Disclaimer:
I don't own Stargate. Just my own characters.
The Collective has invaded the humans' base. While onboard a Collective ship Jackie O'Neill discovered the true motives behind the attack. The Collective wants to invade Earth and now they have what they need: it's location.
"You're going to invade Earth!" Jackie cried.
The Collective man smiled. "Earth is our enemy, we destroy our enemies and you are no exception."
"But-but how'd you get the coordinates? We didn't even know how to get home." Jackie asked.
The man smiled. "Are we not like gods?"
Jackie eyed him suspiciously. "You're Ancients in human form. You're nothing close to being gods."
The Collective man sighed. "Such defiance. But we have much time to cure you of that."
Jackie fought the urge to roll her eyes.
"You're telling me what?" Major Hofius yelled.
"Lieutenant O'Neill is missing, sir. Dr. Connor thinks she might still be alive, but so far we've been unable to locate her."
"What?"
The major was not happy, and neither was the poor lieutenant who had to inform him that one of his top officers was missing.
"Dr. Connor is sure she's alive, but, well sir, she's aboard a Collective mothership."
"This is Connor's assumption?" Hofius asked.
The lieutenant nodded.
Just then Connor entered the platform above the gate room. "Major?" He said.
"You're dismissed." Hofius told the lieutenant.
The lieutenant saluted Hofius before scuttling out of the room.
"What is it Connor?" The major growled.
"Just wanted to inform you of this development ." Connor growled back.
Hofius sighed. "Out with it, doctor."
"A massive fleet of Collective ships were just spotted entering hyperspace and from what I can tell they had to use significantly more energy to make this jump."
"So?"
"So, I know where the ships are headed."
"And that is..." Hofius trailed off.
"Earth."
It had been twernty four hours and Jackie was already bored, a cell didn't offer much entertainment, so she plotted an escape. Of course she was fairly certain the two guards were ready to squash any attempt at escape and she figured Tiridus probably already knew she wanted to escape, they could read minds after all.
The ship made a little jolt and Jackie knew they'd exited hyperspace. Finally, or maybe she shouldn't have felt so relieved that they'd exited hyperspace and were likely ready to destroy Earth.
Jackie ignored the part of her brain that whispered it would be crazy to take on the whole Collective fleet, instead she knew she had to find some way to stop them from destroying her home.
She'd been fiddling with the door for the better part of an hour with no luck, but she renewed her struggle hoping to find a way out before the Collective destroyed Earth.
"What are our options?" Hofius asked the few people around the briefing table.
"We can go back to Earth and warn them." Connor said. "The adjustments to the Gate are about complete. I'm guessing it'll take at least three days for the Collective ships to reach Earth, that should give us a little bit of time to formulate some kind of plan."
It took three seconds for Hofius to make up his mind.
"Do it. Send all personnel back to Earth, except for your team, Dr. Connor. Dismissed."
Preparations were made, people notified and everyone except for Jara, Connor, Dani and Hofius were making their way through the Gate at 1400 hours. The SGC was quite relieved and confused upon receiving their transmission, but were ready to welcome back the stranded expedition.
Once the Gate had disengaged Hofius turned to Jara. "You know of anyone who could help us?"
And so, on November second one of the largest fights with an alien race was set to begin. Jackie was stuck aboard a Collective ship, Earth was preparing for a battle and Hofius and his top team had hitched a ride, hoping to reach Earth in time.
Tiridus smiled when he saw the human's tiny fleet, how easily he would crush them.
"Launch fighters." He ordered, already gloating, the Collective had already won.
Jackie was nothing if not resourceful and that's how she'd managed not only to escape from her cell, but also to steal a Collective fighter.
She was one person, but she'd take on the whole Collective fleet before she'd let them destroy Earth and when she left the cruiser she saw that taking on the whole fleet might actually be her directive after all.
Onboard the Andromeda, Colonel Kate Spazky readied her ship to attack.
She was seated in the usual seat in between two of her officers, they both looked as nervous as she felt, but Kate was not one to let it get to her. One would say that she held a great deal of respect from her officers. She was not a very tall woman, but the blonde hair and piercing blue eyes were hard to miss, she had presence and that was very important.
"We wait for them to make the first move." She said. "When they do I want you to give 'em everything we've got."
"Yes, ma'am." Her 2IC, Captain Claudia Powel acknowledged.
"They're launching fighters!" This came from someone, but Kate was too busy watching as hundreds of fighters headed towards them.
Kate sighed. "Fire at will and launch 302's."
"Yes, ma'am."
And just like that, the battle had begun.
Jackie was still trying to figure out how to fly the fighter she'd borrowed from the Collective when she saw that all of the Earth's ships had launched 302's.
Not wanting to get blown out of the sky by one of her own, Jackie opened a channel.
"Earth ship, any one will do, this is Lieutenant Jackie O'Neill, please respond." She waited a couple minutes before repeating her message.
The 302's were upon the Collective fighters and Jackie knew the fighters stood no chance against the far more maneuverable 302's, the fighters quickly pulled back in a retreat, but the 302's weren't having it.
Jackie's stolen fighter was still on autopilot and retreated with the other's.
"Ugh! You stupid fighter!" Jackie shouted, becoming frustrated with the small ship and pounding the dashboard.
The fighter was suddenly under her control and falling, but Jackie pulled it up.
She grinned crazily to herself. "Time to do some damage."
She headed for the nearest Collective cruiser, glad that the other fighters were too preoccupied to notice her. Jackie opened fire, taking out main weapons, or so she hoped. With that done she headed for the next ship, ready to repeat the process until she couldn't.
"What was that?" Kate asked, watching as the nearest Collective cruiser's main weapons exploded into brilliant flashes of light.
"I-I don't know." The other officer, Captain Lewis, said bewilderedly. "A fighter just took out their main weapons. They're dead in the water."
"Finish them off and turn your attention to the fighters, they're coming around for another run." Kate said.
"Any Earth ship out there, this is Lieutenant Jackie O'Neill, please respond."
"What is that?" Kate asked.
"One of the fighter's is hailing us?" The statement sounded more like a question.
"I can hear that!" Kate snapped, then sighed. "Lieutenant O'Neill was reported to be aboard a Collective ship, maybe she escaped? Open a channel."
"Yes, ma'am." Powel nodded when it was done.
"Lieutenant? This is Colonel Kate Spazky of the Earth ship, Andromeda."
"Colonel? It's good to hear another human voice." The lieutenant answered and Kate could almost hear the girl smiling.
"What's your situation, O'Neill?"
"I'm headed towards the middle of the fleet, but I've got some company, anything you could do would be helpful." The lieutenant responded a minute later.
"We're directing half of our squadron to you, they'll follow your orders. Good luck, lieutenant."
"Thank you, ma'am."
When they dropped out of hyperspace above Earth, Dani hadn't expected what she saw. The Collective fleet was massive and the Earth fleet was holding their own, but were getting beaten badly.
"Tell me again why I let you talk me into this, Jara?" The male voice belonged to Jara's old friend who'd offered a helping hand, just as Jara had said.
"Because you couldn't resist." Jara answered mildly.
The old gentleman sighed. "I never could resist a good space battle."
Hofius joined them, watching the battle with worry. "We're outnumbered."
"But not outgunned." Jara insisted.
"Eight ships just dropped out of hyperspace!" Powel yelled over something exploding.
"Collective?" Kate gripped the arms of her seat, they couldn't survive much more of this.
"No, they appear to be firing upon the Collective fleet." Powel said, excitedly.
That day it was the joint effort that routed the Collective fleet and had them on the run. There were only five Collective ships that escaped in relatively one piece. The others were destroyed.
Soon after the battle had been won, Jara and her friend left for the Collective galaxy, but not before promising that she'd return to her team should the IOA approve the continued stay of personnel in that galaxy.
It made for an interesting reunion as Dani, Jackie and the other members of the previously stranded expedition met with their families after months away.
The old SG-1 and their children gathered on the bridge of the Andromeda to celebrate the victory and the kids' return.
They had a lovely dinner and Jackie was so glad to be seeing her family again.
Sam caught her daughter alone on the bridge, staring out into space (literally).
"Mom, if the IOA allows it, I want to return to the Collective galaxy." Jackie had sensed her mother had come in without turning around.
Sam smiled. "And you will have both our blessings. I'm glad you found something worth fighting for."
Jackie hugged her mom tightly. "I love you."
"I love you, too." Sam said.
Twelve days later the newly promoted Captain Jackie O'Neill entered the Gate room, ready to head out into the galaxy. Her team had assembled and grinned at her.
"Congrats on the promotion, captain." Dani gave a sloppy salute.
"I wasn't the only one." Jackie pointed the Hofius. He now wore the insignia of a lieutenant colonel.
"They gave him this expedition, practically." Jackie said.
"Well, I for one am glad for that." Connor said.
Jackie nodded.
"Listen up people!" Hofius yelled. "We're about to take Earth's interests out into a new galaxy and it might be scary, but you signed up for this. See you on the other side."
The Gate dialed up and Jackie got nervous jitters up and down her spine.
She turned to her teammates. "Let's go see what this galaxy has to offer."
"Yes, ma'am."
With that they strode up the ramp, through the event horizon and into a whole new adventure.
Thank you for reading the final installment of the Stargate: Stranded series. I hope you enjoyed and please review!