Hello and welcome to this episode which is a bit longer than what you're used to, but that's just to make up for the reductions on the previous episodes.
I hope I haven't kept you waiting to long but no matter if I have keep you waiting too long or not please enjoy this episode
Down in the building room Sam was finishing up the last of the adjustments to the Nightdiver, that was the name given to the ship, by the science division, which was now equipped with Sam's hyperdrive, after some tweaking and adjustments they had managed to set both components 1*10^-1000000 Hz from the frequency used by the engine, while McKay simply wanted to keep going until they had at least a few more zeros Sam knew that even on full frequency only the strongest of sensors would be able to detect a ship in hyperspace so now they would practically need to crash with the sensor to be detected, so she had called of the tweaking and was now adjusting the engine to take the ship into account, that was the tricky part
Each ship was slightly different even if they were synthesized by the same equipment from the same blueprint, that difference was something that neither their computers nor even Lucius could comprehend, so they could not do the work needed, but a human kinda felt the difference and so they could compensate for it, that was what Sam was doing and a few hours later she was done.
What better way to celebrate the success she thought than to make sure it was a success, so she made her way from the engine room to the bridge where she sat down in the control chair, she then activated the drive and watched as the outside of the Aurora disappeared, after making sure that no one could see what she was doing she dialled up the supergate and flew through it.
"SGC command come in. This is General Carter." She sent over the subspace channels.
"This is SGC command. How may we help you General?" A voice returned.
"Please try to find and track an Aurora which just entered the system through the supergate, I will be flying it over the Colony at low altitude before making a loop around the moon and heading towards Earth where I will attempt to enter Atlantia's shields and park the ship right above your head."
"I will do that General, but at the moment no Auroras reside in the system and the supergate shut of without anything coming through."
"Trust me. I'm in the system, let me show you." Sam said as she shut of the cloaking effect on the drive for a few seconds just above Mars, just long enough for the sensors to pick it up, the she was cloaked again, when she had thought up this challenge she hadn't anticipated the drive to work while the ship travelled through the gate, but as the gate was a subspace bridge it worked just as good in a wormhole as it did in hyperspace.
"Copy that, what could have been an Aurora was detected for just a second, however we've lost it again." The voice reported.
"Get McKay there, see if he can do it." Sam ordered, and some seconds later she heard his voice as she approached the moon.
"Well Sam if you want me to chase you you've got to give me something to track." McKay complained and for a few moments he saw a week signal on the sensors which immediately disappeared. "That should be enough."
"Good luck Rodney, you'll need it." She said as the ship passed from the dark side of the moon to the light side and begun it's flight towards Earth.
For some time all was quite but when she entered the atmosphere Rodney jumped with joy and said "I just found a trace of you."
"What tipped you of Rodney? The heat generated by the hull or the bird is just hit?" Sam asked.
"It was actually the bird." McKay said, he'd hopped that she didn't know about the bird.
"Well can you track me?" She said.
"No, I can't." He said just as the ship broke through the surface of the ocean. "Wait I'm closing in on you."
"You won't make it." Sam said as she saw the shield approach ahead, but just before the ship broke through the shield she received a burst of data which gave the exact coordinates of the ship.
"I just did." McKay said happily.
"So how did you manage to do it?" Sam asked slightly surprised while she turned of the cloaking and landed the ship on one of the piers of Atlantis.
"I used the bird and the water splash to calculate your trajectory, I then sorted through all subspace events on the trajectory and managed to find the antenna of your ship when you sent through the channel." He said smugly.
"That's cheating." She complained.
"No, you told me to locate you and I did, I just used a different method. But had it not been for that bird I doubt that I would have be able to locate you, regretfully I have to say that the drive is as close to perfect as it'll get." McKay said, first happily but then a bit of envy slipped into his voice.
"Good, then I say we hand this over to the fleet division." Sam said as she closed the channel and sent a message to Caldwell and Ellis, saying that the ship was ready.
Only a few minutes later three men beamed aboard the ship, the first two being Caldwell and Ellis, the third was Kevin Marks.
"So she's ready?" Ellis asked.
"Yes, we've just performed a test run where McKay tried to pick up the ship on Atlantis sensors, he did manage to locate the ship, but that was due to us keeping contact." Sam reported.
"Good. Captain Marks will be commanding the ship on its mission." Caldwell said.
"It'll be my honour to command this vessel." Kevin said.
"Well then, let me give you the tour." Sam said as she walked out of the bridge and begun to explain the systems and how they worked, besides the hyperdrive several additional systems had been installed, such as stronger shields and several turrets mounted on the hull, some equipped with plasma beams, all these modifications came at a price which they paid by having two ZPMs installed which would need to be replaced every now and then, it was the thing they didn't want, a large cache of ZPMs far away from their watchful eyes, but that couldn't be helped as the ship wasn't given a white gate, so they would need to carry all the needed supplies with them or go back to the Milky Way when they needed to refill.
After going through the ship they returned to the bridge where Sam explained some of the changes made to the control chair to allow the ship to switch its hyperdrive signature, but when that was done she beamed of the ship and allowed the fleet division to man and prepare the ship for its mission, that meant loading all of the ZPMs onto the ship and the food and water needed, but above all else it meant that they changed the jumpers, combat jumpers and fighters for prototype models which all sacrificed shields, weapons and hull for much faster and more powerful cloaks, even small amounts of the drones were equipped with cloaking devices just in case they would need to be. Going with the theme of cloaking every marine had gotten an upgrade in cloak in exchange for shields.
A few days later the ship was ready and the crew begun to arrive, among them where Daniel who would be there in place of Elizabeth who needed to be on Mars to make sure that everyone got along, then there was Vala too, whom just had been released from the psychiatrist after a very long time of therapy, she was coming along simply to get away from the Milky Way and if her knowledge of the Ori galaxy could help them then that was only a bonus.
And so the day came when the Nightdiver was standing in front of the supergate at the edge of the galaxy, it had been chosen simply because this was a secret mission and the fewer people who knew that they had left the better, without any ceremony or speech Kevin simply ordered the gate to be dialled and when it was open it flew through.
When they arrived on the other side of the gate it was just as empty as their sensor package had told them, but even if several Ori ships where there they wouldn't have made any difference as any sensors would simply show that the gate was dialled and then it shut down shortly after. As they cleared the gate the ship jumped to hyperspace, only a few minutes later their sensors detected two distinct groups of hyperspace windows opening, as several ships entered hyperspace and was heading towards the supergate, thankfully a small fleet had been dispatched to the other gate so that no unauthorised ships would slip through it into the now peaceful galaxy.
An hour after jumping into hyperspace they returned to normal space over a planet they knew had strong ties to the Anti-Ori underground, Ver Isca, but what they found on the surface was only devastation, after running a few scans it was clear that the damage to the planet was caused by an Ori warship, as the sensors declared the planet unfit for life and no life signs were found, not even plant life, the ship jumped back into hyperspace and headed for Celestis, the only other planet where they knew they could find humans they could talk to.
As they came closer to the planet their sensors begun to pick up several Ori ships around the planet and several more approaching the far side of the planet so when they dropped out they did so far out from the star to avoid any stray fire which came from the Ori ships which was now battling above the planet, at least if the way they where moving on the sensors was anything to go by, the moment they returned to normal space the sensors confirmed that the Ori ships where exchanging fire, but as their main weapons where all facing forward and they all tried to evade each other every shoot was a miss, from their spot outside the battle the crew of the Nightdiver could watch this dance as each side tried to outmaneuver the other side but to no avail, that was until one of the ships decide that it didn't want to play and broke of the dance, the moment it did so the enemy ships begun to follow it, leaving a two ships behind to delay the ships allies.
"Sir, I'm picking up energy signatures coming from the fleeing Ori ship." A lieutenant reported.
"Any idea what kind of energy signatures?" Kevin asked as he watched several beams grace the shield of the fleeing ship as it performed a roll to avoid them.
"That's a new manoeuvre." Daniel said, he'd arrived on the bridge just in time to see the move.
"It could be rings activating." The lieutenant replied.
"Scan the surface to see it there's receiving rings down there." Kevin ordered before turning to Daniel. "Yes, that ship look a bit more agile than the others, but against the rest I doubt it will succeed in escaping."
"I doubt it's trying to escape, if it wanted to do that it would have done so before." He said just as it jumped away.
"Sir, the enemy ship has jumped away just after it stopped giving of the energy signature, there's a match to the energy signature on the surface, it appears to be located bellow the surface of a mountain. There appears to be hundreds of minor energy signatures in the proximity." The lieutenant reported after tracking the signature. "A mayor energy signature just appeared, it's either a shield or a city if the energy levels are anything to go by."
"Thank you Lieutenant, keep an eye on the other ships for me while I take the ship closer so you can tell me what does signatures are." Kevin said as the ship begun to close in on the planet.
By now the two ships which were left behind had been destroyed and the remaining ships came after the chasers, as they closed in on each other they begun to exchange fire until one of the chaser managed to get two hits in a row and the shields of another ship went down.
"Sir, I'm detecting a single life sign on the ship which just lost shields."
"Beam it over just before the next beam from one of the other ships hit it." Kevin ordered and only a few seconds later a beam raced out from the front of one Ori warship, just when the front of the beam was no more than a meter from the bridge of the ship the lieutenant beamed over the life sign.
On the bridge of the Nightdiver a white light appeared before it disposed a man sitting on his knees with his face pressed against the floor, his clothes were torn in many places so much that the black fabric was exposing the skin bellow and many of the plates which had once been attached to the armour was gone, from his mouth came a chanting which rose and fell, in the back of the bridge Daniel begun to translate the chanting live. "... encompass me light thy lantern and show me the way to the eternal light so that I might rest in peace without any burdens."
"Who's there?" The man said as he looked up from the floor and turned around. "Have I've been delivered to the eternal light?"
"No darling, your time hasn't come for the eternal light yet." Vala said from where she stood not far from the man.
"Vala? Is that you?" The man asked as he heard her voice and his face sought after her.
"I'm here too Tomin." Daniel said as he recognized the man, he then walked up to him and begun to examine the wounds he could see.
"Get this man to the sick bay, station two guards at his bed to be safe." Marks ordered. Upon hearing the order two of the guards which was standing by around the bridge hurried to carry of the man, following closely behind them was Vala.
"Captain, this man helped us defeat the Ori, he should be able to provide us with the information we need." Daniel said to Marks while they could see several of the Ori ships lose shields, but as soon as they did they jumped away into hyperspace, meaning the only ship to be destroyed was Tomin's.
"Yes sir, we'll return to hyperspace as soon as we leave a recognizances satellite." Marks said while he pressed a few buttons which sent out a small, almost undetectable, satellite which would send direct telemetry of the system to the Nightdiver.
As soon as the satellite was on a safe distance they returned to the safety of hyperspace and Daniel hurried away to the sick bay, over the following two days the Nightdiver would be flying around the galaxy while it dropped of satellites in a pattern which would split the galaxy into sectors, when a ship got close to the border of a sector a satellite would detect it, using this method they could keep track of every ship which crossed the sectors borders and gain an understanding of the enemy's fleet movement.
Down in the sick bay Tomin was being strapped to a bed when Daniel arrived.
"How's he doing?" He asked.
"He's gone into shock, but give me a few days and I should have him back to normal." The doctor explained as he worked a machine which scanned Tomin's brain.
"Any idea as to why he went into shock?" Daniel asked as he put an arm around Vala who was sitting next to the bed.
"The men who brought him her said that you just saved him from death in a rather spectacular way and from these scans it seems as if he's got rather high endorphins levels, it might be that he fell into shock out of happiness, he's brain is trying to put everything together." The doctor said as he brought up a diagram which compared the normal levels and Tomin's levels of endorphins, while the normal levels stopped at half the screen Tomin's was way of the screen and on another monitor his brain activity was shown, it too was way of the normal levels.
"I want to know the moment he wakes up, no one but Vala can talk to him before I do." Daniel said before he turned around and issued the same order to the guards, he wasn't the captain of the ship but he had the highest rank on it, he then returned to the bridge where they were had just dropped of another satellite.
"Captain. I've given orders that no one is to talk to our guest, except Vala, until I've had the chance to do so. I am the diplomat on the ship after all." He said as he entered the bridge.
"Yes sir, I understand and I would have left the talking to you either way, since you're the diplomat."Mark simply said. "But why allow Vala to do so before yourself?"
"They trust each other." Daniel simply said while he sent a message to Marks which explained Vala's marriage to Tomin. "And he needs someone he can trust right now."
"I see." Marks said as he read through the message. "I'll post some extra guards there to make sure no one talks to him."
"Thank you captain." Daniel said as he left the bridge.
The next evening he got word that Tomin was awake but in no condition to talk, so he waited until the next morning before returning to the sick bay, there he found five armed squads who guarded Tomin from everyone but Vala and the doctor, these men he thanked before he dismissed them and sat down on a chair on the opposite bed of Vala.
"How are you feeling?" He asked.
"I'm fine now, thank you. I have to say that it's a surprise to see you all the way out her Daniel." Tomin said.
"One of our freighters accidentally used your gate and saw several Ori ships in battle with each other, we were sent to investigate."
"That was your ship? They certainly have grown since the last time we meet, we did our best to keep the Veruille's ships away from the gate."
"The Veruille? That means the one truth in ancient."
"Yes, he's a prior who was left unaffected by the Ark because he was tasked with finding another habitable galaxy for the Ori, he returned two years ago and begun a campaign to restore the Ori to power, but when he finally managed to reach City of Celestis he found that the Flames of Enlightenment had stopped burning, in rage he bombarded the city and blamed it all on us. After that he's been trying to take control himself in an attempt to resurrect the flames."
"But why didn't the other Priors stop him?"
"Because there's no Priors any more, as they realized all that they had done wrong most of them took their own life using fire because they couldn't stand it. The Doci remained in an attempt to teach everyone what he knew, but right before the city was destroyed he was taken by our enemy who now holds him captive in an attempt to win the people's favour."
"That does not sound good. But what were they doing at the supergate?"
"We think he plans to launch an assault on the Milky Way to gain strength, but his ships weren't meant to ever use a gate, so he has to construct his own dialling program, he goes to the gate to test it, but the few times he's broken through to the gate nothing has happened when he's attempted to dial."
"You should have let us know Tomin, we could have helped you before things got out of hand." Daniel said in a sharp tone.
"As far as I knew you had a single ship, that would never have worked."
"Well we're here now so we might be able to lend you a hand or two."
"We have enough hands as it is, at least I do they're both at the end of my arms."
"It's a saying, it means we'll help you. If you can point out some of their facilities or planets we could launch an assault on it without them knowing we're there."
"No, there is to many civilians around those places, if you want to help us we're going to need a way of removing the Priors powers as well as several ships to aid us in the hunt for him." Tomin begged.
"I'll see what I can do, we should be able to spare a few ships and Prior disruptors." Daniel said while he transmitted a message calling for a council meeting. "While I try to get you the support you need I'd be happy if you could try to patch us into your communication channels with Vala's help, there should be a few technicians in the engine room or on the bridge that can help you, if you have any information about hostile planets that would also be of great value." With those words Daniel hurried out of the room and ran of to the holoroom which could be found on the ship.
"I'm sure they'll help you, Daniel just needs to explain the situation to the council." Vala said as she helped Tomin to get out of the bed so that they could do as Daniel asked.
Once out of the bed Tomin was slightly dizzy, so Vala gave him a shoulder to help him but by the time they reached the bridge he had let go of it and was walking without help. On the bridge they quickly found a technician who was dumb enough to help them at the end of his shift which resulted in him working six hours longer than he was meant to, but when they were done and allowed the man to leave all Tau'ri databases now contained information about the subspace channels used by Ori ships as well as what information Tomin could provide about both hostile and friendly planets.
When they were done with that they returned to the sick bay according to doctors orders, during the night Tomin's physical wounds would be tended to, this hadn't been done before in case his shock would get worse from seeing open wounds close in a few seconds, leaving no mark behind, but now that he was back to his sense the doctor would heal the physical damage he had suffered while he slept.
A few minutes after he left the sick bay Daniel entered a holo-meeting with the rest of the council and ever since then they had been discussing what to do about the situation in the Ori galaxy, the suggested actions ranged from doing nothing at all to full-scale invasion to a small strike team, in that order, but eventually they agreed on offering any assistance that Tomin asked for, effectively allowing Tomin to regulate how large a force would invade his galaxy and since both Daniel and Kevin already were stationed in the galaxy they would be overseeing things, while Daniel was there as a representative of the diplomatic division he had a military rank which surpassed that of Kevin so officially he alone was in charge, so if things went to hell it was his neck on the line.
While Daniel wanted to save the people in the galaxy as soon as possible the clock showed twenty-four hundred, far past Kevin's shift, so he went back to his quarters, sent a message to Kevin with their orders and the he rested, the next morning he rose early and made his way to the sick bay, he also grabbed some breakfast from the Mess hall which he ate on the way there. In the sick bay he found both Vala and Tomin, so after finishing the last of his food he begun to explain what the SGC would do to help him and his people.
As he thought back to the demonstrations of power performed by the 304s during the war with the Ori Tomin asked for six of their most powerful ships, soldiers to man the ships and to create an assault force as well as enough Prior inhibitors to protect all of their ships. Little did Tomin know that when he asked for their most powerful ships he wouldn't get mere 304s, but rather much more powerful ships, the request was sent away immediately and soon thereafter preparations begun in both galaxies, in the Ori galaxy the Nightdiver continued to improve the net of satellites, decreasing the size of the sectors a little at a time, meanwhile in the Milky Way ships where being prepared for their departure to the Ori galaxy.
Exactly twenty-four hours after the request had been received the requested ships where standing by around the supergate in the sol system and upon receiving the all clear sign from the Nightdiver which was standing by at the other end the lead ship dialled the gate before all of the ships flew through it one by one.
On the bridge of the Nightdiver Tomin could see three 304's coming through one by one, each dwarfed by the supergate, but then the pattern was broken as a long nose came sliding through the gate, that nose then widened until Tomin thought it would get stuck halfway through the gate, but it didn't, instead it came through and was followed by five more of the same kind before the pattern ended with three more 304s.
For a minute Tomin simply stood there watching the ships in amazement as they took up defensive positions around the gate, but then he spoke. "What are these ships? They are so much larger than the ships I saw you use before."
"Well those are Command class ships, they are much more powerful than the 304. You asked for six of our most powerful ships, unfortunately the most powerful ship we have is alone in its class and won't be of any use and the second most powerful ships are either in a third galaxy or full of people so we chose to bring six of our third most powerful ships as well as six of the old 304s which you're familiar with since we suspected that the 304s was what you where expecting." Daniel said as he brought up the specifications on the ships on a holographic screen.
"Well I did mean the 304, but I think I have to change my request to include all of these ships." Tomin said as the fleet turned to face the centre of the galaxy, they then jumped away closely followed by the Nightdiver.
"That is acceptable. Had you chosen not to they would have stayed as an escort for the Nightdiver for when we are to drop you of with your forces." Daniel said.
"I see. I guess we should begin at once with our planing, when you rescued me above Celestis we where in the middle of an archaeological excavation of Ortus Mallum, it's been under siege ever since the Veruille returned, he can't break through our forces because we've set up several shields around the mountain to protect it from orbital bombardment and infantry assaults, meanwhile we can't break the siege because we're fighting him and orbital bombardment isn't an option since we might damage anything which lies hidden beneath the ground. Driving them back from there should be our first goal, if the population learn that we've driven the enemy from Celestis we should get their support and it wouldn't hurt the moral of our soldiers, we then need to keep them from returning to the surface. Beyond that I'm not sure before I speak with my people of what has happened while I've been gone."
"Then that is what we'll do to start with, I suggest we leave at least three of the Command class ships around Celestis when we depart from there, together with your ships they should be able to protect the planet from anything the enemy can throw at the planet." Daniel said before he remembered that it might be a good idea to ask the person who had the experience on the ship. "Kevin what are your thoughts on the assault on the besiegers and the following defence of the planet?"
"I think that you're correct about the defence of the planet, our three Command class ships could take care of it themselves, but giving them some backup might still be a good idea so I'd suggest that we leave at least two 304s as a substitute for one of the Command ships to bring the fleet some variation and we could use the fire power in other battles." Kevin said as his military brain begun to plan out an assault on the besiegers. "For the besiegers we should simply launch an all out assault using beaming and drop pods. But that also depends on how good they are armed."
"They only use staff weapons to fight just like we do, but they lack any training and armour because they're mostly civilians, my people can go one against twenty without fear if we're careful and have a clear line of sight." Tomin said.
"Then we could probably use psychological warfare against them, if we fly in low with the 304s and all of our fighters we should cause panic within their ranks, we could have the Command ships cover up the sun to enhance the effect further, with any luck our men will face little resistance when they go in with stunners to subdue them, if needed the rail guns of the 304's could act as support together with the transporters to capture them." Kevin said.
"That sounds like a good plan."
"Good, cause we're getting close to Celestis." Kevin said to Tomin and Daniel before turning to his communications officer. "Get the crew to their battle stations and order the soldiers to get ready for combat."
"This way." Daniel said to Tomin and they hurried away from the bridge which begun to fill up as the crew heard the orders which rang out across the internal speakers. From the bridge they made their way to one of the armouries which could be found across the ship in case anyone in the crew or any of the soldiers on the ship failed to reach their quarters where their armour was stored, inside each of the armouries were several Atlas armours, stunners and PP-90s.
Upon reaching the armoury Daniel helped Tomin inside an Atlas suit, which looked way to big, but when they activated it internal adjustment bolts begun to shorten the armour where it was needed while others made it larger over other parts. As soon as the armour was finished with the adjustments Daniel pressed a stunner in each of Tomin's hands, he then lead the man to one of the large hangars where he picked up a few extra hull plates and allowed Tomin to practise with the weapons for some time before the five-minute mark sounded.
When they heard it they returned to the bridge and soon there after they dropped out, in front of them the rest of the fleet was taking up defensive positions against the Ori ships.
"We're being hailed." The communications officer reported.
"On screen." Kevin said and immediately one of the front windows showed a man on an Ori bridge.
"Unidentified ships stop where you are." The man ordered.
From the side of the bridge Tomin walked up in front of Kevin and removed his helmet. "This is Tomin, don't open fire. The Tau'ri have come to offer us aid in our time of need."
"It's good that you've returned Tomin, we believed that we had lost you." The man on the screen said as a smile spread across his face.
"It's good to be back, but there's no time for celebration, we're going to launch an assault on the besiegers, so keep the enemy of our back while we do so." Tomin ordered.
"Yes commander." The man said and bowed before the screen returned to being a window.
"It's seems as if they look up to you Tomin." Daniel said as the Ori ships begun to move away to other parts of the planet.
"Well I'm the one in charge of everything in our side of the galaxy, they think highly of me." Tomin said as they as the planet approach.
"I can see that. Now I suspect that you want to take part in this battle yourself, am I right?"
"Yes you are."
"Then follow me." Daniel said as he led Tomin out of the bridge while flames begun to lick the ship as it breached the atmosphere of the planet.
After leaving the bridge they joined the small stream of soldiers which were stationed on the ship, of them three-quarters where now being deployed. Following the stream they soon ended up in the hangar where Daniel guided Tomin into one of the drop pods and closed the door without any further explanation before taking the neighboring pod.
All around the hangar Tomin could see the soldiers disappearing through the floor until only him and Daniel was left, upon seeing the soldiers disappear Tomin had begun to feel slightly nervous, but that feeling was soon replaced by fear as he suddenly found himself heading towards the surface of the planet.
Once on the ground they moved quickly and other than taking away a PP-90 from Vala Daniel and Tomin had disappointingly little to do, the fly by with the 304s and the fighters served its purpose and most of the enemies lay down their weapons and those who didn't got shoot or beaten down by their allies, in the end the battle had been won without a single shoot being fired, something Daniel was especially proud of.
After that things went fast as the captives were transported onto the ships before the fleet took of, leaving two command class ships and two 304's to defend the planet. As the fleet departed the planet they split into groups of two, with one of each class in each group, on board each group where captives which each came from neighbouring planets which where under the control of the Veruille, as the first of the groups arrived they came under fire from the Ori ships, but they shook it of and returned fire with devastating result, in an attempt to show mercy they beamed over as many as they could the moment shields went down, this happened in a few more systems until the Ori ships begun to fall back upon sight or in two rare cases the Ori ships surrendered to the Tau'ri ships.
About two hours after the groups had departed from Celestis the detection grid the Nightdiver had created, and the entire fleet was improving, picked up a massive amount of ships moving all over the galaxy with a similar heading, so using the vectors of the ships the Nightdiver took out a course and jumped away after leaving Tomin and Vala on Celestis to set up a defensive line around the excavation.
About half an hour after the Nightdiver had left Celestis they received word that Veruille had recalled every ship to his location, at least if you where to believe the orders found in the computers of the captured ships, taking a fast decision Kevin and Daniel ordered the command ships to converge on the Veruille's location, but to stop outside of sensor range, leaving the 304's to drop of the last captives before they too would rejoin the fleet.
A few minutes before they would be leaving hyperspace they received confirmation that the first command ships had arrived in position. Upon leaving hyperspace the Nightdiver found it self in the middle of an Ori fleet and barely managed to evade crashing into one of the ships, thanks to careful manoeuvring the ship sneaked past the fleet until it was above the orbital plane of the planet, there they waited for a few seconds while the pulse of the crew returned to normal, meanwhile the sensors detected several fighters being dispatched from the Ori fleet, deciding that they had been discovered they moved further out in the system but when they arrived beyond the last planet the entire fleet disappeared from their sensors, after some zigzagging along the border of the solar system they found that their sensors where unable to detect the ships outside the system and a subtle energy field could be found just at the outskirts, undetectable except for when the ship passed through it. Still inside the field the fighters was flying towards them, correcting their course every time the Nightdiver was crossing through the field, so it was decided that crossing the field was what was giving away their position and so they crossed through the field one last time and took up orbit around the last plane.
From there the Nightdiver watched as the fighters flew past them and during the moment it took the closest ship to pass by them their ship's computer managed to force its way into the fighters system, creating a direct link which it could siphon information through. As the fighters reach the edge of the system they begun to penetrate the energy field and the Nightdiver's sensors managed to detect small energy waves which spread from the point of penetration, after a few minutes the search was called of and the fighters begun to return to the fleet, but before they reached the fleet the Nightdiver managed to pry all information it could from the fighter, so deeming it useless new orders were sent directly to the fighter, overriding the pilots controls.
Upon receiving its new orders the fighter did as instructed and decreased its speed until it was at the back of the formation, then all hell broke loose for the fighters in front as the fighter begun to fire on its friends, it only took a few seconds for the other fighters to realize what was happening but by that time four had already been destroyed and even before they managed to take action against it the rest had been wiped from the universe and the lone fighter took aim at the Ori warships, but it was destroyed long before it reaches the fleet.
During this small skirmish the Nightdiver's transporters worked overtime to beam out every pilot before their fighters were destroyed, leaving them with a group of hostages, but as the Ori fleet begun to move after the trick they pulled of with the fighter the Nightdiver quickly repositioned itself to another location in the system while a single cloaked drone was sent out to pierce the energy field around the system in two places, one right next to where the fighter turned on its own friends and one in the opposite direction of the Nightdiver, before was to attack an Ori ship, that would draw the attention away from the Nightdiver's true location, and sure enough the Ori fleet swallows the bait, hook and line as they moved away from the planet and fired at random in the hopes of hitting something, by this time the 304s had returned to the fleet and were standing by with the command ships and a few ships dispatched by Tomin from worlds they now deemed secure, meanwhile analysts working on the stole data had managed to dig out some useful things ranging from communications channels to fleet numbers to locations of people of interest, one of whom was the Doci, which according to the data, was located on a planet which had a protection detail of a dozen ships, all of whom had now been recalled to the Veruille's location.
From the data it had also been determined that the Veruille had been on the planet less than one hour ago and was likely still there, this was the information the Nightdiver had been waiting for so acting upon this information it sent out the order to wait five more minutes before jumping in to the exact coordinates assigned to each ship, the Nightdiver then begun to release cloaked drones to pierce the energy field thousands of times before attacking while it dove into the planet's atmosphere, ever so slowly to avoid detection. When the five minutes where up the drones had just begun their piercing and so the waves caused by the arriving ships where just a few more waves until the ships returned to normal space behind the groups of Ori ships a second later, then both the drones and the ships launched their assaults, all attacks aimed at the hyperdrives of the Ori ships, within minutes of attacking the Ori ships where sitting ducks with only two being able to escape before that, next to go where the shields and shield generators before they were boarded by SGC soldiers.
On the planet the Nightdiver was deploying drones to ground any ships which had landed while it headed for the stargate which was beamed aboard as soon as they detected it, it there after hurried to the location where the Veruille where suppose to be located, upon arrival they found it to be a small village where many civilians lived, as this stopped them from bombarding the site their only option was to send down an assault force, while the assault force was making its way through the village, capturing the civilians and subduing the armed ones they received news that one of Tomin's ships had managed to rescue the Doci, no longer feeling it necessary to capture the Veruille Daniel and Mark gave the order to use lethal force against the man if needed, almost going as far as to suggest it.
Down on the ground the assault team pressed on into the village center where they faced a large group of well armed soldiers, not simple armed villagers but actual Ori soldiers, but even with their training and light armour the Ori soldiers were taken down in a matter of minutes and the Tau'ri soldiers moved on to the central building, but as they approached the building everything went white.
On the Nightdiver Daniel and Mark watched in horror as the village became a mass of white for a second and then nothing, nothing at all, the entire village was gone and all that was left was a large plain with grass and trees which where many times taller than the rest of the planet.
"What just happened?" Kevin asked out loud.
"Nothing sir." Came a reply from somewhere.
"That's not a satisfying reply." Kevin shouted as he turned around and tried to find the voice.
"That is what happened sir, all of a sudden there was nothing down there and there came no energy spike before, we can't say what happened." A man at the back of the bridge said as he stood up.
"Send all the data back to the SGC and take us into the battle." Kevin said as he got out of his chair. "Lieutenant, the bridge is yours."
With those words Mark left the bridge and headed to the conference room closely followed by Daniel, on their way there they were stunned, what had happened on the ground wasn't a single event, but the same had happened to all of the ships which were controlled or had been controlled by the Veruille, including every ship the Tau'ri had captured or managed to get personnel on board, but what was stunning was the fact that they had lost ninety percent of all personnel they had brought to the galaxy in one blow.
Once in the conference room Daniel opened a channel to the rest of the council, all of whom quickly appeared around the rooms as holograms and just as Sheppard appeared as the last member Daniel spoke, "We have a problem."
THE END
Yes I know the end was a small cliffhanger, so stop complaining before you even begin to.
On another note I'm writing another (none fanfiction) story, English isn't my native language but I wrote this story in an attempt to improve my grades somewhat, now I'm doing the same in my native language to push those grades upwards a bit, so until June/July my focus will be there and not with this story.