Chapter 7-Preparations

Sol System

Several thousand kilometres from its final destination, space opened up once more, for the Endeavour to emerge into real-space. Staring out to mars, all you could see was a shining light that stood against the darkness of the usually red planet. The closer they got, the more defined, the lights turned into many, and those lights into many more. Soon a single structure was apparent beyond all other surroundings. It was Thundersdawn.

The Endeavour cruised into position. 10 kilometres off the station.

"Thundersdawn, this is the Endeavour, we ran into some trouble, we'll need a run over, new armour especially." Davis reported

He was greeted by Commodore Peters, a clear scowl on her face damn she noticed the rather large gash Davis smirked inwardly to himself "It took you 5 days to rip apart that ship of yours, not to mention force us into yet another war we're not prepared for ." The commodore started.

Reilly lips made the smallest hint of a smile, "It wasn't all bad ma'am, we did managed to get a few new friends."

Peters raised an eyebrow "So we've heard, care to enlighten me as to who?" she was answered when the ambassador removed his cloaks hood, clearly revealing his Vulcanoid features.

"Is this sufficient example to you, Commodore?" Soval asked. Noting on her rank from what the crew had told him.

Like the default reaction of the Endeavour, she and many of the bridge crew that took notice, were gaping widely. It took her a good 10 seconds for her to mutter out the words "Slip 8, five hours."

Davis nodded, as Veers lead the ship into the repair bay, secretly grinning at the whole thing.

The next day

With the thin layer of reactive armour plates being placed over the Trinium hull of the Endeavour, it gave the crew some R&R time until the Endeavour, and hopefully some extra Reinforcements could come to the Vulcans aid.

Admiral Thompson stood over his desk, facing both Captain Davis and ambassador Soval, studying the Vulcan carefully. "They destroyed your flagship as a declaration of war?"

Soval nodded "And many of its escorts, those that managed to escape were extensively damaged, however they gave us at least some warning of the future conflict." He looked down, finding it hard to explain the amount of death his people suffered. "In the 3 month war, 85 million Vulcans have died, many who were civilians on our out lying colonies."

Thompson and Davis were both appalled, and they didn't hide it. "They attacked civilian targets?"

Soval nodded gravely "It was quick and devastating, their bio-weaponry caused a compete loss of Vulcan life on any world in 20 minutes of deployment. If it wasn't for your arrival, our home world would have suffered the same fate." He reached into his cloak, pulling out a holographic projector, it displayed a detailed analysis of an Aschen ship design. "This is an Aschens bio-weapons platform, while they're ability to manufacture biological weapons is severely hampered, the High Council believes that this one alone has the ability to deploy many more planet-killers, as you call them."

"Looks like we're dealing with a super-weapon, I take it this is what you want us to take out?" Thompson assumed.

"It would be more prudent of us to ask you to help defend our home world in the coming battle first, it is likely they will send the weapon after us in the next attack." He pressed several keys on the holograms interface. Changing the view to the 2 other known Aschen ship designs. "The larger of the two shown is the Sersopian class command cruiser, mainly used as flagships in Aschen taskforces, and as you captain well know, extremely difficult to eliminate with a single ship. Our current estimates believe the Aschen have 46 such ships left, leaving the bulk of the fleet to this craft." He once again changes the image to the frigate. "The Degerus class fast attack ship, a much smaller threat one on one, but they battle in numbers. Current estimates leads us to believe they Aschen have at least 300 such vessels." The ambassador turns off the projector with a single key, leaving the former green glow of the hologram to dissipate.

Thompson sighed "I admit we can't deny the threat the Aschen represent, but to say our fleet is cut thin would be an understatement, with half our forces either assigned to defend Edonia, Alpha or here, the colonials are still going through refits and construction, not to mention half of SGC's fleet is off in a crusade in the hyper barrier. All we can spare is a few Ha'taks, MTB's and fighters."

Davis was the first to respond "Sir, if we can pull it off right, that should be all we need, we managed to force 3 ships out with just the Endeavour and its F-302's, the Vulcan ships could potentially be a threat to their frigates if they concentrate all fire on one ship at a time, while we handle the Motherships."

The admiral of the fleet nodded grimly, "Let's hope this plan works gentlemen, because after the Vulcans, we know who the Aschen will be after…

Thundersdawn

It wasn't going to take long for the replacement armour to finish, but it sure as hell felt like it for the crew of the Endeavour. With the slow build up of the fleet taking place, it was decided that a portion of the available fighters remaining in Alpha Centauri as backup, the 889 squadron included. The first actual combat mission of the Striker class fighter/bomber, they were going to be a major aid in battles to come.

Preparations were made on all ships, the Trinium gauss shells that took up the bulk of the rifles ammunition were completely replaced with the naqadah explosive variant, sidewinders anti-fighter missiles were replaced with sparrow anti-ship 'torpedoes', every single edge would be needed. Two of the Ha'taks joining the fleet, jumped in system, the sister ships Dawn of Honour and Dawn of Justice, both recent additions to the Tau'ri fleet. While the crews were green, they would serve their purpose willing and ably, the more trained of the Ha'tak crews, both the Dawn of Valour and Valours Hour were currently traveling to Alpha Prime, but they wouldn't arrive for 4 days at least.

Soval just starred out to the small building fleet, watching as the Endeavour glided out to join them, the hasty refit still revealing several minor scars in the armour, but it was the best anyone could do in such a short amount of time. He only hoped he could join them, but he only could offer limited tactical knowledge. No, his place was here, preparing the eventful alliance between his people and the Tau'ri, if victory would come at the coming defense it would be a fruitful agreement. But now he could only stare out to them, trusting them with the safety of his people.