The next chapter, enjoy and leave a review! thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta
M28-652
Bridge, TFS Odyssey
February 15, 2015
The Odyssey was orbiting a lush green planet. This particular planet once housed a research outpost back in the days that Atlantis was still in the Pegasus galaxy. The planet was also the place where first contact was made with the Travelers. They disabled Sheppard's jumper and kidnapped him.
"General Sheppard, are you sure this is going to work, we've been here for three days already." Emerson asked as Sheppard entered the bridge.
"Yeah, we've been running the signal non-stop, they should pick it up soon." Sheppard said. He stared at the main screen. "Perhaps you should show off part of the tech onboard, like the plasma beams, phase tech and shields."
"Okay." Emerson turned to the tactical officer. "Launch a few target drones; make sure the Asgard weaponry is properly aligned."
"Yes sir." A few minutes later several drones were launched and the Asgard Weaponry made quick work of them.
"I guess those work properly." Sheppard said.
"You doubted the shipyard workers?"
"No, it's just…"
"We've got a contact. It's Traveler." The Tactical officer reported. The traveler ship exited hyperspace a few kilometers away from the Odyssey, it looked like any other Traveler ship; old, ugly and bruised by the many years of running from the Wraith.
"Hail them." Both Emerson and Sheppard ordered instantly.
"We're already receiving a hail. Putting it on the screen"
"This is Katana Labrea of the Travelers, we received your message, what do you want?"
"It's nice to see you to Katana, we're fine, how are you?" Sheppard said.
"Not as bad as several other ships, they've been destroyed, where were you the last few months, the Wraith had some ally that managed to track down eight of our ships, twelve thousand of our kind have been killed so far." Katana said with a hint of anger.
"I am sorry for that, the Wraith attacked Earth, and they caused massive damage to our planet and our fleet. That's why we weren't here to keep the Wraith busy."
"How is that possible, I thought your home world was safe from Wraith attacks?"
"It was, until they found a way to travel between galaxies. We've lost millions, perhaps even billions of lives when debris from the wraith fleet we destroyed impacted the planet."
"By the Ancestors, how were they capable of reaching your home?"
"Those allies you mentioned, they are called Vanir, an offspring of the people who gave us the advanced technology we operate on our ships. They gave power sources to the Wraith allowing them to travel between galaxies."
"Do you need our help somehow?"
"Yes. Immediately after the attack the Deadelus and Apollo have been fighting the Wraith, now the Odyssey joins them. What we need however are ships that can support our ground attacks, we have the troops but not the ships to cover them from space. We already have a long list of potential targets and our marines are ready to go, but we just don't have enough ships."
"You can't ask us to bring ships full of civilians to planets known to have hostile forces on them, it'd be suicide." Katana replied.
"I already thought as much, how many people do your ships hold?" Sheppard asked.
"Anywhere from several hundred to several thousand, why?"
"We have some room to spare on the midway station; we could house about twelve thousand people there, more as soon as the new sections are completed. They might be bunked with station personnel or marines but considering your people are used to living on space ships I doubt lack of space will be a problem."
"I might be able to bring such a proposition to the counsel, but it'll take time, how can I reach you?"
"With your permission I'd like to transmit some information, it is a program you'll need to program into the DHD of a gate and it'll automatically dial the midway station. Another part is the iris deactivation code, you will need to send it and receive a positive reply before you go through the gate or you'll be dead." Sheppard said.
"Fine, I'll let you know within the week."
The connection was abruptly cut and the Traveler ship entered hyperspace.
X-305 construction site
Atlantis, Earth moon
February 23
The construction of the X-305 was starting to take shape, the hull was already in place, though at some places not completely so to allow for the installation of large pieces, like the hyperdrive.
Today, the president of the Tau'ri federation was making a trip to see how the construction of Earth's hope of winning the Wraith war was going. He was met by the commander of the X-305 project, General Samantha Carter.
"Mister President, it's nice to see you again sir." Carter said as she greeted the president.
"Nice to see you too general. So tell me, are you still on schedule?"
"Yes sir, we plan to have it complete by the end of November, and ready for combat by the end of December."
"How exactly is this ship going to defeat the Wraith while a whole fleet of Asgard, Earth, Jaffa and Colonial ships barely managed to lure them into the sun?"
"Well, this ship had four times as much Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons."
"I thought those didn't make a dent on the super hives?"
"They don't. But for starters, these weapons will have more power because of better power generation. In addition to that we have two new options. As you may already know the weapons are housed in turrets of three canons each. Besides firing individually, they can fire as one, increasing its destructive power. The second option is to bundle three or more turrets together, to create a truly destructive beam that not even a super hive can withstand. In fact, only Atlantis will be able to withstand that kind of firepower, nothing else known to us can."
"Let's hope it stays that way. So I heard that the 305 will be reclassified from a battle cruiser to a battleship."
"Yes sir, it dawned on us that the firepower and protection of this ship will be much more then the Deadelus class, and would be more akin to a battleship then a battle cruiser. As soon as it is commissioned it will be the first ship in the BB-305 line. Now we only need a name for the ship."
"That's one of the reasons why I'm here, the X-305 committee has decided on a name. She'll be called the BB-305 Sol. In honor of the sun, whiteout which we wouldn't have been able to take down the Wraith super hives." Hayes said.
"That's a good name, sol, Latin for the sun, and in several ancient dialects also the word used to name the sun."
"That's exactly what the committee thought. They'd also made up a list of future names but I told them not to get ahead of themselves."
"I understand sir. Why don't we start that tour now?" Carter asked.
"Sure, show me the way." Hayes said.
Carter made a gesture as to you first and they walked towards a walkway that connected the ship with the shipyard. Around the ship people were floating around in the weightlessness around them, while adding plating and other things. Before they entered the walkway however, Carter stopped him.
"Before you set a foot on that walkway, you'll need to put on those boots, they'll keep you from floating away. There is no gravity on and around the ship to make construction easier. The boots are magnetized and will keep you on the ground. Wouldn't want anyone to float away."
"Of course not." Hayes said. He quickly took his shoes off and put on the boots. The president's security detail had already been equipped with the boots.
"Shall we go sir?"
Bridge, Odyssey
March 1
0200 hours
The Odyssey's bridge was quiet this night. No operations were planned for the next twelve hours and the ship was in hyperspace. General Sheppard passed by on his daily training run.
"General, having a nice walk sir?" the XO asked.
"Yeah, I've got to do something to stay in shape, now that they put me behind a desk."
"Couldn't agree more sir." The XO replied.
While Sheppard paused to catch his breath the communications console beeped.
The XO opened the message that had came in. "General, Midway just relayed a message from Atlantis, O'Neill wants you back home ASAP, something about the Ticonderoga."
"Then let's not keep them waiting, check for the nearest secure stargate." Sheppard said.
The XO checked the database for the criteria. "There is a secure gate at about twenty minutes hyperspace away, shall I change course?"
"Yes, and also wake up Emerson."
Five minutes later Emerson entered the bridge, he was immediately briefed by Sheppard and received new orders.
Fifteen minutes after that the Odyssey exited hyperspace over a barren uninhabited world with a stargate. Sheppard and a detachment of marines beamed down, they uploaded the forwarding macro and soon the gate was connected to the Midway station. After verifying IDC's Sheppard stepped through and the marines were beamed up, after which the Odyssey set course for a very special destination.
0943 hours
"Commander, we are exiting hyperspace." The XO said.
The Odyssey exited hyperspace to be greeted by the Apollo and Deadelus. Sheppard had a bit of revenge planned.
"Receiving a hail from the Deadelus."
"On screen." Emerson ordered.
The bald head of the commander of the Deadelus appeared on screen and was quickly joined by the head of Colonel Ellis.
"Paul, nice of you to join us." Caldwell greeted the commander, to which he received a polite nod. "I assume you know the plan? The Deadelus and Apollo distract them while you carry out your task."
"Yes, I understand. I do have one suggestion." Emerson said. "It might be better for the Odyssey to jump in further away from our target; they won't even notice we are there until we engage them. It will require us to leave a bit earlier."
"Okay, sounds like a good idea, let's do that. How much of a head start do you need? Will an hour be enough?"
"More than enough."
"Okay, leave now, we'll follow soon."
A few minutes later the Odyssey entered hyperspace again.
1139 hours
"Sir, we're in geosynchronous orbit over the targets. We're clear of any potential targets for the Deadelus and Apollo. The phase technology is holding up properly, both the ZPM and Asgard core are performing at peak efficiency."
"Alright, be ready to phase us back into reality and power the Asgard plasma weapons. Also ready the Horizon Platform." Emerson said.
"Deadelus and Apollo are exiting hyperspace."
The two battle cruisers exited hyperspace over the Vanir home world. The Vanir fleet, consisting of over fifty warships, mostly smaller size moved from their defensive positions over the capital to engage the battle cruisers, which were near one of the planet's moons.
"Vanir fleet is clear of the planet, and will be out of range in two minutes." The XO said.
"Alright. Open bomb bay doors, power up the Horizon platform and lock in the target information. Prepare to phase back into normal reality." Emerson ordered.
The XO entered the commands into the system and all people responsible quickly executed them.
"All ready sir, just waiting for your command."
"Then do it. Weapons free."
On that command, the Odyssey phased back into the normal reality, the moment they were back, the ship launched the large Horizon Weapons platform. The enormous missile streaked away from its mother ship and moved towards the planet below. As it moved through the upper atmosphere it left a trail of fire behind. As the missile came close to the planet it deployed the actual nuclear warheads. The targets were shipyards, manufacturing stations, research stations and major military and political installations. On cue all warheads detonated, destroying an area the size of Australia. Millions of Vanir died and started to download. The download center would be busy for the next couple of months.
"All primaries and most of the secondary's are destroyed." The XO reported.
"Coma about, attack those Vanir ships in the back." Emerson ordered.
Only a few Vanir ships had actually broken off to fight the Odyssey. The rest had continued on to the Deadelus and Apollo. Those two ships were being harassed by Vanir ships. Beside the initial three kills, they had only been able to destroy three more.
Now that the Odyssey entered weapons range with those coming for them, they opened up with all their beam weapons. They all focused on one ship and destroyed it within seconds. Now secondary weapons fire like the railguns and missiles joined the mix, they however, did little damage. The remaining three Vanir ships had broken up and were coming at the Odyssey from multiple directions. The ship's plasma weapons were divided and therefore were unable to deliver a kill shot.
"Sir, Deadelus reports shields at 28 percent, they request to be allowed to retreat." The XO said.
"Granted, tell the Apollo to disengage as well and return to the rally point, when they're gone do the same." Emerson said.
The Deadelus quickly turned around, firing a few nukes, which destroy two Vanir ships attempting to stop the Deadelus and enters hyperspace. Meanwhile the Apollo is making one last run after some Vanir ships, destroying two of them before following the Deadelus into hyperspace. The odyssey makes one last sensor sweep to see the results of their work before it also enters hyperspace en route to the rally point.
Control center, Midway station
1536
The control room of the midway station had a direct view of the gate room. The gate room was mostly the same as the old one. This gate room was just a small piece of the entire midway station. The only difference with the old gate room was that it had a blast door and shield in the middle to separate the midway and Pegasus gates if necessary. Both gates had their own independently powered irises.
The Pegasus gate activated. It started spinning and one by one the chevrons were locked. When all chevrons were locked the gate opened the wormhole. From the start of the dialing procedure the iris was activated. The trinium-titanium iris locked into place.
"Incoming wormhole!" the PA Announced.
"Who is it?" Colonel Lorne asked.
"We haven't yet received an IDC sir." The Gate room technician said.
"We are receiving a transmission, its video and audio."
"On screen." Lorne ordered.
The screen to the side of the control room changed from the daily status reports on the station to the video feed. The face of Larrin appeared.
"Hello? Your General Sheppard -congrats to him for the promotion by the way- told me we could contact him when we reached a decision. Now, we've already managed to get the gate to dial you, but could you please tell us what to do with that IDC thingy?" Larrin said.
"Larrin, this is Colonel Lorne of the Midway station. You need to type in the code you received from General Sheppard and send it. Then we will verify it and if it is the proper code we will deactivate the Iris so you can come through."
"Okay, sending now." Larrin replied as she sent the code.
"Sir, we are receiving an IDC, it's the one given to the Travelers."
"Okay, deactivate the Iris." Lorne ordered. He them turned towards the screen as the Iris receded. "The Iris is deactivated, you can come through."
Office of the Commander of the Space Forces
Atlantis
March 2 0930 hours
As Sheppard stepped into the office of the Commander of the Space Forces he was greeted by General O'Neill.
"Sheppard"
"Sir"
"It's good to see you again." O'Neill said.
"Likewise, sir."
"You're probably wondering why I recalled you."
"Yes sir, I'm surprised it couldn't be done over a transmission through the gate."
"Yeah, well. The thing is that the Ticonderoga mission has revealed some, disturbing facts. It also gave us hope." O'Neill said as he handed Sheppard a folder with a debriefing of Colonel Grant, the commander of the Ticonderoga. "As you can see, we got into a war with the Aschen, we know a bit about them, but not enough. The problem is that we didn't even know they had warships, let alone as advanced as these, they might not have been as powerful as our own but they might still pose a threat. That threat in combination with our development of a large number of colonies prompted the need for added security back home. This however will influence your command greatly. As of now, there will only be four more 304's sent to the Pegasus Galaxy." Feeling an argument coming he quickly continued. "That is until either the situation changes or somewhere at the end of this year. By then the BB-305, Sol will be ready and deployed. Now, the fun part is that we recovered four ancient warships, damaged but we will be able to repair them before the Sol will leave. In addition the Asgard are preparing a punitive campaign as they call it against the Vanir. They have promised the fleet will be part of the sol fleet. In addition we discovered a ZPM factory and we will slowly start to equip all our 304's with ZPM's, ships in Pegasus being the first in line. Also Janus, the ancient we found will modify the phase technology on the Odyssey to be able to 'see' other ancient warships phased out. He will also supply us with possible coordinates. For now you will have to wage a defensive war."
"Sir, I do hope you understand that if you want me to prevent the Wraith and Vanir from coming back to the Milky Way galaxy, I need to be on the offensive."
"I understand, and in about nine months you will have a force the likes of which the Pegasus galaxy has not seen since the Ancient-Wraith war. Until then you will just have to keep them busy, I understand that the Travelers are willing to join the fight under certain conditions."
"True, they want a place to unload their civilians, a safe place. And they want us to upgrade their ships. On the long term they want us to provide security and a guarantee for a safe place." Sheppard said.
"Will you accept it?"
"It's not really my choice; this is something for the president. I'm sure we can house their people, we can also make small technological adjustments to their ships, I'm not sure about incorporating full Asgard systems though. Basically we still cannot share that kind of technology. If we would, we would also have to give it to our other allies, like the Colonials and Jaffa."
"This is assuming they remain independent, as a new member of the alliance. What if they became part of the Tau'ri Federation? Wouldn't that make their ships, our ships?"
"I guess. I'm not sure if they'd agree though, the Travelers are very independent and they might not like being connected to us that way." Sheppard explained.
"Well, I understand you have a special relationship with one of the Traveler commanders, talk to her."
Bridge, TFS Phoenix
Near the Cau system
March 8 1452 hours
The TFS Phoenix under Colonel Mitchell's command had received her new marching orders. First she'd await the arrival of a Jaffa fleet, and then it would set course for the Aschen home world for some Intel gathering.
"Sir, Jaffa fleet is exiting hyperspace." A lieutenant reported.
"What's its composition?" Mitchell asked.
"Four Hak'tyl's, and eleven Ha'taks with a bunch of al'kesh. They all seem to be of the upgraded kind."
"That's one mighty big fleet for the Free Jaffa." Mitchell commented.
"We're receiving a hail."
"On screen"
The screen changed to the face of a Jaffa whose symbol had been burned away, something that was not uncommon in the Free Jaffa Nation. Behind him the bridge of the new Hak'tyl showed some differences from the old Ha'taks. It wasn't all that golden, and it didn't have symbolic inscriptions in the walls.
"Colonel Mitchell, I am Rak'nor, it is an honor to finally meet you. I come here with greetings from Teal'c and Bra'tak and the first Free Jaffa battle fleet, ready to assist you."
"It's good to meet you to Rak'nor, I've heard quite a bit about you. I assume you've been briefed about our mission?"
"Yes I have, we are to provide support during your recon of the Aschen home world."
"That's correct. I'd first like to go over some of the last details before we leave. I'll send them to your ship, just some tactical points and com frequencies."
"I understand."
Ten minutes later they were all ready and the fleet departed for the Aschen home world. The home world itself wasn't that far away from the Cau system, which was likely the reason why the Aschen were present near the Cau system. With the Jaffa hyper drives, the trip would take about eight hours. The Colonial units sent to the Cau system had already secured its only entrance.
Aschen home world P4C-970
2300 hours
The Phoenix and the first Jaffa battle fleet exited hyperspace not far away from the Aschen home world. What awaited them was unexpected. A massive fleet was gathered around the home world. In orbit of the planet, more ships could be seen under construction. Literally dozens of shipyards were producing all kinds of ships.
As the alliance units started to get into formation, and gather Intel, the Aschen fleet turned to engage them. Within minutes the two fleets were within weapons range, first the Aschen bomber like craft, and soon also the capital ships. Green Aschen weapons fire was exchanged with the orange and blue-white plasma from the alliance fleet.
Death glider squadrons clashed with Aschen fighters while the Al'kesh were trying to attack the enemy capital ships.
At first the Aschen took losses, several destroyers and frigates were blown up as their shields were penetrated by the plasma of the Jaffa ships and the Phoenix. Unfortunately the firepower of the enemy was devastating; hundreds of warships, all firing simultaneously did a number on all the ships of the Jaffa. Even the Phoenix registered a significant decrease in shield strength. Within minutes after the start, a ha'tak was destroyed.
"Colonel Mitchell, despite the fact that I am willing to fight to the death, I think we need to withdraw." Rak'nor said as another Ha'tak was destroyed.
"Agreed, recall your death gliders, tell them they have two minutes to get back aboard, after that we're leaving." Mitchell replied. He then turned to the Tactical officer. "Major, prime every nuclear warhead we have, prepare to fire them simultaneous as we withdraw from the battlefield."
As the death gliders returned to their mother ships the Aschen closed in. As the last Death Glider landed on its mother ship the Jaffa fleet and the Phoenix turned around and entered hyperspace. Moments before the Phoenix entered hyperspace a full dozen Mark 9 missiles were launched into the Aschen fleet.
These mark nine 'Gatebusters' made their way over to the Aschen fleet, which was still closing in, unable to turn around or come to a quick stop. Once the Aschen recognized the threat the 'Gatebusters' posed they fired everything they got. Fighters and bombers alike tried to intercept the missiles. Four were destroyed within seconds after the Aschen opened fire. The rest linked their AI's together and started following ever changing flight paths. They divided the Aschen's firepower to increase their chance. In the end, all but two missiles were destroyed. The remaining two however, destroyed nearly a tenth of the Aschen fleet as they detonated. Every ship in the blast radius, be they a fighter, destroyer, cruiser or dreadnought was destroyed.
Hyperspace
TFS Phoenix
"Colonel Mitchell, the data package has been compiled." The XO reported. The package included information on the enemy ships, their numbers, weapons, propulsion and shields, as well as information about the Aschen home world itself.
"Alright, send it to Atlantis and Rak'nor's Hak'tyl. Do we have any readings from the damage our nukes did?"
"The two that got through caused massive damage, nearly every ship in the blast radius was destroyed." The XO said.
"I assume that's in the package as well?"
"Yes sir."
"Okay, I'm gonna take some time off, wake me when we reach the Cau System or when something comes up."