Review Reply's:
GenoBeast: Yes woolsey changed his view after he found out what the Alteran had left.
Concerning Atlantis Tim isn't concerned with it just yet, he has a list of things to finish before he even thinks about the pegasus galaxy.
The Alterans did use the subspace capacitor, though not since the advent of the Potentia that is true!
Senrab Nomis: No problem. I realized after I re-read that part about Earth that it sounded fast, I didn't mean to make it come across like that XD
Yes, I actually thought someone else would use that Asgard method, at least the part of their consciousness's being in the Asgard core, but no one I've read went that route. It will be nice to have them back, I plan to incorporate them completely in the story.
Glad you're enjoying it!
Authors Notes: Here's the latest chapter. Leading up to the start of the war! This chapter was kind of hard to write because I didn't quite know the right method to 'start' the war but I like how it turned out. Anyway, the war will be full blown next chapter, and I can tell you it will be much more fun for me to write because I love that stuff! Leave a review and feel free to message me with any ideas or concerns about the story or the war.
Authors Note edit 1
This is the revised chapter 13. Hopefully it's better than the previous one. If it's not, be sure to yell at me! I have the backup somewhere around here...
Enjoy the read!
Chapter 13
Atlantis
General O'neill stepped through the gate and was welcomed as an honored guest. Per usual Jack scoffed at such ridiculous formalities, though he couldn't show that outwardly..much. He knew why they did these things and that it mattered, to the enlisted as much as to the structure of command.
Jack had come here for one reason, and he hoped that it would be easier than he thought / knew it would be. He walked with Richard up to the conference room, taking in the surroundings that had changed surprisingly little over the years.
When they had entered and sat down Jack finally got to relax. "Call Col. Sheppard to the conference room please." he said, getting down to business.
Woolsey just nodded his head and contacted John over the radio. "So what's happening General, what has Sheppard done this time?" he asked semi-seriously.
"Nothing too bad, though if I'm any judge he'll most likely regret it like I did. We'll wait for him to arrive before we get into details." Jack said. He didn't want to spend a lot of time here and he knew that might just happen.
A few moments later John Sheppard stepped into the room, looking a bit worn out. "Sorry I'm late, Ronon cut me open when we were sparring and I had to get it checked out." John said. He had walked into the room looking down but when he turned his head up and saw General O'neill he stopped in his tracks and snapped to attention. There weren't many people that he would seriously snap to attention for but O'neill was definitely one of those people, he respected him and even subconsciously thanked him for getting him onto the Atlantis Expedition all those years ago.
"At ease Sheppard." Jack replied.
John relaxed, but not much and went to sit down talking as he did, "I'm sorry General, if I knew it was you I would have come here bleeding."
"Think nothing of it Col."
John was curious as to why the General had come here himself as opposed to just sending a message through the gate.
"I bet you're wondering why I came in person." said Jack.
John smiled slightly and said, "Why actually, yes...it must be something important."
Jack nodded and replied, "It is Col., I'm here to offer you a position, one I have high hopes that you will take."
If it were possible John got even stiffer hearing those words. He's going to transfer me from Atlantis. He thought. John didn't know what he would do if he couldn't help the people of this galaxy, and be with his team. His team, and the members of the Atlantis Expedition were basically his family now. He would do anything for them, he didn't want to leave. "What position would that be general?"
Ok, here it is. Jack thought. "I want you to command the newest flagship that will be completed in the coming month. Before you say anything I want you to know that it will be the biggest baddest ship humanity has built to date." Here Jack knew the Colonel needed to hear something very particular so he said it, "I want you to be in charge of it as the new head of the UNE forces stationed here in the Pegasus galaxy."
To say John was shocked was understating his reaction. "You would have me command the flagship of the UNE HERE? In Pegasus?" he exclaimed.
Jack smiled at the reaction, knowing it was a good sign. "Yea well, I need someone I can trust. And who can I better trust than someone like me. Someone who will always do the right thing no matter what. Plus, to be honest we don't need that kind of fire power just yet in the Milky Way...all is quiet."
John was thinking of all the people he could help. The Athosians, the Coalition of Planets, hell, just about every planet he could think of would benefit greatly. And I would be the guy that personally gets to help those people, I could protect them all he thought. John stood up and nodded his head, "I accept."
Perfect, thought Jack. He got up and shook Johns hand. "I'll expect you back at the SGC within two days, you've got to see the ship and know every bulkhead and rivet, and you've only got twenty two more days."
Orbit of New Othala
I watched as Thor looked around at his surroundings. "Hello Thor." I said to him telepathically.
"Where am I?"
"You are above the new homeworld of the Asgard race." I said with a smile.
Thor looked down at his body and seemingly noticed for the first time the change in his appearance. He stepped out from the cloning pod and tried out his new body. "This is a marvelous body. It's very strong, and...tall."
I smiled even more at his kind words at the new species I essentially created for his dying / dead people. "Thank you, I designed it myself. I was able to keep all of your brains' capacity and ability as well."
He looked up at me and said, "Really? That is quite an accomplishment. We had been working on a similar method for quite some time, we could not keep the brain capacity and strengthen our bodies at the same time, this is truly remarkable."
"Come Thor, there is something you must see."
I escorted him to the bridge where I showed Thor the planet below us, and the millions of the new Asgard that had already been flourishing on the planet. I explained, "They have come far in their short time on this planet. It is quite a good omen I feel."
Thor just looked down at the holographic display with a new sense of life, "How many others of the previous Asgard have you revived?"
"You are the first. I decided I would give you the opportunity to revive the others and show them what has transpired, but first, your people on the world below deserve to know their very rich history of the past."
Thor looked on in silence and nodded slightly and said, "Who are you and why have you given the Asgard a second chance?"
I smiled and said, "The revival of the Asgard is just my first step in a grand act to reunite the four great races once again. You see, I am an Alteran. We have returned, the Nox have never left, and now your race will rise once more."
Thor looked right into my eyes and said, "You are Altera? Then my race once again owes much to yours. We will use this second chance wisely, and we will help in whatever way we can."
Tollana
After I left Thor with a copy of the Asgard core and everything he needed to continue reviving the Asgard in the settlement, I decided to check up on the progress of the Tollans.
Arriving at Tollana a few hours after I left New Othala, I looked at the progress that was being made. The Tollans capital city was completely rebuilt, and they were even starting to construct a few small outlying towns. I located Narim and Lya and beamed down to their location.
They noticed my arrival and came over to greet me.
"Ah Tim! It's good to see you again so soon! Welcome to the Capital City of Tollana." Narim said excitedly.
Lya stepped closer and said, "You have done an amazing thing Tim. On behalf of the Nox, I thank you."
"I'm just happy to help. Someone has got to come to the aid of the people that can't help themselves, or have lost their way." I replied.
Armstrong
Sam walked on to her new ship for the first time since it was finished, just a few hours earlier, and took in the sight of the busy crew all trying to ready the ship for it's shakedown flight. She made her way to the bridge of the vessel, which was in the center and most heavily armored part of the ship. When she stepped into the bridge the crew all greeted her with their customary nods and 'sir's.
She sat in the command chair and said, "Alright, take us into orbit."
The 2,000 meter long ship engaged its anti-gravity drives and sublight engines and sped into the atmosphere. In Olympus shipyard, many people looked on as the brand new Atlas class battleships rose from the surface in near unison, four of Earth's most powerful new ships leaving the surface to head out on their first missions.
Once in orbit she said, "Take us to Langara, maximum speed."
At this point, rebuilding and humanitarian efforts on Langara had been going on for many days, Teal'c and the two 305's were doing what they could for Jonas and his people. Sam's shakedown flight was to proceed to Langara and assist if needed.
With the powerful generators and hyperspace drives the 306 made it to Langara in half an hour. When it dropped out of hyperspace it went into geosynchronous orbit alongside the 305's. After a brief chat with the captain of Napoleon, Teal'c and Jonas was beamed aboard the bridge of the newly arrived ship.
Teal'c was the first one to reorient himself and smiled when he noticed Sam, "It is good to see you again Samantha Carter, it has felt like weeks since I was last with the team." he said.
Before Sam could say anything Jonas stepped forward and said, "Sam! It's great to see you! It's been entirely too long!" He looked at Teal'c and then back at Sam and said, "To tell the truth I thought I was only going to get to see Teal'c, is Jack here too?"
She smiled and replied, "It's good to see you too. No, General O'neill isn't here, he's been quite busy with the protection of Earth and all the new changes happening."
Jonas said, "Ah yes, Teal'c told me that the Stargate program is public news now, man that must be strange huh?"
"Yea it actually is quite...strange. I still can hardly believe that it's true." she paused then continued, "Well anyway, this is the shakedown cruise of my new ship" she gestured with her hands to all around her, "and I came by to see if I could help out around here."
Jonas smiled and said, "Thanks Sam, but that's not needed. My people are quite cared for as it is, we have no one going hungry or without shelter now that Teal'c and the two ships that came with him have been helping us." he looked around with a great respect to everyone on the bridge and said, "I really don't know how to repay you and yours. It's truly a miraculous thing you have done for my people...after the Ori occupation my planet was essentially left in ruins." he paused and continued, "I really don't know what else you guys can do for my people, we're better off now then even before the goa'uld attacked."
Sam smiled warmly and said, "That's really good to hear Jonas, I'm glad we could help. If I can't be of any help here," she started with a joking / serious tone of voice, "then I guess we're going to continue with the shakedown cruise. We have one more stop to make."
With that, they said their goodbyes and thanks and Teal'c and Jonas beamed off the ship. Their next stop was a suspected lucian alliance controlled planet. Sam ordered the ship to engage its cloak and then they jumped into hyperspace heading to the planet.
They arrived twenty minutes later still cloaked. "Take us closer to the inhabited planet." Sam said.
As they got closer the sensor officer said, "Sir, we are detecting multiple ships surrounding the planet."
"How many ships?" she asked.
"Unknown, there is a very large number, sensors are picking up more as we get closer."
"On screen, lets see them." she ordered.
The center, largest holographic display changed to a zoomed view of the planet's orbit. It took the bridge crew a few moments before they realized what they were seeing.
Sam spoke first, "There must be a hundred ships in orbit."
As the view zoomed out, it showed ships in all directions above the planet. "Stop the camera, there!" she said. "What is that?"
The sensor office typed at his console for a few moments then said, "It appears to be an orbital shipyard. Sensors are detecting at least twenty of them in orbit of the planet."
Same shook her head. She didn't like this at all. "How many ships can each shipyard construct at a time?" she asked.
The reply a few moments later stunned the crew into a numbing silence, "Three, it looks like they can make a Ha'tak in just a few weeks."
Destiny
Everyone on board felt the familiar yet never same feeling of the ship dropping out of FTL. Radio chatter erupted as people were trying to find out what happened.
Rush's voice came on over the radio, "We have arrived at the edge of the new galaxy."
"Look!" exclaimed Eli.
Young stood up from the commanders chair on the bridge and walked over to the console that Eli was at, "What is it Eli?" he asked.
"Stargate addresses!" he said excitedly.
Young looked confused and said, "And why is this exciting news? There are almost always stargates in range when we drop out of FTL."
Eli looked up at the leader of the expedition and stared at him with an open mouth before saying, "Yes..well that's because we were following the path mapped out for us by the seeder ships, when we took the unexpected detour through the galactic void we had to come to a part of the galaxy that the seeder ships probably wouldn't have got to on their path to the next galaxy."
Young nodded his head and said, "So the seeder ships came through this part of the galaxy as well instead of just going on to the next one?"
Rush walked in to the bridge as Young was saying that and said, "Or...someone else built these gates, not the seed ships."
Young and Eli both looked at the new arrival and Eli just shrugged, Young continued to watch Rush as he sat down at a console.
"You think these gates were built by an alien race and not by the seed ships?" Young asked. He never liked how often Rush was right about these types of situations.
Rush said without looking away from the screen, "It's possible."
Eli spoke up quickly, "I say we dial one and send through the kino. We'll find out for sure that way by the design of the gate."
Young nodded his head and said to Eli, "Do it." He really didn't want to find another hostile species out here, but if by chance some alien race did build these stargates and was peaceful...well he didn't want to jinx that just yet.
Thor, Olympus shipyard
After the news from The Armstrong made it to Thor and Earth, the decision came quickly, all the way from the top, they decided to rush the 307 construction. To do this they re-tasked every spare construction beam to the 307 production only. With the flexibility of the beams, allowing them to change places and even construct other beams, this meant quite a lot of extra logistic work.
Work crews and managers worked in heavily expanded shifts. All this work cut the time on the 307's production from many remaining days to 9. Everyone hoped the 307's would be done in time to make a difference...
Juna
It had been quite some time since SG-1 freed this planet from goa'uld control. They had the help of their robotic 'selves', and together they freed the people of Juna from both Heru'ur and Cronus.
After the goa'uld were driven off and the people of Juna got to experience freedom for themselves, they began to expand around their planet, constructing new cities and exploring lands that they previously were not allowed to go to. Though they advanced as a society and people, both in population and culture, they were not prepared for what was about to happen.
Unbeknownst to them, a hyperspace window opened near their planet and a vessel came down into the atmosphere of the planet. At a high altitude, but after the burning from reentry, the 'vessel' split up into dozens of pieces and then each piece individually activated its engines and went to a population center. Many miles above the towns and cities across the globe the pieces exploded and a fine mist slowly rained down on the people.
The people didn't know what was happening but they saw it as just another strange weather event, they went on unknowing that they were just the victims of a biological weapon attack.
On other planets near the Aschen homeworld, the same thing was happening. In a few days the peoples of those worlds would start dying in the hundreds. The Aschen believed, and quite rightly so, that they had essentially already won those planets. They moved in their many warships into the orbits of those worlds and just waited for the people to die below. They are a very patient race.
P4C-345
The god Atum was sitting on his throne thinking about his plan to rid the galaxy of the Tau'ri once and for all when one of his jaffa officers came in with a message, "My lord, your requested fleet is ready and we are still constructing ships for reinforcement purposes."
Atum smiled an evil grin and used the rings to transport up to his flagship. He went to the bridge and ordered the fleet to gather closer together for their first trip. It took half an hour for all of his ships that were around the planet to gather together for the jump. He smiled, knowing he had hundreds of ships at his command.
By his order the ships entered hyperspace.
10 hours later they arrived at the first destination. It was a planet with a human population numbering around 10,000. "Wipe them out." he said without a glimmer of regret or guilt. He recorded the wholesale destruction and was inwardly happy. Knowing that the first steps of his plan was finally coming into fruition.
Down on the planet, the people went about their days as if it was just another day. Farmers sold their wares at market and people went about town with their loved ones.
There was a high pitched whining noise as the first of many orange energy bolts started to rain down to the surface. Without knowing what was going on, people started dying in the hundreds.
Thor, SGC base of Operations
"Unscheduled incoming activation!" came the usual expression over the speakers.
General Landry rushed to the operations room. When he arrived Walter said, "Sir, we're getting a video feed through the gate."
"Bring it up on screen." he said.
Before he or anyone else could watch it, a common dressed goa'uld 'arrived' at the bottom of the ramp in the gate room. "Sir," Walter started, "we have a...visitor."
The goa'uld started speaking, "I am Atum. Witness my divinity and tremble! I will destroy your world and all of your allies! You stand no chance against me, I am a god. No one, nothing can compare. Surrender your ships to me and what happened to that planet won't happen to yours...for awhile." he said smugly.
The hologram disappeared and Landry and the others that witnessed it just shook their heads. "They never learn do they?" asked Landry. "Play the video."
At first they were unconcerned with what they were watching, then they saw what was happening and all the lives being extinguished on the planet in the video. An unholy rage and sadness filled everyone in the room at what they were seeing.
In less than an hour the video and report of what happened was in the hands of the UNE. It was quickly decided that they would need some help with this one. They dialed Tarfino Hancores...
Tarfino Hancores
I was contacted immediately when the gate was activated. Within moments I was beamed to the operations room by the gate room. There was a burst transmission through the gate and then it shut down.
Wondering what was going on I looked at the data that was transmitted. After reading the report and watching the video that Avalon had sent me I was quite enraged. I ordered all the scout ships in Avalona to start looking for this planet that had been so brutally attacked and then I dialed the stargate.
After a brief conversation I stepped through the gate.
Thor, SGC base of Operations
10 minutes after I was contacted by the Tau'ri I was in the briefing room sitting with many of the high ups of the Tau'ri government and military. The conversation started immediately after the final attendee had arrived.
General Landry spoke first looking directly at me, "I think we should consider joint military operations to stop this terrible threat before it gets to large."
Getting a telepathic communication while Landry was speaking I became visibly angrier. I stood up and slammed my hands down into the table with a low guttural angry noise. Everyone else around the table unconsciously slid back away from the table in their chairs.
General Landry spoke again, "I'm sorry if I've made you angry...I presumed you were equally angry at what Atum had done to those people?"
Not trying to contain my anger I spoke, "It is not what you said that made me angry. It seems this Atum has been more busy than we have been led to believe. Either that or there's someone else out there murdering innocents!"
The Tau'ri around the table looked around at each other trying to see if anyone else knew to what I was referring. No one knew what to say, so Landry spoke first, "Care to explain?"
"I'm getting the data transferred right now." I said.
When the transfer was complete I pulled out my portable holographic projector and started showing the others the data. It showed 4 other planets and the life sign readings of them. There was a steady and constant decline in the numbers of the populations of the worlds.
General O'neill spoke first, "What exactly are we looking at?"
"At the rate these people are dying, these worlds will be devoid of human life in no more than 3 days. These are the only planets my ships have found so far but they are confident there will be others." I paused a moment and looked at each of them, knowing that they, like I, were very much angry at what was happening. I said, "I agree to joint military operations, though Atum did not attack these worlds" I gestured to the projector, "he will be dealt with just like whoever is killing these people. I will be starting military operations within the day, I trust I will have your help."
General O'neill stood up and looked at me resolutely and said, "You're damn right you'll have our help, everything we can muster."
Next chapter the war is full blown! Leave a review and tell me what you thought of this chapter!
: )