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.

27. Chapter 27

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

7th November 2065

They had just returned from their latest excursion through the gate, after a quick shower and change of clothes the members of SG-1 filed into the briefing room for their post mission debrief with General Hammond.

The General was engrossed with a document as they entered, only looking up momentarily to nod to Jack as he entered at the head of his team, "Colonel, have a seat, I'll be with you in a minute", Jack shrugged and took his usual seat as everyone filed in behind him.

Jack was tempted to put his feet on the table but thought better of it, "Good read sir?", he asked instead.

Hammond sighed and tossed the offending report onto the table, "The reports of our attempts to contact the people of P3X-775, they call themselves the Taldor"

Jack nodded, "Ah, those are the ones with that prison planet, with Linda or something?"

"Linea", Daniel commented, he was engrossed in a dusty and battered looking book, he spoke without looking up.

"I believe the prison world was called Hadante, the reports stated that Linea was also knows as the Destroyer of Worlds", Teal'c gave one of his patented slow nods, "I am glad she still resides there in our reality"

Hammond nodded, "Be that as it may we were still interested in pursuing a diplomatic relationship with these Taldor, but so far they have proved difficult, SG-9 managed to get in contact with their leadership but things are proceeding at a glacial pace, the amount of rules these Taldor have is bordering on insane"

Jack let out a quiet whistle, "Glad I don't have to deal with that, Major Kovacek has the kind of temperament to deal with that kind of thing though"

"That's why I sent SG-9, the alternate reality reports didn't paint them in a good light, if we maintain any kind of diplomatic contact I'll be impressed but they refused the offer of membership in the Alliance outright"

"I'd like to get a look at the plant on the prison planet, if my counterpart was right it was able to produce an organic cold fusion reaction", Carter had the gleam of interest written all over her face.

"We'll see if we can get the address and sent a ship, I wont be sending any teams into an uncontrolled prison environment, even if we take our own dialling computer and power source", Hammond was firm on that.

"I wonder what happened to the original DHD on this Hadante, it is unusual for it to be missing entirely", Jolinar was leaning back with a bored expression on her face, "I suspect these Taldor must know"

Hammond shrugged, "A question for another time, now, lets talk about your recent mission, Latona was it?"

"Or P2A-018, but Latona works", Jack gave a flippant shrug, "Nice city and people but naive, I don't think they're a suitable candidate for the Alliance"

Hammond raised an eyebrow, "What about this weapon mentioned in the reports, this Sentinel?"

"Apparently its against their laws to see the Sentinel but we asked their leader, Marul I think it was, anyway he said that only the Sentinel's caretaker is allowed access, so no go there unless we want to piss them off"

Hammond nodded, "I'd rather we not repeat the mistakes of that other reality"

"Yeah, anyway other than that the city was impressive but the people had no clue how anything worked, it was like dealing with children, friendly children but still children"

Hammond raised an eyebrow, "Commander Carter, your assessment?"

Carter scrunched her shoulders as she leaned on the table with her elbows, "Their technology seemed comparable with our own civilian grade equipment, but like the Colonel mentioned, no one had any idea how any of it worked, there wasn't even any manuals or other data available", She looked sorry for the Latonans, "Apparently after they had achieved their comfortable lifestyle they let everything else fall apart, the last library burned down decades ago"

Daniel nodded, "They just let their whole history and culture be lost", he shook his head, "It was painful to see"

"Indeed", Teal'c bowed his head.

"Not alliance material at any rate but the Alliance planetary development people could do with looking them over, they might be salvageable", Jack shrugged as he spoke, he didn't hold out much hope for them.

Jolinar nodded, "There is another reason that your alliance should steer clear of the Latonan's, they are known to the Goa'uld, Svarog has attacked the planet in the past, several decades ago in fact, he would notice Alliance activity on the planet"

Hammond sighed, "I see, I'll send it up the chain then", he turned to Carter, "Do we have any ideas about the Sentinel?"

Carter nodded, "I brainstormed a few ideas based on the report and talking to the natives, I think it's a teleporter turned into a weapon, similar to how the Asgard use theirs, but this one is controlled or powered by the life-force of a person, the exact mechanism is up for debate though"

Hammond nodded, "Alright, have your full reports on my desk by tomorrow, I want to cover one other matter before we finish here"

Hammond picked up several folders from beside him and handed them out to SG-1, "Your next mission, Galar", Jack flipped his open, "We managed to contact them via radio and arranged for an SG team to visit to initiate full diplomatic contact, you'll be escorting ambassador Xiaoyi while she does that"

"Galar?, doesn't ring any bells", Jack ran through his recollection of the Sheppard reports but came up blank, "Did Sheppard mention them?"

"They weren't in the reports Jack", Daniel adjusted his glasses as he spoke, "Thor gave us the address' of the protected planets remember, Galar was one of them"

"Oh yeah, them, so who are they?"

Hammond harrumphed but continued, "From what we gather they are a civilisation at a similar level of development to early twenty first century Earth and thus a potential candidate for Alliance membership", Hammond glared at Jack, "I did ask Colonel Sheppard and he did mention that the name was familiar but most likely whatever contact happened while he was in Atlantis"

"The mission begins in two days, familiarise yourselves with everything we know and look up the ambassador too, dismissed"

Jack stood and stretched, he nodded to Teal'c, "I'm actually glad there was nothing in those reports, it's getting old having all the answers before we even step through the gate, this is more fun"

Teal'c gave the faintest of smiles, "Indeed, I also desire more 'fun' as you put it, life has become stale with all our foreknowledge", he gave a sideways nod of his head, "Though I do not begrudge the boon it has been, Master Bra'tac has made great strides in forming the free jaffa army thanks in part to the information in the reports"

Jack shook his head and pat Tea'lc on his broad shoulder, "Never change T, now lets get some food"

Stargate Operations

Pallas

Cyrannus

Two aged men stomped down the corridor of the base, at the front was Major General Darius Drakon, leader of the facility and half a step behind was Rear Admiral Scott Greenhill, head of Colonial Fleet Intelligence.

The two men were deep in conversation as they moved to their destination, "So, I heard that the Quorum approved of the transfer?"

Greenhill nodded, "Yeah, the president is going full steam ahead with this new Alliance Defence Initiative, he's going to push for one of our own to head it up, this might be a big enough gesture to do it"

Drakon gave an idle nod as they pushed into an empty elevator, he hit the button and the doors slid closed, "Falco's letting them know tomorrow and the president will ask for Terran assistance too, should be an easy enough task with their war winding down plus we learned everything we can from it anyway, might as well put it to good use", Scott recalled his earlier talk with the president and what had been decided.

Drakon shrugged, "Most of those alliance worlds aren't worth spit right now, the Terrans are the only other power of note, the only thing the others have in numbers is ground troops and we'd need to supply the transport"

"The Orbanians just bought a small fleet worth of Terran ships and we're currently negotiating with the Langarans and Tagreans to sell them some of our old stock, upgraded first of course, things will change faster than you expect"

The Terrans had an advantage in weapons and select other technologies but once the Colonials cracked the technology from the Pegasus everyone would be clamouring for cheap and robust Colonial warships, Tylium was far cheaper than Kobolium currently and far more plentiful, exploration ships had already discovered deposits outside the Colonies and in old Cylon space.

Tylium reactor powered and plasma weapon armed Colonial ships would be the mainstay once Colonial industry fully absorbed the gifts of the Pegasus, the Alliance members were already ready to start putting in orders once the ships became available.

Drakon snorted, "We'll see, especially these Aschen, they have enough of a population and industry to actually matter, the rest are sub one billion each"

"Tagrea has a few billion, two point three I think, and this occupied planet, Tellus has a few billion too"

"If we can kick the lizards out first, and even then they're going to need a lot of assistance to catch up"

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to a sub basement floor, deep under the barren rock of Pallas, guards stood at the ready as the two senior officers exited and had their credentials checked, they passed through the thick metal doors and into the high security area of the base, where the prison cells and interrogation rooms were located.

"This way", Drakon turned left at the junction and marched down past another set of guards waiting at a side door, he gave them a nod and one reached over and opened the heavy steel door, Greenhill followed Drakon inside the room.

A large window took up one wall, on the other side Greenhill could see in person for the first time a Visitor, the alien had been stripped of his human guise and his green scaled head could be clearly seen, an orange prison jump suit attired the alien and its arms were shackled to the table, a face mask covered it's venom spitting mouth.

A lab coat wearing man was waiting in the room, he looked up from a notebook as Drakon and Greenhill entered, "Professor Cicero of the Canceron University of Biological sciences, xenobiology department", Drakon introduced him as the balding man with spectacles extended his hand towards Greenhill, "Admiral Greenhill of fleet intelligence", Drakon nodded to Scott.

"A pleasure", Cicero said with a smile, he nodded to the prisoner, "Fascinating creatures these Visitors"

Greenhill nodded, he imagined the xenobiology department had seen a recent influx of funding, now with actual aliens popping out from behind every rock out there, "So professor, what have you learned so far?"

Cicero returned to his seat and proffered his notes towards the alien behind the one way mirror, "Despite its appearance it is actually not as alien as you would assume", he flipped open the pages to a hand sketched layout of the aliens internal organs.

"The autopsy reports of the deceased aliens indicated that while exothermic and sharing various traits with reptilians known to the Colonies, the aliens have many similarities to mammalian animals and are structurally similar to humans"

Cicero flipped open another page and showed it to Greenhill, "The male has similar genitalia to a human male", the drawing on this page had detailed sketches of the aliens sexual characteristics, "The female is also similar to a human female with mammary tissue and glands, viviparous reproduction like a mammal in a exothermic organism"

"So live birth?"

Cicero nodded, "Their genetic structure has disturbing similarity to our own too, far too close for coincidence, I'd suspect prior tampering with their genome a long time ago"

Greenhill felt bile rise to his throat as he contemplated the implication, "You don't mean we're capable of cross-breeding?"

Cicero tutted, "Under normal circumstances id say no but these are aliens, I cant rule it out completely at this stage"

The professor sighed, "I imagine you want the more tactically relevant information", Cicero stood up and moved to stand in front of the window, "Their skin is thicker and tougher than a humans, resistant to concussive forces but bullets and knives will have no trouble", he adjusted his glasses as he took in the alien in the other room, "Physically stronger than a man but not by much, a jaffa for example would be easily able to overpower our friend here and a well trained adult human would be within the margin of error"

"So, we can beat them in a fist fight?"

"I'd say nine times out of then they would win, but its still possible for us, as for the females they have similar body size and muscle mass as a human female, the same conditions apply, a human male would handily beat one of their females while our own would have trouble"

Cicero turned around, "Their day time vision is poor and bright light is painful to them but they have enhanced olfactory senses and good nighttime vision, hearing is roughly similar"

Greenhill nodded, it sounded like they could take them on the ground easily enough but that was the least important battleground, "It that all?"

Cicero tipped his glasses to the bottom of his nose and looked over them at Greenhill, "Tell me admiral, were you a viper pilot?"

Greenhill nodded, being an accomplished pilot used to be the fastest way to advance in the Fleet, that looked set to change with the new enemies they were facing though, "Yeah, after the war though"

Cicero nodded, "Then this will be the most relevant fact about our friend here, our biggest advantage over them is reflexes and speed, I imagine that translates into us being better pilots"

"It should", Greenhill rubbed his chin, "Anything else?"

"On their biology, no, but I will comment on their psychology, from the short amount of time I have had with the two prisoners I can safely say this, our similarities extend beyond just those I noted earlier, our thought processes are broadly similar too, apart from their predilection for live food, they are able to relate to themselves and humans on a social level, ergo they can empathise with us"

Drakon snorted, "Thank you professor, now if you will excuse us we have some classified details to discuss"

Cicero nodded and quickly exited the room, picking up his notebook on the way out, "Good day gentlemen"

"What a load of tripe", Drakon had taken to glaring at the alien in the other room, "To think we have anything in common with that freak in there"

Greenhill shrugged and took the empty chair the professor had used, "Ultimately it doesn't matter, what matters is if we need to beat them into the dirt or if we can talk things out but the fact alone that they have been eating people means war, the civvies wont stand for anything else"

Greenhill pulled out his decorative cigarette case and quickly lit up, "So, what did we learn from them?"

Drakon turned around, "Not much yet from the female captured the other day, she's a higher ranking officer than this one, we'll use her to check how accurate our friend here has been before we move on to enhanced interrogation"

Drakon nodded to the alien, "This one is the equivalent of a marine private, stuck guarding a useless depot, but we did manage to extract some useful information", he pulled out his own pack of cigarettes and lit one up before taking the other empty chair in the room.

"He confirmed the number of mother ships over Tellus but he knew next to nothing about their numbers in the wider Cylon empire, upwards of five hundred is all we could get"

Greenhill nodded, if they could commit fifty of the massive ships to one backwater planet they must have a whole load to spare while also fighting the other aliens too.

"We do know they have twenty worlds under their control, used to be more but they lost them to the Ovions, he implied they were losing the war"

"Any names or locations?"

"He just called it the Home World, I took the opportunity to name it Serpentis until we have more information, their colonies have similar non names, like the first colony and the second, they don't seem to be very creative"

Greenhill sighed, "What about their government, their leadership?"

"All we could get is their leader is called", he turned to Greenhill and shook his head, "The Leader"

Greenhill raised an eyebrow, "The Leader, that's it?"

Drakon nodded, "He did let slip after some hard questioning they did call themselves Cylons, and he did call their nation an empire but other than that he knew frack all"

Greenhill stubbed his butt out angrily against the metal table, "No technical knowledge then I take it?"

"Nope, like I said he's just a grunt, I'm holding out some hope the other one will know more", Drakon turned back to glare at the alien, "He was an arrogant bastard too at first, we'll see if the female has similar notions of superiority"

Greenhill rubbed his temples, "We need hard data, see if you can persuade the resistance to grab some computers or something, the fleet needs more before we can commit to combat operations against these aliens"

Drakon nodded, "I'll ask, and since we'll be spilling the beans to the rest of the alliance, maybe we should ask the Terrans to send one of their stargate teams to Tellus, they might have some tricks we don't"

"I'll see what the president has to say, remember, computers or any other hard data"

Heliopolis

Alliance Forum

Littlefield City

8th November 2065

Another session of the Alliance forum was in session, the delegates had discussed a wealth of topics from trade and mutual currency recognition to the proposed development of an interstellar development fund and banking system, trade and technology transfer had also been a hot topic.

Orion Falco had wadded through it with skill, the art of diplomacy had come roaring back to the Colonies and they would not be found wanting.

He kept a shrewd watch on Weir, the Terrans were well versed in dealing with other nations, their planet was a patchwork of conflicting states, religions and ideals, how they formed their Union was anyone's guess, but it made their diplomatic skills top notch, and Weir was an expert.

She was talking about a new prospective member of the Alliance currently, "We have initiated communications with the Galarans and are sending a delegation tomorrow, they seemed eager to learn more about us and the Alliance, they were also open to beginning trade negotiations"

Rylan Kade leaned back in his chair as he twirled a pen between his fingers, "Do these Galarans have anything to offer?"

Weir gave the man a smug smile, "They appear to be as advanced as your world Ambassador Kade, but they have indicated they have a unique technology still being developed, organic memory transfer technology"

The Orbanian ambassador perked up at those words, "Really, I wonder how comparable it is to our nanites, the Orbanian nation would be interested in this technology"

"I'm sure your children will be happy to hear that", the Ambassador from the Andari Federation, one of the Langaran nations, Lucia Thartus, spoke up.

Orion raised an eyebrow as he saw the Orbanian woman's complexion turn red, she was angry but held it back, "We treat our children with the utmost care, they will want for nothing and thanks to old methods will be returned to their full faculties in time, but if this technology can be used instead of nanite neuron transfer, all the better"

Wier nodded, "We'll know more tomorrow, but for now things look positive"

Ventnor gave a slight bow as her normal complexion returned to her cheeks, "Very well, on to the next item on the agenda, Ambassador Falco has the floor"

Orion smiled at Ventnor, "Thank you madam president", he nodded to each ambassador and pushed a button on the small computer built into the table, "I have sent files regarding a planet my people have encountered in a region of space near our own"

He watched as they began to open the data, "The planet named Tellus is another pre space flight world but they have entered the nuclear age", he paused for effect, "But unfortunately they have suffered a grave injustice, alien invasion"

"Goa'uld?", Trask asked.

Orion shook his head, "No, fortunately for the Tellusians it was not the Goa'uld, but another race calling themselves Visitors, they are reptilian and have a taste for human flesh, you will find all the details in the files I sent"

"Lizard people", one of the Langarans exclaimed with disgust.

Orion nodded, "From what little we have gathered they appear to be in a war with another species, called Ovions", he nodded to Weir, "Your people have had contact with them before I believe"

Weir had a look of abject confusion, "I'm not aware of any species named that", she clicked through the documents and found the image of the aliens taken in the SGC, "I'll need to contact stargate command to find out more"

Orion shrugged, "The Colonial government plans to free the people of Tellus from their new oppressors, we would ask the alliance to support us in this endeavour"

A serious look came over the other ambassadors as they contemplated the question, "How advanced are these aliens?", Kade finally asked.

"What limited intelligence we recovered implies they are less advanced than the Goa'uld, they are at a similar level to the old Colonies in technology, something we now match"

Orion kept his face neutral as he observed the others, the humanitarian Weir and Liora would feel for the people of Tellus, the Terrans would be easy to convince to help, the Orbanians were unused to war but had recently gained ships from the Terrans, what better way to gain experience.

He looked to the others, the less developed worlds, each one had the same greedy look when the Terrans looked for alliance support during their Aschen war, they could see the rewards for helping the Colonies, the trove of alien technology they would receive, but they had little to offer at this point.

It started quick, the first pledge of support, the rest soon followed, "The Alliance will offer its full support in your campaign to free the people of Tellus"

Orion bowed his head in thanks, "There is another issue my government wants to raise, regarding the new Alliance Defence Initiative"

Liora nodded to him, "You may proceed"

He hit the send button again, sending another file, "My government fully supports the Initiative, enough so that they are prepared to offer this station to be the new headquarters of the organisation"

He glanced down at the screen, the image of the Cylon colony spun slowly, the spiky looking construct had been captured months ago now and the Colonials had stripped everything of value out of it but it was still intact, and as they spoke now a new FTL drive was being fitted, it would be ideal for the new headquarters.

"A most generous offer", Liora spoke softly, "We would be remiss to refuse it"

Orion smiled, "We will also be offering several of our old ships for use as training vessels, we are most interested in getting the Initiative operational as soon as possible"

The vote that followed was unanimous, the other nations pledging their own resources to the Initiative as they all votes yes, manpower from the less developed, expertise from the more advanced, and Weir even said she'd see about getting some Terran ships transferred too, when the time came to pick a leader for the new organisation Orion knew who's man they'd pick.

Union Advanced Research Facility

Pacific North West, USA

9th November 2065

General Armstrong woke from his short nap as the car drove into the seemingly quiet town, a cursory examination showed it for the lie it was, fake shops and fake people strolled around as the two men in the back glanced out of the windows as the car drove through.

Armstrong sat up and looked to the other passenger in the back, General Walker of the Union army corps, the other general gave him a nod, "Looks like we're here", he relaxed back in the seat, "I heard you were heading up the Harpy project, some kind of flying mech?"

Armstrong shrugged, "Nothing much is happening on that front, it's hard to squeeze any funds out when most of it is going to the fleet, so far we have twelve prototypes for demonstration and a training unit but nothing more"

The Harpy had stalled, even after he had shown the mock-up to DeChavilier and gotten his support funds had been few and far between, but he had heard some interesting rumours that might give the project a second life, apparently there was talk of the Colonial marines looking to buy a few for themselves, if they did it could reinvigorate the project.

Walker nodded, "I know the feeling, we only got a few hundred mechs built before the politicos pulled the financial plugs, but a few of the Alliance nations are looking into buying their own and Arcadia opened a mech factory for one of their star league designs, a Marauder I think, it might be enough to restart production"

The car peeled off the street and into a multi story car park, they drove straight into the car sized elevator inside and soon were descending below to the most secure research facility on the planet.

He sat up and gave a raised eyebrow to his companion, they had both been invited to see the latest development in infantry equipment, the elevator stopped so gently Armstrong could barely feel it and the door slid open to a secret parking garage.

As the two officers climbed out of the car they were greeted by two men, one wearing a marine Colonel uniform the other in jeans and a shirt, "Generals, welcome to the Eureka complex", the marine saluted, "Colonel Briggs, I head up the operations here"

Armstrong fired off a salute in return, "At ease Colonel", the man beside him extended his hand to the two generals.

"Henry Deacon, head of personnel management", he introduced himself as they shook hands.

Briggs grunted, "Henry manages the talent here", he turned and waved the party through a checkpoint, "This facility was created shortly after the war, world war two that is, and has been helping the United States and now the Union maintain it's technological edge"

They passed down grey and white corridors with labs on either side and passed by lab coat wearing scientists as Henry began to talk, "For over a hundred years this facility had been at the forefront of scientific advancement, more recently it was here that we cracked jump drives and artificial gravity", he pointed up to the ceiling, "The whole town was built to hide this facility but the people above are actually specially trained agents who maintain the disguise"

Walker nodded, "What about the people down here?"

The African American man smiled, "They let us out from time to time, not as much as I'd like but the pay is worth it"

Armstrong nodded, he had inquired before the visit and managed to find out a little, like what a scientists here could expect at the end of each month, he wished he went into the sciences after seeing those numbers, they made more in a year than he did during his whole career.

"This way gentlemen", Briggs waved them into one of the labs, a lab coat and glasses wearing man was sitting at a table examining something as they walked in, Briggs nodded to him as he turned around, "Doctor Fargo, meet Generals Armstrong and Walker"

"Generals, I assume you are here for a demonstration of the device?", Fargo waved to the back of the room, it looked like a shooting range to Armstrong's eyes.

Briggs nodded, "Show them"

Fargo stood from the stool on which he was sitting, he made his way to the end of the range where a gel bust was mounted on a table, on the way he picked up an oval shaped metallic device the size of a dinner plate with a power cable snaking into it.

"This", Fargo waved the device to the generals and them placed it on the bust, "Is the result of our research into personal shield technology, our first prototype", As he walked back he plugged the cable into a wall mounted socket, "First we tried to understand the shields in a Kara'kesh, but the circuitry was beyond anything we could replicate at that scale, then the new Jaffa armour arrived and the shield generators within"

Fargo waved the party over to a table where the range began, "The shields in the armour of Sokar's jaffa was a lot less complicated than the Kara'kesh, still beyond anything we could replicate ourselves but it put us on the right track"

Fargo pulled a sheet off the table revealing several weapons, pistols and rifles, he picked up a pistol and checked it was loaded before reaching over to hit a large switch on the wall, a humming began to emanate from the device down the range.

"Observe", Fargo took a shooters stance and fired off several rounds, each and every one bounced off a barrier that became visible as the rounds impacted, a shimmering blue field.

Armstrong was impressed but he could see the problem, "Impressive, but soldiers don't have handy power sockets to plug into"

Fargo shrugged with a smirk on his face, "As I said, this is the first prototype, it should withstand at least four blasts from a staff weapon before the matrix collapses and the capacitors need to recharge, thirty seconds or so"

He waved to the table, "If you wish to test it for yourselves"

The generals shrugged and took a few turns firing at the bust, it took nearly a full mag of 556 to down the shield, if that equated to four blasts Armstrong didn't know, but it was impressive enough on its own.

"Alright Fargo, now show them what we actually have", Deacon nodded to a door at the side of the lab.

"In here generals", Briggs opened the door and stepped through, a switch was flicked on and the new room burst into light, standing right in the middle was a set of power armour, the Aegis model currently in use with the SGC.

"Behold, the Aegis mark two, now with integrated shield generator", Fargo strode over to it, "Unfortunately not something we can actually manufacture in any meaningful numbers"

"Why is that Doctor?", Walker asked as he moved closer to take a look.

"Batteries, the current batteries in the armour are enough for twenty four hours of operation, they are quite powerful in their own right but completely useless for powering shield generators"

Fargo reached inside the suit and hit a button, Armstrong could feel the static form in the air, "Note that my arm is easily able to pass through the shield, this is important for two factors, mobility and air resistance, if the shields blocked everything the armour would be unable to move easily, air is also important for breathing too I suppose"

Fargo waved them over to a table, he picked up a staff weapon that had been lying on it, "Now, watch as I use the Goa'uld weapon on the armour"

An orange bolt flew from the end of the staff and impacted the invisible barrier which became visible as it deflected the energies of the shot, another bolt impacted the blue barrier, then another, Fargo fired twice more, the weapon was steady in his hands as they shot out, the first impacted and the shield valiantly struggled against the energy but collapsed, the second impacted the armour itself and boiled away a noticeable chunk.

Walker walked over after the demonstration, "No cables to power this one?"

Fargo nodded as the returned the staff weapon to the table, "While our current batteries are not up to the task, the Goa'ulds own portable power cell technology is adept for this use, liquid Kobolium power cells have replaced the battery in this suit"

Armstrong sighed, "So the shields are useless for now then?"

Fargo shrugged, "Perhaps, work is underway to manufacture our own power cells, we did capture some of the machinery used for that on Tjaru and the team is reporting good progress, I expect in several months we will have our own", he nodded to the suit, "I suggest the Ageis mark two is best suited for Stargate Command, they will be able to obtain more power cells"

Fargo turned to the generals with a flourish, "But all this is a side show, we do have something of immediate use to demonstrate", Fargo led them back into the corridors and towards the parking garage when he turned down a side corridor that led to a massive set of doors, vehicle sized, "You will want to see this"

Fargo hit a button and the large doors slid open, the whine of straining hydrolic pumps could be heard as they slowly pulled open the door, lights slammed on and a tall dark shape became visible out of the gloom.

"A mech?", Armstrong and Walker recognised the mech, it was a Cadet.

"Quite so, while our battery technology is not up to the task our fusion reactors have enough excess to power a shield generator", Fargo raised his hands with a flourish towards the machine, "Behold, the first mech equipped with a shield generator"

"How powerful is it?", that was the first question on Armstrong's mind.

Fargo smirked, "It would take a lot of staff blasts to pierce this shield, in layman's terms the shield is roughly equivalent to the armour on the mech, but this armour regenerates and doesn't get damaged over time, the shields would make it at least twice as strong"

Walker scratched at his chin, "Will it work on tanks too?"

"If they have a fusion reactor I don't see why not, but I'm sure you are aware General that all our tanks do not have one"

Walker nodded while still in thought, "There's a new design in the works, a copy of the Manticore from Kerensky's reality", he walked closer and looked up at the cockpit, "Our new hovercraft have fusion reactors too"

"Are these ready to go?", Armstrong asked.

Fargo nodded, "We are passed the prototype stage, the pre production model is on that machine, all that is needed is manufacturing capacity and you will have shields on your vehicles", Fargo nodded to the mech, "They are adapted from the new shields on the fighters and bombers of the fleet, with some aspects of the infantry shields to better cope with land based operations"

Armstrong smiled, now all they needed was an enemy worth using them against on the ground.

Visitor Mothership

Solara city

Tellus

14th November 2065

Diana paced around the command centre of the mothership, anger twisting the false human visage she wore, around her the crew kept their eyes firmly on their consoles lest they draw her ire, many were known to simply disappear when they angered her before.

The rebel humans had become bold lately, after the hospital incident had revealed their true form to the human cattle below the amount of incidents had skyrocketed, even with the disinformation campaign had painted it as a hoax, enough saw the truth.

If that wasn't bad enough something else had changed, the rebels had gained access to weapons that were beyond anything else on the planet, some kind of hyper sonic anti aircraft missiles, not something the natives could produce with their level of technology.

It meant their one unassailable advantage, their sky fighters and shuttles, were now vulnerable, already they had lost dozens to rebel strike teams and ambushes, her claws tightened in her fist, if only she was allowed to retaliate, but John was adamant and she would not go against the Leaders representative, even though she was the one who really ran things here.

"Donovan", she cursed the human, he was responsible for the hospital and she was betting for the recent troubles, the few rebels they had captured had known little but his name came up enough, and another, Kobol, but where or what that was she didn't know.

The other human rebel, Juliet Parrish, was still resisting the conversion chamber but Diana was sure she had ben turned enough to be of use, she would release the prisoner and see if she could lead them to Donovan, she would relish clawing the arrogant fools face off and eat his entrails while he watched.

She smirked, the fool was still looking for his son, his son who was in storage on the ship, Donovan's mother had also promised a lot if she could have him, she could work with that but first to put the boy into the conversion chamber, he would be the ideal spy.

Her disdain for the apes hid something far deeper in her psyche, she actually found them attractive, she had relished dominating Donovan not only martially but also sexually, breaking him and keeping him around as pet would be ideal, he would get to watch as she rose to power.

"Diana", one of her underlings spoke breaking her out of her strange thoughts, she turned to find Martin, one of the officers onboard, "John's shuttle is docking, he will be here shortly"

A sly smile grew on her face, the nominal commander of this invasion force had been recalled to the home world after the hospital incident, she would relish taking over completely, all she needed was an opportunity to remove the incompetent and weak fool, then destroy a few cities to cow the apes below.

She could see her future extend before her, removing John would allow her to demonstrate her skills to the Leader, from there to his bedroom and soon she would be leading the Cylon nation herself, those disgusting bugs would soon be crushed once she was in charge, the soft and weak fools needed to go.

The Leader was someone to emulate, after the disastrous loss of several colonies to the enemy he had left the military and entered the political realm, his actions quickly toppled the ineffectual and cowardly fools and let the Leader assume command of the whole nation, his new power allowed him to push the enemy back into the current stalemate, Diana planned to follow in his footsteps.

John finally arrived, she knew he used to be a formidable warrior in his youth but now he was useless and soft, wearing the guise of an affable old ape, she longed to tear his throat out, "John", she nodded to him with a smile.

"Diana", he didn't look happy though, "There's been some developments"

She fought to keep the scowl off her face, if he was thinking of using the recent rebel victories against her he had another thing coming, "I assure you that the recent losses to the rebels will stop once we find the source of their new weapons", she began.

He raised a hairy ape eyebrow, "New weapons?, this is the first I am hearing about this"

She cringed internally but kept her fake face still, "The rebels have begun fielding new missile launchers able to down our sky fighters and shuttles, hyper sonic missiles"

His raised eyebrow turned into a frown, "That is beyond their technical capabilities, did you capture any?"

She nodded, "We managed to capture some of the rebels and the weapons themselves, they are in the lab right now"

John's frown never left, he muttered something to himself she couldn't hear, something like 'could it be related?', he looked to her, "I want to see these weapons now"

He stormed out while she followed on his heels, "These weapons, not from our enemies?"

She shuddered with disgust, "No, not them, they appeared to be of human manufacture not those bugs", every Cylon hated the Ovions with a passion, they wouldn't even utter their name beyond calling them the enemy, but she had considered one of their infiltration teams coming here, their holographic disguises could easily replicate the form of the apes below.

But that thought was dismissed, the enemy would not hesitate to invade themselves if they found this planet, as much as she considered the primitives food herself the humans had a future with the Cylons, the Ovions would strip the world in no time, none would escape.

The arrived the lab, the magnolia walls giving the room a welcoming look, John barged in and moved over to the one science caste member in the room, "The weapons, let me see them"

The scientist was quick to retrieve one of the launchers and placed it on the table in the middle of the room, John gingerly picked it up and rotated it around, his eyes found the alien text on the side, it was unlike anything on the planet below.

A sigh escaped his lips, a resigned one, "Did you translate this, or find any reference to a similar language on the planet?"

Diana shook her head, "We inferred it was instructions for the operation of the weapon but we found no references to anything similar below"

John nodded and tossed the weapon down, he turned to Diana, "It's Colonial"

Her face remained blank, "Does that mean something?"

John shook his head, "To my chambers", he walked out, they journeyed in silence until they arrived and John sealed the door behind them.

"You wouldn't know this, your clearance inst high enough" he began, sitting down he turned to her, "This is not the first time we have encountered humans, the first time was before our exodus"

Diana felt stunned, not at the information but that her clearance wasn't high enough, she slid into the other chair, "That was thousands of years ago"

The story of their exodus was something drilled into every Cylon child, how their creations had turned on them, taking their empire and leaving the few survivors to flee, it had taken thousands of years just to climb back to where they were today, historians still believed the ancients were more advanced, and the fear of the robots finding them still weighed on the Cylon nation.

John nodded, "The Colonies of Man, or of Kobol, were something of a peer of the old empire, we had our differences, enough to think the machines could solve them for us, you know how that went"

"I see, so these Colonials have found us here, why not send ships and remove us, they must be more powerful if thousands of years have passed"

John shook his head, "Before we came to blows with the enemy we did learn some things, they too had fled, but before that they had been absorbed by the machine empire, willingly I might add, we know the machines destroyed the Colonies before being destroyed themselves by other aliens called Goa'uld"

Diana felt a flash of anger, "Why were we not told this, we still cower in fear of the memory of dead machines!", she hissed out.

John raised an eyebrow, "Control, the machines are useful to point to when we need the populace to conform, the source of the information had always cast doubt upon its accuracy too"

He was being very forthcoming, she also remembered his earlier reaction, "You know something, something that confirmed all that"

John nodded but his face carried a worried tone, "Several weeks ago a ship arrived in our space, a shuttle of some kind, we quickly captured it and the occupants, what we found within is what scares me so much"

John opened a compartment on his desk and withdrew a bottle of Lzura, an expensive alcoholic drink from the home world, he poured a good portion into a ceramic cup and took a gulp.

"There was a human in the ship but not just any human, one claiming to be a Cylon, and with him were several machines", the last bit came out in a whisper, he reached into his uniform and pulled out a pad and handed it over to her.

She raised an eyebrow as he went silent before turning on the bulky portable computer, images awaited her, the so called Cylon man and something else that nearly had her dropping the computer, a robot, tall and sleek with claws for hands, a video file awaited her pressing the button.

It was the recording from the team to board the shuttle, in all their natural Cylon glory, not the fake skin they needed to wear here, she watched them board, breeching the small cargo compartment on the ship, they stepped into the darkness when it happened.

Tall and fast the first Cylon had his head removed from his shoulders by a metal claw, the rest came under a fusillade of bullets as the machines began to advance, there must have been at least the of the monsters.

None of the boarding party survived, the video changed to the hangar bay of the mothership that must have captured the shuttle, she could see the machines charge out, firing on the workers within as more soldiers arrived, blue Cylon rifles tore through the armour of the machines but not before they claimed their price, twenty seven casualties.

It then skipped ahead to an aged looking human being dragged out of the ship screaming about nonsense, the video then ended.

"They are not our machines, but the creation of the Colonies, from what we could gather the Colonies returned to their home world of Kobol after they lost and returned to their colonies several thousand years later, similar to our own story I suppose"

John sighed, "They made their own machines but unlike us were able to beat them", he nodded to the computer, "That thing there is the last remnant of the machines, a biological construct in human form, we don't need to worry about machines but the Colonials"

"They used projectile weapons, are they primitive?"

John shrugged, "In some ways yes, in others no, if the abomination is to be believed, the Colonials have only recently gained access to energy weapons, but the story gets worse, these new machines found a ship of our own creations, they brought them back to life only to be betrayed, it said the Colonials destroyed them but we cant be sure"

Diana felt her heart still for a second at those words, John continued, "There is a more immediate concern", the worried look returned, "The ships faster than light drive was vastly superior to our own and that of our enemy, unfortunately the enemy already got access to it"

"How much better?"

John took a sip of his drink and stared at her, "Able to traverse hundreds of light years in an instant"

Diana felt a frown form, their own drives could propel a ship over two thousand times the speed of light, covering hundreds would take months, "How did the enemy acquire them?", she couldn't muster the energy to ask more than that.

"The abomination, he came to this region of space in a larger ship, fleeing the Colonials, he ran right into an enemy patrol near the barrier nebula, he managed to flee but the enemy captured the ship, they have a good head start on us"

Diana sighed and reached over and took the whole bottle before draining the whole thing, "Great, just great, the enemy gets super drives and now we have advanced humans supplying weapons to the planet, it wont be long before they come in ships"

John nodded, "The Leader concurs, for now we continue on as normal, but he did make one decree, no more using humans as a source of food, he was adamant about that"

Diana sat back and brooded, the big question was how these other humans were getting weapons to the planet, stealth ships of some kind, advanced enough to get past their scanners?, or some other method, she nodded to herself, her new conversion subject would be perfect for finding out, it was time to cut Juliet Parrish loose.

Aschen Prime

McKenna's Pride

16th November 2065

The conference room on the ship was full of tension as the two negotiating teams met on the second day of the peace talks, on one side, led by the Union negotiator Russel Chapman, were the various observers from the Alliance, they had little input on the talks but were here to show support, beside Chapman was the Colonial Uri Milland, unlike the others the Colonial's did have input on the talks.

There was also a man from the planet Galar in attendance, the prospective member wanted to observe how the alliance operated before committing to joining and the peace talks had been suggested by other members of the alliance.

Rooks was seated with the Alliance delegation during the initial talks, the three nations to contribute men for garrison duty were expecting a reward beyond the Aschen database, since that would be shared with everyone, he listened in as they commented to each other.

Across the table were the Aschen, led by their new Premier Selene Cyrlen, and flanked on both sides by the rebel leader Kynes and Supreme Commander Renata of their military forces, the players in the room knew who held all the cards here.

The Aschen had managed to quell the rioting on their planet and return to a sense of normality, thanks in part to the food shipments allowed by the Union, Union, Colonial and Alliance troops were still occupying their colony worlds and the orbital Elysium's and a large contingent of the Union fleet was parked over the Aschen capital, everyone knew who would be dictating the terms.

Rooks took the same seat today as everyone filed back into the room, he recalled the discussion yesterday, when the Union had dictated the terms of the Aschen's surrender.

He actually thought it was very lenient, destroy all their bio weapons stockpiles and banning production of more was one, their emotional suppressing drug another, some reforms to their system of government to include the underclasses on the planet below in the process and having a referendum on Volia about membership in the Confederation were some of the others, including granting access to a non sterilising version of their life extension drugs to the Alliance.

The Aschen would also need to open their markets to Alliance trade, allow the Union and Colonies military bases in the system, allow inspectors in to check up on the bio weapons destruction, military transit rights to all alliance members, and the Aschen would be required to begin talks to join the Alliance, as a non voting member to start but that would be revisited in a few years based on who well things were going.

Those were the terms, then came the reparations, for starters the Union wanted the full technical database of the Aschen to be shared with all alliance members, a massive technical boost to the less developed nations, and the transfer of ten ships to each of the Alliance nations that assisted in the conflict, two battleships, four cruisers and corvettes and two of the massive Aschen automated freighters, fifty ships to Tagrea, the Langaran nations and Pangar, the Colonials and Union would also receive ships but would be donating them to the Alliance Defence Initiative after a full technical analysis.

Part of the data transfer also included a section on technical assistance, in essence it was the relocation of several Aschen scientists to Alliance worlds, Operation Paperclip reborn to accelerate the development of the less developed worlds.

In addition the Union and Colonies would also be transferred sever factories worth of the industrial machinery used in the automated factories and shipyards of the Aschen and a payment of some rare resources.

Rooks felt it was far more generous than he would have given them but he knew the Union wanted the Aschen as allies against the Goa'uld, crippling them now wouldn't be helping.

Everyone had filed in and taken their seats and the speeches began, that led into hours more of talks and negotiations as the Aschen bartered the terms down, dropping the resource payment was all they managed but in the end everyone was happy enough to get it over with.

"The Confederation is prepared to accept these terms", Cyrlen finally announced, things wound down and the media was brought in for the official signing of the peace treaty, everyone wearing plastic smiles as a piece of paper was signed, cameras flashing for the billions back home to consume.

It was a few hours later that Rooks found himself in a smaller room, Chapman beside him and the Aschen delegation across the table, "Admiral", Cyrlen gave him a shallow nod, "We must discuss the situation at Aschara"

Rooks nodded, "Officially, the Union considers this an internal Aschen matter for the moment but we would be willing to assist in some minor ways"

Their supreme commander leaned forward on her elbows, from what Rooks could tell the old woman was a no nonsense type, "What kind of 'minor' assistance are we talking about, right now our fleet is in tatters, mostly from rooting out the old loyalists, we wont be able to commit much until we're sure they're gone"

Rooks smiled, "We want Mollem for war crimes, the old regime on Aschara are complicit too, we cant offer much in fleet assets, just a single battle group to help but we can give you something to let you win"

Rooks reached into a pocket and pulled out an optical storage drive, he slid it across the table while looking at Renata, "Your biggest weakness in this war has been your abysmal hyperdrive speeds, if you were even a bit faster, able to respond to our rapid pace, well things might have been different then"

The old commander took the drive, "I know, but we were so secure in the knowledge we were at the top we never bothered to put the effort into increasing our speed, more planets would only give more opportunity for the proles to leave the squalor they live in"

Rooks nodded, "You'll find the complete plans for a hyperdrive capable of travelling sixteen thousand times the speed of light, still slow to us but a massive improvement over what you currently have, there's also some scans and notes on Goa'uld drives in there"

Cyrlen and Renata both gaped like fish as Rooks told them the numbers, Kynes however kept a poker face going, "Impressive, but nothing compared to your jump engines, will we be allowed access to those?"

Rooks shrugged, "You know why our peace terms were so lenient, there is an enemy out there that threatens every human, yourselves too, the Goa'uld, everything we know about them is on there too, we want you to help fight them, but jump drives will require us to build up a little trust first"

Cyrlen closed her mouth and schooled her face, "Understandable, but even this is amazing, we could cover all of Aschen claimed space in a little over a day, those on Aschara will still take weeks to reach us here"

Renata nodded from beside her, "We could concentrate our forces without leaving ourselves open to a counter attack, we still vastly outnumber them but the defence platforms will be trouble, we can do it though"

"It will simply be a matter of upgrading our engines", Cyrlen mused, "Our industry is up to the task"

Rooks nodded, "The Union is also interested in getting Alliance support for your assault force, it will be a good training opportunity, we'll see what we can arrange while you upgrade your engines but our fleet has other tasks to do right now, we can only spare a single battle group to directly assist in your efforts"

Kynes, shrewd as he was, picked up on something in Rooks voice, "Other tasks?, are there more enemies than these Goa'uld, something more immediate?"

Rooks shrugged, the information had already gone public after a leak at the Alliance forum on Heliopolis, the Aschen would learn soon enough anyway, "We have discovered two alien nations locked in conflict in a region near our own sector of space", his face creased into a frown as he recalled the details, "Both predate on humans and one has recently taken control of a developed human world, the majority of our resources will be going to deal with that"

The three Aschen looked disturbed after hearing that, "I see, the Confederation never put much thought into alien life, this is still something of a shock to us", Cyrlen said, "Once our own issues are resolved, the Confederation would be willing to assist in whatever manner we can"

Chapman spoke up now, his upper crust British accent clear to all, "The Union would welcome any assistance but we are still assessing the threat, let us focus on your problem for now"

The meeting broke up soon after, all that was left were small details like dealing with the transfer of industrial equipment and ships, things for someone else to deal with, Rooks was due back on Earth to deal with the aftermath, the Pride would also be going back to Arcadia, a refit for the ship had been approved, the old PPC's were to be ripped out and new pulse cannons installed plus new shields and reactors, the old girl still had some life left in her after all.

…

Hours later and the Aschen leadership sat tiredly down in their meeting room in the government building on Aschen prime.

"I've got a shortlist for new ministers but we'll need at least some of the rebel leadership getting high positions, especially minister of law", Kynes sighed and rubbed his eyes, it was a lot of work getting the apparatus of the Aschen state back on track.

Cyrlen nodded, "We can keep the travel restrictions in place until we deal with Aschara, that'll give the other colonies time to prepare for the influx of people from Aschen prime, we'll also need to build more transport capacity"

Everyone would want off the planet as soon as they were able, who would want to live in a toxic shithole when verdant green worlds awaited, now that Vex was dead and the philosophy that gripped the higher echelons gone, the lower classes would be able to leave the squalor of Aschen Prime.

There were also plans to improve conditions, the Terrans had even offered their advanced terraforming technology, but it was never a question of ability to improve things, only political will, now with the change in governance the conditions would improve on the planet.

The mood among the poor was jubilant, the new food shipments had provided more to eat for the common man than in decades, without the rich to steal most of it for luxury products things were set to change, but there was still one problem, Aschara.

Supreme Commander Renata burst into the room, she sat heavily down on the empty chair, completing the current triumvirate currently leading the Confederation, "Did you talk to the researchers?", Kynes asked with a yawn.

Renata nodded, "The data is good", she smirked, "They told me it would be easy enough to adapt our current manufacturing processes to accommodate the new design and it would also be possible to modify our current ships to improve their speed based on the data"

Cyrlen raised an eyebrow, "That is good news but how long will it take, every day we waste here is one where they grow stronger"

"Months if we start replacing drives, our old ships would clog up our yards, the modifications can be done without that, if we start making the kits now we could finish it in a few weeks, it'll give our ships a speed of around four thousand times light"

Cyrlen nodded, while four thousand wasn't sixteen, it was still a massive improvement over their old speeds, enough to accomplish the defeat of Aschara.

"Do the upgrades, new drives can wait", Kynes spoke, "What about the new ships?"

Renata produced a pad from her jacket, "Here's what the engineers cooked up when they saw the Terran ships", a hologram of the new design leapt from the pad, it looked like a more bulky version of the battleship currently in service, Cyrlen noted the dimensions, eight hundred meters from tip to tip, and the vastly increased number of weapons turrets.

"Based on our research and what little data we have from the battles with the Terrans, we expect this new ship should beat anything in it's weight class, those bigger ships will need two or three"

Kynes nodded, "Does this new vessel have a name?"

Renata shrugged, "I think we need to rethink our classifications but for now it's designated a heavy battleship, the first batch should be complete in time for Aschara"

"Good, we'll need every advantage, now, what about these Goa'uld that had the Terrans so scared", Kynes rubbed his chin as he asked.

The existence of the Terrans had been enough of a shock, it was only two weeks ago when they first learned they weren't just fighting the Terrans but their allies too, the Colonies of Kobol and this Alliance of Free Worlds, it had strained a lot of beliefs the Aschen had.

They did know that humans weren't native to Aschen prime, they knew there must have been some kind of precursor civilisation, the Volians and stargate had proven that, but so many advanced worlds, so many stargate, and now actual aliens, it was enough to drive one mad.

Renata sighed, "If the data is accurate, those parasites control half the galaxy directly, mostly around the core, and have thousands of ships that totally out class anything we can produce, not to mention millions of slave troops", she glanced to the other two, "And that is with them not applying their full power"

She ran a hand through her short salt and pepper hair, "The Terrans think if the Goa'uld went on to a full war footing we wouldn't have a chance, it's why they've been keeping away for now and building up"

"Terrific", Kynes slumped, "And Cyrlen invited us to help against some other aliens too", he sighed, "We need to deal with Aschara fast, and increase our fleet and defences, across all our colonies"

"Very well", Cyrlen turned to Renata, "See to the upgrade of our ships, I shall see about opening more factories, we can use the population below for workers, they will be happy to have an opportunity to work"

Renata nodded, "We need to start a recruitment drive too, we'll need more soldiers"

"Make it so", Cyrlen ordered, "I shall inquire more about this alliance, if they want us to open our markets for their goods, we shall seek to do the same to them", the Aschen did have quite powerful weapons and they were lacking in naquadah, she was sure to find buyers in exchange for the wonder material, not to mention the sheer industrial might they could flex.

Lunar Shipyards

Sol System

Marcus Baltar took in his new command from the visitors lounge on the station, the Venus class was freshly finished and ready to go, all he needed to do now was select his crew, he took a sip of his coffee as he waited for one of the stations foremen to give him a tour of the ship before he headed ground side for a few weeks of rest.

His small flotilla had only arrived home two days ago, thanks to their now obsolescent jump drives, they arrived home just to find out that the war had ended, a good thing he thought but the whole war had felt hollow to him, just an excuse for the Union to flex it's new found muscles.

He put the war to the back of his mind, regardless of what it was it had been a good test for their skills and equipment, he couldn't forget the shadow looming over the whole of human space, the Goa'uld, he hoped what they learned would be worth it.

"Captain Baltar?", a voice asked, it's southern drawl easily identifying where the man was from, Baltar turned to see a man in his mid fifties wearing grease stained overalls standing with a clipboard in hand.

Baltar nodded, "That's me, are you the foreman?"

The man nodded, "Yep, Tucker Thompson, c'mon, lets go look at your ship, last thing I have on my list today, then it's home for the rest of the week"

Baltar stood and followed Thompson out of the lounge, they soon were travelling down plain steel corridors, Baltar engaged in some idle chitchat on the way.

"You were on those missions to the Colonies and all", Thompson was asking.

"Yes, it's been non stop ever since, after we got back then it was on to the Aschen, most of that time was spent travelling though, the drives in my ship was an old version"

Thompson gave him a nod, "Mind your step", he pointed to a raised section of floor, "My boy was on those missions too, his mother was worried sick", he gave Baltar a smirk, "She also wants some grand kids to dote on but the boy has been stubborn so far"

Baltar gave the man a polite nod, "Your son, which ship does he serve on?"

Tucker snorted, "Ha, my boy in the fleet, that's a good one, nah, he's a marine, too stupid and lazy for much else", he shook his head, "At least Junior is following in my footsteps, when Chad gets home tonight he'll be in for an earful from his mother"

Batlar raised an eyebrow, "He's home already?"

Thompson shrugged, "They let his platoon use the gate to get home, faster than using a ship, he told me it was a reward for something classified"

The two men arrived at an airlock, large glass windows on either side let them see the new ship in all its glory, Baltar let out a whistle as it took in the sheer size of it from up close.

"She's impressive alright, it took some work to change the weapons and reactor out though, then we needed to slap a new shield generator in and another reactor, sometimes I wonder if we'll ever finish a ship to the plans"

Thompson hit the button and the airlock door cycled open, they passed through the umbilical and into the ship, station workers were crowding the corridors finishing the last few bits as they pushed through and made their way to the CIC.

Thompson commented on the activity as they moved, "We're just finishing off a few of the interior bits, mostly furniture and things like that"

they arrived to a quiet room, plastic sheets covered the consoles and captains chair, Baltar stood in the middle of the room and took in a breath, "She feels powerful"

Thompson raised an eyebrow from behind Baltar, "Yeah, we thought the first Venus was too, you know what happened to her"

Baltar felt his euphoric mood shatter, his dreams of smashing Goa'uld ships burst as he gave Thompson a side eyed look, "Lets just skip that", he patted one of the plastic covered consoles, "The Siren wont go down so easy"

Thompson shrugged, "Anyway, we replaced the original weapons and layout after the battle, she's got two eighty centimetre guns on each facing for eight total, sixteen smaller sixty centimetre guns and another thirty two forty centimetre guns", he looked down at the clipboard he was carrying, "Oh yeah, a few of those new pulse laser cannons too, supposedly they work better on shields, you have four twin mounts of those"

Baltar nodded, compared to his old cruiser this was like moving from a wooden sailing ship to HMS Dreadnought, he considered the amount and type of weapons, the eighty's had a decent range advantage over the smaller pulse cannons according to what he had read, not that it really mattered when his ship would mostly be jumping into range.

Thompson read more off his clipboard, "Missile armament is mostly the same, just with more modern launchers, point defence guns too, no changes there"

Baltar nodded as he talked, the original Venus was powerful in her own right, she had just entered a fight against something that she was ill-equipped to face, but her missiles and point defences were still top notch.

"We had to scramble to get the new reactor installed, one of them kobolium types, there's also a secondary reactor now too, enhanced fusion they call it, she uses less expensive fuel so I bet they'll tell you to use it more"

Thompson scratched at his chin, "New shields, they blow the old ones out of the water and gravity assisted fusion thrusters, we didn't have the time to replace them with the new ion drives, I expect that'll come at the first refit"

Baltar nodded absently as Thompson recounted the systems on the ship, the crinkle of plastic echoed around the empty and dark CIC as Baltar slid into the captains chair, he was sorry to see the Dublin go but Sheridan would be a good captain for her once she was finished with her own repair and upgrades, he could hear the Siren call out to him, welcoming her new captain.

"When will she be ready?"

"Another few weeks, we still have to do space trials and finishing the outfitting, launch ceremony is planned for October first"

Thompson Residence

Tennessee, Earth

Later that Day

Chad felt a hand squeeze his as the taxi pulled up outside the house, moments later he was left standing outside with his bags, he took a look at the house he grew up in, it looked the same as it always did, a large one story with basement, out back he spotted his dad's old workshop, his truck should be in there, he'd need to see if it still ran, it was his only ride.

The distant sounds of farm work carried over the flat land, the smells too, it was good to be back, he nodded to his companion and moved up to the door, he knocked and waited.

Footsteps soon moved to the door before it creaked open, "Chad?", the door was flung fully open and a lithe woman soon enveloped him in a hug, "About damn time", he mother admonished him before spotting the person beside him, "And who's this?", she disentangled herself and took in the girl beside Chad.

"Mom, this is Nyxion, my girlfriend", an embarrassed tinge came to his cheeks, he didn't tell anyone she was coming.

"Nyxion huh, that's a strange name", his mother opened her arms to Nyxion's surprise and took her into a hug too, "Welcome to the Thompson house", she said after a small hug, "Why don't you head on inside and make yourself comfortable, I need to take to my son for a minute"

Nyx, unused to such close contact with other could only nod and whisper a small thanks, she was still overwhelmed from her experience on Earth so far, as soon as she disappeared inside his mother turned to face him.

"Want to explain?"

Chad scratched at his head looking defeated, "Well, one thing led to another, now she's here"

Momma Thompson raised an eyebrow, "She one of those Aschen?"

Chad nodded, "One of the rebels, I got close to her while we were on the planet, she's good", he mumbled something else out too low to hear, but his mother caught a bit of it.

"What?"

"I said, she pregnant", Chad whispered.

"Oh, thank god", she smiled, "It's about time you settled down and started a family, when's the wedding?"

"Mom!, I only just got home, never mind thinking of things like that"

She fixed him with a stare, "That idiot brother of yours is already married, to one of those star league people no less, if he can do it so will you, now get inside and get ready for dinner, and show your girl around, make her welcome", she turned and moved inside, "Your father and brother should be home from work soon, sitting in an empty house all week takes its toll on a woman"

Hours later they were sat around the dining room table, Nyx was still bemusedly taking in the local Earth culture and his father, brother and his new wife, Hana, had arrived, the girls seemed to hit it off right away and Tucker junior looked happy, Chad helped himself to an extra serving of ham as the family chatted away.

"So, Nyxion, I'm surprised they let any of your people on Earth", Tucker senior asked as he poured a generous helping of gravy over his mash.

A hint of red lit her cheeks, "Well, I was asked to help the Union to understand Aschen communications and computers, I'll be working on Earth"

Chad jumped in, "She has special clearance dad, it fine, I'm also getting a transfer ground side for a few months, I'm sick of space for now, maybe I can get into Stargate Command, that'd be something"

Tucker senior snorted, "We'll see", he waved his fork at the selection on the table, "Try the biscuits, Chad's mother's are some of the best"

Nyxion nodded, "Thank you, we never got to eat this well back home, its amazing", compared to everyone else her plate was nearly bare, Chad sighed and heaped a load of greens and mash onto her plate, she could use a little extra meat on her bones, the Aschen were all far too thin.

"So dear, how is work?", his mother asked his father.

Tucker senior shrugged, "They have us run ragged up there, no one can make their minds up about what to put in those ships, one day we install one system, the next we rip it out, day after that the latest and greatest thing goes in, rinse and repeat"

Hana nodded, Chad noticed the small bump on her stomach, looks like Tucker beat him to the baby races, "The pace of technological change has been unreal, back home things were mostly stable, things hadn't changed in centuries but here, there's breakthroughs every other day"

"That it might be but we're still being worn to the bone, we'll see if those fancy new printers I heard about are worth anything, I'm gonna wait till it proves it ain't just a bunch of nonsense", Tucker senior punctuated the end by spearing a lump of ham and mash before shoving it into his mouth.

Things proceeded on like that for the rest of the night, his father went to his workshop after, "Chad, come give me a hand for a minute"

The large garage hadn't changed since last time, inside under a sheet was his truck, "Here", Tucker senior tossed him a set of keys, "I checked it last month, she's all good to go"

"Thanks dad"

Tucker nodded and put a hand on Chad's shoulder, "I'm proud of you son, but you'd better make an honest woman of Nyxion out there, now run along, your mother has your room ready, it hasn't changed since you left"

Chad nodded, as he walked out into the starry night he looked up, "It's good to be home"

Beyond the Celestial Curtain Nebula

Paraskenia Sector

The past two weeks had passed slow, recon flight after recon flight and so far they had nothing to show for it, every system surveyed so far had been lacking in aliens or signs of their activity but they did happen upon a kobolium deposit in one, that had been marked for future exploitation.

They had also found an abundance of tylium, both the resources would fuel the Colonial expansion in this sector in the future but were not what she came here to find, the Ovions had been absent so far until now.

"Looks like we hit the jackpot", Belzen commented as they leafed through the gun camera footage from the latest stealth star mission.

Cain nodded, she raised the picture up to her face, the ugly and jagged looking ship resembled the description that Tannerson gave, she raised her eye to the older man, "Commander, is this them?"

Tannerson nodded, his mind replayed the strange encounter with the unknown ship, the vision he had been shown, "That's them alright, not the same ships but similar"

Cain looked at the image again, the ship was docked to what looked like a mining station, the stealth star had picked up smaller ships travelling around the various asteroids in the system and moving back and forth to the station.

"No visible weapons but they could be hidden, it could be some kind of freighter but better to err of the side of caution", Belzen commented while looking at his own photograph.

Cain agreed, "We'll wait for that ship to leave, if it is a freighter it shouldn't take long, then we can jump in and ascertain the disposition of these aliens, we'll soon know if they're hostile"

She tossed the photo onto the table in her office, "Colonel, draw up an assault plan, if they prove to be hostile we'll board the station and gain as much intel as we can, for now we'll increase our stealth star operations and increase our raptor surveying missions, I want a full rundown of all surrounding systems"

Belzen nodded, "There's a large landing bay here it looks like", his finger pointed to an opening on the organic looking bronze station, "A marine assault through there should be possible but we have no idea of the defences or how many aliens are on the station"

Cain smirked, "Whatever they are the Theseus will make short work of them"

Tannerson looked a bit skittish though, "We haven't found a single ship of theirs up to now, no patrols or even sentry satellites, the Cylons were only past the nebula for minutes before they attacked them, where are they?"

Cain nearly rolled her eyes, no wonder the man was still a commander, with the lack of spine shown she was amazed he even got that far, "It was probably coincidence they found the Cylons, their ships are probably off fighting the lizards, if they knew we were here they would have appeared already"

Cain stood and straightened her uniform, behind her was her personal weapons display, it contained weapons from every colony, even those that had fallen back to more primitive times, everything from muskets to modern was displayed for all to see.

"I want round the clock coverage of the aliens with our stealth stars, the second that ship is gone we'll make our move"

Belzen nodded, "Shouldn't we try to attempt contact first?", he asked.

Cain dismissed the idea out of hand, "No, our objectives were clear", she raised a finger, "Find the aliens and determine if they are a threat", another finger, "Recover any jump drive technology if possible", she looked to the two men as they stood, "We'll try and contact them when the ship leaves but I wont expose any human to unnecessary danger, if they prove hostile as I expect we'll take the information by force"

Cain waved the men out of her office, "Start preparing, they could leave at any moment"

….

Hours later a small fleet of four ships jumped into the unknown system, the Theseus led from the front ans was flanked by the Rycon and two of the Berzerk cruisers, the other two were left with the transport ships.

Cain twirled her knife between her fingers as she gazed at the tactical plot, before the ships was the spiky cylinder of a station, it was a few hundred meters across and tapered to a point two kilometres down, clouds of smoke were being sucked out into space from ports along the bottom, it seemed to be some kind of refinery station.

"Shields are up and weapons are charged", Belzen informed her.

The knife disappeared into a pocket as she straightened her shoulders, "Try sending the contact package, lets see if they want to talk"

"Transmitting now sir", the ensign at comms announced, the command crew waited in silence for a minute as nothing happened, "Sir!, receiving a signal"

"Lets hear it", Cain listened as a noise came over the speakers, a headache inducing chittering and screeching noise, she felt a migraine form, "Shut it off!"

"Sir, the station has raised shields", the sensor officer informed, around the system the mining vessels began to power up their FTL drives, "Alien vessels are increasing power levels"

"Detecting another transmission form the station, it's not directed at us"

"Power spike from the station!"

Turrets on the station turned toward the Theseus and fired almost as one, a torrent of globular green blasts flew out to touch the ships several thousand kilometres away, the green blobs burst as they contacted the shield of the Minotaur class vessel.

Cain felt a minor tremor vibrate through the ship as the rain of alien weapons fire broke on the shields, "Minimal damage to shields", the weapons officer spoke.

Cain felt a vindictive sneer appear on her face, "Open fire, I want those shields down", she looked over to Belzen, "Prep the assault teams, I want them in the air asap", her orders were fast and sharp, "Tell Tannerson to get a CAP in place, who knows what they have there"

The fleet angled itself towards the station, the Theseus fired first, rapid blue pulses leapt from the barrels of the guns and began to hammer on the shields of the station, laser fire from the other ships soon joined in, in a matter of seconds the stations defences were torn away, "Have our vipers take out those turrets"

Elsewhere the mining ships began to flee, space warping as they leapt past the speed of light, Cain noticed them vanishing from the plot, the enemy fire could still be felt as it impacted the shields, to her it was like a light rain.

"That doesn't look like hyperspace", Belzen mused from beside her, "Sensors, I want an analysis of the alien FTL drive"

…..

Vipers were streaming out of the Rycon, several squadrons had peeled off the escort of the capital ships and were vectoring towards the station, the Ovions saw this and launched their own small contingent of fighter craft, spiky teardrop shaped ships began boosting out of the main hanger and moved to intercept.

Lieutenant Thorne peeled off his squadron and moved to intercept, the enemy fighters had already closed the distance, far faster than any Colonial craft and were spitting a rapid staccato of smaller green blobs, Thorne jinked his viper around a stream of green fire and loosed one of his missiles, it streaked off to impact the first enemy fighter, the explosion obscured his sight as the went evasive but he cursed when the intact enemy ship blew through the cloud of debris, unharmed.

"Bastards have shields", he spat into the squadron channel, he flipped his fighter as he watched a few green bolts score a hit of a passing viper, the blob burst upon contact, burning a hole through the thin armour like it was acid on flesh, the viper erupted into a fireball.

Boosting forward he got his sights on the alien bastard, red beams leapt from the wings as he fired his lasers, the first two made the shields flare bright orange, the third burned a neat hole in the alien craft, number four hit the fuel tank and sent it to oblivion.

He rolled his viper as another stream of fie came at him, he glanced around only for the offending alien to be blown to pieces by two of his squad mates, "That's the last of them, resume escort positions", he heard the captain say over the channel.

…..

A look of satisfaction came over Cain as the vipers removed the offending turrets on the station, the small rumble of the ship slowly lessened and then disappeared, but the viper losses were higher than she liked, nine vipers for twelve alien craft, but the vipers had them outnumbered three to one, it showed the difference shields made.

"All turrets on the station are inoperable", the sensor operator called out.

Cain nodded, "Recall the vipers and send in the assault team", she turned to Belzen, "Organise a recovery team, I want every bit of alien technology on that station stripped and over here as soon as possible"

Belzen nodded, "Yes sir", he quickly picked up the handset for internal communications and began issuing his own orders.

She turned to the weapons officer, "How low did our shields get?"

"Ninety nine percent, sir"

Cain nodded, if that station represented the best the aliens had any fight would be in the Colonials favour, but it would be foolish to base anything on one encounter against what could be a civilian alien station, none of the weapons on the station had been capital grade from what she could tell, just anti fighter mounts.

"Sir", the sensor operator spoke up, she nodded for him to speak, "The analysis of the alien FTL drive, according to the scanners it appears to be similar to the old Colonial drive"

"Noted", she waved the ensign off, the old Colonies had become the term for the ancient civilisation that had existed before them, the Pegasus shed much light on their past, she had expected more of a reaction from the civilian population but the Gemonese had taken it in stride, they even claimed it proved them right, all this has happened before was written in the scrolls after all they would say.

Still, the Pegasus' FTL drive had been examined by all the experts they had, from what they could tell it was a real space drive that warped space around the ship, far slower than jump drives and you could see enemy ships coming too.

They had the advantage for now but the question was for how long, she hoped the station would reveal where the Cylon ship had been taken, if they knew they could strike now and prevent them from gaining jump drives.

Her eyes turned back to the tactical plot, she could see the group of about a dozen raptors form up outside the ship, vipers from the Rycon moving into escort positions, the assault was about to begin.

…

Two missiles flew from one of the escorting vipers, they closed with the station and removed the door that had closed over the landing bay, a few laser blasts later and the new hole was large enough for the raptors to stream through.

A shimmering barrier appeared when the first raptor pushed through, it didn't stop the ship though, "There's pressure in here", the co pilot exclaimed, "I think that shield is keeping the atmosphere in"

A large hangar bay awaited them, the twelve raptors found clear spots and began touching down, the doors opened and dozens of marines stormed out, all wearing the standard Colonial vacuum combat harness.

Lieutenant Nia Cross jumped down from the side door of the raptor, she ducked behind the craft as a small turret descended from the ceiling, it spat a stream of glowing green projectiles at the dismounting Colonials, she kept her head down as more marines poured out, Fletcher was the last, the private was just a bit too slow as a green blob caught him in the chest, melting a hole right through his suit and the flesh below, his screams were silenced as soon as they began.

"Take that turret out!", someone shouted as it spat green death at the marines, a rocket soon flew from one of the other platoons, blowing it to pieces, Cross stood and moved over to Fletcher, it looked like someone had poured acid on his chest, the smoking hole went right through to the other side.

She fought to keep her lunch down as the captain began issuing orders, "Cross, take your platoon through that door", he pointed to a man sized door on one of the walls, "Sweep and clear everything"

"Yes sir", she signalled her men when a hand gesture, "Move it marines"

As they approached the door slid up into the ceiling, reflective bronze armoured soldiers stomped out holding large organic looking rifles, their bronze helmets almost resembled mushrooms, Cross dove to the ground as the aliens opened up with their guns, smaller green blobs soon flew from the six aliens.

One blob caught Petros in the head as he dove, his remained unmoving as Cross and the rest opened up with their guns on full auto, the AP rounds tore through the organic looking armour of the aliens, splashing a yellowish green blood all over the walls.

Hale, their corpsman, turned over Petros as the rest began to stack up beside the door, one look was enough to give her nightmares for the rest of her life, his face and most of his head had been reduced to smoking mush, she quickly turned away and joined the rest.

They passed into the corridor clearing the side rooms, most were simple storage and cargo rooms, it wasn't until they were deeper in that they found more aliens.

The room they burst into was the same bronze and red colours of the rest of the station, tables took up the middle and strange alcoves lined the walls, on the far side were a few dozen aliens, all cowering behind overturned tables.

A few inaccurate green blobs were fired their way as the marines breached the room, Cross didn't need to order what happened next, rifle rounds tore through the thin tables while grenades sailed over, shredded bits of bug soon decorated the walls of the alien room.

Marines advanced to flank the tables, Cross one of them, when they looked behind the shredded remains of the aliens became visible, large compound eyes dimmed as the life left them, bulbous heads and claw like hands, strings of cloth or some similar substance decorated several, they looked hideous.

"I think they were civvies LT", Hale commented as he pushed one over with his boot clad foot, "Ugly frackers"

Cross shrugged, "They shot at us, makes them combatants as far as I'm concerned", she spat on one of the bodies, "We haven't signed any treaties with these frackers anyway"

They continued on, the station changed from corridors and rooms and turned into industrial areas, large smelters and refineries, the encountered a few more pockets of alien workers, all were hostile and attacked on sight, but they did manage to take one alive, its high pitched chittering and squealing was loud as it cowered on the floor.

Jenkins poked it with his foot, it squirmed away but Jenkins kept at it, a sharp mandible bit into it the next time, Jenkins howled in pain as the alien bit down hard, two others grabbed Jenkins and tried to haul him away but the alien was holding on.

Cross cursed and drew her pistol, a single round echoed around the large interior space as the bullet splattered the aliens brains against the floor, "Hale, check his foot", Cross holstered the gun and furiously turned to the injured marine, "If you try that shit again Jenkins, I shoot you myself"

Hale peeled off the marines pressure suit and a squelch could be heard as the boot was removed, blood poured out as Hale tossed it aside, the sock came next, it hit the ground with a squelch, he ripped open a packet of disinfectant powder and poured it on the wound, "Looks like a clean puncture, hold still while I bandage it".

Hale turned to Cross, "He'll need surgery one we get back to the ship", he lifted the foot, "He's not walking on this"

Cross sighed, already two men down and now the team idiot got his foot bit, "Okafor, Rivers, once Hale is done carry this idiot back to the hangar, the rest of us will continue"

They moved on a few minutes later, deeper into the industrial sector of the station, their path began to angle down as they followed the twisting alien paths, they only had two more encounters before they reached the bottom, "Looks like the end"

"Cross, report", the Captains voice boomed out of her radio.

"We've reached the bottom of the station, resistance was light out of the hangar and we haven't found anything for a while"

"Head on back up, the salvage teams are about to dock, they'll need escorts while they strip this place"

"On our way sir, eta ten mikes"

Cross turned to her men, "You heard him, double time it"

….

Cain remained standing as her marines went to work, she nodded silently when the first reports came in of the small skirmish inside, she smiled when they reported the complete capture of the station.

"Recovery teams are on the way", Belzen spoke, "We should grab everything we can before any reinforcements show up"

Cain shook her head, "We have time and we'll see them coming anyway"

Belzen sighed, "Yes sir"

Cain turned to him, "Colonel, this is an opportunity to learn everything about our new enemy, let them come, they can taste the power of Colonial weapons first hand"

Jurgen kept his face blank, Cain had a mean streak in her if set off, and openly questioning her too much could be enough, but he couldn't chase the feeling away, staying here too long would be a bad idea.

PG4-225

Classified Research Facility

Project Open Door

A bright sun shone down on PG4-225 as Xavier Blackwell walked towards the main research facility with a spring in his step, a large smile graced his face as he walked over from the dormitories, his lab coat flapped in the wind.

A sense of euphoria emanated from the normally ornery and secretive lead researcher, just yesterday he had been talking to Chairman Royce, the shadowy and smiley leader of the Union council had finally given him approval to move ahead with the project.

Xavier was all smiles as he nodded to the new addition to the staff as he passed the landing pads, the pilot of one of their new raptors waved back, a half hearted effort laced with confusion, normally Xavier wouldn't give anyone the time of day.

He passed the four new parked raptors, the ships had arrived with the latest cargo shipment, the brand new fusion powered ships would be available if the testing ever moved on to sending physical objects to another universe, right now they were being used to put satellites into orbit.

Xavier pushed open the doors of the command centre, nodding to the marine standing guard, he rushed up the staircase and strutted into the control room, white lab coat wearing personnel turned to watch him enter, some bemused, others annoyed by his new behaviour.

"Doctor Blackwell, everything is ready for the first test", his chief underling reported, the bald and overweight man was always kissing ass, Xavier smiled at him, a useful underling all the same.

"Good, good, prepare to seal the stargate, we don't know what effect a wormhole connecting will have on the apparatus"

A concrete plug had been delivered, they had mounted it on the back of a truck and outside it reversed up to the gate and pushed the concrete plug through the centre, for the next week all gate access would be cut off, they lacked a HPG or subspace connection too, but if something went wrong it would be simple enough to remove the plug.

"Our target area is clear, satellites are on station to record everything"

Xavier nodded, it would be too risky to sent up manned craft until they had performed their tests and knew what they were dealing with, the satellites and ground based scanners would need to do for now.

"Bring the emitter to standby mode", Xavier looked at a nearby screen as the emitter disguised as a radio telescope began to rotate towards the target area, a spot directly above them in orbit, the initial test would only open a micro portal, something only nanometres wide, they would then power everything down and run a full system check, the next test after would be sending signals through.

"Target position locked, emitter is on standby"

He was amazed they were even this far along but the circuitry in the mirror and pedestal had helped, the pedestal we even part of the emitter, bypassing years of design and research, the mirror had provided some control circuitry, they were still unsure how to even begin to specifically target other realities, but for now it would be enough just to open a portal to any.

The eye of Ra was another necessity, they had run the numbers before they even knew it existed, no powers source known to the Union could hope to power the emitter, the eye itself was a marvel, they had no idea how it amplified the output of the fusion reactor, only that it did, it would be someone else's project though, Xavier had enough to deal with as it was.

His smile stretched into a smirk, he had always known other realities were there just beyond a reflection, now he would be taking the first steps through it, the possibilities were astounding and as Kerensky and his lot proved it truly was an infinite universe, where even fiction could exist.

"Where men could become gods", he whispered to himself, "Status check"

"All systems green, reactor is on standby, emitter is on standby, control systems and sensors are ready to receive"

"Excellent, begin power up sequence, increase to one percent slowly"

"Emitter is charging, power amplifier is active, power at one percent"

Xavier nodded, "Its time, activate the emitter"

Energy leapt from the emitter, invisible to the naked eye but recorded on the sensors of in the command centre, Xavier watched with a manic grin as the beginnings of a portal began to form.

Then the alarm started to flash, "Power draw is increasing!", Xavier turned to the status display, the eye was drawing more power from the reactor, "Twenty percent!"

Unknown to those in the centre the portal began to grow and like a magnet it caught something in its grip, "Shut it down!"

The lights and consoles went blank as the room descended into darkness, loud clunks were heard in command room as emergency lights turned on, "What the hell happened!", Xavier shouted, his earlier good humour was gone, he was back to the sour man he normally was.

"The emitter began to draw more power" the portly Jenson exclaimed, "And the eye supplied it, then the reactor safeties kicked in"

Xavier sighed, he picked up the intercom to contact the reactor engineers but the line was dead, "Send a runner over and find out how long it will take to get power back"

The whole base was completely without power, they had lost all contact with the satellites in orbit, Xavier looked up as the lights turned back on as the emergency generator kicked on but the consoles remained with out power, the small diesel generator not enough to power more than the lighting.

Minutes later the had their answer, twelve hours, the power draw had burned out a bunch of relays and transformers at the reactor, the next test would need to wait until tomorrow.

But unknown to them a new ship sat in orbit of their world, it's commander and crew confused at their location, they tried to contact the settlement they could see but received no answer to their standard challenge, soon fighters launched and behind them larger shapes, landing ships, some bulbous others sleek, an army had arrived and they were angry.