18 – The War / Earth

(USS Spera – Bridge – 05.03.2022, 1307)

The fleet was in position. Thirteen ships and one Antarctic outpost, that was all Earth had to defend herself from the incoming Terran forces. Fleet One was holding position above Antarctica, hoping to draw some of the Terran forces away from populated areas and into the range of the outpost. Fleet Two was holding position on the far side of the planet. ~Divide and conquer.~ Vale thought as he walked into the bridge. He made his way to Science Console One, where the newest member of the crew was preparing for the coming battle.

"How are we looking, Dylan ?"

Doctor Dylan Calhoun turned to Vale. The colonel still couldn't believe he was Nicholas Rush's nephew. Not only did he not really look like the Scottish scientist, he had a very different disposition.

"As ready as we're going to get. The weapons are fully charged, the rack of nuclear missiles has been installed and we have turned off all non-essential systems and diverted the power to the shields. Which boosted the shields to forty percent above normal."

"Sounds good to me," Vale nodded and went to the Flight Control One. "T'Zalo, how are we looking in the fighter department ?"

"We have ten squadrons of F-302's, each good for sixteen birds." T'Zalo said. "And the Tria has eight Puddle Jumpers ready to go."

The Tria had come with six Puddle Jumpers, but Spera had carried another two. Those two had been transferred before the battle. Two teams of engineers had also installed a rack of nuclear missiles in the shuttlebay on deck seven. It was home to eighteen nuclear missiles, fitted with warheads powerful enough to take out an Al'kesh with a single shot. Vale sat down in the command chair, which turned out to be just in time. Because a series of beeps from Calhoun's console indicated that time had run out.

"Here they come," Calhoun began. "I'm reading sixty Ha'tak-class ships and a lot of Al'kesh and Deathgliders, boss."

So they were outnumbered at least four-to-one. ~What else is new ?~ The enemy fleet entered weapons range, but did not open fire. ~What are they waiting for ?~ Alas, the ball was in the Terran's court. So there was nothing for them to do, but wait.

(TIS Superior – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1315)

The commander of the Seventh Fleet let the Tau'ri wait for two reasons. He wanted to get his ships in position and he wanted to get on his enemy's nerves. He noticed that the enemy had split their forces in two, forcing him to do the same. ~And the position of the smaller fleet above Antarctica, to draw us within range of the Ancient outpost. Whoever is in command, they are smart.~

But the numbers were on his side. And the Terran Imperial Ship Superior was the most advanced ship in service. ~Time to begin.~ He gave his communications officer several orders, then stepped onto the holo-communicator platform. There was a hum as the device engage and the transmission was send out.

(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 05.03.2022, 1317)

The briefing room had been converted into a Combat-Information-Center. Brigadier Carter was talking to one of the technicians when the air in the middle of room rippled. Carter recognized it as an Asgard holographic projection. But that was not the problem. The problem was the person being projected. ~Are you kidding me !? We killed this guy ! Like, really, really killed this guy !~ He was wearing a solid black uniform, with five stars on his shoulders. Three were gold and two silver.

"I am Grand Admiral Apophis ! Commander of the Seventh Fleet !"

"Are you kidding me !? Didn't we kill this guy !?" President Quinn said. "Like, several times over."

The Joint Chiefs had wanted him to stay in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which was a very secure bunker located deep underneath the White House. But he had beamed from the PEOC to Stargate Command several minutes before they had gone to Defcon One. Carter was busy in the make-shift CIC, so the President was using her office. When he had heard the sound of the holographic project, he had come to see what was happening. Grand Admiral Apophis ignored him and kept going.

"Surrender now, or we will burn you world to ashes."

Carter and Quinn exchanged looks. The president stood in front of the Grand Admiral.

"No."

"Very well, you have chosen your fate."

The hologram faded away. Quinn knew that now it was only a matter of time before the shooting started. But he also knew that there had been no other possible answer.

(TIS Superior – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1320)

Apophis had stepped off the holo-communicator platform. ~No.~ It had been a short and clear answer. ~Nothing like what the files said.~ His superiors had provided him with a report on President Quinn. They had thought that Quinn would be weak and slow to act. But instead, he had put his foot down and made it clear where this version of Earth stood.

And he had no doubt that the Tau'ri would put up quite the fight. ~Time for phase two.~ Meaning the destruction of the enemy fleet, which would be followed by a ground invasion. He turned to the weapons officer and gave the order to open fire. But as the fleet unleashed its first salvo, they were unaware that this battle was had attracted attention from somewhere else. But for now, these interested parties were merely watching.

(USS Spera – Bridge – 05.03.2022, 1321)

Spera was firing everything she had. Between her energy weapons and the nuclear missiles, she was doing a considerable amount of damage. But it was only a matter of time before she took some of her own. To her portside, Tria and Chaser were unleashing salvos of energy bolts to take out anything that came through.

"Nice shooting, people," Vale said. "Keep it up."

Laura Cadman was manning the weapons console. She fired the energy weapons at a wave of Deathgliders, while Calhoun unleashed more missiles. As two of the gliders exploded, a group of eight F-302's engaged the rest. The squadrons had launched minutes ago, but it had taken time for them to get into range of the enemy.

~Go get them, Cameron.~ SG-1 had wanted to join in on this fight, but General Kersey had said no. Instead, he had assigned Colonel Mitchell to command the Prometheus' fighter wing. The rest of the team had been send to the Antarctic outpost to defend it from Terran ground forces.

"T'Zalo, give me maneuver Alpha Three."

"Yes, sir," T'Zalo said.

The ship was hit by several large bolts from a nearby Ha'tak-class ship. There were sparks and alarms as the ship took stock of the damage. More bolts were launched towards them, but now the ship was dodging and weaving as Vale had ordered. So these bolts failed to connect. Vale was about to order another maneuver, but T'Zalo beat him to it.

The turn lined the Spera up to provide cover fire for the Korolev, which was attacking a pair of enemy capital ships. Calhoun unleashed the remaining missiles, eliminating the Al'kesh protecting those ships. This allowed the Korolev to hit the Ha'tak-class ships with her Asgard beams. Cadman unleashed a salvo of energy bolts, further damaging the targets. Alas, the Terrans returned the favor.

"Weapons down to eighty percent, shields at ninety," Alec Colson said from the Engineering console. "If you have a clever plan, now would be the time."

"Maybe. T'Zalo, how far are we from the moon ?"

"Four minutes at full sub-light, sir."

"Then you know where we're going. Alec, they'll chase us…"

"So, turn off the forward units and divert all the power to the rear firing guns."

"That's the plan," Vale said. "Colonel Cadman, make them hurt."

"Yes, sir," Cadman said.

Spera bolted towards the moon as fast as she could. And like Vale had said, the Terrans followed. So she began firing her weapons for all she worth.

(TIS Superior – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1325)

Apophis watched as one of the Tau'ri ships bolted towards the planet's moon. And two of his Ha'tak-class ships followed, along with all their support ships. ~What are they up to ?~ According to the intelligence files he had been provided, there were no Tau'ri outposts on this moon.

But what worried Apophis was the fact that he had not been provided any information on the colonel in command of Spera. This "Marc Vale" was a complete mystery to Imperial Intelligence. And attempts to find his counterpart in the Terran universe had failed. It was ship commanded by a ghost.

"Helmsman, pursuit course after target Beta Three."

"Yes, sir," The officer manning the helm said.

Superior pulled away from the main fight and started shooting at the ghost's ship. But whoever was flying that ship was no slough, because not a single bolt managed to connect. As they chased their target, Apophis looked around the bridge. The room was square, with an elaborate throne in the middle. This lavish seat was the command chair. The room had originally been completely Goa'uld, but Ancient and Wraith consoles had been added. Also, there were Terran add-ons attached to the Goa'uld consoles. His study was ended when the weapons officer spoke up.

"Sir, the enemy vessel is…," That was as far as the man got before the ship was hit. "No damage to shields, Grand Admiral."

"Deploy the Deathgliders."

He had kept the flagship's gliders in reserve, just in case. But now was a good time to deploy them and deal with whatever the ghost had in mind by destroying his vessel.

(Tria – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1328)

The Al'kesh that Tria had been exchanging fire with exploded. In a matter of minutes, the lines had vanished and the battle had become a chaotic scramble. It was a mix of dogfighting and ships trying to broadside one another, with some submarine fighting added for good measure. But despite all the chaos, Yin still noticed that the Spera was bolting towards the moon. And that the Terrans were following.

"What the hell is Vale doing ?" He asked, not really expect an answer.

There were no outposts on the moon and Colonel Vale knew that. ~So why is going there ?~ One thing was sure, the Colonel was not running. Yin had read the Colonel's service file and psych profile. ~Running is not what he does.~ His tactic had allowed Spera to divert all her power to the aft weapons, which had ended four Al'kesh and seven Deathgliders. Meanwhile, the Tria and Chaser were helping the Korolev in her fight as best as they could. But all three ships were taking a beating. And so was the rest of the fleet.

~Time to come up with a clever plan, Hu.~ Checking the sensors, he saw that the ships above Antarctica were in the same pickle. So luring them towards the Antarctic outpost was not an option. As for the outpost, it was shooting anything it could. But the chaotic nature of the battle was making it impossible for the outpost to really cut loose. Which was probably exactly what the Terrans were hoping for. ~They probably know what the outpost did to Anubis' fleet back in the day.~ Fortunately, this was when the Terrans found out the hard way that Colonel Vale had already come up with a clever plan.

(USS Spera – Bridge – 05.03.2022, 1329)

Spera had reached the moon, with the Terrans following them as Vale had hoped. ~Okay, this either works or blows up in my face.~ Alas, there was only one way to find out. He hit several buttons on the control panels next to his chair. That done, he turned his chair to face Alec Colson. ~Here we go.~

"Alec, engage FTL-modules one and four at twelve percent. T'Zalo, roll us twenty degrees to port."

"What !?" Colson. "We're inside a gravity field, engaging the FTL-Drive…"

Colson realized what Vale was up to and swallowed the rest of the sentence. As T'Zalo rolled the ship, he pressed the buttons to execute Vale's orders. The computer objected, but he overrode the safeties. Then there was a beep as the modules engaged as ordered. The first thing to happen, was that Spera's shields and inertia control system kept the ship from being torn apart. This had been the biggest hurdle for the plan to overcome. Next, two particle waves erupted from the FTL-drive modules.

The particles bolted from the ship and interacted with the moon's gravity field. And this was where things had gotten technical. Vale was a soldier, not scientist. But even he knew about Einstein and relativity. And that the moon's gravity field distorted the space-time continuum. On any normal day, this effect was miniscule and harmless. Had Spera been fitted with a normal hyperdrive, this was exactly how things would have remained. But the Mark-II Faster-then-light drive was a very different animal.

As the gravity field and the particles mixed, a distortion began to form. At first, it did not appear very threatening. However, the distortion trailed behind the ship like a banner being towed by a plane. This meant that it was mixing with wake from the sublight drive, causing the energy levels to rise. And once they were high enough…

(TIS Superior – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1334)

Apophis watched as space-time distorted behind the ghost's vessel, tearing the Superior's Deathgliders apart like they were made out of tissue paper. And they were not the only ships to be destroyed. Every other Deathglider chasing the Spera was eliminated. All but two Al'kesh lost their shields, allowing the enemy to blast them to pieces. The last two Al'kesh lost their engines and ended up colliding with one of the Ha'tak-class ships.

Its shields failed and the distortion hit it head on. The sublight drives failed and it kept going, straight into Earth's gravity well. With no way to slow down, it was quickly turned into a fireball as it passed through the atmosphere and ended up exploding. ~And so the slaughter begins.~ As for the last Ha'tak-class ship, its shields took a major pounding from the distortion. Then the Spera disengaged her FTL-drive and pulled away from the moon. ~What are you up to, ghost ?~

The answer came in the form of a full salvo fired at the remaining ship. It shields were apparently not in good shape, because it only took a few shots for them to collapse. Then all the enemy had to target places where they could create secondary explosions. Which was exactly what they did. Seconds later, the ship exploded. This left the Superior alone with the Spera. And Colonel Vale did not waste any time, attacking right away.

"And so the duel begins." Apophis began. "Weapons officer, open fire !"

The man nodded and did exactly that.

(USS George Hammond – Bridge - 05.03.2022, 1335)

While the Tria and Spera were fighting their own battles, the George Hammond and the rest of First Fleet were fighting the Second Battle of Antarctica. Between the five 304's that made up the fleet and their five squadrons on F-302's, the Fleet was doing a lot of damage to the Terran armada.

At the same time, the Antarctic outpost was shooting down Deathgliders and Al'kesh left and right. John Sheppard would have preferred to get into a F-302 and get into the nitty gritty of the fight. But because he was a Brigadier now, he would had been forced to settle for operating the Hammond's weapons. He had just destroyed an Al'kesh when the Hammond was hit by a rain of weapons fire from three Ha'tak-class ships.

"Crap !" He turned to Kevin Marks, who was flying the ship. "Shields ?"

"Fifty percent and falling fast !"

"Turn her to port ! All the power to the forward Asgard beams !"

"Yes, sir."

Marks swung the ship around, while one of the engineers diverted the power to the forward weapons as ordered. Sheppard managed to fire the weapons five more times, but then there was an explosion somewhere behind him. The console screamed at him, making it extremely clear that the Asgard beams were off-line.

The good news was the Hammond had managed to do major damage herself. The first three shots had hit one of Ha'tak-class ships. Shots number one and two had taken down the shields, with the third shot hit the hyperdrive core. This had been a kill shot that also damaged the ship next to it.

That ship had been at the receiving end of shot number four and five. Its shields also collapsed, but then the third vessel fired an Ancient drone and took out the Asgard weapons. Before Sheppard could curse, three F-302's and two Puddle Jumpers flew past and opened fire on the now unshielded ship and destroyed it. ~Better.~ He had barely completed the thought when the last capital ship fired more drones. More explosions rocked the Hammond.

"We just lost the sublight drives !" One of the engineers yelled.

"Confirmed, sir." Marks said.

At that moment, the Daedalus and the Apollo attacked the last the Terran ship with their forward Asgard beams. The good news was that the ship exploded. The bad news was that the blast send out a shockwave that hit the Hammond. Her shields strained as the ship spiraled down towards the planet. It would only be seconds before they hit the surface and there was nothing anybody could do about it. The George Hammond was about to become the first Tau'ri victim of the Second Battle of Antarctica.