First of all, many sincere thanks to Jon Harper, and Ash's Boomstick, TyrSabare for your very in depth help and pointed discussions…Without you, this part could not be completed and I mean that! This project is coming to close and I hope to finish this up soon.
From outside the solar system, Heru'Ur smiled arrogantly. A person entered the bridge, "Well, what do you think of my little surprise?"
Heru'Ur's smile dropped into a flat line, "It is adequate." Turning he faced down his peer, Baal, a rather tricky and brilliant Goa'ould.
"Adequate? My, my your jealous at my obvious ingenuity."
Heru'Ur frowned, "Bah! You over exaggerate your contribution."
Baal frowned, "Perhaps, or perhaps your lack of ingenuity shows how inept you are to lead this little foray against the Tau'ri?"
Heru'Ur frowned, looking to his left and right, his converted Cylon Centurions stood ever ready to deal with his enemies. "Careful, you are not what you once were." Indicating the Cylons in front of him.
Baal smiled and dismissed the Centurions with a batting of his hand, "You mean these mechanical monstrosities? Your right."
Heru'Ur did not like when Baal agreed with him. Baal for his part kept an honest enough countenance on his face. Placing his hands behind his back he paced in small circles. "Your right." He began again. "Your are quite well protected. In fact, these, what did you call them?" Pausing for emphasis he smiled, "Oh! Yes, Cylons, I do recall. Yes, they are interesting, if a bit primitive. I rather thought a Goa'ould of even your character would have had…shall we say…a little more sophistication. In fact, I don't believe you ever told the other System Lords how you acquired them."
Heru'Ur distinctly did not like where Baal's conversation was going. He knew an imminent threat and challenge would be forthcoming, but he could not ascertain its origin. Taking care not to tip his hand, his right thumb touched the golden metallic hand device on the same hand. "I care not for your questions. Speak clearly or leave."
Baal smiled devilishly, "Or what?"
Heru'Ur cursed in Goa'ould, "I tire of this…."
Baal reached behind him with his right hand, and produced a four inch sphere, bronze in color and ornate, "Yes, so do I." With no further ado Baal waved his left hand in a counterclockwise circular motion. The device glowed briefly.
Tensing for the attack, Heru'Ur was momentarily confused, "What is the meaning of this? Centurions!"
Baal smiled widely, "Yes, Centurions, take Lord Heru'Ur and jettison him into space."
Heru'Ur smiled, "They only take commands from me!"
Two Centurions stepped forward "By your command." Passing Baal they grabbed a surprised Heru'Ur by his arms immobilizing him. "Stop! I command it!" He turned incredulously to Baal, not quite asking how but definitely wondered how this treachery could have happened.
Baal tilted his head, "Did you think no one would find the frequency these machines operated on? Unlike you, I placed encrypted security measures to prevent the other System Lords from doing the same to me. You always were rather short sighted." Then he dramatically he extended his arms in a swaying motion, directing the Cylons to move.
"Wait! I…"
"Oh! Come now! Show some self-respect for yourself at least. Don't go out sniveling like a mere human. Be confident, I will make our conquest of the Tau'ri homeworld quite significant and without your sloppiness."
"Noooooo!" Heru'Ur screamed his eyes wide open with real fear.
Outside Heru'Ur's own TelTac battleship, airlock doors opened and a person could be seen forcibly blown out of the airlock, hands and arms flailing for an all too short period of time. Heru'Ur body floated in exaggerated arcs away from his very own fleet. His eyes flashed briefly as all his orifices exploded a bloody residue and then his body was still, except for a few spastic reflexes, then nothing. Nothing at all remained of the son of Ra and Hathor.
Baal smiled to himself and asked no one in particular, "Now, where were we. Ah, yes." Reaching a communications console he contacted one of the other ships, Baltar/Demios sat upon his command chair in the same command chamber he had for nearly twenty-five yahren, "Where is Lord Heru'Ur?"
Baal smiled, "The former Lord Heru'Ur has met with an untimely accident, and a corridor decompressed. Unfortunately, we were unable to recover the body to put into a sarcophagus for revival."
Demio's eyes sparkled with a momentary glee, "How…unfortunate."
Baal smiled, thinking to himself, "I can use this one." Then out loud he spoke, "I am your master now."
Demios dipped his head in a bow, "What are your orders, my Lord?"
"Prepare to move in and attack the Tau'ri fleet, then Earth!"
"By your command." Demios intoned seriously.
Baal inclined his head questioningly, frowning imperceptibly, thinking another moment he concluded, "I like it. It has a novelty to it. You may continue to use it." The view screen darkened.
Turning to face the view screen he examined an extended view of the Tau'ri Solar System. "Ah! I do so love getting a head start on my day." With a spring in his step he turned around and moved around the flight console, then sat down on the throne chair at the back of the room. Commanding his new Jaffa, "Prepare to move the fleet in."
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On the moon, several Colonial and Earth humans worked in new, slim Colonial designed space suits. The round the clock pre-fab base was one of four sites located at the North, South, East, and West positions of the moon housing the now famous Ravishol Pulsar weapon.
The base stretched over a mile in length, however, the actual living quarters and offices were less than one thousand feet long, six stories high, and five hundred fifty feet wide. The buildings were actually created in the impact crater of the moon that looked like metallic boils on the surface. The Ravishol Pulsar was located in the center of the dome and was as long as the crater was deep. A giant metal tube surrounded the lens projection of the cannon allowing for airtight facilities inside the facility. An iris like canopy was closed for the moment, but once fully opened, the cannon was capable of a forty degree arc for firing solutions.
For over six months, over ten thousand crews from six different nations worked tirelessly to build what the Colonials called the "Ravishol Pulsar" Cannon.
The cannon centered in a half mile crater and eventually would be disguised as a natural crater. In the mean time it was a flurry of activity and equipment. Four such pulsars were being constructed in order to cover as many directions as possible. Each time one of the cannons fired, the power systems for these devices easily outpaced all energy consumption of the entire Earth since the beginning of electrical power generation in the last century to present.
In fact, the power consumption was so great that a team of R&D specialists, headed by Canadian scientist, Doctor Rodney McKay had built four independent master naquadah generators. Unlike their diminutive first generation generator's, these units easily stood forty three feet high and boasted of one pound of weapons grade refined naquadah. The reactor power was so great it was measured in terahertz. In order to prevent destruction of even one of these units, potentially setting off the naquadah, which would have destroyed much of the moon causing ecological disaster for Earth. In the unlikely event that such an occurrence happened, a core ejection system was created. In such an emergency, an actual hyperspace generator was built into the unit. Once activated, the device generated a window around the massive naquadah generator and transported it to just beyond the solar system, preventing destruction of the moon.
A large shadow loomed overhead the northern pole, the newly commissioned BC-304, commonly known as the USAF Daedelus. The ship named after the architect and engineer Daedelus of Ancient Greek mythology was one of several 304's built by several governments over the past several months.
Colonel Steven Caldwell, commander of the Daedelus sat sternly in his command chair. His nearly bald pate, trim physique and perpetual no-nonsense scowl made him an intimidating figure.
The Daedelus (BC-304) is the first starship to be produced of the Daedelus class of battle cruisers. Advanced alien technology, such as Asguard shields, an intergalactic hyperdrive engine, navigation, sublight propulsion, hyper-rail guns weapon systems, and transmission beaming technology, was incorporated from the start.
The Daedelus had notable physical differences from the Prometheus class vessel. The Daedelus sported a sleeker design, without the large aft tower and three additional engine emplacements on each side, making the rearmost part of the ship wider than the Prometheus. Capable of reaching ninety five percent of the speed of light using sub-light engines, where as the hyperdrive had no speed limitation, but rather was limited in speed by the amount of power the ship could pour into the device.
Interesting to note that the large square structure on the ship's bow, sports the navigational deflector for micro-meteoroids and housed the inertia dampeners, negating the negative effects that inertia had on matter. Both systems tied directly into the main power source of the Daedelus. In emergencies or at the Captain or engineering officer's direction the four fusion reactors can be rerouted to support minimal power.
The F-302 bays are located on both sides of the ship, below and out from the main hull along the rear.
The Daedelus was designed more as a multi-role carrier/battlecruiser providing defensive and offensive capability. Both twin hangar bays of the BC-304 carried a total of sixteen F-302 fighters and the capability for over four hundred soldiers. Its designers and the Pentagon hoped it capable of standing up to multiple Goa'ould mother ships. The ship was designed to provide fire support in a space combat situation, capable of trading shots with the largest Goa'ould spacecraft.
The primary armament used by the Daedelus was her Twin Pulse Plasma Beam cannons which were first generation Asguard beam weapons. Much more compact than either Colonial or Goa'ould weapons technology, however quite ineffectual when compared to modern Asguard weapon systems. The Daedelus secondary weapons system is a missile complement which is fired using a vertical launch system with all her missile emplacements appearing at the bow of the ship, and finally several rail guns stationed strategically around the ship that delivered uranium depleted rounds at speeds of over Mach Five.
In addition to numerous Mark IV nuclear warheads, the Daedelus carried a full compliment of modified naquadah enhanced nuclear-armed missile used by the armed forces of the United States. This modified advanced missile included tiny RCS thrusters and a Colonial designed engine system that could threaten Death Gliders and Goa'ould Mother ships with impudence. Topping off this awesome hardware is a refined naquadah enhanced warhead, making this particular weapon lethal either in conventional weaponry or nuclear form.
A new hybrid addition to all missiles in the Tau'ri arsenal sported an ingenious new technology being labeled as shield discrimators, developed by a joint effort of Major Carter and R&D at Area 51. These new devices would be able to bypass the shield technology of the Goa'ould. The shield discriminators were capable of detecting variances in subatomic particle acceleration noticeable in Earth's new shield technology, the missiles sensor package analyzed the patterns being emitted by the Goa'ould shields by determining the exact shield frequency used by an enemy vessel and modified its own properties in the missile by enveloping the missile in a inferior version of the same shield frequency variable.
It was believed that this new technology would allow the missiles to penetrate Goa'ould shields and thus allow entry inside the shield and impact on the surface of the Goa'ould ships. It was believed that when the missile hit, the blast radius would cause severe structural damage. The explosion would be contained by the enemies own shields, thus doubling the damage of each missile strike.
Daedelus Bridge was much larger and spacious than the Prometheus class vessel and afforded a generous view of surrounding space. The Daedelus was an entirely new and more formidable ship that would be the standard for all of Earth constructed ships.
Caldwell glanced off to his left at the irritating Asguard known as Hermiod, recently reassigned from his former job at NASA. He sulked quietly behind a console checking readouts, before heading back to main engineering where his control console was located. His primary function was to ensure that the Asguard designed systems in the Earth fleet were not abused. Stationed aboard the flagship of the "World Defense Force" he monitored all ships under his domain.
Colonel Caldwell smiled to himself. Something he rarely did, as if it somehow might diminish the respect of his crew. He shook his head ever so slightly, "Who would have thought that the United States Air Force would go from a pre-space faring service to an intergalactic military service, literally leaping at least five hundred years in technology, in less than a decade of the start of the Stargate program.
The actual designs for the Prometheus and Daedelus had been on the drawing boards for sometime now; only the Prometheus was completed, and then upgraded when the initial Cylon attack happened. If Earth had not had the Stargate it might have been three hundred years from now before a non-FTL ship could have been constructed at half of the design capability of today's counterpart.
Due to Earth's lag for the last sixty years on space technology and dependence on fossil fuel, Earth probably would not have developed even gravity for their future version of space ships. It was fortuitous and scary the leaps and bounds that Earth had made since venturing out from the Stargate.
His attention was distracted by the Weapons Officer, Major Rick Montoya announcement, "Sir, sensors have detected hundreds of contacts four million miles out."
Caldwell glanced at the Weapons Officer, "What? Where did they come from? Can you identify them?"
"Radar and Lidar just picked them up, size indicates possibly unknown fighters operating some sort of stealth, can't get a solid reading on them. Reading no emissions of any kind!"
"Where are they headed?"
"Most of the bogey's trajectory will come within two hundred miles of the moon in ten minutes, and then they will be within striking distance of Earth."
"Colonel Caldwell." Hermiod, the diminutive Asguard called from Engineering.
"What is it, Hermiod?"
"Asguard installed sensors have scanned the objects."
"Did you say objects?"
"Correct. The objects are actually asteroids varying in size from three meters to two hundred meters, traveling at nearly one third of the speed of light. Speed and trajectory indicate they will strike the atmosphere of Earth in..."
Caldwell cut him off, "Damage?"
Hermiod spoke in calm even tones. "Total. It is what you humans call a planet killer. Even areas not decimated will be affected as the dust and debris will be injected in the atmosphere, creating a shield against sunlight. Billons will die within a year due to lack of heat from your sun. Not even microbes will survive. What I think you should know…"
"Suggestions?"
Hermiod paused but a moment and then added, "Good luck."
Caldwell winced, "If that's all then…"
Doctor Novak interrupted, "Sir, when SG-1 ran into a similar situation, Major Carter opened a Hyperspace Window and flew the asteroid through the Earth, thereby avoiding a collision."
Hermiod interrupted, "I had thought of that possible solution and then discounted it."
Caldwell was curious, "Why is that?"
Hermiod, non-plussed returned, "The asteroid field is over three point eight million square miles in circumference. For comparison, it is slightly more than one and a quarter times the size of Australia, roughly thirty nine times the size of the United Kingdom, or half the size of Russia…"
"Hermiod! I get the point. It's too large an area to open a stable hyperspace window."
"I believe I had stated as much."
Novak interrupted, "What if…what if, the fleet took turns opening hyperspace windows?"
Hermiod responded, "I have already calculated that forty percent of the asteroids would still strike the planet…."
Caldwell cut Hermiod off, his mind racing and took barely a second to formulate a plan. "All right, we do this the old fashioned way."
With a confidence filled voice he sounded, "Sound General Quarters! Captain Timmons, signal the fleet, and inform them of our status. We'll form up in three waves, SPACECOM DET ONE will form the first wave, and then have the SPACECOM DET TWO form up as the second wave and SPACECOM DET THREE the third." Caldwell put one hand on his knee and stared out the forward window.
Timmons nodded and confirmed with "Yes, sir."
"Sir!" Doctor Novak from engineering interrupted.
"Bring shields and weapons systems online."
"Not now doctor." Caldwell insisted, cutting the commline to engineering.
The Weapons Officer confirmed, "Shields and Weapons are online."
"But Colonel, I, I thinkkkk, you…." She hiccupped as a final response.
Timmons sounded, "All ships have confirmed orders. Ugh, the ugh, "Widow-Maker" fleet is requesting to participate."
"Engineering, stay off the line!" Then Caldwell frowned openly, "We don't have time for this." He thought inwardly indicating Novak and the "Squids", but he was bound to include the "Squids", the other militaries slang for U.S. Naval Forces. Unfortunately, an important Admiral was in charge of the fleet and either due to ego or naivety was living aboard the modified warships informally hailed as the "Widow-Maker" class-hastily refurbished vessels for their obvious doubtful usefulness and dubious safety.
Colonel Caldwell received his orders from the Homeland security office and a three star general, outranking the admiral in the Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group or the naval acronym TRSTRGRU.
It was irritating to even look at those ridiculous monstrosities, much less take them serious. "Captain Timmons relay to TRSTRGRU that they are to be held in reserve per previous instructions."
"Yes, sir." A moment later Timmons replied, "Sir, Admiral Jones wants to speak to you."
Caldwell silently cursed, "Tell TRSTRGRU to standby for a fleet wide announcement."
A few moments later Timmons responded, "Message relayed sir, but he's not happy."
"Very well." Caldwell smiled to himself, "Patch me into to the fleet."
"Comm channel open, sir." Captain Timmons replied.
Caldwell looked down, and then pushed the microphone button. His miniature headset attached to his ear, "All fleet, this is Daedelus, per orders we'll attack in three waves, TRSTRGRU, you are our last line of defense, and watch our six. First Attack wave full military thrust, set MARK IV naquadah missiles for proximity detonation and engage the targets. Let's see if we can thin out these asteroids. Good hunting." Letting go of the button he stared out the window again, "Weapons Officer, as soon as the Daedelus is within range open up with everything we have and coordinate with the rest of the squadron."
"Yes, sir!"
"Ugh, Sir, Admiral Jones."
"Not now Captain."
Timmons smiled and shook his head and thought to himself, "Oh! Boy, the colonel's going to have hell to pay."
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Admiral Jones was not used to having a back seat to anything and to have an "Airhead" Air Force Colonel put him on the back burner rattled him to his core.
He glanced down for the hundredth time at his new one piece coveralls and was disgusted that the president himself had decided to separate the uniform look of his naval service. Their khaki uniforms and dungaree's were tradition and having to wear an SGC patch instead of naval insignia irked him to no end. The president wanted a single "off-world" uniformity and since all off-world activity was through or due to the Stargate Command or SGC, thus the unified uniforms. Even the other participating nations rallied around a one-uniform, one-service concept. The neutral design was sturdy, flexible, comfortable, and had a "space-like" look to them. Following the SGC's lead, these uniforms were easily mass produced and distributed amongst the other nations that comprised the "World Defense Force" or "WDF".
It still irked Jones about the uniforms, but he had said nothing. Standing by and allowing the Air Force to accomplish the Navy's job was unthinkable. In Jones's opinion, only the Navy should be out there leading. Ships were what the navy was about, aircraft and space shuttles were the Air Force, or so he believed.
He was in the Combat Information Center or CIC as it was known by in the Navy, the setting had not changed since the new technologies were installed, except in a corner, room was made for emergency space suits, more Colonial style, thinner and more ergonomic than NASA's bulky kind. The switches from donning Chemical Warfare suits were easily adapted to space suit drills during wartime. The "buddy" system, with two people checking each others gear worked effectively for decades.
The interfaces for the equipment were all the same due to cost, time, personnel familiarity of the equipment and training. In fact, the only real difference were in engineering, the hanger decks, and all open areas were sealed with transparent tylieum, and of course any outside hatches welded shut. The bridge remained the same except another transparent set of tylieum bubble. The overall look was at best ridiculous and at worst foolhardy.
Room had to be made for the life support equipment, which meant gutting certain sections of the ship and overall crew reduction by sixty percent. Everyone was pulling twelve hour shifts for the foreseeable future and severely undermanned.
Jones was pissed at this Air Force upstart colonel. "I want to talk to Daedelus CO now!"
The petty officer whom sat at the "red phone" a satellite encrypted comms link exhaled sharply, "I've tried several times sir, the Daedelus comms officer relayed that their skipper is in battle and we'll contact us afterward."
Jones shook his head and pursed his lips, "You get that Son of…"
His ranting was interrupted by the person whom he was irate at, "All fleet, this is Daedelus, per orders we'll attack in three waves, TRSTRGRU, you are our last line of defense, watch our six."
Everything else went unheard as the Admiral shook his fist, "Damn him! That's it!"
"Sir?" the communications petty officer frowned.
Jones ignored him, pushing the button on the "Squawk box" labeled "Bridge", a sound powered internal communications combination of speaker and microphone, Jones said "Bridge, Combat."
A sound chirped followed by an unseen person simply saying, "Combat, Bridge."
Jones spoke sharply, "This is Admiral Jones, prepare to deploy the fleet and receive course and heading change."
The OOD or Officer of the Day answered, "Aye, aye, Admiral. Standing by."
Jones inwardly thought while grinning evilly, "I'll show'em what the "Widow-Maker" fleet can do."
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Baal repositioned himself in his seat, Heru'Ur former flagship. The main view screen shifted and another Goa'ould, a lesser one, appeared. "My Lord, the alterations to the main fleet has been completed."
"What about the alterations to this fleet of ships?"
"There is no time, my Lord. Not unless we delay the fleet?"
"No, that won't be necessary, but have a Teltac within ring transport range and cloaked." A teltac is a cargo ship of Goa'ould design. Some Teltac models were equipped with a cloaking device."
"Yes, my Lord."
Within minutes the long range sensor suites registered the activity and forwarded the results to SPACECOM and NORAD, which then passed the information to Stargate Command.
George Hammond, Commander of the SGC had just finished talking to the President when Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman. "General, NORAD has picked up radar images of several hundred asteroids on a collision course with Earth. We have also received confirmation from the Daedelus that they are launching an attack on the rogue asteroids.
George frowned, "Damn! I thought the Goa'ould were not supposed to begin their attack for another two months, now this!"
"We haven't heard anything from the Tok'Ra, perhaps they were exposed?"
George exhaled, "Here we go…Walter, dial the Alpha Site, the Goa'ould will try to tie up our Stargate, and we need to keep it activated as long as possible. Recall all off duty personnel."
"Already done, sir." Walter stared seriously at Hammond.
He had picked up the red phone that gave him a direct line to the President of the United States, and then asked the obvious question, "Which one?"
Walter paused before walking out of Hammond's office, "All of them, sir."
"Good work Sergeant." "Damn he's good!" George said to himself, "What would I do without the diminutive sergeant?" George stopped short and stared at Walter, opened his mouth to say something and then chose to remain silent at his proactive and mind reading sergeant.
Someone unseen answered the phone breaking Hammonds wide eyed wonder at Walter, "This is General Hammond, get me the President."
As usual, Walter turned without so much as a smirk and then went about his duties.
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The first attack wave of SPACECOM Detachment One consisted of the BC-304's fleet, USAF vessels Daedelus and Odyssey. The Russian Air Force-operated Korolev, and Yuri Gagarin, the Chinese, Zheng He, and Deng Shichang, and the three British starships, HMS Cromwell, HMS Albion, HMS Daring.
The pulsar on the lunar surface of the moon fired as the first sign of battle with the inanimate objects, lighting up surrounding space with an eye searing flash, destroying several miles worth of asteroids with an explosive force greater than expected. Due to the arc firing range, only two of the four pulsars could target the asteroids.
Due to the large numbers of asteroids several managed to get past the lunar grid and struck the moon with enough force for the lunar base to shake down to its seams. A rogue asteroid the size of a sports utility vehicle hit near the northern Pulsar cannon with enough destructive force to leave a deeper crater than the original one. The concussive force was enough to open the internal environment to space. Among the twenty three staff running the facility, only one person remained alive for exactly sixteen horrible seconds. It would take some time before what little gravity the moon had for the dust and debris to settle. The cannon suffered minor damage, but with no crew to man the site, the weapon was nothing more than a one billion dollar piece of metal.
Caldwell saw the explosion of the northern pulsar cannon and cursed under his breath, "Why aren't they using the cannons?"
Timmons replied, "Sir, the northern cannon is out of commission. The other cannon sensor suite is having trouble locking on due to the amount of dust and debris ejected above the surface of the moon from the strike."
"Scan for survivors at the Northern Cannon site and prepare for transport."
In less then three seconds he was informed, "Sensors cannot detect any life signs in or near the northern pulsar site."
Shaking his head, Caldwell radioed the fleet, "First Attack Wave, you are cleared to fire!"
The first wave of missiles numbered thirty-two in all. The naquadah enhanced nukes flew at previous unheard of speeds. The asteroids flew silently toward the BC-304 fleet. Upon the missiles reaching the proximity of their target they exploded taking several miles worth of asteroids with them.
The blast wave should have not reached the first Earth attack wave but unknown to the Earthen fleet these asteroids were specifically chosen by their Goa'ould masters.
Caldwell's eyes opened wildly as the blast radius expanded exponentially toward his attack forces. "Helm!" was all he had time to say before the blast of nuclear fire reached them. Six of the eight helmsmen's on their respective ships saw the blast and turned the ships ninety degrees away and made some distance away from the reign of fire before the ring of death hit their ships.
Chinese BC-304 Deng Shichang and British ship HMS Albion helmsman were from their respective government's naval service and as these men were taught to ride into the wave or be capsized, they steered directly into the wave. In this particular case, these seamen's skills proved erroneous and completely foolhardy as the firestorm they entered was not born of water, but of nuclear enhanced fire enhanced greatly by the asteroids having raw naquadah deposits inside them.
Both ships shuddered violently and their respective shields glowed brightly for ten seconds before failing completely. Fire scorched trinium made hulls and lay sickenly black and charred, while their external communications antenna's, radar, and weapons ports were destroyed from the intense heat and micrometeorites.
HMS Albion spun in exaggerated circles, counter-clockwise, and side over side, bodies could be seen littering the outside of the hull, orbiting the ship, while the Deng Shichang lights inside could be seen sputtering, sparking, and fading as all internal power was lost and they listed to starboard drifting out toward deep space.
Caldwell demanded answers, "Status!"
Captain Timmons responded, fingers dramatically flashing across the keyboard, "Shields strength down to nine percent! No apparent damage. Looks like the shields kept out the hard radiation."
"Would someone like to tell me what the hell just happened?"
"Sir." Montoya reported, "That should not have happened, the Daedelus was well out of the blast radius."
"Engineering to Bridge?"
Caldwell stabbed his microphone button with his index finger, "What is it? We're a little busy here."
Doctor Novak responded in her nervously irritating voice, "Sir! Hermiod says that the Asguard sensors have detected that the core of the asteroids or at least some of them are filled with raw naquadah which as you know takes any energy applied to it and increases its power exponentially."
Caldwell cursed silently, "And Hermiod couldn't tell us that before we launched thermonuclear enhanced warheads at them?"
"Weelllll, ugh. We did try sir, you ordered us to stay off the line" Novak squeaked.
"Would you remind Hermiod that if we die, he's just as dead also? It might help him in being a little more forthcoming…BRIDGE OUT!" Caldwell felt his face redden. He couldn't blame engineering really, but he felt guilty and as a commanding officer should, he regained his bearings.
Turning to Timmons, "What about the other ships?"
"Odyssey and Cromwell report shields down to less than ten percent strength, minor electrical fires, but otherwise their in one piece. The Korolev, Gagarin, Zheng He, and, the HMS Daring report no damage other than to shields and should be recharged quickly."
Caldwell mentally counted to himself, "What about the Deng Shichang and HMS Albion?"
Timmons tried contacting the ships, "No response on any frequency."
Major Rick Montoya, the weapons officer reported, "Sir, radar shows both ships are headed out into deep space."
"Contact TRSTRGRU and have them launch SAR Operations."
"Colonel Caldwell?" Doctor Novak, the quirky, but brilliant engineer called the bridge.
"What is it?"
"Sir, Hermiod wanted me to report that the Asguard sensors report no life aboard the HMS Albion, the Deng Shichang has no power at all, and life signs are weakening."
"Damn!"
"And sir?" Novak meekly asked.
"Yes?"
"Hermiod wanted me to point out that with our shield strength nearly depleted that we will not survive another round with the asteroids from this distance."
Caldwell frowned sharply, "Please thank Hermiod for stating the blatantly obvious and while you're at it ask him if he has any suggestions, I am open to them?"
"Ugh, uh, well actually, not at this time."
"Fine, Bridge out!" Caldwell responded. Exhaling sharply, he came to a sudden realization, "The Goa'ould are playing with us, their softening us up.
Activating his comm channel, "Second attack wave, your on, maintain distance but take out those asteroids! All fleet, stay sharp, those naquadah enhanced asteroids are only the first round of tricks up the Goa'ould sleeve."
The second attack wave consisted of the Royal Canadian Navy "HMCS Champlain", Japanese – "Yamato", the "Miyuki", the Italian "Giuseppe Garibaldi", the French Force d'Action Navale "Jeanne d'Arc", Germany's -"Bremen", and "Deutschland", Turkey's "TCG Heybeliada", and the USAF X-303 Prometheus.
The first attack wave veered off, reversing course, heading back towards Earth.
Major Montoya double checked his scope. The radar system was a hybrid system of radar technology and the fire control technician's equipment, sprinkled with Colonial enhancements. Instruments not only gave accurate information and the well known "green screen" images of radar contacts, but also displayed, size, shape, distance, and speed of craft. Its range in space was only limited to einsteinium physics and the power of the radar equipment.
"Colonel Caldwell, the naval space forces have divided into two distinct battle groups and are at full burn."
Caldwell closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head, "Their enroute for SAR operations for the Albion and the Deng Shichang."
"Sir, the naval forces are headed away from the Albion and Deng Shichang."
"Well, where are they headed?" Caldwell through up his hands in frustration.
"Their approach vector has them flanking the orbital path of the asteroids."
Cursing under his breath Caldwell frowned, "Captain Timmons, tell them to stand down and return to previous coordinates."
A moment later, "They are not responding sir."
"Great, get me Stargate Command."
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The second attack wave headed toward the asteroids, opening fire with a salvo of thirty six naquadah enhanced Mark V nuclear missiles. The asteroids blew into billions of pieces of space dust. However, the depth and breadth of the asteroids were so widely dispersed, that even this large scale attack could not encompass the entire amount of asteroids. The flash of naquadah enhanced nukes and naquadah laced asteroids threw enough raw firepower throughout the solar system that the flashes could be seen on Earth on the day side.
The third attack wave was a combination of the remaining NATO members. In order to create a joint naval space force and save billions of dollars that none of the other countries could spare a few of the NATO members combined crews and split the costs.
The result was the Macedonia, Mihailo, Thocomerius, Ramsund, Najaden, the Portuguese NRP Álvares Cabral, and Spain's Principe de Asturias, and two Australian BC-304's, the HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide.
As the third attack wave were lining up for their shot, as intense wave of energy blindingly opened up all around them.
