Chapter 1
-This is my first attempt at a story. I hope you enjoy it. Be gentle on your reviews. Thanks!
Tranquil. That is the word that Colonel Reynolds uses to describe his most recent posting. After fighting Jaffa all over the galaxy and preventing a relentless crusade by the Ori, there's not many things that he couldn't describe as such.
After the last great battle in the Milky Way, where he saw a Wraith Super Hive attacking Earth, the United States government found that having an additional Daedalus Class vessel as an asset was essential. After 6 months and nearly 2 billions dollars pooled together from all of the member nations of the IOA, it was finally completed. The 5th ship to be completed of the design, this one had everything its sister's did. Since it was built using funds from numerous nations of Earth, a proper name had to be given that represented the planet. The chosen name was Taurus.
This is where Colonel Reynolds finds himself on this day. After exemplary performance in the field, he was given 2 options, be promoted and ride a desk or be granted the title of Commander of the Taurus. Remembering all of the complaining General O'neill did about the former option, he opted to stay in the action. Little to his liking, it was quiet in space, literally and figuratively. Since the battle with the Super Hive, there hasn't been much going on. Sure there was the occasional Lucian Alliance issue that pops up, but they haven't made their presence known since the attack on Icarus Base.
All of the pleasantness that was known to the Milky Way was about to take a turn.
Onboard Taurus
Milky Way - Lord Yu's Old Domain - 1 Year after Icarus
Since the fall of the Goa'uld, Earth has been keeping tabs on the territories of the former System Lords to make sure nobody tries to step in and retake their old capitols. Because Earth doesn't have a large fleet readily available, certain areas have yet to be searched. In its place, SG teams were scattered to all of the known worlds after the war with the Ori. They stayed several weeks on each planet and used sensors that were launched into the atmosphere to analyze the status of that solar system, as well as any in the immediate vicinity. A problem came with this, since these sensors were not capable of sending their data through subspace, a member of the SGC had to physically go to these worlds and collect the data. Without the man power required, the IOA deemed that this was not of an important nature, so they just analyzed the data that was collected while the original teams were on the worlds the first time.
The current mission by the crew of Taurus was to follow up on these worlds that have yet to be explored since those SG teams left them. Using the data that was received while those teams were present, they were going one by one to each of them to see if there were any differences.
"Sir, 2 minutes until we drop from hyperspace, approaching P9X-244," the navigation officer announced.
Sipping his coffee and looking up at the on-screen display in front of his command chair, Reynolds couldn't help by hold a yawn back and sigh.
"One of these days, we are going to have to find a way to make this interesting. I have an idea, first one to guess the dominant species on the planet gets to name it,"Reynolds suggested.
"The animal or the planet?" His communication officer questioned.
"Both."Reynolds chuckled.
"Dropping from hyperspace,"the navigation officer interjected.
Dropping at the outer edge of the solar system, the Taurus' shields were raised and weapons placed on standby.
"Um, Sir? I think you need to see this," the sensor operator announced.
"What is it? Please tell me the planet isn't there so we can keep on moving." Reynolds joked.
"Well sir, unless our sensors are malfunctioning, I am reading what looks to be an energy signature surrounding the planet that is almost the equivilent to another star in the system," the sensor operator hesitantly informed.
"And what could cause that? Did the current star go supernova?" Reynolds questioned.
"No sir, I am detecting the star directly where our old data says it should be. This can't be what it looks like on my screen. I suggest raising shields to maximum and take us in closer so I can get a better reading," the sensor operator suggested.
"Major, move us in 25% closer, bring sublight to 50%." Reynolds commanded.
Moving slowly through the vacuum of space, the Taurus crept ever closer to the strange readings that were being detected.
"Sir, numerous ships detected in orbit around the planet!" The sensor operator exclaimed.
"Is it possible that they were drawn towards the energy readings that we are picking up?" Reynolds questioned.
"Um, sir. I think they are the readings. If our sensors are correct I am reading more than 1,500 ha'tak class ships in orbit around the planet. I couldn't tell until we were this close, the energy they are putting off his affecting our sensors horribly," the sensor operator explained.
"Activate the cloak!" Reynolds ordered.
"SIR, MORE SHIPS UNCLOAKING ALL AROUND US!" The sensor operator screamed.
At this, Reynolds looked at the screen. 300 ha'tak were uncloaking and had the Taurus directly inside of a sphere made up of them. At this, Reynolds knew that they weren't getting out of this.
"Send all information recorded in a subspace burst to all known Earth forces!" Reynolds commanded.
As soon as his command was met, the closest 10 ha'tak opened fire with their plasma cannons while the remaining closed in tighter, making escape nearly impossible. . Earth's Daedalus class ships were very strong, but not invincible. Stuck in the middle of all of these ships, there was only one thing they could do.
"Fire all Asgard beams on every ship directly in front of us. Fire all railgun turrets on those targets as well. Punch a hole we can squeeze through!" Reynolds ordered.
With shields down to 24% and all weapons bearing down on the vessels in front of them, a hole was starting to form. At last, they could see a large enough opening.
"Move us through, full sublight!" Reynolds exclaimed.
The Taurus accelerated forward, pushing through the opening.
"Get us into hyperspace!" Reynolds demanded.
While his order was being given, a large hyperspace window opened in front of them. Out of this window, 34 flagships, comparable to Aphophis' at the height of his reign, exited.
"Shields?" Reynolds asked.
"Minimal, sir, we can't win this fight,"the sensor operator announced.
"Open a channel, I need them to hear me."Reynolds sadly announced.
"Channel open," the communication officer confirmed.
"This is Colonel Reynolds of the Earth ship Taurus, we surrender! Please acknowledge, we surrender!" Reynolds pleaded.
There was a long pause, no response from the flagships, all of them still remaining motionless in an enclosing formation around the Taurus. Reynolds was getting ready to announce his surrender again when a voice came through the ship's speakers.
"This is Neith, mother and goddess to all Goa'uld. Your surrender is noted and is on record. We shall play your pitiful cry of defeat for any Tauri that stands before us. They will know that your short lived dominace over our galaxy was all for nothing. Be glad you shall not live to see what happens to the rest of your kind!" Neith excaimed.
With this Reynolds knew that there was only one outcome.
"Bring up full sublight, set course for the closest flagship." Reynolds decreed.
Moving forward, the Taurus was met with a torrent of plasma bolts. As the ship bore down on the closest target, their shields were quickly being drained. At a range of 10 kilometers, the Taurus' shields failed. This was the final resting place for Colonel Albert Reynolds and his crew of 250 brave U.S Air Force men and women.