9: Breech Of Dawn
by Chaoseternus
Computerroom: you wanted updates......
Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.
Chapter 7: Broken BreechesIt was an amused and smiling Joan that strode through the heavy airlock into the Admirals office aboard Thundersdawn, a crumpled copy of the weeks TV Times in her hand.
Quickly striding up to the desk, she dropped the open paper in front of Thompson, on top of his other paperwork. Thompson raised a swift eyebrow and glanced annoyed at Joan.
"I'm assuming there is some reason why you have brought the TV paper to me, remembering I don't exactly get much of a chance to watch any"
"Check out the synopsis for the next Wormhole Extreme episode" Joan gasped out, laughter glinting in her eyes.
Eyebrows raised, Thompson looked down at the section in question, reading rapidly. An amused, sardonic grin then split his face as he reached across and handed the latest copy of the Sun newspaper to Joan, folded to the 4 th page.
Joan took one look, and cracked up laughing, "Oh, there are going to be a lot of red faces there"
Thompson grinned wryly, "Would have been nice of the SGC to warn us first"
The Sun, June 16 2007
"Rumours abound today that under the veil of secrecy, the government has creation of a military spaceforce, believed to be called the Royal Space Service, this addition to our countries military has only one agenda, control of the solar system…"
TV Times
Wormhole Extreme Airing 6pm Wednesday
In response to Telling All (S3 E5), the British set up their own program, called the Royal Space Service to defend the Solar System…
Thompson chuckled, "That's going to look like a page 4 blunder, not a brilliant example of journalism"
Joan smiled evilly, "Can't wait for the retraction, even though its true"
A knock sounded at the airlock, and a breathless, harried Commodore Peters entered, "Sir, we have one hell of a problem on our hands"
The lights in the room flickered, shifting to yellow as a voice began blaring over the stations PA system, "All hands set condition Two, all warships load Hotshots and rig to launch. All hands stand by for anticipated Goa'uld attack, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill"
Peters nodded at Thompson's look, "all our alert messages have still been going to St Athan, we wouldn't even know if the cleaner hadn't noticed the alert messages and raised the alarm.
The Cray's finished chewing over the com-laser burst Griffin picked up, it was a warning from Maktenos to his agents that he was on his way to attack and that they should make themselves scarce, just in case"
"Christ! A third of the fleet is chasing after the colonials, half our heavies are stuck at Alpha Centauri and now we have an attack to deal with?"
Peters nodded, "It's a little to cute, somebody ratted us out probably"
"When did the message say Maktenos was due to arrive?"
Peters glanced down at her watch as the lights flickered once more, shifting to red.
"Set condition 1 throughout the station, all hands stand by to engage, this is not a drill. 2 nd SFW and Cobra Squadrons launch when ready"
"Answers that question" Thompson said worriedly to Peters rapidly retreating back.
"Report!" Peters barked as she strode rapidly into the buzzing command centre.
"Commodore, we're reading 10 Ha'taks gathering at the edge of the sol system, no indication of their owner yet, Cobra squadron is launching and Reaver is inbound from Manston, they will be joined by the 1 st and 2 nd StarFighter Wings, 3 rd is on alert at Alpha, 4 th and 5 th are not tagged as combat ready and a forming a last ditch line in Earth orbit.
Persephone is on shore power and has been opened ready for the next 'fixed' drive to be installed, but Independence, Gettysburg and Eisenhower are reporting ready to engage" Ensign Scot fixed Peters with a direct look, "Only Devonshire is in system of the Dauntless class and she is in slip 5, the rest are on-mission"
"Shit, 3 cruisers and four fighter wings against ten Ha'taks? " Peters shook herself, trying unsuccessfully to hide her fear, "Okay, PrePlan 12-B, we'll hold the line here…"
" New contacts, new contacts! Multiple Ha'taks dropping out of hyper… flight profile suggests Anubis upgrades installed"
Peters shock her head in disgust as the shouted words from the sensor board; they had had an idea an attack by Maktenos was coming for a while, but for Anubis to show up too?
They were screwed, she thought privately to herself.
" The new group is inbound, heading directly for… wait one"
The whole bridge stood silent, still paused as they waited for the next words, words that would probably define their fate.
" Second group shifting course… they are moving to engage group one"
A relieved sigh filled the room, and Peters grinned maliciously, "How many in the second group?"
" 7 Ha'tak ma'am"
"About even then, let them kill each other for now, have the fighters form on the prommies, their might be some interesting scraps, maybe a Ha'tak or two if we move at the right time"
"Yes ma'am" came the amused, respectful reply as Peters contemplated their luck.
The one time Maktenos sends a serious attack, so does Anubis, that, to put it mildly, was interesting timing. If ever of them suspected the other was there, they would have sent more and larger ships, but they didn't. That suggested coincidence, but she didn't believe in coincidences, not on this scale. She promised herself to reread the briefing on the Powers That Be when she had the time.