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Hermione didn't go home often, that was to say she didn't go home to see her parents. Her home as an adult was the wizarding world after all. Not that it would have mattered, because she was frequently in the muggle world often enough that she would have caught the announcement sooner or later. The American president making that kind of announcement, taking control of all of those telecommunication systems, was hard to miss. It was even harder to miss how the whole rest of the world was going crazy as a result.
The wizarding world might not care, but there was a real panic brewing in parts of the muggle world, and protests a plenty. It had been one thing when the USN had just had ten times the number of carriers or what not. Functional Militarization of space was something completely different, but for the wizarding world it didn't matter. Even Dumbledore only showed some mild interest, or at least had until Bill rolled out some of his papyrus.
"I think, and this is a guess because the record is incomplete that the flying Pyramids belonged to the children of the gods," Which was the literal translation of the word Goa'uld in English, which was who the Americans had said the ships belong to. After the whole Thanagarian Invasion years ago a muggle archeologists had made some wild claims about the Thanagarians being a part of an ancient period of Egpytian history.
Mad Eye shrugged, he'd come back because Jerusalem had turned into a madhouse. Even before that though he'd seemed dismissive of various finds that Bill had found about the Goa'uld. It would be the Old Gods to worry about, not the young gods, he'd say time and again. "Perhaps it is, the temple records agree at least," It wasn't that he'd looked it up, but there were plenty of other people who had been curious enough to look it up. Not everyone was so obsessed about what happened in the British Isles. Voldemort was a very limitted issue, especially when he'd not left the island since that misstep in France.
Dumbledore though... he couldn't let it go, and he was right Voldemort wasn't just going to stop and turn over a new leaf. "Be that as it may Bill I think we should consider our options at this stage. We have, really, dozens, dozens and more leads to work off of. I think its time we really consider narrowing things down, more than that I think its time we start thinking more about making the order something that can endure the years to come. I think its time we start expanding, but we must also protect our families. Arthur,"
The order of the Pheonix had nearly been extinguished by its losses after the first war. All those losses, and then Voldemort just vanishing over night. No great climactic battle just All Hallows coming and going. Samhain passed, and all the Potters, and the Dark Lord were just gone. The headmaster had always expected Voldemort to make his return, but the prophecy had always made it seem like there would be a triumphant champion for the light... and for five years after the Dark Lord's resurection it'd been a fruitless search. The new millenium had brought untold numbers of new mysteries. The world seemed even larger than before, and the order was delving into more and more projects.
Arthur Weasley stood up, "I know some of you already, but my boy George, well his wife is expecting, and were all very happy about, and we'd like everyone to carry dinner."
"And with that bit of good news," Albus remarked smiling his face turned somber, "I'd like to announce that I will be taking a trip to France. It will be brief, but Alastor will be taking charge in the interim." It was past time to do this anyway. He nodded to Moody.
Martin had been able to not only hold Voldemort at bay, but toss him off... a benefit of experience surely. Perhaps it was just that, but Martin didn't look any older than he had in 1945 when he'd supposedly died. There were explanations of course. They were all wizards after all.
Nicolas had invented the Philosopher's Stone, and then of course there were much darker options to prolong one's life so who could say. Alastor would be able to lead, and he'd be able to handle issues that might crop up spontaneously.
The scarred, retired, auror produced an set of transcripted notes. "I know that we've got a lot of projects," an understatement to be sure, after all the Crimson Scar was still by all indications active, and that alone was worrying, "and I'll be discussing this with others indepth, but I think the biggest lead on that disturbance in magic can be found probably found in Greece, and I've also found a bit more about the Heart of Khandrakhar." There was always some kind of backlash when gods killed each other. The amount of magic involved to kill something who was associated with a very idea, or ideas, that he drew power from was so much that something had to happen to effect the universe itself. Khandrakhar, like Oa, and others shared similiar origins. "Khandrakhar is another world and the heart is almost literally the critical organ for maintaining magical stability." Destroying the heart wouldn't destroy the world, but it would plunge it into Chaos, wreaking untold enviromental disaster upon the world. "Its entrusted to guardians to protect it, and I can only assume that those guardians must be on Earth. Its possible that perhaps they have access to this starships, but more likely they're travelling by stargate, portals between separate worlds. What I want you to do with this information is two fold, we find out what caused the disturbance, and we try and find these guardians." Alastor wasn't keen on using the order for this. Involving Sirius in this was less controversial for him, but with the end of an era approaching this kind of mission just seemed asking for trouble.
"Does that mean there is a heart of earth as well?"... the unspoken question resting in the air was obvious... was that what caused the disturbance.
Alastor doubted it, as much as the purebloods dismissed the notion that this 'disclosure' would effect their way of life.
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US Space Command should have been a purely air force military venture, or such was the opinion of the men and women of the Air Force Contribution to the expanded command. Politcing in the legislative branch had largely conspired to shaft the junior service on the issue. Still the relatively new command and now a five star command with multiple service participation it meant a lot of money was coming to SPACECOM. On the other hand that money was split between a lot of different projects, amongst them intelligence, and identification of ships. For a thousand years the Ha'tak had been the mainstay of the goa'uld fleet. It had been their vital backbone, and even now was still useful including to the burgeoning fleet the US was operating. Unfortunately for Space Command most of those ships needed to be stripped down and rebuilt to as much of a standardized Tauri base as possible. There were plenty of other ships in the galaxy though, especially these days, and the sudden reemergence of the Ancients, that task force, prompted other concerns.
Freedom Star had been launched for a dozen reasons. A key part of its planning was that disclosure wasn't likely to happen any time soon. It had been assembled in pieces, and comprised of a multitude of individual modular compents. In a way it looked out of place from Watch Tower facilities in orbit operated by the Justice League. Freedom Star was regardless of altered time tables the orbiting center piece to the US Subspace radar warning for the solar system. It was also just another thing for various members of the UN to complain about.
"So what happens if these things actually attack?" Major Rhodes inquired.
The Admiral looked at the frozen holographic display. The lights were back to normal now that the drill had been conlcuded. For all the attempts the Goa'uld made with their Ha'taks to be impressive in a way it struck him as noveau riche attempt to be impressive. He'd gotten the chance to see the ruined 'ancient dreadnought'. The frozen display showed something more recent. The Goa'uld were trending towards, by number, smaller dedicated combatants almost all of them were. New types of Ha'tak were being produced, but most were adopting new designs into service. They were also building larger ships as well; cruisers and battleships as it were.
This thing though was not goa'uld. Nor was it even what they were calling a battleship. The Asgard had said it fit the class characterstics of an Ancient Fast Assault Cruiser, but that that definition had been from a time when even the great races had been contrained by their 'defintion' of slow ftl travel. So the actual class designator was probably wrong, but it was the best they had to go on. "If they attack, we probably all die horribly."
James Rhodes was not the only officer in the room who swallowed, "What do we know about them exactly." The holographic display changed.
"The Asgard O'Neill class is smaller, most likely because the Asgard haven't built fighters. They don't run carrier programs, don't transport troops, or various other things that require large supports to the hull." Something the Admiral might not have found inspiring, "The ancients allocate hundreds of meters to fighter storage. Fighters that are most likely more advanced than anything the goa'uld could throw at us. We're barely keeping our head above water as it is. What you men must be prepared to do is be able to recognize the technology and systems, and tactics that other species might employ, and in turn might be able to assist us. We Space Com Advanced Weapons Research, and we have a long road ahead of us." The mandate of this sub unit of the command was to compile and develop countermeasures to alien systems in relation to space combat. The SGC could build the bases from now on. A second generation of Tauri (Space) Warships were being laid down, and refinements were being made to those existing ships. This command's purpose was to be a part of a crash development initiative to design the 3rd Generation of Warships that would be employed by America's space fleet. Buried in paper work was a secondary objective, but still important. This hidden task was to develop strategies to fight other parties inside the solar system.
The Russians had access to the Prometheus Hull Design, and there were already senators, and representatives, and plenty of other people screaming over that. When it got out to the public it would be even worse. It was only the hull design no sentitive avionics, electronic components, power plant or anything like that, just the hull. A hull though was one less thing that the Russians would have to design from the ground up.
Then there were the Chinese with their access to freshly unearthed goa'uld ruins, coupled no doubt with Thanagarian technology. There were worries about them. People talked about the Chinese, and the Russians, but few people wanted to discuss the French, especially since they'd been given access to the Gordanian ship that had been recovered from San Francisco bay. No one really wanted to discuss that fact. Then again there were plenty of things that no one wanted to discuss. This was no longer just about Earth, and sooner or later the other powers would realize earth was building up to play in the big leagues.
The Goa'uld were rebuilding. The 'experts' figured they'd go to war again. This many system lords was too many as far as the goa'uld were concerned. The Goa'uld would divide into their power blocs and there would probably be a war, and then they'd rebuild again. That didn't deal with any of the existing 'second stringers', non goa'uld powers. The Gordannians could come back to earth, and there were other races. The goa'uld just happened to be the biggest most obvious player. There was a question though what the ancients were returning to the galaxy.
What then... no one knew, but it'd take time for the US to build infrastructure. There was no corporation that could readily do it. Then again that might not stop Congress from handing it off to Stark Industries, or another megacorp with a vast number defense lobbyists.
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Oroku Saki largely distasted working with the turtles, but conceded it was a practical course of action in this situation. He'd made it clear. He'd also made facts about the Kami clear. On top of everything he did have a point that they needed allies.
Raiden, and Sokar and other Goa'uld, for all there access to advanced technology and indeed back engineered copies of ancients systems were all engaged, mired, in their own conflicts. In order to best protect earth it was necessary to work with the devils one knew. Leo looked away from the screen, "I've been thinking the Shredder does have a point we do need other allies, but with this disclosure thing, what if we look for them closer to home." Right now an emergency session of the UN was being talked about, and there was so much international hot air being spewed at everyone New York security was through the roof. Add to that making a trip half way across the country wasn't going to be easy given their appearance, and the turtles weren't quite sure what to do.
Disclosure brought a heap of new problems. Every alien fearing nutjob conspirarcy theorist had come out of the wood work, and it was just New York City. Out in Colorado the ancient alien theorists were crowding around the 'legal treastise' that had been deposited. Legitimate anthropologists also had to squeeze in; outnumbered by crazies en masse. It didn't matter that by this point it'd been photographed and it'd all been uploaded to the internet. People wanted to see the real thing, and it was near major military facilities. Leonardo knew that as much as Don, and even Mikey wanted to go they couldn't risk it.
"You mean the mutants," Raphael grunted, "Pretty sure they're a different kind, you know since we have shells and all."
Leonardo didn't deny that, "Its not like we can go to Karai, and we need some one other than Kasey and April to help with this." Master Splinter nodded, but cautioned as usual about approaching outsiders especially in these trying times... this time though it was obvious why he said that. The Shredder might not have been deliberately trying to kill them, but that didn't mean Stockman wasn't, and then there was that new thug from Oscorp he'd teamed up with recently. If they ended up in the open with those two nutjobs it'd be hard to ditch them safely in order to get back the lair. It was either go to the nearby state or try for a cross country trip though. It would still mean leaving New York.
"And what about the camera?" Raphael grunted, "You know the kid got us, I'm surprised he hasn't plastered them all over the web after that fight."
Donatello looked up, "It was an older camera. He'd have to develop the film. Its not like we haven't been in the news before," Seeing the look, "I'm not saying its not an issue, but we have a window to leave the last thing we need it people assuming we're aliens especially with all of this going on. So one way or another we should include everyone in this." He turned back to his screen. With access to Umtrom technology, and some of their small manufacturing systems it was possible to tap into both the New York street cams, and also remotely to numerous servers, or directly access data in the internet. In theory he could use the alien technology to hack through firewalls that by more terrestrial systems would have taken hours. Taking that kind of risk was dangerous, especially now, which was why Donnie didn't try and hack into anywhere unless he had to.
The Shredder was neither their friend or one of the good guys. He probably never would be, but he could potentially be a reliable ally, for the very least in fighting off this alien invasion. They weren' collaborating per se, but the Shredder might have had some advice about armor design. It was one thing to be trained ninja fighting street criminals, but guns were still dangerous. An alien invasion was sure to be worse than that. So he'd been working on insuring that his brothers and Kassey would all have armor that would hopefully protect against whatever, no doubt energy based, weapons the invaders intended to employ. Fabricating weapons though was a bit more controversial for the brothers, but again against street criminals they were ussually enough... they might not be against whatever aliens might bring.
Donnatello saved the design he'd been working on, "I say we go to West Chester, its closer, and I've got not idea how long we have remaining until the aliens get here." It had to be some time in the next two months, unless they were having some kind of malfunction issue. If they were though that didn't help them any. Their FtL was slow, but it didn't generate a lot of background energy at least not relative to the systems employed by the US Fleet. There was a reason after all the Goa'uld had for a thousand years dismissed the idea of cloaking something as large as a Ha'tak, not that Donnie knew that fact in particular.
"Dakota," Raphael responded, "More people, and you're overworked bro. If we can work together with them, and say Shredder is right," Even if heated the idea of having to admit that to the man's face, "Say he's right and we can work with Alva, thats more machinery you can work with, maybe even staff."
Mikey looked between them, "Well Raph has a point, you know."
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Virgil had been doing a lot of thinking about the Justice League. Gear and him both had. Alva had pointed out something, all the while admitting to his own fault again, though. The Justice League had never shown up in Dakota to do something about the bang baby crises, and that was unfortunate, because most the bang babies were teenagers, or gang bangers, though some didn't fall into either group. Unlike Metropolis, or New York, or Gotham before Alva Dakota just hadn't been on the raider. There hadn't been a reason for supervillians to be interested in the town.
"So you and Norman Osborne are both dying?" Richie remarked. It was a little odd, because one would think it would have been something that the news outlets would have picked up on by this stage.
Alva nodded, "its a slow process. Norman in particlular has always despised any implication of weakness so he's done his level best to hide it. He thinks if word gets out it'll bring all the sharks around, and the loss of confidence will destroy OsCorp." He shrugged, "Its why I'm more than a little concerned about his experimentation with the mutagen." No one in the room had forgotten that it had been Alva whose scientific staff had modified it enough to create the bang babies. "No we were tasked to try and recreate the supersoldier sereum, and well I've got an increasing suspicion, worry... that the formula we received was the one from the 1930s. Or at least one of its early versions, before the doctor refined into what created Captain America." He sighed and pushed a folder over, "You two should consider summer internships here. Richard's technical aptitudes might be more obvious, but understanding the management side of thing would be good for you both." Alva's grand plan was for whenever he actually did kick it to leave the business as a legacy.
Virgil opened the file and didn't even blink at the flash drive inside his 'partental consent paperwork' for interning at Alva Industries. Alva was getting paranoid, but then again he wasn't really sure what could be on the file.
An hour later Gear and Static were both suited up. 'Boys, I'll assume you'll watch this fairly quickly and if not I'm sure its not long after I've given it to you. We've by this point all acknowledged that there is a lot more to history what we know.'
Alva had never really bought into the whole ancient alien thing. The one time practicing Catholic had been turned cold and cynical by a liftetime of cut throat business. Unfortunately after so many years of consecutive invasions it had gotten to the point where you had to accept something was going on. This was especially true given the trapping of some of the invaders.
The billionaire resumed speaking, "I've recently been put into contact with a mutant, not someone exposed to the Big Bang, named Irene Addler, and its safe to say that both the past and the present directly effect what all is coming." He paused before continuing on, "I must admit I'm not completely convinced of this whole impending end of the world, but I think at this point we need to utilize any possible advantage. Contained with this recording are the handful of 'ancient' ruins I've managed to track down with Ms Adler's help. Her help though comes with a warning besides the end of the world, specifically that about an imprisoned ancient Egyptian."
Gear mouthed the last words back to him, and Static shrugged... at this point it wasn't any crazier than the stuff they were used to dealing with. The master of technology pulled up the map, "Is that Atlantis?"
"As in like Aquaman?"
"It is." The two teenage super heroes all but jumped out of their skins. The Speaker for the Dark Brotherhood seemed disinterested in the computer though, "Alva's little presenation would confuse the army of course, but thats what you get for trying to translate the language of the Ancients into English, names change over time," The Ayelied, and their siblings, might have individual lifespans of thousands of years, but names did change over that period. It shouldn't have been such a surprise because after all Colonia Glevum Nervensis had become Gloucester, and Londinium had become London and both those cities were far younger. "The army though may not be the issue, not for yet anyway." Elijah remarked, "It seems Norman is running out of patience, and things here have finally forced his hand." The real truth was that the Army was too busy with all the new issues that disclosure brought up, and that was also part of what was forcing Osborne's hand. "and Alva is misquoting the psychic its the end of an Era, not the end of the world."
"And thats supposed to mean what?" Static rolled his eyes when Elijah like normal failed to answer that, "So I'm guessing Osborne is going to either try and steal some of the gas that caused the big bang, or kidnap some bang babies."
A terse nod, "And who would he go to for that?" It wasn't that hard to guess who Elijah meant, because for all the enemies Static had most were metahumans. If you took away the bang babies there was almost no one left. Almost but not quite.
"Specs and Trapers?" It certainly wouldn't hurt that Osborne would have no trouble paying the two miscreants to do his dirty work for them, and the pair had standing grudges. Unfortunately even if the two did start kidnapping bang babies it wasn't something that the Justice League would notice, or at least not right off that bat. "It sounds like something those two clowns would do."
-Incomplete Rewrite-
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