By Chaoseternus
Heres a joke for you, two ships, the Enterprise NCC 1701-E and the Dauntless class Indefatigable both investigate an unusual gate, which one ends up in the wrong universe?
12Discontinuity StarGate CommandThe control room was full to the brim, crowded with experts, analysts and technicians, all trying frantically to pull as much information from the data stream of the two MALPs, one standard Recon, one SigInt as fast as possible.
Normally they would wait, have the information transferred to the relative comfort of their own offices.
Not today.
This was big.
Massively so.
Across the Command, worked stopped as everyone turned to their PA's and monitors, watching with eager eyes the feed being pumped from the control centre, a massive breech of regulations but General Carter wanted everyone watching, everyone looking for details, for anything of importance.
Maktenos and Anubis were having a 'mild disagreement', it could everyone agreed, not be anyone else. Only Anubis and Maktenos had significant numbers of Goa'uld warships and only they would be so closely matched.
The two biggest threats to Earth were weakening themselves, destroying each others forces in droves. Only, not exactly.
It quickly became clear to the experienced strategists that one side was loosing, suffering far heavier odds then they should.
That was a worry.
If Anubis or Maktenos should force a massive win, then they would be far too strong, they would quickly gain control over all the others forces and they would be unchallenged apart from Earth.
And the only reason Earth had survived up till now was because Maktenos and Anubis were absorbed with their biggest threats, each other.
If either became ascendant, gaining control over the others forces, then Earth was doomed, likely to be swatted aside as one would a particularly annoying fly.
So they watched, gathering as much Intel as they could, hoping that attrition would be the order of the day, that neither side would survive with an significant advantage over the other.
And wishing they knew who was winning, and who was dying.
Discontinuity: The First Battle Of RagnarokMaktenos smirked predatorily as his first and second fleets regrouped, their superior training allowing the two elements to combine in what, for Jaffa, was record time, their ships and formations seamlessly blending into one another as they gave chase to the rapidly, frantically retreating forces of Anubis.
Of Anubis's 98 surviving warships, fifty broke off, turning back from the retreating forces, preparing to lay down their lives to give their God as much chance to escape as they possibly could.
They only needed to give their God Five minutes, then he would be able to escape, jump into Hyper and head for the safety of the fleet at the intergate.
That Maktenos decided, would not do.
Luckily for him, he had an ace in the whole.
"Inform the third fleet that Anubis rapidly approached their position and they are to break out the welcome mat as he comes into range, we will 'deal' with his rearguard"
Of the 180 warships that initially comprised Maktenos's first and second fleets, just 107 engaged the rearguard. Unfortunately for the rearguard, Darwin had been at work and those ships that survived were those capable of taking the most damage, the motherships, the captured 'enhanced' vessels of Anubis, the veteran and elite crews and the lucky ones.
The rearguard was fanatical, but had low morale, was already battered and damaged and was facing superior numbers. For them, it was all over bar the counting.
For Anubis's Guard vessels, a worse threat was about to appear.
They may have been fanatical, they had their God to shield after all, but they were battered bloody and in no shape to fight fresh hostile forces.
Such as the Third Fleet that lay cloaked and waiting, predators waiting for the prey to come to them.
But not everything would go Maktenos's way this day.
The Third Fleet decloaked, firing with lethal intensity on the approaching fleet, deliberately targeting the easy kills, ships with weak or non existent shields, before they moved onto the more deadly threat, those warships that were more or less intact.
In one volley, they killed fifteen Ha'taks.
Then things started to go wrong.
In a desperation move, Anubis ordered the Udajeet and Al-kesh launched, both craft usually of insignificance in a ship to ship battle where weak or non-existant shields made them a liability and the Udajeets lack of firepower made them unable to cause any damage.
But they had their orders; their weapons might not be effective or not be effective enough but Anubis had been shown all too clearly how effective ramming could be.
The Third fleet launched their own Udajeet and Al-kesh, frantically attempting to block the kamikaze attacks of Anubis's Jaffa.
They failed dramatically as warship after warship fell, it shields destroyed by the suicide attacks of Anubis's forces making them easy prey for the weapons batteries of Anubis's surviving warships.
Broken, the Third fleet, a tattered remnant of its former strength broke off, fleeing for the relative safety of the First and Second Fleets allowing Anubis to escape.
The First Battle of Ragnarok was over.
In the space of half an hour, 309 warships had been destroyed, 147 belonging to Maktenos, 162 belonging to Anubis.
Maktenos snarled, he may now control the Ragnarok system but it was too far from his territories, he would not be able to maintain control without weakening himself far too much elsewhere.
This was a marginal victory at best.
Grunting, he turned to his Jaffa, he needed to maintain the momentum somehow.
"Order all the ships to collect as much debris as possible, then we head for the shipyards. Have the shipyards ready to receive us, I want the surviving ships repaired in record time and ready for battle"
Maktenos started to turn away, but stopped, "and have the Third Fleet combine with the Second, with just 23 ships remaining they are of no use as a warfleet" he snarled.
The Goa'uld within him demanded that the Jaffa pay for their losses, for the Third Fleets defeat at Anubis's hands, the strategist said no, he needed them too much.
And Maktenos was no true Goa'uld, he knew the sensible option.
The Jaffa of the Third Fleet would get an opportunity to prove themselves, just one, no more.
Discontinuity: Intergate.Anubis turned away satisfied as the last Jaffa breathed his last, destroyed by his supersoldiers for their pathetic actions at Ragnarok.
They caused his defeat, the incompetents and as such they would pay the penalty, after all he did give them the best weapons and he was a God, how could his strategy be at fault?
And they were just Jaffa after all, he would find more to crew his warships.
That day, fifteen of his warships stole away, their crews sickened and disgusted by his merciless killing of the crews who had safely delivered their so called 'God' from defeat.
How could a God kill those who had given everything to preserve him?
And how could a God be ambushed? Gods were supposed to know everything.
And how could a God be defeated.
For them the answer was simple, Gods could not be ambushed as soundly as they had heard, Gods could not be defeated so easily, Gods would not kill loyal servants therefore he was not a God.
The rot had set in, and it had set in deep.