White House, Washington FDC, Earth
February 29th, 2008
President Henry Hayes sat at the head of the rectangular table sipping a glass of water as he waited for the rest of the Cabinet to arrive for their biweekly meeting.
He stared at the water inside his glass frowning as the last of the Ministers took their seat, wishing that it were something a little stronger and cursed at himself for his inability to fulfill his desires. He was the President of the Terran Federal Republic and arguably the most powerful man or person, he corrected himself on this planet. However for all the power meant nothing, as he was unable to enjoy the freedoms that many took for granted. Yes the authority and the perks of the Office was nice but with it came the responsibility and burden of leading this newly founded nation.
No Henry, he told himself. It wouldn't do to get drunk. While the momentary relief that the drunken stupor gave was nice, he'd pay for it dearly. He'd be even farther behind in his paperwork than before. And God forbid if the Press ever found out. He didn't even want to think about that one.
He looked up, noticed that everyone was seated and ready to begin and cleared his throat. "Let's get started from where we left off on Tuesday," he said getting down the business. Cabinet Meetings were often long and tedious and it was idiotic to lengthen them with unnecessary formalities. "Ettore?"
"To get this meeting going with a positive start, I will begin with the good news," said the Minister of Health and Human Services Ettore Alberto.
"Go ahead," Hayes said, glad that the proverbial wheels were moving.
"Recent statistics are indicating that the suicide rate is declining and if the rate decline follows the current trend, the suicide rate will reach pre war levels in half of a year."
"That's wonderful," Hayes said, genuinely pleased at the news.
To say that the Ori Assault on Earth had been catastrophic would be equivalent to saying that the Second World War was destructive. With millions dead, the financial markets collapsed and a shortage of food, there was only so much some could take before they surrendered to their despair.
The Minister of the Interior, Oleg Izotov snorted derisively. Born during siege of Stalingrad in the Second World War, or the Great Patriotic War, as it was known in Russia, he was no stranger to hardship. After serving in the Russian Army as a conscript he had transferred to the Soviet and later Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs working his way up to the top before being appointed as the Minister of the Interior of the newly formed Terran Federal Republic. Compared to the conditions that he had grown up in, the current situation while unpleasant to live in was nothing to commit suicide over let alone complain about. In his eyes, those who did were nothing but weaklings who had done the Republic a favor by dying and were better off dead. The fact that the majority of those who had ended their lives were Westerners, who had grown up in comfortable conditions did not help his perception at all.
Hayes sent Izotov a glare, warning him to drop it. While Izotov was politically powerful, being in charge of all of Earth's Internal Security Forces at the Federal level, namely the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Gendarmes, he was after all the damn President and Izotov's boss. And while he did govern on consensus, he had to after all; on many of an occasion he did have to remind several members of the Cabinet who was in charge.
Izotov taking the hint, changed his expression but not before sending Hayes a glare of his own.
"Please continue," Hayes said, acting as if nothing had ever happened. One of Hayes had quickly learned when he had been elected to Congress all those years ago was that to be successful one had to treat everyone as if they were your best friend, even if you privately thought that they were a complete asshole.
"However I do have bad news to report, due to an industrial mishap our monthly production of tretonin has fallen five percent from last month."
Hayes fought the urge to swear. This was not good.
Developed by scientists on Pangar via harvesting the flesh of deceased Goa'uld, the drug tretonin was capable of boosting the human immune system to a near superhuman level, allowing its user an almost 100 percent immunity to nearly every disease. Due to its properties it was considered by many to be a miracle drug. The Terran Government had set up factories to locally produce the drug to combat many infectious diseases in less developed areas where antibiotics were not available. In addition at the behest of the LGBT Community, Hayes had ordered the use of tretonin to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However the drug did have one catch. If one used tretonin, they would have to use it for the rest of their natural lives as while the drug allowed the user to have an almost invulnerable to any form of sickness, at the same time it erased the user's entire Immune System leaving them even worse off if they stopped taking the drug.
He paused for a second; thinking of the correct, no that wasn't the right word, polite was more like it words to say. "How many people…will be affected?" he asked. You mean how many people will die due to this fuckup? He thought darkly.
"Approximately ten thousand sir," replied the Health Minister evenly.
Ten thousand people, over half of which will die due to a weakened immune system. Just what I need, more deaths to weigh heavily on my soul top of the millions that are already dead. "What are our options?"
"Can we increase production?" asked Vice President Thabo Ombutu. A native of Africa, he had lobbied extensively throughout his career to increase funding to deal with the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa.
Egon Berlitz, the Minister of War Production answered for the Italian, "Mr. Vice President we are at nearly 100 percent of our production capability. Our workers are working six days a week, working eleven hour shifts each day. They are already stretched to their limit. The only way to make up for the shortfall is to devote more parts of our Economy to Tretonin production which I would recommend against."
"Can we procure some from the Pangarans?"
"Negative Mr. Vice President," said the Minister of Foreign Relations, Chen Xiaoyi. "The Pangarans are having a shortage of tretonin themselves and have indicated that they cannot afford to sell anymore."
"What about the Tok'ra?" asked Ombutu, desperate for a solution.
"The Tok'ra don't have the resources to procure enough tretonin in significant numbers. Besides even if they did I don't think that the price that they would request would be worth it."
The Tok'ra in exchange for technical assistance had asked that the Terran Federal Government supply fresh hosts to house the Tok'ra. Obviously this was very controversial as to some this was equivalent to forcing someone to slavery. For this very reason despite being allies the Terran Government had opted to keep interactions and trade with the Tok'ra at a minimum, choosing to instead to primarily to work with the Asgard as much as possible.
"Minister Alberto," Hayes said evenly, "you said the difference in the number of people currently on Tretonin and the amount we have available is ten thousand doses am I correct?"
"Yes Mr. President," he replied, having an idea of what Hayes was about say.
"I want you to compile a list of consisting of those who will not be receiving Tretonin this year. Your sole criterion in determining this list is their level of contribution to the economy and the war effort."
"Mr. President you can't do this," implored the Vice President, looking across the table for any support.
"I already have," said Hayes, his tone of voice indicating that this discussion was closed. Other than devoting more resources, thus diverting resources from the war effort there was nothing he could do. Even if they did, there was no way that the additional factories could pick up the slack in time. Besides at least they did have a tretonin program for HIV/AIDS patients. If it were up to Geng or any other hardliner, such a program wouldn't even exist.
His mind was already cataloging those ten thousand as just names and numbers, not real living people who had hopes, aspirations and dreams. One death is a tragedy one million is a statistic he grimaced remembering a quote by Stalin. As much of a bastard that Dictator was, he was right. It was much easier to look at those deaths as mere figures, not as the lives of real people, lest he go insane.
"Hiroshi?" he asked his Finance Minister changing the subject before his conscious, his damnable conscious caused him to change his mind.
"The final figures from Q4 of 2007 have come in. Our GDP growth has risen .17 percent up .12 percent from Q3," said Hiroshi Sakumoto.
Hayes nodded. The Ori assault on Earth had severely damaged Earth's economy, causing it to fall into a deep depression and while the Government was doing its best to stimulate the Economy using classical Keynesian Methods similar to those used by Roosevelt during the Great Depression, the majority of Economists predicted that it would take years if not decades until Earth fully recovered.
"The increase in our GDP growth for Q4 has mainly come from an increase in Government Spending and our Exports, particularly from the Defense Industry. Although there has been a slight increase in Investment Spending, due to the need for more Factories."
"What about Consumer Spending?"
"At the moment, Consumer Spending has stayed about the same despite our efforts to change that."
The Republic had spent over a year trying to get people to spend more money, in order to stimulate the Economy as well as increase confidence in the Market and by proxy the Government as well. Unfortunately despite their best efforts, the average person on the street wasn't willing to spend more than they needed to as it was hard enough to make ends meet. It was understandable given the circumstances but ultimately frustrating.
He mentally shrugged, knowing that he couldn't do anything about it in the near future and turned his attention to his Foreign Minister. "Xiaoyi?"
"Our negotiations with the Andari Federation over their planned acquisition of a large number of HK416 Assault Rifles have broken down and are currently in a state of deadlock," said Chen Xiaoyi, or Xiaoyi Chen the former Chinese Representative to the IOA and the current Foreign Minster for the Terran Government.
"For what reason?" asked Hayes, the last time he knew the deal was going along smoothly and was supposed to be completed within a couple of week's time.
"While the Andari Federation is impressed by the capabilities of the said rifle and do not question its quality, they are not too happy about the amount of time it would take to procure the rifles in significant numbers."
"I'm sorry but we should not drop everything and throw the entire schedule and pace of our Military buildup just to meet the needs of one of our allies, a minor one at that," said Berlitz firmly. He and rest of the Ministry of War Production along with the Ministry of Defense had spent months planning Earth's Military Buildup, the last thing he wanted was to throw it all away.
"The Andari Military does not want to wait two years to procure a significant number of HK416s."
"Tell them tough luck," snapped General Jonathan O'Neill, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While the HK416A1 had been adopted as the Terran Military's standard issue Assault Rifle a year ago however with the exception of a few units assigned to Expeditionary Command, the rest of the Military was drawing their weapons from pre-war stocks, a situation that was unacceptable in his eyes.
"The Andari Government realizes the need to procure new weapons for our own Armed Forces and has made a proposal that promises to be beneficial to both of our nations."
"Let's hear it," said Hayes, in a manner that hopefully hid his impatience. While he was usually a patient man, his time was both short and valuable; after all he was the President for crying out loud.
"The Andari Government has requested one of two things. Either a license to indigenously produce the HK416A1 or that Heckler and Koch establish a Facility devoted for the sole purpose of meeting the needs of the Andari Military."
Her response was greeted with silence. However several members of the Cabinet gave their silent disapproval.
"This is an outrage," said the Minister of Labor Bjorn Achalm. As a former head of a Trade Union, he took a very protectionalist stance. "We should not outsource our Defense Industry, our only profitable industry at the moment to other nations. Especially given our high unemployment rate the state of our economy. We should be making more jobs rather than cutting them."
"Then how will we be able to establish concrete ties with our allies with nothing but lip service and hot air?" retorted Chen, who was a staunch supporter of establishing strong ties with all of Earth's allies. It was not surprising that the two often clashed with one another at Cabinet meetings.
"We don't even know the Andari Federation that well. Can we really trust them with our latest Military equipment?"
"Given the situation, I don't think we can be that picky about our allies."
"Allies?" he snorted. "We barely even know them. Besides if we allow them to manufacture our assault rifles, what's next? Our tanks? Our missiles? Our warships? What will stop our Defense Contractors from outsourcing the entire Military-Industrial Complex to our so-called allies?"
"Enough," Hayes interrupted. While he usually preferred to stand back and watch as the conversation between Ministers took its natural course, allowing all options to be brought to the table, he knew that the arguing between the two Ministers was not only counterproductive but a waste of time as well.
He turned to Berlitz and Defense Minister Hammond. "What do you think?"
Berlitz cleared his throat. "I personally agree with Foreign Minister Chen to a point." He paused, before continuing, "The war that we are fighting as such we need to utilize as much of our resources as we can. Our industrial base while the largest and advanced in comparison to our allies is incapable of shouldering all of the war effort by itself."
Achalm interrupted. "We have not utilized all of our resources. We still have 25 percent unemployment and should utilize those resources before choosing to look outside our nation."
"Let him finish," Hayes ordered.
"While that is true as we are still creating jobs on Earth and building more and factories to meet the demand of our Armed Forces, we do have to remember the scope of the war that we are fighting and who we are fighting. This war after all is and will be a Galactic wide war our planet even if we were at a hundred percent efficiency, cannot provide meet the needs of the entire war effort. We are fighting to defend the Milky Way against an enemy that can draw troops and supplies from an entire Galaxy and because of this we must plan accordingly.
"While we have done miracles in terms of transitioning the remnants of our Economy into a War Economy, we still need to do more if we have any prayer of winning this war. That means utilizing the industrial base of our allies as it will not only increase aggregate production but if incase of an Ori launch raid or a full scale incursion in the Sol System, any blow to our industrial base would not be as severe. This would also take a lot of pressure on our factories, as they will not be the sole source of weaponry for much of the Allied War Effort. However at the same time, I do not believe that we should not set up facilities to build some of our more sophisticated equipment in foreign Territory due to security reasons. But in general, I do believe that this deal to be beneficial to the Terran Federal Republic and its people."
Hayes nodded, while he was a Career Politician and not a Business Executive like Berlitz had been before the war, he did have to agree that this reasoning did seem sound. "George?" he asked his longtime friend and Defense Minister.
"I do have to agree with Minister Berlitz although for different reasons," said Hammond, "As you are all aware that we have a sizeable number of personnel deployed abroad for various reasons such as defending key planets or areas, training allied troops and behind the lines harassing the enemy."
The members of the Cabinet nodded. At the moment Earth had about 120,000 personnel deployed aboard, the numbers of troops in each deployment varying with some less than fifty troops and others having tens of thousands.
"What you do not know is that even though majority of these troops are not engaged with the enemy we are having a difficult time keeping them supplied. This is due to a couple of reasons.
"First off, we are almost completely reliant on the Stargate. Ninety five percent of our supplies to our forces off world go through our two Stargates located in Iceland and the Falkland Islands. Although we have been able to synch the two Stargates, as while one Stargate is cooling down, the other one is active, allowing us to transport as much war material as possible. However our ability to transport supplies via the Stargate has reached a plateau while the demand is exponentially rising.
"Second, we have no heavy lift capacity whatsoever. We have no transports or cargo vessels in our Navy let alone a Merchant Marine. In fact the designs for the ships of our 'Gator Navy' the troopships and other vessels that are used in a Planetary Invasion as well as our transports are still on the drawing board. The only vessels that we have in our inventory are warships, a number of which have been used as transports albeit poor ones in order to meet the logistical needs of our forces and our own allies. Although when those warships were laid down, we did need them more than we needed transports.
"The fact is that we have little or no force projection capability at the moment. Why do you think the Ori are leaving us alone? It is not because they fear us. Nor is it the idea that we are powerful enough that the Ori are intimidated by us. The only reason that the Ori have decided to leave us alone is that our forces are stretched to the breaking point and are waiting for us to fatally overextend our forces, allowing them to deal with us in a swift and relatively bloodless manner.
"However I digress from the original topic. If Private Smith stationed on Pangar breaks the firing pin on his HK416 do you know how long it will take for him to receive a replacement?"
The Cabinet stayed silent not knowing the answer.
"One week. On average takes us that long to ship something from Earth to one of our forward operating bases. If we are talking about our Garrison in Atlantis it's about six times as long. While this seems like a short period of time, in a combat zone it's almost a lifetime.
"If Private Smith and his fellow soldiers were defending Pangar against an Ori invasion, our own estimates state that after a week he and his fellow soldiers would be dead as we would have no way of reliably supplying our forces in the field.
"And if that isn't bad enough, we not only have to supply our own forces but our Allies as well. Over seventy five percent of the war material produced comes from our planet. While the majority of our Allies are now beginning to pay for equipment that they are requesting, we still have to ship it to them.
"What really galls me however is the fact that even though a lot of our allies are capable of producing essential war materials due to short sighted albeit benignly intended Politics," he stared at Achalm, "are unable to contribute to the war effort and ease the strain on Earth. While I am not advocating that we allow them to procure domestically produced Fighters and Armored Vehicles for their own Militaries under license; we should at least allow them to manufacture simpler but most definitely essential items such as ammunition and Combat Helmets.
"I have said this before again and again. If we do not significantly expand our industrial and manufacturing base outside of this Solar System and include our Allies into the War Effort soon, we will loose this war due to our inability to sustain any significant Combat Operations outside of our Solar System," Hammond warned.
Hayes began to ponder. Both sides as passionate as they were both had some very good arguments backing up their point of view. While he knew that Hammond and Berlitz were probably right, the Labor Minister was right. How could he with good conscience present this deal to the people given the current Economic Condition? While the Presidency and the Executive Branch of the Terran Government was given an extraordinary amount of powers, any formal agreement between Foreign Nations had to be approved by the Legislature.
"What does Jonas think about this?"
"First Minister Quinn does not know about the Proposal," replied Chen, uncomfortably.
Hayes groaned. If it weren't for the fact that Langara contained the only deposit of Naquadriah in the Galaxy and possibly the Universe, he wouldn't have to put up with most of this shit.
Unlike Earth that had a united albeit reluctantly and newly formed One World Government, the planet had three different power blocs that had been at each other's throats for decades before contact was established. And while the three blocs, the Kelownan Hierarchy, the Andari Federation, and the Terranian Confederacy had put away enough of their differences to establish the Joint Ruling Council, headed Jonas Quinn a former member of SG-1, in reality had as much political power as the old United Nations with most of the decision making powers resting with the individual powers themselves.
And if that wasn't enough, Earth had to be very careful when dealing with the three Blocs. Even though they were 'United' under a common cause, the three were always trying to one up each other. His Administration had to be very careful when giving out Foreign and Military Aid packages lest Earth be accused of favoritism.
"James what do you think will happen if we agree to this deal?" he asked the Director of the Federal Intelligence Agency.
"I'd guess that the Kelownan Hierarchy and the Terranian Confederacy will react similarly to the Chinook Incident. Although this time the roles for the Kelownan Hierarchy will be reversed," said James Hunter.
"Shit," said Hayes to no one in particular.
A year ago, the Terran Government had offered the three Nations of Langara 180 CH-47C Chinook Heavy Lift Helicopters, sixty to each Nation as part of the Terran Government's 2007 Military Aid Package to the Planet in an effort to increase their Military capabilities.
The Kelownan Government while pleased at receiving 60 Helicopters for free, was especially interested in the CH-47D, a more advanced variant of the CH-47 and had offered to ship an extra ton of Naquadriah to Earth in exchange for receiving the D Model instead of the C.
Hayes had agreed to this, as at the time, Earth was a bit low on material for its warheads, not thinking about the possible consequences.
As soon as the other two nations had heard what was going on, they had cried foul stating that the Terran Government was playing favorites with the Kelowans. The Heads of State of the two nations had argued that in order to be fair, they too should get the CH-47D as well.
His Administration had done their best to do damage control but by that time it was too late as the Kelownans had already sent them the extra ton of Naquadriah and the CH-47Ds were being transported through the Stargate.
In an effort to hastily repair relations between other two nations, the Hayes Administration had agreed to modify the Military Aid Package so that the Andari Federation and the Terranian Confederacy would receive 30 CH-47C and 30 CH-47D Chinooks instead of 60 CH-47Cs. While the two Governments did admit that this was much better, even after a year relations between the two nations were still somewhat strained.
Hayes began to think, the politician in him trying to find a way that would benefit both parties without causing as little loss as possible. Then it hit him. "Okay this is what we'll do," he said to his Cabinet.
"Xiaoyi, I want you to end the negotiations with the Andari Federation over their planned acquisition of the HK416, say that at the moment Heckler and Koch does not have the resources to establish a factory on Andari soil let alone on Earth."
"Mr. President, that is not exactly true," interrupted Chen. "Heckler and Koch is at the moment, in the middle of establishing five more factories to meet the Military's demand as well as that of our allies."
"Then cite something else," Hayes replied, "I wasn't done speaking by the way."
Chastened, the Foreign Minister kept silent.
"What I want is for the negotiations between us and the Andari to end, I don't care how but I want them to end. However I do want you to confidentially and discretely inform the Andari Government that they will be getting what they want and more although in a different fashion than they originally intended."
Chen nodded.
"In two weeks I want Ambassador Lapierre to announce to the Joint Ruling Council as a whole that a number of our Defense Contractors are interested in establishing factories and other facilities to exclusively meet the needs of their Armed Forces as a whole. This way, the Andari will be able to acquire the HK416 either by producing it under license or having Heckler and Koch manufacture it locally and at the same time, we'll be immune to any backlash from the Kelownans and the Terranians as any complaints would have little or traction due to the fact that they too can come to the same arrangement with whoever produces their small arms. Can you do this?"
"Yes Mr. President," the Foreign Minister replied, realizing what he was doing.
"Good," Hayes said, glad that he had solved this headache. "What's next?"
"Our Allies particularly the Jaffa and the Asgard want us to accelerate the time table of our planned deployment of our Stealth Squadrons from July to as soon as possible," said O'Neill.
"General, please refresh my memory. How many ships are we talking about?"
"Our original plan was to deploy three Squadrons, a total of twelve ships of our BC-304 Block II Stealth Cruisers for asymmetric and special operations behind enemy lines."
"Original plan?" Hayes asked.
"Well at this moment, we are getting ready to deploy two Squadrons of Stealth Cruisers as well as an additional Light Infantry Brigade to supplement our forces at Atlantis at the request of Governor Weir and General Landry."
Hayes nodded, both Elizabeth Weir, his appointed Governor of Lantea and Hank Landry, the Head of Pegasus Command, had been pestering him for additional reinforcements.
"Well given the fact that the only naval assets we have at the moment are five Squadrons of Stealth Cruisers and one Squadron Corvettes, if we deployed both forces at the same time, we would have a total of five Corvettes guarding the Solar System from any external attack."
"What do you recommend then?"
"I say that we stick to the original plan and deploy two Stealth Cruiser Squadrons and the 17th Light Infantry Brigade to Pegasus and at the same time, deploy two, not three of our Stealth Cruiser Squadrons behind enemy lines, leaving one Stealth Cruiser Squadron and five Corvettes to defend the Sol System."
"Is this wise?" asked Alberto.
"I don't think we have any other choice."
"Any other choice? From what I can see, you want to deploy 80 percent of our available Cruisers outside of the Sol System, leaving us with a paltry amount of ships defending our own Territory," the Labor Minister asked skeptically.
"Look you're preaching to the choir right now," O'Neill replied, "If I had my way, I wouldn't recommend any significant deployment of ships and personnel until we had a completely modernized and capable Military, equipped with enough ships for both defensive and offensive operations, a significant number of fixed defenses, a fully capable ground force as well as an infrastructure that is able to support it.
"However if we're waiting for this to happen, we might as well ask for a Fleet of Ancient City Ships fully stocked with drones while we wait.
"Right now the Ori control 23 percent of this Galaxy and their control of the Milky Way grows larger and larger as we speak. Our current projections estimate that the Ori will be able to take over the Milky Way in the next five years. As much as I hate to say it, but we need those forces in the field yesterday."
"Can't our alien allies step it up?" asked another member of the Cabinet.
"All of our 'alien' allies are already committed to the fight. The Asgard have the majority of their fleet deployed in this Galaxy and are trying to slow the Ori advance, the Jaffa are defending their ever shrinking territory and the Tok'ra have lost half of their race infiltrating behind Ori lines. To ask them to step it up would be insulting to the extreme."
"Haven't we deployed a large number of our Commandos behind enemy lines?" asked Hayes.
"Yes we have. The Special Operations Force is completely committed to the war and is operating at fully capacity."
O'Neill paused, taking a breath. "Look I know that we've already deployed a significant number of our available assets at the moment. Hell, we have deployed almost two thirds of our Special Operations Units abroad. However we cannot just rely on small units of Special Forces personnel committing hit and run attacks like we did in the old days. According to General Dayan, the Special Operations Force is stretched to the limit. Its time for the rest of the Military to step up to the plate," he said referring to the head of the Special Operations Force.
"If we do this, it seems to me that we are going to be dangerously over extended. No offense to my colleagues here, but surely the Ori will quickly find out," observed the Finance Minister.
"It's a risk that we'll have to take," said O'Neill firmly. "Look our forces are capable and ready for action. In fact one of our ships, the Archer I believe, is returning form an impromptu mission to extract one of our Special Forces teams and our indigenous allies from hostile territory."
"If it's any comfort, our yards will be completing the first batch of BC-304 Block IA Heavy Cruisers, a total of forty, in two months time, with batches two and three, each with forty Cruisers as well, ready in July and the end of the year respectively. That is on top of our Osprey-class Corvettes that are being produced in planetary shipyards at a rate of five every two weeks, a number that is expected to rise as the corvettes go into full scale production," replied Berlitz.
Hayes sighed; he especially hated his job during times like these. "How soon can they be deployed?"
"Two days maximum," said O'Neill.
"Do it," Hayes ordered firmly.
Medical Bay, TFNS Archer
"How are you doing Major?" asked Somerville, taking a seat next to the Special Forces Officer. With the Archer currently in hyperspace and on its way back to Earth, he ordered the crew to stand down from Battle Stations and to begin a damage assessment. He himself had turned control of the CIC over to Fujimaki and headed down to the Medical Bay to meet his guests for the first time.
"Pretty well sir," replied the Captain or according to Naval etiquette, Major. Compared to some of the others, the younger O'Neill had gotten off pretty well, having only a small number of superficial cuts, and bruises. "Thanks for pulling our asses out of the frying pan."
"Anytime Major," replied Somerville. He paused, pondering his words. "Well not unless you could help it," he amended.
"Of course," replied O'Neill, managing a slight grin. No one wanted to be put in that type of situation willingly. "Your boys did a pretty good job. I'm impressed, especially with how your VBSS team handled things."
"Thank you. I'll convey that to Chief Brown," Somerville said modestly, referring to the head of the Archer's VBSS team.
"Hell I didn't even know that you squids were even doing full time combat operations. We've been relying on the Asgard for insertion and extraction and let's just say that while they are competent at their jobs, they aren't the best of hosts. Its about time that the rest of the Armed Services began to pull your fair share of the work."
Somerville sighed, "As far as I know, the Navy has been committed to the defense of Earth and the rest of the Sol System. We're in no way shape or form ready to do be deployed to the front."
O'Neill's eyes narrowed, Somerville noticed that the younger man was beginning to tense up. "Then how the hell were you able to get there so quickly?"
"We were finishing up a routine delivery of a number of F-302s to the Kelownan Hierarchy when Expeditionary Command contacted us about your situation and ordered us to extract you and your men. Apparently we were the closest allied ship in the region," Somerville explained.
"That or Admiral Mackenzie has something to prove to the rest of our allies," O'Neill said darkly.
Somerville nodded, he knew that a large number of personnel, especially those assigned to Expeditionary Command and many of which he knew personally were chomping at the bit to go after the Ori. The fact that many of Earth's advanced allies, the Asgard, the Jaffa and the Tok'ra were already committed to the front lines and were disdainful of what they believed was Earth's lack of effort and courage did nothing to ease this sentiment. "I hope not," he said simply, clearly uncomfortable about the implications.
"So what do you think will happen to you once we return home?"
"We'll probably be assigned back to patrolling and assisting in various construction projects scattered about the Solar System. You?"
"The Partisans will most likely be debriefed by the higher ups and will probably be given more training on how to cause havoc and merry mayhem on the Ori. My guess is that they'll probably be serving as liaisons from the Pythian resistance to Expeditionary Command. Colonel Smythe was very adamant about increasing coordination with the Pythians as well as giving them access to more advanced weapons. You can only do so much with RPGs and AKs."
Somerville nodded politely.
"As for my team, we'll probably be taken off the active list and reflagged as a training unit until the replacements are up to snuff and we're ready to go back into the field again," O'Neill replied. Seeing the Captain's blank stare, he explained. "I lost half my team on Pythia."
"Bloody hell," remarked Somerville. To loose half of one's command was not a minor thing.
"Yeah," agreed O'Neill. "Colonel Smythe," he referred to the Commander of O'Neill's Special Operations Company and the senior Terran Officer on Pythia, "had us and the partisans running constant almost to point of daily attacks on the Ori in our local Area of Operations. We were able to get away with it for two full months, pulling off some of the craziest shit that you wouldn't believe before the odds finally caught up to us."
"Damn."
"Yeah. I'm proud to say that we were able to give out more than we received."
Somerville was about to reply when the handheld digital assistant device that he carried on his belt began to go off emitting a ping like sound. "My apologies but duty calls," he said, he had ordered the ship's computer to inform him five minutes from the time that the Archer was due to exit hyperspace.
"Not a problem."
"It was nice talking to you. Enjoy your time on Earth."
"I will. I doubt that either of us will be sent back to the front anytime soon."
They couldn't be more wrong.
CIC, TFNS Archer
"Sir thirty seconds to reversion to real space," reported Gonzalez.
Somerville nodded, silently acknowledging the Navigator's comment.
"Reverting to real space in five…four…three…two…one. We are now in real space. According to telemetry we are currently at the outer edge of our solar system."
"Excellent," Somerville replied. "Lieutenant Collins, transmit our authentication codes and our status via encrypted subspace channel immediately," he ordered his Communications Officer.
"Aye sir."
The Solar System was a very large place and unfortunately Earth had few Space based assets to patrol and secure its territory. The Navy only commissioned a handful of vessels and the Space Force's Sensor grid and Orbital Fortresses were still under construction.
In order to ensure that Earth was as secure as possible, HOMECOM had set a number of regulations aimed at protecting the Solar System. Any ship Terran or Allied wishing to enter the Solar System had to first emerge from hyperspace at the system's edge and identify itself and be cleared before being allowed access. Any ship that failed to do so would be treated as hostile and would be immediately fired upon.
A few minutes passed before the Communication's Officer spoke again. "Sir I'm receiving a reply."
"Thank you," Somerville replied. The ship's computer had immediately forwarded the message to his console in the CIC, deleting the copy from the ship's mailbox. Somerville quickly keyed his security code and began to read.
CAPTAIN'S EYES ONLY
TO: Captain Terrence Somerville, TFNS Archer
FROM: Admiral John Mackenzie, COMNAVHOME
Your identity has been confirmed
You are now clear to travel about the Solar System
Congratulations on a job well done
You are to dock at TFNB Marshall immediately
Further instructions will follow upon arrival
END MESSAGE
Somerville frowned after he finished reading. The message was short and to the point, typical of all Military Communications. While the first half of the message was nothing out of the ordinary, the last half indicated that something was up.
The few ships in the Navy's inventory were homeported at TFNB Yi in the 3rd Lagrange Point or L3 and as far as he knew was the only operational Naval Base in the Solar System. TFNB Marshall however was located at the very edge of the Solar System about as far away from the Sun as Pluto and as far as he knew was still in the early stages of construction. The fact that he was ordered to rendezvous with a not even half completed Naval Base at the edge of Terran Territory meant that something big was going down.
He sighed, what the hell was going on? It seemed as if he and his men were being dragged from one half-baked adventure to another.
He mentally shrugged. He wouldn't know until he and his crew arrived. He turned to Gonzalez, "set a course to these coordinates," he ordered transmitting the coordinates of TFNB Marshall to the Navigator's console.
The Navigator paused for a second, frowning as the coordinates were not what he had been expecting before replying, "aye sir."
Conference Room, TFNB Marshall, Deep Space
"Do you know what the bloody hell is going on Terrence?" whispered Captain Rodger Collingwood, the Captain of the TFNS Active, as well as a long time friend of Somerville.
"Not a clue," Somerville replied as sat in his seat alongside a number of his fellow Captains at the large oval table inside the compartment, waiting patiently for the briefing to begin.
The orders to report to TFNB Marshall were only the first of a series of revelations.
Immediately after exiting hyperspace Somerville had discovered that TFNB Marshall was not in the early stages of construction but instead was operational and farther along construction than TFNB Yi with a full wing of 72, six squadrons total of F-302 fighters to defend the facility.
Apparently TFNB Marshall, formerly known as Marshall Air Force Base had been under construction way before the founding of the Terran Federal Republic.
Upon commissioning the Prometheus, the IOA and the SGC had come to the agreement that with Earth's increasingly expanding Space assets it would be harder and harder to conceal them from the general public. A deep space facility stationed at the edge of the Solar System was needed to not only serve as a base of operations for the IOA's growing number of space based warships and fighters as well as a construction yard to construct additional warships without the prying eyes of the uninformed public. Construction had begun roughly around the same time as the completion of the Daedalus, the first BC-304 unit.
With the Ori Assault on Earth and the subsequent revelation of the Stargate program to the public Marshall Air Force Base had been renamed by the Terran Ministry of Defense as Terran Federal Naval Base Marshall with construction continuing albeit at a much faster pace now that things were out in the open.
Expeditionary Command had appropriated TFNB Marshall as its headquarters as it was not only located off world, close enough to Earth but far away that it was isolated from the general public, to decrease the odds of infiltration.
In addition, he had discovered that the Archer was not the only ship ordered to report to TFNB Marshall. Evidently the rest of Stealth Squadron Two and all of Stealth Squadron Three were ordered to report to TFNB Marshall as well for reasons yet unknown.
"Attention on deck!" bellowed the Marine Sentry standing next to the hatch
Immediately Somerville and his fellow Captain's rose from their seats standing at attention.
The hatch opened, revealing Admiral John Mackenzie who had the dual role of Commander-In-Chief Expeditionary Command and Commander Terran Naval Expeditionary Forces
"As you were," the Admiral said, waving them down before taking his seat at the head of the table, the aides taking seats at his right and left.
Somerville and his fellow Captains sat back down.
"Before we start this meeting I would like to congratulate one of your number for a job well done. Captain Somerville will you please stand up."
Somerville obeyed, after all he no choice and quickly stood up.
"Captain Somerville and his crew were on a routine transport mission to Langara when the call came to extract a Special Operations Team and their indigenous allies from hostile territory. Captain Somerville was not only able to extract the Special Operations team safely but did so with no casualties and minimal damage to his vessel. For that I commend him."
"Thank you sir," Somerville said, he hated being in the limelight before sitting back down.
"Your welcome Captain," replied the Admiral. "Now that's out of the way, let's get down to business. Right now you're probably wondering why the hell you all are wondering why the hell you've been summoned and at this location none the less.
"The President has decided that due to conditions in the front lines, immediate reinforcement of Terran Military Forces is necessary to ease the burden on our allies. As such he has ordered the transfer of Stealth Squadrons Two and Three to Expeditionary Command and an immediate deployment to the front lines."
Gasps, exclamations and other verbal reactions echoed throughout the room.
The Admiral waited for the noise to subside and continued. "As such Expeditionary Command has ordered Operation Hidden Scythe to commence immediately.
The Admiral activated the holo projector in the middle of the table while his aides began to pass out sealed folders to each of the assembled Captains.
"This is the Alderan Sector and is primarily made up of pre-Industrial human societies, while it might not seem light much, it is home to the largest source of food for the Ori forces stationed in the Milky Way and thus has a high strategic value for the Ori War Effort in this Galaxy.
"The objective of Operation Hidden Scythe is to change that. Your mission is to deny the Ori the resources coming out of the Alderan Sector using any means possible. Luckily for us, the Ori are stretched thin, their forces spread across the Galaxy. Many of you back in the day have been trained to fight the last war and although the Cold War ended years ago, this time you finally get to do what you were trained for all those years ago. You gentlemen are going to become the new U-Boat Captains of the Twenty-First Century, carrying out quick strikes against enemy supply convoys, installations, and other targets of interest. You will strike fear into the hearts of every Ori follower from the lowest Peon to Adria herself. You will be the invisible wraiths that will stalk the void between the stars killing silently, swiftly and vanishing without a trace only to reappear at the worst possible moment to do it over again, again and again. The Ori have given us an opening and we are going to use that opening to strangle their war machine to a grinding halt.
"I won't lie to you, this won't be easy. To be perfectly honest with you gentlemen this Operation was originally slated for six months from now and with more ships committed for the operation. However, I can tell you that we are behind you one hundred percent.
"You will be given the best weapons, equipment and everything else that we can get our hands on to help you in your task, regardless of the cost. Gentlemen, the survival of Earth depends upon how much you can ravage the Alderan Sector. Are there any questions so far?"
"What is the force composition of the Ori forces in the area?" asked one Captain.
"The enemy forces in the local area of operations mainly consist of corvettes and frigates, with a few ships of the line in the area. Thanks to the Asgard, the Ori have been forced to devote most of their Battle Line to deal with them. However don't get your hopes up, the Ori outnumber you at least twenty to one. In order to be stay alive you're going to have to use hit and run tactics to wear down their numbers."
"What kind of new weapons and equipment are we talking about?" asked another Officer who by the sound of it wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.
"You all will be outfitted with a few of our weapons that are due begin mass production within the next six months to a year. I assure you that none of you will not be receiving anything that is half baked and still in the early stages in development."
"How long will we deployed in the area?"
"Right now I don't know. My guess is that you'll be deep in enemy territory for at least three to four months at the very least. However once we a get sufficient number of ships, we'll begin to rotate forces in Theater to relieve you."
"Any other questions?" the Admiral asked. Seeing that there was none, he continued. "All right you're all dismissed. Get ready to be deployed in twelve hours. Captain Somerville, please stay where you are."
"Good luck Terence," said Collingwood as both men got up.
"You too Rodger," replied Somerville, watching as his friend and his fellow Captains got out of their seats and exited the room, bound for their respective ships in preparation for the newly revealed deployment.
Now that he and the Admiral were alone, minus the Marine Sentry standing beside the hatch, the Admiral turned his attention to him once more. "Once again great job in the extraction," the older man told him.
"Thank you sir," Somerville replied, quietly.
The Admiral sighed, "Son a word of advice, if you ever want to be a Flag Officer I advise you to take credit for your accomplishments. Being modest is one thing but you not only have to stand out from the rest of your peers but be assertive as well if you ever hope to make Admiral. You've got the potential."
"Yes sir," Somerville replied, surprised. While it was not the first time that he had been chided for his introverted nature, this was the first time that he had been told that he was a possible candidate for Flag Rank.
"However despite the promise that you hold, that's not the reason why I asked you to stay behind." He turned to the Marine. "Send them in."
The hatch opened and shortly thereafter three men walked in, although only recognized O'Neill, attired in fresh Fatigue Uniform. It seemed that the powers that be had decided that he and the young Special Operations Officer would cross paths once again.
As for the other two men, one was in a middle-aged man wearing the Service Dress Uniform of the Special Operations Force, the rank insignia on his shoulders revealing him as a Lieutenant General. The other was a younger man, probably in his late thirties to early forties and wore a Green Nomex Flight suit that was popular with aviators worldwide, and if Somerville could see correctly was a Lieutenant Colonel.
"Captain Somerville I'd like to introduce you to General Frank Higgins, Commander Expeditionary Special Operations Forces."
"Nice to meet you Captain," the General shook Somerville's hand.
"This is Lieutenant Colonel Michael Richardson, Terran Federal Space Force."
"A pleasure."
"And you know Captain O'Neill of course."
"Of course."
As the introductions were done, the assembled Officers took their seats at the table, leaving over two thirds of the seats still empty.
"As you obviously know, Operation Hidden Scythe is primarily composed of Naval Forces, and is a Navy-led operation, however both the General and myself have agreed that in order to be successful, will need additional forces, namely the ability to deploy Special Operations Forces in the Alderan Sector.
"As such the two of us have agreed that it would be in the best interest in the success of the Operation if Captain O'Neill and his team as well as a few additional ground Forces, including an Army Ranger Company en route at the moment be assigned to your vessel for the duration of the Operation."
"I have no problem with that sir," Somerville assured his superiors. Even if he did, there was probably nothing he could do about it.
"Good," replied the Admiral. "Colonel Richardson is the Commanding Officer of the First Special Operations Squadron (Experimental), consisting of three modified dropships for covert insertion and extraction and will also be joining your crew.
"Needless to say, due to the new additions to your vessel, you and your crew will be called to execute additional insertion and extraction missions on top of the raiding missions done by the rest of the ships assigned in the Operation. You're going to have a lot more responsibilities than the rest of your colleagues.
"Look son, if you don't think you can handle the additional burden this is your last chance to let me know now and I'll assign the O'Neill, Richardson and their men to another ship. The last thing I need is for you to accept the added responsibility and not be up for the task."
"No sir, I'm perfectly able to take the responsibility."
"Good. When this is all over, if you can walk the walk on this, I can guarantee you that you'll have some very good things waiting for you when you return home."
"Yes sir."
"Godspeed Captain," CINCEXPED said simply.
"Give 'em hell," said the General.
"Thank you sirs."
The two Officers quickly departed the room; Somerville no doubt knew that they had more pressing business to attend.
He turned his attention to O'Neill and the Colonel. "If you can follow me I'll take you to the Archer."
Landing Bay, TFNS Archer
"Beautiful aren't they?" said Colonel Richardson.
"Certainly," replied Somerville, admiring the three newly arrived spacecraft parked closely to one another inside the Archer's formerly vacant hangar. "What are they exactly?"
"These fine pieces of art are SDS-1 Wraiths manufactured by EADS, in fact the very first ones to roll off the assembly lines in Europe."
"SDS-1 Wraiths?" Somerville asked, confused.
"The SDS-1 Wraith is a variant of the DS-1 Cormorant specially designed for the insertion and extraction of Special Operations Forces as well as other covert operations," explained the Colonel.
"Although it's similar to the DS-1 the SDS-1 has a couple key differences from the original model.
"We've added a rapid fire energy cannon on the nose, allowing the crew to engage the enemy head on. The addition of the energy weapon with the addition of three GAU-19 .50 cal machine guns mounted on the port, starboard and at the aft sides allows us to provide fire support at any and all directions, perfect for a sudden assault or an extraction in a hot landing zone.
"Our avionics and other components are top of the line. The anti gravity engines used by the SDS-1 is twenty percent more powerful and provides much more thrust than those used on the DS-1. Our onboard flight computers have more RAM, faster processors and meet with the additional demands placed on it.
"What really sets this bird apart from the DS-1 is its ECM System. Its vastly superior to the system deployed aboard the DS-1 although very complex and personnel intensive to the point that the Wraith requires additional crew to operate it. While I can't go into specific detail about the system I can tell you that its similar to that used by your ship Captain."
Somerville nodded. It was one thing to know about the Dropships that this ship was to be using but another to pry into information that he didn't need to know about.
"Naturally with all of the improvements there is a price to pay. With the additional weaponry, improved ECM and avionics the Wraith's cargo carrying capacity is reduced by thirty five percent due. Another issue is the cost per unit. A single Wraith costs the same amount as a whole flight of Cormorants and is much harder to maintain. While this makes the Wraith very unattractive as a General Utility Transport it fits perfectly for the role that it was intended for, a Specialized Transport used for infiltration and extraction behind enemy lines."
"Ah," Somerville replied, not knowing what else there was to say.
"Would you like a tour of the interior?" asked the Colonel.
"It would be a pleasure."
Storage Compartment 37B
The room was cramped, designed for the storage of equipment and other materials rather than the housing of personnel, it was not the ideal dwelling for anyone even on board a Naval vessel.
However with the additional personnel and war material coming on board, and the lack of available living space the Archer's Commanding Officer had no choice but to convert a number storage rooms into living quarters to house the newcomers.
Although in all due fairness he did do his best to make the accommodations as livable as possible. The crew had installed bunk beds by bolting them to the walls as well as improved the lighting by installing additional lights making it much easier to see. While he hadn't been able to install an additional bathroom close to their quarters at such short notice, he was able to requisition a few chemical toilets that were placed in the neighboring and smaller Storage Compartment 37A so his team and the Rangers wouldn't have to spend ten minutes walking to the bathroom every time they had to go. Although the conditions were rough according to Chaucer, himself a former member of the Special Boat Service, they were much better than sleeping in hammocks inside the Archer's munitions bay.
"Okay everyone listen up," O'Neill addressed his team, "As you probably realize by now we're going to be going back into the frying pan once more."
He could hear a few muted groans coming from his team, who were not too happy about the change in events. He couldn't blame them, after all who liked being their dreams of R and R crushed with the news of an immediate redeployment into another war zone?
"Great," muttered Chaucer
"We've been assigned additional Operators to bring us back up to full strength," O'Neill replied, he too not liking the news very much. "Without further ado I'd like to welcome to you all our new additions."
A lean and wiry young man of Latin American descent raised his hand "Sergeant Marco Castaneda, Communications Specialist."
"Staff Sergeant Ruben Holstein, Heavy Weapons" said a burly man with a heavy Hebrew accent.
"First Sergeant Robert Douglass, Medic," replied a fair-haired man who was fast approaching middle age, in a twang often found in the Southern Regions of North America.
A dark haired man of Korean descent was the last to introduce himself, "Sergeant First Class Oh Seung, Intelligence."
"Welcome to ODA-1123 Gentlemen. I'd like to say that in addition to our new arrivals," O'Neill was careful not to use the word replacements, "Expeditionary Command has also allocated a Company of Army Rangers to support us in our upcoming deployment."
He paused for a moment before picking up a stack of folders and began to pass them out to everyone.
"Let me be frank and to the point," he said after passing out the folders. "I know that we're being sent out back to the front with little or no warning which isn't the best situation for anyone. For those of us who had just come back from Pythia, I'm sure that we're all thrilled about the fact that, just after mere hours from escaping from the jaws of Death, we're being thrown back to the lion's den once more. And for those who have found themselves transferred to our Team, I don't think that any of you are happy about going into combat with a unit that you haven't even gotten to know.
"I know that this is probably the worst possible scenario but we can't do anything to change that. But what we can do is to make the best of what we've got. Let's get started with this briefing, open the folders and turn to page one…"
CIC TFNS Archer, Deep Space, Sol System
"Sir," reported Gonzalez, "we're clear to go to hyperspace."
"The Audacious is now clear as well," reported Collins. "Commodore Li wants the Squadron to jump in three zero seconds."
"Start up the hyperdrive," ordered Somerville.
"Ayes sir," replied Molotov from the reactor room via the ship's internal communications system.
"Hyperspace window forming. Jump to hyperspace forming in ten…five…four…three…two…one."