"Normal speech"

"Gothic around non-Imperials."

"Mental Links."

"Ship Names."

"#Ancient to everyone#."

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To All Readers: I apologize for the horrible lateness of this chapter, but me and it had a run-in with some water. Lots and lots of water. The computer was fucked for a while and the chapter got all weird and shit so I had to start again. Anyway, to speed up its publishing I have shrunk it down to little more than a link to what happens next with few actual developments. All I can say is sorry, I'm so very sorry, and the next few chapters should be interesting; fighting, subterfuge, death and horrors both ancient and terrible. What more could you want?

Warp Ligia Obscura: No not yet (see above) but they are important. Read on to find out.

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An ugly, wasted, dead world hung in the centre of the large screen, its sulphurous yellow and cloudy-white surface was broken only by a small black scar on the equator. The light of the happy yellow sun reflected in several places marking what were once mountain ranges. Thin wispy clouds of black hung in the upper atmosphere, remnants of the blasted surface that had yet to fall back to ground. Seated with the screen to their backs were most of the senior officers and officials that resided in Atlantis.

"Another dead end?" Elizabeth weir asked, defeat sliding into her voice.

"Well yeah." O'Neil said, spinning gently from side to side his eyes focused on the ceiling.

"Not exactly, we got some intel and hints on were we need to go next. Along with those three ZPMs." Sheppard offered.

"And your new pet." O'Neil added sarcastically, glaring sideways at Vultis, the unofficial fourth member of Sheppard's team.

"For the twenty seventh time, I am not a 'pet'. I am a Caminus Animum unit. You will address me with my given title, Operator!" Vultis stated angrily, its rings spinning viciously.

"Of course we will." Weir said, trying to stop the little machine before it went into one of its long ranting fits.

"As expected of an Adherent. It is unfortunate that so few follow your example." Vultis said, bobbing around happy about its small victory.

"I'm still not satisfied with its description of this place." Angelus grumbled stabbing his finger on the table.

"In what way have I proven insufficient?" Vultis demanded, the little machine almost sounding offended.

"Every time we ask you about Vis Taonas you reply that our 'clearance is not sufficient'. If this installation needs a, Omicron was it, level code to know what it is, then you probably need that code to even get in." Nestor said calmly.

"A logical assumption but I have already extrapolated the locations of viable Omicron or higher outposts. Unfortunately I have yet to locate any coding in the Lantean data base above Mu. Presumably when the city was evacuated all military and high level data was electronically buried or removed." Vultis said floating around in a large circle, its very own version of pacing.

"Yeah, but you just blurted out about five weird names, which was no help at all." Sheppard muttered rolling a pen across a small piece of the table.

"Not entirely, we know that Ortus Veriumas is one of the places the data base listed that concerned ascension." Weir said thoughtfully.

"We know its address; we could go and check it out." Sheppard said stopping his rolling pen dead.

"It's a big detour though, and every second counts, but it would be safer." Weir said, looking back at the putrid yellow world on the screen.

"It's too late for second thoughts the Yggdrasill is enroute to the planets position. Although I have to say it has one hell of a weird defence." O'Neil said getting up from his chair.

"Indeed I have never heard of a solar system in such a strange orbit." Teal'c added following O'Neil out.

"I think it's quite impressive. If you don't have the right coordinates and pulsar alignments then you'll wander space for eternity, a most effective deterrent." Nestor said smiling lightly, the small, red wax dotted litanies that hung from his armour rustling as he moved.

"True, but it's also a sign of weakness. Cowering away from the Xeno scum, when they should stand and fight and, if necessary, die doing so!" Angelus said faint hints of pride and sorrow in his voice.

"Strength is irrelevant. Only the continuation of the Architect's will is important." Vultis declared, racing out of the room to follow Sheppard.

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In a burst of light that had no right to be there, the Yggdrasill soared back into real space. Before it lay a few scattered worlds; two gas giants, formed from thousands of years of debris floating into the system, hung at the edge of the it, each covered in a myriad of twirling colours and shapes, a single large asteroid just big enough to be a planet close to the sun covered in a million impact craters and at the almost standardized distance at which a liveable planet lay in relation to its sun was a tranquil, blue planet with wispy pure white clouds lazily floating over its surface. Said tranquillity was broken by the massive white beam, with flickers of pink and yellow running through it, which reached up from the planet and plunged into the star. The area around the beam on the star was a deep red rather than the happy bright yellow the rest of the star's exterior maintained. The Yggdrasill's engines burst into life and it began to approach the planet.

"Looks nice." Daniel Jackson said, looking out the massive front window of the Yggdrasill'sbridge.

"A gift from the Emperor himself." A crew-man said happily from his station.

"I doubt that human. This entire system's proximity to those gravitational singularities would periodically bath it in extreme radiation. Enough to cook your internal organs in a second." Dagr said moving a single rune across his table.

"And what would you know Xeno?" One of the heavily muscled security personnel asked.

"Far more than you could ever hope to." Dagr answered not even looking up from his station.

"Quiet, both of you! This is a ship of His Holiness; I will not have it degraded with petty bickering." The captain said, glaring at the security guard and at Dagr.

"Sir, I'm detecting several large structures around the planet. They are giving off massive amounts of energy." A crew-man stated, his screen filling with several large, orange flashing circles with a yellow dot in the centre.

"Slow to half. Bring forward rail guns online, prime the cannons, arm the P.G.G.s, charge the lances and load the torpedo tubes." The captain ordered swiftly, he then fixed his eyes on the scanners for the slightest sign of an impending attack.

"Incoming signal!" A crew-man shouted, as he watched the steadily climbing power levels of the stations.

"#Unidentified ship, your silhouette does not match any records. Transmit identification and command codes#." A harsh mechanical voice boomed form the vox.

"Doctor?" The captain asked worriedly.

"It wants some sort of identification and a code." Jackson answered, after a moments pause.

"Transmit the codes." The captain nearly shouted while the ship's sensors detected hundreds of target locks on them.

"#Warning. Nu identification insufficient for entry. If hyperspace drive is not detected in two point five standard minutes lethal force will be applied#." The voice boomed its monotone echoing through the ship.

"Get us out of here!" Daniel Jackson shouted almost immediately.

"All about full! Set course for Atlantis." The captain shouted standing up, as a small timer appeared on the communication screen.

"Sir something's hacking the computers!" A crewman screamed as millions of pages filled with information flashed across his screen faster than the human eye could track.

"Block the signal!" The captain responded striding over to the creman.

"I… I can't the computer totally locked up." The crewman responded, gone completely white in the face.

Suddenly the screen froze, the crewman blinked in surprise as the thousands of lines of code began running across his screen at random intervals. Abruptly the doors on the bridge began slamming shut and reopening again and again, the lights began to flicker and on the main screen a deformed version of the Adeptus Mechanicus emblem appeared.

"By the Emperor, what is this?" The captain asked as the half bone half cybernetic imitation skull on the screen continued to deform.

"It's the Omnissiah! Come to deliver us!" One of the crewmen shouted.

A mumble of "Deus Mechanicus" ran around the room as the crew stared on in fascination.

All the malfunctions stopped and the bridge was eerily silent for a second before a loud click echoed from the main vox caster. The entire bridge crew looked at the large speaker and a millisecond latter it began to emit an ear splitting high pitched screaming. Daniel covered his ears instantly, the pain was excruciating. It was like someone was trying to dig into your skull with a red hot needle. Nanna leaned forward, almost like she was trying to understand the screaming. All her work on the ship's Machine Spirit may actually start to take fruit.

As sudden as it had begun, the wailing stopped and everything was back to normal. The crew stared around for any signs of more odd happenings, more in an attempt to refocus themselves than to actually check anything.

In the cluster of neurons that made up the central brain of the defence platforms a cascade of chemicals and electrical pulses that a living being would have known as pain rolled around the cells. The data it had stolen was mainly useless; lists of personnel, the weight of dehydrated food aboard, a strange game know as chess. Other fragments weren't so useless; pieces of the hostile vessels design, a list of the port armaments and a piece of a history file detailing a crushing defeat of a race called the Goa'uld. The biological computer began to process the files.

The ship was half turned with plenty of time left when a small beep from the vox filled them with dread. "#Warning. Data bank analysed. Unidentified, highly hostile species#." The faceless mechanical voice boomed. "#Silhouette evaluated. New data indicates high level warship. Probability of attack high. Engaging#" It said after a pause and space blossomed with yellow lights.

"No." Daniel Jackson whispered as a cloud of drones raced towards them.

"All power to the shields!" The captain screamed, as a wall of angry red approached the little blue dot of his ship on the sensor screen.

The distorting effect of the void shield intensified as more and more power was feed into it and thousands of rounds streamed forth from the ship's rail guns into the approaching cloud. At ten thousand kilometres, hundreds of drones exploded, taking out even more of their swarm as the thin skin was ruptured by the high speed projectiles but the cloud didn't visibly lessen. At five thousand kilometres, the lances on the wings snapped round and fired into the swarm, the white beams tearing huge chunks out of the drone swarm but still they continued on. At two and a half thousand kilometres the broadsides of the Yggdrasill opened up in their destructive glory and the front of the swarm became a wall of fire but still hundreds of drones raced towards the Imperial ship. At one thousand kilometres, many of the drones simply dissolved as the destructive effect of the P.G.G. destroyed their molecular structure. Daniel Jackson had time to close his eyes before the swarm hit.

The drones hit in a mass of golden yellow, like a great arm smashing down on a rock. The entirety of the ship was enshrouded with yellow light as drone after drone impacted against the void shield. The ship screamed, power circuits exploded, plasma vents spewed out deadly gases and scorching air. Everything not strapped down or magnetized to the hull was thrown around like rag dolls as the ship stood beneath the yellow storm. The swarm thinned as it threw its self against the void shield but the ancient technologies from the Dark Age of Technology had never encountered the Ancient's drone weapons and as both sides came to the climax of their struggle it was the Imperium that lost.

The void shield generators gave out one final, ear piercing scream before they died. The few drones that survived smashed into the ship tearing through its hull with little difficulty and smashing apart the decks within. Fire vomited from gaping holes in the dorsal, port and keel of the Yggdrasill. Along the dorsal large pieces of hull broke away exposing more of the interior to the cold void. Entire gun bays along the port had been vaporised the massive weapons that could level planets little more than scrap metal. Arcs of electricity rippled across the hull leaving massive patches of chard plasteel in their wake. Massive plasteel doors thudded down sealing those unluckily enough not to escape the howling winds in the decompressing sections. Men and women wept as the pitiful thudding against the massive slabs of hull slowly faded away and the only sound was the mournful wailing of the sirens. The fires died as quickly as they had come and Daniel Jackson opened his eyes to find that he was now upside down with large piece of metal sticking through his arm.

"Doctor! Doctor Jackson!" Daniel heard over the ringing but the voice seemed so very far away.

"Ah." He groaned out painfully.

"He's still alive!" The man's voice shouted again.

"Get him to the comm station then!" Another even further away voice shouted over screaming and shouts of encouragement to the hurt or dying.

"On your feet." The closer voice said and Daniel felt himself getting lifted, metal shard and all.

He glanced around, his still disoriented eyes taking in half pictures and strange freeze frames. The captain was stuck to the roof in a strange pose, twin pipes had burst through the floor an impaled him through the eye and chest. Another tableau was of a man desperately performing CPR even as a river of blood poured from the ragged stump that was his left arm. The Asgard Dagr was pinned to his runic station by his arm and a large piece of the roof, the other two were nowhere to be seen. The crew-man who was helping him had taken him to a computer that was spitting sparks and gurgled voices, the man or woman that had been sitting at it, he couldn't really tell, had been mostly incinerated by an exploding wall section. A hand from his side that he was roughtly aware wasn't his own reached into Daniel's vision and gently pushed the smocking corpse off the seat.

The world began to return to him and the first thing that Daniel noted about the bridge was that he didn't like the smell of burning hair. With his good hand Daniel held the earphone up to his head and listened intently to the scrambled whispers pouring forth.

"#Tar… vive… Seco… eons… gag…#" A muffled voice monotone voice spat out of the half destroyed equipment amidst loud static, squeals and angry buzzing.

A piece of his mind that had been dormant snapped back into place and the world jumped back into its cruel sharpness again. Instantly his mind worked over the message and before he even consciously knew what he was doing he was walking towards the helm.

With his only working arm Daniel grabbed a passing woman who looked like someone he had seen at the helm once and nearly threw her into the seat. "Ge' us ou' a' 'ere!" He shouted his voice sounding nothing like he remembered it.

He put his finger to his mouth and it came away covered in blood a quick attempt to move his tongue and he found that he couldn't. They didn't have time for that and seeing the woman's confused face he pointed out the window down the charred and broken hull and screamed "Go!" She understood that time and began to guide the damaged ship out system.

While the crew wrestled with the limping ship, the organic brain in the defence machines began to reevaluate its position. The primary barrage had failed; damage was calculated at forty percent though it had been a good strike, but not enough to prevent loss of the installation if another vessel appeared. The secondary defences were moving to intercept but if the ship reactivated the unidentified shielding device then the secondary weapons would only inflict minor damage. The primary barrage would be restocked and ready to fire in ten minutes but according to the vessels power readings it was preparing to jump to hyperspace. Two options remained; signal for help or self destruct and deny the objective. In a split second the decision was made. It gathered all of the stolen data it thought relevant, mainly armaments and designs, and sent a sub-space message racing away.

The gas giants of this system were orbited by what to the outside observer would appear like large rings of asteroids, but in their paranoia the Ancients were exceeded by no one. Most of the asteroids were actually hollow and contained high yield laser and plasma cannons with simplistic thrusters. Their primary role was to destroy fighter, strike craft and escort ships while the drone destroyed the large vessels but they were enough to go after the crippled Yggdrasill. Several of the innocent looking rocks moved out of their ancient orbits and began their agonizingly slow journey towards the damaged ship.

Daniel watched impatiently, even as his vision became darker and focusing harder as the small meter that showed the hyper drive's power level climbed up and up. Another minute and they could leave. The Asgard Syn was busy at his side attempting to keep the plasma core from blowing them all up and the third one was nowhere to be seen. Just as Daniel let a little hope enter his mind a red beam glanced along the side of the command spire. Another two beams raced past them; finally a fourth beam blasted the dorsal section of the ship sending another blast of frozen air into space.

The Yggdrasill tore open a hyperspace window and slipped in as at least another seven beams shredded the space it occupied a moment before. With its crew demoralised and injured, its hull battered and buckled and the hopes of victory smashed the Yggdrasill raced home.

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Again I'm sorry for the length, but it's been over month since the last post and I thought it would be better to have a smaller piece now than a massive chapter in several weeks. Sorry