"Earth is frakked, sir."

 "Excuse me, Captain Bolivar?" Commander Adama of the Battlestar Group Galactica asked. He had just closed the door to his quarters for this private debriefing and so was shocked by the suddenness of the statement.

 "We've been deciphering the transmissions that we believe come from Earth. My gut instincts told me there was something wrong from the first signal." Captain Bolivar was an older starship captain, but had served a stint in the Colonial Reserves. His ship, the Libra Voyager, was one of the fastest civilian ships, with a reasonably decent communication systems. It had been commissioned as a communications ship over two years ago.

 "Why?" Adama demanded.

 "It was an analog voice only signal. When we jumped closer, we got an analog video signal. Black and White. Now that we've got Earth's location triangulated, we know this was only about eighty years ago. Earth is a backwater that we've led the Cylons right to."

 "Frak me. What is their technology level?" This couldn't be happening. Earth was supposed to be the Colonials' salvation. Not the nightmare revisited.

 "Gunpowder and vacuum tubes."

 "Frak me running."

 "We have to do something," Tigh said softly.

"What? Die with them?" William Adama said quietly.

"We could warn them," his second in command noted.

"Should we send the Libra Voyager?" Lee Adama asked. As CAG and third ranking officer, he and Tigh were the only ones that had been informed about the Earth issue.

"It doesn't have the legs to make it before we can assume the Cylons can make it there," Adama said tensely. "Only one ship can make it there in time. And even that is a maybe."

"We can't take the Galactica away from the fleet!" Tigh said with sincerity.

"It's the only ship with military jump drives. We can make it there and back in forty hours. Tigh, I want you to send the fleet into the ice rings of this eighth planet here."

"That's pushing our engines, Commander," his second in command noted.

"Then we push. Maybe if we get there quick enough, we can arrange for supplies and some more refugess."

"More refugees?" Apollo asked.

"Fighting men and food supplies. If we can do that, we might be able to make it somewhere, hide and rebuild. But we don't have enough men. Or food."

"That isn't much of an option!" his son noted.

"It's better than extinction. Move it, gentlemen."

The Cylon Basestars were grouping near a red star of minimal importance. It had a planet that was marginally within the 'water zone' but no humans colonized red stars, not when there were so many G Type stars in the galaxy. But it was a perfect staging point for the attack on the nearby yellow star.

So it was almost surprised when a ship dropped out of warp at the Jump Limit and headed in system. All sensors on the twenty Basestars suddenly focused on that world. And discovered a subsistence level colony on the sixth planet.

A colony of humans. With one purpose, the Basestars turned and headed in. The ship suddenly turned and made for the jump limit. Raiders were dispatched, but would probably not reach it before it could escape.

Digital orders were dispatched. The colony was to be sanctioned with nuclear weapons immediately.

On the Red Star of Hope, Admiral Chen Kim Lyn slid into his zero-G battle harness. "What do we have?" he barked out over the alarms.

"It's a Kryptionian vessel, sir. Out near Jupiter. The phasic radar picked it up just moments before the Americans did." The Chinese crew tensed. The cold war with the Americans and their Kryptonian masters was surely about to become a hot war. The war they had trained their entire life for.

"Admiral! It is broadcasting an S.O.S. signal!" the communications and security officer called out.

"They should send out a signal in English in any moment!" Chen said quietly. "Load all missile tubes now. Prepare for strategic maneuvering."

"Loading micro-nukes in the hopper. All press-plate sensors say it is clear. All crew signaling ready. Steam pressure rising steadily. All missile tubes and cannons prepped."

"Message incoming. In Chinese to us! In English to the Americans!" The security officer looked over at his Admiral in shock.

"Put it on!"

"This is the Free Trader Mila Falls. This is an emergency transmission to all humans in the Sol System. Aliens have nuked the Kryptonian colony at Bernard's Star. Repeat, alien vessels have nuked Bernard's Star. They killed everyone and almost killed us! We are dropping a buoy and leaving. We have to warn Neo-Krypton!" the human voice said, panic almost over-riding him.

"We are detecting a radio buoy launched. It is repeating the signal, sir. Kryptonian vessel has jumped to light speed." The radar operator looked up from his secondary visual feeds, neural cables hanging from the back of his neck.

Aliens that just nuked a Kryptonian colony? That didn't seem possible.

"Ship detected at 800,000 miles out. It's huge! Over a mile long!" he suddenly yelled.

"Prepare for battle. Turn us and get us moving!"