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.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

To Striker1346: Thanks for the review. Don't worry, at some point in the not-too-distant future the Asgard are going to be making an appearance. As for an Alteran Repository, I'm thinking about adding in Atlantis sometime after the Asgard first approach the UNSC and the TRN.

To Jumper Prime: You're absolutely right, the UNSC does come from the Halo series. It's kind of my way of paying homage to one of my favourite video games. Also, depending on how many reviews I get and how big the story gets, I might add in the Covenant at some point. Don't worry about the battle being a steamroller, as I'm sure you'll find that both sides are fairly evenly matched (although the Goa'uld are somewhat outnumbered in this instance).

To Darth Kiryan: The Stargate was discovered in 1927 in this timeline as well, however the importance of the discovery was never realised, so the 'gate ended up being a part of a museum collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts. It isn't until a little later on in the story, when the UNSC and TRN witness the Jaffa using a Stargate that it starts making a significant impact on humans and Tau alike.

Again, everybody, thanks for the reviews, keep them coming. Here is the next instalment of Otherworld, The Battle Of Outpost 31. Enjoy.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle of Outpost 31

TRN Battleship Pious Inquisitor

"Elder, the enemy ships are firing!", Cadet J'Intar shouted, even as the enemy ships ripple fired on the front battlelines. The fire was sporadically aimed, with no two ships firing on the same target, and because of that, the Allied fleet got off relatively lightly.

Two human corvettes, a human frigate and a Tau destroyer either flashed out of existence in a brilliant white light or listed suddenly - and sharply - out of formation, hulls belching flames, atmosphere and equipment and, horrifyingly, people, who struggled momentarily to survive in an airless environment with a temperature of Absolute Zero, before stilling and beginning an endless journey through the void.

Elder K'Hahn bowed his head low, a sign of respect for the fallen, then raised his large green eyes to look at his weapons officer, Cadet K'inbe. With an almost imperceptible nod, the order was given to return fire.

The great battleship, 1.8 kilometres long from bow to stern, shuddered under the weight of fire being forced from its many gun barrels and missile tubes, even as its hangar bays opened and its own squadron of Sabre-class Space Superiority Fighters exited and took up an escort position around the behemoth.

"Enemy ships launching what appear to be some kind of fighter craft, standby all squadrons to engage." Flight Leader P'Tar, Cutter Lead, nodded calmly to himself after receiving his orders from Fleet Tactical Command. He switched over to his squadron frequency and ordered a sit rep.

"Stone Cutters, report in", P'Tar smiled darkly in anticipation as he went through his own last minute systems check.

"Cutter Two, good to go."

"Cutter Three, ready for anything."

The squadron continued reporting in, all the way down to Cutter Twelve, even as the battleships guns spoke again. Off in the distance, the ship that had been on the receiving end of both volleys crumpled under the weight of rail gun rounds and laser pulses, the explosion surprisingly large and bright even at a distance of close to 80 thousand kilometres.

"Alright, break up into your wing pairs and move onto your assigned sections, defend the Inquisitor with your very lives if you must," Cutter Lead ordered, and instantly his demands were met as the squadron broke up into six pairs and moved to cover critical locations around the massive ship they were charged with defending.

Just over 500 km away, the UNSC light cruiser Carpathian took a series of glancing blows to the shields, the protective energy barrier glowing bright silver under the onslaught. It looked like the shields were going to hold out, until three gunboat sized craft made a seemingly suicidal run at the 900 metre long cruiser, spitting out some kind of glowing energy projectile.

Even as two of the attacking gunboats were swatted out of the sky by the Laser Net point defence cannons, and the attacking enemy cruiser analogues shields failed under a hail of plasma bursts and rail gun fire, the cruisers starboard hull was penetrated in explosive gouts of light.

The ship immediately lost partial control, and just barely avoided colliding with the heavy cruiser she was escorting, only to slam into the enemy ship at close to 15 thousand kilometres per second. The twin explosions that followed were bright enough to make P'Tar's fighter canopy polarize, and destabilize the shields of the heavy cruiser and a pair of nearby destroyers.

"Alright squad, stay sharp and keep an eye out for those enemy gunboats, it looks like they pack a mean punch," P'Tar ordered over the squad link. A series of affirmatives answered him back.

P'Tar's attention was drawn to his sensor suite when a light jingle alerted him to incoming enemy craft.

"Heads up, guys we've got a lot of enemy fighters closing in, ETA damn quick!," a human pilot from the Endeavour's defence squadron reported over the COM link, even as P'Tar and his squadron began to move into an aggressive formation, preparing to deal with the fighter threat before they got within any reasonable kind of range to the two battleships.

As they closed in on each other, the two Allied squadrons of twenty-four fighters against close to sixty enemy ships, P'Tar got his first real look at the enemy. The first thing that came to mind was the image of the B2 Stealth Bomber of the late 20th and early 21st centuries on Earth, only with slightly downward curving wings, which had seen on a historical documentary once.

The enemy fighters had no obvious formation, it was basically a jumble of ships gathered into one large group, and it was immediately apparent to P'Tar that these people had no clue how to operate a fighter in zero atmosphere. They flew in wide, lazy arcs whenever they changed position, manoeuvring in much the same way as the old bombers they so much resembled.

A moment later and the two forces collided, explosions raking across the front lines of the enemy fighters, and then it was all instinct for P'Tar. He had no way of knowing when he might be fired upon so he simply jinked and juked at random, making it look like he was flying in an intricate pattern.

The enemy fighters were pathetic, and it was proven quickly as over a dozen of them were destroyed in the first seconds of the melee, with no losses to the Allies. P'Tars Sabre swung around in an impossibly tight turn, the inertial compensators straining to their limit as he swung in behind his first target. A second or two of jockeying for just the right position to fire from and P'Tar made his first kill, instantly swinging about and choosing another target.

Golden energy fire lashed past his cockpit, just inches away, making his shields flare briefly. Finishing off his chosen target quickly, P'Tar made another tight turn, catching his pursuer completely flatfooted and sending a burst of laser fire into his cockpit. He swung about again, firing on another target, and another and another, in a never ending pattern that seemed so monotonous and simple it was almost funny. Almost.

Before he knew it, the dogfight was over, and he had nine kills to his name. He breathed deeply as the adrenalin drained away from his system, leaving him in a brief after action slump. He had just enough time to note that aside from a few craft with light damage, not a single Allied casualty had been taken. Just as that piece of information settled in, his sensors blared an obnoxiously loud alarm.

Acting on pure instinct, P'Tar swung his fighter "down", just in time to see a series of energy bolts flash by and impact on Cutter Six's fighter. The hardy little fighter and rookie pilot were destroyed almost instantly as the considerably more powerful energy weapons of an enemy gunboat stripped away the shields and boiled the armour.

To coin a human phrase, P'Tar thought to himself, god-fucking-damnit!

Even as he swung back around to re-engage, a quartet of AMRAAM-116's roared past his fighter, all four of them imparting their explosive force against one of the eight attacking craft, badly damaging the vehicle and leaving it barely operational. P'Tar finished it off with a three-second burst of laser fire even as he raced past the exploding vessel to engage its fellows.

Two more fighters formed up on P'Tar in an attack formation, one of them human, and, with no communication between them at all, each fired a one-second laser burst and followed up with a missile.

Another gunboat down, six more to-

P'Tar cursed wildly as his craft was suddenly thrown into an uncontrolled spin as a volley of capital ship rail gun rounds raced past, impacting against the shields of one of the larger enemy capital ships.

He regained control just in time to avoiding ramming into the side of a Tau battle cruiser that had fallen out of formation. His comrades were not so lucky, with one glancing off of one of the weapons emplacements on the ship, the pilot ejecting just before the fighter exploded. The human pilot was far worse off, his ship rammed full pelt into the battlecruisers hull and exploded.

The hull? The shields should have stopped both those impacts…

P'Tar's query was answered as he came over the dorsal side of the capital ship. His naturally large eyes widened even further, and his mouth dropped wide open as he registered the flaming hulks of two of the enemy's light capital ships embedded in the Tau ships hull, small secondary explosions erupting all over all three ships. Despite the no doubt fatal damage, the battlecruiser continued firing with its few remaining guns.

In all his years, P'Tar had never seen a capital ship, human or Tau, so horrifically damaged as the Ascendant was. Granted, it had cost the enemy at least two of their own ships to accomplish this feat, but still, it was a humbling sight, especially considering the 3200 crewmembers aboard who would surely perish if the battlecruiser was not adequately defended by its escorts.

To P'Tar, it appeared as if the battle was going poorly for both sides, with hundreds of fighter losses and dozens of larger ships either destroyed outright or listing lazily out of formation already, belching atmosphere and flame. He had a feeling that the rest of the war, and surely there would be war after this, would play out similarly.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle of Outpost 31

Ra's Flagship

Ra watched in disbelief as Al'kesh after Al'kesh and Ha'tak after Ha'tak were destroyed. The Udajeet death gliders had been swept aside by the heretics fighters and point defences in record time, and Ra was forced to contemplate the possible merits of retreating to fight another day.

True the heretical beasts of the other fleet were suffering heavy losses as well, but it was not nearly enough to turn this battle in the gods favour.

Ra and his First Prime both collapsed in heaps, on top of one another, no less, as the flagship was struck by a nuclear missile. As Ra struggled to his feat and his First Prime begged for forgiveness, he was thrown to the floor again as a rail gun volley spent itself on the ships shields.

Yes, perhaps retreat is a viable option in this situation…

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle Of Outpost 31

UNSC Endeavour

The mighty battleship shuddered as another volley of energy weapons fire impacted against the shields, the impact causing Rear Admiral Vladislov and the rest of the flag bridges crew to jerk harshly against their seats restraints.

"Sir, we just lost fire control for the forward missile launchers, and the shield generators are starting to starting to show signs of stress! We can't keep this up for much longer," Lieutenant William Anders, Weapons Officer, cried out from his station.

"Have the forward laser cannon batteries adjust fire to compensate, and reroute the excess power to the shields. Tac Com, revert the rear escort squadrons to the frontline, or we're going to start taking losses faster than we can replace them. Akira, give me an estimate on remaining enemy fleet strength," Vladislov fired out a rapid series of orders, then turned his attention back to the holo display showing an over all view of the battle.

"Admiral," Akira said, avatar appearing at his designated holo tank in the centre of the bridge, "I estimate that we have destroyed perhaps a little over a third of the enemies fleet strength. However, our corvette, frigate and destroyer screens are taking heavy losses ,and the Tau vessels are faring little better."

Akira cocked his holographic head to the side for a moment, then resumed speaking.

"I have just received word that all enemy fighter squadrons have been destroyed, and an estimated sixty percent of the enemy gunboats will no longer be a threat," another pause, then, " The Tau battlecruiser Ascendant was just destroyed with all hands."

Vladislov closed his eyes and heaved a sigh, his scowl deepening even further. In less than thirty minutes of combat, his forces had lost a third of their escort screen, three light capital ships and a battlecruiser, and almost every other ship in the fleet had taken moderate to heavy damage.

"Reform the escort screen into a capital phalanx, forget sacrificing light ships to keep our capitals in the fight. All units still operational are to form up into Assault Formation Alpha, full overlapping fields of fire. As soon as that is done, all units are to proceed forward into the enemy fleet. If we can break up their formation we should be able to concentrate our fire on a few ships at a time, rather than the whole fleet. Alert the carriers to begin rearming their bombers with tactical nuclear ordinance in preparation for anti shipping strikes, and have all gunboat squadrons form up in defensive formations around the Pious Inquisitor and the Endeavour," Vladislov ordered, a strange feeling clenching in his gut that he soon recognised as a twinge of fear.

If they weren't able to break apart the enemy formations, then it was his own fleet that would be picked off one by one. He hoped his gamble paid off, or this system would be lost to the Allies and would make the perfect staging area for an invasion into Tau space.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle of Outpost 31

Ra's Flagship

Ra growled in frustration as the human ships again changed formation, seemingly at random, and the tide seemed to turn once again. His fleet had managed to push back the humans and their disgusting alien allies and destroyed a large number of their small ships, and even several of the much more formidable large ones.

"Bring back our Al'kesh immediately to defend the Ha'tak,' the First Prime ordered, frustration evident in his voice. With the Udajeet's monumental failure to eliminate the enemy single ships, the Ha'taks were now left vulnerable to enemy strike craft and bombing runs.

As soon as the order was relayed, the remaining forty or so Al'kesh turned away from the enemy fleet and began heading back towards the Ha'taks and Ra's flagship. It took only a moment for the First Prime to realise his mistake. Before the Al'kesh had been ordered back, they had been manoeuvring madly to avoid the human single ships fire, and the point defence fire of the larger vessels. Now, though, they were moving in a straight line and the humans had only to point and shoot, no longer needing to anticipate the actions of the Al'kesh pilots.

Even as he watched, a trio of Al'kesh were torn from the skies in a volley of light rail gun fire from one of the Ha'tak sized ships, and a dozen more were destroyed by missile or laser fire from the human and alien fighter craft.

Of the forty three Al'kesh that had turned to return to the Ha'taks defence, twenty nine made it to the relative safety of the fleet.

"First Prime," a Jaffa manning one of the various stations around the room called out, "look!"

And look he did. The human and alien ships that had moments ago seemed to be in disarray, had now formed up into what looked like attack squadrons and begun advancing towards the Goa'uld fleet.

He watched in disbelief as one of the smaller alien ships accelerated to a very high sub-light speed, apparently intent on ramming one of the frontline upgraded Ha'tak. The Ha'tak noticed the threat as well, and golden energy bolts erupted from the ships main guns, stripping the smaller vessels shields in just a few hits. Molten globs of hull armour were ripped away from the small ship, but it continued coming at full speed, rail guns and missile launchers firing.

The full might of the alien ships guns finally brought down the Ha'taks already weakened shields, just moments before the two ships became one. The vessels seemed to fuse together for one incredibly long moment, before they both disappeared in an impossibly bright flash that forced the First Prime, and everyone else on the flagships bridge, including Ra, to shield their eyes with their hands.

"First Prime," Ra beckoned his servants attention.

"Yes, my Lord," the Prime answered immediately, bowing before his god.

"Have all remaining standard Ha'tak and Al'kesh proceed to the front. All upgraded ships are to accompany this ship into hyperspace," Ra ordered, his eyes glowing again. His pride was thoroughly damaged by this fight, but he knew that if he escaped now then he could come back later with a much larger force than the ships he had had here.

"Of course, my Lord," the Prime answered, bowing again. In the back of his mind, he wondered why a god as powerful as Ra would ever need to retreat from any fight, it had certainly never happened before in the many decades he had served as First Prime to his god, but he dared not question his orders for fear of his gods divine wrath.

He quickly relayed the orders to the rest of the fleet, then watched with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as the remaining thirty two standard Ha'tak raced forward to replace the retreating eighteen remaining upgraded Ha'tak, the Al'kesh at the fore front of the charge.

Immediately, the enemy fleet ceased firing on the retreating upgrades, and began firing on the charging standards. Seven Al'kesh and three Ha'tak were destroyed before they reached the enemy battleline.

After that, the fire from the enemy ships slackened, for fear of firing into their own formations and accidentally hitting their comrades. Precision rail gun, laser and plasma fire lashed out at the attacking Goa'uld ships, but the weight of fire was much less than the Alpha Strikes and broadsides that the humans and aliens had been firing when the two sides had been charging one another, meaning that the Goa'uld ships stayed in the fight for longer and thus were able to cause more damage.

The Prime noticed his god breathe what appeared to be a sigh of relief, just before the remaining nineteen ships, including Ra's flagship, made the jump to hyperspace

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle of Outpost 31

TRN Battleship Pious Inquisitor

Elder K'Hahn grimaced as a decent sized portion of the remaining enemy fleet charged the Allied battleline. He knew that once those ships got in amongst the Tau-Human fleet, it would be almost entirely up to the fighters, bombers and gunboats to deal with them, as when that happened, the heavier ships would be unable to bring their big guns to bare and only the precision fire batteries would be a viable defence.

Delivering a battleship broadside and accidentally hitting an Allied ship was not something that K'Hahn wanted to happen.

Even as he thought that, the frontline enemy ships breached the battlelines perimeter and split up into pairs or small groups, using their superior mobility and numbers to concentrate on a single ship at a time, quickly overwhelming several frigates and destroyers, and heavily damaging one of the five remaining heavy cruisers in a matter of moments.

The COM link crackled suddenly, drawing the Tau Elders attention away from the tactical holo screen.

"All units, this is Rear Admiral Vladislov. All frigate and destroyer units, break off into Wolf Packs and hunt down the enemy light capitals, all bomber wings will assist. All capitals, maintain loose formation and begin precision suppressive fire, keep them from ramming you. All SSF, Interceptor and gunboat squadrons, hunt down the enemy gunboat analogues, and keep clear of capital and point defence firing solutions," the grizzled, slightly accented voice of the human leading the battle group said.

"We've won this fight and held onto the system, people, now all we need to do is deal with the remnant of the unknown fleet. We've lost a great many friends and colleagues today, and I think I can safely say that the only outcome of this battle is war and-," the COM link cut off suddenly as an incredibly loud alarm blared, the proximity alert, and seconds later another, much more ominous sound.

The battleship shuddered violently, and Elder K'Hahns head snapped forward, his small, flat nose cracking loudly against the holo panel, and the screeching, tearing sound of metal on metal reverberated throughout the vessel.

K'Hahn fought valiantly to maintain consciousness as chaos erupted all over the bridge.

"Shields down!"

"Fire control for the main rail guns and aft missile launchers offline!"

"Engines offline! We're drifting off course, I have no control!"

The shouting of damage reports continued, and it took the bridge crew several more seconds to realize their commander was not replying, not issuing damage control orders.

Cadet J'Intar unstrapped himself from his console and stumbled towards the Elder, losing his footing along the way as a volley of energy weapons fire impacted the ventral hull.

"We've got dozens of hull breaches all over the ship! We were rammed by two of their light capitals, and now were taking fire by another three. I don't think we can take much more!," J'Intar heard somebody from across the bridge shout as he struggled back to his feet, fighting against the constant shuddering under his feet as the Pious Inquisitor took and returned fire with what few guns remained.

J'Intar finally reach the Elder and sank to his knees, checking the Tau commanders vitals and screaming out for a medical team in panic as he realised the three hundred year old Elder was moments away from death, his face bloodied and neck broken. Frantically, J'Intar began shouting for someone, anyone, to help him.

Moments later, a medical team arrived on the bridge and immediately set about stabilising the commander, even as the badly damaged ship shuddered far more violently than before. For now, both the ship and the commanders lives hung by a thin thread. If they didn't get help soon, then no matter what the medical team did for the Elder, it would not matter, for they would all be dead.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle Of Outpost 31

Flight Leader P'Tars Sabre-class SSF-133

"Son-of-a-bitch!," P'Tar heard one of the human pilots shout unbearably loudly over the COM link, "they just hit the Inquisitor! Rammed full on the aft side. It looks like she's drifting!"

Suddenly, the obnoxiously loud voice of the human pilot seemed justified, as P'Tar abandoned the chase of the enemy gunboat to his wingman and swung his Sabre around to get visual confirmation. What he saw stunned him even more than the destruction of the battlecruiser Ascendant had.

The mighty Void Farer-class Tau battleship Pious Inquisitor was drifting out of formation, alight with too-bright flames and sporadic flashes of weapons fire, a trio of enemy light capital ships harassing the vessel with energy weapons.

Son-of-a-bitch!, P'Tar repeated the human phrase in his head, I've got to do something! Anything!

Just as he was about to order his squadron to form up on a bomber wing for a strike against the enemy ships attacking the Inquisitor, however, the large, still somewhat elegant curved form of the Tau battleship was blocked out by the smaller, blockier, but no less deadly shape of the human battleship.

With no escorts near the two battleships, and the enemy ships arcing high above the dorsal side of the Tau ship, the Endeavour had a clear line of fire to deliver a broadside. And that's exactly what happened.

Even as P'Tar continued to instinctively keep his fighter moving, never going in a straight line for longer than three seconds, and keeping his crafts nose pointed in the general direction of the Allied battleships, he witnessed, for the first time, a human battleship deliver a devastating broadside.

Rail guns, laser and plasma cannons, anti-ship nuclear missiles and the two dual barrelled Particle Accelerator Cannons fired. Space around the battleship seemed to light up like a sun going nova, and the ship itself was actually pushed several hundred metres out of position as all its guns fire at once. The end result was nothing short of gratifying overkill.

The three enemy ships were caught out in the open, and their shields winked out of existence in a hundredth of a second, their hulls lasting only a tenth of a second longer, and the trio of enemy vessels lit up the space once again. When the super-bright explosions faded and the polarized cockpit glass returned to normal polarity again, all that remained of the three ships were a few molten chunks of debris, flying away into space in all directions, some pieces bouncing off of or embedding in the hull of the Pious Inquisitor.

P'Tar breathed deep, thoroughly relieved, as a pair of under strength escort squadrons and a heavy cruiser moved into a tight escort formation around the critically damaged Tau flagship. He was startled out of his relief as his wingman's voice suddenly screamed over his COM link

"Heads up on your six, Boss!," the voice of Cutter Three called out over the void of space, and P'Tar instantly swung his fighter around, so that he was now upside down and flying backwards relative to the enemy gunboat. He fired off his last two AMRAAMs and tugged hard on the trigger for his laser cannons. Red pulses of light strobed rapidly on either side of his cockpit as he fired a ten second burst at the ship, the missiles stripping away the shields and the laser cannons finishing the job.

P'Tar thanked his wingman for the warning, then scanned the area around him, both visually with his eyes and with the onboard sensor suite. He registered no hostile contacts except for a few of the enemies light capital ships, and even as he watched, two of those contacts faded from the display. For P'Tar, it looked like the battle was over

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle Of Outpost 31

UNSC Endeavour

Rear Admiral Aleksandir Vladislov smiled ever-so-slightly as cheering erupted all over the bridge as the three ships harassing their Tau counterpart were destroyed under the crushing firepower of their broadside. The Pious Inquisitor, like almost every other heavy ship in the fleet, was suffering tremendous damage. Even the Endeavour's forward and aft weapons were mostly offline, their shields were barely operational thanks to a suicidal enemy cruiser analogue and their main engines were fluctuating badly, sometimes giving full thrust, sometimes not even pushing the ship forward.

"Sir," Ensign Williams at sensors called, a smile gracing his youthful features, "sensors indicate that there are no longer any enemy ships still in the fight, they've all been disabled or destroyed."

"Excellent news, Ensign," Vladislov praised, the small smile on his face widening just a little more. The words that came out of Lieutenant Sandra Okinawa's mouth next erased that smile.

"Sir, I'm getting a report from the Pious Inquisitor. They…they're saying that they've been boarded by an unknown number of hostiles!," the pretty young woman had a look of obvious distress on her face, which Vladislov could certainly understand. No boarding craft had been seen leaving any of the enemy ships, so how had they gotten onboard?

"Confirm that please, Lt."

"It's been confirmed, sir. The Inquisitor's AI is reporting small arms fire fights breaking out all over the ship," Okinawa confirmed, the distress even more evident in her voice. The Tau ship had suffered crippling damage, and enormous shipboard casualties.

"Alert the Inquisitor that I'm sending over half our onboard Marine contingent and a Shock Trooper platoon to reinforce their security forces, then get me a direct line, with Platinum channel encryption back to the Sierra Fleet yards, eyes only for Vice-Admiral Michelle Lucas," Vladislov ordered, then turned his attention to Akira's holo tank.

"Akira, estimate total losses for both fleets from that engagement please."

Akira's avatar appeared on the holo tanks display once again, and the 'man' bowed deeply to the Admiral.

"Estimate 122 enemy gunboats destroyed, 467 enemy fighters destroyed, 49 enemy light capital ships destroyed and four disabled, fourteen enemy heavy cruiser analogues destroyed and one disabled. Eighteen enemy heavy cruiser analogues and the single enemy battlecruiser escaped to hyperspace moments before the enemies final charge," Akira reported calmly, "total enemy big ships destroyed or disabled 68. Total enemy fighters and gunboats destroyed 589."

"Estimate 24 Allied corvettes destroyed and two disabled, 11 Allied frigates destroyed and three disabled, three Allied destroyers destroyed and nine disabled, five Allied light cruisers destroyed and two disabled, two Allied heavy cruisers destroyed and one disabled, one Allied battlecruiser destroyed and one disabled, one Allied battleship disabled, 102 Allied fighters destroyed and 21 disabled, 46 Allied bombers destroyed and 53 disabled, 29 Allied gunboats disabled and 14 destroyed," Akira continued, "total Allied big ships destroyed or disabled 65. Total Allied strike craft and gunboats destroyed or disabled 265."

Jesus-fucking-Christ, Vladislov thought, we were damn lucky. If those other ships had stayed and fought to the death, our losses could have been a lot higher.

Ultimately, this war was shaping up to be just as costly as the Alkaid War had, and it was only an hour and a half old.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

March 3rd, 2187

The Battle of Outpost 31

TRN Battleship Pious Inquisitor

Security Officer L'Tan felt his stomach muscles clench in anxiety as the sounds of small arms fire echoed throughout the unusually barren corridors of the Tau battleship. To either side of him sat the other seven members of the security detail he commanded, and roughly ten metres ahead of them stood the hulking shapes of four Tau Republic Marines in their bulky powered battle armour, heavy repeating rail guns held firmly in their massive armoured gauntlets.

L'Tan and his detail were tasked with defending engineering and the various technicians, engineers and crewmembers tucked away behind the massive armoured doors. One of the Security Cadets beside him jumped and nearly fired his weapon when a nearby panel sparked and short circuited.

"Be calm, young one," L'Tan said, wishing with all his being he could follow his own advice, "the enemy will be upon us shortly, and we must be iron-willed and prepared to meet them face to face when that time comes."

The Cadet nodded, and then visibly calmed just in time to hear the metallic tone of a battle armoured Marines voice coming over his helmet speakers.

"Contact!," the hunk of walking armour shouted, and no sooner had the word reached the ears of the security detail, than the muffled thumps of the enemies oddly designed energy weapons firing registered in their minds.

Just as the security detail raised their weapons to return fire, the loud clatter of rapid rail gun fire took over, easily drowning out the sounds of the enemies own fire. L'Tan watched as half a dozen of the vaguely humanoid, armoured aliens collapsed under the Marines fire, before the rest had a chance to take cover.

L'Tan and his security detail finally began firing their own light rail rifles, keeping the fire up in short controlled burst, hoping to keep the enemies heads down. A trio of golden energy bolts flashed past L'Tan's head, and a pained cry let him know that one of his men had been hit.

The clatter of weapons fire was deafening, even with the hearing protectors that were supposed to block out or at least severely muffle anything louder than 90 decibels. Two more of the serpent headed creatures collapsed, falling out of cover, one of them screaming for a short while before a hail of rail gun fire silenced him.

One of the Marines fell back, crying out in agony after being hit a half dozen times in the chest, molten rivers of armour flowing away from a gaping hole in the armoured breastplate. L'Tan scrambled forward, lying low on his stomach behind the armoured form of the now-dead Marine using the thickly armoured corpse as cover. A burst of rail rounds from his rifle ended the life of another invader.

Behind him, someone had the presence of mind to shout "Grenade out!", before said grenade sailed of L'Tan's head and bounced of the wall at the far end of the corridor, bouncing out of sight around the corner.

There was a series of startled shouts from the enemy troops hiding out around the corner, then a muffled explosion as the fragmentation grenade went off. The enemy return fire slackened off suddenly, and as one the three remaining Marines five remaining security personnel roared, stepped out from cover and charged, weapons fire full auto.

The enemy dared not poke their heads around the corner to return fire under the weight of rail rounds, and, as expected, stayed behind cover. As soon as the defenders rounded the corner, however, on marine an two more security personnel dropped to the ground under a hail of golden bolts. The nine enemy soldiers still standing were cut down by the rail rifles and cannons.

The brief but viscous sortie now over, L'Tan's shoulders slumped forward as he turned to count the dead. He rounded the corner, and did a quick count, five security personnel and two marines were dead, and one of the security Cadets was injured. L'Tan knelt beside one of the dead and sighed, closing the young males eyes, then turned his head to the Marines as they dragged the only survivor of the enemy attackers away from his deceased fellows.

Walking over to the apparently unconscious alien, L'Tan checked his rifles ammo counter, and changed magazines, loading a fresh 250 round standard mag. He had used a lot more ammo than he would have liked in that fire fight, but he supposed it wasn't to be helped.

The Marine gestured to L'Tan to do the honours, and he nodded back to the armoured head and knelt beside their prisoner. He fumbled around with the helmet, searching for some kind of latch or release mechanism. With a soft click, his fingers found what they were looking for, and the helmet parted, disappearing into the back of the armour somewhere.

Eyes wide, L'Tan stared at the unmasked fiend, his mind working over time to try and work out just what he was seeing because the alien wasn't an alien at all, it was…

Human? How? How is this possible? Humans come from Earth, and there are no humans out this far from Human or Tau colonies, unless they were pirates, but if that was the case then where did they get their ships and equipment and-

L'Tan's train of thought was interrupted abruptly as an unusual shout and the thud of heavy footsteps reached his ears.

"Jaffa, kree!," came the odd shout, and immediately L'Tan was dragged around the corridor by one of the Marines, the other one warning the rest of security detail about the enemy reinforcements.

I think it's going to be a long day…

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A/N: And that's the end of that chapter. In the next chapter, we see the rest of the battle for control of the Tau battleship, the conversation between Rear Admiral Vladislov and Vice-Admiral Lucas, the beginnings of another massive military build up by the Allies, and we learn that the Goa'uld and the Allies weren't the only ones present at The Battle Of Outpost 31. Don't forget to R&R, but remember, no flames. Let me know if you have any ideas/requests that might help me improve on this story. Stay tuned for the next chapter, Special Operations And Galactic Politics.