The Butterfly Effect (Formerly Caprica)

[Nelle Kozera]

Dresden sighed sitting back in his leather padded chair before turning around to tap the glass windows. They turn black as obsidian; anyone with any imaging device would find there was now a void in those windows as they didn’t even reflect anything. It would seem as is a fifteen by fifteen meter room ceased to exist, any and all communication and or tracking systems would read error messages. “Alright now we can begin this little meeting, don’t worry this won’t last all that long.”

“Now, your all wondering why you’re here, well the answer to that one is simple…each one of you here are connected by a long series of events going back say…forty years most likely longer than that but that was when I got involved. I assume you understand the butterfly effect, or at least know of it, using the minimum amount of impact to its maximum effect. Like knowing where the flap of a butterfly’s wings will cause a hurricane half a world away.

“Well this has been going on in the Milkyway for nearly half a century most likely more. From the probe that your species found in the Andromeda, to your destroyed exploration vessel, to the worlds that disappeared on the rim of the Dark Core, and to the false bomb threat to Ra not two years ago, even the war in the Hades systems thirty years ago each one of these seemingly unrelated events are connected and each one of you are going to find out why, I could tell you some of it, but I’m only one master in a web of butterfly masters and my influence only stretches so far. This is something each one of you is going to need to find out as a group.

“Now I understand how that is odd for me to ask something of you like this, but here is a few questions, those worlds that disappeared do you really this it was caused by an alien race? Why was your exploration vessel destroyed? How did a probe make it to the Andromeda? Who is to blame for the false bombing? Well for that you’re going to seek out the other masters, now none of us know who the others are, but we know each that the other ones exist. Now I got something that will point in the right direction of one, and this one is a little…unpleasant I should say.”

A star map filled the room, like most other star maps it had the divisions for the territories of the four empires with GSA shaped like a malformed crescent moon around the core of the Milkyway. Unlike most other star maps this one had all three of the local cluster’s largest galaxies, The Milkyway, the Andromeda, and the Triangulum galaxies, oddly though there was a small area of the Triangulum galaxy that seemed to say ‘GSA controlled territory’ Under this map, the GSA had extragalactic colonies!

“Now here’s where this snafu begins.” The Map zoomed in on the Rakai Empire and all six of its system, highlighting a two hundred light zone around it. “Somewhere in here, it’s a missile with a twenty megaton warhead, that warhead will wipe any city off its topographic map and its pointed at Ra. Now, this missile is not only stealth plated, its bloody tiny as its carrying a antimatter war head.” The Ivory dragon reached under his desk to grab an object. When he brought it back up it was a model of a missile about the same size as a model rocket from the late twentieth century only twice as long. “This is a mock up of the missile, sure I could brought up a schematic but this brings it home I think.” He unscrewed the cover and pulled out a small cylinder. “This is the size of the Warhead so this a needle in planet size hay stack, and I think I’d rather that task its a smaller area.”

While he was speaking he reassembled the model. “So this is what I’d advise, and I have a ship waiting for you as taking your own vessels would be ill advised for this. As you’re not going to scan a two hundred light year area for a stealthy object, instead you’re heading here.” The map moved a system one thousand light years beyond the rim into the Galactic halo the system was all alone on the very fringe of the galaxy. “This world holds what you need to find that missile, and you have one week from when you arrive.”

“So, before I have to go and do something else, is there anything want to ask, otherwise I will have some people escort you to your vessel, and taking your own vessels is not an option in this matter as it will draw far too much attention to the matter.” He grabbed a glass of water after he completed his monologue downing the entire thing. “You’re going to have to get to know each other and work together on this if we are to avoid this galaxy from ripping its self to pieces, I’ll give you help where I can but this is only the first step in a very long quest and if you fail, well there is going to a be galaxy wide war between the Dark Core and the Galactic Systems Alliance…which is very bad for all of you…”

[Brome Teks]

Darien ponders this turn of events. He sits and listens to the whole speech. .oO( Intriguing, He knows about the loss of Mandelbrot... How The coalition will want to hear this.)

"Out of curiosity, how long will it take for your ship to get us to your destination? Because my ship could open a step through point and get us to within one light second of the target planet in mere moments.

"Furthermore, Once this clusterf*ck is done with, I will have to ask on behalf of my government how you know of our lost ship, Mandelbrot. Hundreds of crewmen and women died on that ship, and We want to know why.

"Finally, not that I'm opposed to going on a mission to stop a weapon of mass destruction, but what gives you the right to arrest us under a false pretense then draft us for this mission? And will I be able to tell my ship where I'm going? Because they'll notice the loss of their Head engineer..."

[Nelle Kozera]

"Travle time will total just over 25 hours, the entire prepose of taking a GSA vessel is to avoid drawing attention the matter. That, and ship any non GSA vessel entering the system would attivate the satallite razor defese systems...and frankly, those are expensive to replace and at the very least would criple a small vessel if not cut a small vessel to pieces. That begining said, I would recommend you spend as little time in orbit as possible to be safe..."

He smiled slightly,"Shadow's Thunder is waiting at ashland to recive you at Ashland, as for how i assembled you all here, how odd is it that each one of you not only arrive within twelive hours of each other but its the same day of the bombing of the Caprican Maglev train, and you all jump to help...for those that know of it the effect is a powerful tool..."

[BIos_Reaper]

"Indeed it is Mr. Cartwright. "

Tieren spoke up.

"However to me you are little more than a single individual in a small alliance of systems hardly considered a tenth of a cluster from where I come from. So please, spare us the stuck up attitude, no more than us, you are not all that important, at least not to me.

My own ship, as much as I would wish to suggest using it as the stealth modules are unknown to your razors, and it's wormhole drive would get us there faster than any FTL you have at your disposal, would give us more than enough time to complete the mission before it would be penetrated is designed exclusively for my usage, therefore there simply is no room for more than a single person on board.

Furthermore, you ask how a drone made it to Andromeda? We were under the assumption that it had come from GSA controlled space. Trajectory analysis confirms it and states that it was launched from within this very system.

I am also quite familiar with the butterfly effect but you neglected to mention a critical aspect of it. As powerful as it is it is equally as weak.

Carefully managed and orchestrated events, if but one is tampered with the whole structure collapses and the outcome will change to vary completely from it's original form.

I assume you are aware of this and have set in plans in motion, mainly this team you have so "skillfully" gathered here to interfere with one object within the effect to alter the outcome as any tampering on behalf of unanticipated individuals would need draw out the instigators to mend it. You're trying to draw them out, and we're the bait. "

He folded his arms, staring without blinking at Dresden D. Cartwright, a most despicable person by Union standards.

[Cobalt3924]

Kai'Sera said nothing and collapsed onto one of the chairs. She was using every last ounce of willpower in her to stop herself from bursting into tears right there.

She was terrified from the false bomb threat 2 years ago; so much so that she fled to the Rakai Fortress world Horr'Kraa until it was over, but now there was a real bomb threat and either Kio'Zeph or Terra'Zeph were in the crosshairs.

She just wished so badly that something would come to help her; another Rakai or her friends, but the likely chance was that this time, she was on her own.

[Arratra]

Arratra sighed.
"I'll go," he said, "But with one proviso. I get to take one of the Shock Dragons with me."
"The Shock Dragons are fighters," he added, "No enemy has seen one before and lived. They're fully FTL and stealth capable... just rather short-ranged and slow compared to larger ships."

[Nelle Kozera]

"Sure, take one if you wish, have it waiting at Ashland..." He said, the widows and the room returned to normal. "Now then, there is a shuttle port outside in front of the SDI main building, it is waiting to take you to Ashland and to Shadow's Thunder once you reach Ashland you are to depart ASPA so that you have as much time as possible for this task..." Dresden leaned back for a moment, "Rashek, i want you to go with them, i think its best as there is something in this for you as well...Now, i have to go, i hope to see you again before the end of this week..." He said getting up from his chair...

[Arratra]

Arratra nodded, and, at the edge of the system, Muukhuz deployed one of the fighters. Moving on autopilot, it arrived at Ashland, and, once there, sat on the runway, ready for loading.
"Well," he said, "I'm ready any time. Just tell me how to get there."

[Brome Teks]

Darien sighs. "Hope this doesn't turn into some damned crusade... For diplomatic reasons, I do not represent the Federal Coalition of Dagmar on this mission. Don't need to be getting my home into your war."

[Cobalt3924]

Kai’Sera was too distraught to say anything. She simply sniffed and stood up, looking out the window at the Ashland Spaceport way above her head as a tiny ship slipped out of sight, landing on the base.

With a heavy sigh, she nodded, Indicating that she would come along, albeit reluctantly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This planet looks like a Mess. I wonder what she’d be doing here.” The Creature muttered to himself, looking down at Caprica through the Transparent Cargo Bay Door.
<SENSORS DETECT SUBJECT WAS STRANDED HERE THREE DAYS AGO.>
“Three days in this heap? Even I’d go insane.” He mused, climbing back up to the main deck. “Do we know why she was abandoned?”
<REASON COMES DOWN TO PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL DISPUTE BETWEEN THE SUBJECT AND THE FORMER PILOT.>
“Oh is that right?”
<CONFIRMED.>
“Three days here: she’s going to be begging to leave… What about the name of the Docking Stations?”
<PLANET NAME IS CAPRICA. NAME OF DOCKING STATION IS ASHLAND.>
“Hmm… Ashland.” He thought to himself, taking the controls and initiating a Landing Sequence.
“Ashland, this is Transport Vessel RK-CG5-X904-M2, requesting permission to land. Computer, Initiate Landing Sequences and Dock when Authorisation has been granted.”
<CONFIRMED.>
The creature sat down in the main deck is a small lounge, looking at a small photo of his target: Kai’Sera, the Rakai in an ornate frame, smiling and laughing next to her Brother Suru’Kai.
“I’m coming… Sister…”

[BIos_Reaper]

Re-directing his gaze to Kai'Sera the canid android made his way towards her albeit with calm, non-aggressive methods of no sudden movements.

Stepping up besides her he mimicked her gaze, speaking up.

"I understand it's your home system under siege of threat. You have my sympathies. I do not know the proper procedures or protocols for counseling, but I'll give you my word that if there is anything I can do to be of assistance during this mission, ask it.

I do not know what it is like to have your home threatened, but I have viewed the memory files of AI's long since refreshed, and I have seen what it is like to lose your home. If I, and those willing in this team, have anything to say on the subject, your home shall not come to harm. "

Standing before her he gave a customary T'kayan salute, placing the palm of his right hand over his heart and standing straight, much like a military salute but more personal. About facing he approached Dresden D. Cartwright but stopped at a respectable distance away.


"I would like to inquire what kind of equipment or assistance would be needed. I am in the process of fully downloading myself into this body whilst my ship makes a duplicate of myself in case of misfortune.

My current form is outfitted for heavy combat and engineering purposes. Are there any other functions I should incorporate or are these sufficient for the mission at hand?" He seemed quizzical, but at best he was merely showing what he assumed was common courtesy.

[Nelle Kozera]

"I wouldn't really know, I have never visited this system. But i assume that light armor and arms would be needed for any combat that would be encountered if any." He said standing up, it seemed that someone was talking to him but he was wearing no head set. At that moment a female Raccoon entered the room. "Mr.Cartwright i'm here to escort your guests to Ashland." She said and he nodded.

"Oh miss Kai’Sera, you have a visitor at Ashland they wish to speak with you before you depart." She said holding the door open for the rest of the group to leave...

[Brome Teks]

Darien looks to Kai’Sera, then looks to the raccoon. He sighs.

"Well, let's get this train wreck moving then. Might learn a few things from looking at your ship while I'm at it..." He stands up and sets his eye lenses to record, just in case.

He goes and exits out the door, his tail held low behind him.

[Arratra]

Arratra moved to the door, but paused, looking at Rashek. He held out his hand.
"My pistol," he said, "I need it back now."

[BIos_Reaper]

Deciding to follow the other people, figuring it might be a good idea to simply go with the flow for now he witnessed the download progress hit "Complete" shortly before setting his armored foot through the open door. He wondered what might occur. This had not been in any of the contingencies, an unexpected scenario unaccounted for, the generals would LOVE this...

[Akhil.WhiteWolf]

Rashek nods, pulling it out swiftly, tossing it up and catching it by the barrel, handing it to him. He walks over and hugs Dresden. "See you later, then." He gives him a mock, two-fingered salute, following the others out.

[Arratra]

Arratra caught the weapon deftly, and holstered it. He stepped through the door after Rashek, the plastic-ceramic plating of his armour scraping slightly as he moved.

[Cobalt3924]

Kai'Sera followed behind Arratra out the door and to the lift, wondering who could possibly want to Visit her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Being Informed that Kai'Sera was on her way, Suru'Kai sat on the Landing gear of his Ship and Waited. He looked to the ship on his left and read "SHADOW'S THUNDER" on the Side.

[Nelle Kozera]

The trip from Sky Dragon Innovations to Ashland is a short one as they leave on Dresden’s personal shuttle to get to Ashland. The shuttle itself is lavish and most likely cost more than the Gross Domestic Product of a small nation to simply afford the interior of the Shuttle let alone the shuttle itself and what other defense it had hidden within its confines. Once back to Ashland they pull up alongside the Shadow’s Thunder which is stationed next to androids ship, from the outside one could see the Diamond Composite armored hull of the frigate along with a few exposed pieces of the ships flesh before the ship entered the shuttle bay of Ashland it was now that Pilot of the vessel which was still unseen makes an announcement. “Welcome to Ashland and God Speed on you mission for those that are religious, I know precious few in the Alliance are but good luck to you all the same…”

With the encouragement of the pilot they disembarked into the main lobby of the Shadow’s Thunder with the entrance to the ship clearly marked some thirty meters from the shuttle landing area…

(Three posts between here and the planet)

[Brome Teks]

Darien looks over the ship, his eye lenses recording it in great detail as he makes his way through the lobby and then into the ship itself. "Amazing..." He runs a handpaw over the wall, feeling the material as he walks through the ship. He eventually begins to head down to the engineering section to see what it looks like.

[Nelle Kozera]

The inside the Shadow’s Thunder was far different from the outside the walls of the inside of the Shadow’s Thunder was different from the exterior , one thing that was apparent was the level of biological integration into every system of the ship, from life support to the weapons, navigation, even the bulk heads. The engineering section the largest area of the ship to have visible technological integration, the main core was Cold Fusion power plant flanked by two smaller systems lay perpendicular to the Core suspended by what seemed like a bone thought the color was far off as the material was golden in color.
Farther back happened to be the main Sublight drive systems with a total of four cores each with what was labeled as Antimatter Reserve for the Matter/Antimatter reaction drive which perpelled the vessel at sublight speeds. “Engineer are we?” A voice asked, though the voice came from seemingly nowhere and everywhere.

[BIos_Reaper]

The inside of Shadow's Thunder wasn't like what he'd expected. Organic system components were visible everywhere. T'kayan engineering relied solely on artificial materials and non-organic systems, it all seemed a bit... Lacking in comparison to the GSA.

Running his fingers along the organic surface, his sensor-tipped nerve endings relaying information on texture, molecular density, moisture levels and other minute readings others would probably be unaware of. As expected, no biological contaminants present here either, just like on the surface of Caprica.

Running a hand through his spiky hairdo he pondered. Being anchored to a form, did it provide what the old AI's called... Stability?

The ability to look at whatever form you choose to inhabit in a reflective surface and say:

"This is me. No other."

It seemed so. He could not tell if this gigantic cyborg was intelligent or not, only way to find out would be to visit some place that was sure to be monitored.

His ears twitched, the sound of a pair of small(compared to his own)clad feet walking down a pathway close by, in the direction of what might be the ships engineering section though he couldn't be certain.

About facing he tracked the sound, the geo-scanners in his boots and the multiple sonic sound wave interceptors in his audio receivers enabling him to Adrian by the sound of his boots and the vibrations he sent through the metal of the floor.


He followed him all the way to the engineering section, emerging from the door shortly after he had previously, standing still in the room he rotated his head a full 360° to get a full view of the room.

Organic integrated systems in multitudes, zooming in on what he assumed was the chambers main power core.

Minute radiation and low-yield temperature read-outs confirmed his suspicions, large-scale cold-fusion reaction generator, not too dissimilar from what powered T'kayan vessels. The tertiary power systems however eluded him. Stepping closer he turned his head every now and then to see if he missed some minute detail of the room.

Metal and flesh, bone and circuit, they all intermingled in the room. It felt alien... And hostile to him. He running through his own schematics, the similarities between organica and mechanica were noticeable, but they weren't similar.

Here what was readily available was made to serve as the component the machine could not produce, just as the machine provided what the organic could not.

A union of flesh and metal to repeat himself. He let his eyes switch to their natural mechanical red-ring-of-death glowing red, the pupils disappearing, they weren't needed, aesthetic purposes entirely, a small, somewhat sad smile upon his handsomely crafted facial features.

"A form born out of necessity is the power of science to craft what others desire from moment to moment. But a form that is as much shapen as it is grown, what purpose does it serve?

Here everything is chaotic yet it adheres to a single order, a single purpose, many aspects working together as opposed to one leading component. One feels almost... lacking in comparison, a singularity, against a multitude. "

Poetic? He didn't think so, just a collection of census files and read-outs he compiled into semi-audible phrases and sentences. Thoughts... Synthetic thoughts.

[Cobalt3924]

Suru'Kai Smirked when they arrived. He waited until he could see Kai'Sera and Stood Up, Pointing at her.
"You are a hard girl to find."
Kai'Sera simply Froze. Whoever she was expecting, it definitely wasn't him.
"S... Su... Br..." She couldn't even say what she wanted to. She simply stood there: looking like all her dreams had come true at once.
"Ytsk kjted otwj itddjp, gur sc gjturk otd gjjs zcdr." Suru'Kai said. This simple phrase caused Kai'Sera to instantly leap over in a Massive cuddle.
"It's alright Sis... I'm here..." Suru'Kai whispered to her; giving her the first cuddle she received in almost 82 years; since before his Exile.
Kai'Sera said nothing, but simply sobbed in joy.
"You... You're here."
She reached up and gave him a kiss on the Muzzle. He smiled and looked down at her, but after a Second, his smile dissapeared after noticing that her eyes were Sapphire Blue: a Rakai signal of great distress.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm... sorry brother... but... Ra's going to be bombed." She sobbed.
"What?" Suru'Kai asked. His training as WarMaster meant that it was incredibly hard to surprise him, so he stayed calm, cool and collected.
"The Bomb threat on Ra? It's real." Kai''Sera sobbed.
Suru'Kai had his Neutral expression; one that was cold and serious.
"Sis... Tell me what you know."

[Arratra]

Arratra didn't sit down during the shuttle ride; he eyed the overstuffed cushions with disgust, and remained standing.
When they arrived, he was the first out, and immediately went over to the Shock Dragon to retrieve some equipment that Muukhuz had placed inside for him.

When he stepped inside, he was carrying an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, a sub-machine gun (on his right thigh), and a shotgun.

[Brome Teks]

Darien listens to the voice speak to him. .oO (Intercom system... possibly integrated into a larynx like structure in the organic components? Or did that maybe just touch my mind?)

"I am. Though I must admit, I prefer the predictable reliability that comes with mechanical systems over biological systems. Because you can't infect titanium with a virus." He looks around.

"What are you anyways? Are you the AI of the ship? The ship itself? Someone in a control booth somewhere?" He looks around some more.

"What kind of superluminal drives do you use? It's extremely efficient to use a step through point to traverse the space between stars. And what about subluminal? Matter reaction? Chemical? Ion? Gravitational?"

[Nelle Kozera]

The faint sound of laugher could be heard. "Inquisitive aren't we, if you must know I am the ship it self. One of the new fifth generation hybrid vessels. The level of neural complexity allows for sentience of the highest degree." The voice said, a hint of pride could be felt in the voice. "As for superluminal speeds this vessel uses Twin Felix-Cartwright superluminal corridor drive systems often named Hyperdrives. Top speed of this system is rated at 23 light years per minute, beyond this speed corridor instability ensues. Sublight systems include quad matter/antimatter reaction drives. Is there anything else i can help you with while we wait for your friend to come aboard this vessel?" The voice asked, it was vaguely female though it only slight.

[Brome Teks]

"Yes, I am rather inquisitive. It's my nature as an engineer to want to know how things work."

He looks around a bit more.

"23 light years a minute...That seems rather slow, don't you think? It'd take more than an hour just to go from ρCas to Deneb. It'd take three days or more to go from the edge of the Cygnus arm to the edge of the Sagittarius arm. If you used wormhole technology, you could cut the time to go to any star in the universe to mere seconds. How far away is our destination again?"

[Nelle Kozera]

"And there is the problem, Wormhole technology has been banned in GSA for the last 436 years after the Dichotomy Project in 2298. The reason for this ban has never been explained only that it has been enforced with lethal force sense that date till the present and this ban has no chance of being lifted for the next one thousand years or so, oddly enough, it is speculated that the GSA has had the ability to create wormhole drive systems and weapon systems sense 2298 but it has never been confirmed or even supported by any data on the Cortex." It was possible it would seem that ship shrugged for the moment.

"At any rate I have a cruise speed of eighteen light years per minute and we are expected to be Traveling for just under twenty five hours making out destination just under twenty seven thousand light years from our current location. Are there anymore questions?"

(Useless trivia: the 23.15 light year cap on Hyperdrive speed is over come in 4878 allowing for a new top speed of closer to seven hundred light years per minute.)

[Brome Teks]

"Well... okay then. Step-through hasn't made any issues for my species... Speaking of which, possessing and using step-through wouldn't cause any problems between the Federal Coalition of Dagmar and the GSA, would it?"

.oO (Hmm, if they don't use wormhole technology, then the globular clusters in intergalactic space are probably free to take... Must remember to tell the Coalition about that. The Carina dwarf is probably also free, if no space faring races have shown up.)

[Nelle Kozera]

OOC: (Alright people, in twenty four hours realtime i'm moving forward with the story, take your places.)

"As long as your small nation act in the Milkyway that is very likely." The voice said, "You may wish to take a place in the CIC. I am preparing for take off, and you may address me as Shadow..." The voice faded out of existence for the moment.