Chapter 30

Lightning Fervor

Helltanz's Notes: Naturally there is a significant differences with the JLU timeline, some episodes just don't happen, and others happen at different times.

-Chapter begin-

Constantinos straightened his tie, "I have confirmed the Darkholm is correct in her gathered information," He stated. His god was busy he knew, and even if the Dread Father could have spared the time, Arkay was surely occupied with vengeance. Gods chose to not interfere those things. "I will help you as I can, but Arkay makes his own decisions, and he is an Aedra."

"And? What about the Professor?"
"And why are you bringing that?" Cyclops demanded eying the pistol with distaste, as far as things went they'd been lucky when it came to Bayville Police. At least the first couple days, Constantinos had ordered one of his 'brothers' into action when they'd gotten caught in the fray, and that'd turned into a messy firefight. It'd been some straight action movie bullshit, with the one killer going through a horde of local cops in heavy black robes armed with a handgun. The only problem was the guy doing the action movie shoot 'em up looked to have been in his late fifties.

The man holstered the weapon. It was native to the Tauri, a heavy block of metal with a double stack magazine. A crude weapon lacking the elegance of the Ayeleid plasma pistols it cravenly tried to mimic in shape, and tone. Still it blended well with his disguise, and that was truly the important thing. His magic was the Dread Father's true edge in the fight against the enemy, "It is but a crude weapon, but even so with it I will kill the enemies of my god,"

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Right so the NID, and the CIA, and the NSA... is there anyone not apart of the Alphabet soup involved in this?" As it turned out BATFE, and the DEA weren't involved, which didn't really make her feel any better about this. "So are going with Mystique's plan then?"
"Of course not," He hissed, irritation coated his voice, her students had been responsible for his needing to bring Elbert White into this. The Archon had been more than willing to commit to his part, but that was not the point at all. Still it had meant engaging the local authorities, which was sure to draw attention. "if we cannot negotiate their release," He hoped they would not be so unreasonable, "We will pursue a more direct course of action in rescue." He promised, the Dread Father had been clear things were getting out of hand in the wider galaxy, and the sooner these 'Xmen' were reconstitute the better. "We will find a solution,"

Spike grimaced, "What about spreading out, if we move to like Dakota even if we do get caught in a fight it could be played off like we're just bang babies,"

"That," He sighed, there was no point in snapping at him, while it was true there were flaws with the plan, obvious ones especially given that some of the students of the institute had been clearly present in the New York battle, "may be an option, I will speak with Elijah," Splitting up had its possible benefits, while they worked to free the others and it also had benefits. Constantinos pressed the crystal fixture next to him, his magic glowing softly around his hand. The conversation was quick, as Elijah's silencer dealt with the trivialities of the issue. "I can move some of you there safely." Elijah couldn't afford to have all of the students placed there, but certain he could take in a handful for the duration of the crises. Constantinos had gathered dozens of members of the brotherhood who were available to help with watching over the students. It had proven necessary considering there had been two more confirmed engagements by those large metal automatons deployed by Trask, one even Bayville itself a few days prior. That had been a danger, and why he was willing to leave the city. He could not fathom the mind of the Aedra, it made no sense to him why Arkay would dwaddle like this, save that he must have hoped to draw things out for some unknown benefit.

-scene break-

Tokyo was under attack by a giant monster... how many movies made by the Tauri had started with that occurrence. While the four members sent by the Justice League attempted to evacuate the civilians, a certain Shinto system lord materialized on top of a Foot owned building.

Raiden glared at the large turtle from his perch as he watched. Such a mess this was as if he didn't have problems in Japan enough to deal with. The League wasn't alone of course as it was Japan had native superheroes... in particular the Armor Bearers who were giving Talpa such trouble. It wasn't like it could be helped though, either situation really, so for now he settled back.

Talpa stood proudly, even as he was getting soaked to the bone in the rain, besides the System Lord. His single complaint was that he was unable to do anything about the turtle attacking the city... or the ronin, of course at least they were assisting in the defense. He could hardly fault them for that.

Unlike the System Lord, or his retainer Karai had the good modern sense to be wearing a rain coat in the middle of the thunderstorm. Still for the time being she adjusted the binoculars and kept watching. The situation on Earth was considered exceedingly problematic, especially given the burgeoning 'mutant crises' being stirred up. The Shredder had made plans to attempt to curtail certain elements, namely the likes of Oscorp. As it stood though with Luthor so busy working with the Federal government he would either be too busy to do anything about the mutants, or the exact opposite, and the latter could definitely be a problem. Talpa had openly gloated that such matters were beneath his purview, and then this had gone and happened.

Across Tokyo Bay the mixture of League members and independent superheroes were busy trying to contain the superpowered turtle. Recruiting hadn't really gone well with the league leadership unable to really agree on a new criteria, especially for things like age. So offering the five armor bearers junior league positions just hadn't seemed like a good idea, so they'd, the League, settled for trying to keep talking channels opened.

That was actually why they were here, Green Lantern still hoped to get a Japanese based League established to handle things in Asia. Of course the problem with this was politics both regional, and international.

STRIPE altered his flight course, to get beside John Stewart who was flying back from the docks, "So whats the plan?"

"We're still getting civilians out of the docks, right now our priority is keeping the turtle occupied, and dealing with the surge," the Green Lantern remarked.

Dugan nodded, "Any chance of more help?"

"We're on our own, J'onn said SHIELD has requested all hands on deck to stop a major InterGang assault on Metropolis in the wake of Superman's absence." As it was they didn't have any idea what InterGang was after either, other than they seemed to be hitting everything of possible scientific work in the city. "Batman thinks its some kind of feint and that InterGang is using it as an initiation.

-scene break-

The Tauri Alpha site had seen a lot of expansion particular with the latest allocation of funds from Congress. Recent intelligence had definitely put the focus indeed further on fleet construction. The goa'uld war was getting out of hand. Anubis's abrupt offensive had was THE critical problem. Baal was presently engaged in a committed offensive into the heart of Goa'uld space.

O'neill would be glad though when it came back time to rotate back to Earth. These extended deployments to the Alpha Site were hard to explain to people. This was a bigger issue for other members as well. "Hows it coming?" He asked, it was turning out that Stargate command was becoming a victim of its own success.

"We fixed the problem, bad batch," He grumbled, "I don't see how it made it through quality control," The engineer responded. He was talking about the Atlas, and how a series of computer systems had abruptly failed during shake down operations.

The ship was fine, but the reality of constructing the ships meant that the hulls were largely cut and built offworld, with off the shelf parts brought in where ever possible to cut down on prices. Congress, and now both the Navy, and Air Force wanted to push for fleet building while the goa'uld were fighting. This notably meant trying to streamline the both the existing Prometheus, and Daedalus class ships, as well as start diverting budget to research concept designs. "They're serious about establishing these dedicated escort or defense squadron ships," O'neill commented. This whole thing made strange bed fellows they were talking, and had gotten more done with the Russians than they had the other members of NATO.

Of course it hadn't helped that France's ambassador had thrown a fit over the US's fleet plans, and demanded to bring things into a 'national consensus' whatever that was supposed to mean. So for the time being it meant the US and England were doubling down into research for the FX 303, with hopes to possible get the English into the Space Defense area with something like a Daedalus program, or maybe even a Prometheus.

It didn't look like that would pan out, not with the way all the Prometheus-class ships tended to have different lay outs. Right now the Prometheus-class was being shuffled between transport runs to drop things off at various offworld bases, and defense duty around Earth.

The Alpha site wasn't the only base being expanded. The plan was to build caches, and expand bases onto the other offworld facilities. The downside of this conflict was the old Hyperspace monitoring corridor project was obsolete.

The sudden and rapid, meaning within the last several years, implementation of new hyperdrive engines by the system lords meant they'd have minutes if that to notice a moving fleet. There was also the fact that their own new subspace sensors could warn them far better and could be based from Earth or other facilities without requiring additional planetary bases. So it meant for the time being those facilities were being put into mothball.

-scene break-

The funny thing was that Trask had made an assumption that mutants would be in Dakota and that if he sent a Sentinel he would find them. While there probably mutants in Dakota he hadn't found any. Most likely because they'd probably been recruited by Mystique, or Professor Xavier, or even Magneto directly. The most obvious peoples with superpowers weren't mutants, but rather the strain of metahumans known as bang babies.

I.E. something that the Sentinel had no interest in attacking because they didn't register as mutants. So the actual fighting had started because Hot Streak had decided he didn't want a giant flying robot flying over Dakota. Naturally the Sentinel had responded to the attack in self defense. That had been how the fight had started, and that'd been more than an entire hour ago.

Static, also known as Virgil Hawking rubbed his head, after he pushed his way out of the debris. Well on the plus side that psycho robot hadn't immediately attack him, on the downside he'd gotten caught in the collateral damage of the rocket fired at Hot Streak. He panted, and tapped his bluetooth, "Hey rich can you hear me,"... Static the robot had probably taken out a cell tower, or maybe one of the Ultimen had. This thing with the 'Sentinel' had caused the Government to pull out all the stops. There were national guard, and spooks all around them as well. He looked around, "Uh hold on I'll get everyone out, in a minute." This kind of thing was supposed to happen to places like Metropolis, and Gotham, Bang Babies were one thing, but really,"

"You look like you could use some help." One of the Ultimen shouted, Long Shadow or Storm Shadow or maybe it wasn't even something to do with shadow at all.

Virgil nodded, "Yeah that'd be great, how is dealing with the Robot coming?"

"It does not seem to be able to find its target," The metahuman remarked.

He nodded, "Okay lets get these people out." There was a ruffling of black shadows that caught, which Static really hoped wasn't Ebon. It turned out not to be, "Oh its you, don't suppose your boss has a stockpile of anti giant robot rockets?"

"We may have something along those lines," The man responded. There were a couple of other members of the Brotherhood with him.

Static tossed a piece of debris out of the way. He'd been kidding, but whatever if it helped they could hopefully finish this situation. "Thats great, lets get those after we save these people," Then looked at him, "Alva's about to do something stupid isn't he?" He wasn't even sure which Alva, but at this point it probably didn't matter.

"In a word yes." There was shuddering, and roar of a massive explosion, and then the crash, as the robot stumbled through the highway road.

Virgil groaned, "You know I know you said he's dying and all, but really couldn't you tell him to knock it off with all the super science testing?"

"I believe Alva would be more inclined to listen to you, than us." Still at least the members of the Brotherhood were moving to help with the injured.

Richie Folley flew down, "Uh hi guys, uhm well the robot is missing an arm, calling dibs on by the way," He stated quickly, "Anyway Alva and I think we have a solution, but we need to keep the thing from flying, and blowing up anymore buildings, then we're going to have to put out a fire."

"Let me guess the League is tied down in Bludhaven, and Metropolis still?"

The blond nodded, "Yep, half of Batman's rogue gallery and a bunch of other super villians are fighting them."

-scene break-

Anubis consulted his hyperspace display once again. It was a dangerous gambit, but as it was Baal was presently committed to assaulting Yu's forces. It would keep Yu's substantial fleet occupied moving back and forth. Anubis's forced would make the best of their superior hyperdrive systems to try and keep the most of Yu's fleet tied down. Had he been able to smile he would have been, one of the down sides of being non coporeal, but it couldn't be helped.

Still his fleet was arrayed. Even assuming that Raiden, or the Asgard could respond, and did. He would be able to make planetfall, which was what his goal was. Without reinforcements Raiden would not be able to spare the ships to prevent a multi hour long space battle, which would give him time to bring his own reserves up. The result of the fighting would horrendously damage Raiden's first fleet at least. This was after all the single largest massing of his new ships.

The Tuat-class Battleship was approximately named. Anubis had designed with the express purpose of countering the older Skybourne Calamity dreadnoughts, it was a dedicated anti capital ship warship. Its primary trade off was that it sacrificed fighter, and troop capacity for larger engines, and even some firepower to the stern of the ship. This trade off did allow the ship to maximize its its bow, port and starboard firing arcs.

It was a ship six hundred meters worth of pure killing power, with its preferred prey being other warships. Anubis's larger kilometer long warship shared many of the same traits. The Tuat, and its large cousin formed the heart of his capital ship line. The majority of the Ha'tak he'd been seizing these months past, had been upgraded, and handed over to Baal for this assault. It would weaken Yu's forces as well.

Thus even if the plan failed, and that was more likely than he would otherwise would have preferred, it would still be enough to keep the war on similar footing as it had been since the onset. The idea was of course to bleed Yu's fleet, while scouting Earth in force, as it was it was only a matter of time, before Raiden attempted to secure the Ancient facilities on the planet. Securing Atlantis was the key, the cache of ancient technology, the database on the city ship would be instrumental to a post war structure.

As it was neither side would be able to afford to keep this up, not with Cronus, and Heru'ur continuing to build. There was also the dozen of lesser concerns, and the worrying rumor about Ra, too many of his elements had never been accounted for after his supposed assassination at the hands of the Tauri, and it worried him even him.

His cowled hood bobbed at his first prime, "issuing final mobilization orders," The Jaffa proclaimed at the subtle gesture.

It had begun, first they would map Earth's ancient facilities, try and secure a few of them to gather what they could, and then try and hold. The next stages would be geared towards trying to push this into negotiations, at least until other plans could be laid down, and implemented.

"Hyperdrives prepared," After the jump it would take minutes, minutes to do what even decades ago would have taken weeks.

-scene break-

It had taken the Fleet Command at Hachimata minutes to process the data, and then double check it. After that it had been transmitted for review. With final confirmation established that yes sensors did indicate that a large, even by system lord standards, number of Anubis's ships just jumped to hyperspace. This normally would have been an issue any, but given that they were heading towards the Tauri system even more problematic.

Anubis had beaten them there, naturally. As it stood the massing ships had been running sensors hot sense before they arrived. Anubis had spared a single minor squadron to probe the Tauri defense forces, not that really there was much to be said. The Justice League's Watchtower was just as likely to be ignored as it was to be destroyed if current actions held true. Still Anubis's assembled fleet was well positioned, and while the Tauri could not doubt destroy the probing squadron it didn't make sense why they should.

Three measly Ha'tak, it made no sense. Why send them, unless he was attempting to parley with the Tauri, but why bring such a massing so visibly. The tauri had good sensors, it was their most refined bit of technology. As such it would have been impossible to hide the fleet.

A trio of Ha'tak ships was good it gave the ships the ability to support one another, a star was better, but it was still a traditionally sound placement. He had to be expecting something, the question was what. If it was Raiden's system defenses he would have sent more Ha'tak if the idea was to destroy them. So either it was some discussion group, or they were feelers that Anubis did not mind loosing.

Still the fleets were both in position. Around Anubis's forces were Euclid and Zam-Zah Mobile armors, with only a small fraction of the remaining fighter compliment being the Moebius. It was the new mobile armors and in particular the new Exus command mobile suits which concerned him.

He wanted to smirk though powerful the entire fleet would meet their end at the hands of the new type sevens, they and the ships only the awaited the orders of their god to act. At the same time there was a problem if this went hot, as the Tauri would say, then a lot of people were going to die.

After another fruitless few minutes of stand off Anubis appeared on the communication screen "Ah Raiden you are looking well." The other system lord commented, as he reviewed the latest reports from subspace. Thus far there were no sign of the Asgard, unless they were cloaked, which was possible.

There was no movement from either fleet, even fighters floated in space. An abrupt alpha strike from either side would kill hundreds, if not thousands, of course the retaliation would do the same.

"As is stands Anubis your actions are in direct violation of the system lord's decree." He stated neutrally, "The Tauri homeworld is a member of the Protected planets treaty."
Anubis nodded, "I recognize the Treaty, but I do not see this as a violation," He commented, this was where the gambit started, "the time of the Asgard has passed, and quite frankly I am quite depleted of patience, so will excuse me if I don't want to bide my time, old friend."
"Then sadly we have arrived at an impasse," It was possible that Anubis could make a legal argument that he wasn't violating the treaty for any number of a dozen different reasons. "However old friend. Let us resolve it, this war has carried on to long, do you believe Yu will allow this opportunity to slip away, you have launched an unprepared attack leaving a gaping hole in your defenses."

"It matters little, Yu otherwise occupied with Baal," Raiden nodded slightly, that did make more sense then, Yu wouldn't quit a battle he'd already committed to, "but you are right let us settle this." Anubis's image faded.

"My lord the rest of the Tauri fleet will not arrive for another few minutes."

He knew that, not that the handful of other ships the Tauri could muster would be much use against such numbers, "Then we will act as shielding hand till they arrive. Signal weapons release to level two." this fight would be determined solely by the guns of ships, and while stations, and fighters would no doubt play a role this was a battle between fleets. Raiden eyed the Tuat-class ships, and the larger ships. The Ha'tak would be trouble enough for the Tauri individually, but in numbers they would bother his ships as well. To say this was a mess was an understatement.

"Yes lord Raiden." The Jaffa answered,

"My lord," The Jaffa officer manning the sensors called, "another Ha'tak is moving toward the planet."

That made four, it didn't make sense, especially just sending one. "Transmit orders acknowledging all forces to begin combat operations," An Alpha strike had plenty of tactical opportunities associated, you could pick targets and focus fire far better than once the melee started. "that includes all facilities, Hinotama, Ark, and Lunar Facilities, as well as defense platforms are included."

The jaffa bowed acknowledging the order, and relaying those same orders. This mess was about to get a lot of men killed there was no helping that now.

Requiem beams fired across the void of space hitting Anubis's flank dead on. It wouldn't be enough. Anubis had carefully protected he key ships, even some of his first ships to fire had only caught suicidal Ha'tak in their guns. Of course those surviving shield ships were no doubt laden with anti aircraft guns. Still as expected there was a smattering of heavy damage.

Anubis's counter battery tore across space, he ignored the stations that had fired. In truth they'd rarely have the option too few had guided missiles capable of threatening capital ships without getting shot down.

'Pity the Umbrella network is not yet complete.' the Shinto system lord regretted, then again he was regretting that Anubis counter attack would hit back in moments. The First couple shots streaked past, and then the hits came..

The batteries were focused toward his larger ships. Thirty to forty ships rattled, fourteen ships dropped from formation, and another three exploded outright from the counter barrage. "Can we fire GENESIS One yet?" He demanded, as he examined the hits landed on his second and third squadrons with a grimace.

"Yes my lord it just entered positional vectoring." The Jaffa announced bringing the firing profile up to the main screen. "It will be in alignment optimum firing position will be achieved in 820 seconds."
Thirteen minutes was a long time for a battle, but if they could catch the bulk of Anubis's fighters in the beam, or possibly escorts it'd be possible to mount critical strike operations against Anubis's larger ships. "Have the fleet accelerate to full combat speed." Both fleets seemed to move into action at roughly the same time.

Anubis's Tuat battleships fired. Raiden's Dreadnoughts responded to the black battleships' challenges. These were accompanied by other larger vessels, including what appeared a larger version, at more than one thousand meters is length. At this size the ships showed obvious Alteran influences, and even a bit of Asgard inheritance in their form.

The Tuat shifted moving interdict dreadnoughts. The two classes began to exchange rapid fire bursts of energy. Raiden frowned as he realized the Tuat though smaller were better suited to the fight between the two as they could bring nearly their entirety of their guns against the enemy. The dreadnoughts would be able to hold their own for some time, but he'd probably loose most of the second and third squadrons.

Heelk'sha Motherships almost sixteen hundred meters in length fell into formation to attempt to waylay the Libras accompanying Raiden, and additional larger ships began to pair off going to occupy the Granshiro and Peacemillion.

The Granshiro-class heavy battleships had an easier time against them being able to focus the majority of their fire towards the other capitalships. The Peacemillion had a similiar success, but with Anubis's two larger battleship classes converging on his Libras he knew this was going to be a mess, especially as reports confirmed the Jurisprudence was taking sustained fire without support. Raiden cursed the guns of the Heelk'sha as they spread out.

Anubis's Ha'tak had moved to deal with Raiden's smaller warhships. The Ha'tak for the time being were the least of his concern. They would be easy fodder, but Anubis wouldn't care to loose them either. Anubis had had the advantage of having the time to sortie all of his fighters, while some of Raidens ships were still launching. Euclid mobile armors skitted about, against the seven generation mobile suits they were pitted.

Zam-Zah supported the Ha'tak, in firing against the mobile suits.

Raiden new that Anubis would regret not destroying his stations in several minutes, but until then he had to deal with the bristling line of capital ships. Whatever Anubis's strategy was it seemed to focus on spreading his capital ship hunters out against specific targets while consolidating ha'tak, and escorts, between flagship and his defenses. It would make more sense if this was a defensive engagement, but Anubis was the one intruding into a system. Still it was the reason Raiden kept his first squadron back, perhaps the Tauri had some new weapon, or perhaps Anubis expected the Asgard.

Anubis realized something was up when twelve minutes when initial fighter groups from Raiden's forces had broken away. Still the bulk of Ha'tak were largely intact, and knew that Raiden was unlikely to commit the bulk of his fighters until he protect his Libra-class ships. That was about the time his sensors screamed about radiation warnings.

The gamma radiation, though invisible to the mortal eye, the beam created a visible path by exiting the particles of space. Yet it did its job. Admittedly it be would be another two hundred eighty seconds before the second Gamma Emission by Nuclear Explosion Stimulate Inducing System station could be fired, and another ninety seconds after that the first could be re fired.

Anubis grimaced the Gamma Radiation beam seared across his light elements, and a sizable portion of his mobile armors near his Ha'tak group. His Ha'tak still largely were intact thanks to their shield integrity. Raiden had made a point to not even waste shots against the Hat'ak.

Closer to Earth the Lunar facility deployed its computer controlled mobile suits. To harass the three, now four Ha'tak in orbit over the Tauri homeworld. The Watchtower rotated unsure whether to fire or not, its shields might stand up to a few shots from a Ha'tak.

Still floating around the world boxes slowly rotated. Anubis had not bothered with trying to jam communication, in fact he'd not even bothered with shots on earth, just yet. The explosive charges blew the doors off the boxes. Several missiles simply went wide, others failed to actually detonate but still more than a hundred were good hits. The massive result of so many naquadah enhanced missiles obliterated sizable portions of the struck Ha'tak. All four were dead, either completely blown to pieces or floating missing sizable chunks of super structure and baked by radiation.

For Anubis loosing four measly Ha'tak was nothing. Anubis didn't bother to even curse the loss of the ships. His flagship, and its escorts were already moving closer to the planet and even wasn't very concerned about the massing Tauri air groups.

One of his Jaffa presented the image of a sea going vessel on the planet, launching the winged craft, no doubt to attempt to interdict his fighters. The Tauri also had ground facilities as well to launch them. The station in orbit seemed to possess a similar capacity, but seemed uninvolved at the moment.

"Transfer another group of Ha'tak, shoot down any more munitions," He snapped, it was incompetence that they'd gotten taken by surprise by that attack. No doubt that had been the way the Tauri had destroyed Apophis's two ha'tak years ago. Well now they had gone and tipped their hands. As it turned out the Tauri did not seem to lack for volume for nuclear devices seeing as another two Ha'tak exploded, but the other four made it into orbit. "Destroy one of their launch ships, and deploy fighters, and watch for more of those atomic devices." He growled. Yes this had to be the way they had destroyed Apophis's two ha'tak massed atomic fire, it made plenty of sense.

Another of the Shinku Rai Tatsu class vessels fired its positron cannons destroying a Tuat class battleship. A third of the Shinku Rai Tatsu class fired its kinetic naval guns the munitions split the prow of another Tuat open to the unrelenting vacuum of the void space. The class was quite suited to the task being twice the length, and nearly twice the width of the battleship's they were fighting. It took minutes for an SRT-class command ship to punch through the shields of the enemy battleships. Both vessels turned bearing down on the remains of the third squadron, and focusing on the remains of Anubis's elements attacking them.

"My lord Anubis's Fleet is becoming very close to the Tauri Homeworld." By this point his unattached capital ships were beginning to consolidate, no doubt Anubis intended to use them to attack in a concerted manner.

The Shinto system Lord sighed. "Rei order Shinko Kumo and Shinko Ame to take up position over the southern pole have Lumiere defend the Alteran outpost." Anubis was probably going to try and make landings at a number of Alteran facilities on the planet and as it was this was going to still be a messy fight.
"Lord Raiden massive launch of Tauri fighters from planets surface." A jaffa declared bringing up the sensor read out.

He wondered what had taken them so long, and then took the time to survey the sensor data. Most of them were air breathing jets, restricted to atmospheric combat, but there was a massive volume of forces.
"Shinko Kumo and Shinku Ame have arrived over southern pole," Good at least something was going properly. They just needed to make sure Anubis couldn't get through the roughly kilometer of ice.

"Confirming multiple targeting data, brace for impact." Anubis's flaship's main cannon's beam flashed across space, and slammed into the nearest Libra-class Super Heavy Command vessel. A second pulse fired powered from the massive capacity of Alteran derived power systems. This second pulse smashed against the Shinku Rai Tatsu's shields bleeding through in places. "damage on decks." A third pulse hit another Libra-class on the side, doing minimal damage, but slowing the somewhat smaller, compared to Anubis's command vessel, ship.

Raiden grimaced, "Status of the main gun?"

"Operational,"

He nodded, "Then tell them to focus on knocking his main gun offline, then hit his sublight drives, all ships fire." Anubis's flagship visibly shook at the energy transfer from the barrage.

"Sadayo-taicho reports his vessel is reporting feedback damage from his main gun, they do not estimate to be able to repair the system quickly"

Raiden nodded, to be expected, and no doubt why Anubis had fired first. He flicked his hands across holographic display. As it was Anubis was launching landing craft some which had entered the atmosphere. The Ha'tak were spreading out no doubt to insure there were no further unfortunate surprises. Anubis was going to land troops, which meant that they would have to do the same. "Consolidate our squadrons together," His heavy ships had taken the brunt of the assault most looking fifty to sixty percent of their number. Three in Four of his dreadnoughts were either destroyed or had sustained such damage they were no longer mobile. By the time Anubis had made the choice to consolidate his capital ships, his kilometer long ships had suffered over forty percent losses and the Heelk'sha were just below that. Even now those ships were consolidating and pulling back circling around towards earth in as best of order as they could.

So far they were still attempting to by all accounts mount an invasion of Europe, which was not a good sign. He was already overlaying all Alteran facilities anywhere near the continent. There were several notable blips that could be choice targets, and honestly he was rather surprised that the Tauri had not discovered the facilities in Rome, but that was another concern entirely. Of course Anubis looked to be ignoring the entire Italian Peninsula, so those targets weren't a concern. A projection of Europe appeared a large red circle extended over the southern United Kingdom and northern France. He barked orders to start broadcasting the data they had. It wasn't likely to be much, but hopefully the Tauri could spare some effort to their own defenses. As it was he'd probably need the help considering then number of dropships.
-scene break-

The bulk of Anubis's immdediate landing forces had touched down in England of all places. With the warning, and the confirmation of the Justice Leage the landing had basically warranted the deployment of all the heroes of Earth to that spot.

The Justice League had promised rides to anyone need the transport to England and other invasion hotspots. Some Governments had promised pardons to those super villains, or other criminals willing to aid in the common defense of the planet. While it was a controversial move if the numbers could contain Anubis's forces so be it was the idea behind the strategy.

Anubis's goal was local European dominance, namely England, and France, with extended elements deployed to other regions. In truth the battle for Paris was a minor side not to where Anubis's forces were moving on Glastonbury Tor, and the area known for its standing stones. The Tauri people called it Stonehenge. The fact of the matter was this location was an Alteran shield facility, one which like still possessed weapons as well.

Static and Gear were walking away from the newly landed Javelin that the Justice League had provided, when lightning blast had come crashing down over one of the hills, "Any chance you can do that Static, cause artillery would be great?" Gear asked looking out over the battle.

"Fuck you Gear," grumbled Virgil Hawking. They'd ridden over with the Ultimen, and some of the other volunteers. Other people though had chosen to hang back, or go to Canada to help with the groups that had landed there. A few of the other Meta humans who had also arrived to help chuckled at the duo.

He snorted, "Not a chance bro," Gear tapped his controls, "So maybe we should have stayed in America," He commented, "Looks like some of the aliens landed over there too," Anubis had taken some pot shots at communication satellites, or his Jaffa had as the case was. "Navy says that they've lost contact with a carrier battlegroup too." He added a little more sober.

"Well we're here now, how are we going to run this?"
Richie tapped his controls, "Uhm, yeah give me a minute, oh shit New York is under attack. Hell most the eastern seaboard expects alien touch downs, west coast too from the warnings they're releasing." The link patched him into dozens of different feeds, "Uh okay we've got British Army units, and their police heading we should probably help them out. Also we need to take out the enemy mobile armors."
"What the hell if a mobile armor Gear?"

"Giant Robot."
Static groaned, "Why is it always giant robot, okay so what do we know about the aliens, cause you know at least Hawkgirl has huge wings?"

"All I can tell is that one side worships Anubis," After assuring everyone that yes as in the Jackal headed god of death, "and the other worships Raiden, no not from Mortal Kombat, though that would be cool too. Oh and both of them have giant robots"

"Of course they do," Static grumbled.

-scene break-

Portals opened in the air, and on the ground and in general all across the planet at least wherever Anubis was invading. There was a general call to arms involved, but the portals were only one method. Various government, well those that could sent their armies to trouble spots, and if they had them super soldiers too. Even the Inquisition showed up to some sight, and other such shadowy organizations arrived where they could.

Some Wizards appeared in loud pops signaling apparition, most of the wizards who did show up were American or French, and showed to help their respective countries, especially with the battle for Paris going. The varying Mutants arrived in there varying manners bringing with them other empowered and even regular humans ready to join the fight to be against Anubis's ground troops across the globe.

"Why did we have to fly out to Colorado exactly?" Cornelia demanded, "What if they attack Heatherfield, what if Phobos attacks."

A throat cleared, "That would be a problem, as I cannot be in two places at once," The prince remarked, "and our enemies are the same this day." He didn't like that fact but he couldn't help it, Sithis had been clear, assist in the defense of earth. No vocal threats, but one did not defy the Dread Father.

The blonde guardians crossed her arms over her chest, "Sure we are, and why should we believe you're hear to help us."

"The Dread Father commands it," He snapped irritably, "Your world is currently under invasion, and one does not defy the father of all, no matter what you may think I am not so stupid as to defy my betters." Phobos growled, which was true as long as he thought he wouldn't get away with the defiance.

Elijah snorted, "Of course he commands it boy," The larger man was covered with splatted blood, some of it didn't look human, or at least normal human. "That one child's life is worth more than this entire plant to an old god. Only a fool threatens a world with invasion that houses a sworn, and now Arkay has a foothold with an army in New York damn it all." He flicked the heavy saber in his hand. "Now I would suggest we get moving for all of this gets out of hand more than it already is." It was naturally about that time that one of Anubis's mobile armors went slamming into the mountains courtesy of the phasing hero known to earth as the Martian Manhunter. "I rest my case,"

The guardians looked at each other, and then at Phobos, and then at the larger man, and stopped for a moment to have a group talk. Phobos spared the Black Hand a look, "You see this is what I have to deal with, they take only their own council."

"Oh pipe down," Elijah grunted, "There are three thousand Jaffa, and plenty of other troops flying Anubis's banners. Some of them with closer bastardizations than the goa'uld have used before," He flexed his other gauntlet-ed hand, the glyphs flashed for a minute emitting a series of chirps,

Phobos perked at the sound. "Archons?" He queried.

"Wait you understood that?" Taranee asked.

Elijah flicked his fingers, "There are enemies to kill," He breathed, and then lunged upwards hurtling up onto the partially destroyed overpass.

"He can fly?"
"No, but he can jump good." Phobos admitted, "The brotherhood considers flight to be the realm of machines, flight by magic is frowned on by tradition." Which he had never quite understood, but who could say why the million year old order of mystic killers did things like that.

-scene break-

Constantinos half a continent away snarled furiously swinging his sword through the Jaffa's throat. The black material of the blade sliced clean, a pulse of magic rippling through the naquadah laced alloy of the man's throat guard like nothing. The red blood blackened under the magic as it stained the glass. He whispered the prayers, as he swept around, the old tongue flowed around the words of the dragon of the night, as his blade drove into two more jaffa. The sword punched through stomach, and out their backs before pulling back and free and to their next pray, and the next offering to Sithis.

This war, this battle for Earth would tell the humans much about how Goa'uld development played out now. If the humans of this world had any smarts at all they'd recognize that these black warriors were using weapons derived from the Old Enemy's hand weapons. The gloves were primitive reproductions yes, but the design was still effective enough. The legacy of ancient powers tended to be. The refinements of armor were a new occurrence, but showed that the Goa'uld were developing. The new armor was an improvement, designed to better protect against plasma, and the Tauri bullets as well.

His gauntlets flared and glowed with the flashing of the glyphs along his forearms echoing with the chirping, and he smiled. There was the light rapid pulses of blue and dozens of lights, hyper dense bolts, flashed out. The Jaffa fell about the room.

"I've got admit that was impressive."

He nodded, "Long ago there was a war in heaven, the goa'uld merely make primitive copies the weapons of that era even this day. Come," He tapped the data input panel, as it was this was going to be a mess. "Sithis walks,"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

Constantinos started for a minute, "In this no, Stendarr, and Arkay will walk as well. At the same time so may others," He flicked the sword, it was shorter than Elijah's heavy saber, nearly fully straight. "This planet is a battleground. Come, the Black Hand gathers for this continent, those who can make it. Those who cannot are called in service to our god elsewhere on this world, great battles join."

Boom jumped down off the banister, and onto one of the shelves filled with books, knocking it over. "Guys now would be a good time to get down."

Constantinos swallowed, thanking every star in the sky that he'd had the good sense to convince Arkay's sworn to take a group far far away from him. The explosion blew out much of the second story of the building. He brushed the dust off his protective armor, most it was from the demolished plaster of the build. If this got much more out of hand the Dread Father's fleet would surely arrive. Still perhaps that was for the best, there was a chirping from his gauntlets, a low series of tones. More jaffa, and then reinforcements from the national guard, and from Anubis's other enemies.

Boom-Boom gave a forced smile, "Sorry about the explosion?" She laughed a little. "So whats the plan exactly, Scott thinks we should leave."

"We will be, very quickly"

-scene break-

Raiden collapsed inside his personal chambers, he'd barely been able to make it in time to avoid a disgraceful display on his pel'tak. He heaved violently, nearly choking on his body's own tongue. His eyes burned, black working into them. His bones cracked restructuring, and soft silk warped into something else. Raiden blacked out from the pain as the Dread Father snarled rising.

He no longer cared who's catspaw Anubis was, he had minutes, if that to finish this before Arkay or Stendarr reached this miserable site. He stormed through the doors, barking orders at the Jaffa, and vanished in a swirl leaving the jaffa to counter their blessings, and pray.

Batman looked around, and swallowed. Flash and Superman were tied down on the East Coast each with their own league teams. Green Lantern, John Stewart, was in Paris with Hal, and Vigilant. J'onn was deployed with his team in Colorado. On the plus side at least he hadn't had to be the one to summon Sithis this time. "I assume you have a plan?"

"A swift death." Sithis hissed, "Anubis seeks access to the ruins," No doubt their power generation facilities to activate the facilities on the island.

Grodd eyed the two, "Okay besides the magic, which I can respect as a good as reason as any why are you in charge? I am not objecting, I merely wish to hear the reasoning," The gorrilla proclaimed hastily as the cluster of Europe's Black Hand who could make it shifted.

The battle on the ground had already begun. In truth that while there were countless other landing locations everyone had rushed towards the first one before the others had touched down. So Wiltshire, effectively the whole county, was a warzone. There thousands of Jaffa fighting, at least a quarter of as many Kull Warriors. Those would be the real cause of casualties amongst the humans.

Anbuis expelled a massive blast of hellish green flame, a million times more powerful than the mortal derived Fiend Fyre. Of course Anubis had no need concern himself with such concerns as his baleful flames surged outward. Then he stopped, "I see, I had wondered about that war," He meant a conflict long ago, so long ago that few even remembered the legends of it. Anubis's shell tightened his grip, "You are not Raiden, and you should not be here."

"You think I am early, or you are naïve, or perhaps ignorant."

Anubis lifted his head, or at least appeared that way, "You are a Daedra, I know that much I know you shouldn't be here."

"You threatened what is mine, by rights older than your entire species I am here," He stated the sword hissed glowing silver, and infinite blackness, "My word is my bond as I said it is done." The blade flashed, even as Anubis attempted a single attack, which flared harmlessly against his robes. Whatever was left Raiden could deal with, it was only of limited concern. He could deal with the issue of just whatever Anubis had been intending with the Ancient facilities, well that would have to be once he handled the issue of finishing the fight in space. In an instant of breath Raiden woke, gritting his teeth, "Damn it," He grunted.

"Raiden-sama what are your orders?" A jaffa asked.

"We return to the Shinku Rai Tatsu," The system lord ordered, "and return to space to secure the orbits, immediately," He teleported away.

-scene break-

Phobos looked around the city in Colorado, it was a mess, but that was to be expected after all of this. He inhaled the faint tremor of fading adrenaline rattled his hands, giving them a shake that he normally did not have. Still he could manage an annoyed glare at the

Guardians of Earth, which they were fine with returning. It was Elijah, and the archons, who were all suddenly kneeling that put Phobos back to alert, he hastily curtseyed to the lord of the void.

"I see you have this well in hand," He remarked, "The Hand convenes Elijah, and you are sorely missed amongst their council, take your talon. I will handle any task which you might be needed for here." Sithis remarked.

Elijah nodded rising, and gesturing for his Executioner. "As you will, sir."

Phobos took a step to the side as the portal rippled open. "The inhabitants were able to rally to the defense godfather," He began, "the mobilization was most effective, damage is surely minimal compared to expectations thank to this most rapid response. Perhaps then such discussions could be convened."
"Why are you still here?" Cornelia demanded, "Go away." She snapped at Phobos, "You clearly want to leave, so go on."

Sithis snorted, "In time I will see him off, yes. My word on it." He promised, "Still though the question is do you know your purpose. So do you know your goal yet?"
"No." commented the prince interjecting.
The Dread Father glowered at him, "I did not ask you Phobos, still it as good a time as any to bring this up. You bear the heart of Kandrakhar, and your four are entrusted an element. You are meant to be guardians, for this world, for another, and for others. It will be in time your decisions that carry the weights of billions of souls." He stated, "And for you this may seem as a vast responsibility, but in truth it is only the beginning. This era is dying." He warned, and Elijah had given them the same warning. That the Lord of Order had awakened. "Phobos," He swept his hand, "Is no threat to this world, as you can see attested by his heeding the call."

"And your saying he's not a threat?" Will at least sounded incredulous at the notion. Sure the prince had come to help, but he'd been the first to admit that Phobos hadn't volunteered per se.
He nodded, "Indeed little one, his actions pose no danger to Earth's welfare." The lord of the void held up a hand to silence the keeper, "I said Earth's welfare. He means this world no ill will, nor will he act against it, especially not in malice, because I will not permit such actions. There are many things you do not know yet, and time will be one of the only teachers you will have." Sithis rounded on the prince, "Phobos I would have had you see them home, but as I said to them I will uphold," He flicked his wrist rending a gash in space, "Go home, you have done well."

The blonde nodded, and all but fled through the portal. Cornelia snorted, "See us home yeah right."

"I will deliver you all home as well,"
"Wait what?" And then the world flashed, and they were back in Heatherfield and the dark god was gone. After all he had things to do.

-scene break-

Raiden was still jittery hours later. It was hours after the Asgard had arrived in force around the planet, naturally after he'd done the bulk of the work. After his fleet had suffered through the ardous task of blooding Anubis's forces. He would have preferred to stay on sight, but was in no condition to do so.

He would need to convene with Saki, and Talpa. Saki had apparently been drawn directly into the fighting in New York when one of the dropships had crashed into one of the foot building. It had apparently forced an uneasy alliance between the Shredder's public face and the turtles. Talpa in the meanwhile had been forced into a similar situation, along with having to assist the Justice League.

By all reports the mortal media were already crowing. Apparently many heroes and villians of the Tauri had banded together for the common good. Now of course the vultures would be coming out. Of course he would leave damage control to Saki, that was his realm.

Yu's Prime Minister had called to inform him of his Emperor's success in repulsing the many pronged assaults by Baal. The Jade Emperor's fleet was even now still finishing off the remaining skirmishes, and reinforcing their position. Baal, and perhaps Anubis's other allies would not doubt divvy up the fallen system lord's territories. Some of the fallen lord's realm would still likely be seized by others, that was just the way of things.

The Asgard had no doubt waited until both sides had done their worst to one another before making their appearance. Their appearance in force though spoke of the possibility of future Asgard boldness. Something that hadn't been seen in centuries, it was not likely a good sign.

Raiden traced a hand softly done Artemis's shoulder as he stared at the map that had appeared before him. It was a map of the Milky Way, particularly of Goa'uld space. "And of the Tauri?" She asked.
"They'll play their part, after all they have been all along even the Asgard haven't realized it yet. Delays aside they should be ready… with the base set up we should be prepared to offer assistance to help them develop," He would have offered the Tauri help with cleaning up the remnants of Anubis's landed troops, but that was something the Tauri would no doubt have well in hand by this point. They seemed very adept at the concept of massing fire. "For the next few months it will be an era of tumultuous peace, if we are fortunate." OF course the opposite could always hold true, and Baal could consolidate Anubis's holdings in full, that would be a problem, especially given Raiden's own interests.

He knew of course he'd need to reconstitute his personal fleet. Naturally in the wake of Anubis's defeat he would be expected to convene his vassals in full. Yu would no doubt do the same once he returned to his own homeworld as well. He expected that his chief ally would begin redeploying his fleet in anticipation of the no doubt critical High Council of the System Lords meeting that would be convened soon.

-Chapter Conclusion-