Betrayal

"Lunaria, please report to Admiral Adama's office." Those words silence the entire mess hall.

Lauren leaned in. "Go on." She whispered. "Don't keep the Old Man waiting."

She stood up, the chair scraping against the floor. The crew parted for her, looking at her like she was a condemned convict.

*Knock knock knock*

"Come in." Adama took off his glasses and placed them on his desk. Jen snapped him a salute. "Have a seat.

Getting on the wrong side of the Old Man was always a bad thing. It was like waking an evil dragon who knew your every move.

"Do you know why you're here today?"

"Starbuck was shot down?"

"Yes. Of course, that was her role in the battle. We're here to talk about you...and future plans."

It took all of Jen's self control to not shudder.

"So, I guess I'll just tell you. Lets start out with your statistics. Three Raiders shot down, forty probably, and hundreds of assists."

"I was trying to give the recruits I paired up with some kills."

"So that was why you always asked for the newbies, didn't you?"

"I was the only pilot on the Pegasus that actually tried to help some of the less experience pilots. Everyone else were just wrapped up in a cocoon of their own problems."

"The good traits of a squadron leader. A drink?"

"I'm good, thanks."

"Some scans found Cylon activity in some mountain city on the surface of the planet. We're setting you up for a Raptor raid on their airbase, then you'll be leading a squad of Rebel Raiders operating from the Rebel Basestar."

"...Thank you sir. I wasn't expecting this, really."

"What were you expecting?"

"A silent execution?"

Twilight and her friends were together in their weekly picnic.

"Every time, Applejack, your pie doesn't get old." Rainbow commented. "It may even be better with each week."

Applejack blushed. "Thanks partner. All the credit goes to Granny Smith, though. She's the one that did the recipe."

"Well, darling, it is you who cooked it, isn't it?"

A loud explosion shook the ground.

"LAND SAKES!"

A huge black cloud had formed on Canterlot, and several burning pieces of stone were broken off and plummeting toward the lake below the mountain.

Several Raptors flew out of the black smoke. "Galactica Actual, this is Lunaria Actual. Mission is accomplished, we are coming back for some twinkies. Over."

"Erm...Lunaria, Galactica Actual. you might want to watch your-" The engine section suddenly exploded.

"Raider! How did we not get all of them?"

"Joker, get the rest of the squad out! We're going to try to crash land near the hive!"

"Roger!" One after another, the Raptors jumped away, leaving Jen, Lauren, and their dead radio officer on their own.

"Shut off engine two...Turkey, dump anything we don't need."

"I'm not Turkey!" Lauren wailed as she began to throw out all sorts of stuff.

"Are we going to make it?"

"No, we have to ditch...I'm aiming for that field."

"There's no way we can make it." They were thrown around as the Raptor adsorbed more hits from the Raider.

"Right...right..." She flicked a couple more switches. "Frak, the FTL's offline."

"Can you use thrusters?"

"I can try." She switched them on, resulting in the craft rolling. "Nope. Something's broken. Rrrrrrr...."

"Brace for impact?"

"Yeah. That would be a smart idea." Jen calmly said as the Raptor pancaked into the ground. Mud covered the windshield, and the people inside were thrown around.

The left wing clipped a tree, spinning it around. As the craft finally came to a rest, the windshield broke, spraying the insides with mud and glass.

"Ugh..." Lauren tried to wipe it off.

"Don't bother, there's glass pieces inside. You could hurt yourself."

The two forced the door open. "Ah, thank the Lords of Kobol we're still breathing fresh air."

"So. What no-"

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Lauren was suddenly tackled by an orange blur, which latched onto her face and began to pummel it.

"Well." Jen said, amused. "They have the same battle cry."

"Just get it off already!"

Jen sighed, and pulled the Orange pony with a stetson off, holding it by the scruff of it's neck. It tried to bite them, but Jen kept it far away.

"Just like those damn locusts..."

Soon, another five came.

"Let her go." A purple unicorn said. Jen dumped the Orange pony onto the ground.

"Mar cheo an tsléibhe uaine ag mlmeacht go deo!" A blue pegasus with a rainbow mane flew up into their faces and yelled at her.

"Look, um, can you tell us your side of the story?" The purple unicorn asked while she casted a spell over the rest of them.

"Short story: We're being chased by our own creations, robots who want us dead because...I actually don't know why."

"They claim to hate us," Lauren barged in, holding up her two pointer fingers. "But of course, they really can't dislodge themselves from us yet, considering how much they copy us. It's flattering, really."

"Oh, my, that must have been terrible!"

Rainbow flew back into their faces. "Who do you think you are to attack Eq-"

"You are allied with the Cylons, thereby giving the Colonial fleet clearance to attack any of your cities, civilians, or military craft. I suggest you start running." Jen took out her Revolt and cocked it.

The purple unicorn had took the two humans to hide in her house, which was...a tree library.

Jen soon left the little building, wandering throughout the town and scaring the inhabitants, until she came across a small stream. Sitting down near the riverbank, she hummed a tune and swayed to it.

She closed her eyes thought back to a summer day on Aelieron.

A seven year old Jen stood near a small creek. She was wearing a pair of rolled up, ripped jeans and t-shirt that was two sizes too small. Suddenly, she noticed a small black shape underneath the glass-like surface. She quickly got down to her belly, then slowly lowered her hand into the water behind the fish. She began to stroke it's belly.

Just the day before, daddy had taught her how to catch fish only with bare hands. What happened to fish was that they got comfortable when they got belly rubs; so comfortable that they fell asleep.

So she went out and tried it. The fish fell asleep, but when she got it out of the water, it managed to flop back in.

Today, she was going to get it. Yanking the fish out of the water, she made sure it didn't excape. After it stopped moving, she began to carry it back to the farmhouse.

"Daddy, daddy! Look what I caught...!"

She smiled at that memory. It felt like only yesterday...

Twilight (as her name turned out to be) came over and nuzzled her. "Something wrong?"

"Nah. Just memories."

"Of what?"

"Aelieron. I used to be a farm girl before I joined."

"Ah. You don't seem like one."

"If ah talk lahck this, will ya believe me?"

"...Yes."

Lauren walked over. "You know, I never forgave dad for moving away."

"Oh, is that so?"

"You only told me the Colonies were destroyed." Twilight raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's not going to be a good story to tell."

It wasn't an easy story to listen to, either.

"Before the attacks, the Cylon fleet was amassed around the Colony, the Cylons' "homeworld." When the command was given, the basestars jumped to their targets before striking. It took the Cylons all but three minutes to access the defense mainframe and shut it down, leaving the Colonies and the Colonial Fleet defenseless. This infiltration of Colonial systems combined with the "complete surprise" that the Cylons achieve enables them to crush the Colonial Fleet with minimal losses, a triumph beyond their most optimistic predictions.

"Having received the Control Navigation Program “upgrades”, the Colonial Fleet was easily shut down by attacking Cylon Raiders. The fleet loses at least 30 battlestars in the opening wave, which is a quarter of the fleet. After this news is broadcast, Admiral Horace Nagala takes command of the Battlestar Atlantia, and began a counter attack near Virgon’s orbit, as per a system plot by Lt. Gaeta aboard the Battlestar Galactica.

"The battle doesn’t last long, and Atlantia is lost along with the battlestars Triton, Solaria, Columbia, and others, and Galactica's commanding officer William Adama took command of the Fleet, and he ordered any remaining human ship to Ragnar Anchorage for regrouping.

"The Battlestar Galactica, which was about 300 million miles from Caprica at the time, was largely unprepared for the attacks, having just been decommissioned and transformed into a museum. The crew had destroyed its munitions as part of the decommissioning ceremony, and it had lost it's primary fighter wing. However, as part of the museum, it has a couple of older Viper Mk II's aboard, which Commander Adama put to use, as Galactica is attacked herself.

"Here, the attacking Raiders try to shut down Galactica and her Vipers, but since she has no interconnected networks, the shutdown command has no effect. The handful of planes are enough to hold off the attacking Raiders, however, not before a Raider fires off three nuclear tipped missiles in a last ditch attempt to destroy the battlestar. Out of three missiles fired, Starbuck managed to shoot down two, before the last one strikes the battlestar. Galactica comes out relatively unscathed, with the ship's armor plating keeping out the hard radiation.

"After the blast clears, the ship's port stern thrusters got stuck on, pushing the battlestar into a right turn. The port flight pod sufferd the most damage, with violent decompressions along the forward sections. 85 crew members were lost when damage to the fire suppression system vented off the pod's atmosphere to prevent the fuel lines from igniting, stopping the destruction of the ship. From here, Adama takes command of the fleet, and orders the ship to prepare for an FTL jump to Ragnar to re-arm.

"Battlestar Pegasus (my ship), under the command of Rear Admiral Helena Cain, was docked at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards at the onset of the attacks undergoing a system refit, which left its computer networks offline. Most of the us were about to take shore leave when the Cylons attacked the shipyards. The battlestar was heavily damaged in the opening salvo and there were many casualties, however, thanks to DRADIS interference, the Cylons were not able to confirm its destruction, and continued their assault on the other battlestars and support ships docked at the yards.

"Not wanting to give the Cylons time to realize their mistake, Cain ordered a blind jump away from the combat zone. The ship re-emerged several plotted jumps away from the Colonies. After sending a recon Raptor back to the colonies to confirm their destruction, we began to make repairs, while Cain ploted her next move.

"All the while, there were many civilian transports and passenger liners in the space lanes near Caprica. After the Government shut down these lanes, these ships became trapped and were attacked as they were found by the Cylons. It wasn't long before Roslin takes the effort to round up the survivors and form a caravan to help get the civilians out of harms way, and sends out Sharon Valerii in search of more ships. Valerii is able to recover at least three homeless Vipers, and numerous transports, her last being a tylium transport, before the Cylons jump in and scan their caravan.

"At this point, Roslin makes the decision to abandon the sublight only ships, and orders the remaining FTL capable ships to jump to Ragnar to rendezvous with Galactica. Among chaotic comm chatter, prayers, and spite, the fleet jumps away just as a Raider squadron jumps in. Around twenty sublight ships, including a Botanical Cruiser are left behind, and destroyed.

"An additional small caravan of civilian ships, led by the transport Scylla, are able to survive on their own for a few weeks after the attacks. The Cylons are the first to find them, and attack. The Scylla and a handful of others are able to escape the attack, and survive on their own until being found by us. The civilians were thrilled to find us, however, their joy was short lived. After taking the fleet by force, Admiral Cain strips the ships of crucial parts (including FTL drives), abducts many of the civilians for service aboard Pegasus, and leaves the rest to their fates."

           "Cain was your commander?"

           "Yes. I....I helped force some of the civvies to join our ranks."

           "Jen, it's alright, you lost you home, family, I can't blame you."

"Moving on...Galactica completed its first FTL jump in over 20 years to Ragnar Anchorage. The crew immediately began to re-arm the ship, not wasting time. However, the specialists ran into a sickly looking man pointing a rifle at them. As the CO is questioning him, a fallen charge detonates, trapping the two behind a now fused hatch.

"As the two seek an alternate route back to the ship, Adama's First War experiences, and the man's remarks reveal his true nature: he is a Cylon. The radiation surrounding the station has affected his silica pathways which leave him dying a slow and permanent death, however, Adama soon finishes the job after the Cylon, Leoben, is able to throw Adama to the ground. Conoy's body is transferred to the Galactica for further study.

"Meanwhile, the civilian fleet arrives in orbit of Ragnar, giving the crew of Galactica a slight scare as they move down through the cloud layers. President Roslin comes aboard and asks for Galactica's protection, a notion Adama later strikes down, still hoping and preferring to take the battlestar into combat, until he realizes the Cylons followed them to Ragnar, and are now waiting for them to re-emerge from the gas giant.

"After negotiating with the President and his executive officer, Saul Tigh, Adama orders the fleet to prep for a jump to the Prolmar Sector, far beyond the Red Line, where he hopes the civilians will be safe. Galactica is able to emerge from the cover of Ragnar's atmosphere long enough to calculate a jump, and defend the fleet as they jump away.

"Just as the Cylons are sending in a new wave of Raiders, the battlestar recovers it's Vipers, and jumps to join the fleet. While Galactica and its fleet are momentarily able to escape the Anchorage, they are hounded by the Cylons, who jump to the fleet's location every thirty three minutes. A cat and mouse game lasts for days after the fall.

"Olympic Carrier, sometimes referred to as Carrier, is officially designated an "Intersun Passenger Cruiser." With a length of 825 feet, it comfortably accommodates 1,000 passengers in style and luxury on journeys between the Twelve Colonies. A commercial passenger ship, it has no weapons or defense capabilities.

"The Carrier was able to successfully make the first 237 jumps in the seemingly endless 5-day Cylon pursuit of the Fleet that occurs a short time after their escape from Ragnar Anchorage. Just before to Jump 238, the Carrier sends a message to President Laura Roslin, who aboard Colonial One.

"The message purportedly comes from Doctor Amorak, formerly of the Colonial Ministry of Defense and a former colleague of Dr. Gaius Baltar, with information regarding "a traitor in their midst." Soon thereafter, Carrier goes missing after failing to arrive with the rest of the Fleet on Jump 238."

"Three hours later, the Olympic Carrier suddenly materializes at the Jump 238 coordinates, raising the suspicions of Roslin and Commander Adama. When asked over wireless by Lieutenant Sharon Valerii how they avoided Cylon attack, a voice from the starliner claims ignorance, saying that someone must have been looking after them, and that they used the intervening three hours to fix their malfunctioning FTL drive. Baltar, fearing exposure of his own actions in the undermining the Colonial defenses, urges Roslin to cut off communication with the ship.

"When radiological alarms sounded on Valerii's Raptor on CAP, indicating the presence of a nuclear device, Commander Adama and President Roslin come to a quick consensus that the ship must be destroyed. Lee Adama and Kara Thrace reluctantly carry out the order and destroy the vessel before the nuclear weapon could detonate. All of the one thousand civilians on board the Carrier, women and children, were slaughtered.

"President Roslin later wrote the ship's name down on a piece of paper and left it in her desk aboard Colonial One as a reminder of her role in the tragedy. She had once seen President Richard Adar do something similar when he also gave an order which killed a bunch of people on Caprica."

Twilight looked at Jen. "How...how many died after the fall?"

"Billions."

"Survivors?"

"Less than fifty thousand in the fleet now. They had their foot on humanity's throat, but didn't stomp hard enough."

The three sat under the shade of the arch bridge (not that it mattered, the sun was nearly down) and listened to the crickets chirp. Twilight was deep in thought.

"I think Princess Celestia made a mistake with allying with the Cylons. I'll go talk to her about this."

"Thanks." Two SAR Raptors descended in her. "I'm hoping she'll understand."

"Of course she will. I'm her protégé!"

Jen looked at the lowering sun. She knew rulers. As soon as their power was wilting, they would cling on to it desperately. Celestia would probably not listen to Twilight. She sighed. A civil war was inevitable.