Chapter Four Part One
USS Hammond
Hyperspace
Colonel Carter walked into armory two where a large group of Marines was just about finished gearing up for their mission. Upon seeing her enter, their commander, Captain Fitzpatrick called for attention on deck and the Marines quickly formed up before her. Unlike the standard contingent of Marines whose sole purpose was to provide security for the ship, these Marines were from one of Homeworld Command's Honey Badger Units or HBUs for short. HBUs were meant for off-world situations that required more men and guns than an SG team could provide and depending on the mission, they would deploy in either platoon, company, or battalion sizes. There were sixty men assembled before Carter today, enough to make two platoons.
"What's our mission, Colonel?" Fitzpatrick asked. Ever since the failed attack on Homeworld Command, Fitzpatrick and his men were assigned to Hammond to partake in any retaliatory response that required their services. Until now, they had yet to get a mission.
"Your mission will be to seize the Lucian Alliance Central Council by boarding their space station after us and the fighter squadrons clear out the opposition."
"How many HVTs?"
"Our last intel report indicates there are only eight of out thirty council members left including Clayvin who is the council leader."
"Which makes him the biggest prize of all. How many guards can we expect to face?"
"Given the size of the space station, it could be a hundred or more. But I am one-hundred percent confident that you guys will get the job done."
"We're Marines, ma'am. We always complete the mission. No offense to you jet jockeys."
"None taken. We're two hours out from our destination so I'll leave you and Captain Gerald to come up with a plan."
"We will have it ready in ten, Colonel," Fitzpatrick replied.
Hangar bay one.
After concluding the preflight check of his F-308, Lieutenant Colonel Sullivan walked over to the crew chief to give his report.
"Everything looks excellent."
"Just like I said it would, sir. "I always make sure my people take the time to prep and maintain these birds right," Senior Airmen Rodriguez said.
"Keep up the good work and I'll nominate you guys for an outstanding unit award."
"For the sake of nation and planet, we will continue to do our best for you guys."
Sullivan smiled and told the Airmen to carry on. As Rodriguez walked away Colonel Carter walked into the bay and approached him from behind.
"How are things going, Bull?" she asked. He spun around upon hearing her voice.
"All fine and dandy, ma'am. I just double-checked my bird and the ground crew did another outstanding job as usual. Provided no foul-ups happen in the next few months, I will nominate them for an outstanding unit award. The maintainers are the true unsung heroes. They keep the tools ready that keep us in the fight."
"That they do. Anyway, I came down here to give you an update on our mission."
"What's up?"
"After we clear out the opposition, the HBU is going to be deployed to board the Alliance space station and seize the remaining members of the Lucian Alliance Central Council. As you know, a Gou'ald space station is heavily guarded by shields and weapon turrets."
"Sounds like the perfect candidate for the DEAD operation. You can tell the jarheads they will have an open door to fly through courtesy of the Golden Eagles."
"Don't forget that the squadrons from the other ships will be out there too."
"I know, ma'am. But do any of their members fly under the banner of Colonel Carter's Golden Aces?" Sullivan always smiled with pride when he mentioned that and Carter couldn't help but smile too."
"You got a good point, Bull. Happy hunting during the battle."
"Same to you, ma'am."
Lucian Alliance Space Station
Lucia orbit.
"Clayvin's second in commander, Irene entered the control room to deliver another grim report.
"High Commander, Clayvin. I regret to inform you that our attempts to contact Trabo have ended in failure. There hasn't been any word of Tau'ri attacks in his domain so I don't understand the reason for his absence."
"This is unacceptable. First Remo defects from us and now Trabo is no longer responding to our orders to bring his ships back to aid in our defense. I know we have twelve Ha'taks, hundreds of Gliders, and twenty Al'Kesh plus our minefield, but if Trabo and Remo arrived with their ships, we would have seventeen Ha'taks and twenty more Gliders. And I'm surprised that the Tau'ri haven't sent their ships into his system or one of their weapons through his stargate. He does own a handful of factories and farmlands."
"Perhaps the Tau'ri don't consider him worthy of targeting. Trabo has always been a small player compared to the other clan leaders."
"Most of whom are now dead, thanks to the reprisals of the Tau'ri," Clayvin replied then took a deep breath to cool the rage building up with him. "We will defend Lucia with what we have. After we repel the Tau'ri ships, we will send our fleet to deal with the traitors."
"I think we should lay siege to Earth after our victory," High Commander."
"Sending a cargo ship with a bomb is one thing, a fleet assault would be a suicide charge."
"But we must show that despite our losses the Lucian Alliance is still a powerful force that can strike down any challenger. Even the Tau'ri."
"That will be all for this discussion, Irene. Leave me for now, and return to me once the battle begins."
"Yes, High Commander."
Irene meant a lot to Clayvin. She wasn't just his second in command, she was also his wife. His reason for ending the conservation was to avoid expressing his doubts. Irene was a rabid believer in the Alliance and she had killed others who expressed doubts about the war with Tau'ri.
If he wasn't careful with his words, she could very well cut his throat and take his throne. As much as he loved Irene, he didn't really want her in her current position. In the past, he tried to appoint others as his second in command and they always ended up dying mysteriously.
"The Alliance has really strayed from its roots," Clayvin thought to himself. "We started out as traders, smugglers, thieves, and mercs. Then came the Kassa, the war with the Tau'ri and now we've morphed into an imperialist empire on the verge of what may very well be our final battle."
Clayvin was a rookie member of the Lucian Alliance when the war with the Tau'ri began. Over time, he moved up through ranks and he now found himself trying to manage a war he did not want but because of the actions of those who came before him, he had no choice but to fight.
"If the loss of ships and territories were anything to go by, it didn't look like he was doing a very good job of it.
Elsewhere in the galaxy, Trabo was about to make bank.
Planet name Vayden
Vangelian Capital city
Having fulfilled the terms of his contract with the Baleen, the ruling queen on this planet, Trabo was now in the lobby of what remained of the castle about to receive the payment he and his people were promised.
Mr. Trabo for your people's role in helping to bring this terrible civil war of ours to a close, I promised to pay you with eight crates of gold but since the fire support from your ships were more instrumental than we previously thought, I've decided to up the number of crates to fourteen."
With a snap of Queen Becca's fingers, a group of soldiers came forth with the crates and set them on the ground. The crates were so heavy, they required two men to carry.
"Open them," Queen Becca ordered.
The men quickly popped them open so Trabo could that they were filled to the brim with gold coins. He smiled and nodded in satisfaction.
"You are the most generous client to date, Your Majesty. Thank you."
"And thank you again for your assistance, Mr. Trabo."
After shaking hands, Queen Becca walked away leaving Trabo and his two guards as the only ones in the room.
"Get these crates onto my shuttle," he ordered.
As his guards closed the first crate and picked it up. Trabo wished he brought more men with him to move the crates even faster. But the guards were tall and muscular and therefore more than suited for the task.
With the first crate loaded, they ran back into the tent and grabbed the second crate, and repeated the process until all of them were loaded in the cargo hold of the Tel'tak.
With business concluded, he returned to his Ha'tak in orbit where his crew rejoiced in celebration upon receiving the payment. Ever since splitting off from the Alliance and making his own peace with Tau'ri, business was booming for him and his people. The reason for his faction's departure was simple, there were no profits to be gained in throwing yourself away in a losing war.
Being a military force for hire wasn't the only part of his multi-functional business. The farms on his planet grew food and bred livestock which his dealers would sell in markets on their planet or on other planets and the factories created and tools and rifles which would also be sold for profits.
When he met with SG-1 to iron out this truce. They told him his faction would be left in peace as long as he stuck to the following terms.
Refrain attacking from any Earth ships, bases, or off-world teams.
Refrain from attacking any of Earth's allies.
Agree to have all of his military assets tagged with beacons and agree not to make his fleet larger than it already was. His fleet consisted of six Ha'taks, forty gliders, and nine Tel'taks.
He could do business with whoever he wanted as long they weren't engaged in hostilities with Earth and its forces.
Breaching one of these terms would mean total destruction for him and his faction. So in the interest of peace and continued profit-making, he and his people agreed to the terms.
After departing orbit with his fleet, Trabo's brother, Cantor came up to him in the midst of celebration said one of their representatives was approached by a prospective client seeking their military services.
Trabo told him to set up a meeting for tomorrow.
USS Paul Emerson
Hangar bay one
With the clock winding down to the final battle with the Lucian Alliance, Major Nancy Emerson climbed into the cockpit of her F-308 and pressed the canopy control button and it slid back into its closed position. After powering up her bird and doing a systems check which came back all green, she pulled out a photo of her late brother from her vest pocket and took a moment to look at it. It was a photo of Paul Emerson on the day he got promoted to Colonel. The whole family was there on that day.
"Every kill I score today will be in your name, big brother," she declared.
After putting it back in her vest pocket, she took one more look at the loadout on her stores management display. The external loadout consisted of sixteen AIM-120D AMRAAMs and four MK-V anti-ship missiles. The internal loadout showed four AIM-9X Sidewinders in the side bays and the ventral bay was packed with twelve Peregrine missiles. The Peregrines were smaller than the AMRAAMs and came up short in the range category, but their volume still enabled the pilots to keep the bandits at a distance after their AMRAAMs were expended and the omnidirectional high off-boresight targeting capability of the 308s sensors made them just as potent as the AIM-9Xs. If it came down to fighting in the phone booth, the pilots also had the high off-boresight targeting capability of their HMD visors too.
With the twin railguns loaded with two-thousand rounds apiece and the tactical beam cannons at full power, the loadout check was complete and Nancy lowered her HMD visor and slapped on her oxygen mask.
"Attention all personnel, our ETA is two minutes. I repeat, our ETA is two minutes," Colonel Clyde announced over the speakers.
"All right Grim Reapers, let's taxi into position," Nancy ordered.
On the Hammond, the Marines of the HBU rushed into hangar bay one and boarded the two V-309 transport shuttles that were waiting for them. At forty feet in length, they could seat up to thirty people which was perfect for this mission and could deploy people VIA beaming or the miniature ring room which was behind the passenger compartment and big enough to fit five people at a time.
As the Marines waited in their seats, they could hear the 308s rolling into launch position.
AN. DEAD stands for Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses. Or in this case, Destruction of Enemy Aerospace Defenses.
HMD stands for Helmet Mounted Display.