Authors Note
I hope you all enjoy it and please Review. I am writing this with andrewjameswilliams permission. Thanks for any support given. -Spearhead
Chapter 1
Two weeks later
Admiral Robyns was sat on the bridge of the Achilles. All around him, personnel were busy at work at their stations. Blue holographic screens hovered over the active consoles, flickering as the constant update of their displayed information occurred. Beeps and chimes sounded as commands were entered or achieved. The purple coloured hyperspace tunnel could be observed through the forward window of the bridge. The bridge of the Proteus-Class was modelled after the X-304 Daedalus-Class. So physically it appeared the same as the ancient vessel, but that was where it ended.
"Sir, we're approaching destination." Captain Owens informed.
"Good, signal the fleet." Robyns nodded.
A hyperspace window opened in a barren section of space. Task-force Sagittarius and Rivendell exited the hyperspace window into normal space. Rivendell sat in the middle of the large formation, with the Achilles at the forefront of the formation. The space around the fleet was dark and dead. Small dark purple coloured pockets of dark matter formed clouds were floating around the fleet and throughout space. As the powerful sensors of the fleet swept the surrounding area, a nearby vessel awoke from its sleep.
"Sir, unknown contact detected. Three kilometres dead ahead." The Captain said, working at her console.
"Show me." Robyns ordered. A holographic screen appeared in front of him, showing a strange orange ship that was floating on the edge of a nearby dark matter cloud. Sending a mental command to the neural interface, the image zoomed in on the strange vessel. It appeared to be a weird squid like hull with an ugly metal engine strapped onto its rear. The sensor readings indicated that the ship's power generation was increasing at an incredible rate.
"Sir." The Captain groaned, holding her head.
"What is it Captain?" Robyns asked, not taking his eyes off of the display.
"Something...Something is happen...happening." Josephine struggled to say. She continued to hold her head, her nose started to bleed and her eyes became bloodshot.
"What are you talking about, Captain?" Jacob asked, shifting his view to the Captain.
"It..hurts!" The Captain screamed. Her head felt like it was on fire. Her body convulsed slightly and her head snapped backwards.
"What's wrong, Captain?" Jacob questioned as her head slowly lowered itself.
"We are Sinhindrea." 'Owens' said, darkly.
"Am I talking to that?" Jacob asked, pointing to the screen showing the strange ship.
"You are not talking. You are listening!" 'Owens' snapped.
"Alright, what do you want?" Robyns asked as the bridge crew turned in fear to look at the possessed Captain.
"Death." 'Owens' replied.
"We mean you no harm." Robyns informed.
"Death." 'Owens' repeated.
"We are peaceful explorers." Robyns added.
"Death." 'Owens' repeated again.
"I must warn you, we will defend ourselves." Robyns said as 'Owens' began to slowly shake her head as if to say no.
"Death." 'Owens' shook her head.
"If we've accidently entered your territory, I apologise. Perhaps we can negotiate a peaceful accord." Robyns offered. 'Josephine' stopped shaking her head and looked into Jacob's eyes. She leaned closer, her nose almost touching Jacobs. She stared at him. Jacob could see the blood flowing from her nose. Before he could pull away, 'Owens' grabbed the back of his head to keep it in place.
"Death!" 'Owens' screamed before she started convulsing. Her whole body shook violently. But it stopped just as abruptly as it had begun. Her body flopped back into the chair and Robyns was froze in place. For a few seconds, nothing happened, but a console began beeping and broke the spell over Jacob. He blinked and looked around the bridge. His crew were shocked or stunned.
The Sinhindrea hunter felt nothing by hatred and rage as this prey tried to talk about peace. No peace could exist between gods and vermin. They were the messengers of the universe and would lay waste to all sentient life that was not Sinhindrea.
Activating a console that had not been used in many millennia, the hunter felt pride and excitement wash over him. The fleets would rise from their places of rest and rally to the call of hunt.
Soon, the Sinhindrea would purge yet another vile species from the cosmos and would be one step closer to their promised Ascension.
"What is beeping?" Jacob finally asked. One of the crewmen slowly approached Josephine's workstation. He looked down at the holographic screen and his eyes widened with shock.
"What is it?" Jacob asked as he turned back to look at the screen showing the Sinhindrea ship.
"Lieutenant Wayne Dunn, sir. The enemy ship is powering weapons, increasing speed and has raised shields, sir." The crewman informed. His hair was short and pitch black, his eyes were a dark brown and his muscular build made it obvious that he was a ship-board marine.
"Alright, signal the fleet to battle stations. Raise shields and arm weapons. Get her to Med-bay." Jacob ordered. The holographic screen in front of him deactivated.
"Aye sir." Wayne nodded. Two other bridge staff walked over and carried the captain out of the room. The Lieutenant sat down at Owens station.
The blue protective shield formed around the Achilles and the rest of the fleet followed the Flagships lead. The Sinhindrea ship continued to approach. As it entered weapons range, it opened fire. Orange weapons fire that looked like fireballs, shot out from the tip of the Sinhindrea fighter. Three salvos hit the forward shields of the Achilles. As five drones launched from the Achilles, a large hyperspace window opened up behind the Sinhindrea fighter and spat out a large Sinhindrea fleet.
"Sir, five capital sized vessels and twenty fighters just arrived. Energy signatures match the Sinhindrea ship." Wayne informed.
"All ships, fire at will. Order the Jutland and destroyer group two to remain in defence of Rivendell. Any that slip past us, they have to take out." Jacob ordered.
The Achilles let lose all of her weapons. Drones, six blue Asgard beams and hundreds of white bolts from the particle rail guns sprang from the Achilles. The wave of death impacted the approaching Sinhindrea fleet and caused their shields to flare. Flaring shields highlighted the enemy ships, with the exception of the drones that bypassed the shields and caused the enemy fighters to explode into balls of fire.
As the first few Sinhindrea oversized fighters exploded, another hyperspace window opened and spat out more enemy ships. The rest of Task-force Sagittarius sprang into action, firing their weapons in support of the Achilles.
"Sir, enemy ships advancing. They're firing weapons!" Wayne informed as the space in front of the Achilles turned red with enemy fire.
The entire salvo was focused on the Achilles. The Sinhindrea weapons fire slammed into the Achilles, causing her powerful shields to flare in defiance. More drones zoomed out of the Achilles launchers as the weapons officer increased the salvo load. The drone swarm washed over the Sinhindrea fleet and punched into their ships. The small fighters erupted into flaming debris, but the bigger Cruisers continued to advance. The drones that impacted these great war machines only caused minor damage to the region of hull they impacted.
"Sir, more enemy ships incoming. Rivendell is taking fire. Shields down to eighty-five percent!" Dunn informed as the ship rocked violently.
"We can't keep this up. Order the fleet to punch a hole through their lines. We need to get past them to enter hyperspace!" Jacob ordered, bracing himself.
The Achilles slowly gathered speed as it charged towards the Sinhindrea fleet. The rest of Task-force Sagittarius followed their Flagship and continued to fire their weapons at the fast approaching enemy. Blue beams of plasma poured out of the four forward cannons on the Achilles, only to meet the shields protecting the Sinhindrea Cruisers. The drone reserves in the Tau'ri task-force were quickly being depleted, as more and more of the weapons were fired to try and overwhelm the enemy. The entire task-force's shields flared brilliantly as they held back the powerful barrage from the enemy fleet.
"Sir, we're out of drones." The Lieutenant said, working at the console.
"Divert all power to Asgard weapons and shields." Jacob ordered. It had been four hundred years since the Tau'ri Federation had replaced missile weapons with drones. They hadn't yet met an enemy with the numbers to survive even a single ship's drone stockpile, but the Sinhindrea had done more than that. They'd survived an entire task-force's drone assault and were still coming with great numbers.
The Achilles entered close combat range with a Sinhindrea Cruiser and fired its two starboard Asgard cannons. The first blue plasma beam punched through the Sinhindrea shields and the second beam dove into the ship's hull causing molten slag to fling into space. The particle rail guns fired into the breach and gutted the ship's interior. The Cruiser went dark and just hung in space, dead.
The Achilles was consumed by a violent shaking and Jacob grew concerned.
"What was that?" Jacob barked.
"We've lost a ship, sir. The destroyer Tennessee, sir. It was rammed by a enemy cruiser. We were caught in the blast radius. All hands lost." Wayne reported with grief in his voice.
"Continue the push!" Jacob shouted.
The Achilles headed for the next Cruiser in the task-forces way. As the ship fired the six Asgard weapons, drones filled the space around her. Sinhindrea ships erupted and broke apart as the advanced projectiles ripped through them.
"Who was that?" Robyns asked, looking around in confusion.
"It was Rivendell, sir. Governor Sheppard requests we use this time to leave." Wayne replied, his voice briefly full of hope.
"Alright, signal the fleet. Set course for the Milky Way." Jacob ordered
"Aye, sir." Dunn nodded.
The Achilles led the way through the gap that Rivendell had just created. As the ship cleared the rear of the enemy formation, its rear Asgard cannons opened fire. Four blue beams of plasma collided with the shields of the rear Sinhindrea formation. All of Taskforce Sagittarius followed the 4 kilometre Achilles out into open space.
"Ready to jump into hyperspace, sir. The formation is clear of the enemy fleet." Wayne informed.
"Good, let's get out of here. We'll cover the fleet's escape." Robyns said rubbing the sweat off of his forehead.
The Achilles slowed and began turning back towards the Sinhindrea. The rest of Task-force Sagittarius and Rivendell passed the Achilles. The massive Proteus-Class Dreadnought opened up with its full broadside attack. The ten Asgard beam cannon emplacements that ran along the 4 kilometre long ship, glowed as they prepared to fire.
Ten beams of blue plasma crossed the short gap between the Achilles and the rotating Sinhindrea fleet. Most of the plasma beams smashed into the shields seemingly without effect, but inside of the Sinhindrea ships, several conduits exploded causing minor damage. The three Asgard beams that hit ships with their shields already depleted, gutted the forward sections into slag.
As Task-force Sagittarius opened a hyperspace window, the Sinhindrea fighters had turned around and began shooting at the Achilles. A handful of the weapons fire passed the Achilles and struck the window into subspace. The purple hyperspace window shifted into a glistening rainbow coloured vortex.
"Sir, Sinhindrea weapons fire has hit the subspace window. It's caused some discolouration, but other than that, our sensors can't detect any difference." Lieutenant Dunn explained.
"It doesn't matter, we need to leave. Tell the fleet to continue and bring us about." Robyns ordered.
"Yes, sir." Wayne nodded.
The Achilles began turning away from the Sinhindrea force to catch up with Task-force Sagittarius as Rivendell entered the vortex. Achilles' rear Asgard cannons let loose four beams of blue plasma at the pursuing enemy. The Proteus-Class Dreadnought used its powerful Ion engines, modelled after Atlantis' stardrive, to begin catching up with the retreating Task-force Sagittarius. As it approached the hyperspace window, the Cruisers managed to bring their forward weapons to bare on the rear of the Achilles. The Sinhindrea fleet fired all of its weapons at the Achilles.
"Sir, rear shield emitters are taking a beating. Shields down to forty-three percent." The Lieutenant informed.
"How long until we enter hyperspace?" Jacob asked.
"Ten seconds." Dunn replied.
"Reinforce rear shields with power from the weapons." Jacob ordered.
The Achilles' shields flared as more weapons fire slammed into it. But before the shields could be breached, the Achilles disappeared into the rainbow coloured vortex. The Sinhindrea tried to enter the vortex, but it closed before they were even close. They all screamed as their prey had escaped from them. The fleet broke apart and flew off in different directions.