Chapter 14: Repercussions
Location: Milky Way Galaxy
In orbit around Planet SGD: PXZ-698
The scanning systems officer gave Balder a terrifying alert "There's a huge energy spike coming up from the planet's surface it's most definitely a weapon"
"Raise Shields." Balder ordered
"There is no time Captain!"
"All hands abandon ship!" Balder ordered before the blast cut through the unprotected ship like butter slicing all the way through to the power core causing a chain reaction that resulted in a fiery explosion that looked like a second small sun from the surface for a few seconds. The blinding explosion created a shockwave that hit the Ha'Tak and the partially built ShipsGate like a hammer nudging them a bit out of their original orbits and sending everyone that was inside the captured Ha'Tak flying to the walls and bulkheads. It also sent dozens of hapless EVA workers spiraling into space and assured oblivion. Of those that managed to hang on to something some were rendered blind as the intense luminosity from the blast damaged partially or totally their optic nerves.
Location: Milky Way Galaxy
Planet SGD: PXZ-698
Tenel Ka felt the horrible anguish of those onboard the doomed ship as it exploded. Rage filled her heart as she headed toward the turbolaser cannon at full throtle deflecting blaster fire with her lightsaber. "Take them all out!" The Troopers concentrated all their firepower on the renegade soldiers cutting down a few of them. And Tenel Ka dispatched the remaining ones but she just rendered the one she had detained before unconcious. "Put him on a stasis chamber until we can return him to Yavin 4"
The Scanning systems officer yelled to Tenel Ka :"Milady, We found that the AsGard Ship managed to send an extremely powerfull distress signal beofre the renegades blew it up"
"Wonderfull! So now not only these renegades managed to botch a first contact but to start a war with a race capable of intergalactic travel?."
"I'm afraid so milady"
"What's the news on orbit?"
"Not good, the explosion nudged both the ShipsGate and the captured Ha'Tak out of orbit. They are in the process or re-stablishing their original orbits now, a lot of people were wounded and quite a few that were doing EVA work were lost. Many others were blinded totally or partially by the blast as well Med droids and crews are working now on those affected"
"Is there any chance of rescuing the ones that were thrown into space?"
"We are trying to rescue as many as we can as we speak milady"
"Keep me informed at all times"
"Yes milady"
Location: Milky Way galaxy
Earth, Colorado U.S, Cheyenne Mountain Complex, SGC.
It had been a grueling 4 hours of flight on a military plane and a 2 hours drive to Cheyene mountain complex and during that time Michael Kwan was debriefed on something called the StarGate program, an artificial wormhole network that a few years back allowed Earth intersterllar travel and that they made contact with hostile aliens. Not to mention technology and stuff that made him thought that somehow he had crossed into the twilight zone or something else like that. He thought as they crossed the threshold into the huge underground complex. The group finally got off the SUV walked through a main halway and into an elevator that took them even deeper into the bowels of the facility. Finally he was led into a briefing room were people he ad never seen were expecting him.
A man in a high ranking uniform greeted him "Welcome to StarGate command Mr Kwan I'm General O'Neal, how was your flight?"
"As good as can be expected from a military flight general, anyway why I'm I here?. Your staff has people that are far more qualified than me for your StarGate program, unless you made contact with the Evil Empire and Darth Vader" Kwan said with a sarcastic grin
O'Neal responded "Funny you should say that, come sit let me introduce you to the rest of my staff this is Colonel Samantha Carter, this is Dr Daniel Jackson."
Kwan was more confused than ever at the same time with the general's response it took him a bit of a time to respond "Umm... General I was joking about the empire and Darth Vader"
"I know, But we are not. There's something you need to see..." with that he pressed a button on a remote and on the TV screen appeared a video of what looked
like a savanah or prairy about 15 meters ahead there was some sort of encampment but what really struck him was the people who were surrounding whatever held the camera that took the video. They were dressed in full stormtrooper regalia but looked more real than iny film or TV special he had eer seen. Then to top it all off he was blown away by the spectacle of the women holding a lightsaber that too looked strangely more real than in any film
Colonel Carter began to explain "This video was taken by a MALP which is the probes we send through the StarGate before we send any personel. For what we can gather this people came through the StarGate from another galaxy and as you can see the resemblence to Star Wars personel etc is identical. We think that in fact Mr George Lucas may possess a reccessive gene that comes from the Ancients which were the race that built the StarGate network billions of years ago. As a result he probably saw events in his mind that really took place in a distant galaxy without his knowledge. He probably also filled the blanks with his own imagination as well. The reason for you being here Mr Kwan is that we need to know all we can about this people's capabilities and you are one of the foremost experts on the Star Wars technological and warfare aspects."
Mr Kwan was speechless again he finally broke the silence "Are you people serious? I mean if it is as you say and Mr Lucas got glimpses here and there of real events in a distant galaxy and filled the rest with his own imagination it will be very hard to come up with an accurate picture of what this people may be truly capable off!"
"We know, but we have no better options at the moment"
Kwan sighed "Fine what can I exactly do to help?"
"Asuming we are dealing with the galactic empire from the movies how would they go about if their intentions were to colonize this galaxy?"
"Well you said they came through the gate right? So that means they don't have any natural wormhole linking their galaxy with ours for them to simply send their fleet through. Colonel Carter I need to know something"
"Yes, go ahead"
"Can there be more than one StarGate in the same location?"
"Yes but only one can be dialed at any one time, why do you ask?"
"If what I've read so far is right and as long as there's sufficient power a StarGate can not only be opened indefinitely but also there would be no true limit on the size then that's what I'm betting they would do. Build a StarGate big enough for their ships to come through."
An uneasy feeling got hold of all those present in the briefing room Carter broke the silence "Are you sure? We know that they have been building something in orbit but we did not know what it was!"
"I'm positive colonel. If these people are anything like those from the Empire that would be way they go. "
O'Neal finally interjected "Ok an the good news would be?"
Kwan went on "Your best bet if these people's intentions are conquest is to destroy whatever they are building and if they are like in the flims you better act fast. The empire in the movies and so on had an amazing ability to built things pretty quickly. They builted the second DeathStar in a few months so building a StarGate for shios to fit through may take considerably less no more than a month or 2 and maybe less if they are working round the clock and remember this is just especulation as we know a lot of what we know might be based on someone's imagination. Their building capabilites may well be beyond that!"
The speakers all of a a sudded cracked with the message "Incoming worhole" along with alarm klaxons. O'Neal pressed a button and a metal panel slid revealing a window with a direct view to the GateRoom below. Then he tapped the comlink "Merriman are we getting any signal at all?"
"Negative sir... Wait yes. Receiving one now. Confirmed is the Tokra Sir."
"Open the iris"
"Yes sir"
"Well we will be going down to meet them, care to join us Mr Kwan?"
"Me, Umm.. Sure!"
The iris sprang open and out of the event horizon and into the gateroom stepped a well known Tokra.
O'Neal greeted him "Jacob back so soon, not that I'm complaining but it is kind of rare these days"
"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but we learned that an Asgard ship was destroyed by the newcomers, we have more recent surveillance images of the site, whatever they are buiding is big and they are doing it fast! We suspect that it might be a super version of a StarGate."
"We kind of came to the same conclusion just before you came!"
"Really, How? And who is this?"
"Oh sorry, Jacon/Selmak this is Mr Michael Kwan and he is the foremost expert on this planet on the Star Wars franchise when it comes to weapons, technology, silverware..."
"You mean the movies? again?"
"Yes well we have compelling evidence now that these people may indeed be just like in the Star Wars films"
"Really?"
"Yes shall we go so you can see for yourself?"
"By all means, if what you say is true. The situation might be more alarming than we ever anticipated"
"No kidding!"
Location: Corusca Galaxy
Coruscant, Imperial palace
An emergency meeting of the imperial council had been convened on the account of the recent events that had taken place. Emperor Anakin Solo an his council members had just been debriefed on the situation by Tenel Ka and they were on the process of taking whatever decisions were necesary to face the situation which was now obviously war on not one but 2 fronts and and one with a race that had true intergalactic travel capability not to mention the fact that some sort of conspiracy against the imperial goverment was obviously behind it all.
Emperor Solo adressed his council "Ok lets get some options on the table and fast!"
The science advisor of the council spoke "Well your heiness. The first order of business would have to be to move the timetable for our offensive operations against the Goa'uld and we will have to resort now to other means before the ShipsGate is finished. Thankfully since we were able to reverse engineer the artificial wormhole device and the intelligencer w gathered from the captured Ha'tak we could laucn a massive strike against at least 50 or more worlds by the end of the week"
Emperor Solo was a bit perplexed by this "I though that our Artificial wormhole network would take at least a year or so to be fully operational."
"Yes your higness for our own galaxy it will take that long since we have to program in the coordinates for each world and the formulas for the change of position of the star systems over millenia and so on but on their galaxy the devices are already programmed and set and we have the addresses for many of the Goa'uld ocuppied worlds including their important Naquadah mines. Naquadah being the fuel they use for their hyperdrive engines which even though they are not as fast as those that we are reverse engineering from the AsGard they are still much more reliable than our own since they are not affected b the gravitational shadows of celestial bodies!"
"That also means that our gravity well generating technology would be useless against ships equiped with such hyperdrives!"
"Yes your higness but we do have a solution for that, as we said yes their hyperdrive is not affected by the gravitional shadow of most celestial bodies except of something in the magnitude of a blackhole. So using technology we captured from the Vong we have developed microsingularity bombs that should disable at least temporarily any ship equiped with their version of hyperdrive. of course one would have to be at a safe distance from the things when they go off!"
"No kidding! What else?"
"We have also gathered as much intelligence as we can on these people from Earth or as the Goa'uld call them the Tauri, as it turns out they have been quite a headache for the Goa'uld in the last 8 years or so and that despite the fact that we have learned that their planet is a backwater world governed by many nations. Theirs is a society that is still entrenched basically in tribal warfare with each other. Yet despite all that they have managed to forge an alliace with dissident Jaffa, The Tokra which are the same species as the Goa'uld but don't share their views of seeing themselves as gods and the Asgard among a few others"
"That is commendable for such a backwater world!"
"Yes it is your highness as usual your species have proven to be remarkably adaptable and resilient no matter where they thrive. Earth is just one more example of this. Anyhow the intelligence we have gathered comes from both the captured Ha'Tak and a Tel'Tak class vessel that came with the Go'uld mothership it is basically their version of a Lamda class shuttle used for both people and cargo but it has the added benefit of a cloaking device that we have also managed to reenginer and make a hibrid version for our ships. The Tel'Tak was used as a scout ship to spy on the Earth's planetary system and eavesdrop on their comunications. Most of what we know of their political structure comes from news broadcasts that are primarily transmited in primitive radio signals. We also know from the captured Ha'Tak files that the Tauri or Earth humans possess a weapon of extreme power built by the same people that created the artificial wormhole network devices. And to top it all off we also got this from their broadcasts" The science advisor turned on a holoprojector and images of huge letters forming the word Star Wars appeared followed by a description of events. The description was translated at one side of the image into Basic. Then they all saw events they were al painfully knew about the time of Palpatine's Sith Empire of terror..
In the council room everyone was speechless. Finally the Science advisor once again spoke "What you have witnessed believe it or not is what they call in their planet a movie. It's a form of entertaintment that people go to places called theaters to watch"
Emperor Solo interjected questioning the mon-calamari science advisor "Councilor Fredak how is it possible that these people know about us through a form of entertainment?"
"As we all know by now even though there is no presence of midichlorians in their galaxy. There is a gene that we discovered that acts as a receptor of the force pretty much like midichlorians do in our home galaxy. We suspect that the man that created this movies. Yes there is more than one, probably has this gene and saw events that took place in our galaxy. He probably never made the connection that what he saw in his head was real though and in fact he added things from his own imagination as well. I mean sounds in space and ships maneuvering like atmospheric airborne vehicles? His name is George Lucas by the way"
"Really. I'd like to meet him someday if possible. And perhaps whoever played me in one of their films if they ever did."
"Actually the films they made pertain to events relating to the time of the Sith empire of Palpatine and just before that period."
"Oh.. I see, oh well! Go on..."
"Yes your highness... As I said before we managed to make a hibrid version of their cloaking device and we have adapted to TIE fighters that have been modified with pliable panels so that they can fit through the devices. Our Military advisor can fill us in better"
The military advisor spoke "Yes the plan would be to lauch a massive simultaneous assault on all this key Goa'uld controlled worlds using the modified TIE fighters to destroy any space or airbone defenses they may have, plus any heavy weaponry followed by AT-STs, Speed bikes and infantry. We will have to strike at both the Goa'uld and the Ashen so no side can take advantage. Also once we secure this buffer zone we should proceed to choose a location in which to build a secondary ShipsGate at some concealed area in case someone manages to destroy the primary one being currently built"
"That sounds reasonable enough, so what about the AsGard and the remaining powers in that galaxy such as the Jaffa resistance, The Tokra and these Earth humans?"
Location: Valhalla Galaxy
New AsGard homeworld Orilla, AsGard High council Chambers
The AsGard high council had convened in an emergency meeting to discuss the incident regarding the destruction of the Ragnarok by the newcomers in the Milky way Galaxy. The whole council was in an uproar on how to respond to what they considered an outrage. Among the options on the table was one so terrifying that Thor was adamantly opposed to it. "This is madness! We should not do this we don't even know if it will work and if doesnt it will endanger us and everyonem else!"
Isolder the main proponent of the option being presented countered Thor's argument "Supreme commander Thor we don't have a choice. By the looks of it whoever this newcomers are have massively powerful weaponry and we have high confidence that they are building a stargate big enouigh for ships to come through. They are clearly hostile and dangerous and we need to act now. I have the highest confidence that the control subroutine that we created for the replicators now trapped in the time dilation device will work."
"And if it doesn't they will not only be free but also have gained knowledge of time dilation technology and that would makem them nearly unstopable!"
Prime Minister Odin interjected "I think we should take a break and reconvene latter to make a final decision on this crisis"
Location: Corusca Galaxy
Coruscant, Imperial palace, Imperial council chamber
The defense councilor went on... "When it comes to the AsGard I hope we can make some kind of overture toward them once we secure the buffer zone. As for the free Jaffa we will grant freedom to the Jaffa that were still in service of the Goa'uld within the buffer zone that should bring them to our side, The Tokra is likely to follow suite sooner or latter. The Earth humans remain to be seen since the image they have us derived from their films plus what the conspirators did to both their probe and the AsGard ship is not a good one by any stretch of the imagination. They will see us as monsters that would BDZ planets just for fun!"
"I see so what do you suggest then?" Emperor Solo asked even though he felt what the answer was going to be.
"One way or another we have to secure that weapon they possess. So should they not re-align themselves with us we will have to invade their homeworld!"