Chapter Fifteen
Fighter Rapier
Lieutenant Peter Buchannan brought the Rapier out of hyperspace at the edge of the fourth and final system they were scheduled to go to on their test run of the hyperdrive. So far the test had proceeded without difficulty – though on the way to this system the drive had started to make a funny noise. The most demanding flight was now to come – the flight back to the Resolution in the Tollan system some twelve thousand light years from their current position. But he didn't want to take any chances before going on the flight even though it hyperspace it would not take them long.
"Tark have you found what the problem is with the drive why it was making that noise?" he asked the Yuridian engineer.
"I'm working on it," Tark replied. "It looks like one of the warp coils has started to depolarise due to the strain of working in away they were never originally designed to work in. I'll have to repolarise the coil before we can open another hyperspace window. It won't take to long."
"It better not," Shirr said from weapons. "We've got company."
"What kind," Peter asked looking over at the insect-like lieutenant he could never remember the name of her species. As he was the pilot it was his place to ask questions and issue orders to Shirr and Tark as he was – as regulations stated – commanding officer of the Rapier.
"I read three Goa'uld motherships orbiting the second planet of the system," Shirr replied. "According to the files Thor transmitted to the Resolution earlier two are Ha'tac-class the other one's a Shalkra-class." Ugh oh, Peter thought. He'd studied the files on the Goa'uld motherships transmitted to the Resolution by the Valkastner after the second battle with Tanneth – they'd been included in the general database files exchanged between the two vessels. All the squadron members had. Ha'tac-class motherships were the standard workhorses of the Goa'uld fleet – each about two thirds the size of a Galaxy-class starship and carrying more than a thousand Jaffa apiece along with an armament of twelve pulse phaser cannon batteries and six plasma torpedo bays and a wing of twenty four death gliders. The Shalkra-class motherships – which was what they'd already faced and defeated in battle twice – were larger more heavily armed versions of the Ha'tac's, they were the same design just larger and carrying almost three times the armament and a squadron of Alkesh in addition to their two glider wings. For most System Lords Shalkra-class motherships served as flagships since only the top System Lords had the manpower and resources to build the monstrous Rashka-class motherships.
"Have they seen us," he demanded after a moment.
"I don't think so," Shirr replied. "I would recommend hiding behind the closest moon of the outermost gas giant. The interference from the gas giant should block their sensors."
"Feed the coordinates to my console."
"Aye sir done."
"Tark we're counting on you to repolarise that nacelle quickly," he said to Tark as he used Shirr's information to plot a course to hide them behind the nearest moon of the outermost gas giant of this system and engaged the impulse drive.
"I'm going as fast as I can," Tark shot back. "This is delicate work if I try to rush it I could miscalibrate one of the magnetic wave guides and if that happened then the plasma stream in the nacelle could tear itself apart. And I don't have to tell you what that would mean." It would cause the nacelle to burst apart and would cause their destruction.
"Do the best you can to speed it up. We don't want to be here if those motherships come after us. We could hold off one but not three."
"I'll do what I can."
*****
Goa'uld Flagship Orbiting The Second Planet
Rumak – First Prime to the god Zipacna studied the object that was only just visible on their long-range sensors with frank puzzlement. The ship was very small around the same size as an Alkesh but it wasn't an Alkesh. It was very hard to read because it was at the periphery of their scanner range they weren't able to get any real readings like energy signature or engine emission profile.
[What has your attention so completely Rumak,] Zipacna suddenly demanded from behind him making him jump. He turned around and bowed to his god.
"My lord our long range sensors are picking up a small unidentified craft on the edge of the system," he reported. "It's on the edge of our sensor range we cannot get any real readings on it."
[Interesting,] Zipacna commented. [What is the ship doing now?] Rumak turned back to the main console.
"The alien ship is moving to place the outer gas giants outermost moon between us and them. They must have seen us." Clever move, he thought to himself, exactly the kind of move I would make. The gas giant's radiation emissions will completely disrupt our long-range sensor readings. We won't be able to detect them until we're practically on top of them.
Zipacna leaned back on his throne. The alien ship moving to hide suggested that they knew who they were though he had no idea who the occupants of this new ship were. The ship could belong to anyone from the Tok'ra, to possibly the Tollan though they were still busy rebuilding after Tanneth's attack with that meddlesome Federation warship the Resolution sitting in orbit protecting them.
And that raised another possibility. The small vessel that had just teased their sensors could be a Federation ship of some sort. Possibly a scout surveying this area – it would make more sense for a small ship to be assigned to survey duties instead of a warship. It reduced the risk of an enemy spotting the ship. The Goa'uld themselves tended to use Alkesh to survey new systems instead of a mothership for that reason. If this ship was a Federation scout ship then it should be relatively easy to defeat and capture. If he could do that Anubis would be very pleased with him and maybe even increase his position in the fleet command structure as it was he was still commanding the same three motherships that he had commanded under Apophis – his forth had been blasted out of space by the Tollan two years ago when he'd tried and failed to rescue Klorell by force after they'd lost their case that Klorell should have had priority over the body of his host at the time – no more had been assigned to him to complement his armies strength, mainly due to the fact that Apophis had not been best pleased with him after that incident. If he increased in rank and power then he would certainly get more ships and more Jaffa troops to complement his own.
Anubis after all would be very pleased to get his hands on a Federation vessel so they could learn more about this mysterious group of Humans and other aliens who could prove to be the greatest threat to Goa'uld rule since they'd first bumped into the Asgard. Capturing the Federation ship – if it was one – would give them a chance to really examine Federation technology without having to worry about dodging phaser beams and one of the various torpedoes their warships seemed to carry. And if they could really analyse Federation technology and probe its secrets then they could find where the Federation was and make it pay dearly for challenging them in the first place. The lack of knowledge of where the Federation was had been one of the reasons why Anubis had not sent an armada to destroy the Resolution. For the Federation was bound to respond with a fleet of its own warships, which it had to be admitted, were vastly superior to anything the Goa'uld possessed. It would be the start of a war that the Goa'uld could not possibly win. After all if a fleet of five Shalkra-class motherships couldn't defeat even one Federation battlecruiser the last thing the Goa'uld wanted was to come face to face with the whole Federation fleet, which – if the Resolution's power was anything to go by – would be able to blast the entire Goa'uld fleet out of space without even breaking a sweat.
[Break orbit,] he ordered after a moment. [Set course to intercept the alien ship. Prime all weapons. Prepare to disable and capture.]
"Yes my lord."
The three motherships broke orbit of the planet they were orbiting and headed towards the ship that had teased their sensors. They moved rapidly accelerating to maximum impulse or two thirds light speed in less than four seconds. Within a few minutes they would intercept the unknown ship.
Sitting on his throne Zipacna ordered a tactical display to be brought up and a squadron of gliders to be launched as soon as they were within range of the alien ship. He had to disable them quickly before they could escape.
After a few moments of anxious waiting Rumak announced that they were coming into glider range of the outer gas giant's outermost moon.
[Launch gliders.]
"Yes my lord."
[Deploy the fleet into a pincer movement to trap the alien ship. Have the other two motherships go around the moon from the right we'll approach from the left.]
"Yes my lord."
*****
Fighter Rapier
Lieutenant Shirr was startled when the three Goa'uld motherships appeared on her sensor display. The three motherships were approaching at full impulse and splitting up to come at them in a pincer movement that came straight out of a basic starship combat tactics manual. Ugh oh, she thought.
"Peter," she called out.
"What," Peter asked looking back from the pilots station at the front of the small bridge which was laid out in a triangular pattern with the helm at the tip and the tactical and engineering consoles on the left and right sides respectively.
"We've got trouble. Those three motherships must have detected us their coming around the moon in a pincer movement."
"Shit! Tark how are you coming with that nacelle?"
"Almost there," Tark replied. "I need another couple of minutes. I'll do what I can to speed it up."
"The Shalkra is launching fighters," Shirr reported noting half a dozen smaller targets emerge from the largest mothership. "They will have a firing solution on us in thirty seconds."
"Shields up deploy armour," Peter ordered automatically grateful that these new Scimitar-class fighters possessed the same ablative armour technology as the Resolution though theirs was much thinner and wouldn't be able to sustain concentrated fire for as long. The shields came up as the Rapier's computer automatically sounded red alert. A loud thudding echoed through the small but powerful vessel as the armour was deployed over the hull. Peter lost his view of the stars as hexagonal plates appeared over the thick transparent aluminum windows.
The first wave of gliders came in strafing the Rapier with twin streams of phaser pulses that were effortlessly dissipated by the shields which although not regenerative like a capital ships were still capable of standing up to a number of hits from even starship grade phasers or disruptors. The Rapier shuddered only slightly under the assault.
"Return fire Shirr I'm initiating evasive action," Peter called out over the sound of the impact. "Tark!"
"I know I'm doing my best Peter," Tark shot back. Peter ignored the Yuridians tone as he engaged the impulse engines and threw them into a complex evasive pattern the death gliders for all their manoeuvrability were not able to keep up with. Two collided in the attempt and were instantly destroyed. Simultaneously the Rapier's own phasers – she was armed with two forward firing pulse phaser cannons along with dorsal, aft and ventral phaser strips for the more conventional beamed phasers – opened fire. Three gliders were hit immediately and blown to fiery dust.
Then the Shalkra-class mothership joined the fray by firing a stream of pulse phaser bolts that caught the Rapier even as Peter swung her into a complex evasive manoeuvre. The Rapier's shields flashed brightly beneath the impact but they withstood the assault.
"Direct hit shields down to forty percent," Shirr reported even as she fired back with the forward pulse phasers. Dual streams of heavy phaser pulses lashed out from the Rapier and ripped into the motherships forward shields. Goa'uld shields flashed bright blue-green beneath the assault but they held. Shirr maintained fire on the Goa'uld ship even as Peter swerved and dodged the fire being directed at them from the gliders and from the mothership they were fast approaching. Slowly but surely the motherships forward shields began shading from blue-green to yellow as they began to feel the strain of the continuous pummelling.
Abruptly the mothership fired a salvo of plasma torpedoes straight at them. It was nearly unheard of to use torpedo weapons against fighters. Despite Peter's frantic attempts at evasion two of the torpedoes impact the Rapier demolishing her shields and sending her tumbling out of control for a moment before Peter was able to compensate.
"Shields are gone," Shirr called out. "Forward ablative armour down to sixty percent."
"Two can play that game," Peter growled under his breath glaring at his readings which showed the Goa'uld mothership as it prepared to fire at them again. "Shirr target quantum torpedoes on that mothership," he said aloud.
"Torpedoes ready."
"Fire!" Shirr fired a single quantum torpedo straight at the Goa'uld mothership. The torpedo impacted before the Goa'uld ship could even begin to react and detonated. The blast of zero point energy caused by the torpedoes detonating warhead smashed its shields flat and ripped into the hull causing a massive breach and setting off a string of internal explosions through the lower sections of the mothership. "Direct hit there are shields are down and they have taken heavy damage," Shirr reported.
Before anyone on the Rapier could celebrate however the other two motherships joined the fray firing streams of pulse phasers that ripped into the ablative armour.
"Ablative armour down to thirty percent," Shirr called as the Rapier was shaken again and again. Even as she spoke she fired a retaliatory pair of quantum torpedoes from the aft launcher. Both Ha'tac-class motherships began taking frantic evasive action to avoid the torpedoes while still firing at the Rapier. One mothership was able to avoid the torpedo directed at it but the other was struck and instantly obliterated.
Then the Rapier shook again as the Shalkra-class managed to fire another volley of pulse phasers though the bolts were much weaker than normal. Sparks shot out of consoles on the Rapier's bridge as the ablative armour buckled and pulses tore into the hull smashing and vaporising systems.
"Ablative armour has failed," Shirr called out. "I've lost weapons."
"Warp power down," Tark added. "I cannot get us into hyperspace. Impulse drive is compromised." Peter's hands danced over his console sending an emergency distress call to the Resolution on a high subspace band frequency that they believed undetectable by the Goa'uld. Considering their distance he hoped that the message had enough power to reach the Resolution and still be intelligible when it got there. Then he waited for the Goa'uld to fire again for another hit would surely destroy them.
The Goa'uld didn't fire again.
Instead a crude form of tractor beam lashed out from the badly wounded Shalkra and began to pull them in. Turning to Shirr and Tark Peter spoke.
"Arm yourselves," he said softly. "If these Goa'uld want us then they wont get us without a fight." Shirr nodded and stood up and went to one of the rear storage cabinets. Inside were three hand phasers with two spare power cells a peace. Gathering the phasers and power cells up in her four arms she proceeded to distribute them. One thing was sure, as Peter had said the Goa'uld were not going to take them without a fight.
*****
Goa'uld Hanger BayTwo squads of Jaffa stood waiting for the Rapier as it was brought into the main hanger bay. The small Federation attack vessel was set down on the deck and the squad of Jaffa immediately began marching towards the hatch on its side.
It took them some doing to get the hatch open – the hull material was impervious to their weapons so they had to hotwire the external hatch controls. Which wasn't easy when the technology you were hotwiring was completely different to anything you'd encountered before. But eventually they managed to override the hatch control and gain access to the interior of the fighter. After the small airlock their was a narrow corridor leading between the bridge and rear sleeping compartment of the Rapier.
As soon as the first Jaffa entered the corridor a phaser beam struck him full on dropping him neatly to the deck unconscious. The next Jaffa who entered the corridor met the same fate, so did the third. After that the Jaffa squad commander paused and finally had a shock grenade thrown into the corridor.
The grenade detonated and cautiously the Jaffa stepped into the corridor. No phaser fire met him. Moving cautiously the Jaffa moved up the corridor followed by some more from his squad.
On the bridge of the Rapier they found the three crew members sprawled unconscious on the floor from the shock grenades discharge. Only one of them was Human the Jaffa noticed the other two were aliens that were completely unlike anything he had ever seen before.
"Take them to holding cells," he instructed his squad. "I will inform our lord."
*****
Pel'tac"My lord," Rumak reported to Zipacna having just received the Jaffa squad leaders report. "We have secured the Federation vessel and captured the crew. Two unknown aliens and one Human. There being taken to holding cells."
[Excellent,] Zipacna responded. [Has a full damage report come in yet?] He'd been surprised by how much trouble capturing this Federation ship had been and those torpedoes that had severely damaged his flagship and destroyed one of the Ha'tac's had come as a dismaying surprise.
"Not yet my lord were still assessing the damage the zero point blast caused. However we do know that our hyperdrive is disabled it will take several hours to repair."
[Send a message to Lord Anubis informing him of our situation and request instructions,] Zipacna ordered standing up. [I meanwhile will go see to the interrogation of the prisoners myself.]
"Yes my lord."