Chapter 31
Lightning Fervor
Helltanz's Notes:
-Chapter begin-
Colorado was a mess, then again so were a lot of other places. At the same time though it certainly could have been worse. O'neill muted the television as it yet again replayed the greeting that Thor's Hologram had played when the Asgard Fleet had arrived in orbit, that had been the space battle had been well and truly decided. "So neural damage?"
"Yeah, I mean we thought have been the Martian Manhunter, you know," The medical examiner from Area 51 began, "But looking at it, it looks a lot more like a goa'uld hand device, but its a lot faster."
Jack nodded, "So not torture." Studies of the crashed ship, and what they already knew about the Goa'uld in general said that the Goa'uld had based a lot of their technology over bits and pieces scavenged from the ancients, and other races.
"All of them died within seconds of acute aneurysms, as a result of some kind of exposure to something like the Harakesh." The doctor brought up the brain scans, "I mean we've seen things like this, but this is concerning. I mean the sword cuts were weird on some of the other corpses, but superheroes what are you going to do, besides decapitation seems to work well on Anubis's supersoldiers" He pulled out another file, "Yeah well we've cataloged most the bodies we're dividing them up,"
He thumbed through the file, "These ones look like they got hit by Kull weapons fire, any indication what happened."
"SHIELD is currently investigating the reports of humans equipped with highly advanced alien assisting in the defense of Colorado. We're also investigating similar reports back east as well." The SHIELD agent stated, "We have limited video evidence but most of our data is coming from eye witnesses." The agent didn't seem all that happy with that little facet, "As it stands there were at least two teams present fighting against the invasion. Three individual groups seems more likely, and obviously some independents were available."
Nobody was going to like that news. The Justice League was one thing, and even them the government had an issue, especially with the Watchtower and all. "More than one great," The NID wouldn't let them hear the end of that any time soon. "Well at least we didn't get to be the guys who got saved by Bane." The mercenary had gotten caught up in a firefight on the east coast, and had ended up leading an entire national guard platoon to safety during the invasion. There was a bunch of footage on the internet with merc running around with a mk 48 light machine gun cutting down jaffa.
"I suppose," The agent agreed, "There was the pardon offer, which I suppose is in effect, but the guy has still gone to ground." He shrugged, "Well I don't imagine we'll get much more information than this at the moment. We should head back, and I'll run the data through our files, maybe the witness descriptions, or the video footage will give us something to work with." He didn't sound all that hopeful.
O'neill nodded, there were talks about possible finalizing a Joint American Anglo Sphere Space Force Training program, especially now that the English had found those Ancient Ruins under stonehenge. They'd probably find some more as well. It certainly was going to given the English some negotiating power.
-scene break-
"I don't like this," John Stewart remarked, "And for that matter we have to do something we need to be better prepared for these kind of things."
Flash nodded, "Yeah well its not our only problem, you'll never guess what we caught during the invasion." He tapped turned the projector on, there was high security cell on the Watchtower that shouldn't have been occupied, but it was.
J'onn muttered something in Martian, "You said you captured him during the invasion, how did this happen?"
"We got lucky, Booster Gold was monitoring some of the data, and we got a bing from one of the bat's databases." Flash announced, "He was masquerading as one of the Jaffa guys, "We haven't really been able to get much out of him."
Batman looked up, "Then this could be indeed a problem, our problem is that Earth simply does not have the technology to counter the threat of invasion."
"Sounds like a job for our billionaires, and geniuses,"
The dark knight glowered at Flash, that was probably exactly why Luthor was so buddy buddy with Cadmus these days. "Its not simply that, we need a crash development program, and that means expanding the league even more. Its time we established the junior teams. At the very least we need to establish a flagship team to demonstrate the concept."
"Who are we going to assign to it?" Superman asked, "There aren't that many available choices, and I'm still not sure about putting together a team with kids on it. I mean Kara is one option," It would keep her off the frontline at least.
John Stewart looked up, "One of the Robins is a good as choice as any, Kara wouldn't like the effective demotion this would be seen as. Besides we really do need the two of you available for regular league duties. At this point I'd say we offer Galatea an invite too,"
"I don't know if she's interested in joining the League," Diana remarked, "She helps out with Gotham but with a kryptonian city now crime is down significantly." Well a Kryptonian that lacked Superman's rogue gallery. As is stood where Kara couldn't wait to join in full with the league her clone seemed to have more interest in the civilian field of the things, "There is also the fact her technical aptitudes are off the charts, if Bruce is serious about developing new technology she might be better suited there."
John frowned and shook his head a little in an unsure gestured, "I don't know, we probably need to extend the invite. If she's not interested thats one thing, but if she is, well the League really could use another Kryptonian, even just on the reserve roster. All I'm saying is ask."
"This sounds reasonable," J'onn remarked, "And we will have to deal with our univited shapeshifting guest soon, but for now we should consider our other situation. Now that the invasion is finished there are other concerns." The outcry after the invasion had been a bit muted primarily because this was the consecutive invasion in several years. There were of course some rioting, and protests over the situation, but the multitude of alien battle fleets showing up had done a lot to convince most sane people that some of the precautions had clearly been necessary.
The down side was it clearly also hadn't been enough to stop the invasion. There was also the issue about the government putting nukes in space, and building space ships.
-scene break-
Moody sipped at his potion, Pomfrey had insisted that he'd been lucky to just break an arm in the fighting. The fighting had been pretty bad at Glastonbury Tor. Of course now that everything was over the Ministry was throwing a massive fit. Then again considering there was more than one giant robot crashed into the Thames. Some of the purist hardliners were ranting about how those things had to be magic, but the ministry didn't expect to have to cover them up. Not that that would have been easily doable anyway, considering the teams responsible were crawling with muggle soldiers, and even a handful of superheroes.
"So the Asgard ships arriving triggered this activation of the device," Utgard's for lack of a better term junk collection was a number of things, but the star map was the thing that they tended to be the most interested in. The new changes to the map represented more than a thousand years of political shifting with in the galaxy.
The change was actually a prepared update packet in all Asgard systems to uplinnk to active Asgard systems. It was in theory used to insure updates, and patches, and such for computer systems. Utgard had made slight tweaks to the program to allow his repositories to get updates whenever an Asgard ship passed by.
Hermione nodded, "I'd guess its some kind of computer network link, like the internet and program updates," She speculated, there were a collection of blank looks, and she had to remind herself that the internet was a relatively new thing, "basically its a self updating book," a self updating book in a dialect of ancient Norse that took ages to translate. Still at least this time she actually got some looks of understanding.
"I should think that makes sense, the explanation of the ships crossing the sea of the stars makes sense," Dumbledore remarked, and Hermione had to stop from exclaiming that space was not an ocean, "We know that those involved with the battle all do employ such vessels."
It was funny that wizards were taking spacefaring gods from myths so much better than the rest of the world. At least Hermione had been able to get over the human like aliens after the Thanagarian Invasion. "So do we have any idea what happened at Stonehenge by chance?"
"Best we can guess is magic of some kind," Shacklebolt remarked, right now the Justice League, and the muggles had the whole area cordoned off, "Other than that, no what we do know is that there was an energy blast at the newly discovered underground portion and that we know it interferes with portkeys, and apparition." and other forms of teleportation including the Asgard, and the League's own. "As it is we don't know whether it will dissipate or not."
Dumbledore nodded, "Well that it is a lot of new information, we should consider that the Order concern ourselves perhaps with taking it easy. Focusing on research may give us just the edge to turn the tide against the Death Eaters." Dumbledore had been able to acclimate a lot better than Voldemort to the situation of active superheroes from the muggle world, "Now has there been any news from the muggle world?" He meant more accurately any more information on Vandal Savage.
"He's been on a couple talk shows." Bill remarked, "I saw him in Egypt last month with another exploratory group. Its mainly been talk shows, I mean the muggles say he was involved with defense during the invasion, but we're more likely to hear more about that in the coming weeks."
The headmaster nodded, "Well hopefully Tom will keep quiet in the wake of the invasion as he usually does after these things, and we can gather additional information. I think given the situation we should remain vigilant for any other 'game changers'."
-scene break-
Everyone was a little off balance. This wasn't the outcome people had expected. Anubis wasn't supposed to die like this, he should have been the one to kill him, after a long drawn out war that left one side the clear victor. It shouldn't have been like this.
Officially the war with Anubis was over, which officially was the explanation for the tenuous 'peace' that had returned to Goa'uld Space. Within Goa'uld terms that meant all the fighting accounted for nothing more serious then a few minor skirmishes thus far at least. It was now the month of May on the Tauri homeworld more than a month had passed.
Thus far he still had no leads on what Anubis had been hoping to accomplish. With Anubis, and the fleet that had accompanied him to earth destroyed there no hope for definitive answers any time soon. As it was the system lords were already moving on, as were the Tauri. Baal had officially laid claim to Anubis's territories, which was to be expected, since Thoth, and Osiris were the only others with a hope to claim it. The problem of course was Baal's petition to lay claim to a long coveted spot amongst the Goa'uld's High Council of System Lords.
If Baal were to be admitted it would unbalance the Council, at least numerically. Baal's addition would bring the number to six, as it was Sokar's re admittance to the body before Anubis's return had been little more than a stumbling block. Admitting Baal would be more of an issue, even though Baal's domain now more than justified the addition.
Of course Sokar was also busy. He'd made sure to insure his fleet had made a show of force around Earth. He had not been the only one, Sokar had been joined by Heru'ur and Cronus as well.
Of course Cronus's abrupt scrambling had been an interesting shift in policy. Normally the old system lord was far more reserved, but the sudden offensive did take advantage of several vulnerabilities along the territories which bordered his. Cronus had probably been looking for something that Anubis had had in his possession, but for now there was no way to tell what that would be.
Yu had made the announcement that his visit to the Tauri would be more dignified. He'd gone a step forward to announce that any further breaches of the protected planets treaty would result in harsh consequences from the Fleet of the Jade Emperor. That was the good news at least seeing as Raiden knew he needed to take the time to reconstitute his personal fleet after the battle for Earth.
The Tauri though they had their own concerns. Apparently they, they must have gotten a hold of some of Anubis's data on the lost city. IT was certainly more of a potential concern than the so called Jaffa rebellion. That was nothing more than several disjointed factions, divided along liberal, traditional, moderate, and then further divided by their attitudes towards others. Some of those could be described, in the Tauri's fashion, as ultra nationalists. Of course there were others who were eager to ally with the Tauri, despite the home world's rather strange alliances. Still with Anubis defeat and then destruction, Baal had assumed control in the resulting power vacuum.
On Earth the march of the renowned heroes, and subsequent battle between the two system lords, and the battles broadcast world wide by Tauri news agencies had garnered much attention. The News Agencies though had focused heavily on fighting, and as well as the massing of nuclear weapons in space.
The Tauri fretted about such strange things, as far as Raiden was concerned. Still the presence of so many of 'Earth's finest and worst' had allowed him to analyze any potential with the ability to compare.
It was a pity about the Asgard showing up. As far as the Goa'uld were concerned the Tauri were worried about pointless little things as the goa'uld trifled with the worries of a possible civil war. There were various concerned raised, particularly amongst the members of the United Nations members, and specifically the Security Council. There were countless smaller issues that had non government agencies concerned as well in the aftermath of the agency.
Raiden leaned back such a mess all of this was. "Forward me the latest reports regarding the fleet construction underway by the Tauri," He ordered.
-scene break-
Xavier release had been relatively easy to secure, as far as such things went. Arkay had reasons of his own to support such a move so that coupled with other parties interested had meant there were plenty of angles to redirect suspicion at. "Some groups have taken to view mutant kind with open distrust."
The fallout before the invasion had been hard enough to settle given the time that it had taken to secure his peaceful release. It was easy to see that SHIELD's motivations were hardly out of charity either. The plans were already in place to go forward and speak before a congressional committee, but there were worries that the damage might have already be done.
"Its not fair, I didn't see a bunch of these protestors fighting the invasion on the streets and on the beaches, and in the skies," Evan sneered glaring at the television, quoting a part of Churchill's famous speech. "
The professor held up a placating hand, "While I do not agree with the actions taken we must make the best the best of the situation. For now we must accept that current divisions are for the safety of the Institute. Logan if you would?"
"With Bayville like this we're split up, and with as many guards we're gonna have a fight on our hands," Wolverine remarked gruffly.
Scott crossed his arms, "Storm's not going to get anywhere with these hearings, and the Xmen are divided over this whole thing."
"I understand Magneto has been busy, and is still very busy. Especially in the wake of talks of this mutant registration bill." That was an understatement. Before the invasion Magneto had been trying to reassert his control over Mystique's students, that hadn't gone so well. Mystique seemed to have firmly cemented her leadership, but Magneto still had his own team. Scott had wasted no time in outing Mystique as impersonating Xavier, which had only furthered the divisions.
Wolverine, and Storm had both split off groups of Xmen for safety reasons after the Institute had been destroyed. Both they, and Beast had also gotten invitations into the Justice League. This had been further complicated by SHIELD offering Wolverine a consulting position, and both the US, and Canadian Armies hoping for him to reactivate his commission. Both Juggernaut, and Xavier were both on notice from the Army that they might be obligated for service reactivation in the event of another invasion. Naturally the notices made note that such reactivation would come with accompanying promotions of course.
Magneto had been somewhere between furious, and disgusted at the attempt. Right now though the Xmen didn't know where they stood. Between the Sentinel Incident in New York, and the Invasion by Anubis Xavier had only been free for so long. Not long enough to prevent the further fracturing especially given Constantinos had split the population of the institute up.
Storm's nephew believed that Xmen would potentially best suited by joining up with the Justice League, Xavier wasn't so keen on that. Especially with there being discussion of not simply a mutant registration action, which had much wider support relatively speaking, but a superhuman or superpowers registration act possibly being written by the US Congress.
-scene break-
The Tauri drydock was crawling with a lot more security personnel than normal, "Still say we should have named it something else." Grumbled O'neill as he looked around the one good thing about invasions was the boost to the military. Space Command was at least happy about the success of missiles. It took dozens of naquadah enhanced nukes in rapid succession to kill a Ha'tak, but it had worked. So even now they were talking about putting them in orbit over this planet too.
"Your suggestions would not have fit the set pattern Jack." Stated Daniel, "The Navy is harping on about tradition, and thats the way it normally is."
The Jaffa picked up on the subtle cues of the teams beginning what were most likely final checks, after all this was hardly the first ship launch he'd been to. "I believe the launch will commence momentarily." Stated Teal'c.
A few minutes later the facility's public announcement system crackled to life. The speakers conveyed the voice of General Hammond. Officially, until the Joint Chiefs could make up their mind, Stargate Command's seat of power was still the Cheyenne Mountain complex back on Earth. Of course like all members of the SGC according to new security protocols the staff, including the General, were frequently being shifted between the primary offworld complexes.
What made the Illiad, the latest of the Daedalus-class ships, different from the other ships was not particularly drastic mechanically. There were a small series of slight modifications slight tweaks, but in truth there weren't any major design shifts. The last major shift had been in about the matter of integrating the data gathered about shields from captured Ha'tak. This had been done on the second flight from the get go. This second flight was the Oddessy, and now the Illiad.
No what the Illiad important, were the complement of British officers, particularly the engineers and pilots stationed aboard the ship. The idea behind this idea was to begin training British personnel, as part of an exchange. The US would be subsidizing the construction of a 304 class ship for the British. That news had come as a bit more of a surprise but did make sense because of the newly discovered handful of ancient facilities in Southern England.
There was already talk about how the new budget wouldn't really be going to the new Daedalus-class shipbuilding program, or rather a lot less than what had been expected to have been. Congress had prioritized search and seizure on Ha'tak class ships, yes, but the new Joint USAF USN ship research program was being given the bulk of the focus. The consensus was that the Daedalus-class couldn't mount a big enough, home built, reactor to power dedicated anti ship guns, nor could it carry enough fighters to reasonably threaten a Goa'uld ship of the line.
The new idea was to build a significantly larger test hull, and at the same time try and learn as much from Ha'tak guns, as well as the crashed 'ancient dreadnought' as possible in order to hopefully develop a counter that didn't involve throwing dozens of naquadah enhanced nukes at the problem. There were rumors that even so the Navy was bringing in guys from the SSGN program just in case though.
-scene break-
He stared from the observation post on the top floor, Saki waited for the System Lord to finish his watching of the city's horizon. Raiden slowly turned to face the waiting leader of the foot ninja. "Such a bother all this has been Saki." The Shredder inclined his head in agreement. "Talpa's attempts too have been thwarted to this point. by certain mortal groups, at the moment," His frown deepened. Talpa's progress was not particularly concerning. It was true the slowed progress has certainly annoyed him, but for the moment there was little he could do but to trust Talpa's planning, "We will allow Talpa to proceed however since the Umtrom have since been dispatched and with Aoshi otherwise occupied, it is your forces I will call upon to deal with this problem."
The Shredder nodded, he could not fathom as to what Aoshi could possible be involved in that could tie down his entire available elements. It hardly mattered the situation on Earth was dire enough. "Will Talpa expect further confrontation with the ronin then?" As far he was aware during recent conflicts those ruffled feather had been smoothed.
"I do not think so," The system lord responded, "for now things have relaxed. Talpa believes another method would be practical in bringing the Ronin into alignment, and that such methods would be more in line with Japan's well being." Raiden's disinterest in the matter was readily clear.
He realized that he had the opportunity to speak up, "Regarding the turtles then?" Saki asked delicately broaching the subject.
"What of them?" He asked, personally he cared little. Karai seemed fond of the little creatures, and the Shredder annoyed, but he had not seen enough of them to comment or give any full opinion, "What have they done now?"
Oruki Saki cleared his throat, and that was where the problem lay, "Nothing as of yet. Merely, Raiden-sama that there have been certainly developments. Energy readings, and vehicles clearly based on Umtrom technology, which given-"
"To the point Saki," Raiden barked a tinge impatience reflecting his annoyance at how things had played out over the last month in the wake of the fight both over the Earth, and on its surface. "make it." He ordered, "What of these devices, have they been used to assault your positions, endanger your holdings and vassals perhaps?" If they had then this was a much simpler affair.
They hadn't, not his exactly, "Stockman recently took a position with OsCorp, and his latest criminal was meddled in by one of these devices." Raiden's lips curled in disgust at the mention, "I have yet to have been told of direct action against the foot, but-"
"Then do nothing," Raiden growled, he cared nothing for OsCorp, "You have not been provoked, and I will not sanction needless stirring of conflict. The mortals are already abuzz because of Anubis's attack," which still made no sense, or rather less sense than it should, because of course ancient technology was a strong motivator. Still the Tauri were already clamoring about, both over this 'mutant hysteria' that seemed to grip them, and again with the aliens issue.
He nodded, grudgingly, perhaps Talpa was being allowed to continue because they just assumed it was some normal occurrence. Certainly humans seemed to accept the occasional rampage by the likes of the Joker, and outside of his initial attempt Talpa was considerably more discrete. "As you say, my lord."
-Chapter Conclusion-
Helltanz's Notes: