Gamma Site:

Pelleon glanced around carefully. Sara had tricked their escort into thinking he was still with them, but he knew he didn't have much time. Opening up his pack, he took out a few pieces and assembled them. After double-checking the schematic quickly, he activated it to full power and began his dash back to the campsite they were staying at.

Later that evening, when everyone else on this "bonding trip" had gone to bed, Pelleon pulled out his comlink. After making sure his transmission was coded, he opened a channel to the hypercomm relay. He knew that he had much better tech, but he suspected that if the SGC ever found out about his comlink, his people would have a very hard time. The earthlings were so very inventive, even compared to the Empire, or even the Rebels. He wasn't going to take any unnecessary chances.

"Cardia, come in. This is Recon team 1 reporting."

"This is Cardia recon control. Report." Pelleon heard after a short burst of static. After exchanging his verification code, he dumped both his written report and gave a quick verbal summary.

"We cannot underestimate these people. While the Jaffa seem to be full of internal divisions, the Tau'ri are not like that. They are extremely talented and are used to fighting against huge odds. Still haven't found any Rebel links. In fact it seems unlikely. Some more backup would be nice. Location of this 'Gamma Site' to follow. I'm also requesting clarification of our orders."

"Understood Recon team 1. Upon your next contact, your orders will be waiting. Control, out." Pelleon was a little surprised about that last order. But it did make more sense than letting them contact him and interrupt their operation.

Sara was deep in conversation with Thomas when Pelleon got up the next morning. "So what made the big change in tactics I heard of in the battle?"

"Huh? You didn't know?"

"No. I was guarding the Stargate building, not fighting on the front lines. We didn't even know how badly we were being beaten until that last order to pull back. Now spill it!"

Raising his hands as if to ward off her attack, Carrot replied, "While I'd love to tell you all about them, I'm afraid that I can't. Now before you jump all over me," he added very quickly, "Vimes ordered me to wait until we could show you the basis for our actions. We'll be showing it over dinner."

Sara glared at Carrot, "You'd better hope he shows it. You might want to run if he doesn't…"

Carrot threw up his hands in defense, "Hey, don't take it out on me! He's the one that's in charge of this, not me."

Sara sighed and walked slowly away. She was very anxious about finding out how the Tau'ri knew so much about Imperial equipment without being in contact with the Rebels. Later on that afternoon, Sara pulled Kyp aside to talk with him.

"They're up to something; I can feel it."

"I know this, you know this. I'd guess that the LT knows it as well. The question really is did the Rebels stumble on this before us or not?" Kyp replied. Suddenly blinking rapidly, he continued quickly. "In fact, we might have a worse problem than we might think. I mean, this is a different quantum reality, right?" Taking in Sara's nod with a quick glance, "So that means that if we could get here, we might be up against some alternate Rebels." He paused, awestruck at the possibilities. "It might have even been a world where the Rebels managed to save Yavin base, or something else as significant as that."

"That's rubbish," Sara quickly broke in. "There's no other way for things to have turned out. I know this for a fact. The Emperor can foresee everything that goes on… at least in our own reality."

"So then the Emperor knew that we were going to vanish into another quantum reality then? That's what you're saying you know. You're saying that he sent us off on purpose, knowing we would vanish." Kyp grinned victoriously at the quick look of shock that flashed across her face. Breaking into laughter when she angrily stormed out of the refugee tent they were in

Gamma Site: After dinner

"So what'd you think? Neat huh?" Vimes proclaimed proudly. "That's how we knew of the weaknesses during the attack. Nifty huh?"

The team, not to mention the Aschen high command was speechless. "The only thing I can think to say is, yes this does explain your surprising depth of knowledge of the enemy's technology and weaknesses." Arlin managed to get out. "This will take some getting used to," glancing around at what was left of the Aschen Council, "We'll have to think on the ramifications of this some more, before we can decide our next step… Please excuse us." The Aschen delegation half-stumbled out of the room.

Sara's team on the other hand was, if it's possible, even more shocked at the whirlwind tour of the Starwars universe than the Aschen were. They didn't even say anything before they left as well. As soon as they were out of earshot of the Tau'ri, Sara rounded on Kyp, "Don't you even say a word! Not one word." She hissed at him, eyes flaring with barely restrained force energy.

Pelleon motioned for them to sneak off later that night for a complete report back to the Cardia.

The Woods:

After Pelleon finished sending the completely insane report back to the Cardia, and from there to the fleet. Kelric brought up the issue that troubled them, "What if we're not the only fleet to show up?"

"You mean like the Rebels? We can take 'em." Kyp said eagerly.

Sara's voice crackled with ice, "They're not our Rebels." Turning her glare on everyone in turn she continued, "If things continue the way things have been going, we'll probably get the Rebels that come from those movies, or maybe something completely different! On the other hand, they could be the same Rebels we were sent to eliminate. We can't stay here long. We're going to have to call for pick up I think as soon as possible."

Pelleon nodded along. Standing up he stretched and dismissed them, "I agree with Sara on this one, but we'll call for a pick up tomorrow afternoon. Get your gear together."

Sara and Pelleon walked off together, but Kelric grabbed Kyp. "I know that with this whole 'Star Wars' business things are pretty weird, but I can't keep from worrying about Pelleon."

"What, why?" Kyp said, completely baffled. "I mean they seem to get along pretty well…"

Shaking his head, Kelric replied, "No that's not it at all. Can't you see how she takes over all the conversations? I'm not sure what she is but she isn't just what she seems."

After a short pause thinking deeply about it, "She could be a part of the Bureau… Would you think that they'd work for Admiral Neebs? More importantly, what would they want from this?" Kyp tensed up, thinking deeply.

"I'm not sure, but we might want to watch her carefully. She's hiding something, something powerful."

Gamma Site Orbit: Next Morning

Earth had taken care to disguise the orbital installations above Gamma Site. Fortunately, they were near the forefront of ECM development in the known galaxy. Unfortunately, those advances did nothing to hide them from the Asgard starship that dropped out of hyperspace above the Gamma Site. Unfortunately, neither the top-of-the-line ECM, nor the close in hyperspace window did much to disguise their presence to the sophisticated gravimetric sensors of the imperial probe in the outer system.

The Asgard commander quickly hailed the base down below. "Greetings. I bring grave news from the Asgard High Council," his image said after it appeared in the main control room.

"What news do you have?" the on duty commander replied, as he frantically signaled for someone higher up to deal with this.

"It appears that several members of the Protected Worlds treaty have been invaded by outsiders. We are not sure where they come from, but they have secured several worlds in a very short period of time."

Now very nervous the duty commander swallowed back his first comment of, "Who's that stupid?!" to think of a… more appropriate response. "I see. Do you have any more details on the attackers? Aschen Prime has also fallen recently to outside invaders."

The Asgard blinked, once. "This is grave news. Here is a short segment of footage of the battle." After a few swift key presses, a clip played showcasing the grey war machines of the Empire steamrolling WWI analog tanks.

"This is so not good."

After informing Stargate Command back on Earth about the recent developments, the Asgard ship announced its intentions to stick around and lend technical aid to the efforts against the Empire. This was seen as a 'good thing' by most people on the base. However, Sara was doing her very best to avoid being anywhere near their sensors after hearing a few horror stories about them (not that they were told to her that way). This all has bearing due to the fact that her team's ride was scheduled to arrive quite soon.

Therefore when she got the updated recovery plan, she had every reason to go and complain to Pelleon. "What are those idiots thinking?" They were in one of the unused lab areas of the base, ostensibly waiting for another briefing later that day. "Explain to me why we are sending even more ships here against the defenses and that new Asgard ship?"

Pelleon was leaning against one of the walls watching Sara pace back and forth around the lab bench. "It could be because we're important enough to warrant this?" Smiling at the dark look tossed his way he continued. "Or, and more likely in my book, it could be that we really need to know more about the combat capabilities of these Asgard, and the level of fixed defenses the Tau'ri can muster. Besides, " he shrugged, "this time they're bringing along quite a bit more than three of the outdated SD-1s and more of the newer Imperial-II SDs, along with assorted screening forces to deal with the fighters."

"You'd better be right." Sara grumbled after pausing momentarily. 'It better not be because of some internal FUA politics.'

Just then Kyp and Kelric entered. "There you guys are." Kelric breathed. "Do you know just how many unused labs there are right now in this base?"

Sara raised an eyebrow, "No I don't. But I think that you two just might be able to let me know."

Kyp smirked at that. "There are currently 11 unused labs right now." He nodded to himself, "And this was only our seventh. It helps to look at the plans you know."

Pelleon broke his train of self-congratulations. "Well that's great. Here are our orders for pickup. Now we just need to figure out how we're going to enact this." The four settled down around the datapad Pelleon took out from a pouch.

Eighth Fleet Command - SSD Tyrannus: Orbiting New Kuat

Admiral Neebs gave a final glance at the scattered paperwork on his desk before sighing contentedly. Pushing the accumulated clutter back for just a little while, he glanced out the large windows behind him. There now being quickly assembled were the beginnings of the Fleet's new shipyards. Once again he thanked the designers and the Emperor who made certain that a single Star Destroyer could take on an entire planet, and then occupy it. Of course things aren't quite the same here, but excepting the few strong powers, most of this space was ripe for the taking.

And take the Empire, via the Eighth Fleet did. Over the past few weeks they had taken over five inhabited worlds and established several mining and industrial sites, some bizarrely overlooked by the natives. It was their loss though. Of the inhabited worlds, two had willingly joined after the diplomatic team landed, one surrendered without a fight, and the last two had been steamrolled by the landing forces. All in all it was a very good haul.

Although for some reason the main settlements were always centered on a large ring structure. There seemed to be a lot of religious or cultural importance around one object, even spread across several star systems.

A chime sounded from the door. "Enter," Neebs said as he turned around to face the visitor. Seeing no one there, he tensed, then relaxed. "You can come out now. I recognize your hand in this you know." A short pause, "Plus I can smell you."

Chuckling came from his right. A tall man wearing a dark robe stepped out of the shadows. "It's good to see you again, my old friend."

Neebs smiled, "It's always good to see you as well Jaleer. How go things with your rival?"

"Things are proceeding well. He actually had a good idea at last."

"Now I'm really interested. If you can actually admit that it was a good idea…"

"I know." Jaleer waved a hand dismissively. "He's called for a group of us to go a scout around the locals. To prevent any major issues, he's called for the lone member of the Imperial Order to be placed in overall authority over the scouting teams."

"I didn't know we even had one of their operative onboard."

"She is the only one. Don't worry. She will not interfere with our plans."

"That's a relief. But tell me that can't be all that's bothering you?"

"Well, it's not really bothering me, but the operative is already in the field. She did this on her own initiative it seems. I brought back with me copies of the reports. You need to look into this. It could change the way we operate in this galaxy entirely."

"Very well. I will take a look at this."

"You'd better my friend. If we don't find out a way to respond, our new empire may be over before it's even started."