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.
I would like to thank AlexanderD for all his help and i strongly recomend reading his story New Dawn. I hope he likes the character named after him Admiral Alec Xander.
For those of you interested in what some of the ships featured in this story look like here are a few sketches on photobucket: albums/ae166/Senrab_Nomis/
Please review and i will respond. Or alternatively post in the thread for this story in my forum. topic/84023/35075481/1/
Review Responses
AlexanderD: Concordia is the Alliance crown jewel, not to mention the Pegasus sanctuary, so they will do anything to protect it. Thank you for your kind words.
Cdoctor: I can't believe how long i left the ascended alone for, that's what happens when i get caught up in other aspects.
Oddliver: The coming chapter is where i set the bar for what the allies will have against this threat.
stormwolf3710: You're welcome.
Simaru Innovade: Updates come on this day, every week. Glad you like it.
Scourge75: The Zarin perspective will be explored in the very near future. For now though you'll just have to wait because this chapter is very important.
Osced: Its name has cropped up once or twice in the last few chapters. It was first mentioned when Larrin was given the invitation to join the Alliance.
romanhellhound: Wait no more, you'll get to find out now.
Just a Crazy-Man: Thank you.
BIG Z1776: The Genii generally infiltrate populations and gather intelligence, in this case that isn't an option. The Zarasians have never even cropped up on the galactic map, not to mention the fact that a lot of the Genii holdings are about to be abandoned for now. While they offer a large potential ground force they don't offer what the other allies can. For now they are effectively sidelined until the allies go offensive.
stars90: One thing i have always tried to do is stay true to both the original storyline and the ideals the writers set down. I actively invite poeple to call me out if i should ever drastically change canonical fact to make things go my way. Harlan was an overlooked gem that i decided to put on display. The main staff cannons on Ha'taks were said to be 200 megatons per shot, the six enlarged ones i have placed on the new ships are twice as strong.
Weir
"I presume the first topic is my change in appearance?" asked Tomin.
"Actually I was going to talk about the war effort and our personal roles," said Sheppard. "But now that you mention it I think we would all like to hear this story."
When they had last parted ways with Tomin all those years ago he had been a relatively young man who for all intents and purposes had been an ordinary human. When they had met him again he had still been a regular human and his only change had been the great weight he now bore on his shoulders but now though he was startlingly different. Though he retained his young face his hair was now a shiny silvery colour, his skin paler and on his trinium armour breast plate was a pale purple crystal similar to the one the Doci wore. He almost looked like a half transformed prior.
Tomin smiled.
"As you know a Prior is arguably just a regular human with an accelerated evolution," explained Tomin. "The aggressive transformation process does however come with some side effects, like the change of appearance from the forced change. We have found though that by only applying a small change over a long period the body does not suffer from the minds advancement and cannot be possessed by an ascended being."
"So you underwent this process?" asked Todd.
"Yes," said Tomin. "So that I might better co-ordinate and communicate with the forces under my command."
For a few brief moments silence reigned before Sheppard asked the question they were all asking.
"So what abilities do you have?"
Tomin chuckled. "I thought that would be the first question on your minds.
"To answer your question my personal powers are somewhat limited," he explained. "The crystals I and the prior possess create a link between us that allows us to boost our abilities by drawing on the strength of the others. Simply put we lend each other support."
"My personal abilities without assistance are the common ones that the rest of the Priors possess," he continued. "Limited telekinesis, pyrokinesis and healing are possible, but they are much stronger with support. Any other displays you have seen, like creating illnesses are not something any Prior can do any more. Not without the Ori using us as conduits for their abilities."
"Anything else?" Larrin asked almost jokingly.
"Actually yes," said Tomin, his expression becoming more serious. "But I will want this to be kept a secret for security reasons."
"Agreed," said Thor, with the others nodding their approval.
"The real reason that my body underwent such a change, despite being given time to adjust to the changes my mind underwent, is because the Doci gave me an additional ability," explained Tomin. "If necessary I can advance the evolution of other humans and turn them into Prior level beings, but I am not yet skilled enough to initiate the transformation slowly. It is not a simple matter of knowledge but learned ability and I cannot risk a slow transformation for fear of causing irreparable damage."
"You hope for all your people to someday possess these abilities?" Todd guessed.
"Yes," Tomin answered. "Until the process is proven to be completely safe though and we have determined the correct stages for the full transformation to a higher level we will only be limiting the usage. I was the first, which allows me to communicate with the Doci as well as receive reports on my people's progress and send instructions back."
"So can anyone receive these abilities?" asked Larrin.
"I am not sure," said Tomin truthfully. "Our physiology is different to yours, so the transformation process could have unexpected side effects."
"Sorry Larrin, no superpowers for you," said Sheppard with a cheeky grin.
"Or you Sheppard," Larrin shot back, with a grin of her own.
"Some of us already have superpowers," Todd pointed out, catching Thor's eye.
"Moving on," said Admiral Durra while concealing a small smile.
"We are here to discuss the tactical situation I believe," said Bra'tac.
"Yes we are," said Sheppard. "Now why don't we all come forward and present a list of our present forces before we move on to other things."
"The Asgard have at present twenty O'Neill class vessels and fifty Beliskners in the galaxy, along with a detachment of a hundred valkyries for troop actions," stated Thor. "We can however potentially call in more vessels and all of our people can be equipped with combat forms."
"What is the size of your total fleet if you don't mind me asking?" asked Xander. Xander had been placed in command of external fleet actions while Durra retained command of planetary defences.
"Two years ago we started with only the Valhalla, thirty O'Neill's, fifty Beliskners and twenty science vessels," said Thor. "Over the past two years we have built an additional thirty science vessels, twenty Beliskners and seventy O'Neill's."
There were quite a few whistles of admiration in response to that list. Asgard technology was powerful, very powerful in fact, and their warships were capable of taking on a fleet of most other races ships, Tau'ri included.
"I should point out however that my people have little in the way of dedicated ground forces apart from the valkyries," Thor added.
"The Tau'ri currently have twenty eight Deadalus class, fifty six Achilles class, twenty five Pegasus class, a single Nightingale class and ninety six Night Fury class vessels in the galaxy," said Sheppard. "We can potentially call upon another twenty Deadalus class and forty Achilles class vessels and thousands of soldiers if we need to. We also have some other vessels under construction but they won't be ready for another few weeks."
"I'll go next shall I?" asked Xander and when he received no objections he continued. "I have personal command of a hundred and fifty warships, ninety transports and my own flagship the Aror. Admiral Durra can potentially provide an additional fifty warships from his command of two hundred warships, one hundred twenty transports and his own flagship. There are also ten warships maintaining a constant presence over each of the major Wraith worlds. Troops wise our numbers are rather limited but each of our ships have a small security force as standard."
Though the Wraith domain had once consisted of the majority of the galaxy in the form of human worlds which they regularly culled with only a few outposts. Echidna had changed that and gotten the half million Wraith to settle down on just a handful of worlds. There were only sixteen major Wraith worlds, fifteen if you didn't count the heavily damaged one previously assaulted by the Zarasians, and several dozen small outposts which the Wraith wouldn't hesitate to abandon to save lives.
"The Wraith currently have a standing population numbering half a million," said Todd. "Each member of our race has some combat training and are capable of acting as foot soldiers. As for our fleet, our flagship the Arima has an escort of thirty sentinels. We also have one hundred and seventy enhanced hives, five hundred and ten enhanced cruisers and eighty five carriers, all of which have hornet fighters."
"The Travellers only have twenty seven generational ships available," said Larrin. "They've all been fully restored but they aren't warships, although they are pretty fast. Our population stands at around thirty thousand people but we don't have any actual soldiers."
"The Liberum have four of our twenty two warships in this galaxy," said Tomin. "I have also brought with me eight priors, the pilots for sixteen hundred fighters and four thousand soldiers. I could bring more since the Nox have kindly provided our worlds with stargates but I cannot comment on the troop numbers since I brought the majority of our standing army."
"The Jaffa have sixteen carriers and eight destroyers crewed by thirty six thousand soldiers," said Bra'tac. "Although we have the majority of our fleet tied up guarding our numerous holdings we can bring another sixteen carriers along with twenty four thousand soldiers at any time and with any ships we build in the future."
Despite the fact that the Lucian Alliance had been effectively removed off the galactic map the Milky Way galaxy was far from being a safe place. The Lucians had acquired numerous vessels through legitimate business deals with various parties, usually criminal ones, and those unaligned elements were still active. Piracy wasn't common but it did happen and the majority of the Jaffa fleet was tied up guarding worlds and acting as a symbolic message along the lines of 'don't even think about it' with their very presence. Then of course there was the paranoia that other hostile parties might make a move on their territory, like the weakened but still dangerous Aschen. Even though they had effectively been corralled no one could say when they might make a bid to claim yet another world. General O'Neill was half expecting them to make a play at any moment, which was the reason for a good portion of the fleet remaining in the Milky Way despite the threat of the Zarasians.
"The Genii have a standing army numbering over a million trained soldiers," said Ladon. "We have a number of armoured vehicles as part of our forces but not many after the loss of our main off world production facilities when the Genii Confederation was devastated. All of our people have had some military training, admittedly limited but they can use weapons."
The production world had been one of the first that Ladon had attempted to reclaim, but to his frustration he had found it desolate and devastated. The vast garages had been completely emptied, no doubt in an attempt to fight off the Wraith.
"Oh yeah that reminds me," added Sheppard. "Our soldiers also have tanks, various armoured vehicles and small transports."
"The Asgard and our Vanir brethren have several hundred Titan battlesuits," said Thor. "They are all fitted with the latest shockwave weaponry and shield upgrades."
Everyone was silent as they absorbed the information. Together the allied forces had a very impressive force at their disposal. The only problem was that the enemy probably had a greatly more numerous one at their disposal.
"So we have a large fleet and a large army," said Larrin.
"The only problem is that the Zarasians have hundreds if not thousands of ships and potentially hundreds of thousands of soldiers, maybe even millions," said Xander.
"And that's the problem," said Sheppard. "At the moment we only think that's what they have because we don't actually know for sure. We need to gather Intel on the enemy but there are only a few ways for us to do that."
"If you cannot find the enemy then be ready for the enemy to come to you," said Bra'tac.
"In other words we need to ready our defence while we try to learn more about our enemy," said Xander.
"Our technicians are currently stripping apart the Zarasian flagship down to the superstructure in order to learn more about its technology," said Thor. "We are currently putting together an estimate of its capabilities based on that analysis."
"What do we know so far?" asked Sheppard.
"To date we have encountered a single type of ship other than the flagship, which appears to be a generalised combat vessel," Thor explained as a holographic image of said vessel appeared. "At two hundred metres long it is small but presumably that is so they can be built in large numbers, to allow them to spread out their forces. Their hyperdrives appear to be of a Jaffa destroyer or general Averian equivalent. As for weapons, they possess several forward firing plasma cannons as well as two orbital bombardment emplacements. All are fifty percent stronger than the Averian equivalent, though not as energy efficient as them. Their shields are as strong as an Averian warship or a Jaffa type B Ha'tak. There are no signs however that they possess beam weapon technology. Their fighters are three times larger than a hornet or an Averian fighter and are capable of initiating a suicide manoeuvre where they penetrate the hull of a vessel and the crew are ejected just before the fighter explodes."
"What about those landing pods that attacked the peace talks," Xander asked, with a slight edge of bitterness to his voice. That had been a dark day for the Averian people.
"They appear to be a type of self relocating ring platform, presumably used to deploy troops to the ground rapidly," Thor explained. "Only the flagship possessed examples of these craft."
"However it is possible that there are more types of ships than we have already seen," said Xander. "It is logical for them to build more than one type of craft, such as those capable of acting as troop transports and army carriers. They intended to subjugate an entire galaxy and for that they need a lot of soldiers and the ability to transport them all."
"Are you sure?" Larrin asked. "You guys didn't build any and your peoples are supposed to have a shared history. Wouldn't Zarin be thinking along the same lines?"
Xander shook his head.
"We didn't build them because we didn't need them," explained Xander. "We had no aims on conquering this galaxy, merely defending it from the former Wraith threat. For that we needed warships and our transports are capable of being converted into barracks just by installing a large number of bunk beds in the cargo bays. But Zarin, total megalomaniac that he is, will recognise the need to be able to move large numbers of troops.
"That," he continued, while pointing at the hologram of the Zarasian warship. "Is most likely a strike craft designed to inflict as much damage as possible and be built in large numbers so that they can relocate forces as needed across a large number of worlds."
"So if we go looking for trouble we'll most likely be finding ourselves facing a force we know next to nothing about," said Sheppard.
"So we have to find out what those ships are or we wait for them to make an appearance on their terms," Tomin said. "I'm sure I don't have to tell you how dangerous that is."
They knew what he was referring to, when the Ori had made their first major incursion into the Milky Way their ships had been tailor made to face the defending forces. As such they had been untouchable and had quickly overwhelmed the defending forces before moving on to conquer several worlds.
"It looks like my people's military won't be capable of providing much in the way of assistance at this point then," Ladon said. "Since we lack ships to respond to the threat we will have to keep our forces on standby to defend against a potential ground invasion."
"Then co-ordinating all of our forces for defence is key," said Bra'tac. "Would you like us and the Liberum to spread our forces out amongst the major Wraith worlds or focus them in one place?"
"Neither," said Sheppard. "All Tau'ri ships are currently spread out amongst the various Wraith worlds with our deep space vessels joining the Asgard in performing sweeps of the galaxy to find the Zarasians."
Tomin and Bra'tac shared a look of confusion.
"Then what do you want us to do?" Tomin asked.
Sheppard smiled a predatory grin. "Guerrilla warfare."
"Please explain," Bra'tac requested.
"Your ships are effectively unknowns in this galaxy," Sheppard explained. "The Zarasians don't know who you are and we can use that to our advantage. If you attack the Zarasians but remain separate from the rest of the allied forces then they will hopefully just assume that you are both independent factions and waste time trying to track you down."
"It is an interesting plan," said Bra'tac. "However without an indication of the enemy's domain we will be out of the fight for some time and won't be able to participate in planetary defence actions."
"You're right we don't," Sheppard said. "However we believed they are confined to less inhabited regions of the outer rim which is where we have focused our search."
"There is another problem," added Tomin. "If we are to remain separate from the allied forces we will lack the supplies needed to survive on our own."
"We have a solution for that," Thor said. "With the help of the Tau'ri scientists we have devised a macro to allow a stargate to be dialled from any part of the galaxy even if the location is constantly shifting. This means we can supply a stargate to be placed on one of your ships through which we can transfer supplies as needed. You will need to be travelling at sublight speeds to create a stable connection though."
"We could place food synthesisers on your ships but if the Zarasians realize you have the technology then they will realize we are allies," Sheppard explained. "That could be bad as it means they might try and focus exclusively on one group to pick us off one at a time."
"I understand," said Bra'tac. "The longer we can maintain this deception the better, however it does limit our ability to utilise troops in combat."
"You're right about that but I wouldn't put it past the Zarasians to attempt a boarding action," said Xander. "Those soldiers will be needed to protect your ships from being captured or worse."
"Ground combat will come later," agreed Tomin. "We'll either be fighting to protect a world or we'll be fighting to take one. This Zarin may be power hungry but I highly doubt he is stupid enough to simply detonate every one of his strongholds to prevent us from taking them."
"What about my people's ships?" Larrin asked. "I've said it many times before, they are not warships they're life boats. We can't take on the Zarasians with the numbers we have since these guys like to deploy in large numbers and their weakest ships can take ours in a fight."
"Your ships do have one advantage though," said Sheppard. "They're fast, faster than even the Zarasian ships."
"Your people designed ships capable of moving quickly to outrun any threats," continued Thor. "In addition they are stealthy, though not incapable of being detected by more advanced sensors."
"I fail to see the advantage," Larrin said. "Your own ships are much faster than ours and like you said ours are not undetectable."
"But the Zarasians don't have advanced sensors," Sheppard explained. "They won't be able to detect your ships as easily when they're moving in stealth mode and they won't be able to catch you. Our fastest ships are also our most powerful which means we'll need them for combat missions and not transport duties between planets or scouting out the enemy."
"So you want our ships to perform recon and do supply runs?" Larrin asked.
"If we need them to yes," Sheppard said. "In the coming days every ship we have will count, but if we can we'll keep them out of the fight."
"Do we have an overall battle plan as of yet?" Bra'tac asked.
"Fortify our positions, build up our forces and find the enemy so that we can destroy them," Thor stated factually.
"In other words go on the defensive while our search parties track down the enemy bases and we'll lay siege to them," Sheppard said.
"Won't that mean we have to uncover our defences to attack targets?" Tomin asked.
"Not necessarily," Sheppard said. "We'll be using our Pegasus and O'Neill class vessels for search and destroy missions, so we won't have to redeploy other forces unless we find a particularly tempting target. If we find a suitable target in your individual fleet's vicinity though we'll let you know."
"What do you want us to do until then?" Bra'tac asked.
"Redeploy your forces to different sectors of the galaxy," said Xander. "We'll have them slowly advance system by system into what we believe is Zarasian territory until we can give you some suitable targets to take on. If we time it right they'll just suspect these to be two different exploration groups canvassing the local area. To complete the ruse we'll have you periodically transmit unsecured information about the systems you explore, just not to us. When we want to communicate with you we'll use secure transmissions that can't be hacked."
Both Tomin and Bra'tac nodded their approval.
"If there is nothing else then we'll call this meeting to a close," said Sheppard.
When no one raised any new issues to be discussed the meeting was brought to an end and the representatives went to brief their subordinates.
Liberum Warship – Tomin's Flagship
Onboard the Liberatus Tomin sat in his quarters taking a moment to rest having briefed the various commanders and priors under his command. With the help of the Tau'ri they had been able to create an interface system that allowed them to control their warships without the telepathic abilities of a Prior. Admittedly telepathic control did allow for a faster reaction time than a control terminal could allow given the need to enter commands but this did mean that a Prior didn't need to be onboard or could focus on other things. This also meant that they could deploy the Priors on the ground to support the ground soldiers in combat if need be. With only eight, technically nine including Tomin, Priors in this galaxy the scope of their combined abilities was somewhat limited but it was still potent enough to make a difference. The ability to summon up a protective field of energy was not something to simply be overlooked.
His new abilities certainly gave him an advantage he could use to great effect. Being able to instantly co-ordinate with the other ships and forces under his command with only a thought was something most military leaders could only dream of. The possibilities were almost limitless.
He was interrupted from his musings by the chime from his door, indicating he had a visitor.
Rising to his feet he opened the door with a thought, another perk of his abilities. On the other side of the door was Prior Andose. Andose had been one of the younger Priors to join the ranks of so called holy messengers but due to his more complacent temperament when it came to punishing the unbelievers he had never seen action in the Milky Way. Oh he had fervently believed in the power of the Ori and the wisdom they offered but he was not particularly forceful when he preached. The true 'bow down or die' Priors had in fact been deployed to the Milky Way for the crusade but the Ori had still needed preachers at home to keep up the daily rituals. Much like Tomin however he was still a fervent believer of the wisdom of the teachings of Origin.
"It is time again Commander," Andose said as he entered the room.
Tomin nodded.
"Establish the connection," he ordered.
Andose raised his staff before striking it on the ground. As the tip of the staff connected with the ground the pale oval crystal in the head began to glow and the connection with the Doci was established. Because the energy required to establish a link spanning galaxies was much greater than a mere nine people could create the Doci had to establish it from his end and so Tomin had decided to regularly schedule such a link.
Within a moment of Andose accepting the connection on his end Tomin found himself in Celestis standing before the Doci.
The Doci was known simply as just that and every member of the Liberum knew why. As a child the Doci had been raised by the Priors and the former Doci to act as the voice of the Ori. From an early age he was schooled in the teachings of Origin and received the best education of any child in the galaxy. He had been raised to be a fervent believer in the Ori and their teachings and one day the former Doci had transformed him. After he had been exposed to the arc of truth however he had found himself at a loss for what to do. The teachings he had been raised to follow had revealed to be the words of liars. Yet when he had met Tomin and Andose he had found his place in the universe again. Tomin had tasked him with helping to maintain order and rise beyond what the Ori had left them with, and Andose had shared with him his thoughts on the teachings of Origin. During his spare time the Doci now worked on rewriting the teachings of Origin to remove the Ori bias.
"Greetings my friend," said the Doci.
"Greetings Doci," replied Tomin.
"How go things so far?" the Doci asked.
"Well," said Tomin. "We have established a battle plan and my forces will soon be departing to take our position."
The Doci nodded.
"Then it is fortunate this is the last stage in your transformation, although if you had only waited longer we could have performed the additional one without the side effects."
Tomin smiled at his friend's concern. In order to facilitate his upcoming departure Tomin had insisted that the Doci perform the transformation before he departed rather than attempting it at such a distance. The strain of this particular transformation when coupled with the one he had just recently undergone had resulted in his silver hair.
"It is of no consequence," Tomin assured him. "My hair is a small price to pay for the gift you have given me. Besides I would not want you to overexert yourself, controlling the staged transformations is hard enough without attempting to do so at a distance."
"You'll be happy to hear that things have been running smoothly in your absence," the Doci said. "The latest harvest reports are quite promising and the mass production facilities are operating at full capacity."
"That is good to hear," Tomin said. "Now I think you had better start the process before you strain yourself too much."
"You worry too much," the Doci said with a smile.
The Doci reached out and placed his hands against Tomin's temple. Concentrating, the crystal on his chest plate began to glow as the Doci focused his powers on the task at hand. In a minute the process was complete and Tomin could feel his abilities were stronger than ever before.
"Don't try and test them until we break the connection," the Doci warned.
"I won't," Tomin replied. "You certainly seem to have the transformation process down."
"Yes but I have yet to start experimenting to allow for a boost in our abilities," the Doci said. "Our abilities are still quite limited and there are several we have yet to activate despite what the research from the Tau'ri suggests and the Orici's abilities."
"True but that can wait for now," Tomin said. "We need to wait until the transformation process is more wide spread before we start looking to boost our powers further. We can already communicate telepathically thanks to the crystals and we have plenty of them so mind reading is not something we really need right now. It is far too invasive for my liking and we have no known way to defend against it."
"I will wait for volunteers," the Doci assured him. "But there are many Priors who are very eager to volunteer for testing in order to repent for the things they have done."
"Hard work is the way to repent," Tomin replied sternly. "Not attempting to sacrifice yourself so that you might be remembered in a good light."
When he saw the hard look the Doci was giving him he relented.
"Alright fine then, but don't over do it. Choose carefully from the volunteers though, we are trying to get rid of the fanaticism from the Priors. I don't want them trying to transfer it to the pursuit of power. Only choose those who understand that this is for our people as a whole, not just the Priors."
"You mean us Priors," said the Doci with a small smile.
"I should go," Tomin replied, with a smile of his own. "The others can't lend you their strength forever."
"See you tomorrow my friend," said the Doci before severing the connection.
In a flash Tomin found himself back on his ship standing in front of Andose.
"How did it go?" Andose asked. Being the conduit he had no idea what the Doci and Tomin had said to one another.
"It went well," Tomin assured him. "The transformation process is now complete."
"Care to test out your new abilities?" Andose asked with a grin.
"Let's," said Tomin.
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