25 – Just When Think Things Can't Any Worse, This Guy Shows Up

(Zacharias – Bridge - 06.19.2022, 1235)

The Planetary Defense Grid was unleashing everything she had. But the Terran fleet was simply too big. There were a hundred-and-twenty capital ships and countless support vessels. The latter included hundreds of Deathgliders, which were fighting the Satedan Air Force inside the atmosphere.

And things were not going much better for the ships. Zacharias' shields were down fifty percent already and the weapons were taking a pounding. To make things worse, she had been separated from both the Orpheus and the Pride of Genii. At the helm, Major O'Neill was dodging his best to keep the ship from being surrounded. But their odds were not good. And when the Terran Flagship – which was even bigger then the Ha'tak-class ships – appeared ahead of them, they dropped to zero.

"Divert power to…" Larrin said.

That was as far as she got before the flagship fired a single shot. It hit them and the shields collapsed. The engineering console exploded, as did the weapons controls. Chunks of the ceiling came down, while the lights flickers.

"Our engines are down," O'Neill said. "We're a sitting duck."

Before Larrin could reply, the room went dark. And it was not the only place.

(Atlantis – Control Room - 06.19.2022, 1235)

The Terrans had dialed in and tried to send troops through the Stargate. But the iris was closed and that was that. And even if the iris had been open, their chances would not have been good. Several security teams had taken up positions around the Gate Room. And both fifty caliber guns were ready to do their thing.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Orlov was in the Control Chair and firing drones. Instead of firing large amounts of drones, he was launching one drone at a time. But he was making those single drones count, shooting down and damaging targets left and right. Beside the drones, Atlantis had also been provided with several dozen railguns. Ronon and Teyla were manning two of these, while McKay was working in the Control Room.

Woolsey had taken over Rodriguez's console, so that she could take charge of one the railguns. As for Weir, she had grabbed a P-90 and joined the security people. Suddenly, the wormhole disengaged. Before she could ask what was going on, there was an odd hum and the lights in the room faded.

(TIS Caligula – Cockpit - 06.19.2022, 1231)

The Caligula was an Al'kesh, which was parked next to the Stargate on M7F-112. 112 Was an uninhabited world at the very edge of the Pegasus Galaxy. And when the Caligula had arrived at the planet, it had discovered why fairly quickly. The planet had an orbit made it so that one side always faced the sun, while the other faced away from it. The sunny side was a scorching desert, while the dark side was solid ice. As for the Stargate, it was on the sunny side.

The Caligula had placed a special satellite in orbit of the planet. Before landing and beginning making modifications to the Stargate. Those were now complete. This was reported to Colonel Anita Sobel, the commander of the Caligula. Sobel entered a command into the ship's computer console, which caused the satellite in orbit to transmit a signal. That signal took about four minutes to reach Terran One.

(Stargate Command – General's Office - 06.19.2022, 1235)

Carter was on the phone with President Quinn when the Gate activated. There was an odd wobble on the phone and the line died. As Carter put the receiver down, the lights in the room faded out. She made her way down to the control room, where Mitchell and Anders were already on top of things. Anders was closing the iris and Mitchell was ordering security teams to the Gate Room.

"What do we have, Cameron ?"

"It's an incoming wormhole from Pegasus," Mitchell said. "But it's not coming from Atlantis."

"How is that…."

And that was when the air in the Gate Room rippled and an image formed above the ramp. ~No, it can't be.~ Carter thought. But maybe it was and if it was, they were in big trouble. She exchanged a look with Mitchell. Then the figure began speaking.

(TIS Terran One – Bridge - 06.19.2022, 1236)

The Emperor stepped onto the holographic transmitter platform. It was sending his image to the enemy flagship, Atlantis and even Stargate Command. He had send the Caligula to arrange for the last of those three.

"I am Anubis !" He began. "And I have returned !"

And he had. For countless years, he had fought Oma Desala. But then, somehow, the two of them had been separated and he had found himself in the Terran universe. In the years since, he had maneuvered himself closer to the throne. And now, he was Emperor of the Terran Empire. ~And nobody will take it from me.~

"Now I will crush the Satedans ! And then I will come for the Tau'ri ! Nothing will stop the doom I am about to bring down upon you !"

But while his return had shocked Carter and Mitchell, the Wraith had never heard of either Anubis or the Goa'uld. So they were not impressed. And they had other plans.

(Hive Ship Grand Conqueror – Bridge - 06.19.2022, 1236)

The clock on the Bravos hit zero. To catch the Terrans by surprise, the Wraith had set the clock so that their attack came minutes after the invaders launched theirs. And when Anubis had made his transmission, they had been able to identify the enemy flagship. So when the Bravos began to deploy, they knew where to go. ~The irony of us saving a Human world.~ But if Sateda fell, then its allies would soon follow. And that would leave the Wraith fighting this enemy alone. ~So here we are, coming to the aide of the Humans.~

"Commander, the first bravos have reached their target."

"You know what to do."

"Yes, Commander."

Bonewhite nodded and entered the command. Two seconds later, the Bravos began exploding.

(Zacharias – Bridge - 06.19.2022, 1237)

Anubis' image vanished and the lights came back on. At the same time, large explosions were lighting up the space around the Zacharias. The Wraith were attacking the Terrans, which gave O'Neill time to reroute things. There was a beep as the thrusters and one of the sublight engines came back on-line. ~Time to get out of here.~ He fired up the engine and set course out of the flagship's weapons range. At the same time, the weapons officer had rerouted all the remaining power to the aft weapons and used them to cut loose.

"Are we doing any damage ?" Larrin asked.

The weapons officer – a young man called Paul – checked his readings.

"Yes, Captain," He said. "But their shields are strong, ma'am."

"Keep blasting, Paul," Larrin began. "And divert all power to one shield. Jack, keep that shield facing the enemy."

Paul and O'Neill nodded. As long as they could keep moving and shooting, they would have a fighting chance. Which was exactly what Larrin intended for them to keep doing. ~Of course, sooner or later, the Wraith will run out of ships.~ But that was a problem for later. For now, they had a gameplan and were sticking to it.

(Atlantis – Chair Room - 06.19.2022, 1237)

Vasily was shooting down targets as best as he could. ~One shot at a time, Vasily.~ It was something he had learned from his father, who had been a Spetsnaz sniper. That had been until he had met a girl named Olga and had retired. Nine months later, Vasily had been born. And two years later, his mother had given birth to twins. First of the two had been Natasha and then came Nikolai. Finally, there was Alexi. Born two-and-half years after the twins, he was the youngest child.

~Alexi would love this.~ Alexi was the only other Orlov in the armed forces. He had turned eighteen years old in January and had enrolled in the Air Force, hoping to become a fighter pilot. Natasha had become a doctor and Nikolai ran the family farm. Nikolai did so together with their father, who was also called Nikolai. ~And so would dad. It's sniping taken to the next level.~ The name was a bit of a family tradition.

Vasily's grandfather had been called Nikolai. His grandfather had died before his father had been born and grandma had named the baby Nikolai Junior. And when the twins had been born, Nikolai Orlov the Third had come into the world. Completing the list, Olga was a fully trained nurse. She was still five years away from retirement, serving as the ranking nurse of an emergency room.

=/\=Lieutenant Orlov,=/\= Mister Woolsey said over the radio. =/\=How are things going over there ?=/\=

"Shooting them down as fast as I can, sir. Plenty of drones left."

=/\=Keep at it.=/\=

"Yes, sir."

So that was exactly what Vasily did. But something told him that defeating this invasion was not going to be this easy.

(TIS Rome – Bridge - 06.19.2022, 1242)

Emperor Anubis was furious, but Grand Admiral Apophis was interested. The Wraith had come to the aide of the Satedans and were doing a considerable amount of damage to the fleet. Their first victim had been the Terran One, which had been hit by three of these Wraith suicide vessels. The explosions had damaged the flagship and collapsed it shields, leaving it an easy target for the manned Wraith vessels. And it had not been the only ship to be destroyed.

As for Anubis, the Emperor had escaped the Terran One aboard a cargo ship and found shelter aboard the Rome. And he had made his anger clear by executing several of the ship's crew. Apophis, however, was studying the development. The conquest of the Pegasus Galaxy in their home universe had been in 1997.

During that conquest, Apophis had been a commodore in command of a task force in the Seventh Fleet. The Wraith they had fought had only cared about protecting their own worlds. But these Wraiths were different. ~They are pragmatic.~ They were helping the Satedans, knowing that this would force the Terrans to divide their forces between two fronts. ~Because if the Tau'ri and their allies fall, they would have to fight us alone.~ But it was only a matter of time before they ran out of ships to blow up. And once they did, Apophis would make his move.

(TIS Alexander the Great – Bridge - 06.19.2022, 1232)

Alexander had better weapons, but it turned out there prey could outrun both the ship and its energy bolts at sublight speeds. And the ship was heading towards the system's star as fast as she could. But between the star and the ship was a single planet. And Kolya suspected that this was where the Wraith would make their move. So he had no intention of letting them make it to the planet. He activated the intercom on his chair.

"Engineering, divert extra power to the engines."

=/\=Yes, Commodore.=/\=

There was a jolt as the ship increased speed. Within seconds, they entered weapons range. And then everything went horribly wrong for the Alexander and her crew.

(Hive Ship Bloody Talon – Bridge - 06.19.2022, 1233)

Despite the fact that it was leading a Wraith counterattack, command of the Bloody Talon was not considered a prestigious job. The Wraith considered it an oversized freighter, which it was. But Precision – who had been nicknamed Billy by the Tau'ri – had decided to proof that his ship was capable of doing battle. ~And winning, or else we are all dead.~ Then the enemy ship increased speed. Which was exactly what he had been hoping for. Because the only way for them to increase power was to divert power from somewhere else. And the only system that could provide enough power, were the shields.

"Weapons officer, now !"

"Yes, Commander."

One of the flaws in Wraith Hives, was the fact that all of its weapons faced either forward or sideways. It lacked rear-firing weapons. But Precision had made modifications to the Bloody Talon. He had gotten his hands on eight Traveler energy weapons on the black market and installed them to cover this gunnery blind spot.

He had also gotten his hands on two Genii warheads. These warheads had been attached to costume build missiles. These missiles were attached to two aft-facing hardpoints. When the weapons officer diverted power, the forward weapons went off-line and the Traveler guns came to life. They cut loose, hitting the Terran ship.

"Enemy shields are beginning to fluctuate, sir."

"Maintain fire, target their fighter bay and other locations that might cause secondary explosions."

"Yes, Commander."

Bloody Talon kept shooting, but the enemy returned the favor. They scored several hits, blasting holes in the hull. ~Come on, girl, don't fall apart on me now.~ It was odd, but Precision had become attached to his ship. Before his promotion, he had considered ships nothing but lifeless property. But now, things were…different.

"Divert power to hull regeneration."

"Yes, sir," The Engineer said.

As the engineer diverted the power, the Terrans blasted more holes in the Bloody Talon. So Precision decided to unleash the missiles. He watched as his weapons officer fired them. ~Here we go.~ Both missiles exploded just before they would have hit the enemy shields. And that was exactly what they had been designed to do. They created a massive energy pulse, along with a giant radiation spike.

Of course, there was plenty of radiation in space. So the ship was shielded against radiation, even if its shields were down. But the spike was big enough to overcome that. This was made easier by the fact that shields came down. At the same time, Bloody Talon was still shooting. Her bolts hit the glider bay, creating an explosion as Precision had hoped.

Two more explosions followed, before the Terrans shields came back on-line. But there was more to the plan. Because the Bloody Talon did not have any shields, it ended up absorbing part of the pulse. This was when a second modification went to work. The crew had installed a special grid that sucked up the energy and conducted it to a modified antennae. That antennae unleashed the energy at the Alexander, resulting in two of the shield emitters overloading.

This created a hole in the shields. It was at this point that Kolya found out the hard way that he had been right about the planet being a trap. While there had not been any Hive Ships or Cruisers to back up the Bloody Talon, Precision had managed to scrape together twenty-seven scout ships. And they attacked the Alexander with everything they could muster, leading to more explosions.

Meanwhile, the Bloody Talon had done a one-eighty and was now free to unleash her main weapons. After several salvos, the shields collapsed altogether. Three minutes later, the Alexander exploded. Her pursuer eliminated, the Bloody Talon and her scouts headed for M4H-212. They had an invasion to stop.