The Uneasy Alliance
by AJ Marks
Part 19
It looked out at the vast army it had and realized the time was right. Its army would destroy the human world here once and for all, and then it would rule over this world. The only which mattered was the destruction of the human race at its hand.
The order was send out and it watched as two ships began movement towards the planet below. Now it was time and it could complete its programming and nothing could stop it.
If only its commander could see it now, it would be the pride of the empire.
*****
“Apollo,” he heard a familiar voice say, and looked over to see his father standing there with a group of men and woman along with Sheba and Jolly. He looked over at Sheba knowing she had disobeyed his order and brought his father here, but why.
He made his way over to welcome his father torn by his own emotions. He was glad to be out of the jail, but hoped they hadn’t been pulled into something he wanted to avoid.
“Father, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see you, but why are you here?” he asked. “I told Sheba to warn the fleet of possible danger.”
“Apollo, John told me to do it,” Sheba said making Apollo pause at the name. He recalled who John was now, the same one who almost forced him to help out at Terra stopping a war because they would not interfere.
“Now what do they want?” Starbuck asked, his tone indicating reluctance after hearing John’s name.
“That’s not all,” Adama said interrupting Apollo’s thoughts of John. “There is more going on here than you realize son, this might be Earth.”
“This planet? Earth?” Starbuck said in shock for all of them.
Apollo felt unsure if this news was welcome or not.
“There is still more,” Adama said gravely.
“If you’re talking about how the humans here were at war with the ones on the surface, we already know,” Apollo said, having learned a bit about it from Morpheus. “Or about the fact the machines on the surface have been attacked.”
“Partially, they are being attacked by the Cylons,” Adama stated, shocking them all again.
“Here?” Apollo stated, pointing to the ground for emphasis as Adama nodded his head yes. “Great, just great, and morale is already low.”
“I know,” Adama said.
“If you don’t mind, I have a couple of questions to ask you,” Turner said finally speaking up and looking at Adama. “I don’t suppose you won’t give us some information about who these Cylons are, and how we can defend against them.”
“Its only fair,” Adama said. “We will give you what we can.”
“I think we should also get back to the Galactica and warn the fleet,” Apollo said. “We might be headed into a trap.”
“We can take the Hammer back to the surface, it’ll be quicker,” Morpheus said, Apollo had the feeling he wanted to get up to the surface to see what was going on.
“I forbid this,” another person said walking p who Apollo recognized as someone from the council.
“Zack, when will you listen to reason? Those machines are almost at our door and about to come in. I have a duty to defend this city from all invaders, and not just the machines on the surface but those from space as well,” Turner said to the man. “From what I see they represent a clear and present danger to our very existence.”
“You can be replaced,” Zack replied back.
“The military all feel the same way, as do most of the people. The council has lost touch with reality in maintaining this false front you wish to maintain,” Turner said.
“We stand with the general,” another guard said stepping forward.
Apollo watched as Zack looked around the room seeing that everyone seemed to side with the general and not the council. Part of him wondered what the councilman was thinking to ignore such a threat. With one last look Zack stormed off leaving the rest of the group alone.
Apollo looked over at his father who seemed deep in thought about something.
“Come on, let’s get going,” Adama said, motioning for everyone to get on board.
Apollo climbed on board along with Niobe, Morpheus, and the others as started up the ship and headed out.
*****
They reached the surface of the planet faster than the rovers due to the fact they could fly over the debris instead of going around it. Morpheus piloted the ship over to the area where the others appeared to be waiting, they came out as the ship settled down and he powered down.
Morpheus walked out to greet the group, not surprised to see DE with them as well. The machine represented the machines, an ambassador in the real world. A bit like the Oracle as in the Matrix. He had learned quite a bit on the way up, like the Cylons and Colonials had been fighting each other for years, perhaps even longer than they had with the machines on Earth.
He also learned about a planet called Kobal, and it was where all human life originated from. It seemed unlikely, but then again he knew little of the real history, or if the machines had even preserved the history of humanity.
“Morpheus, it is good to see you again,” DE said to him as it approached.
“You too, I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever make it back here,” Morpheus replied back.
Morpheus turned to the others who were not talking. The Colonials were all talking trying to figure out what they might do next. Morpheus looked on at the others wondering what had been going on up here while he was gone.
“What’s going on?” he heard Cassiopeia ask and looked over to see her looking over at DE.
“Not sure,” Morpheus said walking over. “DE, can you hear me?”
The large machine did not reply to any attempt to communicate and as the seconds passed by he began to worry. What was going on which would affect him like this, and looking around he noticed many other machines were acting strangely.
“The Oracle,” Niobe said after several seconds of silence.
Morpheus gave it some thought for several seconds before finally ageing with Niobe. He headed back into the Hammer and activated the controls for the Martix as he headed over to the seating area.
“I need you to control the operator,” Morpheus said to Niobe. She started to protest when she also realized she was the only one gathered there who had such experience, Link had remained back at Zion helping to gather recruits.
He quickly hocked up as Niobe sat down at the operator’s position. He watched as she activated a few controls and frowned in shock at whatever she saw on the screen.
“Morpheus, there’s something going on in there, I don’t’ know but I’ve never seen anything like it before,” she said to him. “Be careful.”
“I will,” Morpheus said, preparing himself for anything and hoping the connection didn’t fry him.
*****
Morpheus found himself inside the Matrix, but instead of the normal sights he expected to see, he saw destruction all around him. Up above him he watched as craft similar to the ones he had seen in space attacked and wondered how the Cylons were in the Matrix. If they were here then they could be in other places as well, something he knew wasn’t good news.
Screams off to the left caught his attention and he rushed over to see what was going on. He saw several Cylons walking down the street, looking similar to the ones he had killed on the surface so long ago. He noticed, again, that the machines were not very fact, something he could use to his advantage.
Running over he engaged the Cylons using his advantages within the Matrix, and quickly knocked down two of the attackers and was engaging the third before it even knew what was going on. It dropped its weapon when Morpheus attacked and he quickly picked it up not wanting to lose an advantage. Quickly firing he destroyed all three even as they tried to recover from the attack.
He picked up the other two weapons and glanced around spotting a couple of gawking teenagers who had seen what he had done. Walking over to them with weapons in hand he had a bit of an idea.
“Here, you can use these to defend yourself,” he said to them, handing two of the blasters over to them.
“Wait, how did you do that?” one asked, still shocked at what he had seen Morpheus do.
“That’s a long story, but I need to know what’s going on here,” Morpheus asked hoping to gain some information to understand what was going on, aside from the fact the Cylons were in the Matrix.
“You mean you don’t know?” one asked.
“He’s new to the area,” a voice said which was familiar to him. He turned around and found himself face to face with someone from his past.
*****
Adama watched in silence as Morpheus was hooked up to a machine, he and Niobe spoke a bit then he sent still. The monitors he was connected to keep up a stream of information about his vitals but he was wondering what it all meant. Looking over at Niobe she was working and saying some things which made no sense to him.
He looked around hoping for something which might make sense of this all. First DE seemed to freeze, then they headed back into the Hammer and now this. He turned to ask another man what was going on.
“Morpheus went into the Matrix, a computer created world for humans, and from what I’ve heard it’s a replica of what Earth was like in the late twentieth century,” the man replied to him. “The person that sits where Niobe is, she is called the operator and monitors the system for anything unusual.”
“And this world Morpheus went to, it will be able to tell him what’s going on?” Adama asked watching as Apollo entered the Hammer and looked on with interest.
”He’s probably going to see the Oracle, a program within the Matrix who is connected to the machines. It looks like the entire machine society is interconnected somehow,” Niobe answered from where she sat.
Adama nodded knowing he could do little in there but watch and made his way back outside to see what the others were doing. He needed a plan on what to do next.
“So, what do you think father?” Apollo asked as Starbuck walked over as well.
“We know the Cylons are in the area and they might even be waiting for us when we leave the planet’s surface. I don’t think we have much choice,” Adama said not liking the path laid out before him. “We cannot stay here, the Cylons will destroy us for sure.”
“I beg to differ commander,” a voice said behind him.
*****
Morpheus started in shock at the person he saw before him. He never thought to see this face again, yet here he stood looking at her. A nearby explosion made him look up to see something else he had never hoped to see again either.
“It can’t be,” Morpheus said taking a step towards the person in front of him. “You were killed.”
“A long story, but if I leave the Matrix I’ll die, both of us would,” came the reply.
“What happened Trinity?” Morpheus asked.
“Now isn’t the time for this discussion,” another voice said.
“Neil,” Morpheus whispered glancing over to see the man standing there in his usual black clad outfit and sunglasses.
“Trinity, the agents are being overrun close to downtown New York,” Neil said to them as a group of alien ships swooped down overhead. Before Morpheus could even say anything Neil leapt into action.
“I’ll go with you,” Morpheus said running along with Trinity to the area which he could already see was under attack by several Cylons. He noticed that the problem wasn’t that the agents were inferior to the attackers, but the weapons they used were. The weapons of the Cylons were faster than a bullet and knocked out several agents, which really didn’t matter, but the agents weapons were ineffective against the attackers.
Morpheus raised his weapon and fired with Trinity standing beside him firing what looked like an Uzi but making no progress. Morpheus, using one of their weapons, quickly knocking out several Cylons.
“Get their weapons,” Morpheus yelled out.
He watched as Trinity and the agents looked at each other before heading out and grabbing the weapons. Once the technology had been equaled the fight quickly turned against the Cylons. Neil flew through the air blasting the enemy ships out of the sky and whttp://ajscifistories.com/?p=1783ith the agents using better weapons they fared better. The battle was theirs.
End part 19