It's a bit late and there isn't as much as I wanted, but SGD Season 3 is finally released. There's a trailer if you can find it on YouTube. Not much to say, if you've read the previous fics you know what to expect- the big shift for Season 3 is to go to a broader perspective and depict a larger war. If you're new to SGD, you should probably start with Director's Cut- even if you aren't, if you haven't read it, do so. While I'm shamelessly plugging my stories, I might as well tell you to read A Balanced Power (a mostly conventional Stargate fic) and A Changing Reality (Mass Effect pseudo-self-insert, sort of) as well as GateWar Redux.
No Snapshots for Season 3, so let's begin.
SGD 3x01 We Face Our Enemy Together (Part 1)
Previously on SGD
Sallis: The Ori are all powerful. They guide us on the path to enlightenment, and bless us all. We learn from their teachings, in the book of Origin. They are everywhere, but it is said that their home is in the great city of Celestis.
Doci: What is a god but a being that is worshipped by those beneath?
Daniel: Turns out our ascended Ancients and the Ori had a slight difference of opinion. See, the Ori seem to think because they're ascended, humans should worship them. All humans.
Teyla: During a Wraith attack, a strange visitor came through the ring, and behind him came a stream of fire that plucked their ships from the sky. He told them only that it was the 'will of the Ori'.
Carter: With the defeat of Ba'al, there's a lot of people looking for something else. The galaxy is a mess, with crime syndicates, minor goa'uld, and cults popping up all over the place to claim their piece of the galaxy.
Wraith: The Ori have been preventing us from culling worlds for some time. But recently, they have begun to attack us directly, with ships. They are small but powerful- we have lost three cruisers and a hive-ship in the last week. A coordinated attack would be mutually beneficial to us both.
Weir: All units, this is General Weir. The Daedalus and Orion are pulling out. We cannot continue this battle any longer. To the allied Wraith- if you choose to stay, it's your choice, but we cannot offer any further assistance.
Hammond: It has become clear, even obvious, that we cannot face this enemy on our own. No one power in this galaxy can, although it is debatable that the Wraith in Pegasus could. If we stand together, the game changes. We need to start forging alliances to unite as one force against the Ori.
Daniel: I think it would be worth it if we- SG1- looked for Merlin's weapon. It won't take us long, and it could give us the advantage we need. It'll be a lot easier convincing their followers their gods are false if they don't exist anymore.
O'Neill: About two hours ago, a Free Jaffa ship found this in orbit of a planet we call P3Y-229. It's a giant stargate, a 'supergate' if you will. Half an hour ago we got word from the Travelers. There's another one in Pegasus, near a world we call M2N-571. If they're going to invade, they're going to invade both galaxies at once, and they're going to do it soon. Let's cut the bullshit, people. Either you're in and you show up in front of a supergate with your fleet, or you're out.
Daniel: Well, we didn't quite find what we were looking for. We've got some new leads- three worlds known as Castiana, Sahal, and Vegonbrei. I don't know what or where they are, but the answer is probably in Merlin's library, and our teams our studying it right now.
O'Neill: Daniel, there are hundreds of books in that library. Even if we poured all our resources into that library, it would take days to sift through. No guarantee we can find anything, either, and even if we can there's no guarantee the destination won't just send us on another wild goose chase.
Carter: Even without Merlin's weapon, we should still try. If we dial out, the Ori can't dial in. At this point, it's our best bet for holding off an invasion. Since the gate is powered by a black hole, we can maintain the connection indefinitely. If it works, we get a high-speed corridor to the Pegasus Galaxy out of this.
Carter: I've lost magnetic lock! Something's happening!
O'Neill: Get her out of there, now!
Emerson: Sir, the supergate is activating. We're about to be attacked.
O'Neill: Bring the fleet to battle stations. Open a channel.
Weir: Never before have so many come together from all corners of the galaxy. Never before has a fleet so diverse been assembled. If there is one good thing that can come out of this, it is realizing that we are not so different after all. We have common goals, common fears, common enemies.
O'Neill: Nobody's fought an enemy like the Ori before. We don't know much about them, and what we do scares the living crap out of us. They're powerful, hell, maybe even more powerful than the Ancients. They're advanced and they really, really want us either gone or their slaves.
Weir: There's never been so much at stake. The oppression of the goa'uld, the Wraith cullings, they're nothing compared to what the Ori will do. They will not stop until every man, woman, and child is either dead or bows before their tyrannical rule, their dogmatic religion. But we will not die. We will not bow. We will not be enslaved or eradicated!
O'Neill: The battle today will make galactic history. Our actions today will define our lives. Win or lose, stay or run, we're gonna be remembered for it. This is a new era, and it's up to us to decide what kind of an era it's going to be.
Weir: We're not just fighting for ourselves. We're fighting for the future, for our children and our children's children. A lot has changed in the past few years. Whether we enter a new period of prosperity and cooperation or destruction and despair depends on the next few hours, maybe even the next few minutes.
O'Neill: It all comes down to this moment. As one galaxy, we will stand up and we will say, we will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We will fight and we will win!
Weir: We're in this together. Stand united. Stand fast.
January 1, 2006
P3Y-229
Floating above the surface of the supergate, Colonel Samantha Carter had an excellent view of the majestic battleship as it emerged. The slightly curved, flat face of the ship came first, revealing the starship's powerful main weapon. It tapered back to a pair of 'arms' flanking a hollow teardrop in the middle of the ship, glowing with a sphere of energy. At the very aft end was a pair of sublight engines where the sides came together. The entire hull was a grey colour, arrayed with windows that appeared tiny when the entire ship was viewed.
Opposing them was the might of the galaxy, the combined fleets of the Tau'ri, the Free Jaffa, the Jade Empire, the minor goa'uld, Hebridan, Aschen, and Asgard. They were all arranged in a loose formation, with the heavy hitters nearly perpendicular to the supergate, fast movers ahead of the gate with another line of powerful, but slower starships behind and carriers behind them at a distance. Before the Ori battleship had even fully emerged, the allied fleet opened fire.
The combined fire of over two dozen ships, a massive torrent of tungsten slugs, nuclear missiles, ion bolts and plasma streams hammered the invader. Its massively powerful shields shimmered under the bombardment, and it quickly accelerated away from the event horizon to make room for its companions. At the same time, it started disgorging fighters and powered its main weapon.
An intense yellow-white beam of energy streamed from the projector on the front of the warship's hull. It streaked across the stellar battlefield and impacted a Ha'tak belonging to Amaterasu. The powerful beam ripped through its shields in microseconds, cutting clean through the hull. Even if there were no secondary explosions, the colossal amount of energy would have rendered the once proud mothership an unrecognizable cloud of space junk. The naquadah power plant detonated, completely obliterating the starship. The energy beam continued to graze an Asgard drone ship, severely depleting its shields before dissipating.
She was helpless to do anything but watch.
AES Enterprise
"Three more Ori battleships just exited the supergate," the sensor officer reported. "In addition to eleven... no, twelve Ori frigates. They are opening fire."
General Jack O'Neill surveyed the battle, conveniently displayed on the holographic tactical readout. Over a thousand Asgard drone fighters, F-1As, F-2s, and Death Gliders lined up to engage nimble Ori fighter craft still launching from their motherships. The Aschen Warpstars were hammering their massive opponents to little effect, but the Earth battlecruisers seemed to be at least doing something, as did the Asgard ships. The Ha'tak and Hebridanian ships were hammering their opponents, but only slightly depleting the powerful shields of the motherships. It was chaos, chaos he had to control.
"Aschen Warpstars, shift fire to the frigates," he ordered through the comm link. "Strike fighters begin attack runs on capital warships, superiority fighters counter enemy action."
"Sir, I suggest we concentrate fire on one battleship at a time," Colonel Emerson said from his command chair in front of him. "That way their shields won't have a chance to recharge."
"Make it so. Fighters and attack ships continue firing at will, all bombardment ships shift fire to target designate Bravo One."
Aschen Warpstar 006
Commander Mirris scowled at the new orders. "Shift fire to the smaller ships. Continue long-range bombardment."
"Commander, I must protest-"
The Commander cut off her subordinate. "Your objection is noted and recorded. Shift fire to the smaller ships."
"Yes, Commander." With a few taps on his square, grey console, the officer had changed the targets locked into the firing computer.
On the outside of the hull were several energy cannons, all pointed forward. Though accurate, fast-firing and high velocity, the weapons were not very powerful. The shots fizzled against the shields of the Ori motherships, finding only slightly more success against the frigates. Even still, they showed no hope of penetrating them. The Aschen had vastly overstated their capabilities, although it was not intentional. The Warpstar's weapons were designed to sterilize planets from beyond the range of orbital defences, not for ship-to-ship combat.
The Warpstar continued to hold position beside its sister at long range, relatively safe from enemy fire. If fighters or missiles tried to approach, they would be swatted down by a highly effective laser point-defence array. A few stray shots from the frigates and battleships' secondary weapons impacted the Warpstars' weak shields, already beginning to deplete them.
F-302B Vanderburg
"Red flight, on me. We're going to ram these nukes right down their throats." Lieutenant Colonel Cameron "Shaft" Mitchell jerked right on the slip-stick, pushing his craft in the same direction. An energy bolt flew where he had been only seconds earlier. The amount of weapons fire in both directions made manoeuvring extremely dangerous. To his left, a powerful energy beam from one of the Ori battleships tore through a Death Glider and continued to core the Ha'tak behind it. It was a horrible place to fly in.
"Ori fighters are closing to intercept," Major Irena Volkova informed him. As CSO, it was her job to operate the fighter's electronic systems, as well as monitor sensor readouts and the active datalink from shipboard sensors.
"Copy that. Red flight, launch Slams on three." One of the weapons that the Tau'ri had access to was the Star Streak /F-LM, a long-range missile nicknamed the "Slam". Mitchell's F-302B carried four of them, in addition to four heavy anti-ship missiles and four smaller dogfighting missiles. If all else failed, he had an automatic railgun. With the controls on his sticks, he selected the missiles and armed them. "Three, two, one, FIRE! Red Leader, fox two!"
They were not the first group to fire missiles, and thousands of the lethal projectiles flew toward the massive formations of Ori fighters. Some of them manoeuvred to try to escape, but none of the fighters had countermeasures and hundreds were blotted out by the missiles. More were cut down by point-defence fire from the smaller ships in the allied fleet- a few were even hit by the ships. The weak shields of the Ori fighters ultimately did them no good against the sheer volume of fire.
"We've made a hole, let's move on through and get 'em! Red flight on me!" As the flights of more nimble F-306s engaged the Ori fighters, the F-302s sped through holes in their formation.
"Tally ho!" a British accented voice shouted over the radio.
"Bloody right mate!" That accent was different- maybe Australian or New Zealand. Nobody had time to think about it.
"They are targeting us," Volkova informed him, checking her display. They were in the thick of the Ori fleet now, and both the motherships and the smaller escorts were blasting away at them with their secondary weapons. They weren't true point-defence cannons, however, and couldn't track the fast-moving fighters. A few hits were still a few too many.
"Anti-ship missiles, prepare to fire!" Mitchell shouted. He gunned the engines of his fighter, pushing the fusion drives to their limit and bringing his fighter around in a smooth curve. His flight followed, knowing right away what he planned to do.
"Fire!" Mitchell lined up his crosshairs with what appeared to be the engines of the Ori mothership and pulled the trigger, firing all four missiles in quick succession. "Red Leader, fox four! Break, break, break!"
AES Enterprise
"Damn it!" O'Neill raged, watching the readout display. The clouds of fighters had been thinned out on both sides, and the strike had ultimately done them little good. The massive amount of nuclear ordinance had damaged the shields of the Ori battleships, but they were still holding strong under the bombardment.
"This is the Hebridanian carrier Dominance," a fuzzy voice blared on the comm circuit. O'Neill focused on it above all the rest of the combat chatter. "Taking heavy damage, requesting permission to retreat, requesting permission to-"
Suddenly, the transmission cut out and the boxy symbol representing the ship disappeared from the tactical map. The pride of Hebridan's fleet had taken a direct hit from an Ori energy beam. It had blasted right through the ship's weakened shields, torn a gaping hole through the hull, destroyed half the ship's internals and exited out the back. She floated briefly in space, a few lights flickering, before being consumed by secondary explosions and breaking apart.
"Give me a status report, Major!"
"Sir, multiple units report taking heavy damage, five Ha'tak destroyed, three Hebridanian ships destroyed or disabled, four drone ships destroyed, the AES Korolev reports dead in water."
"Damn it!" the General swore again. "All units are to continue firing. We're going to give the Ori everything we've got."
TCCF Milius
"The Dominance just dropped off!" the co-pilot informed his captain. "Damn it, we're not supposed to be fighting."
"Nobody's supposed to be fighting," the captain of the ship, La'el Montrose, coolly informed him. "We didn't even have warships until six months ago."
Deftly, she pushed the control stick to the left, arcing the small cruiser toward an Ori frigate. Tech Con had managed to produce the cruisers in record time. About two hundred metres long, they were small ships, built fast, light, and manoeuvrable. They were equipped with the latest technology- this meant relatively slow hyperdrives, naquadah power plants, high power pulse lasers and nuclear missiles. As she piloted the craft, La'el ordered through the comm system, "Hotel Foxtrot Whisky Three, form up on my wing and coordinate fire." Under other circumstances, she might have laughed at the strange designation.
The Ori frigate was currently occupied with a Ha'tak, but some of its energy weapons retrained and opened fire on the Hebridanian starship. Several of the energy bolts hit, slamming into the shields. "Minor damage to lower decks, pulse laser two disabled. Shield power at thirty-five percent."
"Fire pulse lasers, standby on missiles!" The Hebridanian starship used infrared lasers, and the beams were only visible when they impacted space dust and debris as they closed on the enemy ship at the speed of light. Its shields flared brightly as they absorbed the energy. The Milius continued to close with its fighter wing in tow, using its superior speed to stay behind the Ori ship. "Missiles away!"
At the same time as the larger cruiser, the Hebridanian fighters launched their missiles. They were almost on top of the Ori frigate, and there was no chance to intercept. The already weakened shields shuddered and collapsed under the onslaught, leaving the frigate an open target for other ships. However, it would be the fighter squadron's last action. A group of Ori fighters engaged and obliterated half of them on the first attack.
As she watched the death unfold around her, La'el ordered, "Switch lasers into anti-fighter mode. Let's thin them out a little."
Samantha Carter
In the command hall of the Samantha Carter sat three Asgard, each in their own control throne. Thor was in overall command of the fleet, coordinating with Penegal aboard the Mjolnir as well as his own crew. Aegir was in control of the Samantha Carter. Although Thor respected the commander, he wished that it was himself in control. Beside them was Kvasir, who was coordinating the largely automated drone ships.
The tactical situation was displayed on a holographic display not unlike that aboard the Enterprise, although it was in front of them rather than behind and the Asgard actually did it first. As Thor watched, another pair of symbols turned grey and faded out. One of the Ori motherships had just destroyed a Tau'ri Prometheus and a Free Jaffa Nation Ha'tak with one shot. So far, they had traded a dozen ships and hundreds of fighters for four Ori frigates. It was time to bring out the big guns- literally.
The Samantha Carter class starships were primarily carriers, designed to transport, service, and control small Asgard drone fighters as well as the Jonas Quinn class drone ships. However, the majestic starships were also heavily armed. Rapid-firing energy pulse weapons were mounted on the top and bottom surfaces of the hull, as well as on the vertical "towers" on the ends of the "wings". Above and below the hangar bays mounted on the side of the hull, newly-developed energy beam weapons were mounted for attacking smaller ships. For larger ships, however, there was a pair of massive beam weapons mounted in the head of the ship. Incredibly powerful, it was estimated by Asgard scientists they would vaporize Replicator ships, obliterate Ha'tak, and gut hive-ships in one or two shots. Their effectiveness against the Ori behemoths was about to be tested.
"O'Neill, we are moving into position to directly attack the enemy," Thor informed the fleet commander over the comm link. He turned to Aegir. "Take us into optimal weapons range and power the primary weapon system."
"Are you sure that is wise?" Penegal asked from the other ship.
"No. However, I believe in this case it would be best to learn from the humans' aggressive example."
"Very well. Moving the Mjolnir into weapons range."
Together, the two massive warships advanced toward the battle, leaving the Enterprise behind. The movement did not go unnoticed by the Ori fleet. Recognizing the threat the large carriers posed, two of the battleships turned and fired. An orange-white beam of death lanced toward each of the Asgard ships and slammed into their shields.
The Samantha Carter shuddered under the stress, but her shields held. Aegir reported, "Shields holding at sixty-five percent. Minor kinetic damage in forward sections."
"A drone ship has been destroyed," Kvasir reported coldly.
"We are within optimal range for the primary weapon. Firing." On Aegir's command, a burst of energy surged through conduits into a fixed pair of beam emitters mounted on the extreme bow of the ship. A few minor corrections could be made with deflection coils, but otherwise the entire ship would have to be turned to train the weapons. The power from the ship's octet of reactors was converted into extremely energetic plasma and expelled at a fraction of the speed of light.
Two beams hit a warship each. The Mjolnir's weapons halved the shields of its target. The Samantha Carter's attack was even more successful. In a brilliant blue flash, the twin beams obliterated the already-weakened shields of the lead Ori battleship. Although the ship was still intact, it was now vulnerable. Desperately, the Ori fleet manoeuvred to put other ships between the stricken battleship and its attackers. It would do little good. Explosions pockmarked the hull of the starship as metal slugs, energy bolts, and missiles hammered away.
AES Trafalgar
"Its shields are down! Now's our chance!"
"You hear that?" the commander of the Trafalgar, Colonel James Bainbridge, asked rhetorically. He ordered, "Helm, sideslip manoeuvre, bring our main gun in line with that ship, smartly. Prepare to fire."
The main engines of the Trafalgar fired, accelerating the ship forward while manoeuvring thrusters pushed it sideways and pivoted it to align the mass driver running down the centre of the ship with the Ori battleship. Around them, the rest of the two fleets continued to do battle.
"Shields at forty percent!" The Trafalgar shuddered as weapons fire from the Ori fleet hammered away at them. "If that thing fires-"
"I know..." Bainbridge replied quietly, silently counting as the Ori ship turned toward them. "Fire main gun! All batteries open fire!"
The secondary battery of the Earth battlecruiser was the first to open up, the gun mounts rotating away from their previous targets and all lining up to fire on various points on the battleship's hull. The Trafalgar had been upgraded with twin turrets for eight heavy railguns in total. It was a lot of fire, but not much firepower. The main gun, however, was another story. The massive tungsten slug punched a hole straight through the hull armour of the Ori battleship, turning itself and a good portion of the hull into a jet of superheated metal. The amorphous mass exited through the other side of the hull after tearing through a hundred metres of ship.
FJS Republic
As the Trafalgar mercilessly hammered the stricken battleship, an escort broke away from one of the others to engage. In doing so, it flew right past the Republic, flagship of the Free Jaffa fleet.
"Pursue that vessel," Teal'c of Chulak ordered, monitoring the tactical display. Once again, he found himself longing for the advanced command and control capabilities of the Earth starships. The Pel'tac had only a few control stations and no large tactical readouts. It was highly automated and thought controlled, but there was only so much each of them could do.
"Pursuing," the helmsman acknowledged. The Ha'tak rotated and accelerated, following the Ori frigate toward its target. The Republic was one of the latest upgraded Ha'tak, with more powerful weapons and better shields courtesy of the Asgard and the Tau'ri. It was those shields that had allowed them to survive the battle so far, though constant bombardment and a glancing hit from an Ori energy beam had severely taxed them.
The ship shuddered violently as the Ori frigate opened fire defensively. Sparks flew from exposed wiring on the rear of the compartment and it caught fire. One of the Jaffa rushed to extinguish it, and the helmsman reported, "Shields at twenty percent!"
"Fire!" Teal'c ordered. It was unnecessary. The Jaffa controlling the weapons had already given the mental command, and the array of energy cannons opened up, blasting away what was left of the frigate's shields and blasting through the thin armour below. Within seconds, the Ori frigate was reduced to floating scrap.
It would not be the frigate that killed the Trafalgar, however. Even as the second round from the battlecruiser's mass driver ripped into the Ori battleship and its lights flickered and died, it managed to fire its main weapon one last time. A white-hot beam of energy lanced through the Trafalgar, taking down what was left of its shields and lancing through the ship compartment by compartment, clean down the centre. Secondary explosions ripped through the battlecruiser, in seconds reducing it to nothing but wreckage as its opponent began to break apart.
AES Enterprise
"Sir, we just lost the Trafalgar!"
"Damn it!" Colonel Emerson swore.
"Well it's not all bad. We took down one of their motherships," Colonel Carter replied encouragingly.
"There's still three left." As O'Neill said that, another one of their ships disappeared from the tactical screen. He asked, "Which one was that?"
"That was the carrier Mjolnir," Thor's calm voice informed them. "We were able to beam Penegal out in time."
O'Neill was still trying to process that when the Enterprise suddenly rocked violently, almost throwing him off his feet. "The hell was that?"
"They've targeted us, sir!"
"Evasive manoeuvres!" Colonel Emerson ordered. "All ahead flank. Return fire with everything we've got. We're not just mopping up fighters anymore."
"We're not going to be able to do anything at this range," the XO told him. "We're just wasting ordinance."
"Hey, we're getting our asses kicked, it's time to go all in!"
"I'm afraid I have to agree with your XO," O'Neill told them. "Take us in. All units, focus fire on target designate Bravo Three."
Goa'uld Ha'tak
"Bravo three?" Amaterasu's First Prime asked, confused.
She made a mental note to get a new First Prime before explaining, "The third one, you fool, with its shields nearly down."
"Yes, milady." The Ha'tak spun on its axis and changed directions, using its omni-directional reactionless drive to outmanoeuvre the Ori frigate that had been chasing it. The frigate overshot the turn and ran straight in front of the battered Odyssey, which immediately engaged it. The Ha'tak continued onward toward the battleship.
"Mike Golf Ha'tak three and four, join attack formation," Amaterasu ordered, cringing at the Tau'ri name. The way she understood it, the designation was based on a common name and a sport involving smacking a ball back and forth- she didn't understand it. But what was to be expected from the Tau'ri?
Two other Ha'tak also belonging to the minor Goa'uld joined with Amaterasu's mothership. They continued toward the Ori mothership together, opening fire with a fierce barrage from all their cannons. It shimmered against their shields, draining them detectably, but appeared to do no damage.
During the attack run, Amaterasu noticed something strange. There were fighters swarming the Ori battleships, and they appeared to be decreasing in number. They were returning to their motherships.
AES Enterprise
"Uh, command, I guess you didn't get this," Colonel Mitchell cut in, switching communications channels. "But the Ori fighters are recovering, repeat, Ori fighters are landing aboard the battleships."
"They're retreating," General O'Neill surmised. He keyed the comm again. "All units, give 'em everything you've got! Don't let those sons of bitches leave!"
As the allied fleet pulled together and unleashed one last barrage of fire, the Ori fleet assembled into a formation again, a move that cost them a frigate. The ships rapidly accelerated, causing what would have been a deadly attack from the Asgard carrier to become a grazing hit that severely depleted a battleship's shields. Weapons fire rained down on the Ori fleet, but they ceased returning it, instead continuing to accelerate. One Free Jaffa Ha'tak valiantly attempted to prevent them from escaping and was obliterated when an Ori battleship, with its powerful shields, simply rammed it. A hyperspace window opened in front of the fleet, and they were gone.
The silence was deafening. Finally, after what seemed like hours, a quiet voice said, "I think we won, sir."
Brigadier General Jack O'Neill surveyed the battlefield. They left a huge field of wreckage behind. Some of the wreckage was identifiable, some of it was pounded into fine space dust. Some of it wasn't wreckage at all, but the battered remains of the united fleet attempting to pull themselves back into a retreat formation. There wasn't a lot left.
He turned back toward the tactical map. Though it didn't have the emotional impact of a field of space junk, the coldly pragmatic portion of his brain registered that it was much more useful. The Asgard Mjolnir was gone, as were the Korolev, Trafalgar, and the Chinese Prometheus labelled F01. The Unity and Odyssey reported heavy damage. Outside their own fleet, one Aschen Warpstar was destroyed, the other reported critical damage. The Hebridanian fleet had lost its carrier, most of its fighters, and half of their cruisers. There weren't a lot of Ha'tak left- not of the minor Goa'uld, Free Jaffa, or Jade Empire. Maybe a third of the initial force remained, most belonging to the Free Jaffa Nation.
The General allowed himself a thin smile. They had given the Ori a run for their money, after all, and that was more than they expected to be able to do. "Yeah. I guess we did."
The communications officer interrupted his thoughts. "Sir, we're receiving messages from the rest of the fleet. They want to know why we lost."