This Isn't Kansas 2: Homefront
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: This is one of the two planned sequels to This Isn't Kansas this particular one will be focusing on the Odyssey and what they find now that they have returned to their own universe. The other story – which I will start working on soon – will focus on events back in the fused Robotech/Stargate universe that they left behind. In many ways this is one of the most ambitious fanfiction projects that I have ever personally undertaken so I hope this works.
Story events begin from the moment the Odyssey left the fusion universe in the final chapter of the first story. Now without further ado let's get cracking shall we.
Chapter One
Bridge
USS Odyssey
Sitting comfortably in the commanding officers chair General Hank Landry watched as through the viewport space ahead of the ship transformed into a shimmering white, green, blue, and purple tunnel that was very similar in appearance to the normal conduit created when the ship was travelling through hyperspace. But then the device that's finally letting us get back home is just an add on to the hyperdrive, he thought recalling that the trans-universal device, whose plans they'd been given by the Lantean librarian AI which referred to itself as the Custodian, was simply an attachment to the subspace field coils that every hyperdrive in existence needed to function. One that allowed the drive to transit them between different realities instead of just propelling them through hyperspace to wherever it was they were going.
He was about to turn to ask the helmswoman if her instruments gave her any indication of how long they would be in this conduit. But before he could do so the conduit flashed, a faint shudder ran through the deck beneath his feet as the conduit evaporated and suddenly the Odyssey was back in normal space. Through the viewports he could see that they were stationary in space – clearly unlike conventional hyperspace travel inter-universal travel didn't produce the phenomenon of hyperspace inertia – near a ringed gas giant that could have been Saturn if it weren't for the fact that the atmosphere's predominant colour was green.
"Major Marks check the quantum signature of space around us," he ordered, "make sure we are where we are supposed to be, then see if you can determine just how long we have actually been gone assuming we are back in our own reality. Also confirm if we are in the Milky Way."
"Yes sir," Marks confirmed as he entered the proper commands into his console, which relayed the commands to the Asgard computer core, prompting the Odyssey's incredibly advanced and powerful Asgardian sensors to reach out and scan the space around them. The results were not long in coming.
"Sir sensors confirm we are back in our own quantum universe," Marks reported, "based on the degree of stellar drift compared to our previous records the Asgard core projects that we have indeed been gone for two and a half years. Sensors also confirm we are in the Milky Way, we're approximately forty thousand light years from Sol."
Damn I'd hoped we'd only been gone for a few months, that the two universes were not in temporal sync with one-another, Hank thought. "Understood," he said. "Communications?"
"Sir?"
"Begin sending a subspace message back to Earth informing Stargate Command, Homeworld Security and the International Oversight Authority that we're alive and we're back," Hank ordered. And prey there is someone there who can and will answer us as who knows what's happened with the likes of the Ori and the Lucian Alliance in the last two and a half years, he thought with an inward grimace knowing that there was a very real possibility that in the time they'd been gone Earth had fallen to the Ori or worse been destroyed by the Priors for refusing to submit and convert to their false religion.
"Yes sir."
"Do you think that they're still their sir," the helmswoman asked, a completely understandable fear in her voice. Like everyone else she knew full well what could have happened to their nation, to their planet in the time that they had been gone. A quick glance around the bridge showed him the same fear was written in everyone's eyes and in the way they were all standing.
"I hope so," he replied at last. "But if they're not then we only have one choice to make. If Earth has fallen then we must make our way to Atlantis."
As he spoke, he recalled the plan that Homeworld Security and the IOA had put together to cover the probability that Earth would fall to the Ori or any other hostile alien force – the collapse of the millenniums old Goa'uld Empire in the aftermath of the Replicator Invasion, followed by the conflict with the Ori had created a great deal of chaos in this galaxy. Thus, a plan had been conceived, one that would be executed if the worst had happened. Despite the dangers of Pegasus, especially the Wraith and the Asuran replicators, the plan had been for all their ships and as many personnel as they could save to make their way to Atlantis. There they would have a chance to regroup and recover before working out just what they were going to do to reclaim their planet or, if that was not possible, ensure the survival of their civilization as for as long as that survived then ultimately who or whatever enemy had taken their world would not ultimately defeat the Tau'ri.
"I understand sir," the helmswoman replied after a moment.
Seeing that the younger officer did indeed understand what he had said Hank toggled the intercom on the arm of the chair. "Bridge to Colonel Carter," he said. "What's the status of our hyperdrive?"
"Sir we're currently disconnecting the alternate reality generator," Colonel Carter responded at once, though she did sound somewhat out of breath. "As the notes provided by the Custodian indicated its completely burned out from the stress of taking us across realities. Once we have the unit fully disconnected, we can reconfigure the subspace field coils for normal operation and begin powering the hyperdrive back up."
"Understood. How long do you need?"
"Providing all the diagnostics come back correct we should have the hyperdrive back operational within half an hour."
"Understood keep me appraised of your progress."
"Yes sir."
"Landry out.
No sooner than Hank had disconnected with engineering than Major Marks console came alive with warnings. "Sir a hyperspace window just opened a hundred and fifty thousand kilometres away on a bearing of one-seven-two mark two-two-four. Two ships emerging… what the fuck?"
"Marks?" Hank questioned shocked and surprised by the outburst from the normally quite unflappable officer. Something clearly had shocked him beyond measure for him to react like that as he had never heard Marks swear like that before. He was normally far too professional for that.
"Sir the ships… they're Wraith two cruisers."
Hank blinked. "Wraith how the hell did they get to this galaxy," he wondered a moment before the consoles came alive with multiple warnings.
"Sir the Wraith cruisers are powering up their weapons and are launching darts," Marks reported. "They're also raising shields, they look like Goa'uld shields roughly comparable in strength to an Apophis-type command mothership."
"Raise shields. Power up all weapons and launch all the new 302's. Have the interceptors target the approaching darts," Hank ordered inwardly wondering just what the hell had happened to their galaxy in the last two and a half years? How the hell had the Wraith – one of the most powerful and lethal enemies they'd ever encountered – gotten to this galaxy? And how had they gotten their hands on Goa'uld shield technology and gotten it to work for them? Hopefully someone on Earth will have some answers, he thought, assuming they're still there and haven't been fed upon by the Wraith.
"Yes sir," Marks acknowledged as he raised the shields and gave the orders to the flight bays and gunnery stations throughout the ship. It wasn't a moment to soon as within seconds of the shields forming a dull, rumbling boom filled the air and the ship shuddered as large blue-white bolts of charged particles lashed out from the Wraith ships cannons and slammed into their shields with white-hot force. "Shields holding. Interceptor batteries have locked onto the Wraith darts."
"Fire," Hank ordered a moment before another barrage of fire from the cruisers shook the ship. "Also lock Asgard weapons on the Wraith cruisers and fire."
"Yes sir," Marks acknowledged even as the whoosh of missile launchers – the eight defensive missile launchers their cousins in the other universe had fitted to the ship during her final refit opening fire for the first time in anger sending eighty high speed, high explosive missiles towards the incoming swarm of Wraith darts – echoed through the hull.
The size of the missile salvo launched from the Odyssey momentarily shocked the mixture of drones and officer caste Wraith piloting the darts into immobility. Since finally finding their way to the extremely rich feeding grounds of this galaxy they had fought numerous battles against Earth warships and had never seen any of them launch such a heavy missile salvo before. Thus for a few crucial seconds they staired in stupefied astonishment at the rapidly closing weapons, weapons that seemed to be focused more on them than their motherships.
Then, realizing the danger, they reacted to try to save themselves. Triggers were pulled and a storm of rapid-fire blue bolts were unleashed towards the massive swarm of missiles. Dozens of missiles died immediately, punched into hazy balls of disassociated ions as charged particle bolts annihilated them. Then as their smart targeting systems – the product of a world with missile technology far in advance of Earth in this reality – registered the threat the missiles began taking evasive action even as they continued to close with homicidal determination on the enemy they had been sent to immolate.
More missiles died under Wraith cannon fire, momentary flashes of flame lighting up the darkness of space like fireflies, but the sheer number of the missiles, speed and advanced avoidance systems meant that while effective the Wraith gunfire would not be enough. Nearly simultaneously almost the whole of the swarm of Wraith darts died, each vanishing in the brilliant yellow flash of a plasma explosive as the missiles attacked.
Before the handful of surviving darts could recover and regroup the upgraded F-302's launched from the Odyssey's flight pods bounced them. Sending many to their doom in a blaze of railgun and pulsed laser fire, while the rest suddenly found themselves desperately evading another missile salvo, this one a salvo of Stiletto-III missiles launched from the 302's.
Though surprised by the pounding their darts were taking the crews of the two Wraith cruisers could do nothing to help them. Instead, they focused their attention on engaging the Terran capital ship and – to their concern – finding their particle bolts were not having as much of an effect upon its shields as they were used to. The shields were still flaring a little brighter with each hit – indicating that the energy matrix of the force field was having to work that little bit harder with each strike to dissipate and deflect the energy back into space – but their sensors confirmed that the shields had only lost a few percentage points on their strength. Increasing their concern, they could see that, instead of trying to evade there attack as other Terran ships did, the vessel was turning to face them, and sensors could read weapons locking on.
Then the Odyssey fired sending a laser-like beam of supercharged, highly compressed plasma towards the closest of the two cruisers. The beam smashed into the cruisers shield like the fist of an angry god, making the force field flare with a quasi-crystalline looking orange glow as the Goa'uld designed shield struggled to withstand the assault by the powerful weapon. A second plasma beam followed, and the shield failed allowing the remaining energy of the beam to slam into the hull. Organic armour vaporized as the beam began cutting deep into the interior of the cruiser, superheating atmosphere, and triggering a blizzard of secondary explosions and fires as the very atmosphere in compartments in and around the path of the beam reached flashpoint in mere nanoseconds. The beam vanished though the damage was already done as the mortally wounded cruiser seemed to stagger in space before beginning to spin away out of control, trailing plumes of burning atmosphere and debris.
A third plasma beam slammed into the vessel and put it out of its misery as it sliced through weakened armour like it wasn't even there to saw the cruiser in half. For a moment the two broken, burning halves of the cruiser drifted apart then – with a breath-taking suddenness – both erupted into titanic fireballs as the ruptured reactors detonated.
The second cruiser, seeing the fate of its fellow and knowing that the hives needed to be warned about these powerful new weapons, decided that the time had come to exercise the better part of valour. Immediately it turned away and jumped into a hastily opened hyperspace window – vanishing into subspace a few seconds ahead of yet another plasma beam. The handful of surviving darts – and their soldier drone pilots – abandoned to their fate.
A fate that was not long in coming as the Odyssey turned to assist its 302's sending out a few short bolts of either pulse laser or gatling railgun fire that wiped the last of the Wraith darts from existence in momentary bursts of flame.
Bridge
USS Odyssey
"All Wraith darts destroyed sir. One of the cruisers however escaped into hyperspace."
General Landry grimaced slightly at Marks report. While he was pleased by how effective their counterattack had been – those Foxfire interceptor missiles their extra-universal cousins had given them really were a lethally effective counter to fighter swarms – the fact that one of the cruisers had been able to escape into hyperspace did not sit that well with him. From all the Atlantis Expedition reports on them that he had read the Wraith retreat was only a temporary thing, they would soon return with more ships – possibly even a hiveship – and that was the last thing he really wanted to deal with right now. Especially as a hiveship – even if the Wraith hadn't fitted them with shields yet though he would bet they probably had – was a formidable and dangerous foe even for the Odyssey given its guns were powerful enough to damage the shields of a Lantean Aurora-class battleship.
"Understood recall all 302's. But keep an eye out Marks the Wraith will soon be back and I would rather us not be taken by surprise by a hiveship," he answered at last.
"Yes sir," Marks acknowledged as he began to carry out the tasks he'd been given. Hank for his part toggled the intercom again.
"Bridge to engineering. Colonel Carter what's our status? Have we sustained any damage?"
"Sir our shields are down to eighty-five percent though the matrix is regenerating quickly and will be back to full strength within another two or three minutes," Colonel Carter responded immediately. "Diagnostics indicate no systemic damage and that the hull is completely intact. Sir might I ask who attacked us? Those impacts didn't feel like Ori or even Goa'uld energy blasts."
"That's because they weren't. We were attacked by the Wraith."
Shocked silence greeted that announcement. "The Wraith! What the hell are they doing in this galaxy? How the hell did they get here?" Carter repeated at last sounding both shocked and concerned. It was understandable the Wraith had after all defeated the Ancients ten thousand years ago and in the millennia since had kept the peoples of the Pegasus Galaxy locked in a cycle of culling on a scale that made the holocaust of their own history look like the work of a child, so great was the wholesale death and destruction wrought by the vampiric species over the millennia. Now they were here in this galaxy! A galaxy they'd been wanting to get their life-sucking hands on ever since then Major Sheppard inadvertently woke them from hibernation.
"I wish I knew colonel," Hank replied, inwardly shuddering to think what the Wraith had likely done to Earth and numerous other worlds in this galaxy. A galaxy richer in human life – and thus food for those foul creatures – than the Pegasus Galaxy had been in more than ten thousand years. "Continue to work on getting our hyperdrive back online. We'll head to Earth as soon as its back online."
I just hope that its still there or at least there's someone left we can save if they've been culled, he thought with an inward shudder at the thought that so many people he knew could now be dead, consumed by the Wraith. Well not physically eaten - just had their lifeforce ripped from their bodies leaving them mummified husks that looked like they'd been dead for a thousand years – but the principal was the same. Though if there were Wraith ships in orbit of Earth, well he wouldn't hesitate to kill as many of them as possible – hell he would take great pleasure in introducing them to the devastation that was a naquada-enhanced reflex warheads more than a dozen of which had been given to them – and now sat inside their most secure magazines along with the mark nine naquadria-enhanced nuclear missiles – before they'd left the other reality.
"Understood sir the hyperdrive should be back online in another fifteen minutes," Carter responded at last, bringing him out of his increasingly bleak thoughts. "I'll contact you the moment the drive is back online."
"Very good. Landry out."
No sooner than Hank signed off then the sensors on Marks console once again came to life with a warning. "Sir there's a ship dropping out of hyperspace thirty-thousand kilometres off our starboard bow," Marks reported. "We're reading one Ha'tak-class mothership. Free Jaffa Nation IFF. We're being scanned."
"Sir the mothership is hailing us," communications reported a moment later. "It's Master Bra'tac."
"Put him up on the HUD."
"Yes sir."
Immediately the holographic HUD appeared over the bridge viewports bringing in an image of the aged Jaffa Master. As expected, the old Jaffa looked shocked to see them though what was more than a little worrying was the state of the motherships bridge. Instead of being neat and orderly – the way the Jaffa liked it – the bridge showed clear evidence of repeated damage that had either not yet been repaired or which had only been partially patched up.
"General Landry your alive," Bra'tac exclaimed looking shocked.
"We are Master Bra'tac. It is good to see you again," Hank replied. "I just wish the circumstances were better."
"How are you alive? Your ship was declared lost, destroyed by the Ori over two years ago."
"It's a very long and complicated story. Needless to say, we've been elsewhere for the last two and a half years it's taken this long for us to find our way home. What's happened here? How the hell did the damned Wraith get to this galaxy?"
"It is not a complicated story certainly not as complicated as what you no doubt have to tell me," Bra'tac admitted, "but it is something I would rather discuss with you in person. With your permission myself and a few others will ring aboard the Odyssey immediately."
"Of course, you may. I will await you in the briefing room." Bra'tac nodded and disconnected the transmission from his end making the holographic HUD blink out of existence. "Major Marks contact Teal'c have him meet Master Bra'tac at the ring room. Then instruct the rest of SG-1 to meet me in the briefing room."
"Yes sir."
"You have the conn major."
"Yes sir."
As Marks acknowledged the transfer of bridge command Hank stood up and began making his way towards the main briefing room. He was dreading what the elderly, but still formidable as nobody who knew him would say that Bra'tac was in anyway a weakling despite being nearly one and a half centuries old, Jaffa warrior was going to say. It was bound to not be of the good, the presence of the Wraith ensured that. Still, he would have to hear it…
…as it was only by knowing what had happened that he could try to fix this.
Teal'c appeared calm as he made his way to the ring room to meet Master Bra'tac. However, those who knew him well, who had interacted with the great Jaffa warrior – who had done more to liberate his race from their eons long enslavement to the Goa'uld than anyone – for long enough would see that his calmness was only skin deep. Beneath it Teal'c was worried, very worried as the very last thing this galaxy needed had apparently happened and the Wraith had come. As if the Ori hadn't been enough, he thought, now we have to contend with the Wraith.
Had someone asked him Teal'c would have admitted that the Wraith scared him. He saw no shame in admitting that as the vampiric humanoids were an undeniably powerful and dangerous opponent, one who had long ago defeated the Ancients themselves in a war that had – in this reality at least as it had gone on for twice as long in the other reality though the outcome had ultimately been the same – raged across the length and breadth of the Pegasus Galaxy for a hundred years. In many ways he saw the Wraith as an enemy that was far more terrifying than the Goa'uld had ever been as while the Goa'uld had been evil even they didn't routinely round up and feed upon the lifeforce of entire planetary populations.
At the same time though he was puzzled. How had the Wraith managed to make it to this galaxy? Wraith hyperspace technology was far too primitive to allow them to make such a journey, indeed the very organic nature of their technology should have prevented it as even in their own galaxy they had been limited to short hyperspace jumps due to the radiations found in subspace having a deleterious effect upon their technology. Which required them to periodically come out of hyperspace to let their ships regenerate the damage, a process that could take up to fifteen hours depending on how many jumps they'd made. There was also the issue with the Ori. Surely the crusader army and the Priors would have recognized the Wraith for the threat they were and moved to counter them the moment they arrived in this galaxy.
Teal'c put such questions out of his mind as he arrived at the ring room. Hopefully he would get his answers as to what had happened over the last two and a half years soon. In the meantime, he had to greet an old friend. Politely he nodded to the marine – wearing Gladius armour, which he had to admit to being a very impressive piece of kit – standing near the controls for the platform. The marine nodded back and tapped the crystals in the proper sequence, letting Master Bra'tacs Ha'tak know that they were ready to receive the ring transmission.
For a moment more nothing happened then the ring platform activated with the five transporter rings rising from the floor mounted platform into the normal transport configuration. Light flashed within the rings as the transport itself took place then the rings retracted back into the floor, leaving behind Bra'tac, the Tok'ra Malek and a noticeably older, and worn down looking, Colonel Ferretti.
"Tek'ma'te Master Bra'tac," Teal'c said in greeting as he and Bra'tac grasped arms in a warrior greeting, which among the Tau'ri had evolved into the handshake.
"Teal'c it is very good to see you again old friend," Bra'tac replied, his voice calm but in his eyes Teal'c could clearly see profound relief and joy that he was still alive. "I thought you had died over two years ago."
"As General Landry said it is a very long story," Teal'c answered with a slight smile. "Malek, Colonel Ferretti it is good to see you again."
"Hey Teal'c," Ferretti replied with a slight smile.
"Teal'c," Malek acknowledged with a polite nod.
"This way please," Teal'c said turning and leading the way towards the briefing room.
"Whoa what's that armour those marines are wearing and what's with the weapons," Ferretti asked having eyed the advanced looking armour – that to his mind looked like something that had just stepped out of Mass Effect or Halo – and large but sleek rifles the marines guarding the ring room had been wearing and holding.
"The armour is referred to as Gladius armour," Teal'c explained, "and the rifles are AR5 pulsed particle rifles. They were developed in the place we were sent to after engaging the Ori in battle following the racial suicide of the Asgard and the destruction of Orilla."
"The Asgard committed suicide?" Malek asked.
"Yes, as you are no doubt aware by now the Asgard had been having difficulties with genetic degradation caused by the overuse of cloning technology."
"Yes, what of it?"
"Their final attempt to solve it unfortunately backfired and left them with a rapidly progressing disease that would have killed them all slowly and painfully," Teal'c explained, "so they chose to pass on to the next world on their own terms. That is why Thor summoned the Odyssey to Orilla to both pass along a final legacy and so we could be witness to their final sacrifice."
"All the new technology our sensors detected on this ship is Asgard," Bra'tac asked.
"Not all of it no. A number of technologies but especially the main reactor, hull armour and some of the ships weapon's systems are the technologies of another race, just like the Gladius armour and rifles."
"I take it that's part of the long story," Ferretti commented.
"Indeed."
The four of them went quiet at that as Teal'c led them through the corridors of the Odyssey – corridors that had a much sleeker, more high-tech look to them than before with many of the previously exposed conduits and junction boxes now hidden behind trinium panels – towards the briefing room.
It did not take them long to arrive and none of the three visitors were surprised to find not only General Landry but the rest of SG-1 waiting for them. Though what did surprise Ferretti was the fact that Colonel Mitchell wasn't in his normal uniform but was wearing a flight suit of some kind that was made of a silver-white material with a red stripe running down the centre. It looked far more advanced than the flight suit he would have worn previously and honestly looked like something that had stepped out of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica – well before everything went to hell in a handbasket.
"Master Bra'tac, Colonel Ferretti, Malek welcome to the new and improved Odyssey," General Landry said in greeting before gesturing to both the chairs opposite him and the pitcher of iced water and glasses sitting on the table. "Please be seated, help yourselves to refreshments if you wish."
"Thank you, General Landry," Bra'tac answered, seemingly content to be the spokesperson for the group. "It is beyond gratifying to see you all alive and well. I am sure that you have a great many questions for us as we do for you."
"Correct," Landry replied, "as I said earlier it is a very long story."
"No doubt but before we begin sir, I have to tell you something. Something that I know you won't like hearing," Ferretti said, voice and face grim expressive eyes dark with a mixture of pain, grief and simmering anger.
"What is it Colonel," Landry asked though he already had a good idea what it was that Colonel Ferretti was going to say, though that didn't stop him from hoping and preying that he was wrong.
"Earth has fallen to the Wraith."
Authors Notes: Well, the first chapter of the first sequel bites the dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. Before anyone asks how the Wraith have gotten to the Milky Way, and what has happened with the Ori in the two and a half years our heroes have been gone, let me say that all will be revealed in the next chapter. Hopefully I will have it ready soon, but I naturally cannot make any promises, real life and all that. Finally let me wish you all a happy new year, hopefully 2022 will be much better than last year was. Until next time stay safe everyone.