This was inspired by stargatesg1fan 's story "Balance". I may or may not decide to continue on with this, it depends on the level of reviews I get and the inspiration that comes in. Enjoy!
Harry had been enjoying a nice threesome between himself and two exquisite Alterans when an alarm went off on his watch, which was sitting on the nightstand.
"What is it now?" he grumbled.
'It' turned out to be a disturbance in a different phase. The disturbance was in high orbit, and Harry decided to take the Lily in for a closer look.
The disturbance, roughly the shape of a circle, flared in one direction suddenly, and a ship emerged.
Harry's eyes bugged out briefly when he saw the size of the thing, and he began scanning at once for life signs.
Nothing turned up, so he carefully docked a Jumper at one of the 'one-size-fits-all' docking ports on the strange ship, and he entered it. He was rather surprised to note that there was very little atmosphere in the ship, just enough to keep computers cool, but certainly not enough to sustain very many people for any length of time.
"Please identify yourself." a voice announced. Harry realized that there were probably several security systems that needed to be overridden, and he ran to the bridge, only to find that he was locked out.
"Please identify yourself." the computer ordered again. The voice was a little more commanding this time, and Harry wondered how long he had before it would begin attacking him. He used a door-unlocking EM to get in, and began working on overriding the security systems.
Chaya joined him a moment later, working at the console next to him.
"IDENTIFY YOURSELF AT ONCE!" the computer ordered, and Harry jumped at the sheer volume alone.
"Almost there…got it." he said. He stood up, and said in his best authoritative voice "I am Harry James Potter, taking command of this ship."
"Acknowledged." the computer replied. "Welcome aboard, Captain."
Harry sat down at the console again, and began going over weapon specs of the ship, to see what it's capabilities were.
"Computer, what is the name of this vessel?" Harry asked.
"This vessel is designated as the Tempestua." the computer replied crisply. "It is a Halcyon-class battleship, designed as a strike craft carrier. The Halcyon design is fitted with planetary cannons for use in planetary takeovers, and energy weapons for all other combat."
Planetary cannons, eh? As Harry thought it over, he realized that he would be able to destroy Hive ships that had not awakened via orbital bombardment, reducing the time it would take to wipe out the Wraith.
He had the contents of the computer copied into the mainframe at Star, for later perusal, and returned to Star to inform his wives about the new ship.
"It's not Alteran, we know that much. It was unmanned, and just showed up over Atlantis, so I came aboard and claimed salvage rights as the ship appeared to be derelict and it was in Alteran space." Harry said. He leaned in close so that his breath tickled Samantha's ear and breathily whispered. "And I brought you a full download of the computer to look at."
She kissed him long and hard for several minutes before she broke away and asked. "Did it say what the name or class was?"
"Apparently it was called the Tempestua, and is a Halcyon-class carriership." Harry replied. "I'm still thinking about what I want to rename it to."
An alert chimed from the watch, and Alice informed him that a second distortion, much like the first was forming near the Tempestua. He was halfway across the galaxy by the time the second ship had cleared the distortion. The design was similar enough to imply that it was from the same race that had built the Tempestua, but different enough that Harry knew it was a different class.
Just as Harry's Jumper arrived, several more distortions formed, and when Harry counted them all, including the two that had already arrived, he noted that there were a total of sixteen ships, and if the two that had already arrived were any indication, the incoming ships were massive.
A transport, roughly double the size of a Jumper, departed the second ship that had arrived, and moved towards the Tempestua. It docked, and Harry transported to the bridge to wait for the invaders to arrive.
There was a beep, and the door opened to admit eight individuals, who all took stations with the exception of one.
"What." he asked. "Are you doing in my chair?"
"What are you doing on my ship?" Harry countered.
"This is not your ship." the man declared. He looked rather slender despite the suit he was wearing, which looked like an Earth business suit, complete with the tie. His eyes were obscured by sunglasses that had blinking lights on them.
Harry knew that they were more than simple sunglasses. "This is my ship." he countered. "I came on board this derelict two hours ago and claimed it in the name of the Alteran Empire."
"Is that so?" the man asked. "Computer, this is commander Bane, taking command of this vessel, confirmation code nine-twelve-seven, sector-sector-bravo. Please confirm."
The computer warbled slightly, then said "Confirmed. Welcome aboard, Commander Bane."
Harry scowled. "It's not polite to steal someone's ship." he said.
"Yes, I know." Bane replied lightly. "I won't press charges though. This ship was not derelict. We were using the Halcs as our moving vans, so as to conserve space. It also enabled us to have extra reactors aboard our other ships, to compensate for the heavier load on life-support systems. Your claim of salvage is meaningless. Now, get out of my seat. Briggs, Stratton, see to getting the transport pod stowed, then meet up in the hangar, Deltae, see if you can't get a handle on just why the transporter systems aren't working. Naumauch, see to getting the ship ready for combat. I want this fleet on the road in say…twelve hours?"
"Captain," the one Harry guessed was Naumauch. "I'm an engineer, not a miracle worker!"
"Don't those two things mean the same thing?" Bane wondered. "two days then. See to it." He turned back to where Harry was still sitting at the captain's chair. "Will you leave gracefully, or must I have you removed to the brig?" he asked.
Harry glowered, but complied.
"Sain, hail the fleet, we move in two days. That should give the other crews enough time to get the Halcs ready." Bane ordered. "Zen, you're with me, we need to get this ship combat ready."
At the command, a heavy-set man in the rear, who had been bringing consoles back on line, straightened up. "Aye, sir." he said. His voice, like his skin tone, was incredibly deep, a warm, rich baritone that bespoke peace to anyone who heard him. Harry thought that the man probably inspired calm even in the heat of battle.
Bane stood up and strode to the door. "Tamara?" he asked.
"Yes sir?" came the crisp reply.
"Get the bridge ready for combat, then report to the hangar, please." Ajax said. "Zen and I will be there, getting things ready for towing to the other ships, and we won't mind the help."
"Understood, sir." Tamara replied. With no further ado, she pried a panel off of the wall behind her and began working.
"Harry, you can return to wherever you came from with your craft, or you may assist in the preparations aboard this vessel. I am assuming you took the time to download the ship's computer while the rest of us were still in phase space?"
"Yes, I did." Harry replied.
"Well, then your trip wasn't a complete waste, if it weren't for the fact that I set the security systems of the ship myself. Your specs are out of date, for the most part. Some of the stuff would have been incredibly hard to lie about, especially to physicists." Bane said. "You can keep them, I just thought you might want to know that some things aren't right in those specs."
He strode out of the door, Zen directly behind him.
Harry scowled again, he wasn't used to being denied in this fashion, but went to his Jumper regardless. He would have to inform his wives of the new development. From what he could gain from the commander's mind, the ship carried a complement of roughly two thousand crewmembers of various rank. In comparison, his Aurora-class vessels carried a crew of about five or six hundred, and Atlantis could hold several thousand.
He knew Atlantis could survive against one or two vessels for a protracted amount of time, and could definitely fend off one or two vessels, but if the fleet that had amassed in orbit were to direct all of it's considerable firepower against Atlantis, the city would surely fall in under a day.
He immediately ordered several Aurora-class vessels be moved into position on the other side of the planet.
Bane breathed a sigh of relief when the zero point energy user finally left, as he wasn't looking forward to the idea of fighting him. The glasses that he wore informed him that Harry was a very powerful being, and could have claimed the ship by sheer strength alone. He had felt multiple stabs at his consciousness, but was able to decently protect it with the help of the glasses and his own meditative knowledge. Most of what he estimated Harry had gotten was near-meaningless stuff like the crew complements, as well as more important things, like the fact that they weren't here to make war on any faction aside from the Wraith. Harry had also picked up the fact that it was likely to be at least two days, maybe three before the fleet was anything approaching battle-ready.
Bane hoped that would be enough to forestall any armed disputes between the Elda and Harry's people, but he wasn't sure that it would prevent anything if Harry's people were a warlike race.
His intercom pinged. "Go ahead, Deltae." he said.
"Sir, several midrange cruisers have shown up on the other side of the planet. They are currently hiding under a rather pathetic cloak, and have charged weapons, but are not firing. How should we proceed, sir?"
Bane turned to Zen, who raised a shoulder a fraction of an inch before dropping it again.
"Let 'em be." Ajax said. "Don't even bother charging weapons, that would tip our hand."
"Understood. Deltae out."
The intercom pinged again, and Bane moved back to preparing crates for movement.
Three hours later, almost every bomber in the flight deck was loaded up with crates.
The intercom pinged again. "Si, Deltea?" Bane asked.
"The Destra fleet is here." Deltea said.
"Great. Any word on whether or not their transporters are operational, or is this a local field that inhibits transport?" Bane asked.
"It's a local field, and by 'local', I mean everywhere in this galaxy." Deltea replied.
"Great." Bane muttered sarcastically.
"Sorry." Deltea said apologetically.
"S'not your fault, Deltea. Is this field likely to interfere with local drives? I know they're on a different frequency than the interstellar drives."
"Uh, it doesn't loook that way, but you never know until you try."
"Alright." Bane said, trailing off for a moment. "Deltea, can you fit a fighter with a jump drive, and set it on remote with sensors to determine viability?"
"Could take some time, sir, but I'll give it a shot."
"Understood. Is Tamara almost done up there?"
"No sir." Deltea replied. "She is done up here. She left just as I called."
"Understood. Many thanks, Bane out." Bane tapped the intercom badge, and it pinged again before the link cut out. "Time for the ground suits." Ajax muttered.
Set apart from the hangar bay was a changing room that served as the airlock between the hangar and the rest of the ship. It was split into four rooms, if you counted the actual airlock as a room, with a changing room and airlock for the men and equal facilities for the women.
Zen and Bane quickly changed into their ground suits, and left the airlock, securing their headgear as they walked. The suit itself was not like the Earth suits, bulky and hard to function in, but allowed for near full range of movement, and could stand up to a great deal of abuse. They were also smaller than Earth suits. The only drawback that came with being so free of motion was the fact that it couldn't carry much oxygen, usually about enough for ten minutes. Since the fighters and bombers usually fought in range of the ship, and the transport systems usually worked, nobody had ever worried about running out of air, since the strike craft supplied the air needed once the pilot was hooked in.
Zen walked over to a console, and began entering commands. The room was instantly awash in pulsing blue light, a visual cue that indicated entry was granted only through an airlock. There was a great hissing as Zen began draining the atmosphere from the bay, as they couldn't just open the doors with unsecured cargo.
Since Zen and Bane wouldn't be flying, they were wearing bay helmets, which had a port in the rear of the helmet for air tanks, and a control to turn off the magnetic feet. When the bay was fully open, gravity was severely diminished, for the sake of economy of movement. If one great push was enough to get across the bay, it didn't make sense to have to walk all the way in a combat situation.
The ground crew assisted the pilots with strapping in and preparing for engagement, and as such, liked to be able to float up to the craft and mag-lock on to do their work.
The hissing faded away, and the Heads-up displayed that the atmosphere in the room was non-existent. The gravity was still online though, as they didn't want the cargo containers floating around.
There was a buzz and click, despite the fact that nobody could hear it, and Tamara entered the bay proper.
"So…looks like you guys finished up in here already." she said via the suit intercom.
"Naw, we're just getting ready to receive the other pilots. Zen, pop the doors, will you?"
There was a slow, by distinct nod, and the doors began opening, as the deck was washed with a yellow pulsing light instead of mere blue.
"Alright…" Bane pressed on the back of his right hand. "Sain, inform the Veritas that they may send that little fighter pilot bus over here."
"Right away, sir." Sain replied.
Looking up, Bane was able to see the telltale blue ion trail of a small vessel as it made it's way from the Veritas, a Radiance-class vessel towards the Tempestua.
Soon enough, it was slowly dropping to the deck, extending landing struts as the engines were throttled down. Finally, it settled, jerking on it's feet slightly before becoming completely motionless. Two hatches popped, and pilots began running to the various strike craft.
"Alright you shock jockeys." Bane announced, "You'll be doing a lot of back and forth today, so rest assured that you have earned yourselves a triple ration of grog for volunteering. Zen, Amanda, and I will be hitching you up, to be patient and we'll have you out of here in no time."
The procedure was only slightly complicated, since pilots were expecting wait time. Their air supply hoses were fitted with a 'y' joint, with shutoffs on each arm. One arm had a twenty-minute bottle, the other arm was set to shutoff until an assistant had hooked up the air supply.
One of the assistants would get up on the lip of the craft, and ensure that the safety harness was properly secured, then double-check the wires that fed to the pilot's HUD, and finally, they would start the craft and hook up the air supply. The bottle arm of the 'y' joint was shut off after the onboard air was turned on and flowing properly. The assistant would then take the bottle back to the charging station after they finished clearing the craft.
Clearing the craft took less time than average, since it was only bombers being used, and they weren't being checked for weapons or anything combat-related. After the canopy was closed, the ground member would flash a thumbs-up to the pilot inside before walking away from the craft for a distance of about ten feet directly in front and would wait there with their hands on the back of their head.
This was the pilot's cue to exit the bay, which was done with as little fuss as possible.
Each pilot carried a pair of air bottles, good for a grand total of one hour, which meant that in the event of an emergency, a pilot could stay out in the vacuum without worries while his brothers in arms finished the mopping up before attempting a retrieval. This was a brand new safety measure, given with the knowledge that transportation systems weren't working.
The pilots cleared the deck soon enough, and the 'bus' left with a load of equipment bound for the Seraphim.
It took most of the day, but as the hours flew past, more and more personnel attached to the Tempestua came aboard, the most important of these being those headed down to assist the Chief Engineer as well as those who worked 'ground' on the flight deck.
In that time, more of the mid-range cruisers that Deltea had seen earlier showed up, still attempting to hide.
Bane's orders to the fleet stated that the cruisers were not something to pay attention to. Since they were using their pathetic cloaking devices, he figured it was probably nicer to not disabuse them of the notion that they were invisible.
Besides, the fleet was not combat ready, and Bane simply didn't feel like starting an altercation.
The Progenitor-class vessels were the first two ships to be ready, and had broken away from the rest of the fleet, facing away from the planet and towards their first destination.
In total, there were five Halcyon-class vessels, five Radiance-class battleships, two Rapture-class vessels and one Revelation-class.
Of the fleet, the Revelation was the most specialized vessel, and the hardest to get battle ready.
The Radiance-class ships were finished second, as they unloaded the extra crews and equipment onto the waiting Halcyons. Eventually, the entire ground crew of the Tempestua was on board and assisting with the shift to get things ready to go.
Once the entire ground crew was on board, the bridge officers returned their ground crew suits to the locker rooms, and went back to the bridge.
Zen sat down in a seat on the right of Bane's chair, and began going over the report stream coming from various stations being onlined all over the ship. Bane simply sat down in the captain's chair, rested his head against the headrest and sighed.
Briggs and Straton jointly manned security and tactical, and Tamara sat down at the helm. Deltae was the ship's Science Officer, and Sain handled communications. Naumauch was the resident miracle worker of the fleet, as well as the Chief Engineer of the Tempestua.
The next day, roughly thirty-six hours after the fleet had arrived, everything was ready for operation.
"Sain, hail the other big dogs out there." Bane ordered, sitting in his command chair.
"Aye sir."
One by one, fifteen images resolved themselves onscreen. "This is Commander Bane. All ships, charge weapons to maximum potential, raise and cycle shields, test all sublight thrust systems. Discharge the weapons into blank space, I'm sure we all know where those little midrange cruisers are, and I'd rather nobody get hurt. This is just a test, ladies and gentlemen. See to it, and report." Bane turned slightly to Sain, making a chopping motion, and the feed cut out.
"Briggs, Straton, I'm sure you heard what I was saying, see to the weapon and shield tests. Tamara, fire the engines, but try not to take us too far from the fleet." Bane ordered. He listened to the chorus of 'yes, sir' that drifted around the bridge, and looked back at the view screen. "Deltae, make those mid-rangers visible on the tactical consoles, and let me see them onscreen as well."
"Aye, sir." Deltae replied. A moment later, Bane saw the slightly distorted forms of roughly seventy Aurora-class vessels, as well as a very faint distortion where Harry was watching in his Jumper.
"Sain, all ships, now!" Bane ordered.
There was a tone, as the various ships responded. "All shields up! The local fleet is firing! Do not return fire, I repeat, DO NOT RETURN FIRE!" Bane roared.
A moment later, the first wave of drones impacted on the transphasic shielding, severely rocking the ship. Bane, who had been standing proud, fell to the deck. He was up again rather quickly though, preparing a new set of orders.
"Deltae, I never heard, what became of that remote fighter?" Bane asked, deadly calm.
"It functioned perfectly, sir." Deltae replied.
"In other words, accessed phase space, ran to it's destination, dropped out, and then self-destructed after sending back full telemetry?" Bane asked.
"That is correct, sir." Deltae replied.
"Good. Fleet, let's get out of here. Don't bother waiting for anybody, just charge and go." Bane said, addressing the screen.
The two Progenitors left first, followed by the Revelation. Several minutes later, the Destras had almost all left the area, as well as the pair of Rapture-class capitals.
At last it was down to the Tempestua and a brace of Radiances.
"Sir! We can't hold out much longer under this!" Briggs cried out.
"I know!" Bane snarled. "Helm, get us out of here. We've had enough."
The ship entered phase space in dead last, leaving Harry with his Aurora fleet to wonder about what the other fleet had done.
When Bane's fleet dropped out over a world with a Hive ship on it, the pnet indicated that it had caught wind of the strange fleet, and Harry pursued.
"Deltae, do you have a lock on that organic ship?"
"Yes sir." Deltae replied.
"Oh, good." Bane responded, his voice oily. "Fleet, aim your orbital cannons at that ship, and make it history. Deltae will send you planetary coordinates."
The ship emitted a screeching, squelching noise, ejecting a silver spike about fifteen meters long, and laden with explosives. The other capitals in orbit began doing the same, aiming at the Hive ship resting dormant.
Far below, one of the spikes impaled a queen, resulting in a massive psychic backlash from the ship that staggered everyone on board.
"Keep firing." Bane whispered, crouched on the deck. He stood unsteadily, and watched as the deadly rain of silver spikes continued to tear the ship apart. At last, a spike hit something critical before exploding, and the entire ship vaporized in a protracted series of explosions.
"That's it, everyone!" Bane called out. "Pack up people, let's go. These targets won't kill themselves."
As one, the fleet turned from the planet, heading for the gravitation edge of the planet so that their phase drives could activate. The pnet in orbit of the now complete deserted world tracked their trajectory, and updated Harry with new coordinates estimated to be the target.
Harry and his fleet dropped out, corrected, and re-engaged.
This time, Harry's fleet arrived just as Bane's fleet did, but this time, he remained cloaked, watching as the fleet charged weapons and engaged the Hive ship.
This Hive was awake and in orbit, and when it saw the oncoming fleet, they attempted to jump into hyperspace. Several bombers took out the hyperdrives just in time to force the Hive to fight, and the Destra pack fell upon the Hive with a vengeance. The capital ships didn't slow or change course, but simply continued on through the gravity well of the planet before charging and jumping, leaving Harry to wonder what the true intentions of the fleet were.
They were psychic, he knew that much. He knew that they augmented their technology with their psychic powers. What he didn't know was what the fleet intended to do when the Wraith were fully wiped out.
A single Progenitor dropped out of phase space behind Harry's fleet, and Harry reviewed his memories for a moment. Only fifteen of the sixteen ships were actually present in the system during the battle, meaning that it one was probably the second stage of their strategy.
As Harry watched, a pod was ejected out of the bottom end of the ship. The pods (there were three) moved into orbit, dropping into the atmosphere near the equator. They fell at a specific interval, so as to divide the planet into thirds.
When Harry began picking up periodic psychic pulses from the planet, he realized that the ship was specifically designed for colonization, with combat as a secondary role.
It could certainly fend off a little bit of opposition, maybe a Hive in protracted combat, but Harry didn't think it could take on Atlantis or his fleet.
When the ship finally charged and jumped, Harry followed with his personal jumper, ordering the rest of the fleet to disperse and return to normal operations.
At the next planet, the ship loitered for several minutes, recharging, before it dropped pods, and continued on.
Harry eventually returned to Atlantis and Chaya, where he explained the situation. Chaya joined Harry at the third planet where a single Progenitor was just leaving a world.
Just as the ship began charging, Chaya and Harry began picking up the local psychic signals from the planet.
"I think that we should wait to see what these new people want." Harry said at length. "There will be something of a vacuum with the Wraith gone, maybe having these people will stabilize this galaxy before things destabilize?"
"I find myself concerned by these strange beings." Chaya warned. "Something about their psychic resonances is familiar to me. We should most certainly keep an eye on them."
The Heads-Up in the Jumper had feed from the various pnet satellites, and every few hours, it would show a new planet taken over with the Wraith Hives formerly resting dormant on them destroyed.
One week passed in this fashion, and Harry watched from Atlantis via pnet to see what was planned. Of course, nobody on Atlantis who wasn't associated with Star knew about the fleet that was making the rounds of the galaxy, and Harry had no intention of telling them just yet. It could bring no good to have people worried about that which they could do nothing about.
All that changed exactly fourteen days after the fleet had first arrived. Three ships dropped out of phase space, and moved to a position directly overtop of Atlantis, despite the fact that it should have been hidden under the waters of Lantea.
One ship was a Revelation class ship, the other two, flanking it, were Radiance class vessels. All in all, they made an imposing sight, and then the crew of the Revelation activated one of the special abilities inherent to the design of the ship.
Ghostly figures began appearing in Atlantis, with absolutely no selectivity as to who saw them. Three figures appeared in Harry's bedroom, apparently because Chaya and Anya were with him.
The figures all began speaking at once, saying the same thing to everyone they found.
"We are the Elda, slayers of the Wraith. We have colonized and taken for our own the worlds once inhabited by slumbering Wraith vessels. We mean no harm to the humans, Asurans, Alterans, and Asgard peoples in this galaxy. The worlds we have taken belong to us now, and we will brook no argument on that matter. We communicate with you now in hopes that we may someday soon formally become friend to your peoples. Live long in harmony."
As soon as they had said their piece, the ghostly figures dissipated, and the Revelation turned away from the planet with it's escort before jumping away into phase space.
I own nothing, and am not getting paid for this. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Catch you on the flip side, 'Writer out.