One thing many people miss when reading of our glorious unification against the cylon threat is that the last major colonial conflict occurred barely four years before the war, and there were continual skirmishes. While the Colonial Navy was formed in order to produce a unified military organization against the cylons, the various Colonial forces played a major role. More importantly, even after the conflict, few Colonies were interested in completely disarming and putting their faith in a Colonial Navy. However well it had done against the cylons, there were serious questions as to whether it would be able to keep the peace in the postwar era.

In fact, a major goal of the Colonial Government has been to gradually reduce these forces, starting by restricting the tonnage of new ships and forbidding the possession of nuclear weapons by these forces. Conversely, the independent military forces have argued that the fleet's focus on large battlestars and preparing for a cylon incursion makes it necessary to maintain robust forces to deal with pirates and other dangers. However, it seems likely that President Adar will be able to continue putting pressure on member Colonial governments to reduce and eventually eliminate their national forces…

A Survey of Colonial Military Organizations, Caprica Press, one year before the Fall.

One Week Before the Fall: Coris System

Royal Virgon Warship Imperator Typhon: Task Force 12

"Admiral on deck!" The call rang through the warship's CIC as Admiral Javin Lamb walked in and returned the salute of the captain.

"What's our status, Captain?"

"On track for rendezvous with the task force sir," Captain Wilma Tavish was a willowy redhead who like Lamb, had chosen to leave the Colonial Fleet in order to enter the service of her home Colony. In Wilma's case it had been an issue involving a higher ranked admiral who essentially ensured she'd never achieve command rank. In Lamb's case, it had been family— as a cadet branch of the Virgon Royal family, he was expected to transfer back to his home service.

"Good. Ship's condition?"

"At Condition 2, as per your orders."

"Excuse me sir?"

Lamb sighed at the voice.

"Yes, Ms. Connel?"

"Isn't keeping the ship at condition 2 hard on the men?"

Suddenly, everyone else in the CIC was very intent on their work. Lamb smiled at that. Not that he'd take it out on them, but traditionally, asking dumb questions of an admiral, especially dumb questions that implied the Admiral was dumb, tended to result in a certain amount of danger to innocent bystanders.

"Ms. Conners…while the Colonies have been at peace for over four decades, the Coris system is… not so tranquil. There are pirates and criminal groups, many of whom would not scruple to launch a surprise attack. Our ships are good, but they are not battlestars, and as such cannot absorb the punishment a battlestar can… For that reason, it is wise to remain at condition 2 until we have gathered the task force." He paused, "that is especially true given our current duties."

"I see!" the blond reporter said in a chirpy voice the felt like nails on a chalkboard and went off to bother someone else.

"Are they really that stupid sir?" The captain asked in a low voice.

"Please, Captain Tavish," Javin chided, "We must always have respect for our members of the press."

Wilma didn't even bother to dignify that with a comment.

In a more serious tone, Javin continued, "And it's also important to understand that our good reporter is part of the segment that wants to know why Virgon is wasting so much money on a fleet when we have our brave boys and girls in blue."

And the answer is, the fleet doesn't want to be involved here. Even 40 years of peace hadn't ended many of the conflicts between various groups and even Colonies, and the Sydon system was an example of that. A number of major corporations had fought over the prizes in the system, and a year ago it had gotten so bad that many of hte workers had actually been withdrawn back to the Colonies in the face of accidents and pirate raids.

Unfortunately, the last thing the Adar Administration (or anyone else) wanted was for a Colonial battlestar to blow up a ship that turned out to be from a specific Colony and it looked very likely that one or more Colonies were directly involved in this issue, or at least sufficiently major corporations that the difference was moot.

Cue Virgon, which isn't, at least as far as I or anyone in ONI knows, involved in this ratfuck.

Which meant that Virgon could play the savior and justify its fleet to a voting block that increasingly wanted to cut back what seemed to be an overly expensive luxury.

Which explains why most of our fleet is in this system.

"Jump emergency signature!" A rating called out and the entire CIC tensed. A close range jump was a risky, but potentially very high payoff tactic for an attacker… "Confirming IFF— it's Commodore Wilson's ships." The tension vanished as the crew gave a subdued cheer.

Lamb nodded, looking at the various icons on the CIC screen. His battlecruiser, more popularly called a pocket battlestar, held station at center of the formation, with the three other Virgon carriers taking up their positions right behind it. Nine Prince Dalyn class heavy cruisers held station on them, with the logistics group hanging back with four military support freighters, a fleet repair ship and the two Army transports. Finally, bringing up the rear was the fleet tender Dream of Virgon, which was going to play a major role in his strategy.

The might of Virgon— or at least the dim memory of the might of Virgon. There had been a time when Imperator Typhon would have been only one of a dozen flagships, instead of the largest ship in the fleet. For that matter, the entire Virgon navy would be steamrollered by even a small part of the Colonial Fleet.

By the time I retire it'll be nothing but customs cutters. Which wouldn't bother the increasingly powerful Colonial government. Few civilians considered it, but destroyers and cutters were fine for intimidating criminals— but helpless against real warships. That's why there were so few destroyers in the Colonial Fleet— why spend money (and put crew) on something that could be vaporized by a single fighter launched nuke?

"It doesn't matter," he murmured to himself. Whatever the future held, he was the admiral in charge, and he would carry out his duties. "Captain, put me on please. General address, all ships."

"Yes sir."

"Men and women of the Imperial Virgon Fleet!" he said, "Our duty is clear. For the next six months we will patrol this system and ensure that the disruptions and criminal activity that have threatened the civilian workers cease. The Colonial Fleet claims that their shiny battlestars are needed elsewhere. You and I know better— the Fleet is worried about getting it's shiny ships scuffed up, so they're leaving it to us to do the real work while they look pretty." There was a chuckle at that, and Javin paused. "I won't kid you. This is going to be boring. This system was only opened up two years ago and there's very little here, especially with the fighting making everyone stay away. We'll have to make our own entertainment, and I expect you will remember the most important part of being a loyal soldier of Virgon…don't do it in the hallways and scare the daggits." The laughter was louder. "That is all."

Putting the mic down, he turned to Tavish. "Captain, confirm our flag meeting with the captains and the Commodore, and make certain to alert me 30 minutes before…I've got the Gods' own nightmare of paperwork to get finished.

"Yes sir."

TBC

Author's notes:

This is in the same universe as the Pirate King, although the two forces won't be running into each other. No matter how good the cylons are, 25 billion people who have been in space for at least 500 years (the official map of the colonies talks about conflicts over asteroid belts that have been going on for "centuries"), would be very hard to kill off, especially given how ubiquitous FTL seems to be. We don't see it in the official series because Bill Adama was getting the heck out of dodge (and even when they came back, they only landed on one small part of one planet, rescuing resistance fighters who were largely footbound).

Member Colony Militaries:

One thing that seldom gets noted is that the Colonies weren't united before the first cylon war. In fact, they'd been fighting wars, both of the full scale and the police action variety. I find it very difficult to believe that such a situation, especially given the tensions that are referred to in the series, would see the instant abolition of local military forces. Rather, you'd have a slot process of scaling them back, from the mighty fleets of yore to single task forces.