Chapter 21: Two Years
Ever since he had the entire knowledge base of the Alterrans downloaded into his brain, Danny had begun acting weird. Firstly he asked the High Council for an extended leave of absence, to which they agreed, making Tucker the acting Supreme Commander of the Ancient Fleet.
His schedule being mostly freed Danny took the opportunity to literally burry himself into work. Quickly he began making improvements to every single aspect of Lantean designed technology and began the production and research of many things meant to improve their war efforts against the Goa'uld and eventually the Wraith.
Several weeks after his awakening from the coma the repository left him in, Danny traveled to Earth to retrieve Ayiana. She was an Alterra who still had the Plague and who had been preserved in stasis for the last 5 million years. Using his healing powers Danny was able to heal her and restore her body to full strength. While talking to each other, Danny discovered that Ayiana was left on Earth to protect the Outpost there and because she was still sick, she volunteered for that role. In Atlantis she was referred to Ancestor Ayiana, something that shocked her in the beginning until Danny explained that they were the last Alterra in the lower plane, along with Damian.
Over the course of the next few weeks she settled in Atlantis and took up the role of chief biologist as she worked on the Jaffa's dependency on infant Goa'uld symbiotes. This meant that Danny was free to return to his lab and continue his research.
With help from Ayiana Danny managed to achieve a level of power few Alterra ever had. Danny trained relentlessly against opponents in simulations of increasing difficulty until he managed to get a good enough grip on his newfound powers that he won't risk accidentally destroying half the city on account of a bad dream. With his powers in check Danny also began spending a lot more time with his son, who by now had begun to speak since he was 1 year old.
Danny had been overjoyed when he walked into Damian's room only for Damian to point at him as say 'Pata'. The word was the shorten form of the Ancient word 'paternus' witch meant father. In his time that he spent with Damian he soon found out that his son was a born warrior. He found that out when, due to some sarcastic comment, Damian had thrown the cube he was playing with directly into Albertus's face… in the middle of the gate room and in front of SG1. This ended with Danny literally rolling on the ground in laughter, Sam and Tucker shaking their head while Jazz and Ayiana prayed for strength. Meanwhile SG1 was attempting not to laugh and failing miserable at that, Albertus was cowering behind a frightened lancer guard while Damian was glaring at Albertus, but only managing to frighten the guard even more. Even before that incident there had been rumors going around the Damian was a demon child and even if he was a baby, no one wanted to feel the wraith and the subsequent rampage of Daddy Danny. That particular event led to O'Neill joking that he should 'introduce' Damian to Kinsey to witch Danny added that he should also give Damian a harder cube than the squishy foam one he was playing with that day. From that point on O'Neill proposed a new method when it came with dealing with other politicians. The 'Damian method' necessitated the use of extreme force even in the most unnecessary circumstances and lead to the proposition of developing an Earth built version of the Goa'uld pain stick. Needles to say Danny wasn't very happy with O'Neill mocking his son's name and went on a little rampage through the SGC, scaring the crap out of everyone there (even if the 'rampage' was a staged training in case of a foothold situation for the Terrans and training for an assault against a defended gate for the Lantean Lancers) thus ensuring that the 'Damian method' was never spoken of again.
A few months passed yet again and in that time Danny finished a design for his new flagship as well as other vessels of the Fleet. Due to the fact that the production of warships for the Ancients had all but stopped and the only thing taking material was the construction of the giant shipyards on Averium a lot of excess material had been stockpiled. Now that material was put to good use in upgrading the Auroras.
The Auroras were good ships, powerful ships that even the Asgard would have trouble fending off. The only problem was that they were never designed as a proper warship should. Now Danny, with the entire Alterran knowledge in his head had begun modifying the Auroras. First to go were the cold fusion generators. They were never meant to power a ship this huge anyway, not a warship at least. In their place 3 new N/N reactors will be installed, thus making the Aurora able to take the pounding it was supposed to without the need for a VEM. The 4 particle beams, now redesegnated as proton beams were to be enhanced so that they could fire a shot every 20 seconds instead of every 50 seconds and each individual proton beam would travel at relativistic speeds, increasing its penetration power. In addition to that the Auroras will receive an additional 4 baryon beam cannons, two on the top and two on the bottom. The ion guns were to be exchanged for an upgraded version with elements taken from Tollan Ion cannons. This meant that the Auroras would boast an arsenal on 10 ion cannons with 2 frontal mounted heavy ion cannons. The point defense armament will remain mostly the same with only minor tweaks to the targeting software being made. The biggest change though came in the form of the 700 drone fighters that the Auroras would carry. The drone fighters will take up a third of the space normally assigned for drone storage and several cargo holds, however the Auroras were big enough that even with that reduction to their drone capacity they could still through out millions of them at any enemy. Lastly the Auroras received torpedo tubes for the newly designed antimatter torpedoes.
The main problem with the use of antimatter in one's ship was that containing it could be extremely tricky. So far any and all antimatter was generated on the spot in the form of antiprotons. However that meant that while powerful, antimatter torpedoes had to be charged prior to launch and in the heat of battle that was inconvenient. Currently Danny was trying to solve that problem with an Antimatter Subspace Capacitor (ASC). It was a version of a VEM only for particles and if successful it would mean that antimatter could not only be the future of starship fuel, but also a very possible and likely weapon.
The final mad weapon that Danny plucked out of the Alterran knowledge base was an antiproton beam. This beam technology could work just as well with positrons; however antiprotons were preferred due to their higher mass. The only problem with that weapon was that although it was immensely powerful it had a slow rate of fire, only capable of firing a full power shot once every 2 minutes. There was also the problem that it was huge, more than 2 kilometers in length, witch meant that the Auroras were the only ones capable of fitting that weapon, however that would have been impracticable, seeing that the entire ship would have had to be ripped apart.
Seeing this conundrum, Danny decided that it would be a good idea to build himself a new flagship. This ship would be one of a kind, capable of repairing other ships and acting as a mobile base if need be.
And so, the Executor was born.
The ship was colossal. Ten kilometers in length and nearly one wide with a height of 750 meters, that ship was a beast. It had not one, but three antiproton beams in its nose, with 8 proton beams scattered around the hull and nearly 30 ion cannons. The ship also had drone bays capable of holding up to 20 million drones. Its point defense armament was in the region of 800 double barreled plasma repeaters. On the underside, it had one large bay, large enough to fit an Aurora inside. The bay also had retractable doors so they could shield the ship inside from any would be attacker. The ship also possessed an army of constructor drones, mining drones, an on board refinery and industrial energy matter constructor. The Executor could repair itself almost automatically with the factory alone, but Danny had also decided to give the hull, which was made from a Naquadah/Carbon/ Trinium alloy that was the same as on the O'Neill class, an underlying layer of repair nanites that would repair any micro fractures in the hull almost instantaneously. Powering that massive ship was a collection of 10 N/N reactors and 3 VEMs. It also had several neutrino-ion generators in case of main reactor failure. It also boasted the strongest shields that can be fitted to a warship, their design based off Atlantis's own shield as well as a hyper drive so powerful that only the Star drive on a City-Ship could keep up with the Executor if the ship went to flank speed. The last additions to the ship were several crew quarters, a med bay and a VI core. This basically made the ship sentient with the avatar being named Gideon. All in all the Executor was as big as a Wraith Hive ship with the capacity to take on an entire Wraith fleet by itself and still come up on top.
Danny couldn't wait for the ship to be finished so that he could show it to Thor and see his eye twitch in envy at his new ship. However that was still 12 months away, seeing that construction had only stared.
Two months after Damian's 1 birthday Danny found out that Sam was expecting another child, as if one infant Alterran wasn't hard enough to deal with already. Meanwhile Valery gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Derek and Lydia.
Things were coming along nicely for the remaining Ancients, with their numbers having finally breached the 600 mark. The people on Atlantis that had children were few, however that would soon change. Since the exodus from the Pegasus Galaxy, most Lanteans were feeling excessively angry, something Danny decided to capitalize on. Another military recruitment wave swept Atlantis. This brought the enlisted Ancient military personnel to over 350, with every new recruit going into the Navy. This new addition brought forth the creation of a new class of ships.
The Octavius class assault carriers.
These 2 kilometer long ships were specifically tailored to carry thousands of drone fighters and millions of drone weapons, with little to no anti-capital ship weaponry.
This meant that the battle cruisers will lose most of their squadrons, retaining only 50 fighters and instead get the new N/N reactors, baryon and proton beam cannons, two of each kind as well as 6 ion cannons, while losing the plasma beam weapon, until it could be perfected further. They would as well receive torpedo tubes with antimatter warheads.
The heavy cruisers would also suffer the same transition, only they would receive 6 baryon beam cannons instead of 2 and they would get 2 N/N reactors instead of only one.
The Ghost class corvette, would also receive an upgraded and subsequently faster interstellar hyper drive, torpedo tubes, an ion canon all powered by a minituariesed N/N reactor.
Several more months had passed, when Danny was called to the Terran Alpha site with a squad of Lancers to restore peace between the Jaffa and the Tok'ra. They succeeded and apprehended the Goa'uld assassin responsible for several murders.
Several weeks later Danny traveled to Pangar accompanied by Ayiana to help the Pangarans with their Tretonin addiction and also retrieve genetic material from Egeria, queen of the Tok'ra, so that she could be cloned, thus assuring that more Tok'ra were spawned, saving the Tok'ra from extinction.
Several months later Danny traveled to Earth, this time in his newly upgraded Andromeda along with Thor. They did this because General Hammond had asked them to, since only their presence could convince the representatives to not hand the Stargate over to the NID, or Kinsey.
-FLASBACK-
Danny beamed down along with Thor, startling the ambassadors in the room. Danny was dressed in full white battle armor, with his cape hanging over his shoulders, while Thor was in his 'throne'. One brave representative spoke next.
"Hello?" he asked
"Hello, I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet" said Thor
"I am Daniel Phantom, Supreme Commander of the Ancient Fleet" said Danny
"Thank you for coming Thor, Phantom" said Hammond
"It was our pleasure, General Hammond. Bought the Ancients and the Asgard are in your debt" said Danny
"Your debt?" asked an ambassador not believing what he was hearing
"SG1, under the command of General Hammond have saved my people and yours on many occasions" said Thor
"As well as having helped us when we were going through our darkest hour in the last 5 million years. We are not only allies against the Goa'uld, we are true friends" said Danny
"Commander Thor, Commander Phantom, my name is" began Kinsey only to be stopped by Thor
"Senator Kinsey. O'Neill suggested that I send you to a distant planet for your actions here, but I am reasonable certain that his statement was in jest" said Thor
"I'm sure it was, Commanders" began Kinsey only to be interrupted by Danny
"Supreme Commanders. Please address us with our full rank senator" said Danny before turning to the room "It is the opinion of bought the Asgard and the Ancient High Councils that Stargate Command should be left in the very capable hands of General Hammond and his team… and while our friendship with Earth is not contingent on that, in the Asgard's case at least" added Danny while glaring at Kinsey who shrunk back" it is preferred" said Danny
"You came all this way, just to tell us that?" asked an ambassador
"And to install Asgard designed shields and weapons on Prometheus. A small token of thanks for SG1's efforts in securing our galaxy and yours for certain destruction" said Thor
"I see…" the same representative said
"We hope that we have been successful in convincing you. Good day General Hammond" said Thor
"Always a pleasure Thor, Phantom, please drop in any time" said Hammond
A few seconds later a bright light engulfed bought Supreme Commanders transporting them to the Asgard O'Neill waiting in orbit.
"Were we successful Phantom?" asked Thor
"I do not know. Much has changed in the one and a half years since I last visited Earth. Regardless of how this meeting ended, the Terrans have achieved a great thing here. Their ascension is near" said Danny before a golden light engulfed him and deposited him on the bridge of the Andromeda
-END FLASBACK-
Two months later Danny embarked on yet another mission to retrieve the stranded Prometheus from a planet called Tagrea. Their military was keeping the Prometheus and her crew hostage. Needles to say that the arrival of an Ancient Battle fleet in orbit and the descent into the atmosphere of the Andromeda quickly changed their minds and boosted their chancellor's approval ratings for stopping the powerful aliens from obliterating their planet.
Soon they found out what that ship that Anubis was building was, but they were unable from stopping him from acquiring the eye of Ra. The eye was part of a series of micro-VEMs that the Ancients had abandoned research of when the Plague hit. For the next three months Anubis raged havoc and even made a run at Atlantis itself. However he was detected well before he stepped foot in the system, thus making Danny move the City-Ship for the first time in two years. They moved to Averium and Danny was planning on remaining there until the war was over.
Meanwhile in Pegasus the Orion and the two Ghost class corvettes were busy scouring the Pegasus Galaxy in order to gather intelligence on Wraith movements. In that time they discovered the Asurans, but without an effective means of fighting them they decided to leave them alone… for now.
The Orion was scheduled to spend another 7 months in Pegasus before returning to the Milky Way with the collected data in order for a plan to invade Pegasus to be formed.
The next three months were spent in constant fear of Anubis. Danny didn't even dare send his ships to engage Anubis's super weapon. He had already lost another battle cruiser and an Aurora was left dead in space and had to be towed to Averium by an Asgard ship. The only warship that could hope to defeat Anubis's flagship was the Executor, but that ship was still two months away from being completed. It was true that if Danny had allowed the use of drones Anubis's flagship would be nothing more than a useless pile of space dust by this point, but he didn't want to expose such a powerful weapon to the Galaxy, not yet at least. It's true that the drones had been used on two separate occasions, specifically against Zipacna above Revanna, and Tanith above Tollana, but then again nobody there lived to tell the tale. Even with the last construction spree, the Ancient fleet only had the three Auroras, 4 heavy cruisers, 6 battle cruisers, one Octavius class assault carrier and 4 Ghost class corvettes, with the Orion and 2 other Ghost corvettes currently in the Pegasus Galaxy. The Executor was still under construction.
A plan was devised in order to stop Anubis's reign of terror. An F-302 would be shipped to the recently rediscovered Vis Uban, where Danny had also found and restored the memories of the former ascended Daniel Jackson. Attached to the fighter was a specially designed Alterran weapons pod with 5 drones inside of it. This meant that the F-302 would have to get close enough to acquire a target lock on the power core. Once it did, the drones could be launched and the F-302 will land in the Octavius, who will jump to hyperspace imediatly after.
The plan worked flawlessly except for the part where Jonas was captured and Anubis learning about Langrana and the Naquadria there. Anubis intended to concur the planet and use the Naquadria to power his super weapon; however he was intercepted before he could descend into the atmosphere of Langrana, by the Andromeda.
The massive Ancient flagship emerged from hyperspace between Anubis's ship and the planet Langrana. The Goa'uld ship fired upon the Ancient flagship, but it was of no use against the powerful Alterran conformal shields, not without its super weapon. The Andromeda returned fire with its proton beams. The relativistic beams smashed through the Goa'uld shield like it was not even there, tearing apart the Goa'uld flagship. Anubis was able to escape in a transport ship, but even so, the threat was destroyed.
This meant that the Ancient fleet could once again go on the offensive and avenge the 4 people that died when the Servicus exploded.
Two months later the Executor was finally ready. With the three VEMs installed, the massive ship powered all its systems for the first time. Power never before had by anything except a city-ship flowed through the conduits in the Executor. Under Danny's careful guiding hand the massive ship embarked on its first mission, the destruction of a Goa'uld shipyard and the rescue of Rya'c and Bra'tak.
Meanwhile Sam had her second child, three weeks after Damian's second birthday. The baby was a boy, and his name was to be Adrian. From the moment he was born Damian became an overprotective older brother, something that amused Danny to no end, especially since he would glare at everyone that even dared look at Adrian that wasn't his mother or father, or an Earth-born or their children.
Two months later Danny was invited by SG1 to accompany them to Herbridan and witness a space race. Needless to say that a ten kilometer super dreadnaught appearing in your system would frighten you as well, but the Herbridanian leadership wasted no time in making friends of Danny. They even allowed Tucker to take part in the space race. He wasn't doing it for money, but because it was fun.
And fun it was indeed. On the first challenge, passing through the drone field, the Dark Star annihilated anything that was in its path. The powerful sub light engines pushed the little ship to almost 40% of the speed of light. The biggest surprise came when it was time to test the shields of each ship by flying through the corona of a star. Most ships would have to circumvent the star, but not the Dark Star. The corvette dived into the sun, its shields flaring as the solar collectors specifically designed and added for this part of the race deployed. The entire world of Herbridan thought that the Dark Star was a goner, so you would imagine their surprise and awe when the small ship burst forth from the star on the other side and using its extreme maneuverability and weapon systems it plowed through the asteroid field, thus coming in at first place.
The award ceremony was dedicated to Tucker and his ship, even though the actual prize went to the Serberus, the Herbridaninas couldn't help but be awed at the technological superiority the Ancients had.
Several weeks later one other event happened that marked the whole Galaxy.
The gates stopped working.
The person to blame for this was, naturally, an Earth scientist. When the Alterran High Council heard what had happened they couldn't but stare in shock at the scientist, while Danny was mumbling curses under his breath. It was only natural that Earth will manage to break the gate system. The error was quickly fixed when Danny activated another correlative update from Atlantis's own DHD; the only one except Earth's not to get messed up.
With the gates restored life in the galaxy could continue on as normal, or so they thought.
A/N: I know that this chapter accelerates the plot very far and very quickly, but it was needed to put the characters in the right time for the peak of the Goa'uld war.