AN: the third chapter Enjoy!
Please R&R
Many thanks to Rudy Pena for the Beta
Bridge
TFS Deadelus
March 28, 2015
On route to Wraith outpost
Even though General Sheppard had relayed the order to only wage a defensive war, once in a while a good target presented itself. Right now the Deadelus was on the way to an under defended Wraith outpost. Intel suggested the target was only defended by a few squadrons of darts and a cruiser, no match for the Deadelus.
The situation wasn't pretty. There were now four Tau'ri warships in the Pegasus galaxy, the Deadelus, Apollo, Odyssey and the Vasilev. In addition there were fourteen Traveler ships docked at the midway station undergoing massive repairs and upgrades. All that was supposed to protect the Tau'ri interests in the Pegasus Galaxy and also the planets of the Pegasus alliance, a coalition of planets spanning several dozen worlds, including the Genii.
From his seat the bald commander of the Deadelus watched as his crew worked quickly and quietly to prepare the ship for combat.
Major Pat Meyers worked off to the side as the XO of the Deadelus, Major Marks, the previous and first XO was back on Earth undergoing training for the new BB-305, he would be its XO.
"Sir, we are receiving new instructions from Midway." Meyers reported from her station as she read a message that just came in.
"What are they?" Caldwell asked.
"We are to change course to an Alliance world not far away. Before we lost contact it was under attack by at least one hive and two cruisers."
"Alright, do it." Caldwell ordered. Ever since the orders came down to wage a defensive war the Wraith and Vanir had gone back into the galaxy and attacked dozens of worlds, some belonging to the Pegasus Alliance.
2 hours later
Vedena
As the Deadelus exited hyperspace they were greeted by the sight of not one, but three hive ships. The hives were escorted by eight cruisers and two Vanir destroyer class ships. There were dozens of darts flying in orbit. Even more were coming up from the planet or going down, no doubt to cull people. This world had a quite large population; it was one of the refugee planets and was deemed reasonably safe.
The Deadelus and its crew quickly got to work. Asgard plasma weapons were powered up and aimed at the hives and cruisers. Railguns were prepared to intercept the masses of darts that would no doubt soon be heading their way. Furthermore several nuclear warheads were prepared in the transporter room, in case they could disable the Wraith's jamming field. In addition to that, a signal was sent to Midway, advising them of the situation. It was up for the commanders there to decide if they'd send ground forces to clear the planet of Wraith forces.
As soon as the darts, which were ahead of the Wraith fleet got into range of the Deadelus they opened fire raining large amounts of not so deadly plasma on the Deadelus' shields. The Deadelus responded by firing its railguns destroying several darts in the opening salvos. Many more darts would soon be destroyed by the railguns.
As cruisers and hives alike got into range they opened up with their plasma cannons, which did much more damage than the weapons of the darts. No matter though, the Asgard shields were the best in existence. Especially now that the Deadelus was equipped with a ZPM that was recovered from Janus' ZPM factory the shield was stronger than ever. Again the Deadelus returned fire, and this time with its Asgard Weaponry. Several blue laces of death lashed out from the ship and struck the first hive, crippling it. Within a minute one hive and two cruisers were either destroyed or about to be destroyed.
"Sir, engineering reports they might have found a way to beam nukes aboard their ships." Meyers reported.
"Tell them not to wait for my command and beam as soon as they have a lock." Caldwell ordered. "As long as they aren't using mark nines we'll be fine."
As the Deadelus made another pass it fired two regular missiles, one was intercepted, but the other one hit a hive's hibernation pod. The explosion, although large did only minor damage. During the same time the missiles hit, the jamming signal was countered and four nukes were simultaneously transported aboard the Wraith and Vanir ships. Two hives, four cruisers and both Vanir ships were consumed by the nuclear fire. Now only one cruiser and a bunch of darts remained.
As the Deadelus came about to finish the fight by destroying the sole remaining cruiser it fled the scene narrowly missing two beams.
"Crap." Caldwell said.
"Sir?"
"Now they know we could crack their jamming tech. nevertheless, send a report to Midway, advise them of the situation and the frequencies of the jamming field and tell them to send through marines to help the planet down below." Caldwell said.
Gate room, Midway station
The same time
Colonel Lorne approached the commander of Hotel Company, 2nd battalion fifth marines and part of the first marine division. Captain Williams saluted the Colonel as they met in front of the stargate.
"Colonel, What's our mission?" Williams asked.
"One of the planets of the Pegasus Alliance has been attacked. The Deadelus just secure orbit but there are still quite a lot of darts and drones on the ground. This particular planet has a large population, over two hundred thousand, mostly refugees. The Genii are providing internal security but they can't handle the amount of darts and drones." Lorne said.
"Okay sir, so we just secure the planet and go home?"
"You'll secure the planet and provide support for local law enforcement until they can be reorganized or until we recall you." Lorne said.
"What are the possibilities of backup?"
"The rest of the battalion in suiting up and the Deadelus is ready to launch its 302's."
"Okay, dial the gate." Williams said.
Lorne turned around and gave the person in the control room the go signal. The gate started dialing.
Williams turned towards his company which was standing in the large gateroom. "People, we are going to kick some Wraith ass. Expect drones and darts plus a shitload of civvies. The Deadelus has secured orbit and may be sending some 302's our way."
The gate activated and a MALP was sent through. When the technician signaled the all clear for the immediate surroundings of the gate, the company moved through.
Vedena stargate
First platoon and Captain Williams were first to exit the gate. They immediately spread out and secured the area around the stargate while the other platoons of H-Company arrived. They were quickly greeted by the local Genii commander, a man by the name of Kalos. The Deadelus was contacted and it was agreed upon to call in the rest of the battalion. Although it would take a while for the rest of the battalion to be ready, H-company got to work quickly. The Deadelus used its transportation systems to beam the units to where they were necessary.
The planet Vedena which was first encountered when Teyla was searching for the missing Athosians; had come a long way from it primitive tents to wooden and in some cases stone buildings. At the time Teyla and Sheppard visited the planet in search of a seer named Davos.
Beside the Wraith forces that were destroying as much from the planet as they could there were also major riots. For the next few weeks the second battalion of the fifth marines would be busy here.
Janus' formerly hidden lab, Atlantis
March 30
0900 hours
McKay arrived in the hallway where Janus' lab was located. He input the right code and walks through the wall. He was tasked with overseeing Janus' project even though most were out of his league. Fortunately Janus was very patient and always willing to explain everything.
"Doctor McKay, how are you doing? I've gathered a report that you can give to your superiors, I think it will be simple enough for even them to understand."
"Let's hope so, your last report took me four hours to explain, and that was just about the replicator code, something that's relatively simple compared to the Aterro device or the Arcturus project." McKay said.
"So are they going ahead with replicators for ship building and mining?"
"No. they however are willing to compromise and use nanites for mining but they don't want full blown replicators, no matter how many safeties, in existence."
"And the modifications for the Odyssey's phase technology?"
"You have no idea how simple that was. You should have seen their faces when I told them we might find intact ancient warships, stations, ZPM factories and what else without any danger. By far the easiest upgrade I ever got through any counsel." McKay said.
"And the scientists aboard the Odyssey were able to implement the new code by themselves?"
"Eh, no. they want you. They'll swing by the Midway station in about a week, on April fifth. We'll take a group of people with the ATA gene to make things easier. Doctor Jackson also wanted to come along as did General O'Neill. He wanted to get out of the office."
"Very well, I am already looking forward to a trip on one of your battle cruisers. I'll make up a list of what we'll need to take." Janus said.
"You think the Odyssey doesn't have what you'll need?"
"Well, you can never be prepared enough."
Control room
Midway station
April 5
General O'Neill walked into the control room of the midway station to greet Sheppard himself. He found Sheppard in contact with a platoon of marines on a scouting mission one some planet in the Pegasus galaxy.
O'Neill waited for Sheppard to finish the conversation before he walked up to Sheppard.
"Sheppard, where's my ride?"
"The Odyssey is running a little bit late I'm afraid. She had some business to take care off first." Sheppard replied.
"Okay. When will she be here?"
"Bout ten minutes. They did say they installed the subroutines and are waiting for Janus to make the final modifications to the core."
"Okay I'll bring the news."
All people who would join the Odyssey for the trip were already assembled in a large area near the gateroom. Nearly thirty people, of which half in military fatigues all having the ATA gene waited for a beam out, as did a platoon of marines whom had the task of securing any installation they'll find out of phase. With them were also Janus, Daniel Jackson and Cadet Frasier who seemed to be going anywhere Janus was going these days. They all waited patiently for the Odyssey to arrive and beam them out.
General O'Neill walked in and told them that they would have to wait about ten more minutes. They all relaxed as they were expecting a beam out any moment and returned to the seats of the large waiting area. Normally it was used as a staging area for marine units and travelers between galaxies. Therefore it held several hundred seats and enough room for a marine to stash his rucksack and relax before a mission.
Fifteen minutes later Sheppard radioed in telling O'Neill that the Odyssey was ready to beam them up. Less than a minute later O'Neill found himself on the bridge of the Odyssey greeting Colonel Emerson.
Bridge, Odyssey
"Colonel, when can we get underway?" O'Neill said as he walked up to the command chair where he shook hands with Emerson.
"In about twenty minutes after we've loaded up on supplies." Emerson said. "In the meantime you should settle in and perhaps Janus can get started on the final modifications to the phase technology. I've arranged my own quarters to be at your disposal."
"Thank you Colonel. Well I'll leave you alone; you have a job to do." O'Neill said.
Core room
Twenty minutes later
"Mister Janus, how far along are the modifications?" Emerson asked as he walked in.
"Please, call me Janus. I was just about to send McKay to find you; I have completed the modifications to your phase technology and calibrated it to the phase frequency Ancient phase technology uses." Janus answered.
Emerson turned to McKay surprised. "Doctor, I didn't know you were a messenger?" he joked before he turned back to Janus. "Janus, what will the effect be on our hyperdrive field?"
"That is unknown, even though we had the technology it wasn't widely available and usually wasn't necessary for us." Janus replied.
"What would you recommend?"
"We should try it; it might be useful to know."
"Okay, we'll try it. From what I understand Ancient facilities and outposts were built in rings around Atlantis, right? The most important and most densely populated worlds were the closest to Atlantis, as were the most important facilities. Therefore we'll start at the planet Lantea, the planet we first found Atlantis on." Emerson said.
"That is a sound plan Colonel. I understand that this ship will be able to scan quite an area with the ZPM integrated in its systems?"
"Yes, we'll leave in ten minutes, unless any of you have any objections?" Emerson said.
A numbers of 'no's' echoed as Emerson turned to leave the core room and headed for the bridge.
Ten minutes later the Odyssey turned away from the Midway station and disappeared off the sensors. Moments later it entered hyperspace.
April 6
Bridge, Phoenix
Near known Lucian Alliance world
The Phoenix was on patrol near a known Lucian alliance stronghold. Its mission was to monitor the alliance and intervene if necessary. They were also to provide help if necessary for a nearby Colonial task force consisting of two hospital ships, eight freighters with humanitarian supplies and four escorting frigates which were providing aid to a planet that was recently attacked by the Aschen.
Right now Colonel Mitchell, Commander of the Phoenix wished he was back in the field with SG-1. The patrols were boring to say the least. Most commanders were told not to engage the Lucian Alliance head on as they gotten their hands on a device that could destabilize hyperspace. How the SGC didn't know and neither did they know how much of these devices there were in existence but they were deadly as was demonstrated during the Wraith attack on Earth.
Mitchell did really miss the old SG-1. They were all scattered around the galaxy. O'Neill was the Commander of the Space Forces. Carter headed the BB-305 Project and was rumored to be its first commander. Teal'c was back at Dakarra as Vice President of the Free Jaffa Nation. Daniel was at Heliopolis working as an ambassador for the Tau'ri Federation to the Alliance. Vala, well Vala was being her usual annoying, flirty and stealing self to Daniel. And he himself was the commander of a Tau'ri battle cruiser in the Milky Way Galaxy.
It was usually at the long and boring days that he thought back to the many missions he participated in with the famous SG-1, Flagship of Stargate Command. From the moment he joined and had to 'bring the band back together' to the end, just after the Wraith attack on Earth in 2009. By that time Carter was already gone to command the Hammond and Teal'c was already at Dakarra. Soon thereafter Atlantis took over the day to day stargate business including exploration and he was transferred to the Phoenix. Daniel was more than happy to uncover as much as possible about the city of the Ancients and Vala just wanted to see how much she could take and get away with.
Now his oh so boring day was about to get a little bit interesting.
"Sir, we are receiving a hail from the Colonial task force. They are requesting our help. They've had some momentary contacts, which could be written off as DRADIS ghosts but the commander thinks there is one too many." The Tactical officer reported as a message came in.
"Okay, plot a course for their location. How long will it take us to get there?" Mitchell ordered.
"About an hour."
"Okay, wake up the pilots and have them prepare for possible combat." As a former pilot Mitchell knew it was better to wake the pilots up for nothing than to put them in their cockpits without having eaten something or without a shower.
The Phoenix entered hyperspace and its 302 pilots prepared for a 'hot launch', which meant they would launch in the middle of a battle without the time to organize the squadron.
An hour later the Phoenix exited hyperspace not too far away from the Colonial task force. The two hospital ships were in orbit of the planet and shuttles and Raptors were shuttling wounded up to the ships. Two freighters were also waiting in orbit, four more were already on the ground and two others were being guided in by a pair of raptors. The hospital ships were painted white to distinguish them from a normal colonial fleet ships. Most colonial hospital ships were old converted battlestars or smaller classes of warships. Most of their weaponry was removed though some remained for defense against pirates. The four escorting frigates had placed themselves around the other ships in a box formation. Their main role in combat was to intercept fighters and bombers and to allow the battlestars to focus on taking out the enemy capital ships.
The Phoenix slowly made its way over to the Colonial ships in orbit while running a low level sensor scan of the system.
"Sir, we're picking up something strange, its right behind us and following us." The Tactical officer said.
"Alright, I want you to get everyone to their station but do not power up any weapon system." Mitchell ordered. As the Tactical officer executed the order he thought the situation through. Without knowing who was following them he could not just open fire, though it was fair to assume it was a Lucian alliance scout ship. As more crewmembers entered the bridge, and other compartments reported ready he came to a dangerous conclusion.
"Okay, I want you to take a heading away from the fleet and planet, speed up until we reach max speed."
The Tactical officer complied. "The signal is still following us, it is close behind us."
"On my command I want you to slam her in full reverse, set the shields to maximum, power the weapons and increase power to the sensors to the maximum."
"Sir, if that is a ship it might crash into us."
"Exactly, they'll have to make a choice, slam into our shields or drop the cloak and take evasive maneuvers revealing their identity to us. If it's the Lucian alliance, which is most likely it'll just be a cloaked scout ship, an Al'Kesh at worst, our shields can handle that." Mitchell explained.
"Yes sir." The Tactical officer said. "Ready."
Mitchell waited for a second thinking his plan over one last time, looking for that one crucial thing he might have missed, and found none. "Execute."
The Tactical officer executed the plan.
The Phoenix, which was at top speed, suddenly decelerated, powered shields to maximum, which was visible by the blue force field becoming visible for a short time. Its weapons were powered and the ship came to a dead halt before it started moving backwards.
"Contact is still closing! Four thousand meters, three thousand meters." The Tactical officer said as she read the distance to the signal. Mitchell began to doubt he made the right decision; no-one in their right mind would want to go head to head with an Asgard engineered shield, though the Lucian alliance had showed some really worrying lack of intelligence. "Fifteen hundred, we are getting a clear picture, they're de-cloaking. It's a Lucian Alliance scout ship. Their evading, shall I alter course for an intercept course?"
"Do it, use a railgun to disable their engines." Mitchell said. "Be careful, disable, and not destroy."
The Phoenix came about as the scout ship soared past it. One railgun cannon started tracking the small ship as it tried to get away. Once the computer received a clean lock on the scout ship's engines it fired a burst of three rounds into the engines, completely wrecking the sub light and hyperdrive engines but not damaging the rest of the ship.
"Target disabled."
"Beam over a squad of marines, tell them to secure the ship with as little force as possible, inform the colonials on our actions."
"Yes sir."
After the marines were beamed over the bridge crew waited several minutes before the marines called back.
"Sir, we've detained four and killed six, we need an immediate beam out, during a firefight we shot up some panels and now there are warning lights going off all over the cockpit."
"Beam them out." Mitchell ordered.
The marines and their four prisoners appeared on the bridge. Moments later the cargo ship's hull buckled and collapsed in on itself before exploding.
"Sergeant, put those four in the brig and have medical and intelligence check them out." Mitchell ordered. "Set course back to the Colonial task force."
The Phoenix turned around and moved towards the Colonial fleet while powering the shield down to normal levels.
"Colonel Mitchell, this is Engineering, please come in."
"Mitchell here, what is it?"
"Sir, I've been going over the sensors from the fight and I think the scout ship sent a message before we boarded it."
"Were you able to decipher it?"
"No sir, but we tracked it back towards that Lucian Alliance stronghold we were observing."
"Okay, well done, Mitchell out." Mitchell said. "Tactical I want you to keep an eye out for any new contacts and tell the Colonials to be ready for a possible attack. Have the fighters on standby for the next four hours. Also send a message to Earth informing them about our actions and that we have four POW's."
Two hours later
Bridge, TFS Odyssey
Nearing original System of Atlantis
In just a few minutes the Odyssey would drop out of hyperspace on the edge of the Lantea System to make its first scan. Due to the ZPM the sensors were able to cover quite a large area. Though for them to scan the entire galaxy, they would need several hundred scans. Up until now the phase technology had worked perfectly. They had encountered a few bumps while in hyperspace though that was not something uncommon in hyperspace.
"Colonel Emerson, we are nearing our first scan point." Janus advised the Colonel from the core room.
"Yes I'm aware of that Janus, thank you. We'll be dropping out of hyperdrive in one minute."
Fifty seconds later Major Gant started counting the seconds down until reversion to normal space. Ten seconds later they exited hyperspace. In front of them lay the blue planet Lantea with its continent that previously held the Athosian settlement.
"Janus, we have exited hyperspace. You may commence scanning."
Ten minutes later the scan was done.
"Colonel Emerson, I have compiled a list of possible hits. We won't know for sure it's a mark until we check them out ourselves. The nearest one is four minutes away by hyperspace." Janus reported.
"Very well. XO set course for the nearest hit."
The Odyssey entered hyperspace again for the nearest hit and four minutes later it again exited hyperspace. They were greeted by two craft, just a little bit bigger than a jumper adrift in space.
"Bingo." Emerson said. "Janus, what kind of craft are those two?"
"They seem to be bombers used by Admiral Hippaforalkus; he was the one in charge of all Lantean special operations. I am not reading life signs; I don't think the crew had a stasis pod installed. At any rate they should prove useful. I suggest sending four people to each ship, of which half have the ATA gene."
"Copy that Janus. We'll have a team ready in a minute."
"Emerson, This is O'Neill, I and Cadet Frasier are ready to be beamed over."
"Eh sir, I know you outrank me and all but we can't risk losing you, you're too important for Earth."
"Colonel, Janus has already established that there are no life signs, and that there is no danger worth mentioning. I'm sure he would have said something if there was any danger. So beam me and Cadet Frasier over to the nearest bomber and we'll see what we can do with it." O'Neill ordered.
"Yes sir." He ordered his XO to beam the general and cadet to one ship along with two scientists and four other scientists to the other bomber.
Within minutes the two teams had radioed back reporting that the bombers were fine and could be brought back aboard the ship, which happened ten minutes later. After that the Odyssey set course for the next coordinates.
TFS Phoenix
One hour later
While the Phoenix waited for any signal from the Lucian alliance it remained in orbit over the planet. Meanwhile the beaming systems were put to a good use and transported relief aid from the ships to where it was needed. They also beamed the most critical wounded civilians to the hospital ships.
"Sir, I think we have a contact." The XO reported.
"You think?"
"It's just like the scout ship, though it is a bit larger, perhaps an Al'kesh."
"Battle stations, relay the telemetry to the Colonials and copy them on our movements. Prepare to launch F-302's."
The Phoenix powered its weapons and increased shield power to maximum.
"Sir, hyperspace windows opening." The XO reported
"How much ships?" Mitchell asked.
"At least four, they are Ha'tak sized." The XO replied.
"Come about to face them head on. Lock all weapons on the nearest target. Hail them."
As the Phoenix faces the four Ha'tak which are in a V shaped formation, their hail is answered. "This is J'tel of the Lucian Alliance, you fired upon one of our vessels, stand down and surrender your vessels."
"Uh, no. The way I see it you've got, two, no three choices here. One you get back into hyperspace to wherever you come from. Two you decide to stay and we fight a bit before you either surrender or retreat. Or three and this is my personal favorite, you stay and fight, we kick your ass up one side of this system and down the other and completely destroy you. Make your choice, I don't have all day." Mitchell replied with a hint of mockery. He turned to his XO and ordered the 302's launched.
Just as the first 302 exits the hanger bay an orange bolt flies their way. It harmlessly impacts the forward shields. More orange colored plasma is fired upon the Earth craft before it returns fire.
"The enemy has upgraded their shields sir; they are nearly as powerful as an upgraded Free Jaffa Ha'tak." The XO reported from the first salvo, which strangely didn't result in the destruction of the targeted ship.
"Well, it seems they finally got their hands on those new designs. I'm surprised it took them so long, the Free Jaffa Nation isn't exactly known for its internal security."
"What do you want me to do sir?" the XO asked.
"Keep firing, those shields are still inferior to ours." Mitchell said.
"But not to those of the Colonials." An officer said.
"Crap. What is their status? Are they jumping out?"
"No sir, the civvies are retreating at sub light speed and the escorts are covering them."
"Are their jump drives being jammed?"
"I can't tell there is a lot of interference from the Lucian Alliance ships."
"Keep firing, concentrate on taking out those Ha'tak's, the Colonials can defend themselves from the Al'kesh and gliders that get through." Mitchell ordered.
As the Phoenix continued its fire on the four Ha'tak twelve gliders made it through the defense screen consisting out of F-302's and missiles and Railguns from the Phoenix. They fired at the Phoenix' shields and did nothing. Meanwhile one Ha'tak was destroyed and another was attempting to retreat.
"Commander, Six Al'Kesh have exited hyperspace near the colonial ships, they are opening fire." The XO reported.
The six Al'kesh exited hyperspace in the middle of the Colonial Flak barrier. Already one Al'Kesh was destroyed before its shields activated and was shredded by numerous Flak hits. The other five Al'kesh continued to close in on the Colonial Frigates, which had turned around to shield the unprotected ships. The shields of each frigate were about as strong as that of a normal Ha'tak. The Al'Kesh might have had a weaker shield, it was designed to attack and destroy Ha'tak class vessels.
The battle between the Al'Kesh and Frigates quickly turned into a cat and mouse game between the Flak Barriers and the Al'Kesh. The Al'Kesh would make quick attacks on the Frigates which did everything in their power to turn their batteries and establish a Flak barrier between them and the Al'kesh. Ultimately all the Al'Kesh were destroyed, but not before half the Frigates were destroyed. Their crews however were mostly evacuated, their evacuation ships picked up by the hospital ships and the two remaining frigates.
The last remaining two Ha'tak were quickly destroyed by the Phoenix and its fighters. After the Death gliders were destroyed the fighters joined in on the fight between their mother ship and the Ha'tak's. As the Phoenix took down the shields, the 302's took care of the now unshielded Ha'tak's and they disappeared into two bright flashes created by mark seven nuclear missiles, ending the battle.
April 14
Bridge, TFS Odyssey
Out of phase, somewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy
The Odyssey's journey had been quite successful. Along with a dozen other bomber like craft they had discovered several cargo ships. Two were carrying spare parts for about any type of technology, one carried two dozen jumpers and about a thousand drones while the fourth carried clothes and food, which had turned bad ten thousand years ago. They had also discovered one Aurora and two smaller cruisers and one science vessel. All these were sent back towards Midway station for repair and examination. So far they had not found any living Ancients, though they now had a good lead to a secret facility which had phase and time dilation capabilities, which were the same as the ZPM factory Janus hid in the Milky Way galaxy.
"Sir, we are approaching the station, dropping out of hyperspace in thirty seconds." Major Gant reported.
"Okay, standard procedure, have Janus and a boarding team on standby, we never know what we might find." Emerson ordered.
"Colonel, I hope I am not bothering you?" Janus said as he entered the bridge.
"Of course not, I assume you want to see this for yourself?"
"Yes, I have never heard about this station, I couldn't find any trace on any system used by us. I want to know what the high council found so important to not include it into the database of Atlantis."
"So do I." O'Neill said as he too entered the bridge. "Good Morning Colonel."
"General, Good Morning to you too sir. You want the chair?" Emerson asked as he was ready to get out of the chair.
"No thank you, I try my best to stay out of them, I have an old back injury you know."
As Janus and O'Neill stayed to the side of the bridge the Odyssey exited hyperspace. Within moments they detected a large station, and seconds later the ship was rocked by impacts.
"What the hell is going on?" Emerson yelled to his staff.
"We are under attack by the station itself, drones and energy weapons. With this rate of fire we'll only last two minutes." Grant reported after a few seconds.
"Janus, Do you have any idea what to do about this?" Emerson asked.
Janus and O'Neill, whom were trying to stay upright because of the constant impacts on the shields tried to secure themselves a stable position. "Eh, I need an open line to that station." Janus said.
"Major, get on it." Emerson ordered his XO.
Within seconds the Major had established a channel to the station and stood up to allow Janus to sit down and have access to the console. Janus entered a series of codes and talked in Ancient which nobody could really follow. Daniel was summoned to translate but he was in the core room doing some studying on some recovered data.
Within seconds a hologram appeared on the bridge. The person was a middle aged woman wearing Lantean clothes. She started talking and the ships on board translation system translated it.
"I am Commander Helios of the Lantean Council. This is a restricted area. Who are you and how did you locate this station?" the hologram said.
"Well miss, now you ask, we received directions a few light-years away, this old dude told us to take a left turn…" Jack started before he was interrupted by Janus
"Jack."
"What!" Jack shot back, all the while the ship was still rocking under the constant bombardment.
"She can't hear you." Janus got out of the seat to allow Grant to get back in. "Open a holographic response." Janus said as he stepped up to the center of the bridge. After a few seconds Grant gave the go ahead.
"Commander Helios, I am Janus, I am just as you, one of the few survivors of our race, please cease fire before permanent damage is done."
"Janus, I remember that name. You were that scientist that damaged the time line, I should have you shot for collaborating with these people, and what do you mean by we are two of the few survivors of our race?" Commander Helios asked.
"That is me. Our race is finished; these are our children, the second evolution, from Earth. We lost the war against the Wraith, our plans to rebuild in Avalonia failed, our race, with a few exceptions died out."
The woman's face showed shock at the news and moments later the weapons fire ceased.
"Then what are you doing here?" Helios asked.
"The humans from Earth have come to power earlier then we predicted. Nevertheless, they found Atlantis, woke the Wraith and are ever since fighting them. Our friends from the Ida galaxy, the Asgard met this race and trust them enough to give them all their technology. They later encountered Myrddin from whom they acquired the phase shifting technology. Not so long ago the humans from Earth discovered the station I had used as a base and revived me. Because of the time travels I already knew that they would emerge to power and combat the Wraith, what I saw after that however made me realize that if we want our form to keep existing I needed to interfere. Part of that is to find technology as much as possible we left behind. Because the Wraith practically turned every stone in this galaxy searching for and destroying our technology I knew there was only one place where technology might be left."
"And your search led you here." Helios said.
"Yes, the Wraith have never found out about the phase technology, so all the ships we left behind out of phase have not been found by the Wraith." Janus said.
"I suggest you and a delegation from your ship come aboard so we can discuss this further." Helios said.
"That is fine by me. We will come aboard by a recovered puddle jumper with phase technology." O'Neill said.
Commander Helios looked at the general who now stood next to Janus and didn't understand him
"My friend here means our regular gate capable transport craft. They named quite a few things in our absence." Janus explained.
"I see." Helios said before they were disconnected.
Ten minutes later Janus, O'Neill, Daniel Jackson and Cadet Frasier headed to the Lantean station ahead of them in a phased puddle jumper. They entered the jumper bay and found that it looked very much like the jumper bay on Atlantis. As the roof door closed several people wearing ancient clothes and ancient weapons entered the bay to greet them.
After the introductions the group headed down a stair into what seemed to be the control room, again like Atlantis. This time however, instead of a stargate there were four chairs with numerous terminals around them. They were led into the conference room, which too did look like the one on Atlantis the first time they found it. The doors closed and for the next three hours Commander Helios was informed about the demise of the Lantean domain, the rise of the Tau'ri and the current situation.
When the meeting was finished the group returned to the Odyssey with the specs of the station. Janus had been able to convince commander Helios to join the fight and help the Tau'ri. Therefore the Odyssey would tow the station to the Midway station, where its formidable weaponry and sensor systems would be of great use for further operations in the Pegasus galaxy. The station used to have its own hyperdrive systems but due to wear and tear the system was unreliable to say the least. The Odyssey would use its ZPM to extend a hyperspace field around the station. The Odyssey would receive an extra ZPM, just in case it was necessary from the station.
The station was impressive; it was able to create nearly anything it wanted. It got the resources necessary from alternate realities, the system was quite save but had the drawback of requiring huge amounts of power for just a very small amount of resources. Therefore creating something like say an Aurora would require several fully charged ZPM's, which was just impossible. The station did have the capacity to make ZPM's but was too far away from a sun to make a lot of them.
Ten minutes after the group had made it back towards the Odyssey the ship and the station lined up, ready for hyperspace.
"Major, integrate the ZPM directly into the hyperdrive. When that's done you may proceed to engage the hyperdrive and set a course for the Midway station towing the station along with us." Emerson ordered.
"Yes sir." Major Gant replied.
It only took a minute for Major Gant to complete the power transfers and engage the hyperdrive.
The hyperdrive engaged and propelled the Odyssey and the station into hyperspace on their way towards the Midway station.
As the ship entered hyperspace it started shaking mildly.
"Colonel?" O'Neill asked.
"Major?" Emerson referred the question to her, also interested to know what was happening.
"It seems to be some kind of turbulence, no doubt because of the station we are towing. It must be putting an enormous strain on the system."
"Okay keep an eye on it and report back to me when it gets worse." Emerson said.
April 18
Near the Midway station
During the last four days the trembling had gradually become worse but not to such an extent that it was too much.
"Sir, we'll reach the Midway station within several minutes, I suggest we slow down, the station we are towing has limited sub light engines for deceleration and we should not strain them too much." Gant suggested.
"Do it." Emerson ordered.
The shaking became less and less as the Odyssey slowed down. Suddenly the ship shook violently several alarms started blaring.
"Major report!" Emerson ordered as he tried to stay in his chair.
"There is a power surge in the hyperdrive system; we can't dump it in time. We need to unhook the station; otherwise it'll be destroyed by the sudden acceleration. They will probably drift out of hyperspace close enough to the Midway station."
"Do it major."
"And sir, it's gonna get bumpy."
Emerson switched a switch in the arm of his chair. "Be aware we're gonna have a bumpy ride for a while."
Moments after the station was disconnected the Odyssey surged ahead, faster than any hyperdrive system had ever gone, faster than the Odyssey should have been able to handle.
TBC