Chapter 10
UNWANTED GATECRASHERS
SGC Base Hammond of Texas
PX12-1576(formerly Lantean Shipyards Ruins)
Orbital Shipyard
The next day
On guard is the BSC-410 Sparta-class starship'Arizona' is one of only of three Battleship/carrier-class ship using technology from the Tau'ri, Asgard, Lantean, Goa'uld technology and also salvaged Tollan Technology from Tollana, it is the first ship designed and built three times the size of a Nimitz class supercarrier, over 1600 meters long and looking more like a cut between a WWII naval battleship and the body design from 'StarWars' 'Venator-class Star Destroyer' with four landing bays pods two on each side of the ship one on top of the other, it has five main sublight engines and ten smaller ones, an improve Lantean Hyperdrive, triple layer shielding, with two meters thick Trinium/Neutronium/Naquadah armor plated hull.
Built two years after the end of Ba'al, the last of the old System Lords, BSC-410 Sparta-class is the SGC answer to a Wraith threat coming from the Pegasus Galaxy. In its first baptism of fire, the Arizona sister ship the Sparta, went toe to toe with 10 Wraith Hive ships, 30 Cruisers and thousands of dart fighters in the defense of Atlantis. Arizona won the fight which gave way to the construction of two more ships name the Arizona and Colorado
Built in cooperation with the Asgard and partly crewed, the BSC-410 Sparta-class is built for the SGC fleet with a pricetag. The price is the Tau'ri support in the first step to the creation of a United Stargate Alliance or U.S.A. the Asgard wishes to restore the four nations alliance with the Tau'ri as the fifth core member in a UN form of organization.The acronym USA made a few allied nations on Earth to frown on the name chosen, the United States of America just smile and feigning innocence though they are very much happy about it.
The USA charter is still being work out by the Asgard, the Nox, the returned race known as the Furlings and the Tau'ri. They took note on Earth's United Nations and other democracies and monarchies from other known worlds and even on fictional literature were being studied to make a stable organization that will preserve peace across the known galaxies.
The BSC-410 Arizona today is on anti-piracy escort duty for the Heavy Transports vessels and Tel Tac cargo ships from SGC Alpha Site, renamed 'NEW TERRA' to begin the rebuilding of the old Lantean Shipyards and today General O'Neill is looking at the recovered belongings that Ranma sent from the Eirene Galaxy and one of the things he sent is a container box holding 6 fully charge ZPM with a box of memory sticks attached. The information inside is from Ranma and it also include his request and his reasons for staying.
O'Neill and members of SG-1 was in deep thought in Gen.O'Neill quarters on the Odyssey, knowing that Ranma was alive and well relieve much of the Generals worries, but now he's concern about this mission he accepted from the Ancients which is a surprise as the Ancients would never ask anyone for help if they are who they say they are.
They contemplated on what they now know and what they will do now and right then, a being of light and energy of an Ascendant appeared and formed to the image of a woman, a very familiar woman.
"Morgan La Fey" Daniel spoke the woman's identity
"Hello Daniel, It's been a while" she greeted and went on to face O'Neill
"General O'Neill, may I speak with you" she requested
It was a while when SG-1 came out of that meeting with the Ancient, and strangely odd that they are asking favors from them. That favor, is to authorize Ranma Saotome mission in the Eirene Galaxy and asks for assistance from SGC.
Earth
Pentagon
Two days later, General O'Neill is facing members of the joint chiefs and the IOA, the International Oversight Advisory to ask them to support a second trans-galactic expedition group to the Eirene Galaxy but only this time, SGC will have the support of their allies from the Asgard, the Jaffa Free Nations and the Tok'ra. Of course, the IOA already knew that one of SG-7 member, the famed Lt.Ranma Saotome who is there by accident and is now request for assistance from SGC to help solve an internal affairs problem regarding another Earth, pretty much would say his real motive of why he's asking for this authorization.
Details were given of what Ranma have found did peak their interest but they still questions as to why they should involve themselves in the internal matters of another planet. With defeat of their primary enemies like the Goa'uld, the IOA wanted to focus on the more peaceful aspects of SGC, namely the trade, exploration and colonization of planets as the deadline for a full 'Disclosure' of the Stargate to the public is set for 5 years from now, time enough to prepare the public to face a more larger community of people.
So O'Neill could not use the reason of searching for power sources like the ZPM, which was one of the primary reason for the Atlantis Expedition. The need for gathering advance technology was no problem now that they have trading partners from hundreds of worlds and major threats like the System Lords, the Replicators and the Ori are gone from their Galaxy.
The IOA would have voted against O'Neill, but reluctantly, the IOA approved it when O'Neill inform them that the Asgard will go on without them and might request the assistance from the JFN and the Tok'ra as extra support on the mission with or without the Tau'ri approval. That part of O'Neill argument became the decision point. O'Neill got his expedition approval
SGC Base Hammond of Texas
A week later
Lt. Colonel John Sheppard commander of the Atlantis Expedition is looking down at the 'Eirene Galaxy Expeditionary Group' and couldn't hold the urge of being bit nostalgia. With him are Dr. MacKay and Dr.Zelenka as well as, Ronon Dex and Teyla Emmagen. They were brought here by the Daedalus to pick up freshly made ZPM thanks to Ranma data's he sent as well as the ZPM which help repower most of the systems
Both Ronon and Teyla have been informed of the mission, the SGC sent people here as the official launching site and this time it will not be just the Tau'ri and the Asgard that will be going, but also a few members of the Jaffa Free Nation, and the Tok'ra that will be coming along. An estimated 5 thousand people will be going, led by Mr. Mosley
The Expedition will be by two groups and they are the advance party, the secondary will follow on later, and the group, once assembled, it will be composed of 25 ships.
Thor, the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet committed 16 of the most advance starships, comprised of 10 O'Neill class-ships and 5 Daniel Jackson-class ships and one new starship that joined their fleet just recently, George Hammond class starship similar to the O'Neill in design but with a flat spear shape with crescent shape wing type body with a wingspan of 1,000 meters across and 2,000 meters long, and armed to the teeth. It is the biggest ship they have ever built and the crown jewel of the Asgard fleet.
The SGC Fleet comprised of 4 Prometheus-class Battlecruisers, 2 Daedalus-class Deep Space Carriers, 2 Lantean refitted Aurora's warships and one Sparta-class, BattleshipCarrier, the Flagship.
BSC-410 Sparta-class Starship
Armaments:
6 x 3 30.in gun turrets Heavy Particle guns upgraded with Asgard tech, three facing forward, two facing behind and one underneath and are the main guns of the ship
12 x 2 10.in gun turrets are Second Generation Asgard HE Plasma guns, six from above, two on each side of the landing bays top and bottom and two underneath and are the secondary main guns of the ship
50 x 3 55mm Rapid fire plasma guns
50 x 2 30mm Gatling rail guns with Depleted Naquadah rounds in a Trinium/Neutronium shell casing
35 x 10 multi-variants missile launchers from anti-aircraft, cruise missiles to the new 'Nike Hercules V' Anti-ships Nuclear Missiles with Tollan P.T.T. or Phase Thru Tech capable (Naquadah enhanced) 750 missiles
20 x 6 Mark VIII Anti-Ship Tactical Nuclear Missile Launchers with Tollan P.T.T. or Phase Thru Tech capable (Naquadah enhanced) for capital ships such as Wraith hive ships 600 warheads
30 Lantean Drone Weapon Launchers each has over one thousand drones
Mark IX "Gate-Buster" Missiles with Tollan P.T.T. or Phase Thru Tech capable (Naqahdriah enhanced) 60 warheads
Mark XII "Planet Killer" with Tollan P.T.T. or Phase Thru Tech capable (Naqahdriah enhanced) 40 warheads
Mark XIII "Are You Nuts!?" with Tollan P.T.T. or Phase Thru Tech capable (Aptly named by Dr.Daniel Jackson) 2 warheads
Fighter Compliments: 165
40 F-302A as in 'Aegis' version
30 F-305 'Wolverine'
15 F-312 'Razer'
25 F-317 'Spartans' fighter similar the Buck Rogers 'Eagle' Fighter but with the trappings of an F-302 wings
20 F-400 'Knight Hawk'
15 F-345 'Flying Tiger' Fighter Bomber design paths of the B2 with 3 retractable 2 anti-aircraft turrets from top, the bottom and rear
35 Troop transports (mostly Tel Tac ships)
Crew Compliments: 5,000 to 7,000 crew, personnel, soldiers and civilians
The primary group will go thru the Lantean Super Gate which it exits at the nearest neighboring Solar System just 3.2 light years from Earth called 'Sigma Ceti' and there they will set up a base of operation and once established the Expedition will explore the surrounding territories one week after the advance group is established.
"Quite an expedition force the General assembled" Sheppard noted "Gen. O'Neill is not taking any chances this time"
"Well, you would be cautious according to Lt.Saotome reports which he sent," Rodney said "They will be in a very hostile territory where the natives may not take our intrusion to their territories lightly" Sheppard nodded agreeably
"A planets military force is using robots called Mobile suits to wage war? But, If you ask me, it sounded something out of a Japanese anime like that…ummm what was that called… 'Mobile Suit Gundam' I think, back in the Early 80's I think" said Rodney as they entered one of the conference room
"From what information Lt.Saotome sent us, it is different in comparison to the anime series, but if the mobile suits are any good like the one in the series, then its gonna be quite a problem for us if we encounter them" Rodney then took a glimpse on the file data Ranma sent, about a mobile suit that stand above the rest much like in that series carrying the name "G.U.N.D.A.M." or General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Automatic Maneuver.
Rodney had to admit, he is rather curious of this world, technologically advance about a hundred years than their Earth but with a racial problems involving genetic enhancements which many people in the scientific and social studies community find it fascinating and disturbing in seeing their theories and libraries of thesis of the possible outcome of a society that enhances their populace as a form of a lifestyle.
"So why again are we going there, sticking our neck again and get shot at?" Dr.Zelenka said questioning
"Other than the usual exploration, its also a military operation, as it turns out," Sheppard seated himself "The IOA granted authorization, officially it's to assess possible threats to Earth, officially" he sounded a bit suspicious of that, Sheppard's thought first is the technology going to be acquired and that what they will find will be shared to everyone, at least that was what everyone is being led to believe.
"So why are we being called for a briefing?" Ronon asks
"Special assignment for Stargate Atlantis, Mr.Ronon Dex" Col.Carter enters the room and greeted
"So what's the assignment Sam?" Rodney asks so casually Carter just sighs and lays it on them
"It's a demolition operation mission Rodney, a priority one" she said with a serious tone "we need you to blow up a SuperGate that is hidden in the Pegasus Galaxy"
"There's a what?"
Carter would have answered Rodney and everyone else surprise if not for the wailing of alarms and sirens of an alert
HMS-HOOD
DSC-304
Orbit on the moon of the tenth planet of the tri-solar system
Captain Thomas Longstreet have been the Hood captain since the day they set the first frame of the Daedalus class ship about 5 years ago, and sailing the stars literally was a dream come thru for the 15 year naval veteran officer and have fought many space battles ranging from System Lords, hostile aliens and space pirates. Today was suppose to be a routine survey on the planet below when they detected a massive energy burst from a hyperspace reentry to normal space just behind the massive Jupiter size planet. They were ships, hundreds of them reappearing behind the planet as if they are trying to conceal themselves as the planet's gravitational field screens their arrival. They are unsuccessful, as the Hood went into cloaking mode which is now standard equipment for all SGC vessels.
The Hood immediately sent an alert as they watch the arrivals and assess threat potential and what the Hood have found is a fleet from the 'Twelve Colony's of Kobol' 220 ships of different classes and seeing them made Longstreet curious to see them almost 30 thousand lightyears from their home at the end of the spiral arm of the galaxy. The SGC and Colonial Fleet have never been in good terms with one another; usually the colonials are the cause of a number of incidents mostly encountering SGC Deep Space Carriers on routine patrols and resupply on SGC colonies ad mining sites.
"They are awfully far from home, 30,000 lightyears far from home" XO John Reilly said "Captain, do you suppose they know about the Lantean Shipyard?" he asks
"No doubt about it Reilly" he replied "They are trying to hide their presence, and if we weren't here, we would never have noticed them until it was too late" right then a brunette female Lt. from the sensor station reported in
"Reading 3 Warstar class Battlestars, 6 Mercury-class Battlestars, 9 Strikestars, 12 Assaultstars, 3 Orion class Heavy Carrier, 3 Seigestars, 12 Meleestars, 15 Ares class Gunstars, 12 Heavy Skirmishstar, 30 Hermes-class light Battlestars, 21 Light Escort, 30 Corvettes, 20 Artemis class Patrolstars, 22 Hephaestus class support ship, 4 Mercy class Hospital ships, 10 Fleet Tenders and 8 Troop Transport" she reported and continues to read the scanning results and immediately reports to his captain again
"Captain, there is something strange about colonial ships especially the Warstars and Mercury class Battlestars" Lt. Megan Hendricks said and she's on the sensor and radar station "I am reading their energy levels above colonial standards…energy signature doesn't match…energy shield detected!" she spoke up I surprise
"What? They have energy shields?" it shock Longstreet "What kind of shield?"
"Gravitic type Captain" she replied "Our Library matches energy signature that of an Aschen Light Cruiser, and I am reading shield holes occurring intermittently on their bubble, seems that their energy output is fluctuating due to insufficient power flow. That shielding is incompatible for that large ship for a full defense"
"They put a shield generator of a light cruiser on a Battlestar?" Longstreet huff, for finds that a bit odd "That's like putting a two cylinder piston engine on a ten wheeler truck"
"Captain I….what the," right before Lt. Megan could speak up, her sensors detected energy build up and then an energy spike. A Warstar fired one of its guns at an asteroid hurtling on its path and they are not the normal EM kinetic railguns but an energy beam
"Captain, that ship is armed with Turbo Lasers and very powerful ones at that" she showed it on the big screen and magnified visual on several of the colonial ships, one particular vessel that got their attention
"Sir, those Meleestars are armed with turbo lasers and laser targeting eyes; similar to the ones we use to guide cruise missiles"
"Aschen shields and Turbo Lasers, now that's very interesting" he said and despite the surprise, he was curious as to how the colonials got hold of Aschen shields and Turbo Lasers.
'I wonder what else they have on their ships' he thought "Alright, send our data's to General O'Neill pronto"
"Yes sir,"
Odyssey
When the alert was sent, 15 ships went into the defensive at 150,000 kilometers from the Lantean shipyards. 8 ships belong to SGC, 4 Prometheus-class, 3 Daedalus-class and one Sparta-class. The others are 2 Jaffa Ha'Tak Motherships, 3 O'Neill class Asgard ships and 2 Daniel Jackson vessels. At the Shipyards command and control center, SGC and their allies analyze the Hood is sending them and are asking questions.
'Why the colonials are here and why do they possess Aschen advance tech on their ships?' are the question being asks
"We haven't heard from the Aschen since…Ranma kick their ass in Kar'Thom" now that name very much brought some memories for SGC, something that O'Neill wanted to forget.
-o-
The last time SGC have seen the Aschen was about a year ago, when the USS Odyssey, USS Daedalus and HMS Hood, the Asgard Fleet and SG-13 particularly Lt.Ranma Saotome trashed one of their major military base, a moon size planetoid called 'Kar'THom' it is also the planet that develops the dreaded Aschen bioweapons. Intelligence reported that, the Aschen survive their encounter with the Blackhole when they tried one of the gate addresses that O'Neill gave them several years back.
It took several detonations of multi-megaton fusion bombs to cut the connection and it work. By then a good chunk of their planet has a crater over 6 miles deep and 100 miles in diameter and everything around the crater was pulled out of its foundation and sucked into the gate including the planet atmosphere. The Aschen Homeworld was abandoned as solar radiation poison the planets surface without the protection of the ozone layer.
In retaliation, the Aschen went on a search and destroy mission to find SGC home Homeworld. They travel via space for without gate address to the other systems; they are quite limited on their search, however, their search was put on hold as several hostile neighbors began a war against the Aschen. Then one day, they got lucky when they captured SG-13 (where Ranma is assign to) on a planet close to their territory.
The Aschen sent SG-13 to Kar'Thom (Meaning: 'Blood Moon' in Aschen) where they were badly beaten and interrogated for information, none of them break then the Aschen made the most grievous mistake of killing Ranma commanding officer who was a female after they rape and robe her dignity and displayed her broken body in front of them, and that made Ranma murderously angry and went 'RAMBO' on them.
On that day, Ranma was named by the Aschen as the 'Angel of Death' for that night, Kar'Thom burned to the ground and the streets of their biggest base are littered with dead Aschen soldiers turning the ground into blood red. Literally
The Aschen's nights of terror was the first time Ranma uses all of his martial arts knowledge and military training to the maximum. Six days he scoured their base killing anyone who pointed a gun at him destroying building after building and the Aschen are unable to stop his rampage.
The SGC found out where SG-13 was taken to and sent their spacefleet supported by the Asgard fleet to Kar'Thom systems, and upon arrival, they subdued the Aschen 6th Planet Burner Fleet who seems preoccupied on what is happening on the planet below. They noticed hundreds of smaller spaceships leaving the surface of the planet, each ship are pack with people and when SGC blockaded some of them, the passengers inside was begging to let them go. The crew of SGC looks at the faces of the Aschen oddly, for once they were unreadable faces, but now they see the face of fear and terror, their bodies were trembling for something was happening on the planets surface and it scared the hell out of them. One of the Aschen said that,
'An Angel of Death' is walking our streets bringing death everywhere'
SGC troops arrived on the planet surface and found a base in flames and the dead and dying littered the streets by the tens of thousands of soldiers most of whom seems to have been killed by a bladed weapons like a sword while others look like someone is using the Aschen for batting practice with a sledgehammer as a bat, and while others seems to have been decapitated by hand.
They found Ranma with wings on his back glowing blood red, surrounded by a thousand dead soldiers under his feet and covered with blood, holding a sort of a broadsword at one hand still dripping in blood and an Aschen blaster rifle at the other with vapor still coming out of its nozzle. Gen.O'Neill was there when they found him. O'Neill saw in Ranma eyes, the eyes of a samurai, focused and unfeeling. Ranma recognize O'Neill and reported to him that, for 6 days he made a private war against the Aschen without giving them a moments of rest and the feeling of safety and security while he was being pursued by them.
In fact, Ranma let himself be pursued, leading the Aschen away from SG-13 as much as he could. He taunted the Aschen, dared them to kill him but couldn't, and for six days Ranma filled their Hospitals with wounded and their Morgue with their dead that the bodies of dead soldiers was left to rot in the streets where they were killed. Five days later, the Aschen soldiers fled the planet or went underground for Kar'Thom has a network of underground facilities which Ranma haven't yet accessed it.
Search and Rescue found the rest of SG-13 and evacuated them, after that, Ranma uses 'Bakusai Tenketsu' at maximum power to turn their fabrication facilities into rubble, leaving no building standing on the surface, yet that was part of his intent. Ranma's technique was a 'Double Whammy'. As it turns out, Ranma technique cause the fault lines across the planet to become active and anything underground from factories warehouses and facilities with their soldiers and personnel were killed and destroyed.
The Aschen lost one of their biggest base and countless dead, they also lost their technological edge, for Kar'Thom is where the Aschen develop their bioweapons arsenal, and without it, hostile neighbors took advantage of that loss and pushed the Aschen off their territory where once they couldn't for fear of their bioweapons.
-o-
"Rumor has it, that the Aschen allied itself to a neighboring power as their border wars with their neighbors escalated" Teal'c said "Most likely, it's the Colonials who reinforce them since their territory is not that far"
"That explains the tech upgrades on their capital ships" Carter agrees "Hood detects no unusual upgrade on the others, so a fight with us now in our situation would be an even fight because of their sheer numbers, but why are the colonials here?"
"Well it's most likely, that we got a security leak somewhere, wonder who told the colonials about this place" Daniel said wondering
"We'll ask them later, right now its time to kick their ass off this system!" O'Neill said impatient and immediately opens a comm channel to all stations
"Red alert, secure all stations," he announced "Perseus (Prometheus-class) and Prometheus (Prometheus-class), stay in orbit with two of the Asgard ships, Athena, Diana (Prometheus-class) and Thor (Daedalus-class) go to silent running and watch our six for party crashers, the rest will go on to intercept the colonial fleet" The allied fleet began to move. Three ships disappear from sight, two stayed near the shipyard with two Asgard O'Neill-class ships in support the rest heads for the colonial fleet at full sublight speed and immediately stop just halfway on orbit of the sixth planet close to the numerous Lantean orbiting resources refinement facility, where all construction materials are first fabricated from raw material before sent to the shipyard
Asgard Flagship George Hammond
Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard Fleet watches the Allied Fleet while it takes their position within proximity of one of the orbiting Lantean facility. He watches the tactical screens as the Colonial fleet split into three groups leaving a few ships mostly the support fleet with protection while the main force of 150 ships divided into 3 groups. Col.Samantha Carter was on board manning one of the stations and notice about the colonial fleet and brought it to Thor attention
"Thor, sensors are reading that several of the colonial ships, most notably the Warstars and the Mercury class Battlestars has only half the crew and oddly armored with Trinium around the location of their Command and Control center" she said and noted battle damage from energy weapons. Then Thor enhance the screens for a deeper scan or an X-ray look into the Colonial ships, event those with shields can't protect their secrets.
"Lifesigns seems to be concentrated in the inner sections of the ship while those close to the hull has barely no signs of life," a closer scan showed something more
"How odd" he said "the sections close to the hull seems to be filled inorganic materials such as sand, stones and then cellulose paper, fabric like wool and cotton" for a moment they wondered what the colonials have done, then it hit Carter
"They padded up their ships" she said obvious of what the colonials did "They padded all the sections of their ships close to the outer hull with absorbent materials, absorb battle damage to keep the ship in battle much longer, most likely that their ships systems is in deeper to keep the ship fighting"
"A most ingenious innovation" Thor said "It will give them some protection but by only a small degree, not enough to stop our current weaponry, even the Odyssey plasma beam weapons in low setting can burn their protection"
"Still, they can hold up against us in an equal fight as we are now, especially those turbo lasers," Carter pointed out "Those things are only a quarter in strength to ours and half as powerful as a Jaffa plasma based weapons, but with so many of those things they can overwhelm our defensive shields is given half the chance"
"Which we are not giving them that chance, Carter" General O'Neill spoke up from the comm and sounded very angry
"The Last time we meet these people was supposedly a peaceful academic exchange of our planets biggest geeks, then the next thing you know,twenty of their Big ass Battlestars surrounded us and force us to surrender our ship to them, claiming that were a bunch of heretic crap nonsense and that they are going to liberate their thirteen colony brothers from their heretical beliefs!" O'Neill snorted at that
"O'Neill, are you referring to 'The Troy Incident' in the Troy sector a month before Ranma ended in the Eirene Galaxy?" Thor asks since he read a report from Freya
"Yeah, that's the one Thor, that's the one…" O'Neill gritted his teeth at the memory of that incident 7 months ago
-o-
Troy sector is an SGC mining base which is about 10 light years from the 'Red Line' of the 'Twelve Colonies of Kobol'. Troy, a semi-habitable Starsystem is an enormously rich in mineral deposits such as Uranium, Trinium, Tylium and other resources, and also sight of the first contact with the colonials, when a colonial deep space explorer appeared in the system. Then later on, colonial fleet of ships appeared to make official contact, then two months after that, a supposedly peaceful cultural exchange ended with the attempted theft of a Daedalus class ship using a classic 'Trojan Horse' tactic
O'Neill was there at that time to officiate the exchange of 12 of Earth's best academics and receiving of 12 colonial academics. The Prometheus-class ship Greecia was dock beside the Mercury-class ship named Pegasus one of the colonial's capital class ships. The 12 men supposedly academics and scholars turns out to be Special Forces ops, the moment they step on board they took control of the docking bay and hold it for the rest of the shock troopers to pour in.
The attempt to seize the ship failed as force fields walls and airlocks isolated the section of the ship compromised, then beam out any crew and personnel either alive or dead right before they break lock and exposed the area into deep space. As the Greecia fought a broadside battle with the Pegasus which was damage severely by Greecia's weapons fire, 20 Battlestars poured into the system, several of them targeted the Greecia and open fire while others headed for the planet and was about to send an assault force to the surface when the Greecia arrive and stand against them and the planet. The Greecia survive the first assault and then fought its way thru a wall of Battlestars giving cover for the ships leaving Planet Troy via spaceships and Stargate.
The Greecia at that time was still armed with standard rail guns, 12 Mark VII missiles and the first generation particle beam guns. It also has eight F-302's and They fought overwhelming odds and were able to sink 5 Battlestars and crippled 7 more by the Greecia and the F-302 who fought against Colonial fighter called Mk.VII Viper and Mk.VIII Viper. Impressive as the colonials were, they do not have the tech advantage of the 302s with better firing range, targeting, speed, maneuverability and weaponry, yet the vipers was able to shoot 4 of them thru sheer number and combined firepower of their 30mm machine gun cannons. One Tau'ri fighters is shot down for every dozen colonials that 302s shot down
One F-302 call sign 'Wildhorse' is Lt.Ranma Saotome fighter. He alone sunk 2 Battlestars on his own using his Naquadah enhance AAMRM 'Slammer' Missiles by hitting them point blank range and crippled 2 more by flying into a landing pod and firing 2 x 30mm Gatling guns with Depleted Naquadah rounds with a potassium tip.
The Vipers were unable to shoot him down as he weaves its way thru a storm of bullets and flak of anti aircraft guns. One Viper Mk.VII however, did damage his fighter several times but not enough to get him out of commission, yet that one Viper and its pilot was insane enough to chase him thru the hailstorm.
The Mk.VII Viper chases Ranma F-302 everywhere but never came close to actually shooting him down, yet he was impressed at the skills of the colonial pilot, for whether the pilot is gifted or insane, it kept up with him. So when the Greecia was finally in open space, it jump out of the system and other pilots jumps to follow, Ranma stayed for a while and faces the persistent pilot in a one on one duel. Ranma never got to duel, as the Mk. VII that was chasing was pretty shot up by the guns of its own people, as it continues to chase him and stops as it can no longer follow him.
Curious to know who the pilot is, Ranma move his fighter to the colonial fighter and see who the one that put up a good fight was. To Ranma surprise, it was a woman, and on the name on the canopy was written. Ranma can only read one word
'Starbuck'
Ranma left the sector via hyperspace and on the planet Troy, SGC facilities, the Gate, refineries and mining sights started to self-destruct to make sure that, not one piece will remain for the colonials to study.
SGC contacts with the colonials since then was nothing but caution when they come too close to a hundred light years from the colonials 'Red Line' which the border of their territory. SGC policy to them is, 'Avoid Contact' for a confrontational stance was 'out of the question' according to the IOA. Unfortunately however, skirmishes with them frequently occurs when the Colonial ships keeps venturing farther from their territory, most of which ended with the colonials retreating after having their ships turn into Swiss cheese by rail gun rounds and particle weapons.
-o-
"We lost Troy and 150 good people onboard the Greecia" he said "I have no intention of loosing another system to them"
Odyssey
"The bucks stop here!" General O'Neill declared"Standard greetings, let them explain themselves, no one shoots unless they shoot at us first and if so, send them back to their worlds with their tail between their legs"
The Allied fleet separated in 3 groups where the Odyssey, Daedalus and the Sparta headed straight a group of Battlestars being led by a Warstar Flagship named the Atlantia and beside it is a Mercury-class ship from an old nemesis the Pegasus.
"Well, well, well, that bitch is here" O'Neill cursed and leans back and smile like a cat caught a bird as he recognize the mercury class ship, whose nametag the Pegasus, still has some scorch marks burns the Greecia gave that over glorified ship that calls itself a Battlestar.
The Pegasus has a new Port Landing Pod where the old one was destroyed by O'Neill's Mark VII nuke as well as new armor, weapons and shields which makes it a little bit intimidating, just a little but not enough a threat to an SGC vessels up to date.
Nearing 800 kilometers from the colonials, O'Neill opens a comm channel to the colonials "Attention, to the ships that belongs to the Twelve Colonies of Kobol," he starts
"You are in violation of the Territories of the Tau'ri Forces and her Allied Forces, cease your approach and leave this system immediately, this is your first and only warning" he said gravely as gun turrets and missile batteries swings around and took aim at the colonial Battlestars and then Gen.O'Neill ads
"And if you're on board that rust bucket of a ship called the Pegasus Helena, I'll keep my promise use you," he said threatening "No amount of shield, armor and padding you have on that ship, will not stop a charge particle beam from blasting your boney ass into millions of atoms, do you get me you bitch!""
The crew and every other ship have heard the General sounding very seriously angry at the colonial. It is most unusual but not unexpected. Rear Admiral Helena Caine formerly handled the first contact in Troy, after 2 months of negotiations, an academic exchange was decided, and would have been the start of a peaceful contact but instead they were betrayed.
Battlegroup 1
Atlantia
Fleet Commander Admiral Nagala and Rear Admiral Helena Caine ignore O'Neill warnings and focus on watching the Dradis showing three ships approach them in a defensive posture. Three ships, two are no bigger than the Mercury class ships landing pod and yet they carry enormous firepower and advance technology above theirs and that time and again have humiliated his fleet of Battlestars since the fall of Troy. Then four months ago, they rescued an Aschen ship in the IO sector and there they found allies who shared advance technology like shields, laser guns, missiles and better armor and hyperdrive as well as subspace scanners. All of it is given; in return of supporting them to help fight against their neighbors and the colonials gave it.
The enemies of the Aschen were routed with the colonials support and since then, the Aschen and the colonials reinforced their alliance as the Aschen shared their technology to them while the colonial supports them with their vast military fleet until the Aschen can rebuild theirs. Both benefitted with the alliance especially the military.
Then a month ago, the Aschen shared an intelligence report of that a Tau'ri Forces establish a base where they are refitting their ships with advance technology from a long dead race and is now in the process of preparing for war against them.
"Looks like the Aschen were right, this is an Earther base" he declared. "Prepare for battle, charge up the guns and increase shield strength to 100 percent and nuclear ordinance in their rack" he yelled orderingly and then face Helena with a smile
"Well, it looks like you will get you payback after all Helena"
"Yes Sir" she replied with an eagerness to fulfill it. "Permission to return to my ship, Sir" she requested
"Granted" he answered and she saluted Admiral and walk out of the CNC
The Colonial Fleet started to go alive as gun ports are open and directed its aim at the Tau'ri approaching. Confident of victory against their nemesis, they believe that their new hardware installed on their ship, the odds against their vaunted adversary the Tau'ri and was glad that they found the Aschen.
However, what they don't know about the Aschen is going to kill them, slowly.
Ever since the end of the Aschen's border wars they have been quietly rebuilding their spacefleet to replace what they have lost during the war. They gave the colonials weapons that are obsolete and can easily defend against, and they also place a Trojan horse on every technology they gave as insurance should the colonials decided to turn against them as wells as medicine with the engineered side effects. Now with their military power beginning to return, the Aschen then decided decrease the colonial's military presence in their system by sending them on a fool's errand, thirty thousand lightyears away and hopes that, it will start a war that will drain their allies as well as their Tau'ri enemies' resources
Admiral Nagala under President Adar orders have sent over half of the fleet leaving the other half in the Aschen sector in a first strike action to stop the Tau'ri from gaining more advance technology. The Aschen told the Colonials what they want them to know, they don't have to lie but withheld some of it, knowing that the colonials have a deep sense of hatred against the Tau'ri. So with the approval from their president, he sent half the fleet and led it himself.
Pegasus
'O'Neill you bastard, I'm ready for you now' Helena Caine thought as she arrive on her ship
Returning to her ship the Pegasus, Helena Caine seated back at her command chair, with anxious anticipation of a battle to commence. She watches her new visual screen in tactical mode which shows all of the colonial fleet and the enemy. It shows the Colonial Fleet, took a triangular formation with the Atlantia as the tip and the Pegasus in reserve.
Helena waited six months to for this moment to come, her ship returned to her after extensive refit with upgrades from Aschen weapons, shields and armor will now be put to the test on this battle but her ship is in reserve and let the Warstar Zeus to take the lead
She looks at a sensor scan of the Tau'ri ships especially the Daedalus class ship Odyssey and a new ship, a Battlestar size ship or bigger looking likes a spearhead tip and armed with weapons that their scans are not giving any details as it is being block by their shields and ECM wave.
The Daedalus class ship is a well known vessel as much as the Prometheus class ship and are well aware of their capabilities after months of skirmish battles when the colonials started to explorer outside their borders. With Aschen sensors, they gauge the power level of Tau'ri ships and found it a shock that one ship alone has enough power for twenty Battlestars, and the Unknown ship is five times more power than that of the Daedalus. They do not have any data and don't know what it could do, yet judging by the sensor data the ship is a dreadnaught and it started to worry her. Then she remembers what O'Neill said a while ago
'No amount of shield, armor and padding you have on that ship, will not stop a charge particle beam' she remembers those words,
Helena remembers from the scientist and tacticians that, if the amount of power the ship is generating is higher, then it is assume that their energy weapons and shields is just as equally powerful to use it. And that made a realization
"Oh Gods, No!" she exclaimed as it dawn her the answer, as she watch her screens showing Tau'ri energy based weapons preparing to fire "Get me Admiral Nagala on the horn, Now!" she ordered
By then, it was too late
The Atlantia fired all of her turbo lasers and anti-ship missiles on the Odyssey, the rest of the forward ships followed. A storm of lasers splash at the Tau'ri ships shields causing it to glow visible momentarily but cause no damage to the ships and while that was happening, forward ahead, 6 Skirmishstars opens up their batteries of nuclear missiles and firing them, numbering a hundred fifty warheads, each is about 10megatons coming at Tau'ri ships just below them and exploding.
The colonials cheered at the assured victory, everyone except for Helena and she's looking at her screens carefully as it filters the heavy glow of the explosion. To her horror, she sees the silhouette of objects coming out of the flames of nuclear fire like a phoenix, moving out of the flames, she can see that the Tau'ri has very powerful shields protecting them.
That moment, Helena screamed an order
"Turn this ship hard starboard now!" her officers and crew look at the terror in her face as 3 beams of a 16.in heavy particle guns slammed at the Atlantia energy shields and for a moment it held against it but only for a moment, as the beam slammed on the armor hull.
"Merciful Zeus" a female crewman gasps at what she just saw
The three heavy particle beams is focused on one specific point on the ship, have blasted thru the heavy armor and to the padding. The padding save the ship from being destroyed, yet the force of the explosion pushed back the Atlantia about 200 meters. The first volley of the Tau'ri counterattack, and as they approach the colonials at amazing speed, all of their guns are now unleashing hell against the colonials.
They unleashed their fighters in full force against the Tau'ri fighters who is outnumbered 1 to 3. Yet despite their upgrades of laser guns and targeting systems, the fighters lack inertial dampeners, shields and armor unlike the Tau'ri who has all of it and more. To many, the Colonials leaders seems to show less concerns for the life of their pilots as they have sheer abundance of fighters and pilots at their disposal,so spending money for such high tech upgrade is to them not feasible.
In the half hour of the battle, the Pegasus its landing pod again, and Admiral Helena Caine is receiving word that, Battlegroup 3 is totally destroyed while Battlegroup 2 is on a fighting retreat and started to jump out of the battlefield with only 20 Battlestar from the 50 Battlestars that they started and her group, once numbering about 60 Battlestars is now down to less than 20 and dropping.
For the next 30 minutes the Colonial fleet was fighting a loosing battle as they are pounded by the more powerful weapons of the Tau'ri and their allies especially from the big spearhead ship, where its big guns took out 4 Battlestars in one volley. The Tau'ri are employing missiles that kills a single Battlestar so easily like their shields, armor and padding was not there to stop it.
What the colonials don't know is that the shields, armor and padding cannot stop an anti-ship missile with a phase thru system, a technology SGC salvage and reverse engineered from the ruins of Tollana and now incorporated into their missiles systems. The Nike Hercules V is the first to be incorporated with the tech along with auto avoidance, anti-intercept system, making it the most lethal weapons in the Tau'ri arsenal.
The Tau'ri are deployed from three direction, confident of their strength, they held their ground at a thousand kilometers away and fought off Viper attacks as they continue a range battle with the colonials using particle beam weapons at full power while the colonials kept firing their turbo lasers as it slowly becoming weaker every shot they make.
"General, the colonial laser is loosing power and their Hyperdrive is spooling for a jump" reported by a Lt. Mitchell in the sensor station
"They are diverting power for a jump," he said "They are retreating, how the Daedalus is holding Mitchell?" the General asks him thru the noise
"Daedalus is falling back general," he replied "Their shield is up again but its down to 40 percent, landing bay 1 and 2 is damage secondary main sublight is offline, most of their secondary weapon system are off line, primary weapons not functional"
"That bad"
"Yes Sir,"
What had happened to the Daedalus was the result of a malfunction on their shields, as the colonials fired lasers and nukes at the Daedalus it caused a rapid power drain in their system, resulting to shield failure. The loss of the shield for just a few seconds was enough for the colonial's weapons to damage her. O'Neill can see that the colonials are leaving one at a time but still some are still fighting on and targeting the damage Daedalus
"Tell the Sparta to continue cover fire and turn the Odyssey towards the Daedalus." He said ordering the crew "Let's give the Daedalus cover for them to pull back"
Immediately the Odyssey turns towards the Daedalus and making itself as a shield for them to move to a safe distance.
Atlantia
Two Mercury and Six Assaultstars are shielding the wounded Warstar flagship, Admiral Nagala, who was patch up by the ships medic from a bleeding at his right side forehead and a broken left arm; he returns to the CNC while he injected himself with pain killers and there he watches the battle in horrid disbelief.
"Gods!"
In the 30 minutes of engagement, the fleet lost no more than 100 ships, maybe more and countless fighters in what is perhaps the most brutal battle his people has ever fought and they are not even officially at war with the Tau'ri.
His command and no doubt that his career is over once they retreated. Colonial Fleet Headquarters and President Adar will put the blame on him for this fiasco, something for the civilian populace to sink their teeth on if he fails on this mission. Before that could happen he'd rather die first than face disgrace
"Full Retreat, commence operation leap back number 7!" he spoke to his commanders on the comm channel, Helena wide eyes, for she understood what that means and what the Admiral is planning, and it was not a retreat.
"Imhotep, Nero and Caligula with me, Pegasus and the rest, watch our back, so say we all"
"So say we all" said in chorus
"So say we all" Helena said solemn, she knew what the Admiral said,
Nagala words were coded, for the enemy might be listening in on their comm. The Admiral ship and three other Battlestars took position and jump but not in retreat but a micro jump into the system and then a second later, Pegasus and the others were the ones retreated.
Odyssey
O'Neill let them leave but then, 'Something is not right' he thought
"Mitchell, status?" O'Neill asks and quickly he answered frantic
"Oh Shit! General, four Battlestars just went a micro jump forward into the system and headed towards the shipyards" Mitchell screamed
"Shit! I knew it" O'Neill cursed "Contact the others and prepare for company, stop those ships, Helm! Turn this ship around!"
Hammond of Texas
Less than five hundred thousand kilometers from the shipyards, four Battlestars appeared from hyperspace but they are all spread out and the result of which is a catastrophe. One out of control Battlestar is headed for a collision course to one of the moons three moons of the planet and crashing into it, while another one appeared right in front of the Perseus.
The Perseus tried to avoid a collision but its left landing bay slammed into the front of the Battlestar and both went out of commission. Only two Battlestar, the Atlantia and the Nero are still operational and were now throwing every piece of ordinance at the shipyard and the city on the planet below but ignoring the SuperGate nearby.
Hammond of Texas however, was not defenseless, for as the colonials appeared in their Starsystem, the city and its shipyard, immediately raise their shields, and when the four ships appeared close to the planet, their automated defensive systems became active and targeted the threat with combat drones with satellites with particle beam weapons.
Adding to the defense, the Tau'ri ships and Asgard ships began firing at the two Battlestars in full force to stop their move forward to the shipyard. The Nero exploded and destroyed while the Atlantia was blasted piece by piece till it become a twisted debris of metal, but then, the Atlantia began an uncontrolled turn towards the SuperGate. The ship exploded as it crashed into the gate own force shields which save the gate and yet some of that explosive crash did manage to breach thru even for a moment, and that damage a part of the SuperGate.
The Odyssey and the allied fleet returns to the shipyard to help but found their defenders held up very well. However, to see the SuperGate damaged was a concern for Gen.O'Neill and was worried that, this may have cost the mission to the Eirene Galaxy.
Within the next few hours, search and rescue scoured the battlefield for survivors both theirs and the colonials. The Tau'ri lost one Daedalus class ship the Berlin and one Prometheus class the Kiev, the others sustained severe damages as well as loosing 22 F-302As, 6 F-305s, 2 F-317s, and 25 Jaffa Gliders. As for the colonials, they lost 153 Battlestars of different class, and over fighters lost 2,000 where 1,100 of them are Mk. VII unmodified while 900 Mk. VIII upgraded versions as well as 50 Raptors and over 7 thousand colonial survivors now POW.
SuperGate
Two days later
While the fleet is cleaning up the mess, Col.Carter and Rodney are doing a visual inspection on the damage done to the SuperGate and using scanners to verify their conclusion they reports their findings to Gen.O'Neill
"4 Months" was MacKay first words to O'Neill "The crash by the colonial Battlestar was extensive but repairable General, I'm sorry"
"4 Months is our best estimate, worst estimate is a year, depending on the repairs done" Carter added though that didn't go well for O'Neill for without the big gate, the mission is in jeopardy. O'Neill pinch the bridge between his eyes at the migraine coming due to exhaustion as everyone is tired. O'Neill sighs heavily and looks them both and said
"Alright, you two get some rest; file a report and have it on my desks tomorrow" he told them calmly and exhausted
"Yes, Sir" the two replied and walk out of the room, leaving O'Neill to think alone.
The mission to the Eirene Galaxy for with the SuperGate out of commission, the spacefleet can't go there nor can the advance group. Worst of all, Hammond of Texas location is now known and now needed ample protection from hostile threats. Meaning, he can't send a fleet to help Ranma as they are more needed here now.
Despite the setback, O'Neill hasn't given up…as there is…one more supergate he can access in the Pegasus Galaxy.
To be Continued
Author:
My compliments to Wolf Shipyards for the many nice BSG ships in their fleet, and to the many readers I than you for your reviews whole heartedly