A/N: I forgot to put this for the other chapters, so I'll just drop this here: I don't own Stargate or its affiliated property. Wish I did, but I don't.
Tuesday 4th February 2003
Defence Council Meeting Room, Ministry of Defence
Secretary of State for Defence Geoff Hoon, MP for Ashfield strode into the room. He had last been in this room 1 week earlier, when he had briefed the Defence Council on the United States Stargate program. Initially, much like himself when he had been briefed just the day before, he had been greeted by disbelief and incredulity, before the feeling had transformed into worry, anger and (in one case) a little bit of despair.
He had left the Council, in particular the military members of it, under the supervision of the Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral of the Fleet Sir Michael Boyce, with the task of determining not only the threat to the United Kingdom posed by the Goa'uld, and other hostile extra-terrestrial races, but also what response the United Kingdom could marshal in response to an attack from orbit and how effective it would likely be.
He had also directed the military to study the plans for the United States Air Force's ship, the X-303 'battlecruiser' prototype and the X-302 prototype aerospace fighter, to determine how effective they would actually be at their proposed role, that of combating the Goa'uld Ha'tak's and Death Gliders respectively, and thus the worth of the United Kingdom in procuring at least 1 ship and several squadrons.
The Prime Minister, after getting over the shock of the disclosure, had been very enthusiastic about the UK, in his eyes, pulling it's weight in the Stargate Program now that it was being included in it by the US, possibly leveraging the UK's status as "one of the US's greatest allies" and the "Special Relationship" that both he and George Bush, the US President, liked to talk about existing between the two countries, to gain more access to the program and technology than available to the other involved countries. Especially with all of the sacrifices Britain (and Tony Blair personally, in terms of political influence) had made to support the US in recent years, including in Afghanistan and the build-up for Iraq.
Now however, as he walked into the room, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous, especially as he saw the expressions on the faces waiting for him. Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce sat next to the Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Antony Bagnall, quietly talking, while the other three highest ranking officers in the United Kingdom's Armed Forces, each representing one of the branches, were scattered around the room, together with both the Minister of State for the Armed Forces and the Director General Finance, all either quietly talking or once again reading through one of the many reports and files about the Stargate Program. Just inside the door, he was greeted by the Permanent Secretary Sir Kevin Reginald Tebbit, before everyone moved towards the table in the centre of the room and sat.
"Gentlemen, you've had several days now to look over the information provided by the SGC, and to review the various assessments of the threats posed by the races encountered by them. The purpose of this meeting to to not only determine how we can be involved in the Stargate Program, but also how we could defend the United Kingdom from attack by these various races."
With that said, Geoff Hoon leant back in his chair and looked over at Admiral Boyce, indicating to him to carry on.
"Thank you Minister. Now, after reviewing the information provided by the SGC, although they have encountered multiple races, the majority of them are either friendly towards us, at least at the moment, or are not technologically advanced enough to pose a threat, other than through the Stargate. As such, this briefing will focus primarily on the handful of races which either are an active threat towards us, or potentially could pose a threat in the future. These are the Goa'uld, the Replicators, the Aschen, the Serrakin/Hebridans, which were encountered only last week, the aliens which the SGC referred to as Mimics, the Eurondans and the Rebel Reetou. We will also quickly look at several advanced allies made by the SGC, which are mainly the Asgard, Tok'ra, Orbanians, Tollan, Nox and Rebel Jaffa.
"The biggest threat from these races are the Goa'uld and the Replicators - due to both their technological advantage over us and their sheer numbers. The Goa'uld due to their various ships and Jaffa armies, and the Replicators due to their ability to create almost limitless copies of themselves out of any metallic material. I will now pass over to Air Chief Marshal Squire who will provide a brief overview of our capability to engage the smaller Goa'uld vessels."
As Admiral Boyce finished, Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire, Chief of the Air Staff, stood, and moved around til he stood in front of the table, next to a projector screen that had been set up. Turning the projector on, it started displaying alternating images and plans of each craft, together with a detailed breakdown of it's threat assessment and weaknesses.
"The Goa'uld operate a comparatively small number of small craft designs, compared to the UK, let alone the rest of the world. The Uda'jeet is a combined interceptor/air superiority fighter and a ground support platform, the Tel'tak is a short to medium ranged cargo and scout ship and the Al'kesh is a short to medium ranged bomber. The last vessel is the Tel'shak, or troop transport, and although we don't have very much information about it, we can extrapolate it's capabilities based on what we know about the other vessels."
After he finished speaking, he pressed a button on the computer attached to the projector and the screen changed to show just the Uda'jeet images and threat assessment.
"The Uda'jeet. Armed with 2 fixed, forward firing plasma cannons. Capable of approximately Mach 3.5 within atmosphere and a sustained spaceflight capability of 1g constant acceleration, although it's inertial dampeners allow it's pilots to survive High-g manoeuvres that would, in any of our planes, normally cause the pilot to suffer blackouts or G-LOC (g-force induced loss of consciousness), at a minimum, without any issue.
"Although it is fast and manoeuvrable, indeed far more so than any of our current planes, it has no Beyond Visual Range weaponry or countermeasures, and will be significantly damaged, if not destroyed, a single impact from any light SAM or Air-to-Air missiles in our arsenal. In addition, as our planes can carry multiple Air-to-Air missiles usually, the Harrier for instance can carry up to 6 Sidewinder missiles on its hard points, and so can engage multiple Uda'jeet's safely outside of their engagement range."
As Air Chief Marshal Squire stopped talking for a few seconds to have a quick drink, there was a small stir around the table as the men sitting there quietly discussed the information provided with their neighbour. The discussions died down as the screen now changed to show both a Tel'tak and an Tel'shak.
"Now we look at both the Tel'tak and Tel'shak. These vessels are similar in function, with the Tel'tak transporting cargo and acting as a scout ship and the Tel'shak as a troop transport. Both of them are unarmed, but are shielded. As such, they themselves aren't a threat, although the troops or equipment that they can carry could be. However, the Tel'shak is not equipped with a hyperdrive and as such is reliant on a transport vessel.
"Thanks to intelligence obtained by the SGC and their own research, we know that the shields on a Tel'tak are easily stripped away by only 2 or 3 impacts from standard fighter air-to-air missiles, and that the hull, depending on the location of the hit, would only be able to take 1 or 2 hits before loosing integrity and either being destroyed or crashing. The Tel'shak, as mentioned earlier, we unfortunately do not have any real indication of it's shield strength, but we estimate, based on extrapolating information from the Tel'tak and the Al'kesh, that it would take approximately 5 or 6 air-to-air missiles to strip it of its shields, and a further 1 or 2 missiles to destroy the ship.
"The last Goa'uld small ship is the Al'kesh short-to-medium ranged bomber. Like the Tel'tak and Tel'shak, it is equipped with a shield generator, although due to its status as a combat vessel, the shield is stronger than that protecting either of the other vessels. Unlike them however, the Al'kesh is equipped with weapons, a plasma charge generator for attacking ground and capital ship targets, and a ventral turret with a dual barrelled plasma cannon in it, for engaging small craft. This turret is capable of 360 degree rotation, enabling the Al'kesh to engage targets even directly behind it. Similarly to the Death Glider, it doesn't appear to have any Beyond Visual Range weaponry capability, and as such is at a disadvantage compared to our aircraft. The downside of course, is that the shield it is equipped with is stronger even than that on a Tel'shak, and so is likely to require 2 aircraft to engage it with air-to-air missiles to have a chance of destroying it."
With that, Air Chief Marshal Squire returned to his seat as worried murmurings began between the civilians around the table. Before the discussions could rise too much in volume or get out of hand, Admiral Boyce stood and called everyone's attention to him.
"Gentlemen," Pausing a few seconds for the conversations to die down and for everyone to focus on him, "The important thing to remember with this is, although it will take a comparatively large number of missiles to destroy an attacking force, all of these vessels mentioned either have no hyperdrive capability, or are short-ranged vessels. This means that they will require a carrier vessel, mainly the Ha'tak, to reach Earth, and as such, will severely limited in numbers. Admiral West will now quickly run through the threat posed by the Goa'uld's capital ships."
Admiral West, the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, stood and moved to take the place that Air Chief Marshal Squire had previously occupied. As he did so, the projector screen changed once again, to show images of a Ha'tak.
"Gentlemen, the Ha'tak. Translates in English to 'Attack'. The main capital ship of the Goa'uld, and very much a Jack-of-all-Trades ship. Utilised as a troop transport, cargo ship, planetary bombardment vessel and ship of the line.
"Equipped with 30 dual barrel Staff Cannon turrets and strong shields, each Ha'tak can withstand multiple shots from an enemy ship, shots which according to the SGC have been measured as impacting with the equivalent energy of up to 200 megatons each. They can hold up to several thousand troops for short periods of time, or between one and one-and-a-half thousand troops for longer periods. They have hangar capacity for up to 72 Uda'jeet's, 2 Tel'shak's and 2 Tel'tak's or Al'kesh.
"Individually, a Ha'tak's small craft complement is not a threat to Earth. In fact, even with several Ha'tak's, they do not have the numbers to win in an air battle against the majority of air forces across the globe, and the countries that do not have the capacity to fight them are geographically and diplomatically close to other nations which do have that capacity. The main threat from even a single Ha'tak is its ground bombardment capability, especially as their shield strength is such that we could fire our entire nuclear arsenal at it, and their shields wouldn't collapse.
"Currently, our only defense against an attack by a Ha'tak, or a fleet of Ha'tak's, is the Protected Planets Treaty which the SGC were able to negotiate us into being a part of. However, the issue with that is that, by-and-large, it is a bluff, due to the Asgard being preoccupied by the replicator threat in their galaxy.
"The SGC are in the process of constructing their own vessel, supposedly capable of taking on a Goa'uld Ha'tak, but we'll look at that later."
His presentation done, for the time being, Admiral West moved back to his seat, as General Sir Michael Walker, Chief of the General Staff, stood and took his place. As he did so, the screen changed again, this time to show an image of a replicator.
"The Replicators. Mechanical bugs that can take any metallic substance and use it to create more of themselves. They are capable of absorbing any known energy weapon with no appreciable damage. The only known weapons capable of damaging or destroying the individual Replicators are kinetic weapons, such as our guns, as the Replicators are unable to withstand the impact of bullets, unlike with energy weapons.
"As they are able to create more of themselves using any available resource, even one of these creatures is a significant threat to Earth if not found and destroyed immediately. We have had a very close risk, not too long ago, when Replicators took over Supreme Commander Thor's, the leader of the Asgard fleet, ship, learnt of Earth, and flew here. They were stopped by SG1, destroying the ship as it entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, but one of the "bugs" as the SGC refers to them survived, and took over a Russian submarine. Luckily, the US were able to detect the submarine and it's mayday, sent out before the Replicators took complete control over the sub, and were able to destroy the vessel, and all the Replicators with it."
He paused here for a few seconds as the screen changed to show two paired sets of data, one pair of a Ha'tak and the other of an Asgard Beliskner class ship.
"The Replicators, as far as we are currently aware, do not create their own ships, although, as they are made of identical blocks, they theoretically can. Instead, they take over the ships of other races, use as much material as they can to create more of themselves, and modify the ships technology to suit their needs. This includes, at the least, the ship's shields, weapons and hyperdrive.
"The data shown here indicates the level of improvement the Replicators can do to both an Asgard Beliskner class ship, which is one of the most advanced ships currently known to the SGC, and a Goa'uld Ha'tak. For those that prefer a more descriptive version, the Replicators were able to modify three Beliskner class ships to the point that they were able to engage five other Beliskners, still under the control of the Asgard, and destroy all five, without suffering a single loss, or any significant damage. Replicators that had taken over a Ha'tak were able to increase it's hyperspace speed approximately 800 times its original speed, allowing them to cross from the Ida Galaxy back to our own within a couple of hours, a journey that a normal Ha'tak would take several months to cross, if it could do so at all.
"To put it bluntly gentlemen, the Replicators are the single biggest threat to Earth, and indeed this galaxy, that we know of. They are aware of this galaxy, and should they win against the Asgard, they will turn their attention to us, and, as one of the most industrialised worlds in this galaxy, we will be a prime target. Even one Replicator, if left undiscovered, will, within a very short period of time, create enough Replicators to sweep across Earth, killing all life on the planet."
A/N: The various details for the ships in Stargate, both power and size, vary depending on the source. The most commonly quoted figures for the size of the X-303, 195m long, seems to come from the Stargate DVD Magazine collection. However, the size then doesn't match up with other ships, images on screen, or the actual studio model. As such, the sizes I will be using will be based on the Fleetyards videos from them YouTube channel Trekyards, which uses the Studio Models, and correctly scales the ships/fighters accordingly.
This means that the length of the X-303 is 516m, the width is 256m and the height is 310m.
The Tel'shak mentioned above is the troop transport that we see in Episode 16 of Season 5 (Last Stand) attacking the Tok'ra base on Revanna, and in Episode 22 of Season 6 (Full Circle) attacking Abydos. It is never (as far as I can tell) given a Goa'uld name and is simply referred to as Troop Transport, so I decided to give it one here.
