Pegasus Galaxy

Vanir Prison Planet

It had been exactly one hour since the Asgard fleet had departed for the Milky Way towing the Alteran ships. The satellite Thor left in orbit around the planet detected a hyperspace window opening on the opposite side of the planet. The satellite had a limited, short range hyperdrive to move quickly around the system. It initiated a short jump to intercept the ship that opened the window.

It only detected a small atmospheric disturbance but no ship. It activated the advanced sensors to detect a cloaked ship but again found nothing. It did however detect something as a small magnetic mine attached itself to its outer hull. The satellite just barely had enough time to send a micro burst message before the mine detonated, frying most of the control circuits of the satellite. The small Artificial Intelligence in the satellite began a diagnostic to see which systems were still operational. The list was short but all the systems down were critical ones.

All communications were down as were weapons control and sensors. So basically the satellite was blind, defenseless, and couldn't call for help. A few minutes after the mine took out the satellites key systems, another hyperspace window opened and the ship that came out of it opened fire, destroying the defenseless satellite.

The micro burst transmission had reached Atlantis in mere seconds and Ayiana had gone into action. "Captain Kawalsky, I need you to take the Valhalla(Kawalsky had been promoted to Captain and given command of the Ascensionclass dreadnaught) and a small taskforce and immediately go to the planet Thor left the Vanir trapped on. We just received a micro burst transmission from the satellite then it went black. We haven't been able to raise it and I think we've got trouble there."

Kawalsky answered the hail. "I understand Director. I will take the Valhalla, the Enterprise, the Armitage,and five of the Defiants for a destroyer screen if that is acceptable to you." He nodded towards his com officer who then relayed the orders to the appropriate ships. Ayiana smiled. "I am glad you decided to stay with us Captain. That selection of ships should serve you well and handle just about anything you run across. You have a go Captain, Ayiana out." With that the eight ship taskforce jumped into hyperspace.

Kawalsky had broken the taskforce down into four, two ship groups and each pair approached from different directions with shields up and weapons charged. He didn't want to risk another ambush like the one that almost destroyed the Dauntless. Nothing fired upon any ship as they exited hyperspace so Kawalsky ordered a full sensor sweep of the system and sent several assault teams to the planet's surface. An hour of searching only turned up one thing; the Vanir had escaped the planet. Captain Kawalsky sighed deeply as he sat down in his command chair. "Hail Atlantis please."

Seconds later Ayiana's face appeared on the main viewscreen. "What have you found Captain?" She asked. "Well Director, not much even after an hour long search. The Vanir are no longer on the planet but we don't know how they did it. We detected traces of hyperspace windows being opened but because of the residual radiation from whatever destroyed the satellite, we can't determine who opened them. We are also detecting residual energy from weapons fire but again the radiation is preventing us from knowing who fired on the satellite. We recovered the satellites data recorder and it shows the satellite detected a hyperspace window, moved to investigate, and didn't detect the mine until it attached itself to the satellite's hull. The A.I. was corrupted by an Electro Magnetic Pulse from the mine so it can't give us any more information." Ayiana thought for a bit.

"Ok Captain, leave a few cloaked probes in the system as watchdogs and return back to Atlantis. I'll talk with Heimdall and get a message to Thor as well. We'll let one of them go over the information in the data recorder and see if they can find something we didn't since they built the satellite and A.I." With that the screen switched off and the small taskforce dropped a few cloaked probes before jumping into hyperspace.

As soon as the taskforce arrived back at Atlantis, Captain Kawalsky beamed the data recorder down so it could be sent to Heimdall on Asuras. Ayiana had dialed the gate to explain to him what had happened. "I am also sending you a log of all the sensor readings taken by the taskforce to see if you can match it with any know race. We have to know who helped the Vanir escape or if they were able to do it on their own."

Heimdall nodded that he understood. "I understand all of that, Director. But you have to understand I am under direct orders from the Asgard High Council to make the transfer of Asgard minds into new bodies my priority. I will get to the data recorder as soon as I can. I am sure you have nothing to fear as I believe the Vanir will go into hiding and not emerge for many years if ever." Ayiana knew she shouldn't get mad at Heimdall. He was just following orders after all. She just had this nagging feeling that something bad was about to happen.

To this end, she ordered double patrols and sent ships to increase the number of defensive turrets around Lantea, Asuras, Taranis, and their other key systems. Ayiana was hoping she was just being paranoid but her gut feeling (as Sheppard would say) told her otherwise. Ayiana started going through the UEC database and the Alteran database on Atlantis looking for something that not even she realized. A couple of days later, Dr. Beckett had to order her to get some rest.

"Ayiana, I know something is bothering you but you've been awake for over fifty hours straight. Go get some rest Lassie, doctor's orders." Ayiana couldn't help but smile. Carson's Scottish accent always made her feel better. "Alright, I will. I've been poring over these databases for two days straight and I still don't know what I'm even looking for!" Carson smiled. "Get some rest. It will come to you when your mind is clear and not all fogged up from lack of sleep."

The next morning, after ten straight hours of sleep, what she was looking for did come to her. She called Dr. McKay, Dr. Zelenka, and Narim to tell them to meet her in her office. When they arrived she told them to take a seat. "Ok, you three know I've been stressing over something I couldn't understand for the last two days. Well last night Carson ordered me to get some sleep and I did. When I woke up this morning it hit me. We need to completely design new ships from the ground up using all three of the technology bases we have." Both Tau'ri scientists looked like kids at Christmas while Narim looked contemplative.

"So you want to design a ship using Asgard, Alteran, and Federation technology?" Radek asked. "That's exactly what I want to do. I promised General Hammond we would help them design a ship using all the technologies but I think we need an entire line of ships not just one. I have every possible design on this crystal. So grab what you'll need for a few days stay on Asuras. We're going to enlist Heimdall on this too."

Over the next week Ayiana, Narim, Rodney, and Radek (Heimdall stuck to his orders but did provide them with schematics for the new generation two neutrino-ion generators (with the permission of the High Council of course) worked on designing four types of ships. The first was basically a dreadnaught class, second was a battleship class, third was a heavy cruiser, and last was a tactical explorer class. They used the basic layout of the Federation ships on all but the dreadnaught but without the fixed warp nacelles.

The dreadnaught was a full 5,000 meters long, had eight massive spinal mount ion cannons, ten large three gun turrets (five mounted on the dorsal side and five ventral), and hundreds of smaller two barrel turrets all over the ship. Some of the two barrel turrets were rapid fire ion pulse cannons; some were beefed up Gatling pulse phasers, while others were rotary railguns. The three gun turrets were mounted battleship style three in front of the Bridge and two behind the Bridge. The five on the ventral side were mounted with three facing forward with two slightly offset from the first one to allow all three turrets to fire forward or two to either side. The two in the back were mounted side by side allowing both to fire to the rear or one to each side.

It would also have multi-directional phaser arrays on all sides of the ship to provide 360 degree firing arcs to supplement the already massive energy weapon layout of the dreadnaught. Ayiana wanted the phaser arrays added since they could be used with a stun setting that would be non-lethal for certain situations. Not that she anticipated using a dreadnaught for crowd control, she just wanted all of the bases covered.

The shielding was as strong as the shield for Atlantis but used a modulating frequency rotation like the Federation shields. It also was multi-layered and conformed to the shape of the hull like the Aurora instead of a bubble like the normal Federation and Asgard shields. The shielding was designed into primary multi-layered shielding and secondary multi-layered shielding. If a drone type or phase shifting weapon of any kind was used against the ship, the shields primary layer was able to scan the phase frequency and relay it to the secondary shields to allow them to match the frequency and stop the phased weapon from penetrating.

The dreadnaught also had Alteran drones but Ayiana liked the Federation torpedoes so she added two forward launch tubes and one aft as well as two rapid fire torpedo turrets, one on the dorsal side and one on the ventral. Each ship design used the Asgard hyperdrive, Federation impulse engines, and retractable warp nacelles as a back-up to the hyperdrive and because the radiation in hyperspace made it impossible to fly a cloaked ship through hyperspace. There wasn't a ship created that could match the firepower of this monster. At least not that Ayiana had ever seen or heard of.

The battleship and the tactical exploration cruiser would be based off of the Sovereignclass but twice as long. The only difference between the two would be the weapons load out for the battleship would be much larger and the tactical exploration cruiser (T.E.C.) would have more comfortable lodgings and more science labs.

The battleship would have four spinal mount ion cannons, two on the dorsal and two on the ventral side of the saucer section and carry a larger contingent of fighters and bombers as well as a larger Marine contingent. There were also two spinal mount plasma cannons on the dorsal side of the saucer. The battleship would have four Gen 2 neutrino-ion generators (powered by Naquadria instead of neutrinos) and the T.E.C. would have three.

The battleship would need the extra generator to power the extra weapons the T.E.C. didn't have. Shielding on the T.E.C. and the battleship would be the same as the dreadnaught. All of the new ships built were using the same armor composite of trinium, naquadah, and carbon that the Asgard used in their newest ships.

The heavy cruiser would be just over 900 meters long but it would me a multi-vector attack cruiser similar to the Federations Prometheus but have three upgraded Gen 2 neutrino-ion generators and the same upgraded weapons as the battleship minus two spinal mount ion cannons.

The heavy cruiser would only have the two ion and two plasma cannon on the dorsal side of the saucer section. The heavy cruiser also had more maneuvering thrusters and the more powerful impulse engines of the dreadnaught. These oversized engines, heavy weapons load out, and more thrusters would allow the heavy cruiser to have nearly the firepower of the battleship but the speed and maneuverability of a much smaller ship. The inertial dampeners had also been massively reinforced and upgraded to help compensate as well.

All of the ships from the Saberclass up were being fitted with a receptacle for a ZPM. The larger ships like the heavy cruisers and up would be fitted with a ZPM room similar to the one on Atlantis that used three ZPM's. The ZPM's on all ships would mainly be for back-up power or to exponentially boost power generation in the case of an emergency. The ZPM factories in all three galaxies were churning out ZPM's faster than the charging station in the Lantea system could charge them. So Ayiana authorized the building of several more stations in not only the Pegasus galaxy but the Milky Way and Ida galaxies too.

A lot had changed in the last couple of weeks since the replicators in three galaxies had been defeated. The Tau'ri had come a long way since the intervention of the Federation that came here in order to save their own reality. So the Asgard High Council, the Nox, and the Alteran/Lanteans, (though they still considered the human race young) had agreed to accept them as the fifth race in a new Alliance.

The formal papers had not been drawn up but the free trade of technology was in full swing. The saving grace for the humans had been the intervention of the Federation and the breakthrough Zelenka had helped Heimdall with on the Asgard cloning problems. Had it not been for those two events, Asgard weapons, power generators, and such would not have been traded for generations if not centuries.

Everything seemed to be going their way for a change. It had been two weeks now since the Vanir had disappeared and all seemed quite. Thor had returned to the Ida galaxy with part of the Asgard fleet while the rest stayed to help build more shipyards and the ZPM charging platforms. Several joint bases in the Milky Way and Ida were being built as well. Once those were complete, there would be more built in the Pegasus galaxy. Heimdall had taken his research and materials back to the Asgard homeworld and was transferring consciousnesses into the new bodies as fast as he could. Millions of stored consciousnesses had been brought out of storage for the first time in thousands of years.

While the Asgard were busy becoming a viable race again, they had only been able to free up a few ships to attempt to hunt down their wayward brethren. So far, not a trace had been found of who had helped them if anyone at all. Whomever it was, they had the knowledge necessary to scramble the sensor readings bad enough that even an Asgard computer core couldn't make heads nor tails of them. Ayiana was hoping they had left this area of space for another galaxy far, far away.

Ayiana and her team had returned to Atlantis and she was sitting in the messhall having a quick lunch when the sensors detected an incoming wraith scout approaching in hyperspace. They technically didn't detect the scout, they had detected the "eddies" it made while traveling through hyperspace. As the alarms sounded, Ayiana tapped her combadge. "Emergency sight to sight beam out, one directly to the control room." She said to the computer and she disappeared in a swirl of transporter energy.

Ayiana appeared a few microseconds later in the control room. "Report, tell me what we have." She ordered. The technician answered quickly. "One Wraith scout ship on a direct course for Lantea Ma'am. Turrets are already charged and tracking the subspace eddies the ship is giving off. It will drop out of hyperspace in one minute. All defense ships signal ready to engage on your order." Ayiana shook her head. "No, let the turrets deal with it. Something doesn't feel right. Order half of the defense fleet to cloak and standby and raise our shields." The technician relayed that order and half of the thirty ships in the system shimmered into nothingness as the powerful city shield rose over the city.

The scout ship dropped out of hyperspace at the exact spot the computer said it would and was a fireball less than a nanosecond after it transitioned to normal space. It was still not fast enough to stop the databurst the scout ship sent the instant the first pulse phaser contacted its hull. "Sensors picked up a databurst just before it exploded. No words just a signal of some kind." The technician reported as he looked up at Ayiana. "Strange, have the defense fleet remain cloaked and alternate cloaking and uncloaking of random ships throughout the system. I want to keep them guessing if they are watching us. Do the same with the defense turrets as well."

A different type of alarm began sounding then. The technician looked up in horror. "Director! It's Asuras! Three Wraith hive ships have just dropped out of hyperspace and opened fire on the defense turrets. Asuras reports they are larger and more powerful than any hive they have seen!" Ayiana didn't hesitate. "Hail the Valhalla now!" Before turning to the screen. "Captain Kawalsky, the Wraith have attacked Asuras with three hive ships that are larger and more powerful than any seen before. Take the defense fleet and assist them in any way you can. Asuras houses the majority of our ship building capacity in the Pegasus galaxy and our latest research. It must be protected at all costs."

Kawalsky didn't waste time asking questions, he accepted his orders and followed them to the letter. Less than a minute after she had issued those orders, Ayiana watched the monitors as half of her in system defense fleet jumped to hyperspace. "Dial Avalon, we need to inform General Hammond of the attack." In no time the General answered and Ayiana told him what had happened. "I understand Director, I will send every available ship to you and contact our Allies to get as many ships as I can from them, Hammond out." Within minutes of this promise, ten Asgard ships, twenty UEC ships, and thirty Ha'taks (towed by the UEC and Asgard ships) jumped into hyperspace in route to the Pegasus galaxy. The Asgard had installed Gen 2 generators and Asgard hyperdrives into the few UEC ships left in the Milky Way during the two weeks after the destruction of Anubis and the Goa'uld System Lords.

Asuras System

ten minutes after the initial attack

Narim was yelling orders to the ships in the defense fleet around Asuras. "Keep moving but try to concentrate on one hive at a time! Ignore the cruisers they seem to be just there as a distraction! Use your superior maneuverability to limit their weapons effectiveness!" Then he turned to the staff in the control room. "Use the maneuvering thrusters on the turrets try to make them harder to hit. Volley fire the torpedoes simultaneously with the pulse phasers! Try to concentrate on the same hive the defense fleet is working on! Reinforcements are in route but we have to hold the hives off as long as we can!"

Half of his twenty ship defense fleet were either destroyed or drifting dead in space. The other half was taking a beating from two of the hives as the third approached the planet and opened fire. Blast after blast hit the cities shields, knocking Narim to the floor. "Lock ground cannons on that hive and open fire! Helia, fire the drones on my mark."

The ion cannons on the surface locked onto the Wraith hive in orbit and opened fire. Several large explosions spread across the hull armor of the hive but it still continued to fire on the city. "Now Helia! Fire the drones!" Narim ordered. Thousands of drones shot from several areas around the city and slammed into the hive in orbit. These were the new drones with the Tollan phase shift technology built in. It still took several hundred drones and many more shots from the ion cannons before the hive in orbit exploded. Helia commanded the rest of the drones she had fired to divide in half and go after the last two hives in the system. The two hives had just finished off the last of the defense fleet and were turning toward the planet as the drones struck.

At the same time as the drones hit each hive, the fifteen ships sent from Lantea, lead by the Valhalla dropped out of hyperspace weapons blazing. Kawalsky stood from his chair in utter amazement. "My God! They've destroyed the entire defense fleet! Tactical, fire at will with everything we've got. Hammer those bastards until their life sucking corpses are space dust." Even with the righteous vengeance Kawalsky and his task force felt and the help of more drones fired from Asuras, the two remaining hives managed to take out half of the fifteen ships sent to assist before being destroyed themselves. The city ship itself was undamaged, but the buildings and structures all around it to include several of the ship yards, were heavily damaged.

Kawalsky sat on the smoke filled bridge of his ship while tears rolled down his cheeks unchecked. He turned to his coms officer only to find her lying dead on the floor. He got up and slowly made his way to her console but found it was a charred mess. He turned to an auxiliary communications console and hailed Asuras. "This is Captain Kawalsky. Narim, can you read me?" The main viewscreen was nothing but an open hole to space covered by an emergency forcefield.

Through heavy static he heard the reply. "Captain Kawalsky, we read you but you're barely coming through. Can you clean up the transmission and try again?" Charlie looked around his devastated bridge. "Negative, bridge destroyed, half my crew is dead and half my fleet is destroyed. We're losing life support and need immediate assistance." Through the crackle of static he heard another ship's captain respond as he realized he was on an open channel. Within seconds transporter beams swirled into human beings coming to assist. Once the first group of engineers and medical personnel solidified, Kawalsky smiled in their direction then fell to the floor, flat on his face.

Atlantis

Lantea System

Ayiana was furious and on the line with General Hammond, Thor, and the newly promoted Brigadier General Jack O'Neill. Jack was supposed to have been promoted several months ago and taken command of the SGC on Earth but he turned it down in favor of working in the field out of Avalon. He hadn't dodged the bullet this time. He was now taking over Avalon from General Hammond who was retiring. Jack was mad as a wet hen right along with Ayiana. "How the hell did those three hives take out half of the planet, all of the defense turrets, and thirty-five ships?!" Jack screamed. "We've kicked their asses soundly in every engagement but this one! What changed?!"

"I don't know General but believe me; I will get to the bottom of it." Thor spoke up then and Jack made a funny face when he heard his buddy's voice. "I am in route with a fleet of Asgard warships. We will examine the wreckage as well in an attempt to ascertain how this was able to occur." Jack couldn't stand it anymore.

"You know Thor, I don't know if I'll ever get used to the new you. I like the old you but I guess the bright side is that you'll be around longer this way." Thor cracked a smile even though the situation was far from comical. "It will take time for me to get used to this as well O'Neill. But let us concentrate on the events at hand. We will arrive within the hour Director Ayiana." With that Thor closed the channel on his end to allow the Tau'ri to continue.

"We've also received word that the ships we dispatched when you first called us will reach you in three days. If it weren't for towing the thirty Ha'tak from the Free Jaffa Nation, they would have been there an hour ago. We figured the thirty extra ships were worth the extra time it took for them to reach you. All of them have been upgraded to the level Anubis had or higher. As you know Goa'uld technology is based on captured Alteran technology so it was easy for Doctor Lee, Colonel Carter, and Jacob Carter to upgrade some of the Ha'taks with Alteran pulse cannons and shields." Daniel explained as he came into the room.

Ayiana couldn't help but smile as she saw Daniel. "Tell Doctor Lee, Sam, and Jacob I am grateful for any assistance they have provided. I will get the Lantean scientists busy upgrading the rest if we have time. I'm still puzzled as to how the Wraith were able to upgrade their ships to be so powerful. It did seem to be only the three hives. The cruisers posed no problem to take out. I think they were sent as more of a distraction than anything." Just then Rodney came running into the room with Zelenka hot on his heels.

"I think we found something and you're not going to like it." Rodney McKay said as he entered General O'Neill's view on the monitor. "Well spit it out McKay. We haven't got all day!" Jack said angrily. Rodney looked back and forth between O'Neill and Ayiana like a kid that had just been yelled at by his Father. "Well, no need to get crappy about it, ok, ok." He said when he saw the look on Ayiana's face. "We detected a residual energy signature from parts of the wreckage. It matches the sensor readings the Python took during their engagement with the Vanir. I can't be sure but I think we found who helped the Vanir."

Jack went into a fit of cursing and kicking chairs. "That does it! I want those little grey bastards found and dealt with immediately!" Ayiana crossed her arms and glared at Jack. "We have priorities we need to deal with first General. We have dead to recover and there may still be survivors trapped on some of the ships out there. The Asgard fleet will be here within the hour and I'll let Thor decide how he wants to play it as the Vanir are renegades of his people. When O'Neill heard Thor's name he realized she was right and calmed down a bit. "You're right Director. I'm sorry I lost my temper. It just seems like everytime we get a break, someone jumps up and slaps us across the face to bring us back down again."

Thor and his fleet of thirty upgraded O'Neill IIclass warships, ten Daniel Jackson II class science vessels, and five of the newly built Samantha Carterclass drone carriers arrived within the hour as promised. True to his word, Thor ordered the careful examination of the debris. The Asgard scientists came to the same disturbing conclusion that Doctors McKay and Zelenka did. The Wraith hive ships were powered by an older version of the neutrino-ion reactors that the Asgard used over 10,000 years ago. With the upgraded power generation, the Wraith could now pose a serious threat to all life in the local galactic cluster and beyond.

Half of the science ships were assigned to rebuilding the defense turrets, with greater quantities of LGPS, in the Asuras system and the other half was assigned to help rebuild the destroyed sections of the city around Asuras. Priority was given to the shipyards so they could begin work on the new designs Ayiana and her team had come up with. It seemed they would be needed much sooner than originally anticipated.

One of the Lantean scientists approached Ayiana as she watched over the reconstruction efforts. "Director, I might have something that could be an asset to our war effort. In the last stages of our war with the Wraith, several Lantean scientists were sent to our outpost on Doranda III. Their purpose was to develop a new source of energy that would make ZPM's obsolete. It was supposed to be used to power the weapons of the Dorandans without the use of ZPM's. We never found out if they succeeded or failed."

Ayiana called all of her best scientists to her office as well as Thor and Heimdall. Once she explained what the Lantean scientist had told her, Thor beamed Ayiana and the required personnel to his ship and departed for Doranda with a small taskforce of five ships.

Ayiana and her team found Doranda destroyed except for one building which had been the Lantean outpost. There was evidence the outpost had destroyed an entire Wraith attack fleet and the entire planet. After cleaning the corpses of the Lantean scientists from the outpost, Ayiana and the Lantean scientists with her made a complete copy of the outpost database. While reading through the database Ayiana was describing "Project Arcturus" to the human and Asgard scientists with her.

"Wow, they were trying to extract vacuum energy from our own space and time instead of from an artificially created sub-space environment like the ZPM's!" McKay and Zelenka looked at each other wide eyed before McKay spoke up. "You're kidding? That would definitely make the ZPM obsolete! Wow, that would almost make a ZPM look like an alkaline battery in comparison! That's almost unlimited energy! We have to make this work!"

Ayiana smiled at his enthusiasm but frowned as she read on. "It seems the process created unstable exotic particles that escaped as hard radiation. That must be what killed the scientists here. From what I gather, they built a failsafe into the system in the event of a catastrophic failure. It used the weapon on top of the outpost as a pressure relief to bleed off an overload of excess energy." As she read more she noticed inconsistencies in some of the formulas.

"Rodney, take a look at these formulas and tell me what you see, you too Radek. When they're done, Thor could you and Heimdall look them over as well?" She waited while the four went over the formulas. Heimdall and Radek were the first to spot the problems she had seen. "There are several inconsistent algorithms in these formulas. If the scientists activated the device using these formulas, it would have lead to a catastrophic overload." Heimdall stated.

So over the next week, Ayiana and her team ran test after test and hundreds of simulations. Rodney had argued they should try their findings on the actual device but Ayiana and Thor overrode him for safety reasons. "Rodney, I will not risk another catastrophic failure. I will not allow actual tests on the reactor until we are sure we have solved the problem. If you can't deal with that then go back to Atlantis and I'll have Radek take over your job." Ayiana knew that would hurt Rodney's feelings but this was too important to rush no matter how desperate the need was.

There had been no sign of the Wraith over the same week but everyone knew that would not last. They were probably upgrading more ships and would return with a vengeance soon. The problem was Thor and the Asgard had searched the entire galaxy and found no trace of the Wraith or the Vanir. Defenses were tripled around Taranis, Lantea, and Asuras.

The pulse phaser turrets numbered the same as before but the number of torpedo turrets and LGPS had been increased three fold. The torpedoes had been upgraded with the Tollan phase technology to allow the torpedoes to phase shift past shields or deep into the heart of a vessel before exploding. A unique isotope had been added to each torpedo so if the Wraith attacked again, they could be tracked if a vessel were to flee before being completely destroyed.

A week later and the team was no closer to solving the exotic particle problem then they were when they started. Everyone was getting frustrated and Rodney was becoming more insistent that a live test be performed. "Look, we can keep the output below thirty percent and adjust the containment field manually." Rodney pleaded. "I can do this, I am positive!" Ayiana still wouldn't budge on the test. "No Rodney. For the last time no! If you bring it up again, I will relieve you of duty and send you back to Earth!" The room grew extremely quiet and Ayiana realized she had crossed a line she hadn't meant to cross.

"I'm sorry Rodney, I shouldn't have yelled at you or threatened you that way. I just know in my heart that a live test right now would be disastrous and may cost us more than we are willing to give." Rodney was still hurt and stayed silent for a long time. Then his whole demeanor changed as if someone flipped a switch.

"Wait, I have it! We use a shunt to bleed off the exotic particles into an empty ZPM. We then use that contaminated ZPM as replicator stock for the large matter replicators in the ship yards. The exotic particles are contained and can't cause the catastrophic failure as before!" Ayiana's face lit up as she knew he was onto something.

"You're right Rodney, I think that will work. We just have to design an algorithm to detect and siphon off the particles to an empty ZPM!" It took another two days of programming but finally between Ayiana, the Lantean scientists, the Asgard, and the Tau'ri, Ayiana was satisfied enough to try a full live test.

"Power levels holding steady at twenty-five percent." Rodney reported. "Good, increase to forty percent and hold. We'll see if anything changes." Ayiana ordered. Ten minutes later. "Power levels are staying consistent at forty percent, all exotic particles being detected and siphoned to ZPM." Rodney said with a huge smile. Ayiana smiled back. "Take it to sixty percent and hold again please."

This went on for nearly an hour before problems occurred. "ZPM containment is destabilizing, attempting to compensate." Rodney reported. "Ok, power is leveling off at eighty percent, ZPM approaching critical mass. We need to fine tune the algorithm and get a larger containment vessel for the exotic particles. I'm going to start powering down the system now to avoid an overload." With that Rodney began the shutdown process and beamed the ZPM up to a waiting jumper that took it on to Asuras for further study.

Ayiana was proud of her team and said so. "Excellent work everyone, especially you Rodney. I'm sorry again for snapping at you earlier." Rodney just smiled and held his hand out. "Think nothing of it Director. It helped light the fires in my head so I could come up with the solution." He turned to the Lanteans in the room. "I'm just sorry the scientists here died before coming up with the idea on their own. But back then the solution wouldn't have worked as you didn't have access to the Federations matter replicators." He said softly. Ayiana then addressed Thor.

"Thor, I think it would be prudent if we transported this entire lab back to Asuras instead of trying to fortify this system as well. I mean this lab is the only thing left intact on the entire planet anyway. Don't you agree?" She asked in closing. Thor nodded his head. "I do agree Director. The drone deck on one of the drone carriers should provide more than sufficient space to house the lab and reactor." Ayiana nodded in return. "Good, please see to the details Thor. Everyone else wrap up what you're doing and prepare for transport. We will work out the final details back on Asuras."

Thirty minutes later several hyperspace windows opened in the Dorandan system and spewed forth five Wraith hive ships and dozens of cruisers. They found nothing but a destroyed Wraith fleet in orbit and a dead planet. They had missed the UEC taskforce by five minutes.

Asuras Prime

Ayiana and Thor picked up the contaminated ZPM and took it directly to the large matter replicator on one of the undamaged shipyards. It just happened to be the one working on one of the newly designed dreadnaughts. As a safety precaution, Ayiana erected a powerful ZPM powered multi-layered shield around the complex and evacuated all of the workers there just in case. "Ok, Thor, here goes nothing as the humans say." Thor frowned and shook his head. "The Tau'ri come up with some of the oddest expressions."

Ayiana place the ZPM in the recycle bin and pressed the activate button. The case closed and a micro forcefield activated around the recycler as the sensors detected the contamination. Micro transporter beams began the process of dissecting the ZPM and breaking it entirely into base molecules. Within ten minutes the ZPM and every exotic particle was completely absorbed. Ayiana ran a level 1 diagnostic on the entire replicator. "Huh, that's interesting. An unforeseen side effect of breaking down the contaminated ZPM could give us a significant advantage over the Wraith."

Thor stepped forward with a look of confusion on his face. "Please explain Director?" Ayiana ran a couple more tests to confirm her theory. "The hard radiation from the exotic particles is neutralized but changed as well. It seems that it will be fused into the metal of the new ship in a way that will help block plasma radiation. If the Wraith manage to bring down the shields, this added resistance will greatly increase the survivability of our ships."

Both Ayiana and Thor headed straight to the lab where McKay, Zelenka, Narim, and Latis Gin (a Lantean scientist) were conducting more tests with the Arcturus Reactor. Ayiana stopped and looked at a strange contraption occupying the middle of the lab. She could tell it was one of the constructors from the ZPM factory but she could see it had been altered as well.

"Rodney? What are you doing?" Rodney smiled and indicated both Zelenka and Narim. "Well Director, Radek and Narim had a brainstorm. Instead of installing an Arcturus Reactor on every ship, they discovered we could use the Reactor to charge a modified ZPM to full capacity in less than an hour." He walked to what she recognized as a ZPM carrying case. When he opened it Ayiana almost fainted. Instead of the normal orange(ish) color of a ZPM, a pulsing blue ZPM lay in the case.

"You were right by the way, this new ZPM, I prefer AZPM for Arcturus Zero Point Module, reads on a power scale of nearly one hundred times that of a standard ZPM. Since we have already set up the interface to use ZPM's on our ships, it will be a simple process to plug these in. I would suggest seriously reinforcing the power transfer conduits first though. We calculate we can charge three AZPM's before we need to switch out the ZPM used to collect the exotic particles. With these powering our ships, cities, and defenses, no one, not even the advanced Wraith ships can touch us." Rodney smiled proudly.

Both Ayiana and Thor were impressed by the initiative shown by the science team. Ayiana went to one of the control consoles for the shipyard and altered the programming slightly to reinforce the power conduits to the new requirements. She looked at Thor and shrugged. "We might as well reinforce them from the start instead of building the ship then trying to pull conduits to reinforce afterward." Thor smiled. "That is a logical and wise decision." Ayiana had to agree with O'Neill. Seeing Thor actually smile and hearing his new voice plus the fact that he now stood nearly seven feet tall and looked like a modern version of Eric the Red; would take some getting used to. But it was already starting to grow on her.

Production on the new AZPM's began immediately. Ayiana also sent the blueprints on how to build an Arcturus Reactor to the Asgard homeworld and the UEC. In less than a month, AZPM's would be produced in both the Ida galaxy and the Milky Way. Things were looking up for the UEC and her Allies again. Ayiana knew it wouldn't last. As the old saying went, "All good things must come to an end." She just wondered how and when that would be.

Thor had a ZPM interface installed on all of the Asgard ships. Each ship got an AZPM as soon as one could be charged. Once Thor had five ships powered by an AZPM, he sent that group on a seek and destroy mission. He was trying to find the location the Wraith and Vanir were hiding so he could destroy them in one fell swoop. He was waiting on the fourth group of five to finish when the Wraith arrived in force at Atlantis with twelve "Super Hives" as Rodney was calling the upgraded hives and a plethora of cruisers and support vessels. Ayiana and most of the ships had returned to Atlantis so when the Wraith arrived, they were met by a majority of the Pegasus Taskforce.

The sensors had picked up the hives approach several light years from Lantea. Ayiana began barking orders as the ships were detected. "Power all satellites and defense turrets, alert all ships in the system not to bother cloaking but to form up in defense pattern alpha three. I want the ships equipped with AZPM's to form the spearhead. Those ships are to engage the hives as far away from the planet as possible but stay within range of our drones. Send a message to Asuras, Taranis, and Avalon to inform them of the situation. This is it boys and girls, it's time to see how our upgrades perform."

As the Wraith fleet dropped from hyperspace, phase capable quantum and photon torpedoes and coherent plasma beams from the LGPS began slamming into them. The upgraded hulls of the hives resisted the torpedoes to a slight degree. But soon enough, more torpedoes joined the first ones to hit and hives began to explode. But the defenders weren't getting away unscathed. The hives toward the rear of the formation opened up with their upgraded energy weapons. Any stray shot that slipped through the screen of the AZPM powered ships that managed to strike a non-AZPM ship, destroyed said ship easily. Not many stray shots slipped through, but enough did that Ayiana was beginning to worry.

Ayiana decided it was time to pull out all the stops. "Signal Teal'c and tell him it's time, then wait three minutes and signal Thor as well." With that order, the thirty Ha'tak from the Free Jaffa Nation dropped out of hyperspace behind the Wraith fleet and began tearing into the cruisers and support vessels. It was total chaos in the Wraith ranks.

The recently upgraded Ha'taks were making short work of any Wraith cruiser they encountered. The support fleet began to scatter in all directions trying to escape the slaughter. One or two passed close enough to be targeted by torpedo turrets. One cruiser took a glancing blow as it opened a hyperspace window and escaped. By the time the three minutes Ayiana told the technician to wait had passed, all of the cruisers and support vessels had been destroyed or had escaped. When the technician sent the signal to Thor, Teal'c and his fleet were closing in on the rear of the remaining hive ships.

As the Asgard warships tore out of hyperspace, they combined their fire with the FJN Ha'taks and the remaining defense turrets. In a relatively short time the remaining hives were destroyed. Teal'c had lost eight of his Ha'tak, the UEC lost fourteen more ships (all were the non-AZPM upgrades), and none of the Asgard ships were destroyed. Ayiana stood in the control room of Atlantis and breathed a sigh of relief before having Thor hailed. "Thor, one of the cruisers that escaped took a glancing blow from a torpedo turret. The isotope activated and we are tracking the cruiser through hyperspace. I am sending you the details now. Take every available ship with you and track that cruiser to where ever it stops. Maybe we can put an end to this before any more Alliance lives are lost."

Five minutes later, Thor and his taskforce opened hyperspace windows and sped off in pursuit of the wounded cruiser. Five of the Daniel Jackson II's stayed and began replacing the turrets that were lost in the last attack just in case the Wraith had used a ruse to draw away the fleet. Damaged ships that weren't capable of joining the assault fleet were maneuvered into the newly completed mobile space dock to begin repairs. Ayiana wanted to be prepared for any surprise the Wraith might throw at them.

The pursuit fleet lead by Thor, stalked the Wraith cruiser like a cat after a mouse. The cruiser stopped once at a world with a small human settlement on it. It tore Thor and the others apart to know the population was being culled but he also knew that there were bigger things at stake other than one tiny settlement. The settlement had less than three hundred people in it and they could easily be saved. But in doing so, Thor risked the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. He had to wait and track the cruiser back to the Wraith stronghold.

After about four hours, the cruiser jumped back into hyperspace. Thor ordered the fleet to continue to track the fleeing cruiser but not to resume pursuit just yet. He ordered one of the Daniel Jacksonsto stay behind and try to assist the remaining inhabitants left after the culling. For the last four hours, the pursuit fleet had hung motionless in a nebula just outside of the cruisers scanning range. Thor gave the cruiser another ten minutes before ordering the fleet to move out and take up the hunt again.

Three more hours Thor and his fleet tracked the cruiser, staying well within their sensor range but well out of range of the cruisers sensors. When the cruiser continued traveling in hyperspace even after it had left the Pegasus galaxy, Thor began to worry a bit. He kept the fleet moving and tweaked his sensors to get a little more range out of them. At the far edge of his sensor range, he began to detect a large mass. As the cruiser came closer to the mass, it dropped out of hyperspace and approached on sublight engines.

Thor's sensors began to pick up more precise images and he stared at his readings in utter shock. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Asgard had used massive moon sized ships to travel long distances through the stars. They were basically an artificial moon that held atmosphere and traveled using massive (and primitive) nuclear powered engines. Entire generations would be born, live, and die in the construct as it moved through space at slower than light speed.

All the spheres had been thought lost or dismantled, apparently all but one. He ordered the fleet to drop out of hyperspace and called a meeting aboard the O'Neill II. Once he had the wing commanders on board, he began to go over his plan. They would send one of the newly built Defiant III's with the AZPM upgrade to scout out the area under cloak. Thor theorized that with the AZPM upgrade, the stealth field would be exponentially harder to detect. Also if it was detected, the extra power would allow it to survive long enough for the rest of the fleet to jump in and engage.

After a lengthy discussion on possible avenues of approach, the UEC Broadsword cloaked and jumped to warp. The captain kept it a warp as long as he dared before dropping out and approaching at impulse to reduce the subspace "waves" traveling at warp created. For just over an hour, the Broadsword crept slowly around the massive artificial structure. "Keep us moving on thrusters only and maintain passive scans. I don't want to risk moving faster or allowing them to detect the active scans." He ordered his helm and tactical officer. "Are we getting anything from the inside on passive alone?" He asked. His tactical officer looked up.

"Negative captain, all I read is two entrances covered by heavy shielding and multiple weapons emplacements and a large energy signature coming from inside the construct. I am not reading number or types of ships that may be docked inside. I am however detecting multiple Wraith cruisers patrolling the immediate area along with at least ten upgraded "Super Hives". Captain Worthington didn't like the sound of that at all. "Keep scanning and we'll see if we get lucky and they open the door for a bit."

With that the Broadsword continued to drift and run passive scans. Another hour went by and the "door" (actually it was a massive set of doors) slowly slid open to reveal the contents of the "moon" and eject the cruiser they had been tracking. Once the cruiser drifted a safe distance from the construct, several hives and multiple cruisers opened fire on it turning it into an expanding cloud of dying flame. "Oh crap, looks like the jig is up. Turn us back toward the fleet but keep us on thrusters only until we reach 500,000 kilometers then go to one quarter impulse."

As the Broadsword was slowly starting to put some distance between her and the construct, the "door" opened again and several cruisers and hives exited the "moon". Within minutes there were two dozen more hives and several hundred cruisers swarming the area. Captain Worthington looked at his mini display on the arm of his command chair.

"Helm, take us to warp now, Tactical, drop the cloak and raise shields. Coms hail the fleet and tell Thor we tripped the burglar alarm and the enemy is hot on our tail." While the crew obeyed their Captain's orders, Captain Worthington continued to watch the display. He could see the cruisers and hives were gaining on him very fast. "Helm, drop us out of warp and take us into hyperspace. Hold on folks, this ride is about to get bumpy."

The ship rocked as it made the transition from warp to hyperspace as Wraith weapons fire exploded all around it. The AZPM enhanced shields held but wouldn't for long. Just then the stars filled with Asgard, Jaffa, and UEC ships blazing away at the pursuing Wraith. Thor watched the battle unfold on his screen for a few minutes before noticing something troubling. The "moon" was moving away from the battle and gaining speed. Thor made a split second decision. "Captain Kawalsky, the Vanir are trying to escape in the construct. Please bring the Valhalla and follow me. We will try to stop them before they escape." The Valhallahad only recently finished repairs and Ayiana had tried to insist that Captain Kawalsky stay in the medbay but he wanted payback and would have none of sitting this battle out.

"We're right behind you Thor. Let's get some payback." Thor shook his head at the human need for revenge but oddly he felt the same need as the Vanir had not only betrayed the Asgard, not once but many times, but they had betrayed and hurt people he truly cared about. This was one instance that Thor knew exactly what Captain Kawalsky was feeling. With that the two mighty warships jumped into hyperspace and shot off in pursuit of the construct.

It didn't take very long for the two ships to overtake the slow (comparatively speaking) construct. But the construct was far from defenseless. As soon as the two ships began their approach, multiple pulse beams shot from the many cannon on the outer surface of the "moon". Both the O'Neill II and the Valhalla were using the upgraded AZPM so though each took multiple hits, all that happened was a rattling of the crew's teeth and of course pissing Kawalsky off. "Captain Kawalsky, swing around behind the construct and see if you can disable the engines. Be careful as these constructs were once powered by a nuclear fission reactor and a misplaced shot could destroy the entire sphere." Kawalsky started to protest until Thor clarified. "Let me make it clear. Not only will the construct be destroyed, the ensuing blast will overwhelm even our enhanced shields and destroy us as well."

Kawalsky blinked and ordered his helm to comply and circle the construct before looking back at his tactical officer. "Easy on those weapons Tom, I want to survive this if at all possible. Lieutenant Commander Tom Paris smiled nervously at his captain. "That makes two of us Captain. Remember, I have a wedding to be a part of in the not so distant future."

As Thor opened fire on the front of the construct (if you can consider any place of a sphere to be the front) the Valhalla executed a micro jump passed the construct and fired the portside thrusters and impulse engines full throttle and the starboard side thrusters and engines at full reverse thrust causing the ship to skew sideways like a drifter.

As the bow of the ship came around to target the engines, the helm officer reversed the direction of the thrusters and slowed the spin until the spinal mounted cannons aligned with the construct. Lt. Commander Paris smiled as the helm officer completed the maneuver Tom himself had invented before firing two full power bursts from the forward arrays and one low yield quantum torpedo. The bursts from the forward array slammed into a powerful shield that was already weakened by the fire from Thor's ship. The shield was overwhelmed and collapsed just as the torpedo reached it. As the torpedo didn't have to deal with piercing the shields, it slammed into the engines at full speed. It still only destroyed the engine exhaust nozzles and didn't force an overload that would have destroyed the construct and both ships attacking it.

Thor moved the O'Neill IIaround to the side that the Valhallawas on. "Captain Kawalsky, please assist me by locking your tractor beam onto the construct so we can stop its forward progress." Lt. Commander Paris didn't wait for the Captain's order and complied with Thor's request. Soon the two ships working together had slowed the construct to a complete stop.

With the shields disabled, Thor beamed all of the remaining Vanir out of the construct and into the brig on his ship. He then overrode the failsafe mechanisms on his transporter and beamed two Naquadria enhanced quantum torpedoes inside the construct before hailing the Valhalla.

"Captain Kawalsky, I would suggest we move off to at least one million kilometers. I have apprehended all of the Vanir from inside the construct and transported two Naquadria enhanced quantum torpedoes inside. The blast will be quite extensive I am sure." With that the two ships jumped into hyperspace. Neither ship had dropped from hyperspace when the torpedoes exploded vaporizing everything unshielded in a 10,000 kilometer radius.

Kawalsky felt the shock wave even in hyperspace but no systems were affected by the blast. A few minutes later both ships dropped from hyperspace and Thor scanned the area where the construct had been. "The shielded probe I dropped survived the blast and recorded that the construct was in fact completely destroyed. We should have no more major problems from the Wraith. I will depart for Othala as soon as we make sure all of the Wraith are destroyed." With that both ships jumped back into hyperspace and rejoined the battle with the Wraith fleet.

The battle was raging as the two ships dropped to normal space. With the addition of the most powerful ship the UEC had finished building and another O'Neill II; the battle began to swing in the favor of the Alliance. The cruisers hadn't been upgraded so they were not considered a threat compared to the upgraded hives. All but five of the hives were destroyed and several dozen cruisers as well. The Wraith began to try to break contact and flee the battle but the Alliance was having none of that.

At the beginning of the battle and before Thor jumped off in pursuit of the construct, he dropped hyperspace dampeners specific to the Wraith's hyperspace frequency. There was no escape for the badly beaten Wraith. The surviving Wraith that had formed an uneasy Alliance with the Vanir, were all destroyed to the last one. No quarter was given by the Alliance. They destroyed every Wraith ship to include any darts that tried to flee. Not a single Wraith survived the assault that day, at least none that had aligned themselves with the Vanir.

Thor breathed a sigh of relief and sat down heavily in his command chair. It had not been a totally one-sided fight. Even with the enhanced weapons and shields of the AZPM powered fleet, a full half had been disabled or destroyed. All of the Ha'tak that had joined the pursuit had been the first ships destroyed. Luckily for the FJN, Teal'c and Bra'tac were not on any of those ships. Their Ha'taks had been disabled to where they were not able to join the pursuit. Both of them would live to lead the FJN well into the future.

True to his word, as soon as the last Wraith ship was destroyed, Thor jumped into hyperspace to take the traitorous Vanir back to Othala for judgment. Captain Kawalsky hailed Atlantis to tell Ayiana of their victory and losses. He figured it would take several days to complete the recovery operations and the search for survivors among the debris. So he was extremely shocked to see two massive hyperspace windows open and deposit both Atlantis and Asuras into normal space. With the two city ships there at their disposal, recovery operations were completed in a few hours. All of the debris from the entire battle was collected and broken down into base replicator stock by the industrial replicators on both city ships before the remaining ships returned to the Lantea system.

Ships with damage were either towed back or if the damage was not too severe, jumped back under their own power. It would take weeks if not months for the Alliance to recover from the treachery of both the Vanir and the Wraith. All in all over the last few weeks since the Wraith had helped the Vanir escape, nearly one hundred UEC ships had been destroyed and over 10,000 people had been killed. It was a heavy loss in both material and lives. Ayiana was taking it hard since she was the one in overall command. She was sitting in her office crying when word came that a commander for the new Dreadnaught Class ship was coming through the gate. Ayiana got up and went into the latrine to wash her tear stained face.

Once she freshened up a bit she made her way to the control room to greet the new commander. As she entered the control room she stopped and looked around a bit confused. She didn't see anyone new in the control room. Then she realized there wasn't a new commander, it was a very close friend that was the NEW commander for the NEW ship when Colonel Samantha Carter turned toward her and smiled.

"Ayiana, I'm sorry I wasn't here as support during all of this. We were working on something back in the Milky Way that couldn't be put on hold." She said as she hugged her friend close. She could tell Ayiana had been crying just by looking into her eyes. "I'm truly sorry for all of the people you lost. The ships can be rebuilt and replaced, the people never can be."

Sam said trying to console her friend. Ayiana smiled and looked at Sam. "It's tough Sam. I mean I lost friends back before my people left for the Pegasus galaxy but not like this. We lost over 10,000 people in just over six weeks. But enough about me, how did you get command of the new dreadnaught? I figured that the UEC would try to keep you grounded and working on R&D?"

Sam chuckled slightly. "They did try that but Jack overruled them. It's only temporary anyway as I hear a Colonel Abraham Ellis is getting overall command. I'll just be temporary commander for her shakedown and to test some new theories I developed back on Avalon. Once Colonel Ellis takes command, I'll be moved to command one of the tactical explorers when they are finished. It seems Daniel and I will be heading off to explore other galaxies here in the local cluster." Ayiana realized what that meant. "Oh Sam, congratulations I guess. Exploring new galaxies can be interesting but extremely dangerous too. Please be careful and try and keep Daniel out of trouble. He never goes looking for it but it always seems to find him." The two friends continued down the hall chit chatting about everyday life.

Here's Chapter 7. Sorry again for the long delay but real life took precedence. I borrowed some ideas I was given in a PM from Knight121198. Thank you for the suggestions. I'll try not to keep Chapter 8 from taking so long but I make no guarantees. Enjoy and remember any suggestions you might have, please feel free to PM me. I have one more storyline for this actual story and then I need to find a new direction to go with it. I am leaning toward a merging of this story with the new BSG...