No Tendo: A Fusion Tale
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Chapter 29: Invasion Earth


The blooming lights didn't actually appear at Ceres, but instead were on that orbital plane.

"We have located four appropriate asteroids and are preparing them, my Lord," said the Pilot. "We are getting a transmission from our spies advising us that one of the primary targets has already been destroyed."

"Did they invalidate our surprise?" growled Heru'ur.

"No my Lord, some sort of native dispute," said the Jaffa.

"Very well," said Heru'ur. "As soon as they have been prepared, launch them, we will travel behind them by a few minutes time. Oh, and stop when we've reached the orbit of their moon. A demonstration of my might and they may well concede."

"If they have any intelligence, my Lord," said the pilot.


There was usually small groups in the SGC Cafeteria at any given point. There were crews coming and going from offworld, support people up all hours of the night, and some of the personnel were so overwhelmed with research material that they had put in an espresso machine.

They'd even expanded the Cafeteria recently, because it was evolving into a sort of informal meeting place for SGC personnel to interact with various "guests" of very different backgrounds.

"Jaffa 'amazons'?" asked Skuld, frowning as she clutched her cup of hot chocolate into which a generous dollop of mint chocolate chip ice cream had been placed. "I didn't know Jaffa HAD 'amazons.'"

"Neither did a lot of the Jaffa," said Urd. "They call themselves the Hak'tyl and they'd join us except that we can't provide the symbiotes they need to survive."

"Bleh," said Skuld, pausing only to sip some of the foam and lick at the ice cream. Say what you would about these primitives, they COULD come up with some tasty stuff.

"Yes, well, we can't do anything about THAT," said Urd. "I've already gotten a call from the office stating that I was specifically forbidden against making a cure or substitute symbiont. In fact I-"

Skuld looked up at Urd, who was staring off into space. "Urd?"

Urd pitched her voice a little louder than she really needed to. "Skuld? The Goa'uld ha'tak are in this star system. Do you want to go to a safe area?"

All other conversation in the cafeteria came to a halt.

"They're here?" asked Skuld.

"They're currently 400 of this world's kilometers away from an asteroid named 243 Ida," said Urd.

"I suppose that means we've got to leave," said Skuld. "Can I get a box of this ice cream to take?"

Several soldiers casually sauntered towards the door, trying to look casual about it. They didn't pull it off and as soon as they were past the door the sound of running footsteps could be clearly heard.

"Yes, I think we're done for right now at least," admitted Urd.


Jack looked at Samantha Carter's handling of the vial but kept track of where the door was at all points. "Are you sure you should be handling that stuff?"

"I can't see where it would have any effect at all," said Carter. "Either the proteins broke down or it wasn't this 'perfume' that worked at all."

"It's 'cologne' - not 'perfume,'" corrected Jack.

"When Janet attacked you, what else was going on?" asked Captain Carter.

"Well, I-" began Jack, thinking.

click-lock-latch

"Janet! You're out!" said a surprised Samantha.

"Oh dear," said Jack, hiding behind Samantha. Or trying to at least.

Janet started moving a chair into position in front of the door.

"I take it you're still having a little problem," said Jack.

"I know what I need to feel better," said Janet Frazier.

"I know that an escape route would make ME feel better," quipped Jack as he looked for one.

"Janet," said Samantha, moving to cut off the deranged doctor, "the cologne doesn't do anything. Did you do anything else that might have done this?"

Janet stopped and considered Samantha Carter and the flask in her hand carefully. Then she leapt forward, knocking the flask out of Carter's hand.

"Oh great, deja vu," said Jack. "Drenched with this stuff again."

"Excuse me?" asked Samantha, stopping to sniff the air. "That's strange..."

"Yeah," said Jack. "I got drenched right before... Yeah, and Doctor Frazier got the same expression on her face that... you've got."

A klaxon went off within the complex.

"Uhm, would you believe we've got to go?" asked Jack hopefully.


General Hammond looked around. "Where's the rest of SG-1?"

"I'll go look for them," volunteered Daniel Jackson.

"Have we confirmed the Goa'uld presence?" asked General Hammond as Daniel left.

Harriman looked up from his board. "Hubble Space Telescope has been redirected and pictures are coming in. Four ha'tak class ships. They're doing something to some asteroids in that asteroid family. Currently it's a little unclear WHAT they're doing."

General Hammond considered that. "Maybe they're resupplying. Whatever the cause, it's a delay before they come here and attack."

"It could take as long as four days for them to get here unless they perform a mini-jump," said another technician. "If they push it, they could be here inside ten hours from what we learned of the ship pieces recovered from Chulak."

"Unlikely," said Teal'c, moving the lollipop around in his mouth as he considered the grainy image on the overhead. "It would be common practice to perform a small jump to roughly the orbit of your moon. I am unclear as to the need to replenish any supplies on such rocks as those. The major materials needed for restocking on long trips would be refined materials, air, and water."

"We're getting a signal, hyper-compressed and encoded," said Harriman. "It has the BOLO's tag on it."

"Must be from those 'peebos' he's sent out," said General Hammond. "We were hoping for that. Send the signal on to whoever we've got on the base. See what they've got to say."


"Four asteroids are of sufficient mass, the charges have been put into place, and the engines will be ready by the end of the hour," said one of the Jaffa.

Heru-ur smiled. "If this works as planned, we'll have to use it against one of my rivals. A dramatic entrance should be just what it is needed. Select four targets widely spaced across their planet's surface. Major population centers, but try to choose ones significant within their transmissions."

"We have four such chosen, My Lord," said the Jaffa. "Your spies have chosen the most likely to cause the Tau'ri to capitulate quickly. It is our thought that by taking out their secret bases, we may be able to cow the Tau'ri long before our strikes end."

A smile curved Heru'ur's lips as he considered what he was being told. There was something to be said for the usage of assaults on civilian targets to cause terror, but it was the removing the military bases that really brought a population to their knees. "Do you have the coordinates for these... bases?"

"Yes, my Lord. Once we are ready to launch the attack, there will be no missing the targets."

"Good. I will tolerate no failures in this," the System Lord stated, his voice as cold as the space outside of his ship.

"Of course. We will accomplish this task for you without any issue or problem."

"See that you do. Although...."

"My Lord?" the Jaffa hesitantly murmured.

"They do not seem to have much in the way of creativity or free thought."

"No, my Lord. Apparently their military structure prefers to name by function, than by any sort of historical meaning."

"How unfortunate. Such people tend to be so... bland in their decision making," the Goa'uld sighed, and leaned back in his throne. "But at least they will be organized. I do hate to have to deal with idiots floating about like blind insects."

"But of course, my Lord."

"Have these bases, Alpha, Beta, Kappa, and Gamma attacked as soon as possible. I want whatever secrets they might have to use against me be destroyed as soon as possible."

"Your will shall be done, my Lord."


Nene Romonova leaned back in her chair, gave a toss of her hair, and grinned. "Am I good, or am I good?"

"You certainly got the job done," allowed Leon McNichol as he leaned over her chair.

"Stupid. You just can't admit how wonderful I am."

"And why would yo think that?"

"Other than the fact that I just hacked into the connection that those losers on that ship got to our data networks?"

The tall man let a familiar cocky grin stretch across his features. "Aren't they the same people who are just surfing the net?"

"They're spies, and you know it!"

"But they don't know that we know it."

"Exactly," she told him, and let an impish light come into her eyes. "And now we've just 'leaked' all about those oh so important empty and useless islands."

"I do have to wonder if it was good to even give them that much...."

"Oh, come on. The French don't need that test site any more, and no one has used those two air fields in decades! There's at least old equipment on that last one, but no ones replaced anything since the chief was in diapers."

"I get you, I get you.... It's just that...." Leon trailed off.

"Yeah."

"It just feels wrong to let those bastards even get that much."

"That's true, but its what the higher ups gave us orders on. We have our orders, and we've got to follow them," she reminded him.

"You've got a point. And it will be fun to get one over on those pompous asses."

"That's the spirit."

Leon reached down with one gloved hand and ruffled her hair. "Thanks, kid."

"HEY!" the young woman yelped in dismay.


The Goa'uld were arrogant, mean, vicious, and a host of similar vices. They considered themselves the rightful rulers of all the lesser races - and they defined 'lesser races' as anything that was NOT a Goa'uld.

They had fought among each other for so long that the thought of cooperating against a common enemy was unthinkable. Even if two joined forces, one would be plotting to overthrow the other all the time and looking for that chance. They constantly fought amongst each other, spending their Jaffa in battles for sport even when there was nothing in particular to fight over.

The use of mass impact weapons was not generally considered because the System Lords wanted to grab intact resources.

Besides, it was a big galaxy, with between 200 to 400 billion stars. Even in the Sagittarius Arm there were millions of stars. In those millions of stars there were hundreds of thousands of stars with planets. Almost all those stars who had a planet orbitting them had more than one such planet. It was the HABITABLE planets that were the choice real estate in the Sagittarius Arm, at least those planets that didn't require huge amounts of terraforming to make them habitable.

On the other hand, the world of the Tau'ri was of negligible importance and overpopulated anyway. To get any use of it, and make it easier to rule over, the number of inhabitants would have to be snipped a bit.

Heru-ur had looked over the initial data and decided to use the Koronis asteroid family, or grouping of asteroids. There were several that were mostly rock with some ice that would do for his purposes.

His Jaffa had chosen the asteroids 321 Florentina, 277 Elvira, 311 Claudia, and 263 Dresda. Each was outfitted with an engine and set into a precisely set trajectory.

Following behind, the ha'tak waited until they were at lunar orbit before deciding to let the Tau'ri know what they were facing.

Well, that and apparently the Tau'ri had already figured out that something was up.

"I want My words to reach all of these worms, not merely their leaders," he said to one of his Jaffa. "Their leaders will seek to put their own words over My own."

"They have primitive devices that convert electromagnetic signals of certain frequencies to speech, Great One," said Toa-Dee from where the administrator stood. "We can broadcast to those easily enough."

"Do it then," said Heru-ur. "That way these worms will know their folly in opposing the Goa'uld from My own lips, and from whence their destruction came."

"3... 2... 1... Now, Great One," said Toa-Dee.


"...eight asteroids which are apparently on a collision course for Earth! All life on the planet is DOOMED!" stated the news anchor gleefully. "SNN is continuing to follow this story with updates -"

The image went to static, before showing someone sitting on a throne. The figure's eyes flashed and he seemed to smirk at the viewer.

"People of the world you call Earth, hear your god. I am Heru-ur, and I have brought My judgement against you. You have turned to false gods and been unfaithful in my absence. Now hear the pronouncement of doom upon you. As a demonstration of my power, I shall send these four rocks down upon your leaders. Then my legions shall move to punish you for your wickedness and lack of faith. Those who surrender to me, throw down your false gods, and swear your undying loyalty shall be allowed to live as my slaves. Those who resist shall be swept from existence.

"Your choices, your only choices, are thus. Surrender and accept your rightful role as my slaves, or die before my divine might. You have until these pebbles I throw from my seat in the heavens have struck to decide your fate."

There was brief static before the SNN anchor person reappeared.

"Did he say 'god'?" asked the anchorman.


"Colonel O'Neill?" asked General Hammond. "What happened?"

"I came as soon as I could," gasped Jack.

"What happened to your clothes?" asked General Hammond. That Jack was out of uniform wasn't as concerning as that his uniform looked shredded in places.

"Don't ask," said Daniel, looking as if he'd seen Hell somehow.

"Don't tell," said Jack to Daniel.

"I wasn't planning on it," said Daniel.

"Where's Carter?" asked Harriman.

"She's, ah," began Jack.

"-not feeling herself," said Daniel. "Also a little tied up at the moment."

"In more ways than one," said Jack.

"Well, don't YOU go telling," put in Daniel.

"I'm not," said Jack, making a zipping motion in front of his lips.

"Ah huh," said General Hammond, thinking that this would be very interesting to get to the bottom of if there wasn't an alien invasion underway.

"So, I hear the Big Bad has just sent a message to us to surrender," said Jack, eager to change subjects. "Any reaction?"

"Well, pretty much what you'd expect," said General Hammond. "Half the Middle East and a large number of conspiracy theorists believe the United States faked the message and are moving around the asteroids. Or that a vast right wing conspiracy is faking the information about the asteroids."

"So, situation normal," put in Jack.

"The masses involved are larger than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs," said Harriman.

"And there are four of them," observed Daniel. "Can we shoot them down?"

"That would be bad, sir, even if we had the firepower, which we don't," said Harriman.

"I think this makes a good argument for getting bigger guns," pointed out Jack.

"So, do we got them coordinate-thingies?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, but until those shields are down, we can't use them," answered Harriman.


"Sir, Mister President, sir?"

President Henry Hayes stood before the group of reporters, looking like he hadn't been expecting to be here.

In truth, he hadn't. He hadn't been President that long. He hadn't even known about the programs at Area 51 and Cheyenne Mountain. He hadn't known about the Goa'uld or any of the other menaces that were Out There.

With a nod at one aide, President Hayes took a position that reminded some people of a soldier facing a firing squad. The large screen behind him was something different, but then so was this particular President.

"When will we be surrendering, Mister President?" asked one of the reporters.

"We won't be," said President Hayes.

"But they're aliens! Their technology is something we can't face!" said a CBS reporter. "They've already got asteroids INCOMING!"

The President smiled. "Oh, I should mention that they are quite capable of - and have been monitoring our broadcasts to determine what and how much they were going to hit us with."

"You knew this was coming?" asked an incredulous reporter from NBC.

"We've had contingency plans for extraterrestrial invasions for the past forty years," said the President. "Of course, we've had contingency plans for just about any foreseeable event from Amazon River Ant Swarms to Zombie Attacks. There are people whose entire jobs are coming up with contingency plans for things that nobody in their right mind would expect. This time though is different."

"How could you not warn the American people?!" demanded another reporter.

"Of alien parasitic beings masquerading as gods coming to conquer and enslave us?" asked the President. "Even with the ships approaching Lunar orbit you're going to have people choosing not to believe it."

"He's got a point," said someone from one of the independent stations.

"b-b-but?" stammered a reporter.

"Up until the past few weeks I was in the dark about all this myself," said President Hayes. "Heck, before the past few weeks none of us knew about other-dimensional vampire things-"

"Yoma, sir," corrected an aide as the President paused.

"Right," said the President with a nod. "Or Japanese superheroes who fought them. Heck, I didn't think ninja were real until I met that kid. It's been a surreal couple of weeks."

"Amen," said someone in the crowd of reporters.

"Oh, Finnegan," said the President, recognizing someone. "You toured the yoma holding facility. I saw that on 60 Minutes. Have you healed from getting drained?"

"Mostly, Mister President," said a wincing reporter.

"Well, who can blame you," said the President to the other assembled reporters, "there you were surrounded by soldiers in a high security installation when you see a little girl complaining about being unfairly held in a cell. Who'd have thought, even when you knew it was supposed to be that kind of facility, that she'd be a shapeshifting vampire or something."

"Right," said the reporter, shrinking into his seat a little.

"Gentlemen and ladies, we find ourselves facing aliens from another dimension that want to eat us, aliens from outer space that want to enslave us, and people from OUR world who are so caught up in trying to gain power that they'd betray all the rest of us to one or both of those groups," said the President, rocking back and forth on his heels. "I do believe though it's time to show OUR hand, don't you?"

"Err, we HAVE a hand?" asked the CBS reporter. "Our science department said we don't."

"Did your science department tell you we had those SAMAS or cyborg technologies?" asked President Hayes. "Charlie? Let the call go out. It's time to show our hand."

The reporters blinked as the screen lit up, showing scenes elsewhere around the globe as cameras that had been inactive until now came to life.


SGC Gate Room
"This is it, boys and girls," said Gunnery Sergeant Cragg. "We have basically two choices. If we don't kill the Goa'uld or drive them off, then our only remaining choice is to live and die as slaves. Now, kiddies, which choice are we making here?"

"KILL THE SNAKES!" erupted from every soldier present.

"Good answer," said Gunny with a note of approval in his voice. "Man your stations."


Salamander Springs, Nevada
"ALL HANDS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. SCRAMBLE NOW."

Cards flew from the table, which itself was overturned as the crew abandoned the poker game for their actual business.

Lift #3 stalled out, and so there was an immediate delay in getting the armored suits into play. Soldiers grabbed what they could.


USS SBC Iowa
"I REPEAT. 'SCRAMBLE NOW.' THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

Crew members plopped themselves down into their chairs, quickly keying the rehearsed initial bootup sequence that the drills had made motor-memory.

Captain Honor Harrington took her seat with more calm deliberation, already analyzing the data being displayed on the screens in front of her.


Area 51

"ALIEN ASSAULT FORCE IN APPROACH TO EARTH. ORDER HAS BEEN GIVEN. ASSEMBLE EARTH ORBIT."

Sergeant Carter cursed as he hit the switch that enclosed his body in the SAMAS. "PYLE! MOVEITMOVEITMOVEIT!"

"Well, Shazaaam!" responded PFC Pyle as he struggled with the harness.


Unnamed shack in the middle of the desert
"ALL CARRIERS, BATTLECRUISERS, SCOUTS, LAUNCH NOW."

The Utah desert rumbled and parted, revealing a huge launch bay. Slowly, a massive shape began to rise from its depths.


Somewhere in Germany

"REPEAT 'LAUNCH NOW.' ENEMY FORCE HAS BEEN DETECTED, LAUNCH IS AUTHORIZED."

The Captain settled into his seat, eyes sweeping the bridge and noting that everyone was in their place and systems were responding. Good enough. "Space Destroyer Bismark. LAUNCH!"

"Sir, there's that Greenpeace vessel closing."

"Try to avoid them, but if they're still in the waters of a military base - SCREW THEM if they can't get out of our way!"


Waters Off Japan
"ALL VEHICLES MARKED EARTH DEFENSE. SCRAMBLE. ORBIT POINT SPECIFIED AT 4000 KILOMETERS."

Teletha checked her connections, letting her consciousness enter the great vessel around her. "Systems green. All systems active. Transmitting friendly ident on specified channels. All hatches closed. Flight mode engaged."

Richard Mardukas nodded. "Ready all weapons. We'll release fighters when we're at the rendevous point."


Tokyo Bay
"DO NOT RELEASE FIGHTERS UNTIL ASSEMBLY COMPLETE. SCRAMBLE NOW."

Water erupted, causing smaller craft to wildly compensate for the displacement.

First the prow, long and lean, poked out. The rest of the vessel followed suit, looking like a ship sinking beneath the waves played out in reverse. Then, impossibly as far as the watching flotilla was concerned, the large ship actually cleared the water.

The helmsman looked back at the captain. "Antigrav active. We've cleared the water."

"Continue to take us up slowly," said Captain Okita. "When we reach 100 meters, begin bringing up speed and power."


Colorado Springs, CO, USA.
She stood in the parking lot, wearing her Sailor V mask (just in case) and in full view of a large group of reporters and others with cameras.

"VENUS! A-10 Space Bomber makeUP!"

The lightshow began in earnest, a ripple in midair discharging her "little P-chan" which then hovered in midair.

Sailor V couldn't help but pose for a second, then leap up to bounce into the open canopy and bring the additional systems online.

Golden light flared from the engines as the ship responded. FWUMMMMMMMMMM!

The ship took off, going nearly vertical in a way that NORMAL A-10s just couldn't handle. Especially at that speed.

One of the onlookers summed it up nicely. "Damnnnnnnnnnnnnn." The rest of the crowd nodded.


USS Ophinicus
"Some problem with vibration in the anti-grav," said the Comm Officer. "We've got welders on the aft deck trying to finish the armor."

"Are they suited?" asked the Captain.

"Yes sir."

"Then relay that they should check their anchors, finish FAST, and get inside," said the Captain. "Take it up slowly. Better we arrive late to the party than not at all."


Juuban Ward, Tokyo
"Ready?" asked Ami Mizuno, raising her henshin wand. "Mercury Power Makeup!"

The blue light flashed out on the rooftop of the apartment building, but it didn't stop with just Ami Mizuno changing to Sailor Mercury. "Mercury Tornado Summon!"

The pastel blues of the ship emerging from wherever her computer and other equipment vanished to seemed a little less comforting today, and Sailor Mercury had to take a deep breath to steady herself.

"Let's go," said Sailor Mercury to her friend.

"Can I..."

"No, Sailor Moon, you can't pilot her," said Sailor Mercury, politely but firmly.


Juuban Ward, Tokyo
Sailor Uranus flicked switches, a little slower than Venus, but she didn't have the same access to training manuals and experts that Venus and Mercury had. Even if their powers had significantly altered the vehicles - the control mechanisms hadn't changed significantly.

"Should we rendevous with any of the other vehicles prior to orbit?" asked Neptune from her position in the "tailgun" position.

"Might be a good idea," admitted Uranus. "Give them a chance to identify us as nontargets before the 'fog of war' sets in."

Neptune nodded. "Nearest one is the Yamato. Sensors read it as... not exactly complete."

"That's the problem with operating on someone else's timetable," said Uranus.

Neptune nodded and pressed a key on her console. "Hailing Yamato. Yamato, this is Senshi Scoutship Triton we are currently approaching you from your three o'clock position. Advising that we will be accompanying you to rendevous point."

There was an almost immediate reply. "Roger, Triton, glad to have the company."


Cheyenne Mountain
"Ring transport is ready to go, if we can just get them to lower their shields for a minute," reported Harriman.

"Final weapons check?" asked Colonel O'Neill of his first assault group.

"Ready," said Teal'c, his zat'nik'tel held ready.

"Ready," said Hotaru, changing to Sailor Saturn.

"Ready," said Ranma, checking his kukri in their sheaths.

"Ready," said Sailor Jupiter, looking a little nervous.


"Sire," said the navigator. "There are ships leaving the planet's surface."

"They are both less intelligent, and more resourceful than I'd thought," said Heru-ur in his best echoing voice. "Still, one or two ships are of no consequence."

"Eight, sir," said the navigator.

"EIGHT?" growled the flashy-eyed Heru-ur. "If our spies return to us, kill them."

"Now they've got twelve!" said the navigator.

"How can they have twelve?!" asked Heru-ur. "Put them onscreen."

"They are all smaller than a ha'tak," noted the navigator as he hurried to comply.

"Smaller and less powerful, much less powerful," noted Heru-ur.

"Four of them are launching fighters of approximate size to our own Death Gliders," noted the navigator.

"Should our spies who failed to find evidence of these return to me, kill them - slowly," instructed Heru-ur.

"Yes, sire," said the Jaffa navigator.


It took some effort, but Honor Harrington managed to not fidget in her seat. She wasn't by nature a very nervous person, and with the experience that she had, she could have controlled such issues. But this was the 'Big Fight', and she knew just how badly this could be screwed up.

There was really very little in the way of a margin of error, given that they were literally fighting with their backs to the wall. Any failure would certainly kill innocent people, and make the possibility of her homeworld getting wrecked ever more likely. At the best of times, they would have been at least battle ready before hand, with drills and such having been done. Say as much as one could for simulations, but it was never quite the same until one got out into the field and actually used the weapons in question. Unfortunately, with the way that things were, unless she wanted to provoke mass panic, they'd had to settle for what they could get.

What made it really frustrating was that she knew what the 'analysts' and 'political advisors' would say after the fight, provided that there was and 'afterwards'. They'd be screeching like like wounded pumas over everything from the tactics, to the cost, and straight onto the need for them to have known what was going on. Not that they would have been much help, but they would have made a fuss about 'rights', 'law', and 'due process', all of which would not actually have much to do with the job at hand.

Of course, she herself wasn't exactly pleased with the status of the small fleet that her plot was showing her was heading towards the ha'tak class vessels. In any organization there were going to be all sorts of 'politics', and she knew that this alliance was certainly full of it. They might have been looking to complete the same aim, but there were certain... tensions even between the closest allies. Luckily, no one was going to stand around and have a pissing contest over who'd get the credit for all this. As far as she was concerned, those glory hounds could have all the press conferences that they wanted.

She had a job to do.

Looking up at the screen that displayed the situation outside of the ship, she saw the growing bulk of the nearest ha'tak and knew that grumbling over the politics of something like this wasn't going to get her anywhere. Her people needed her there, and by God, she was going to be damned well with them. Drawing on the emotional control that kept her steady even as other 'officers' blasted her and her rise to her rank, she drove all other concerns from her mind.

Seeming to be nothing more than a statue in her command chair, Honor Harrington looked about her bridge and made sure to look each officer in the eye before speaking to them all. "Alright people, let's be about it."


"How dare they attempt to thwart their God?!" Heru-ur snarled, his goatee fairly bristling with his rage.

Toa-Dee projected just the right amount of sympathy and submission. "Perhaps they do not understand their proper place, my Lord...."

"Obviously! Otherwise they would not present such a slap in the face of their God!"

"I do suppose that they might have a desire to spite you, in the face of it all."

"Is that supposed to mean something?" the System Lord asked, eyes narrowing.

"Only that they simply can not believe that they could actually win, Great One."

"Ah, yes, you are correct on that score. But the fact remains the same. I will not let this go unpunished."

"My Lord?" the minion asked, his tone asking for clarification.

"Despite the certainty that I will be able to squash these worms with just the motherships...."

"Which is obvious."

"Yes, but I wish to truly demolish any resistance whatsoever," icily stated the Goa'uld. "Launch the Death Gliders."

"Your will be done."

"And speed up those rocks."

"At once."


A fighter, even a high tech one, was a fragile cradle in space. Each of the pilots knew it, and as they raced through the distance between them and their targets, each of them had to know that even an enemy's attack wouldn't be needed to kill them. Safety was a major concern in leaving the atmosphere in the first place, and in a combat vessel, that was even more of a concern.

They knew it... and went without reservation into it. Behind them was their home, with all of their families, friends, and memories. Abandoning it wasn't going to happen, and they had already been looking to be the blade that would defend their planet in the dark of night. Fear was certainly there, but even that emotion's effect was determined in how one used it, and these had been handpicked individuals. Everyone, from the Americans, to the Chinese, were ready to fight for what they cared about.

As a result, the formations were steady, no matter if they weren't able to get as much flying in as they liked. Each squadron was formed up and rigid in its spacing, but obviously ready to break out and fight, as demonstrated by the fighters that had skimmed along the capital ships' skins as they passed.

When the swarm of lights erupting from each ha'tak became visible, it was soon clear that the fight was on. Every fighter headed in towards their Jaffa counterparts, ready to do the first known 'space dogfight' known to the human public. Weapons were primed, orders barked over the communications systems, and the final maneuvers were put into place.

And no one was about to let themselves fail in this instance. The enemy wasn't about to break off, and they couldn't retreat, especially when they saw the asteroids moving even faster. So the only thing to do was to stand and fight, which was exactly what they were going to do.

That meant that the space battle was about to go on.


"Giant robots?!" said a Japanese sarariman.

"Actually, I think it's 'power armor' - which is smaller than a robot vehicle," supplied another sarariman as they watched the monitor.

"I wonder if Bandai will come up with model kits," said the first sarariman.

"I wonder when WE'RE going to get our act together," said the second. "The Yamato has no robots or power armor. Unforgiveable!"

"Well, maybe during the next invasion," said the first, patting his colleague on the shoulder.


The camera crew "imbedded" with the battleship Iowa was, to put things simply, in High Heaven. Not merely in the sense that they were in space, oh no - though several members of that newscrew were planning celebratory drinks later for having boldly gone. No - they were stationed throughout the battlecruiser and filming madly away as if their careers depended on it.

One was in a section of corridor that had a single sheet of transparent armored material between himself and vaccuum, near a set of anti-aircraft (or he supposed - anti-fighter) turrets. There he could get a long view of the ships as various fighter craft prepared to meet their opposite numbers among the invaders.

Bleep went some display and the cameraman in question fought the impulse to film that. The orders had been not to live-film any displays that might show information that would tip off the enemy.

A giant robot floating in nearby space apparently noticed him and gave a "peace sign" as a result. The reporter spared a moment to reply with a thumb's up.


"The engines canna take much more of this," said Professor Jade.

"Just keep it running for now," said Rok Gneiss from the pilot's chair.

"This situation stinks," said Amethyst.

"What? We're in space - the old final frontier," said Rok.

"We're UNARMED," pointed out Amethyst. "Yeah, we're representing the Diamond Kingdom amongst the big nations here. Princess Diamond brought all that up. We're also in a freaking WINNEBAGO!"

"We're in a 1992 Winnebago Chieftain converted to battery power inside a polycarbonate cabochon-shaped outer shell that contains the drive, grav systems, and life support," corrected Professor Jade, dropping a really awful Scottish brogue.

"How does that change that we're unarmed and underarmored for this?" asked Amethyst.

"It doesn't," said Professor Jade. "We're an unarmed scoutship in a war. What do you think we're doing?"

"We're providing additional telemetry to nearby fighters," said Rok, a little preoccupied. "Come on. You know darn well that neither Germany nor the USA had expected us to do anything and just gave us a few parts. Our country was only involved because we were able to give them information about the yoma and access to one of those artifacts."

Bleep!

"Visors," called out Rok. "They've launched it."

"It?" asked Amethyst, her eyes widening it. "You mean IT?!"

"Confirmed," said Professor Jade, clicking a button that closed up the windshield. "Single missile launched from the Iowa. Our fighters are remaining in place. Invader forces are coming forward but ignoring the missile."

"I don't know what's in that missile," admitted Rok. "All the people from the US said was that if it worked, we needed to have eye protection and turn off nonessential scanners. Since we don't have anything really strong in the shielding department, I'm also putting us behind the Iowa. They've got good shields."

"Good move, even the fighters have shields deployed to full forward and moving in towards the capital ships," said Professor Jade as she inspected old style monitors.

"Aw, come on, there's treaties against using nuclear weapons in space, and no provisions for alien invasions," said Amethyst. "Even if it IS nuclear - what can it do against THEM?"


The missile went out on its preprogrammed mission. It passed the first big asteroid without any indication of noticing.

The first wave of Death Gliders also went past the primitive thing without challenging it.

Heru-ur watched the thing. What IS that? Why are all their ships just sitting there? Why do so many of them look like ships meant to travel through the water? Is this some signal for their troops?

"Sir, there's a naquadah on that approaching object!" said the navigator.

"Ah," said Heru-ur. Probably a nuclear weapon enhanced by naquadah. Not enough to get through our shields. "Let it impact the Vengeance Claw's shields. When it fails to do anything, they will be that much more disheartened."

"Yes, My Liege," said the Helmsman. "May they strengthen their forward shields?"

"Do so," said Heru-ur. "No point in taking unnecessary chances."


The single missile was shot at three times, but in each case it managed to change speed or trajectory just enough to avoid them.

It wasn't sentient, certainly not to the extent of Bonaparte or the BOLO. It WAS smart enough and focussed enough to anticipate and respond to a variety of situations.

Many of which did not occur as it left the cloud of Death Gliders and Al'Kesh. Other, smaller, missiles were being launched now from way behind it as the battle was joined. Still it continued on.

It finally came to its destination and the front part of it detected the nearby shield.

Buckyballs constructed with a flaw shattered as a shaped charge went off, followed by the antiprotons touching regular matter. Three ounces of antimatter reacted with enough regular matter to produce mutual annihilation. On one end of the explosion, naquadah rings took in the energy and ramped it up by a significant margin as they were vaporized.

Near lunar orbit, briefly, a small bright star shone.

It WAS in near-vaccuum though. That limited the effects, though surviving pieces of the missile that had housed the warhead were now sped up considerably and became missiles of their own.

The ball of plasma on the other hand, incinerated quite a few things in the immediate vicinity.

On three asteroids, enough water vaporized to alter courses significantly.

There was also some effect on some nearby Goa'uld motherships which hadn't been ready for pieces of one of their comrades to slam into them at high speeds.


"Shields are down!" said Harriman, finger stabbing down on a button.

VRRRT-VUM-VUM-VUM-VUM-VUM!

There was a brief flash in the Ring Room as the ring transport system went into effect.

Then there was an empty space where Jack and his team had stood.


"IT'S ALL FAKE, I TELL YOU!" yelled one of the protestors. "THERE IS NO SPACE WAR! THERE ARE NO INVADERS!"

"YEAAAAAAAA!" declared the crowd.

"IT'S JUST THE %$#$ MILITARY PLAYING THEIR MIND GAMES... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

The crowd mumbled a few uncertain things as a brief second sun showed in the sky over San Francisco.


"Bismark reports they lost a sensor tower," said an Ensign. "Shields are down on second ha'tak and there is damage to the third from where number two was knocked into it."

"We're hearing back from 45% so far," said another Ensign. "Looks like the burst also messed up some of the Death Gliders."

"Signal the fighters," commanded Captain Harrington. "They are free to engage the enemy fighters. Signal the other main ships - try to target the ships currently showing active shields."

"Additional telemetry from Mercury Tornado indicates shield strength depletion on number three baseship at a critical value. Directing increased fire from capital ships."

"Updating courses of the asteroids, updating data on fighter trajectories, bringing turrets and deck guns online."

Captain Harrington nodded as she studied the displays. They were currently in Earth orbit at about 35000km altitude, as the fleet went from the gather point at 4000km to optimal defense points at 50000km. The ha'tak were at lunar orbit, or rather at the moon's orbital path, which was around 385000km away.

Normal missiles wouldn't be effective at the speeds and sorts of ranges involved. Energy weapons diffused but not so much that they couldn't be effective in this little battle. There were also missiles equipped with sublight drives like the one that had delivered The Package, but there hadn't been time to build many of those.

"Two ships report problems with their shield generators," said one of the Ensigns.

"The lead asteroid is entering atmosphere," reported the other Ensign.


"Very impressive," said the business-attired gentleman. "How do I know you can deliver?"

The member of the Trust just raised an eyebrow in reply.

"Not simply that one, but more," said the businessman, not showing a drop of perspiration to mar his expensive Italian business attire. "How can I trust you?"

"You're a terrorist who routinely kills dozens of innocent people, and your associates have kept the bloodbaths going in Africa for decades now by running arms and explosives," said the member of the Trust. "You can trust us at least as far as we can trust you."

"Point taken," said the businessman, his smile bright and completely fake in more than one respect. "I... what is THAT?"

The Trust member thought it was a trick at first, then noticed he had a second shadow that seemed to be moving.

The businessman and his colleagues ran towards their ship as if they somehow thought it would get them to safety.

"...this site hasn't been used for anything in years," said the member of the Trust to his blacksuited fellows. "How did they know we were here?"

"Somebody up there must really hate us," replied one of his fellows.

The asteroid hit less than a minute later.


In the corridors of a ha'tak, it was usually known that one could be sure of the uniformity of what was seen there. The Goa'uld might have been power hungry monsters capable of stealing the bodies of others, but originality wasn't something that they were all that capable of. It was their way to scheme, steal, and lie their way to power, and given that they were long lived and generally in good positions, creativity was low on their lists of priority. After all, what had worked for centuries wasn't the sort of set up that one just easily threw away.

This was especially true when one considered the fact that only a System Lord could really control a ha'tak. It was a large vessel after all, and like any ship, it needed supplies, like fuel, spare parts, food, and a crew, so only those who could reliably supply such things could really use such a ship. With a large slave population, the System Lord could staff his vessels with Jaffa warriors, each of whom would be completely loyal to his master and god. Every compartment would contain dedicated soldiers who would believe it their sacred duty to follow their Lord's commands completely with focus and professionalism.

Such a concept didn't exactly work out all that well with a teenaged boy slashing his way through walls that had been designed to hold off whatever space and enemy forces could throw at it.

Nobody informed Ranma about any such problem as he used his buckyball carbon-ceramic molecular-edge kukri blades to cut a large chunk out of the latest of a series of walls that had been in their way since they'd come up through the ring transporter. Hesitation didn't even enter into it as his hands whipped out, grasping the thick handles as lines formed in the wake of his slashes. That those lines went all the way through the material wasn't exactly clear until the cut out block dropped out of the hole due to the pigtailed boy's kick.

As might have been assumed, the resident Jaffa weren't exactly pleased by his behavior. The fact that he was turning their Lord's property into bite sized pieces was secondary to the fact that there was an armed threat in the way. Considering the fact that there was usually only one way that such a situation was dealt with, and that it was clear that it wouldn't be pleasant if he went after them with those knives, they decided that shooting the heck out of him would be a good idea.

Sailor Saturn wasn't exactly pleased with the concept of that happening, and called up a 'Silence Wall' between him and the staff blasts.

All that Teal'c had to do was to sent out his own shots from his zat'nik'tel to strike each of those warriors opposing their advance.

"Okay, I've got to get myself a toy like that," Jack grumbled as he shifted his handle on his P-90.

"These are not 'toys', O'Neill," Teal'c idly responded. "They are weapons that are meant for battle."

"I know that. It's a figure of speech. Meaning that I want to get something like that."

"Are we not here on a mission to 'get' something?"

Ranma snorted as he grabbed a Jaffa by the throat and used leverage to twist the bigger man to the floor. "Hopefully we'll 'get' ta zap these guys' boss soon enough."

"A violent solution, but perhaps a final one."

"I don't know 'bout that, but I'll settle for kickin' his ass."

"We'll settle for stealing his ship," conceded Jack. "Anything else is extra."

"Ah, well, at least these guys ain't 'xactly...."

A door opened, and a number of Jaffa charged forward.

"Hiding or nothin'," Ranma finished, nodding his thanks towards the colonel as the older man picked off several heading in his direction with some well timed shots. "Thanks for that."

"No problem," O'Neill answered back.

Since all of these people were enemies of their Lord, the Jaffa didn't 'forget' the others, and went to attack the other members of the team. Several of them headed right for Teal'c, apparently intent on getting back at him for what he'd done, both as a First Prime to Apophis, and as an ally of the Tau'ri. This didn't particularly bother the large man, and he put himself between them and Saturn, quickly hitting the attackers before they could get to the frail looking girl.

Yet playing fair wasn't one of the strong points of those serving the System Lords, and they attempted to blindside him before he could get a full handle on his position.

That might have worked if Sailor Jupiter hadn't been there, one gloved fist coming up to smash into the jaw of a Jaffa, causing his head to whip up before he crashed into a wall. Then she slammed her knee into the gut of another, knocking him to the floor, and grabbed the arm of a third so that she could use it to toss him down the hallway.

"Indeed," the former First Prime murmured, raising a brow at the brown haired girl.

An embarrassed blush stole across Jupiter's features as she caught sight of his amusement.

"Alright then people, let's get going. More work to do, more bad guys to beat on," Jack drawled.

"Don't worry," the pigtailed boy told the others. "I'll lead the way."

"Just remember to not continue on in a straight line," Teal'c commented.

"And why should I be bothered by somethin' like that?"

"Because this is a space going vessel, and in going in a straight line, you'd eventually reach the airless vacuum outside."

"Right. Straight line not so good...." Ranma trailed off as wriggled his kukri and started walking forward.


"WHAT?! They dare to set foot upon my ship?!" snarled Heru-ur.

The reporting Jaffa swallowed hard and tried to keep his voice from breaking. "Yes, my Lord. We have located the signals of several intruders, but they are constantly moving, so localizing them is becoming... problematic."

"Then you shall have to solve your 'problem'."

"Yes, my Lord."

"I just have to wonder how many more hassles will come my way now," the Goa'uld growled.


By appearances, Bastet was a beautiful young woman, but her servants knew that she was an age old being who could wield enormous power. She was also a crafty individual, capable of using guile and deception to even trick the other 'gods'. So, they were perfectly aware of the fact that she wasn't exactly easy to read by her expressions.

This wasn't quite in evidence as her eyes stared wide at the image being shown to her.

"What is this?!" she muttered, although it was clear that she wasn't expecting an answer.

Of course, even a lowly slave could have been forgiven any show of surprise, given what was being shown on the screen. The live feed was being sent by her spies, lurking on the edges of the planetary space of the Tau'ri. It was supposed to be of their day to day lives, which would give her a chance to judge their strengths and weaknesses.

Instead, she was getting a view of what only could be a battle in progress. The darting light of energy weapons weaved in between the shadowed forms of vessels both large and small. Every so often, explosions of various sizes bloomed into being, looking almost like fireworks in the sky. But these blasts signalled missed shots, destroyed ships, and the ending of lives.

"Hmmm.... This is interesting," Bastet drawled, leaning back in her throne. "I wouldn't have expected this."

"I am sorry my Lady, but what is this?" one servant asked.

"It seems that my old friend Heru-ur has bitten off more than he can chew. Seeing how he'll handle this could definitely work for me...."

"My Lady?"

"Oh yes, I'll profit by this, one way or another. The question is how that will come to be," the System Lord whispered, not even considering her servants' presence.

Besides, it looked like one of her rivals was getting his nose bloodied. In and of itself, that was quite entertaining.


AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Just to let everyone know, most of the crossovers are used as "spice" - they're just shout outs or there for one or two scenes. If someone wants to do a sidestory dealing with their further adventures - feel free.