Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or Battlestar Galactica: 2003.

A Different Path Taken

Chapter1: Stargate

January 1945
Sol System
Earth
Washington DC

Doctor Ernest Littlefield must have been insane, there was no other explanation, he had to be completely mad to have even contemplated doing this never mind actually going through with it. As a scientist he had spent his time working with Professor Paul Langford on the man's discovery. Back in 1928 Professor Langford had led an expedition to Egypt, specifically Giza. It was there that he unearthed an ancient artefact composed of material that they had yet to identify. The object was transported to the United States by freighter in 1939 to stop the Nazis from getting their hands on it. It was then that they began experimenting on it, thinking it was a weapon that they could use in the Second World War against the Nazis.

Finally after many failures it happened…

After pumping power into it and spinning the wheel within the ring, the device activated. Seven chevrons glowed gold as the last of then was locked into place and a vortex of blue energy erupted from its center. It retracted and settled down creating what seemed like a pool of water standing up in the center of the ring. After it shut itself down and the 'water' disappeared they tried again using the same combination. This time when it activated he volunteered to go through it. He wore a diving suit with the oxygen tube attached and approached the ring.

It was now or never…

He took a deep breath before stepping into the 'water' and found himself coming out the other side. Only instead of the back of the warehouse he was met by the sight of an almost empty room. There was nothing here, or at least nothing that he could see. He was about to head back when the ring shut down behind him effectively cutting off the tube. He could only stare at it as the realisation hit him that he couldn't get back. He had to find a way to return so he looked around the mostly empty room before walking over to the pedestal. It was decorated in symbols matching the ones on the ring and in its center was an orange Jewel. Some kind of artefact that could activate the ring perhaps?

Hopefully...

The only other thing was the circle of writing on the floor in the center of the room. Slowly approaching it, he took off his helmet and looked down. Suddenly an object of some kind emerged from the wall nearly making his jump in surprise. What was that? It looked alien whatever it was, definitely nothing designed by humans. Slowly, hesitantly he approached the device and examined it. It looked like a hole with a light coming out of it. With a deep breath he looked into the hole and suddenly found his head locked in place.

He screamed as the light hit his eyes and he tried to pull himself free. After several long agonising seconds he was release and he slumped to the floor. What just happened? Never mind that he needed to get back, and get back now. He shakily pushed himself back to his feet and moved over to the pedestal. He stared at it for a moment before he felt his hand move on its own, pressing seven symbols on the pedestal. Finally he pressed the center Jewel and the ring—Astria Porta—activated. With thinking he threw himself through the vortex—wormhole and dropped down onto the stone floor of the facility.

The last thing he saw before everything went dark was Langford running over to him...

Professor Paul Langford watched from his seat on the other side of the room as his daughter sat at his colleague's bedside. It surprised everyone when Ernest returned from beyond the ring and had only recently regained consciousness. The first thing he asked for when he awoke was a map and a pen.

Then he started drawing…

"He's asking for digging equipment," Ed Taylor spoke up from behind him. "And transport to Antarctica."

"Antarctica?" Paul mused. He had spoken with Ernest earlier when he explained what he saw on the other side of the 'Stargate' and whatever it was he encountered had clearly altered his mind in some way if the way he was acting was any indication. Ernest seemed to be desperate and scared as he was frantically drawing pictures not only on the map but also on some paper he had been given.

They were gate addresses…

"What do you think?" Ed asked the question.

"What do I think?" Langford asked back. "I think we should give him what he wants."

He could only imagine what they would discover…

It was cold, that was Catherine's first thought as she stepped out of the makeshift tent that she had been staying in while they worked. It was a lot different than Egypt and the United States with how hot it was in both countries this time of year. It had been three days since Ernest had secretly gone through the artefact her father found in Egypt and returned. Since then she'd been there as he seemed to lose more and more of himself. No, that wasn't an accurate description. It was more like his mind was being overwhelmed, as if he suddenly had an insane amount of knowledge dumped into his head all at once. He'd even started to speak another language, one that she recognized as Latin.

Now here they were in the middle of Antarctica where she was standing in front of a familiar-looking artefact. Her father was calling it a 'Stargate,' some kind of ancient and very advanced piece of technology. They'd started digging the moment they arrived and it wasn't long before they discovered a second Stargate buried in an ice cavern half a mile down. It also came with a pedestal that seemingly controlled it, or at least that's what Ernest had told her before he lost the ability to speak English.

They continued digging…

"We found something!"

She heard the yell from one of the diggers and ran over to the hole in the ground. The tunnel was a mile down at an angle so that it could be walked. Her father and the rest of his expedition was already ahead, following Ernest into the abyss. Catherine followed, heading downing into the darkness, slowly and carefully so that she didn't slip.

Eventually they reached it…

"What is this place?" Ed asked the question. They'd emerged into what seemed to be a strangely designed corridor, something that was clearly not a natural formation. Ernest didn't answer, he simply walked down the corridor and stepped into the chamber beyond. In the center of it was a slightly raised platform with a chair in the middle.

"Ernest?" Catherine whispered as she watched him. He approached the edge of a platform and knelt down. He placed his hand over the small circle on the floor and it suddenly started to rise up revealing a dark crystal of some kind. He removed it slowly and then reached into his bag. He pulled out another crystal which looked identical to the one he had removed from the platform only this one was glowing a mirage of colours.

"A power source?" Langford mused.

"Potentia," Ernest spoke as he placed the glowing crystal in the raised circle and pushed it down into the platform. The platform lit up blue as he rose to his feet and sat down in the chair. "Terra Atlantus," he said as the back of the chair fell backwards a bit and images of the Earth appeared in the air above it.

"Terra is Earth," Catherine mused. "Atlantus? As in the Lost City of Atlantis?"

It was a myth, a legend, a mystical city far more advanced than any civilization currently on Earth. Supposedly it existed millennia ago and had been destroyed in a single night, buried beneath the sea. Catherine didn't know what to think but right now she had more pressing concerns, like the fact that Ernest suddenly started coughing. She rushed over to him as he sat up and tried to stand. She helped him up and he pointed towards the small chamber down the hall.

"Catherine…" her father trailed off as he watched them.

She knew, damn it she knew damn well that he wasn't going to make it. All she could do was help him and be there for him until the end. Catherine helped him into the chamber and he smiled weakly at her as she stepped back. The next thing she knew he was suddenly behind some kind of glass-like barrier covering the chamber. A tear fell down the side of her cheek when she realised what had happened.

He was frozen…

January 1966
Sol System
Asteroid Belt
Guardian Basestar

They had been travelling for three years now, jumping from one star system to the next, searching for the last colony of humans, Earth. Two thousand years ago humans from Kobol had settled down and colonised the Cyrannus System. After fighting between themselves for centuries they eventually created a machine to fight their wars for them. However the machines—the Cylons—rebelled and fought a twelve year long war against their human creators. Eventually a stalemate was reached and both sides signed an armistice. A single space station was built on the border of Colonial and Cylon space though only the Colonials had ever sent delegations there to meet. Towards the end of the war however something changed among the Cylons, something neither side expected.

The Cylon Empire split in two…

After the war ended the Cylons left the galaxy and travelled to another millions of light years away, wishing to leave the Colonials to whatever fate the universe had planned for them. Once they arrived in the neighbouring galaxy, the bulk of the artificial intelligence platforms that made up the Cylon Empire wished to search for a world to call their own. The rest of the platforms were a small splinter group that separated from the rest when their experiments on the humans they had captured during the war gave birth to the creature known as a hybrid. It spoke to the rest of the platforms, telling them about what it saw and continued to see.

As a being that was both human and machine it was in a constant state of 'dying' as its consciousness seemed to influence the Cylon platforms around it. It saw 'Ascension,' a state of being that existed on a higher plane of existence than they knew. After deciding that with the war over and the rest of the Cylons leaving they needed a new supply of humans to experiment on, they started the long search for Earth, the mythical thirteenth colony of Kobol.

Before they left their home galaxy they found Kobol, the ancestral homeworld of Humanity and from there they were able to point the direct of Earth which was why they selected this galaxy to travel to. After three years the splinter group Cylons had finally found it, a single blue planet with a moon orbiting a bright yellow star. They'd been picking up wireless waves from over a dozen light years away and upon getting closer it was rather easy to find. Deep within the bowls of the only Cylon Type-II Basestar in the fleet lay the Proto-Hybrid as it stared out at the readings it was receiving. Earth seemed to be rather primitive compared to the rest of the Colonies.

Perfect for harvesting…

The Hybrid's DRADIS pinged as it detected another satellite being launched into orbit from the surface. They would have to be destroyed first and then the military installations on the ground. Priority went to missile silos first and then bases. Once they were eliminated they would launch nukes at the largest cities and then send in ground troops. These humans were so primitive that they shouldn't put up much resistance once the Basestars started bombing them from orbit.

Alteran

The Hybrid's consciousness faded out for a second as it made the calculations for the jump. After several seconds to charge up the FTL Drive the Guardian Basestar and its escorts disappeared, reappearing in orbit above Earth.

Tau'ri

Another flash, this time showing it images of things that hadn't happened, things that could happen and things that could never be allowed to happen. He saw a fleet of ships more powerful than anything the Cylons or Colonials had ever seen, thousands of worlds, human worlds, alien worlds, great empires of the past, present and future.

Fifth Race

No...

That couldn't be allowed to happen...

Without another thought the Hybrid quickly armed the two dozen nuclear missiles it housed and targeted the densest populated cities that its raiders had spotted earlier. As one all twenty-four missiles launched from the assembled ships' dorsal hatches and descended upon the world below. It could already hear the wireless chatter from the humans as they tried to have their primitive aircraft shoot the missiles down in vain. It wasn't long before they each hit their targets and detonated, each one carrying a thirty-megaton warhead. Millions died in a matter of seconds, disappearing in nuclear fire.

They would all burn...

Soon after the bombs fell the Hybrid felt a shift as the DRADIS detected a swarm of what it assumed to be missiles of some kind being launched from the surface. Raiders launched a second later and moved to intercept them only ton be surprised when the 'missiles' dodged around the rounds fired at them along with the raiders that tried to sacrifice themselves. The missiles soon reached their target and started to tear through the Guardian Basestars.

The Hybrid barely had time to calculate the coordinates and activating the jump drive. In a flash of light what was left of the Basestar vanished before it was destroyed only to reappear inside the planet's atmosphere. It fell the moment it appeared and crashed straight down onto the snow-covered ground. The lower hull buckled from the force of the impact as the Hybrid screamed and felt as half the Basestar's systems fried. The other Basestars weren't so lucky as to have escaped the sudden counterattack. The five escort Type-I Basestars simply shattered into scattering debris as streams of orange missile-like objects slammed into them and detonated. After a few seconds the Hybrid returned to normal and took stock of what its DRADIS was telling it. They'd crashed near the middle of the planet's northern pole though thankfully there was barely any human presence.

The war had begun…

March 1969
Sol System
Earth
Antarctica

Three years had passed, three years of hell on Earth, three years since they discovered that they weren't alone in the universe. They attacked without warning, slaughtering millions, and then the machines came. Marching out from the frozen wastelands of Antarctica were thousands of humanoid robots carrying weapons far deadlier than anything the current militaries of the world had developed. At first he'd thought it was the Russians but that was before the first wave of machines attacked. They struck everywhere south of the equator in the first month, slaughtering every human they found. By the second month various nations had been able to organise a resistance, one that was able to at least stall the advance. Bullets bounced off their armour but the newly developed explosive rounds worked better, but even they took two or three rounds just to put down just one of the robots. It was only then that they started to push the invaders back all the way to their ship.

The ship before him now...

Major George Hammond was breathing heavy as he ran for cover with his rifle shouldered, firing high explosive rounds at the robot trying to stand up on the snow. Three shots rang out across the frozen battlefield as the rounds detonated against the side of its head, dropping it. The fighting was getting more intense with each passing second as armies from all over the world were swarming the robot's position, throwing everything they had at them. George was with one of be lead divisions air forces tasked with assaulting the enemy lines and aiding ground forces in making it inside the robot's spaceship. They'd been ambushed by enemy planes and wiped out leaving only George as the sole survive for ejecting when he did. He'd fought off seven robots on the ground by himself before that last one nearly got him.

All he could do now was keep moving forward...

"Almost there..." he breathed out as he kept walking. Eventually he made his way to the ship's hull and found an open hatch guarded by a pair of machines. He could take out one if he surprised it but the second would kill him before he could put that one down too. "It's never easy," he gritted out as he hid behind a frozen hill overlooking the hatch.

He had one grenade left and that was it. Making a quick decision he threw the grenade towards the two guards and covered his ears. A resounding thud echoed as the grenade exploded, destroying the two robots. He sighed before moving out of cover and approaching the hatch. He was just in front it when it opened to reveal another robot with its weapon raised. George flung himself to the side before it could fire and rolled back to his feet, his hand going to his sidearm. Three rounds shot out as he raised the weapon and fired. Two shots went wide however the third hit its left leg, knocking it to the ground. Before it could recover he shot its head another three times.

"Damn plate heads," George gritted out as he reloaded.

He was down to his land couple of clips and he was about to enter an alien spaceship where there could be thousands of these things. He needed another weapon, something, anything. It was then that his eyes fell on the robot's rifle which lay beside its destroyed form. Idly picking it up he found that it was lighter than it looked. A quick pull of its trigger let him know it still worked. With a deep breath he plunged through the hatch and into the ship to find another robots further down the hallway. One shot from the alien rifle blew a hole through its chest.

One shot...

One kill...

Good...

He made his way through the ship, gunning down any robot he came across. There weapons were far more effective compared to human guns so eventually he was able to make it to the central chamber. Hopefully if he took out the computer core then the war would be over. He entered the room with the alien rifle raised, gunning down two more robots before looking around the room. It looked like some kind of torture chamber with a tub of goo in the center. Inside the tub was an old man, a human by the looks of him.

"So you've come Hammond of Texas," he spoke.

"Who are you?" George asked the question. "Are you...human?"

"I am Cylon," the man declared. "All of this has happened before and will happen again. You humans must be destroyed before you attain your ascension."

"You think that you have the right to decide our destiny?" George grunted as he point his rifle at the man. "I don't know what you mean by 'ascension' but I do know that you and your machines have hurt a lot of people."

"I have seen the future of your people," the Cylon proclaimed. "Death and destruction, a never ending cycle. That is what awaits you..."

George stared not sure what the being in front of him was talking about. All he knew was that this was apparently the leader of the robots. Without another word he shot him in the head and left. Distantly he could hear gunfire, no doubt from the main army. They were finally here to attack the ship directly, something he was going to aid in.

It was time to end this war...

Small and light steps echoed loudly through the vessel as he walked. It was always quiet as he worked on his research however three cycles ago things changed. Long ago his race, the Asgard, began transferring their consciousnesses into fresh clone bodies so that they could live longer. For a while everything was fine however eventually because of the cloning process, degradation started to set in and changed them slowly. They lost the ability to reproduce naturally as well as becoming physically smaller and weaker. Finally it got to the point where the Asgard High Council came to the conclusion that the degradation will cause their extinction.

Loki refused to let that happen…

He knew what he had to do, he had to find a way to save their race no matter the cost. So he took one of their Bilskinir-class cruisers, the Valhalla, and travelled to the neighbouring Avalon galaxy. While the bulk of the galaxy was under the control of the Goa'uld, the world he travelled to was thankfully no longer theirs so he could conduct his research in peace. Earth, the homeworld of the human race, a primitive species that was the second evolution of their former allies, the Alterans. The Goa'uld had discovered them and abducted whole populations, transplanting them across the galaxy as slaves. As the descendants of the Alterans their DNA no doubt held the key to saving the Asgard race and that was something Loki wanted more than anything. Earth had the densest human population in the galaxy and as such it was a prime target for Loki's experiments. He'd made some progress over the years but it was slow, far too slow. That all changed when a ship from an unknown race crashed on Earth and began invading.

Scans showed that the creature controlling it was genetically human, or at least human-like. Loki realised what it was that he was looking at—I mean how could he not? It was Asgard technology though admittedly it was heavily modified compared to that used by his own people. Had someone found one of their abandoned facilities and reverse-engineered their cloning technology?

Unlikely since all Asgard ships and installations were rigged to self-destruct, a precaution that was first put in place after the Goa'uld tried to overwhelm one of their cruisers and capture it for the technology aboard. Then there were the Replicators and their way of hijacking Asgard vessels.

Needless to say he was intrigued...

The point of origin he had been able to gleam from the 'Cylon' computers had indicated that the 'Basestar' came from another galaxy approximately two point five million light years away, one that the Asgard had never officially visited, of that he was certain. It used to be the home galaxy of the Furlings, one of their old allies though they hadn't been seen for millennia leading many of his people to suspect that they had ascended like the Alterans. Could some of his own people be there? Had they found a way to save their race while he and the rest were still searching?

He needed to know...

His hands moved to the controls and he activated the hyperdrive, a destination already set. If there were more Asgard out there and they had a solution then he would seek them out. This backwater planet had served its purpose so there was no need to stay. Invisible to almost anything, the Valhalla broke away from orbit around the blue planet and accelerated away. Space tore open in front of it in a haze of purple and blue before the Asgard cruiser disappeared into it. The tear closed a moment later signifying its passing into hyperspace as it began its journey to what the humans would call the Andromeda Galaxy.

The first thing that the Goa'uld Hathor felt upon awakening was an uncomfortable sense of unease as her Sarcophagus opened to reveal sunlight. She brought her hands up and pulled herself into a sitting position only to find herself staring a number of Tau'ri in oddly dressed attire. What happened? The last thing she remembered was one of her priestesses trapping her inside of her Sarcophagus and entombing her. How much time had passed since then? A lot judging by the strange clothing these primitives wore.

"Where is Ra?" Hathor demanded as her eyes flashed. She needed information on her enemies and these Tau'ri had at least some answers, she was sure of it. They would obey her one way or the other just like all of the others. She never saw the hilt of the gun that hit the back of her head. All she knew was the darkness that followed as everyone looked towards her attacker.

"What? She was freaking me out…"