Less than an hour has passed since the fight between the fleet and Secia's ships began, the Jaffa were too confident and too eager to wait for orders before they pushed forward and opened fire on the enemy, however, when the fight began the Earth ships Lincoln and Freedom and the Tok'ra vessels had no choice but to open fire and join the fight with their Jaffa allies.
The Jaffa and Tok'ra have suffered the highest losses, all of their Al'kesh and most of their Ha'tak ships have been completely destroyed, the F-304's Lincoln and Freedom have been extremely heavily damaged, Freedom was punished the worst in the fight and has been blasted to near destruction, thousands of lives were lost and the fleet now drifts lifeless in space surrounded by the debris of the destroyed ships.
The fight was intense and they didn't hold back, they gave everything they had but it wasn't enough, they only managed to take out several of Secia's powerful ships, the thousands of ships that survived the fight continued forward, after the crippling defeat of the fleet, there's now nothing to stop them from reaching Earth.
On-board the USS Lincoln
The ship is badly damaged and its dark inside, the entire crew lay unconscious or dead on the floors and slumped over consoles and chairs, jets and clouds of coolant and O2 seep from the ceiling and surrounding floor vents, cables and wires dangle and twist from panels and are sparking randomly, a dim red light slowly flashes around the halls and corridors, the sound of a dying alarm echoes throughout, the ship is angled and slightly slanted to one side due to the loss of its stabilisers, the occasional screech and bang is heard as the debris from outside slams against the hull and rocks and shakes the ship.
The ships intercom activates, its damaged so there's lots of loud static and the transmission keeps breaking up, "Lin—ln -ome in...", "L-ncoln do y-u read, over."
Its Captain Dunne of the USS Freedom, "Lincoln, ple-se respond."
Jessica, the engineer who was on her way back to help complete the modifications to the Jaffa ships, she was ready to use to use the ring transport when the attack began and she never made it off the Lincoln, she wobbles her way through the corridors using the walls the steady herself, as she gets to the bridge entrance she props herself up against the door frame, nursing her bleeding head which she injured in a fall, looking around the bridge she sees the captain on the floor and goes over and kneels beside him.
"Captain, wake up, captain." she says, nudging him and trying to turn him over.
"Lincoln this i- Fr-edom do you read, over." says Dunne.
Jessica hears the static call, she stands and looks up towards the intercom speaker, "Yes, yes, this is the Lincoln...hello...can you hear me...hello." she says.
"Y-s we read you. Wh- is t- c—dit- of -o- -ip" replies Dunne.
The transmission is too garbled, "What?, repeat what you just...I can't understand what you're saying..." says Jessica, she looks at the consoles behind her and goes over to them, Major Carrigan is slouched over it, "Major?" she says as she tries to wake him but she soon realises he's not breathing.
She steps back for a moment clasping her hands over his mouth and crying a little from the shock, she's young and inexperienced in these situations this is her first mission off-world and she's never seen anything like this before, she manages to get herself under control and then gently pulls Carrigan off the console and places him on the floor, she then returns and accesses the systems to fix the radio signal.
"This is the Lincoln, can you hear me?." she says.
"Yes I hear you, who is this?" replies Cpt Dunne.
"Oh thank God. The transmission was messed up but I fixed it, I couldn't understand you. I'm Jessica."
She hears a moan in front of her, Captain Philips is regaining consciousness, she gets up and swiftly goes over to him, "Captain..." she says, helping him up slightly, "..you're alive." she adds.
"Where is Cpt Philips?." asks Dunne.
Jessica looks up to the speaker again, "He's here, he's alive...captain." she shouts with a mix of excitement, worry and confusion.
Philips sits up, he's also bleeding from the head and thinks his leg is broken, "W...w...what happened.." he utters.
"We were attacked sir...everyone is...I...I...I...are you okay?...can..can you get up?." says Jessica, very shaky at this point.
"Captain Philips."
"Dunne, is that you. What's the situation?" asks Philips.
The USS Freedom's entire crew, with the exception of Captain Dunne are all dead, the attack from Secia's ships blew holes all around the their hull, half of the engines are missing, the right docking bay has been blown off, the shields failed nearly 20 minutes ago and everyone on board who survived the initial attack have now sadly suffocated from lack of oxygen, Dunne and two other crew members managed to contain themselves in a small vacuum sealed room moments before the hull breached, sadly the two crew members have since died from their injuries and Dunne is now running out of air and has no safe way out of the room or off the ship.
Jessica helped Philips to his feet and got him to his chair where he now sits.
"What about the Tok'ra..the Jaffa." says Philips.
"I've been trying on the radio for over half an hour, they're either dead, unconscious or unable to respond but I haven't seen any movement for a while. As far as I know we're the only ones that survived." replies Dunne.
"The enemy?" asks Philips.
"They took off a while ago." replies Dunne.
"Can we transport him over?" asks Philips.
"Transporters are completely fried, they can't be repaired." replies Jessica, checking the systems via the console.
"Look, Phil, don't worry about me, you can't save me. If your ships engines can be repaired you need to get it done and get back to Earth, they're going to need all the help they can get." says Dunne.
Philips looks at Jessica without saying anything, she knows he wants to know about the condition of the engines, she nods back at him.
"Sean, I …. I'm sorry." says Philips, Sean Dunne is one of his closest friends.
"Hey, don't worry about it, we knew this was a possibility before we left." replies Dunne.
"I'm sorry too." says Jessica.
"Thanks Jessica. You just get that thing in working order, fight nots over yet. Listen, airs getting a little thin in here and its hard to stay awake...so..." says Dunne.
"..I'll see you soon, Buddy." says Philips.
Dunne laughs slightly, "Yeah, I'll save you a spot..." he says, then the signal drops with static.
After taking a brief moment of silence, Philips turns to Jessica and slowly stands, "Can you get the ship moving?" he asks.
"Working on it captain." replies Jessica.
"Good girl, I'll see if I can wake some of the crew." replies Philips, he places his hand on her shoulder for reassurance, "You're doing great." he adds.
Earth: Stargate Command
In the higher level control room where a temporary global command station has been set up, with the aid of NASA's new Asgard sensor equipped satellites, they've been monitoring surrounding space and radio transmissions, they've just received a data burst that was automatically broadcast from the USS Freedom when their ship hit in battle, they're in the process of de-constructing the partially corrupted data.
Sam is in the main control room on video communication with McKay at the Ancient outpost in Antarctica, together they're attempting to get the energy weapon online, Sam can see McKay walking around and using an Ancient console while they try to figure it out.
"Are you reading any output at all?" asks Sam.
"None." replies McKay, with a exhausted flap of his arms.
"Maybe you should run another diagnostic." says Sam.
"That'll take hours. The ZedPM is engaged, power is getting through to the capacitors, the crystal that Adria gave us is plugged in and as far as I can tell it's ready to go." replies McKay.
"But how are we going to target it if we can't control it?." asks Sam.
McKay comes up closer to the camera, "I don't think we're meant to control it." he says.
"What do you mean?." asks Sam.
"Well according to the data we've already been able to access on this thing, it's designed to encompass the entire planet like a shield..or a protective bubble, I don't think it has any targeting mechanisms, its just a simple on and off switch." replies McKay.
"In that case we're ready to go." says Sam.
"Uhm. Well the only way we're going to know for sure is when we turn it on..." says McKay.
"..but we can't do that yet because the ZPM is almost depleted and we can't risk wasting the power." says Sam.
"Exactly." replies McKay.
"All right, I'll inform the General that we're ready." says Sam.
As Sam is talking to McKay, the General comes rushing down the spiral stairs with Jack and Teal'c, "Colonel!" he shouts.
Sam stands up, "General, I was just coming to see you Sir. We think the Ancient weapon is ready." she says.
"Good. Turn it on." says Landry.
"Sir?" asks Sam.
"We just received word from the fleet that was around Abydos, they engaged the enemy ships, NASA just detected them on approach. They're here." replies Landry.
"Here, Sir?!. What about the fleet did they..." says Sam.
"They lost, Colonel." says Landry with regret, "..we need that weapon online now." he adds.
Sam jumps back in her seat, "McKay, did you hear that?." she says.
"Are you sure you want me to turn it on now, maybe we should wait until they get a little closer, we don't want to drain the power too soon." says McKay.
"They're close enough, Doctor." says Landry.
"Yeah but..." says McKay.
"They could fire on us McKay, they don't need to be close. Activate the weapon." says Jack.
"All right." replies McKay, he goes over to the console and enters the activation sequence using the Ancient symbols, "That's it, it's active." he adds, looking up and around.
"Are you sure?." says Sam.
McKay goes over to his laptop displaying visual data of the weapon, "Yeah, yeah..." says McKay, he turns his laptop around so Sam can see the screen, it shows an image of Earth and a thin yellow line circled around it representing the energy shield/weapon, "..See, now we just wait." he adds.
The phone on the wall beside the large computer terminals rings, Landry goes over and answers it, "Landry." he says, "...right. Lock down the mountain." he adds, then replaces the handset.
Landry takes a deep breath before speaking, "They're here." he says.
They all head upstairs to the global command control room to monitor the situation and see what's happening, thousands of Secia's ships have gathered and slowed to a stop in close proximity to the Moon, the command room goes completely silent for the next few minutes as they all wait to see what's going to happen next, then a group of around a hundred ships breaks away from the others and slowly head towards Earth, as they get closer they separate and fan out.
"They're firing!." announces Sgt Ellis from a monitoring station.
The group of ships begin to fire slowly yet rapidly at Earth, as their weapons fire a few hundred meters from the atmosphere they strike the energy field and don't penetrate, as they hit it the energy from the weapons fire is absorbed in to the field, tiny Earth quakes are felt by those below.
"Waah, are some of them getting through?." asks Jack.
"No...the shield is working." replies Sam.
The link to McKay was transferred up to the command room when the others went up, "It's just a tremor, minor Earth quakes, the weapons fire being absorbed by the shield is producing shock waves, nothing to worry about...this is normal." says McKay.
"How long will the shield hold?" asks Teal'c.
"We're not sure." replies Sam.
"General." says Jack, as he walks over to the TV after seeing what was being shown on it.
A news network is broadcasting from California, showing the lights in the sky above and people standing around watching, Jack and Landry share a brief look of concern.
Unlike previous attacks on Earth by the Goa'uld, who were in a way quickly disposed of and hidden from the public gaze, this is a very different event all together, the flashes and pulses from the weapons fire hitting the shield above the atmosphere don't go unseen, people in cities and towns all over the world, men women and children are now looking to the skies with questions, worry and fear in their eyes.
The President, who remained on Earth rather than leaving with the other refugees to Pegasus, had only moments ago decided to make an emergency broadcast and inform the world about what was going on, they have a right to know and the secret is all but out, however, as he was preparing to make the broadcast, the shock waves from the weapons fire on the shield have caused massive EMP to hit the surface and it's knocked out power all across the planet, only those facilities and buildings shielded from EMP now have power, most of the world has been plunged in to darkness.
Suddenly everyone in the room stumbles after feeling a large vibration beneath their feet.
"What the hell is that?!" shouts Jack.
"They've increased fire Sir." says Sgt Ellis.
The ships appear to be firing very powerful energy pulses at the shield, not as rapid as before because they now seem to be charging their weapons before releasing the pulse, to make matters worse they have moved positions and are now converging and focussing their fire on a single spot, directly above Antarctica, they've discovered the source of the shield.
"They're firing above the outpost." says Sgt Ellis.
Sam stumbles her way over to her computer as the pulses continue to rock the Earth, "McKay.." she says, she can see McKay standing in the middle of the room and the console beside him shorting out and sparking.
"..Jeesh...Holy...What the!" shouts McKay, as he uses his arms to cover his face from the electrical shorts.
"McKay what's your status?" asks Sam.
"I'm crapping myself, that's my status." shouts McKay.
"Is the shield holding?" asks Sam.
McKay goes over to his laptop, "Oh great." he says.
"What is it?" asks Sam.
McKay turns the laptop around and shows her the screen, he looks very worried, it's showing the ZPM power levels, it's flashing red indicating it's about to lose power completely.
"Hold on McKay we'll get you out." says Sam, she turns around, "Get the transporters online." she says.
"The transporters won't work, there's too much interference from the shield." says Sgt Ellis.
Sam doesn't accept that, she gets up and goes over to bring it online herself, she tries and tries but Sgt Ellis was correct, there's no way the transporter will function under these conditions, she slams her fists down on the keyboard in anger and then goes back over to her computer.
"Rodney, I'm sorry." she says.
"Don't be sorry, get me outa here!." replies McKay.
"The transporters won't work." says Sam, "Maybe if you can get to the lower levels they'll protect you from the blast." she adds, trying to find some glimmer of hope.
McKay has never been calm in this type of situation and he's always been about self preservation when things got bad and he never gives up, but this time there truly is no way out, there's nothing he can do and he realises that, "So this is it, this is how the Great Rodney McKay's going out huh." he says.
"Rodney." says Sam, feeling helpless.
"Well, at least I went out saving the world huh...well..tried too anyway." says McKay.
Jack, Teal'c and Landry stand behind Sam with their heads slightly down, they don't know what to say, tears run down Sam's cheeks, "You did great, Rodney." she says.
McKay turns his laptop back around and starts frantically typing away on the keyboard.
"What are you doing?" asks Sam.
"What I do best, if I'm going out I'm taking some of them with me...I'm going to blow it up." replies McKay.
"How?, you don't have any power." asks Sam.
"I'm sure I can squeeze out a little extra from the ZedPM...there we go." says McKay, joyously pushing the Enter key to compile his program.
"Won't that collapse the shield?." asks Sam.
"The shields going to collapse anyway once the ZedPM runs dry, so who cares." replies McKay.
Sam smiles, "Good point." she says, a beep is heard in the background of the video.
"Power is about to go down, its now or never. It's been a err...pleasure. I guess." says McKay.
"A real pleasure, Meredith." says Sam.
"Had to bring that up didn't ya." replies McKay, "Goodbye Sam, I..." he says, then the transmission suddenly ends.
"McKay?...Rodney?.." says Sam, slapping her laptop hoping to get the signal back.
"He's gone, Colonel. The outpost was just hit." says Sgt Ellis, softly from the other side of the room, "Sorry." he adds.
Using their combined super charged weapons fire, the ships managed to break through the shield and destroy the Ancient outpost in Antarctica, sadly Rodney McKay was killed in the blast, however, he left behind a little going away present for the enemy ships, as the ZedPM was in its last dying moments, he created a program that would channel every last drop of power back through the shield generator overloading it and causing it to expand outwards, the shield engulfed the hundred or so ships around Earth and destroyed them all before dissipating and vanishing.
Thousands of ships still remain in formation and stationary around the Moon, this was a huge victory for McKay, but a small victory in the grant scheme of things, the first battle has been won, but the war is just beginning, now they have no Earth defence shield and Earth has never been so vulnerable, the world now prays for a miracle to save them.