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Chapter 25.

Aschen part 1.

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1809 AD, Tau'ri, somewhere over Antarctica.

"Base, this is Turok. I believe I found something."

"What is it?" the answer of a comm. officer answered.

"I do not know. It's something our new sensors are unable to penetrate."

"There's nothing Asgard sensors can't penetrate."

"Except perhaps Alteran shielding?"

"Turok, this is Agmund. Keep scanning. I'm sending the rest of the scouts at your location."

"Understood."

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1809 AD, Tau'ri, Alteran Outpost.

Priscilla - last of the Altera looked around in wonder at the crystalline structure of the outpost. "So this is what an Alteran building looks like."

"It's beautiful," Erika said with the same wonder. "We've been looking for this ever since we found you."

The two scientists walked toward the control chair. Priscilla touched the chair with her armored hand, but nothing happened.

"We'll have to touch it with our bare hands to activate it," Erika said.

"Princess, I must protest," Zyr'na said quickly.

"Was this place deemed secure?" Erika asked.

"Yes," the bodyguard said reluctantly. "But last time, our healers were unable to find the plague until it was too late.

"And we've been far more careful than the last time," Erika said. "We've had two weeks to scour this place for any trace of the plague and we found nothing."

"Very well," the bodyguard sighed.

"... Zyr'na?" Priscilla said slowly.

"My Lady?"

"You gave up too easy."

"I did? If this is so, I apologize."

"You appear to forget that what Lilith knew, Cybele knows. And what Cybele knows, I know."

"My Lady?"

"I am quite sure that you wouldn't have let us take off our suits so easy. You would have done it first, or had someone else do it before you would have been comfortable with letting us be exposed to such risks."

"Indeed."

"You've already had someone take off their suit, didn't you?" Erika guessed.

"I assure you My Lady, princess, that they volunteered."

"This is still uncomfortable," Priscilla said.

"What? Fanatical loyalty?" Erika asked. "Don't worry, you'll get over it."

"My beloved host sometimes forgets," Cybele's distorted voice added, "that Eratna is an Empire. And we are the Imperial Family."

"And if she won't try to stay safe for your Goa'uld survival instincts, she'd better stay safe because her station demands it," Erika laughed.

"Indeed, my daughter." Cybele's helmet retracted and the armor over her right hand shimmered and flowed up, revealing her arm." The Goa'uld returned control to her host, who put her arm on the control chair.

The chair activated and Priscilla sat on it and closed her eyes.

"I have good news and bad news," the Alteran said after a while. "The good news is that the chair's database is in perfect working order and we have over six thousand Pesqua."

"And the bad news?" Erika asked.

"The Potentia is almost depleted. I am currently conserving power by using only the critical systems of the chair."

"It's to be expected," Erika sighed. "This outpost was cloaked for thousands of years. It's to be expected for the power source to be close to depleted."

"We can use a naqahdah generator to power the chair, Priscilla said. "I am also finding the list of a great deal of Alteran outposts. We should be able to find more Potentia and Alteran artifacts."

"That's good," Erika said.

"Unfortunately, it is quite possible that any Potentia we find is going to be close to empty or even empty."

"That won't be that much of a problem," Erika said. "What knowledge we have on the Potentia construction process makes it clear that we are nowhere near enough to start building them of our own. It might be that even the Asgard would find impossible to build them. It would be good if we find a few, but it is not as important as what a working chair can give us. We've been struggling to explore as much as we did, but now, we have an entire database with all sorts of information."

"And on that note," Priscilla said, "I believe I found something important."

"What?"

"I found quite a few new stargate addresses. In particular, I found a few addresses near Refuge. And some of them are in the direction of our mysterious enemy."

"I... see..."

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1809 AD, Refuge.

Ghost entered the meeting room and nodded at the fellow commander that was already present. "Dagoth."

"Ghost," the man nodded back.

The two men waited in silence for the room to be filled by Infiltrators and Shock Troops. Ghost glanced at the Shock Troops Commander, who gave him a nod to begin. Ghost cleared his throat and started to speak. "You are all here to be informed of an operation we will make in two years. We have discovered an Alteran chair and we found out the location of most of the planets where the Alterans put a Stargate. As you know we have an enemy that infected one of our outposts with a plague. We suspect we know the general location he is located, and we found the location of Stargates in that general location. It may very well be that our enemy is on such a world. We will not be attempting to attack through the Stargate. However, many stealth probes were sent towards those locations. They will exit hyperspace far outside the systems and make a pass through the Solar Systems. They will be cloaked and only use passive sensors. Our scientists think it is highly possible that one of those worlds belongs to our enemy. Once the data the probes gathered comes in, we will select a suitable target, if there is one. The Infiltrators and an ELF will be inserted in enemy territory. Our mission is to gain as much knowledge as we can, on the enemy. We will attempt to do it without showing ourselves."

"Unfortunately, that may not be possible," Dagoth added. "We know nothing on the enemy. We will attempt to launch our operation against the weakest side of the enemy we find. Unfortunately, that may not be possible. Or it might be they have no weak sides."

"The best case scenario is that we infiltrate the enemy," Ghost said. "The ELF gets the data we need and we pull out without even letting them know we were there."

"That, however, may not be possible," Dagoth said. "It may be that we can not get the information we need without a fight. If we can't, then we will attempt to leave no witnesses. If that is the case, the shock troops will attack any ground forces and any ship we manage to board. A small fleet of Stealth Bombers, Stealth Gliders and Daggers will be providing us assistance."

"You all have been selected for this mission. For the next two years, you'll be trained for this..."

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1810 AD, Refuge Sector, Unknown System.

Far beyond the System, twenty probes burst into existence. The exit from hyper-space was done as gently as it was possible and so far from the System that even if it had the same sensor coverage as Refuge and Eratna combined, the probes would have remained undetected.

The probes' cloak fields already engaged, accelerated slowly toward the closest sun. Once they reached 20 percents of the speed of light, the probes stopped accelerating, flying on a ballistic course through the System.

The probes entered the outer system 70 days later. Slowly, they passed through the system, recording with their passive sensors anything they could find. They detected a habitable world with no signs of advanced technology. However, they also found a ship in high orbit over the planet. Five days later, they finished their pass, but continued for another 70 days before entering hyper-space and returning to base.

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1811 AD, Refuge Sector, Unknown System.

Far beyond the System, twenty probes burst into existence.

Unlike the probes in other Systems, they immediately detected a strong technological presence. The vast majority of the sources were toward the system, with most of them concentrated around a habitable world. There were other sources, most of them grouped in small clusters around other planets, moons and asteroids. There were also sources scattered around the system and even beyond. Most of them were small - the size of an Eratan defense satellite, but there were a few that were larger - approaching 100 tons of displacement. Half of them were deployed in-system and spherically around the solar system, but the rest were scattered out-system. None of the probes exited hyper-space closer than ten billion kilometers of what the probes' computers labeled as sensor platforms.

As they approached the outer system, the probes began to detect other objecs. There were at least a million objects the size of an Eratan defense satellite, but these were the most insignificant part of the massive defense system. There were many massive fortifications, a third of them with active shields online. Most of the fortifications were between 20 and 50 million tons of displacements, but there were some that were even more massive, at 100 million tons. There was even a 200 million tons, half completed, fortification. The probes faithfully recorded their findings and continued unmolested through the system.

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1812 AD, Refuge Sector, Unknown System.

"Are we there yet?"

Ghost glanced at the speaker and shook his head. "Varon, you appear to forget what we are."

"Yes, commander," the man replied with a sigh, "Infiltrators don't know the meaning of the word boring."

"If we're feeling like this, imagine how the Shock Troops are faring," a petite, Asian female calmly pointed out.

"You're right, Miko," the Infiltrator sighed. "Shock Troupers are probably feeling a lot worse than we do."

"Speak for yourself," Miko replied. "This is nothing compared to the training I, or any other members of my clan, received as children on Tau'ri."

"Damn ninjas," Varon mumbled.

"Varon," Ghost chuckled, "no need to be mean. In any case, your wait is about to end. We're about to land."

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Five stealth bombers landed on the uninhabited side of the planet. One of them transported the Infiltrators and their equipment. Two of them transported the Shock Troops, (that hopefully,) would not be needed. The last two bombers were modified to carry fifty Daggers for ground support.

Ghost disembarked and hoped that the ground forces would not be needed. If they were forced to intervene, the small fleet of stealth bombers and Stealth Gliders that were waiting in the System's asteroid belt would also have to intervene. And if that happened, his infiltrators would have difficulties with gathering the Intel they were sent for.

Ghost moved to meet face-to-face with Dagoth. "I'll have my people begin our mission."

The Shock Troop commander nodded. "Very well. I'll have this place secured. If the enemy detects us or your Infiltrators, we'll be ready."

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"So, what do we have?" Ghost asked.

Miko's face turned even more frozen than it was. "I was able to process all the data our spy drones gathered."

Ghost nodded at Adhara - the ELF that possessed his petite Asian Infiltrator. "The inhabitants of this world are the Volian. Their level of technology was half a century to a century more advanced than that of the Tau'ri when they were first approached by the Aschen, seven years ago. The Volians were suffering from a terrible plague. The Aschen cured them of this plague and invited them into their Confederation. Since then, the Aschen have been providing them with better technology. This has been concentrated on their agricultural technology. The Volians are now farming more and more of their world - far more than they need to feed themselves. This surplus is sold to the Aschen. With this income, the Volians continue to buy more technology from the Aschen and advance their technological level.

"These Aschen do not sound like our enemy," Ghost said. "It could very well be that the Aschen are the enemies of our enemies. Was there anything you found out that could tell us if the Aschen are the enemy?"

"A few," the ELF replied. "The Aschen are extremely advanced in genetic engineering."

"That could mean that they are the enemy, or it could mean that they were also hit by our enemy, and they were forced to learn how to defend themselves."

"There is one important inconsistency," Adhara added. "The Volian's birth rates, appear to be inconsistent with their current numbers."

"Wrong how?"

"The numbers are ten times lower than they should be for their population."

"Well, it could be that they are limiting it on purpose."

"Negative," The ELF said. "Many females have been trying to conceive a child. If there is something that is limiting their growth rate, the Volians are unaware of it."

"I see," Ghost nodded. "Well, we do have a few healers with us." We'll have to collect a few blood samples and see if there is something wrong.

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"What did you find out?" Ghost asked his senior healer three days later.

"The Volians have something similar to our enhancements," the healer said. "They have biological enhancements that function in similar ways to our own enhancements. These enhancements double the lifespan of the Volians and render them immune to most illnesses. However there is one more thing that they do. They induce sterility in most cases and reduce fertility in the rest."

"Sterility?"

"Yes, Commander. We estimate that the current growth rates are ten percent of what they were before the Aschen came."

Ghost dismissed the healer before turning his attention to his Lieutenants. "Varon? Miko? What do you think?"

"I think this is suspicious." Varon said. "I think we should grab one of these Aschen and see what they have to say about this."

"Adhara and I agree with Varon," Miko said. "We need more info. Aschen technicians visit Volian farms regularly. It would be easy to kidnap one of them."

Ghost nodded. "Unfortunately, they might not know anything about whatever is going on. We should also capture one of their healers. We'll have to infiltrate one of their cities, but we shouldn't have too much trouble with the actual kidnapping. I'm more concerned about making them suspicious. Unfortunately, we'll just have to risk it."

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Ghost looked at the sleeping faces of three prisoners. "Who's the third?"

"Security guard," Miko said. "I had to choose between killing and disposing of the body or taking him with us. I decided that we'd be able to get more information if we also had one of their soldiers."

Ghost nodded. "Yes, good work." The commander nodded at the healers. "You may begin."

"The healers approached the unconscious prisoners and gave them an injection. "The Brain Interlinks should come online in a few minutes," one of them said. "Adhara will be able to quickly process the data."

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"Well?" Ghost asked a few hours later.

"The minds of the Aschen are... different," Adhara said.

"Different how?"

"They are too orderly, too rigid. The Aschen feel little - the desire to obey their rulers mostly. Their other feelings are barely present and suppressed. They have little to no imagination, no curiosity."

"Isn't it a little weird for an ELF to say that?" Varon asked. "I'd have thought that they'd be your kind of people."

"That is incorrect," the ELF replied. "We have curiosity, we have imagination, it is in our nature to change and improve. We do have a powerful desire to protect our kind, but it is not slavish obedience. And despite what you may think Varon, we do have feelings."

"Well... uh... I'm sorry if I offended your feelings."

"You have not. It is true that from your limited ability to see beyond physical desires, we might appear to have no feelings."

"I think Miko's personality is starting to rub on you."

The possessed Infiltrator stared at Varon for a few seconds. "True," the ELF said. "The practice of sharing a body has also brought new thought patterns to us. We are now able to understand your minds better, especially those of us who have dwelled within your minds. However, even without this close interaction, we do have what you call feelings, though they do not rule us as they do with many of your kind. They are however far more pure and mental than someone like you would be able to comprehend."

"Commander?" Varon glanced at Ghost, "She's insulting me again, isn't she?"

"What else were you able to find?" Ghost asked the ELF, ignoring Varon's question.

"The security guard knows little beyond what he needs to perform his duty. He has no specific knowledge of what the Aschen are doing here. The same applies to the engineer. The healer however, has some knowledge. The Aschen spread the plague the Volians were suffering of. They also healed them. The cure used to treat the plague, defend from other illnesses and extend their lifetimes was engineered by the Aschen to also produce sterility."

"Why?"

"He never wondered why the Aschen do what they do," the ELF said. "I am unable to find something that isn't there. I was however, able to draw certain reasons from the general knowledge they have on their society. I have concluded that they are here to conquer this world and turn it into an agricultural world. They need massive amounts of food to feed their people. The number of Aschen exceeds 36 billion."

"I ...see," Ghost nodded thoughtfully. "Did you get anything on whether or not the Aschen were the ones who attacked our research outpost?"

"Negative. The prisoners do not have this data."

"Do you know who does?"

"Our best option would be their cruiser. There are high ranking Aschen on it. They also have their databases there."

"Can you hack in?"

"Without my physical presence, such an attack would be severely limited. A long range attack is unlikely to fully succeed. A long range attack has too great a chance of being detected and stopped. The data I gathered from the engineer, suggests that my physical presence is needed on their vessel in order to gain full access to their database."

"I see," Ghost grunted.

"I guess it's good we have one of their soldiers," Varon said. "We'll need to know everything about that ship. We might have to use the Shock Troops. It would be a good idea if we knew where their database and the bridge is."

Ghost raised an eyebrow "Oh?"

Varon nodded seriously. "We need to keep them away from those places... And the engineering..." Varon glanced at his suit. "You know, now I really understand why we have these Suits now. When those..."

Ghost coughed.

"... excitable fellows, shoot the hell out of the hull of the ship, I'll be really glad I can survive half an hour in the vacuum of space. Uh commander... you think half an hour is enough?"

"It will have to suffice," Ghost said. "The next generation of suits is still in testing."

Varon made a disgusting face. "I tested one of those. It was horrible."

"Coughing liquid from your lungs is never pleasant," Ghost agreed with a nod.

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Author's Notes: A little later than my usual one per month update. Sorry about that. The good news though, is that I have 2600 words of the next chapter... I ... uh ... just have to write the beginning of the chapter.

The Aschen ark will be 3 to 4 chapters long, (probably). I consider this ark quite important...with consequences(some good, some bad, some really bad... and some... well ... some will be kind of creepy... but that's getting into my planned spin-off into SGA) that will span throughout the entire fic.

I'll be putting a character, location, tech and ship list for EitS on my bio. I'll be updating it as I publish each new chapter.

Thank you for reading,

-voider-

Published: 22 October 2010.