11 Friends

700 BC, Earth, Antarctica

The heavily cloaked figure paid no mind to the ka-woosh of the Chappa'ai as it shut down behind her. Instead, the woman's eyes peered through the heavy goggles that hid her face from the biting cold, before finally settling on a small hole in the top of the ice cave she was standing in. Perfect, it was night still.

Chronos, that fool, had simply paid no mind to the geological conditions of Earth. During her studies, the woman had found the summers on Earth's southern most point to be quiet mild, relatively speaking. Mild enough, at least, to allow her to survive easily, especially with the healing powers her symbiote provided for her.

Setting her gloved hand on the sledge dutifully hovering behind her, carrying her equipment and her rations, the host finally dug her feet into the slippery ice and pushed herself up, climbing towards the surface.

With a small whine, the sledge rose up to hover next to its master.

Even through her heavy clothing, the traveller could feel the cold wind beating against her as she looked up to the stars.

"Of course," she thought bitterly as she estimated her position, "I am going to have to travel into the wind."

Finally, her eyes settled on a a small peak rising up from the otherwise flat surface. While the hill did appear to be snow, not solid ice, something was obviously keeping it there. Digging her fingers into the small accumulation, she was delighted to hit something solid within.

Uncovering the craft further, the alien was disappointed to see the harshly bend wings and the destroyed cockpit.

"Of course, they would not have left the craft behind if it was still usable."

Still, the woman quickly began digging through the craft with renewed vigour, hoping to find something that might be useful to her and shorten her journey a bit. Egypt was a long way away, and she would have to go even further.

.

650 BC, Earth, Italy, Rome

Hermes warningly dug his fingers into the arm of his young charge as she intended to jump forward. He could understand her well. A few thousand years ago, he would probably have behaved much the same. Now, though, he was older and wiser.

Iris looked back at her mentor confused. Twenty years ago, on a small mountain path over the alps, she had run into a avalanche to rescue a small boy who had been separated from his parents. She had heard the father desperate calling for his son, while the mother had sobbed hysterically and had not hesitated.

Unfortunately, or maybe, looking back, fortunately, a large branch that had been ripped off had hit her in the head moments after she had left her cave. The next thing she remembered, her whole body tingled as she was washed away by the avalanche. By sheer luck, the small boy she had set out to rescue had been floating close to her, miraculously almost unharmed, albeit unconscious.

By instinct, Iris had grabbed him and had pulled him close before digging her heals into the snow covered ground. She was well aware that she would have no chance to save the boy or herself, not against the power of an avalanche, but she felt she had to try at least.

Then, suddenly, the pressure on her back eased before ceasing completely as she came to a stop. Instead of the clear hill she had expected, obviously having passed the flow of destruction, a white barrier had held back the snow and protected both her and the boy.

As she laid in the snow, panting and praising the gods for saving her life, the young woman vowed to use her life to help others, starting with returning the boy to his parents.

When Hermes had found her a few days later, she had not hesitated to join him and to embrace that which he had to teach her. Although her mentor was one of the younger immortals, he had seen and done things she hardly imagined before. When he first showed her his - their powers, though, and then led her to his ship, she had been overwhelmed, of course, but more so determined to learn all she could to help the best she could.

Now though, her mentor held her back as she yearned to rush forward, the call of battle ringing through her blood.

"Teacher! Only a Goa'uld can ..."

Hermes rolled his eyes as he heard his charge call him 'teacher' once again. In the aftermath of the Goa'uld invasion, five, a surprisingly large number of immortals, had begun tapping, or reborn, as they called it now. His charge, Iris, was unusual since she gained her powers peacefully. Most others had died defending their home against the anarchy that ruled after the Goa'uld had left. Iris seemed to be most interested in learning, though, and her chosen name for him reflected that.

"We do not know enough. There are only two of us, and you have never faced a Jaffa or a Goa'uld before. Do not be overconfident. Besides, this is a healing device. As far as I know, it can not be misused, and the boy might profit."

In the past few decades, Rome had risen from a small village to a dominant power on the Italian peninsular. As a result, change and advancement, as well as poverty and misery, prospered. It was one of the most perfect places to really help the people Hermes had ever been to, either through politics or through bodily work.

During one of his stays with his apprentice - they were currently posing as a merchant and his daughter, helping the poor as part of their service to the gods – they had stumbled upon a large crowd of people, all staring intently at a scene hidden from the pair.

Their curiosity piqued, they fought their way through the crowd to get a better look. A small boy, a beggar, by the looks of it, was kneeling on the floor, crying, his left knee twisted at an unnatural angle.

Crouching over him was a young, healthy woman dressed in an obviously expensive tunic, who smiled down at him. What alarmed the two immortals, though, was Goa'uld healing device the woman pulled from her robes and slipped over her hands.

When the device activated and emitted a pale golden beam of light that caused the boys leg to knit back together and heal rapidly, Hermes expected the people to panic, to run and scream for mercy from the gods and their power. Instead, the people seemed to be awed, but calm.

Tapping the man next to him, Hermes leaned over. "What is happening here?"

The man seemed unfazed. "The boy fell off the roof and broke his leg. The Lady offered to heal it for him."

Hermes nodded, carefully morphing his face into an expression of awe.

"She is a great sorcerer then? Or maybe even a servant of the gods themselves?"

Finally, the spectator turned his full attention to the conversation. "You are not from around here, are you?"

Without waiting for an answer, although Hermes nodded immediately and opened his mouth to repeat their carefully planed story, he continued. "A few months ago, she showed up here and offered her services to the king. As you can imagine, he laughed her out of the palace. After all, what would a commoner, a woman, at that, be able to do for a king. She stayed persistent, though, and became known as a good soul amongst the people. Wherever she went, she spread health and good fortune, so in the end, the king called her back, and invited her to his court. Rumour says, she is nymph sent by the gods themselves to lead Rome to greatness."

Hermes frowned in thought as he took in the new information, before turning to Iris and finding her mind.

"Something strange is going on, here. She seems to be Goa'uld, but does not behave like one. She does not seem to have any Jaffa or slaves with her, but no Goa'uld ever travels without them. Run back to the ship and call the others. We might have a situation here."

That night, half a dozen high-pitched whining sounds sounded through a small clearing a good walk away from the city as the various ships they had heisted touched down.

.

Hera carefully inspected the fish she was holding as the people in the street behind her parted seemingly on their own. A female form glided through the masses with a grace that was unusual in the common people, and only rarely seen amongst the aristocracy.

With a nod in thanks, Hera dropped a few coins and left the vendor behind to follow the figure a few turns, before abruptly turning right.

At the next junction, Poseidon stepped away from where he was watching a few kids play and made his way down the street. For hours, they had now followed the woman wandering through Rome. Most of the time, she seemed to be content with simply watching, but every once in a while, she would stop, sometimes to simply offer some words of encouragement, sometimes to use her healing device or give a beggar some coins. So far, she appeared to be peaceful, which was strange in itself.

Excusing himself from his conversation with Hephaistos and Apollon, Zeus relieved Poseidon from his duty.

"This is getting us nowhere. Hades?"

Hades hurried along the rooftops, jumping from one house to the next as he tried to keep up with the streets, while at the same time remaining unseen. "In position."

A few turns later, their suspect turned into a less busy section of town, and then into an even more vacant side street. "Ares. We are heading to you. Close it up."

As Zeus reached into his tunica, his fist curling around the zat'ni'katel hidden there, he was perfectly aware of the position of every one of the other elders as they coordinated constantly to cover the Goa'uld and now to make sure they remained undisturbed. The younger immortals, those younger then the rebellion of Egypt, moved around town in case the situation got out of hand, and guarded their ships.

At the end of the small street, Ares stepped around the corner and into the shadows, out of sight of any accidental passerby. He, too, pulled out a zat'ni'katel, and Zeus could see the woman's back stiffen in recognition.

As she turned to flee, and just as she spotted him sealing the other exit, Hades dropped over the ledge of the small building and directly behind her, his zat'ni'katel immediately digging into her back.

Both immortals on the junctions slowly and cautiously moved further into the small ally, keeping their weapons concealed but in hand at their hands. Their target knew they were there, and that was enough. If things got out of control, they would not be using them anyways, not in a city as large as Rome.

"Who are you, Goa'uld?" Even from the distance, Hades' hiss sounded cold and hard as steal to Zeus, and he mentally congratulated his friend on a performance well done. More interesting, though, was the look of confusion on the woman's face, before her shoulders slumped in relief.

"I know longer call myself Goa'uld. You scared me. I thought the Ashrak had caught up with me already."

While the woman turned her head to smile at all three of her captors in turn, the men continued to be cautiously confused.

"If you would, now, though, I'd like to talk to Thundering Eagle. Can you get me to him, or him here."

Now, Zeus eyes widened in surprise as he connected the missing dots. They knew one Goa'uld who would help people, and only one Goa'uld knew his name. Although Zeus was reasonably sure, he watched closely as he spoke up again to detect any hint of deceit that might expose their friend.

"You look different, Egeria."

The woman took it in stride, though, and merely smiled at him. "I don't recognize either of you, either. My old host turned too old for me to heal, and we discovered one of the reasons for the Goa'uld's evil and madness is their continuos use of the Sarcophagus. It suppresses inhibitions and brings forth ruthlessness. Merel had taken ill with a powerful virus, and was on her deathbed. For us, it was a match made in heaven, and we have spent long hours in wonderful conversation since then."

Zeus nodded. Not only did her explanation make a lot of sense and matched a lot of their theories while living together in Shank'anon, it also represented a concept that was most likely so foreign to the Goa'uld, they would not even think of pretending.

"I am called Zeus now, " the immortal explained with a smile. "I am sure you remember Graceful Cobra, or Hades now, and over there is Ra'tep, now Ares."

Immediately, Egeria had moved out of Hades' grip and flung her arms around Zeus, giving him a gentle squeeze. "It's good to see you again, my friend."

"Good to see you, too. It has been way to long."

As Egeria made her round, greeting the other two, Zeus informed the others of their situation.

"Come. We have a camp a half an hour out of town. The others are eager to meet you again, and I am sure you have lots to tell. How ever did you manage to find us?"

As the quartet made their way out of town, strolling side by side, Egeria began to tell her story.

"Since I had no domains but those on Earth, I was forced to once again return to Ra's court after the rebellion. He was understandably angry at you for the first few decades, but as far as I know, he never even suspected me back then.

Someday, I simply could not endure anymore and announced I would leave his palace to once again form my own empire. Ellenise and I left quickly and without ever looking back, travelling amongst the stars, trying to find a way to help the people and oppose the Goa'uld without being too obvious.

I healed a few scrapes and illnesses, and advised a few villages on better farming techniques, but things were not really getting anywhere, or having the impact I had hoped for.

That was when your wife found us, Eag - Zeus."

Up until that point, the three immortals had been simply nodding along with their companions story as they walked travelled parallelly to the cities main street. Now, Hades and Apollon swirled their heads to look at her, while Zeus stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide in shock.

"She is well then? She got away? What about my son? Do you know anything about Shining Wolf?"

Egeria smiled at her old friend kindly, before inclining her had slightly. As if the interruption had never occurred, she continued her story.

"She and your son had managed to escape their captors quickly. In fact, I would be surprised if they were still captured by the time we left Earth. They managed to make their way to a small planet out of Goa'uld territory, and found refugee with the people there. The Tollans are not nearly as advanced as the Goa'uld, but Shining Moon and Shining Wolf had already started them on a good path to form strong civilization.

Ellenise and I lived with the Tollans for a few years, and helped them to build up their culture, but we grew restless. Your wife wished to combat the Goa'uld, as well, but after she heard of the treaty you had negotiated, she felt confirmed in her decision not to.

We quickly understood that Ellenise and I were too few to continue our struggle. Non of the Tollans were educated enough to successfully pose as anything related to the Goa'uld. Ellenise had at least lived under Ra's oppression for a few years, but the Tollans would have stood out on any occupied planet.

To really infiltrate the higher reaches of the System Lords, no human would have been enough, anyways, so we quickly came up with a new strategy.

I am a Goa'uld queen, and that has always been my biggest advantage. You should see them, Eagle. They are magnificent, my children. We only had a handful of Jaffa who were completely loyal and could serve as to nurture my children, so we had to move slowly. We had a long time to grow, though, and continued to do so steadily. I chose carefully which memories to share with them. They saw the evil of the Goa'uld, and the potential the human race has, but I made sure your secret stayed with me.

Your wife briefly took in the first symbiote, since we were not sure whether or not they would really reject the path of the Goa'uld. Once she confirmed their good intentions the symbiote left peacefully, and then various sick Tollans agreed to serve as partners. We share their body, and in return, we heal them and renew their youth.

After a while, we were so many that we eventually had to venture to other planets to find more hosts, least we damage Tollan society permanently. My new host, Merel is one such human. She is from a small moon, one of Apophis' newest conquests, where she had caught a dangerous flu. Even with my hand device, I could do nothing for her, so I offered her the only alternative I could think of. Apophis had killed her husband and her newborn son, so she jumped at the chance. Neither of us have ever regretted the partnership.

In time, though, my children grew restless, and we eventually agreed to return to the larger galaxy and take up our fight. We call ourself Tok'ra now, 'Against Ra', just as we did back then.

Even with our growing numbers, we were much fewer Tok'ra then Goa'uld, and we were heavily underequipped, so we had no choice but to fight in secrecy. My children easily managed to reintegrate themselves into all levels of Goa'uld society and with all of the various System Lords. We gathered information, organized rebellions on many of the far-away colonies, and sabotaged important shipments and production facilities.

We made a mistake, though. We thought ourselves unbeatable, so much more clever then the enemy, and so we returned to Tollan after every mission. One day, one of my children was observed as he dialled the gate after a sabotage mission, and followed by the minor Goa'uld. The Goa'uld had not understood we were the mysterious enemy, simply taking my child to be a spy of another Lord, but they were on guard. When the Goa'uld arrived on Tollan, and saw the rich culture of the humans, I managed to convince him that Tollan was my own territory, and that unless he wished to challenge me, he should better leave.

He did, but when the weapons research facility exploded shortly afterwards, he remembered me, and rightfully blamed me and my child. We had become bothersome enough that Ra himself was informed, and a spy of ours in his court managed to get word out to us.

The Goa'uld who had found us had hoped to win Tollan for himself, so he never talked about the planet. We managed to assassinate him just in time, and then decided to leave Tollan for good. The risk for the innocent was too great.

Ra is hunting me and all my kids, and putting a lot of pressure on us that way. I simply had to come see all of you one last time, before I do what I have to do. Besides, I managed to pilfer a few scientific texts from Ra's library I thought I'd share."

Zeus lightly grabbed the woman's arm and spun her around, forcing her to stop and look at him. On the street, various pesants and stopped to observe the group, and some looked like they were about to step forward when a slight sway of Egeria's hand and a small smile stopped them.

"What, exactly, is it that you feel you have to do?"

Egeria's face turned completely serious. "We are hunted down like animals, Zeus. My children are completely unprepared to fight a large scale war against the Goa'uld empire, or to even hide from it. They need time, and the only thing right now that would satisfy Ra would be me, the one who betrayed him and organized all this. Through my sacrifice, I can buy my children enough time to relocate and go into hiding once again. Ra does not like to execute his subordinates, anyways, so maybe I will be rescued in time."

All three immortals shook their heads in denial, their eyes dead and angry as they contemplated their options.

"Shining Wolf suggested coming to seek refuge here on Earth, but all it would do would give the Goa'uld an excuse to break the treaty. They are sure that, should they attack in sufficient numbers, they can overwhelm you. There is just nobody who would dare to try and be the first one. There is simply no other way, I'm afraid."

Non of the immortals liked it, but Egeria could see acceptance for her plan.

"Come then, " Zeus finally said. "You don't seem to have that long and already wasted a lot of time searching for us. The others are eager to meet you again. Tonight, at least, we shall feast together."

A few days later, one of the captured fighter touched down on the ice near its destroyed and exploited sister ship. Two heavily cloaked figures stepped out of the cockpit and embraced one last time, before one of them began her descend into the small dark hole she had risen from, and disappeared in a flash of blue light.

.

about 500 A.D., Asgard Milky Way Task Force, Flagship

Even though red lights flashed hurriedly through the bridge of the Ragnarok, non of the large, grey aliens seemed to be in any stress. In fact, apart from their short, precise sentences and their slightly hurried pace, one might think everything was all right.

Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard Fleet was proud to serve his people. At just over 1.85 meters, he stood a little less tall then the average Asgard as he entered the bridge from his personal ready room, but his people had long since abandoned any standing due to bodily strength anyways. His success in the war against the Goa'uld, though, had caused the brilliant strategist to rise to prominence in the fleet just as their scientists perfected the cloning process. He was now the longest serving Supreme Commander by thousands of years.

The Milky Way galaxy, with its constant threat through the Goa'uld, were currently the Asgard's largest military concern, and, as such, required his presence the most. While the Asgard's own home, the Ida Galaxy, was relatively safe currently, the technologically advanced race had long since claimed responsibility for those weaker then themselves, just as another great race had done for them many thousand years ago.

When Thor had been but a child, an alliance had existed between four incredibly advanced, powerful races. The Asgard, despite their respectable level of advancement even back then, had been the junior members, and the mentee of a race so advanced, that the Asgard were still desperately trying to understand the technology they had left behind thousands of years ago, when they vanished around the time Thor had been a little boy playing on the vast green fields of Othala.

They had, however, left their friends a purpose, a task and a warning in one. Before they had left this plane of existence to explore a new being, they had lost a horrible war that had decimated their people. Even on the brink of existence, they had hidden their home galaxy from their enemies, and had in the end fled back there. To the Asgard, they left the means to recognize said enemy, and tasked them to keep their own home, and the legacy they left behind, safe.

Eager to please their friends, the Asgard council had immediately ordered the construction of the Moros network, a set of countless small, stealthy drones equipped with powerful subspace scanners, that patrolled the edge of the Milky Way galaxy pointing towards the Pegasus Nebula, where the enemy lay waiting, named after their friend and the leader of the Alterans. Every Asgard ship, be it military or civil, had been equipped with a connection to the central observation service, even personal ships eager to render assistance.

For years, the network had been monitored by multiple shifts of volunteers, while many more had been rejected as unsuitably reliable for such an important task. Nothing ever happened, though, and in time, the initial eagerness to finally have a chance to repay the Alterans had passed. Today, the Moros network lay almost forgotten in space, dutifully transmitting its findings to a powerful computer monitoring the data.

Now though, as Supreme Commander Thor entered the bridge of his flagship, his entire bridge grew seemed to be focused on the small, red dot blinking on a screen that had never before in the history of the battle cruiser been used, although the crew of the flagship of the commander of the most advanced race in the galaxy was too veteran to actually stop and stare at the screen.

"What is happening?" The Asgard, due to the lack of Adrenalin in their bodies, managed to keep calm even in the most dire situation. As a result, they never developed the crisp, straight to the point military language that would become popular on Earth.

The Asgard now manning the Moros station answered immediately, though. "Supreme Commander. The Moros network has identified a craft coming from Pegasus galaxy. Subspace displacement matches that which the Alteran database identifies as a Wraith Hive ship. The hyperspace frequency is roughly Alteran, though."

"Roughly, Lieutenant?"

The science officer nodded slightly, as if ashamed of his own findings. "It is an Alteran engine, Commander, but it has been altered, either it is a different model then the ones we know, or, given our situation, it has been tweaked to be able to move a wraith hive ship. That would explain the low speed as well."

Thor nodded. "Could it be a sensor error? Possibly something the computer interpreted to be such an abnormal event?"

The other Asgard shook his head quickly. "We thought so at first, as well, but we have now confirmation from another two satellites, and I checked the rough data myself."

"Very well. Project the craft's path and calculate the most likely point of exit from hyperspace. We will intercept them there. Put the fleet on alert in case this is a full-scale attack. Inform the High Council that I recommend to restaff the Moros network terminals."

"The High Council has been informed. Most likely departure point is Terra. The Task Force is preparing for departure."

Thor inspected the single, blinking red dot on the display. "No. We will only take the Sigyn and the Geirölul. Have the rest of the Task Force report to Commander Aegir's command. They are to patrol along the edge of this galaxy in case any more ships arrive."

.

Science Drone Five, or SD5 for short, was pleased with his work for his queen. A few hundred years ago, his Hive had found an old Lantean capital ship, lying powerless in space. Apparently, they had won a skirmish with a small fleet of Wraith now drifting through space in pieces, but had lost their power shortly afterwards.

Unable to return to Atlantis, they had died slowly as they tried to repair their generator. Thousands of years later, he had led a team of scientists to explore the ship and exploit it. Originally, they had thought the Lantean technology to be the treasure of their expedition, but SD5 had soon found a database entry that had piqued his interest.

The capital ship they had beaten had been one of those the Lantean had used to first come to the Pegasus Galaxy, escorting their mighty cityship. It was, therefore, equipped with a powerful intergalactic drive, and carried the origin of their journey so long ago.

When he had found that information, SD5 had briefly doubted its authenticity. After all, the Lantean had been the Wraith's major enemy since the very beginnings of their people and as such clearly not stupid. On the other hand, the humanoids were extremely arrogant and sure in their technology.

His queen had been most pleased with SD5 when he had presented his findings. With the end of the Lantean-Wraith war, more Wraith existed then the remaining human population could sustain. As a result, the less powerful fractions within the Wraith, such as their own, were forced to either go to sleep or to relocate as they fought for access to their herds.

The Lanteans, though, had once before proven an interest in creating human life capable of feeding the Wraith. The chances were high they would have done the same where they originally came from and later returned to.

The only problem with that had been the distance to Avalon. Ironically, though, the Lantean themselves had provided SD5 with a solution when his queen had ordered him with finding a way to overcome this obstacle. Their hyperdrive, while not made for a ship the size of a Wraith Hive, could easily adopted to create a much larger hyperspace portal. Similarly, the Lantean's shields could be extended to protect the hull from hyperspace radiation.

While their new hyperdrive needed a large amount of the power their Hive had available and still operated much less efficient then it would have hauling the Lantean ship, it eliminated the Hives need to regularly exit hyperspace, and allowed them to cross out into intergalactic space.

While the flight itself still took centuries, a large supply of humans in stasis, as well as the Wraith's ability to put themselves into a deep hibernation that ensured maximum survival time enabled SD5's Hive to make the journey. Their target was 'Terra', the Lantean's, or back then Alteran's, home planet for many thousand years, and therefore probably the most heavily populated one.

On the bridge of his Hive, SD5 watched the monotone yet constantly changing stream of hyperspace from his queen's side – a position of honour in recognition of his contributions to the success of this mission.

As they finally reverted back into real-space, their ship began to shake as their technicians desperately tried to reraise their new shields to combat the unknown enemies fire.

.

Even though the rip of spacetime as a hyperspace window opens sounds like a large explosion, no sound could be transmitted through the vacuum of space. Therefore, nobody on Earth registered when the Ragnarok and her two escorts reverted back into real-space, cloaked and settled into orbit above the planet.

"As calculated, we got here first, Commander. Sensors show a Wraith Hive two minutes away."

Thor nodded from his chair on the bridge as he observed the various sensor readouts flashing through his personal terminal.

"Alert the other ships. Charge the weapons. Shields ready. The moment the Wraith clear hyperspace, fire at will. Target weapons and engines. Make sure they can not get away."

"Yes, commander."

The moment the second rift opened in space, the three attackers uncloaked and activated their shields instead, their camouflage useless since the constant stream of ion pulses coming from their weapons announced their positions clearly. The Geirölul, being closest to the enemy, immediately swept along the Hive's tail, her flashing as they impacted the enemy's vulnerable engines again and again just before the Wraith managed to activate their shields.

Supreme Commander Thor watched in frustration as their second volley was easily absorbed by the enemies powerful shields. The Ragnarok, the only capital class ship he had brought and easily the most powerful of the three, had unfortunately been furthest away from the rift and therefore took painfully long to navigate into weapons range. While her shots had done more then the superficial damage the Sigyn, a science vessel, had inflicted, and even enabled them to do more then the tactical strikes the Geirölul, a cruiser, relied on, only a single shot managed to leave the powerful ships mighty hammer-like superstructure before the shields activated.

"Commander, the Geirölul reports successful destruction of both engine gondolas. The enemy is down to thrusters, and has yet to slow down from hyperspace."

With interest, Thor observed the enemy ship heading for the planet they were guarding. While their own secondary weapons seemed to be unable to penetrate the much larger ship's shields, at least for now, a crash was, in his opinion, inevitable. Still, the Wraith ship desperately fired it's thrusters as they tried to decelerate and stabilize their orbit. Additionally, three smaller cruisers, fixed to the stern and bow, utilized their own engines to slow down their Hive and angle it upwards.

A second shot from the Ragnarok's main weapon, the most powerful ion weapon the Asgard had ever created, finally managed to slice through the shields and took out the starboard weapons phalanx, just as it was preparing to fire another salvo into the Sigyn.

As the Hive ship entered atmosphere, Thor contemplated following them to maintain optimal weapon range, but ultimately decided not to. The heat of reentry and the particles in the air would further weaken their shields, designed for space combat, and would put the crew at an unnecessary risk. Moments later, his decision was proven right.

"Commander, the Hive is launching dozens of smaller crafts from within. Additionally, the cruisers have disengaged and are attempting to pull out of atmosphere."

With a small amount of satisfaction, Thor watched as the foremost cruiser was hampered by the hive it was trying to protect and unable to pull up for long moments, before it finally swird to the left. Too close to the planet and too fast to successfully pull up now, they, too, joined their Hive in a semi-controlled reentry, crashing roughly a hundred kilometres further west then the others of their kind.

A small shudder brought Thor's attention back into space, where the small darts tried to swarm and distract the powerful Asgard vessels, while the cruisers inflicted more serious damage on their enemies.

Analyzing the situation, the Supreme Commander contemplated his options. In the long years at war with the Goa'uld, the Asgard had often been confronted with swarm-tactics like this one and had been forced to quickly develop counter strategies.

The Ragnarok carried two squadrons of eight fighters each, but Thor despised sending his pilots out against superior numbers. While the ships were equipped with shielding technology and were vastly superior to what the sensors reported from the Wraith fighters, the relatively small space prohibited Asgard engineers from fitting them with sufficiently powerful protections to truly make the Supreme Commander comfortable, especially when he knew that, in the close quarters of a dogfight, the chance for the recall program to fail before the fighters exploded, were high. Should that happen, they would not have a mind to copy in any new body they cloned.

Instead, Thor prefered to allow the inconsequential fighters to hammer against his shields as dozens of smaller turrets slowly picked them out of the sky with short volleys of antimatter. Meanwhile, the recharged main cannon easily carved itself a path though the small fighters and shredded through the first cruisers shields and hull, just as the combined fire of the Sigyn and the Geirölul, aided by the Ragnaroks secondary weaponry, overwhelmed the second cruisers shields.

"What's the status." As Thor preferred it, only a small amount of officers manned the bridge's stations, while most others of his crew, counting a few hundred, was stationed on other locations throughout the ship. It kept the bridge easy to supervise and fairly quiet. A promising young ensign manning weapons and tactics, was the first to respond.

"Two enemy cruisers and one hundred sixty fighters destroyed in space. One more cruiser, as well as the Hive ship have crashlanded on the planet. Several Wraith have left either location and are scouting the area."

Thor nodded, having read as much from gleaming through the summary on his own private screen.

"Sir. Sensors are picking up an energy buildup in the Hive's main communications systems. They are preparing to send a message, from the energy I'm reading here probably to Pegasus galaxy."

For the first time in the skirmish, Thor visibly became agitated, jumping out of his seat.

"Hail the Sigyn. NOW!"

Suddenly, Thor was glad he had chosen to bring a science vessel instead of one of the more powerful warships under his command. Immediately, an imposing Asgard of over two meters in height, and with a strong build filled the main view screen of the Ragnarok. Thor wasted no time with pleasantries, though.

"Captain. Initialize blackout procedures to jam a high-powered subspace communication immediately. We can not allow this Hive to transmit data back to Pegasus."

The Sigyn's captain turned to bark his orders just before the view screen darkened and the connection collapsed. Immediately, Thor looked back to the ensign delivering the report.

"No subspace peak. They are powering down the communications array, probably because they registered the blackout field."

Thor signed, but nodded his head. He had hoped the Wraith would assume their message had been sent and would not try again, but he knew their jamming field was not subtle. The only way the Asgard knew that made transmitting subspace messages impossible was to basically flood the subspace with enough random patterns that any information sent would be completely superimposed. Unfortunately, though, it was extremely easy to detect, and also prohibited the Asgard's own communications technology, as well as their subspace scanner systems.

"Assume optical communications positions. Advise both escorts as to the situation on ground. The Sigyn is to uphold the jamming field at all costs."

The Asgard engineers, once they had accepted that there was no better way to control enemy communications, had equipped all military ships with a set of high frequency gamma ray lasers, which allowed the ships to at least use pulsed electro-magnetic radiation for communication. While nowhere near as fast as subspace communications and severely handicapped in terms of flexibility and range, it at least provided the fleet with a way to coordinate.

"Navigation. Take us into orbit above the hive. Engineering, transfer all energy to the main cannon. It's time to end this."

The Ragnarok was the crown jewel of Asgard weapon development. As the flagship of Supreme Commander Thor, Hero of the Asgard-Goa'uld war and member of the High Council, it was a matter of pride for the grey aliens to make it the most devastating ship in the known galaxy. As a result, the main cannon focused almost as much energy as the ships main neutrino-ion generator matrix could produce.

Normally, a buffer would preload steadily as excess energy was available, allowing the ship to fire short pulses of the weapon while also using engines and shields. For rare cases like now, though, when the Asgard wished to destroy a single, large, helpless object, shields and engines could be shut down to enable a constant beam of high-energy ions to be fired.

As the Ragnarok moved into position, the artificial gravity keeping the crew standing upright even as the ships bow pointed straight towards the ground, a thick ion beam left the hammer and hit the crashed Hive ship's mighty protections. While the Wraith technology strained to compensate for the large amounts of energy bleeding against its shields, it held a big advantage. Since Wraith Hives regularly land when the drones hibernate, their ships are build for space as well as for atmospheric combat, and were, contrary to their Asgard counterparts, undisturbed by the surrounding air.

Unfortunately for the Ragnarok, their weapon was, like their shield, not designed for atmospheric combat, and as such, lost a lot of it's energy as it made it's way through ten kilometres of particles. As a result, the energy arriving at the Hive was insufficient to bleed through the enemies shield as it had done in space shortly before.

"Cease firing!" It was probably due to the inexperience of the ensign manning the weapons station that he actually obeyed the order given to him. Supreme Commander Thor, though, who was the only one actually authorized to give such an order, angrily rounded on the Lieutenant manning the sensors.

"What is the meaning of this?"

To his credit, the man looked ashamed for a moment before his shoulders squared and he met his superiors gaze unflinchingly.

"I apologize Commander. I did not mean to make my exclamation sound like an order. We had to stop firing, though."

Thor still looked furious, if somewhat curious as well. "Explain."

"I have closely monitored the enemy cruiser, but also kept an eye on the planets ecosystem and the atmosphere around the beam. The energy we are loosing on the way down is absorbed by the particles in the planet's atmosphere, causing a rapid acceleration of the number of chemical reactions occurring. Additionally, the radical neutronium ions we are using for our weapons are introduced into the ecosystems, leading to the creation of various foreign compounds.

So far, the changes to the ecosystem are minor and will eventually revert. If we continue to fire, though, we might permanently damage or even destroy the ecosystem, and condemn the whole planet."

Thor clearly looked unhappy, but finally nodded to the officer making his report.

"Very well, then. Signal the Signy and the Geirölul. They are to remain in orbit and intercept all crafts leaving the atmosphere. Engineering, I want power back on the shields. Navigation, take us in close to the Hive. Weapons, ready to fire again."

"Commander." Once again, the sensor officer interrupted Thor's orders. "Our weapons would have the same impact if they bled of against the Wraith shields. Additionally, projections indicate that overpowering the Wraith's shields with shields and engines running would take several days, if not weeks. As you know, our engines would likewise cause problems for the ecosystems if they were to remain running in the atmosphere that long."

Thor nodded, now clearly unhappy. "Very well, then. What do you propose?"

"I don't know, Commander. Everything I can come up with has some disadvantage."

As Thor stopped to contemplate further options, a sharp intake of breath, as well as hurried movements of fingers across the input console, brought the Commander's attention back to the sensor officer. Seeing him not paying Thor any mind, his superior calmly attracted his attention.

"Yes?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Commander. I wished to confirm these findings before I alerted you. Sensors have found eighteen smaller Goa'uld crafts just before they were blacked out. I'm currently trying to use optical sensors to relocate the gliders. Four of them are circling the Cruiser, another two are landed close by, and the rest is close to the Hive ship. Additionally, what I think to be the pilots of the two landed fighters, four humans total, are engaging a patrol of Wraith, ten of them, in close combat. They appear to be winning, Commander."

Thor sucked in a breath as he watched the sensor readings now on the main view screen. The Alterans had taken great care to warn the Asgard not to engage the Wraith in close combat, unless they had at least a slight advantage in numbers, since the human-bug hybrid possessed great physical strength and unmatched self-healing powers.

Not even the Jaffa or a host should be able to match a single Wraith, let alone a group with almost three times their numbers.