Asura Path

Disclaimer, I don't own the Stargate franchise, I don't do this for profit, this is a work of fan fiction.


Chapter Four


Overkill
n.
1. Destructive nuclear capacity exceeding the amount needed to destroy an ant.
2. Excessive killing/Use of a BFG against unarmed opponent.
3. An excess of what is necessary or appropriate for a particular end/Macro-scale measurement units 'BOLO', quantum scale measurement units 'Hasta la vista, baby' English Standard, milli-Rambo SCII


Ten hours after the Battle for Sateda


Alderwoman-No, President Cerise Xera, of the Satedan Republic checked over her appearance one more time before what could be the most important meeting of her career-no her life and the history of her people.

From what her aide had told her she was about to be introduced to the commander of the starship currently in orbit about Sateda and as best as she could tell, a representative of the Asuran Government who would be able to substantiate the rumors and vague claims that she had been hearing about.

Briefly she looked down at her notes…

Asurans = Ancestors?

That was not the most pertinent of questions but it was the one that everyone wanted to know the answer to as well as the first question that she had thought of.

What do they want from us?

Ancestors or not the galaxy was a harsh and unforgiving place Cerise like most inhabitants of the Lantean galaxy held little faith in the ability of others to defy the Wraith for a people not their own, not on the scale that the Asurans had. Sateda wouldn't have done so she knew for certain, not without asking for a prize worthy of the risk that lay in blatantly defying the Wraith.

That was what worried her. Her people had never heard of the Asurans, A fact that had been amply confirmed by a dazed historian that her aides had managed to snag from the crowd of people miraculously returned from the hands of the Wraith. That was another piece of the puzzle that didn't make sense, not unless Asuran was another name for the Ancestors, how had they become so obviously advanced?

For a moment Xera fought an upwelling of envy. Some few worlds had been fortunate enough to be home to Ancestral artifacts which provided sufficient deterrent that, when compared to more vulnerable worlds caused them to be culled less frequently than others. Sateda was not one such world, It had been culled twice in the last five hundred years, each time resulting in a dark age that had retarded the growth of her people and seen the development of a strict warrior society devoted to ensuring that at least those most able to rebuild their civilization survived.

The Satedan military had held sway over external affairs and had pushed through a proposal to deter the from attacking Sateda by using guerilla tactics to launch raids and strikes on Wraith outposts in a bid to strike at their logistics and force them to seek easier prey.

The strikes themselves had been a success; the overall goal of the raids had been an abject failure. Cerise believed that the unexpected resistance had actually goaded the Wraith into destroying their society as a brutal measure to curtail the growth of a future threat to their supremacy.

If the Wraith ever discovered the destruction of the Hive sent to Sateda Xera understood with her new insight that her people would be destroyed and any trace of her civilization reduced to a fading memory. President Xera knew that the coming meeting with the Asurans was critical with her people's fate in the balance.

A weary part of her wished that she could foist off this responsibility off to another but her options in that regard were not only limited but unpleasant too. Her people were keeping quiet the fact that the former Satedan President, may his craven heart turn black and rot away, had run off through the Ancestral ring the day before the attack with his personal secretary; several members of his cabinet, their families, senior military advisors and the bulk of the Satedan treasury. Most notably, the man left behind his wife and political opponents.

On the other hand there was former Over Master Kell, tasked with the defense of Sateda. Initial reports from irate Task Masters stated that he had abandoned his forward base and command after leaving orders to his soldiers that amounted to "Fight to the last man."

Further compounding the outrage were reports that the Three Thousand, a group of doctors, scientists, engineers, architects, survival specialists, and small families of farmers and teachers, everything needed to rebuild Satedan society, had been among those culled by the Wraith. It seemed that these individuals had been ejected from the hidden bunker in which they had been secreted, at trigun-point by Kell and three hundred of his men.

Kell had been killed, shot to death by one of his own men, Solin Sincha and the entire brigade was now under arrest for treason and cowardice in the face of the enemy.

Xera closed her eyes and yawned. She had gone through the night without any sleep, working non-stop for the sake of her civilization and it was now early morning. The meeting would begin in two hours she told herself that she would not fail to secure her people's future…


The meeting began at the break of dawn, Cerise watched from a window as a strange cylindrical vessel, olive green with two side mounted pontoons, came to rest in the hastily cleared pavilion of what used to be Sateda's most prestigious university, now the seat of Sateda's Intermediate Government.

The figures that exited the craft were not within her view and President Xera anxiously seated herself, working at calming her mind in preparation for the coming meeting. After some time her senior aide, Sola Tal, entered the room and hurried to stand behind her chair, giving her warning that the leader of the Asuran forces on the planet a man named Commander Oeleron was on his way in the next few seconds.

Another of her aides led Specialist Ronon Dex, the man who had saved her life and established first contact with the Asurans- she nodded to him politely. He was followed by a swarthy, dark-haired man dressed in what seemed to be leathers colored black, burgundy and brown. She assumed that this was Enforcer Perseus, enforcer to her understanding being a rank equivalent to task master.

Those two took up opposing positions at the walls as they were then followed by newly appointed Over Master Hauer who moved to stand next to her desk. The Madame President then stood to greet the Asuran commander as he was led into the room by another of her aides. As the man discreetly shut the doors she caught a glimpse of Satedan Specialists in the corridor standing opposite a group of black helmeted warriors dressed the same as Enforcer Perseus.

The main focus of her attention however, was on the tall, distinguished-looking gentleman with iron-grey hair and eyebrow. He was dressed in a simple, unassuming fashion compared to her Over Master. His clothes were a simple cream tunic with an earthy brown front, cream-colored pants lined with brown strips and no indications of rank or medals for valor in battle other than a small silver pip affixed to the collar of his tunic and a crystal brooch upon his chest.

As a Satedan Xera had served in the military in her youth, her family came from a long line of warriors. She could tell from this man's gait, the way he turned his head to look about the room and she knew from the look in his unusually light blue eyes, the eyes of a lupivore, that the man that stood before her was the commander of these Asurans.

She stood in greeting, "Well met, Commander Oeleron, I am President Cerise Xera, leader of Sateda's intermediate government, I thank you for your aid in our battle against the Wraith, the miraculous return of the majority of our people, taken by the Wraith and the generous medical care and supplies afforded to those injured in the attack. I thank you on behalf of the Satedan people."

The skin around Oeleron's eyes crinkled as he smiled. He spoke in a gritty yet even tone, "Well…met, Madame President." He said, stumbling slightly over the unfamiliar, formal greeting. "I, Commander Oeleron greet you on behalf of my people, the Asura. We Asurans came here to fight the Wraith, your thanks is appreciated but the aid that we have provided to your people in and after the battle is but a matter of course. The Asurans fight the Wraith and will aid those who fight in their own way as we do."

Xera digested that statement as she sat back down in her chair, offering one of the chairs place opposite her own, across the presidential desk to the Asuran. Briefly she exchanged a glance with her aide before turning back to face the man.

Her anticipation was carefully hidden when she asked her question, legends and prophesies were on her mind.

"I must ask you Commander, since we have never before heard Asura or the Asuran race…Are you…the Ancestors?" Xera and the other senior officials held their breath, in the background, Ronon quirked a brow.

Oeleron blinked, "No, the Asuran race is like your own, a descendent of the Ancestors. We were sired by the Ancestors as a force that would aid them in battle however we were young and ignorant of many things. Things that the Ancestors deemed unnecessary to our education but in the end led to some very unfortunate…mistakes." Oeleron grimaced, "In our ignorance lives were lost that need not have been lost and in the end the Ancestors bid us to…cease." Years of hiding under Oberoth's nose came to the fore as the Asuran explained in an oblique manner the origins of the Asurans and their attempted destruction by the Lanteans.

"For a time we followed this directive from the Ancestors and watched as the war they waged against the Wraith eventually turned against them. When it seemed that all was lost and that they had been defeated, the Asurans attacked the Wraith." The commander sighed at this part. "But still we were young, and the Wraith drove us off. We retreated to Asura and bade our time preparing for the day when we would fight the Wraith again."

Looking at the shocked Satedans he finished simply by saying, "That time is near."

The Satedans in the room absorbed Oeleron's words with surprise and a hefty dose of skepticism, to President Xera the disappointment at the knowledge that the Ancestors hadn't returned was clouded by the other things that Oeleron had implied, foremost of which was the fact that the base of the Asurans was either unknown or otherwise inaccessible to the Wraith. It could not be otherwise for the Wraith would not tolerate such an obviously advanced enemy, defeated or not.

Of further interest was the implication that the Asurans had held the favor of the Ancestors, at one time being chosen warriors. That meant access to weapons and other Ancestral artifacts. She looked at the man across from her and at the Asuran standing at the wall behind him. She had heard tales of their weapons being capable of killing a Wraith in a single shot, she hadn't believed the tales of the glowing lights but the armored giant, an…..En…Enkidu the thing was called, she hadn't ever seen such a thing in her life before.

Nervously, the Satedan president began thinking of ways to acquire such protection for her people but the Asuran looked at her with his too piercing stare and she stammered.

"That was very enlightening Commander Oeleron, I…I would like to hear more but I find myself concerned for my people's future. It is only a matter of time before the Wraith send a scout to discover the fate of that destroyed hive-ship. My people owe great debt of gratitude to the Asrurans and for the help you have given to us; I thank you… But at this time the Satedan people and Government must give thought to what we should do to preserve our people".

She leaned forward slightly, hoping to impress her words with the necessary intent. "If that Wraith scout discovers that we are still here and sees the debris on the planet or in orbit, my people will be doomed. Our military survived intact due to your aid and the Wraith's methods, but…"

A waved hand drew attention to the vista of ruined and smoldering buildings seen beyond the window as Xera pressed on, pointedly ignoring the sounds of outrage coming from her new Over Master. "When the Wraith attacked, they destroyed much of our infrastructure, very little was left intact. Thanks to you our people will only endure for about twenty years as an advanced agrarian society, but that is only if we abandon Sateda to the Wraith and seek to colonize a new world! We have very little with which to repay your people, but any aid that you can provide us in this endeavor, whether through manpower, technology exchanges or information will not be forgotten."

Oeleron looked thoughtful as the president turned to the murderous looking Hauer and quietly spoke. "I know you want to fight, Over Master, but we've already gone over this and the Advisory Council, whatever is left of it agrees…" Her expression turned so vicious for a second that the younger man jerked in surprise "We are not running away! No Satedan ever runs away! We will abandon this world and survive, but we… will…be…back!"

Over Master Hauer nodded meekly, crisis averted, President Xera turned back to face the watching Commander Oeleron and smiled sweetly. "So commander, do you think that there's a way that we could help each other?"

Oeleron returned the smile hesitantly as Ronon stifled a snigger with a raised first. "Yes," he said, "I think there is..."


After that it hadn't taken very long to come to a decision. Much of Sateda's bureaucracy had been culled by the Wraith, the sort of thing that tends to tickle a civil servant's sense of self-preservation. The measures needed to but the matter to a vote were quickly implemented in the most expedient fashion that didn't involve shooting someone.

The Satedans may have felt bitter about the matter but they all voted in unanimous support of the Asuran's proposal.

-

Commander Oeleron spoke plainly, without any hint of self-consciousness. "We Asurans have been preparing for a war with the Wraith for generations, however no matter how well our people train none of it is a substitute to actual practical experience in battle. Something we have not had for nearly 10,000 years."

The Asuran commander smiled wryly. "This fact was made even more evident when our observers reported on your encounters with the Wraith. Your people's unconventional methods of fighting revealed to us how much we have yet to learn."

Oeleron continued, "As such we the Asurans wish to enter into a treaty with your people for mutual defense and joint military action." He held up a hand as Hauer opened his mouth. "We are aware that your resources are limited but we ask for nothing more than a small cadre of men and women, Specialists that shall work with our people, training them in unconventional combat tactics. In return I am authorized by my people's leadership to offer the Satedan Government, residence in perpetuity upon a habitable planet, unknown to the Wraith, unconnected from the stargate network, and heavily defended from attack by space and ground based installations."


What had followed was one of the most surreal meetings of President Xera's career, every question meant to find a hidden catch a sinister clause in the deal proposed by the commander only served to reveal a new concession that further surpassed the Satedan's greatest hope.

The offer that Xera provided to the Advisory Council was deed and title to any area of a planet that the Satedan's could occupy and first right of claim to any area within a pre-negotiated distance of that settled area. The planet would have ground batteries manned by a joint group of Satedan Defense Force personnel and Asurans under the overall control of the most senior fleet Asuran commander during a battle situation and the Satedan Over master at all other times. The planet would also have orbital defenses, and system-wide defenses manned and maintained by the Asurans.

The Satedan Government would also maintain autonomy with regard to deciding internal policy and matters of civil and corporate law, medical care, law enforcement with the exception of Asuran personnel, immigration into areas claimed by Sateda and legislature. Matters of trade and external relations between members of the Asuran Compact, of which Xera learned there were already three other such groups, would be largely regulated by a trade council composed of representatives from all members.

Trade with peoples external to the Compact would occur on a world secured by the Asura for such a reason and such trade worlds would be the only such places outside of the Compact that could be accessed from the Asuran stargate network.

There were further details such as bulk freight trade being provided by donated Traveler ships, freedom of movement by Athosians, regulations for Zebrian traders traveling beyond the territory of the Compact, a mention about not interfering with the succession of the royal family of the Kingdom of Valaria and a host of other laws, by-laws, clauses, contingents and provision that made Xera wish she had brought a lawyer to the meeting instead of the Satedan Specialist who had fallen asleep on his feet midway through the meeting.

The Advisory Council only needed to hear the words, Secure defended planet, unknown to the Wraith and they'd jumped over each other scrambling to endorse the treaty.

Step one of the Asuran plan had begun…


New Sateda


"Ok," Rakai said, "Begin!"

The Wraith drone lunged with an overhead blow, Rakai leapt aside, grabbing the drone's arm and swiftly drawing it across the front of his body. A knife flashed once, twice, then once again as the Satedan Specialist counted off the maneuvers, "Stab, lift, slash, stab, stab, slit, stab, finish"

"See!" He exclaimed, breathing heavily as the tenth holographic Wraith that he had killed in front of his class of Asurans faded into sparkling particles and loose photons. This was his fifth class for the day and last. "Like I said it's simple. So what have we learned today?"

Rakai liked teaching the Asurans, they only needed to see something once and they could mimic it perfectly. Other than that they only needed a short explanation as to the meaning behind the moves and they would show creativity in adapting it to themselves and making the knife art he was teaching their own. But there was always a joker. "We learned why it's a bad idea to stand behind you when you've got a knife?" A student in the far end of the calls murmured.

"All right we have our first volunteer."


To put it simply, Specialist Enforcer Ronan Dex had screwed up. Big Time!

If he'd have just shut his mouth then none of this would have happened, but he'd gone and said something to some of his student's while they'd been going over the unarmed combat drills and someone had said something to someone else and well…Some how he'd ended up in charge of the Asuran 1st advanced infantry combat battalion.

He had a rank equivalent to Siriu-Enforcer and people were now asking him what to do! Fui! Idly he wondered who he'd have to kill to get busted down again. Seven words were all it had taken to ruin his dreams of gutting a Wraith commander face to face. With difficulty he banished those thoughts from his mind as Dia, a member from his advanced class entered the room with some of the other AAICB members.

"Let's see how far you've gotten." He grunted, as the other students formed a circle around them and watched intently.

It was a trait that some of the instructors found disturbing like his fellow Siriu-Enforcer Teyla Emmagan.

Secretly, Ronon also found it a little creepy, when they'd watch him so intently that their breathing slowed. But the habit paid of in that he'd never had to show them something more than once and that the only time that he'd had to explain something was when discussing why a certain maneuver had to be done in one way rather than another in order to maximize the degree to which a Wraith can be maimed.

The advanced class was composed of the Asurans who'd gone through basic training with Rakai, Marika, Hemi and Ara and chosen to matriculate into infantry combat and the armor division. It seemed that the Asurans practiced a partial arts that was familiar to both the Athosians and the Satedans though much more stylized and archaic.

It was called Jaiowli and was apparently a combat form taught to them by the Ancestors, but one that hadn't been used for anything other than meditation for close to fifty million years.

Ronan had grunted at that tidbit.

Teyla had taken up the task of making Jiaowli a more effective fighting system and this had been the point when Ronon had just been passing by and made a comment.


"What was that?' The Asuran before him had asked, Ronon chewed on the puffkin leg that he'd ordered from the food alcove, those things were great, you just asked for what you wanted to eat and flash, it was there!

Swallowing, he repeated what he'd said, "There's no such thing as overkill. The Wraith can take insane amounts of damage and still get up, you got to hit 'em till they stop twitching, hit em again 'cause they're playing dead, then them hit 'em again…just because. There is no such thing as overkill."

The guy had then started eyeing him like he'd grown a second head. Uncomfortable, Ronon had retreated back to his room but by then the damage was done…He'd been promoted.


After that the Asurans had started making a list, 'How to kill a Wraith in under twenty seconds', the wall that it'd been posted on was soon filled with thousand of different instructions, some practical, others not. This had led to the revised list of, 'All you ever wanted to know about hitting a Wraith and making it hurt'. That, along with a treatise written by Rakai, 'Wraith, my knife, and You' and Ronon's dictated, 'Knife-work for Neophytes', had ultimately resulted in the Asuran training manual, originally named 'Death-touch '.

Teyla's constant refinement, Ronon taking out his frustration on being promoted upon hapless students and the Asuran's constant study of the Lantean database for weaknesses and strengths pf various species and martial arts systems encountered over the last sixty million years had in the end born fruit. It was called Anima-Badan-Seishin-Do, and the Asurans calculated that it was the most efficient way of dispatching via close quarters combat 99.2% of all sentient beings ever encountered by the Alterans in their eons of existence.

The Wraith weren't the only ones to have gotten on the Ancestor's bad side…

At the core of the system there one simple tenet….

There is no such thing as overkill…

Ronon threw a flurry of blows at Dia's face, all of which were blocked or redirected. She danced out of the way of a kick and then flowed in from below in a manner that had Ronon guarding his legs.

The knuckle of a fist nearly bit into the thin flesh above an eye, and the instinctual head jerk almost led into an elbow strike. His hand came up and he shifted his weight backward, but by then Dia's olecranun had already brushed his Adam's apple, Ronon understood, a shade deeper would have resulted in a killing strike. But the fight wasn't over, this was a spar for the benefit of the new recruits after all and Ronon was wiiling to admit that he was learning as well.

A backhand rocked him, no a back fist, she'd done it at the last second, twisting her body, flicking her wrist, hitting with a blow driven by legs and hips. If he hadn't taken the survivor nano-treatments, administered to human Enforcers he would have died from a broken neck.

And she was still holding back.

Fingers flickered in a jab at his eyes,

Crazy-fast!

Ducking, he whipped his hair in her face,

Anything goes!

She grabbed a clump and yanked! He yelled!

A palm somehow came to rest on the back of the leading knee, the instant it touched there was a pinch and a tingle and he began to collapse forward, losing all strength in that leg.

Ceiling and floor whirled about, one naughtily replacing the other. The was the light touch of wind.

Hollow of throat

Groin

Below the nostrils

Both temples

The side of a neck

Solar Plexus

An ear

Crazy fast!

Upside down in mid-air too…

He landed on his back to the sound of polite applause…

Two more classes left.


Mayhap, the human

Asuran instructors,

Should have stayed quiet…

...

If only they'd known what they'd unleashed…


Unknown System, Asuran Starship Design Forum


Katana Labrea was a Traveler generational ship captain. The Asurans had requested the aid of Traveler captains with combat experience against the Wraith as part of the treaty Katana Labrea had been chosen due to having the most recent combat experience. Five minutes of fighting off a Wraith cruiser long enough for her to escape through hyperspace.

It was recent and enough, the Asurans wanted her opinion and the Travelers who held things close to their vests wanted an insider on what the Asuran fleet were doing in case they needed to counter their new allies.

She was scared, very scared.

It hadn't started out like that at first, she'd been smug. The Traveler concessions of the Asuran Compact had originally specified six Aurora Battleships. But the Travelers were used to eking out every last concession from a deal and then going a step further. Larrin had managed to arrange for the replacement of every traveler ship with a fully functional, brand spanking new Aurora, completely stocked and powered by Nuetrino/Ion reactors which while old tech to the Asurans was far superior to the dangerously radioactive fusion power plants that had been in use before.

The kicker was that they never lost the generational ships. The Asurans didn't want them and instead the Travelers gained virtual monopoly on bulk freight between the planets of the Compact. The Asurans had even repaired the jerry-rigged ships to the point where even their old engineers didn't recognize them, keeping most of the advantageous upgrades but in a safer form.

So yes, Katana had gone into the meeting a little smug. They showed her designs do a fabricator ship and the new heavy cruiser and battleship designs. She was pleased at first. The designs seemed to embody the strength and speed of the Aurora while fitting into heavy assault and support roles nicely.

She got a little worried when the designers had corrected her, those were the patrol craft and light cruiser designs.

The heavy cruiser and battleship designs made her nervous. Both were bigger and meaner than anything that she'd ever seen. A little corner of her mind gleefully imagined what the wraith would make of such ships.

Then they showed her something called Aegis and now she was scared, very scared. The plot that surrounded the hologram held a scale of 8 leuga by 2.5leuga by 2 leuga. Two and four leuga long spires extended from stern and bow. Thick hooked towers, a leuga long supported pontoon-like protrusions nearly as long as the ship they were attached to. The main energy cannon had an emitter that she could have landed a generational ship on.

Forge turned to Eris, "Hmph! This just doesn't have enough oomph!"

Eris nodded in agreement. "We'll place four more of the main weapons in positions that cover any approach, about eight times that amount in the secondary cannons, a few hundred of the Zero Point Energy Pulse cannons, a few thousand of the antimatter enriched plasma beam projectors, about two million of the matter disintegrators and the same amount in antimatter repeaters, we'll have enough energy left for whatever the anti-Dart guys come up with."

Forge mused for a second before stating, "Hmmm, with the subspace capacitors we should have enough space to fit the Mark I and II drones only a few billion of each but I'm working on that. It's got its own Potentia and drone production plants. Erm, we'll only have limited numbers of the new generation Potentia though."

Eris shrugged, "We can produce the old model just fine for now, how's the armor coming along?"

Forge smiled grimly, "Heh, five hulls made of pre-stressed solid, seamless neutronium alloys with a honeycomb support structure and each layer is fitted with its own shield system, energy and inertial dampeners. The hull started generating its own gravitational field."

"How's the hyperdrive?" Eris asked.

"Futui…" Forge replied in disgust. "It would take us two weeks to travel just three million light years! I'm working on it!"

Katana swallowed thickly, forcing back her gibbering terror enough to ask. "You guys, isn't that overkill?"

Eris blinked in amazement and Forge directed at Katana a superior smirk that caused her to flush then bristle defensively.

"My dear," He said patronizingly, "Overkill? There's no such thing…"


Neutrino/Ion reactors are and 'old' Alteran technology, dating back to the time when Anquietas and Ori were one. The premise behind it was so simple that, as long as one stuck to the general theory and avoided the entire branch of base eight mathematics developed to explain it, even a fourth level intellect could understand how it worked. The reactor used quantum interactions within a subspace field to 'slow' (they aren't actually slowed) neutrinos.

The result is a burst emission of ionized particles and radiation corresponding to an 'increase' (not quite accurate either) in the potential energy within the field. This potential can then through a variety of methods depending on the level of sophistication, be converted with minimal 'power loss' (the law of conservation of energy is shot to hell here…kinda), back into useful forms of kinetic or potential energy.

Stars produce neutrinos as a side effect of internal nuclear processes. Species with only a limited understanding of Nuetrino/Ion technology might first succeed in creating something of a subspace capacitor. An idle starship within or reasonably close to a star system can by mere proximity recharge its capacitors with little difficulty. As long as there are stars there are neutrinos in abundant supply and recharging is not an issue, even in interstellar space. However, should a vessel run out of power in intergalactic space, unless a rogue star passes by a ship in such a situation would be left stranded.

Subspace capacitors may charge and discharge quickly and efficiently, but they have an upper limit to the amount the field can 'intensify' (without some very unpleasant things happening to people in the neighboring space-time continuum).

The solution found by races that ascend to the second tier of mastery in the ability to supplement the subspace capacitor with another power source capable of storing energy for times when neutrinos are scarce….

Ori and the Asgard did this by bleeding the capacitors of energy while it was at maximum capacity, harnessing that power in order to create a young, self-sustaining, miniature proto-star (the Asgard use a neutronium based gravity device for a core while the Ori manipulated gravimetric fields), feeding it hydrogen and bleeding off excess helium, so maintaining a careful equilibrium.

The proto-star's lifetime was such that, if not dissipated by a containment failure, it could supply up to ten thousand years worth of neutrinos back into the capacitor so long as material supplies lasted.

Of course this was only one method.

The Asurans found twelve uninhabited systems with young, main sequence stars and set up arrays of Neutrino/Ion reactors to harvest the energy needed to power a mobile mass fabricator equipped with its own dedicated stargate. Once every 38.88 minutes the fabricator activated it's gate and beamed several million tons of material through to the other side where a construction yard waited with its own mass fabricators. Koracen and Lia were manning one such mobile installation under the watch of a pair of the soon to be retired Aurora battleships. They were having a debate.

"One or two?" Koracen queried.

"I don't know, quit asking me!" Lia snapped in annoyance.

"The second moon doesn't have enough mass to build an Aegis." Koracen noted. "At best we'd just get a sixth layer of armor."

The two Asurans stiffened as a merge started…

"Two it is then." Lia noted, entering the needed instructions.


Anti-Dart Discussion Group


Hildegarde and Pavharti were having an often repeated argument. "We don't need kinetic weapons, their ancient and unnecessary." Pavharti exclaimed.

Hildegarde persisted, "Wraith Darts don't mount shield generators, we should take advantage of that...we just need to bundle iron rods into groups of a hundred and fire them using a magnetic/pulsed gravimetric accelerator. It should blow through those darts like nothing and the rods are easily materialized, have no signature and are impossible to dodge within one light second of the target, well beyond dart engagement ranges."

The two paused for a merge…

"If we add an inertial dampener set to fail when the bundles separate we could triple the kinetic energy each has on contact." Pavharti suggested.

"Forget about iron rods, let's use neutronium!" Hildegarde added, "Coated in that naquadah isotope we referenced…"

One plan submitted Pavharti spoke up ashamedly. "There's something else that I didn't want to bring up because I thought it was overkill…"

"Love there's no such thing…" Hildegarde snorted.

"I know!" Pavharti blushed, "Here's my idea. We use the transient state nanocytes to contain a plasma beam….'

"A plasma beam, we already have a plasma beam!" Pavharti's co-worker scoffed.

"No listen," The Asuran complained. "We impregnate the nanites with Cetau particles, that exotic particle the Arcturus team discovered before things blew up in their faces." The two briefly grimaced. "Cetau particles breakdown polysaccharide molecular bonds at a highly accelerated rate, the nanites could be used as a delivery system for a poison, plus, if we narrow the focus of the beam with a gravimetric manipulator, and magnetically hyper-accelerate it through a subspace micro-corridor…"

Hildegarde started doing the math, "With those power requirements and what's allotted to us, we can do four, maybe five shots per second in volleys of three hundred? That'd qualify as a light, anti-Dart weapon. "

Pavharti nodded satisfied. "I'm thinking of calling it Plasma Hyper-Acceleration through Subspace Emergence and Rectification, phaser for short."

Hildegarde snorted, "That sounds ridiculous…"


Lantea Council Room


Niam sighed, "It has to be said Auricht. Are we right in taking steps to commit genocide?"

"Even if it's the Wraith?" Auricht wondered.

"Especially if it's the Wraith! Wars that can be justified are the most dangerous as the histories show. A good ideal can easily mutate into something other than what was started. Genocide, justified genocide is a far ways toward that something else." Niam insisted passionately.

"And shall we offer them quarter when they will give us none? Perhaps a tithe of human's Niam?" Auricht snapped frustrated.

"Don't be facetious Auricht! There are other ways…The Wraith absorbed during their evolution small amounts of human DNA and our medical tests showed that they've run experiments to give humans Wraith traits. We reversed that in Teyla and the Athosians can we not do something similar to the Wraith?" Niam proposed.

"Turn a Wraith into a human?!" the other man exclaimed. "What's stopping them from finding a way to change back? They're addicts Niam! They're addicted to the rush of power gained by draining another of life!" Auricht refuted stridently.

"An amnestic component…"

"Would diminish the drug's viability…"

"The new nanites could counter that." Niam grasped at the possibility.

"It's possible…has yet to be proven impossible at least, but what about reversion in later generations?" Aurich pressed.

"The DNA resequencer…" Niam suggested.

"Won't work… There are millions of Wraith in each hive, and close to fifty or sixty projected hives in existence. "Auricht complained.

"We have the time." Niam challenged.

"True…perhaps." Auricht allowed.

For a time the two Asurans were silent…

"This humor thing…" Niam sighed. "I just don't understand it…"

"Maybe we should start again with something simpler." Auricht suggested. "A Wraith a Lantean and a Bolo Kai walk into a tavern, the Bolo Kai says…"


1.5 AU above the Galactic Plane


Daedalus smiled as it was finished. His supervisor Lorica twitched.

"I thought you said you were building a scale model?" She said

Daedalus nodded sagely, "One to one scale."

Lorica twitched.

"How big is that thing?" She asked.

They were looking at a cross-hatch structure nine by nine leuga. It was composed of three parallel rectangular cuboids, pillars nine by two by two leuga in dimension. They were merged by three identical pillars at ninety degrees. At the central intersecting point and every other intersection was a cradle. A city-ship was nestled deep within the central cradle, where a giant blast shield could be brought in and out of phase on command, covering the city. The other cradles were empty.

"Each of the modules link to a subspace region modeled after a life supporting world capable of hosting a population of eight billion for five hundred million years." The scientist preened. "Midway-through our understanding of the science advanced to the point where we only needed to make minimal use of the gravity and proto-star manipulators from the initial design. We added them anyway of course, to provide some redundancy in case of a malfunction or an attack."

"But why build something like this?" Lorica stammered.

Daedalus frowned, "In the worse case, we have nine virtual star systems that can be moved anywhere we wish." He looked at the brilliant galactic core. "In the best case scenario they become the seat of our civilization. This is the first…Siege Bhrigu!"


AN Not much to add, review, review, tell me what you think...

On scale:

1 leuga = 2.22 kilometers

1 uncia = 1 inch

1 palmus = 74 mm

1 pace = 1.48 meters

Inspiration for Aegis, first ship at -2x [h t t p :// w w w . m e r z o . n e t / ] (The Crysis Alien ship crossed with the replicater ship that escaped the Asgard created black-hole)

Seige Brigu is a giant cross-hattch # 3x3 structure that are basically 9 Dyson Spheres.

Oeleron looks like Rutger Hauer in my mind.