Battlestar Farscape

By Mackon

I do not own Farscape or Battlestar Galactica. Writing this to entertain not for profit.

All power to Wikipedia, Battlestar Wiki and the Battlestar Galactica: Technical Manual for a lot of the Technical detail.

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Chapter 19

Moyan ship the Guard, in orbit Cauldron Artifact, Cauldron System.

Captain Mace Croft looked across his plain metal desk at the being? Man? Sitting opposite him, not that there was any doubt about General Ka D'Argo's masculinity, but Mace had always assumed that being human or at least humanoid was a prerequisite. You learned something new every day, especially if you work for the Moyan Group.

To tell the truth, the large alien was more than a bit intimidating. A large portion of the Guards crew weren't human of course, but the Sebacean's well, they looked human, and Chiana just wasn't very scary looking. Pilot had certainly made Mace stare the first few times the Moyan Captain had met with the huge crustacean. But Rovhu's Pilot had such a gentle way about him; it was had not to warm up to the creature. General Ka D'Argo however with his deep red colouring, head tentacles, forehead and eyebrow ridges, didn't look human in the slightest. The half-angry, half-suspicious look on his face wasn't going far at putting Mace at ease either.

The big Luxan looked surprisingly comfortable sitting in one of the two armchair's set in front of Mace's desk. Sprawled slightly, but Captain Croft had been worried that he wouldn't fit at all.

They were alone in his office, Leda was leading the rest of the group from the Leviathan on a tour of their ship, but both leaders Croft and D'Argo had felt the need to talk privately since they'd first laid eyes on each other.

Now that they were here Mace wasn't sure what he'd wanted to say to his new, very alien boss. The silence stretched.

"Why are you doing this?" D'Argo asked after a minute waving vaguely around the Spartan silver metal office.

"Doing what?" Captain Croft settled back into his chair, he had a good idea of what the Luxan was asking having had many similar conversations with CDF officers and colonial civilians since the Holocaust. It put Mace back on familiar ground and drained a lot of the stress out of the big man.

"Why are you here, with the Moyan group? Why aren't you serving with the rest of the human forces, helping you own government? Why work for Crichton and from what I can see, waiting for me a Luxan and somebody you've never met to wake up to a completely new situation and take command? It doesn't seem to make sense." D'Argo asked. The Luxan had been thinking about this since he'd first met Clara Tores.

D'Argo knew that Tores had been a criminal before Crichton met her, guilty of serious crimes and imprisoned by the Colonial government with the Crofts and others that now served in the Moyan Company. It still seemed off to the Luxan for her and the others to be working for what in essence was a mercenary company. To swear loyalty to outsiders when their own peoples forces desperately needed every able bodied soldier they could get their hands on. Instead they'd let Crichton and Aeryn recruit them, it seemed foolish to D'Argo, from what he knew of Luxan and Peacekeeper practices either the ex-criminals use out weighed their crimes, in which case they should be put to work in Colonial service, or their crimes out weighed their use in which case they should be kept locked up, or more likely given how short of supplies the refugee humans were, executed. But to let them be recruited by an outside power, a power of uncertain loyalty? No, either the Colonial warriors were naive beyond belief, or Crichton had somehow maneuvered the Moyan Group into a position of power that seemed ludicrous.

"Why wouldn't you go go back with the CDF? I can understand Clara Tores joining the Moyan Group, it served her goals, she wished to use her linguist skills and training and the idea of working with what she calls 'real aliens' appeals to her. But you and the others here on the Guard and the rest of the Moyan Group, why would you work for us?"

"It's simple really Ka D'Argo I'd had enough of the CDF and the Quorum of Twelve and the Colonial bureaucracy. They used me and those under my command to do their dirty work, and then when things got tough they threw us to the wolves." The Moyan Captain grimaced.

"Well I can't speak for everyone that joined, some weren't CDF to start with and thought working for people, even aliens was a better deal than working for a faceless organization like the CDF. But for me it was the uniform, I come from a CDF family, my father was a lieutenant in the CDF in the first war and before that my grandfather and grandmother and their parents back gods know how many generation served in the Scorpian Civil Defense Forces before the Articles of Colonization were signed and each Colony still had their own fleets." Mace Croft explained. "When the CDF threw me and mine away that was it, there was no way I could ever serve under that flag again."

"Threw you away?" Questioned D'Argo.

"Before I was a Category One prisoner I was the first officer of the Light Cruiser Vanguard my wife, Leda back before she became my wife, was the CAG " Here D'Argo looked confused so Croft explained "Commander Air Group its the traditional rank of the most senior pilot on board any ship with at least a wing of fighters." D'Argo nodded and Croft picked up his story. "Colonel Canad our CO was ordered to take the Vanguard to Sagittaron and support the Colonial Marshals in their efforts to recapture an Anchorage that the Sagittaron Freedom Movement had hijacked. We were just on crowd control, keeping the news service ships and any to curious civilians from getting in the Marshals way, while they negotiated and worked to get the hostages released."

"It went ugly the S.F.M had an old Cylon war Defender Escortstar disguised as a merchant ship, it ran the blockade and tried to dock with the Anchorage to get their people out."

"Colonel Canad and the first shift command staff died when the Vanguard took a coilgun round straight to the CIC. The battle was a mess, with civilians getting in the way the CMO trying to arrest the badguys rather than fighting or running like they should have, and by the time the dust settled the Anchorage had been holed and over a hundred of the hostages not to mention all the S.F.M terrorists were dead. Two CMO light patrol cutters had collided with each other and the Admiralty wanted someone to blame, they choose me and the surviving officers from the Vanguard."

"Everyone on the Vanguard above the rank of Ensign was charged with Gross misconduct, Conduct unbecoming and 300 counts of murder."

"A quick show trial so everyone could see Adar and the CDF Admiralty 'Act quickly and decisively' and we were shipped off to the most out of the way hole they could stuff us in. When that dump finally started to fall apart they herded us all aboard the transport the Commanders found us on just after the Holocaust. We'd already been on that stinking ship nearly a year, while they tried to think of somewhere they could bury us. And the first thing that happens after the Holocaust? The frakking emergency council of the refugee fleet the transport joined voted unanimously to space us! Ha! To preserve resources for those more in need."

"That was straight after the Cylon attack, your people were scattered and afraid, from the brief that Clara Tores provided now; the Colonials are organized and the CDF would welcome you back. Wouldn't you rather work and fight with your fellow humans?" D'Argo pushed.

"Organized maybe but their still afraid and it wasn't due to any efforts on their part. I saw the briefing and it was accurate, but only as of right now. All those impressive sounding things the Hades Council, the labor unions and the businesses that are growing in Hades city and the CDF ships CMC troops? All that is because of Commanders Crichton and Sun and Colonel Torins wanted it that way. For months after the Holocaust there was only the Moyan Group, the CDF and CMC and the civilians where constantly two meals away from falling apart." Croft explained. "As for working with humans or aliens, most of my crew are Sebacean and I've come to respect them as much as any ships crew I've ever worked with."

Mace Croft sighed and looked at the being that would probably be his commanding officer in the not to distant future and decided to come clean. "I know that sounds more than a bit vindictive on my part, spurning the Colonies because they did me wrong and all that."

D'Argo looked at the human suddenly realizing that the man was right he had been thinking that here was a bitter little man who'd turned his back on his own race as the faced extinction because of the actions of a few politicians.

"How long where you in prison?" D'Argo himself had been left to rot for Cycles for a crime he didn't commit.

"Nine years before the Holocaust, but still if we'd somehow survived the refugee council I was planning on pitching in somehow. If they'd have let me run a warship I would have done it under any flag or wearing any uniform even the CDF, but thing is I didn't need to, I joined the Moyan Group I don't have pretend to respect the bastards."

"How about working for an Alien then? From that same brief, it looks like John is going to ask me to take over running the Moyan Group's armed forces which would include you. He also wants to see the Moyan soldiers and ships move further away from the CDF to make the Moyan warriors into as distinct a force from the Colonial as possible." D'Argo asked.

"I've had a lot of time to think about it and get used to the idea Commanders Crichton and Sun informed all the Moyan Group ship masters that as soon as the Hades fleet started meeting up with other refugee groups in operation Bo-Peep the Moyan Group armed forces would be re-structured and that they hoped that you would take command." Croft said. Then paused before continuing. "I don't know you General D'Argo I have no idea if you are competent to command, but thats nothing new. I've faced the same prospect every time I moved to new posting all the way through my career. I have the assurances from Commander Sun and Commander Crichton that your a good man, but nether have experience serving under your command."

D'Argo stared at the human, wondering. It was a legitimate statement, he'd never commanded a fleet or even a single ship for that matter. He had trained at the Luxan War College to be able to plan and lead ground attacks from commando squads all the way up to regiments. To be able to captain an Assault Piercer or serve as a Commodore of a squadron of ten of the ships in times of war. But he'd never done any of those things. Before he'd excepted a position in the Luxan Guard he'd fallen in love and married Lo'Laan a Sebacean woman, not against any law but frowned on by both the Luxan government and the Peacekeepers and much to young something that put the priesthood against him. His recommendations from the War College for a placement as a junior officer in the Guard had been rescinded. He'd joined one of the Luxan free company's, private armies formed by rich warrior clans to fight Scorvians alongside their Ilanic cousins. He'd served with them for ten Cycles before he'd retired to become a farmer. Two Cycle's spent at home with his wife then the birth of his son, the betrayal by his brother in law, eight cycles a prisoner of the Peacekeepers. Then the escape and the life of a fugitive in Uncharted Territories where he'd met John Crichton and Aeryn Sun. The life he'd had up to now hadn't really prepared him for a position of command with a group of humans. But it didn't rule him out either.

"I will be talking to Crichton and Aeryn before I except any position, but I am a Luxan Warrior decorated in battle and graduate Superior of the War College of Luxor. If I am to be the future commander for you and your comrades I will do my best, on my honor." D'Argo didn't think there was much more he could say to the man. The Luxan didn't know many of Crichton's plans. Seran the Sebacean woman who was apparently some form of close aid, so much so that Crichton had trusted her with D'Argo's Qualta blade, had told him some things. But they sounded outlandish even for the crazy human who most of the time D'Argo had known him had spent nearly every waking moment either obsessing over Aeryn Sun and Wormholes or trying desperately to save everyone's life from whatever new catastrophe the universe had thrown up to kill them this time. The plans Seran had hinted at seemed much more long term and much too grandiose for the John Crichton D'Argo knew and the big Luxan wanted to talk to him and Aeryn Sun before he agreed to anything.

Moyan Compound, Civilian City, Hades Command Ship, Gold Mine System.

The civilian city, named Athens by some wildly optimistic refugee with a taste for ancient legends, now covered nearly half of the deck space at ground level in one of Hades huge warehouses, and was still growing.

From its beginnings as a series of squat bolted together featureless boxes, fitted with the very basic amenities needed for human survival, it had been torn down and rebuilt even before its first evolution was complete, and had been growing ever since. Today it could really be called a city, a small one, but still a real living, breathing, city. The name Athens, despite objections, stuck, not that anybody used it except on official documents, it was just 'Hades City' or 'the Town' or 'the City'. Now the busy hub that the first civilians from the Galactica fleet were tentatively exploring was a very different Athens from its humble beginnings, it had been redesigned and improved a dozen times. While it would still look like a particularly well organized scrapyard compared to any of the great city's on Caprica, Virgon or Tauron for here and now it was an impressive sight.

Despite the rapid construction still going on all over, the core and general street layout were in place, a huge spider web of streets criss crossed the small metropolis. Hundreds of multi story apartment buildings lined the outer circle of streets before giving way to the taller factory's and office complexes, the theater, the bars, the massive New Parthenon where the Hades Council met and where the fleet government was slowly forming and that was only the downtown, more up market area.

Just over one kilometer from the hydroponically supported village green, that marked Athens exact center, was the New Caprica Casino and the resort/gaming town that had sprouted up around it. The Strip as it was called after the main travel car lane that passed along its widest and most populated road from the Central Station across the village green from the New Parthenon to the huge rebuilt Cylon factory complex just outside the Athens warehouse where most of the civilians worked, recycling Cylon equipment to build everything the 50.000 plus inhabitants of the Hades fleet needed.

Between the two hubs Downtown and The Strip there were various area's that had been claimed by groups or people that thought they saw some potential for it. Most of these where just a section of the metal decking with a line painted around it and maybe the claimants name. Only a few had been actually used for anything so far, one was a huge pile of those same featureless boxes that had been slapped together after the Holocaust as refugee housing, now the Athens city council (not to be confused with the Hades Council) rented them out as storage space. Another was a well built, fenced off compound made up of several large substantial looking buildings with a large imposing looking main gate that faced a road leading into Downtown, Here guards wearing Colonial Marine Corps uniforms, but with Moyan unit flashes and insignia, patrolled the fence line and stopped visitors to check their credentials.

Captain Dors Dham nodded to the two guards as he walked through the wide armored doors that led into reception for the compounds main building. He noted with approval the rigid snapping to attention that they acknowledged his presence with. None of the ridiculous arm waving the Colonial militaries were so in love with. A pure Sebacean gesture even if, as he remembered, these two troopers on sentry duty at the compound's entrance were human recruits.

Dors Dham was in a odd position in the Moyan Group, he was a member of one of only two 'Sets' of Xarai duplicates that retained enough of themselves that when they recovered from Cauldron they'd known their own names and remembered some of their originals personal history.

The two 'Sets', three Dors Dham's and five Janis Thonn's had known they were Peacekeepers when they'd finally started thinking again, after the numbness and confusion of the Builder Goo had worn off. He'd remembered commanding the Leviathan prison transport Rovhu and had vague ideas about serving on a Command Carrier before that. And he knew that the Janis Thonn's remembered leading their/his? Commando squad, escorting the deranged scientist Kaarvok from a secure facility deep in the Uncharted Territories to his cell aboard Rovhu.

Both 'Sets' had known instantly that the concept of Irreversible Contamination wouldn't even begin to describe how Peacekeeper Command would view the Xarai. They would be very, very lucky indeed, if they were shot on sight, it was much more likely that there would be bisections and pre-mortem autopsy's involved, if High Command ever gained any power over them.

So now here they were, stranded for the moment, further than anybody had ever been from Sebacean controlled space and Dors Dham was one of the few who could organize and lead them.

Except by the time he'd realized that, the Xarai had already been following Crichton and Sun for months and he himself along with the rest of his 'Set' had been trusted lieutenants and assistants working closely with the Human and learning to trust his orders. Leading the teams working on the Hades and corvettes they where trying to get operational. By the time he realized he was a natural choice to lead the Xarai the Dors Dham were already loyal supporters who hadn't wanted to challenge for leadership. Even if he'd had any idea of what to do in their bizarre situation and had come up with some plan that he could put forward to compete with Crichton's leadership, he doubted any of the other Xarai would have even considered following one of the Dors Dham 'Set' over the Sun, Crichton team.

One of his 'Set' had tried anyway. The man, Dors guessed he would have been something like a planet born recruits brother, an alien concept for the crèche raised Peacekeeper had first tried to gain support among the Xarai talking up Sebacean superiority. It hadn't worked few Xarai even considered themselves Sebacean and when that hadn't worked the fool had gone to Aeryn Sun and offered his support in removing John Crichton and restoring 'natural' Sebacean leadership to the Xarai.

The Dors Dham standing in the Moyan offices waiting for his aid to join him, hadn't been surprised that that was the last anybody had ever seen of his 'Set' brother. Truth be told he was rather embarrassed that the man (Near enough his exact copy) hadn't known exactly what would happen.

His other 'Set' brother was the Captain of the Moyan corvette the Defender, which was currently in one of the Hades, dry docks being refitted with Moyan technology. He was due there at 1800 hours tomorrow to witness the small ships launch.

Captain Dors Dham turned slightly as he caught sight of his aid coming through the foray's wide double doors. Lieutenant Mark Usen, the tall young human repeated his Captains gesture, acknowledging the Sebacean salutation to a superior officer from the troopers guarding the entrance with a nod. A nod that was, an all but, exact copy of the one Captain Dham had delivered two minutes previously.

"You're late." Captain Dham commented as the human Moyan joined him at the reception desk.

"Yes sir, sorry sir. Couldn't be helped, the Xiphos is in a bit of an uproar at the moment, people being transferred off, new crew arriving every minute. Captain Carter kept me on for an extra four hours before he'd sign off on my reassignment papers, until I'd supervised the ratings of the two new shuttle pilots he'd received." Mark answered easily he'd served with Captain Dham for three months and knew his moods and tones of voice backwards and forwards. He could tell the Xarai Captain was pleased to see him.

"Damn drunkard, he should to keep his hands of other peoples personnel. And stay the frell out of Moyan business!" Captain Dham stated as he set off, leading Lieutenant Usen deeper into the building.

Mark kept his opinions to himself, he certainly wasn't going to agree with a comment like that, no mater that the Moyan and CDF didn't have a lot to do with each other when they were working as separate organizations, junior officers still didn't comment on superior officers habits. And besides the vast number of Moyan's were seconded to CDF run units, anybody they passed in the hall could next week be serving on the Calypso class frigate that he'd just left.

"So how did you enjoy working as a Disrupter Lieutenant?" Captain Dham asked as the two Moyan officers started down a neat hallway, a hallway that angled down sharply, heading below what the civilian inhabitants of the city would think of as the ground.

"It was an experience sir. Sneaking onto a Battlestar in the middle of a fighter skirmish, holding a gun to a Colonels head, and then being looked up, meeting the president; you don't get many opportunities to do stuff like that." Mark answered.

"There's a reason for that Mark." Captain Dham smiled at the young human Dors had grown quite fond of him since Mark had been assigned to Dham as an aid, shortly after the Human/Cylon Holocaust.

"If I may sir; where are we going, I was told I was to accompany you to an appointment at the Council Building to meet Major Perseus?" Lieutenant Usen asked as the two entered into a large room, the wide circler room held the doors to half a dozen elevators spotted around the wall.

"I've been requested to attend at the labs, something to do with getting my opinion on Peacekeeper tech their trying to fabricate; using materials we have on hand. Rather than the proscribed ingredients from the formula, your Gods know why they think I can help them. But the Techs; especially Colonel Harmon, have got the authority, that when they say jump I apparently am supposed to politely inquire how high, on my way up!" Captain Dham grumbled as he picked an elevator that wasn't in use and marched into the cubicle stabbing the button for the level third from the bottom out of his twenty-six choices.

"What kind of tech Sir?" Lieutenant Usen asked. The doors to the lift closed and there was a slight jolt as the cabin started down.

"No idea. Colonel Harmon said they needed my expert advice, so that's what we're doing. I've re scheduled the meeting with the Colonial Marshal's they were not impressed." Dors told his young Aid. "So now that you've got you're rank back is it giving you ideas Mark?"

"How do mean sir? I was only a Lieutenant Junior Grade for a week and Captain Carter knew my reverting to my Cadet rank was only for the benefit of the Galactica people."

"I know your sister, your younger sister at that is a Captain; the CAG serving on the Medusa. I wondered if this experience had set you thinking about what might have been. What if you'd never joined the Moyan Group, what would have happened if you'd stayed in the Colonial Defense Forces?" The elevator was picking up speed even with the inertial dampeners it could be felt, as it descended.

"Not really sir, the Moyan Group suits me well enough I couldn't imagine spending all my time be a pilot it was always Susan 's dream to fly Vipers, me? I just wanted to go to space." The elevator slowed then came to stop the doors sliding open into another reception area this one had one wall dominated by a huge window looking down into a wide Lab on the level below.

The two Moyan officers were quickly buzzed through a connecting door by the secretary at the desk and down a short flight of stairs, into what both had been told at different times was the splitting image of Q's Laboratory at MI6 in London, a city on the Thirteenth Tribes home world.

"Oh you have to be kidding me!" Dors exclaimed.

"Not at all, I and the rest of the Techs as you so dismissively call us are just trying, once again; to plan ahead. While you and your Troopers run around blowing things up, it falls to us, the Scientist's and Technicians! To build and to plan!" The tall heavyset brunette almost vibrated with passion as she made her declaration. Waving her arm to point out the seven human shaped dummies set up in one corner of the Lab they were each clothed in different outfits of what looked like red and black leather.

Mark Usen looked from one to the other the viper pilot barely understanding one word in five as his head swung back and forth between the Captain and the Scientist It was hard to believe these two were married. Colonel Harmon had marched across the room as soon as he and Captain Dham had entered the room and began speaking in fast Sebacean. Now they were both shouting at each other in still Sebacean. Normally Mark rated his understanding of the Xarai language as pretty good but Colonel Harmon had been with the Moyan Group since almost the second Commander Crichton had stepped foot on Colonial soil and of course it was Captain Dham's first language when they got going it was hard for someone like him who hadn't even heard of it before the Holocaust to keep up.

"You dragged me from a meeting with the head of the Colonial Marshals to get my advice on your wardrobe selection? Are you mad?" Dham snapped at the Scientist.

"Oh hardy har har! Careful there Dors, you were nearly funny that time." Lynn Harmon Dham told her husband. "Commander Crichton has said numerous times that sooner or later the Colonial Defense Force and the Colonial Marines are going to start objecting to us wearing their uniforms."

"Peacekeepers have been refining their uniform design for thousands of years and we have complete schematics and chemical formulas to work from, it would be stupid not to at least base our efforts on their work. Not that we're going to copy them. Moyan uniforms and tactical armor will, when we're finished, be far superior in every conceivable way. But first we need to fully reverse engineer their designs and chemical composition. And the easiest way to do that is to make some of our own."

"Looking at the data Rovhu and his pilot provided, it's obvious that Peacekeeper personal armor technology has fallen well behind in the 'attack to defense dynamic' during the last few centuries. It only provides the most minimal of protection against most of the documented weapons common in Peacekeeper space and the Uncharted Territories."

"We can and will do a much better job, even with our poor supply situation."

Mark gave up trying to interpret the rapid fire conversation going on between his two superior officers and wandered over to inspect the uniforms he suspected were the main topic of discussion. Starting from one end of the line and working along, the first one that was matte black trimmed with blood red with the upper chest area in all red, maybe an officer's dress uniform? Going down the line the suits had less red and more black, with steel colored armor plates set in strategic, and sometimes not so strategic place about the body, until the last one was all black and looked like most of it was covered in glossy black molded armor, complete with helmet, hung on a black leather body suit. It all looked pretty uncomfortable compared to his CDF blue/gray uniform.

"What do you think?" Mark jerked, startled to find Colonel Harmon standing right next and asking him questions in standard Kobolian.

"Er.. " Floundering for something positive to say about the woman's work, he latched onto the first thing that popped into his head. "There very ... bright?"

"Ha! Yes, say what you like about Peacekeeper uniforms they certainly aren't subtle!" Lynn Harmon laughed grabbing her husband's aid by his arm and dragging him behind her marched across the lab to where a bench was set up covered in guns. From Colonial pre Holocaust pistols, all the way up to the Hades factory's latest model of pulse rifle. "They may hurt your eyes to look at, but damn they can take a licking and keep on ticking!"

Without looking the Moyan Scientist grabbed one of the weapons off the table and Mark belatedly realized the dummies across the room and this bench where set up as Ad hoc shooting range. Pushing the service battle rifle into his hands she scooped up a pair of ear muffs. "Go ahead put a few rounds into the first one, it's the weakest."

The Lieutenant threw his boss a pleading look at his boss but Captain Dham ignored him and walking straight past him to collect his own ear protection. Resignedly Mark went through his weapons drill making sure the gun was loaded, then collecting a set of muffs and goggles for himself, before lining up the rifles sights on the first dummy's brilliant red chest.

The last time Mark had actually used an assault rifle had been back at the Academy on Picon somehow in the months since the Holocaust with all the moving from ship to ship and his mission to the Galactica he'd missed his mandatory re qualification but as the young man snuggled the bulky rifle into his shoulder, he was pretty sure he had the thing set for three round bursts. He carefully squeezed the trigger remembering at the last second to brace for the recoil holding on tight as the rifle kicked and bucked back in his grip.

BRRRAPT!

Cyrannus System, Cylon new Territories

The Cyrannus System defense force had started out with 48 Basestars of the new starfish shaped Mark III design, 8 Resurrection Ships and 1 Command Basestar, all selected from the original 100 strong battle fleet that had invaded the Colonial Territories.

Over the months since the Liberation the numbers had been changed, whittled down, or reinforced as the Gestalt juggled their assets to manage their unexpected, overwhelming victory, over the humans.

4 Mark III's and a Resurrection Ship had been dispatched to hunt down the Galactica flotilla, then another 10 Basestars and 2 Resurrection Ships were sent out to search for other suspected human groups. 6 old MK II's had escorted the newly completed Interdiction Platforms from the staging system just across the old Colonial/Cylon border. Basestar's 0209 disastrous battle with the Battlestar Medusa in the Nike system had necessitated the formation of a new hunter group of 3 Basestars plus another Resurrection Ship. Then the destruction of the Tern System depot had prompted the reinforcing of that group with another 2 Mk III's and the 2 of the Interdiction Platforms and their 4 Mk II escorts.

That left 29 Mk III's, 2 Mk II's, 4 Resurrection Ships to secure Cyrannus System and protect the Command Basestar the Gestalt was using as a flagship and a mobile fortress. The 29 Mk III's were spread out over the inner so called 'Life Zone' of the multi-planet system, patrolling the orbits of the 12 Colonial home worlds. Each Colonial home world had a resident Mk III stationed as a permanent guardship. 5 slow moving picket groups of 3 manoeuvred in a huge solar orbit just beyond the reach of Aerelon, the Colonial home world furthest out from the Cyrannus systems star. The remainder of the Cylon forces 2 Mk III's 2 Mk II's and the remaining newly deployed Interdiction Platform stayed close to The Gestalt's Command Basestar over Caprica.

Of the 52 remaining Frontline Mk III's that had originally made the 100 strong Crusader Fleet 3 had been lost in the Liberation. 20 had been sent back to bolster the defense forces of the staging system where the invasion fleets shipyards and supply base had been built. 26 were taking possession of the new territories, slowly taking control of the conquered space, escorting small fleets of older ships setting up small bases and searching out pockets of surviving humans. Three had been crippled by the surviving Colonial Battlestars and been stripped and scuttled.

Gestalt Command Basestar, High orbit Caprica, Cyrannus System.

The space around Caprica had changed radically since the Cylon attack.

From a hub of traffic, busy with the business of the dozen spaceports of the Colonial capital, full to bursting with ships of all shapes and sizes, from the smallest shuttle up to the largest one or two kilometer long giants it had become a graveyard. Littered with broken hulls, clogged with the debris of CDF capital ships the shattered remains of their escorts, all surrounded by fighters of every Mark. For every drifting warship there were dozens of the wrecks of their civilian charges of every conceivable configuration. The conquered planet had dragged this morgue full of countless drifting body's, both human and machine, along with it, as it slowly circled its sun. Hundred of the wrecks closest to Caprica had been caught in the planets gravity, falling from the sky, finally receiving a fiery burial, but thousands remained trapped seemingly forever in the cold of space.

But recently the new masters had acted to change things again.

Nearly a month ago hundreds of Cylon small craft of a design never seen before in Colonial space had arrived, a swarm of them launching from a Basestar newly arrived from Cylon space, roughly four times the size of a Heavy Raider at 44 meters long 11 meters height and 27 meters width these odd Y shaped ships held a lot in common with the basic shape of the Mk III Cylon Basestars and where made from the same dark colored, organic imitating alloy. But unlike most Cylon designs these had had a chunky mechanical look about them, more like a Heavy Raider than a Raider or a Basestar. One arm was longer than the others and mounted a Scimitar class Raider's style head/canopy with the scanning red eye. The two shorter arms were dotted with evenly spaced heavily constructed hard points, each supporting industrial equipment of some kind, welders or waldo remote manipulators equipped grasping arms.

These where Cylon repair/construction/tugs units called Utilities, designed for salvage and repair and as support for Basestars and Raiders.

They moved into the drifting graveyard surrounding Caprica and began hauling the debris away, arranging anything that looked salvageable neatly in orbit around the only surviving Anchorage above Saladin, Caprica's second moon, while millions of tons of broken metal were dropped onto the broken ruins of the moons destroyed dome cities.

The Utilities worked tirelessly with their small army of space mobile construction model Centurions, darting about in their thruster packs following the ship minds orders. Within the last month they had returned space around Caprica to a pristine state not seen in hundreds of years, not since the Capricians had constructed their first space station. Once they had done the Cylon Utilities had retreated to their Basestar and moved on to other jobs, but the area they had cleared hadn't remained idle for long, as soon as the Basestar had jumped out a new ship had taken its place.

This was the Gestalt's Crusader class Command Basestar, designed to replace the first war Hades class. It was in a word, huge!

Instead of the Mk III's Basestars design of two inverted 'Y's, here three massive 'X' shaped hulls sat stacked together, connected to a central core. Each 'X' twisted at sixty degrees from the other. 8 kilometers long and the same wide, while 6 kilometer in height. Not having the shear tonnage and bulk of the older Hades class command basestars, it was still a massive ship. Thirty launch racks held 1200 Raiders and 200 Heavy Raiders, 20 escort cruisers sat ready in docking bays spread across the black gray hull. An honor guard of Mk III's Basestars was always in formation with the Fleet's flagship. On watch, guarding the Gestalt.

This was the Cylon command center, the core of the Crusader fleet.

An astute observer would have noticed a slight difference in the coloring of the central 'X' shaped hull to the replicas attached above and below. This was the beginning, the ship that had brought the 7 organic models of the Crusader fleet from the home world, three years journey past the treaty line, back to Colonial space.

20 years ago it had arrived, accompanied by the first two Mk III Basestars, the first Resurrection Ship and a small fleet of first war era battle, support and construction ships.

They had set their drone Centurions to work, establishing their staging ground in an empty, lifeless star system rich in raw materials close to the treaty line, built shipyards and habitats and sent their first tentative probes across the border.

Since then the command ship had been strengthened, the Biocylons copying what they could of the original design, to double, and then triple its defenses to protect the Gestalt resting in the ship's armored core. The Gestalt, the melding of 12 copies of each of the 7 active Crusader Cylon's who had never been downloaded into biological bodies served as the New Cylons master governing intelligence, directing and interrupting Gods plan, leading the new Cylon empire. All new Cylon A.I.s from the 7 fully sentient models placed in the human forms, the hybrids, the lesser ship minds that controled the Raiders down to the barely conscious programs for the Centurions drones, they were all generated from the Gestalt.

It was the heart and soul of the Crusader Fleet.

The next step in the plan would see a one second built, but that was slow going and a matter of fierce debate, could the community of minds that was the Gestalt designed and constructed by God, be replicated? Should it be, wasn't that blasphemy?

The argument had raged for over twenty years, but the construction was going ahead anyway on orders from the Gestalt.

Placing a new Gestalt on Caprica would cement the Cyrannus system as the new home to the Cylon race. With a second Gestalt to hold the Cylon networks the original could begin Its/Their long awaited pilgrimage back into Cylon space, to their birth place and there consult with God about the next steps in the His Plan.

The problem was the Gestalt wasn't quite ready, the Liberation had been too much of a success and the Cylon forces where spread too thin to take maximum advantage of all their gains.

Since the heady first days of the liberation when their plan had been such an overwhelming success, beyond anything they'd expected, the campaign at first seemingly over and won had bogged down. That the Galactica Fleet still survived was permissible, it was a constant topic of debate among the Cylons and the Gestalt itself about the merits of letting that group run and following them to the Thirteenth Tribe or possibly catching them and setting them up as a control group of free breeders for the Biocylon fertility experiments, Yes, that the Galactica group had been able to avoid the squadron of Basestars sent after it was annoying, but acceptable and may be an indication of Gods plan. The others? The groups of wild humans running rampant on the former Colonial planets, the other refugee flotillas that the scouts kept getting hints at, the strange behavior of more and more of the Human Form models and most of all the so called Nike System Fleet these were not acceptable and could not be tolerated, but the efforts of the officers of the Crusader Fleet to solve these problems had so far been ineffective.

Now two agents had returned asking for reinforcements, with evidence that they'd run one group, possibly even the Nike System Fleet to ground. The Gestalt had agreed, even releasing two of the three completed Interdiction platforms to them. But before the Gestalt could savor the coming Cylon victory, a battle had broken out on the surface of Caprica, an attack by humans in an area that the Gestalt had plans. Then the quick response strike force, sent to suppress the human's, was ambushed and now it looked like the terrorists might be able to break contact and escape, what else could go wrong?

Cauldron Artifact, Cauldron System.

Naxos let its numerous sub systems continue work on adapting the new templates to function most efficiently with the Levitation's Rovhu existing biomechanical infrastructure. All that remained were small, mostly cosmetic changes; the main integration had been accomplished and was near ready for installation. Naxos felt itself free to investigate, unimportant but decidedly irregular, data collected in the investigation and cataloging of the Levitation's Rovhu memories.

The method of Rovhu's arrival was anomalous, Starburst did not have the capacity to travel such a distance given the limitations of energy Levitations could produce. Also the recorded sensor reading of both Rovhu view of the journey from the Uncharted Territories to the Cauldron System and Naxos memories from external sensors of the Levitation's arrival bore only the most superficial resemblance to what was expected from the exit event of a Starburst maneuver.

A/N

Next we check in on Crichton.

Dren: Vulgar term equivalent to "shit", or an unwanted substance or act.