AN: well, it's been a while; fortunately I've graduated and am enjoying my summer break. Thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta and I'm pretty sure some of you will love this chapter and some of you will hate it, but that's up to you.
So without further delay, Chapter 4, enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it.
Bridge, Odyssey
Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown
As Colonel Emerson regained consciousness and opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was grey deck plating. As usual the commander was thrown out of his chair when the Odyssey surged forward and suddenly decelerated uncontrollably. His first thought was to complain about his chair once he got back to Earth, sure the chair was comfortable, very functional and great to take a nap in while on watch but the lack of a seatbelt was a real big minus.
As he tried to get up he heard some of the crew waking up as well. There were some cries for help and some footsteps as people tried to get back to their stations.
Emerson felt someone put a hand on his shoulder; it turned out to be Major Gant. "Sir, Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine, help me up please."
Gant helped him up and he retook his place in his chair. "What's our status?"
Gant retook her station and brought up a diagnostics screen. "We've got some damage, the ZPM seems to be offline, and I can't reach engineering, the 302-bay or the sickbay. We've got no propulsion, no shields and sensors are limited to short range."
"Okay, send messengers to the sickbay, 302-bay and engineering, we need to get communications on-line. Does anyone have an idea what happened?"
"As soon as the core gets back on-line I'll take a look at it personally." Gant replied.
"Very well."
The lights flickered as some systems came back online increasing the drain on the power supply.
After several minutes communications was reestablished.
"Colonel Emerson, this is McKay in the core room."
"Go ahead Doctor."
"Janus has some intel with regards to our position, he will transfer it to the bridge as soon as he can."
"Copy that." He looked to his side where Gant opened the intel and nodded. "We've received the data, please hold one." He again looked to Major Gant and saw she was frozen up. "Major, How bad is it?"
"Bad." Was the only thing she could say?
"I already got that but how bad? Did we overshoot Midway by a few light-years?"
"Worse." Gant replied still unable to say much more.
"What, the other side of the Milky way galaxy?"
Finally able to reply properly "Try another galactic cluster."
Colonel Emerson and several people who were in the vicinity looked up shocked.
"How… how…" was all Emerson managed to say?
"With the ZPM tied in and the hyperdrive functioning at peak efficiency it would take approximately one and a half year to return to our own galactic cluster, another four months before we are even able to send a message to the Asgard, whom are closer, and about another six months before we reach Asgard controlled space." Gant read from the screen which was returning calculations.
"We're screwed." Nearby airmen said.
"So it seems." Janus said as he walked in. "We've depleted the tied in ZPM, and although the spare ZPM will be able to take over its duty the hyperdrive is damaged and won't get anywhere near peak efficiency anytime soon."
"Any good news?" Emerson asked.
"We've got enough coffee to last three years." McKay quipped in.
"But our food supplies are only limited to fourteen months, unless we all want to start sucking lemons." Emerson said.
"Oh very funny, so we'll probably die of malnutrition instead of bashing each other's brains out for a lack of caffeine." McKay said.
"Relax McKay; I'm surprised you and Sheppard managed to get along so long without killing each other." Emerson said. "Anyway back to the topic, how long will it take before we can start heading back home?"
"It'll be about two more days before the hyperdrive has been repaired, the same goes for the sensors, right now the sensors can't even scan beyond half our maximum weapons range." Gant reported.
"So we could have a hostile ship on top of us and we wouldn't even know it." Emerson stated.
"Well we should launch a few 302's to act as a sensor screen; it will provide us with an early warning system." O'Neill proposed.
"Agreed." Emerson said with a nod to major Gant to execute the order.
As Major Gant relayed the orders to the 302 bay her console beeped. "Sir, we've got contacts, twelve smaller ships and one capital ship."
"Put them on screen. What's our tactical situation?" Emerson asked.
"We've got no shields, most of our weapons are offline and propulsion is minimal." Gant reported. "Sensors are getting an accurate fix on the incoming ships."
The screen changed to an enhanced view of the incoming ships. The large ship was oval and white, and easily several times larger than a 304. The fighters were small and dart shaped.
"Can we open a channel?" Emerson asked.
"We can try, sir." Gant replied as she started working on her console. After a minute she opened a channel.
"Alien vessel, This is the Tau'ri Federation Ship Odyssey, we have been sent far away from our home world by accident, and we are currently attempting to restore our faster than light propulsion systems. If we have trespassed into your territory we apologize, we will do our best to leave it as soon as we can." Emerson said.
After a minute of waiting and getting no response O'Neill was getting restless. "Are we getting any response? Anything? Are they powering weapons or shields?"
"We can't determine if their shields are active, the same goes for the weapons." Gant reported.
"Tau'ri Federation Ship Odyssey, you have trespassed onto our territory, but that is not why we came here. Our scans on your ship inform us that you have possession of extremely strong weapons, and as a matter of fact we need them." The person on the other side said.
"I wish we could help you with that, but we don't just share our technology that easily, and we'd rather destroy our own ship than allow it to fall into enemy hands." Emerson said.
"Then let us convince you that we deserve your help in our war for survival, please, let's join each other in conversation, either onboard my ship or onboard yours."
"I guess we can have a conversation, it's the least we can do. May I ask what your name is?" Emerson asked.
"My name is Tomin, commander of the Ori forces in the fourth district."
"Well Tomin, my name is Colonel Paul Emerson, you are welcome to come aboard my ship, and our transport capabilities are limited due to damage. You can use a shuttle and land in one of our landing bays. We'll be looking forward to your arrival."
"Very well, I will be there shortly." The connection was terminated.
"So what was your impression?" Emerson asked O'Neill.
I think we need to be careful, he has already admitted to wanting our technology and we know from experience how those kinds of people can be." O'Neill said.
"Janus, have you found anything like the Ori in your time travels?" McKay asked.
"No, but I remember from my schooling that Ori is another word for religious zealot in a very old and rare dialect, it stems from our earliest beginnings, from before the construction of Atlantis, and our arrival in the Milky Way galaxy."
"Then that is something we need to be careful about." Emerson said. "Cadet Frasier, Would you care to set up the conference room?"
"Yes sir." Frasier said before she took off.
Ten minutes later Tomin, Emerson, O'Neill, Jackson, Frasier and Janus were seated in the conference room.
"Commander Tomin, Welcome aboard the Odyssey. You said you needed our help, would you care to explain?" O'Neill asked.
"Very well. Over ten years ago our forces detected an incursion of hundreds of ships. We sent a formidable fleet to investigate and to make contact. Upon making contact we were fired upon indiscriminately. As we returned fire we encountered much resistance. We lost nearly half our ships that were present. Afterwards we have fought many battles and for quite some time it was a more or less equal fight. But after several years of intense fighting our enemy introduced a new ship, these weren't just warships, they carried their entire race. We have never been able to damage, let alone destroy any. These ships are rare but massive. Eventually our capital planet of Celestis was destroyed, our leaders, guides, the almighty Ori were destroyed by a powerful weapon. With the loss of Celestis we also lost the Doci who had the ability to create new Priors, the ones whom control our ships' weapon systems. Ever since we have not been able to replace our losses and although we have many ships, we do not have the ability to use them in combat."
"And where do we come in?" Jackson asked.
"We cannot create new technologies; we can only build what the Ori provided us with. If you were to help us, we could build ships that are controllable by normal warriors. It would give us a means to fight back." Tomin said.
"What is it exactly that prevents you from using the technology provided to you?" Frasier asked.
"I do not know, the priors say it has something to do with the transformation process they go through, it changes them."
"Might it be possible for us to examine such a prior? Perhaps we can find out how they were changed." Jackson said.
"I am sure that could be arranged, there is a prior present on my ship right now. My pilot can bring someone over to examine the prior." Tomin agreed.
"Okay, I'm sure we can send some med techs over, Cadet Frasier if I'm not mistaken you also have a degree in medicine, right?" O'Neill asked.
"Yes sir, Medicine and astrophysics, as well as several other subjects that are related to the benefits from stargate command."
"Okay, take two techs from the sick bay and an escort and get over to that ship and see what is so different about that prior." O'Neill ordered.
Frasier saluted and left the conference room.
While Frasier was testing the prior, Tomin and the rest were exchanging each other's history and delved into the somewhat troubling history of the Ori. It was discovered that the Ori were in fact ascended ancients, but in contrary to the Alterans they were religious based instead of scientifically. It was also discovered that the Alterans and Ori were once brothers until the differences became too great and to avoid a devastating war, the Alterans left. A great help for discovering the history was the book of origin, the Ori's version of the bible, though some things were biased by the anger of the Ori with regards to the Alterans.
Furthermore Tomin elaborated on their war with the enemy they called the Dominion, seven feet tall green humanoids with implants that seemed to be thousands, if not millions of years old. Some ships that had been destroyed by Ori ships were dated to be over a million years old, still in design and technology the same as the newer ships. The Ori were usually able to win a battle if they had overwhelming numbers. The Ori were able to destroy ten times as much ships as they destroyed, but it was no good, the enemy seemed to have an unlimited supply of ships and soldiers, which made the assumption of their age all the more reasonable.
The origin of the Dominion was difficult to determine. It was however clear that they were from beyond the Ori galaxy. Since the arrival of the Dominion several scout parties had discovered that neighboring galaxies were barren, destroyed by Dominion fleets. At times a planet was found to be completely striped of its resources and left for dead. So far every galaxy encountered by the Ori was destroyed, void of life which at some point probably existed. In one other galaxy they had found the Dominion at work, finishing off the remaining local forces left after a long and brutal war that were shown no mercy and destroyed to the last man.
After nearly two hours of discussing Frasier called back to the Odyssey from the Ori warship with news.
"Cadet Frasier, what did you found out?" O'Neill asked.
"Ehm, well the priors seem to be related to the ancients. I found out that their technology is also activated by a slightly altered version of the ATA gene."
"We just found out about that. So why is it that their 'normal' people don't have the ATA gene?" Emerson asked.
"If I understood Tomin's explanation of the Ori correctly, this is because the Ori just like the ancients ascended and their second evolution started anew. However the difference is that in the Milky Way galaxy the ancients returned from the Pegasus galaxy after the Wraith war and mixed with the second evolution and thereby reintroduced the ATA gene. The Ori on the other hand wanted to keep their people simply as worshippers and prevented them from advancing genetically." Janus said.
"Do you have a way to introduce this ATA gene to my people?" Tomin asked.
"Yes, we've got quite a few people who have had the gene therapy and are now able to operate ancient technology with moderate efficiency." McKay said.
"What exactly do you mean by moderate efficiency?" Tomin asked.
"Well, as an example, Cadet Frasier has a much higher ATA gene level because she has it naturally and therefore is much better in operating ancient technologies then Corporal Sanders whom had the ATA gene therapy three months ago and still has trouble taking off with a jumper without crashing into the aft bulkheads." Jackson said.
"Sir, one thing to add, this prior's ATA level is lower than that of me or General Sheppard, I guess this has something to do with the conversion to a prior from a normal follower."
"Okay, that seems logical but nevertheless, from what I hear with enough training normal followers can be enable to operate an Ori warship, perhaps in pairs or larger groups." Janus said.
"Well, I hope we can quickly start introducing the ATA gene to your people Tomin, I think it would be a great help to your war effort." Emerson said.
"That it would most certainly be…" Tomin started, though he couldn't finish because the alarms started blaring.
A screen to the side of the room changed to that of Major Gant. "Sir, the Ori vessel has raised shields and powered weapons, so far they haven't locked weapons at us."
"I'm on my way to the bridge." Emerson said to the Major. He turned to Tomin "Would you care to explain?"
"Unless your people aboard my ship did something stupid I think the dominion ships are in the vicinity, there probably is a Ori fleet nearby chasing them but they may not intercept in time."
"Crap." O'Neill summarized the situation. Everyone quickly followed Colonel Emerson towards the bridge.
Bridge
As Emerson took his seat he requested a status report.
"Sir, Asgard weapon banks 1, 2, 3 and 6 are off-line, most of the railguns and missile launchers are ready and both hanger bays are combat ready. Shields are at thirty percent and the ZPM will be tied in any minute which will boost the shields immensely. The sub light engines are fifty percent operational but the hyperdrive is still days away from being operational. Sensors are still limited, though are now able to scan up to a little more that our effective weapons range." Gant reported.
"Send a request to the Ori warship for real time sensor telemetry." Emerson said.
"Are we even sure it's a Dominion attack?" Jackson asked.
"What else can it be? Just as Tomin said, they're either mad at us or the Dominion are coming, either way, we need to fight." O'Neill said.
"How about the phase shifting device, is it operational?" Janus asked.
"We don't know yet, we need to activate it to even see if something is wrong, and for that we need the ZPM." Gant said. "We are getting a life feed from the Ori Warship."
"What are they seeing?" Emerson asked.
"Fourteen bogeys, translated the Ori designations are eight destroyers, two light cruisers and two heavy cruisers, which is not counting several squadrons worth of fighters and bombers. Their ETA is about three minutes." Gant reported as the screen showed the composition and formation of the hostile fleet.
"Alright, sound general quarters, launches all fighters, jumpers and how many ancient bombers do we have aboard?" Emerson asked.
"Three sir, the rest was offloaded and sent to the midway station with the rest of the ships."
"Man them and launch them as well, but tell them to use their phase shifting abilities to circle around the fleet and attack them from the rear as soon as the dominion has engaged us." Emerson ordered.
The sixteen F-302's launched from their bays and were quickly joined by cloaking jumpers and Ori fighters and bombers. Even so they were outnumbered three to one.
"Alright, let's see what our weapons can do. Major, task railguns for anti fighter duty if our fighter screen is inadequate, for now missiles are to be used for mark five tactical warheads and the Asgard beams are to target the cruisers first." Emerson said.
The Dominion fighters which formed an advanced assault were surprised by the new vessel and its fighters though they still moved aggressively. Their aggressiveness formed the downfall for nearly a third of the formation as F-302 fired anti dart missiles streaked away from the 302's and into the Dominion fighter formations where they wrecked havoc, something they were designed for. The Dominion had not expected such a devastating weapon from such a primitive ship. They halted their advance and regrouped.
On the bridge everyone was in joy by their early victory, though McKay was silent as he stared at the Dominion fighters.
"McKay, what's wrong?" O'Neill asked.
"I've seen those fighters before. Once when Atlantis was back in the Pegasus Galaxy we encountered an alternate reality Deadelus, it traveled through realities, and in one of those we encountered a ship, that looked like those destroyers which bombarded the Atlantis of that reality. We engaged them and damaged their weaponry though we did not detect any shields; they were probably turned off or inoperable."
"So in an alternate reality this Dominion already invaded the Pegasus Galaxy." O'Neill concluded.
"So it seems." Tomin said.
"The first cruiser is entering weapons range, firing Asgard weaponry." Gant said.
The Odyssey fired two simultaneous beams, followed by two others. The target was a heavy cruiser, one of the strongest in the Dominion fleet. The heavy cruiser was hit head on by all four beams. Its shields flared brightly in order to repel the destructive force behind the beams, eventually the shields held and soon enough the cruiser returned fire. Most of the fire was directed at the Odyssey while the Ori ship only took minimal fire. The Odyssey again fired its plasma beams and this time also launched several mark fives. The Ori warship also joined in with its massive cannon and several secondary batteries. The heavy cruiser's shields could only hold out for a minute or so against such kind of firepower and was destroyed as the nukes detonated against the shields while one nuke made it past the shields and destroyed a large part of the forward sections. The rest went up as the core exploded.
While the heavy cruiser was destroyed the rest of the Dominion ships closed in and opened fire. More bombers were launched after the destruction of one cruiser so quickly. Meanwhile the fighters were engaged in lethal dogfights with the Dominion fighters. The green ships which only had one plasma cannon on the front were not used to the advanced tactics of the F-302 pilots, most of which were veterans of Earth wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan and the Wraith war.
As four destroyers now formed a screen in front of the sole remaining heavy cruiser the other four destroyers tried to flank the Odyssey and Ori warship over the left flank, while the two light cruisers tried to go to the right flank. That was the moment the three Ancient bombers phased back into existence and let loose with a mix of drones and energy weapons. Two destroyers were destroyed right there, their shields penetrated and with critical damage to their power generation.
The Odyssey did not fare much better, although the ZPM was tied in the shields had taken quite a beating and just couldn't take all the punishment, especially not now that the energy had to be directed to three sides instead of one. As an attempt to protect the Odyssey the Ori warship moved in the path of the heavy cruiser's weapons fire, taking an awful amount of fire which would destroy the ship in minutes.
On the bridge things did not look much better; several consoles had already exploded filling the bridge with smoke and reports were coming in from all over the ship about fires and micro fractures in the hull.
"Sir, we need to end this fight or retreat, our shields can't take much more of this." Gant said.
"Load two mark nines and load them with a proximity fuse, target the heavy cruiser and its screen, fire when ready." Emerson ordered.
It only took seconds for the computerized system to input the correct target data and load the mark nine warheads, when the entire process was done the two missiles left their tubes.
"Send a warning to all our fighters." Emerson ordered.
"Odyssey to all fighters, heavy ordnance fired, watch out." The message had to be cryptic so as not to give the enemy too much information in case their signal was being listened into. For the Tau'ri fighters 'heavy ordnance' was more than enough of a warning and they immediately went out of the way, the Ori pilots didn't really understand it, but seeing as the Tau'ri pilots were running away fast, they just followed.
The enemy was not dumb, when they noticed all fighters moving off alarm bells started ringing, when two very fast moving targets were discovered they knew what was going to happen. All available weapons were redirected to target the incoming missiles. One of the missiles was destroyed halfway through. The other remaining missile followed an evasive course and successfully reached the targeted area. The blast destroyed all fighters unfortunate enough to be nearby, the destroyer screen was obliterated and most of the heavy cruiser was destroyed, what remained of the ship was lifeless as the radiation surge destroyed any kind of live aboard. Unfortunately two Ori and one Tau'ri fighter were also to close to escape and were also destroyed.
"Ori warship's shields are nearing critical!" Gant reported. Soon thereafter the shields completely failed and energy struck the hull. Chunks were blown off and sections were vented into space.
"Can we beam people off?" Emerson asked.
"Asgard transport systems are still not responding." Gant replied. "They are launching additional craft, probably transports."
"Launch up four more mark nines, I want those cruisers and destroyers gone." Emerson said.
"No can do sir, they have closed in to the safe distance, we'll be hit as well and with the current state of our shields we won't survive." Gant replied.
"Then load up mark fives and use the railguns offensively." Emerson said.
The Odyssey was a sitting duck, with shields nearing zero percent strength and sub light engines once again inoperable the ship desperately tried to do the Dominion ships crippling damage. More and more weapons fire bypassed the shields and struck the hull, the Odyssey had about a minute left before it would be a lifeless hunk of scrap metal floating in space.
To make matters worse nearly a dozen new hyperspace windows opened not far away and judging by the size of the windows, the ships coming through would be big.
"Shields are failing!" Gant yelled over the noise and rumbling of the many weapons impacts. "More ships are exiting hyperspace!"
"Dominion ships?" Emerson asked.
"Ori" Tomin said as the first of twelve mother ships exited hyperspace and started firing at the now quickly outnumbered cruisers and destroyers.
"We are receiving a hail from the lead ship." Gant reported, she put the hail on the main screen.
"Commander Tomin, it is a pleasure to see you alive and well." An old man with a scarred face said.
"Prior Damaris, I thank you for your timely arrival, were you a minute later, we would have been dead." Tomin said as he bowed his head in respect.
"You are welcome. We need to get out of here quickly, more Dominion ships are coming." The prior said.
"Then we will need a tow for this ship has lost its hyperspace capabilities." Tomin said.
"Four ships will converge momentarily with the one you are currently at to begin towing procedure." The prior said before the conversation was cut short.
"Alright, recover all 302's and take on any Ori ships that want to dock, Major, you have the lead on the towing procedure, give them your full cooperation." Emerson said.
Ten minutes later a new Dominion war fleet exited hyperspace though by that time the tow was ready and the Ori ships quickly left with the Odyssey in tow.
Ori held Shipyard
April 20
0745 hours
Bridge Odyssey
After nearly one and a half day the Odyssey and its escorting Ori warships exited hyperspace. The planet they arrived at was a major Ori shipyard; dozens of orbital shipyards were producing all kinds of ships. In addition to the local defense fleet dozens of defense satellites were positioned around strategic targets.
"Colonel Emerson, General O'Neill, with your permission I would like to leave this ship and return to the defense center on the planet's surface, in the meantime there is a shipyard ready to assist you with repairs and perhaps in finding a way home." Tomin said.
"Actually, I've already got an idea on that." Frasier said, drawing several surprised looks from her superiors.
"Please explain." Janus said.
"When I was aboard the Ori ship I had a look at their sensor systems, it can be used to triangulate a certain position in space much further away than anything we can."
"We already know where we need to go; we just can't get there within a reasonable amount of time." O'Neill said.
"Yes we can, the Colonial FTL drive, the problem with that is that we cannot calculate the jump precisely enough with our own systems. The Ori sensors however, if calibrated to a certain type of radiation produced by a nebula, like the N45-RA nebula just a few light-years beyond the border of the Milky Way galaxy, we can get an accurately enough fix." Frasier explained
"Doesn't that distance require a large amount of power, like something bigger that a ZPM?" Emerson asked.
"True, but a black hole should do the trick, though we'd also need to build a jump drive capable of handling that amount of power." Janus pitched in.
"This is kind of brilliant, how did you think of this?" McKay asked.
"Kind of? McKay, it IS brilliant. I'm surprised you hadn't thought this up before." O'Neill defended his adopted niece.
"At any rate, if you provide the blueprints the shipyards will build it for you, now I must really leave to retake command of the district defenses." Tomin said.
"Very well, ensign peters will fly you back towards the surface as well as a science team to help your scientists." Emerson said.
Tomin left after he nodded in respect. McKay, Frasier and Janus also left to start work on getting back home.
For the next two months the Odyssey was repaired and in some regards even upgraded, the Asgard core was used to first design the 'jumpgate' then to calculate the exact jump coordinates. It was also used to help the Ori upgrade their own technology, increase shield and weapon strength, a knowledgebase was established on anything and everything Ori and Dominion, some captured Dominion ships were investigated for intelligence and potential weaknesses. A group of about forty people, scientists, doctors and soldiers alike was formed, all volunteered to stay with the Ori to continue helping them once the Odyssey left.
Within a week the design for the jumpgate was completed and construction started in one of the shipyards. It was also around that time that a suitable black hole was discovered for the jumpgate. Several days later the program was written for the Ori sensors to locate the N45-RA nebula and several Ori warships departed for the far reaches of the Ori galaxy to get a proper fix. While the ships were acquiring the coordinates the jumpgate was completed and brought into position near the black hole.
After nearly two months hard work everything was ready. The coordinates, 128 digits long was known to the Asgard core and the Asgard core only. The jump gate was a sort of exoskeleton in which the Odyssey had to place itself. The jump gate however needed some time to power up and build up a large enough power supply to make the jump.
June 24 2015
0843 hours
"Sir, the jump gate is at 95 percent. Just another five minutes before we can jump." Frasier reported from a specially designed console on the bridge that was dedicated to control of the jump gate.
"Start moving us into position." Emerson ordered. The Odyssey had so far stayed far enough away from the black hole to prevent interference from the black hole on its systems.
"General O'Neill, Colonel Emerson, I wish you the best of luck and hope you will be back one day with reinforcements…" A beep was heard in the background, followed by more beeps. "Ehm, we are detecting a massive fleet exiting hyperspace, there might be a mother ship present." Tomin said.
"It was too good to be true, no attacks for two months, they must have discovered a part of the organization." O'Neill said.
"Tomin, can you stall them?" Emerson asked.
"We can try, but Dominion mother ships are usually escorted by a huge fleet, we won't be able to hold them off for that long. I suggest you moved the jump gate and your ship closer to the black hole to speed up the energy gathering."
"Will do Tomin, thank you for all the help and good luck fighting the Dominion." Emerson said before the connection was cut by the interference from the black hole.
As the Odyssey and the jump gate moved closer to the center of the black hole the Ori fleet engaged the enormous Dominion fleet that exited hyperspace. In the center of the fleet was a massive ship, easily ten times as large as a Wraith Hive ship. The Ori ships didn't even bother to engage it as its shields were near impenetrable. As the Dominion ships engaged the Ori warships they noticed the small Odyssey trying to get away from the battle. Once they recognized the importance of the Odyssey and its strength the mother ship altered course to an intercept course while starting to fire its massive batteries.
The Odyssey, in order to preserve the jump gate, extended its shields over the structure and tied its shields in on the power of the jump gate giving an immense boost.
As the time to jump closed to zero, the distance to the mother ship also neared zero.
On the bridge of Tomin's warship he watched the screen intensely; he saw the power build up reach 100 percent and the converging of the mother ship with the Odyssey. The moment the power reached 100 percent the now single contact disappeared. At first he thought that the mother ship was destroyed but as there was no debris he got concerned.
Outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy
5th Alliance Battle Group (FJN)
June 24 2015
1243 hours
The 5th alliance battle group was mainly a Free Jaffa Nation fleet that was dedicated to Alliance control, it was augmented by two Nox frigates type ships. The Jaffa contingent held four upgraded ha'tak's, seven normal Ha'tak's and two Hak'tyl's of which one, the Bra'tac's Pride hosted its fleet commander.
A few minutes earlier it had detected a SOS beacon from the TFS Odyssey and traced it back to a nebula just outside the galaxy. After having relayed the information back to the Alliance HQ on Heliopolis it was decided that the battle group would investigate and render aid if necessary.
1512 hours
As the battle group exited hyperspace it got surprised by a scaring sight, in front of them was a ship that simple blocked out the stars, mostly black and arrow shape. Of the Odyssey was no sign though with the phase shifting technology that didn't mean anything. The group, on the alert, raised its shields in defense. There was no sign of life from the mother ship in front of them but as soon as the Jaffa increased the scanning intensity the mystery ship suddenly activated weapons and started firing.
The nearest ships were the two regular Ha'tak's, within seconds their shields were destroyed and the hull shredded to pieces. While the two Ha'tak's were exploding the battle group unanimously opened fire. What surprised them was that there were no shields active though their scans had determined shields were available. As the first of the weapons fire struck the mother ship it tore away at its outer hull, three more Ha'tak's were destroyed, one of which was an upgraded Ha'tak. The mother ship only suffered minimal damage; its hull was designed to take massive amounts of fire in contrary to most Milky Way ships with the exception of the battlestars.
As their weapons fire remained to be un-useful and one of the Nox ships was blown up their commander considered doing the most dishonorable for a Jaffa; retreat. As he relayed the orders to the remaining ships of the fleet his own ship was targeted. The shields were no real match and soon enough weapons fire started to leak through the shields doing damage to the ship. Knowing his ship would not make it into hyperspace in time he ordered a ramming course to be set.
Seconds away from the mother ship the Bra'tak's Pride lost its shields, not far away the Odyssey appeared out of thin air. White beams went over the doomed Hak'tyl rescuing as much as possible crewmembers while launching a jumper which headed for the mother ship. Finally the Hak'tyl collided, fire blossomed the hull of the Hak'tyl briefly before it exploded violently sending debris everywhere. The mother ship was not disabled whatsoever, with only localized damage it continued to keep firing on the fleeing ships managing to destroy another Ha'tak before they were all gone. Afterwards it turned its weapons to where the Odyssey used to be but was unable to get a lock as the Odyssey had disappeared again.
On the bridge of the Odyssey everybody was in awe of what just happened, the largest type of ship the alliance could field –short of Atlantis- just harmlessly collided with the Dominion mother ship. Some 75 out of over 1400 crewmembers were evacuated before the ship was destroyed. Among those rescued was First Prime (Admiral/General) Hak'tor. Hak'tor was among the veterans of the Free Jaffa Nation Fleet, having first served with Teal'c and Bra'tac in the battle of Dakara and many more afterwards.
As Hak'tor entered the bridge with his escort he was immediately greeted by General O'Neill. Colonel Emerson and Janus were off to one side of the bridge monitoring a screen. McKay was doing some techno babble with the XO which Hak'tor didn't understand.
"General O'Neill, it's an honor to meet you again." Hak'tor said.
"It is good to see you to. When was the last time? The Battle for Earth?" O'Neill replied.
"Yes I think it was those were dark days. I lost nearly all my ships that day." Hak'tor said. "What is going on, it seems you are quite busy."
"Yes, we currently have a special ops team on board the mother ship; we're trying to blow it up from the inside. Your arrival was just in time for a distraction."
"With this atomic device you regularly use?"
"Yeah, a mark nine, those are capable of blowing up a stargate."
"That seems ambitious, what is up with that ship anyways, who are they, and where have you been?" Hak'tor asked.
"That ship might as well be our next enemy. In short we were flung half way across the universe to another galactic cluster. There we met two races, these Dominion whom you see out there and the Ori. The Ori and Dominion are at war for a long time and the Ori are losing. The Odyssey was damaged and had no reasonable way back home so we constructed a jump gate which was able to send us back here. When we jumped however that mother ship was practically on top of us and got pulled with us. Once we arrived the emergency transponder activated alerting you guys and we went into hiding. The rest you know."
Right around that time the intercom crackled. "Odyssey, this is Snake Doc. Package is set and ready, we are retreating to the Jumper and expect to vacate the target within five minutes."
"Copy that Snake Doc. Contact us again when you have vacated the target." Emerson replied.
"General, who is this Snake Doc.?" Hak'tor asked.
"Snake Doctor is the codename for an Operator from a Special Forces unit commonly known as Delta Force. Basically what they just said is that they set the nuke and are retreating to the jumper to get the hell out of that ship after which the nuke will go off destroying that ship." O'Neill explained.
"I see." Hak'tor replied. They both watched as the crew worked and monitored the situation knowing that they would merely be in the way if they'd interfere.
"Sir, we've detected a signal from the mother ship, it's directed at the Ori galaxy." Gant reported.
"Can we jam it?"
"No, we can read it though."
"What does it say?"
"It's quite a list, it seems to be about the milky way galaxy, amount of ships, planets, powers, and what seems to be an estimated required force to subdue the powers in the Milky Way, Ida and Pegasus Galaxy." Gant said getting whiter as the list progressed.
"That does not look good." Hak'tor said as the list scrolled across the screen.
"No it does not." Janus agreed.
"We're gonna need to get this to the Alliance HQ as soon as possible." O'Neill said.
"First we need to get rid of that mother ship; it's a threat to the galaxy on its own." Emerson.
"Odyssey this is Frasier, we've vacated the ship and are RTB, I'm gonna upload some stuff that I've downloaded from their servers, it's quite juicy, detailed plans for an invasion of our part of the galactic cluster."
"Copy, we're ready and awaiting your arrival before we will detonate." Emerson replied.
The ship immediately started receiving information that was automatically stored on the hard drives of the ship. Several minutes later the jumper entered the hanger bay and the bridge was contacted.
"Sir, we are ready for detonation." Gant reported.
"Alright, call the countdown Major." Emerson ordered.
"Counting down from ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one detonation."
As Gant said detonation a massive flare appeared somewhere near the back of the mother ship. There however was no bright flash that normally accompanied a nuclear detonation. Around the site of the first flare more appeared as internal detonations rocked the mother ship. It took several minutes before the mother ship broke apart in several large parts and dozens of smaller ones. Each on their own was destroyed by more internal explosions. Finally the mother ships core reactor exploded vaporizing most of the remains of the mother ship.
"Enemy ship destroyed, the only thing left is debris, and the signal is gone." Gant reported. The bridge exploded in applause and cheers.
After a minute as the noise died down Emerson turned his attention to going back to Earth. "Major, deactivate the phase shifting device and give me a status report on the hyperdrive."
"Hyperdrive is still offline but engineering estimates it'll be ready in about twelve hours. Phase devise is deactivated, no problems encountered."
"How about the long range communications?"
"It's active, Do you want me to establish a connection with Atlantis?"
"Yes please do, they haven't heard from us for a long time and the sooner they know of us the better." Emerson said. "General, I take it you wanna bring them the good news?"
"What? Our new enemy? Or our new ally?"
"Both."
"Perfect. Major put it up once you're ready." O'Neill said.
The screen changed into the control room of Atlantis and within seconds General Landry appeared. Landry was the commander of Atlantis and Commander of the Tau'ri Milky Way forces, so basically the counterpart for General Sheppard whom was the highest ranking commander in the Pegasus Galaxy.
"General O'Neill, it's a pleasure to hear from you again and to see that you are fine." Landry greeted O'Neill.
"Yes thank you. I'm going to keep it short and you can get all the details later from Emerson and Janus." O'Neill said. "We were sent half way across the universe to a galaxy inhabited by the Ori, highly advanced and can be compared to the Ancients, just more religious then scientific. We also encountered a race known as the Dominion, they are extremely hostile and are fighting the Ori and are doing a good job at that. There is a strong possibility that they will come to our galaxy."
"Have you heard anything from the alliance fleet we sent to investigate your distress call?" Landry asked.
"They were beaten badly by a ship from the dominion that managed to come along with us. Several ships were destroyed including their flagship. We managed to beam out a few of the crew including first prime Hak'tor before the fleet retreated." O'Neill said.
"And have you destroyed this Dominion ship?"
"Yeah, it wasn't easy though. We had to detonate a nuke near their power generators to even do enough damage."
"Anyways, I'll tell the remains of the alliance fleet to link up with you, they should be there in about five minutes, they'll escort you back to Earth, or at least Tau'ri space.
Atlantis, Moon, Earth
June 30, 11:31 hours
The Odyssey exited hyperspace together with another 304, immediately white beams transported several people to the control room of Atlantis.
"General O'Neill, welcome back." Landry greeted the General.
"Thank you Hank, I need you to assemble the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the president."
"Already done, they'll be ready in fifteen minutes."
"Good, could you fill me in on what happened while I was gone?" O'Neill asked as they moved into the direction of the nearest transporter.
"Sure, Sheppard's having a hard time fighting the Wraith, mostly since he just doesn't have enough ships to bring enough firepower to bear on the enemy. He can usually destroy a few ships before getting out of the way of the advancing Wraith and Vanir fleets. We have reliable intel that the Wraith have four super hives ready for action. We don't yet know why the super hives haven't been deployed. We've deployed part of the 1st marine division to the Genii and the rest is scattered throughout the Pegasus galaxy. It's just a matter of time now, by next year's start the Sol battle fleet, now renamed the first alliance battle fleet will enter Pegasus to find and destroy anything Wraith and Vanir."
"What does the first alliance fleet consist off?"
"The first Tau'ri battle group with the Sol and the four Aurora's we got from Janus' lab, the third Tau'ri task force with the Saratoga, Plato, Gorbachev and Normandy, and the Second, Eight and Ninth Asgard Task forces each having two O'Neill's and three Beliskner's and Jackson's."
"Nice." O'Neill said. "Please continue."
"Well that's about it for the Pegasus galaxy. Back home the war with the Aschen is just starting. The last few months we've been working closely with the Jaffa and Colonials in order to gather accurate intelligence on the amount of planets, ships, troops and orbital defenses of the Aschen. Meanwhile we've been reactivating old units and recruitment is through the roof. In addition to the three active US and a fourth European marine division in the Milky Way galaxy ,there are six more marine divisions either being brought up to strength or equipped according to our TO&E (table of Organization & Equipment). The second, third and fourth marine divisions have either been deployed or will soon be deployed to our new colonies until heavy army units can be brought in to replace them. We also have strong reasons to believe that the Aschen will use biological and chemical weapons both offensive and defensive. We think that their weapons will only attack foreign troops and that their soldiers and civilians will be immune to the biological and chemical weapons."
"That could become a problem." O'Neill concluded.
"It most certainly could be. Therefore we are currently trying to obtain either a sample or an antidote of the potential weapons they may use against us. The Nox have offered their medical assistance in finding an antidote as soon as we have a sample."
"Have you planned an attack against the Aschen?"
"In about two weeks a colonial battlestar group will link up with several 304's and three converted cargo ships you recovered in Pegasus. They will take the ground force element of the Fifth (EU) marine division and attack a moderately defended Aschen outpost. It will mostly be trial invasion to see how we can perfect amphibious assaults."
"Like Dieppe in '42?"
"Well, let's just hope the results won't be the same." Landry said.
"What else's planned?"
"Nothing big, just regular attacks by SGC units on Lucian Alliance strongholds. We're still building up our war industry it'll be a few years before we run on full capacity, let alone until we've repaired all the damage done by the Wraith."
As they reached the situation room on Atlantis where the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President were assembled Landry said goodbye and O'Neill took his seat as commander of the Tau'ri Federation Space Forces. "Mister President, we have a problem…"
TBC