Interlude

The disappearance of the Achilles during what was basically a simple milk run for the newly commissioned warship had worried the command staffs of both the USAF Space Division and their compatriots with the SGC. Constant attempts at communication was attempted by both commands to no avail. Even now any and all allied ships that could be spared participated in the search and rescue operation.

From the few Jaffa crewed allied Ha'tak's, to the Tokra and Jaffa cargo ships and last but by no means the least the prototype ship, the Prometheus herself was prepping for departure to find the lost warship. Her hypercapable fighters would be of immense use with the long-range search patterns. They had two weeks to find her, then the ships would need to return to their safe harbours.

On board the Prometheus the ship started to close down its airlocks and ready themselves for departure.

"Prometheus to Command. We are secured and ready for lift off."

"This is Norad Command. You are a go for lift-off Prometheus. Good luck and bring them home."

"We'll try Command. Prometheus out."

In one of three drydocks in the middle of the Nevada desert two large retracting doors pulled apart letting the bright sunlight filter into the internal structure illuminating both the bay and the warship standing inside it.

"All Sections, ready for Lift off."

"By the numbers," Colonel Reynolds said.

"Helm Go."

"Tactical Go."

"Sensors Go."

"Engineering Go."

"EVA Go."

"Medical Go."

"Communications Go."

"Command Go."

The checklist complete the small ship rose from its bay into the midday sun and powered its way through the atmosphere and out into the depths of space. Within a few seconds the ship entered its hyperspace Window looking for their lost sister ship and ready to kick the hell out of anyone that may have hurt their brethren.

USAF Achilles:
Engineering Deck
Four Hours after the Battle of DSR4

The Achilles had finally managed to stop their tumble into space and halted their movement totally. The ship was in a bad way with obvious scorch marks showing signs of a tough battle. The most obvious being the missing hull sections of the rear hull, which was blackened, and brittle looking. It seemed fortunate the explosion had not reached the massive engines in the rear of the ship.

The deck was swarming with engineers and damage control teams each trying not to fall over each other. The casualties and injuries to the crew had been extensive while the ship's main systems had taken a good beating when they had been hit by the shockwave. Fortunately the backwards-engineered systems and upgrades by their friends the Asgard had made all the redesigned Prometheus class vessels formidable warships.

The human penchant for redundancy after redundancy and a little too much television for some designers, had also made her a safe vessel to work on as well. The crew's safety systems were as simple as crash webbing and seatbelts on all chairs and bunks while the systems were triple redundant and were proofed against shocks and electrical explosion thanks to some basic electrical know how- the use of fuses and power breakers, same as a typical household or aircraft had.

These easily installed systems had saved many crew that were at their station when the shockwave pounded the ship, the incident with Major Carter and an unknown alien race had shown that these kinds of ideas had merit and the refits had been incorporated into the original Prometheus and the two mainline Battlecruisers the Daedalus and the Achilles.

"Chief." Chief Petty Officer Harris stood up from his position under one of the engineering consoles. He tried to run yet another program through the toasted system but came away with nothing.

"What's up, Thompson?"

"You might want to have a look at this."

"What is it? I'm busy."

"I'm not sure, but it looks like the Asgard beam weapon's out of action."

"What?" That should have been impossible as the Beam weapon was shielded and armoured better than some sections of the hull, the Asgard weapon was the most powerful ship based weapon that they had and while it could only be used in some circumstances it was still a formidable weapon by any stretch of the imagination.

Or it least it had been up until today. The engineer was right; a stray piece of shrapnel had made it's way into the emitters from outside, some of the Trinium/Naquada hull material of the Achilles herself, it had sliced into the delicate internals and knocked the weapon offline.

"Dammit." He walked over to the ship's intercom. "Engine room to bridge."

"Bridge," came the Voice of Lt Daniels the second shift commander.

"Where's the Major?"

"He's in sickbay. They needed all the help they could get and he made his way down there. Do you have a report Chief?"

"Yes Sir, most of the downed systems should be up in the next three hours. We just need to rest the breakers and check the fuse blocks on each deck. However the hyperdrive is down and we may not be able to repair it, we've lost a third of the point defence railguns and the port aft missile launchers…"

"Shit, anything else."

"Yes Sir. The Asgard weapons kaput, we'll need a drydock to even attempt a repair, same goes for all the external weapons and the hyperdrive."

"Oh man, what about communications?"

"That's the bright side, long range sensors and short range communication will be repaired by the time the breakers are cut back in."

"What about defences?"

"We're still looking those over, the ECM generators seem to be okay and the outer armour is intact over most of the hull."

"Shields?"

"Forward shields are completely dead the original repairs to the emitters and the generators were completely destroyed in the battle. As for the aft shields, we've got damage to both the emitters and the generators, it's not as bad as the forward equipment. However we can only get up to forty percent, fifty perhaps but no more until we can rewire them."

"Dead in the water and defences are screwed. I'll inform the Major chief, good luck."

"Thanks, Engineering out."

"Chief?"

"Yes Thompson." The younger man was one of the best engineers that he had ever served with and would go far but right now he didn't want to face the man's Gerbil-Faced optimism.

"News from the rearside damage teams, we've got a damaged missile down there."

"What, how bad?"

"It's not active or ticking down or anything but it's fused to the remains of the launcher, they need someone to check if the launcher can be repaired and the missile removed or do the cut the launcher out and seal the breach completely."

"Tell them to rip it out and seal up, we've not the resources to repair the weapons systems, tell them to salvage the missile because we might be able to use it later."

"Aye, chief." The young man walked over to the runner that had made his way from the aft of the ship.

"What the hell else could go wrong?" Harris asked himself.

There was an electrical explosion from in front of him and as he moved the lights went down all over the ship leaving only the dark red emergency lights of the back up life support systems.

"You had to ask." Harris smacked his head against a hull support.

EA Nautilus:

The Nautilus sat in the midst of its remaining command, damaged and disabled Ships were floating around her being watched over by the few remaining intact ships while the Tenders and repair teams from the station swarmed over the ships they may be able to repair.

"Sensors and sign of the Achilles?"

"No, Sir. Half the sensor clusters sensors are still fried from the EM surge and energy spike but we're on it."

"They send out an energy signature bigger than any of our space stations and you can't see that?"

"No, Sir although with that blast they might have had to scram their reactors. They'd be basically a low power signature if on emergency power. We've got SAR shuttles on approach from DSR4 their sensors are online and fully functional so we may be able to find someone out there."

"What about our own?"

"Starfuries and fleet shuttles are still scouting for survivors from both sides but we're not looking at many survivors. Sir, we've picked up about sixty crewmen from out ships, nothing from the Minbari."

"Understood."

"Sir we're getting a communication from Earthdome, it follows latest encryptions, it's a broadband signal to all units."

"What is it?"

"Evac signal- all personnel and available ships are to leave the system and return to the Midrange base at Beta Durani, any and all ships unable to make transit are to be scuttled and computer systems completely fragged."

"Dammit! Okay distribute orders to all the ships in system."

"Sir what about the Achilles?"

"We'll look for her until the last of the personnel are aboard the evac ships if we haven't found them by that time then we have to leave her behind."

"Sir…" The XO complained only to be cut off.

"I know Xo, we owe them but we have thousands of people to Evacuate one ship no matter how powerful or who it's crewed by is more necessary than the people we have to get out."

"Aye, Sir."

Smith turned to the communications officer, "SAR shuttles and starfuries are to continue operations. They have sixteen hours until we leave use it wisely, dispatch the carriers and the corvette to SAR duties as well let's see if we can get the Achilles home."

"Aye, sir."

Drala Fi:

Minbari Flagship

Three hours later

The Warrior caste officer approached Caplann. "Satai."

"What is it?"

"We have received a message from the Blood of Dukhat task force. It was cut off half way through the message."

"What? How is that possible, what did it say?"

"It was encoded, to your personal clan code."

"Leave me."

The Satai of the Warrior Caste stood before a simple computer terminal unlinked to the ship's systems. It was all but impossible for anybody to access without his authorisation, taking the small crystal he accessed the file inside.

Blood of Dukhat: Blood of Dukhat Taskforce, Shai Alyt Mana'muna Commanding. Temporary Alyt Con'vann In command. It is with a heavy heart I must disclose that the glorious mission that the Blood of Dukhat and escorts were sent to carry out was a failure. As of this transmission all ships of the task force have been destroyed, no survivors on many of the ships. The Dukhat itself has been badly damaged with few crew surviving. Damage is severe, all systems are compromised and life support is on low levels, all emergency systems are failing we….Message Ends

"Impossible" the Satai exclaimed.

He was fortunate that he was in the privacy of his own quarters. That kind of outburst would have been unseemly to one of his rank and prestige in any other setting. Lashing out he smashed the hilt of his Pike into the monitor screen of the computer system, he expanded the staff like weapon and again and again smashed it into the recessed machine. Twirling, it he laid waste to everything else in the small room venting his anger on the objects and equipment scattered around ending with his 'bed' being smashed in half by the final impact of the pike.

Breathing heavily the Warrior Satai straightened himself, alighting from his room he returned to the command bridge in the depths of the ship's inner hull.

"Alyt call together all available ships in the immediate area and set course to the last known position of the Blood of Dukhat task force-full speed."

"Yes, Satai."

Across the immediate surrounding sectors ships of all three castes were called upon to rendezvous with the Drala Fi task force. Within hours six task forces totally almost twenty five ships had come together in an impressive amount of firepower.

Revenge would be theirs: