Very AU, Carolaine and William Adama never divorced.
Prologue.
When humanity left their home world of Kobol, escaping from a catastrophe which affected the thirteen states of humankind, they left to wander among the stars, they traveled for long, until the human fleet found an isolated star cluster, filled with hundreds of stars, some of them with beautiful, lush worlds friendly for human life, twelve of the nations decided to settle there, while the thirteen left and it is rumored they went to the thirteenth tribe, Earth, when they settled, they left all technology behind and started anew, in a beautiful world they called Caprica.
The colonials, numbering only half a million by the time of colonization, grew and prospered for over two thousand years, eventually they regained the ability of space-flight, based from the planet Caprica, they launched dozens of 'colony-ships' to the surrounding stars¸ finding another eleven habitable planets, which they settled, as centuries passed, the colonies, Caprica, Aerilon, Picon, Virgon, Canceron, Aquaria, Libran, Saggitarion, Tauron, Scorpia and Gemenon grew and prospered, as time passed the colonies' declared themselves independent, because of that the First Colonial War started, which was the first time that spacecraft were armed, the richer planets, like Caprica and Virgon made proper, custom and fearsome warships, which were armed with rail guns and a primitive form of missiles, the other planets used converted inter-colony freighters to fight.
When the First Colonial Conflict ended, over a billion had been killed, nearly a thousand years the colonials had developed FTL, or faster-than-light drives, which allowed for them to travel around a dozen light years instantly, some decades later, a colonial researcher created a cybernetic type of robots called 'Cylons', unintentionally giving them sentience, the Cylons served the Colonials for five years, doing the 'dirty jobs' around the Colonies' that no one wanted to do, they eventually rebelled, a twelve-year long war happened, the colonial population was reduced from sixty billion to a mere twenty, the administration of President Harold Peters authorized the construction of twelve one-mile armed monsters, called Battlestars, which drafted the small cruisers and destroyers of the infant colonial fleet, which was losing more and more ground against the cylons, they were called Galactica, Columbia, Pacifica, Caprica City, Rycon and many others.
Eventually, by an unknown cause, the cylons simply stopped fighting, and after twelve years of conflict, the war ended with an armistice signed by the two sides, the cylons left for parts unknown, for over forty years, the colonials rebuilt their combined fleet, converting it onto a single entity, the Colonial Defense Force, or CDF, made up from a ground component of a hundred million, and a fleet of one hundred and twenty Battlestars, and thousands of support ships, most of the Battlestars were of a more advanced class than the Galactica Class, like the Mercury or Valkyrie class, which relied on heavy automation, making them somewhat vulnerable to Cylon hacking.
Forty years after the war, the Cylons, using their new human models, which resembled an human to the molecular level, invaded Colonial society and were placed in key positions in the ministry of Defense, taking advantage of a glitch on the CNP, the colonial fleet's new navigational software, they realized they could shut down ships with a simple switch, taking advantage of this, they decide to invade the colonies, destroy the CDF and nuke the human worlds to oblivion, this is the story of the Second Cylon War, and thus of humanity fighting for survival.
Caprica, ten minutes before the initial attacks.
Gods, I hate traffic, thought Carolaine Adama as she drived through Route 4, the hundred-mile main road which connected Caprica City with the isolated mountain town of Delcan Highlands, however as Armistice Day celebrations were on that day, planet-wide traffic was practically collapsed, she was going to visit Helen Johansen, her life-long best friend, who had just retired two years earlier after thirty years of military career and attaining the rank of Vice-Admiral, also Bill's Battlestar, the Galactica was retiring today, and so was him, after the decommissioning ceremony he was going to take a Raptor back to Caprica City and would meet her, they would then take a two-week cruise aboard Cloud One around all twelve colonies to celebrate his retirement.
Suddenly the music she was listening was replaced with a male voice.
"This is James Peterson, with breaking news, just minutes ago; Fleet units above the planet have reported the appearance of twelve unknown ships, press correspondent Dick Everson is aboard the Battlestar Triton and we have him on wireless" The radio suddenly cracked and said.
"Here Dick Everson, right now I am standing on the CIC, or Combat Information Center of the Battlestar Triton, merely minutes ago, twelve unknown ships appeared in orbit near the ship, fleet units are trying to hail them but have no response" Suddenly voices packed with urgency and something which sounded like someone barking orders desperately was heard.
"Something has happened, all of the ship's systems have gone offline, and everything is dark, crewmen are working desperately to get the ship's systems online" Suddenly a violent scream was heard and the line went dark.
"Dick, you still with us, Dick please respond!" the radio narrator said desperately.
Suddenly a noticeable flash lit up the sky, Carolaine looked up and saw various bright flashes, seconds later the light died off and the Battlestars guarding Caprica from harm were no more, only debris and flames could be seen, she knew that small bright flashes meant that nuclear weapons were being used in space, and she knew that it wasn't good at all, that was one of the advantages of being from a military family, 'Oh my gods..Lee', panic suddenly overwhelmed her, Lee was supposed to be on a temporary transfer on the Valkyrie before he went to Galactica's decommissioning, he just couldn't lose him, after the loss of Zak two years earlier, her son had pulled her out from a severe depression and alcoholism, she couldn't lose her only remaining son.
"They are gone, they are all just gone" the radio man said solemnly as grief overtook his voice.
"The Defense Ministry just confirmed it, the unknown ships are Cylon, all individuals are to head to the nearest Civil Defense shelter" Another voice said with panic,she knew that if the government was ordering people to shelters meant that nuclear strikes were imminent, she needed to get out of there, now.
Helen Johansen, Vice-Admiral, retired sat at her m0untain cabin while she listened to her favorite talk wireless program, after thirty years of career she had retired from the military and had lived alone ever since, travelling the colonies and getting to know all of the twelve worlds, she also was one of the few people to climb the thirty thousand feet Mount Hades, the colonies' biggest mountain located in Virgon, and survived to talk about it, her calm was suddenly interrupted when a man's voice cracked into in the wireless.
"This is James Peterson, with breaking news, just minutes ago; Fleet units above the planet have reported the appearance of twelve unknown ships, press correspondent Dick Everson is aboard the Battlestar Triton and we have him on wireless, here Dick Everson, right now I am standing on the CIC, or Combat Information Center of the Battlestar Triton, merely minutes ago, twelve unknown ships appeared in orbit near the ship, fleet units are trying to hail them but have no response " She heard the voice panic, and orders could be heard, then a scream and the signal cut off, she then turned her military transmitter on, she quickly set the channel to the standard fleet frequency which all retired flag officers had access to.
The wireless then cracked to life.
"Taking heavy casualties…some kind of virus…is it really the cylons?...lost contact with entire air wing…can't raise any other ship on wireless…DRADIS is down…weapons not responding…heavily outnumbered…we got incoming…radiological alarm…oh my gods…Valkyrie is gone…she's just gone…alert one please respond…lost contact with CAG…the Rycon is returning fire, what the hell is going on?...let the Lords of Kobol protect our souls" her heart skipped a beat when she saw the bright flashes in the sky; she instantly knew that twelve Battlestars, almost fifteen thousand men, had just been lost, that meant that nothing was between the lush green world of Caprica, home of seven billion and the looming threat which was coming upon it.
For the first time in her life, Helen Johansen, was scared shitless, when she suddenly realized that her worst nightmare had just became true, the Cylons were back.