Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: Sg-1, Stargate: Atlantis or any other television programs, video games, books or movies used in the telling of this story. I make no money off of this work of fiction, and would rather not be sued anytime soon as I make very little money and need it to pay the bills, buy food and pay for the ridiculous cost of fuel.
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March 3rd, 2187
UNSC Battleship Endeavour, High Orbit of Sorna Prime
Rear Admiral Aleksandir Vladislov grimaced as he read the brief and succinct report of the incident involving the possible loss of a Tau outpost and a combined reconnaissance patrol. A veteran of the Alkaid War, Vladislov was somewhat grizzled and cynical at the best of times, and to him, this report just screamed "hard contact", the term given to any First Contact situation that involved hostilities.
At eighty-three years old, the admiral didn't look a day over thirty at first glance, thanks to the advanced medical technology available to the Allies. However his face was heavily scarred and he wore a perpetual scowl that had made many a junior officer quiver in their uniform.
Heaving a sigh, Vladislov turned to the fleet reports and began running through the formations and readiness of the vessels under his command.
He started with the flagship, the Endeavour. At the centre of the formation, it was reported to be fully stocked on consumables and expendable munitions, including rail gun ammunition, nuclear ordinance and anti-fighter missiles and flak cannon ammo.
The two fleet carriers, Achilles and Apollo, reported full consumable stocks and 90 percent expendable munitions stocks, with all fighters, bombers and gunboats safely aboard with the exception of the Combat Space Patrol.
Next were the two battlecruisers, Nexus and Conquest, also reporting full combat readiness.
He continued down the reasonably long list, checking all four heavy cruisers, the eight light cruisers, ten destroyers, sixteen frigates and twenty-eight corvettes, one after the other.
Vladislov sighed again. The fleet could autonomously keep itself alert and ready, and could check in with half hourly updates on their status with the Endeavours resident artificial intelligence construct, Akira, meaning the admiral did not need to do it himself.
However, he was thoroughly bored with waiting for the Tau battle group to arrive. True, the battle group was making best speed towards the Sorna System, and they had had to stop along the way to pick up the UNSC tenders from the Adrian shipyards and to rearm themselves after a training exercise, but Vladislov was anxious to get the mission underway.
Vladislov's desk holo panel lit up suddenly, and Akira's avatar of an ancient Samurai warrior appeared.
"Excuse me, Admiral, but you requested to be notified when the Tau battle group arrived in system," Akira said, his voice synthesisers making a perfect impression of an authentic Japanese accent
"Thank you, Akira. Can you please set up a com-link between myself and the Elder commanding the battle group?"
"Of course, sir, one moment please," Akira answered, just before his avatar disappeared, to be replace moments later by the holographic representation of Elder K'Hahn, the Commanding Elder of the 8th TRN battle group.
"Greetings, Admiral Vladislov, it is an honour to meet you," the Elder spoke, the lilting musical tones of his voice carrying through the com-link with crystal clarity. The Elders large eyes shone with a similar anxiety to what Vladislov himself was feeling.
"The honour is mine, Elder K'Hahn, I have heard a great many good things about you and your battle group," Vladislov returned, and he was not lying. The 8th Tau Republic Navy battle group was also a veteran group of the Alkaid War, and had held off an Alkaid fleet nearly three times its size for five days in the Sierra system, a densely populated system at the edge of Allied space on the Alkaid Rim, until reinforcements could arrive.
"I was informed that you would take official command of both our battle groups for the duration of this mission. I must admit, I am most anxious to get underway. My group is ready to take up any formation you wish to utilise at this time, Admiral. We await your command," the Elder responded, clearly through with the pleasantries, which suited Vladislov just fine.
"Very well. Take up Mutual Defence Formation Theta with my battle group and prepare for hyperspace transition in thirty-five standard minutes,' Vladislov stated.
Mutual Defence Formation Theta integrated the two battle groups into one reasonably large battle fleet, 142 ships total (124 of those being escorts) with the flagships and critical capital ships in the very centre of the spherical formation and the light capital ships and escorts making up concentric rings of defence around the heavy capital ships. The formation was fairly loose, with 100-150 kilometre spacing between each ship to allow for maximum point defence fire from all ships to protect one another evenly, while still being able to bring heavy offensive firepower to bare in any direction.
"As you command, Admiral. I have relayed your orders to the rest of the battle group and we shall form up with you momentarily. Elder K'Hahn, out."
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March 3rd, 2187
Goa'uld fleet, orbiting remains of Tau Hyperspace Outpost 31
The expedition had initially been quite small, two of Ra's Ha'tak motherships exploring a new sector of space in the hopes of discovering more habitable worlds to absorb into his steadily growing territories.
Instead, an alien settlement of some kind had been discovered and subsequently destroyed when the pathetic creatures had refused to bow to their god. After that, three more Ha'tak had arrived to secure the system for their god Ra. Less than an hour later, three small vessels had arrived on the scene, and had also been destroyed after refusing to bow to their god, at the cost of one Ha'tak destroyed and one lightly damaged.
But, most disturbing of all was the fact that humans had occupied and apparently commanded the two smaller ships, with the larger one being commanded by the same aliens that had been discovered on the small settlement. The radically different designs indicated that both the aliens and the alien humans had separate fleets that worked together at least some of the time and the alien humans were allied in some way to the aliens.
That had been nearly nine hours ago now, and the system had been heavily reinforced by more motherships of differing design, most commonly standard Ha'tak, but also a number of Baal's upgraded Ha'tak and a large number of Al'kesh bombers. The Goa'uld Union had decided that this was worth investigating, and the fact that there might be some kind of alliance between the humans of this area of the galaxy and an alien race had warranted the full attention of the gods. So much so, in fact, that Ra himself was presently in the system in his flagship, a heavily modified Ha'tak nearly twice the size of the average Ha'tak and with all of Baal's upgrades (supplied by Anubis) applied.
The sudden appearance of dozens of hyperspace transitions caught the attention of Ra's First Prime, and he immediately reported it to his god.
"Open communications with those ships, I wish to give them the opportunity to bow to their god," Ra said, voice unnaturally deep thanks to the symbiote within the human host.
"Channel opened, my Lord, you may speak when you are ready", the First Prime stated evenly, but with just a hint of reverence in his voice.
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Aboard the UNSC Endeavour
"Sir, multiple vessels of an unknown configuration are present with in the system, currently holding position barely one hundred thousand kilometres from the Outpost!," Ensign Patrick Williams, currently on duty at the sensor suite reported perhaps a little too loudly.
The Admiral, barely six feet away from the overexcited young ensign, winced and had to remind himself that the man had good reason to be anxious about this First Contact situation, given how poorly the last First Contact had gone.
"I'm also registering the wreckage of one of the unknowns, the Outpost and the recon patrol that was sent from Sierra," the ensign spoke again, calmer this time.
"Have all ships raise shields and prepare for possible hard contact, rail guns and missile launchers only to start with, but make sure the laser cannons and plasma weapons are ready as well. Alert the Achilles and the Apollo to launch their CSPs and stand by to launch further squadrons," Vladislov ordered, thoroughly displeased that it looked like he was about to be proven right about hostile aliens.
"Sir," Lieutenant Sandra Okinawa from communications called out, "we're receiving a broadband subspace transmission from one of the alien ships, audio-visual"
Vladislov frowned and nodded, indicating that the Lt. should put up the communiqué on the main holo screen. Immediately a disturbingly human face, tanned and absurdly young looking to be commanding a fleet, appeared.
"I am Ra, your God," the young man (teenager, really) stated, as though it was the most well known fact in the universe, "Bow down to me and your lives will be spared."
With the conclusion of that statement, "Ra's" eyes momentarily flashed a bright golden colour.
Vladislov's perpetual scowl deepened, and he glanced quickly at the sensor displays on his personal view screen.
"And the people on the Outpost, on the ships we sent here? What happened to them?," Vladislov asked, even though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.
"They refused to bow down to my divine will," Ra answered, calmly, like he hadn't a care in the world.
"So you destroyed them," The Admiral stated flatly. A glance at the comm. board indicated that every ship in the fleet was listening in on this conversation, including the Tau vessels.
Ra did not answer, so Vladislov took that as a yes, and asked another question.
"If we refuse to follow your 'divine will' you will do the same to us?"
"Of course. Now bow down to me," came the sharp reply. Vladislov smirked slightly as he noted the hint of frustration in the 'gods' voice.
"Well, tempting an offer as that is, I'm going to have to decline. Now, there is the matter of the destruction of those ships and the outpost…," the Admiral was cut off suddenly as the transmission was ended from the other side.
"Sir, major energy spikes from the alien ships, I think they're preparing to fire!," Ensign Williams spoke hurriedly, adrenalin spiking in his system.
Damn, Vladislov thought, aggressive lot, aren't they?
"Order all ships to prepare to return fire and engage the enemy, let them hit us first, I want to know what weapons they use and how effective they are," he said aloud.
"Aye, sir. All units, all units, prepare to receive fire and engage the enemy," Lt. Okinawa sent out to the Tau-Human fleet.
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A/N: okay, so that's the first actual chapter, R&R and tell me what you think. This is obviously an alternate history for the Stargate universe, but more details on that will be revealed later on. I'll try and update as often as possible, but I can't make too many promises in that department I'm afraid, as I'm flat out with work and studies at the moment. No flames, constructive criticism only, or praise, either of those two would be good. By the way, anyone who figures out which popular franchise the term UNSC comes from, gets kudos or whatever. Shouldn't be to hard.
