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.

29. Chapter 29

Suburban Austin, Texas

Earth

22nd November 2065

Brads dreams were interrupted as his wife rolled over in the bed, his eyes cracked open to the first rays of light penetrating the curtains, it was time to get up, Stephanie pulled the sheets back as she stood up, she threw on an oversized T shirt and vanished into the bathroom, turning on the radio as she passed.

Brad rolled on to his back and opened his eyes to the ceiling, he was on leave so felt no rush to get out of bed just yet, "Good morning, everyone! Welcome back to another edition of 'Morning News Wake-Up!' broadcasting live from Austin, Texas! I'm your host, Sarah Mitchell", a far too chipper voice for this early blasted from the radio.

"And I'm Alex Rivera! We're diving into some important global stories today, starting with a wave of peaceful protests that has taken place across Africa and South America in recent days"

The protests had been all over the news ever since Brad had returned from the war, people in Africa and South America had been agitating for councillors of their own in the Union Council, they were especially mad since Arcadia had Kerensky on there.

Brad let the idle chatter pass through his mind as he closed his eyes, they prattled on for a bit until they said something worth listening to.

"A spokesman for the Terran Union has issued a statement in response to the protests, he said that the organization understands the concerns of the protesters, he emphasized that the Union is committed to listening to the voices from all corners of the globe and will be making adjustments in its representation protocols in the future, including expansion of the Council as needed", the female host said.

"Now, let's turn our attention to the financial markets, in recent news, stocks in consumer goods have seen a notable up tick, largely due to increasing trade with less developed worlds like Pangar and Langara", the male host spoke, "Both worlds are roughly as advanced as pre world war two Earth and companies have been keen to start exporting goods their way, especially consumer electronics and civilian vehicles"

Brad felt the pull of sleep calling back to him as the radio presenters droned on.

"In other news, the Union parliament has approved a new funding bill for the fleet, this additional money will be used to fuel more fleet expansion, the measure was approved by the national governments across the Union, to date this has been the biggest increase in funding since the founding of the Union, commentators are crediting the poor performance of some ships in the recent Aschen war and Gou'ald attack on Abydos as the cause"

As Brad listened to the news he didn't hear the pitter patter of small feet creeping into the room, his eyes shot open when a weight landed on his stomach, winding him, "Daddy, wake up!"

He looked down to see his four year old son hopping on the end of the bed, his three year old daughter sitting on his chest, "Alright, alright, give me a minute"

A dressed Stephanie walked back into the room, "Remember to take the kids to your mothers today, I should be home early though, I'll meet you there", she lifted the three year old off him, "I need to leave now so you'll need to handle breakfast", she kissed the child in her arms then turned to the boy, "Come here and kiss mommy before she goes to work", the boy jumped off the bed and ran out of the room.

She shook her head, "See you then", and walked out of the room, Brad sighed as he heard the door shut downstairs, her office had called yesterday, they needed her to work on the weekend and they had already made plans, if the job didn't pay so well things would be different.

Brad rolled out of bed and turned the radio off, quickly getting dressed he descended to deal with breakfast.

….

Hours later he had taken the kids to a park on the way to his parents house, while not rich things had changed while he was away in space, the old place had been sold and they had moved into a massive new house on the edge of town, his father ran his won company, something that Brad would eventually get involved with, but for now he needed to do things on his own, that was part of the reason he had joined the marines.

Things had changed with the addition of children though, now he would see his contract out then it was off to work in the family business, construction, on the way here he saw one of their sites, a massive block of a new building being erected just outside the town.

He had asked about it, apparently it was one of the emitters for a new shield dome to protect the city, his fathers company had managed to bag the contract to construct several of the buildings to house the machinery, it explained the new house, he must be getting a fortune from it.

Sitting on the park bench he watched his two children run off to the small playground, he kept an eye on them as he looked around the town, he noticed small changes from before he had left for Abydos the first time, a glance to the sky would reveal a big one, far less aeroplanes in the sky.

Now it was full of new shuttle craft, the old aircraft had been replaced by new craft with anti gravity engines, the airport now even took people directly to space, no need to travel hundreds of miles any more.

Another things was the new cars, while electric cars had been around for a long time he saw something new now, fusion powered cars, all the benefits of electric without the hassle of charging, he saw several brand new models with them today alone.

The air too was cleaner, he knew they had built several air purification stations around the world, based on star league tech they were meant to remove decades of pollution from the environment, he didn't know if he was imagining it but it seemed to be working.

He glanced to the sky as another shuttle burned for orbit, the Union had been ceaseless in its expansion too, thirty planets had been colonised so far, most were basically just outposts right now but things were changing fast, New hope had passed the ten million mark while he was away, Star League terraforming tech had made the world much more appealing and the plan to reduce the population of Earth was still in full swing.

The Union was offering land and funds to set someone up on the new colonies, places like Arcada and Heliopolis were already over a million in population and the other new colonies would soon follow, a small dent to the billions on Earth but that would change.

After letting the kids run rampant for a few minutes they resumed the walk to his folks place, the rest of the town was pretty much the same, maybe a bit cleaner than before he left but no major changes, he did spot things on the flight in a few days ago though, other large constructions near the city, the beginnings of orbital defence cannons he had been told, while everything seemed calm the government was taking the threat of the Goa'uld seriously.

He had seen the stuff they had in orbit too, large stations bristling with guns and tons of smaller satellites armed to the teeth, if anyone came knocking on Earths door they'd get a bloody nose even without the fleet.

Chad had also relayed infrom from his father, the ship building industry was booming like mad, they were making new ships and stations all over the place, even over New Hope and some of the other colonies, the civilian shipping market was also expanding rapidly, commercial yards were being set up to churn out freighters, the Union didn't want to rely on the Colonials for all their shipping needs.

Brad didn't really keep with with that kind of thing but he had heard enough from other people, the Union only produced one large freight transport at the moment, the Colossus, and not in enough numbers, that was set to change soon, new commercial designed would soon ply the trade ways, or so he was told.

They stopped in front of his parents new massive mansion of a house, he rang the buzzer and the gates silently opened, his mother was waiting at the porch when the kids ran over, "Grandma!"

"Mom, look after them, I'm off to talk to Sam"

She nodded to him and led the children inside, Brad walked around the back to the large workshop slash garage, his younger brother was inside working on something, yesterday he had phoned up to tell Brad about his amazing new idea, time to find out what it was.

"Yo, Sam", Brad announced as he walked inside, Sam was sitting at the computer in the corner, deeply engrossed in what seemed to be an auction site, "What are you buying?"

Sam had just returned from college studding electrical engineering, the twenty four year old, only one year younger than Brad himself had started to work for their father, he still lived at home though, heck, Brad's mother had recreated his own room in the new house, complete with his gaming rig, once he had space at home he'd move it.

"Hey Brad, check this out", Sam pointed to the auction on the screen, "An old ore hauler, its going for scrap prices"

Brad walked over and looked at the screen, with five minutes left the auction was nearly over, the two hundred meter long ship was a twenty five years old pre jump ship, his eyes boggled at the current price, "Eighty k?, what the fuck?"

Sam smirked, "The prices for anything pre jump engine fell through the floor man, ever since jump drives they cost fuck all, even as scrap they're cheap, the price of metal has dropped like a rock too"

It was cheaper to jump the ore back in a few seconds than waste weeks or more paying for a crew and ship to haul it back the slow way, the mining corporations were dumping their old stocks of ships in favour of new designs with jump engines as standard or buying old jump equipped ships from the Colonies, a necessary feature with mining expanding outside of the solar system.

Brad raised an eyebrow, "Still, that's far too cheap, is something wrong with it?"

Sam chuckled, "Just something minor, the solar panel array is completely gone, she's dead as far as power is concerned, I think the batteries are finished too"

Until recently most civilian ships had relied on battery and solar power, a small minority had hydrogen fuel cells and nuclear batteries, only the government controlled ships ever had nuclear reactors, the fear of dirty bombs prevented proliferation, such power sources were completely useless in the age of jump engines, another factor to companies dropping their old inventory at bargain prices he thought.

His eye caught something at the bottom of the screen, the current highest bid was Sam's he watched in horror as the timer ticked over, "Holy shit, you bought it!"

"Yes!", Sam cheered, "My plan is coming together"

Brad only gaped at his happy brother, "Are you an idiot, you'll be up to your eyeballs in fines when that thing doesn't move, how are you even going to get it anywhere?, where'd you even get eighty thousand"

Sam turned and smirked, "Oh ye of little faith, I have a plan, it's what I wanted to talk to you about, as for the money, I hit up Vegas on my last birthday, you were busy in space shooting aliens or whatever, I won five hundred thousand!"

Brad spluttered, he was speechless, the number floated around his head, five hundred thousand, why did he never win anything like that, "Anyway, let me explain", Sam opened a new tab and brought up another auction site, this one was different though, it was a government liquidation one.

Sam opened up a new listing then pointed to it, "See, jump drives, the fleet has been selling off all the obsolete ones, the four, six and ten light year range ones, their going for cheap"

Brad sighed and looked closer, cheap was an understatement, the ten light year drive for sale had an asking price of two million, dirt cheap for a jump engine but when you could just buy an old Colonial drive for not much more but with a much better range why would you want it, the four light year ones were still going for two hundred grand.

The drives for sale on the sight were those that had been ripped from ships upgraded with better, the four light year range ones were the most numerous, they used to be two light year before improved algorithms improved it, there were several dozen for sale.

"No ones buying them, that's why, the Colonials old junk has better range, so what this amazing plan?"

"I plan to refurbish that ore ship, I've been tracking that auction for weeks looking for the right ship, now I have it, all we need is to plop a jump drive in, pickup a cheap fusion reactor and off we go"

Brad looked at Sam like he had grown another head, "Why?", it was all he could think to ask.

"Kobolium, it worth a fortune, one full load and we'd be swimming in money, even unrefined stuff, the Colonials are going gaga for it, even with a slow drive, then I wouldn't mind exploring a bit, I always wanted to own my own ship"

Brad shook his head, "You're mad"

Sam smirked again, "I already have a few friends on board, I could use your help, even if it's just to get the old girl up and running, did I mention one of my college friends has access to an orbital repair facility, her parents own it", Sam waggled his eyebrows at Brad.

"I still think you're mad, but I can probably lend a hand sometimes, I have two kids you know, I'm still busy even when I'm not deployed"

"Hmm, isn't your term up soon, what are your plans for when you're out?"

Brad shrugged, "I was planning on going to work with dad, there's one snag though, after I'm done I'll be moved to the reserve list, I could be called back at any moment if something else happens"

Sam nodded, "Have you seen the queue's at the recruitment centre, I cant see them running out of people any time soon"

"Alright, keep at it space cadet, I'm going to find dad"

"He's gone out to play some golf, wont be back for hours", Sam turned to look at Brad, "Hey, how about some games, I bet I can still trash you at CS five"

Brad shrugged, "Sure, I got nothing else to do"

Heliopolis

Littlefield City

23rd November 2065

Alekos looked up to the steel walled building before him, his new place of employment, already he had lived far longer than any generation of Argosian before him but their new lifespan had brought alone problems they had never dealt with before, like jobs and money.

He had a wife and child to provide for now, and while the Union had been generous, giving freely both food and a place to live, the city had grown rapidly since their arrival, other needy peoples had arrived, the Rhosisoans and Arionians, or the dome people as some called them, and others too, the world had become a lively place.

One advantage those peoples had over his own was education, both of them had come from worlds more advanced than his own, both of them had taken the lions share of the job opportunities on the planet, the comfortable ones at any rate, the engineers and bureaucrats that ran Littlefield city, the managers, the skilled workers, all were either Terran, Rhososian or Arionians, the less educated were reduced to menial labour.

Alekos and his family while grateful for the assistance wanted to move on from the refugee facilities on offer, he had seen the newly constructed apartments, the houses in the newly built suburbs of the city, he desired the same for his family, but to move on he would need a steady income.

Thus he had searched for work, something suitable for himself, he had searched high and low and only found menial positions, not enough to accomplish what he desired, then a new found friend of his, a man from Avnil, where the sun could scorch your skin even on a cloudy day, told him of a new factory that was to open, after finding out what exactly a factory was he inquired about a job, thus here he was today, for his interview.

The guard waved him through the employee door after explaining his presence, another led him to the managers office, the sound of machinery echoed down the bare corridors, shiny concrete let his shoes tap as he walked behind the guard, he could feel the noise travel through the wall, that must be where the factory floor was.

"Mr Alekos, please come in", a voice called from the room, Alekos entered the small office, a shirt wearing man greeted him with an outstretched arm, the Terran form of greeting, he shook his hand and was directed to sit.

The man could talk an ear off Alekos decided after minutes of chatter but he understood enough, this factory was being funded jointly by the Union and some corporation, what that was he didn't know, to employ the refugees and give them the basic skills needed to work, he would receive all the training needed to operate the machinery.

"Let me show you what we're making", the manager, Tim as he was called, led Alekos to the factory floor, Alekos was shocked when it was revealed to him, conveyor machinery led large metal objects around the room on tracks, strange metal arms would fly down and emit bright lights, Alekos was amazed by the scene.

"We're building cars for export to Pangar and Langara", Tim led them out of the machinery room and to another massive space, cars filled it, Alekos had seen the self moving machines on the streets of Littlefield city before, he could see that these ones while similar looked different.

"Most of our electric stuff wouldn't work on those planets, and they wanted something simpler with less computers they could fix themselves if necessary, so we turned to the past, the nineteen nineties to be exact, they bought the licences to produce a bunch of old cars and trucks to sell to them"

Tim pointed to the nearest bright red machine, "Don't mind the badge, it actually has the drive train of an old Honda Civic", he pointed to another one, this one boxy, "That there is based on and old van but with modern safety standards, way more advanced than anything on those worlds and too polluting for Earth, cheap to make and maintain"

Alekos looked around the massive room, vehicles of all different shapes and sizes were parked awaiting transport to elsewhere, it was amazing to see the scale of production possible, he hoped to one day own such a machine himself.

Tim had brought him over to one of the machines and opened the compartment on the front, "We brought back carburettors for these, fuel injection systems would be too much for the mechanics on those worlds to deal with", he pointed to the innards of the machine, "Simple computer system too, mechanical gauges, nothing too hard to repair"

It was all gibberish to Alekos, but he did learn of what his job would entail, when his training would begin, next week, and his new title, machine operator third class, he internally beamed as he imagined the respect he would receive back in the refugee centre, his family would be moving up in the world.

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

25th November

Jack struggled to keep his eyes open as the To'kra operative droned on about the latest events happening in Goa'uld space, his low voice would send anyone to sleep.

"Unfortunately, we lost two operatives in the attempt, Apophis and Her'ur's alliance has managed to blunt Sokar's advance for now but we expect he will eventually over come them unless the other system lords intervene"

Hammond gave a solemn nod, "I'm sorry to hear that, agent Sina, do the Tok'ra plan to try and disrupt this alliance again?"

The female Tok'ra shook her head, "Not at this time, we are still undecided if the alliance between Apophis and Heru'ur will succeed, by all our predictions Sokar will eventually defeat both then move on to the rest, his quest for vengeance will only be sated once he is supreme system lord and the rest lie dead at his feet, many humans will die along the way"

Hammond nodded, "We understand but right now the Union can only offer assistance, direct military intervention is beyond our means, however", Hammond nodded to Jack, "We have recently received approval for small scale operations, as long as we don't compromise our location the SGC can assist with those"

"Yeah, just point us as some nice juicy targets, I've got a hankering for some Goa'uld steak", Man was he hungry, this briefing had on on for too long.

Sina however looked appalled, "Colonel, I would not recommend eating symbiotes, our biology contains many elements that would be toxic to yours without a symbiote of your own to regulate them"

Jack smirked, he'd eat his hat the day he found a Tok'ra with a sense of humour, although Jolinar had softened up a bit, she was currently occupied with her boy toy Martouf or Lantash, he could never remember which was which, "I'll keep that in mind"

She nodded, "I shall compile a list of possible targets suitable for your skills, our current objective right now is sabotage efforts against both parties in this war, Sokar in particular has numerous advantages and is drawing dangerously close to your own territory of Abydos, he might soon send a ship to investigate the disappearance of Ra"

Hammond frowned, "Stopping any attempt will be our number one priority, is Apophis abandoning his territory in Ra's old domain?"

Sina nodded, "He ceded all of it to Heru'ur to form the new alliance, Sokar took the opportunity to increase his pressure in that sector as Apophis' ships withdrew, he had gained a signifiant percentage before Heru'ur managed to push him back"

She withdrew a small Goa'uld projector, it emitted a detailed three dimensional map of the space near Abydos on one side and the Goa'uld world of Tjaru on the other, a gulf of four thousand light years separated them but a few illuminated specs indicated worlds formerly under Ra's control in the gap.

"Sokar has cut off this sector of space from the rest of Goa'uld space, his forces already occupy the world of Tjaru, he brought a new gate to the world after you stole the old one, we expect he will dispatch forces to investigate these old worlds of Ra once his position is more secure", her finger pointed to Abydos, "Including Abydos but it is likely he will also investigate Earth"

Hammond nodded, "Can you give us a detailed list of the forces on this front", he pointed to the area of space directly across from Abydos.

Sina nodded, "I shall prepare a data package as soon as I return, all the information you require and target locations"

Jack jumped up when a flash of light blinded him, he blinked his eyes as the small form of a grey alien appeared before them, "Greetings", Thor spoke from his command throne.

Hammond recovered first, "Supreme Commander Thor, welcome", he nodded to the Tok'ra, "This is agent Sina of the Tok'ra"

Thor gave her a small nod, "Agent Sina, the Asgard are aware of the Tok'ra and your efforts, Jolinar has left a positive impression on us, we are pleased that some of your species seek to coexist with others, if only more did"

Sina had a slight hint of fear in her eyes after Thor's appearance, "Thank you Supreme Commander, the Tok'ra strive to end the tyranny of the Goa'uld and seek peaceful coexistence with others, Asgard support would help immensely in that effort"

"Perhaps in the future, for now I must discuss some matters with our Terran friends"

Hammond nodded, "If you'll excuse us Agent, we can continue our briefing afterwards"

She nodded and stood, "Until then", she bowed and exited the room, Thor waited until the door closed before speaking.

"I have finished my patrol of the protected planets, apart from Svoriin they were all unmolested", he sighed, "Unfortunately my investigation into the source of the infestation fly has proven fruitless"

"How so?", Jack asked, his wakefulness had returned with the arrival of Thor.

Thor waved a hand and a projection appeared as if by magic, the ugly insect floated before the two men while details on it's genetics floated in the air, "While the organism has obvious signs of genetic tampering there is nothing to conclusively prove malicious action"

Jack snorted, "Yeah right, it's not malicious to have your body turned into ugly bugs like that", he waved to the projection.

Thor sighed, "I do not disagree with your assessment but proving it is another matter, the Asgard council will not endanger the treaty worlds without solid proof", Thor waved his had and the image changed to a planetary view from orbit.

"I was able to reconstruct the events that led to the arrival of the fly on Svoriin, the people there ventured to this planet and were infected, they named it Skaald, their own actions brought this catastrophe upon themselves, it was not an underhanded method to undermine the treaty by the Goa'uld"

Hammond raised an eyebrow, "Someone else's bio weapon?"

Thor shrugged, "Perhaps" a long a thin finger pointed at the planet, "Notice these craters, my scanners detected a high energy event had happened here, orbital weapons fire, they also detected debris consistent with Goa'uld construction in the crater, I suspect the Goa'uld created something beyond their control and destroyed the evidence, I have suspicions on which one but no proof, regardless, it is beyond the remit of my mission"

"Which Goa'uld do you suspect", Hammond asked as he rubbed his chin.

"Nirrti, she has been censured before by the system lords for research into forbidden areas, I suspect she is involved"

"We already encountered her work before, lets just say we're not fans", Jack felt a bit of heat enter his voice, the dead laying where they stood on Hanka was still a fresh memory.

Thor nodded, "I shall transfer the data to you, perhaps it will assist if you encounter the insects again, I also cleansed the world Skaald, it is now safe to visit"

Hammond nodded, "Since you're here, we have a few other matters to discuss"

"Please, proceed"

"Firstly, the Alliance has extended an invitation to the Asgard, they would like a representative to discuss matters"

"I see, I shall pass it along to the high council, perhaps something can be arranged, I shall also enquire about opening up more permanent methods of communication between our peoples"

"That'd be nice, especially when you hear the next one", The little grey Asgard was hard to get a hold of when they needed him, Jack mused.

"Yes, as the Colonel says, a little over a week ago an incident occurred on one of our outposts", Hammond had a tired look to him, most everyone did when they heard what had happened, "The details are unclear but something ripped open portals to other universes, three of them, the outpost was also completely destroyed"

Thor paused and looked at Hammond, his grey hairless eyebrow rose, "I see, and you do not know the cause?", he received a negative shake of Hammond's head, "I shall need to investigate in person"

Thor raised his hand to press a stone on his chair when Jack spoke, "Wait, right now?"

"Indeed, in such matters it is best to act with haste, I have already accesses the data you have on this occurrence, I will return once I have analysed the situation"

A bright flash had Jack blinking again, Thor was gone, "Didn't even say goodbye"

Tagrea

Government Complex

Capital City Tegron

Commander Kalfas paced back and forward in his large office, every time he turned his gaze would turn to the large map pinned on the wall, it was a new feature and spelled out how precarious the position of the Tagrean people actually was.

The wall sized map showed known space around the planet, from the edge of the Goa'uld empire to the Colonies of Kobol six thousand light years away, with Tagrea right in the centre, just a few hundred light years from the edge of Goa'uld occupied space.

He had heard what happened to the Rhososians, their planet had been more advanced, they had ships of their own, it was all worth nothing in the face of just one single Goa'uld, not even a system lord, their planet had been located right on the edge of the Goa'uld, only hundreds of light years from the closest Goa'uld occupied world, Tagrea was hardly much further, a mere thousand light years from the territory of Heru'ur.

He stopped and turned to the map, it had marked the separate Goa'uld lords in different colours, to the galactic north of Tagrea lay the border between Heru'ur and Apophis, he cursed the ancients for destroying all the histories of the planet, if only they knew what had awaited them out here.

He feared they would be discovered soon, they needed to use the time to best effect, fortunately they were in close proximity to the Terrans, as close as the Colonials were on the far side, three thousand light years to Earth.

The small distance, in galactic distances anyway, had let them easily purchase some old ships from them and receive them in record time, when they first joined the alliance they had managed to convince the Terrans to part with four of their frigate class ships, old things still armed with kinetic cannons, but the missiles were powerful enough when naquadah was applied, the ships had been stationed over Tagrea ever since.

It was unfortunate that they had little to offer in return, the government had to pay for the ships on credit but thanks to assisting with the occupation of Aschen worlds the debt had been reduced, once proper exchange rates were set, they where able to pay it completely, the nations with naquadah deposits had the advantage there.

They had also made another valuable purchase, as many surface to space craft as they could afford, those ships were laying the foundation for Tagrea's expansion to the stars, orbital facilities were already under construction.

Chairman Ashwan and the council had supported those efforts fully too, but it still wasn't enough, they needed more, more ships, more crews, better training, better technology.

The alliance was the path forward, this new Alliance Defence Initiave would give his men the training and experience they needed, an organisation to defend all the human worlds, Tagrea included while he built up their own space navy, and today that navy would be expanded.

"Sir", his adjutant knocked and entered, "The ships are due to arrive soon"

Kalfas nodded, "On my way", he strode out of his office and made his way to the situation room, the monitors there would be able to show him his new fleet arriving, on the way he ran into the Chairman, the normally soft man had taken on a hard edge lately, he too understood how perilous their position was.

"Chairman", Kalfas nodded to him as they walked together to the room.

"Commander, I heard that the ships have arrived?"

"So I was informed, how did the conversation with ambassador Kade go?"

Rylan Kade was the Tagrean ambassador to the Alliance, he had been told to inquire with the new Aschen representative about opening trade for select items.

"He spoke to the Aschen delegation, they were open to trading weapons and shields, they even hinted that ships would be available to purchase"

Kalfas nodded, "Good, with the Terrans and Colonials too busy upgrading their own fleets we need to look elsewhere, old obsolete hulls are of little use against the Goa'uld, what was their price?"

Ashwan sighed, "Naquadah, something we lack ourselves"

"And the arms deal with the Andari federation?", they had managed to get the more primitive Langaran nation to buy a good amout of weaponry, particularly armoured combat ballons, anti missile defence systems and thousands of small arms in exchange for naquadria.

"It is still going ahead, we'll see what we can trade to the Aschen with the proceeds, we'll also be looking into purchasing an old mining ship from the Kobolians, we know there is naquadah in system 331 beta, only four light years away"

"An excellent plan Chairman, the sooner the better, we need those weapons"

While just buying ships and weapons was fine for now they were also developing their own, the Aschen database had helped immensely with that, but first they needed to build the facilities to manufacture them, soon the first orbital facility would be complete, things would expand fast afterwards.

Their new weapons and shields would need a power source though, the Aschen anti matter reactors, while powerful, were too volatile for Kalfas to be comfortable, fuelling them would also be an issue, they did not have the massive solar anti matter production facilities of the Aschen after all.

"And the Orbanians?, have they agreed to share their reactor technology?"

Ashwan sighed, "We were unable to come to terms, we have nothing they want"

Kalfas expected as much, they had received everything they wanted from the Terrans, it would be some time before the other alliance members let their more advanced technology out of their grasp, "It will take too long to build our own", the Aschen database had a design for a naquadah reactor, inferior to the Orbanian model, but there nonetheless, only the Aschen's own lack of naquadah had let the design sit unused by them.

"Perhaps the Colonials will sell their tylium reactors to us, if not the Terran gravitic fusion reactors will need to suffice", Kalfas mused, they would use the weapons, shields and reactors to upgrade their small fleet of frigates and buy more old ships while they built up their own industry.

They arrived at the situation room and moved to stand before the large wall mounted screen, "Bring up the satellite cameras, I want to see the ships arrive", Kalfas ordered the soldiers on duty, the screen changed to an empty patch of space.

They didn't need to wait long, a bright flash blinded the camera momentarily to reveal a colossal ship, a Colonial mobile shipyard that was being used to ferry the spoils of the Aschen war, in it's skeletal grasp was the Tagrean's new ships.

Well, most of them, eight ships were docked inside the Colonial one, two Aschen battleships, four cruisers and four corvettes, the two massive freight ships would need to be transported by another means, they were too large.

"The spoils of war Chairman, with those ships our defences are much stronger", he looked to the man beside him, "Have we received word on their new engines?"

Ashwan nodded, "They should be delivered by next week, the freighters will take more time though, they need to be shipped to Aschen prime first then refit there"

"No matter", he turned his eye to his new fleet, Tagrea would not be taken unopposed by the Goa'uld or anyone else.

PG4-225 System

Several light days out

A portal ripped open the barrier between subspace and normal space, a massive Asgard ship shot out as soon as it stabilised, it's advanced stealth technology rendering it invisible to the Terran vessels on patrol deeper in the system.

Thor brought up the scanners, they reached deep into subspace and began to display reams of information, subspace was showing signs of a high energy event, a wave propagating outwards from the system, while it was causing problems for Terran sensors, the Asgard's own were far beyond them.

"Intriguing", Thor spoke as the data came in, highly unstable particles were spread around the system, the kind that could only be manufactured artificiality, or when the barriers between realities were ripped asunder, while mostly harmless it showed the amount of energy that caused this event.

His eyes turned to the portals themselves, perfect circles to other universes, the radiation patterns detected were familiar to him, the Asgard had experimented with universal travel in the past, such endeavours were abandoned with the war against the replicators and their genetic degradation problems.

His scans showed the portals were stable and posed no risk to the fabric of reality, on either side, but they were clearly artificial in nature, he would find out the cause, his location was chosen for a reason, the light from the event should be reaching here now and combined with the subspace sensors he would find out what happened.

The events played out before him, the arrival of a ship, dragged from elsewhere by the device on the surface, he detected the telltale signs of ancient technology at work on the surface of the planet, he knew the Terrans had the quantum mirror in their possession, was this the result of them toying with things beyond them?

The High Council was worried about gifting the humans technology exactly for this reason, the molecular printers were both a gift and a test, to see if they would abuse the technology in ways that the Asgard would not approve of, they would need to prove themselves before they could be trusted with more.

A disappointed sigh escaped his lips as he saw what happened next, the power overload on the surface, it had the hall marks of an ancient power crystal overloading, sending an ungodly amount of power into their device and causing the opening of the portals, fortunately no life was lost, the ship then entered the first portal and vanished, he had seen similar models in Terran service, he would need to inquire about it's identity.

The computer chimed as its analysis on the portals completed, they were slowly healing, the universe was like a living organism, healing its wounds slowly, it would take near a hundred thousand years for them to close completely, he considered methods to accelerate it but dismissed them, interfering could cause things to degrade, better to let them close on their own.

A stone rune on his throne was moved and the holographic projector came to life, the small form of an Asgard was projected on the ship, "Supreme Commander Thor", Chief Archon Borr nodded to Thor, "You have a matter to discuss?"

"Chief Archon, it appears that the humans have been experimenting on ancient dimensional travel technology and unwittingly opened three portals to other universes, transmitting the data now"

Borr sighed, "I see, was there much damage?"

Thor shook his head, "The humans were uninjured but the damage to the planet was extensive, it will recover in time though"

Borr glanced away as he examined the data, "The portals appear safe for now, I do not see why we should concern ourselves with this matter further, this is a problem of the humans own making"

The nominal leader of the Asgard council was against sharing technology with anyone, he felt the humans were too reckless and immature to handle it, he didn't want a repeat of the end of the Ancient human empire, even then Asgard opinion was similar regarding to their allies who were more advanced at the time.

"Indeed, but I must caution you that these portals could lead to anywhere, the Terrans already confirmed one leads to a reality that was fiction to them, it could endanger the protected planets and humanity in general"

"Very well, deploy an observation device near these portals, if anything attempts to come through that is beyond the humans and is a danger to others we will intervene, contact me if you learn more pertinent information", Borr's holographic avatar vanished from the ship.

Borr was always a grump Thor thought, a flick of his wrist and the fabricator created and deployed a stealth observation probe, he set it to travel above the elliptical of the system, directly over the portals, it would remain and monitor for abnormal activity.

For now he would present his findings to the Terrans, they should be able to shed more light on the matter, like the ship that entered the portal containing the population of the planet.

Helm System

Free Worlds League

1st November 3005 (28th November 2065)

Malthus contemplated the events of the past few weeks as the drop ship bounced around in the turbulence of reentry, it had been a shock to discover that the portal led them to the past, nearly forty five years into it, twenty one years before his own existence began.

Once the shock had passed and they had taken some time to consider things, especially the information contained within the documents, he had decided on a course of action, one that would pre-empt the Clans humiliation in the future, he would cripple the freebirth's before the invasion even began.

He scowled as his mind considered the traitorous Wolves, their mission to prepare the scavenger lords for the arrival of the Clans, they would see justice soon enough, but that a failure they would be, failing their mission to prepare the freeborn, Malthus would have performed far better.

His plan was simple in its objectives, the first was the world they were about to land on, Helm, it contained a database that would enable the scavenger lords to recover partially from the damage they had inflicted upon themselves, one that he would make sure they never received.

The only problem he had was with how they would accomplish this mission, they couldn't go in screaming they were Clan Jade Falcon, letting the freebirths know of the Clans at this point would be folly and costly if anyone learned he did so, even the Wolves had hidden their origin.

Clan culture was also an issue, while he would like to apply zellbrigen to these operations they would need to use subterfuge, even their language would cause issues, they would need to watch how they spoke to the spheroids for now.

A compromise had been reached, while they could not openly declare a batchall, doing so risked informing the Dragoons of their existence, better they stay ignorant until he arrived at Sudeten, he did plan on challenging what ever warriors lay below in honourable combat, he would simply need to judge the level of force to apply in each situation, a star would suffice for this world.

His mech shook as the drop ship touched the ground, the ramp dropped to the ground and his Summoner strode forth, "Defenders of Helmsdown, this is Colonel Nicholai of the Falcon Warriors, I challenge your warriors to open combat for the supplies in this space port"

This attack was a distraction in the end, while his star did combat at the space port another drop ship was en route to the star league library facility, they would attempt to blast through the door, hopefully triggering the defence mechanism, it would do the job of destroying the data core.

He smirked as the first combat vehicle rolled around from behind a building, an ugly monstrosity of a tank, Nicholai recognised it from the book as a Vedette, easy prey.

A burst of auto cannon fire leapt from the turret as he jinked his mech, the burst sailed past as he replied with his PPC, the bolt of charged particles melted the front of the vehicle as Malthus increased the throttle, stomping past the burning wreck as his star fanned out around the ship, LRM's began to rain from the sky as he rounded the corner to see the full might of Helm, a paltry selection of tanks and missile carriers, a whole herd of surat for the slaughter.

His arm raised and unleashed his own auto cannon, the LB-X ten opened up and sprayed the offending vehicles with shrapnel, his mech dived forward as the missiles began to impact where he stood, blowing holes in the aged concrete of the spaceport, standing he unleashed his SRM-6 on another tank, this one a Scorpion, the enhanced clan missiles blew a hole through the light vehicles armour.

Shells and missiles began to impact, the tough clan machine shrugged of the light fire as Malthus advanced on the enemy, his PPC spoke again removing another tank, his small laser carved a hole in the launchers of an LRM carrier, causing its munitions to immolate, debris rained down on the defenders as he advanced.

Lasers burned into his side as he passed a warehouse, his scanners picked up the offending machine that had waited to strike, a venerable Commando, 2D model, a volley of SRM's flew into the side of his mech as the light machine began to retreat, its medium laser carving a shallow gouge in his armour.

Malthus turned to engage, his PPC fired again, the deadly accurate Clan warrior caught the withdrawing mech in the head, reducing it to a ruin, the mech toppled over backwards as he turned to finish off the now retreating vehicles.

His auto cannon finished off the fleeing missile carriers as he opened the tac channel, "This is Malthus, all defenders in the north sector are destroyed or routed, report"

"Star Colonel, the east sector is clear, there was only one enemy mech present, a Locust"

"The west sector is also clear, no enemy forces present"

"Two enemy mechs and numerous vehicles destroyed at the star port entrance south of our ship, one Assassin and one Hunchback, they were no match for Clan prowess"

Nicholai nodded to himself, such machines were antiques to the Clans, they were no match for Warrior Teng's Stromcrow, "Begin deployment of infantry, I want the food supplies secured and loaded onto the drop ship as soon as possible"

He looked past the space port and to the city beyond, he expected they would mount an attack soon enough, "All mechwarriors, prepare for enemy assault, we shall hold here until our objectives are complete"

The wait was long, especially when the freebirth scum deployed artillery to take shots at his mechs and ship but some Clan ASF soon discouraged that, he eventually felt the ground tremble, "Star Colonel, objective complete, the data repository is destroyed"

"Excellent, this world has grown tiresome anyway, all forces prepare to withdraw"

He watched from his cockpit screen as the drop ships burned for orbit, he got to see the return of the Yehudan Sea as the valley containing the cache was inundated with water, mission accomplished, now on to the next target, Hesperus.

Sentinel Station

Earth Orbit

Coleman expected to feel tired from all the running around he had been doing the past week but he actually felt great, amazing actually, strong as an ox and full of energy, he didn't even need his glasses any more and already looked ten years younger, all thanks to the new genetic treatment they had started rolling out in the armed forces, the civilians would soon be granted access after a but more testing but Coleman had no complaints.

Heck, he even hit the gym today, it surprised him when he was able to bench over four hundred pounds, a skinny old man, it made him realise just how strong the Jaffa actually were, they would be monsters in melee combat.

A quick shower and change of clothes and it was time for the meeting, he walked there with a spring in his step and greeter the other admirals with a smile, he saw that they too looked healthier and younger, everyone was getting the treatment.

His cheerful mood disappeared when he sat down though, the mess of the portals coming back into his mind, it had revealed some things that were rotten in the Union, like unauthorised research sites.

"Alright Ashford, you're up"

The British head of fleet intel nodded and cleared his throat, "After analysing the data supplied by the Asgard Thor we now know that the incident was caused by an illicit research facility on the planet, it operated under the guise of black hole research, investigations are currently ongoing into who authorised the project and other details"

"The data also indicated the presence of several recovered pieces of technology, namely the quantum mirror and two devices recovered on Abydos, the Eye of Ra and the pedestal device, all three were missing from the storage facility in area fifty one"

Coleman waved the other admiral to sit as he began to talk, "Whoever did this is high up in the Union, they'd have to be to get this done, the Asgard data confirmed it was the eye exploding that caused the damage to the planet, another issue is the jump ship, did we learn anything more there?", he directed the end to Ashford.

Ashford shook his head, "While the Asgard sensors are years beyond ours they still don't have enough to positively identify the ship, we do know it is a Monolith class and we can identify several of the drop ship types attached but who owns it or where it came from are unknown"

Coleman sighed, "I talked with admiral Drake before this briefing, you'll be happy to know that the new subspace relay satellites work a treat, anyway, she sent me some sensor logs from the other side", he pulled out a remote control and activated the holo projector built into the table, a sensor scan appeared, thousands of contacts were shown.

"Their all ships, finding one jump ship in that will be like finding a needle in a stack of needles, and it's only a small bit of the other side"

Fontana sighed, "So, their gone then, with our people and the Eurondans"

Coleman nodded, "There's nothing we can do about it but keep our eyes and ears open and hope whoever they are show up"

The admirals grumbled at the news, no one liked letting that ship slip away but there was nothing that could be done.

"The parliament is still debating how to deal with the other side, but the council and president have given us an idea of what's to come, they're seeing this as an opportunity"

Coleman stood and gestured with the remote in hand, the projection changed to a map of the Inner Sphere, "Thousands of worlds, some primitive, some not, and trillions of people, that bit of space there probably has more people than our entire galaxy"

"And most of them under some form of dictatorship", Thorne commented with a bit of heat in her voice.

Coleman nodded, "We'll have to swallow our pride, the Dracs and Capellans are right out too, but the others are possible allies, they have the population and with our help will have the industry too, they could field the kind of numbers we'd need to fight the Goa'uld"

Barrowman leaned on his elbows as he looked at the map, "I've read the books, this time period is when they were at their lowest, they nearly bombed themselves back to the stone age, can we fix that?"

Coleman shrugged, "Were not rushing in to this and there's still ComStar to deal with as well, but eventually were going to try and contact some of those nations, see what can be done, hell, a market of trillions will gobble up anything we can sell them, the arms industry will be climbing over us to get through that portal"

"What about the other portals?", Fontana asked.

"For now nothing, all travel past sending some early warning probes through is banned, we don't know what's on the other side and don't want to provoke something more powerful than us"

Coleman clicked the remote and the map disappeared, "The Council has authorised the deployment of several ships, refit jump ships in our possession and something special, to go into the sphere and begin investigating the nations there, we need to determine if there are any differences from what we know before we attempt formal contact with any single nation"

"What about ComStar, they already know we exist, they could be spreading disinformation about us already", Thorne pointed out.

Coleman shrugged as he returned to his seat, "For now we wont antagonise them, if they return to the system we'll see how things go but for now we wait and see"

The other admirals nodded, "Now that that's out of the way we can discuss more important matters, namely the new intel we received from the Tok'ra"

Everyone knew that Abydos was vulnerable, the system had become dead and empty after Ptahmose's attack, the mining companies had moved on to closer kobolium deposits in safer systems, the planets population had dwindled as everyone left for fear of the Goa'uld returning and even the native Abydonians had diminished, many seeking work on Heliopolis, only a few thousand people now called the planet home.

"We're reducing the number of active ships in the system in favour of moving them here, HD 441567, it's within one jump of Abydos, we'll leave a tripwire and hopefully get the drop on any Goa'uld ships that show up"

"A repeat of our previous plan then?", Fontana asked.

Coleman nodded, "Two Minotaurs will be stationed there and their attendant fleets of our most modern vessels, they should he able to handle any single Goa'uld ship, along side the satellite defences"

"The SGC is working on several ops to discourage any exploration towards our space though, lets hope we wont need to fight over Abydos"

Nashville Air and Space Port

Tennessee, Earth

Eyes turned as the rusty ninety year old truck pulled up at the drop off point, the gas powered truck was one he and his son had fixed up a few years ago, Chad's first ride, rust aside the machine was in top condition, it got him to work every day before he joined the marines.

Tucker senior opened the door and let his wife out as Chad exited on the drivers side and began to haul their bags down, while the woman gave Chad a hug Tucker man handled the luggage onto a trolley he found nearby.

"Alright son, keep an eye on the house for the next two weeks, and watch that woman of yours, she's as lost as a goose in a snowstorm", Tucker put a fatherly hand on his shoulder, "I'm proud of you boy, and you know how giddy your mother got when she heard about grand kids, she'll be expecting a wedding date by the time we get back"

Chad's cheeks turned red as he shrugged, "It's early days still pops, give her time to settle in, have fun off in the Colonies"

Tucker nodded, "Two weeks, remember to come pick us up"

Tucker watched as Chad got in the truck and drove off into the early morning traffic, he turned to the missus and they entered the airport, the first leg on a three day journey to the Colonies of Kobol.

Tourism between Earth and the Colonies was new, only a few thousand people so far had taken the trip, getting visas had been the most difficult part, the bureaucracy was fresh and inefficient, tickets had cost an arm and a leg too, plus he needed to take time off work for a month.

It was a good time for it though, the yards had stopped work while the newfangled printer things were being installed, Mrs Thompson had also saved up for months beforehand to buy the package trip, first class accommodations awaited them on Caprica.

They breezed through the spaceport and were soon standing at the new departures lounge on Unity Station, the main civil station for Earth and main point of departure for all civilian traffic to the Terran Colonies, the new lounge was specifically for cross national travel.

Tucker took it in with the gaze of a man long used to travelling to orbit and beyond, his wife however was giddy as all get out, openly gawking out the windows, he spotted their ride docked near the lounge, a Colonial cruise liner, the Zephyr, it had a large ring shaped structure to the rear, it offended his sensibilities as a builder of ships, it looked to flimsy.

"Another two hours before we can board, I saw a duty free shop over yonder, you go and find us some seats while I grab a few things", Mrs Thompson ordered him as they stared up at the departures board.

"Yes dear", Tucker scanned the benches and seats available, the coffee shop over in the corner had a few tables free and a good view of the ship outside, he left Mrs Thompson to her shopping and moved over, while walking he spotted an old man nursing a drink, something about him drew his eye, he was familiar somehow.

Ordering a coffee himself he took a seat across from the man, trying to recall where he knew him from or if it was a case of mistaken identity, as he sipped he didn't spot the man standing and making his way over, "Excuse me, are you also going to the Colonies?"

The man had a funny accent, Tucker thought it sounded Irish or Scottish but with a hint of something else, he looked up at the man, "Sure am, Tucker Thompson at your service", he extended his hand as the man sat down across from him.

"Lucius Baltar", The name rang a bell, Tucker racked his brain and remembered the Captain he had talked to just before his time off, he was a Baltar too, wasn't he famous for something, ah yeah, the survivors of the Velos.

"You're one of the survivors of the Velos, ain't cha, I was just talking to your son the other week"

The old man smiled, "Yes, that's me, and you were talking to Marcus?"

Tucker nodded, "Yeah, I work up on the lunar shipyards, he was seeing his new ship for the first time, I gave him the tour, so, going home?"

"For a visit only, Earth is my home now, but I did leave another son back on Aerilon, it will be good to see him again", he nodded over to the bench seats in the centre of the lounge, "Most of the family is coming too, except Marcus, but he already met his brother"

Tucker gave him a smile, "That'll be some reunion, myself and the wife are just hitting up Caprica, she's been badgering me about a trip out there ever since our son returned from the expedition, he was there alongside your son"

"Small world", Baltar commented, "I've never been to Caprica myself and all my knowledge is over forty years out of date anyway, but if you want to go to Aerilon I can recommend a few spots to see, the Agricultural museum in Gaoth was the best in the Colonies"

Tucker had seen enough farms at home, "We'll see, I was planning on going to the fleet museum over Scorpia though, they have an extensive collection going back hundreds of years"

They talked for a few minutes more before Baltar excused himself and the wife returned carrying bags of food, "Dammit Theresa, what are we going to do with all this?"

She gave him the eye, "I don't know what kind of food they have over there, I'm just taking this stuff in case"

Tucker shook his head, "And I'll be carrying it"

The time passed and it was time to board, soon they were entering their cabin for the three day trip, "Spacious enough", he opened the bathroom door, "Has a shower at least", he spotted the flat screen panel on the wall, "Wonder what the Colonial TV is like"

"No time for that, I want to go to the observation lounge, I'm starved and I want to see the ship leave"

Tucker sighed, "Hold your horses woman, lets unpack first, the ship wont be leaving for an hour"

An hour later the Zephyr vanished from the Sol system, the Tuckers were on their way to the Colonies.

Heliopolis Orbit

1st December 2065

Anticipation was high on the ships in orbit, every eye and sensor had been turned to a single point in space for the past several hours, waiting for it to arrive, even below people would occasionally turn their heads to the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of its arrival.

The time was upon them, a massive bright light appeared over the planet, several hundred thousand kilometres away but so intense it was visible on the surface, a massive station was left in its wake, nearly thirty kilometres at its widest, the Cylon colony had arrived.

Other flashes began to happen as the attendant fleet burst into the system, freighters and combat vessels and even a battlestar to escort the massive construct, shuttles were already taking off from the surface as the Alliance moved to inspect its new military headquarters.

Down in Littlefield city the members of the alliance assembly watched the events in orbit on a screen, the eager faces of the Langarans, the dour Tagrean and politely smiling Orbanian, all watched the dawn of a new era of human power, unseen since the collapse of the Ancient human empire, the Alliance Defence Initiative had begun in earnest.

"As promised, the new AID headquarters station of course there is still much work to do, the Colonies expect the other nations to help in outfitting the station for alliance use", Ambassador Falco beamed as he spoke, his chest puffed out with pride.

Liora Ventnor, the current president of the assembly gave him a polite smile, "The Orbanian nation has pledged to supply a new power system to the station, you will not find us wanting"

Weir nodded to Faclo, "We'll supply the shields and weapons"

Their eyes turned to the others, they had a sheepish look but offered what they could, which was mostly manpower and money but appreciated nonetheless.

"Ambassador Falco has proposed it is time to select a leader of the AID, since there are no other candidates we shall vote now", The Colonials had proposed their ex fleet head, Ferore to be the first leader of the AID, the man had experience, Weir would grant him that, the Union had no objections to his leadership.

It was a quick vote, Ferore was a shoe in, now the task of building up the AID would fall to him, the alliance nations had already selected the personnel who would be joining, the Aschen ships gifted to the Terrans and Colonials were already in orbit waiting for crew, minus a battleship kept for study each, and the old ships were also waiting in orbit, the seed of the AID was ready to sprout.

Everything else was already arranged, budgets had been approved, money transferred and supplies stockpiled and in a few months the AID would begin its first mission, supporting the efforts to liberate Tellus in the Paraskenia Sector.

"Ambassador Kade, you have a question?", Liora asked, breaking Weir from her musings on the future.

"Yes, the people of Tagrea would like to enquire why the Orbanians refuse to sell naquadah reactors when you have traded that technology to the Terrans"

Liora sighed, "We have not refused to sell our reactors, we simply do not have the capacity to supply ship scale reactors at any large volume", Weir saw the normally composed Orbanian woman get a bit heated, "Frankly, your offer for the technology itself was insulting, we have no use for armoured balloons, if you want our reactors you will need to offer something of equal value in return"

Kade shrank into himself, clearly not expecting Liora to get angry, Liora nodded to Kade, "Still, I will ask the Orbanian government to reconsider our position"

The much younger looking Doctor Zervis chuckled at the display, "Everyone is still holding on to their secrets, some things never change", he commented to Weir, "Madam President, the people of Vyus would like to suggest a proposal to the assembly"

Liora nodded to him, "Please, you may speak Doctor"

Zervis nodded, "I think we need a joint project, something we can all contribute to, I was thinking a small ships, something like a small freighter", he nodded towards the others, "Not everyone was gifted a small fleet of ships, think of it as something to get trade flowing"

Liora nodded, "I see", she looked to Kade, "We would have no issue with you learning to build your own reactor from us, a joint project would enable that"

Kade nodded, "The Tagrean people would support such an endeavour"

A quiet woman raised her hand, the first time she tried to speak at the assembly, the representative from the Aschen, currently a non voting observer only, Liora nodded to her, "Representative Rahl, you have a question?"

Rahl nodded, "The Aschen might have a negative reputation but we would like to change our image, if you are serious about such a project we would make our shipyards available, we could produce bulk quantities of such a small vessel"

Liora gave her a smile, "That is heartening to hear, while we are more advanced than some in the alliance we lack large scale manufacturing of stellar craft"

Weir rested her head on her hands as she considered the discussion, Zervis was a canny bastard, this project would smooth over some ruffled feathers if it worked, of course they need to limit the tech in those ships, everyone had access to the Aschen database so using theirs should be fine.

Liora turned to Zervis, "Your idea has merit, if you would be so kind to write up a full proposal for the assembly, we shall revisit the matter in the future"

The old man smiled and bowed his head, the assembly trudged on discussing other matters, they still needed to sort out interstellar banking, that was a headache on its own.

P2X-416 Orbit

2nd December 2065

Two powers vied against one another on the world below, both spanning continents, their war had been fought for decades but actual combat was somewhat rare with only the occasional skirmish, instead both were locked in their own version of a cold war, a stalemate until an outside factor intruded.

High above the planet space warped and emitted bright light as a metal object pushed through from a distant location, alarms went off down below as their detection systems picked up the ship now in orbit, panic ensued before everyone realised it wasn't an attack but something else all together.

Every satellite in range turned their electric eyes towards the four hundred meter long vessel, watching as it sat above and scanned them, alien script adorned its side, completely unknown to the nations below, hotlines were called for the first time in years as both sides scrambled to find out anything, even if it meant talking to their enemies.

All this happened as Captain Peng gazed at the planet below, another blue and green marble similar to Earth, one gee of gravity, same atmospheric density and composition, more proof that some ancient aliens had terraformed the galaxy.

Beside him was Ambassador Batten, the old man had been a member of the house of Lords in England before becoming an ambassador for the Union, he was affable and liked his cognac, and every other drink under the sun too, but when he was sober he was sharp as a tack.

"What do we know about this planet?", Chau asked.

"P2X-416, two main continents one named Bedrosia the other Optrica, according to the file the planet is named Nefertosh, a homage to the Goa'uld who brought people here, both of the nations below are currently engaged in a small fracas"

Chau sighed, "A fracas"

Batten smiled, "It's quite similar to the post war stuff back on Earth, two super powers opposed to each other, while our was primarily about social systems theirs however is about religion, while our powers engaged in proxy wars the people below have come to actual blows, fortunately they have refrained from going nuclear"

Chau shook his head, "Terrific, and we want to invite them into the Alliance"

Batten closed the folder he was holding, "Buck up old chap, I'm sure we can sort this out, lets start with the Optricans, they believe they were brought to the planet as slaves through a magic ring, the gate, we should be able to reach an accord with them easily enough"

Battens finger tapped on the folder as they both looked at the planet on the screen, "The Bedrosians however are another matter, they believe their god, Nefertum, created life on the planet below, humans included, this whole war is about that, it might take more time than we have to get them onside"

Chau nodded, while he had read the files himself, it was good to get an expert diplomats opinions on things like these, the files were unusual in both how detailed they were on certain points and had no information on others, they knew the Bedrosians would soon discover their stargate, they even knew the general location, a hand drawn map of the world had been included, Chau wondered if someone invented a time machine and didn't tell him, it was the only explanation he could think of.

"Alright, lets get this show on the road, Ensign", he looked to the man as the sensor station, "What have you determined about the planet and its people?"

"Sir, scans show roughly eight hundred million people live below, extensive infrastructure and cities are dotted everywhere, there are also numerous satellites in orbit but nothing larger"

"Just like the intel said", Chau rubbed his chin in thought, "Can you determine their level of technology?"

The ensign nodded, "Somewhat sir, the sensors can detect civil fusion power stations and shield generators around the major cities, the satellites are also fusion powered and shielded, but the power output is below our own designs, for both shields and reactors"

Batten nodded, "As we expected, how have they reacted to our presence so far?"

"We've been picked up by their sensors, standard radar and lidar types, there are also several armed satellites in orbit that have scanned us, they appear to be armed with low power particle weapons and missiles with nuclear warheads, the missiles appear to be a ground attack variant and pose little danger to us at this distance"

"Comms, have they attempted to communicate?"

"No sir, all the chatter I'm picking up is being directed at themselves, they were quite upset"

Chau stood, "Lets introduce ourselves then, comms, open a channel"

"Ready sir"

Chau straightened his back and looked at the planet below, "Attention citizens of Nefertum, this is the Terran Union vessel, Vanguard, we come in peace", he signalled the comms officer to end the transmission.

"Laying it on a bit thick there Captain", Batten commented as he returned to his seat.

Chau shrugged, he thought it sounded fine, "Any response?"

The comms console began to beep like mad, "Er, yes sir, but there's a lot, give me a moment to sort this out"

Chau nodded, everyone with a transmitter on the planet was sending messages already, the bandwidth was clogged with everything from their version of the Arecibo Message to open threats and everything in between, eventually the ensign at comms had some government officials on the line.

A man's face replaced the planet on the main screen at Chau's console, "I am Chancellor Riato of Bedrosia", his eyes narrowed at Chau, "You do not appear to be alien, we will not fall for Optrican lies"

Chau raised an eyebrow, "We're human, Chancellor, just not from your planet, we represent a nation called the Terran Union, tens of thousands of light years from here"

The comms ensign waved for his attention, muting the microphone as she spoke, "I have the Optrican leader trying to contact us, shall I patch them in?"

Chau nodded, the screen split to show another face, another balding man, "This is President Tradon of Optrica, your arrival has caused quite a stir"

"Tradon, is this another attempt at subterfuge, an attempt to undermine the tenants of our faith, we will not allow it", Riato's angry voice came through the speaker.

Tradon shrugged, "This is not us Riato, if we had such technology Bedrosia would already be under our control, face the facts, we were right"

Chau watched as the two men began to argue, "Lies!, we will destroy this false herald you have contrived, we will not fall for Optrican deception"

"Sir, several of the satellites have painted us, they are arming their weapons", the sensor officer called out.

Chau sighed, "Raise shields", he gave his own glare at the Bedrosian leader, "Let me make something clear Chancellor, this ship could lay waste to your entire planet, call of those satellites or we will remove every bit of Bedrosian hardware from orbit"

Riato sneered down the screen, "Your empty threats mean nothing", he looked to someone off screen, "Destroy that thing!"

Several of the armed orbital satellites turned their small energy turrets towards the ship, bolts of yellowish orange energy built up before launching an orb like ball of energy towards the ship, the relatively slow barrage began to impact the shields of the Vanguard.

Chau looked at the shield readout on his console, he thought he might a felt a tremor in the ship but it might just be his imagination, "Negligible damage to shields, sir"

Chau looked back to he Chancellor, "Fine, if you want to play games then let me show you how we do it", he looked to the comms officer, "Start broadcasting this to the whole world down there"

"Aye sir, transmitting on wide band, everyone down there will be able to see and hear you"

"Frankly Chancellor, we don't need you, this ship could neatly dismantle every piece of military equipment you have from up here then all we'd have to do is let the Optricans take over, they seem more amenable"

Chancellor Riato was starting to look a bit pale and had begun to sweat after the ship had failed to be destroyed, "Weapons, target every satellite firing on us and destroy them"

"Sir", the weapons officer began to press buttons, outside the ships pulse cannon turrets began to turn and target the individual satellites, the lieutenant operation weapons turned down the power massively to not damage the planet below when he hit the trigger.

Electric blue pulse cannon shots rocketed out of the barrels, the near light speed weapons covered the distance in a fraction of the time it took the Bedrosian weapons, each shot erasing the satellites from existence, their weak shields barely slowing down the under powered shots, leaving only dust to burn up in the atmosphere.

"If you persist with trying to harm this ship we will remove all your strategic weapons facilities from the face of the planet", Chau turned to the Chancellor on the screen, he seemed to be trembling now, "If you don't want us to pick a side in your little war then stop trying to throw a tantrum like a child"

Chau turned to comms, "Get him off my screen", the Chancellor disappeared from the screen, "President Tradon, I was serious about us coming in peace but we will not tolerate being attacked either, we will arrange to communicate further once things have cooled down a bit"

The balding president had turned several shades paler but was still composed, "Understood Captain, you made your point quite clear, I look forward to meeting your people", the President vanished from the screen soon after.

Chau collapsed into his chair feeling drained from the experience, "We'll that went well"

Batten closed his open mouth, "A bit heavy handed, don't you think?"

Chau nodded, "Perhaps, but its better to lay our cards on the table now, I'm not going to let some deranged fool dictate terms to us, if the Bedrosians want to play stupid games we'll show them the price, like you said, the Optricans are more amenable to us anyway"

Batten sighed, "I'll see what we can salvage from this mess, but I understand your position Captain, they fired on the ship, not the actions of a friendly people"

Chau sighed, "I'll leave it to you Ambassador, I've had my fill of diplomacy for today"

Nasya (P3X-382)

Nasaya Village

Jessica Meier stood in front of the tent as she gazed out over the village, the sun reflected off the nearby lake as she felt the cool morning air pass around her, she smiled and walked out to the construction site of the new school.

A simple timber affair and built with the help of the local people, it was all part of a program the Union had started soon after discovering the gate, after months of setting up they were finally ready to begin when the whole operation was folded into the new Alliance planetary development department, that had set the program back another month.

Still, they were here now, and on several other planets too, Cartago, Simarka, the Land of Light, planets still primitive and backwards, and some still receiving regular visits from the Goa'uld, the program would hopefully manage to educate the people of those worlds and bring their standards of living to the nineteenth century at least.

She walked over to the timber frame sticking out of the ground, once finished the building would also contain a small clinic for the people of the planet, minor injuries would no longer be crippling or fatal.

A bell rang as the people began to leave their houses and begin the days work, Jessica returned to the large tents, the current school, she waved to the other people from the APDD who were working here and began to set up for the day, teaching basic skills such as math and english to the children while the other teachers taught the adults the basics of hygiene and more advanced farming techniques.

Soon the screaming children of the village were running across the field towards the tents for their hour of education before they were to work the fields beside their parents, they filed into the large tent and took their seats at the cheap desks shipped through from Earth.

She was considering introducing Christmas to the planet, damn what that cold doctor Bertrand had said about cultural contamination, she had a few ideas for gifts for the children, she smiled to herself as she began to teach, happily explaining the symbology for numbers to the children.

Her smile vanished when a panicky man entered the tent half an hour later, "The gates opening!", she exited the tent after him while telling the children to remain, outside she had a good view of it on the other side of the lake, she saw the blue blast as the wormhole stabilised, she felt trepidation as she wondered who it could be.

A vehicle soon exited the gate, a humvee she thought, it drove up to the tents and two military men exited, they exchanged some words with the leader of the group, Doctor Bertrand, before moving to the back of their car and pulling out crates, Jessica wanted to know what was happening and moved over to Bertrand.

"Paul, what's all this about?"

Bertrand sighed as he spoke, "Another aspect of the APDD's policy's I'm afraid, teaching these people to use weapons"

Jessica's hand covered her mouth in shock, "You cant be serious, these people don't even have iron, we cant give them guns"

Bertrand shrugged, "It's been decided, in light of the threat the Goa'uld pose the Union is going to offer planets like this access to training and weapons, if they want it that is"

Jessica watched as one of the soldiers opened a crate, rifles were inside, the familiar to her forms of AK's, she had seen enough of those while she had worked in Africa helping refugees, she felt bitter disappointment as she watched the menfolk of the village approach, eager to learn the ways of war.

Bertrand shook his head, "There not just giving them weapons, they're forming an army, people from worlds too primitive to join the alliance will be recruited and trained, sort of like the foreign legion, they'll be deployed to protect worlds like this"

Jessica sighed in defeat, "Why?, why not use our own troops"

Bertrand looked away from the gathering crowd and turned to Jessica, "Fear of the Goa'uld capturing them mostly, you know we're not to say where were from, they'll train them on some random planet, they wont know enough to be a threat should the Goa'uld get them"

He laid a hand on her shoulder, "It's not all bad Jess, this isn't Earth, the Goa'uld wouldn't think twice about shoving a snake in these people heads or sending them into mines until they die, they deserve the chance to defend themselves"

Bertrand also knew that the Colonials had already started arming the few worlds they had discovered with primitive populations, he imagined their program would be rolled into the APDD's too.

"Go on back to the children, I'll stay here and keep an eye on things"

Jessica nodded, her earlier cheer now long gone as reality intruded on her idyllic fantasies.

Arcadia

Orbital Shipyard One

3rd December 2065

"All systems are green, final checks complete", a voice announced over the speaker as several distinguished men and women watched from within the observation lounge, "Dockyard space is clear, we are ready to proceed"

A ribbon had been tied around a large theatrical lever, a man was handed a pair of scissors and moved forward, "Councillor Kerensky will now cut the ribbon", a voice announced as Kerensky gave a wave to the watching cameras.

"Today we enter a new era of Terran space supremacy, with our new Titan class leading the way we will secure our place in this galaxy", Kerensky neatly cut the ribbon and reached out to grab the lever, he pulled it down, sending a signal to the control centre, it was time to begin.

Energy gathered at the back of the construction yard as the massive new machine came to life, the spectators watched amazed as a great barrier of energy appeared between the struts, massive tubes and wires connected to the apparatus that now took up the end of the yard as it began to print the ship.

Slowly it began to grow from the energy, extruding from it like clay forced through a mould, ever so slowly the gravity beams deposited molecules and containment fields kept everything together, the newly printed pieces began to push forward as the machine printed more layers, glowing dully as the energy and heat bled off.

"Amazing", Aaron De Chavilier commented from beside Kerensky, "I remember watching extrusion moulding in a factory once, this reminds me of that"

Kerensky chuckled, "We had nothing like this back home, if the Hegemony could print ships like that things would have been different"

Aaron nodded, while he was a long time member of the SLDF, even he shuddered at the thought of the Hegemony having that technology, he was from the Suns after all, he expected the Great Houses would have been long conquered.

"So, how long will it take to produce a ship?", Aaron asked as the watched the printer extrude more ship, it was slowly growing but would take time.

"I've been told ten days for the base hull, the armour and fitting out will be up to two months", Kerensky turned away from the window, "They already have factories with smaller printers working away on making the armour, some new kind they could only make with the printers, far stronger than anything else we have"

"Come, my friend, lets talk elsewhere, away from the prying eyes of the media", Kerensky, let him out of the lounge and to a small side office, "So, what troubles you?"

Aaron ran a hand through his hair, it was much thicker and more vibrant ever since he had gotten the new treatment last week, he felt much better and looked far younger than a man in his early seventies should look, that treatment was powerful stuff, and there was even talk about the Aschen life extension drug, would it work with the treatment, no one yet knew the answer.

"The portal", Aaron sighed out, "It leads home"

Kerensky gave him a knowing nod, "I understand, many in the know have talked to me about similar feelings, but I reminded them as I will remind you, that place is not our home, not any more"

Kerensky began to pace, "I have discussed this extensively with the Union council, we have agreed a long term plan, we must drag the Inner Sphere back to civilisation, until then we shall keep our distance"

He looked to Aaron, "Originally I envisioned a triumphant army returning from the depths of space to restore order, to bring the Star League back, but after seeing what that would become I have changed my plans", he pointed towards the planet outside the viewport, "This is our home now Aaron"

Aaron sighed, "I know, it was one thing reading some books about how far things would fall but to have it shoved in our faces like this is galling, we have to do something"

Kerensky's hand clamped on to his shoulder, "And we shall, but right now we lack the strength to force the issue, instead we shall use diplomacy to shape the Sphere to our liking, to restore the League"

Aaron nodded, feeling the worlds lift his spirits, "What about this ComStar, wont they interfere?"

Kerensky's face darkened, remembering the argument he had with Blake, Blake had been right in the end, leaving was the worse option, who knew the level the house lords would sink to in their quest for the throne, but still Blake had also failed, his legacy now that of those would would destroy knowledge rather than working to restore all humanity had lost.

"They are an issue, one we cant tackle with force, if we were to openly attack them it would only paint us as the enemy to all the house lords, no, another solution is required"

Kerensky released his hand from Aaron's shoulder and stood straight, "We still don't know if this reality is our home one or simply one that is similar, either way we will proceed with caution for now, there are still more important matters to attend to here first anyway"

Kerensky smiled, "So, how is Elizabeth and the baby?"

"Still resting, it feels strange to be a father again, especially at my age, but she has calmed down a bit after our daughter was born, she's still training new recruits though, it's hard to get her out of her mech sometimes"

Kerensky laughed, "The joys of modern medicine, we now have decades more of life, I almost regret leaving my Orion behind, I never expected to pilot a mech again but now I can"

"We'll have to get you a new one, perhaps one of those Marauders being made on Arcadia?"

"We shall see, come, let us attend the festivities, I could do with some good strong Russian vodka"

Unknown Location

Royce was panicking, one minute he was walking in the safety of Sentinel Station when he suddenly lost consciousness, now he was tied to a chair with a bag over his head, he had shouted for hours with no response, threats and begging had both failed to elicit a response, now he could hear the sound of boots approaching on concrete.

A door slammed open and bright light burned through the thin burlap sack over his head, his retinas stung and he squinted his eyes closed, he heard the boots stomp over to a corner, heard the rustle of clothing, the sound of someone sitting down.

"Do you have any idea who I am, you'll burn for this", Royce threatened, as a man accustomed to power it was his first go to.

A chuckle was his response, a heavily synthesised voice then spoke "You've been a bad boy Mr Chairman, stealing priceless artifacts, conducting illicit research, tut, tut"

Royce felt his skin prickle, did they know?, he made sure to cover every possible track that could lead to him, that bastard Blackwell better not have left a trail.

"Pleading the fifth are you, it wont help I'm afraid, the investigation will soon find the evidence that leads to you, once I deliver it to them"

Royce scoffed, so that was what it was, "Blackmail, how droll, what's your price?"

Another chuckle, "Here is how things will happen Mr Chairman, the evidence will be buried, the investigation will go nowhere, they will let the Council be tarnished by your actions, you will need to be removed I'm afraid, an accident perhaps, or health complications, they happen often enough, perhaps a shuttle containing yourself and your family will suffer an accident, who can say"

Royce froze, the voice was right, the damage to the Union would be severe if anyone found out what he had caused, enough to destabilise it even, there was no chance they would let it happen, he would need to go or his family would be put in the crosshairs too.

"Ah, I see you realise your position Mr Chairman, there is another alternative however, you will retire in the next two weeks, a terminal illness was diagnosed and you want to spend the remainder with your family, the investigation will be wrapped up, all the blame placed on your pasty Blackwell and a few corrupt officers, you however unable and unwilling to live in pain will end your life"

Royce felt a pit form in his stomach, desperately thinking of a way out, he heard the man stand, the sound of boots stomping over to the door, "I will let you consider your options Mr Chairman, do decide quickly though or the decision will be made for you", the door slammed shut as boot steps stomped down a concrete corridor, leaving Royce to stew.

His fists clenched in anger, he would not go down like this, he just needed a way out, his teeth grit as he planned.

Bifrost System (PG4-225)

4th December 2065

The ship arrived to a system teeming with activity, the small Scout class Jumpship was simply another dot on the screen as freighters and combat ships jumped in and out, someone had coined the name Bifrost for the system since the portals had formed, Captain Simon Carlton mused, it had stuck.

Simon took in all the activity with his usual indifference, "Move us into position, quarter thrust"

While the ship began to move, far faster than any Scout class had before thanks to it's new gravitic fusion thrusters, Simon took in the visage of the planet, dark clouds spread over the site of the accident, the massive crater a permanent scar on the worlds surface, life still struggled on the far side but the damage had been immense.

He looked away, even he felt sickened by the level of destruction, it was good that no one had been there when the explosion happened, instead he looked to the new stations being built beside the three portals, he watched as a freighter drew close to one, small craft flying out and dragging a new prefabbed piece towards it, even now in their unfinished state they bristled with weapons.

Beside them were ships, warships, they stood guard on both sides of the portal, guns already aimed at the other side, they were taking this seriously.

"Sir, we're cleared to traverse the portal"

"Take us through, slow", Commander Simon Carlton ordered, he stood and walked closer to the helm controls in his redesigned bridge, the novelty of artificial gravity had yet to wear thin and he relished every opportunity to stretch his legs, the new bridge design was smaller and more compact thanks to no longer needing to account for zero gee, the main viewport was still front and centre, he stood behind the helm as the ship touched the barrier.

It rippled as the ship pushed through to the other side, he felt his skin prickle as he passed through, like thousands of spiders had decided to crawl all over him, he shook off the mental image and looked through the window, the planet was visible now, New Dallas, he had visited once, years ago, now it was a toxic swamp, he shook his head in disgust, the great houses had a lot to answer for.

Still, there was activity on the planet now, he watched as several shuttles and drop ships entered and left the atmosphere, what ever they were doing didn't matter to him, "Receiving coordinates from the Resolute, we're to move there and wait for further instructions"

Carlton nodded and returned to his seat, "Take us there, bring it up on the screen"

The screen came alive and showed their destination, three other ships were already waiting, all star league jump ships, an Invader and two Merchants, the bulk of the ships that had arrived with Kerensky were transferred to the new Arcadian Interstellar shipping company once they were upgraded but several had been transferred to the fleet, like his Pathfinder, the other three had to be bought back from AIS for this mission.

"Inform Commander Hawk we have arrived, I imagine he has some briefing or other to attend to"

When you stripped out a KF core from a ship it left a lot of empty space, ninety percent of the mass added up to a lot of internal volume, initially it had been converted into space for the new systems, inertial compensators and jump drives, then shields were added, the rest of the room was turned into cargo space and expanding the small craft bay.

For this mission the ship had been attacked by the interior designers again, one of the new cargo bays had been stripped and a mass of spy gear installed, computers and comms gear now occupied the space and the rest was taken up by bunks for a small detachment of troops and the intel staff, all headed up by Lt Commander Hawk, a promising young officer if Carlton was any judge.

The other jump ships had been similarly equipped and all had only a single drop ship attached, a brand new Terran built Leopard each, they too had shields and jump engines installed, in case anything went pear shaped, his ship was still toting around the Shoebox, the venerable Union had also received upgrades in line with the rest.

They were to be the eyes and ears of the Union in the Inner Sphere, initially at least, a quick jaunt to see what might be happening was all this mission was, two months to see how far things had fallen since he had last been here.

The specifics were still unknown to him, he would soon find out as the comms panel beeped, he watched with his fingers steepled as the ensign chatted to whoever was on the other side before turning to him, "Sir, there's a command briefing in one hour on the Resolute"

Simon nodded, "Thank you ensign, tell Commander Hawk I will meet him in the small craft bay, I need to get changed first"

…..

The commanders of the mission had gathered in the small briefing room on the Resolute, crammed in to small chairs as Rear Admiral Drake sat down in front of them, beside her was one of Union fleet intelligence's top men, Captain Novak, a dour faced eastern European,

"Alright, I'll keep this short", Drake had a pointer stick in hand and gestured to a map of the Inner Sphere hanging on the wall, "We sent out a ship a few days ago to intercept some communications, we confirmed the date and a bunch of other things, enough for us to plan out this mission"

Folders were opened, Simon looked down at his, "Your ships will receive new transponder codes, we don't want anyone panicking about seeing ships from the exodus returned, by the way, the intel department is confident that this is not the same reality that Kerensky came from, we would have expected the exodus fleet to return once Kerensky vanished"

Simon nodded, he expected as much, Kerensky kept the fleet together, without him the mutiny would have happened far earlier and more successfully, if they even needed to, he expected they would have all just turned around and joined the house militaries.

"We also found public information broadcasts mentioning the arrival of a large mercenary force that was employed by the Federated Suns, the Wolfs Dragoons, this confirms the existence of the Clans in this reality", Drake sighed, "Right now they are not a concern of ours"

"You will each have specific areas of operations detailed in the folders, our mission objectives are simple, while gathering as much data as possible you will try and initiate clandestine contact with the leaders of the great houses, apart from the Dracs and Capellans, we have no desire to from relations with those nations"

They were pretty bad back in his time and now were even worse, Carlton wouldn't want to know them either, "We don't know if ComStar has spread word of our existence here to the house lords but it is possible they have already poisoned the well, be on guard"

Drake gave a toothy grin, "When we tried to recover their early warning satellite it exploded, apart from that they have not returned"

Her stick jabbed at the system labelled New Dallas, "It was felt we should have something to offer the nations here, to entice them to open relations, so teams have been dispatched to the surface to recover the data core there, we also want it for our own purposes"

"Were there any mechs?", One of the captains asked.

Drake shrugged but it was Novak who answered, "The New Dallas boneyard storage depot was heavily damaged during the nuclear attacks on the planet, but yes, there were mechs within, all old and primitive machines though, nothing worth using"

"As I was saying, a copy of the data core will be delivered to your ships prior to departure, this will hopefully ingratiate us with the Davions, Steiners and Mariks, while also undermining ComStar, once we have good communications with the house lords we will move on to dismantle ComStar entirely"

Drake stood, "You will find the details of your individual missions in the folders, if you have any questions Captain Novak will be available to discuss them, now if you will excuse me I have a ship to run"

Without another word Drake walked out of the room, Carlton looked down at the folder, the new name of his ship was listed near the top, the Minnow Express, he gave a soft smile when he spotted the drop ships new name, the Pink Bucket, Louise wouldn't like that, his eyes scanned further, following the route that had been planned, right to New Avalon, heart of the Federated Suns.