Chapter 6
Ackbar's Plan

The battle had lasted mere hours, but in the immediate aftermath, the Ori Priors made the effort to recover all the fallen, and place them in neat rows. While also gathering the wounded.

"Your defences were overcome in a matter of hours!" Salen told the survivors, who had gathered into a large group in the city center, "Your fleet in orbit was all but destoryed! Surely you can see that resisting is useless. Pledge yourselves to the Ori, imbrace them as your new gods. We are their creation, we owe them nothing less!"

The New Republic General, Deson, sat with what was left of his command retinue. "Why should we bow before you?" a soldier in the crowd yelled out.

"We are not asking you too bow down before us, instead revere the Ori. Any of you who follow the path, will join them in enlightenment!" he declared.

"Yeah right," one of Deson's advisors remarked.

Salen swiftly turned to face him, a killer look in his eyes, "You have doubts?" he asked, the advisor visibly squirmed. How could he possibly know that he said anything? Did they put some kind of listening devices on us? Deson asked himself while the enemy commander continued to preach. "The Ori see all! They have powers that we mortals cannot comprehend, they possess the knowledge of the ages, they know the very secrets of the universe."

"If these Ori you speak so highly of have so much powers, then why didn't they use them?" another yelled out, this time a special ops marine, "And anyway, how do you know that your gods are real, and not some myth told to your people?"

"You have doubts about the god's existence? If you wish to see their power. Then we will show you..."

--

Deep within the massive living vessel, that served as the Supreme Overlord's flagship, a large delegation of every Yuuzhan Vong caste sat at a large table. While the Supreme Overlod himself sat on a huge spike throne on the other end of the vast cavrnous room. His throne chair was elevated above all the others, as to show his superiority.

"I should like to discuss the prosecution of the war. What do you have to say, Warmaster?"

Tsavong Lah slamed his fist down with a crash on the arm of his chair.

"I have only one word to say, and that word is Victory!" his delegation growled in agreement. "The enemy capital is ours," the warmaster continued, "and you have taken formal possession of it! We followed the capture of Yuuzhan'tar with our victory at Borleias! Supreme Commander Nas Choka's fleet does well in Hutt space. With the exception of the unfortunate Komm Karsh, our forces have been victorious everywhere ."

Onimi, at the overlord's feet, gave a little giggle that echoed strangely in the room's cavernous space.

The warmaster bared his teeth. Shimrra gave a rumble of warning to Onimi for his disrespect, and then his gaze settled on Tsavong Lah.

"Onimi may spawn wretched nonesense," he said, "but he has a point. Your attempt to capture Jaina Solo at Hapes was a complete failure."

Having no choice but to acknowledge his defeat, Tsavong Lah bowed his head. "I confess it."

"And the casualties we took for the capture of Yuuzhan'tar were enormous. The first two waves destroyed, the third, even though victorious, was decimated. After that, Borleias was a very expensive victory—more, in my judgement, than the planet was worth. Your own father died. Plus Komm Karsh's defeat was expensive in both lives and material. I am not as forgiving as my predecessor."

A fanatical gleam entered the warmaster's eyes. "We would give these lives again, and more!" he declared. "What is a warrioir's life compared to the glory of the Yuuzhan Vong?"

Shimrra's answer was sharp. "I do not dispute your warrior's glory, or their willingness to die! That is not what is at issue."

"I beg the Supreme One's pardon," warmaster Lah said. "I did not understand—"

"Do not assume me a fool!" Shimrra barked. He pointed at Tsavong Lah. "You have won your victories by sending your troops over a rampart of out own dead! How do you intend to replace these casualties?"

"My lord—I—" The warmaster was at a loss. "I have fulfilled all our primary objectives—I have given you the capital—"

"We may grow more ships, but warrioirs must be bred," Shimrra said. "It will take a generation or more before our formations stand again at full strength, and we now have many more worlds to defend."

"I will give you more victories!" Tsavong Lah cried. "The infidels are routed! If I follow up our victories, they will break!"

The warmaster was interrupted by yet another giggle from Onimi. "The warmaster is not listening! He needs a new pair of ears—or perhaps the organ that lies between them."

A hiss of fury escaped his throat as Tsavong Lah glowered at Onimi.

"Silence." Again the word came from Shimrra. Though the Overlord's tone was soft, the room's admirable acoustics made the word sing in the air. A hush followed. though Tsavong Lah seemed visibly to be choking on his words as he again bowed before his superior.

The Supreme Overlord spoke on. "You ask to follow the enemy. I have read our strength reports. We do not have sufficient forces both to maintain the offensive and to hold what we have already taken."

"My Lord." Tsavong Lah kept his head bowed. "With all respect—we pursue a broken foe. We may expect nothing but glorious slaughter thats adds great glory to your name."

Shimrra's voice was icy. "The enemy that wiped out Komm Karsh was hardly broken. And may i remind you that Komm Karsh's fleet was our sole strategic reserve? From this point on, moving any warrior to strengthen one force will weaken another."

Tsavong Lah had no answer. His eyes stayed fixed on the ground.

"Our forces will break off offensive operations for the present," Shimrra said. "We may resume the offensive once we finish a reorganization that brings more warriors to the field."

"As the Supreme One wishes,"

--

"The Ori?" Cal Omas asked, "Who are they? What are they doing in our reality? I thought you said that they are from your universe."

"Well, there is a slight chance that they were able to follow us, through the rip in the barrier between our two universes." Sam explained, "In other words, when we accidentally blated a hole into your universe, the Ori, theoretically, could have followed us through." A look of concern showed slightly on Luke Skywalker's face.

"If that's true, then we could have an enemy, with the same strength as the Yuuzhan Vong. Both have the same motivations, religion." Luke Skywalker said, "Both have the cruel policies. But the only real difference is that the Ori have technology that might outsine the New Republic's, while theYuuzhan Vong rely solely on biotech."

"The humans that attacked your planet aren't actually the Ori. They are the human followers, those who believe in the religion that was originally propagated by the Ori themselves." Daniel stated, "The Ori are ascended beings that, over the ages had evolved as a race to the point that they shed their physical bodies and now exist solely as energy in another dimension."

"But you were able to kill them, no?" Kyp asked.

"Well...To be honest, we don't know if we were successful in our attempts. We did send a weapon, that was supposed to be capable of destroying them, through the supergate on our en-"

"Wait, what is a 'supergate'?" Kenth Hamner asked.

"Oh, right they don't know what a stargate is," Daniel said, turning to his fellow squadmates.

"A stargate is a device created by an ancient race that once lived in our galaxy. They built a whole network of these gates across our galaxy," Daniel said to the Jedi Masters and the Chief of State.

"Yes, but what do they do? Is this 'Supergate' a weapon?" Cal Omas asked.

"No. The Supergate isn't a weapon, but when the gate is finished. The Ori followers will be able to flood this galaxy with their troops, and fleets. Which could mean alot of trouble for your galaxy, since one ship managed to decimate one of your fleets." Daniel said.

"But how will they do that? I thought you said that the supergate isn't a weapon, and if it isn't a weapon then what is it?" Luke asked, his expression slightly changed to annoyance.

"A supergate is a device that transports living matter across great distances, for example between galaxies," Sam explained, "but in order for this to happen, two gates have to be connected to one another."

"So they have to build one of these supergates in this reality in order to complete the connection." Kyp concluded.

"Technically yes." Sam confirmed the Jedi's suspicions.

Everyone stood in silence, taking in the grim news differently. At that moment one of the Chief of State's aide's datapad beeped once, the aide took a quick glance at it before walking up to Cal Omas and whispering something in his ear.

"Very well then. Tell him we'll meet with him right away." Cal said to the aide.

"So what's going on?" Mitchell asked, sitting down in a chair and helping himself to some food.

Cal walked up beside Luke, "So, what did u find, can we trust them?" he whispered to the Jedi Grand Master.

"Yes. I believe so, i detected no intentions to harm us. They were truthfull from the very start. Anyway in my opinion they could make very powerful allies, from what Han and Leia told us about their weapons..." Luke told the leader of the New Republic.

Cal looked at him seriously. "Very well." He said, closing his eyes and then turning to face General Landry and the rest of sg1.

"Well, unfortunately we have some very important business to attend to. So if you would excuse us." Cal and his aides briskly turned around and left the room, escorted by the New Republic honor guards. The Jedi gave one last glance and then followed suit.

"Well. That went well," Daniel said, picking up the book he was reading off the table.

"Yea," Mitchell said, "Good job." Patting Daniel on the shoulder as he walked past, still holding the sandwich he was eating previously.

--

The Prior walked up to the rows of dead, as his staff began to glow, he raised his staff high before letting it crash into the ground. A blinding flash of light erupted from the orb at the top. Within moments the light faded, the Prior walked back to his place. All the New Republic survivors looked around, trying to find out what the Prior had just done. However moments later the bodies of the dead began to move, groaning. Slowly but steadily the dead came back to life.

Astonished by what they had just seen, loved ones ran up to embrace each other. Close friends greeted each other as though for the first time. General Deson looked on in surprise on his face.

"No, thats impossible. How did you do it?"

"What you have just witnessed, is the power of the Ori. The power of the gods." The figure said simply.

The power of the gods you say? Renno Selso sat by the edge of the mass of New Republic survivors. Many in the large gathering were military, yet others were civilians who had participated in their planet's defense but ultimately failed. No matter what their role was during the strike, they shared one thing in common, they all wore a look of surprise on their faces.

Renno's original mission to Bestine was to infiltrate the planet's defense force and to identify, report, and if possible, to sabotage any major weaknessess. Of course everything changed when these humans came to Bestine. Renno had immediately informed his master of this, shortly after doing this, he received new orders.

He was to assess the strength of this attack, and see if the New Republic was able to hold. Naturally the New Republic military failed in its task to prevent the capture of all major population centers on the planet, but what struck Renno was the fact that the attack force was comprised of no more than one cruiser sized vessel. Another thing that appauled him, was that the New Republic planetary defense forces were defeated in mere hours, something only the Yuuzhan Vong could achieve, except with major csualties.

"What are the advantages of following Origin you ask yourselves. The advantages are, that you will have the same protection that the previously deceased had. The Ori will not let you die...unless you have dissapointed them. The Ori will protect you from your enemies, escpecially these Yuuzhan Vong, the Ori will help you crush them beneath your boot. The Ori are willing to share their knowledge, with us, their creation. All that the Ori ask is that you believe in them, embrace them, and you will be rewarded." the preacher scanned the crowed, which now almost all were listening intently.

"What is your decision?" he asked one finally time. Silence filled the air as one after another, civilians and soldiers alike bowed down, untill everyone was down on the ground.

"So be it." the commander said, motioning for a Prior to come then whispering something to him. The Prior nodded turning to the people, raising his hands and dozens of little books, the cover of which was dominated by a strange symbol, flew out into the crowd. The books were caught by eager hands.

Salen turned away as the hour long prayer began, he let a smile grow wide.

--

The ride from orbit was long and borin, but the ride from the giant floating city to Admiral Ackbar's underwater estate was even longer. Giving the group a long time to think about what had happened before.

When they had docked and entered the little underwater hut, they saw Admiral Ackbar, hero of the Rebellion, floating gently along the invisible currents of the large pool, which took most of the room. Winter sat by the edge of the pool, dangling her feet just beneath the water. She smiled broadly when she saw who had come to see them.

"Jacen!" she exclaimed jumping to her feet and rushing to meet the boy who she was once in charge of caring for.

Ackbar swam toward the group, with what looked like a Calamari smile on his face. "Ah you have come!"

"Admiral Ackbar, i see you are relaxing today?" Cal asked an amused grin formed.

"Actually I have called you all here today...because i believe i have a plan that will destroy the Yuuzhan Vong. Once and for all."

The next chapter. Enjoy.
R&R please.