9: Breech Of Dawn
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 8: Salvage and Agents

The Tau'ri fleet watched gloating as the Goa'uld ships attacked each other, the ships of Maktenos showing greater coordination and were constantly regrouping, launching group assaults on single Anubis vessels, quickly overwhelming them, battering them into oblivion.

The ships of Anubis were more powerful, each one individually capable of taking on one of Maktenos's Ha'taks with power to spare, but were less coordinated.

It was stalemate. First, an Anubis Ha'tak was destroyed, followed rapidly by another. Then two Maktenos vessels fell almost simultaneously, their shields depleted by the more power weapons of the Anubis vessels they were attacking, followed by a third.

The regrouping Maktenos ships repulsed a destroyed an attacking Anubis vessel before charging another, destroying that too only to place themselves right in the middle of the three surviving Anubis Ha'tak, the murderous crossfire killing four of Maktenos's warships in quick succession before they were able to extricate themselves.

Now there were just six surviving Ha'taks, three Anubis, 3 Maktenos, wearily watching each other from a distance, their crews frantically racing though repairs as they prepared for the final kill.

The Tau'ri fleet maintained its position, content to let Jaffa kill Jaffa, and hoping no Free Jaffa agents were aboard the embattled warships.

Almost simultaneously, the two Goa'uld fleets charged forward, their weapons spitting death as the Maktenos vessels englobed an Anubis Ha'tak, destroying it utterly, only to lose two of their number to return fire from the now dying Anubis warship and its comrades.

Sensing defeat, the last Maktenos vessel attempted to flee as the Tau'ri fleet charged, everyweapon in their armoury, gauss rifles and torpedoes from the three cruisers, wave after wave of torpedoes from the fighter firing upon a sole Anubis Ha'tak.

It died, its shields obliterated, no piece larger than a fridge surviving its utter destruction.

Shocked and shaken, the final Anubis Ha'tak turned to face the Tau'ri only to be crippled as F-302's micro-jumped inside its shield perimeter, their guns surgically targeting engines, shields and weapons, leaving the ship largely intact whilst the Lancers and Prometheus class cruisers chased after the sole surviving Maktenos warship.

The vessel skewed awkwardly in its course, as if temporarily out of control, then stopped, its shields dropping, its weapons powering down, the Jaffa's faith in their master broken by their utter, surprising defeat.

Behind them, wave after wave of Paladins appeared, each one loaded with assault troops as they moved forward, force docking with the two surviving Ha'taks, their crews rapidly overcoming and destroyed any resistance.

Once again, Earth was safe.

RSS Thundersdawn, 2 days later

Joan Williams strode into Thompson's office triumphantly, a large sheaf of printouts clutched in her hand.

"We've got a possible ID on a number of the NID agents"

Thompson looked up startled from his conversation with Taskforce Lucifer Commander, Sir John Patrick Ryan,

"Are you serious?"

"Just cross-referenced the list of suspects with the list of people who went AWOL right before the attack, and come up with some interesting matches" Joan smiled as she handed the first printout to Thompson, "Also got a B-list, people who went AWOL as soon as word of the attack got out but aren't candidates for first time combat blues"

Ryan raised an eyebrow, "First time combat blues?"

Thompson nodded, suddenly getting what Joan was hiding for, "First time combat blues is a polite way of putting it, we can screen all we want but no system is perfect and you will always get one or two who, when facing real combat for the first time, desert, scared out of their wits.

We chase after them a lot more vigorously than the RAF, Navy or Army would of course, due to security issues, but if a deserter is not a first timer, it raises questions, for example if"

Joan interrupted him at this point "Commander Barker, 2IC Coalmine was to desert…"

Thompson shot her a startled, disturbed look, " Barker? I thought he was on compassionate leave"

Joan shook her head, "He was an orphan and knows practically no-one outside the military, certainly no one closely enough to request compassionate leave for"

Ryan nodded, "Point taken, I'll need copies of the files of every name on those lists"

"I'll see to it you get them" Joan promised.

Ryan nodded, "Thank you for your time" and swiftly left the room, mentally shifting his strategy to incorporate the new information.

"How much salvage?" Thompson asked as soon as the door was closed again.

"Well" Joan said, "We have a fully operational Maktenos Ha'tak plus an Anubis Ha'tak which Intel and science in drooling over despite the damage it received, there are also two hulls who internal substructure is trashed but the superstructure, the backbone of the craft is undamaged, so they can probably be rebuilt and brought into service, other than that it is just scattered bits and pieces"

Thompson smiled, "An Anubis Ha'tak? Better have accounting warned we may have a nice load of upgrades to push through soon"

"Amen to that, sir