Here's the next chapter for you all, questions will be answered and others will be asked. Note: I only own what characters i create, the names and places i invent and the ships and vehicles i seem to be designing in droves for this single story.
Please review and i will respond. Or alternatively post in the thread for this story in my forum. .net/topic/84023/35075481/1/
Review Responses
AlexanderD: Sovaer or Ronon, i wonder who would win in a fight. Well lets hope it doesn't come to that. Cliff hangers are wonderful things to use, they encourage me to keep writing. Enjoy the latest chapter, may it continue to surprise you.
Shadow of Realm: Ah traps, they are such delicious things.
eastwood6510: Cliff hanger are great are such fun to use.
shroud: Glad you like it.
"Clarify," ordered Sheppard. "Where's that message going to and where is it coming from?"
"Unable to locate precise signal source sir, but it is not from within system," stated the comm officer. "Signal is being received and responded to by the Averian fleet."
"Something is coming," Teyla whispered.
While this was being contemplated the first scenes of a battle were being played out. Almost 700 Wraith cruisers and hundreds of thousands of darts had begun to bear down on the Arima and her fifteen sentinels. In response Echidna had ordered the launch of every hornet she had in her fleet. But curiously the Wraith fleet was letting the traitors come to them rather than approach themselves, in fact once they had left hyperspace and returned to normal space they hadn't moved an inch forwards. Meanwhile energy bolt after energy bolt tore towards the oncoming traitor ships, the shots targeted to fire in a cluster. The ever diminishing gap between the two fleets was filled by the shower of huge energy bolts quickly traversing the distance. The approaching dart swarm quickly swerved to avoid the oncoming torrent of death and largely succeeded. The nimble fighter craft easily dodged the balls of white death and continued on towards the Matriarch fleet. The cruisers, not being as fast as the darts, were beyond the weapons effective range and were in no danger of being hurt. Since the darts were coming at the Arima and her sentinels from the wings the weapons fire had been directed at a wide area but not straight ahead. Seeing this the darts were converging into a funnel formation as they avoided the energy bolts, this meant that as they got closer and closer they were forming a huge mass that would be in a position to suicide charge the Arima. Since the twin queens considered the drones as expendable for the cost of destroying their enemies it was very likely that the Arima would be the victim of a mass kamikaze run. If that dart swarm actually hit then the Matriarch would find her new reign cut short.
In orbit of the planet however things were turning out a lot worse for the traitors. The blast wave from the stargate detonating had settled and the dust cloud was beginning to clear, revealing a huge crater that showed no signs that a Wraith structure had ever once stood there. That was just from a single shot from a single vessel, now a fleet of fifty Averian warships had de-cloaked and started to open fire on the remaining shipyards on the surface. After the Averian fleet had sneaked its way into orbit under cloak they had taken up position and began scanning the surface below, selecting their targets and targeting them accordingly. Priority targeting had been given to the weapon towers across the surface, followed by the numerous ships on the surface that were, while not complete, space worthy and capable of joining the fight. No matter the number of targets on the surface the first to go would be the defence weapons, those massive towers, while slow firing, potentially packed enough of a punch to reduce the shield strength of one of the Averian ships by half. When the orbiting fleet de-cloaked they quickly exchanged scanning data and the flagship gave orders for any unexpected priority targets. Otherwise the ships each fired on what their targeting data told them was a higher priority. Hundreds of plasma bolts rained down from orbit on to the surface of the planet, targeting every Wraith structure that had been left untouched by the blast wave. After the opening volleys every remaining defence tower had been levelled, their bio armour have been burned and, in some cases, disintegrated by the extreme heat. The devastation was not solely due to the weapons fire from the Averian's however as several weapon towers had misfired when their superstructure had been burnt through and compromised. The energy, which would otherwise safely build up in the base of the tower before being discharged in an orbital direction, tore a massive hole through the side of the tower and took the surrounding power generators down with it as the tower collapsed. The growing hive ships found themselves a little better off than the towers designed to protect them, only a few had been deemed priority targets and the others had been left entirely untouched. Those that had been targeted had only taken limited damage from the burning balls of energy that rained down on their hulls.
In response to the devastation reeked on the planets surface, courtesy of the newly appeared fleet in orbit, the hive ships that had broken orbit to assist in the destruction of the Matriarch's fleet abruptly turned around. Their own priority for ships to fight had dramatically shifted with the destruction of the planetary defences. The sixty hive ships all massed launched their personal compliment of fighters in a bid to overwhelm the powerful enemy ships. Within a couple of minutes the hangers had been emptied in their entirety, six hundred thousand darts were gathering together to attack the enemy on mass. Such a massive number would easily overwhelm any ship that even the Lanteans could have produced at their height, which made the swarm the Averian's new priority target. In response to the forces gathering against them the Averian's readied the only weapon they had to combat such a threat, while Sheppard ordered the Weir's, so far, secret weapon to be prepared for use.
The Arima and her sentinels had so far been unharmed by the approaching traitor fleet, their longer range weapons having given them the advantage in the early stages of the fight. But as the enemy fleet approached closer and closer more and more cruisers were in weapons range. Bolts of fire were now being exchanged between the two fleets, with the enhanced bio armour of Echidna's fleet weathering the storm. But despite the number of cruisers closing in on them the Matriarch's fleet continued firing on the approaching swarm of darts that was closing in on them. As the mass fleet of cruisers and darts approached they were being forced into a funnel as they struggled to avoid the oncoming enemy fire power. The funnel was becoming tighter and tighter as the fleet got closer but it was eventually going to reach its target, the Arima. All enemy ships were now focusing their fire on the Arima in a bid to weaken the armour before impact. It was a rather pointless gesture, because if even a small number of cruisers and darts in the approaching darts impacted then the Wraith flagship would be annihilated. The enhanced bio armour that would normally dissipate energy upon impact would be torn open and rendered useless when the approaching swarm hit. The Matriarchs fleet focused their fire more inwards, desperately trying to stem the tide of ships bearing down on the flagship, but to no avail. The funnel tip was too close and the firing arc too narrow for the fleet and now all seemed lost, it was only a matter of time before impact. If only the Arima had started firing forwards from the word go in a bid to destroy anything that tried to get close to the flagship, but they hadn't. If only the swarms of hornets had not avoided the more numerous darts in favour of attacking the cruisers on mass, but they hadn't. And now the end result was that the hornets were crippling vulnerable cruisers on the outskirts of the formation where there was no dart cover, and there was a mass swarm of darts, clustered together and all bearing down on the Arima. It was like something out a nightmare and, unbeknownst to the twins, was all according to plan. Which was why, right in front of the Arima in the one spot that wasn't being saturated by energy pulses, the Asgard warship O'Neill de-cloaked, raised its shields and very quickly began diverting weapons power to the tip of the nose section.
The twin queens mentally smirked as they watched the swarm of cruisers and darts approach the Arima. Hundreds of darts had already been lost to the defensive fire, the weak minded drone pilots unable to dodge the energy bolts in time or fail to avoid hitting their brethren in a bid to avoid the energy pulse. Dozens of cruisers had also been destroyed, lacking point defence weapons, relying on darts for this purpose, and unable to withstand the onslaught of the massed hornets that had made them their prey. Even now more were being lost, as the stragglers that had had the furthest to come were being picked off by the roving swarms before they even got within weapons range of the enemy fleet.
But that did not matter to them. They would sacrifice thousands of darts and hundreds of cruisers if it meant they could finally be rid of their mother. Without her the others that followed her would fall into disarray. They would not be as organised as they would with her leading them and they desperately needed order if they were to re-order their society in order to survive. This would only be the beginning, they would build on another world, start anew, rebuild their forces, but first they must see to it that their mother dies here today.
And soon that hope would come to pass, the swarm was getting nearer. There was nothing standing between it and the Arima. Their mother would be killed for sure.
So they stopped giving orders to those drones and let them continue on their way, and focused on better co-ordinating the hives and the darts bearing down on the fleet that had destroyed their fortress world. Steps would have to be taken next time to stop such a surprise attack from happening again. Perhaps having the defence fleet create a sensor net around the system? It did not matter. It was a thought for later. For now they must focus on the immediate threat. The enemy ships were clearly powerful, but not to worry they could always retreat. It wasn't like their mother would survive to rally forces against them. They were certain of it.
This was why, when the Asgard warship suddenly appeared and opened fire on the swarm, they froze in shock.
When the Asgard had gone into hiding they had first focused on dealing with the crisis at hand, namely the problem of solving their genetic degradation. But when the new android bodies had been completed they had set about upgrading their fleet to assist in the fight against the Ori. Of course by the time the upgrades had been completed the last Ori mothership had left the Milky Way and the galaxy had been freed from their stranglehold. But the upgrades were still apart of the fleet. The Valhalla, which had been designed with the new technologies from the ground up, received no upgrades. The science ships, received cloaking technologies and nothing else, they were after all not meant for combat purposes. The Beliskner's received cloaks and basic plasma beam weapons, giving them back the sting they had lost during Anubis's uprising. The O'Neill's were also given cloaks and basic plasma beam weapons, and one other upgrade. An upgrade which was about to be put into use against the approaching swarm of traitor ships, a single massive plasma beam cannon that boasted one and a half times the power of that mounted on the Tau'ri Pegasus-class.
When the Asgard warship de-cloaked right between the Arima and the oncoming swarm of darts and cruisers the drone crews didn't know how to react. Awaiting new orders from their queens they simply kept the ships moving forwards, determined to smash their way past this new obstacle and reach their target. The new arrival wasn't even firing at them despite the large and easily noticeable energy cannons that it possessed. What wasn't apparent to them was that large amounts of power were being transferred to the ships forward beam emitter and it wasn't until the swarm was upon them that the warship fired.
When the weapon finally discharged it briefly sent out a blue beam of pure energy straight ahead. The beam lasted for just a few seconds, long enough to cut its way through the entire length of the swarm with the bio armour of any Wraith ships not even offering the least bit of resistance. Darts were disintegrated before they could even explode and cruisers were burned beyond recognition, leaving behind nothing but charred husks. And that was just the ones that had taken direct hits, there were lots of others had been clipped by the pillar of plasma. Darts were ripped apart by the searing heat while cruisers had entire sections scorched away. Just as the first of the explosions started the warship fired again. Another pillar of plasma briefly lanced out at the swarm, then another and another. A total of six beams lanced out at the swarm, expanding the circle of destruction. Then the warships engines powered up and the vessel charged forward into the gap created.
The hive mind screamed with the queen's fury as the alien warship fired beam number seven at the swarm, before surging forward.
This was impossible!
Such a ship had never been seen before. It was so…so alien. And it was deadly.
They snarled as the ship started to employ its other weapons against the remainder of the swarm. Massive bolts of energy shot from the ships four energy cannons, decimating anything in their path, darts, cruisers, none were spared. Smaller blue beams, like those used by the cursed Tau'ri, lanced out destroying cruiser after cruiser. Worse though were the spotlights of white light which swept across space and caused dart after dart to just vanish if they fell under the lights gaze for even a moment.
The bodies of the twin queens twitched in their two thrones aboard their personal flagship, sitting amongst a group of guardian hive ships. At a glance the difference in the ships design from the others around it might go unnoticed, but if your eyes lingered for but a moment you would immediately spot that the middle section was solid rather than empty. This section was a special modification that only featured on this prototype and featured the same bio-technology not unlike that used in their power generation buildings on the planet. They snarled again, former buildings on the planet. But the upgrade meant the hive ship was stronger and faster than any others that they would have to face.
They now had a choice to make. They could not deal with both the human vessels and the warship that was decimating their forces attacking the Arima. They frowned, they had instructed the swarm to start targeting the alien warship but the typical tactics weren't having much effect against the surprisingly manoeuvrable behemoth. The ship was weaving its way though around the swarm as the ships attempted to change their heading to target the cursed thing. But even the suicide runs of the darts seemed to be to no avail as they were swept clean from space by those infernal lights before they could even impact the ships incredibly resilient shields. Worse still the Arima and her sentinels were continuing to saturate the swarm with energy bolt after energy bolt, while hornets continued to pick off the straggling cruisers that had yet again failed to join the swarm. It was a complete mess. With the alien warship tying up their forces and locking them in position, all the while the hornets were slaughtering any ships that tried to build up the centre or break away and the Arima and her sentinels acting as long range artillery.
The best that they could hope for now was to kill their mother and then retreat with what forces they could. If they could inflict some damage on the human vessels then that would be a bonus. There were already forty hive ships approaching the humans and their own flagship was a part of the group of twenty that was now continuing to approach their mother. Darts would not be of much against something that simply swept them away in a ray of white light so they continued on to face the human menace, all six hundred thousand of them.
The dart mass was definitely going to be a problem for the Weir and the Averian's. The Arima and her escorts had been looking at hell when she was only being targeted by twenty one thousand, and now the humans were facing a force nearly thirty times larger. Of course the Asgard making their surprise appearance had thrown the fight in Echidna's favour but the humans had thrown every ship they had into the fight from the word go in order to obliterate the planet based defences. Luckily they had been holding back in their use of weapons, and they were about to unleash their own surprise on the approaching wall of darts. From the seven launchers on back of the Weir, that so far had seen no use, launched a swarm of silvery, white glowing drones. On the Averian warships however panels slid open on the sides of the ships revealing the hidden weapon nests beneath. Missiles sprung from the launch tubes at the swarm of darts, joining the smaller number of drones that had been unleashed on the approaching darts. Instinct told the darts that the drones would be the things to watch out for and they never gave the approaching missiles a second thought. So while a few of their number started to target the missiles the majority of the front runners targeted the drones. The drones and missiles appeared to be matching each other for speed and presumably would hit at the same time. It was just as the darts were about to enter weapon range that that assumption was proved to be wrong. The nose cones of the missiles popped open and ejected their payload, a flurry of mini drone like objects accelerated forwards to the shock and horror of the drone pilots. The mini drones packed a relatively small explosive charge but when fired on mass the approaching darts were smothered in the charges. Confusion reigned as the darts swerved to avoid the hail of drones and the wreckage from their companions craft, forgetting the objects heading towards them. Then the remaining bits of the missiles and the Tau'ri drones hit the swarm. The missile sections detonated on impact, as did the drones. The missile sections explosions were tiny though in comparison to the truly frightening explosions from the drones.
The drones may look like their Alteran designed counterparts but they were very different. Remote controlled and highly manoeuvrable, the Tau'ri versions lacked the phase technology and energy field that would allow them to drill through barriers or the energy core explosive. All of these were beyond current technological understanding for even the Asgard and could not be copied and duplicated using Asgard matter replication. The Tau'ri versions did however feature a little creative innovation for the explosive charge, a large chunk of naquadah and potassium that would combine on impact with a target. When two chunks this large contacted each other they would create an incredibly violent explosion comparable to small nuke. Unfortunately a lot of these weapons had just detonated across the length of the mass of darts and the results were catastrophic. The explosion was one thing, tens of thousands of darts were wiped out when the drones detonated, but the blast wave was absolute hell. Thousands of darts were flung away from the explosion, caught on the shockwave and sent colliding into others nearby, which in turn were sent careening into others in a cascade effect. A debris field had been created between the humans and the surviving mass of darts and the humans took full advantage of it.
All ships opened fire with everything they had, holding back on beam and ballistic weapons. Plasma cannons, ion cannons, railguns, all fired at the temporarily halted darts while fighters were launched. One hundred and twenty eight F-302's and one thousand five hundred of the Averian's arrow head shaped fighters all left their hangers and formed up around the human fleet. The approaching hive ships were almost in weapon range and knowing they couldn't take them and the darts the Tau'ri decided to play one of their last cards, they used nukes. In small flashes of light that would have otherwise gone unnoticed against the back drop of stars and space a half dozen mark IX nuclear warheads appeared just in front of the debris field. Three seconds after they re-materialised the warheads detonated. The expanding blast wave claiming anything within a hundred mile radius of the warhead before it detonated, nothing survived. The debris field had been obliterated as had almost all of the darts, the mindless pilots lacking the foresight and intuition that came with free will to think to avoid the ballistic weapons coming against them. The twin queen's paranoid and near megalomaniac insistence on having obedient slaves had been their undoing. The surviving darts, the few that there were, were quickly picked off by the human fighter craft as they attempted to recover from the devastating strike.
In that regard they had been lucky, the enemy fighter craft had been largely stunned or wiped out by the devastating nuclear blast waves making them easy prey, but now the hive ships had moved into weapons range. When the hive ships started sending bolt after bolt of energy into the human vessels it seemed their luck was starting to run out.
As the twin queens own fleet of twenty hive ships made it into weapons range they started firing at the Asgard warship with impunity. In an impressive display of manoeuvrability the ship swung around the swarm, using the mass formation of cruisers and darts as cover. Not that that stopped the twins, in fact they didn't even hesitate for a moment. Darts and cruisers were obliterated in short order and the shields of the Asgard vessel were once again being pounded on.
"Status report," demanded Thor as the vessel shook again from the impact of multiple blasts.
"Shields at 70%, 69%" an Asgard corrected as the ship shook, again.
The shields on the Asgard warship were incredibly powerful, fifty percent stronger than those on the Weir. As it stood the ship could be hit by four hundred and fifty of the Wraiths energy blasts and still come out strong. Unfortunately the Wraith hive ships were unleashing dozens of blasts at the warship with every volley and the constant strain was starting to take it toll.
"All weapons fire at will, target the hive ships," ordered Thor. "Beam collectors continue targeting the darts. Helm, lets take the fight to them. Tell Echidna we'll deal with the hives."
"Aye sir," was the reply from the bridge crew.
The warship swerved hard avoiding another few blasts of firepower and then charged forwards, right through the swarm of Wraith ships. Beam collectors swept away the darts before them while plasma beams sliced the cruisers apart. The Asgard warship had no hesitation about smashing its way through the enemy lines when the Wraith themselves were helping by blowing away their own ships, clearing the way. The ship quickly punched through the enemy lines and was tearing its way towards the hive ships, dodging energy blasts as best it could. The warship quickly reached the fleet of hives and began opening fire. Plasma beam after plasma beam tore away at the hive bio armour, causing massive damage with every hit, and when the main cannon occasionally fired a kill was guaranteed. The rapid firing energy cannons struck the hives with impunity while the warship ducked and weaved its way between the much larger hive ships, using their own bulk against them. Shots were being exchanged on both sides but it was the Asgard who was winning, so far. Of the twenty hives that had originally made up the fleet three were burning husks, five had taken massive damage and two had been sliced in half.
The queens snarled. The enemy thought they were making fools of them but it was they who would have the last laugh. The alien warship had broken away from its duty of herding the swarm and now the darts and cruisers were free to continue their previous mission. So with nothing to hold them back the twin queens ordered the cruisers to continue forwards and attack the Arima, all according to their plan.
The darts and cruisers surged towards the Arima once again. The Arima had managed to back off while they were occupied by the O'Neill but now there was nothing between them and the flagship.
On the bridge of the Weir Sheppard swore as the ship was struck yet again, but it was not the incoming fire that caused his anger. ISIS was projecting a map of the battlefield in front of him and he had noticed the mass of cruisers and darts all charging forwards towards the Arima. The entire fleet was being saturated by the enemy fire power and the Averian ships were taking the worst of it, their weaker shields unable to hold out against the sustained firing for long. Ten hive ships had leapt on the Weir while the other thirty had started pounding the Averian's. With the ability to collapse the shields of an Averian warship in only two volleys they had no need to team up to take on the enemy. The Averian's meanwhile were fighting back in teams of three to deal with the enemy hives they were confronting while a group of five were trying to take the heat off of the Weir. The moment an Averian ship lost shields it hastily retreated behind a companion in a bid to stay alive and cloaked but it was not always successful. Four ships that had been caught in the opening shots had been obliterated, being unlucky enough to be the only targets available to the thirty approaching hive ships. If the Daedalus and the Apollo hadn't made their appearance when the hives started to get close they would have been in real trouble. The very second that the first of the hive ships started to fire the two battle cruisers had de-cloaked right above them and started firing. Two hives had quickly succumbed to the opening shots and had violently detonated.
When an Averian group fired on a hive it died, only their plasma beams were being used against the enemy and the results were always explosive. They weren't taking prisoners and they weren't holding back, not in this battle. The Weir didn't even need the Averian ships supporting her, her own plasma beams were slicing two hives apart in a single volley, while the ion turrets helped finish off whatever the Averian's fired at, and when the main weapon fired a hive was split in half. Her Averian escorts quickly broke away to help their comrades, seeing that the Weir was going to deal more damage than she took. The rest of the hive ships were quickly being dispatched but the fleet was suffering for it even with their fighters attacking the hives on mass. Seven Averian ships were dead, another five were on the verge of being evacuated having taken enough damage to cripple them. A dozen more had lost shields and had been forced to pull away from the fight.
Echidna was growing desperate. She was firing everything forward that she could while the Arima attempted to fall back. The hornets had been re-tasked to chasing down the oncoming darts that were dodging energy bolts with ease. In an act of sheer desperation the sentinels positioned themselves between the Arima and the approaching swarm. Unfortunately that did little good when they were rammed. Acting under a pre-programmed protective instinct the ships dived in front of the Arima to protect her from being rammed. As thousands of darts and dozens of cruisers struck them explosions rippled across the surface of the living ships, their bio armour being torn apart by the explosions and debris. Four ships were heavily damaged to the point where they were practically out of the fight and another five came away missing sections of their hull. None were destroyed outright but that was only because the Wraith were saving their numbers for when they hit the Arima. The sentinels sacrifice had bought the Arima some time, but the rest of the swarm was getting closer. It was when they were almost upon her that Echidna relented and relaxed her mind enough to detect something on the edge of her senses.
On the bridge of the Weir though, Teyla was still battling with making sense of the telepathic signals she was getting. Something was pushing at her mind, some force was approaching that was giving off enough of a telepathic field to tap at her senses. It felt familiar. It felt…Wraith. It was Wraith. The Wraith were coming!
"Wraith," she yelled. "Wraith are coming!"
The rest of the bridge crew barely even reacted. They were busy dealing with the Wraith right in front of them. Sheppard on the other hand turned to look at her.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
Rather pointlessly as it turned out because the Wraith promptly made their appearance. A massive hyperspace window tore open and deposited a large Wraith fleet. To make matters worse they appeared right behind and above the Matriarchs own fleet.
"Oh crap."
The Wraith drones in the swarm hesitated when the armada appeared near their prey. From their point of view of those piloting darts the fleet was massive, consisting of tens of hives and hundreds of cruisers, not to mention the huge numbers of darts being launched.
Seizing the opportunity, in a desperate bid to survive the Arima retreated directed all available power to retreating downwards, away from the swarm.
"Who are you?" enquired the twin queens, and Echidna.
"We are here to finish what has been started. We are here to protect. We are here to fight."
"Fight who?" asked Echidna and the queens, their curiosity following the same lines.
"Those who would harm our way of life. Those who would change the way that we are. Those who would go against the order of things."
The twins mentally smirked when they sensed their mother cringing at the ships presence.
"Then do what you must," they said.
"We intend to."
By now all the darts had been launched and were diving towards the Arima, hundreds of thousands of them. Chasing after them were the cruisers and moving forwards were the hives. Like winged death the fleet approached from above, trapping the Arima between them and the swarm approaching from the front. Closer and closer they got, nearer and nearer until finally they were close enough. And now that they were in range to fire to fire, they did. The dart swarm levelled out, their weapons primed and opened fire on their enemy. As space rippled with explosions shock and horror spread across the Wraith psychic link. The new arrivals had opened fire, with everything they had, on the traitor fleet.
Sheppard smirked when he received the numbers of the newly arrived fleet and heard the conversation, courtesy of Teyla. 31 hives, 293 cruisers and an excess of over 310,000 darts, the exact composition of the Wraith scout fleet that Echidna had ordered to stay out of the fight.
When he heard the twins arrogant order to attack he couldn't help but laugh, they wouldn't know what them until it was too late.
When the scout fleets dart swarm started firing the traitor swarm was annihilated, a couple thousand darts and a few dozen cruisers against over three thousand darts, it was no contest really. As the cruisers got closer they took up position around the Arima, acting as a sacrificial shield should the enemy hives think to try their luck against the Wraith flagship. The hive ships joined the sentinels and advanced on the traitor fleet, with the darts heading to join the hornets.
"Why?" screamed the twins.
"We do what we must to protect our mother."
"Why her? Why follow her?"
"Because she is our mother, our Matriarch, our saviour from the endless hunger that once cursed us. You should not have tried to harm her. Now we will kill you for it."
"If it's any consolation," added Echidna. "I told them to stay out of this fight. It seems they decided to disobey me."
"If you would order us not to protect you mother," said her children. "Then you should know that we will always disobey."
"You are so like your brother," Echidna mused.
"He knew what he was doing mother. Thanks to him we can destroy those that would harm you. Now this ends."
The hives, the sentinels, the darts and the hornets, they all fired with impunity at the traitor hives. The cruisers and the Arima charged forward to assist. The fighting was almost entirely one sided, with the sentinels taking point and their incredibly resilient bio armour absorbing hits with ease. The lead traitor hives became fireballs within seconds of the first shots being fired from the capital ships. The hornets and darts attacked on mass burning through hive ships with hardly any effort as the hulls were saturated with energy fire. Almost the entire hull of the hives attacked by these swarms was burned away as they were completely covered in energy blasts. It was frightening to watch as the wave of destruction covered the traitor fleet. Hive after hive burned in space to almost no loss in return, the sheer amount of firepower being unleashed on the enemy overwhelming them before they had a chance to get off even a few return shots. Eventually the enemy got smart and started targeting the more damaged sentinels before their wounds could close and their armour harden again. Three sentinels were forced out of the fight this way, too heavily wounded and with the Arima's safety assured they halted their advance and focused their energy on healing their wounds.
Soon there were only seven hives left, with one of them being the twin's flagship. The twins knew this fight was lost but they had no intention of dying here. Commanding the other four hives to act as a shield they turned and fled. Those loyal to their mother tried to get past and reach the enemy before they escaped but to no avail. In a flash the twins, with two hives as escorts, fled into hyperspace and escaped with their lives.
On the bridge of the Weir everyone was finally starting to relax. The last of the enemy ships were being mopped up by Echidna and her children, the other hives having long since been destroyed by them and the Averian's. There had been a price to pay but they had won. Unfortunately they had not been able to stop the twins from escaping but they could be dealt with later.
It was when the Averian's rapidly collected their fighters and began to depart that alarm bells were raised and people realised something was wrong.
"Where are they going?" Sheppard wondered aloud, just as Sovaer ran onto the bridge.
"Colonel," he yelled as he grappled with the four marines that were trying to restrain him, his sudden appearance having triggered a reflex action in the bridge guards.
"Let him go," ordered Sheppard. "Now calm down and tell me what's wrong?"
The guards released him and he took a breath before speaking.
"I decoded the transmission, Averia is under attack."