Stargate Command, 25 minutes later.
Major General Hank Landry frowned yet again at the ever growing pile of reports. With the new international teams joining the already expansive US SG teams, his job was getting harder and harder by the day, sometimes he wondered if the facility should expand a bit, you know with the Russians and brits joinin…
"Unscheduled off world activation!" the small speakers hidden in his room blared to life, with what he could now recognize, as Sergeant Harriman's most spoken 4 words. Sighing, Landry dropped the latest Intel report of the Lucian Alliance's holdings near Dakara, and pushed himself out of the desk. Heading to the source of the constant screaming sound of the siren.
Walking from the warm and welcome conference table, to the cold and dark control room, he looked to the iris-closed Stargate, and the whirling, explosive sound of the incoming wormhole, leaving an almost beautiful blue light reflecting off the back wall of the gate room.
"Any signal Walter?" the general asked the man almost constantly in charge of all gate operations at the SGC. Harriman looked to a separate screen, watching the incoming IDC signal for a match. After recent improvements to the communication systems between SG teams and the SGC, the GDO's could now be used to indicate one of 4 situations, Radio Communication, Early EVAC, Emergency EVAC, or the worst possible scenario, Lock Gate Address. Thankfully the signal came clear, SG-32, requesting Radio Contact.
"It's the Primary British SG team sir, they weren't expected for another 3 hours." Harriman informed the general.
"Colonel Tobias leads that team right?" Landry asked, somewhat expecting the answer, the man definitely stood out from others, in duty and socially, you could hear him roar from the other side of the base.
Harriman nodded, bringing up a detailed view of the galaxy on the new main screen in the control room, it zoomed in on a section near Sol, and flashed a small white dot just a few hundred light years core-ward from earth. "Yes sir, they were scouting worlds near earth for a possible Naqudah mine, PX1-945, approximately 240 light years from us."
Unlike the previous commander of the base, Hank Landry took this all in with a stride, though he always wondered if Jack was just acting the part of village idiot. "Well lets here what they've found, patch us through the MALP."
With the press of a button, the main screen fizzled with static, slowly reforming into the image of yet another pine tree covered world, the MALP originally sent through the gate stayed to keep surveillance of the area, the idea was, if the constant signal from the MALP died, then the SG team were in for a world of trouble. Once the image cleared, and no one was on the scope, the General asked into the radio." Colonel Tobias, this is Landry, what have you found?"
Not getting a response, the control crew were starting to wonder what was going on, before a hand waved in front of the MALP from the left, with a quick scroll, the camera faced a grinning RAF Captain "This is Captain Winters sir, the Colonel is scouting ahead, looking for a plot, away from the pine trees, asked me too send the word of our recent success."
"A plot captain?" Landry asked with both a mix of confusion and amusement.
The captain smirked before continuing "he wants a house here sir, we've hit jackpot, Naqudah readings are off the scale, possible Trinium deposits too."
Landry's eyes widened with surprise, but quickly turned into a questioning glaze "Any enemy presence captain?"
The Captain Shook his head, "Not that were aware of, doesn't appear so at least , but this world is a goldmine, and from what Doctor Gerald's told us, there might be worlds nearby with the same level."
Now that got Landry interested greatly, maybe the US could profit from this as well. "Well then Captain, I think you should stay put for now, keep searching this world, we'll be sending additional support through the gate shortly."
Giving a final nod, "Will do sir, Winters out." And the captain disappeared from the screen, as the wormhole disengaged, leaving the gate room now doused in solely the normal white lights.
Landry straightened his shirt slightly, giving a final word to the gate technician "I'll ring Ronson, we'll get the Odyssey launched and to search this sector, can't let the brits hold everything can we?"
Harriman smirked at the statement "No sir."
Area 51-10.28 am July 27th 2008
In a semi-enclosed position in the massive facility, surrounded by consoles of various sorts, technicians both human and Asgard preparing the final phases of testing of the massive canon just outside the reinforced walls, Colonel Carter stood watching the rapidly approaching Theseus with no small amount of nervousness, sure its one thing to show General O'Neill yet another attempt at reverse engineering Asgard energy weapons, despite his somewhat deserving reluctance to come see it, hell last time the energy transformer miss calculated, and well…the results weren't quite up to expectations, that's if you don't count exploding as a successful test. But the President…that was something totally different and the somewhat strange calmness that both her Asgard colleagues were displaying only made it worse.
Thor quickly picked on her nervousness, it was quite distracting for him to say the least. "Colonel Carter, if you would like, Hermiod and I will prepare the test now while you welcome the delegation." The supreme commander suggested
Not quick to pick on the question, she asked dumbly "What?" the realization kicking in, she mentally kicked herself "Oh yeah" picking up her notes from the console that Thor seemingly wanted to use, she continued "Sure I'll head to the hanger bay to meet them now, sure you've got everything under control?"
"Do you doubt our capabilities colonel?" Hermiod questioned with noticeable impatience, walking from console to console, preparing the charge up cycle of the massive cannon, using the now not so strange 'stone' interface that the Asgard used. Frankly, this particular Asgard reminded her far too much of McKay, the fact that the two are constantly in contact with each other when the Daedalus was in Pegasus wasn't exactly a comforting thought.
"No it's just I was wondering if you would be ready in time." She said in her defence, not wanting another 'foolish humans, that's not how you do initiate an ion build up, or that's not the way to convert the particle flow' or some kind of crap like that. Personally she thought he was an arrogant prick of the highest order, quite a contrast to the patient and helpful Thor that's for sure.
The Asgard gave her a look of disgust, and barely opened his mouth before Thor gave him a distinct glare, and basically told him to 'know your place', turning to the colonel his expression softened to the normal neutral tone that was usually painted on his face, "We shall be ready for the test as scheduled, you may want to show several other advancements we have developed."
Carter nodded, "Right, see you in about an hour." She turned to head towards the fleet yards, with the Theseus now landing, and the roaring sound of its engines just barely hiding the two Asgards bickering at each other in their native language, leaving the few human technicians working with them, completely in the dark.
USAF Icarus, Orbit Above of P5S-117
Cruising swiftly above the forest world below, the latest of the Daedalus class was glided swiftly through the dark realm of space, when suddenly for its numerous point defence Railguns to jumped into action, spraying metallic bolts in seemingly random directions. Soon dozens of gliders appeared from virtually nowhere, countering the constant barrage of hyper-accelerated rounds with their own pulse fire, slamming into and washing against the previously almost invisible shield. Those that fired soon found themselves in the target sights of multiple Railguns, the heavily defended cannons fired an almost stream like assault of projectiles, slicing through the fighters like blades. On board the Icarus's bridge, things were intense. Originally just a scouting mission to one of Baal's Naqudah mines, it soon became a running battle. The Icarus, found itself still charging weapons and barely able to deploy shields against the unexpected enemy armada.
With a single Ha'tak, multiple al'kesh and swarms of fighters, the Icarus was heavily out numbered but not out gunned. With its fighters launching, and defence cannons online, and with the occasional missile strike, this battle wouldn't be a push over for the attacking Jaffa.
Colonel Newkirk gritted his teeth at the last hit, shields were barely charged when they engaged, and now even the gliders were causing damage, not a happy feeling. An extra 3 squadrons from the surface moved in towards his ship, and he'd be damned if they even got close. "Increase railgun fire to the port side!"
"Turrets 4, 6 and 8 targeting several incoming gliders now sir, computer control." Captain Jennings reported from the weapons station on the colonels right, she was constantly adjusting target locks from all directions, so much for a nice quite shake down cruise…
Newkirk couldn't help but see the massive enemy starship, still launching more and more death gliders from a safe distance, no doubt aware of the advantage a 'Tau'ri' starship has one on one. Once that ship died, all these gliders would have no where to go…."Status on the main cannons?"
Jennings panel quickly switched from the railgun grid to the Asgard weapons station, showing 3 groups of 2 bars, slowly filling up from left to right with a green/blue colour, so far, it was barely 14 "Still charging, we jumped right into the fray."
The captain nodded grimly, looking intently at the ship acting as a carrier for this swarm, his own ship manoeuvring slowly through it while the Railguns offered some cover, "As soon as you've got the power for even a single shot, take out that Ha'tak!" Newkirk ordered over yet another hit to the ship, at least those big guns will make the difference, Prometheus couldn't even power its own at the battle of Antarctica, and firing missiles at a super Mothership? Well, not the smartest plan Hammond ever came up with, but then again there wasn't anything else.
The ever annoying and frustrating beeping from the sensor station behind him cut his thoughts off, the Helm officer the first to state the obvious "Sir, more al'kesh jumping in!"
The line of hyperspace windows opened in the distance, 5 extra Al'kesh joined the already large armada, 2 f-302's screamed across the main window, spraying their main cannon fire into anything in their path, and now was a good time to put them to use. "Order fighters to break and engage, load all anti-fighter missiles and prepare for saturation fire" The colonel ordered, already watching the human fighters breaking off from the main battle swerving into barrel rolls, extremely tight turns, and other manoeuvres that were hard to believe for those not understanding the gift of intertial dampener technology.
The Daedalus class was equipped with 24 VLS tubes, allowing the ship to fire different class missiles at a quicker rate then standard tubes, thankfully the current load out was split between anti-fighter, and anti-capital ship which did not requiring a time consuming reload of each tube and in Jennings case, made her job a hell of a lot easier. "Forward missile batteries 13-24 are loaded, ready to fire on your mark." She reported almost instantly at the order, already scanning the area of possible targets, not that hard considering there were nearly a hundred of the little bastards.
"Lock on all enemy Al'kesh, we'll mop the gliders with our light cannons, any word of the heavies?"
"Heavy Railguns are Primed and ready, PPC's 23 charged, we can get a single shot out of each within a few seconds."
"Bring us about, fire all missiles and prepare 4 mark 9 tactical Torpedoes, main guns to fire on my mark."
"Missiles away, heavy Railguns and PPC's on standby."
From 12 of the 24 VLS launchers, armoured flaps flipped back, allowing the small modified space AIM-120's to launch freely, spitting from the tubes almost simultaneously with a bellow of explosive force in their wake. The simple white rockets spread in separate directions at high speeds, streaking through the swarms of fighters, allied or enemy.
The newly arrived reinforcements barely had enough time to charge their shields, with the missiles spamming head on into the forward hulls, exploding spectacularly one after another. Meanwhile the Icarus herself was turning to face the capital ship, trawling madly with its Railguns in the process, point defences cutting into the surrounding fighters with an almost beam like rate of fire, the F-302's already firing their own missiles at the enemy 'corvettes' for lack of better words to describe the al'kesh.
Now the mighty Daedalus class Battlecruiser was turned and ploughing its way through the fighters like they were bugs on a wind screen. If the Railguns didn't get them, the whole slamming into a 400 metre starship did, by now the shields were fully charged and easily taking the beating that was thrown at it, but soon they'd have to face those Ha'taks heavy cannons, and that's a whole new ball game compared to gliders and al'kesh, but if they could stay out of its range for as long as possible…
"Weapons, fire everything we have at that thing!"
Area 51, Fleet Yard, Dock 8
There were literally hundreds of Engineers and Technician combing the layers of metal floors that rose like towers against the Spartan concrete walls that held the almost monolithic chamber together. Above was the grinding industrialized sound of the massive Titanium gates closing overhead, and while the hundreds of ship crews took it all without much notice, the President instantly covered his ears after leaving the sealed and relatively quite Theseus.
O'Neill barely raised an eyebrow in surprise, he was wondering whether or not he should have warned his CnC, but decided against it, much more amusing this way, and days like this, he needed a grin or two.
"Carter will be waiting for us just outside the yards." O'Neill yelled into the presidents ear, just over the loud thump of the doors slamming together, the sound echoing from wall to wall, Jack continued much quieter "You get used to it."
Before the president could reply, a quick cough caught the 2 delegates off guard, turning they faced the newly arrived Brigadier General Ronson, 'admiral' of the USAF Fleet, and usual commander of the fleet yards. Giving a quick salute to both. "Mr President, General." They both returned it swiftly, as the air force general sighed visibly, as if in relief "You have no idea how many times I've had to introduce myself today, to the brits, the Russians, the Chinese, and hell, I'd expect you both to arrive a lot earlier then them."
Hayes eyes grew slightly, "They're already here?"
Ronson gave a puzzled look, "Yes I thought you alrea…" but before he finished, both men and their escorts were half walking, half running in the direction of the research department, all the way O'Neill was thinking 'I do NOT envy carter at the moment…'
