Chapter 2: The Illusive Ones
Averium
City of Atlantis
War Room
It has been two weeks since the mysterious warriors first appeared in the Milky Way and Danny was seriously starting to wonder if he had just stumbled into yet another intergalactic war. In the two weeks since that incident more teams began to pop up on worlds scouted by SG teams. There were even reports of strange ships appearing through the Milky Way. Danny did not like that. So far those soldiers had managed to evade capture by SG teams and the Ancient ground forces were all in Pegasus running raids on Wraith facilities and tagging shipyards and potential high yield feeding grounds. During these last few months of war with the Wraith, John Sheppard managed to fracture the Wraith into numerous warring factions. This gave the Ancients the opportunity to bring the bulk of their fleet to bear on one faction at a time through a series of coordinated and apparently random hit and run attacks. These were done so that the Wraith were kept guessing. Danny wanted to appear week to the Wraith. He wanted to appear as if he did not have the power for an open fleet engagement. That was partially true as there wasn't a lot one could do with only 50 warships at one's disposal, even if they were some of the most advanced ships in the known universe.
Danny sighed as he looked over yet another data pad with yet another report of how his science teams had utterly failed to find the enemy's base of operations. There was something that baffled Danny in this whole situation. He had originally dismissed the warriors encountered as being Alterran or Lantean due to the fact that they were simply too good of a soldier to be one. Once he found out that the galactic satellite network had been hacked those opinions quickly changed. There was no way for anyone other than an Alterran would even know about the network, let alone be capable of hacking it. If that wasn't true and there was someone else out there with that level of skill, then they were in serious trouble. Even so, Danny had the network re-encrypted to the absolute best it could be, even going as far as de-networking several major systems such as cloak, subspace beacons, maneuvering thrusters and self destruct mechanisms. It was a desperate decision, but it needed be done. Danny could not let anyone whom he didn't know and more specifically didn't trust with access to the satellite network.
Danny heard a swishing sound from behind. Instincts honed in over the last 13 years compelled him to take action. In a blink of an eye, Danny turned around and sliced the apple in half with his energy sword (A/N: For those of you who haven't read The Last Ancient, Danny has a white cross guard light saber).
"I see that your reflexes haven't dulled, even when brooding" remarked Tucker as he finally stepped fully into the room
Danny continued to watch the Grand Admiral for a few moments before deactivating the blade and returning it to his belt
"What are you doing here, Tucker?" asked Danny
Tucker was supposed to lead the combined fleet in the Pegasus Galaxy while Danny was on paternity leave and dealing with things in the Milky Way.
"Well, according to Sam you've locked yourself in this room for the past two weeks brooding over the fact that some little twerps in Alterran combat armor had been seen running around the galaxy lately. I'm here to drag you into the sunlight whether you like it or not" said Tucker as he joined Danny at the main console
Danny remained silent and Trucker sighed. Danny's stubbornness was what kept him alive during his time fighting extradimetional being on Earth, but it was proving equally frustrating to deal with. When Danny set his mind to something, there was no changing it. Just as Tucker was about to speak, Danny sighed and pushed himself off from the holographic table.
"I don't get it, Tucker. There was no record of any Alterran cache of weapons or technology besides what we already knew existed and we've already emptied and/or destroyed all except for the Weapon of Dakara, the Outpost on Terra and the rest of our infrastructure in Sol. We know that whomever these people are they have already found at least an outpost for them to have gained our weapons and armor, but I don't know what is their goal" said Danny as he waved a hand at the table. The image changed to show different planets with their addresses, a small description and a report attached to each of them "Each of the planet's they've visited was linked in some way to the Goa'uld and are now considered to be trade worlds. Their population and level of technology isn't great enough to pose a threat to them, but they are perfect for gathering intelligence on the galaxy and us"
"Maybe that's what they are doing, gathering information" said Tucker
"Yes, but for what? What are their goals? What do they want? I need to find out what they know, where their home world is and where did they get that armor and most importantly, are they friend or foe" said Danny
Tucker narrowed his eyes in concentration
"What are the Terrans doing about this?" asked Tucker
"So far, nothing, but I can only delay it for so long, sooner or later O'Neill will lose patience and begin a witch hunt for these people. I'd rather avoid that" said Danny
"What about a trap?" asked Tucker
"We don't have the contacts necessary to make something like that work. Even a child could see through our rouse" said Danny
"We don't but the Terrans do" said Tucker
Silence fell upon the room as Danny returned to the table
"What do you propose?" asked Danny
"We know that they use Alterran tech, so maybe they would be happy to get their hands on some more. We plant a tablet talking about a chase of Alterran tech on a remote planet, where a cache previously existed and we wait. If rumor gets out then it would only be a matter of time before our mysterious friends show their faces and when they do, we catch them and interrogate them" said Tucker
Danny remained contemplative for a few moments
"Call a meeting of the AID. I'll go to Earth to see what the TIA have that could benefit us" said Danny
Danny moved to exit the room but was stopped by Tucker
"Didn't I tell you that you're taking a break? I don't remember it being over" said Tucker
Danny turned around and a grin formed on his face at the idea that popped into his head
"Meet me in the sparing room in 15 minutes; I have to check on Sam and the kids"
Andromeda Galaxy
Citadel
City-Ship Olympus
War Room
To say that Athar was pissed was an understatement. Somehow he had been found him out and locked him out of the satellite network. The codes had been altered and the systems changed to such a degree that none of his scientists could make heads or tails of the system. Whoever was behind it was good, very good. However what vexed him even more was the fact that he did not know who was behind it. Obviously it was an Alterran, the Terran records confirmed an Alterran presence within bought the Milky Way and Pegasus Galaxies and his scout ships had seen evidence of Alterran warships patrolling sectors of the galaxy. But the question at the forefront of Grand Admiral Athar's mind was who. Who could have done something like this? Who would have the power to do something like this? The obvious answer was Liam, but he doubted that his old friend would not contact him as soon as he saw clues to his presence.
Turning to look out of the tower he was in, Athar was greeted with a magnificent sight. Sprawling urban areas and industrial sectors lined the arms of the Citadel. The 20 shipyard that were spread thought the station were working overtime to construct a fleet. The citadel has moved from its secluded spot near the blue supergiant star to a Naquadah rich asteroid field. From there Atahr took his raw elements for the creation of his fleet. A structure as massive as the Citadel isn't really meant to move, but it is capable thanks to the Star drive it was fitted with. The main problem with the Star drive was that it was a massive power hog on the Citadel's systems. This is the reason why Athar was nervous right about now. He had 3 ships, one of which was the Albion and the other two were just cruisers. Sure the cruisers were powerful, but not powerful enough to face even one of Danny's battle cruisers in 1v1 combat.
This was something that Atahr didn't explicitly know, but suspected based on the date when the Alterrans were spotted in the Milky Way, according to the Terrans. Athar presumed that the Alterrans who had just spent 6 years fighting the Goa'uld would have made some advancement in ship building and weapons technology. Atahr wasn't an engineer and dedicated warship engineers and designers hadn't been seen for a good 5 million years so his group's ship building expertise was next to none. Even the Olympus wasn't as well built as Atlantis, but then again the genius that built Atlantis was one of a kind. Athar did his best with what he had and that was all he could do. Looking over the reports of the scan one of his cruisers took of the Alterran battle cruisers patrolling in the galaxy, Athar was surprised. For a ship that size, the power readings were off the scale, even by Alterran standards. Nothing except a ZPM could explain the power output of that ship. However, there was none of the specific subspace radiation that is radiated by an active ZPM. The scans were not very detailed because as soon as the cruiser started to scan the ship, it powered weapons and shields and turned to an intercept vector with the cruiser at max thrust. The Cruiser captain was wise enough to enter hyperspace before they got close.
An Edenian officer entered the room and snapped to attention
"Grand Admiral, sir, we've received a report from one of our agents on the ground on a trade planet. Some Jaffa came through the gate with an old Alterran tablet. He managed to capture a picture of the tablet" said the officer as he handed Athar the data pad
Scanning the text Athar's eyebrows rose as he red. It spoke about a cache of weapons and other technology on a distant planet not connected to the Gate network.
"Have a ship and a team prepared to go to that planet and investigate. Tell our operative to retrieve the tablet and see to it that all knowledge of the cache is eliminated. We cannot afford anyone else finding out about it" said Athar
"Yes, Grand Admiral" replied the officer as he exited the room to carry out his orders
Atahr resumed his staring out the window at the vastness of space before returning to the holo-table in the middle of the room. Little does he know that the pieces are already in motion and he had just lost the game.
Milky Way Galaxy
Off-network planet, weapons cache location
Executor, Flagship of the Ancient Fleet
Danny was sitting in the command chair of the Executor tapping his fingers on the armrest while looking at the sensor display. The Executor was cloaked and was stationed on the planet's moon. The only thing running aboard the ship was the lights and the cloak. Danny went all out when he prepped the Executor for this stealth mission. He even took out the ZPMs so to prevent them giving away his position. His trap was set and the bait was thrown and from the looks of the long range sensor display the fish bit the bait.
Danny watched as a 700 meter long starship emerged from hyperspace and began actively scanning the area. Danny's face scrunched in disgust. These people knew nothing of stealth and proper military tactics, but even so, they had the technology to make them a dangerous opponent. Danny realized that this was most likely his Terran upbringing speaking, but he actually felt sorry for the guy who was in charge of these people. He had obviously been a part of the old Order, based on the tactics he employed, and he had probably served under his father, but still, his and his officer's incompetence when it came to 'modern' warfare was downright disturbing. To think that 7 million years ago even the other great races in the alliance would be hesitant to go up against the Alterrans and the Order. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
"Sir, the ship has entered geosynchronous orbit around the planet above the cache" said Gideon
"Have they employed any kind of stealth technology so far?" asked Danny
"None sir. They have been blasting their active sensors at full power the entire time since they dropped from hyperspace" informed Gideon
Danny nodded. They would be unable to detect the Executor even if they had the other systems running at full power under the cloak.
Mentally Danny powered the engines on the Executor as he slowly made his way towards the ship. He would be there in a few minutes
"Sir, I'm detecting transporter signatures on the surface" announced Gideon
"Send a message to Valery and her squad. Use a tight laser beam, I don't want any kind of mishap to ruin our chance to get some answers" said Danny
"Yes, sir" replied Gideon
While the Executor continued to approach the unsuspecting ship, down on the surface three cloaked jumper rested on the surface near the entrance to the cache. Inside those jumpers were 4 teams of 4 SpecOps Terran soldiers, 2 teams of Ancient Dark Troopers and SG1.
Valery was currently discussing with the Terran commander, Colonel Mitchell, SG1 CO. Valery had to admit that it was strange to call for SG1 and not see Teal'c, Dr. Jackson, Carter or O'Neill, but they were heroes of humanity and as such Danny had to manipulate certain events to put them in a position of power. He did this because he simply did not trust any member elected by Earth's nations on the council. Humanity was still very young and if Danny didn't need them, he would most certainly not manipulate/uplift them the way he did, or so Valery thought. Danny was becoming a difficult man to read, his past experiences having thought him much in the way of manipulation.
"We've set up stun fields inside the bunker, all we need to do is push their ground team inside and the rest will be taken care off" said Valery
They were expecting at least 50 armed soldiers to be present. Valery and Mitchell developed their strategy to counteract standard tactics normally employed by the old Order.
"All right, I say we hit them from two sides, here and here" said Mitchell pointing at the holo map displayed in front of them.
The vectors of approach Mitchell suggested were perpendicular to one another and formed a wedge shape that would provide overlapping fields of fire to mop up any stranglers forcing them to withdraw to the bunker. To ensure realism the Ancient Dark troopers would be held back in an over watch position providing long range fire support from modified stun sniper rifles. The human teams would be using special ammunition that was extremely weak with underpowered cartages. They wanted to make it look like a Lucian Alliance raid and arming the Terrans with Wraith stun guns wasn't very a very good idea for that type of cover. If the guest followed old Alterran military doctrine they would attempt to use stun weapons to incapacitate the enemy. If that proved to be ineffective they would retreat. Killing would be regarded as a last resort.
A console on the Jumper's dashboard pinged.
"That's the signal, move it people!" said Valery as she grabbed her rifle and exited the cloaked jumper.
The teams fanned out from the back of the jumper and made their way to cover with a clear line of sight to the bunker door. What Valery saw next surprised her.
There were only six people in front of the bunker, a lot less than the 50 they were expecting, which would be the normal amount of people the Terrans would sent when dealing with Alteran tech. Whomever these people were, they were green and vastly inexperienced, possibly just out of basic training if they even had that. Valery peered down the scope and frowned at what she saw. Only two of them were armored and only carried sidearms. The science team wasn't even armed. They all had their back towards the woods as if they hadn't even considered the possibility of an ambush. Even in the old Order security would have not been this lax.
"I feel sorry for these guys" said Mitchell from next to Valery "Was this how the old Alterrans conducted their ground operations in times of war?" asked Mitchell
"No, but procedure didn't differ much, and their people were better trained, these are just kids, barely out of basic and I doubt that they would even classify as an officer to a Terran" said Valery
Michel looked at them with his binoculars, a frown settling on his face "You're right, if they were Terrans they would be court marshaled on the basis of being incompetent, along with the guy who trained them. Thank God that you're at least competent"
"Thank the Supreme Commander, he's the one that pushed for the trade of military advisors in exchange for technology" said Valery shrugging "And besides the only reason why you got as much as you did was the fact that Danny has a sweet spot for Earth"
"What kind of sweet spot?" asked Lt. Ford from her left
Valery looked at them confused "You don't know?"
"Know what?" asked Mitchell equally perplexed
"Danny's half Terran, born and raised on Earth" said Valery
Mitchell and Ford looked at her like she was mad
"No way!" said Mitchell
Valery rolled her eyes
"Oh shut it. Would it please you to know that I'm Terran as well" said Valery
The two members of SG1 looked at her with equal parts amazement and disbelief. They began to snicker only for their laughter to die down at the sight of Valery's unamused face.
"Oh, come on! What's next? Are you going to tell us that the Ancient High Command is actually just a bunch of Terrans Phantom took for a ride some 9 years ago?" asked Ford
Valery hummed "Well, there was only 5 of us, pure blood humans that is, that came with Danny. Myself, my husband, Grand Admiral Tucker, Commander Mark and his wife, Danny's adopted sister, Jazz and Sam, Danny's wife and mother of his children" said Valery shrugging
Mitchell looked ready to faint along with the rest of the humans that had been listening in on their conversation.
Valery's pad chimed.
"Head's up boys, this thing goes down in 60 seconds. Based on the incredibly small amount of people these fakes brought with them, we'll use Dark Troopers with stun snipers to take them out. You are to secure the perimeter while SG1 secures the prisoners. Got it?" said Valery
An instant 'Yes ma'am' was heard over the com link in her helmet as she took her time lining up a perfect shot at one of the two armored troopers, her HUD and the computer built in her armor designating the targets the others targeted. This would be a short engagement and hopefully Danny would have the same luck in orbit.
Meanwhile
Orbit
The Executor was drifting under cloak at minimum power stalking its prey. The tactic Danny was about to employ was a risky one. A member of the old Order would have called him insane at the mere mention of the tactic, but in truth it was pure genius. In order to guarantee the best stealth rating possible, Danny had shut down as many systems as possible, even going as far as to use the sub light only for a short burst necessary to set course for the planet's orbit. There was only one reactor operating at minimum power out of the ten the Executor had. It gave just enough power to operate the cloak at full strength and to charge several special capacitors. The reason behind Danny's apparent madness was that he planned to launch a salvo of a few drones against the unsuspecting ship. He knew that not even the Alterrans figured out how to defeat the Drones save for throwing more drones against them. The only shield capable of stopping drones was the one installed on Atlantis and while the Executor's shield was similar, it was in no way the same and the very nature of the Executor's role as a front-line warship prohibited the use of the multilayered phasic shield that would be required to stop drones.
Even so, the plan was dangerous. The Executor would be essentially unprotected, relying only on its hull to protect it. Charging up the shield would take a while and the drones that Danny would launch from what was essentially point blank range were meant to destroy the enemy ships' hyper dive and subspace communications array. Then he could unload the troops he borrowed from Earth, all armed with Wraith stun guns, flasbang grenades and other non-lethal means of incapacitation. Once the vessel was secured and if the Executor was capable of hyperspace travel, Danny would bring the ship and the crew to the Gama Site, where adequate facilities for treating and keeping the prisoners had been built. After that it was just a matter of Danny visiting them and extracting information from them, by force if necessary.
"We are nearly in position" announced Gideon
Danny nodded and checked the only powered console at the weapons post. The control chair would have only been an unnecessary drain on power resources and he was only needed for the weapons to function properly, something he could do from the weapons station.
"Good, signal the ground team that they have a go and prepare to decloak and return to full power at my signal. I'm designating the shields as priority one" said Danny
That meant that any and all power available after the decloak and the firing of the drones would be diverted to the shield. Others systems, like weapons and engines would come on line later as power level increased.
The Executor floated silently under its cloak. The crew on the bridge of the Edenian starship were still unaware that they had literally walked into a trap, though Capitan Garus, the commanding officer of the Edenian warship New Horizon, was beginning to get a foreboding feeling that something would go wrong any time now.
"What is the status of the ground team?" asked Garus
"The scientists report that the doorway is sealed shut. It will take some time to breach it" said the communications officer
"Tell them to hurry it up, I've got a feeling something isn't right around here" said Garus
A couple of moments later, the proximity alarm began blaring thought the bridge of the New Horisont. Before Gaurs could ask what has happened, explosions rocked the ship, throwing him out of the command chair. Pulling himself back up he yelled
"Status report!"
"Main engines are off-line, Hyperdirve offline along with long range communications" reported an officer
"What his us?" asked Garus
"Sir…" whatever the sensor officer was about to say was cut off as the Executor passed over the Edenian ship, obscuring their view of the planet
"What in Ea's name is that?" asked Garus
"Sir, the vessel is 10 kilometers in length and it appears that it was what fired the shot that disabled us" reported the sensor officer
"We can't win this, how soon will the hyperdrive be fixed?" asked Garus
"2 hours, sir" responded the tactical officer grimacing
Garus sighed and glared at the monstrous ship.
"Begin evasive maneuvers, helmsmen, get us as far away from that ship as you possibly can" ordered Garus
"Yes, sir" responded the helmsman and then proceeded to do the best he could with maneuvering thrusters and the lone main engine that was still operational
"Sir, scans indicate that the enemy vessel is of Alterran design. It is built in the same way as the other vessels that we've encountered" reported the sensor officer
Garus didn't know what to think. Why was an Alterran attacking them? Shouldn't they know that the Edenians were on their side? His thoughts were disrupted as the ship rocked again.
"We've lost engines and weapons" reported the tactical officer
"They'll try to board us. All crew prepare for anti-boarding action" ordered Garus as the New Horizon shuddered as it was docked within the ventral bay of the Executor
Meanwhile, Danny was not impressed at all. It was true that he managed to surprise the ship and that the first salvo did more damage than intended, but he was also disappointed. The enemy ship opted to flee than to fight, a smart decision, but in a spaceship you can usually do bought and the Executor was big enough that it was not easily missed. However, not a single shot was fired in his direction, thus allowing him to restore full power to the ship and fire a volley from the Executor's ion cannons and a couple more drones. Once it was done Danny ordered Gideon to bring the ship in while he headed down to the docking bay and put the fear of God into the crew.
There he met up with elements of the small but formidable Terran ground forces. Not stopping to speak, Danny pressed onwards to the airlock. Their side was open, but the enemies' was closed. It would still do them no good. Removing the energy saber from his belt, Danny stabbed the door and began turning it in a circular motion. On the other side, fear began to gather in the hearts of the Edenian crew that was preparing to defend their ship. This was not supposed to happen.
Once he was finished, Danny telekinetically pushed the part of the door he had cut out at high speed, making the defenders duck and then flinch as the cut out slammed into a metal wall. What they saw next made their fear grow even more. Danny stepped though the door, looking as intimidating as possible, energy blade still active in his hand and wearing his full combat armor, this time complete with a cape for added effect. Hesitantly, the defenders opened fire, but they were predictable, so Danny was able to use his energy sword to block their shots as he returned fire with his own pistol, set on stun of course. The initial fight lasted only a couple of seconds. It was the time necessary for Terran commandos to enter the enemy ship and begin firing their Wraith stun pistols.
"Colonel Jefferson, take your men and secure engineering. I'll take these three and take the bridge. Once our objectives are secured we will begin to systematically scour the ship using life signs detectors" said Danny gesturing to the three men next to him
"Yes, sir" said Jefferson and turned to his men, repeating the more profanity laced version of what Danny said
Danny nodded and headed to the bridge but not before ordering Gideon to quarantine the ship with a shield. There were several patrols and choke points that he had encountered along the way, but they were easily dispatched with the aid of telekinesis and non-lethal doses of lightning. The bridge was trickier. There, Danny actually had to take cover, since their commander wasn't as incompetent as Danny first thought he would be. Still it was insufficient. Once everyone was captured, Danny had Gideon beam them to the main cargo bay which had been converted to a makeshift prison cell. There was some food and water, but the whole room was encompassed in an energy shield, making escape impossible.
The report from the surface was much the same, only the ground team put up even less of a resistance than they did in space. Now it was time to take them to the Gama site before they woke up.
Milky Way
Gama Site
Special detention facility: Codename Alcatraz
Danny was looking through the one way window normally found in interrogation rooms on Earth. Inside the interrogation room was the captain of the Edenian warship. In the time it took the Executor to get to the Gama Site and unload the prisoners, Gideon had managed to extract the ship's database. To say that Danny was intrigued was an understatement. Now that he had an understanding of just what his enemy was up to it became clear that they were never his enemy to begin with, but unfortunately paranoia on account of himself, the TIA and AID dismissed the idea that they were friendly from the beginning without even considering it. From the data mine Gideon had gotten after breaking into the databanks of the Edenian ship a clear picture of just who these people were was formed. Apparently some 10 thousand years ago, just before the start of the Lantean/Wraith war in Pegasus, a group of 500 Alterrans descended and seeded a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy with human life. Then with the use of time dilation fields they advanced the race millions of years in just a few centuries of normal time. The leader of this group, Grand Admiral Athar, was the mastermind behind one of the greatest construction projects the Alterrans had undertaken since Arkos. According to the Edenian ship's databanks and star charts the 'Citadel' as they called it was currently stationed in an asteroid belt that was rich with raw material necessary for constructing warships. Danny was confident that he could track the giant ship, after all a City-Ship in travel made a lot of noise, something the size of the Citadel would be even worse at stealth. This being said, Danny would give anything to have the kind of manpower Athar has at his disposal. If he could get in contact with Athar, then maybe he could convince him to join his forces together with him against the Wraith and the Lucian Alliance.
"We need them" said Danny
Off to his side, Mala, head of the AID and Director Samuel Harper, head of the Terran Intelligence Agency, nodded their heads in agreement.
"With the kind of resources Athar has and our leadership, we could reduce the War with the Wraith from a 10 year engagement to 5 or maybe less" said Mala
"Less, if Jack has anything to say about it. He's already pushing to expand mining operations and ship production" said Harper
Danny nodded. In the two years since the Ancient fleet had finished construction the automated mining facilities had pumped out enough raw material to build 20 more Executor class super-dreadnaughts and Danny had no intention of halting mining operations. He had already tasked the R&D department to look into automated mining ships so that he could gather the resources present in the asteroid belt of most solar systems. There was nothing wrong with stockpiling resources and if his theory as to why there has only been a single ship spotted in the Milky Way is true then that stockpile would come in very handy.
"I'll go talk to him and hopefully I won't need to pry information out of his mind forcefully" said Danny then headed off to the door
Captain Garus was not having a good day. Not only did he have to deal with the shame of being the first Edenian to lose a ship, but he also had no idea what to do in this kind of situation. He knew that the other Alterran faction was behind it, if the ship that attacked him was any indication.
Suddenly the door opened and a man stepped through. Garus was speechless as his eyes widened when he saw the man that entered the room. Clad in black and white armor with a white cape on his back, head held high and energy blade hanging from his belt, Garus could recognize that this man was of House Phantom even without seeing the sigil on his shoulder.
"Captain Garus" began Danny "I am Daniel Phantom of House Phantom, son of Liam Phantom and current Supreme Commander of the Alterran fleet. I have some questions for you"
A/N: AND CUT! As always leave a review with any thoughts suggestions or questions you might have. Weekly updates every Thursday (for now, might change to Saturday)
