NOTE: there was a formatting error. That has been fixed. -GM, master of forts.

T-MINUS 250 YEARS

(ORBSyndicate and CrowbarKnight)

EARTH THEATRE

The world's reaction to the news was mixed. The world leaders of the various nations and the religious leaders gave many speeches over the course of the next week, trying to keep everyone calm and orderly. The world was anything but calm and orderly. The Internet exploded within minutes of the announcement, everyone flooding the UN website with all the information and posting it everywhere. They discovered the existence of the Wraith quickly, and discovered that many events over the last decade had really been influenced by aliens. Some people were understandably mad, yelling at the entire world for having a conspiracy. Mentions of the Illuminati were brought up both in jest and semi-seriously. Many of these people quickly realized that they hadn't been told for their own protection - and if there had been a war going on there would probably have been more mass panic than there already was. Revealing it now was obviously a strategic move: the population didn't have to worry about annihilation at this point in time. The only nearby hostile force, the Lucian Alliance, did not have the resources (or the guts) to attempt a run on Earth. There was the initial fear of aliens ending up ruling the world, but with only the Serrakins being truly alien, most people were eventually accused of being racist, and that shut them up for the most part.

There were very few violent riots even among the angry people. They were angry that they weren't told earlier, but they couldn't riot with any real purpose in mind because they were already told. Aside from the few groups who tried to get laws passed that prevented the governments from keeping secrets, there was little organized political movement against the governments and their choices.

Laws had already been established regarding space travel and alien technology during the week the UN was in session, giving more than a few lawyers a bit of a headache with the new major laws coming in. The Tau'ri Alliance itself was unique: it was essentially an uber-government that represented the interests of all nations within the Alliance. There was no definite leader of the Alliance - there were representatives from each nation, and department heads which collectively made up the Alliance Command. General O'Neill was quickly put in charge of the military arm due to his experience in the field, while Daniel Jackson became in charge of the diplomatic relations arm. There were other arms: such as research and development, exploration, colonization, and trade.

The economy took less than a week to start booming, new companies came into existence that began to not only use the alien technologies suddenly at their disposal, but also to try and improve them to use in the daily lives of the Earth population. Economies skyrocketed, and the overall wealth of the planet increased. Relief programs were created within a month of the announcement, giving food to needy peoples in Africa, and helping along their industrialization. Companies like Space X began to experiment with the hyperdrives they were given, already drawing up plans for commercial ships.

Violence did threaten to erupt in the Middle East a few times due to much political unrest, but the simple presence of the Enterprise looming over their heads quieted most of them. (After the bombs turned out to do nothing to the shields, at least.) There was obviously still resentment in the Middle East, but they couldn't do anything at the moment, and the governments were cracking down on the terrorist organizations with all the technology they could use now. The organizations likely wouldn't survive more than a few years.

One would expect many countries to complain and threaten the other nations, but those concerns were dealt with during the UN week conference - any objecting countries ended up getting extra aid, technology, or money in some form or other.

A month and a half after the speech, Hebridan ships were given the go ahead to start advertising themselves as passenger ships to take civilians to other locations in the Alliance, though any ship carrying civilians could not leave Tau'ri space without clearing it with the Alliance Command, and all interstellar ships needed to be registered and carefully monitored so no-one tried to sneak away.

There were a few reports of civilians trying to hijack the ships, but none succeeded.

The economies of Hebridan and Earth began to merge, causing a little healthy competition to develop. The Hebridan peoples had an advantage in that they were advanced and already had an economy, but their disadvantage was that they had very few economic bases on Earth: Earth had the home advantage. It kept companies from becoming lazy.

Similar things happened on the other worlds of the alliance, though on most planets the economy wasn't strong enough to compete with that of Hebridan and Earth. They began to create their own civilian ships as well.

People were still uneasy about aliens, but since only the Serrakins were obviously not human, people either had to become paranoid that people walking among them were aliens, or just accept it. There was a lot of prejudice, but laws protected everyone rather effectively.

The first colony of Earth was created on a planet which was named Midgard, after the Asdgard's name for Earth. The Odyssey, over the course of several days, deposited several thousand colonists on the world, actually being faster than using the Stargate.

The Jaffa and the Reform were very open and welcoming to any people who wished to visit their lands, though the Reform was somewhat difficult to get to since the supergate took a while to activate and dial.

The Lucian Alliance and some less-than-clean individuals began to form a trade agreement, going under the Tau'ri Alliance's nose. The Command was aware of this, but not able to really do anything about it since a war with the Lucians was definitely not the thing they needed right now.

Langara quickly became the planet for Tau'ri Alliance government ships to be built - though only Deadalus class ones.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The bustling planet of Langara was covered in three distinct nations, Kelowna, Tirania, and The Andari Federation. The three had been in bloody wars in the past, but with the Goa'uld and Ori wars had learned to coexist. All three of them were at work creating more ships for the Tau'ri fleet: only a dozen ships existed, including the Enterprise. While the ships were powerful and highly advanced compared to most other ships in known space, the low numbers were a serious problem. The Langarans were expecting to be able to produce a Deadalus-class ship every three months, assuming they could keep getting materials shipments from other worlds via stargate. The three nations were really attracted to the idea of their nations having a ship with their logo imprinted on it, even though with the formation of the Alliance Command the ships weren't actually owned by any single nation. Essentially who built it got to put the flag on it.

The Odyssey was currently in orbit, with the Asgard Core monitoring all construction processes. The actual consciousness of the Asgard had been transferred to a secret facility on Earth to ensure their protection until a solution for their condition could be found, but the computer itself was more than capable of analyzing an entire planet on its own. Everything was running smoothly.

Then a proximity alarm went off. Colonel Caldwell jumped in his seat, coming to full alertness. "What is it?"

"Ship of unknown design, dropped out of some kind of FTL travel that wasn't hyperspace" a crewmen responded.

Caldwell frowned. "What are they doing?"

"Scanning us."

"Hail them. Send the greeting we have planned for this. Tell the Langarans not to shoot it."

"Yes sir. Message sent. We're receiving video reply."

"Put it up." Caldwell said.

The alien on the screen was humanoid in shape, but obviously not human. The forehead was more pronounced and the eyebrows were more extreme, in addition to the pointy ears.

"Greetings. We also come in peace. I am Orik, and I represent the Vulcans. We are curious to learn more about your race."

Caldwell nodded. "And we you. I'll send a message to Command to get a diplomat here. Will you be willing to stay here until then?"

"As you wish." Orik said. "We have many questions."

Caldwell smirked. "As do we. Caldwell out."

The line went dead.

"They're continuing to scan."

"Let them, there's nothing down there of particular danger for them to know. They've likely already figured out its a major construction planet. Let's just see how this pans out…"

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"So, Daniel, what's the verdict on these Vulcan fellows?" O'Neill asked Daniel Jackson a week later.

"They are a peaceful, if extremely rigid society." Daniel responded. "Their entire society is founded on the principles of emotional suppression and logical thinking as a way of life. They seem to be rather curious, scientific, and inquisitive and-"

"Daniel."

"Yes Jack?"

"I don't need the full story: I'll get that from the reports I'm forced to read."

Daniel shrugged. "They are peaceful and interested in furthering relations. They are interested in meeting our allies, and mentioned that they are aware of a couple of other races themselves. I think we'll be scheduling a meeting soon so we can make a culture exchange."

Jack nodded, appearing to be deep in thought but really just thinking about how hungry he was at the moment.

"Jack…"

"What?"

"This is important. This is our first time meeting a race without a backdrop of war. And it seems very likely that we are the more advanced race this time, and that we will not be able to give technology to them."

"I trust you to find the balance Danny-boy. O'Neill out." The screen went dead.

Daniel tapped his fingers on the table. They were entering a new era, and he wasn't entirely sure how it was going to go.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"Oooh what about this fellow? He looks handsome."

Cameron Mitchell groaned. "Vala, that's an advertisement in a newspaper selling baked beans. That is not the potential SG-1 team members list…"

"Oh." Vala said, pausing a moment before throwing the newspaper over her shoulder. "So what options do we have?"

"Still need to find two team members that can actually handle it out there as members of the first-contact team for Earth. It's been several years and I've found nobody."

"Arnold was allright-"

"He accidentally told the natives "we come hungry" instead of "we come in peace." They decided we were going to eat them."

"…Fair point." Vala strutted to the other side of the room. "Perhaps you could ask Daniel or Sam to come back?"

"Way too busy with their own larger-scope jobs now." Cam muttered. "And I really don't know anyone."

"Perhaps they do. Maybe you should ask them to find someone."

Cam shrugged. "I guess it's as good idea as anything at this point…"

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Professor Herschel Layton had been expecting the call from his old friend and colleague Daniel Jackson for some time now. Ever since the stargate went public and he was able to do his investigations with a little less secrecy, he knew he would be asked once more to be part of the stargate program.

He had discovered several alien and Alteran ruins on Earth during the course of his archeological careers, and had been made aware of the existence of the stargate program mostly because the governments couldn't have him talking about everything he had discovered. So he basically accepted a job as "consultant" for the UN government, reporting all of his findings to them. He had been asked to come in on the stargate program itself, but aside from a few visits to Cheyanne Mountain to help with some ancient technology, he never did anything. He did not want to go off world, where the people he cared about would never hear form him again or have any idea what happened to him.

Luke and Layton's other friends and assistants had no idea what he'd done until a few days after the gate was declassified, afterwhich he told them everything.

And now that they would know where he was going…

Well regardless of the position he was being offered he was probably going to have to expend a lot of mental effort to refuse the offer.

"Hey Hershel! How would you like to be part of SG-1?"

Well that wasn't the voice you said "no" to. He said he would need a week to get everything together, but he would be there shortly.

He explained everything to everyone he knew, knowing they all understood. He promised to visit often, and knew that he likely would be able to since the gate was on Earth.

He would become an archeologist of ruins more ancient then even he could imagine… the ideas were tantalizing. The possibilities so grand…

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"You have no right to search our ships!" The Lucan Alliance commander yelled.

O'Neill rubbed his forehead. "Ugh. Listen here mister… Fred was it?"

"Fralachik!"

"Right. Fred. Listen here, you are in our space, so you follow our rules. And if you want to sell here, we will need to search your ship for contraband that we know your people have been sneaking in for the past few months. So you either let us search your ship, or you leave.

"But you let the Jaffa ship through!"

"That's because we trust them. We do not trust you. Sorry!"

The Lucian Alliance commander huffed before shutting down the comm system. Seconds later, O'Neill recognized his blunder. He groaned, before giving the order to start searching Jaffa ships as well since he just knew the Lucians were going to try something…

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The table had six sides. Cam couldn't exactly understand why the Vulcans had a table with six sides specially made for this meeting. Was it to easily separate the factions apart? Was it to make everyone feel more organized? Or was it just that Vulcan tables were generally hexagonal?

He really wished Daniel were here instead, but he apparently had to go deal with a Lucian/Reform skirmish and stop the hostilities.

Cam once again found himself wondering how stupid could the Lucians get. Kidnapping a Prior? Flippin' idiots.

Speaking of Priors, to his side was one of them, representing the Reform. He still couldn't get used to them being on the good side. He tried his best, but the sight of them still made him a little antsy. Though they seemed to fascinate Layton. Everything fascinated that guy, but unlike a lot of archeologist types he didn't get a lot of energy about him. You would just see a glint in his eye and a slight smirk when something made sense, and a look of deep thought when he was thinking. The man was quiet a lot of the time, but when he had something to say everybody just seemed to listen.

He was also really good at debating…

"No, Sel, do not scan that. We don't know what it does."

"But-"

"No."

Cameron sighed. They still hadn't found a good science officer. This one was from Hebridan, and just flat out didn't understand the meaning of the word privacy.

Teal'c was standing at the Jaffa side of the table, face stoic as usual. He would likely not do much talking and instead let his Jaffa companions do most of it.

On the other side of the table were the Vulcans, who seemed interested, if a little distant. The Andorians Cam quickly recognized as a bunch of blue-skinned arrogant humanoids who thought they needed no-one else. And the Tellarites…

The Tellurian ambassador managed to talk with Layton in a debate for a full twenty minutes before the other representatives even got together.

And now there was silence. Everyone was standing, and nothing was happening. Awkward didn't even begin to describe it.

The Vulcans decided to speak first.

"Perhaps you could begin by telling us how you managed to transform this sector of the galaxy so quickly?"

Cam began to open his mouth, but Layton jumped to his rescue. The professor recounted, over the course of the next half hour, all the important details of the story of the Tau'ri, from the discovery of the stargate to the formation of the Tau'ri Alliance. He did it eloquently, intellectually, and he obviously knew what he was talking about. When he ended, there was silence.

"That is a truly… intriguing tale." The Vulcan responded.

"Intriguing?" A Tellurian said. "It's downright impressive and a bit hard to believe. I look forward to debating much with them. Ancients that spanned the galaxy? Pah, the truth has to be something a bit more complicated than that."

"You… That's the complaint you have?" An Andorian exclaimed. "The entire tale reeks of exaggeration and stretching! There's no way it could be as this man said! Who are you anyway?"

"Professor Layton of SG-1." Layton responded.

"We can corroborate most of the story." Teal'c said. "Although we are more likely to exaggerate it as our people are prone to telling great tales of glory."

"Our people can confirm the latter half of it." The Prior noted. "We have had direct contact with the Ori."

"Now." Vala said, spinning in her chair. "Your turn. What's your area of the woods like?" She smirked.

The Vulcans recited their long and frankly rather boring history founded in logic. Cam saw that look in Layton's eye that suggested this was all fascinating.

The Tellarites were entertaining, in their story they sometimes broke out into disagreements about the specifics of a certain era of history before the Vulcans or Andorians urged them to get past their disagreement and move on. To them debate was obviously a sport.

The Andorian tale…

"Ha! Who's the exaggerator now?" A Jaffa said, getting the death glare from both Teal'c and the Andorian speaking.

"I'll have you know warm-blood that the Andorians have a long history of great accomplishments, unlike these logical Vulcans and debating Tellarites-"

"As do the Jafa." Teal'c responded. "Please do not let our differences get in the way of our further relations."

Something about the way Teal'c said please got the Andorian to shut up.

The talks continued throughout the day. At the end Cam made an assessment:

Tellarites: Friendly, if a bit argumentative.

Vulcans: Couldn't be read at all. Seemed virtually neutral about everything.

Andorians: Obviously somewhat hostile to others, though not militant. Yet.

He knew from the technological reports that none of these three races had any technology beyond that of the Hebridans, so they were unlikely to be a threat in either case.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"So…" O'Neill said as he paced the room. "I was hoping the Enterprise would be the one to finally catch you…"

The Lucian Alliance member was silent.

"Try to smuggle the cargo on a Jaffa ship without them even knowing. Nice try, but as you can see it didn't work."

Still nothing from the Lucian.

"Now, you can tell me what I want to know about your operations now, or I can hand you over to the Jaffa and see what they come up with. I can see you're thinking: why would going back to the Jaffa be worse? Well, all you did to us was fail to smuggle some goods over the border. You lied to the Jaffa and tried to pin the crime on them in order to use them as a scapegoat."

The Lucian's eyes widened.

"Not to mention that we have laws preventing torture. The Jaffa have no such laws."

Silence.

"You know what I think I'll go call them now… Toodeloo!" And then he walked out.

The Lucian lasted about five more minutes before cracking. O'Neill smirked.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

More and more colonies were placed inside the decided borders of Tau'ri space. While there were hundreds of worlds within the area, they only colonized a little over twelve at the start. Their ships and the gate system made distances no problem whatsoever, and the Tau'ri managed to obtain a rather large section of the Galaxy (compared to Vulcans at least).

After these dozen colonies were placed, colonization stopped, allowing for the worlds to grow and develop in order to support themselves, planning to remain this way for a few decades before expanding once more.

The first commercial ships began to launch from Earth. Some decided to start their own colonies, though these were not given the large assistance Command gave the official colonies, although they were still protected as long as they remained within the settled upon Tau'ri borders, and no-one was stupid enough to leave the borders entirely.

There had been dozens of attempted terrorist bombings, all but one of which were stopped by quick-acting transportation technology. That one success resulted in even more power given to the Command to take out the terrorist organizations.

Meanwhile, the Jaffa had begun to turn their eyes outwards, thinking of expanding their borders beyond the stargate system. They entered a joint effort with the Reform to create a large telescope station dubbed Honorable Light. The small structure began to take pictures of stars within the next sector.

It quickly found some points of interest.

"That… makes no sense." A Prior said, looking at the chart.

A Jaffa furrowed her brow. "It appears… as if the star is orbiting this planet."

"The shape is too off to be a planet, it looks a bit oblong. Perhaps an ancient structure?"

"Got another one!" A Reform engineer said, laying out another star chart. "See this? This is most definitely a planet, but this star seems to be moving around it at irregular speeds! This makes even less sense!"

The Prior leaned in close. "They are a bit too far away for Ha'tak to reach easily… we will send one of our ships to investigate-"

"Uh…" The engineer said, looking sheepish. "All of our ships are currently assigned. I don't think we can afford to just send them out to investigate-"

"Then we ask the Tau'ri." The Jaffa said. "They should be able to arrive within a week at most."

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

A green ship hovered at the edge of space, invisible to most sensors.

The developments of the sector were…. concerning to the occupants.

The Goa'uld had stayed quiet and never left the sector of the Galaxy since the gate system didn't go elsewhere (as far as they knew). But these new players, the Jaffa, the Tau'ri, and the rarely seen Reform seemed keen on going beyond the gate system and exploring a bit more.

And that was something the occupants of the green craft would not stand for. Their empire must remain safe.

They needed to find a way to upset the balance of the region… They needed to find a way to assure supremacy…

The opportunity would come, they just had to wait for it.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"Daniel Jackson."

Daniel looked up from his paper, surprised to see a member of the Nox in his office. "Lya?"

"Yes, it's me." She smiled warmly. "Nice to see you."

"I- I mean it's nice to see you too but Nox rarely leave Gaia. You must be here to tell me something."

"Of course." Lya said, taking a seat. "I'm here to make sure you don't inform anyone of our world's location."

Daniel blinked. "I think the Jaffa already know. At least Jaffa close to Teal'c-"

"We are aware of this, and have send a delegate to them as well." She frowned. "The Nox have decided that we do not wish to become involved with galactic affairs, even if the galaxy is rebounding from its decay once more. We want to live in peace, and we would have appreciated it if you didn't even acknowledge our existence, but that is impossible given our place in galactic history. We were just too influential."

"I will make sure we adhere to your wishes." Daniel said, frowning. "You don't agree with the choice to remain isolationist do you?"

"No." Lya said. "I thought it was time for us to come back out into the open, to help the galaxy form another great alliance, complete with the wisdom we gained from the first one. But I suppose that was not meant to be. You are not the fifth race, nor will you ever be. But you are the newfirst race of the Second Great Alliance." She looked deep into his eyes, almost as if she was looking into his soul. "Unite this galaxy. The cosmos need order once more, disarray has existed for far too long."

"…we'll try."

"I know you will." Lya said, then she stood up and began to walk away. "I'm not sure if you will see me again."

Daniel nodded. "I understand."

"Goodbye, Daniel Jackson. Tell O'Neill I came by."

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"Heloooo Campers!" O'Neill yelled over the comm of the Enterprise. "Guess what time it is!"

"Muffin time?" Vala said to no-one in particular.

"It's time to boldly go where no man has gone before! The science boys want to send us off into an area of space that doesn't make much sense. Apparently we have to instances of star-like objects orbiting something solid and planet-like. Or something, all this technical jargon is getting to me, and it's even worse than when Carter does it."

Layton presumed that was probably because the scientists had no idea what the mysterious locations they were headed to were, and that all the technical jargon was really just them throwing guesses into the dark.

"So buckle up buttercups, in a few days we'll be out of explored space and into the unknown! Won't that be fun?"

Cam shrugged. Maybe it would be, maybe it wouldn't.

"Could you pass me that screwdriver?" Doctor Lee asked Cam. Cam sighed and complied.

One year had passed from declassification.

The world - and the nearby cosmos - were at peace.

The Earth's unrest had, for the most part, calmed down. The nations for the first time all wanted to work together. Though much of this goodwill was probably spurred by dramatic economic growth and an increase in technology, the future still looked bright. There was even talk of giving the UN and the Command more power, to make Earth more of a single nation in the cosmos, though this was a far off dream to say the least.

After several dozen busts, the Lucian Alliance calmed down on their aggression - for the time being. They sat quiet, resentment brewing.

Relations improved with the Tellarites, never seemed to change with the Vulcans, and didn't seem to go well with the Andorians. For whatever reason the Andorians found the Jaffa, Tau'ri, and Reform all insulting for their mere existence, and nobody really knew why.

And the Enterprise sailed into the unknown…

WARP SECTOR

On the other side of the galaxy, there was an area of space that could only be described as completely grimdark, crapsack, and just a horrible place to even think about. This are of the galaxy was known as the Warp Regions, marking the section of the galaxy where a nightmare known as the Warp was extremely influential. All of the races within the Warp Regions suffered from a curse: a structure known as the Eye of Chaos would spurt out alien beings known as Daemons, bent on corrupting and destroying everything around them in nightmarish crusades. But the horror of Chaos did not end there, for every being within the Warp Regions had a chance of becoming tempted by the forces of chaos, the evils spouted by the four Chaos Gods seeping into their minds and driving them into devout followers with promises of power, magic, life, pleasure, and knowledge if only they would spread Chaos to others. Every last sentient being could be corrupted and mutated, turning them into a husk of their former selves.

It only gets worse from there. The Eldar, an ancient race who think themselves enlightened, are split into two camps: the true Eldar who truly are enlightened, but distance themselves from the other races, and the Dark Eldar who are devout followers of Chaos and require torture to live - preferably torture of other races. Then there are the Orks, sentient fungus who have a power which allows them to make things that have no business working… work. If they believe a broken gun will fire, it will. If they believe their armor makes them faster it does. Their utter stupidity actually assists them in their goals: they have no reason to think things they pick up won't work. They are able to come together in large groups and make large spaceships in order to launch attacks known as WAAAAAAGHs onto the other races. Across the Warp Regions, planets built by an ancient race known as the Necrons have awoken, introducing a mechanical race bent on controlling the area of space they view as theirs. Which encompasses the entire Warp Regions.

Humanity in this area of space are a bunch of xenophobic paranoid military types who worship their dying God-Emperor as he sits on the Golden Throne, determined to exterminate all other races in the galaxy (including chaos) all in the name of their survival. They are at war with every single faction within the area of space, firm in their belief that all xenos - and those influenced by xenos - must die. On the complete opposite of the spectrum is the Tau, an accepting race that believe in sacrificing everything for "the greater good," though the greater good is completely subject to what the leaders say it is at any given time. In a vast contrast to every other power in the galaxy, they may actually seek out diplomacy and partnership with other races, and already have a small federation of sorts.

Lastly, a swarm of biological-adapting buts known as Tyranids have come from across the Galactic Rim, swarming into the space of every major power in the area, eating whatever they can come across and adapting it for their own uses. Nothing seems to deter them from their goals.

For the last several decades, these powers have continually warred with each other nonstop. There is only war in the Warp Realms, after all.

And a couple years ago things just got more complicated. An Ori Incursion into the sector became active in between Ork and Imperium of Man space, ready to spread the religion of Origin to all races in the area, by force if necessary.

Success has been minimal. The arrival of Priors on several of the worlds by stargate was generally met with hostility. There had been minor successes with some of the more sane Necron, the Eldar,far removed Human colonies, and the Tau, but aside form these small victory all Priors of Origin were simply stamped out or kicked off the planet, even after showcasing their powers. Apparently the people of this galaxy continually lived in fear and couldn't really be motivated by simple threats, and following up on those threats usually just motivated them to fight back further.

And after the first wave of Ori sent to the lands deep in Chaos returned mutated and traitorous, there were no further attempts to do anything to the Eye.

In fact all they had really managed to accomplish large-scale was reveal the existence (and use) of the stargates to the area. The Eldar, Tau, Necron, and Dark Eldar using it for their own goals after a few years of experimentation, and the Imperium quickly destroying every last gate they could find. And then there were the Orks, who somehow managed to dial to whatever gate they desired even if they typed in the wrong address.

Essentially the Ori had just added to the chaos.

And to put icing on the cake, the Imperium of Man had just launched a fleet directly at the Supergate, having discovered it's location somehow.

Roughly one-hundred Ori ships had been accumulating in front of the supergate for the last few months, preparing for the fight. Aside from a few conflicts with the Orks and outlying Imperium territory, they had yet to actually fight in a full on battle.

They really didn't know what to expect, but they set out to meet the Imperium far from their ring while a few other ships stayed behind as a last line of defense.

Kalin, the Prior in charge of the fleet, was apprehensive. He did not like wars on ships, his powers did not extend far enough to have any lasting or large effect among the stars. He had to simply control the ship using his powers and do his best to coordinate everything.

He also knew that the enemy forces numbered only about twenty, thanks to them passing near a planet which had a stargate on it. So at least they had the advantage of numbers. Though considering the reported size of the ships, they probably didn't have the advantage in sheer size.

No matter, the Ori would protect them and see them through on their mission. They would be victorious.

They would meet them in less than a day…

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Early on in the M42, a new threat to the Imperium of Man was forming on the border of Ork territory and the Imperium proper. It was a new WAAAGH! that was shaping up to be one of the largest ever in the history of Mankind. This WAAAGH!, known as WAAAGH! BoneKrakah after it's Warlord, had already decimated several minor hive worlds and the systems they were in and was still growing in size. In an attempt to stop it's rapid growth and get it to handle itself, Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos plotted to kill Warlord BoneKrakah thus throwing the WAAAGH! into chaos as it's participants fought amongst them selves for control. By the time they had finally decided on a plan of action, gathered a strike force, and arrived in the WAAAGH!'s last known location they were too late to do anything. A warp storm had occurred in the area and damaged many Ork ships. Some were destroyed and others, such as BoneKrakah's personal Spacey Hulk, were sucked into the warp. The infighting they had aimed to cause was already occurring and it looked like this problem would be quickly sorted. In a way they were right about that. The danger the WAAAGH! posed to the Imperium had passed but the WAAAGH! it self was not entirely over. It had just been moved elsewhere.

The Warp was an unsettling place, even for a species as dumb and fearless as the Orks. Not scary or terrifying mind you, just unsettling. All of it's strange eldritch effects and myriad of inhabitants seemingly challenging the Orks to a contest of who can be the most destructive was just downright un-Orky. Nobody is as good at wrecking things and killing as the Orks. At the moment none of them were even around to start a good scrap and the warp itself was rather calm which just made the whole place a huge purple bore fest. Needless to say, Warlord BoneKrakah wanted out as soon as possible and requested as such from the head Mek Boy. When he learned from the stupid git that the warp drives were busted and they couldn't leave the boring purple hell hole and get into a nice scrap until it was repaired. Brimming with rage, BoneKrakah announced his intention to replace the git by ripping his face off with his Power Klaw. After, making his displeasure known, he settled in to pass the time by getting into a good scrap with some of the Boyz.

Several hours and about a hundred dead Boyz later, the warp drive was finally repaired. Upon exiting the Warp, Bonekrakah and his crew immediately began looking for something to smash and found a nice little planet covered in greenery with a shattered moon. It looked almost completely untainted by civilization aside from a few medium sized settlements. After assessing it and the other nearby planets for a few moments, BoneKrakah decided that while there didn't appear to be many things to loot or people to kill it was better then nothing. With a deafening WAAAGH!, a collision course was set for the fiercest looking continent the planet had to offer. The one that kinda looked like a dragon or something equally vicious.

The tremors caused by the crafts impact were felt in the kingdom of Mistral. This event, which would later be known by the natives as the Great Tremor, damaged many buildings and marked the 1st extraterrestrial incursion to ever occur on Remnant.

Commadore Edwin gritted his teeth.

He hated the Ori with a passion. Granted, he hated all xenos with a passion, but with the Ori it was particularly vicious. He could identify with the other foes. The Orks enjoyed battle, the Tyranids wanted food, the Necrons wanted space, and the Dark Eldar had a desire to see others suffer. Even the peaceful desires of the Tau and Eldar resonated somewhere within Edwin's hateful soul.

But the Ori… Edwin had no understanding of the Ori. Why spread your religion? WHY? A religion was true only for man! The only religion as the religion of the God-Emperor, and xenos didn't deserve any part of that! Who did these idiots think they were insulted the Imperium by suggesting their Emperor was not God and that the true "gods" would give them lives of peace? Who wanted a boring life of peace and service anyway? WHO?

The Commadore smashed his hand into the dashboard, destroying it. His crew jumped.

"We are going to annihilate these insulting xenos for the glory of the EMPEROR!" He roared.

His crew paused, than began to cheer.

"Incoming ships detected!"

Edwin blinked. They were coming to meet them?Every other encounter with the Ori ships had ended with them fleeing. Granted, their ships seemed somewhat small compared-

"Numbering about a hundred!"

Ah, there it is. They had amassed a fleet. Edwin grinned. This would be very satisfying.

"PREPARE WEAPONS! GET IN FORMATION! We are going to drive these pathetic whelps into the ground for DARING to go against our Emperor. ONWARDS!"

The fleets met, and all hell broke loose.

The Ori ships had the stronger weapons and shields, and they were also more maneuverable. The single laser was able to pierce Imperium shields after three or four hits, burrowing into the think hull of the kilometers-long ships.

However, unlike virtually every other ship the Ori encountered, an Imperium warship did not blow up after their shields were breached. They kept going. And firing. And blasting.

It became obvious that the single-cannon design of the Ori ships was rather inadequate as the sheer amount of weapons lining the warships were astounding. The Ori ships outnumbered the Imperium - but they were obviously outgunned.

Edwin grinned. Powerful, yes. Smart, no. These Ori would be easy to take care of. Just destroy the giant ring, he'd been told, and they'd never hear from them again.

On the other side of the battle, Kalin roared as shields on dozens of Ori ships failed, and the entire crews were promptly disintegrated. "RETREAT!" He yelled.

"But the Ori will protect us in battle-"

The Prior turned the offending man into dust. One of the bonuses of working near the Warp was that he could easily say he detected Warp corruption inside anyone he burnt without fear of being called out on it. He really really hated when people tried to go against him.

"I SAID RETREAT!"

The Ori ships turned back, running essentially with their tails tucked between their legs. Edwin laughed a hearty laugh. They may be faster - but they had nowhere to fall back to but their large ring structure.

He had lost only four ships in that engagement. They had lost eighty. He liked those numbers.

"PURSUE THEM!" He yelled, passion in his voice. "LET'S MAKE THEM REGRET EVER LIVING."

The chase was on, though it would not be resolved for several days.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The ascended Ori were concerned. They were losing the engagement in the Warp Realms, and with the only one other active incursion, they really didn't want to have only one foothold in the galaxy.

But their forces were being destroyed, and the Ori knew improving their tactics, weapons, and designs could only go so far. They couldn't just make ships out of nothing, they needed the resources to transmute. It was extremely annoying, there was an entire galaxy they could gain worshipers from and they were quickly realizing that it may not actually be possible to subjugate the galaxy. After all, the Alterans were keeping them from interfering directly.

"There may be a way around that." One of the Ori said, a being by the name of Ifrit. "I have just received intel from our deep Warp probes."

"As have the rest of us." Orin, defacto "leader" of the Ori Sec Cluster. "The Warp Gods are beings higher than us, as was feared, making it insurmountably difficult to contend with them. How is that a way around the Alteran problem?"

"You see…." Ifrit said, twirling his flaming non-corporeal appendage. 'The Alterans couldn't be anywhere the Warp Gods influence is without being noticed and talked to. And you know how much they hate being talked to, or even acknowledged. And beings that might declare war on them would be a no-no. So…"

"…they may not actually be in that area!" Firla said, grinning evilly. "Even if they are watching the sector, they couldn't mess with us without attracting the attention of the Warp Gods and triggering a possible retaliation! BRILLIANT!"

"This is a stretch." Orin said, frowning. "Tzeentch and his followers are likely already aware of the Alterans."

"The Alterans are wimps and you know it. They wouldn't even go within five hundred light years of anything that could affect them. You know how the Q scare them."

Orin nodded. "How would we test this theory?"

"Easy." Ifrit said. "Go through the supergate ourselves and see what happens."

"Are you volunteering?" Orin leered.

"Absolutely!"

Orin was not expecting this response.

"Then by all means, go on through, and tell us what you find."

"My pleasure."

Ifrit was gone in a flash of fire.

"If we can enter…" FIrla began.

"I know. It will mean we can actually do something there. Perhaps we can ascend to the higher level these chaos gods are at. Perhaps the populace in the warp can give us enough power to fight the Alterans directly. The possibilities are exciting. I shall contact Cluster Ter with this information should it turn out to be true."

"…are we ever going to try and figure out what happened to Cluster Pri?"

"No." Orin said, flatly.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Ifrit arrived through the supergate, feeling enthralled (and slightly nervous) at actually being in the galaxy. Surrounded by stars. It was beautiful.

It made him want to go conquering.

He sent a pulse out to all the Priors, announcing his presence. They all bowed instantly. He let out a pleased "sigh" as the power of worship flooded into him.

Then he got serious. There was a fleet of Imperium ships on the way.

Time to show them the true power of the Ori.

He experimented. He used a fair amount of his energy to completely fix some of the damaged ships that were arriving.

There was no retaliation.

He laughed, his fiery non corporeal body lighting up the supergate in a red glow.

It was time!

Edwin gripped the newly fixed terminal with zeal. They had just dropped out of Warp and were approaching the ring. It was rather hard to miss, its glow shining for a good million kilometers.

"Let's destroy it boys-"

"Commadore! Unidentified object detected among the Ori ships!"

Edwin glared. "Identify-"

"Pulsing energy, appears to be flames. Power levels are off the charts!"

"INDEED, MORTAL." A voice boomed through all of their minds. "I AM IFRIT OF THE ORI, AND IN MY INFINITE MERCY I OFFER YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO CONVERT TO ORIGIN, OR DIE."

Edwin paused for a moment. So the Ori gods actually did exist. That was unexpected. He growled, this may complicate matters…

But he couldn't really turn around now could he? That would be betraying the Emperor. "Focus all fire on Ifrit. I want to show these people how "gods" die."

The warships opened fire, focusing all their energy on Ifrit. Ifrit was mildly surprised to find that they tickled. If he remained in the same spot and took it for another ten minutes they might actually do some damage. Well it was time to put a stop to that.

Focusing his power, Ifrit caused one of the warships to implode, showering the area in a shower of sparks. Still no response from the Alterans. He laughed, though he did feel the energy that was drained from him. It was no small task to simply rip a ship to shreds. He could probably only do it about a hundred times.

However, there were a lot less than a hundred ships here. Might as well make a show out of it.

He twisted one of the ships in half, lit three on impossible fire, and caused two to smash into each other. He made sure the mortals on those ships could hear his laughter, but made sure his followers heard no such evil joy.

For he did have an image to keep up.

He exploded ship after ship with ever-increasing flair and grandeur. Soon, only one ship remained.

Ifrit disabled it's weapons before manifesting himself on the bridge. He dropped the deep voice.

"Commadore Edwin, how nice to meet you."

Edwin roared "FILTHY XENO!" He rushed at the fiery aura, passing right through it.

"Do you honestly think a simple weapon would do something to me when a small fleet did absolutely nothing?"

"The Emperor will destroy you!"

"Your Emperor is outnumbered. I am far from the only Ori, Commadore."

Edwin tried to cut up Ifrit again, with no success.

"I do not expect you to convert to Origin Edwin. At least not yet, but I do have a mission for you."

"I WOULD RATHER DIE!"

"That is not an option here. You are simply to return to Imperium space and report what has happened here."

"I WILL NEVER FLEE-"

"Your ship has been set to fly back to Imperium space and I doubt you will be able to hack my encryptions before you actually get back."

Edwin glowered. "You… you dare?"

"Yes I dare. Now good luck, xeno-tainted Commadore." Ifrit burnt the mark of the Ori right on Edwin's left arm, chuckling. "Have fun."

Then Ifrit was gone, and the ship left.

"WE ARE VICTORIOUS MY PEOPLE!"

Cheers of Worship. DELICIOUS worship.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The Eldar Farseer paled.

The futures had just gotten a lot more bleak. And he didn't think they could get any more bleak.

Before this, most futures ended in Tyranid Infestetion or Chaos Control. Or sometimes both. Virtually nothing aside from those futures were visible.

And now the Ori had arrived.

The Eldar saw many possibilities. Ori domination, control over places the Eldar didn't know even existed. Ori falling to Chaos, turning the entire area into a wasteland of warp energies. Ori defeating chaos and using it for their own ends, subjugating the entire galaxy.

The Eldar trembled, praying to no-one in particular that there would at least be some hope. He reached out extremely far, straining his mind as far as he could. He looked beyond - where more Eldar feared to tread. He saw horrors- a race of rocks subjugating worlds slowly, a race of biomechanics hybrids converting the entire galaxy, and wars. So many wars. Some wars of which he couldn't even comprehend with his puny mind…

He wept for the future of the Galaxy.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The government of Mistral was worried. What few colonies existed on the continent of Wyvern were slowly going dark one after another. What little information they had suggested that a horde of strange green Grimm were overtaking every town on southern Wyvern, slowly making their way towards the ocean separating the planet's two continents.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem and would just be ignored by the government as it wasn't their responsibility to provide security for the inhabitants of that cursed continent. However, they had some non-expendable resources there in the form of a few dust mines that weren't operated by the Schnee Dust company. The Mistralian government preferred those mines working to provide the kingdom with it's dust supplies so they didn't have to rely on the outside sources usually controlled by Atlasian companies. With this in mind, they sent a team of elite soldiers and Huntsmen to divert and/or destroy the horde before it closed in on the valuable dust mines.

These Huntsmen planned to set the explosive ambush in an abandoned settlement on the projected path of the horde. Contact was lost soon afterwards and a second team was sent to ascertain the status of the first - they too went dark.

Sensing a pattern, the Mistral finally decided to deploy actual troopers, mech units, and whatever huntsmen they could get on such sort notice to defend they mines from the incoming horde. The land surrounding the mines was quickly cleared of foliage to make it easier hit the Grimm since the creatures usually charged the humans with no regard for self preservation. The troops defending the mines quickly cobbled together a solid defensive line and then waited for the horde to show itself.

They heard the enemy long before they saw them. Engines where heard roaring in the distance, increasing in volume with each passing second. The sound of thousands of cacophonous voices and the occasional burst of rifle fire or explosion growing ever louder. By the time the supposed horde of Grimm exited the distant treeline, the defender's were taken almost completely aback by confusion. They were fighting some sort of new Grimm weren't they? That had to be it. There was no one in the world who wanted to break the relatively new and delicate peace that had settled over the land - aside from maybe the White Fang, but there was no way that the Fang had enough vehicles and members to make a cacophony such as this.

When the oncoming horde of strange creatures entered the vision of the assembled defenders, the confusion they felt was multiplied tenfold. What manner of creatures were they seeing!?. they were missing the bone mask that the Grimm were known for, ruling out them being an unknown type of Grimm - but at the same time they most certainly weren't human or fanus with their bright green skin and imposing stature. Upon sighting the defenders, the greenskins let out a deafening chorus of WAAAGH! and charged towards the mines turning the locals confusion into panic and terror.

The Orks' ramshackle vehicles were the first to reach the Mistralian lines. As they smashed through the barricades they deposited a number of Boyz armed mostly with clubs but a few had shootas. They quickly engaged the many troops and mechs making up the defending force in a brutal combat. Things seemed like they could go either way for some time.

Then the main group of Orks hit. Not long after over half of the organic soldiers in the original Mistralian fighting force were killed outright and the mechs hardly fared any better. Blood, body parts, and hot lead flew through the air in equal amounts. It looked like the defending force was doomed to be slaughtered to the last man by the oncoming tide of green Orks.

Then the Huntsmen finally got off their asses and began to cut a bloody swathe through the horde. Seeing the Huntsmen rallied the remaining troops and they began to push back against the Ork tide. It took most of the day, but by the end most of the Mistralian forces were dead but the Ork raiding party had been destroyed.

This marked the first of a series of engagements against the Orks by Remnant's citizens.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Over the course of the year, several Ori moved into the Warp sectors, ready to lay waste and to convert all they found. The focused the majority of their efforts on the Imperium of Man itself, making sure the "dominant" power of the realm knew exactly who was boss. They weren't listening, but that didn't matter: they would eventually.

They had the power to destroy them, and even their biggest weapons couldn't do anything more than slightly tickle them. The empires of the Warp would fall.

An Ori by the name of Orilek began to laugh. "All will fall! All will fall before us!"

The others were a tad concerned that Orilek was getting a tad overzealous.