Darkest Before Dawn

Chapter 1

Cold Shoulder

Milky Way Galaxy: Outer rim / Vels Sector / Belst

7000 BC

Alesian ships orbited the small orange planet, having just conquered the civilization that once stood on its ground. On board the Angelan class destroyer Death's Advance, General Nex Ado sat and watched his team work. Everything was going smoothly. Almost too smoothly, he thought to himself. The Asgard had never even bothered to make an attempt to stop them this time. He figured that either they didnt have the ships to stop them or they just gave up. Either was fine with him. It would make their advance that much easier.

"Get Councilor Amann on the comm." Nex ordered, his hands gripping the armrests of his command chair.

"Yes sir," a young legionnaire said. Within seconds, Amann's face appeared on the screen.

"What is it, Nex? I am rather busy here, the main Asgard fleet has pulled away from the fight and we must consolidate our forces before we can pursue." Amann asked, his irritation showing at the interruption.

Nex Ado spoke quickly, "The planet Belst has fallen to our forces. Our scouts are searching the system for any signs of the Asgard, but as of yet they haven't made an appearance."

"That quickly? It hasn't even been a day since I sent you there." Amann said, surprise showing on his features. Nex opened his mouth to speak when a legionnaire yelled out.

"Sir Asgard ships on long range scanners, just outside Alesian space."

"Vector?" Nex asked questioningly.

"Heading toward the Mid-Region worlds!"

"Handle it Nex." Amann told him before cutting the transmission.

Nex stood up , turning to face his crew. "Send a message to the Shadow of Retribution to head to the location of the Asgard. Detach three cruisers to act as escorts."

As the image of a large ship leaving orbit and opening a hyperspace window opened up the legionnaire told the General, "Shadow of Retribution asking which ships he is to take as escorts."

"I don't care, just pick three of them," Nex said sounding annoyed at the question, "Send the long range sensor readings to my chambers. Legate, you have the bridge."

The legate nodded and assumed his post as Nex left the room. Somewhat frustrated Nex made his way to his quarters. The door opened and he sat down at his pouring himself a glass of wine he kept in the drawer. Turning on the console the sensor data popped up on the screen.

Five red ships appeared on the screen in a standard pattern with one ship in the back. One of the indicated Asgard ships winked out of existence after a long fight with the Nova. The second Asgard ship died a few minutes later as a new blue colored silhouette appeared, labeled Vengeance. Nex smiled at that, it was one of the new Alesian battleships recently commissioned. The Alesian general continued to watch as the Shadow of Retribution appeared on the screen, one of the enemy ships almost immediately destroyed as it opened fire. As the Alesian dreadnought approached the two survivors, four other Alesian ships dropped out of hyperspace and began their attacks on the others.'Pathetic, what were they hoping to accomplish with such a small raid? ' Nex thought to himself as he sipped from the wine glass. To his surprise, the screen went blank, showing empty space.

Nex slammed on his console and brought up the bridge on the internal comms.

"What happened to my long range sensors?" He snarled into the comm unit.

"I don't know sir. We are running diagnostics but so far everything seems to be in working order. It seems almost all of Alesian space seems to have disappeared from our scopes."

"What do you mean disappeared? How can all of the Empire just disappear? Recheck your sensors now!" Nex yelled angrily.

"Scratch that. Sir, it is still there but sensors are detecting a time anomaly."

"Focus sensors on that anomaly. Tell me what's going on!" Nex yelled in fury.

"They appear to be almost frozen in time," A legionnaire called out.

While staring at the data Nex almost didn't notice the fleet of Asgard ships decloaking around them. Alarms began to sound as the ships opened fire on the lone dreadnought.

"Sir, we are reading over a hundred Asgard ships in our immediate vicinity! Our shields are going down!"

"Quickly, activate the emergency transportation system send everyone on board to surface and set the self destruct!" Nex called out as he grabbed his grenade belt from the table as he disappeared from his office and reappeared on the planet.

"Sir, the Asgard are undoubtably going to fire on our position any moment! We must go!" The Legionnaire nearest Nex Ado shouted.

"To the Astriaporta!" Nex shouted as he ran.

Everyone was running now, as fast as they could to the Stargate. But their efforts were in vain as the Asgard opened fire on the Alesian ground positions. Nex felt it as he ran toward the gate, a searing heat and the ground quaked as the bombardment hit the planet. Thousands were killed instantly, hundreds more were injured and unable to walk. With each passing second more and more Alesians were killed. Only a handful made it to the Stargate. Thinking quickly Nex dialed an old Lantean outpost located in the middle rim. The gate opened with a large kawoosh and Nex ran though just as an orbital strike hit behind him. He was all alone now.

Milkyway Galaxy: Middle Rim : Sol Sector: Earth

2002 AD

Cold. Teeth chattering, mind numbing, bone piercing cold. For miles, there was nothing but ice and snow. However that only makes an average March in Antarctica. SG-1 was providing escort to a host of scientists at the Ancient outpost looking for clues as to why it was there.

"Don't I take you to the most wonderful places?" Colonel O'Neill said to Major Carter sarcastically.

"All the time sir," Carter shot back with a smile, "Like that time on Chu'lak where we were imprisoned."

Colonel O'Neill approached an older Scientist with a receding hair line who was poking through some ice and asked, "So how are you eggheads doing?"

"Well we still can't figure out what the Ancients were even doing out here in the middle of Antarctica," Dr. Bill Lee replied.

"It probably wasn't frozen when they were using it." Carter said, looking over his shoulder at the screen.

Just then Rodney Mckay yelled from across the room, "I found someone."

"Something," Jack corrected him, "The only people dumb enough to be out here are us."

"No someone," Rodney replied, "And if we're stupid then what does that make the frozen Ancient?"

"Wait, what frozen Ancient?" Jack asked now actually interested.

They approached the block of ice. A man was inside, appearing to be about 5'9 with jet black hair and shining white armor. The man appeared to be clutching a staff in his hands. As they looked the man over, suddenly his eyes opened behind the ice revealing deep red eyes. Jack felt uneasy as he took a step back.

"Alright, pack it up. Usual containment procedures." He ordered as the team of scientists worked to excavate the block from the hole. A few hours later, they were on their way back to the SGC with their prize in tow.