Finally, I've finished chapter 4!

October 14, 2552
Abydos Station, 1632 Zulu

"All right people, it's showtime. Battle stations!" On Colonel Emerson's word, alarms began ringing throughout the station as personnel rushed to their duty stations.

"Bring all reactors online and to full power!" shouted the chief engineer.

"Raising shields to full power, bringing long-range sensors online! All three Hades launchers read ready. Point defense systems are coming online now, sir!" said the tactical officer. She was tense, Emerson saw.

"Relax, Lieutenant. We've beat the Covenant before, this is no different." They both knew otherwise. This was the first time the Covenant had made it to Earth. And he seriously doubted it would be their last.

The tacco relaxed a bit. "Two assault carriers, thirteen CCS-class battlecruisers. Not a lot out there sir. Contacts are near Io but closing fast. Well within missile range, sir."

"That's it? Don't fire the missiles yet. We'll surprise them when they come near Mars."

"Sir, our fleet is coming to TACCON Alpha 2. Defense platforms Cairo and Malta are turning to face the Covenant fleet. Daedalus reports in position and ready."

"Must be a scouting party. I'll bet you their whole fleet is on their way as we speak." Colonel Emerson took a deep breath. There was nothing left to do but wait.

Earth SGC, 1035 Lima

The only thing keeping the SGC from becoming chaos was years of training and experience. Various artifacts, supplies and equipment had to be loaded onto Odyssey or taken through the Stargate. The beaming technology on the Odyssey made things easier, but there was still plenty to do. Data had to be copied and then wiped. Most importantly (to General O'Neill anyway), they still had to get everyone off the base. The noble thing to do would be to stay and fight it out, but that was dumb. The SGC couldn't operate while it was being attacked, and the Covenant weren't just going to disappear on their own. Although there were races that did. The Asgard, for example. O'Neill had read their records and Thor sounded like a pretty cool guy. Loki, not so much.

O'Neill tried to focus on the situation at hand. The SGC was evacuating. Daedalus and Abydos Station would help defend Earth. Odyssey, which was mostly complete, would leave. The incomplete hulls of the Korolev, Hammond and Athena were rigged to self-destruct if necessary. Virtually all of the SGC's precious data was being copied and wiped.

Colonel Carter had only one task at the moment, and that was to secure the precious data modules. She was wearing her MJOLNIR armor, just in case, but she hoped she wouldn't need it soon. The SGC-variant armour was one of many things Carter had helped develop. Just over half the weight of a standard Mark VI suit, it used thinner trinium armor plates, naquadah based power generation, and partially crystal-based computerization. The thing that really set it apart from standard armor was the shields. Based off Asgard technology, they were somewhere between three and five times stronger than those on a normal Mark VI suit. She had spent years going over all the technology from the crashed alien ship, reverse-engineering the technology and wondering what killed the Asgard. Often Sam would wonder what it would be like to meet a real live Asgard.

She tried to push the thoughts out of her head. There was work to do. The scientists had managed to spread the modules all around the science department, and she had to dart all over the base retrieving them. It seemed like a waste of time for a SPARTAN, but she was chief scientist of the project, despite what Rodney McKay said.

Abydos Station, 1754 Zulu

"Sir, Covenant fleet is approaching Mars."

"Very well," acknowledged Colonel Emerson, "Open fire!"

Near the top of the station, now facing Mars, three doors opened, exposing missile tubes each containing a Hades missile. Solid rocket boosters at the base of each missile fired, propelling them out of the tube. As soon as they were clear, the missiles engaged their miniature hyperdrives and ejected the boosters. At the station, the outer doors closed and inner ones opened. Hydraulic rams pushed new missiles from loading cradles into the tubes and the doors were closed. The entire process took less than five seconds. It was repeated twice, for a total of nine missiles fired.

"Whoa! Look at that impact!" yelled the "green" tacco. It was impressive. The missiles were programmed to drop out inside the Covenant shields, a tactic that was about twenty percent effective. The powerful warheads would cause catastrophic damage, sometimes destroying a ship in one hit. In this case, the missile hit a CCS-class battlecruiser at the aft end, completely obliterating its sublight engines and causing severe damage to the rest of the ship. Secondary explosions ripped through the ship as life pods and other craft sped away from the ship. The battlecruiser next to took a hit behind the shields as well, crippling but not completely disabling it. One other ship succumbed to repeated hits outside its shields. In the first minute of the battle, the Covenant had already lost two ships.

"Sir, Covenant ships are breaking formation and increasing speed. They're coming right for us."

"Target the two assault carriers and destroy them!"

The Covenant fleet closed rapidly on the Earth defense fleet as the missiles exploded out of their tubes. At FTL speeds, the missiles hit almost instantly upon leaving the tubes. The assault carriers were larger, tougher, and had stonger shields. The rapid maneuvering reduced the likelihood of penetrating the shields as well. One carrier took six hits before the shields collapsed, taking two others to the hull before finally breaking up.

"Sir, target is destroyed, shifting fire to second carrier. Orbital defence stations are engaging the battlecruisers. Boarding craft are approaching and point-defense weapons have opened fire."

Regret's Carrier, 1802 Zulu

"Prophet, we have lost five- now six, ships! We must retreat!" Val 'Saramee yelled.

"Do you dare question your Prophet?" Regret shot back. He was angry as well. The ship took a hit to the side, sending one unfortunate crewmember flying.

"We are losing! Our people are dying for no reason!" Val 'Saramee was an old warrior, and had seen wins and losses. This one was clearly a loss. He didn't really care about being accused of a heretic anymore.

"We've lost another ship! AAAAAAAAAAH!" screeched a panicked Unggoy manning the sensor console. A missile had just hit the ship, causing the entire ship to rock. It didn't help that the console next to the panicking Unggoy had just exploded.

"Compose yourself!" spat the Sangheili commander. Then he addressed the Prophet. "This is madness! We will all die here!"

"Never! Open a hyperspace window! Destination Earth!"

Abydos Station, 1805 Zulu

"Two battlecruisers left, one assault carrier. Boarding craft are impacting against our shields. I think we've won, sir."

"Don't count your eggs until they hatch, Lieutenant." replied Colonel Emerson. He thought they had won, too. "Target the-"

"What the hell! Sir, the assault carrier has opened a hyperspace window and the battlecruisers are moving to cover it! Holy fuck! Sorry sir, they've dropped out in the atmosphere!"

"What? Come about! Open fire, all railguns and light missiles!" Emerson knew they might as well throw rocks at the carrier. But they couldn't fire the naquadah-tipped missiles on Earth without express authorization. It would fill the atmosphere with radioactive fallout. Maybe they could take it out with a MAC gun- no, Covenant ships tended to explode spectacularly. The collateral damage would be huge. But a Covenant ship on Earth wasn't exactly good either. Damn. "Cease fire, prepare to beam down our troops."

That chapter felt kinda short but took forever to write. I guess I'm just no good at writing long or detailed chapters. Also, I suck with names. Anyway, please leave a review, etc. etc.