3 – Two Attacks and a Mystery

(Alpha Site – Gate Room – 06.02.2022, 1235)

Doctor Radek Zelenka was sitting in the control section of the Gate Room. In the Milky Way Galaxy, the Alpha Site was built into an existing mountain. But the terrain on M7K-821 had been flat. Fortunately, the Genii had created a large and open pit mine there. It had been abandoned in 2015 after it ran dry. The creation of the Alpha Site had begun by building a lobby – which they called Level Zero - at the bottom on that pit.

Then they had filled up the pit and created an artificial hill on top of it. Next, they had build an elevator shaft and stairs from the top of that hill to Level Zero. They then had simply carved the Alpha Site out underneath, with Gate Room being located on sub-level twelve. Besides the main underground complex, there was also an underground hangar that housed twelve F-302 fighters. The two sections were connected by a reinforced underground tunnel.

At the moment, the hangar at the end of that tunnel was empty. Lieutenant-Colonel Lorne had taken the squadron out for an exercise, while Zelenka was running things in the Gate Room. Zelenka decided to take a break from the diagnostic he had been running. He leaned back and looked around the room. The reason the Atlantis Expedition had been able to build this base, was because they had received all sorts of materials and supplies from their allies in this galaxy. If they had been forced to make do with the funds the IOA had allocated to this project, they would have run out of money just after completing the elevator shaft. This mixed nature was clear from the architecture of the Gate Room.

The Gate stood in the middle, at the top of a stone ramp. There was no force-field, but the Satedans had begun mass-producing a model of irises and Garage-Door-Openers. The bad news was that these didn't work for Stargates in space, the good news was that it did work for surface Gates. And this had provided dozens of worlds with a line of defense against the Wraith. As for the Gate itself, they were simply using the Stargate and DHD that had already been on the planet when they had arrived.

They had, however, wired three Genii computers into the DHD. Combined with a standard issue laptop, this allowed the base technicians to run diagnostics on the Gate. It was also an upgrade to the Gate's memory capacity. Normally, the DHD could only remember the last fifty addresses dialed and they were in a random order. This homemade dialing computer, however, could log eighty addresses and kept them in chronological order. It was also hardwired to the base's radar and long-range sensors. Thus providing the Gate Room with early warning capacities if against enemy ships.

As for the rest of the room, the walls were made off bricks instead of concrete. And there were no doors out of the room. Instead, there were two big arches in the walls. If you arrived through the Gate, the left one led to the infirmary. The right one led a round space where there was an elevator and a staircase back to Level Zero. The rest of the space was a supply room. It had everything the Gate Room security team could ever need, plus three MALPs.

The only piece of equipment not in this room, was a pair of .303 Vickers Machine guns provided by South Africa. These weapons were outdated by Earth standards. But because both the Satedans and the Genii could mass produce the ammo, they were a good fit for the base. Zelenka was about to resume his diagnostic when the long-range sensors sounded the alarm. His fingers flew across his keyboard. When he saw what the sensors had detected, he cursed in his native Czech. Thirty-two hive ships and sixty-four wraith cruisers had entered sensor range. Zelenka hit several keys and the computer projected the fleet's course. They were headed straight for Atlantis.

It was at the point that Major Lou Miller entered the Gate Room. Miller had been a member of the Expedition since the beginning. He had been promoted to Captain in 2010 and Major in 2013. After that, he had gotten a major lateral promotion, going from being a pilot to leading AR-7. When the Alpha Site had been upgraded to its current form, he had been made second-in-command of the base. Rumor had it that he was on the short list for command of the Pegasus Beta Site. But that was an issue for another day. As soon as he saw the course projection, Miller began dialing the Gate. They had to warm the base.

(Hive Ship Grand Conqueror – Command Center – 06.02.2022, 2305)

The fleet had arrived at Atlantis. But the Ancient city-ship was not alone. It was located on a world that had simply been called Frozen Planet by the Tau'ri. That planet was surrounded by five Tau'ri battleships, three Lantean cruisers owned by the Genii, Vanir ships and a dozen Traveler vessels. Guide was not surprised by the development. It was no secret that the Tau'ri had been helping its allies build ships and develop other means to defend themselves against the Wraith. This was why they had taken so long to preparing for this attack. They had known that it would be a tough fight. He turned to Bonewhite, his second-in-command.

"Order all ships to deploy their darts."

"Yes, Commander," Bonewhite began. "Two minutes until we enter weapons range."

The hive ships began to launch their darts, while the two fleets moved closer. But before they entered weapons range, space rippled and there was a flash. When the light faded, there was something there. Something unlike anything Guide had even seen. ~What the…~ He turned to Bonewhite to give him an order. But before he could, all hell broke loose.

(Pentagon – Homeworld Command, Command Center - 06.02.2022, 2305)

Vincent Quinn watched as the Wraith fleet approached the Atlantis defense fleet, which had been codenamed Screen One. ~If wish Jack and Hank were here.~ Alas, neither Jack O'Neill or Hank Landry were here. The mandatory retirement age for the US Air Force was 64. Landry had been born in 1945 and O'Neill was from 1952. However, the President of the United States could stretch that until age 68. Which was what Henry Hayes had done.

Still – officially - Landry should have retired in 2013, with O'Neill following in 2020. Using the Nova Roma Expedition, Hayes and Quinn had been able to bend the rules to keep the two generals in the uniform. But when the Expedition had succeeded in its mission and brought Young and company back, that excuse had stopped working. So both O'Neill and Landry had retired as soon as the debriefing sessions were over. Which had left Quinn with two major positions to fill, Commander of the SGC and Chief of Homeworld Command.

He had offered the SGC to Colonel Samantha Carter, but she had – respectfully – told him that she was preferred to stay in command of the George Hammond. And Quinn figured that Colonel Mitchell didn't want the job either. ~Mitchell is too much of a frontline man.~ So he had been forced to go looking for somebody else. After a conversation with Colonel Sheppard, he had found Dennis Kersey. Kersey had joined the Atlantis Expedition in 2008 as a team leader with rank of Major. One of his first missions that been to rescue AR-1 – aka Colonel Sheppard's team – from a diseased hive ship that had crashed into the oceans of M35-117.

Kersey had served on Atlantis until 2014. That year, he had been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and given command of SG-21. In 2019, he been promoted to Full Bird Colonel. His new position as commanding officer of the SGC had come with a promotion to Brigadier-General. As for the position of Chief of Homeworld Command, Quinn had not been able to find a candidate for that job yet. He wanted somebody from within the program, but Jack O'Neill was a hard act to follow. ~John Sheppard or Everett Young would be perfect, but neither of them would take the job in a millions year.~ So, he had appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Davis and Colonel Green to keep things running on a day-to-day basis.

Green was on the phone to Kersey, so Quinn and Davis were watching the telemetry from Atlantis together. Both the city and Screen One were preparing to open fire. Then – suddenly – the screen went wobbly, before cutting to black. As soon this happened, Colonel Davis turned to Sergeant Walter Harriman, who was operating one of the workstations.

"What just happened ?"

"Something just overloaded the sensors, sirs," Harriman said. "I'm trying to reset the system, it should…"

Harriman swallowed the rest of the sentence. And Quinn could see why. Harriman's screen had been showing data. It had been scrambled, but the information had still been flowing. But the as Harriman had answered, all the readings had gone dark. They had no way of knowing what had happened. As far as Earth knew, everybody on Atlantis and the ships of Screen One might have just wiped out.

(Stargate Command – Gate Room - 07.02.2022, 0252)

Dennis Kersey was sitting on the ramp to the Stargate. Born in 1972, Kersey was fifty years old. His mother had been born in Nigeria and had dark skin, while his Canadian father was a white as they came. This left Kersey right in the middle of the spectrum, with brown eyes and greying black hair. His youth had been spent on Oahu. His father Paul had been a writer for a local paper, while his mother Tambara had been a history teacher. They had both retired years ago. Besides, Dennis, they had three more children and eleven grandchildren. Two of those had been born to Dennis and his wife Lucia, an Italian beauty who had stolen his heart many years ago.

~I wish the kids were here, they always help me think.~ Alas, he would have to make do without them. For the past couple of hours, they had been trying to contact both the Pegasus Alpha and Beta Sites, to no avail. The local Beta Site had tried to dial both planets, but had not been able to connect. So he was pondering their next plan. ~It's only a matter of time before the President calls me for advice.~ He closed his eyes and rubbed his eyelids. It was at this point that Master Sergeant Dan Siler walked in.

"Sir ?" He began. "The President is calling."

~Speak of the devil.~ He opened his eyes and gave the Sergeant a nod. He thanked him and headed for his office. When he reached it, Doctor Bill Lee was speaking to the President on the red phone. He was telling the President that Sergeant Siler had gone to find the brigadier. He told the President that Kersey had arrived and handed over the phone.

"Mister President," He said.

He sat down at his desk, while Doctor Lee left the room. ~Something tell me he was here to tell me that things are not making any progress.~ Lee was a capable scientist. But in a case of irony, they really needed McKay or Carter on this one. Rush and Wallace were doing what they could. ~Thing is, you can only do so much when you're a galaxy away. No matter how smart you are.~

=/\=Brigadier Kersey.=/\= Quinn began. =/\=How are things going there ?=/\=

"I'm afraid they are not, sir. Hope Base, Area 51 and all three off-world bases in the Milky Way have all be looped in." ~Alpha, Beta and Gamma Site.~ "And Doctor Lee is running our effort here in Cheyenne Mountain," He paused. "But I'm afraid we're going to have to resort to Plan B, sir."

=/\=Understood,=/\= This was their second conversation since the feed had gone dark. They had agreed that plan B would be sending a ship to Pegasus. =/\=Who should we send ?=/\=

"Most the ships that we have in the Milky Way would need eighteen days to get there. Only Spera and Chaser can get there faster, sir. And we need Chaser to defend Earth. Plus, we removed Chaser's Stargate for study at the Gamma Site, sir."

=/\=And we want the option to use the Stargate to send a second wave. How long would it take Spera to get there ?=/\=

"Eight days and a little, Mister President."

=/\=Spera it is, then. I'm going to be meeting the IOA at 0800, local time.=/\= Washington DC was two hours ahead of Colorado Springs. =/\=Brief Colonel Vale over subspace, then get some sleep.=/\=

"Understood, sir."

The President hung up. Kersey already knew that he was not going to get any sleep this night, no matter what the President said. ~What else is new ? Now, man up, Dennis. You've got a job to do.~ So he got to work.

(Sateda – Planetary Defense Headquarters, Command Center – 07.02.2022, 0315)

While Brigadier Kersey was briefing Colonel Vale, President Larrin walked into the Satedan version of Homeworld Command. Named the Planetary Defense Headquarters, it was located in a bunker that began sixty meters underground. There were then four floors of base above the Command Center. The center was a mix of Satedan, Genii, Travelers and Tau'ri technology. At the moment, the place was buzzing with activity. In the middle of this was Major Jack O'Neill.

In 2003, an Asgard named Loki had cloned then-Colonel Jack O'Neill. But because of a genetic failsafe, the clone had failed to mature. There had been some shenanigans. But in the end, the clone had begun living a life of his own, away from the Stargate Program. That had last until 2012, when he had run afoul of the Lucian Alliance. This had been followed by a mission to the Pegasus Galaxy to rescue Colonel Sheppard from a pickle. That had been a long story, which had ended with the original O'Neill and Colonel Carter telling their bosses that he had died. In reality, Jack had ended up joining the Satedan Air Force in 2013.

In the past nine years, he had climbed the ranks to become a Major and commander of a squadron of fighters. When Screen One had gone dark, he had been called in. O'Neill was the closest thing they had to an expert on the Tau'ri. Alas, neither Atlantis or the two major Tau'ri outposts were responding to their attempts to contact them.

"Anything new, Major ?" Larrin asked.

"No, ma'am." O'Neill began. "We're maintaining Condition One. But the sensor remain..," As he said that, the long-range sensors beeped as several vessels entered range. "I had to say it," He turned to one of the soldiers operating the sensors. "Do we have an ID on those ships ?"

"They're not ours, sir," Said Solen Sincha. Sincha had been one of the few survivors of Sateda, who had served in the same military unit as Ronon Dex. He had been one of the few Satedans to return to the planet. "I've run the silhouette through the database. And you're not going to like it, boss." The database included every known profile from the Milky Way and Pegasus Galaxy. "They're Goa'uld Ha'tak-class vessels. But something is…off. They've been modified, sir."

"How long until they can open fire ?"

"Seven minutes, sir."

Larrin and O'Neill exchanged looks. Sateda's defenses were about to be put to the test.