Stargate Atlantis

04x14

Aggressive Countermeasures

Ikaros sat reclined in the Avenger's command chair, he was beyond exhausted, he'd been able to overpower the entire crew and jettison them into space. He'd just got the Avenger to a distance in human terms of a few hundred kilometres away from the cloud of Asurans before forcing air into his lungs and firing off a salvo of the ships plasma weapons in a focused firing solution, the explosions of Asurans was massive as energy coursed between them. Ikaros felt his shoulders sag and his eyes drift closed. Focus, his mind took on the voice of his late farther long dead drilling him on ship board operations he'd massed knowledge of many years before, Ikaros drew in the very dredges of his strength and plotted a course through hyperspace to the galactic plane, the last thing he needed was to be caught this weak given that that he was having trouble just flying, let alone complex combat manoeuvres.

The Avenger slowly moved out of its orbit as a hyperspace vortex formed in front of it as the aft engines glowed before entering.


Hossack ran through the corridors of Biarmaland, he'd just got back from the high council and needed to see General Korceanat immediately, he entered the base of the central tower and passed through the security into the prison cells. When he arrived he smiled, Korceanat was standing over Oberoth who was cowering on the floor, less than a shadow of his former self.

"What did Kashyapa tell you? What did he give you?" Korceanat's patience was clearly wearing thin; one of his hands was firmly inside Oberoth's forehead while his other fist was clenched shut. Korceanat rotated his head in a reptilian fashion as he withdrew his hand and turned to face Hossack.

"What's going on, have the ship captains we can trust arrived?" Korceanat was confused by Hossack's appearance, as the liaison officer he was reporting to the high council, Korceanat was trying to stall Oberoth's supporters why he gathered his strength.

"I've done all I can, I'm sorry but…" Hossack swallowed unnecessarily before continuing. "Oberoth's supporters have deployed the home guard to storm Biarmaland, I got here and raised the shields up just in time."

Biarmaland suddenly shook, Korceanat turned to face Oberoth before nodding and running for the control room.


Biarmaland's shield was raised, a glowing white bubble shrouding the massive city-ship as green particle beams from space born satellites fired repeated blasts at randomly generated points on the top dome. The tactic was based on the fact that Lantean and Asuran shields on city-ships reallocated layers of shield to where areas were taxed to reduce potentia strain, however Biarmaland was powered by nine potentia, together they were capable of easily maintaining power.

A volley of high yield orange plasma bolts slammed into the side of the shield as the massive bulk of an Aurora class warship approaching fired its forward gun batteries, the Aurora rotated slightly on its axis to fire its own particle beam, still to no effect. Adapting their strategy the Aurora opened its drone launcher bay and swarms of hundreds of glowing orange energy missiles streamed out and coiled like a giant serpent before moving towards the besieged dome of Biarmaland's shields that still held under the onslaught.

In Biarmaland's control room the white washed walls glowed a disquieting green, Korceanat and Hossack arrived.

"Report?"

One of Korceanat's technicians rose from his station.

"We are currently under attack by five of the orbital defence satellites and one Aurora class warship registered as the Helios."

Korceanat seemed relieved, that wasn't too bad, not with nine full potentia.

"Sir," another one of his technicians turned, her black coiled hair flying in an arc. "We are detecting the launch of a city-ship a few kilometres away, subspace spectra scans show three fully charged potentia."

Korceanat looked around the control room before nodding.

"Myra, please open a channel through the PA."

The technician nodded as she returned to the panel pressing a few buttons as the communications activated.

"Attention all personnel this is General Korceanat, I understand that you've all been questioning my decisions of late and you're right to." Korceanat looked at every one of the duty officers finishing off at Hossack. "For some time I've been aware that something was wrong with our society, the collective was meant to provide the union and democratic wishes of every Asuran, however we've spent the last ten thousand years under the control of Oberoth. We have a duty as the heirs of the Lanteans, yes we are their heirs, however we are not their only heirs, humans are another side of their legacy and we should stand by them to reclaim the legacy of our collective creators and rebuild what was lost more than seven million years ago when the Alterra fell. I won't order anyone here to do this, if you wish to maintain the status quo I won't fault you, change comes hard, whether human or Asuran. If anyone wants to stay behind stay in your quarters and we'll send you back to Asuras when we can, Korceanat out."

He turned to look at his crew once more who all nodded to show their ascent.

"Then there is much work to be done."

Korceanat strode purposely towards the control chair, lowering himself into it as the crystal blue panels glowed in the hexagon.

An ordinary city-ship became visible on the horizon as a cloud of vapour rose from the ocean underneath the city as Biarmaland pulled up half a kilometre into the air before rotating on its axis.

"This is General Korceanat of Biarmaland to the commander of the Helios, you must not obey Oberoth's council, they are corrupted by power and would sacrifice us all in order to further his control over the galaxy. Join with us and truly live up to be the heirs of the Ancients."

Korceanat's only response was weapons fire, he sighed in grief as he willed one of Biarmaland's weapons to fire, from the pier facing the Helio a red beam from the Directed Energy Transmission beam fired, without having to maintain a wormhole indefinitely the beam transferred nearly the full output of a potentia at once. The Helios' shields glowed orange as the kinetic energy of the DET forced it back, it only lasted for thirty seconds till the shields failed and the ship was instantly vaporised by the glowing red beam. As soon as the ship was destroyed the DET ceased firing.

However that was when the regular city-ship opened its drone bays, glowing orange massive coils of drones rose out of the bays moving above the shield dome before coming together in a single massive swarm. The swarm amassed thousands of drones before colliding with Biarmaland, each one was set to a different frequency trying to break through.

Sparks fell from the ceiling causing Korceanat to flinch; the physical distractions brought him out of the neural interface.

"Myra, how's our shield looking?" Korceanat could've accessed the data through the interface but he preferred the Asuran touch, absurd he knew but something about an Asuran was better than the automated systems.

"Holding for now, I've got them on a rotating frequency to prevent a lock on," Myra didn't look up from her display. "Overall Potentia charge is holding at a consistent 97%."

Korceanat nodded, taking himself back into the interface.

Biarmaland rose up to take the same altitude as the opposing city-ship, Korceanat swallowed before spurring the Biarmaland on, the massive city moved towards her sister ship, shields colliding, stardrives screaming in protest as the rubbed against each over. Sparks flew and consoles exploded.

"We can't keep this up for much longer!" Myra shouted over the explosions as a fire started, scorching the white watched walls.

Eventually the other city-ships shields failed, the Biarmaland suddenly without resistance accelerated forward easily finishing off the enemy city.

Korceanat felt the drain in power as he pulled the Biarmaland up into the atmosphere and entered hyperspace.

"Alright what's our status?"

"Minimal damage reported, hyperdrive's fully operational, we're on our way to your specified coordinates."

Myra turned for her console; her eyes showed that her news wasn't so good.

"Each Potentia is currently at a charge of."

"That's not so bad," Korceanat felt like he was missing something, even at that leven they still had the equivalent energy of nearly six Potentia, he knew that the kamikaze run had been a risk, but it'd seemed to pay off.

"The dampers have been damaged; our energy signature will be visible to half the galaxy, in order to affect repairs we'll have to drop out of hyperspace and land, to remove the modules to repair the outlet."

Korceanat nodded in understanding, it would make them vulnerable to anyone, Oberoth's faction of the Asurans or the wraith.


Elizabeth sat in her quarters looking out of the window at the Asuran rebels city ship, they'd all given up the ruse, even the Asuran who took Keller's shape had reverted to her normal body. John was helping to create defences, Teyla was teaching them to meditate while Rodney 'geeked' out. The Asurans had shown him how they created ZPMs and even Stargates themselves, and that left her… doing nothing. They didn't need someone in charge, they weren't negotiating with anyone and there wasn't anything else for her to do.

She got up from her bed and turned from the window to head into her en suit bathroom, however she stopped and turned, she'd thought she'd seen something but nothing was there. Elizabeth carried on into the bathroom; however she couldn't shake what she'd seen, for just an instance she'd have sworn she'd seen herself dressed in a plain black suite like she'd worn during her last days in charge of the SGC.