Chapter 80 The Guns are Silent

It happened onboard the Battleship Missouri, the Tau'ri wanted it that way and as the victories they got what they wanted. The official surrender of the 12 colonies of Kobol would take place in the hanger of the battleship, they could have done it in a much smaller setting and the whole thing would have been done sooner. The whole thing was a show and the Tau'ri where the ring masters. The center runway was clear of people however lining each edge line was a long line of honor guards. All of them where in dress uniforms with half of them holdings rifles in attention and the other half holding flags. Not just the Tau'ri flag but flags from every nation in the Tau'ri alliance in a repeating pattern of armed soldiers, national flag, armed solider Tau'ri flag before repeating across the length of the runway. Behind them where more soldiers in BDU and some in battle armor, they stood in formation and watched.

"The darkest day in our history." said President Adar to himself as he looked at the representatives from each of the colonies gathered with him at the end of the runway, behind him the raptors sat and behind them was the darkness of space. That wasn't true, there was a shield holding in the air and heat because if there wasn't they would all be dead, he could also see the curve of his home planet of Caprica. The Tau'ri battleship had journey to the capital world of the Colonial government and had taken position over where Caprica City would have been if it hadn't been whipped off the map by the Ragnarok. As he looked out into the space he could see more Tau'ri warships along with their smaller fighters and bombers, the smaller craft where flying in parade formation for the event.

"I hate to disagree with you Mr. President." said the woman Dr. Baltar had brought with him, Doctor Jenny Oldstone. She was beside him and he had been fighting the want to check her out, with a body any professional model would want and wearing a red dress, she was a standout. She was now engaged to Baltar and he couldn't help but be envoys of the man. "But the darkest day in the History of the 12 colonies had to be either the creation of the Cylons or the day they rebelled."

"Maybe." Admitted President Adar as he looked toward the Spiro brothers who would be signing for Sagittarian and for the faith. The next president of the Colonies Laura Roslin was also here and she would be sworn in as President once they left the Missouri, he, vice President Spiro and his brother wouldn't be leaving. He would be charge for the nuclear attack on Valhalla and ordering the attempted WMD attack in the middle of the war along with other smaller crimes. The Vice President would be charged with attempting to kill the Nox Diplomat along with the ordering the gas and nuclear attack on Valhalla in the war. Priest Spiro would be charged with being in command of the Religious police on Sagittarian and the reeducation camps, the Tau'ri considered the actions there as crimes.

"It is time." Said the man who would be signing for the Colonial Military, Admiral Adama had been pulled out of the Tau'ri prison camp on Tauron and now stood beside his President as the highest living known Colonial military leaders. The rest of the Admirals and Generals higher then him had been killed either on their ships or in their bases.

"I know." Said Adar with pain in his voice as they began the long walk toward the Tau'ri gathering at the far end of the hanger. General Leong, Minister Fang Gan and Dr. Woolsey where all there but they weren't alone, standing with them were five more people. One of them was them was a woman dressed in a paints suit, another three where dressed in military uniforms two of them men and the other a woman. The last one was a man in fine suit, he had seen him before. Jonas Quinn he thought the name was. As the group of colonials moved closer to where the Tau'ri where gathered they saw that a table had been set up in the center with a blue table cover over it all. In the front was the same upside down V with a strange circle thing around it in silver. Sitting behind the table where a couple of chairs with only a single one in front of it. Sitting on the table where two large leather bound binders. Both of them where opened up to show identical copies of the peace treaty between the Colonies and the Tau'ri. Both where blinded in red leather with the seal of the Tau'ri in the upper right hand of the corner and the Colonial Seal in the left-hand side. It was also clear which one would be taken by the Tau'ri and which would be their copy, one was in the rectangle shape that the Tau'ri liked in their paper and the other one had the corners cut off like all paper in the colonies where. Along the back side of the hanger where more Tau'ri soldiers, some of them where sitting on top of Owls, Eagles and other space craft to get a better view. All around them where multiple video cameras and news crews a lot of them from the Tau'ri but all the major Colonial networks where there to broadcast the event.

Given a prime view of the signing of the treaty where other diplomats not actively taking part in the ceremony. Most of them where human and dressed in suits and pants suits of some shade or another, or in a military uniform. Some of the people in uniforms where not in Tau'ri uniforms, he assumed they were from some human world outside of the Tau'ri direct control. Some of the humans where dressed in robes with strange tattoos on their foreheads and he even saw an older man with a golden tattoo on his forehead beside a larger black man with a similar tattoo. He also saw the strange race they had seen on the TV during that ceremonial broadcast from Valhalla, the Nox. They stood out as well but also watching the events where three Cylon Centurions, two in the chrome color and one in a bright gold.

"Cylons." Grumbled Adar as he glared at the mortal enemies of the Colonial people.

"Well what to expect the Cylons where likely to be here." Added Dr. Baltar as he stood beside his soon to be wife.

Adar walked up to the area and waited as the Tau'ri group approached them.

"President Adar, I am the President of Brazil and the current President of the Tau'ri alliance." Greeted the Brazilian woman, before looking toward the older of the Tau'ri in uniform. "This is General O'Neill the head of the Tau'ri military, beside him is General Carter commander of Stargate Command and lastly is General Rag-Sing, he was command of Valhalla when you carried out the attack."

"I see." Said Adar as he started introducing the people he had brought to the signing.

While the signing was starting, work was already underway, the Tau'ri military was moving. They were not waiting for the official treaty to be signed. They began to pull back from positions near the front lines of the battle, the main vehicle moving was the Lion heavy tanks. Since those tanks were unable to travel through the gate they would have to go onto the Hadrian class transports. Those ships began to descend toward the surface of Tauron, but they didn't come empty handed in their holds where a large supply of food, medical supplies, clothing and even some construction equipment.

Standing in the copula of his Leopard tank near the outskirts of Lezbha Colonel Jager watched the Lion tanks get loaded onto one of the massive ships. The tanks where loaded onto the top part of the massive transports while shipping containers where attached to the bottom part of the ship. While Jager watched some of the loot taken by some of the soldiers was loaded onto the containers. Some of it was kind of funny, he watched as some solider tried to get what looked to be a piano into one of the containers. A female solider was actually carrying what looked to be a wedding dress, seeing that caused Spiro to laugh, his head was poking out of the drivers compartment..

"Something funny Private?" inquired Jager to his driver who was from Sagittarian.

"It is just, that is a funeral dress." explained Spiro as the woman carried what Jager would have assumed to be a wedding dress. It did look like a wedding dress with all the white lace and the general pattern. "In traditional Tauron funerals the person being buried wears white while the living family members wear black gloves."

"I would have thought that is a wedding dress." admitted Jager "However if I may inquire what do you think of all this?"

"Taking loot from a battlefield is common in our history. I mean war is uncommon but taking stuff from the battlefield is common in those wars." stated Spiro before looking down into his part of the tank. "I took some things I wanted, mostly toys from TVs shows I loved when I was still a kid and I haven't been able to find on Valhalla."

"I see, well I am sure they were be trade deals in the future between the Colonials and us." Stated Jager

"Sir, do you know where we are going to be assigned after this is all over?" inquired his gunner

"Not sure, I imagine that they will begin releasing people from their contracts and people will go back to their civilian lives." Stated Jager as a career solider he would stay in uniform. "I imagine that the army will get the bulk of the cuts, they are still building warships on Valhalla after all. We still lag behind by a lot when it comes to the ship numbers."

"But our ships are so much better than anyone else's in the galaxy." countered his gunner

"But our enemies outnumber us by a large percentage and numbers hold their own advantages." countered Jager "If the Lucian Alliance factions all united or if the free Jaffa united again together into a single force they would poses a force large enough to challenge us, maybe even beat us. So while I don't think they will build warships as fast as they had been they will still build them."

"Nice for the people in space but what about us in the mud?" inquired the loader

"Well this is all unofficial. So you didn't hear it from me." Started Jager

"Of course." confirmed Loader

"Word is they are going to set up local trading posts on certain worlds, like of like a common market area for smaller worlds whose people aren't part of the Tau'ri alliance but know of the gate can travel to have an open market." Stated Jager

"A market we will guard off course." Stated the loader

"Correct, we will also be a fast reaction post for any trouble." Stated Jager "They are also going to set up common schools."

"Smart SOBs." Stated Spiro "Common schools headed by us means that in a couple generations those worlds will be more willing to join the Tau'ri and they will not be backwater people who haven't even invented the steam engine."

"Maybe you are right." admitted Jager "I wouldn't be surprised if that happens here, in a couple generations the 12 colonies of Kobol may be folded into an even greater Tau'ri alliance spreading across multiple star systems."

"What about the worlds in our space that don't know about the stargate?" inquired Spiro "The colonies didn't have a stargate, I imagine there are other worlds which didn't have a gate or lost their gate in some way or another."

"Your right of course." Stated Jager as a flight of Eagle fighters flew over the tank. "I imagine without the war taking up so much of their focus we will start actually exploring more again, and making contact with races we haven't meet yet."

"I wonder what their take will be when they learn about the treaty which places their worlds under our control." Stated Spiro "Probably as well as we took it when the Colonials claimed that they controlled over us. I just hope we have more wisdom to deal with those issues then the colonials did."

"I hope you are right and I think our leaders will be, there are a lot of unpopulated worlds and we have a lot of space to grow." Confirmed Jager as he looked down at the small computer which was attached to his forearm. "I personally am looking forward to taking some time off."

"I am with you there." Confirmed the Loader "I want to see this new Northern Ocean on Mars, I heard the beaches there are very nice and the weather is very nice. Similar southern France in climate I heard."

"I have heard that as well, but I think I will take a holiday to the Alpes myself." Stated Jager, he had always enjoyed mountain climbing. "On second thought maybe I will go to mars and climb one of the mountains there, make it into the history books as the first man to climb them."

"What about you Spiro?" inquired the Loader

"I just want to visit Earth, I haven't been there I haven't left Valhalla." Admitted Spiro "I want to be stationed on Earth and far away from the colonies. I don't want to be near this place anymore."

"Well I am sure you can ask for to be stationed on Earth, most people will be asking to be stationed outside of Earth, they want to explore the unknown." Advised Jager before thinking about it. "Maybe if we can all get some leave time, we take our driver on a drinking tour of our homeland."

"Yes, I can't wait to take you to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich." offered the gunner, aside from Spiro the entire tank crew was made of natives from Germany. By now the 1st transport had taken off and the second one was moving in to load up the weapons of war.

Elsewhere with the Tau'ri flag flapping over their heads, the artillery units which had been the 1st group to open fire on the Colonial enemies from their positions on the Hill of Heroes began to pull out. The large towed field guns were being attached to the back of trucks and began to roll down the road. They moved toward the Stargate where some of the units where already marching through the gate. The Tau'ri weren't going to stay around long, they had crushed the Colonials and it was time for the bulk of them to leave. A few engineer groups, medical units and MPs groups where staying behind to maintain order until the Colonial civilian police in places like Hypatia could be reformed. The police had been on the front lines of the invasion and they had died along with soldiers. The engineers where staying to help fix up key locations while the medical groups where treating the wounded. The other duty that had to be done was grim but it had to be carried out, the collection of Colonial dead. While collecting the Tau'ri dead was easy, they had broadcasters imbedded into their power armor and into chips on the back of their necks. When a Tau'ri solider died, their bodies where beamed onboard one of the ships in orbit, that allowed them to keep a grim count of the dead. The colonials had nothing like that. The colonial dead was spread out across multiple battlefields in urban and rural areas. Some of those bodies would never be found.

Onboard the Missouri the speeches had from some of the Tau'ri representatives had come to an end and now the official signing could happen. The Tau'ri sat behind the desk with a long line of pens ready for the signing, all of them appeared to be custom made for the event showing that the Tau'ri had planned ahead. The first man to sign was Minister Fan Gang as he signed one of the documents before doing the next one. Next came two representatives from the colonies, they did it without a smile on their faces like the Tau'ri did. So it went, since the Colonials had more representatives they had to sign it more often, until there was only General Leong, Admiral Adama, the Tau'ri President and himself who had yet to sign.

Admiral Adama moved forward and looking at his assigned signing spot for a moment signed the treaty that would shrink the colonial navy to a faction of what it once been. General Leong went next, signing for the Tau'ri forces which had beaten the Colonial forces with tactics and technology that would have been seen as impossible months ago.

Adar lowered his head as he moved toward the table and sat down at the table. He picked up his own pen and looked at the paper, when he signed it would all be over. He would face a likely lifetime prison sentence, he would go down in history as the President who surrender the colonies. He had envisioned a ceremony like this a long time ago, but that would have been the joining of their Earthly cousins to the greater union of the Colonies of Man. Now it was their cousins which would hold the power, they had won. With a sigh Adar signed the surrender documents before the Tau'ri President signed for the Tau'ri alliance. With that the signing documents was done and only a single speech was left to be given.

General Leong stood at the table with the two surrenders documents signed before her, as head of the military forces she was given the honor of the last speech, the speech which would mark the official end of the war.

"As the Legendary Enlightened General Sun Tzu said over two thousand years ago, the art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of Life and Death, a road either to safety or to ruin." Started General Leong "We have seen death on both sides, we have seen the effects of some of the most deadly weapons ever deployed on the battlefield. Men and women on both sides have meet each other on the field of honor and found that there is no honor on that field. We have reached an agreement to end this war, a war which was on some levels pointless and on some levels needed. This war has cost the Tau'ri innocent lives ever since the mushroom cloud rose over the fields of Valhalla, but it has also brought us closer. Citizens from every nation, nations which had been enemies in the past fought together in the mud, in the dirt, in the sky and everywhere else. As they fought, they came together until they see each other as not their birth nation first but Tau'ri. As for the Colonials time will tell what if any real good came from this pointless grab for something that was outside their grasp. The only good that we can hope that come from this is that a freedom not originally found in the 12 colonies is born, the freedom of religion. This treaty will mark a new beginning and a new balance for all the powers in the galaxy, the shape of the galaxy has changed. We must all, Tau'ri and Colonial, Cylon, Jaffa, Lucian Alliance, Tok'ra and any other race or culture that rise to the galactic stage must remember another quote from Sun Tzu, the unhappy can be made happy again but the dead can't be brought back to life. The guns are now silent, let us hope that they remain silent and that the powers of the galaxy can work together for peace and liberty in the galaxy. Thank you all…these proceedings are closed."

With that it was all over, the war was over and a new balance had been greeted in the Galaxy, the Tau'ri while having a smaller number of ships, men and worlds where the main power in the galaxy. They held the mental of the Ancients, they were the 5th race.

The withdraw of the Tau'ri forces which were already underway only speed up over the next few hours after the signing of the treaty. The warships and transports began to pull out, some would stay behind to protect the soldiers staying behind and most of all the Ragnarok as it moved toward Aquaria to begin the work of terraforming it. For the bulk of the fleet they headed first toward Valhalla and from there they each had separated destinations. The grand fleet which had smashed the Colonial Navy in hours would be broken up and separated into 7 different locations and joining with the forces there would form the seven fleets would be the new backbone of the Tau'ri space navy. The 1st fleet would head to Earth to protect it along with Mars and Venus. The 2nd fleet would be stationed on Valhalla and the 12 colonies with the 3rd fleet patrolling in between the Valhalla and the heart of Tau'ri power. The 4th and the 6th fleet would head toward Lanagara. Lanagara was located near a major hot zone between multiple factions of Free Jaffa and Lucian Alliances factions. They would be tasked with defending Lanagara and the surrounding area the possibility of a war breaking out there was a major concern to the Tau'ri leaderships, having two fleets there would protect the second most populated world in the Tau'ri alliance behind Earth. The 5th and 7th fleets where planned to be the fleets which went out and explore and project power across the new Tau'ri space, with the 7th fleet being the teeth of the Tau'ri fleet. There was a 8th and a 9th fleet but those ships where assigned to the Pegasus galaxy and hadn't taken part in the war in the colonies.

Some of the cargo transports would be sold off to shipping companies to move items between the Tau'ri worlds, the stargate would stay a mostly military item for the foreseeable future. Some business had even placed orders in at the Valhalla ship yards for cruise passenger liners.

The idea of passenger liners was far from the mind of Private Torren Shepard stood at a guard post in what had been the heart of Hypatia. The temple of Ares was just across the street from him and the evidence of a blood bath was easy for the eye to find. The roadway had been washed of blood by the sidewalks still where stained and the what appeared to be giant shotgun pellets where bended in what remained of the Ares statue in the middle of the Y shaped intersection. Tau'ri armor and other vehicles rolled past him and his fellow marine Private Ashely Williams, soldiers were sitting on top of Leopard tanks, Cougars APC and anything else they could get on. They had spent the day fighting and didn't feel like walking. As an APC passed the two of them he saw one of his fellow marines show a wrist covered with watches and he heard him asking if anyone wanted to buy them.

"I wonder if he took them from the dead or just liberated them from a jewelry store." stated Ashely

"Likely the dead, if he had gotten them from a jewelry store he would have gotten jewelry and diamonds not just watches." stated Shepard, he wasn't totally sure how he felt about it. He didn't like the idea of stealing items from civilians but items from military enemies where different. He had stuffed a pistol from a colonial officer he found dead in his pack, he had taken the gun but he hadn't taken the man's wedding ring. He also had some flags and banners he stumbled upon but nothing anyone would really miss.

"Likely." confirmed Ashly

"I agree." said a voice as both marines jumped a bit as they turned to see an officer standing only a couple of feet away from them. Ashley jumped to attention while Torren seemed to take it a little less professional.

"I should crew you out for not snapping to attention, what would your father think?" inquired Colonel O'Neill as Torren laughed a bit.

"I am not sure, but my mom would say he was rubbed off on me." stated Torren as O'Neill waved to have Ashley relax.

"Very true, I am glad that you made it out ok." Said O'Neill "So will everyone in my family."

"It was touch and go there for a little bit but I am sure that was same for you." stated Torren.

"Yes and no, I mostly worked in clearing out ruminates of Colonial forces in the city here but after we pushed through it was mostly a mop up job." Stated O'Neill "I heard from some officers that you pretty good and maybe they put you in for officers school."

"That is what my family wants and I want to be an officer but…" started Torren

"You're worried that people will think that you got where you are because of who your father is?" inquired O'Neill with a laugh, "Do you forget who I am? I am not my father's son I am his clone and either way you earned that spot if you want it."

"Thank you Sir." Stated Shepard "If I didn't want to go to officers school what options would be open to me?"

"Likely assigned to one of the trading outposts we are going to set up or a base on somewhere within Tau'ri space." Stated O'Neill "At best you may get assigned to an SG team but even there people will think you got there because your father is Commander Pegasus."

"Damned if I do, Damned if I don't." stated Shepard

"Well there is a 3rd way, you could go to officers school and if you get in the upper part of the class you could request to be put on a very special project I can't tell you about because I officially don't know about it." Advised O'Neill with a grin, he knew about the planned mission to a distance galaxy to set up a Super gate to send a new ship to finish the mission of the Destiny. With the war over that operation would kick off and the ship would begin to take form.

"Thank you sir, I may take you up on that advise." Stated Shepard "How is everyone doing with your family?"

"Older me is going to retire, so he is happy." Admitted O'Neill "I am just happy that Samantha was too young to enlist, she wanted too but…"

"Yes." Laughed Shepard "She is younger than me and I just got in before they began this whole thing."

Just north of the Hill of Heroes in the colonial prisoners in the camp where lined up in front of only three Tau'ri officials in front of a large table. Behind them another three Tau'ri officers were going through multiple large trucks stacked full of personal items taken from the prisoners when they were taken into custody. The process was straight forward as it was simple, the prisoner went up to the official looked into a small item and said their name. Supposedly that would confirm if they were telling the truth, then they would sign a document saying that they would never take up arms against the Tau'ri and if they did they would be harshly punished. After that they would place their hands on a computer pad which scanned them and took some DNA sample. All of that took maybe five minutes at the most but what took forever was when they attempted to find personal items taken from them on the trucks. Here the Tau'ri where not nearly as organized and it was slowing everything down to a crawl.

"This fraken sucks." cursed Starbucks "We shouldn't have to do this?"

"No, but looking at the treaty they could have been a lot harsher to us." countered Lee "They aren't going to enslave us or work us to death. Aside from accepting other religions and other items that will drive the Sagittarians and Gememons crazy nothing will really change in a governmental sense."

"Except all the dead." stated Kara as the line moved forward.

"True, however I can't help but remember that it could have been worse." Added Lee as Kara looked at him. "It could have been the Cylons who beaten us and they wouldn't have shown any mercy to us at all."

Kara didn't say anything but the look on her face said she knew he was right but didn't want to accept it.

"I am just wondering what we will do once this is all over." stated Lee "They will not be focused on military for a while and the Tau'ri destroyed most of our Vipers and Raptors. We likely have more pilots then birds at the moment. There may not be places for us in the military at the moment."

"I don't have that many skills outside of being a viper pilot." admitted Kara as she tried to think what she could do instead of being a pilot.

"You shot down an Eagle fighter, that may earn you a spot in whatever type of Colonial Military forms after this all is over." advised Lee "Whatever it is, it will be a shadow of what it was and with the Tau'ri ships in our own systems it means they will not be anywhere near to what the Tau'ri have."

"We will just have to improve, we can do it." stated Kara

"I have seen where the Tau'ri are already, they are hundreds if not thousands of years ahead of us. Even if they stay still and don't advance which is unlikely they will still be head of us for the distance future." Stated Lee before letting out a long breath. "Nothing we can do about that, we need to focus on building whatever lives we have now."

Outside of another prison camp the newly freed Private Acacia rolled her best friend Private Medea down the road in a wheel chair. Medea was almost in perfect heath thanks to the Tau'ri medical technology, the only major problem was that her lower legs, one from the knee down the other from the ankle down was gone. Instead stumps covered with the fabric from her pants covered them. In her lap sat both women's bags as they moved down the streets.

The streets where full of people, Tau'ri mostly in vehicles moved down the streets heading toward different landing areas where their ships would be waiting to take them off world. For the colonials it was more complex, the Tau'ri had set up landing zones where Tau'ri ships would pick them up and transport them back to their home worlds. The main problem was that there was simply too many war weary colonials trying to head home. The Tau'ri had set up stations where trucks would come and pick them up to take them to the different landing areas. The problem was that these places where overflowing and most people then decided that walking began the best option they had.

"I can't believe you have to wait 2 months for your legs." complained Acacia as she rolled her friend through the streets.

"I know, but I look at it this way. I may not even had gotten new legs if it wasn't for the Tau'ri technology." countered Medea "They are cloning legs for me and the way they say it, they have a long list of people coming in for treatments like mine and I am not a high need. People with worse injuries and Tau'ri are ahead of me on that list. I saw a young kid maybe 15 or 16 who had his entire lower jaw removed by a bullet."

"Still, I am the one who has to push you to the nearest extraction point for Libra and that is way on the other side of town." complained Acacia as she noticed a line of Tau'ri trucks, APCs and recon vehicles forming up in a parking lot.

Standing near the front of one of the lines talking with some other officers was Lieutenant Lefeld. The Tau'ri had for the most part had taken a more relax tone with the colonials, they still wore battle dress with their weapons slung over their soldiers but instead of full visor helmets they wore either caps or their helmets with the front face plate open. Lefeld lifted his eyes from the map and toward the two of them and waved them to come toward them.

"Hello, you two." Said Lefeld with a smile "Doing better?"

"I wish I could walk." Complained Medea

"Not going to go clubbing any time soon, Acacia told me that you two were going to do that before we launched our invasion." Stated Lefeld

"She did…did she." said Medea with a smirk as she looked up at her friend, who was blushing slightly. "Well I will have to talk to her about that on our long journey to our destination."

"You're from Libra right?" inquired Lefeld as he studied his computer pad again. It showed a map of the city on it where multiple marks which showed the landing area for Tau'ri ships that would bring the colonial soldiers home. The Libran landing zone was clear on the other side of the war-torn city. "You two have some distance to go to get to the extraction point."

"Yes, we do." Complained Acacia "Can you give us a lift?"

"Well, we are heading toward the Stargate near the hill of Hero's that is in the opposite direction as you are heading." Answered Lefeld as both women lowered their heads. "However, we do pass right beside another one of the Libran ship launch points on our way to the gate, if you don't mind going to that one we can give you a lift."

"Will you get into trouble?" inquired Acacia as Lefeld brushed away the idea.

"We are already transporting some locals of Hypatia closer to the city, shouldn't be a major problem. We will just have to put you in a Puma, we can't have one of the trucks full of passengers stop."

"Thanks." Said Acacia "It may be a greater distance but it will take longer to walk to the place. When do you leave?"

The answer came as a nearby group of vehicles came to life and began to roll out of the area.

"Follow me." ordered Lefeld as they headed toward one of the recon vehicles, another Tau'ri stood at the top mounted machine gun.

"Who are these two sir?" inquired the gunner

"Two Libran soldiers, we are going to give them a lift to their landing area. We are going to pass right by it." explained Lefeld as the solider looked at the two of them, then noticed that one of them didn't have legs.

"Looks like they need it." Confirmed the solider as he reached into his vest and pulled out a candy bar and tossed it to Medea. She caught it with ease and looked at the M&M pack. "Here, you look hungry."

"Thanks." Said Medea as Lefeld moved and picked her up bridal style and put her into the passengers seat, thanks to his power armor giving him extra strength it was easy. The wheel chair broke down and was put behind Lefeld who took up the duty of driving while Acacia sat behind her friend. The Tau'ri gunner still stood in the puma's turret with the machine gun ready but it was clear no one was expecting a fight. Acacia reached over to where the seat belt normally would be but found it was on the opposite side of where it was on the Colonial vehicles. Neither one of the Tau'ri buckled up which caused both colonials to look at them, standing orders were to buckle up.

"A buckle gets in your way if a roadside bomb goes off and you need to get out of your vehicle. We don't expect any but we aren't taking the risk." answered Lefeld as the Puma headed down the road, it followed a line of trucks loaded with Tau'ri soldiers and some Colonials, behind it was even more trucks. The roadways where full of vehicles and even in the fields Tau'ri tanks rumbled across the ground.

"How…how did you get all this in?" inquired Medea as she looked at the tanks which they passed on the road, it was more tanks then she had ever seen in her life.

"Kind of easy with a stargate." answered Lefeld as both colonials looked at each other.

"I don't think they know about that." answered the gunner "They will learn about it soon, if we set up a base I wouldn't be surprised if they give the base a stargate. They will also begin broadcasting our TV stations into the colonies."

"The circle symbol in the middle of our flag, that is not a symbol that is a Stargate a device that opens a wormhole between another stargate in the network." answered Lefeld "With that you can walk through one stargate and within seconds walk out of another stargate on another planet across the galaxy."

"Line up a bunch of military power, beam in the gate and drive through it and then boom you have an invasion force." Stated the gunner with a laugh.

"How?" inquired Acacia "How is that possible."

"How the hell are we supposed to know, we are troopers not scientists." Stated the Gunner as they headed down the road.

"Troopers?" inquired Acacia

"Paratroopers, or troopers for short." Answered Lefeld "We are airborne soldiers dropping from the sky, we didn't come through the gate. We jumped out of aircraft into the night sky."

"That is crazy that would be a very disorganized way to fight a battle." countered Acacia

"Worked on you all." laughed the Gunner "And other enemies in our history. Sir, do we know where we are going after our parade in New York?"

"We come back here." Answered Lefeld as Acacia looked at him. "We have been assigned peace keeping duty here and then once our base is set up on Aquaria we will likely be stationed there."

"Aquaria is a wasteland? How can you be stationed there?" inquired Acacia

"The Ragnarok is going to terraform it and make it like Earth." Said Lefeld before thinking about it for a moment. "Like Caprica for you."

Both colonial women shook their heads.

"Cloning replacement limbs, traveling in this stargate and terraforming a world that is a nuclear wasteland." Stated Acacia "Is there anything you can't do?"

"Not much of anything it seems." Stated Lefeld

"You colonials picked the wrong people to f with when you fired on Valhalla all those years ago." Stated the gunner as a flight of Eagle fighters flew past the line of vehicles moving down the road.

"Years? The war has only been on a few months?" countered Medea

"No, it has been just over 4 years since that strike." answered Lefeld "I should know, I was a raw 18 year old trooper just out of jump school I stood on a hill outside of Disney World with that mushroom cloud rising in the distance."

"How…how is that possible?" inquired Medea "Is our years longer than yours or…"

"We put the colonies in a time dalliance field, we slowed down time in your space which allowed us to build up forces and plan our attack." answered the gunner "Everything you see, was built in four years."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you see it first hand, they will likely use time dalliance on Aquaria to allow the cleanup process to speed up." stated Lefeld "So if I may inquire what are you two going to do once you get home."

"Not, sure wait for my new legs and get a job or go to school." stated Medea

"Same here, I hope that the military honors its sign on perks, free schooling and land on Kobol." stated Acacia "Well aside from land on Kobol but I didn't plan to use that."

Both Tau'ri chuckled to themselves.

"So your government offered the same thing to you that they offered to us." Laughed Lefeld "If I wanted I could go on and take college classes or even be discharged and get that land I have coming to me, but I am a lifer, I am staying in the military, maybe I will take online classes, I do want to get to a higher officer rank."

"And you will be stationed here?" inquired Acacia with a smile.

"Aquaria, maybe your government will offer land on Aquaria to soldiers like you? Whatever we don't take for our base and base housing will be handed over to the new Aquaria government." stated Lefeld "It isn't going to be an ice ball of a world anymore."

"We shall have to see." Said Acacia, on some levels she knew he was right too many worlds was overpopulated and living space was needed. Then she looked out the window of the Tau'ri military vehicle, she saw the war-torn landscape and shallow graves which marked colonial dead. Maybe overpopulation wasn't going to be an issue for a while.

"So where are you from?" inquired Acacia as she decided to change the topic.

"A little town to the South of Columbus Ohio." stated Lefeld before tapping the roof and yelling up at the gunner. "Go…Buckeyes!"

The gunner slapped the roof in response.

"Go…Blue!" yelled the gunner as both of the men laughed at each other causing looks between the girls.

"Two rival university and sports teams." explained Lefeld as the women nodded their heads in understanding.

"I guess we will learn about that, I assuming your news and entertainment broadcasts will come along with your military bases." Stated Medea

They spent the next two hours on their drive just talking about different things, they were sharing each other's culture. Finally, the Puma recon vehicle rolled to a stop, on the side of the road. The trucks which had been following it paid it no mind as they kept moving down the road. Only a few hundred yards away down a side road which was crowed with colonials was a Hadrian class transport ship. A large sign hung from a street light.

"Libra departure." Read Medea as Lefeld got out and using his power armor he lifted her out of the Puma and into the wheelchair. "Thanks it would have taken us hours to reach the one closer to Lezbha."

"No problem." Said Lefeld as suddenly Acacia offered him a piece of paper. He lifted an eyebrow as he opened it up to show a list of numbers.

"I think I owe you a drink and maybe a dinner for all of this." responded Acacia with a smile before leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. "So give me a call when you have a chance."

Lefeld was too stunned to do anything for a moment as both Medea and the Gunner laughed at his expense. Finally he snapped out of it and nodded his head.

"I will do that." Confirmed Lefeld before turning and getting back into his recon vehicle and rejoining the mass of Tau'ri leaving Tauron.

Onboard the Missouri President Adar and the Spiro brothers watched as the rest of the Colonial delegation left them. They would be taken into custody to await trail which was sure to come in their future. To the amazement of President Adar the two Spiro brothers where not visible upset in any way in fact they seemed almost happy. That fact even threw the four Tau'ri guards in the room with them for a loop.

"Why are you so happy?" inquired one of the guards.

"We are going to Kobol." Said Priest Spiro "It is the nearest Tau'ri held world and from there we will wait for the trail before these Nox. We will walk on the surface of the holy world."

The guards shared a look before one of them laughed.

"You are not going to Valhalla." stated the guard "We are going to transport you to Tauron, there you will journey with the Nox through the stargate to their home world for questioning and your trail. You will never set a foot on Valhalla."

The two Spiros brothers shared a look, they hadn't expected that. The two old men, had expected that any trail would take years before it would take place. That meant that they would have years to walk on the surface of their holy world.

"And even after the trail do you think our leaders will allow you to visit Valhalla." Stated the Guard

"But we were promised that we could visit Kobol." stated Priest Spiro

"And so the people of the 12 colonies will be allowed to visit Valhalla." Added Doctor Woolsey as he entered the conversation. "Do you think we would allow just anyone to visit our world? No it is in the treaty that we would issue visas which will allow people to visit and one of the things we will look at is crimes. Which means the moment you are convicted for your crimes by the Nox you will not only face a prison sentence but you will be barred from going to Valhalla."

"What?" inquired Priest Spiro "You can't do that!"

"They can, it is the old laws we had before we unified and we allowed free travel between the worlds." explained President Adar before looking at General Leong. "Would your side be open to a plea deal?"

"What do you have in mind?" inquired General Leong.

"I know I will be found guilty, I know I will get life sentence." Stated former President Adar "You have the documents of my orders and I can't get around that."

"And the Nox unlike us in our legal system allows an advance lie detector which tells with almost 100% accurate if a person is lying or telling the truth." Stated Doctor Woolsey, that little bit of technology was highly questionable when it came to legal terms. "The moment you take the stand, they have you."

"I see, I don't want to spend the time I have left on some distance world away from my family." stated Adar "If I plea guilty, I want the possibility of patrol and I am imprisoned in a level 3 prison in the colonies."

Woolsey leaned back a bit, he wasn't aware that a level 3 Prison was basically a minimal security prison, they had the least violent criminal the most freedoms inside the walls and other perks.

"I will have to see what my leaders want to do, but I wouldn't be surprised if they take you up on it." Stated Woolsey "Maybe we a couple of years in a Max security prison of our own before we transfer you to a lower level, just to make the news headlines easier."

"I understand that." admitted Adar as Woolsey looked at the remaining two colonials.

"We will trust the Lords of Kobol." stated the elder Spiro brother.

"When we are found innocent, we will go to Kobol and we will have the honor of walking on the birthplace of humanity." stated Priest Spiro as Woolsey nodded his head in understanding.

"Very well." Stated Woolsey as he looked at his watch. "You all should be leaving shortly."

With a flash of light all three Colonials disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in the middle of a field surrounded by the might of the Tau'ri. There was multiple tanks, APCs, and other weapons of war, it was a display of power and it left the Colonials shaking a bit in fear.

"Shall we go?" said a figure none of them had noticed, it was one of the strange Nox creatures. He moved his hand toward a metal disk behind them. It began to spin as multiple lights activated on the disk. Finally with a single burst of blue energy a vortex of what appeared to be a strange liquid formed in the disk before settling down. "Follow me please."

Onboard the Tau'ri space station Saul Tigh sat at a table playing a card game with the Galen Tyrol, over the past few hours their true memories had returned until they knew who and what they really were.

"Fraken, we are fraken Cylons." cursed Saul as he looked at the tanks where the other final five Cylons where located, none of the others had died and as such their new bodies where still floating in their tanks.

Suddenly the doors to their containment area opened and Cavil along with four Cylons centurions flanking him on either side.

"So what do you want?" inquired Galen not even turning to look at the humanoid Cylon he had helped create all those years ago.

"Your fate has been decided." Stated Cavil as both elder humanoid Cylons turned their attention toward him. "It took some time to convince the my fellow Cylons that we can't bring you to the new world we are building. We are within a handful of jumps of the colonial worlds. If you escape you could get to them and ruin all our plans."

"So you are going to kill us aren't you?" inquired Galen

"In a way, the Tau'ri are going to settle you in a place on Earth called Hawaii." stated Cavil "Not totally sure where that is on Earth but you will be out of reach of the colonials and you will not be able to go alert them about our plans in any way, we don't want them to learn about the humanoid cylons."

"Go Frak yourself we aren't going to let you destroy the Colonies." Stated Galen

"They already destroyed themselves, the Tau'ri did our work for us, now it is time to rebuild them in a way we want them to be." stated Cavil before turning to leave. "Enjoy Hawaii."

General Leong sat in her office on board the Missouri, she wasn't the only General in the room, she wasn't even the highest ranking one. Sitting across from her was General Carter and General O'Neill, the second and 1st highest ranking officers in the Tau'ri military. Along with them was General Raj-Singh he was the lowest ranking General in the room. They sat across from each other with a coffee table between the three of them, all of them had forgone coffee and had instead raided the large bar in the corner of the office. She had taken some rice wine for herself, General Rag-sing had gotten a fine bottle of brandy, General Carter had taken a bottle of wine for herself while General O'Neill had gotten a bottle of whiskey for himself. General Leong looked at the two Americans, she had nothing but respect for the two war heroes before her. They had done things she wouldn't do in her crazies' dreams and had come out the other side.

"Well it is nice to go out on a high note." said General O'Neill as he took a drink from his whiskey. "I will announce my retirement in a couple of days."

"Sir, you deserve your rest." Said General Leong as the 72-year-old General O'Neill nodded his head. The medical technologies that would allow the young 18-year-old who took part in the battles in this war would likely have a life span of at least 150 maybe even 200 years. However, that medical technology had come too late for General O'Neill and his generation. He would have a longer life for sure but he wouldn't live as long as the 56-year-old General Carter or herself at the age of 47.

"That means you will be called up to bat Carter." said O'Neill

"They want me to become President." reported Carter as General O'Neill and the others looked at her.

"I recommend you for that." admitted General Leong as everyone looked at her. "My government wanted me to attempt to use this victories here to catapult myself into political power. I am sorry but the only way for me to prevent that would be to give them a better option. That was you."

"You could have said no." said O'Neill

"I could but it would have been a waste, they would have organized forces behind the scene to force my hand." said General Leong "With you they get something they want and it helps the Tau'ri far greater then I could ever do in an office post."

"You would become Supreme commander of the Tau'ri." Stated General Raj-Sing "There is no way General Shepard can be lured to a command position on Earth, he loves it out in the Pegegus Galaxy."

"Yes, and that will make my government happy while you take the great benefits that came from this war and turn it to our advantage." Stated General Leong as she took a drink of her rice wine. "As much as I hate to say this, I think the Colonials did us a great favor when that mushroom cloud rose over Valhalla. It united us into a common people like nothing else could. It gave us a common enemy, a common struggle and now all our forces from multiple different nations have fought together and bleed together on the battlefield. Tell me do you think the multiple different people around the world be more accepting of a united government with a single elected ruler without this war bring them together."

"Likely." Admitted O'Neill "Still it wasn't worth the price of all those lives."

General Leong nodded her head in agreement.

"The same results would have been reached in time." Admitted General Leong "Still the damage was done and we made the best advantage from the situation given to us."

"The Colonials may disagree with that, when it comes to all the deaths on their side." Countered General Raj-Sing "Still they were the ones who started this whole war."

"Agreed." confirmed Carter

"Now, General Carter you can take this unity and use to the best results of the Tau'ri. Anyone else aside from possible General O'Neill would cause a political fight that could do a lot of damage. You are the best option to be the 1st president of the united Tau'ri." Said General Leong as she looked at General Carter. "You are the best choice, you have experience both with military terms and diplomatic fields. You are beloved across every group with the Tau'ri and you understand the technology that is coming. You will not have to be explained to on how it works."

"Carter, if you throw your hat into the ring here you are all but guaranteed a victory." Admitted General O'Neill "I wouldn't envy some of the tasks before you, all the major projects being started now that the war is over. The multiple settlements that are starting up and there is always military issues both on and off Earth."

"Any idea when you will have to make the choice?" inquired General Leong.

"They want to announce the reformations to the government within the next two to three weeks and then have an election within 18 months." stated Carter as she took a drink of her wine and then seamed to resign herself. "I will have to think of some of the policies I want to carry out and projects as well, we can't build everything we want at once."

"So you will take the Office of the President." said General Leong as General Carter nodded her head.

"I will have to talk to Jonas Quinn, see if I can drag him into the VP spot, likely they will get everything in place for an election in two years so 2026 or so." said General Carter as General Leong blinked, she hadn't expected that to be her VP choice. Then she thought about it, Jonas Quinn was a hero to the Langara people and a minor one to the people on Earth, he would help make Langara bond to the Tau'ri even stronger.

"To President Samantha Carter in 2026." Said O'Neill as all four of them lifted their drinks up.

Three days later the sun was shining above them, the streets of the city that never sleeps where full of people waving mini flags, the mini flags of every Tau'ri nation was being waved but the most common was the Tau'ri flag along with the American flag. Marching in unison with the men and women he had jumped into the darkened night over Tauron was Lieutenant Lefeld. His eyes scanned the crowed as they marched, fathers with young children on their shoulders pointed at the display of force which marched past. Their children waving small flags in their hands, both American and a lot of them Tau'ri. Mothers where taking photos of the grand scene before them. Lefeld smiled as they marched, they turned a corner and instantly the crowd erupted in cheering and for a moment, he was left speechless as they entered Time Square which had decked out for the event.

Across the world Jager stood in the copula of his tank as it rolled down the streets of Berlin. He saluted the grand reviewing stand where the German Chancellor stood beholding the parade. With a roar, a flight of Adar attack helicopters flew overhead as the neared the Brandenburg gate, hanging from the gate where five flags, the largest in the center was the silver and blue of the Tau'ri flag with a pair of German flags on either side. The outer two where smaller Tau'ri flags. A sense of pride filled Jager as he hit his intercom.

"Hell, of a welcome to Earth isn't it Spiro." Said Jager, he knew a matching parade was taking place in London and in Paris.

"Sure is." Said Spiro as he looked out over the event from his diver compartment at all the people on the streets. He could only do that for a moment as he lined up to pass under the gate.

Fireworks exploded in the darkened sky of Moscow as Colonel Drugrov stood looking out the window at the massive celebrating raging across the city most of all in Red Square where for the lack of a better terms a street party was raging. Soldiers where dancing on the streets and clapping along to music, even some of the other nations soldiers which had come to take part in Moscow's celebrations were taking part. Drogrov lifted his glass of vodka to them all as more fireworks filled the night sky on his belt was the knife he had taken from the dead Secretary Helena Cain. Joining them was the sound of church bells and the simple honking of horns from cars. A party was raging in the city for sure.

Captain Rose Ryan banked her Taita fighter bomber low over the bay, she turned her gaze toward one side to see that the other three birds where keeping formation with her on that side. She turned to the other side and saw another three birds in similar positions along with the Golden Gate Bridge. She headed toward downtown and hit a button on her control panel. For a moment she remembered that was the same button she had hit to drop the nuke that had destroyed Aquaria. Now instead of a nuke it opened two canisters attached to her wings. Instantly silver smoke came out the back of her bird coloring the sky. Beside her the other aircraft did the same turning their smoke blue, then the next two out had silver smoke and finally blue again. Blue and silver the colors of the Tau'ri. Below them people cheered as they wanted them fly over the large stands which had been set up along the bay for the massive air show which was planned to begin shortly.

The Tau'ri had been through war, they had seen the horrors of the nuke explosion outside of Celin on Valhalla. Tomorrow work would begin on new projects and new adventures, there would be challenges both on Earth which was still not fully unified and out in space. There would be social problems that will rise from integrating all the different cultures and beliefs into a single united government. There would also be great rewards as new technologies and discoveries forever changed the way they saw themselves. They finally took the mantle left them by the other four great race and became the 5th race. All that would come, all that would wait for the moment, for tonight they celebrated and the people of five worlds, Earth, Lanagara, Valhalla, Mars and Venus dreamed of the future before them.

Epilogue

In the darkness of space outside the orbit of Pluto a large armada of hundreds of giant warships headed at their max speed toward their destination the distance star they called Tosev. The once tiny point of light in the distance when they started was now bigger but still tiny. Each ship of the nearly 500 strong fleet moved at their max speed at a quarter of the speed of light. Onboard the ships over a million members of a reptilian like race called the Race rested in frozen cold sleep, these where all male and all trained soldiers bent on conquest. They had a date with destiny, a date with battle and a mission to add a 5th world to the Empire who had ruled their united people for over 100,000 years, only 50,000 of the much longer years of Tosev 3.

The battle they thought was ahead of them on a planet they called Tosev 3 was going to be the easiest in their long hundreds of thousands of years of civilization, the big ugly sword swing primitives would be no match to the Emperor's soldiers. They had been planning this invasion for thousands of years, carefully measuring the costs and estimating the possible conflicts that would come from adding two new worlds to the empire. They had sent a probe to Tosev 3 around 1800 years ago, which translated into around 900 local years, they had seen the sword swinging and beast riding Tosevites and knew that this would be the easiest conquest in the history of the Race. These soldiers had already brought the world of Vantic 5 under their control and the people of Vantic 5 had primitive guns when they invaded 35 years ago and now it was Tosev 3 turn. Once they were finished the empire would have 5 worlds and maybe in a few thousand years more they would plan their next conquest and spread the Race out.

They had no idea they were heading into the heart of the most powerful civilization in the galaxy. A group that had advanced in ways that wouldn't have been considered possible by the Race and at such speeds that would be considered inconceivable. They were heading toward Earth and the men and women of the Tau'ri who protected it.

CONTACT OF RACES-COMING JUNE OF 2017

Well it is over, Contact at Kobol is over, after 80 chapters this part of the story is coming to an end, but do not worry the sequel will bring back old faces both Tau'ri, Colonial and maybe others as well as add new ones as well. The next story as I currently plan it will not be as long as this one, so I hope all those who really want the Mass Effect Stargate Story which will come next will stay with me through the next story. I will be introducing new technologies for the Tau'ri and new issues as well. Now I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, you helped make this story better by motiving me to keep going even if some of you need to learn how to wait. Now I hope to see you all in the next story, thank you Wilkins75.