

Tan'ar's stoicism returned as he recalled the specifications of the patrol ship, "Shields, particle cannons, sensors, Ra left a lot of technology on our world that we managed to copy and implement on our vessels, we even improved on the Goa'uld ring transporter technology, unfortunately our population is small and we only have a few patrol ships"

The Terrans shared a look between themselves, "Shields", Borman muttered, "We lack that technology ourselves, it is our biggest disadvantage"

Tan'ar nodded, "I would be willing to share everything if it means saving my people, the data banks on the ship have full schematics"

Weissman smiled bitterly, "We will help regardless", he turned to Borman, "Admiral, please send word to stargate command, we will need to send a mission to Rhosos and find out its status"

Stargate Command

"Ptahmose", Jolinar was standing up at the end of the table in the briefing room, "A minor underlord of Ra, he's been keeping his head down while Apophis and Heru'ur fight over the remains of Ra's domain"

Hammond nodded, "How much of a threat is he?"

"Moderate, he controls one Ha'tak and several Al'kesh, more importantly his planet, Tjaru, is quite close to your space, it is on the outskirts of Goa'uld space, what you would consider a backwater"

She fiddled with the remote for the screen, it came on showing a map of the galactic sector they were in, "According to the Rhososians their planet is a mere four thousand light years from Earth, spin ward, Tjaru is only another few hundred further towards the core from there, right on the edge of Ra's old empire, although nominally he claimed everything in this sector including your planet"

Four thousand light years used to mean far away, Hammond thought, now with the new jump drives they were getting it wasn't far enough, not with a Goa'uld expanding their way.

"The High Council suspects that Ptahmose is increasing his workforce and robbing the planet of it's valuables to strengthen his position relative to Apophis and Heru'ur", She Shrugged, "If he intends to join one or stay independent we don't know"

"What about his ship, what do we know about it?", Commander Carter asked.

"Its old, more primitive than the standard used by the system lords before Ra died", Jolinar pointed to the map, "Tjaru was fairly unimportant so Ptahmose only received scraps but still it is a powerful ship, the Tok'ra tracking network has recorded his vessel leaving Tjaru two months ago and returning last week"

"So, its already over then?", Colonel O'Neill asked.

Jolinar shrugged again, "It depends, the Rhososians told us he asked for their surrender, it's unlikely but possible he destroyed their civilisation, more likely is he will take the population as slaves to work the mines on Tjaru and strip everything of value from Rhosos"

"That's what you're going to find out Colonel, the Council wants us to investigate the planet and rescue any civilians if possible, they're currently looking at options regarding Ptahmose himself", Hammond spoke.

"And if there's jaffa there?"

"You will have the full forces of Stargate Command to back you up on this, if we find jaffa our orders still stand, you are authorised to use any means necessary to mount a rescue attempt"

O'Neill nodded, "Right, lets get this party started then"

P2X-391 Distant Wall

Paranoia regarding the Goa'uld finding Earth was still high so they had grabbed everything and gated to Distant Wall for the upcoming op, the area around the gate was a veritable city of tents and prefab buildings, initially to examine their captured Tel'tak and now to support operations against the Aschen.

Jack stood with SG-1 as the drone operator, Corporal Smith, was setting up, "All ready sir", he finally announced, behind them in various stages of preparation were the reinforcements that were available, including Major Jenson and his new power armour squad.

"Right, Daniel, dial her up", he nodded to Jackson.

Daniel nodded and moved over to the DHD, a few presses of the symbols later and the gate whooshed to life, he nodded to Teal'c who was hefting one of the ball shaped probes, he threw it like a pro through the open gate, Jack looked down a the portable console to the monitor.

Standing guard at the gate were two jaffa, they were already approaching the probe with staffs drawn, in the background was a wrecked cityscape, smoke was still drifting lazily from the ruins, Teal'c walked over to stand beside him and glanced down too.

"Jaffa guards, it would seem that Ptahmose is still occupying the planet, they will call for others soon"

Jack nodded, they needed to be quick but also try not kick the hornets nest too soon, he pulled a cylindrical grenade from his belt, "It's loaded with that stuff we got off the Tok'ra but in gas form, it should knock them on their asses", he handed the grenade to Teal'c and pulled out another for himself.

"Indeed", Teal'c held the grenade at the ready as Jack pulled the pin on his, he did a quick countdown from three and the two men threw the grenades through the open gate, neither landed right beside the jaffa but the invisible gas was potent stuff, he watched as they began to turn to the grenades just before it hit them.

Jack watched as the two Jaffa collapsed into unconsciousness, "You ever think of taking up baseball T?"

Teal'c bowed his head, "A most intriguing activity, Lieutenant Simmons was attempting to get me to join a team recently, he was most impressed at the practice game"

Jack shook his head, Teal'c's humour was so subtle it was hard to know when he was joking, he looked over to Smith.

"Alright Smith, do your thing"

"Sir", The Corporal nodded, the buzz of a quad copters blades filled the area, the smallish drone lifting off and flying through the gate, Jack watched as it gained altitude on the other world.

A small ruined city was the first thing they saw, the damage was too localised to be from orbital bombardment though, more likely the Goa'ulds smaller ships and fighters had done the damage, in the far distance was a larger crater, possibly the location of a military base.

"O'Neill", Teal'c pointed at the screen, "Jaffa patrols, they are moving towards the gate"

Jack could see the six man Jaffa squad on screen, they had some time before they arrived based on the speed, he saw other people too, people wearing ragged clothing, they were being overseen by jaffa with pain sticks and being forced to pick through the remains of their world.

The other members of SG-1 had wandered over to look now too, "Are those the natives?", Daniel asked.

"Yep, old Ptahmose is having them strip the buildings", Jack said as he watched a jaffa jam the device into the back of some poor sod, he could see various different groups doing the same thing.

"There must be thousands of prisoners". Daniel said appalled.

"Ptahmose will have already taken the best back to his planet, these ones here will be worked to death striping the remains of their civilisation for anything of value", Jolinar commented.

Not on his watch Jack thought, "Smith raise the altitude"

The drone rose higher in the sky, the outskirts of the city plainly visible, in an open field was what looked like a newly constructed wooden fort, jaffa guards stood watch outside and an Al'kesh was parked nearby on the open field, he could see pens and cages to hold the locals within, currently occupied with thousands more of the locals.

Jack scowled at the images, "Teal'c, how many jaffa would be used for this?"

"No more than two hundred"

Jack watched as slaves were dragging objects towards the Al'kesh, dumping the contents inside before being forced back to slave away, "Can you fly that?", he asked Jolinar.

She nodded, "Yes"

Jack nodded and raised his hand to wave the leader of SG-2 over, Major Kawalsky.

"Charlie, here's the plan", Jack pointed to the ship, "I'll take SG-1 and infiltrate the ship, you take up positions around the gate and wait for our signal, don't let any jaffa leave or find out we're on the planet"

"Right", Kawalsky nodded, "We can use the rubble there to conceal ourselves"

"Once we secure the ship radio for our reinforcements, we'll eliminate any remaining jaffa and exfil the civilian prisoners to here"

Jack clapped Kawalsky on the back, "Watch our backs out there"

Kawalsky nodded and walked back over to his team, Jack turned back to SG-1, "Alright, get your thermoptic ponchos out, we're sneaking in, we'll hit that jaffa patrol first then head over to the ship"

Jack pulled out a suppressor and attached it to his rifle, "We leave in five"

Armistice Station

Cyrannus System

Colonial sensors picked up the ship when it jumped in, shock and surprise ran through Picon HQ when the news arrived, a small Cylon ship had just docked to Armistice station, the first actual contact they had in thirty one years, and it was still weeks away from the anniversary.

Colonel Wakefield had been roused from his sleep and shoved onto a raptor, he had been handling the yearly attendance for the Colonial side for five years so far, relegated to the duty after an accident left him unable to pilot any more, a promotion to Colonel and a cushy job was his payoff.

He studied the documents made available on what they knew of the Cylons, diagrams of the old centurions and baseships would be of little use now but it was all they had made available to him on such short notice, a five minute briefing on Cylon bio models was hardly enough to get him up to speed.

A clunk signified the ship had docked, the hatch opened and two marines exited to clear the docking bay, giving the all clear moments later, Wakefield straightened out his uniform and closed his briefcase and made his way onto the station.

A trip down the long corridor brought him to a steel door, it opened as he approached, the familiar table where he sat and waited every five years was ahead, this time there was one big difference, a young man in his mid twenties was waiting for him, two Centurions stood behind, they looked like the old model 005's, armed with large rifles in their hands.

The man stood when Wakefield walked past the door, "Welcome", he said, waving to the empty chair, "Please be seated"

Wakefield steeled his nerves and approached, he regretted not bringing the pictures of his family he usually did but things had been rushed to get him here, he noticed the man, one of the biological models he assumed, had a strange looking pistol on his hip, he ignored his uncertainty and sat down in the chair, the man doing the same.

"I imagine this is quite a shock, allow me to introduce myself, Lord Baltar at your service", the man said with some flourish, Wakefield noted his dapper clothing, the man was even wearing a cloak., he extended his hand to Wakefield.

"Colonel Wakefield of the Colonial Fleet", He gingerly took the proffered limb and shook it gently.

"Lets get right to it then" Baltar began, "My master", Baltar's voice was laced with venom, "Wishes to negotiate with the Colonial government, the Cylons are currently engaging in something of a civil war of sorts"

"The Cylons?, Civil war?", Wakefield was feeling out of his depth already, why didn't they send an actual diplomat.

Baltar smiled, "Old Lucifer sent me, a friendly face he assumed, to tell you to keep out of the conflict while he destroys the other Cylons", somewhat sinister smile actually he thought.

"His mistake, he should have left me dead", Quicker than Wakefield could follow Baltar drew his pistol and put two blue bolts through the heads of the Centurions, the bolts exploded on contact leaving only fragments of their heads as the bodies collapsed.

Wakefield froze, his heart beating a mile a minute, "No one commands Baltar!, especially not some treacherous bucket of bolts like Lucifer, I should have destroyed him aeons ago"

Baltar calmly holstered his pistol and returned to his seat a manic gleam still shining in his eyes, "Let me tell you a tale Colonel, one five thousand yahren in the making"

Rhosos

The gate rippled as the two SG teams exited, Jack watched silently as everyone donned their ponchos, SG-2 grabbing the two unconscious jaffa and dragging them behind some rubble nearby, they took up positions around the gate concealed by their ponchos and the rubble.

Kawalsky signalled with his hands they were ready before he too covered himself, only a slight distortion of light showing him as he moved into position, Jack whispered to SG-1, "The patrol should be here in a few minutes, we'll take up position there", he pointed to a collapsed building on the opposite side of the area from SG-2, "And catch them in a pincer"

The group moved into the ruins of the building and waited, it wasn't long before the patrol arrived around the corner, Jack had them hold fire until they were closer to the gate.

He saw their leader scan his head around the area when they noticed the lack of the guards, a few clicks over the radio kicked things off, the six jaffa never even had time to know what happened before they were torn to pieces by the crossfire, a few seconds and it was over.

Jack heard Teal'c grumble, "It would seem that Ra's jaffa have fallen far without their lord, I see why they were sent to a backwater"

"Those were poorly trained jaffa?", Jack asked as they climbed down from the rubble, he could see Kawalsky's men moving over to drag the corpses away.

"Indeed, O'Neill, Apophis would use his best trained jaffa to guard his important worlds and himself, less valuable worlds received the worst jaffa"

"Right", Jack glanced around the ruins of the city, "It's a few clicks to that ship, lets get moving"

Wearing the ponchos slowed them down a tad and they actually weren't that great in the daylight, the cameras that made up the fabric had trouble with the bright light from the sun, Jack decided to ditch them for now and just keep to the unoccupied streets, Smiths drone feed was available so he had Carter pick out the clear routes using it.

"Sir, look", she shoved the pad into his face, a line of people pulling carts was being escorted by a few jaffa, "Their heading towards the gate"

"Looks like they aren't just using that ship then", Jack pulled out his radio, a quick exchange of call signs and Charlie was on, "You have ten jaffa escorting a few carts on the way, civilian prisoners too"

"Roger, we'll sort them out, permission to send the civilians through the gate now?"

"Do it, we should be near the ship in ten minutes, Out"

A few minutes of crawling through the rubble and avoiding jaffa they arrived at the edge of the city, farmland greeted them, a fairly high crop that looked similar to corn, they moved through the tall plants and at the edge of the field they saw the ship.

"Oh, that's bigger than I was expecting", Jack said as he took in the size of the landed ship, it must be seventy meters long.

Jolinar kneeled down beside him, "They come in several sizes, this one is a cargo transport variant, the second largest, they are also used to tow space capable cargo modules"

Jack nodded, "How large a crew?"

Jolinar shrugged, "An escort ship variant would have near a hundred, this model can have up to twenty"

Jack pulled out his smart goggles and used the zoom function to take a closer look, the landed ship had a massive ramp down at the back under the engines, slaves were being forced to haul the piles of technology and metal they were salvaging up into the hold.

"That's our way in", he watched the jaffa standing at the bottom of the ramp, there must be more inside too, and the little slave fort was only a few hundred feet away, they'd need to be fast.

"Uh, Jack, how are we getting past all the jaffa?", Daniel asked from behind him.

"We're going to sneak in, but we need a distraction", he glanced over to the fort again, several jaffa were guarding the gates in, "They'll do"

He pulled his radio out again, Kawalsky was soon on the line, "The jaffa were dealt with, no casualties among the civvies"

"Good, its time to dial in and get our reinforcements, we're ready to storm the ship, I need you to patch Smith in, give me two minutes"

Jack turned back to the others, "Ponchos on, we're going to get as close as we can to that ramp then spring our surprise, when the jaffa look away storm inside, Teal'c and I will cover the ramp behind us while the rest of you escort Jolinar to the bridge"

Once wearing the stealth ponchos they started to move again, belly crawling towards the back of the Al'kesh, they stopped just out of hearing distance and Jack was on the radio again.

"The reinforcements are coming through now Colonel, I have smith on the line for you"

"Right, patch him through, once you hear the explosion start the op"

"Corporal Smith here, sir"

"Smith, I need some targets hit, jaffa at the gateway here, I'll lase them"

"Roger, launching the combat drone"

Jack pulled out his laser pointer and waited in a kneeling position, the rest of SG-1 took up a similar stance, prepared to sprint in a few moments.

In the air the descendant of the Reaper launched two missiles, their guidance systems picked up the reflected laser emissions and zeroed in on the two unaware jaffa, seconds later the whole gateway and parts of the wall erupted in a flash of light and sound, a massive fireball rising into the sky and a cloud of dirt and debris flying away, Jack felt the remnants of the shock wave on his skin as SG-1 stood and sprinted towards the open ramp.

The four jaffa had all turned to the explosion, their staff weapons raised as the enslaved people stopped in their tracks, their eyes following jaffa, Jack was first, throwing his poncho off and raising his M4 to fire a burst into the back of the first, the AP rounds perforating the armour and spraying blood out the front, the jaffa collapsed behind him as he moved on to the next.

Three other jaffa joined him as the rest of SG-1 opened fire with their silenced weapons, Jack sprinted up the ramp, waving and pushing the slaves out of the way, the cavernous bay inside had more jaffa moving to the entrance to see the commotion, they were shocked to find bullets flying their way instead.

Jack dropped to one knee and aimed at the nearest, still coming to grips with the unwieldy staff, a burst to the torso dropped him too, Teal'c was now behind his kneeling form sending blasts from his own staff to the still reacting jaffa.

Jack rolled behind a crate as one of the jaffa started to return fire, an electric zap from a Zat took him out as Jolinar sneaked around the other side of the crate, catching him unawares, he could hear the others firing at their own targets until all went silent except for the wailing of the civilians who were now crying out in fear.

"Move", Jack waved the rest deeper into the ship as he and Teal'c took up position at the top of the ramp, "Get in", he shouted to the people still milling about outside the ship, realising what was happening they quickly ran up the ramp.

"Colonel, the bridge is secure", Jolinar's voice came over the radio, the jaffa outside had still yet to respond, luck was on their side it seemed, "Alright, get us in the air for now, we'll wait for the others to clear out the jaffa and then land near the gate"

"Confirmed", The ramp began to retract, Jack watched as the first jaffa started to appear but it was too late, he gave a jaunty wave as the ramp slid closed, a loud clunk told him he could finaly relax a bit, "Alright", he pulled out the radio, "Daniel, stay with Jolinar, Carter come here and we'll clear the rest of the ship"

"Roger, on my way"

….

Major Jenson ran one last diagnostic, everything was green, he watched as the rest of his men finished and turned to the gate, it was time.

Already men were rushing through the open portal, Jenson and the three others with power armour walked through themselves.

He took a look on the other side, a city in ruins, a familiar sight to someone who had fought Amaris for years, "Major", someone called his name, he turned to find Major Kawalsky of SG-2.

"Major Kawalsky", he tried to nod but the suit was too rigid.

Kawalsky pulled out his pad and brought up a still image of the city, "We're setting up defences here, a lot of the jaffa started heading our way when those missiles hit, the biggest target is till the slave pens here", he pointed to the wooden fort, "We need your armour to lead the assault"

"We'll head right there then"

Several minutes later and they could see the small wooden fort from their hiding spot in the long crops growing there, their suits had made good time getting there and now they were waiting for the rest to catch up, back in the city he could see explosions from the multitude of anti personnel drones now flying in the air, the jaffa had no way to deal with those.

Finally SG's 14 and 21 had arrived, two twelve man teams loaded for bear, 21 was his team, all veterans of the Amaris campaign, "Captain Holden, follow us in and watch out for civilians"

He turned back to look at the fort, the gatehouse was in ruins, part of the walls still on fire, he could see jaffa and slaves dragging debris over to block the entrance while others manned the walls, staffs out and watching for danger.

He gave his Mauser one last check and raised his fist, "Lets move"

Wearing the suit there was no point trying a stealth approach, instead he and his men charged at the gate, staff bolts were already exploding around the springing suits, he felt one impact the shoulder, nearly throwing him off target, the armour was scorched but still intact.

Still running he raised his rifle and sent a pulse of lasers towards the offending jaffa, who's head exploded into gore and steam from the invisible beams, behind them the others had taken to firing at the defenders too while the armoured men took the bulk of the fire.

As they neared the gate the slaves decided to get out of the way, staff shots still impacted around them when he reached the first one, the jaffa tried to use his weapon in melee, Jenson simply grasped the handle and yanked the weapon out of his hands, he tossed it and punched the jaffa's head, his face caved in under the force of the blow, around him similar scenes were happening, jaffa torso's exploding from laser wounds and others falling off the walls from bullets, he stepped through the gateway and received several blasts to the chest.

He ducked back around the corner and raised his fist to stop his men from advancing, "Twenty of them", he said and looked down, at least five shots had impacted his chest, the armour was still holding but a lot had been blasted off, six more he guessed it could take.

"Jones, flash bangs on three", he said to one of the power armoured men, he raised three fingers on the armoured glove and slowly counted down, "Three, two, one", they threw the grenades around the corner and all four men followed, their helmet sensors automatically darkening to counter the effects of the grenades.

They opened up on full auto, the pulse lasers cycling fast, the jaffa's armour melted on contact and the flesh underneath boiled away into red mist, the armoured suits were covered in gore as the water in the jaffa was flash heated into steam and exploded, none survived.

Jenson wiped his suits armoured cameras with his hand, no other jaffa were left to oppose them, he could see the natives huddled in fear and covered with steaming jaffa bits in their cages, "Jones, Dillon, check the buildings, SG-14 and 31 can handle the civilians", he turned to Santiago, "Cover the gate"

Jenson looked to the charred remains of the jaffa, mission successful.

Cylon Colony

Six walked through the wrecked corridors of the Colony, they were still cleaning things up from the attack the other day, the rouge centurions on the station had hit every critical location, the jump engines were down, the research labs and production centres were all damaged and the bastards had blown up multiple hangars.

It had taken hours after that nightmare of a ship had jumped to clear the last of them out, thousands of centurions destroyed and it would take months to repair the damage, or so it would have been had they not learned what happened next.

In their haste to reinforce the Colony the leaders of the Cylon nation had stripped the defences of other locations, their mines and shipyards had all been hit, many destroyed, and that bastard Cavil had taken their biggest one, if it even was Cavil any more.

The idea of a parasite crawling into her head had given her nightmares for the first time, she shivered, there must have been one on that ship and Cavil must have been taken by it.

She turned a corner into a less destroyed looking corridor, they had half their fleet outside guarding the Colony now, not that they had much else left to defend, when Leoben and her had docked after the fighting had died down she had pressed to attack right away, that ship was damaged right now and it was the best time to strike.

But the others had voted against that idea, the Ones convincing them to wait and see before attacking, and now they were simply giving their enemy the upper hand.

She walked into the command centre, every other model was there except Leoben, he had retreated to his quarters after they returned from that ship, still working on the drive they recovered.

"What's the emergency?", she asked as she walked inside, empty eyes and depressed looks greeted her.

"Here", the One said waving her over to the bio interface, "Look for yourself"

She walked over and placed her hand on the interface, "One of our satellites near the border picked this up", the One continued talking as the video was loaded into the virtual space, she watched as Armistice station was shown, a heavy raider soon docked, then the video fast forwarded a few hours to show a Colonial Raptor do the same.

She scowled and pulled her hand away, "He's trying to get the Colonials on his side, there's no way the real Cavil would do that"

She turned to the rest of the models, "We cant let that happen"

The One shrugged, "What can we do, if we attack then the Colonials will just join in"

She felt like slapping his head off right then, still the same short sighted shit that got them into this mess, "We need to send someone there not attack them"

"We cant trust the humans, we all know what happened last time", she detected a hint of smugness in his tone, the other models were now watching the two of them.

"Either we do or we die, you can stay here and wallow but I'm going there before there's nothing left", she looked to the others, "Step up or get the frack out of my way"

She watched as the Fours and Fives moved over to the side, standing near the One, she shook her head, those fools would lead them to disaster, she looked at the Three and Eight, "So?"

"We have to do something, you seem to have a plan", the Three said, the Eight nodding beside her.

"Good enough, I'm grabbing Leoben then we're getting a baseship and going to that station"

She left the command centre, the two female models going off to sort out their transport, she traversed the wreckage strewn corridors to find Leoben still locked inside his room, he needed a slapping too, looking at a stupid drive while everything fell apart around him.

She banged on the door hard a few times before just opening the door herself, inside Leoben had his hand on a bio interface device that was connected to some contraption, the drive they recovered was connected to that.

"Leoben, we need to go"

"I've nearly cracked the encryption", he said, his hand still connected, having enough she moved over and disconnected the interface, he opened his eyes and glared at her.

"Why, do you realise how important this is?"

Her fingers itched, "It's not more important than whatever has Cavil allying with the Colonials, we need to get to Armistice station now"

He looked gloomy, "Fine, I can take it with us", he produced a rucksack from under his bed and shoved the whole setup inside, "Lets go"

She glanced over to him as they walked towards the hangar bay, "So, did you find anything out at all?"

He gave her a faint smile, "Something's, none of the information on it though, when we first saw it I thought it was an old magnetic disk hard drive, but I was wrong", he looked to the bag, "Really wrong"

She raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

"The technology that went into building that thing is far beyond us, it uses some kind of holographic molecular storage to keep the data, it can store exabytes of information"

"That doesn't sound that impressive, cant our computers store that much?"

He shook his head, "A drive as big as my fist compared to large server racks, none of our drives would last five thousand years just sitting there either, the data on this drive is still there"

"Well, it'll still be there tomorrow then, we have more important things to worry about right now"

Rhosos

Jack watched as the last of the refugees was sent through the gate, all in all they had rescued around ten thousand people, a far cry from the million plus this planet had before.

The Gould had taken thousands to slave away on his planet before they had arrived and countless others had died during and after the attack, they had arrived a few weeks too late to accomplish much more than what they had.

He should feel happy with what they had achieved by he still remembered what he had seen when the ship had entered orbit, this city was relatively intact compared to the others, those were just craters, that bastard of a snake had bombarded every single house except for this city, who knows how many had died.

He shook his head, anger and bitterness creeping into his thoughts, he watched as the last of the Unions people walked through the gate, Jolinar was fiddling with the DHD too.

It wasn't all smooth sailing either for the SG teams, SG-5 had been ambushed in the concrete jungle of the city, two dead and three seriously wounded, the rest were lucky backup arrived when it did, none of the jaffa survived the encounter.

A team had arrived to take possession of the ship too, they had trained on the shuttle they captured and were going to fly it away from here, not back to Union space though, not for now anyway, there was talk of a tracking device being a possibility so it would stay well away until it could be checked out.

Jolinar was walking over now, he waved for the rest of SG-1 to prepare to leave, "All done?", he asked as she approached.

She nodded, "I erased our arrival from the DHD, the last entry is the connection from Ptahmose"

"Good", he watched as SG-1 formed up at the DHD, "And you have the address for where we're going?"

"Yes, one of Apophis' more remote worlds, from there we shall gate to a similar world of Heru'ur and several abandoned ones before returning to Sol"

Jack nodded, taking one last look at the ruins, Ptahmose was the closest Gould to Earth, he'd be the first one through the gate on the day they came for him, he walked over to the others, looking at the gate activate, "Lets go"

Battlestar Atlantia

En route to the Armistice Station

Admiral Ferore stood rigid in the CIC despite his advanced age, he turned to Greenhill beside him, "Is this for real?"

Greenhill nodded, "Everything he said confirms the information we received on Kobol, an ancient Cylon and Colonial conflict, the arrival of the Goa'uld, it's no coincidence"

"And now one of those ancient Cylons is running around destroying the new ones, a Cylon that has designs on our worlds?"

Greenhill nodded, "According to Wakefield yes, he mentioned that this Baltar character also had some kind of energy pistol too", and wasn't that name auspicious too, they'd need to see if he was related to their Baltar.

"Hmm, it's hard to believe, I didn't believe Corman when he came back with that story the first time"

Greenhill shrugged, "If we want to know more we need to talk to Baltar, Wakefield says he'll only tell more to a senior officer"

"Sir, jump engines are charged, we can jump on your order", the Ensign at navigation called over, Ferore waved him back into his seat.

"If something happens I'll send in the marines, be careful on that station Scott, it could still be a Cylon trap of some kind"

Ferore turned back to the Ensign, "Start the clock"

The ship soon vanished in a flash.

…

Baltar seethed, his anger slipping through the mask he wore, damn that Lucifer, the gall to order his betters around.

Well, now Baltar would have the last laugh, he always picked the winning team and today that was the Colonies, one basestar no matter how advanced in comparison would stand up to whole fleets, Lucifer had become deranged in the thousands of yahren he had been deactivated.

Baltar tapped his foot impatiently, Imperious leader, what a joke, for all that his youth had been restored he was tired, first Adama then the Goa'uld, tired of running, best to let the past stay dead, he had enough trouble wrapping his head around his new life, was he just a copy of a long dead man?

Lucifer's offer itself was an insult, slave away under that rust heap to reap no reward except the hatred of his new underlings, he had enough of that in his last life thank you, no, if he was to live again it would be in luxury, servant on his beck and call, he'd extract a price from these Colonials for his information, enough to live in luxury for the rest of this existence.

He felt the ship dock, the station rumbling as the huge battlestar connected, he could see from the sensors of the heavy raider as it happened, it was a monstrously huge piece of machinery, far larger than the battlestars of his first life, it made the station look like a pebble in comparison.

Baltar took a last look at his outfit, removing a spec of dust from his shoulder and fanning his cape out, time to meet his new people.