Pre-story notes: I'll admit, I wasn't expecting this story to be nearly as popular as it was. Not much to say so I'll answer a few questions.

Rennsteig: Jack O'neill was in D.C. the whole time, the character who was infiltrating was Jonathan O'neill, the clone of Jack that Loki made. I feel they threw out a huge opportunity with him, at least in later seasons where he wouldn't have been a teen but in his 20s.

AlbertG and EffervescentNova: your questions will be answered in due time.

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"Chevron 7, locked." As soldiers prepared themselves, Captain Rogers stared in awe at the whoosh. Another world, half way across the galaxy. It was almost incomprehensible to him. It was hard enough for him to understand the things that he had seen since he was awoken, but the alien technology in front of him was leaps and bounds ahead of any of that. "Captain Rogers, SG14 and members of the Royal 22nd, you are clear for the Romeo Site."

"Très bien les homes, aller aller aller!" The colonel leading the three battalions shouted. Rogers didn't really understand what the Canadian was saying, but he got the gist of it as the men in front of him started to run through the gate. This latest mission was one of the more ambitious, just over three thousand soldiers, all carrying as much equipment and supplies as humanly possible, along with APCs and specially ordered trucks that could travel through the gate, all of them filled to the brim with anything and everything that could be needed to rebuild civilization. To accomplish this, the gate had been moved to the tunnel which allowed entry into the base to allow maximum efficiency in getting personnel off world. This was the largest such evacuation in the past 4 days, but it was far from the only one. Even then there over ten thousand soldiers and civilians outside the base preparing for their turn to leave, with countless more in one level of preparation or transited to arrive at the makeshift tent city which had sprung up outside the base.

A few locals had asked questions, but it was passed off as a military exercise. Some had doubts, but when soldiers and civilians wearing the upside down V with a circle above it where saying no more questions, they had learned over the years that they meant it.

"You sure you can handle that?" Roger's attention turned to the man next to him. Unlike the others in this evac group, he was also a fellow American. This one was one Jonathan O'Neill, head of SG14.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The Captain referred to the four crates he was holding. Each one was made to be held by two men, but he held two with each of his arms, a benefit of his past alterations. He had been against going on the mission at all because of it, but his superiors had made a good case.

The fight would be won in the sky, and a ground pounder, even a national hero like him, would be useless in it. If he was in a position of being needed, they had already lost, so it was better for him to be a part of the off world future should the unimaginable happen.

The soldiers standing in front of him started to move forward. Without thinking, he too started to run. A moment before he entered the event horizon, he took a deep breath. He exhaled on the other side of the galaxy.

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"Sir, detecting large energy distortions five hundred out." One of the operators of the Daedalus informed the bridge.

"Activate the cloak." Jack ordered. In an instant the ship disappeared from sight. "Take us around them and bring us up on the rear, but give us a wide berth."

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"Sir, the fleet has defolded successfully" the Zeus' XO informed admiral Negala.

"State of the system?" The admiral barked.

"We're getting twenty one unknowns. We're also reading several defence platforms in orbit and…" The XO stopped for a moment as he looked at the readings. "A lot of communications satellites."

"How many?" Negala asked.

"That's a good question." His XO stated under his breath.

"Sir, they're launching raiders." The DRADIS operator stated. "Detecting 147. Correction, 144, there seems to be 3 bombers in the mix."

"Send the message." Negala ordered.

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"Sir, they're sending a message on all radio channels."

"Radio?" Jack asked himself quietly. "Alright, put it up."

"Ihbo hwbsofe hlhajs"

"Put it threw the translator first." Jack said after only a moment of the recording being played.

"have come to unite humanity for the first time after thousands of years apart. We will return the thirteenth tribe to our people's unity. You may join us peacefully, or you may resist in futility. We shall not allow those who destroyed the world of our brothers, the lost tribe of a lost tribe, to be permitted to happen again. This is your only warning."

"Lieutenant, open a channel by relaying us threw the Odyssey." Jack ordered, getting a 'yes sir'.

"Dear people of the Cyrannus system, you are trespassing on the sovereign territory of the nations of Earth, and you are unwelcome here. I'm giving you one chance, so if you value your lives you will take it. If you leave now, that'll be the end of it and we will not go after you. But if you attack us now, we will become more powerful then you could ever imagine. Your Aschen allies won't help be able to save you. And that's another thing, whatever the Aschen have told you is a lie. They're evil, they come to a world with open arms and give you technology and medical treatments, but what they don't tell you is that you become sterilized by them and your world turned into a farm." He signaled for the comm officer to cut the signal.

"You think they'll back down sir?" the first officer of the ship asked.

"We aren't ever that luck." Jack said to himself.

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"The audacity!" The Zeus' XO yelled as the message came to an end. "Launch all vipers and take formation for full assault using formation Sigma-Six."

"Calm down Sen." Negala barked. He didn't belay his order, but he needed to keep the man in line. He hasn't wanted him as his XO for the operation, but his alternative choice had died in a car accident. The man before him was competent, but his temper would be the death of him.

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"Sir, the colonials are launching fighters." Dakara informed his captain. The Aschen man leaned forward as he watched over a hologram of the battlefield before them. Without a word, he simply watched, waiting.

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"How many fighters are we talking about?" Jack asked as he got a good view of the fleet's backside.

"Almost thirteen thousand, sir."

"That's about ninety to one." His XO lamented. Jack did the math in his head. Their F-302s where good, but they were far from that good. They had to even the playing field.

"Get me a line to the Avalons." Jack ordered.

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Inside his cockpit, Captain Jon Haida forced himself to breath easily. He had fought before, he had been to space before, but he had never done both at the same time. He was deathly aware of how little stood between him and death in a vacuum, and after having died only a few months before he did not want to do it again. He probably wouldn't come back.

"Calm down Cap, I can hear your breathing over the comm." His wingman Mana told him over the radio.

"Sorry, I'm just worried."

"Why? We're only outnumbered a hundred to one." Marry, his other wingman, added.

"Thanks Marry, that really helped." Jon replied sarcastically.

He looked over his radar again. He couldn't see outside, the experimental Avalon strategic fighter-interceptor having a fully covered cockpit. He could see a digital representation of everything around him in all directions, but he knew from experience that it wasn't the same as seeing it with his own eyes.

His fighter wasn't that odd looking for an atmospheric fighter, but it did for a space based one. Having been designed for both, it resembled a more traditional fighter, only scaled up to about three times the length of a conventional fighter such as the F-35. His fighter was also painted a faint blue to distinguish itself from its green and pink sister craft, or the grey standard mass production models which had yet to see service.

"Captain Haida, it's time for you to earn your stripes." Jack's voice said over the comm.

"Director O'neill, what are your orders sir?" the young captain asked.

"Alpha Strike is to use starbursts to thin out the enemy's fighter lines with extreme prejudice."

Jon sighed. "Yes sir."

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"Why are we being held in reserve? I can understand you, but I'm the best pilot in the fleet." Lee rubbed his eyes as Kara asked the same question for the countless time.

"I don't know, and I don't care. It's not as if we'd get any action, I mean look at that." He knew she couldn't see him gesturing to his DRADIS, but he also knew she understood. The two of them where in reserve waiting in the launch tubes, just in case.

"I still think we should be out there."

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"What could they possibly be doing?" Saul asked, looking at the readouts.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Adama quietly spoke, making sure that only Saul could hear.

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"Sir, we're behind the first Aschen battleship."

"Alright." Jack said, opening a channel with all Earth forces. "Ladies and gentlemen, you know the plan. All of you are standing where you are now because you're the best of the best at what you do. Today is the day we will see if that's good enough. The line must hold, and it will hold. There's no doubt in my mind about that. Good luck, and god help us."

With that, he changed the connection to only be with the three Avalon fighters.

"Begin Operation Last Light."

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There was a long, dead silence. The Earth fleet was divided into three groups, each comprised of seven ships and their fighter complement, each headed by one of the three experimental fighters.

The space in between the two fleets and their respective swarms of fighters was filled by seventy two missiles. The missiles speed was too fast for the colonials to properly react to. The fighters of the CEF tried to avoid them, but nothing could prepare them for what they were about to face.

Each of the missiles opened up, revealing a dozen warheads each that quickly flew forward, deep into the formations of fighters. All at once, they reached their mark and stayed true, lighting the sky in a fiery inferno.

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"What the frak was that!" Saul asked as the DRADIS was blinded by the nuclear reaction. As the readings returned, he noticed a lot less green. "Casualties?" He yelled.

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"Eighty nine percent?" Negala quietly asked himself. The numbers didn't lie. Eighty nine percent loses of fighters. In a moment over eleven thousand fighters had been wiped from existence. He took a moment to think about his course of action, but the loud thump of his XO falling to the ground distracted him.

"Medic!" one of the marines yelled.

"Get our reserves out there." Negala ordered. "All ships launch all Vipers and ahead full. I want us in weapons range yesterday and guns blazing."

"Admiral, one of the Aschen battleships is gone!"

"What?"

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"They're gone sir." Dakara said, in the closest thing an Aschen had to shock. "One of their ships just appeared behind them."

The captain said nothing, but did a simple hand motion using only his right hand.

"Understood." Dakara replied.

The ship quickly started to advance, passing the others of the colonial fleet in the dust as it went ahead full.

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"Ahead full, fire all weapons at targets of opportunity." Jack ordered. Not a moment later the ship was traveling into a denser grouping of battlestars, frigates and cruisers. Their fire bounced off the shields when they hid, most missing due to the speed and angle of the ships relative to each other. Daedalus fired her four Asgard beam weapons at two of the battlestars in sight, cutting threw them like warm butter.

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"You gods dame frakers, I'm not going to let a single one of you get out of here alive." Kara muttered under her breath as she activated her turbo boosters. With the reserve vipers in the fight and the survivors of the main force they outnumbered the Earth fighters thirty to one.

The two groups of fighters met in the middle, the 303s picking their targets and thinning the enemy numbers with anti-air missiles. With no more starbursts to use, the Avalons quickly pushed through the swarm of vipers, firing on any which had the misfortune of getting in their path in a dash for the enemy's rear. One of the vipers got in Mana's way, the port wing ripping the craft in two and flinging its pilot at a speed which snapped his neck.

The only effect it had on the Avalon was removing a significant part of the port wings green paint.

Reaching the end of the swarm, they turned around and started targeting the vipers still advancing towards the dogfight with their turbo at maximum, maxing maneuvering more than a few degrees impossible. It wouldn't last long, but for that critical minute those fighters where fish in a barrel.

Behind the dogfighting swarm, the Earth fleet opened fire on the colonials with the power of the Asgard beam weapons that kept empires of old awake at night. In a single blow half of the gathered battlestars and warstars were eliminated.

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In that instant, a part of Negala broke. They had not even entered weapons range, yet they had taken far too many loses. Without their battlestars, the smaller warships where almost useless strategically. Half the fleet was dead weight, and with how long it seemed those dame energy weapons they used seemed to recharge, it wasn't going to get any better. As he looked closely at the DRADIS, he made his choice.

"Comm. get the Alerian on the line. Order them to jump into where bogy numbers seven's path." The eyes of the CIC all looked at him as if he was an alien who had appeared out of nowhere. "Give the order, now!"

Now wasting a moment, the order was relayed.

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Daedalus returned to the line of the Earth ships, having taken a few of the smaller warships out along the war and damaged countless more.

"Alright, 180 on the dime and all power to forward weapons and shields." Jack ordered. Not a moment later a flash appeared from the port side. "The hell was that?"

"Sir, that was the Saratoga." One of the operators informed him. His voice shook slightly, but he managed to keep the appearance of being professional. "It seems one of their frigates jumped right inside of it."

"All ships, evasive maneuvers!"

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"Tell the frigates from battle groups three, five, six, seven, ten and twelve to jump into the enemy ships. All vipers are to return to a battlestar or a warstar and all remaining ships are to return to our previous defold location." Negala knew it was over, but he wasn't going to take it lying down. He would make the Earthers pay in blood for this calamity.

"Admiral, what about the Aschen battleship?" His new XO asked. Negala looked up at the DRADIS. The battleship was flying full ahead towards the enemy, but they had seemed to deflect the weapons thrown their way. What they were doing and why was beyond him, but he didn't care.

"Leave them, they know the risks."

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From his seat on the bridge, the captain of the Aschen battleship watched as another colonial frigate was ripped apart. This one had tried to jump inside the Bonaventure, but the ship had slowed down at the last moment and rammed the small ship shield first. The extent of the damage to the Earth ship was unknown, but it was clear that it hasn't come out unharmed.

His ship, for its part, dodged another beam that missed by only a few kilometers. As they reached closer to the enemy ships, the odds of getting out of the way of their weapons lowered fast.

With the flick of his wrist, his pilot changed tactics.

"Ready sir." Dakara said, hand floating above his console.

The captain gave the signal.

In an instant, a hyperspace window opened up before the battleship.

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"That's another one." Jon's voice said over the comm. system.

With the vipers in a full retreat back to their mother ships, the Avalons and 303s had a much easier time picking off the colonials. Though they had better maneuverability, the inferior speed and need to return to their ships left most of the vipers vulnerable to attacks from the rear, with most of the pilots who tried to turn to face the Earthers head on finding themselves ripped apart.

Mana had used her fighters speed to overshoot her enemies, not caring as some tried to take pot shots at her. She had a target: the battlestar ahead of her. Her marking marked her as the "Pegasus", and it seemed different from some of the other ones, much larger, though still less so then the warstars.

Her angle gave her very little flak, though there was still the grey flumes of conventional munitions going off around her.

She didn't care.

She quickly slowed down her speed as she entered one of the ships landing bays. She let the kinetic energy she had carry her as she turned her craft to aim towards the 'ground' of the bay, the logical location of any lifts or shafts used to house the enemy vipers. Not wasting a second, she unleashed a stream of plasma into the deck, melting large sections of it, and breaking open three decompression chambers.

As her fighter existed the landing bay, she caught a quick glimpse of people and equipment being blown out into space.

She would regret her actions later, but for now instincts were in control as she turned around and took aim at the retreating vipers.

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One by one ships from the colonial fleet started to disappear, returning from whence they came.

"Hyperspace window detected." The comment got Jack's attention.

"Where is it?"

"It's the Aschen battleship, it's…. it's jumping right passed us."

"All ships 180 and ahead full, stopping that battleship is top priority." Jack's order wasn't even finished when his ship was already moving to intercept the battleship, but none of them could reach it before it would reach the Earth and the almost pitiful weapons platforms.

Not the 304s anyway.

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This was it; this was the moment of vengeance for his people. The captain was in the clear, the enemy's fleet behind him and only a token defence ahead of him, the bio-weapon in his ship would kill the Tau'ri once and for all, and it….

"Captain, hyperspace window opening off to port." Dakara's voice was uneven. "It's, it's…"

The ship which immerged was massive. Three times as long as the 304s, and twice as wide as they were long, the large, arrow shaped ship dwarfed anything the Earth had on the battlefield. It was much smaller than a battlestar, but its force of presence alone made it far more intimidating that anything that had taken part in the fight.

Realizing what was about to happen, the captain acted quickly.

"Retreat." He said. Dakara didn't waste a moment. If the captain said an order verbally, you followed it without a second thought.

As the battleship turned around, Destiny opened up with her main guns against the smaller ship. Though not nearly as powerful as Asgard beam weapons, her anti-ship guns made up for the power disparity with a greater rate of fire and more guns.

As the Aschen battleship retreated into hyperspace, only moments of fire had forced her shields down and her outermost sections venting atmosphere.

The battle was over, the Tau'ri stood victorious.

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Author's notes: well, that went faster then I hoped it would, but I'm not that good at writing battles. Which is good, because this story isn't so much about the battles as much as it is about the effects the war will have on the colonials and the Aschen.

I feel I may have spent too much time on the Avalons without properly explaining what they were, but I wanted them in there and I tried, so that's at least that.

Anyway thanks for reading and I'll update as soon as I can (though no promises on when that will be, I have a life after all).