Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or Battlestar Galactica: 2003.

A Different Path Taken

Chapter7: Devil

October 1999
Hell System
UNS Prometheus
Main Bridge

General George Hammond grit his teeth as they executed their final jump, appearing near a planet with a red moon seemingly glowing from the amount of lava flows on its surface. Beside the Terran warship dozens of ships also jumped in, eight of them fellow Prometheus-class battlecruisers however the rest were the newly deployed Eos-class destroyers. They were smaller than the Prometheus and her sister ships, roughly half the size, however they were meant to be support ships that could hold their own when needed. They were supposed to be used to counter the rising Cylon threat but when the mission was put forth to attack the stronghold of Sokar—the Goa'uld System Lord regarded by others as the devil—it was decided to deploy them there instead.

Now here they were…

They'd been opening negotiations with the recently discovered planet Vyus when Homeworld Command had ordered them to link up with Task Force Maelstrom and head for the Hell System. Intelligence supplied by the Tok'ra had informed them that Sokar was building something, something that would turn the tide against both the Cylons and the Terrans. Even the Tollan and Jaffa were taking the news seriously and had dispatched ships of their own to aid against whatever Sokar was planning.

"Report," Hammond spoke clearly.

"Jump completed," Ronson informed. "Sensors are picking up sixty-seven Ha'tak motherships in orbit and eighty-two Al'kesh."

"Gliders?" Hammond inquired further.

"Hundreds of them are launching from the surface and the Ha'taks," Ronson added a moment later.

"Here we go," Hammond breathed before giving the order. "Launch Vultures and Falcons."

The four hundred Death Gliders flew through the space between the two assembled fleets, their engines pushing them as fast as they could go and quickly entered weapons range. It was then that the Terran destroyers opened fire, spewing hundreds of rounds out of their railguns at the approaching strike craft, tearing into them like they were made of paper. This was soon followed by a volley of missiles from the rest of the Terran fleet which quickly took out what was left. Meanwhile Vultures and Falcons launched from the Terran warships and immediately jumped into the center of the Goa'uld formation.

Colonel Jack O'Neill pulled hard on the controls as he veered off, a lone missile having been launched at a Ha'tak the moment he'd executed his jump. The vessel hadn't raised its shield yet and was unprepared when the ten megaton nuclear warhead detonated against its center pyramid, shattering its space frame in a blinding light which dissipated a few seconds later. This action was repeated by the other Terran strike craft however only a dozen Ha'taks were destroyed in this manner, the others having raised their shields in time to survive the nuclear strikes.

"Carter?" Jack asked into the comm. "How we doing?"

"Twelve motherships destroy and two more have sustained heavy damage," Sam replied. "More gliders incoming."

Jack cursed quietly as he turned his Vulture and dived down towards the center of a fresh squadron launching from one of the Ha'taks. He lined one of the gliders up and pulled the trigger, spewing hundreds of rounds at them from the craft's two railguns. The lead Death Glider broke apart under the barrage and the others quickly scattered, unable to reform before Sam and four more Vultures descended on them.

"Fox three," Jack spoke as he locked on and fired on another Death Glider.

The missile shot out like the one before and quickly hunted down the fleeing glider, exploding upon contact with its hull. A moment later two plasma bolts grazed his starboard wing forcing him to evade, throwing the Vulture into a 'downward' spin. Two Death Gliders chased after him, their staff cannons spewing superheated plasma every three seconds. Just as a plasma bolt struck the port engine Sam launched two missiles from the 'side' quickly destroying the pair.

'There's too many of them,' Sam said quickly. "We need to fall back."

The Vultures and Falcons were severely outnumbered at the best of times but with hundreds more Death Gliders and Al'kesh launching from the planet surface it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed. The situation changed however when the sensors pinged in Jack's ear and two dozen hyperspace windows opened just off of the Goa'uld fleet. Most of the ships that emerged from the swirling vortexes were Ha'tak motherships which upon checking were giving off Jaffa IFF. Amongst them though were four Tollan star cruisers, all heavily armed and upgraded with reverse-engineered energy shields that the Terrans had traded for Stargate construction technology.

"About time they showed up," Jack gritted as he tried to regain control of his Vulture.

Meanwhile the Jaffa and Tollan fleets opened fire on the Goa'uld ships, plasma and ion bolts lashing out at Sokar's rapidly crumbling forces. The lead Tollan star cruiser broke formation first and accelerated into the fray, its powerful ion cannons expelling charged shots at a pair of Ha'tak, pummelling them into fragmented pieces. It's sister ships were right behind it lending their not inconsiderable firepower to the assault, forcing a wedge to open in the Goa'uld lines.

Meanwhile the Jaffa Ha'tak hung back, firing dozens of plasma bolts from their staff cannons at the Goa'uld fleet that was struggling to hold their lines together. As this was happening dozens of Jaffa Death Gliders and Al'kesh joined the fray. Hammond was thankful for the break at least though he was confused as to why the Goa'uld hadn't pulled back yet, after all Sokar should have realised by now that he'd been outmanoeuvred and would need to pull his forces back to regroup if he intended to counterattack.

"Status of the fleet?" Hammond questioned.

"The Tollan ships are breaking through their lines," Ronson reported. "The Jaffa fleet is moving to encircle the Goa'uld forces and cut them off if they try to escape."

And the Terrans themselves were keeping them pinned from long-range…

"…This is too easy," Hammond mused feeling a lump in his throat.

"Erm…sir? We're detecting a new contact launching from the surface," Ronson spoke up suddenly. "Unknown classification."

"Show me," Hammond ordered quickly. An image suddenly appeared on the screen showing the new vessel rising from the planet's atmosphere, its familiar pyramid-shape appearing to be 'sitting' on a large black superstructure. It was massive, easily ten times the size of a regular Ha'tak and almost appeared menacing even compared to the other Goa'uld vessels. Hammond looked at the readings himself and could stare in surprise. "Tactical analysis."

"Eighty-six anti-capital ship staff cannons, four hundred and fifty-eight anti-fighter staff cannons and ten glider bays. Energy readings appear to be just lower than that of an Asgard cruiser," Ronson informed as he looked over the readings.

A Dreadnought…

"Have the fleet execute emergency jumps now!" Hammond gave the order.

It was already too late however as Sokar's prized flagship opened fire, smashing three Jaffa Ha'taks to pieces with six plasma bolts each. One of the Tollan star cruisers were hit by no less than fifteen bolts before its shields failed and it was blown apart. Five of the Terran destroyers and two of their battlecruisers took twelve hits before succumbing to the barrage. The rest of the Terran fleet jumped away, reappearing 'above' the Goa'uld dreadnought.

"We're in position!" Ronson yelled above the alarms.

"Fire all drones!" Hammond shouted the order. As one the assembled Terran fleet fired off a large salvo of Ancient drones at the dreadnought. They avoided the staff blasts and broke through the dreadnought's shields before striking the hull, exploding against the armoured superstructure. The dreadnought reeled from the blow but quickly turned, its staff cannons returning fire with an even greater intensity than before. "Where are those Falcons?!"

The Prometheus itself took three plasma bolts to its forward shields nearly causing them to collapse. As if to answer his question, five Falcons jumped in 'below' the dreadnought and unleashed a volley of missiles. Several were shot down however the rest struck the underside and detonated, consuming a good chunk of its space frame in nuclear light. It's power core fell silent a moment later and the ship drifted lifelessly. What was left of it broke apart as a volley of missiles from the remaining Terran warships struck it's space frame a few seconds later.

Sokar himself died in fire above the planet Delmak…

"Enemy ship has been neutralised," Ronson reported as he climbed back into his seat.

The bridge was a mess, the crew even more so as damage repair teams rushed into the room. Ronson was bleeding from the side of his head from when he was thrown to the floor along with a dozen other crewmembers. George managed to hold onto the sides of his chair when the last plasma bolt had nearly broke through their shields and caused power conduits all over the ship to burst. The Prometheus itself was intact however some of the damage had bled through and several decks were open to space. Bulkheads had slammed shut and sealed off the damaged sections but they all knew that they'd been lucky. One more plasma bolt and they would have likely been heavily damaged if not completely destroyed.

"Report," Hammond gritted out as he stared out of the view port.

"The remaining Goa'uld ships have been either disabled or destroyed," Ronson responded.

"Scan the planet and locate all military installations," Hammond gave the order. "And deploy the Horizon."

The Prometheus settled into orbit and opened its lower cargo bay, allowing its latest weapons system to launch. The Horizon Weapons Platform was a two-phase anti-planet device that launched from ship and then deployed its payload directly upon a planet. Originally based off of the similar system that the Cylons used whenever they attacked Goa'uld and human worlds from orbit. Once deployed the Horizon launched ten missiles at the surface, four decoys and six high-yield warheads. The decoys flew towards the heavy population centers of the planet forcing the remaining Death Gliders and Al'kesh to intercept them leaving the actual warheads free to strike the military shipyards and installations, destroying them.

"Horizon deployed," Ronson informed. "The Jaffa ships are descending into the atmosphere now."

"Our Falcons?" Hammond questioned.

"They're nearing the Stargate now," Ronson answered.

Miles below them Falcon-one flew over the tall buildings alongside four of its sister craft and towards the position of the Stargate, a large central tower in the middle of Delmak's capital city. As the capital world of a System Lord, Delmak was heavily industrialized unlike many other planets within the Goa'uld Empire. This was where he had built the bulk of his fleet and trained his vast armies, so it was to be expected that they wanted to capture it instead of destroying it outright. The Jaffa in particular wanted to use it to aid them in constructing more Ha'tak motherships, something that they did not currently have the ability to do.

"Contact in three…two…one…" Kawalsky said into the comm as they reached the tower.

Air-to-surface missiles rained down on the tower's defence cannons before they could even fire a shot allowing the dozen or so marines aboard the Falcons to jump out of their craft and parachute down to the tower's balconies. Once down they quickly made their way inside and into the gate room at the bottom, gunning down any Jaffa that got in the way. Once the Stargate was secured Kawalsky received a green light on his dashboard as he and the other three Falcons flew up back towards their respective motherships.

Back aboard the Prometheus General Hammond sighed in relief as reports came in that they'd captured the Stargate. Reinforcements were already arriving through it from Earth and the colonies. Even the armies from Vyus, Hanka, and Svoriin had arrived to aid them in the hopes of maybe acquiring some advanced technology. After all it wasn't every day that their newfound allies chose to attack a System Lord's capital world and with how dangerous the galaxy had become those that didn't take the opportunity while they had the chance were likely to end up being attacked by the Goa'uld and the Cylons sooner or later. Six days later the last of Sokar's forces either surrendered and joined the Jaffa Rebellion or were killed. Delmak itself was absorbed into the rapidly growing Jaffa Rebellion and production of fresh Ha'tak started soon after with reluctant assistance from the Tok'ra.