Starfleet Command, a few seconds later.
Josie tried to stay awake as she watched a beam of light silently erupt from the tube the blonde woman was holding. Her increasingly tired eyes then watched the other so-called 'Slayers' as they activated their tubes of light. She then looked back at the blonde and watched the her pull back the blade, and then stab one of the creature's through the armour. Josie was stunned as she watched her, and the other women and girls punch, throw, cut, and stab through the Kull warriors that had surrounded her. Eventually Kull Warrior body parts lay around Josie's body on the ground; however, there was very little blood around her since the light blades seemed to cauterized the cuts.
"Slayers! Angel, Spike, Kathy," cried the blonde pressing down an object in her left ear. Josie watched the blonde then double press the same button on the metal tube, and the blade retracted back into the handle. She then clipped the tube to a clip on her right hip before going down on one knee next to her, "fan out. Faith, you know what to do. Everyone else, break into your teams and go after the Kull Warriors in Starfleet Command."
Once everyone acknowledged that order, Buffy looked back at the injured Josie while reaching into a small pocket on her belt. Josie struggled to talk, but Buffy asked her to take it easy. "You're going to be alright." Josie watched Buffy take out a two inch tube filled with a silvery coloured liquid. She then watched the blonde take off one end to reveal a needle while she pressed some coloured lights on the casing itself. "This is a nanite solution that's supposed to be tuned to my DNA. I've just reprogrammed it…." Josie saw a green flash from the sides of the partly transparent tube before she continued to speak, "and now it can work on anyone. Don't worry, it'll fix up your injuries in no time. Oh, ansd the nanites will be absorbed into your bloodstream after they're done, with no trace."
Buffy then looked at the Slayer looking back at her before she stabbed the needle into the young woman's thigh. Buffy then watched the liquid get into the young Slayer's body, and before long Josie arched her back and closed her eyes. She opened her mouth to release a silent scream while Buffy pulled out the device and held Josie down with one hand. "You were badly injured, that's why it's a little uncomfortable. Trust me, I know what it feels like. Look at me… look at me."
Josie opened her eyes at Buffy as she felt her body burning. She felt her wounds closing, her muscles re-stitching themselves, she felt each and every internal injury and scar through her whole body heal. The process was painful… but it lasted only for a few more seconds. And then the pain was gone. She looked up at the blonde who then stood up before reaching down and offering her hand… a hand that Josie grasped before she was pulled up to her feet.
Josie then heard the sounds of fighting all around her. Looking around, the Slayer saw women throwing the beings that the blonde called Kull Warriors to the side, while others snapped the necks of the armoured beings. She saw a lot of the women with the light blades cut the Kull Warriors down while their armour protected them from the plasma bursts.
Josie then turned to the blonde who walked over to one side and picked up the Slayer scythe. She watched the blonde turn around with the weapon in her hand, while smiling down at it.
"I missed you too," she whispered before looking up at Josie, "it's been a long time since I held the scythe."
"You're really a slayer?" asked Josie as the blonde returned the Scythe to her before she looked at all the other women again, and then back at Buffy. "I.. I thought I was the only one. I…"
"What's your name?" asked Buffy as she held the tube in her hand once again.
"Josie… Josie Charney."
"Josie, I'm Buffy… Buffy Summers."
"No, no way, absolutely no way," stammered Josie while shaking her head in disbelief, "Buffy Summers died and… I mean it's been three hundred over years and she's dead. She and the others are dead, and"
"You mean Faith? Rona? Violet?" said Buffy as Josie's eyes went wide, "oh yeah, we're still alive and kicking."
"How?" asked Josie with disbelief still etched on her face.
"oh you know, good food. Plus, I exercise a lot, oh and there's this skin cream that..."
"I.. I mean I've read up on you," a flustered Josie interupted Buffy, "I read up on Faith and the others, and I read the Watcher diaries with Miss Amara and…. Dear God, how are you alive and…. And… wait… wait…. No… no… I mean… no…. no… wait," Josie said as her voice pitched higher while waving her hands about excitedly, "how are you really alive? How are… I mean I'm a big fan and… oh, oh, did you really die twice?"
"Kinda," Buffy chuckled.
"Cool," said Josie while battles were taking place all over the Starfleet Command Compound.
"Josie?" said Buffy as she handed the scythe back to the young woman while looking at the device attacked to her already scorched and bloody shirt, "what's that?" Buffy nodded at the device before staring at Josie's face when the latter replied it was a shield.
"Computer?" asked Josie as Buffy looked on impressed, "energy levels?"
"Emitters are charged to eighty percent," the voice of the computer replied.
"So," Buffy said as she took off the tube from her belt clip, and pressed the button; the blue blade extending outwards silently, "let's do what we're supposed to do. We save the world. And then we talk."
"I can go with that," answered Josie before she commanded the shield to activate. While the both of them rushed to the many fights around them, Faith and several others were at the Stargate for the primary phase of the plan to save the world.
Location of Stargate, Presidio, Stargate Command.
"I'm at the Gate," said Faith looking up at the active Stargate, with several armed men and women with the Tau'ri military. They were all decked out with anti-Kull Warrior rounds as they took up positions and fired their weapons. Faith and another Slayer was providing cover as she sliced a Kull warrior into two while two other Slayers were preparing the energy shield that would cover the wormhole, just like an Iris. All the while, Faith and three other slayers were taking care of the Warriors that were still walking through the Stargate.
And the other Slayers, along with the Tau'ri military personnel, were using their weapons to cut down the Kull Warriors heading towards them.
As for the Warriors coming through the Stargate, once they stepped through, they were cut down by the glowing blades wielded by Faith and another Slayer, all while two other Slayers would dump the dead bodies on either side on the Gate. This went on until there were ten bodies on either side before the shield was put into place.
"Activate the shield," yelled Faith. A second later, a silver force field covered the event horizon of the wormhole.
And then the arrival of more Warriors stopped; all that happened now was that the shield flared multiple times as the incoming Kull Warriors were unable to materialize on the other side of the Stargate. That led Faith to contact Buffy and Willow, "B? Red? Stargate is secured. Slayer Teams, SG-1, SG-2 SG-3, and SG-4 are preparing to search and destroy all Kull Warriors in the immediate area. I need an engineering team here to access the Gate control crystals so that we could trace the wormhole back to it's origin."
"Beam down engineering teams," said Jon from the Vantage as they waited for the Cardassian and Breen response to their ultimatum.
Cardassia Prime.
The Tau'ri ships over Cardassia Prime had already destroyed the Cardassian orbital defenses; the Gallor class ships that were in orbit of the planet. It was an act that was shown to all ships in the war zone, including to Legate Broca and the ships over Earth as a warning for the Cardassians to back off. It was a statement that was supposed to show that the Tau'ri werent fooling around, that they had the technological advantage. However, despite the carnage in orbit, the Cardassians and Breen did not back off. In an underground bunker, Damar watched stunned at a monitor with several other rebels around him as the Daedalus class Tau'ri ships decimated the Cardassian Gallor class vessels protecting their homeworld.
"They won't surrender," Damar whispered before turning to one of his people and ordered him to find out the location of Legate Broca. "I need to get him to surrender." Damar saw the looks on the people around him; some were in disbelief that he was ordering them to stand down, especially upon seeing the destruction of the orbital fleet. Others were enraged for that exact same reason, and felt thatg he didnt care for the honor of his own people. Damar then lifted his hands and said, "I don't know if these Tau'ri have the inclination to fire nuclear weapons that cause such destruction. We have seen the simulation and yes, while it may be a lie, we must remember that these people are an unknown. They are not the Federation and do not seem to follow their rules; and thus, we cannot condemn Cardassian civilians; men, women, and children to this mass destruction. That is not the Cardassia I know. Contact Broca, I have to tell him to surrender now. Or we lose our planet forever."
Damar knew he got through to a few of his men. But the others were still angry about the call to surrender. He knew that calling the Tau'rfi ships in orbit and surrendering would be fruitless especially since he wasn't the military leader anymore. He knew that the civilians, who were tired of war, would more than likely come to his side but the problem was that most of the military was on the side of Broca and the Dominion, 'and now they are being taken in by promises of power by Ba'al.'
He then realized that there was only one thing he could do to minimise the damage to innocent life. Damar went on the planet-wide communication channel while the others were contacting officers they knew in the military. As they were making their calls, Damar was calmly telling all civilians to get to underground bunkers while, at the same time, a program was running to prevent the signal from being traced to its source.
Once the announcement had been made for all civilians to seek shelter, Damar was told that Broca was on Deep Space Nine.
"Contact him on Terok Nor," Damar ordered.
But it would be too late as the seconds ticked past the deadline.
Deep Space Nine, a minute earlier.
Broca watched as the ships that emerged out of the breaches in space proceeded to fire on the Ha'tak class ships. He and the others watched, distracted from what they were doing, as one of the Pyramid ships exploded while several flashes of white light shone all over the ship.
Including in the Command Center.
Captain Sisko watched as several men and women appeared and aimed weapons at the Cardassians immediately after the lights faded away. He watched the Cardassians aim their own phasers at the newcomers. In the Promenade, several flashes of white light deposited men and women who aimed weapons at the Cardassians, some of whom had line up Bajorans along the walls of the station and were prepared to fire a few seconds after the Daedalus class ships arrived.
"Don't," said a young armoured man as he, and two others, aimed their weapons at the Cardassians who were about to fire at the Bajoran men and women, "put down the weapons, very slowly. One wrong move, and I'll pull this trigger. So, put the weapon down."
The Cardassians looked around them, and found that they were surrounded in the Promenade. Even the Cardassian who was about to shoot Worf felt a barrel of a weapon pointed at his head.
Back in the Control Center, a blonde woman aiming a weapon at Broca spoke first, "My name is General Sam Carter-O'Neill of the Pegasus Alliance, I'm telling you to put your weapons down. And then? Then I want you to contact your military and order them all to surrender in the next… oh… fifty seconds."
Broca stared at the blonde armoured woman as she aimed a weapon directly at him. Broca stepped forward and shook his head.
"I am the military leader of the Cardassian Union," he said, "I will not surrender. My people will not surrender. All you and your people have shown us is fiction. Humans… humans now are an enlightened race that would never launch such an attack. You may have destroyed the fleet over Cardassia, but more will come to fight you. And that is all you will do. Humans will never launch a nuclear strike against innocents."
"I know who you are," said the General as she glared at Broca, "and we're not the Federation. In fact, we are not associated with the Federation. You don't believe us? Ask Ba'al what we did to the Goa'uld."
Sisko, the other Federation officers, and the Bajorans listened as the General told Broca that she and her people didn't want to fire on civilians, "but to stop your alliance with Ba'al? To show you that we mean business when we ask your people to pull back, we will destroy everything to make our point very clear. In fact, we'll be doing Ba'al a favour."
"You…"
"Ba'al doesn't care about you, the Breen, or anyone else," said the General as she aimed her weapon at his chest, "he cares about his own power. He cares about the Goa'uld being the only race technologically powerful enough to enslave the other races. The fact that the Goa'uld didn't know about your race is surprising. But if they knew? They would have bombarded your planet from orbit, and send you back to the dark ages. Surrender, and we won't fire. You keep on going? We'll be the ones destroying you."
"Broca?" said Sisko, sensing the seriousness of what General Carter was saying, as he sat next to Dax, "listen to her. The Federation and the Cardassian Union have to hold the line against the Goa'uld, and the Dominion. That is the only way forward for peace, and that is the only way for Cardassia to become a power again.. a power that redeemed itself."
"Legate," said another Cardassian officer as he looked up from a console which showed two more Ha'tak class vessels were destroyed, "our reinforcements are being pinned down at the airlocks. We're reporting some kind of blue energy beams stunning several of our soldiers."
"Sir, the fourth pyramid ship has been destroyed." Another Cardassian soldier said.
"You have twenty seconds," said the General as the last Goa'uld ships was destroyed before the Daedalus class ships turned and aimed their weapons at the Cardassian vessels that were not docked at the station, "we destroyed the Goa'uld ships in a little under a minute. And now our weapons are targeting your ships here. In addition, our ships over your planetalready have, or are currently destroying your orbital defences as we speak. After that, we will target a number of areas using nuclear weapons. You have fifteen seconds to surrender."
"Broca, surrender," pleaded Sisko who wasn't aware that the General told a lie. While the simulations did indeed show what would happen if a nuclear strike was carried out using a Horizon Weapon System, it was decided up until the last moment before the fleet exited over Earth to use a Mark Eight nuclear weapon against a single military target. If that did not convince the Cardassians that the Tau'ri meant business, then a single Horizon weapon would be launched.
Broca glared at the General, he knew that the Cardassians had been weakened to the lowest point in their proud history. They had to depend on the Dominion to regain power, and then on Ba'al. He knew that part of what General Carter said could be true, that Ba'al was going to turn on them. But Broca believed a deal could be reached where the Cardassians would be the Goa'ulds enforcers.
"Ten seconds," warned the General.
"I will not surrender. The Cardassians will never surrender," Broca then looked at all the Cardassians in the control room and ordered them to fire, "all ships, fire on the Tau'ri vessels!". The General then ordered the gathered Federation and Bajoran personnel in the Control Center to get down. Sisko pushed down Dax and shielded her with his body, while others went down to ground as the Cardassians who aimed weapons at them were fired upon before falling onto the floor, their bodies crackling with blue energy. The sounds of electrical discharge echoed throughout the Control Center for the next ten seconds.
By the time the weapons had gone silent, over ten of the Cardassian ships had been destroyed. Their shields were unable to withstand the Ancient weapons on the Daedalus class vessels for more than two shots. The pulses of plasma hit the shields, which then flared and collapsed as the weapons continued on until it penetrated the hull of the ships.
Earth Orbit, two seconds past the deadline.
"A minute has passed, sir," said Riker as he looked out the gaping hole where the viewing screen used to be and stared at Voyager hovering over the saucer section to provide some measure of protection for the Federation flagship.
"They cannot really fire nuclear weapons at the Cardassian and Breen homeworlds?" said Troi soon after Crusher had to leave the bridge after one of the many Admiral's on board was brought into the infirmary due severe internal bleeding.
"Hail Captain Janeway," said Picard. Once he had a ship to ship connection, the Captain welcomed Janeway back to the Alpha Quadrant, "but I wish it was under better circumstances."
"You and me both, Captain," said Janeway as she stared at the ships on her view screen, "we have already sent Dr. Crusher and your medical team any supplies we could spare. I'm guessing that we'll be in for a fight very soon."
"That would be safe to assume, Captain," said Picard, "you have spent some time with these Tau'ri it seems, Captain. Do they mean what they say? About nuclear weapons?"
"Captain," said Janeway, "we helped them with the simulation. As to whether they really do have nuclear weapons on board? That's something even our scans haven't been able to pick up." And then, before they could continue with Janeway telling them abut the Tau'ri being from Earth's past, Willow's voice rang through the fleet.
"This is General Rosenberg," Willow said as she looked out of the clear window, and out to the enemy fleet, "your one minute has passed. To the Cardassians, I received word from someone at Deep Space Nine that your military leader, Legate Broca, has fallen- he's stunned, but alive. The Cardassian invasion force on the station is being put down as we speak. Our people, as well as Federation and Bajoran officials, are about to accept the surrender of the Cardassians on the station. As for the Breen, we have not heard anything from your leadership… in fact we haven't heard anything from anyone in this fleet. This is your last chance to surrender. To the Cardassians and the Breen, I'm asking you to go to your home planets and surrender to the commanders of the battlegroups in orbit. Once all your weapons have been put down, only then will we disarm the nuclear weapons. You have a choice now, turn back and go home to surrender and thus save billions of your peoples lives. Or you can fire at us, or at the Federation ships, or at the planet below, and know what wrath really means. What do you choose?"
"Open hailing frequencies!" yelled Picard when Voyager's shield suddenly flared. Picard looked on with eyes wide open as all hell broke loose after the Cardassiana and Breen ships made their decision; the opened fire. He ordered all channels open as the Breen and Cardassian ships fired on the Pegasus Alliance vessels with the Goa'uld ships joining in. Ba'al just watched as several of the Breen and Cardassian ships were destroyed by weapons fire from the Pegasus Alliance. It was then that a Jaffa rushed up to him and said that the Kull Warriors on the surface were being attacked, and that their sensors showed the Stargate was blocked by an energy shield.
"Launch all death gliders," said the Goa'uld system lord, "I gave them the option to surrender, I sent my queen down to convince them to surrender. So I suppose they need to see what happens when they do not listen. Have the fighters destroy the entire city if they have to. Kill those attacking the Warriors, and then I want that shield disengaged."
"Yes, my lord," said the Jaffa before he rushed back to a console and relayed that order to all the death-gliders on the mother ship and the remaining Ha'tak class ships over Earth.
"General," yelled an officer who turned to Jon while Willow was at another console authorising a single Horizon weapons strike, instead of ten, directed at Cardassian and Breen military bases and their surrounding areas. The man told Jon that hundreds of Death Gliders were being launched towards the surface; specifically San Francisco and Oakland.
"This is General O'Neill to all Arrows, launch! Launch! Launch!" ordered Jon before contacting the Galactica which also detected the launch. Jon contacted Apollo who said that he already gave the order to launch all Vipers. In the meantime, Willow, having heard everything, contacted Dawn on Atlantis and told her that fighters were heading her way.
"I see them," said Dawn as she stared at the primary screen in Stargate Operations before ordering the technicians to activate the shield and extend it to cover both San Francisco and Oakland. While the shield extended out to cover the two cities, Angel and the two vampires were tearing through the ranks of the Kull Warriors thanks to specially made Ancient shields that nullified the effects of Earth's sun. The ensouled vampire, Kathy, and Spike worked with the Slayers and the Tau'ri weapons teams to take out the Warriors while the Atlantis shield flared as weapons fire from the Death Glider impacted.
Cardassia Prime.
In the meantime, a single clocked Mark Eight nuclear device was launched, after confirmation of Willow's order, towards the surface of the Breen homeworld and Cardassia Prime, just as Damar was told that Broca was located in Deep Space Nine. Just as Damar was about to contact Deep Space Nine to convince Broca to surrender, alarms blared throughout his base of operations.
"Sensors are detecting a radiation spike!" yelled one of his men as Damar went to another console in a state of panic. He realized that people were still getting to their shelters as a screen activated looking out to a city thousands of miles away. It was a city that was on the outskirts of a vast complex that housed one of their weapons research facilities. Damar and the others in the underground base saw a streak in the sky from a cloaked object which decloaked once it passed the cloud cover. He saw the cylindrical object falling towards the complex with eyes wide open in fear.
He then ordered all defensive weapons to fire at the object.
However, it was too late. Damar watched in horror as, while men in the complex were running to their posts, while civilians were still running for cover as fast as they could; the object continued its trajectory. Then, all of a sudden, thrusters fired from the rear of the object as it sped up and then crashed into the Complex. There was a column of smoke from the hole caused by the cylindrical object.
And then there was an explosion.
And that was all Damar and his people saw before there was a bright white flash as the complex was ripped apart. A few seconds later, the ground shook as they stumbled onto the floor while protecting themselves from falling debris. However, the people in the complex and the surrounding areas weren't lucky.
Orbit of Earth.
"I'm sorry," Willow whispered as a real-time video showed the single mushroom cloud rising into the air from the surface of Cardassian Prime and from the Breen homeworld. The same images were transmitted to the ships that were still fighting the Pegasus Fleet while trying to defend the damaged Federation vessels over Earth. Even the crew of the Federation ships that still had communication capabilities, such as Voyager, watched the destruction with eyes wide open in horror.
As did the crew on Deep Space Nine, with Sisko spinning back at the General before saying that they had gone too far.
"They made their choice," said General Carter as she stared at Sisko while several of the surrendered Cardassians were still unconscious as they were dragged to the walls of the Control Center, and then disarmed. Sisko, clearly unhappy about the situation, then rushed to another console and ordered Odo and Dr. Bashir to stand down from their plan.
In the space surrounding Deep Space Nine, the crews of the remaining Cardassian ships stopped firing, as did the Daedalus class vessels once General Carter asked the Cardassians once again to head back to their home. "Surrender to our ships in orbit, and then help your people rebuild. Believe me when I say that the result could have been much worse. I know the actions we have taken are not like the Simulation we showed you. This is just a small small of what we are wiling to do. Those weapons? We have ten of them in our pocket; and just one's destructive power is a hundred times what these Mark Eights have caused. So, please…. Go home. Transmit your surrender to our ships, and then start helping your people recover."
The Cardassian vessels surrounding Deep Space Nine, full of anguished crew members, then turned around and warped away. It was the same with the remaining Cardassian vessels over Earth. It was the same with the Breen vessels as well as they watched the bombing of their world by a single nuclear weapon while several Tau'ri ships were in orbit.
The two belligerent races were told that any attempt to fire on the orbiting Tau'ri ships would result in the launch of the more powerful nuclear weapons.
"We did the right thing," said Willow as she looked up from her console at General O'Neill. The woman felt slightly sick at having given the order to fire a Mark Eight at the planet. She knew that innocents would die in the strike, and so she ordered two of the medical ships over Bajor to be redirected to the Breen homeworld and Cardassia Prime to offer any medical aid if needed.
"We did what had to be done," said General O'Neill as he looked at Willow. The redhead then nodded her head before taking a deep breath.
"Jon, where's Adria? Where's Ba'al?" asked Willow shaking her head beofre looking over at Jon.
"Adria's in Paris," said Jon as he got up from his control chair and walked towards the redhead and General O'Neill, "and Ba'al's on the ship."
"General," said Willow as she looked at the older O'Neill, "Get ready to beam over to the mothership. Daniel and the others are ready for you, and you'll be heading there with one of the Slayer Squads we didn't send down to the surface. The other Slayer squad will be going to Paris with me and Vala."
"This is gonna be real fun," said Jon.
"Once we're beamed over, Jon," said Willow, "I want all ships open up with everything they have on the mothership."
"Agreed," Jon said as the Pegasus Alliance ships targeted Ba'al's mothership.
"Two minutes," said Willow as she got ready to leave for the armoury while the Pegasus Alliance ships were now destroying one Ha'tak vessel in Earth orbit after another, "and then beam us down. We finish this tonight."
TBC.