Comments and responses, people:

Really said: Is this another Stargate-Worldwar-Battlestar Crossover?

Yes related to Worldwar: Discovering the Balance.

SeraphChaos said : I really, really need to point this out, but technically when the Colonials attacked Earth back in the first story. They had effectively declared war, and in that case the Earth would've had no reason not to blow the Colonials to smithereens.

Absolutely true. However, although at war, the overt declaration of war has been, shall we say brushed under the rug, so to speak. The Colonials essentially backed off and have not attacked again. Earth has no need to start another front and since they took the Colonial fleet out things are more or less simmering underneath. This is why we have the new Astorath System Lords being mentioned as they are the more immediate threat, not to mention the Lucien Alliance. The Colonials frankly don't want all out war with the Earthers yet because they are the only things standing between the Colonials and enslavement. At the same time they (politicians and religious factions) don't like the Thirteeners at all and are pushing things along. And sometimes we forget that all out war is a terrible thing.

Thanks for the link by the way. Both Colonials and the so called Tau'ri ( I should use Earthers here as Tau'ri is from the Goa'uld and really not worthy to be used even though I understand why here) will use nukes in a second. But the difference is that the colonials will use nukes as SOB against people. The Earthers have a slightly better level of restraint when it comes to bombing civilian targets.

Strika said: It didn't. The colonials are just stupid. Either that or they ran across a Jaffa who was pissed that he was freed by primitive humans.

Yes, they did. That is how they have gathered their information so far.

StrikaAmaru said: "We've heard about the mercy you've extended to the free Jaffa and how your forces have tried to subjugate them," countered Goesel.

"Excuse me?' snapped Hayes, immediately becoming angry." I don't know where you get your information from but we haven't tried to subjugate anybody."

I haven't watched SG1 beyond the movie + a few episodes, so I'm going o ask a dumb question: when did this happen?

It didn't. They have been lied to by a distraught Jaffa. And it sounded believable. They ran with it.

TD Master said: Am I reading right that the treaty has been made? And am I reading right, that despite humanity having a mutual colony with the Race and are all but allies with the Race on Home, the treaty does not specify either world as being under the protection of Earth? That wouldn't make any sense.

Home II is protected. Home is not. There is no treaty. There are only a few humans and Cylons on Home II trying to live there and understand the Race. The Race would have preferred that the Humans and Cylons didn't come but have to tolerate them because the Humans are stronger than they are and they have no choice. This isn't completely true for the leadership such as Straha, Atvar and the Emperor but their primary stance is that they are supposed to take over Earth and bring it into the Empire whether it takes two to a thousand years from now. That has not changed. Home has requested that they be left alone. There is only a communications probe there left by Earth so that they could contact Home II. They have not elected to contact Earth, not until THEY are ready. So there is no agreement or treaty, just 'we'll talk when you're ready to.'

Thank you for the comments and questions I hope that I answered them to your satisfaction so far. Please note that I wanted to add more to this but real life is in control so I posted this for now. More is upcoming hopefully within the next two weeks. Don't forget that is is in parallel to Bob's story RAAB. And he is working on the next chapter so please be patient with us. Thank you.

On with the story!

Chapter 8

"Conquest"

Tau Ceti star system-Home:

The Tau Ceti star system called by the natives the Home system, when compared to the Sol system was filled with ships which wasn't surprising considering that the Race had been a space dwelling species for more than fifty thousand years as measured by Earth. They had close to two thousand space-going vessels. The Empire of the Race boasted two additional alien species that had been conquered and incorporated so completely that the average member of the Race would have not even imagined such a concept as rebellion coming from said species.

Of course, all was not perfect and the leadership of the Race was well aware of this. Foremost the government of the Race was an empire and they made sure that their empire remained secured. Although the Hallessi and Rabotev were full members of the empire, being granted equal rights, and had been part of the Race's imperial arm for so long that neither species could imagine things otherwise, there were certain things that they could not be. For example, they could not be part of the military. Neither species could travel across the stars without permission of the Race. Their own cultures had been completely subverted by the Race, literally dismantled and replaced by the culture and traditions of the Lizardians. Despite the obvious turmoil of having their culture, identities and freedom to make their own destiny torn from them, both the Rabotev and Halless species lived together peacefully under the watchful eyes of the Race for close to fifty thousand years. Rarely had there ever been any discord between the three species – until recently with the discovery of the Tosevites and their insane ways of doing things that the Race had never approved of.

True, the far, far, far majority of the Race had never even seen a Human /Tosevite before. Honestly, most members of the Race couldn't tell the difference between the alien Rabotev and Hallessi so initially when the Tosevites, under the name of the Human Tau'ri arrived at Home, many times they were actually mistaken for a Rabotev which of course looked nothing like Humans. Plus, the visitors weren't submissive or subjected to the Race which pissed off and horrified the livers of a lot of the less educated Lizardians who had trouble understanding the concept.

Nevertheless, dozens of Race citizens found the Humans an interesting if mystifying species to exchange ideas with. The numbers were few that had interacted with the Humans but the encounters had spread far and wide though news broadcasts and gossip channels as the Lizardians were just as bad as Humanity when it came to entertainment even though their imagination was somewhat lacking as compared to Humanity. But in contrast, it was that very lack of imagination that was one of the major cornerstone of the differences between the though processes of the Race and Humanity.

Humans asked the questions 'why did it work and how can I improve it?' The Race asked 'how it works and if it works, how can I keep it working the same way?' So the Race made products that were disgustingly reliable and once perfected, never really changed because there was no need to change. Once perfected, that was it. The Race's sub-light ships had served them well. It was the same with their space ships from the time of the first expedition to conquer an alien species to the time they attempted to make the Humans of Earth another vassal of the Race. Those ship designs worked the first and the second times with only incremental changes made to the massive bulk ships. It should have worked with the Tosevites but they proved to be an anomaly that the Race simply put, wasn't prepared for.

Two things (among the dozens if not hundreds of things which hadn't yet been discovered by the race yet) the Tosevites possessed had truly shocked the Race. The first was faster than light capable ships. The second was faster than light communications. A hundred thousand of years earlier, Race scientists proved that it was impossible to travel or communicate faster than the speed of light. That was the end of any more study on the subject. In retrospect, this was a positive thing for the overall survival of the Race with Ra being so close. Any real innovations would have resulted in genocide for their species by the supreme Goa'uld supreme Lord.

This utter confidence in their conclusions was coming back to bite them on their tail-stumps in a way that would hurt every member of their species. Shortly, they would discover to their horror that someone was coming to conquer them, in fact were already in their home system. Because of the Race's lack of FTL communications or sensors, that little fact wasn't discovered for nearly thirty hours when they started losing contact with outbound ships heading for the Rabotev system.

Frantic warnings transmitted via radio frequency could travel only so fast.

As it was, an outgoing ship of the Race, on the first leg of its twenty year journey to the Epsilon Eridani star system encountered its first hostile contact some forty days out from the fifth planet of the Home system. The huge vessel named the 68th Emperor Teponev, sensors detected energy discharges of an unusual nature. Most of the crew which consisted of members of the Race and some Hallessi were in cryosleep, however a skeleton crew making final checks before they too would go to their sleep chambers panicked when vector systems started hissing for attention. An object appearing from nowhere was in the way of the ship's flight path moving fast enough so that auto systems couldn't react in time to compensate to avoid it. Collision was imminent and a desperate bridge crew struggled to identify the object closing in on their position. Antennas were realigned and emergency transmissions were squirted towards Home informing them of the emergency. There would be nothing that Home could do but they would at least know what would what happened to the ship. Two minutes later the ship's long-ranged radar was blanketed with electronic interference powerful enough to affectively shut the long-range detection systems down making the ship effectively blind. Short range was still working and the Lizardians now detected several smaller objects vectoring in on his ship at an even higher rate of speed. The commander of the ship overrode the navigational computer moved the ship out of the way – except it didn't work. The huge ship had all the grace of a Race turtlelette digging through hardened sand. By this time the commander determined that the incoming objects were artificial in nature. Although this rational was clearly impossible it was the only thing that made sense according to the incoming data. The Race had nothing that could move as fast as those objects and it took a few moments to remember that there were other aliens out here that had superior technology. But even as he thought of that, in his liver he didn't really believe it. A hundred thousand years of being on the top of the food chain wouldn't allow him to do so…

…That was until he heard the transmissions being beamed directly at his ship. SR radar tracked the objects as they went narrowly missed his bulk freighter at nearly seventh of lightspeed. The incoming objects did the impossible and turning to towards his ship once more on an intercept course.

The narrow beam transmission was clear. "Attention vessel," the voice said in understandable but somehow mushy Race. "This is the Colonial destroyer Ares Seven. You are now subjects of the government of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Adjust your trajectory and return to Home orbit. If you do not you will be fired upon and your ship will be destroyed."

"To unknown transmission, this is the 68th Emperor Teponev," responded a very terrified commander. "We have never heard of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. You are interfering with the property and the commands of the Race. We have been tasked to take this ship to its destination and we will do so."

"Commander of the 68th Emperor Teponev, your Emperor is no longer the leader of Home. We are taking Home, You will proceed to change trajectory towards Home or you will be destroyed."

"Who are you to dare to give orders to the Race?" the commander asked. He was terrified as all of those truths and rumors he'd heard but never truly believed despite the evidence that clashed with what he knew to be true. "Are you Tosevites?" he dared to ask.

"No, we are Kobolians," the mushy voice said, which did nothing to clear up the mystery. "Redirect your vessel or it will be destroyed. You have thirty minutes to begin procedures or we will have no choice but to fire on your vessel. You will be responsible for the loss of lives and property of your 'former' Emperor.'

Again SR radar tracked several small objects moving faster than his ships could ever hope to do now in front of his ship moving relative to his. 'Space-capable killer craft he realized with a start. Thirty thousand members of the Race and Hallessi lives in cold sleep depended on his next action.

"I will do as you say," he relented. "But remember that the Race will not forget this and you will be severely punished."

"Turn your ship around."

"For the safety of the males and females under my responsibility, we will comply."

The huge transport began to decelerate as made its wide turn to head back towards Home, under the watchful eye of the Colonial destroyer. Throughout the system and beyond this process was being repeated while the main fleet of forty Battlestars jumped deep into the system.

Warstar Poseidon C&C:

The unsettling feeling of Colonial jump dissipated immediately.

"Status," demanded Westergyne.

"Sir, jump complete. All ships accounted for. Threat board clear. Reading two hundred ships, twelve space stations and twenty six dry docks, all civilian. No radiologics on any of the alien ships within range."

Admiral Hensen Westergyne stepped over to DRADIS station to confirm what his officers were telling him. Intel from the alien prisoners gleaned over the last three years was confirmed in that moment. This so-called empire had absolutely zero defenses.

Colonial scientists, xeno-socialists and theorists (new fields just in its infancy), along with several theologians, had explored Race language, culture and social structure as thoroughly as they could with the captured prisoners and computer data. Language structure and comprehension had been established surprisingly quickly and that had to do with the social structure of the members of the Race. Once they were prisoners, they cooperated totally and completely. As rudimentary communications between the two improved, the Colonial's understanding of the Race proceeded quickly. The valuable prisoners were treated surprisingly well considering time constraints and the alien nature of their species in the eyes of the Colonials. Tactical and social structures of the Race were considered priorities.

After two years of interrogation, Colonial experts agreed on several things. First was the fact that the Race was an aggressive imperialistic species that went conquering its neighbors.

Second (and every Colonial agreed that this was strange), the Race expected those they conquered to remain conquered – forever. The concept of rebellion of conquered species hadn't even entered their minds – at least this was the official line. This theory was up to debate since what little the Colonials did know of the other species indicated that they were subjected to a few more restrictions than native members so they couldn't be completely unwary of possible rebellion against their authorities.

Third, they believed that they were the center of the universe, the top of the food chain; the most advanced species in the galaxy if not universe. Nothing in their more than one hundred thousand years of experience had shown them otherwise.

Fourth, they had planned to conquer another species called Tosevites but little to nothing was known by the prisoners of that species.

Fifth, since they had never seen anyone more advanced than themselves, they therefore had no spaceborne weapons platforms to protect their planet from invasion by other forces and since Home was peacefully; only police forces had weapons of any sort. This was apparently true on the conquered worlds as well, with the initial military forces long since absorbed into the civilian forces with no thought of the keeping even token forces active just in case maintaining order might be needed. All reports were the same – this empire was a bureaucracy unmatched by anything imagined by the Colonials.

"All DRADIS to maximum. Launch all Vipers and Raptors I want a screen around our ships. All other fighters secure orbit around the planet. I want six of our Gunstars to support them. All orbital structures are to be captured, not destroyed."

High Priest Iblison, dressed in the finest purple, red and blue of his station glared at the Admiral with distain. "I fail to see why you're being so cautious," he said while playing with his fingernails. "They have no defenses and they can't possibly hurt us. This cautious approach only serves to delay our victory."

Westergyne had to suppress the urge to thrown the man off of his bridge. The longer he was in Iblison's presence the more he hated the man. "We made that assumption once before when we went after Earth," he said in barely restrained fury. "We paid for that arrogance in blood. I will not make that assumption again. We will proceed in caution. If the Tau'ri are aware of the Race, then we could well be moving into a trap."

"The Apellai, not Tau'ri, not Earthers," Iblison corrected slowly as if explaining himself to a slightly dense child," have no idea what we're doing and legally they have no jurisdiction. The Race has no armaments that can hurt us and they can do nothing to stop us. I would suggest that you hasten your efforts, Admiral. We wouldn't want the people under your command to believe that you were being unduly cautious, don't you think?"

The crew was studiously monitoring their stations while their admiral struggled to keep from shooting his superior right there on the bridge in front of everyone. "I will not compromise this operation because you want us to rush it. This phase of the operation is proceeding according to schedule and I won't change it unless circumstances dictate otherwise."

Iblison smiled. "I meant no disrespect, he said in a manner that indicated that the opposite was true. "But I suggest that if the Apellai are coming, then we should take control of the system as soon as possible."

Westergyne was frozen in place for the merest instant. That was the one fear that haunted everyone in this entire operation because if the Earthers did find out what was happening and tried to stop them, the fleet wouldn't stand a chance, treaty or not. Like it or not, the plan depended on speed in obtaining the objective.

"All assault transports. Proceed to your objectives. I want control of all stations and docks within the next two hours. Resistance should be minimal, but take no chances. No unnecessary killing."

Again Iblison frowned. "Perhaps we should use our nuclear ordinance to destroy one of the space docks, or maybe a city to make sure that the Race understands the inevitability of the situation they are now facing and to facilitate our control?" He smiled grandiosely. "Their ancestors will not come to save them so we should make them aware of this. The destruction of one of their cities would easily clarify the matter."

"No nuclear strikes unless it's necessary," the Admiral snapped. "Let's get this over with. Transmit the massage now."

"I agree. It's time," Iblison added.

"We are the Colonials of Kobol," the broadcasted message said in slurred Race. Every Race satellite received and transmitted the message to Home. Every member of Home who had radio or video activated heard the message at the same time. "The Race will surrender unconditionally. The empire of the Race is now under our jurisdiction and our control. You are now submit to the authority of the Colonials of Kobol or you will be destroyed. Any resistance is futile and punishment will be harsh. Your emperor and your government officials will submit to us. We are in control. We are the Colonials of Kobol…"

Space station 13th Emperor Meadlle:

"We are the Colonials of Kobol…" the message repeated.

"Oh, the horror!" Stationlord Eshune screamed.

Despite being the station master, the male was as terrified as those under his command. Those crew members that weren't frozen in fear were skittering mindlessly around attempting to understand what was truly happening. This event was completely new to their experience and training and they were not taking it well.

What was happening before him had never been imagined in his worst nightmares. More than forty huge, ugly alien ships of war (and that's what they were, knowing this in the depths of his liver, even though he'd never seen a warship like those before) were heading directly towards him, surrounded by space-capable killercraft that were, according to radar was coming at his station faster than any ship he'd ever seen. The Lizardian crews in the command and control sectors were so close to panicking that Stationlord Eshune was at a lost, being ready to panic himself.

The space station 13th Emperor Meadlle the newest of twelve civilian orbital ports in service for the last four hundred and thirty seven years had no defenses whatsoever. The station had faithfully served its function as a transit waypoint for the tens and tens of thousands of members of the Race both military and civilian on their way to the long-ranged transports of both the conquest and colonization fleets. Situated six hundred miles above the surface of Home, it now made for an inviting target.

"Stationlord, what are we to do?" Command Sectionlord Tyss wailed. "Why have the ancestors of the Emperor's pass allowed such a thing? What are we to do?"

"I don't know!" Eshune wailed back. That phrase, he realized later, was probably the last thing he should have screamed out loud as the last of what little control he maintained over his crew evaporated.

"Why would someone try to conquer the Race?" Tyss screamed as he floated back towards the now abandoned radar post. Small signals were rapidly converging toward not only his but all of the stations in orbit. Larger blips were following from behind quickly.

A few seconds later, the Stationlord had floated alongside, next to him. The thought had occurred to him. "It could be the Tosevites," he said more to himself than to his subordinate. Like so many others, he had heard of the Tosevite ship that had visited several years ago, but hadn't actually seen the ship. Even though he had been briefed, he barely believed what he had seen. Every liver cell in his body believed it to be a fabrication. No one could be more powerful or advanced than the Race. It was almost beyond comprehension.

"These creatures that dare to threaten the Race called themselves Colonies of kombal or something, not Tosevites," Tyss growled. His fear was turning to righteous anger now.

"The Emperor said that there were others out here, but in my liver, I did not truly believe." He turned half running, half floating towards the communications section. "The ships under our care need traffic control." They need to be made aware of the situation so they do not act without orders. It's our responsibility to do our duty, no matter what the current situation is."

"You are right, Stationlord."

"Get the others," he hissed. "We must perform our duty to the best of our ability."

"Yes. We should not fear. The Emperor will save us."

Sixty-seven Colonial vipers made their first pass of the station, flying full throttle in evasive pattern three. Two squadrons of Raptors followed closely in their wakes.

"This is Janus Lead to Poseidon actual," James 'war sprite' Collious said. "Confirmed. The station has no defenses. No weapons ports are visible. No missile tubes and no radiologics other than power sources."

He and his fighter-mates passed the huge station in a blur. He barely saw it but what he did see was distinctively alien in nature. The station was designed as a series of huge cube and rectangle shapes connected together by large tubules. Part of the structure rotated along specific axis points probably to simulate gravity since report indicated that they'd never discovered how to generate artificial gravity. There were ships docked near the edges, huge lumbering ones. Although alien in nature, they weren't that much different than the pre-light speed freighters that the Colonials of old had used before jumping had become common place. Those ships took months to years just to travel though the system. They were also completely defenses, making James shake his head is dismay. These aliens had no concept of defense as far as he could see. Of course that made sense, since they had no concept of other species that could be their equals, so defense was a mote point to them. It was kind of sad, innocent really.

Poseidon Actual to Janus Lead. Understood. Do not fire on the station unless there is resistance to the incoming marines. We want causalities as light as possible."

"Acknowledged." This was going to be a boring sortie, he surmised. That was what the briefing said and so far Intel had been correct which was fine by him. Of course, no battle plan remained untouched and the giant monster lurking in the closet were the Tau'ri. If they knew about this, everyone from the Admirals to the cooks was predicting a bloodbath. No, it wasn't these lizard creatures that were the problem, but the Thirteenth tribe, one fracken world; one death sentence if they arrived in the system before this was over.

"Janus Seventeen to Janus Lead, we have incoming. Vector one twenty by two sixteen by five. Thirty-sex kilometers per second. Radiologics detected."

"Got it. Do a visual. Do not engage unless fired upon."

Raptor Seventeen turned and performed a fast intercept close enough to get a tactical visual. Race short-ranged radar could barely track the fast moving Colonial fighter.

"Looks like four shuttles with a pair of wing-tip missiles each. Maneuverability is minimal. Proceed with caution."

This would be no challenge at all, War sprite thought. Old-style civilian shuttles were faster than these things coming in. His viper could outrun the missiles easily if what his sensors were telling him was accurate. But to be on the safe side, he stayed just on the outside of the predicted enemy missile's capability. Radiation poisoning wasn't something that he wanted to experience as had so many of his comrades during that stupid assault on the Thirteenth Tribe's world. Plus anyone shot down by one of those primitive missiles would never live it down if they survived.

"Janus Lead to Poseidon actual, proceeding to intercept. Janus Two and Three, follow me in. If they fire, destroy with prejudice."

"Yes, sir."

"On your tail, sir."

The three vipers peeled off of formation and vectored towards the Race combat shuttle.

Senior shuttle pilot Teek and his co-pilot, second shuttle pilot Kunsip were, to put it simply, terrified. Here they were piloting a police shuttle with two wing-tip explosive metal missiles already armed and tracking objects that moved faster than they could. The training is space combat and missile launches such as they were didn't begin to fill them with confidence. It had simply never been done before and the training had been to put it bluntly sparse to, in Teek's mind, nonexistent. Nothing could prepare them for what was happening. Strange creatures from another empire were flying space capable killercraft that were able to move faster than anything he'd ever imagined and worse, they were coming for him! He was a police shuttle pilot, not really trained for alien invasion. What was his responsibility in the absence of orders? Home Command hadn't issued any orders except one – defend Home?

"How?" he wailed.

"We have explosive metal missiles," said Kunsip, seemingly able to read his superior's mind. "If we fire them, the aliens will understand that Home will use everything at its disposable to repel them. It will make them cautious when approaching Home!"

'And what addled egg did you hatch from!' he wanted to retort. But his subordinate was correct. These aliens needed to know that Home would not fall without a fight. If only they had weapons and lizard power to fight back with. Everything useful had gone on that addled journey to conquer Tosev III. No one had even imagined that someone would come to conquer Home.

It –it was Home!

It wasn't right!

"Inform Home we are firing our explosive metal missiles on the largest enemy target," Teek said with a hiss of finality, the target being the Poseidon. "May all of the spirits of Emperors past protect us."

All four shuttles began accelerating towards the Warstar Poseidon at their maximum speed of eight-two KPS.

Poseidon C&C

"Could you repeat that?" Admiral Westergyne asked after he gained his composure.

"Yes, sir," the DRADIS operator said. "The enemy shuttles are making a run for the Poseidon. Their missiles are prepped."

"How long before they get here provided that they get through our fighter screen and escorts?"

"Twenty-five minutes, sir."

"How long before viper intercept?"

"At full burn, eight seconds. Sir, they have to know that they don't have a chance of getting through."

"Have to give them credit for bravery," the Admiral said.

"Yes," Iblison murmured. "They will be useful in the defense of the colonies," the man said, referring to the overall tenacity of the Race and not the individuals hurtling to their deaths in a suicide mission that had absolutely no chance of success. He turned slowly. "Admiral, opposition cannot be tolerated. Destroy them."

"High priest," and the Admiral was impressed by his ability to keep a straight face as he used the honorific, "these pilots may prove to be useful in the future."

"The leadership must be made to understand that resistance is futile and will be crushed if it manifests itself in any form. If we allow these ships to fire, our soldiers and personnel on the ground will be under increased threat. You've already given the order to destroy them. There is no reason to countermand what we know is correct."

"Order the vipers to destroy the incoming shuttles. Clear them from my space. The raptors are to proceed with to the planet. EMP bursts are a go. Repeat, EMP bursts are a go.