Author's note: Just when I should be writting my Masters and a report for my boss at the same time, I have the ideas only on how to move this forward. Annoying.
chapter 7: Live and play and slaughter the innocent.
Knox family residence
Douglas Knox had had enough of the irritating military officers he had to deal with lately. He agreed to the missile contract of course, but he was not satisfied. The specs this guys wanted were just crazy. And they flat out refused to say why they needed it. He decided to check what this was all about on his own.
He first called Jack Crichton, father of his old friend, but that turned to be a dead end. The elder Crichton had known Jack O'Neill, when the latter one was just a Colonel, back in the nineties. He was supposed to work on deep space telemetry or something equally meaningless back then. Which left DK no closer to the answer. The Answer…
He tried accessing biography files on the General, but couldn't really get them in his hands. Or even on his computer screen. The guy has been obviously black ops in the eighties and early nineties, probably served all during the Gulf War, then retired as a colonel. And yet here he was, a three star general buying space missiles from DK's company.
He decided to try a different approach, the blonde woman, Carter, didn't look old or tough enough to be a Cold War commando, and from their talks DK guessed she was more of a technical specialist in the army. He started in the national science register and there she was, one Samantha Carter, a Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics, no publication since 1990. Douglas crosschecked that with military records from that period and there she was, flied over a hundred hours over Iraq. He could follow her record up to a year after the Gulf War, when she was promoted to captain and moved to… deep space telemetry? A coincidence? DK didn't think so.
He tried looking for more military officers that had something to do with deep space telemetry. There were a lot of them and DK found two more generals using that cover, Hammond and Landry. But nowhere in the records could he found any clue on the project under the obvious cover.
He tried yet another approach, checking all non-commissioned officers that he could somehow tie to deep space telemetry. He found one name. Master Sergeant Walter Harriman, listed as "Gate Technician" in Cheyenne Mountain Facility. NORAD.
Interesting DK thought. Why can't a private or even a civilian work on the base gates? Why is it someone as high as a Master Sergeant? What can be so important to require a NCO just to repair the gate?
Deadalus, in hyperspace
They were fast approaching the planet under attack. Since no news reached them of Atlantis' teams joining the action, Colonel Caldwell had to assume there would be no outside support and his men would have to operate on their own. Fortunately the battlecruiser crew was trained for this kind of emergency.
Just after they left hyperspace and decelerated, too close to the planet's atmosphere for anyone's liking, the fighter wing launched from Deadalus bay and headed towards the stargate location. At the same time the communications station reported that active combat was taking place planetside. Caldwell ordered the ship moved even closer to the planet and send word to the marines to get ready. Their forces were about to join the fight…
First the F-302's came down and headed toward the colony buildings near the Stargate. They met no resistance, no enemy fighter crafts, no darts. No Wraith. The human fighters circled near the gate for a while, feeding beaming coordinates to Deadalus, then spread out to check the other locations on the planet.
The communications station was receiving conflicting messages, from the Traveller defenders on the ground, occasionally from unknown attackers and from Traveller ships exiting hyperspace in orbit. Without the beaming capability, those would have to send shuttles to the surface. For a while, the U.S. marines would be the only relief to the colony. They prepared in squads of four, to cover all directions after rematerialization.
The first squad soon appeared on the largest building's roof, with six others soon following on other rooftops and one on the colony's main plaza. The marines could easily hear gunshots now – not projectile bullets like their own P-90s and occasional M-60s, but rather pulsing energy weapons, some of them more sonic in nature – those they identified as Travellers' guns – some more rapid, somewhat biological in their splash – probably the attackers' weapons.
The squads that were beamed to the roofs swiftly moved towards the access hatches and doors identified by the fighter pilots, while the lone ground team cautiously approached the somewhat damaged door to the building housing the Stargate. As they prepared to enter, each squad reported their status and waited for the others…
The F-302s were halfway around the planet by the time, without identifying a single enemy fighter craft… The Traveller ships were only now launching their first shuttles…
As the last team reported as ready, the marine major commanding the rescue mission started the countdown… And in few seconds, doors and hatches opened and guns blazing, the squads entered the fight.
The two teams entering the Gate building had the easiest time, having to dispose only of two black-and-red clad guards. Still, those were alert enough to gun down three of them before dying themselves.
In other buildings the teams had to join into the already intensive firefight, sometimes entering at the backs of the enemy troops and gunning them down easily, sometimes on the Travellers side which helped overwhelm the attackers in quick succession, but not without losses, and once in the no-men-land which ended with the team being slaughtered in an instant.
The survivors, regrouping in cleared buildings, moved to overwhelm the unknown attackers – now confirmed to be human under their uniforms and helmets. The slight change in the balance of power, without enemy reinforcements through the Stargate, lead to a total victory… just as the Travellers' reinforcements started landing…
Victory, while total, looked pyrrhic... Out of twenty four marines, only half were still alive, with two heavily wounded. Seventy three of the colonists were found dead, with more than a hundred wounded or rendered unconscious during the initial infiltration. And at the time of the attack, there were just over two hundred people on the planet. But what shocked Caldwell and - upon hearing the news - Woolsey and Ellis, was the size of the attacking force – twenty two men and women, who identified themselves by a red triangle and a white circle on a black and white background…
Unknown system, Moya
They exited starburst in yet another star system… but this one was substantially different. First because of the radio signals reaching Moya from one of the planets. And more importantly because of a fleet of ships of unknown design orbiting the planet. Alien, blue-grey giants built of wavy lines. And as Aeryn was watching the ships regrouping in a formation she found somewhat familiar, but couldn't recall just now, the Pilot forwarded the communicates from the planet to the bridge:
"…. read us? We advanced too far. We are under attack from the Wraith. The Ring of the Ancestors has been locked and the Darts are already culling us. Does anyone read us? We advanced too far. We are under…" the message started looping.
"Don't answer that!" Aeryn Sun and Ka D'Argo said at the same time. The Luxan continued: "If those are the same Wraith we heard about in the village, they may attack us as well. We should wait and observe."
"But there are people down there!" John shouted.
"No…" Aeryn had to say to that. She realized what the alien ship were preparing for in the orbit. "The full scale bombardment will start soon. We won't even reach the planet in time."
Crichton stared not comprehending. "What? Why?" he muttered.
"It's like Peacekeeper pacification tactic. They're about the destroy the technological competitor. Obviously they prefer pre-industrial societies as subjects." D'Argo answered him.
The ships were now almost in place. A few smaller ones moved to cover the gaps and… a rain of some energy based projectiles erupted from the ships toward the planet. There were seven of the large ships visible on this side of the planet, all shooting. More were probably on the other side. Tens of smaller ships were using the same weapons, if on a smaller scale. Judging from the explosions soon visible on the planet's surface even from this distance, nothing would be left on the planet in just a few hundred microts. A planetary holocaust…
And then the aliens spotted them. One of their larger ships broke orbit – not that there was much left to destroy below – and started toward them, soon joined by several smaller ships. As it approached, Aeryn had to revise her judgment of its scale. It was slightly longer than a Command Carrier, but had less volume, as it was shaped more like a fighter, not a capital ship. It seemed… organic in nature, even more so than the Leviathans. A single small speck detached from the ship and started in their direction. Then one more. And a dozen more…
"I think we should get away from here. Fast" Aeryn said.
"The starburst is not ready yet" the Pilot retorted. "Commander Crichton, could we?..."
"Yes, yes, already on in…"
And soon, just before the large vessel got close, Moya accelerated in a nearby planet's magnetosphere, performing the farscape maneuver, leaving the system in an unknown direction…
Wraith hive ship, Eistaa alliance
The queen moved her ship to the edges of the system, to think about the last developments. While they were eradicating the human pests, that presumed to invent radio, an unknown ship, slightly larger than a Wraith cruiser, appeared in the system. It was definitely observing the situation for a while and then escaped using a strange maneuver, when she sent a ship to investigate. She was fascinated by the ship, as their scans revealed it to be fully alive, not a dead husk like the Wraith crafts.
She was in constant contact with other hives' captain, yet she didn't notice a giant ship that entered the system till it started decelerating nearby. It was not travelling through hyperspace, yet somehow it was travelling faster than light. And was thus indistinguishable to her fleets' sensors till it slowed. She hissed annoyed… But she was also intrigued. This was the second unknown visitor this day.
In fact she was intrigued enough to contact the ship before ordering it destroyed. For now, she decided to take a look at the scans… And she hissed in annoyance again. Besides ordinary armament one would expect from a ship, even a giant ship, this one was carrying four enormous ones, of unknown manufacture or capabilities, but each the size of a cruiser. She decided to wait, first ordering the rest of her forces out of the system… for a while.
Scorpius Command Carrier
"Hail them" Scorpius ordered, watching the strange ship on the viewscreen. He found its shape somehow comforting, something that would fit a hybrid like him. Not the Peacekeeper utilitarizm he had to live with and not the Scarran pompousness he had to grow up in. He liked it.
"They are responding, but they do not appear to have visual communication capabilities. Shall I put them through?" Scorpius just starred at the pure blood, who suddenly remembered his duties again and just said "Opening audio only channel, now."
Author's note: As I had to split the Wraith meeting, we will now sing Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue… | …and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. Which will be another meeting...
