There has been a lot of speculation as to when Battlestar Galactica was set. When the Galactica does eventually find Earth, when would it be? Galactica: 1980 was set, obviously in 1980. The Maximum Press comics were set in distant past, and each and every author has their own ideas.
One that I have had for a while now, and one that would be quite interesting, would be if the Galactica found Earth late in the 28th Century, during the events of the Marathon Trilogy.
Marathon is a computer game, written by the firm Bungie. Not a new game anymore, but one that is far from dead. Indeed the websites out there for the game, including new maps, physics models and takes on the story seem to be growing more and more. In fact, there used to be an excellent GURPS: Marathon website too, but it looks like that has gone.
Well, Marathon is a first person shoot-'em up, but do not stop now. The thing that makes Marathon stand apart from almost every other FPS, from then to now, is the story. It is huge, rich and fantastic. If you just wander around shooting things, you will not win, nor have fun, nor enjoy the richness of the universe.
In Marathon, you are a security officer on the Colony Ship Marathon, which has set out to Tau Ceti to colonise. Unfortunately, the Pfhor, an alien race of slavers, attacks the ship. The Colony is destroyed, and it is up to you to take the fight to the aliens. Unfortunately, things are not as simple as that. On the ship, there are three AI's - Leela, who is helpful to you until she is destroyed, Tycho, who, well, lets just say that "Psycho" springs to mind, and then there is Durandel. Another nutter. Each of these three AI's is basically trying to get you to do what they want, with varying degrees of success. And it is a nightmare, for as well as the Pfhor, you have to contend with the meddling of your own ship. Swell.
Marathon 2: Durandel, is set some 17 years later. You have been in cryogenic suspension and now you are thawed out because Durandel wants your help. He has tracked down a world inhabited by the Pfhor - Lh-owon, homeworld of the S'pht - and you've being sent in to defeat them. With the help of BOBs (Born on Boards - colonists who have been revived and given the opportunity to help out), you have to take the fight to the enemy, find out information, organise a rebellion amongst the various slave races of the Pfhor, awaken old sentient AI's and, well, nothing is ever easy is it?
Marathon Infinity is the last episode by Bungie, and well, lets just say that if you were not confused as to your identity before hand, you will be now. I am not going to say much about this game as there is not a lot to be able to say without confusing things and going into a lot of detail, but basically you have to stop an ancient evil being awakened which would be bad. Or have you already awakened the evil, or have you already stopped it?
That, in a tiny nutshell, is the basic plot. But please note, basic is the word. The storyline is much, much more involved and complicated than that, and trust me, shooting things is not always the answer. There are so many things happening, that even to this day, the Marathon Story website (a must for any Marathon fan) is still trying to figure things out. You see, the game is steeped in detail, mythology, history and more. The game actually has some origins with Paths of Darkness, and continues with snippets in Halo, possibly Oni as well.
You see, the Jjaro were an alien race who, though long since vanished, have visited numerous planets in the past - Earth being one of them. Were they responsible for seeding life amongst the stars? I am not even going to go into all the various facets of where the Marathon storyline could go with Battlestar Galactica, but lets just say that they are more than compatible.
But what would happen along the way? The Pfhor have spread themselves across the galaxy, and the Galactica could easily run into them. That would be interesting. The Pfhor would try to disable the ships and then capture the crews. Tech wise, the two sides couldn't be further from each other. The Pfhor do not use fighters, but they do use some pretty powerful ship weaponry. In a stand up fight, it would be down to the fighters as the Galactica would not really stand much of a chance against a Pfhor cruiser. But the fighters could do some serious damage as I do not think the Pfhor ships have much in the way of defence against them. But they are shielded. On land, the Pfhor have a wide range of troop types that they can use. From Pfhor soldiers, to Elite Hunters, to the S'pht slave race, to simulacrums and robotic drones and Juggernauts. It would not be pretty.
But suppose the Galactica did get to Earth or contact Earth forces, then so much could be shared by both sides. The Marathon Earth has AI's, fusion weaponry, heavy rockets, personal shields for troops and more. Combined with the Galactica, they would be a potent force. And so much could be learned - origins (did mankind really originate on Kobol? Was it actually somewhere else?), history, mythology, the number 7 and more.
What about the Cylons? Another front for them. The Pfhor are not compatible with the Cylons. Not in the slightest. The Pfhor would probably want to experiment on them to see what differences there between their slave race, the S'pht. War would be inevitable, and I am not sure it would go in the Cylons favour. This alone would buy the Earth and Galactican forces time.
But what about Durandel? Where would he be in all of this?
I have been very brief above, I do not want to give you all the answers, but I do want to open your eyes to a very interesting possibility. Even if you've never played Marathon (and unless you are a Macintosh person, chances are, you might not have, although a version of Marathon 2 was done for the PC and another is available from the XBox Live Marketplace), I would really encourage you to check it out.