Neither of them are mine, because if they were, the 302's wouldn't look so much like Deathglider knockoffs. Be smaller too!
Major Simi: Ha'taks are huge, but they're also largely cargo spaces devoted to the transport of troops, supplies, weapons and loot. The Tok'ra just did away with most of it, so although the main hull itself has been drastically reduced in size, the power cores aren't so much. Also, despite having the Asgard core, the SGC doesn't quite have the Goa'uld/Tok'ra's practical experience in Naquadah based power cores and energy weapons.
southern-reader: I know right! So here's another chapter, and one step closer to the end.
Nedy Rahn: Not so much adults as pubescent teens durable enough to survive whatever mistake they make.
Gumby: I have it 8 years after her entry into the SGC during the events of "Proving Ground". A bit fast, but only a few months faster than Carter herself, and not the fastest in the franchise by far.
Yuri stepped into the Command Center and looked around, stifling a yawn. This late, there were only a few sleepy technicians manning the various stations. The past few days had been hectic but even then, he had not been able to sleep, despite all the yawning. All of the valuable research data and prototypes had long since been sent by Stargate to the various backup sites, and soldiers and arms had been brought in to repel an attack. There was nothing else to do now but wait. And the waiting was a bitch.
"Contacts detected! Approaching at high speed! From all directions!"
Shaking the lethargy off, Yuri made a beeline for the sensor station. "Status?"
"Looks like missiles," the sensor operator frowned.
"How many?"
"A lot."
"Shields?" he queried another operator.
"Full strength."
"Go to red alert. Get us out of the gravity well and warm up the hyperdrive," he instructed the helm operators only to stop short when the sensor technician spoke once more.
"They missed."
"What?"
"Didn't even come close." The sensor operator frowned. "They detonated in the space above us."
That did not bode well. Whoever fired missiles and missed deliberately, and it could not be anything else, did so for a reason. Yuri looked around the Command Center. The emergency lights were now flashing red, and more people were rushing into the room, manning various stations. The sensor display was showing the station's progress as it rose up out of the planet's atmosphere. Whoever fired on them would be showing themselves soon.
"More contacts!" The sensor technician called out once more. "Sensor signatures confirmed. Tau'ri Three-ought-Twos!"
Just as expected, their unknown enemies did not stay hidden for long. That would not be all, however. Tau'ri fighters did not wander far by themselves.
"What about their motherships?"
"Entering sensor range now."
"Status on the hyperdrive?"
"Hyperdrive ready. Coordinates for fall back point entered. Engaging now."
Yuri could not resist the urge to turn towards the main viewscreen as it displayed the hyperspace window opening. Suddenly the entire station shuddered, and to his horror the hyperspace window changed color before flickering out.
"What happened?"
"Unknown. The hyperspace window just closed. Running diagnostics on the hyperdrive."
"Any damage?"
"No damage detected."
"Try again."
The same thing happened, and Yuri felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realized what the missiles had been for. The Tau'ri had found a way to interdict hyperspace.
"Scramble all fighters, all ships."
"This is Blue Leader. All wings report in." Cam grinned as he uttered the classic line and waited as the other squadron commanders radioed in.
"Starfighters, standing by."
Iceman's voice sounded more smug than usual. Not surprising, as his slightly better research skills had led him to discover the disestablished(and utterly apt) Squadron name and claim it for his unit. Maverick by contrast, having to make do with the newly invented if no less awe inspiring name Space Hawks, sounded somewhat disgruntled at being one upped by his old rival.
"Hak'tyl standing by."
"Tok'ra standing by."
Rya'c, along with the Hak'tyl pilots he was commanding were all in the standard Deathglider that had served the old Goa'uld dynasty for millenia. The Tok'ra 'gliders by comparison, looked entirely different. Gone were the wide, swept forward and downward curved wings. In their places were a pair of nacelles flanking the canopy and extending forward far past the stubby nose. Plasma repeaters were housed in the forward edge of those nacelles, extending inwards into the space between during combat. But by far the greatest difference was the empty cockpit. While still able to accommodate real pilots, they were currently being piloted remotely from the safety of the mothership.
"All right boys and girls, you all know the plan. We are to assume blockade position and keep all small craft from getting out. Fighters, shuttles, Al'kesh. Leave the Ha'taks to the 304's. Anything else is fair game."
As his pilots acknowledged, Cam spared a glance at the target space station. It had been making a beeline for hyperspace, but not any more. The hyperspace disruptor missiles had worked as advertised. Based on technology found in the Pegasus galaxy, it simply disrupted any hyperspace windows within a specific radius. Dozens had been launched to ensure that the converted Apophis class mothership did not escape. Now having given up on escape, it was launching fighters and ships in hopes of deterring the onrushing Deep Space Carriers and their lethal plasma beams.
"Alright, here they come. Weapons free."
"Gods, there's hundreds of them." Starbuck quipped from behind him.
"Tell me about it." Cam grunted. His force had just eighty-four F-302's, plus twenty each of the Tok'ra and Hak'tyl Gliders. A single Ha'tak alone could carry approximately the same number in Death Gliders, and still have space left over for about a fourth as many Al'keshes. Fortunately none of the Ha'taks they were facing today had their full complement. Never the less they had still been able to muster upwards of four hundred Death Gliders, and just under a hundred Al'keshes.
Expect to be outnumbered had been part of the briefing. And rather than be intimidated, the gathered pilots were... ecstatic. Massed dogfights had been all the rage during the First and Second World Wars, but had been uncommon since the advent of the missile age. Most pilots considered it the supreme test of a pilot's skill and focus. That crucible by which their forebears had been forged and which was now lost to their generation. Most pilots had never been in the utter chaos of a truly massive furball.
In fact, of the gathered pilots today, only one pilot had been in one. And he'd just barely gotten out of Antarctica alive. Cam could only hope they did not lose too many pilots today.
"Firing Fox Three. Lowest score buys a round!" A missile streaked out from under Maverick's wing as he vectored in, his squadron hot on his heels. Other squadrons quickly followed suit, while a few stayed behind to maintain the blockade.
Major Daria Voronkova fought the urge to flinch as several glowing balls of plasma splattered impotently against the Korolev II's shields. The shields flared blue, but never the less shrugged the damage off. Retribution was swift as a plasma beam lanced out and even at half power pierced right through the shields of the offending Ha'tak, setting the already damaged warship adrift with a single blast.
"Shield status?" She asked one of her officers.
"Ninety-three percent and climbing."
"Status of Medusa?" She queried once more, this time referring to the Apophis class mothership turned space station by its designated code name.
"Maintaining bearing and acceleration. Still no indication of a working hyperdrive."
She had been skeptical when the Americans had proposed the use of the specialized warheads. She was familiar with the Attero device, having access of her own to the Atlantis mission reports, but she had not expected the SGC to adapt the technology so quickly, or so successfully. As it was now, the area of effect was far more localized, and instead of affecting a single hyperdrive frequency, it just shut all hyperdrive windows down. While it required more to affect a larger area, the catastrophic side effect on stargates was also averted.
"Secondary targets?"
"All clear on our approach corridor."
The allied ships would be approaching the enemy from all directions, encircling the enemy and forcing them to divide their firing arcs, and minimizing their possible escape routes.
"Status of the fleet?"
"Still clearing their respective corridors."
They had gotten lucky. The ships assigned to intercept them were damaged, incompetent or both. They would be the first to come within firing position.
"Ready Plasma Beam Cannons. Target Medusa. Fire when ready."
Without further preamble four glowing beams of pure energy lanced out one after the other from the bow and sides of the Korolev II to strike at the gargantuan starship. Far from cowed, the Apophis class starship responded with a barrage of its own heavy staff cannons.
"Evasive maneuvers!" She cried out and the pilot threw the ship into a series of twists and turns. Nevertheless the ship shuddered as the enemy connected several times.
"Report!"
"Shields down to forty-eight percent."
Major Voronkova grimaced. The Lucian Alliance had been upgrading their weapons. Nobody was sure how, although the prevailing theory was that they had simply hooked up more power cores. The Goa'uld designs certainly had the space for it. As it was right now, taking her ship back in was suicide. They needed time to regenerate their shields. Time to let the other ships get into position. She only hoped it would not be too late.
"Message from the Hammond and the Hood," the communications officer spoke up. "They are in position and commencing their attack runs."
She considered. With two other targets pounding away at it, Medusa would have to spread her fire out. She made her decision.
"Bring us about for another attack run."
Delta stood quietly to the side, dividing his attention between his team leader and the various displays set up around the Command Center. Teams of fighters had been deployed to protect sensitive locations all over the station from Tau'ri boarders. He was part of only one of several teams assigned to the Command Center.
It was not going well. The Russian ship had reached firing range first. It had fired a barrage of plasma beams before being chased away. Not long after, two more American ships arrived and began bombarding the station. And now the Russian ship was back, having regained her courage.
The entire station shook under the bombardment, and the displays showed the shields dropping steadily. They were not going to make it, not with yet another two enemy ships angling for clear shots.
Then, it finally happened. Shields, main power and the sublight drives all failed within seconds of each other. The entire station shuddered, and the loss of main power resulted in a split second loss of gravity. Delta managed to maintain his footing as emergency power quickly restored basic life support functions, but many others were not as lucky.
After helping the others back up, he hefted his carbine and followed after the rest of his team. The evacuation signal had been given. While some teams would be escorting the Command Center staff directly to the Stargate, his team and a few others would be fanning out first through adjacent corridors to attempt to slow down Tau'ri boarding teams. Quite a bit of grumbling had been heard over this particular assignment.
After another intersection, they were sufficiently far away from other teams, and Delta made his move. Raising the carbine, he slammed the butt stock into the head of the guy ahead of him to the right. Without stopping to admire his handiwork, he flipped carbine in his hands, and whipped the top part to his left. Right into the head of the other guy ahead of him.
Letting his own carbine go, he quickly reached forward to grasp the man's jacket and pushed the dazed man forward into the team leader ahead of them. The team leader turned to face him just as the man Delta pushed collided with him. He shook him off, but it was too late. Delta closed in with a sucker punch to the gut, an elbow strike to the face and a hammer fist to the jaw. For good measure he grabbed the man by the side of his face and slammed him into the wall head first.
One of the other men was still moving. A haymaker put a stop to it. Calmly, Delta knelt down and picked one of the Zastava clones and inspected it for any damage. As he concluded that it was still functional, he heard the tell tale whine of an incoming Tau'ri transport beam. Without batting an eyelash he pointed it at the four flashes of light materializing down the corridor, and adjusting his aim upwards fired a burst over their heads, before breaking into a dead run.
The marines all hastily ducked at the sound of gunfire, but did not stay down for long. Upon seeing the lone gunman making a run for it they quickly got up and spread out. Two moved forward to inspect the Lucian Alliance soldiers scattered on the floor while the other two went after the retreating figure.
Running flat out, Delta quickly outpaced them. They dared not stray too far from their teammates anyway. He turned around one corner and around one more before skidding to a halt.
"Freeze!"
Faced with four men in Royal Marines battle dress and SA80 bullpups, he had no choice but to comply. Slowly he lowered his own carbine on the floor, then standing up he turned to the wall on his right and placed both his hands on it. One of the marines slung his rifle then grabbed his arm to pull it behind him to be cuffed.
They never got to the cuffing. Delta pivoted on his right foot. A flick of his right wrist reversed the marine's hold, while his left fist homed in at the base of his jaw. Such a blow was known to cause a one hit knock out to professional fighters. It proved no less effective against a professional soldier.
Delta did not stop there, though. Quickly propping the unconscious marine up like a shield, he heaved and rushed the others before they could draw a bead. There was a thud as he trapped a second marine between the wall and the one in his hands, the bullpup pinned down. Sticking close to the two, he rained blows on the still conscious one in his reach.
The other two froze. Unwilling to open fire for fear of hitting their own comrades, they moved in to join the melee. In less than a minute Delta showed them how much of a mistake that was.
Vala crouched under the control console and carefully pulled out a series of crystals. Setting them aside, she stood up and walked over to the side of another console. Prying open the panel, she pulled out another group of control crystals. The lights were flashing red and the public address was loudly counting down the self destruct sequence but she paid them no heed.
"Hailey? I'm almost ready here." She spoke into her radio as she slowly replaced the crystals in a different configuration from when she pulled them out. The younger woman was in the Engine Room, doing much the same thing she was, only with more crystal panels.
"Give me another minute. I just started putting things back."
Nodding, Vala walked back over to the command console and slowly replaced the crystals, also in a different configuration from when she removed them, but left a few out.
"Okay Vala, I'm putting the last crystal back... in five, four, three, two, one."
At the count of one, Vala in the Command Center and Hailey in the Engine Room simultaneously inserted the last crystal in their hands. This had the effect of rebooting the circuits that controlled the interface to the main power core and the side effect of cancelling the self destruct.
Standing up, Vala reactivated the console and started running diagnostics while Hailey did the same in the engine room. The naquada in her blood allowed her to quickly get an accurate picture of how successful their efforts were, far more quickly than a standard holographic display, and she smiled.
"We're all clear." She radio'ed to the rest of the teams as the troopers with her visibly relaxed.
"Good, because we've found their rally point." Hailey replied. "Team twenty-three has reported tracking the retreating Alliance personnel to Cargo Bay three. It is heavily fortified and has an active Stargate. All teams acknowledge."
Captain Carl Grogan peered around the slanted doorpost and fired a burst. Then ducked as his G36K was answered by not one but two machine guns.
"Team One, this is Team Twenty three. We're pinned down outside Cargo Bay Three. The Cargo Bay has an active Stargate and is heavily fortified with barricades and machine gun emplacements. Request immediate reinforcement."
He peeked around the corner once more. Lucian Alliance paramilitaries were still drifting in in threes and fours. Some stayed to relieve those manning the machine guns. Others went straight through the Stargate.
The Cargo Bay was huge. With several corridors leading into it from all over the ship. He and his team was currently trapped in one such corridor. A few corridors down he could hear somebody firing bursts with an M4, only to be shouted down by machine guns. Somewhere near the center was the Stargate. Barricades setup around it allowed a small team to defend it as well as conceal the gate address where the Lucian Alliance was retreating to.
Machine guns were not known for their accuracy at range, so his team and anybody else taking cover behind the slanted columns were relatively safe. He should even be thankful there were not any snipers emplaced. But they could not approach safely either. And of the teams with designated snipers none were here yet. All in all a stalemate. One that had to be broken soon before the Lucian Alliance completed their evacuation.
"Report!"
He saluted discretely as Major Hailey ducked beneath another slanted column.
"They're dug in and we can't... get in." Grogan did not really have any other way of saying it.
Major Hailey peered at the fortifications. More and more teams were reporting that they were in position. And yet stragglers from Lucian Alliance teams were still trickling through in twos and threes. All adequately covered by the fortifications and machine gun emplacements.
"It won't be enough," she muttered. "We're gonna need bigger guns."
"Hammond this is Team One Actual. Requesting two Ballistic Shields each for all teams and Light Anti-Armor Weapons for Teams Three, Seventeen and Twenty-three."
The designated teams acknowledged as the requested equipment were beamed in. The plan was so simple no explanations were necessary.
"Alright boys and girls. You all know what to do." Major Hailey spoke as she motioned for troopers to pick up the Ballistic Shields and Grogan to prime the LAW.
"On three. One... two... three!"
Three Light Anti-Armor Weapons were more than enough for the fortifications erected around the Stargate. With troopers holding Ballistic Shields up leading the way, the advancing Tau'ri paid the machine guns no heed and the easily overran barricades.
With the final line of escape cut off, it did not take long for the remaining Lucian Alliance troops to lay down arms.
Laura Roslin stood at the rear observation deck of Colonial One and peered out the window at the scene of the recent battle. It had been a nerve-wracking four hours while the Tau'ri fleet and its allies cleared the orbit of Earth of these so-called Lucian Alliance.
Idly, she envied the Tau'ri and their wide floor to ceiling windows that gave them an impressive view of the space around their ships. She had seen the views from both the forward bridge and the dorsal tower. Shaking her head ruefully, she decided that Colonial designers had probably considered it but had balked at having anything less than meters of armor between the command staff and outer space. They did not have the Tau'ri's magical shields after all. But still Colonial One was a civilian transport was it not? Its passengers could hardly complain at having a room with a view.
Turning her thoughts back to the matter at hand, she looked at the battle field and could not help but be disappointed. There was hardly anything to see. Only a handful of gold plated wreckage here and there. Nothing to indicate the large fleet that the Tau'ri had been so concerned about. The distances involved made seeing anything with the unaided eye difficult.
No matter. Earth was finally free of interlopers and its children's long lost cousins had come looking for them.
Cousins.
She rolled the word around in her mind. Their long lost and now apparently disappeared cousins.
She wondered what they would find. If there was anything to find. It had been a long journey but was the end finally in sight?
The recon team had spoken of radiation. If it was not fit for long term habitation, what then?
It just wasn't fair, she thought, as her vision dimmed and she lost all feeling.