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?
20Discontinuity: The Battle Of Edonia NebulaThe Loyalist Cylons immediate move on arrival was to attempt to follow the orders of their 'God' and join up forces. However the Secessionists were directly in their path, with their captured Goa'uld motherships.
The fight that resulted was short and bloody and resulted in both sides retreating, battered bloody but with no clear winner, an inevitable occurrence when both sides are using very similar equipment in similar numbers – stalemate.
At this point, Anubis moved his forces, planning to catch the Secessionists between the loyalists and his own forces where they would be crushed. The Loyalists moved to engage, bringing the secessionist cylons to battle, planning all along on support from Anubis's forces, but they never arrived having been engaged by the comparatively small forces of the unforgiven in a viscous hit and run attack in which two motherships and four Ha'taks were destroyed.
The losses were barely significant, but the delayed arrival of the reinforcements was most telling and by the time Anubis was able to reinforce the Loyalists, significant numbers of ships had been lost to attrition on both sides.
The Loyalists fought fanatically but a cornerstone of their planned attack had been delayed and they suffered more losses then their secessionist opponents. The arrival of Anubis's forces gave them numerical and technological superiority and they quickly used this, attempting to utterly destroy the secessionist forces that were now attempting to disengage.
Once again, the unforgiven launched a viscous hit and run attack, having managed to manoeuvred themselves into position above the plane of the battle, they literally dived down through Anubis's forces, firing viscously as they moved, taking advantage of most species tendency, even if they are space faring to think in only two dimensions or to sub-consciously mark a 'floor' and 'roof' to their manoeuvres.
For no loss, three Ha'taks, two loyalist baseships and a mixed bag of about forty fighters were wiped from the battle but more importantly, Anubis had to regroup his forces which had scattered, shocked by such an unexpected assault.
It gave the secessionists enough time to safely break off and reform.
At this point, the last Anubis vessel within the nebula attempted to escape to the relative safety of Anubis's main fleet was destroyed, an off the shoulder shot by the Akira Class Ark Royal flashing through her shields to impact directly against the internal superstructure of the battle damaged craft.
Its internal support crippled, the craft fragmented, scattered across space.
Receiving the All Clear, the waiting Tau'ri support craft with their components and segments for the new Edonia Station dived into the comparative safety of the nebula, their crews scrambling to prepare for the work ahead.
Annoyed by the sheer gall of the Tau'ri, Anubis ordered a determined assault on the secessionists, planning to destroy them quickly with his superior technologies and numbers.
The secessionists refused to bite, moving their captured motherships directly to the front, they used their heavier shields and armour to take the brunt of the assault whilst they concentrated fire, five or so ships all firing all their weapons on one of Anubis's ships at a time.
Shattered by a move which was basic strategy and common sense, Anubis attempted to withdraw his forces.
Again, the unforgiven attacked, moving swiftly behind Anubis's forces they stayed just long enough to delay a proper break off, allowing the secessionist forces to shred a significant number of Anubis's ships.
Realizing the battle was lost, Anubis withdrew, escaping quickly into hyper.
Within the nebula, the Tau'ri were regrouping, the surviving fighters landing aboard the Ha'taks to resupply and rearm as one by one the main warships of the Tau'ri fleet had their armouries restocked by the Merchant class Royal Fleet Auxiliaries.
Around them, hurried work commenced as the superstructure for the new station was bolted into place, the work of several months already commencing despite the contested nature of the nebula.
Once more the intergate activated, spitting a Sovereign and an Intrepid into the Edonia nebula, to be rapidly corralled and briefed by Enterprise.
Outside the nebula, the Secessionists began quick repairs, planning to divert to Earth and attack while it was relatively undefended having gotten the co-ordinates off Anubis before their defection.
Aided by the treacherous number six unit planted in Baltar's mind, the Tau'ri had broken many of the Cylon codes and had a very good idea as to the base principle behind the bulk of the Cylon codes. It didn't take them long to break the current code and figure out what was going on.
Four hours after Anubis had fled, the bulk of the Tau'ri Fleet charged out of the nebula, planning to destroy the secessionist forces before they could go into hyper and attack Earth.
The secessionists moved to escape to hyper, but were surprised by the Unforgiven, who so far had appeared to be assisting them, moving to block their escape.
Now the Secessionists, who had so far been the ones dishing out the rock and a hard place theory of warfare, suddenly found themselves victim to it.
And the Tau'ri, knowing full well what had happened to the twelve worlds and what was planned for them, fought brutally and co-ordinated.
Their numbers diminished greatly, the secessionists broke for hyper, course set for Cylon space, knowing full well that Earth would be warned long before they got there now.
The Unforgiven broke off, knowing full well the Tau'ri had no reason not to fire on them they retreated to the very edge of sensor range, watching over as the Tau'ri licked their wounds, escorting several crippled ships to the 'safety', such as it was of the Nebula.
Just as the Tau'ri reached the nebula with the crippled ships, two Prometheus class Cruisers and a trio of Dauntless, another hostile force arrived.
Maktenos dropped out of hyper far further out from the nebula than most had, he knew Anubis was here but he didn't know with exactly how many ships.
That he needed to know before he could commit to battle but life has an odd tendency to throw a curveball when you least expect it and Maktenos was about to receive one.
"My Lord! I am detecting a group of ships between us and the nebula"
Maktenos turned around, a worried frown on his face, "Whose and how many?"
"I do not know my lord, they do not look like any ship I have seen before, but they are a good fifty strong and appear comparable to a Ha'tak"
Maktenos's eyebrows rose and he swiftly reached across, pulling up the sensor data on his own console.
No lifesigns and that design… It appeared his Intel was right; Anubis had managed to gain allies in the form of a Machine race. This was worrying.
A notation at the very corner of the screen caught Maktenos's eyes and he tapped the controls, zooming in on the unexpected signal.
Tau'ri, there were Tau'ri forces in system.
His eyebrows shot up again and alarmed, he ordered all sensors concentrated on the nebula periphery. Signs of a major battle, debris of Goa'uld and what appeared to be cylon ships floating on masse throughout the area, no signs of any Tau'ri losses, though damage was evident even from this distant and…
He stiffened, and unknowns working with the Tau'ri.
And they definitely had the Nebula.
Unnoticed by Maktenos, his hands danced across the controls, rapidly setting up a transmission, to which every code Maktenos had ever used was attached, followed by locations and addresses.
Maktenos cursed, he dare not attack, not with unknowns.
His hands stopped their busy work, they had attached enough already, Maktenos or his Jaffa might start to get suspicious and it was too early for him to know.
He had a general idea of how many ships the Tau'ri had but these unknowns he had no Intel on. They could easily have a thousand ships hidden in the nebula and he would not see them until it was too late.
The hands tapped their final command and the data was sent, its destination, the Tau'ri forces at the Nebula. Then the hands dropped, command given back to an unknowing Goa'uld.
No, best to consolidate his new territory fast and build up his forces.
Hell, if Anubis had been defeated so badly that the Tau'ri now controlled Edonia…
His mind made up, Maktenos took his fleet into hyper, set on a course for Anubis controlled territory.
He had some expanding to do.
Within the nebula, cloaked fighters moved, slowly slipping into position undetected by the Tau'ri forces, their orders simple, wait until the Tau'ri relaxed. Wait until their shields started to drop.
Then Kill.
Their God Anubis may have been defeated this day, but they had no problems dealing vengeance.
But then, they were supersoldiers. They had no problems with orders. It was Initiative and Free Will they didn't know and didn't care about.