Chapter One
Goulmeister
Well-known member
Aerilon Orbit
3 Months after the start of the first Cylon war
A steel bulk hung silent beside the colossal form of Aerilon's biggest space station, its 600m length awaiting clearance to dock, multiple gun turrets in their safe positions, thrusters cold and jump engine hot.
Commander Flint stood watch over the CIC of the Velos, his greying hair the only sign of his 47 years of age, he sat in his command chair positioned with good lines of sight to every station in the CIC of the Velos, the ship itself was a former Virgonian Cruiser fresh from a service upgrade performed by Caprica Aeronautics, ever since receiving the ship 4 months the problems were non stop, it was small fortune that the Aerilon Fleet even got the ship due to the Cylon situation, currently they were holding position next to Aerilon Fleet HQ waiting for a berth to clear.
Flint looked around the CIC, only a few crew were present, Ensign Baker at his console, a thin and pale young man fresh from the academy and petty officer Grey a twenty something woman with brown hair but otherwise unremarkable who was manning the comms, most of the crew was already on leave, Flint giving approval after being informed by the stationmaster that the berth for the Velos was occupied by a commercial freighter that suffered a minor engine problem.
A loud clunk was heard as the heavy door opened to the CIC, a stocky man in his 50's entering the room, Captain Athos, the ships chief engineer.
"Commander, here's the final report before I leave on the shuttle, we had to switch the Jump computer to local control, it kept in charging mode otherwise, its fully charged now so ill leave the rest to the engineering team on the station"
"A whole month to fix this computer problem, too much automation with this upgrade"
"Lowest bidder sir, they should have went with Scoripa yards instead of Caprica, anyway the transport shuttle is leaving in 10 minuets so I better get going"
"See you in a month Jim, say hi to the wife and kids"
Jim Athos gave the commander a firm handshake and hurried out the door
"Grey contact the station and get me an update on this delay"
"Roger sir" Grey replied, Flint went back to reading the news report on the current war situation, the Cylons had gained more territory on both Caprica and Tauron, the other worlds were untouched for now but who knew how long that would last, Grey finished talking on the wireless and addressed the commander.
"Commander, Station control reports another 2 hours before they clear dock 2"
"Right, keep me informed if anything changes Grey"
A tremor was felt through the ship, the shuttle with most of the crew leaving, all the was left was a small crew to run things before docking and a raptor and pilot for any emergency.
Flint stood up from his chair as a luxury that most Virgonian ships employed unlike Caprican command centres which favoured standing, he started to wander around the room to stretch his legs examining the crew as he went.
"Baker's working hard at something there, I wonder what"
He wandered over to him and had a look, Baker was engrossed with a writing pad, occasionally looking up to type away on his console
"Baker, what are you working on there?"
Baker sat up straight after the commander broke him out of his trance
"Just a pet project of mine sir, I was using the downtime waiting to make some progress, honestly I think I solved it."
Flint nodded distractedly, his thoughts on the current Cylon situation, fortunately most of the fighting was limited to Caprica and Tauron for now, Aerilon was safe for the present.
Baker looked down at his notes his cheeks gaining a red tint, he ran his hand through his short dark black hair and looked back at the commander
"Its embarrassing sir, but I'm working on the coordinates to Earth"
Flint scratched his chin in thought as he considered Earth, supposedly where the 13th tribe fled to, but there was little actual evidence they even existed, only mentions in the sacred scrolls.
"Really? And here I thought Earth was just a myth"
Baker grabbed bound copy of the sacred scrolls, one of the core tenants of the colonial religion and started to flip through the pages as he replied to Flint
"That's the thing Commander, there's little definitive proof of Earth or the 13th tribe but the scroll of Aniketos mentions the exodus, there's a section here that's supposed to contain the coordinates to Earth but every astronomer say they make no sense"
He grabbed the notepad we as writing on and pointed to some numbers written down
"The problem was that no one accounted for the different number system….."
Flint stopped listening, only occasionally giving a nod as Baker went on about stellar drift and hidden numbers in the sacred scrolls, his thoughts turned to the reason they were docking at Fleet HQ, numerous computer errors occurring after the refit.
The ship had received new computers and a new Jump drive, the rest of the ship refurbished to bring it to current standards. Experts had traced the problem to the new computer system but the war had put a stop to any fixes in the near term, the only solution was to reinstall the old computers and hope for the best.
"… so when I take all these hidden numbers and convert them to modern colonial jump coordinates and calculate over 4000 years of stellar drift, I think I found Earth"
Flint decided to humour Baker, he knew some nutjobs from back in college who would gobble all this Earth stuff up.
"Most interesting Ensign, write up a report and ill have a look, I know some people in Colonial Explorations who would be interested"
Baker had a pleased smile hearing that, some validation for his theories after all the ridicule he received on the Aerilon public network, like his theories on the Lords of Kobol being aliens and the existence of a previous civilization before the colonials came to the 12 worlds.
Flint after stretching his legs sat back down in his chair and began killing time reading again..
30 Minuets Later
Aerilon orbit was busy with the usual traffic, mostly food and medicine exports from the mostly agrarian planet, due to the war the amount of incoming goods was reduced drastically but he hardy people below made due.
A thousand kilometres from the ship a bright flash occurred, a Cylon raider now occupied the space, it quickly oriented its antenna towards Aerilon Fleet HQ and initiated a burst transmission.
Baker was alerted by a beeping from his console, he looked up from his notes and noticed the red icon on the dradis display
"Hostile contact 1000km away, heading 423 carom 125, war-book identifies as a Cylon raider"
Flint went from a slouched reading position to alert in an instant. "Sound battle stations and get those engines restarted" he knew it was futile if it was a full scale invasion, there was only 10 crew onboard at the moment.
As Baker was reaching towards the button to start the alert everything went black, from the outside the running lights around the ship went dead as the alert fighters from the station raced towards the raider, the Cylon ship wasted no time before engaging its jump engines, its mission successful.
The CIC was illuminated by the emergency lights before anyone could even process what happened. "Baker report" the commander was up on his feet now, his body tense, a frown creased his brow.
Baker looked down at his console, it touchscreen powering back on, a cursory tap showed that he was locked out of the controls but could still see status updates.
"Main energizer is offline, all systems except life support and gravity are also down, the controls are not responding"
Flint put the dots together, computer errors since receiving the ship from Caprica, Cylons also from Caprica, the ship must have been compromised even before the Cylons rebelled, they must have left a backdoor in the system he thought.
"Sir there's something else, the tylium fuel pumps are active, the pressure in the energizer is rising"
Flint considered this, if the energizer restarted but was full of tylium beyond the normal amount it would turn into a giant bomb, normally this wouldn't be a problem for multiple reasons, automatic safety shut-offs, the fact that it would take 10 minutes to fill the energizer main chamber even at the pumps maximum flow rate.
That must be the Cylons plan he thought "if not for that freighter the Velos would have been docked by now, they must have planned to take out Fleet HQ", he turned to Ensign Grey
"Ensign are the internal comms still up?"
Grey typed away at her console but soon looked back at the commander "sorry sir comms are down, external and internal"
Flint's mind raced "we're on a timer now". he considered his options, "better evacuate the ship but we can try to manually stop the fuel pumps, we have some time before its too late"
"Grey, get to the shuttle bay, tell Lt Gordon to warm up the raptor and inform anyone you see we're abandoning ship" he turned to Baker, "Baker with me, we'll try to turn off the fuel pumps manually". He knew that the energizer room was uncrewed right now, having granted them all early leave at the request of Captain Athos earlier that day.
6 Minutes Later
Energizer room
The journey to the energizer took far longer than Flint liked, without power the internal lifts and small tram were off, locked doors had to be opened manually but still only 5 minutes was a personal record for him, his body was drenched in sweat.
They only encountered Ensign Baltar on their journey, Baltar was a technician for the jump engines and wholly unfamiliar with the energizers. "Ensign Baltar, when you get to the shuttle bay, tell them to leave immediately, there wont be enough time for us if we fail" Baker looked shaken as Flint spoke those words but resolved himself, success or death, Baltar ran off quickly as Baker and Flint made their way to the energizer.
Upon their arrival the signs of stress upon the main body of machinery was apparent, the pumps working overtime to push tylium inside the main chamber of the energizer, fortunately it was designed to stand up to an impressive amount of pressure but the main threat would be from it being activated.
Tylium fuel being the most powerful chemical fuel known to colonial science, its power nearly as much as a fusion reaction, if the main chamber was overfull when the machine was initiated the explosion would be as powerful as a small nuke.
Flint had spent his early career working in the engineering department of a military transport ship before transferring to command roles, so he knew his way around the energizer, they quickly made their way over to the controls for the fuel pumps.
Flashing warning signs illuminated the display, a glance the amount of fuel already pumped in filled Flint with despair, it was already enough to send the ship to fiery oblivion if the system restarted, He sat down on the ground as his emotions raced.
Baker took in Flints reactions and understood they were doomed, "Is there nothing we can do Sir?" Flint looked up at Baker, his expression resigned, "No son, this is it" he said tiredly, his hand weakly wiping the sweat from his brow.
Baker's expression became fearful, death imminent but he remembered that his brother and family were waiting on the station for him, an explosion at the distance they were at posed little danger but the debris from the ship could be catastrophic.
Filled with resolve, he remembered the conversation the Commander had with the Chief Engineer, the jump engines were full charged and on local control, the Cylons couldn't have disabled the control systems if they weren't connected.
Without even bothering to tell the commander he rushed out of the cavernous Energizer room and ran to the jump engine, only a short distance away, the commander this without comment, but stood and followed.
Baker was already working the active console when Flint arrived, "The explosion could still damage the station, I'm jumping the ship", Flint could only nod, at-least they accomplished this much, he walked to an empty control panel and luckily could access an exterior camera, watching to see if anyone would escape the ship
Baker had never plotted a jump in reality before, being a DRADIS operator it never had come up, but he recalled his training and input the only coordinates on his mind, the coordinates to Earth.
Bakers coordinates were in reality nowhere near Earth, not even the version the 13th tribe had occupied, but higher existences had been watching, rebels among their kind, Baker's own belief allowed them the opportunity to influence things, Baker had been unwittingly entering the real location of Earth.
To the outside observers all they saw was the Velos going dark and then vanishing in a flash of light minutes later, the mystery of where it went unanswered to the colonials, under normal circumstances the engines on the Velos would never manage the massive distance, colonial drives maxing out at 5ly a jump, but helping hands made it work this time.
The ship reappeared over a blue marble of a planet, Flint and Baker treated to the sight, the jump engine in the room a molten pile of slag from the effort it had just expended. Flint saw a solitary raptor leave the shuttle bay, it was the last thing he saw before being enveloped in a blinding light, he and Baker knew nothing more.
The raptor sped away as the Velos erupted behind them, the engine block and rear of the ship exploding with kilotons of force, flinging the front of the ship away, the five survivors lost in unknown space headed for the only place they could, Earth.
40 Years Later
Earth orbit
2064 AD
For a long time only satellites orbited Earth, now-days the orbital space was home to countless space planes and cargo ships travelling to and from the surface, countless space installations now floated above from ore processing to shipyards and everything in-between.
The largest was Sentinel Station, began as a multinational effort 30 years earlier, its modular construction allowed it to grow to its present massive size, hundreds of square kilometres of factories, air docks, shipyards, offices and even a museum all in the spindly construct.
It was also home to the Terran Unions space command centre, responsible for all ships in cis-lunar space, most of the time the command centre was full of chatter about flight paths and timetables but today all eyes were on Admiral James Borman.
Just recently transferred from the United States Space Force, supposedly to lead some new secret program, Borman stood back straight in the artificial gravity of the station, no signs of his 56 years of age in his stance, his new gray uniform hat covering his balding shaved head.
His eyes focused on the screens before him analysing the information, 20 large contacts were present midway between the Earth and moon, Cylon baseships, their double disk shapes visible on one of the screens, thousand of raiders launching as he watched.
"First fighter squadrons assembled at waypoint alpha, Sir" one of the crewmen shouted over from behind him, Borman glanced over at another screen showing friendly forces mustering at preplanned waypoints, several hundred fighters launched from the orbital stations for now, it would take time to get ships up from Earth, they would have to buy time for the rest of the fleet to rally.
A grouping of capital ships, a sword class cruiser and 3 missile frigates, were five minutes out from waypoint alpha but there was no time to wait, "order the bombers to engage, fighters cover and disrupt their raider formations", he paused and glanced back to the plotter, "Tell Task Force Rapier to start long range missile bombardment, all other forces prepare for enemy breakthrough"
Waypoint Alpha
Cis-Lunar space
"Bombers are cleared to engage enemy capitol ships, Fighters are on the raiders, give the bombers a chance to launch their payloads" Lt Phillips heard Major Durant on the radio, both of them were flying SF-05 Angel space fighters, sixteen meters long with twin 20mm auto cannons, her main offensive power was her missiles though, everything from conventional explosives to a 4 kiloton nuclear warhead.
"Alpha lead confirms" she replied over the comms as her wing formed up around her, "Alpha lead to Wing, assume escort around bomber squad Sigma". The bombers were larger than her fighter, twenty meters long but far wider than her mostly thin fighter, it was also slower to accelerate.
"Command has authorised full nuclear armaments, engage the fighter swarm with nukes before we close the range"
The fighters finished moving into escort positions around the Athena bombers, engines burning as they accelerated towards the Cylon raiders, the massive cloud of raiders already at full burn towards Earth.
Lt April Phillips armed her two anti fighter nuclear missiles, her fingers steady despite her inner turmoil, when the groups of fighters neared ten thousand kilometres she and every other fighter and bomber launched.
Task Force Rapier
Several thousand kilometres away from the fighters, four ships were burning their fuel reserves to catch up, leading them was the cruiser Rapier, a sword class, under the temporary command of Marcus Baltar, His father one of the survivors of the Velos.
He sat hunched in his chair, studying the Cylon ships thousands of kilometres away, his face darkened by his frown, what limited information about the Cylons his father had told him repeating over and over in his head.
"Sir, Fighters have launched their missiles" the sensor operator reported, Balthar's attention turned to the radar display showing thousands of missiles flying towards the raider formation, the raiders didn't respond and just kept on flying.
"enemy missiles must be shorter range than expected" he mused.
The missiles closed the distance to the raiders, but then the unthinkable happened, the raiders began to emit signals, the guidance system of the missiles completely failed, their counter measures completely useless, every missile veered off course away from the raiders which continued on undeterred.
Baltar face fell, "How?" he thought, "Prepare all missiles for launch, target their baseships", he turned to the gunnery officer "All guns load flak, prepare for fighter attack"
Alpha Lead
Lt April Phillips
No simulation had prepared her for this, 40 years of developing weapons to counter a potential Cylon invasion and they all failed completely, the tech difference was too great and it wasn't even all their ships, over half the raiders had stayed to escort the baseships.
"Flight lead to all fighters, go to max thrust and begin strafing runs"
They were closing on the raiders now, the bombers left behind, April picked a raider out and made a beeline towards it, guns ready as she closed, "controlled bursts" she repeated as a mantra, as the swarms closed the Cylons finally responded, a wall of anti fighter missiles launched from the raiders, each one finding an earth fighter to track, new stars were born as fighters exploded around her.
She saw a missile flying right at her, quick reflexes let her put a burst of rounds in its path, it exploding safely away from the ship, very few others were as lucky, earth ECM having no effect, not even flares.
Finally she was in gun range of her target, the 20mm armour piercing explosive rounds shredding the oblong shaped raider, she continued on full burn past the melee and raced on towards the baseships.
A look at the rear view camera showed little damage to the Cylons, the fighter corps was gutted and the bombers now exposed, of over 500 fighters at waypoint alpha only 14 remained. She flipped her fighter to slow down and saw her doom, a Cylon missile zooming straight at her, the last thing she saw before darkness took her.
Task Force Rapier
Baltar felt the pit forming in his stomach as he watched the destruction of the fighter force, all destroyed for a paltry 36 confirmed raider kills, 36 out of thousands.
Stunned silence surrounded him, every member of the crew in shock, he quickly rallied himself, "Report" his shout woke the crew from their stupor, he regretted that he knew none of them, having being put in command at the last minute.
"All fighter forces lost, enemy forces moving towards Earth" the sensor operator's report was redundant but Baltar forgave him that in the circumstance, his first instinct was to launch all the nukes but given the performance of the fighters missiles that would most likely be a mistake.
"Sir, enemy capitol ships just jumped into Earth orbit", Baltar looked over, 4 baseships had just bypassed their lines, unsurprising really, and were in the process of turning Sentinel Station into scrap, the thin armour was no match for Cylon heavy guns.
"Raiders entering gun range, Sir" Baltar moved his eyes from the screen, Earth would have to manage without them for now, "All guns engage, helm, increase to max thrust on heading 192 mark 325, comms, inform the frigates to keep formation".
As a splinter of the raiders veered towards the ship, sentinel station gave up its last, modules spinning away to burn up in the atmosphere, defence satellites and stations launched everything towards the basestars in orbit, ground defence batteries preparing to intercept anything approaching the planet.
The Cylons had other plans though as each basestar began to launch 50 megaton bombs towards the surface, genocide their only aim.
The hundred raiders approaching the Rapier launched their missiles with mechanical precision, the ship responded by firing off flak shells into their path, missile after missile exploding but even still plenty got through, the CWIS providing a last line of defence, 20mm rounds exploding missiles that closed.
The frigates provided their own fire but their armaments were limited, no heavy guns like the cruiser, mostly long range missiles and point defence systems.
Sill it was not enough, the second volley of missiles found gaps in the defences and began to slip through, the heavy armour of the cruiser easily able to take the hits from the anti-fighter missiles used by the Cylons, even the frigates held up against the small warheads.
The Cylons finally entered gun range, accelerating as the flak exploded around them, the shrapnel claiming raiders as they approached, Baltar watched as they exploded, but still they came, undeterred by their losses, "Cut thrust and angle the ship towards the raiders" the crew was quick to obey, the ships engines cut out as it turned it broadside to the raiders, the multiple guns opening up, the raiders evading as best they could but their numbers dwindling by the second.
"All raiders destroyed" the radar operator reported, the crew giving a small cheer at the news but it didn't last long, a fraction of the enemy force was all they destroyed, a cry of shock drew Baltar's attention, a crewman pointing to the screen showing the mushroom clouds on Earth.
Far away one of the Cylon baseships finished its calculations, disappearing in a flash of light one instant and reappearing beside task force Rapier, the ships barley able to respond before being hammered by massive shells from the Cylons.
The relatively thin armour on the frigates offered no resistance to the heavy Cylon ordinance, armour piercing shells went through them like a hot knife through butter, until finally a lucky shot hit the fuel tank on one of them causing it to cease existing.
The cruiser returned fire with its own weapons but the armour on the baseship shrugged them aside with little effort, only leaving small craters, the cruisers armour likewise could handle the Cylon weapons for a time but the Cylons had other ideas, 12 large missiles flew out from the launchers on the baseship, CWIS turned to engage from the 3 remaining ships, shooting down several, several wasn't enough, Cylon anti-ship missiles struck all around, the multi megaton explosions claiming the 2 frigates, the Rapier itself was still intact, its armour designed to take hits like that, unfortunately all its weapon mounts were erased so the second volley hit the ship unimpeded.
The last thing Marcus Baltar saw was an Earth on fire.
The road to 2064
Prior to the appearance of the Velos above Earth it was unlikely that any major efforts in space travel would appear in the near future, economic downturns and wars shifted most funding sources away from investment in outer space.
When the raptor containing the five survivors landed the world held it breath, the popularly theorized first contact was with non human life, surprisingly the survivors were all human, from twelve worlds of humans, initial reactions among the public thought it was some kind of giant hoax.
The truth came out fast though, leaders around the world were quick to identify the threat of the Cylons, Earth was totally helpless against any space-borne aggressors, Alien, Cylon or Human.
The nature of the Cylons had knock on effects in Earths tech sector, up to that point AI research was a top priority, after the Velos governments around the world enacted legislation to curtail research in that direction, fearful of creating their own Cylon analogue.
The threat spurned major paranoia among the citizens and leaders of the world, wars stopped almost overnight as all effort was put into making Earth safe, major investments went towards the aerospace industries and reverse engineering the colonial raptors systems.
The first hurdle was the fuel used by the raptor, Tylium didn't exist anywhere on Earth, extensive study produced a substitute based on its chemical composition but it was lacking a key ingredient which didn't exist in current Earths science. The Synthetic Tylium fuel was still far and away the best chemical fuel produced to date, its creation enabled the relatively cheap access to space currently employed today.
The raptor was the best gift Earth received, its hull material led to massive advances in heat resistant metals, eliminating the need for special tiles or heavy heat shields for reentry, new engine designs based on the raptors, artificial gravity, life support systems and the Jump drive itself.
The Jump drive would remain a major obstacle to Earth science, even artificial gravity didn't pose much problem, it wouldn't be till 2049 that a working prototype would be finished, limited in range to 0.7 astronomical units, it mass production variant allowed the full exploitation of the sol systems vast resources, the last 15 years have seen major improvements to Earth based drives, now boasting a full 2 light years of range with 1 hour recharge times but its still far behind known colonial technology.
Other changes occurred in the political realm, working through the UN nations joined together to form the Earth space defence force by 2034, a military alliance similar to NATO but focused on space and eventually reorganised into the Terran Union by 2049, a successor to both the UN and ESDF, a system to govern the sol system and any eventual colonies beyond.
An amalgam of the old UN and EU systems, a council of representatives of the most powerful nations made all the major decisions with the smaller and weaker ones represented by the general assembly similar to the UN, by 2060 the union was expanded to include an assembly of elected politicians in a parliamentary system with a president elected by the parliament but from candidates selected by the council thus giving some democratic power to the citizens of earth.
The introduction of the new parliament in the Union has led to an increase of powers granted to it, in the near future the merging of the national space forces into the EDSF is guaranteed with only token coast guard type forces left, the Union also has responsibilities for human colonization and any foreign policy decisions regarding non Earth powers, this new Parliamentary system has yet to be tested in any serious manner, the first four year term of the parliament is soon to end, it remains to be seen how the new elections will turn out.
The discovery of the first inhabitable planet beyond Earth in 2058, located 14 light years away in the Wolf 1061 system, was a milestone in history, unfortunatly the planet was lacking in land based life, being a rocky barren world, most life was single cellular sea creatures, fortunately it had near Earth gravity at 0.963 g's and a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere.
The first major political decision of the Union was the colonization of the world, named New Hope by an internet survey (The winning name PlanetmcPlanetface was rejected by the council), massive funding was poured into the effort in a plan titled Exodus, the idea is to move 1 billion people to New Hope in order to relieve the stress on Earth ecosystem, to date 3 million people are in residence mostly in the construction sector, building massive amounts of housing for the incoming population, the rest are in agriculture to ensure food self sufficiency.
Major investments in constructing a massive amount of jump capable passenger transports were also made, currently thousands of such ships have been constructed to the detriment of the defence forces, the ESDF having since been renamed to the Terran Defence Force in 2055, most military power still lies in the member nations space forces, the TDF only having one fleet to their name as of writing.
Excerpt from Earth and the new space age, published March 2064.
Sentinel Station
Earth Orbit
April blinked her eyes as the canopy of her simulator pod opened, the bright lights outside blinding her as she adjusted to the brightness, she quickly climbed out and looked around the room, around 20 pods were inside with other pilots exiting their own pods, others who had been destroyed earlier in the sim were already exiting the room.
She spied Durant's pod near the door, he was already outside talking to some of his squad, April caught his eye, her expression caused him to finish up with a clap on the back of his subordinate, she quickly made her way over through the maze of pods on the floor, her lithe frame easily dodged other pilots and machinery.
Thomas Durant looked down on her from on high, according to her five foot two inch height anyway, his expression genial in response to her scowl, "April, don't start I know that sim was utter crap"
"What shit was that Tom, who the hell designed that scenario, we all just died before we even got to fire off a shot" Her scowl had morphed into annoyance, not at Tom, he was alright for a CO, they were friendly during off hours, his relaxed method made him popular with the squadron.
She looked up at Durant, handsome even though he was in his mid 40's, still had all his hair too grey as it was, she took a calming breath, "meh, this whole thing is stupid, the early sims were too easy now this impossible stuff, why are we even doing this Tom?"
Durant raised a bushy grey eyebrow over his tanned face, "No idea really, a week of these sims, I heard they've been pulling people in from all over Earth space for this too, there's American, Russian, Chinese and every other nations ships here, seems odd" He shrugged his shoulders, "I even saw them painting the Union flag on some of them", He paused in thought for a moment, "anyway, head over to briefing room 3 for the after action, that sim was the last one so we're due that week's leave we were promised, I have a meeting with Admiral Borman afterwards, I'll let you know if I find out anything"
April gave a small nod, her shoulder length auburn hair barely moving as she sauntered out the door, she'd ask around the station about these wargames that were so odd, she remembered the abnormal amount of military traffic she saw as they first arrived a week ago, some large jump capable freighters were there too, she knew some people in the command staff she could ask.
Admiral Borman's Office
10 minutes later
Borman was still getting used to being called Admiral, the equivalent rank in the USSF (United States Space Force) was General, which he was used to being addressed as, he sat down in his sparsely furnished office, having only occupied it for the previous week, and began to peruse his computer.
A quick glance at his schedule showed his next appointment was in 10 minutes, with one Commander Marcus Baltar, son of one of the survivors of the Velos, one of the youngest commanders in the Union fleet at 36 years old.
James brought up his personnel file on the computer and reviewed the information, Baltar was born in Ireland on a small farm, his father moving there while working with the teams developing Earths jump engines, supposedly it reminded him the most of his home world of Aerilon, he had several siblings including one who he never met, being born before the Velos incident Baltar's other brother was still in the Kobolian Colonies, status unknown.
According to the file Baltar joined the Terran Unions space force in an effort to get on any expeditions towards the Colonies, thus far the political will was lacking for any exploration efforts for fear of encountering the Cylons, Earth unaware if the colonies still existed or if they won their war.
Borman sat back in his chair as he considered the current situation, he was nearing retirement when told he had one last job, the details were amazing to him and he accepted immediately, transferring to the Union Fleet was no issue, he always did want to explore distant planets, they even offered a sweetener of being the man to discover the Colonies, the risk they felt was worth it even with the Cylons.
That was the whole reason for this farce of a wargame, it was just to get the right candidates and material to Sentinel Station, he even let one of the techs load up an impossible scenario for the last sim, it was totally pointless as a learning experience but the look on the face of the pilot exiting the pod gave him a good chuckle, she looked like a real firecracker.
He was interrupted from his musing by a beeping coming from his intercom, he reached over and hit receive, "Sorry to interrupt sir but your next appointment is here" the secretary informed him, "Send him in", he sat up straighter in his chair and straightened up his uniform and pretended to be looking at his computer.
The door opened and in stepped Baltar, Borman looked up and saw him in person for the first time, short shaved brown hair, pretty thin build and around 6ft tall, grey uniform immaculate.
"Have a seat Commander" Borman waved to the chair opposite his desk.
"Thank you Sir" Baltar's voice was clear and even, almost monotone, and he was quick to sit in the offered seat.
"Right Commander I'll get right to it, these wargames were just an excuse to vet people for an upcoming mission, long range, we're looking at a thousand light years minimum and before you ask its not to the Colonies"
Baltar's composure faltered a bit, a hint of surprise on his features, "That'd be the furthest we're ever gone sir, the record is only 20 light years currently" he mused, "Why me sir?, my destroyer doesn't have the newest jump drives yet"
Borman waved his hand, gesturing towards space, "I cant tell you much yet, it's still classified, but I've looked at your record, its spotless, your perfect for this, no spouse or children, this mission might be up to a year before we return to Earth, and another thing is PR, your father came from the Colonies, this will be the first major long range expedition Earth does, if it goes well the next will be to the Colonies and you'll be in it too"
Baltar took a few seconds to process that, his major ambition was to go to the colonies and open the way for his father to return home, also to visit his unknown brother Julius Baltar, this could be the path to it.
Borman continued "Its a lot to take in I know, you have a week to decide, go visit the family and think about it, but to sweeten the pot there's also a promotion to Captain and command of one of the newest Sword class cruisers in it too"
Baltar was ready to accept right then but the Admiral was right, better to take a week to think it over first, his father would be excited too if it led to the colonies In the long run.
"Thank you for the opportunity sir, You'll have my answer before the week is out" Baltar stood, feeling the interview was over.
"Right son, don't let this opportunity slip by" Borman waved Baltar out of the office.
Sentinel Station Pilots Bar
4 hours later
Thomas Durant had a quandary, Admiral Borman had just given him a job opportunity but he had to leave the USSF to do it, join the Terran Union Space Force instead, he was currently thinking it over while nursing a beer, his thoughts were interrupted by April Phillips sitting down beside him.
"Why the long face Tom?"
"A new job, far away and for a long time, the whole squad is invited" he took a swig of his too expensive space brewed beer.
"Well that's not cryptic" was the sarcastic response, "anyway I've been asking around, apparently all the ships and sims and things started when Admiral Borman came aboard the station, one of the command crew even said they let the techs design some of the scenarios"
Durant looked to the panoramic windows, the brand new USS Enterprise was floating serenely several kilometres outside, at 700m long she was the first proper space carrier developed by Earth, she even came with new experimental technology, fusion reactors and gauss weapons, she was supposed to be assigned to first fleet last week after her trials, after Borman's talk he knew she was going somewhere else.
"See that ship out there, the Enterprise, I've been offered the CAG spot, and there's a spot there for you too, you'll just have to join the Unions fleet though" he took a swig "and it'll be Commander Durant not major from now on, I think I'll accept, its a once in a lifetime chance"
He looked to April, flabbergasted was the best description of her face "Grab a beer and I'll give you the sales pitch"...
Earth and modern space warfare
Many historians dub the current era the second space age, starting in 2024 with the arrival of the colonial cruiser Velos over Earth orbit the new era showed massive growth in technology and industry in the new frontier of space, before just a dream of science fiction.
The critical issue for the worlds leaders was the possible threat of the colonials enemy the Cylons, AI robots make by the colonial world of Caprica, the complete lack of information, except from the few survivors, on the Cylon military and the complete lack of any experience fighting in space in Earths military powers led to a relatively underwhelming response in the beginning.
The first defences were simply armed satellites launched in the first years as scientists and engineers studied the colonial raptor shuttle, the version on the Velos was setup for passenger transport but information gained from the survivors indicated it was also available as a support gunship, the fruits of such labour would be available in the coming years.
The first successful space craft were large fighters, roughly the size of a passenger plane depending on which country produced it, the size necessary for fuel capacity, launched from ground bases these craft were primarily missile buses, few were equipped with any kind of close range weapons, once in orbit they would volley off their missiles, usually nuclear weapons of some type, and return to rearm, they were never intended to dogfight, their agility very poor.
New fuels and materials led to advance in space plane technology, reducing the price to an affordable level, comparable to business class on expensive airlines, the cheaper access to space led to a massive push from governments to setup industry to better defend Earth from the perceived threat of the Cylons, many experts argue that it was also to counter any possible Colonial threat to Earth too, their political disposition unknown.
This industry quickly led to space shipyards being build and following on the first Earth capitol ships, at this time effort was also expended to recover the front half of the Velos, it trajectory placed it leaving Earth Lunar space.
These first large vessels were a far cry from those of today, they had no jump engines, minimal armour only able to stop low caliber weapons, most of the volume was taken by fuel reserves, the designers seeing the need for these ships to patrol the Sol system without FTL, their primary armament usually being missile systems adapted from wet naval tech, and some small caliber auto cannon for point defence purposes.
These ships were usually less than a 100 meters long, very few were bigger and there was no standardised design, each being a one off as designers and engineers came to grips with an evolving understanding of colonial technology and practical experience.
The recovery of the remains of the Velos changed the direction of space ship design over night, analysis of its components and structure led to a radical rethinking of how to fight in space, an emphasis on heavy armour and guns, documents recovered in the wreck also shed more light on colonial science, culture, religion, history and technical documents pertaining to the operation of a Virgonian cruiser, even more details emerged on the Cylons, the first images of Centurions and Cylon space craft emerged.
One of the more notable items recovered was the computer core of the Velos, its design helped to improve Earths computer technology immensely, careful analysis led to the discovery of the Cylon back door programming inside it, fortunately Earth computers use completely different architecture and programming languages but the look into Cylon programming helped develop new electronic countermeasures.
The new generation of ships heavily copied design element from the Velos, gone was the thin armour and lack of heavy cannon, the next gen would be though and hit like a sledgehammer but suffered from the yet to be reverse engineered jump drives.
Political developments at the time led to changes among the militaries of Earth, treaty's were signed that standardised all military designs, no longer would nations develop on their own, this was primarily to reduce costs and increase compatibility of part and training, this was a part of the growing power of the Terran Union, at the time a new global organisation replacing the UN.
The ships after the recover of the Velos favoured Colonial design features, the first to enter service was the Shield class frigate, other languages typically used their own word for shield, weighing in at 180m it featured 2 twin turreted 460mm cannons, scaled down versions of the main weapons of the Velos, mounted dorsal and ventral, 24 600mm long range missile tubes with nuclear capability, multiple point defence auto cannon and interceptor missile turrets typically 20mm and 100m respectively, and 2 meter thick sloped armour, power is provided by a nuclear reactor with 4 chemical thrusters fuelled by synthetic tylium, a small shuttle bay with two small space only transports is located port side aft.
The Shield class was the first Earth space vessel to enter serial production and is still being produced today with minor revisions, most notably the inclusion of a jump engine, refits feature a distinctive bulge amidships containing the engine while new productions are extended by 10 meters to fit it internally.
Following the success of the Shield, designers proceeded to design 2 other classes, the Armour class Destroyers and the Sword class cruisers.
The Armour class was an evolution of the Shield, lengthened to 300 meters, featuring 6 twin turreted 600mm main guns evenly distributed top and bottom, 48 600mm missile tubes and 12 1600mm torpedo tubes, the torpedo's can include multi megaton warheads and are capable of targeting planet side but their main purpose is anti capitol, point defence is only slightly improved over the Shield as the ships purpose isn't to escort, the main armour belt is 4 meters thick composite sloped armour giving the ship its distinctive angular appearance. Only 4 Armours were completed by the advent of jump engines, the ship was designed with FTL capability from the get go so space was available internally without redesign.
The Sword was intended as the brawler of the Earth fleet, heavily inspired by the Velos itself it resembles a smaller version of it, at 500 meters it has the same weapons layout as the Armour but with larger guns, 6 twin turrets with 1200mm cannons, the design a straight copy of the recovered ones on the Velos albeit fewer of them, it also features 12 turreted 460mm cannons and the same missile and torpedo armament as the Armour, and similar point defence systems, the biggest difference is the sheer amount of armour on the Sword class, 10 meters at its thickest at the prow, 6 at its thinnest rear and sides, it also features two of the same small shuttle bay as the Armour and Shield classes, all Swords began production after jump drive technology was introduced.
Of course Earths scientists were not idle during the trove of colonial technology, Earths biggest disadvantage was the lack of any tylium deposits in Earth space, synthetic tylium being a far cry from the real thing, heavy investment was made in fusion technology, the colonials having tylium meant research into fusion was considered a waste of money according to recovered military reports on the Velos (such information is currently unverifiable and only speculation as the primary sources were never released to the public), Earth didn't have the luxury of tylium and fusion was the only option to close the performance gap between Earth and the Colonials and Cylons, this research culminated in the X-156 space test platform, a small one man test craft equipped with the first fusion torch engine, developed by General Electric in 2056, based on their commercial fusion reactor technology released in 2054, the first use was in the new 2061 Boeing Stellar Stratos space plane, Airbus and other competitors are planning to release their own fusion powered craft the following year.
Military designers were also involved in the development of fusion technology, the first military design being the Luna class Carrier, funded mostly by the United States, the first ship the USS Enterprise is due to enter service in 2064, the name is a deliberate PR move invoking the popular science fiction ship from Star Trek and the historical carrier USS Enterprise, the ship will be the first dedicated carrier vessel constructed, prior to this no ship had fighter capabilities as they were all based on stations and planet side. The ship will also feature experimental Gauss cannons in place of the standard main projectile weapons and rumours also imply a supplemental laser based point defence system, the full details are yet to be released.
Small craft have also evolved from the early days, experimental anti gravity lift engines are equipped on the Lockheed Sky Marshall troop transport, based on the similar system of the Caprican Raptor shuttle, the design is currently undergoing rigorous trials to fully test this new system, if successful it could lead to a revolution in space to planet lift capability, further reducing the cost of reaching orbit
Fighter craft have also underwent design improvements from the early massive craft, the current mainstay fighter, the SF-05 Angel, was designed with carrier operations in mind. At only 16m, it has similar dimensions to the old atmospheric F-16, comes with 2 forward mounted 20mm auto cannons, multiple missile hard points and magazine fed launchers for a truly impressive payload, large engines allow performance similar to estimated Cylon raider velocities at the cost of huge fuel expenditure, and estimated superior agility in dog fight situations, its major limiting factor is endurance as it can only operate for 10 minutes at such output, the design was future proofed in a way as a simple engine reprogram will allow it to use real tylium fuel if it ever becomes available.
A rumoured new fighter is also in development, dubbed the Valkyrie this new design supposedly uses fusion thrusters and features 4 guns instead of 2, details are sparse currently and it remains to be seen if it even exists.
Excerpt from the Second Space age, Earth and space warfare, circa 2062.
Sentinel Station
24th July 2064
1 week later
Baltar took his assigned seat in the largest briefing room on sentinel station, it was almost like a university lecture hall in its setup with a lectern on a raised podium with large screens behind, the seating was in raised tiers in front of it, he was 10 minutes early the room still not even half full, he noted a pretty blond woman messing with a computer connected to the large screens, she looked uncomfortable in her grey Terran Union uniform, like she wasn't used to wearing one, he spied her rank of Lt Commander from his seat.
With nothing better to do till it started he examined the data pad he was given by the ensign who showed him his seat, a quick mess about showed it was locked down, "they must be waiting for the briefing to start to unlock, its probably still classified till then".
As the room filled up he noticed lots of new faces and some he saw during the wargames a week earlier, he also noticed another branch of the military, the Union marines were in attendance, entirety made up of member nations national armies on loan to the Union, they were normally deployed as peacekeeper troops, the Union still fulfilling the UN's old mandates, they even still wore the blue helmets. A Major and a Lieutenant had seated themselves on the chairs behind the podium, deep in conversation with each other and a stern looking colonel was in the front row near Baltar.
The murmuring in the room grew as more people entered the room. Baltar thought back to his visit to the family farm, his older brother Owen ran the farm now his father getting on in age, their younger sister Lucy living in the city working in a hospital, his father Lucius was quite excited about a possible expedition to the colonies in the future and gave his full support to Marcus's decision to join the Prometheus Expedition, a name he only learned today, his mother Evelyn was also proud of his promotion to Captain, even Owen was behind it saying "You get to meet our lost brother first, Mark, make it happen".
Baltar's musings were interrupted by Admiral Borman taking the podium, he didn't even notice that the room had filled.
"Alright people, settle down and lets get this started"
The lights in the room dimmed slightly as the big screen came on behind the admiral, a triangular logo with the words the Prometheus Expedition written underneath appearing on it.
"I'll give a brief overview before we dive into the details, first though" he pointed a remote at the screen and clicked, the image changed to a computer rendered molecule, "This is tylium" another click and a rather large atom appeared "and this is what scientists have named kobolium, the thing missing from our synthetic tylium, so far there was no trace of it or tylium in the space Earth has explored, that is until a month ago"
A low murmuring was audible around the room, Earths lack of a comparable fuel was their biggest deficit compared to the Cylons and Colonials, the strategic value was immense, Baltar was intrigued, leaning forward in his chair.
"Quiet now, we haven't even got to the good parts yet" Borman was jovial in his rebuke, he clicked again and the screen showed a map of the local galactic sector, a system had a circle drawn around it, "This system has a habitable planet where the mineral was discovered, its one thousand light years away from Earth and the locals call it Abydos" a louder murmur happened with the word locals, Baltar was unphased, there were humans in the Kobolian colonies too, "Yes people, locals, Humans to be precise, we'll go into more detail later"
Borman turned to the blond woman and waved her over, "This is commander Carter, she'll be going over how we even got to Abydos" Borman moved away and took a seat behind the podium.
"Greetings, I'm Commander Samantha Carter, formerly of the United States Air Force, I was one of the researchers involved with Project Blue Book", Baltar though she seemed a bit nervous, probably not used to talking in front of big crowds, she produced a remote of her own and the image changed to a large circle made of metal, Baltar couldn't tell its scale from the image.
"This" she paused "Is the Stargate, it can generate an Einstien-Rosen bridge, also called wormholes, between two linked devices, Stargates" a diagram of cones and lines appeared, a diagram of a wormhole he supposed, before it was replaced with the image of the Stargate again this time with a watery substance filling the centre, "The Stargate can transport any object that fits nearly instantaneously between themselves, it is also composed of almost pure kobolium".
Another image appeared, this time an old photograph, it showed the Stargate in what looked like a dig site in a desert region, Baltar thought it looked like Egypt based on the workers clothes, "First discovered in Giza in 1928 by professor Paul Langford …." Baltar was amazed as he listened, this was almost as big as the arrival of the Velos, the US had the Stargate since the 1930's but only recently got it to work, thanks to one Dr Daniel Jackson, an archaeologist, who figured out some cartouche had constellations on it, Baltar remembered meeting Jackson once at a conference about the colonies, he had some theory about ancient aliens bringing humans to Kobol, Baltar thought he was probably right at the time, the Stargate looks to have proved it.
Another thought clicked for him, The US Air Force, one would think the stargate would have been transferred to the Space Force given its purpose, he realised it was probably a way for them to get more funding, ever since the Velos planet side military organisations had their funding slashed massively as governments went full bore for space, he wondered what went wrong for the stargate to be revealed to the Union or why not just use the gate to secure Abydos.
Admiral Borman had retaken the podium while Baltar was lost in thought, "Thank you Commander Carter, most of you should have realised by now the purpose of the Prometheus expedition, namely, to acquire the kobolium deposits, this is a top strategic priority for the Union council and member nations, you might ask why there are not shipments of kobolium coming through the stargate at this very moment" Borman paused and hit the remote, the screen changed to show a still image of a large object burning its way through a planetary atmosphere.
"This image was captured by the body cams of the expedition through the gate, an Alien starship" Borman looked to the side "Major Kawalsky was the second in command of that mission, he'll give you a rundown of what happened" One of the men sat behind Borman approached the podium while the admiral sat back down.
"Colonel O'Neill led us through the gate" Kawalsky looked lost in thought "It was all fine at first, the locals were friendly, Dr Jackson had a good rapport with the local leader Kasuf, we were invited into their city as friends, Nagada they called it" The image on the screen changed again, this time showinga primitive open pit mine "Problems became apparent quick, the Abydonians were mining a metal they called Naquadah, we later learned it was kobolium, we learned they were mining it for their master, the alien Ra".
Kawalsky continued "Ra's men were brutal, death was their response if quotas weren't met, escape for us impossible, his ship had landed right on top of the stargate".
"So we did the only thing we could, we fought, of all the men sent to Abydos only three returned" Kawalsky's morose form perked up now "But we sent that bastard Ra to hell".
"Ra did capture us and revealed some information, he claimed to be the Egyptian sun god, to have visited Earth thousands of years ago and somehow took possession of a human body, took slaves to work the mines in Abydos, and revealed that naquadah could be used to enhance nuclear warheads" Kawalsky looked abashed now "General West had ordered us to take along a nuclear warhead as a contingency".
"In a way West was right, we managed to sneak the bomb aboard his ship and blow him to pieces, the Abydonians providing a distraction that allowed us to do it".
"Only Colonel O'Neill, my self and Lt Feretti here", he waved to the other soldier he had been in conversation with earlier, "returned, Dr Jackson elected to remain on Abydos, no one else survived"
he had a solemn look on his face as he returned to his seat.
Baltar was alarmed by this new information, first the Stargate now aliens, he'd have to wait for details, others in the audience had looks ranging from angry to disbelief.
Borman was at the podium again "Details will be available on the pads you received along with further specific briefings in the future, suffice to say we may be looking at an actual alien threat"
"Colonel O'Neill has retired since his return, the powers that be are content to let that happen, unfortunately attempts since their return to reconnect to Abydos have been unsuccessful, experts have suggested that their Stargate has been buried" Borman's power point presentation changed again, this time bullet points, "So these are our objectives, journey to Abydos and setup a base, recover their Stargate and reconnect to Earth, recover any remaining alien technology left by Ra".
"The leaders of the expedition are myself in overall command, Colonel Méndez is in charge of ground operations" Borman pointed to the Colonel Baltar saw earlier, "Dr Elizabeth Weir is in charge of the civilian side of things", he indicated a woman in her 40's wearing civilian attire, "including diplomacy with the natives, Commander Carter is head science officer, and Major Kawalsky and Lt Feretti are advisors on the locals and the aliens".
"We leave in one week on the dot people, further detailed briefings will be on your itinerary's, expect details on Ra's troops, local Abydonian culture, all recovered video footage will be made available, remember that all information discussed is still classified, talk to no one about what you heard" Borman tone had gone from kind to commanding at the end, he looked directly at Baltar, "Captain Baltar meet me at dock four in one hour",he turned to the audience "Dismissed" With his final word, people began the slow shuffle out of the room, confusion the most prevalent emotion in the crowd.
Dock 4
1 Hour later
Baltar stood looking out the window at the ship occupying dock 4, his mind still going over the unbelievable information, "stargates and aliens, its almost unreal, the Cylons are bad enough".
The ship before him was a Sword class, the name unreadable from where he stood, it bore the telltale signs of having its jump engine replaced, the armour in the midsection was clean and new from where they had cut open the belly of the ship, the claimed modularity of the design only really showed up during the initial construction phases, modifications afterwards not easy at all.
He felt a presence behind him, Admiral Borman coming to stand by his side, "There she is Marcus, your new chariot, one of the first produced" Borman stared out the window at the ship "Just transferred from the Euros, the Dublin, I thought it was fitting she went to you"
Borman turned to Baltar, "Your going to have a mixed crew, someone from everywhere" Baltar frowned, it was unlikely any of his old crew would be available for this, even if they had clearance, but the opportunity was too great for him to complain. Borman must have sensed his disquiet though, "don't worry too much" he handed Baltar a pad "Take a look, these are the candidates for the officer positions, they'll be on the expedition anyway but pick who you want for yourself"
Baltar glanced at the pad in his hands before looking back at Borman, "I'll get right on it sir,"
"Don t take too long, we have a week of meetings to get through and I have to sort every aspect of a fleet on a long range mission" Borman looked at his wrist, an old school watch evident on it "speaking of, I have a meeting with colonel Méndez in a few minutes" he looked to Baltar "there's also a ship commander meeting at eight tonight, ill see you then" he finished as he strolled off.
Baltar took one last look at the ship and made his way to the docking port, he had some research to do.
Colonel Méndez's Office
Later that day
Juan Méndez sat back in his chair deep in thought, he had just returned from a meeting with Admiral Borman, infront of his desk was Major Kawalsky and his second in command Major Chen, formerly of the PLA, Méndez had served in the USMC before but things in the Union were different.
He went over the ground force contingent coming on the expedition, a whole battalion, half mechanised half engineers, the idea was the engineers set up a base and the rest would be stuck guarding it.
"Kawalsky, tell me about Ra's men, details, equipment, tactics" Juan focused on Charles Kawalsky as he recounted the mission.
"They had some kind of energy weapon, looked like a staff, our armour didn't do anything to stop it, theirs on the other hand didn't even scratch from our guns"
"Hmm, I'll have to see if we can get some AP rounds then"
"They also had a flying machine, fired a bigger version of the staff, hits like a tank, otherwise their tactics were sub par, I don't think they fight peers, only put down slaves, physically they were strong and fit, stronger than normal" he finished
"We did manage to down one of the flyers, they have an open canopy, one shot in the right spot takes em out"
Méndez considered "we'll take AP rounds for sure, the Russian company has an air defence platoon, they have those anti orbital missiles now, should be able to handle the flying things, and the Chinese are bringing some SPAAG's too"
He brought up his commands composition on his desk computer, a mix of units from different countries, American, Russian, Chinese and Euros, the main players on the Terran Council, the Russian and Chinese mostly air defence and infantry for guarding the mine and base when built, the Euros handling the engineering and construction, America came with some armoured power in the form of a Striker 2 Platoon and mechanized infantry, only equipped with 25mm guns though, the only difference from the original was the hybrid multi fuel engine.
As long as they don't just explode us from space we should be able to handle it, he thought.
Command Meeting Room
20:00 local time
Borman was the last into the room, everyone else already sat around the large conference table in deep talks.
He took a mental tally of the commanders of his fleet, there was Baltar of course, in command of the Dublin, Captain Sergei Chekov of the Korolev the other cruiser in the fleet, and the four destroyer commanders, Emile Dupont, Suko Nobuyuki, Wan Jing and Issac Archer, rounding it out was Captain Judith Andersen of the Enterprise.
The frigate commanders were not present, Borman would be having a separate meeting with them later and the captains of the civilian ships after that, it was going to be a long night.
"Alright cut the chatter people, lets get down to business" he said as he sat at the head of the table.
A flick of a button brought up the fleet composition of the expedition.
"This is the finalised fleet list, were going with the Enterprise, 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers and 6 frigates for the military side of things" A rather neat carrier battle group he thought, and also a large percentage of Earths total tonnage, there was only 14 cruisers built to date, but that looked to change as the Exodus initiative's first stage was winding down, soon those shipyards would be building military ships instead of passenger transports.
"How many civilian ships are coming" Archer asked, his British accent apparent.
Borman brought up his notes "two 500 meter Colossus freighters, on loan from the Exodus initiative, they only things that size with modern jump drives, they'll handle supplies and equipment transport, including a deployable mining and refining station we need to setup in Abydos's system, it should be able to produce replacement parts and refine fuel if its supplied, an asteroid mining ship is coming along for that reason, a fuel transport ship, Ganymede class"
"What's a Ganymede class? Ive Never heard of one" Dupont asked, her English crisp and without accent despite her French nationality, Terran Union cross training included extensive classes on English, the language chosen as Earths standard.
"Its a Colossus converted to fuel transport, everything in our inventory was too small for the journey to Abydos, we also have one of the passenger transport variants along too, it'll house the ground troops and some of the civilians, there'll be a hospital aboard too".
"I also pulled in some favours with the Council, we'll have two of the prototype Skymarshall landing ships and the freighters are packing some heavy lift spaceplanes"
"A survey ship is coming too, we have a mandate to investigate any potential habitable planets we encounter along the way" Commander Jing interjected, China was interested in exporting more of its population to the stars, having had a population boom in response to the Velos's arrival.
"Four large transport ships, two 100 meter landing ships and this survey ship together with the military fleet, this is quite a lot of effort for a journey into the unknown", Nobuyuki input his thoughts too, the Japanese government not quite as onboard as the others.
"The strategic value of kobolium is immeasurable, even with fusion technology finally becoming available, if these reports from Abydos are right, its power to enhance nuclear weapons is invaluable" Baltar was the last to speak, quiet till that moment, he continued, "If the Cylons still do exist such weapons could level the field, we know our fleet will be no match for them right now".
"Quite right Captain, the mines on Abydos are the councils top priority, otherwise a much smaller expedition would be sent, we'll be taking control of them even if the locals object" Borman looked the commanders in the eye "Make no mistake, the military might we're bringing is not for show, but we will show restraint"
"Colonel Méndez men are bringing along riot gear in case the locals become intransigent but we will try diplomacy first, the bigger issue is more of the aliens coming, Union intelligence believes there must be more of them, regardless of Ra claiming to be the last of his people, his ship came from somewhere, he was mining kobolium for a reason"
A sober mood overcame the room at that news, they had seen the reports about what Ra's ground weapons were capable of, his large ship easily able to land on a planet, a fight with that technological difference was a losing one.
"Anyway, we're looking at a three month journey to Abydos, we're not going to push our engines too hard, its the first time any Earth ship has gone that far so I don't want to deal with engine failures, it'll also give us time to do surveys as we travel".
"Once we arrive the first priority is to recover the stargate and contact Earth, we should be able to be resupplied through it after".
"What's going to happen to the stargate on Earth, Admiral?" Captain Anderson asked.
"Ive been told its going to be transported to Pluto, their building a station there right now for it, the threat of an enhanced nuclear bomb coming through scared enough people"
Borman checked his notes again "One more thing before we finish, the PR department was working on our cover story but the council in all their wisdom has decided to declassify some of our mission once we leave, I don't know the details but the existence of the stargate is likely to be public by the time we return, its too hard to hide the Prometheus expedition from the public or the media Ive been told".
Earth Orbit
One Week Later
Borman stood behind Captain Anderson as the crew went through their final pre jump checks, the fleet was arranged around the Enterprise, drives synced and waiting for the signal. They had one additional ship foisted on them by the Council, a courier ship, usually filled with massive hard drives, they travelled between Earth and distant stations and New Hope, holding as much data as they could, acting like proxy servers to bring the internet to distant locations, theirs was in case they encountered disaster, it would take their logs back to Earth if anything unfortunate happened, Borman suspected the ship was to keep tabs on the expedition.
"Admiral, all stations report ready"
Borman nodded, time to get this show on the road then.
"Begin jump countdown Captain, signal the fleet to proceed to the first jump coordinates"
"Aye Sir, Lieutenant Silva, initiate jump countdown, ten seconds on my mark, comms inform the fleet to sync timers"
A few tense seconds followed, everyone nerves were strung due to the enormity of the expedition.
"Mark"
Silva began his countdown as Borman looked at the main screen, the fleet arranged around him.
5
4
3
2
1
And then there was only empty space, their journey had begun.
3 Months after the start of the first Cylon war
A steel bulk hung silent beside the colossal form of Aerilon's biggest space station, its 600m length awaiting clearance to dock, multiple gun turrets in their safe positions, thrusters cold and jump engine hot.
Commander Flint stood watch over the CIC of the Velos, his greying hair the only sign of his 47 years of age, he sat in his command chair positioned with good lines of sight to every station in the CIC of the Velos, the ship itself was a former Virgonian Cruiser fresh from a service upgrade performed by Caprica Aeronautics, ever since receiving the ship 4 months the problems were non stop, it was small fortune that the Aerilon Fleet even got the ship due to the Cylon situation, currently they were holding position next to Aerilon Fleet HQ waiting for a berth to clear.
Flint looked around the CIC, only a few crew were present, Ensign Baker at his console, a thin and pale young man fresh from the academy and petty officer Grey a twenty something woman with brown hair but otherwise unremarkable who was manning the comms, most of the crew was already on leave, Flint giving approval after being informed by the stationmaster that the berth for the Velos was occupied by a commercial freighter that suffered a minor engine problem.
A loud clunk was heard as the heavy door opened to the CIC, a stocky man in his 50's entering the room, Captain Athos, the ships chief engineer.
"Commander, here's the final report before I leave on the shuttle, we had to switch the Jump computer to local control, it kept in charging mode otherwise, its fully charged now so ill leave the rest to the engineering team on the station"
"A whole month to fix this computer problem, too much automation with this upgrade"
"Lowest bidder sir, they should have went with Scoripa yards instead of Caprica, anyway the transport shuttle is leaving in 10 minuets so I better get going"
"See you in a month Jim, say hi to the wife and kids"
Jim Athos gave the commander a firm handshake and hurried out the door
"Grey contact the station and get me an update on this delay"
"Roger sir" Grey replied, Flint went back to reading the news report on the current war situation, the Cylons had gained more territory on both Caprica and Tauron, the other worlds were untouched for now but who knew how long that would last, Grey finished talking on the wireless and addressed the commander.
"Commander, Station control reports another 2 hours before they clear dock 2"
"Right, keep me informed if anything changes Grey"
A tremor was felt through the ship, the shuttle with most of the crew leaving, all the was left was a small crew to run things before docking and a raptor and pilot for any emergency.
Flint stood up from his chair as a luxury that most Virgonian ships employed unlike Caprican command centres which favoured standing, he started to wander around the room to stretch his legs examining the crew as he went.
"Baker's working hard at something there, I wonder what"
He wandered over to him and had a look, Baker was engrossed with a writing pad, occasionally looking up to type away on his console
"Baker, what are you working on there?"
Baker sat up straight after the commander broke him out of his trance
"Just a pet project of mine sir, I was using the downtime waiting to make some progress, honestly I think I solved it."
Flint nodded distractedly, his thoughts on the current Cylon situation, fortunately most of the fighting was limited to Caprica and Tauron for now, Aerilon was safe for the present.
Baker looked down at his notes his cheeks gaining a red tint, he ran his hand through his short dark black hair and looked back at the commander
"Its embarrassing sir, but I'm working on the coordinates to Earth"
Flint scratched his chin in thought as he considered Earth, supposedly where the 13th tribe fled to, but there was little actual evidence they even existed, only mentions in the sacred scrolls.
"Really? And here I thought Earth was just a myth"
Baker grabbed bound copy of the sacred scrolls, one of the core tenants of the colonial religion and started to flip through the pages as he replied to Flint
"That's the thing Commander, there's little definitive proof of Earth or the 13th tribe but the scroll of Aniketos mentions the exodus, there's a section here that's supposed to contain the coordinates to Earth but every astronomer say they make no sense"
He grabbed the notepad we as writing on and pointed to some numbers written down
"The problem was that no one accounted for the different number system….."
Flint stopped listening, only occasionally giving a nod as Baker went on about stellar drift and hidden numbers in the sacred scrolls, his thoughts turned to the reason they were docking at Fleet HQ, numerous computer errors occurring after the refit.
The ship had received new computers and a new Jump drive, the rest of the ship refurbished to bring it to current standards. Experts had traced the problem to the new computer system but the war had put a stop to any fixes in the near term, the only solution was to reinstall the old computers and hope for the best.
"… so when I take all these hidden numbers and convert them to modern colonial jump coordinates and calculate over 4000 years of stellar drift, I think I found Earth"
Flint decided to humour Baker, he knew some nutjobs from back in college who would gobble all this Earth stuff up.
"Most interesting Ensign, write up a report and ill have a look, I know some people in Colonial Explorations who would be interested"
Baker had a pleased smile hearing that, some validation for his theories after all the ridicule he received on the Aerilon public network, like his theories on the Lords of Kobol being aliens and the existence of a previous civilization before the colonials came to the 12 worlds.
Flint after stretching his legs sat back down in his chair and began killing time reading again..
30 Minuets Later
Aerilon orbit was busy with the usual traffic, mostly food and medicine exports from the mostly agrarian planet, due to the war the amount of incoming goods was reduced drastically but he hardy people below made due.
A thousand kilometres from the ship a bright flash occurred, a Cylon raider now occupied the space, it quickly oriented its antenna towards Aerilon Fleet HQ and initiated a burst transmission.
Baker was alerted by a beeping from his console, he looked up from his notes and noticed the red icon on the dradis display
"Hostile contact 1000km away, heading 423 carom 125, war-book identifies as a Cylon raider"
Flint went from a slouched reading position to alert in an instant. "Sound battle stations and get those engines restarted" he knew it was futile if it was a full scale invasion, there was only 10 crew onboard at the moment.
As Baker was reaching towards the button to start the alert everything went black, from the outside the running lights around the ship went dead as the alert fighters from the station raced towards the raider, the Cylon ship wasted no time before engaging its jump engines, its mission successful.
The CIC was illuminated by the emergency lights before anyone could even process what happened. "Baker report" the commander was up on his feet now, his body tense, a frown creased his brow.
Baker looked down at his console, it touchscreen powering back on, a cursory tap showed that he was locked out of the controls but could still see status updates.
"Main energizer is offline, all systems except life support and gravity are also down, the controls are not responding"
Flint put the dots together, computer errors since receiving the ship from Caprica, Cylons also from Caprica, the ship must have been compromised even before the Cylons rebelled, they must have left a backdoor in the system he thought.
"Sir there's something else, the tylium fuel pumps are active, the pressure in the energizer is rising"
Flint considered this, if the energizer restarted but was full of tylium beyond the normal amount it would turn into a giant bomb, normally this wouldn't be a problem for multiple reasons, automatic safety shut-offs, the fact that it would take 10 minutes to fill the energizer main chamber even at the pumps maximum flow rate.
That must be the Cylons plan he thought "if not for that freighter the Velos would have been docked by now, they must have planned to take out Fleet HQ", he turned to Ensign Grey
"Ensign are the internal comms still up?"
Grey typed away at her console but soon looked back at the commander "sorry sir comms are down, external and internal"
Flint's mind raced "we're on a timer now". he considered his options, "better evacuate the ship but we can try to manually stop the fuel pumps, we have some time before its too late"
"Grey, get to the shuttle bay, tell Lt Gordon to warm up the raptor and inform anyone you see we're abandoning ship" he turned to Baker, "Baker with me, we'll try to turn off the fuel pumps manually". He knew that the energizer room was uncrewed right now, having granted them all early leave at the request of Captain Athos earlier that day.
6 Minutes Later
Energizer room
The journey to the energizer took far longer than Flint liked, without power the internal lifts and small tram were off, locked doors had to be opened manually but still only 5 minutes was a personal record for him, his body was drenched in sweat.
They only encountered Ensign Baltar on their journey, Baltar was a technician for the jump engines and wholly unfamiliar with the energizers. "Ensign Baltar, when you get to the shuttle bay, tell them to leave immediately, there wont be enough time for us if we fail" Baker looked shaken as Flint spoke those words but resolved himself, success or death, Baltar ran off quickly as Baker and Flint made their way to the energizer.
Upon their arrival the signs of stress upon the main body of machinery was apparent, the pumps working overtime to push tylium inside the main chamber of the energizer, fortunately it was designed to stand up to an impressive amount of pressure but the main threat would be from it being activated.
Tylium fuel being the most powerful chemical fuel known to colonial science, its power nearly as much as a fusion reaction, if the main chamber was overfull when the machine was initiated the explosion would be as powerful as a small nuke.
Flint had spent his early career working in the engineering department of a military transport ship before transferring to command roles, so he knew his way around the energizer, they quickly made their way over to the controls for the fuel pumps.
Flashing warning signs illuminated the display, a glance the amount of fuel already pumped in filled Flint with despair, it was already enough to send the ship to fiery oblivion if the system restarted, He sat down on the ground as his emotions raced.
Baker took in Flints reactions and understood they were doomed, "Is there nothing we can do Sir?" Flint looked up at Baker, his expression resigned, "No son, this is it" he said tiredly, his hand weakly wiping the sweat from his brow.
Baker's expression became fearful, death imminent but he remembered that his brother and family were waiting on the station for him, an explosion at the distance they were at posed little danger but the debris from the ship could be catastrophic.
Filled with resolve, he remembered the conversation the Commander had with the Chief Engineer, the jump engines were full charged and on local control, the Cylons couldn't have disabled the control systems if they weren't connected.
Without even bothering to tell the commander he rushed out of the cavernous Energizer room and ran to the jump engine, only a short distance away, the commander this without comment, but stood and followed.
Baker was already working the active console when Flint arrived, "The explosion could still damage the station, I'm jumping the ship", Flint could only nod, at-least they accomplished this much, he walked to an empty control panel and luckily could access an exterior camera, watching to see if anyone would escape the ship
Baker had never plotted a jump in reality before, being a DRADIS operator it never had come up, but he recalled his training and input the only coordinates on his mind, the coordinates to Earth.
Bakers coordinates were in reality nowhere near Earth, not even the version the 13th tribe had occupied, but higher existences had been watching, rebels among their kind, Baker's own belief allowed them the opportunity to influence things, Baker had been unwittingly entering the real location of Earth.
To the outside observers all they saw was the Velos going dark and then vanishing in a flash of light minutes later, the mystery of where it went unanswered to the colonials, under normal circumstances the engines on the Velos would never manage the massive distance, colonial drives maxing out at 5ly a jump, but helping hands made it work this time.
The ship reappeared over a blue marble of a planet, Flint and Baker treated to the sight, the jump engine in the room a molten pile of slag from the effort it had just expended. Flint saw a solitary raptor leave the shuttle bay, it was the last thing he saw before being enveloped in a blinding light, he and Baker knew nothing more.
The raptor sped away as the Velos erupted behind them, the engine block and rear of the ship exploding with kilotons of force, flinging the front of the ship away, the five survivors lost in unknown space headed for the only place they could, Earth.
40 Years Later
Earth orbit
2064 AD
For a long time only satellites orbited Earth, now-days the orbital space was home to countless space planes and cargo ships travelling to and from the surface, countless space installations now floated above from ore processing to shipyards and everything in-between.
The largest was Sentinel Station, began as a multinational effort 30 years earlier, its modular construction allowed it to grow to its present massive size, hundreds of square kilometres of factories, air docks, shipyards, offices and even a museum all in the spindly construct.
It was also home to the Terran Unions space command centre, responsible for all ships in cis-lunar space, most of the time the command centre was full of chatter about flight paths and timetables but today all eyes were on Admiral James Borman.
Just recently transferred from the United States Space Force, supposedly to lead some new secret program, Borman stood back straight in the artificial gravity of the station, no signs of his 56 years of age in his stance, his new gray uniform hat covering his balding shaved head.
His eyes focused on the screens before him analysing the information, 20 large contacts were present midway between the Earth and moon, Cylon baseships, their double disk shapes visible on one of the screens, thousand of raiders launching as he watched.
"First fighter squadrons assembled at waypoint alpha, Sir" one of the crewmen shouted over from behind him, Borman glanced over at another screen showing friendly forces mustering at preplanned waypoints, several hundred fighters launched from the orbital stations for now, it would take time to get ships up from Earth, they would have to buy time for the rest of the fleet to rally.
A grouping of capital ships, a sword class cruiser and 3 missile frigates, were five minutes out from waypoint alpha but there was no time to wait, "order the bombers to engage, fighters cover and disrupt their raider formations", he paused and glanced back to the plotter, "Tell Task Force Rapier to start long range missile bombardment, all other forces prepare for enemy breakthrough"
Waypoint Alpha
Cis-Lunar space
"Bombers are cleared to engage enemy capitol ships, Fighters are on the raiders, give the bombers a chance to launch their payloads" Lt Phillips heard Major Durant on the radio, both of them were flying SF-05 Angel space fighters, sixteen meters long with twin 20mm auto cannons, her main offensive power was her missiles though, everything from conventional explosives to a 4 kiloton nuclear warhead.
"Alpha lead confirms" she replied over the comms as her wing formed up around her, "Alpha lead to Wing, assume escort around bomber squad Sigma". The bombers were larger than her fighter, twenty meters long but far wider than her mostly thin fighter, it was also slower to accelerate.
"Command has authorised full nuclear armaments, engage the fighter swarm with nukes before we close the range"
The fighters finished moving into escort positions around the Athena bombers, engines burning as they accelerated towards the Cylon raiders, the massive cloud of raiders already at full burn towards Earth.
Lt April Phillips armed her two anti fighter nuclear missiles, her fingers steady despite her inner turmoil, when the groups of fighters neared ten thousand kilometres she and every other fighter and bomber launched.
Task Force Rapier
Several thousand kilometres away from the fighters, four ships were burning their fuel reserves to catch up, leading them was the cruiser Rapier, a sword class, under the temporary command of Marcus Baltar, His father one of the survivors of the Velos.
He sat hunched in his chair, studying the Cylon ships thousands of kilometres away, his face darkened by his frown, what limited information about the Cylons his father had told him repeating over and over in his head.
"Sir, Fighters have launched their missiles" the sensor operator reported, Balthar's attention turned to the radar display showing thousands of missiles flying towards the raider formation, the raiders didn't respond and just kept on flying.
"enemy missiles must be shorter range than expected" he mused.
The missiles closed the distance to the raiders, but then the unthinkable happened, the raiders began to emit signals, the guidance system of the missiles completely failed, their counter measures completely useless, every missile veered off course away from the raiders which continued on undeterred.
Baltar face fell, "How?" he thought, "Prepare all missiles for launch, target their baseships", he turned to the gunnery officer "All guns load flak, prepare for fighter attack"
Alpha Lead
Lt April Phillips
No simulation had prepared her for this, 40 years of developing weapons to counter a potential Cylon invasion and they all failed completely, the tech difference was too great and it wasn't even all their ships, over half the raiders had stayed to escort the baseships.
"Flight lead to all fighters, go to max thrust and begin strafing runs"
They were closing on the raiders now, the bombers left behind, April picked a raider out and made a beeline towards it, guns ready as she closed, "controlled bursts" she repeated as a mantra, as the swarms closed the Cylons finally responded, a wall of anti fighter missiles launched from the raiders, each one finding an earth fighter to track, new stars were born as fighters exploded around her.
She saw a missile flying right at her, quick reflexes let her put a burst of rounds in its path, it exploding safely away from the ship, very few others were as lucky, earth ECM having no effect, not even flares.
Finally she was in gun range of her target, the 20mm armour piercing explosive rounds shredding the oblong shaped raider, she continued on full burn past the melee and raced on towards the baseships.
A look at the rear view camera showed little damage to the Cylons, the fighter corps was gutted and the bombers now exposed, of over 500 fighters at waypoint alpha only 14 remained. She flipped her fighter to slow down and saw her doom, a Cylon missile zooming straight at her, the last thing she saw before darkness took her.
Task Force Rapier
Baltar felt the pit forming in his stomach as he watched the destruction of the fighter force, all destroyed for a paltry 36 confirmed raider kills, 36 out of thousands.
Stunned silence surrounded him, every member of the crew in shock, he quickly rallied himself, "Report" his shout woke the crew from their stupor, he regretted that he knew none of them, having being put in command at the last minute.
"All fighter forces lost, enemy forces moving towards Earth" the sensor operator's report was redundant but Baltar forgave him that in the circumstance, his first instinct was to launch all the nukes but given the performance of the fighters missiles that would most likely be a mistake.
"Sir, enemy capitol ships just jumped into Earth orbit", Baltar looked over, 4 baseships had just bypassed their lines, unsurprising really, and were in the process of turning Sentinel Station into scrap, the thin armour was no match for Cylon heavy guns.
"Raiders entering gun range, Sir" Baltar moved his eyes from the screen, Earth would have to manage without them for now, "All guns engage, helm, increase to max thrust on heading 192 mark 325, comms, inform the frigates to keep formation".
As a splinter of the raiders veered towards the ship, sentinel station gave up its last, modules spinning away to burn up in the atmosphere, defence satellites and stations launched everything towards the basestars in orbit, ground defence batteries preparing to intercept anything approaching the planet.
The Cylons had other plans though as each basestar began to launch 50 megaton bombs towards the surface, genocide their only aim.
The hundred raiders approaching the Rapier launched their missiles with mechanical precision, the ship responded by firing off flak shells into their path, missile after missile exploding but even still plenty got through, the CWIS providing a last line of defence, 20mm rounds exploding missiles that closed.
The frigates provided their own fire but their armaments were limited, no heavy guns like the cruiser, mostly long range missiles and point defence systems.
Sill it was not enough, the second volley of missiles found gaps in the defences and began to slip through, the heavy armour of the cruiser easily able to take the hits from the anti-fighter missiles used by the Cylons, even the frigates held up against the small warheads.
The Cylons finally entered gun range, accelerating as the flak exploded around them, the shrapnel claiming raiders as they approached, Baltar watched as they exploded, but still they came, undeterred by their losses, "Cut thrust and angle the ship towards the raiders" the crew was quick to obey, the ships engines cut out as it turned it broadside to the raiders, the multiple guns opening up, the raiders evading as best they could but their numbers dwindling by the second.
"All raiders destroyed" the radar operator reported, the crew giving a small cheer at the news but it didn't last long, a fraction of the enemy force was all they destroyed, a cry of shock drew Baltar's attention, a crewman pointing to the screen showing the mushroom clouds on Earth.
Far away one of the Cylon baseships finished its calculations, disappearing in a flash of light one instant and reappearing beside task force Rapier, the ships barley able to respond before being hammered by massive shells from the Cylons.
The relatively thin armour on the frigates offered no resistance to the heavy Cylon ordinance, armour piercing shells went through them like a hot knife through butter, until finally a lucky shot hit the fuel tank on one of them causing it to cease existing.
The cruiser returned fire with its own weapons but the armour on the baseship shrugged them aside with little effort, only leaving small craters, the cruisers armour likewise could handle the Cylon weapons for a time but the Cylons had other ideas, 12 large missiles flew out from the launchers on the baseship, CWIS turned to engage from the 3 remaining ships, shooting down several, several wasn't enough, Cylon anti-ship missiles struck all around, the multi megaton explosions claiming the 2 frigates, the Rapier itself was still intact, its armour designed to take hits like that, unfortunately all its weapon mounts were erased so the second volley hit the ship unimpeded.
The last thing Marcus Baltar saw was an Earth on fire.
The road to 2064
Prior to the appearance of the Velos above Earth it was unlikely that any major efforts in space travel would appear in the near future, economic downturns and wars shifted most funding sources away from investment in outer space.
When the raptor containing the five survivors landed the world held it breath, the popularly theorized first contact was with non human life, surprisingly the survivors were all human, from twelve worlds of humans, initial reactions among the public thought it was some kind of giant hoax.
The truth came out fast though, leaders around the world were quick to identify the threat of the Cylons, Earth was totally helpless against any space-borne aggressors, Alien, Cylon or Human.
The nature of the Cylons had knock on effects in Earths tech sector, up to that point AI research was a top priority, after the Velos governments around the world enacted legislation to curtail research in that direction, fearful of creating their own Cylon analogue.
The threat spurned major paranoia among the citizens and leaders of the world, wars stopped almost overnight as all effort was put into making Earth safe, major investments went towards the aerospace industries and reverse engineering the colonial raptors systems.
The first hurdle was the fuel used by the raptor, Tylium didn't exist anywhere on Earth, extensive study produced a substitute based on its chemical composition but it was lacking a key ingredient which didn't exist in current Earths science. The Synthetic Tylium fuel was still far and away the best chemical fuel produced to date, its creation enabled the relatively cheap access to space currently employed today.
The raptor was the best gift Earth received, its hull material led to massive advances in heat resistant metals, eliminating the need for special tiles or heavy heat shields for reentry, new engine designs based on the raptors, artificial gravity, life support systems and the Jump drive itself.
The Jump drive would remain a major obstacle to Earth science, even artificial gravity didn't pose much problem, it wouldn't be till 2049 that a working prototype would be finished, limited in range to 0.7 astronomical units, it mass production variant allowed the full exploitation of the sol systems vast resources, the last 15 years have seen major improvements to Earth based drives, now boasting a full 2 light years of range with 1 hour recharge times but its still far behind known colonial technology.
Other changes occurred in the political realm, working through the UN nations joined together to form the Earth space defence force by 2034, a military alliance similar to NATO but focused on space and eventually reorganised into the Terran Union by 2049, a successor to both the UN and ESDF, a system to govern the sol system and any eventual colonies beyond.
An amalgam of the old UN and EU systems, a council of representatives of the most powerful nations made all the major decisions with the smaller and weaker ones represented by the general assembly similar to the UN, by 2060 the union was expanded to include an assembly of elected politicians in a parliamentary system with a president elected by the parliament but from candidates selected by the council thus giving some democratic power to the citizens of earth.
The introduction of the new parliament in the Union has led to an increase of powers granted to it, in the near future the merging of the national space forces into the EDSF is guaranteed with only token coast guard type forces left, the Union also has responsibilities for human colonization and any foreign policy decisions regarding non Earth powers, this new Parliamentary system has yet to be tested in any serious manner, the first four year term of the parliament is soon to end, it remains to be seen how the new elections will turn out.
The discovery of the first inhabitable planet beyond Earth in 2058, located 14 light years away in the Wolf 1061 system, was a milestone in history, unfortunatly the planet was lacking in land based life, being a rocky barren world, most life was single cellular sea creatures, fortunately it had near Earth gravity at 0.963 g's and a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere.
The first major political decision of the Union was the colonization of the world, named New Hope by an internet survey (The winning name PlanetmcPlanetface was rejected by the council), massive funding was poured into the effort in a plan titled Exodus, the idea is to move 1 billion people to New Hope in order to relieve the stress on Earth ecosystem, to date 3 million people are in residence mostly in the construction sector, building massive amounts of housing for the incoming population, the rest are in agriculture to ensure food self sufficiency.
Major investments in constructing a massive amount of jump capable passenger transports were also made, currently thousands of such ships have been constructed to the detriment of the defence forces, the ESDF having since been renamed to the Terran Defence Force in 2055, most military power still lies in the member nations space forces, the TDF only having one fleet to their name as of writing.
Excerpt from Earth and the new space age, published March 2064.
Sentinel Station
Earth Orbit
April blinked her eyes as the canopy of her simulator pod opened, the bright lights outside blinding her as she adjusted to the brightness, she quickly climbed out and looked around the room, around 20 pods were inside with other pilots exiting their own pods, others who had been destroyed earlier in the sim were already exiting the room.
She spied Durant's pod near the door, he was already outside talking to some of his squad, April caught his eye, her expression caused him to finish up with a clap on the back of his subordinate, she quickly made her way over through the maze of pods on the floor, her lithe frame easily dodged other pilots and machinery.
Thomas Durant looked down on her from on high, according to her five foot two inch height anyway, his expression genial in response to her scowl, "April, don't start I know that sim was utter crap"
"What shit was that Tom, who the hell designed that scenario, we all just died before we even got to fire off a shot" Her scowl had morphed into annoyance, not at Tom, he was alright for a CO, they were friendly during off hours, his relaxed method made him popular with the squadron.
She looked up at Durant, handsome even though he was in his mid 40's, still had all his hair too grey as it was, she took a calming breath, "meh, this whole thing is stupid, the early sims were too easy now this impossible stuff, why are we even doing this Tom?"
Durant raised a bushy grey eyebrow over his tanned face, "No idea really, a week of these sims, I heard they've been pulling people in from all over Earth space for this too, there's American, Russian, Chinese and every other nations ships here, seems odd" He shrugged his shoulders, "I even saw them painting the Union flag on some of them", He paused in thought for a moment, "anyway, head over to briefing room 3 for the after action, that sim was the last one so we're due that week's leave we were promised, I have a meeting with Admiral Borman afterwards, I'll let you know if I find out anything"
April gave a small nod, her shoulder length auburn hair barely moving as she sauntered out the door, she'd ask around the station about these wargames that were so odd, she remembered the abnormal amount of military traffic she saw as they first arrived a week ago, some large jump capable freighters were there too, she knew some people in the command staff she could ask.
Admiral Borman's Office
10 minutes later
Borman was still getting used to being called Admiral, the equivalent rank in the USSF (United States Space Force) was General, which he was used to being addressed as, he sat down in his sparsely furnished office, having only occupied it for the previous week, and began to peruse his computer.
A quick glance at his schedule showed his next appointment was in 10 minutes, with one Commander Marcus Baltar, son of one of the survivors of the Velos, one of the youngest commanders in the Union fleet at 36 years old.
James brought up his personnel file on the computer and reviewed the information, Baltar was born in Ireland on a small farm, his father moving there while working with the teams developing Earths jump engines, supposedly it reminded him the most of his home world of Aerilon, he had several siblings including one who he never met, being born before the Velos incident Baltar's other brother was still in the Kobolian Colonies, status unknown.
According to the file Baltar joined the Terran Unions space force in an effort to get on any expeditions towards the Colonies, thus far the political will was lacking for any exploration efforts for fear of encountering the Cylons, Earth unaware if the colonies still existed or if they won their war.
Borman sat back in his chair as he considered the current situation, he was nearing retirement when told he had one last job, the details were amazing to him and he accepted immediately, transferring to the Union Fleet was no issue, he always did want to explore distant planets, they even offered a sweetener of being the man to discover the Colonies, the risk they felt was worth it even with the Cylons.
That was the whole reason for this farce of a wargame, it was just to get the right candidates and material to Sentinel Station, he even let one of the techs load up an impossible scenario for the last sim, it was totally pointless as a learning experience but the look on the face of the pilot exiting the pod gave him a good chuckle, she looked like a real firecracker.
He was interrupted from his musing by a beeping coming from his intercom, he reached over and hit receive, "Sorry to interrupt sir but your next appointment is here" the secretary informed him, "Send him in", he sat up straighter in his chair and straightened up his uniform and pretended to be looking at his computer.
The door opened and in stepped Baltar, Borman looked up and saw him in person for the first time, short shaved brown hair, pretty thin build and around 6ft tall, grey uniform immaculate.
"Have a seat Commander" Borman waved to the chair opposite his desk.
"Thank you Sir" Baltar's voice was clear and even, almost monotone, and he was quick to sit in the offered seat.
"Right Commander I'll get right to it, these wargames were just an excuse to vet people for an upcoming mission, long range, we're looking at a thousand light years minimum and before you ask its not to the Colonies"
Baltar's composure faltered a bit, a hint of surprise on his features, "That'd be the furthest we're ever gone sir, the record is only 20 light years currently" he mused, "Why me sir?, my destroyer doesn't have the newest jump drives yet"
Borman waved his hand, gesturing towards space, "I cant tell you much yet, it's still classified, but I've looked at your record, its spotless, your perfect for this, no spouse or children, this mission might be up to a year before we return to Earth, and another thing is PR, your father came from the Colonies, this will be the first major long range expedition Earth does, if it goes well the next will be to the Colonies and you'll be in it too"
Baltar took a few seconds to process that, his major ambition was to go to the colonies and open the way for his father to return home, also to visit his unknown brother Julius Baltar, this could be the path to it.
Borman continued "Its a lot to take in I know, you have a week to decide, go visit the family and think about it, but to sweeten the pot there's also a promotion to Captain and command of one of the newest Sword class cruisers in it too"
Baltar was ready to accept right then but the Admiral was right, better to take a week to think it over first, his father would be excited too if it led to the colonies In the long run.
"Thank you for the opportunity sir, You'll have my answer before the week is out" Baltar stood, feeling the interview was over.
"Right son, don't let this opportunity slip by" Borman waved Baltar out of the office.
Sentinel Station Pilots Bar
4 hours later
Thomas Durant had a quandary, Admiral Borman had just given him a job opportunity but he had to leave the USSF to do it, join the Terran Union Space Force instead, he was currently thinking it over while nursing a beer, his thoughts were interrupted by April Phillips sitting down beside him.
"Why the long face Tom?"
"A new job, far away and for a long time, the whole squad is invited" he took a swig of his too expensive space brewed beer.
"Well that's not cryptic" was the sarcastic response, "anyway I've been asking around, apparently all the ships and sims and things started when Admiral Borman came aboard the station, one of the command crew even said they let the techs design some of the scenarios"
Durant looked to the panoramic windows, the brand new USS Enterprise was floating serenely several kilometres outside, at 700m long she was the first proper space carrier developed by Earth, she even came with new experimental technology, fusion reactors and gauss weapons, she was supposed to be assigned to first fleet last week after her trials, after Borman's talk he knew she was going somewhere else.
"See that ship out there, the Enterprise, I've been offered the CAG spot, and there's a spot there for you too, you'll just have to join the Unions fleet though" he took a swig "and it'll be Commander Durant not major from now on, I think I'll accept, its a once in a lifetime chance"
He looked to April, flabbergasted was the best description of her face "Grab a beer and I'll give you the sales pitch"...
Earth and modern space warfare
Many historians dub the current era the second space age, starting in 2024 with the arrival of the colonial cruiser Velos over Earth orbit the new era showed massive growth in technology and industry in the new frontier of space, before just a dream of science fiction.
The critical issue for the worlds leaders was the possible threat of the colonials enemy the Cylons, AI robots make by the colonial world of Caprica, the complete lack of information, except from the few survivors, on the Cylon military and the complete lack of any experience fighting in space in Earths military powers led to a relatively underwhelming response in the beginning.
The first defences were simply armed satellites launched in the first years as scientists and engineers studied the colonial raptor shuttle, the version on the Velos was setup for passenger transport but information gained from the survivors indicated it was also available as a support gunship, the fruits of such labour would be available in the coming years.
The first successful space craft were large fighters, roughly the size of a passenger plane depending on which country produced it, the size necessary for fuel capacity, launched from ground bases these craft were primarily missile buses, few were equipped with any kind of close range weapons, once in orbit they would volley off their missiles, usually nuclear weapons of some type, and return to rearm, they were never intended to dogfight, their agility very poor.
New fuels and materials led to advance in space plane technology, reducing the price to an affordable level, comparable to business class on expensive airlines, the cheaper access to space led to a massive push from governments to setup industry to better defend Earth from the perceived threat of the Cylons, many experts argue that it was also to counter any possible Colonial threat to Earth too, their political disposition unknown.
This industry quickly led to space shipyards being build and following on the first Earth capitol ships, at this time effort was also expended to recover the front half of the Velos, it trajectory placed it leaving Earth Lunar space.
These first large vessels were a far cry from those of today, they had no jump engines, minimal armour only able to stop low caliber weapons, most of the volume was taken by fuel reserves, the designers seeing the need for these ships to patrol the Sol system without FTL, their primary armament usually being missile systems adapted from wet naval tech, and some small caliber auto cannon for point defence purposes.
These ships were usually less than a 100 meters long, very few were bigger and there was no standardised design, each being a one off as designers and engineers came to grips with an evolving understanding of colonial technology and practical experience.
The recovery of the remains of the Velos changed the direction of space ship design over night, analysis of its components and structure led to a radical rethinking of how to fight in space, an emphasis on heavy armour and guns, documents recovered in the wreck also shed more light on colonial science, culture, religion, history and technical documents pertaining to the operation of a Virgonian cruiser, even more details emerged on the Cylons, the first images of Centurions and Cylon space craft emerged.
One of the more notable items recovered was the computer core of the Velos, its design helped to improve Earths computer technology immensely, careful analysis led to the discovery of the Cylon back door programming inside it, fortunately Earth computers use completely different architecture and programming languages but the look into Cylon programming helped develop new electronic countermeasures.
The new generation of ships heavily copied design element from the Velos, gone was the thin armour and lack of heavy cannon, the next gen would be though and hit like a sledgehammer but suffered from the yet to be reverse engineered jump drives.
Political developments at the time led to changes among the militaries of Earth, treaty's were signed that standardised all military designs, no longer would nations develop on their own, this was primarily to reduce costs and increase compatibility of part and training, this was a part of the growing power of the Terran Union, at the time a new global organisation replacing the UN.
The ships after the recover of the Velos favoured Colonial design features, the first to enter service was the Shield class frigate, other languages typically used their own word for shield, weighing in at 180m it featured 2 twin turreted 460mm cannons, scaled down versions of the main weapons of the Velos, mounted dorsal and ventral, 24 600mm long range missile tubes with nuclear capability, multiple point defence auto cannon and interceptor missile turrets typically 20mm and 100m respectively, and 2 meter thick sloped armour, power is provided by a nuclear reactor with 4 chemical thrusters fuelled by synthetic tylium, a small shuttle bay with two small space only transports is located port side aft.
The Shield class was the first Earth space vessel to enter serial production and is still being produced today with minor revisions, most notably the inclusion of a jump engine, refits feature a distinctive bulge amidships containing the engine while new productions are extended by 10 meters to fit it internally.
Following the success of the Shield, designers proceeded to design 2 other classes, the Armour class Destroyers and the Sword class cruisers.
The Armour class was an evolution of the Shield, lengthened to 300 meters, featuring 6 twin turreted 600mm main guns evenly distributed top and bottom, 48 600mm missile tubes and 12 1600mm torpedo tubes, the torpedo's can include multi megaton warheads and are capable of targeting planet side but their main purpose is anti capitol, point defence is only slightly improved over the Shield as the ships purpose isn't to escort, the main armour belt is 4 meters thick composite sloped armour giving the ship its distinctive angular appearance. Only 4 Armours were completed by the advent of jump engines, the ship was designed with FTL capability from the get go so space was available internally without redesign.
The Sword was intended as the brawler of the Earth fleet, heavily inspired by the Velos itself it resembles a smaller version of it, at 500 meters it has the same weapons layout as the Armour but with larger guns, 6 twin turrets with 1200mm cannons, the design a straight copy of the recovered ones on the Velos albeit fewer of them, it also features 12 turreted 460mm cannons and the same missile and torpedo armament as the Armour, and similar point defence systems, the biggest difference is the sheer amount of armour on the Sword class, 10 meters at its thickest at the prow, 6 at its thinnest rear and sides, it also features two of the same small shuttle bay as the Armour and Shield classes, all Swords began production after jump drive technology was introduced.
Of course Earths scientists were not idle during the trove of colonial technology, Earths biggest disadvantage was the lack of any tylium deposits in Earth space, synthetic tylium being a far cry from the real thing, heavy investment was made in fusion technology, the colonials having tylium meant research into fusion was considered a waste of money according to recovered military reports on the Velos (such information is currently unverifiable and only speculation as the primary sources were never released to the public), Earth didn't have the luxury of tylium and fusion was the only option to close the performance gap between Earth and the Colonials and Cylons, this research culminated in the X-156 space test platform, a small one man test craft equipped with the first fusion torch engine, developed by General Electric in 2056, based on their commercial fusion reactor technology released in 2054, the first use was in the new 2061 Boeing Stellar Stratos space plane, Airbus and other competitors are planning to release their own fusion powered craft the following year.
Military designers were also involved in the development of fusion technology, the first military design being the Luna class Carrier, funded mostly by the United States, the first ship the USS Enterprise is due to enter service in 2064, the name is a deliberate PR move invoking the popular science fiction ship from Star Trek and the historical carrier USS Enterprise, the ship will be the first dedicated carrier vessel constructed, prior to this no ship had fighter capabilities as they were all based on stations and planet side. The ship will also feature experimental Gauss cannons in place of the standard main projectile weapons and rumours also imply a supplemental laser based point defence system, the full details are yet to be released.
Small craft have also evolved from the early days, experimental anti gravity lift engines are equipped on the Lockheed Sky Marshall troop transport, based on the similar system of the Caprican Raptor shuttle, the design is currently undergoing rigorous trials to fully test this new system, if successful it could lead to a revolution in space to planet lift capability, further reducing the cost of reaching orbit
Fighter craft have also underwent design improvements from the early massive craft, the current mainstay fighter, the SF-05 Angel, was designed with carrier operations in mind. At only 16m, it has similar dimensions to the old atmospheric F-16, comes with 2 forward mounted 20mm auto cannons, multiple missile hard points and magazine fed launchers for a truly impressive payload, large engines allow performance similar to estimated Cylon raider velocities at the cost of huge fuel expenditure, and estimated superior agility in dog fight situations, its major limiting factor is endurance as it can only operate for 10 minutes at such output, the design was future proofed in a way as a simple engine reprogram will allow it to use real tylium fuel if it ever becomes available.
A rumoured new fighter is also in development, dubbed the Valkyrie this new design supposedly uses fusion thrusters and features 4 guns instead of 2, details are sparse currently and it remains to be seen if it even exists.
Excerpt from the Second Space age, Earth and space warfare, circa 2062.
Sentinel Station
24th July 2064
1 week later
Baltar took his assigned seat in the largest briefing room on sentinel station, it was almost like a university lecture hall in its setup with a lectern on a raised podium with large screens behind, the seating was in raised tiers in front of it, he was 10 minutes early the room still not even half full, he noted a pretty blond woman messing with a computer connected to the large screens, she looked uncomfortable in her grey Terran Union uniform, like she wasn't used to wearing one, he spied her rank of Lt Commander from his seat.
With nothing better to do till it started he examined the data pad he was given by the ensign who showed him his seat, a quick mess about showed it was locked down, "they must be waiting for the briefing to start to unlock, its probably still classified till then".
As the room filled up he noticed lots of new faces and some he saw during the wargames a week earlier, he also noticed another branch of the military, the Union marines were in attendance, entirety made up of member nations national armies on loan to the Union, they were normally deployed as peacekeeper troops, the Union still fulfilling the UN's old mandates, they even still wore the blue helmets. A Major and a Lieutenant had seated themselves on the chairs behind the podium, deep in conversation with each other and a stern looking colonel was in the front row near Baltar.
The murmuring in the room grew as more people entered the room. Baltar thought back to his visit to the family farm, his older brother Owen ran the farm now his father getting on in age, their younger sister Lucy living in the city working in a hospital, his father Lucius was quite excited about a possible expedition to the colonies in the future and gave his full support to Marcus's decision to join the Prometheus Expedition, a name he only learned today, his mother Evelyn was also proud of his promotion to Captain, even Owen was behind it saying "You get to meet our lost brother first, Mark, make it happen".
Baltar's musings were interrupted by Admiral Borman taking the podium, he didn't even notice that the room had filled.
"Alright people, settle down and lets get this started"
The lights in the room dimmed slightly as the big screen came on behind the admiral, a triangular logo with the words the Prometheus Expedition written underneath appearing on it.
"I'll give a brief overview before we dive into the details, first though" he pointed a remote at the screen and clicked, the image changed to a computer rendered molecule, "This is tylium" another click and a rather large atom appeared "and this is what scientists have named kobolium, the thing missing from our synthetic tylium, so far there was no trace of it or tylium in the space Earth has explored, that is until a month ago"
A low murmuring was audible around the room, Earths lack of a comparable fuel was their biggest deficit compared to the Cylons and Colonials, the strategic value was immense, Baltar was intrigued, leaning forward in his chair.
"Quiet now, we haven't even got to the good parts yet" Borman was jovial in his rebuke, he clicked again and the screen showed a map of the local galactic sector, a system had a circle drawn around it, "This system has a habitable planet where the mineral was discovered, its one thousand light years away from Earth and the locals call it Abydos" a louder murmur happened with the word locals, Baltar was unphased, there were humans in the Kobolian colonies too, "Yes people, locals, Humans to be precise, we'll go into more detail later"
Borman turned to the blond woman and waved her over, "This is commander Carter, she'll be going over how we even got to Abydos" Borman moved away and took a seat behind the podium.
"Greetings, I'm Commander Samantha Carter, formerly of the United States Air Force, I was one of the researchers involved with Project Blue Book", Baltar though she seemed a bit nervous, probably not used to talking in front of big crowds, she produced a remote of her own and the image changed to a large circle made of metal, Baltar couldn't tell its scale from the image.
"This" she paused "Is the Stargate, it can generate an Einstien-Rosen bridge, also called wormholes, between two linked devices, Stargates" a diagram of cones and lines appeared, a diagram of a wormhole he supposed, before it was replaced with the image of the Stargate again this time with a watery substance filling the centre, "The Stargate can transport any object that fits nearly instantaneously between themselves, it is also composed of almost pure kobolium".
Another image appeared, this time an old photograph, it showed the Stargate in what looked like a dig site in a desert region, Baltar thought it looked like Egypt based on the workers clothes, "First discovered in Giza in 1928 by professor Paul Langford …." Baltar was amazed as he listened, this was almost as big as the arrival of the Velos, the US had the Stargate since the 1930's but only recently got it to work, thanks to one Dr Daniel Jackson, an archaeologist, who figured out some cartouche had constellations on it, Baltar remembered meeting Jackson once at a conference about the colonies, he had some theory about ancient aliens bringing humans to Kobol, Baltar thought he was probably right at the time, the Stargate looks to have proved it.
Another thought clicked for him, The US Air Force, one would think the stargate would have been transferred to the Space Force given its purpose, he realised it was probably a way for them to get more funding, ever since the Velos planet side military organisations had their funding slashed massively as governments went full bore for space, he wondered what went wrong for the stargate to be revealed to the Union or why not just use the gate to secure Abydos.
Admiral Borman had retaken the podium while Baltar was lost in thought, "Thank you Commander Carter, most of you should have realised by now the purpose of the Prometheus expedition, namely, to acquire the kobolium deposits, this is a top strategic priority for the Union council and member nations, you might ask why there are not shipments of kobolium coming through the stargate at this very moment" Borman paused and hit the remote, the screen changed to show a still image of a large object burning its way through a planetary atmosphere.
"This image was captured by the body cams of the expedition through the gate, an Alien starship" Borman looked to the side "Major Kawalsky was the second in command of that mission, he'll give you a rundown of what happened" One of the men sat behind Borman approached the podium while the admiral sat back down.
"Colonel O'Neill led us through the gate" Kawalsky looked lost in thought "It was all fine at first, the locals were friendly, Dr Jackson had a good rapport with the local leader Kasuf, we were invited into their city as friends, Nagada they called it" The image on the screen changed again, this time showinga primitive open pit mine "Problems became apparent quick, the Abydonians were mining a metal they called Naquadah, we later learned it was kobolium, we learned they were mining it for their master, the alien Ra".
Kawalsky continued "Ra's men were brutal, death was their response if quotas weren't met, escape for us impossible, his ship had landed right on top of the stargate".
"So we did the only thing we could, we fought, of all the men sent to Abydos only three returned" Kawalsky's morose form perked up now "But we sent that bastard Ra to hell".
"Ra did capture us and revealed some information, he claimed to be the Egyptian sun god, to have visited Earth thousands of years ago and somehow took possession of a human body, took slaves to work the mines in Abydos, and revealed that naquadah could be used to enhance nuclear warheads" Kawalsky looked abashed now "General West had ordered us to take along a nuclear warhead as a contingency".
"In a way West was right, we managed to sneak the bomb aboard his ship and blow him to pieces, the Abydonians providing a distraction that allowed us to do it".
"Only Colonel O'Neill, my self and Lt Feretti here", he waved to the other soldier he had been in conversation with earlier, "returned, Dr Jackson elected to remain on Abydos, no one else survived"
he had a solemn look on his face as he returned to his seat.
Baltar was alarmed by this new information, first the Stargate now aliens, he'd have to wait for details, others in the audience had looks ranging from angry to disbelief.
Borman was at the podium again "Details will be available on the pads you received along with further specific briefings in the future, suffice to say we may be looking at an actual alien threat"
"Colonel O'Neill has retired since his return, the powers that be are content to let that happen, unfortunately attempts since their return to reconnect to Abydos have been unsuccessful, experts have suggested that their Stargate has been buried" Borman's power point presentation changed again, this time bullet points, "So these are our objectives, journey to Abydos and setup a base, recover their Stargate and reconnect to Earth, recover any remaining alien technology left by Ra".
"The leaders of the expedition are myself in overall command, Colonel Méndez is in charge of ground operations" Borman pointed to the Colonel Baltar saw earlier, "Dr Elizabeth Weir is in charge of the civilian side of things", he indicated a woman in her 40's wearing civilian attire, "including diplomacy with the natives, Commander Carter is head science officer, and Major Kawalsky and Lt Feretti are advisors on the locals and the aliens".
"We leave in one week on the dot people, further detailed briefings will be on your itinerary's, expect details on Ra's troops, local Abydonian culture, all recovered video footage will be made available, remember that all information discussed is still classified, talk to no one about what you heard" Borman tone had gone from kind to commanding at the end, he looked directly at Baltar, "Captain Baltar meet me at dock four in one hour",he turned to the audience "Dismissed" With his final word, people began the slow shuffle out of the room, confusion the most prevalent emotion in the crowd.
Dock 4
1 Hour later
Baltar stood looking out the window at the ship occupying dock 4, his mind still going over the unbelievable information, "stargates and aliens, its almost unreal, the Cylons are bad enough".
The ship before him was a Sword class, the name unreadable from where he stood, it bore the telltale signs of having its jump engine replaced, the armour in the midsection was clean and new from where they had cut open the belly of the ship, the claimed modularity of the design only really showed up during the initial construction phases, modifications afterwards not easy at all.
He felt a presence behind him, Admiral Borman coming to stand by his side, "There she is Marcus, your new chariot, one of the first produced" Borman stared out the window at the ship "Just transferred from the Euros, the Dublin, I thought it was fitting she went to you"
Borman turned to Baltar, "Your going to have a mixed crew, someone from everywhere" Baltar frowned, it was unlikely any of his old crew would be available for this, even if they had clearance, but the opportunity was too great for him to complain. Borman must have sensed his disquiet though, "don't worry too much" he handed Baltar a pad "Take a look, these are the candidates for the officer positions, they'll be on the expedition anyway but pick who you want for yourself"
Baltar glanced at the pad in his hands before looking back at Borman, "I'll get right on it sir,"
"Don t take too long, we have a week of meetings to get through and I have to sort every aspect of a fleet on a long range mission" Borman looked at his wrist, an old school watch evident on it "speaking of, I have a meeting with colonel Méndez in a few minutes" he looked to Baltar "there's also a ship commander meeting at eight tonight, ill see you then" he finished as he strolled off.
Baltar took one last look at the ship and made his way to the docking port, he had some research to do.
Colonel Méndez's Office
Later that day
Juan Méndez sat back in his chair deep in thought, he had just returned from a meeting with Admiral Borman, infront of his desk was Major Kawalsky and his second in command Major Chen, formerly of the PLA, Méndez had served in the USMC before but things in the Union were different.
He went over the ground force contingent coming on the expedition, a whole battalion, half mechanised half engineers, the idea was the engineers set up a base and the rest would be stuck guarding it.
"Kawalsky, tell me about Ra's men, details, equipment, tactics" Juan focused on Charles Kawalsky as he recounted the mission.
"They had some kind of energy weapon, looked like a staff, our armour didn't do anything to stop it, theirs on the other hand didn't even scratch from our guns"
"Hmm, I'll have to see if we can get some AP rounds then"
"They also had a flying machine, fired a bigger version of the staff, hits like a tank, otherwise their tactics were sub par, I don't think they fight peers, only put down slaves, physically they were strong and fit, stronger than normal" he finished
"We did manage to down one of the flyers, they have an open canopy, one shot in the right spot takes em out"
Méndez considered "we'll take AP rounds for sure, the Russian company has an air defence platoon, they have those anti orbital missiles now, should be able to handle the flying things, and the Chinese are bringing some SPAAG's too"
He brought up his commands composition on his desk computer, a mix of units from different countries, American, Russian, Chinese and Euros, the main players on the Terran Council, the Russian and Chinese mostly air defence and infantry for guarding the mine and base when built, the Euros handling the engineering and construction, America came with some armoured power in the form of a Striker 2 Platoon and mechanized infantry, only equipped with 25mm guns though, the only difference from the original was the hybrid multi fuel engine.
As long as they don't just explode us from space we should be able to handle it, he thought.
Command Meeting Room
20:00 local time
Borman was the last into the room, everyone else already sat around the large conference table in deep talks.
He took a mental tally of the commanders of his fleet, there was Baltar of course, in command of the Dublin, Captain Sergei Chekov of the Korolev the other cruiser in the fleet, and the four destroyer commanders, Emile Dupont, Suko Nobuyuki, Wan Jing and Issac Archer, rounding it out was Captain Judith Andersen of the Enterprise.
The frigate commanders were not present, Borman would be having a separate meeting with them later and the captains of the civilian ships after that, it was going to be a long night.
"Alright cut the chatter people, lets get down to business" he said as he sat at the head of the table.
A flick of a button brought up the fleet composition of the expedition.
"This is the finalised fleet list, were going with the Enterprise, 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers and 6 frigates for the military side of things" A rather neat carrier battle group he thought, and also a large percentage of Earths total tonnage, there was only 14 cruisers built to date, but that looked to change as the Exodus initiative's first stage was winding down, soon those shipyards would be building military ships instead of passenger transports.
"How many civilian ships are coming" Archer asked, his British accent apparent.
Borman brought up his notes "two 500 meter Colossus freighters, on loan from the Exodus initiative, they only things that size with modern jump drives, they'll handle supplies and equipment transport, including a deployable mining and refining station we need to setup in Abydos's system, it should be able to produce replacement parts and refine fuel if its supplied, an asteroid mining ship is coming along for that reason, a fuel transport ship, Ganymede class"
"What's a Ganymede class? Ive Never heard of one" Dupont asked, her English crisp and without accent despite her French nationality, Terran Union cross training included extensive classes on English, the language chosen as Earths standard.
"Its a Colossus converted to fuel transport, everything in our inventory was too small for the journey to Abydos, we also have one of the passenger transport variants along too, it'll house the ground troops and some of the civilians, there'll be a hospital aboard too".
"I also pulled in some favours with the Council, we'll have two of the prototype Skymarshall landing ships and the freighters are packing some heavy lift spaceplanes"
"A survey ship is coming too, we have a mandate to investigate any potential habitable planets we encounter along the way" Commander Jing interjected, China was interested in exporting more of its population to the stars, having had a population boom in response to the Velos's arrival.
"Four large transport ships, two 100 meter landing ships and this survey ship together with the military fleet, this is quite a lot of effort for a journey into the unknown", Nobuyuki input his thoughts too, the Japanese government not quite as onboard as the others.
"The strategic value of kobolium is immeasurable, even with fusion technology finally becoming available, if these reports from Abydos are right, its power to enhance nuclear weapons is invaluable" Baltar was the last to speak, quiet till that moment, he continued, "If the Cylons still do exist such weapons could level the field, we know our fleet will be no match for them right now".
"Quite right Captain, the mines on Abydos are the councils top priority, otherwise a much smaller expedition would be sent, we'll be taking control of them even if the locals object" Borman looked the commanders in the eye "Make no mistake, the military might we're bringing is not for show, but we will show restraint"
"Colonel Méndez men are bringing along riot gear in case the locals become intransigent but we will try diplomacy first, the bigger issue is more of the aliens coming, Union intelligence believes there must be more of them, regardless of Ra claiming to be the last of his people, his ship came from somewhere, he was mining kobolium for a reason"
A sober mood overcame the room at that news, they had seen the reports about what Ra's ground weapons were capable of, his large ship easily able to land on a planet, a fight with that technological difference was a losing one.
"Anyway, we're looking at a three month journey to Abydos, we're not going to push our engines too hard, its the first time any Earth ship has gone that far so I don't want to deal with engine failures, it'll also give us time to do surveys as we travel".
"Once we arrive the first priority is to recover the stargate and contact Earth, we should be able to be resupplied through it after".
"What's going to happen to the stargate on Earth, Admiral?" Captain Anderson asked.
"Ive been told its going to be transported to Pluto, their building a station there right now for it, the threat of an enhanced nuclear bomb coming through scared enough people"
Borman checked his notes again "One more thing before we finish, the PR department was working on our cover story but the council in all their wisdom has decided to declassify some of our mission once we leave, I don't know the details but the existence of the stargate is likely to be public by the time we return, its too hard to hide the Prometheus expedition from the public or the media Ive been told".
Earth Orbit
One Week Later
Borman stood behind Captain Anderson as the crew went through their final pre jump checks, the fleet was arranged around the Enterprise, drives synced and waiting for the signal. They had one additional ship foisted on them by the Council, a courier ship, usually filled with massive hard drives, they travelled between Earth and distant stations and New Hope, holding as much data as they could, acting like proxy servers to bring the internet to distant locations, theirs was in case they encountered disaster, it would take their logs back to Earth if anything unfortunate happened, Borman suspected the ship was to keep tabs on the expedition.
"Admiral, all stations report ready"
Borman nodded, time to get this show on the road then.
"Begin jump countdown Captain, signal the fleet to proceed to the first jump coordinates"
"Aye Sir, Lieutenant Silva, initiate jump countdown, ten seconds on my mark, comms inform the fleet to sync timers"
A few tense seconds followed, everyone nerves were strung due to the enormity of the expedition.
"Mark"
Silva began his countdown as Borman looked at the main screen, the fleet arranged around him.
5
4
3
2
1
And then there was only empty space, their journey had begun.
