Chapter Ten
Border Sentry Station 29
Terran Federation
Two Days Later
Lieutenant Phillip Paricio resisted the impulse to sigh in resignation as he slipped out of his quarters into the corridors of the border sentry station. He'd only been on board for a month and he already hated the place with a passion. Oh, the station had plenty of amenities for the monitoring stations hundred and fifty-two crewmembers, plenty of diversions to occupy you when off duty. It was going on duty here that he'd already decided he hated, mostly because it was boring as hell – sitting in the operations centre in the heart of a hollowed out asteroid orbiting a gas giant watching sensor screens that showed nothing beyond the movements of comets and asteroids. Nothing ever happened, nothing to the break the monotony, nothing exciting – which was what he'd joined the Federal Guard for, excitement.
The Federal Guard had established the sentry station network twenty-five years ago. The network being designed to augment the sensor coverage of Terran space to ensure the safety of commercial and private shipping from pirates and to deny them places to hide. Experience had taught the Federal Guard that pirates and other unsavoury groups liked to establish bases in out of the way systems where they could repair and refit ships without risking a destroyer patrol flotilla stumbling across them. In theory the sentry stations and their multi-light year range sensors coupled with the multi-light year range sensors on planets created a grid across Terran space that could track any ship from its departure point to its destination. All in all the system worked well – unless you were on the outlying sentry stations like Phil himself was. Even pirates didn't venture out here – there was nothing for them.
Pushing aside his boredom Phillip made his way to the closest transport tube station and boarded the maglev car he'd used his implant to summon before he'd left his quarters. As soon as he stepped in, he used his implant to tell the cars control processor to take him to station operations. The doors closed and with a soft humming sound of magnetic power the car began to move, speeding through tunnels bored in solid rock by heavy mining lasers when the station was constructed.
As the car made its way through the stations innards Phillip reflected – not for the first time – on the circumstances that had led to his assignment to this lonely old rock in the arse end of nowhere. It could all be traced back to someone he'd met during his last shore leave on Draconis Three. Janice Patterson had been beautiful and just his type but what he hadn't known was that her father was a) extremely overprotective of his only child, especially as his wife had died many years earlier, and b) was the rear admiral in charge of the eighth fleet. As soon as Admiral Jordan Patterson had heard that they were dating Phillip had found himself reassigned from his position as a junior ordinance officer on the destroyer Acheron to Sentry Station 29 as far from Draconis – and Janice – as it was possible to get and still be in Terran space.
Not for the first time Phillip felt rage rise within him at what had happened to him, what had been done by Janice's overprotective father for no apparent reason other than the facts that he could and that he didn't want anyone dating his daughter – even though she was a very attractive woman in her early twenties. The fact that he'd received a letter of apology from Janice afterwards didn't make him feel any better, nor did the fact that she still periodically contacted him – relaying her letters and his replies through a friend so her father wouldn't find out. If only I could prove what that bastard did to me, he thought thinking about Jordan Patterson with extreme venom I'd be able to get him booted out of the service for misusing his position and get my old job on the Acheron back.
The maglev car came to a stop at the correct station for Station Operations and with practiced ease, Phillip pushed his anger at Admiral Patterson down for now. He would take it out on the punching bags or the weights in the gym later just as he always did. Getting out of the car, he made the short trek down a metal and stone corridor to the door to ops. Here we go another monotonous shift begins, he thought as he put a hand on the door control panel. For a moment, nothing happened beyond the panel glowing as it confirmed his identity and security clearance, then the heavily armoured doors slid open and he slipped inside.
"Morning, Phil," a familiar voice said as he entered. Phillip looked over and found Colonel Gerald McGrath – Sentry Station 29's commanding officer – looking at him; Phil had to admit that he liked the guy. McGrath seemed to know at least some of the circumstances that had led to his assignment/exile here and had gone out of his way to make him feel welcome. On duty, there wasn't much that McGrath was able to do though to give him some variety McGrath had allowed him to help the engineers in the power centre on some shifts – having bore in mind that as an ordinance officer Phil was trained to handle volatile materials up to and including antimatter itself. Off duty however, McGrath had encouraged the crew to make Phil feel welcome and they had, something Phillip appreciated to know end.
"Morning, sir," Phil replied still not comfortable calling his commanding officer by his first name when on duty, even though McGrath had told him to reminding him that on the sentry stations discipline in that area was somewhat looser than on a ship. He just couldn't get out of the habit that had been practically programmed into him from the moment he'd joined the Federal Guard nearly ten years earlier.
McGrath rolled his eyes. "Phil how many times have I told you it's alright to use my first name even when on duty," he asked sounding fondly exasperated.
"A few times," Phil admitted feeling a grin forming at the edges of his mouth. "It's just hard to break the habit."
"Give it another month and you will," McGrath said knowingly. "Attend your station, Phil. And before you start there is an alpha priority order on the system that you'll need to read, every sensor operators having to read it as they come on duty."
"I understand," Phil replied frowning in concern. Alpha priority orders were very rarely issued, even when he was on the Acheron they hadn't gotten many of them. They were usually orders that dealt with issues of extreme importance to the security of the Terran Federation as a whole – which was uncommon to say the least. The fact that someone had sent such an order to the sentry stations was cause for concern. "I wonder what's up," he continued.
McGrath shrugged. "Search me," he replied. "Something really has stirred up the hornets nest though as the order came directly from Admiral Kermanova's office back on Terra."
Phil's eyebrows shot up. "Maybe it's related to that state of alert they've had the whole of the guard on for the last week," he suggested.
"Possibly, High Command does seem to be worried about something," McGrath agreed. "But enough stalling, you better get to your station, Phil."
"Aye sir," Phil answered before moving across the operations centre to his assigned console. The previous sensor operator had gone off duty a few minutes earlier – not that it affected sensor coverage at all as the stations computer would just take over. A lot of the time the operator of a sensor console was nothing but a glorified systems supervisor, watching the computer as it broke down and analysed the data gathered by each of the stations powerful sensor arrays and the smaller satellite arrays spread throughout the system.
Settling down at the console Phillip sighed before powering up the terminal and logging in, first with a typed in security code and then with a separate but equally important code wirelessly transmitted from the memory nodes of his implant. The console lit up before him and a holographic screen blinked into existence showing the main directory for the stations sensor array. A symbol in the shape of a letter flashed in the bottom right hand corner of the holographic display, indicating the order/message that he had to read before getting down to business.
With a quick command to the console, he brought the order up on screen and began to carefully read it. After a moment, his grey-green eyes widened in surprise and a hint of disbelief. They cannot be serious, he thought, they want us to watch the borders for any sign of alien ships crossing into our space. We've never encountered space faring aliens. Or have we?
Like everyone else on the station, he was aware of the rumours floating around the Starnet both on the discussion forums and on the news channels. Rumours centred around the fact that just under a week ago a heavy cruiser and a squadron of destroyers from the Fifth Fleet left Epsilon Eridani for an unknown destination. Barely a day and a half later two of them the cruiser – the Railion he believed the news services had called her – and one of the destroyers had returned – both with considerable combat damage, their had been no sign of the other four destroyers, presumably they'd been destroyed in what had to have been a truly vicious fight. So far Federal Guard High Command in Geneva had not officially confirmed what had actually taken place and where, there press releases had indicated that they were still reviewing the situation. However, that doesn't stop the media speculating on what happened, Phil thought before reading the order again. Maybe the Railion and her squadron really did get into a fight with alien forces. We could be at war and nobody even knows it yet.
After a moment he tapped in a command confirming that he'd read the order, making its window on the holographic screen close and brought up the sensor display screen. To Phil's complete and total lack of surprise the screen was blank, beyond showing the usual contacts of the gas giants many moons. After adjusting his chair a bit so he would be more comfortable, Phil settled in for another six hours of boredom.
It was not to be.
A sudden bleep from the sensors made him instantly sit up straighter from the bored slouch that he'd already started adopting and give the holoscreen his full attention. The sensors had detected a large contact in hyperspace heading towards this system, a contact that was coming in from the direction of the unknown regions. After a moment, the sensors confirmed that the hyperspace phase variance matched what they'd been told to look out for by High Command.
"Colonel you need to look at this," Phil called out to Gerald McGrath even as he keyed in a command for a more detailed investigation of the incoming hyperspace signature. A signature that was far to big to belong to a single ship, not even Kyoto-class battleships or Pegasus-class super carriers – the largest warships built by Terran hands – had hyperspace signatures anywhere near this massive.
"What is it, Phil," McGrath asked as he appeared at Phil's right side.
"Take a look," Phil replied gesturing to the screen. His superior did as he instructed and frowned in concern.
"Is this right?"
"I've got the computer doing an analysis now," Phil, replied a second before the console chimed and the view of the incoming contact changed, resolving into a group of ships travelling in close formation. "Oh crap."
"Indeed," McGrath agreed as he examined the refined display. According to the sensors there were twenty-two alien vessels inbound, four of them were large capital vessels the other eighteen were much smaller and were probably the alien equivalent of bombers or gunships. All in all a small but probably very powerful taskforce was approaching his space station, a force that Sentry Station 29's defence grid might not hold off for very long.
"How long till they reach us Phil?" he asked after a moment.
Phil tapped in a few commands and after a moment, the computer spat back a dismaying response. "If the fleet stays at its current speed they'll arrive in approximately ten minutes," he replied. "The one bit of good news is that if they stay on there current hyperspace vector they'll emerge deeper in the systems in what would be the liquid water zone. It would take them that bit longer to reach us."
"Keep an eye on them for me, Phil. Let me know the moment there is any change," McGrath ordered.
"Yes sir."
Moving away from the manned sensor station Gerald McGrath looked around the silent operations centre. The rest of the crew on duty had clearly heard every word that they'd said and were justifiably frightened.
"Battle stations," he ordered after a moment. "Get our shields up, energise the defence grid, activate the defence drones and arm the minefield. If the incoming alien forces want a fight, we'll give them one. Communications get me High Command."
"Aye sir," communications answered, discipline and training taking over from the normal laid-back style Gerald encouraged during the day-to-day running of the station. Taking a deep breath and quietly letting it out, Gerald walked back across the operations centre to the command station just as the call to battle stations began to wail throughout the station. He knew what his duty was, so did everyone else on the station. They had no choice but to stand up to the incoming alien ships, the only other option would be to roll over and let them either destroy or take the station. He hoped that it would not come to a fight with the aliens but if it did then he and the others would defend Sentry Station 29 with everything they had.
No matter the cost.
Goa'uld Shal'kra-class Mothership
In Hyperspace
That Same Time
Lord Boreas, Fleet Lord in the service of the System Lord Poseidon, resisted the impulse to start pacing as he stood alone in his chambers aboard the Shal'kra-class vessel that Poseidon and Amphitrite had assigned him as his flagship. He had dismissed all his slaves and attendants for now, preferring to be alone as he stood before his quarters view port looking at the shimmering blue-white-purple tunnel of hyperspace streaking past outside. He paid it no mind, instead his thoughts was dominated by thoughts of the mission he had been assigned, a mission that was directly related to the events that had taken place in orbit of and on the surface of the new mining world of Sakana a few days earlier.
Lord Poseidon had assigned him to find the world or worlds controlled by the mysterious Terrans who'd caused so much trouble for his liege at Sakana. The loss of three Ha'tak-class vessels with all hands, dozens of Alkesh and over two hundred Gliders, the serious damage inflicted to Lady Amphitrite's flagship and the death of Deimos was a blow that would take years to properly recover from. In addition, the detonation of unheard of antimatter weapons in orbit of Sakana had caused environmental damage to the planet – some of the intense radiation from the explosions had penetrated the planets atmosphere, enough to disrupt the delicate balance of the upper atmosphere. The planet was now being lashed with super storms that had made it impossible to continue mining naquada there and would continue to make it impossible for at least another decade. While such a length of time was small in the context of a Goa'uld or Jaffa's lifespan it was inconvenient to say the least as they were now forced to find additional sources of the valuable ore to make up the shortfall caused by the temporary loss of the Sakana mines.
The massive setback to Poseidon's plans had enraged the System Lord and made him even more determined to find these Terrans and punish them for their insolence. Boreas understood his liege's annoyance – the loss of Sakana meant that they would now not be able to martial enough resources to be sure of victory if they went ahead with the planned invasion of the resource rich systems controlled by Lord Hades. Boreas had been looking forward to giving the other Goa'uld's fleet a few headaches as he took them apart, something that would now be very difficult bordering on the impossible. However, Boreas was weary of his current mission, though he was far to experienced in the politics of Poseidon's court to express his misgivings.
The reason he was weary of his mission was the fact that they knew so little about the mysterious Terrans. All they really knew about them was the fact that technologically they were an advanced race, and wielded very powerful and unusual directed energy weapons and had found away to do something that had always stumped the System Lords. And that was finding away to generate enough antimatter to use in weapons and possibly even use as a power source for their admittedly impressive warships. Beyond that they knew nothing about them, didn't know how many warships they had, how many worlds they controlled, didn't know the distribution of the military forces nothing. All of which concerned Boreas as while the four motherships – one Shal'kra and three Ha'tak – and eighteen Alkesh that made up his attack group were powerful they were not invincible and the Terrans had already shown that there weapons were easily capable of overloading even the latest generation Goa'uld shielding and destroying a mothership in relatively short order. I cannot afford to underestimate these Terrans if I find them, he thought, Deimos did that and promptly got his ships destroyed. I must not as Lord Poseidon can't really afford to lose more ships without starting to substantially weaken frontier defences.
Bearing that in mind Boreas was determined to be cautious when dealing with them and their military forces. After all, only a fool – or a Goa'uld who honestly believed their own propaganda about being gods – did not respect an enemy's power, specially if those powers were at the very least equal to those possessed by the Goa'uld themselves. He would engage the Terrans if he believed he had a chance of securing victory – that was his duty as Poseidon's fleet lord, which was always a precarious position as there were any number of lower ranked Goa'uld lieutenants who would love to take the position from him – but he wouldn't waste the lives of his Jaffa needlessly. After all Jaffa trained to man and to an extent repair starships were not easily replaced as only the most loyal and capable Jaffa were trusted with such secrets.
A bleep from the console in his quarters brought Boreas out of his thoughts. Calmly he moved over to the console and pressed one of the crystalline controls that was pulsing green.
"Yes," he asked.
"Forgive me for disturbing you, my lord but the fleet is approaching our next emergence coordinates," Rel'nak – the most senior Jaffa on board – replied from the pel'tac. "Sensors also report that we have been scanned."
"By who," Boreas asked knowing that few races in this galaxy other than themselves, the hated Tok'ra, the greatly feared Asgard and the Tollan had the ability to scan ships in hyperspace from normal space. If either of the latter two was in the area then he would have to be extremely careful – less his ships get blasted apart by the powerful particle pulse/beam weapons that both were known to possess.
"Its coming from the system we are approaching, my lord," Rel'nak answered. "My lord the scan frequencies match the records of Terran subspace scans, however they are considerably more powerful than what was observed at Sakana. I believe that they are either coming from a planet or a stationary base."
"So we have found them," Boreas said putting a note of eagerness in his voice for the Jaffa's sake. "Bring the fleet to battle stations, power up all weapons systems and prepare primary Glider squadrons for launch. I will be on the pel'tac shortly."
"Yes my lord," Rel'nak acknowledged sounding eager to engage the Terrans in battle and avenge the loss of so many Jaffa and one of his gods over Sakana. Jaffa always so concerned with honour, Boreas thought as he signed off with Rel'nak before pressing another control. A sound like a gong echoed through the air and one of the hidden doors in his chambers opened and his lotar entered in response to the summons.
"You sent for me my lord?" the Human asked his eyes aimed at the floor as it was forbidden for a lotar or any other slave to look their Goa'uld master in the eyes.
"Bring me my armour."
"As my lord commands," the lotar replied with a deep bow before retreating from the room to retrieve his master's formal battle armour.
Boreas watched his personal attendant/slave leave the room before turning his attention to the likely battle ahead. It was obvious now that the Terrans knew they were coming, knew and would probably be ready to open fire on them the moment the fleet dropped out of hyperspace. It would make his task that much more difficult, especially as he still didn't quite know what the fleet would be fling into, hopefully he had just found an outer colony with minimal defence capabilities. If he had then he would be assured of a relatively quick victory which would both punish the Terrans for their insolence and potentially provide much needed knowledge about them and their technological capabilities.
However he knew the had to be prepared for the possibility that they hadn't discovered a minor settlement or outpost but had instead come across a major world or major military base. Either would present a huge challenge for such a small force as what he currently commanded. Still he would do his best to defeat them and gather the information that his liege had demanded that he find.
There was after all no other choice.
A Few Minutes Later
Boreas was the picture of Goa'uld arrogance and confidence as clad in his golden battle armour he strode onto the pel'tac of his flagship. Following alone behind him was his faithful lotar who had to always be near his master's side whenever the ship engaged in combat, just in case Boreas current host were to be injured beyond the Goa'uld symbiotes natural abilities to heal. In which case the lotar would be given the high honour of becoming a new host to Poseidon's fleet lord.
"Report Jaffa," he ordered as he moved to the command deck throne and imperiously sat down.
Rel'nak turned from the main console and bowed to the living god before him before answering the question. "My lord we're approaching the target system," he reported. "All ships, stations and systems report ready to engage the enemy in combat."
"Excellent. Time till we emerge from hyperspace?"
"One minute my lord."
"Very good, you serve me well as usual Rel'nak."
"My life is but to serve you my lord," Rel'nak answered.
"As it should be. Attend your station, Rel'nak."
"Yes my lord," Rel'nak acknowledged with a deep bow to the god before turning back to the main console and the preparations to engage the blasphemous Terrans in combat. He was looking forward to it, looking forward to teaching this latest upstart Human nation that they could not defy the will of the living gods that were the Goa'uld without the most severe of consequences. Fortunately these Terrans while very powerful were not quite a powerful as some others like the Tollan were; there was still time to teach them the error of their ways before conquering them so they served the will of the gods as all Humans should.
A soft chime from the console caught his attention and Rel'nak allowed a smile to cross his habitually serious expression. The fleet was coming up on its emergence coordinates, in mere seconds they would be ready to unleash the divine retribution of Poseidon down upon the enemy. It would be most glorious. Don't underestimate the enemy, Rel'nak reminded himself, these Terrans have already shown how powerful they can be and how hard they can and will fight. Underestimating them will only lead to defeat, death and dishonour.
The console chimed again, the navigational computer informing him that they had reached there destination coordinates. "My lord we have arrived," he reported to Lord Boreas. "Dropping out of hyperspace… now."
Sitting on his throne Boreas nodded even though Rel'nak wouldn't be able to see him and focused his attention on the trapezoidal view port at the front of the pel'tac. The shimmering blue-white-purple tunnel effect of hyperspace abruptly flashed and then evaporated as with a faint jolt the mighty Shal'kra-class mothership slipped back into normal space-time. For a moment the view out of the port was blurred with optical distortion as the ship was propelled forward at very high sublight speed by hyperspace inertia, the blurring rapidly dissolved as the ships powerful sublight engines decelerated the great warship to normal sublight cruising speed.
It was immediately obvious that something wasn't right.
Standing up from his throne Boreas walked forward to see that where there should have been a habitable planet there was nothing but an immense field of rock and dust. Either there hadn't been enough mass present to form a planet here when the system finished its accretion phase or the planet had somehow been destroyed. Whichever it was it beggared the question of where the Terran presence was in this system.
"Scan the system," Boreas ordered after a moment's contemplation of the asteroid field a few hundred kilometres from where his ship had now come to a dead halt in space. "Locate the Terran presence in this system."
"Yes my lord," Rel'nak replied as he fed the command into the main console.
Silently, invisibly beams of subspace energy reached out from the powerful sensor arrays of Boreas' flagship, sweeping space around the ship as it searched for its prey. Holding formation with the bigger Shal'kra the three Ha'tak's joined in the search, there own sensors beginning to run in depth scans of the system.
It was not an easy task. The system being full of debris left over from its accretion phase in addition to the massive amount of ionising radiation being put out by the systems blue giant star. All of which conspired to downgrade the ability of the Goa'uld sensors to find anything of interest to Lord Boreas.
After another few minutes the group of motherships and their supporting Alkesh moved cautiously further apart and continued scanning the system. They continued to follow the same pattern – moving further and further apart – for the next couple of minutes. Until energy emissions began to tease there sensors from the direction of the two gas giants that there were in the system.
Lord Boreas Flagship
"My lord," Rel'nak reported. "Sensors have detected energy emissions near this system's gas giants they appear to be located at the gravitational balance points."
"Interesting," Boreas rumbled thoughtfully. "Order the fleet to move closer. Continue sensor scans of the surrounding area."
"As my lord commands," Rel'nak answered before relaying the orders to the rest of the fleet.
As the motherships and their escort began to move out towards the gas giants and there attendant systems of moons and asteroids Boreas leaned back in his throne deep in thought. As he'd said to Rel'nak the discovery of energy emissions at the points in space, where the gravitational fields of the planets and moons cancelled each other out was interesting to say the least. Such locations were ideal places to build space stations and other such pieces of space infrastructure – his own race had done it from time to time when they occasionally built space stations like the one that served as a neutral meeting place for the High Council of System Lords at Hasara.
The question he had to ask himself now was why the Terrans had gone to the bother of building space stations or space habitats – if that's what was teasing there sensors – here? There were no useable resources in this system that sensors could detect. No naquada, no trinium no nothing, certainly nothing that would justify building such structures. So why had they decided to build such things here? Assuming what the sensors were detecting were space habitats, they could just as easily be something like a sensor satellite or something of that nature.
"My lord the forward Alkesh are getting detailed scan results of the first contacts," Rel'nak reported breaking the silence that had descended on the pel'tac. "It appears to be a sensor satellite; design is very similar to the sensor satellites the first Terran ship deployed over Sakana."
"Order the Alkesh to destroy the satellites," Boreas instructed. "And Rel'nak have all four motherships launch a squadron of Gliders we'll sweep the area around the gas giants. There is something more here."
"Yes my lord."
Operations Centre
Sentry Station 29
Lieutenant Phillip Paricio kept his eyes focused on his sensor displays as the alien warships and there escort of gunships – at least that's what he thought them to be – drew ever closer to the first sensor satellite floating in the L4 Lagrange point. They were almost within weapons range of the first satellite and as he watched, the alien craft broke formation. Some of the gunships breaking into groups of three and moving away from the capital ships just as scores of new contacts began to appear.
"Colonel alien vessels are closing on the first satellite," he reported to Gerald McGrath. "Enemy gunships are breaking away from their capital ships. Three groups are heading for the Lagrange point satellites; three more are heading around the curve of the gas giant. Alien capital ships are launching fighters."
"How long till there gunships reach us, Phil," McGrath asked.
"At there current speed and orbital insertion vector, two minutes," Phil answered just as his console gave a bleep and a section of his screen went dark. "L4 satellite has been destroyed."
"Stand by defence grid," McGrath ordered looking over at Jeremy at weapons. "Have the defence drones and mines hold fire; we'll need them against the alien fighters if they close to engagement range."
"Aye sir," Jeremy answered giving the appropriate commands to his console, commands that were instantly relayed electronically to crew in the weapons control rooms or in the case of the defence drones via encrypted subspace burst transmission.
"Alien gunships closing," Phil called out. "They've seen us, weapons range in sixty seconds."
"Show me," McGrath ordered. Phil nodded and nearly instantly, a holographic screen blinked into existence showing Gerald McGrath a view of the three alien gunships approaching. On the visual display, they were small metallic specs approaching at high speed, back dropped by the white and saffron coloured storm bands of the gas giant the station orbited, sensor overlays revealed that each ship was surrounded by a weak shield and that its weapons systems were armed. The three ships appeared to be angling to pass over the station in a classic strafing or bombing run and were bearing straight in as if unconcerned that they might have defensive weapons. Either there sensors are having difficulties penetrating our shields or someone on those ships is not paying attention, he thought just as the alien attack craft crossed a specific line in space.
The moment the three Alkesh bombers crossed an imaginary, electronic line the sentry stations defence grid opened fire. Two brilliant whitish red heavy laser beams and a volley of yellow-orange fusion blaster bolts ripped forth from some of the stations defensive weapons emplacements and shot towards the incoming Goa'uld mid-range bombers.
Travelling at the speed of light the heavy laser beams arrived first. Two of the Alkesh shattered as the powerful beams ripped right through their weak shielding as if it didn't exist to slice both craft cleanly in two. Explosive decompression ripped what was left of both craft apart, instantly turning each into a plume of vaporised metal, vapour and torn fragments. The remaining Alkesh immediately began taking evasive action, evading the bolts of superheated, fusion density deuterium ions fired by the stations fusion blasters with relative ease. However, in evading the six vaguely elliptical energy bolts it turned right into the path of another heavy laser beam and like its two companions disintegrated in a massive explosion as it was speared from end to end.
Lord Boreas Flagship
Rel'nak frowned when the ships sensors picked up three explosions on the opposite side of the planet from the orbit the fleet had begun to establish. Explosions that were on the same flight path that some of the dispatched Alkesh had been on, which told him that those three Alkesh had been destroyed.
"My lord," he reported to the living god behind him. "The three Alkesh sent to the other side of the planet have been destroyed."
"Can you tell how," Boreas asked calmly.
"I am afraid not my lord. The explosions were to brief and partially obscured by the curvature of the planet."
Boreas frowned thoughtfully and felt no small amount of concern. The fact that the three Alkesh had been destroyed was cause for concern yet also a small amount of satisfaction. There was a Terran presence in this system other than unmanned sensor satellites. Lord Poseidon should get some answers after all, he thought, however first I need to find out what exactly it is that we are dealing with here.
"Dispatch one of the Ha'tak's, three more Alkesh and a squadron of Gliders to the other side of the planet. Have them investigate and report. All other forces hold position."
"As my lord commands," Rel'nak answered before relaying the god's orders to the rest of the fleet.
Operations Centre
Sentry Station 29
Colonel Gerald McGrath frowned slightly at the tactical holoscreen floating in front of him as another group of alien craft began approaching his station from the other side of the planet. It was a sizeable chunk of the enemy force and one he didn't intend to underestimate as everything they knew about this race – which wasn't a hell of a lot to be honest – indicated that they were both powerful and dangerous. Underestimating them would only result in the deaths or capture of everyone on Sentry Station 29.
"Stand by sentry drones," he ordered after a moment. "Prepare to engage enemy fighter craft. Defence grid target beam weapons on the approaching alien capital ship, save fusion blasters for their gunships."
"Aye sir," Jeremy answered from weapons.
"Colonel we've just received a subspace burst signal from the Fifth Fleet headquarters at Epsilon Eridani," communications called out. "A carrier group led by the Victorious is on its way to assist us. They'll reach this system in approximately fifteen minutes."
"Understood," Gerald, answered feeling some tension leave his shoulders at the news that help was on the way. Having served with the Fifth Fleet prior to his assignment here, he was well aware of the make up and strength of the Victorious carrier battle group. In addition to the Pandora-class heavy carrier Victorious, the group consisted of two Endeavour-class carriers Invincible and Kitty Hawk – if he remembered the names correctly – and a standard escort squadron of sixteen destroyers and eight cruisers. Overall, a force that would be both big enough and powerful enough to completely and effortlessly crush the forces attacking his station. Assuming we can hold off the aliens long enough for them to get here, he thought.
"Alien forces closing," Phil called out across the operations centre bringing Gerald's attention back to the issue at hand. "Weapons range in twelve seconds. Wait alien forces have stopped. Oh hell – the rest of the alien fleet is moving in our direction."
Gerald nodded. He could see it himself on the tactical display; the rest of the enemy squadron was moving to attack his station. If only I had some missiles, he thought looking at the closer group of ships; they were outside energy weapon range but would have been well within missile range if the station had had any. Unfortunately they didn't have any as the stations defences had been designed more with pirates in mind and pirates rarely if ever used missiles, they were simply to expensive for them both to buy the weapons and maintain them and their launching systems. Moreover, missiles kind of had the habit of destroying a target once its shields went down, which was somewhat counterproductive from a pirates point of view. You could hardly loot a ship or space habitat that had been blown to smithereens.
"Colonel the largest alien ship is hailing us," communications reported. Probably going to demand our surrender, Gerald thought before responding.
"Put them through," he ordered.
"Yes sir."
For a moment nothing happened then the holographic screen changed from a tactical overlay to the face and upper torso of the commander of the enemy forces. Despite having read, some of the debriefing reports from the previous encounter with these aliens by the Federal Guard it was all Gerald McGrath could do not to gasp when he found himself face to face with another Human or at least a Human-looking alien.
The commander of the enemy ship was a handsome man with golden brown skin, black hair and grey-blue eyes that were filled with intelligence and something else. Something dark, cold and evil, something that obliterated whatever warmth and humanity might have once been there. Something that clearly communicated that appearances aside the man who was facing him was not Human or at least wasn't anymore.
For a moment the man – if that's what he was – on the other end of the subspace transmission studied Gerald with a cold interest, making him feel that he was somekind of bug being examined under a microscope. Then the enemy commander's eyes glowed with a whitish gold light from within and he spoke in a deep, resonant voice that was in no way at all Human.
"Terran space station," the alien intoned. "I am the great god Boreas, commander of the forces you face. You are outnumbered and outgunned by my forces. Surrender to me and I shall be merciful, fight and you will face my divine wrath."
Gerald raised an eyebrow at the deity reverences. This Boreas seemed to be of the impression that he was somekind of god just like the last of his race who'd communicated with them, the one who'd claimed to be the goddess Amphitrite. He very much doubted that these aliens – whatever they were – were the gods they claimed to be. Gods wouldn't need starships to get around after all. As for surrendering the station to Boreas – that would be impossible, Federal Guard standing orders forbade such things for very good reasons.
"Boreas," he answered after a moment. "I am Colonel Gerald McGrath, commander of this installation."
"Greetings, Colonel McGrath," Boreas answered. "Do you surrender to me?"
"I'm afraid that we cannot," McGrath replied. "This station is not for you."
"You dare to defy me," Boreas growled.
"I do. You will not take this station from us, Boreas. In fact might I suggest you withdraw from this system, your violation of Terran space is an act of aggression that could well lead to war. I'm sure neither of us wants to unleash such a horror upon the galaxy."
"Insolence," Boreas snarled his eyes flashing whitish-gold again. "Surrender now and I will yet extend you mercy. Fight and there shall be none."
"We cannot surrender, Boreas," McGrath answered keeping his voice and face calm. "And I ask you as one sentient being to another reconsider this action."
"I have had enough of your insolence. You are fool, Colonel McGrath. I have generously offered you a chance to surrender and you have refused me. Now you shall face my wrath. Kree Jaffa."
"Well that could have gone better," Gerald said softly as the subspace link with the enemy flagship closed down and the tactical hologram returned.
"Alien forces are moving again," Phil reported. "Fighters squadrons and gunships approaching, capital ships are hanging back."
"Release alpha group mines and defence drones. If the aliens want this station then they can try and take it."
"Aye sir," Jeremy answered giving the appropriate commands to his console.
Silent in the vacuum of space the squadrons of gliders and Alkesh launched from the Goa'uld battle group streaked towards the Terran space station on attack vectors. To a soul the Jaffa piloting the attack craft were eager to unleash their fury upon the stations builders who'd dared to defy the will of one of the gods. Streaking forward at hundreds of kilometres a second the small Goa'uld ships quickly crossed a predetermined point in space, unknowingly flying straight into the defensive minefield that surrounded Sentry Station 29.
Normally the defensive fields of high-yield fusion mines that surrounded the sentry stations were next to invisible and harmless. Each mine was coated in the same kind of sensor absorptive materials as what made up the hulls of the Phantom-class stealth cruisers operated by the Federal Guards Special Operations and Intelligence Division was almost invisible to most subspace sensor systems when inactive unless you knew exactly what you were looking for and even then, it would be very difficult. However as the gliders and Alkesh crossed deep into the field, the mines came to life – registering on the Goa'uld sensors as sudden sharp energy and neutron radiation spikes as the mines armed themselves.
The approaching phalanx of gliders and Alkesh abruptly slowed and tried to veer away as the Jaffa pilots became aware of the danger and frantically tried to get out of the field. However, it was already far, far too late. The first mine erupted in the brilliant blue-white flash of a thermonuclear detonation, flooding the region immediately around it with a sphere of fusion plasma a hundred times hotter than the core of a star. A millisecond later a second mine detonated, then a third until within the space of a second twenty-five of the eighty mines in the field had self-immolated themselves.
The plasma spheres from the detonating mines merged and propagated in a lethal chain reaction that enveloped the fleeing Goa'uld attack craft before they had a chance to travel a few hundred metres let alone escape the field. The squadrons of gliders flashed out of existence instantly, they and their pilots vaporised before they truly realised what was happening. For the Alkesh the situation was far worse, the weak shields around each bomber flared brilliantly as the searing plasma clawed at them. For several heart-stopping seconds the shields weathered the maelstrom before flickering out of existence allowing the steadily cooling fusion plasma to slam into the hull. Despite its dropping temperature the plasma was still more than hot enough to instantly burn through the relatively thin naquada-trinium alloy hull of the bomber and superheat the atmosphere to the point of ignition. Simultaneously every single Alkesh in the assault wave exploded, their detonating naquada reactors fuelling the conflagration that blazed in space between Sentry Station 29 and the Goa'uld fleet.
Finally, though the plasmatic maelstrom cooled and began dissipating, though sensors on both sides remained blind from the intense radiation storm caused by the blasts for several moments. When the radiation finally cleared enough to see both Terran and Goa'uld alike could see that there was nothing left of the wave of gliders and Alkesh beyond a dissipating plume of cooling plasma and dust.
Pel'tac
Lord Boreas Flagship
Stunned silence reigned in the command centre of the mighty Shal'kra-class mothership, Jaffa crewmembers and their Goa'uld commander staring at the spreading plume of plasma and dust that once been gliders and Alkesh in disbelief. There sensors had revealed absolutely no trace of a minefield between them and the station when they'd first detailed the fighters and bombers to attack, let alone a field of mines whose power rivalled the mines in the Tobin system.
Mentally Lord Boreas shook himself out of his fugue state as anger stirred within him at the sight before him. He'd had enough of these Terrans insolence it was time to make them pay for it, with their lives if need be, though he was still under orders from Poseidon to gather information on them. Yet did he risk moving the fleet in closer? The sensors had only revealed only twenty-five individual mine detonations before the radiation burst had clouded their screens, he'd never heard of a minefield with such a low number of mines. There were bound to be more of them, and given there observed power they'd quickly wear down the shields on his motherships should they get into their attack radius. After a moment he smiled softly as an idea occurred to him for how he could clear away the mines if there were anymore there, without risk to his motherships or gliders he had launched to replace the destroyed ones.
"Jaffa. Have all motherships arm energy torpedo launchers," he ordered.
"Yes my lord. But my lord might I remind you that the Terran space station is out of torpedo range," Rel'nak replied turning to look at the god behind him.
"I am aware of that the station is not my target. Have all motherships deploy torpedoes in a wide angle dispersal pattern."
Understanding appeared on Rel'nak's face as he realised what Lord Boreas intended to do. "As you command, my lord," he replied with a respectful bow before turning back to the main console and relaying the instructions to the other three motherships.
"All ships report ready my lord," he reported after a moment.
"Then by all means fire."
Crackling silvery white spheres of unstable charged particles burst forth from the energy torpedo banks of the four Goa'uld motherships. Each Ha'tak unleashing four torpedoes apiece while the larger and far more heavily armed Shal'kra unleashed eight torpedoes from its weapons banks. The twenty torpedoes streaked towards Sentry Station 29 at high speed, though the station itself was not their target.
At a distance of a hundred and fifty kilometres from the station, the volley of torpedoes spread out in a wide arc before all detonating simultaneously. As with the detonation of the fusion mines wide spheres of energy appeared in space, spreading and merging the detonating energy bombs seemed to momentarily tear open the very fabric of space itself. Mines caught in the blast radius immediately flashed to vapour, wiped from existence by the rampaging energy storm in mere milliseconds – there thin hulls unable to resist the forces unleashed upon them.
Operations Centre
Sentry Station 29
Colonel McGrath frowned at the holographic tactical display floating in front of him. The alien ships had managed to clear away seventy five percent of the mines remaining in field alpha with that one heavy volley of their strange energy based torpedoes. The remaining mines in the field would not be able to help against four alien capital ships. Despite the high yield of their fusion warheads there wouldn't be enough of them to do more than moderate damage to the alien shields – assuming of course the mines could get into range without being shot down as while near invisible when immobile the mines were easy to target when mobile. If there point defence capabilities were even half-decent – and he had to assume they were – the alien ships would have no trouble shooting them down.
A change on the holographic display caught his attention a moment before Phil spoke up from sensors.
"Alien capital ships closing, there launching more fighters," he said. "Twenty seconds to weapons range."
"Communications how long until the Victorious gets here?" Gerald asked.
"Still ten minutes sir," communications reported.
"Damn," Gerald said softly, he had hoped that the mines and the defence drones – that were still hovering close to the station – would have delayed the aliens longer so they wouldn't really have to fight. "Then we have no choice," he added speaking aloud this time. "Engineering transfer as much power as possible to shield generators and the defence grid. Damage control, lock down all outer decks and compartments.
"All other personnel prepare for siege."