Okay guys and girls, here is the March update. This is a longer chapter than the last few…so enjoy. This Chapter is completely focussed on the Daedalus and so will the next chapter or two.
Reviews
Answer to all: Thanks for the support and the Asgard were the Federations Ace in the last chapter.
Remember to check out my profile for constant updates and new information. I now have three fics on the go. Trek through the Stargate, Stargate: Return of the Old Ones and The Morra Empire: The Founding. I don't count SGC Reports as a Fic, although it will provide vital information for all Fics. Please have a look. -Spearhead
Chapter 8: To protect…
Lantea orbit, Pegasus Galaxy, Daedalus bridge.
1st February 2004
13:00 hours
A large green/blue hyperspace window opened and deposited the Daedalus and Odyssey. Colonel Caldwell was sat in his command chair on the bridge of his ship.
"Colonel, I'm detecting two Wraith Hive ships and six cruisers in orbit." Major Kevin Marks, the man in charge of sensors checked his screen.
The sensor officer who also operated the ships weaponry looked somewhat worried. Caldwell looked over at the large screen to his left that showed the sensor data.
"Sir, I'm detecting a radio transmission between Atlantis and an undetectable target." The Com officer informed.
"Can we get in on that conversation?" Steven asked his communications operator.
"Yes sir." The women nodded as she flicks a switch on her terminal.
"Major Sheppard, de-cloak your Jumper immediately." Steven said after getting a nod from his Coms officer.
"What? Who the hell is this?" Sheppard replied over the radio channel.
"Authentication, Delta Charlie 1. De-cloak now!" Steven ordered.
"Sir, we have a lock." A technician behind him informed.
"Good." Steven nodded. A bright flash of light consumed the bridge and quickly faded after depositing Major John Sheppard.
"Major, welcome aboard the Daedalus." Steven stood to welcome him.
"Thank you, sir." John nodded. He turned around just as his nuclear device activated and destroyed the target hive ship in a flash of light.
"Sir, we're now close enough for Atlantis to pick us up on sensors." Major Marks told his superior.
"Open a channel. Major." Steven nodded to the man in front of him.
"Atlantis, this is Sheppard." The Major said to the air after receiving the go from the Coms officer.
"John?" Dr. Elizabeth Weir asked in disbelief.
"What other Sheppards do you know?" John asked smiling.
"Oh thank god." Dr. Beckett could be heard saying.
"No, no, that can't be, we saw the Hive ship go up." McKay said quickly.
"I assure you Doctor McKay, that Major Sheppard is alive and well." Steven almost said defensively.
"Who is this?" Weir asked.
"Colonel Steven Caldwell, Commander of the Daedalus. We are ready to assist you." Steven replied as he returned to his chair.
"Oh thank you." McKay said gratefully.
"We are very glad to hear it, Colonel. And I assume we have you to thank for saving Major Sheppard?" Weir asked.
"We were monitoring your transmissions as soon as we came out of hyperspace, we couldn't beam him in until he'd un-cloaked his Jumper." Steven explained.
"Didn't take much convincing." Sheppard informed.
"Doctor McKay?" Steven asked for the scientist.
"Present. Yes?" McKay replied quickly.
"I trust you'll know what to do with this." Caldwell nodded to Marks.
"Your ZPM sir." A marine said in the background.
"How did he do that?" The Scottish CMO of Atlantis asked in surprise.
"Ah, the Daedalus is loaded with Asgard technology. The beaming technology is just the first part of it, they've got things like.."McKay began before Sheppard interrupted him.
"Rodney, lets say we get the shields back up." Sheppard interrupted.
"Yeah, what's say we." McKay replied.
"But we still have Wraith all over the city." Weir reminded.
"Once we deal with this other Hive ship, we'll assist you as soon as we can. Caldwell out." The Colonel closes the channel to begin giving orders.
"Sir, we have incoming enemy fighters bearing three, two, zero." Marks reports.
All forward rail guns standby, launch all fighters and arm Phase Cannons." Caldwell orders. The mention of the last turned Johns head.
"Phase what?" John asked as the Daedalus and the Wraith Darts began to exchange fire. Yellow projectiles were spat out by the Daedalus and caused the Wraith fighters to explode. The meagre weaponry on the Darts seemingly harmless, impacted the blue shields of the Deep Space Battle Carrier. The Wraith cruisers moved to protect the Hive ship from incoming fire.
"Tell the Odyssey to try and take out the Cruisers with their Phase Cannons. We need a clear shot at that Hive." Steven ordered. John turned back around in time to see two thin, red beams cut through one of the Cruisers. The weapons seemed to just melt and slice through the hull of the organic ships.
"Sir, Odyssey reports that the Phase weapons are one-hundred percent effective against the Wraith armour." The Coms officer reported.
"Good, ready Cannons one through four. Set forward cannons to offensive fire while rear cannons need to take out anything that sneaks up behind us. Ready forward Photon Torpedo tubes. Inform the Odyssey that we're about to test the Torpedoes against the Wraith armour." Steven spat out orders.
"Aye sir. Odyssey replies 'Green'." The Coms reported.
"Fire when ready Major." Steven nodded. Sheppard watched as four, distorted orbs flew away from the Daedalus and towards the Hive. The Darts scrambled to protect the massive ship and all but one were intercepted. The Photon weapon slammed into the hull and exploded with brilliant results. It had caused a large chunk of the Hives port side to disintegrate. They weren't as effective as the Phase Cannons, but they still caused a tremendous amount of damage.
"Fire forward Phase Cannons into that breach. Maximum safe limit." Steven ordered. John continued to watch as two red beams of phase energy reached out and hit the Hive. A cruiser moved into the path of the right hand beam and it turned its hull into molten slag.
The Daedalus continued to fire the Phase Cannons for another twenty seconds, with disastrous results. The beam that was intercepted by the cruiser had now completely burned through the support ship, leaving it nothing more than a husk of a ship. With the Cruiser no longer blocking it's path, the beam of red coloured energy began to dissect the hive ship.
Explosions filled the space above Lantea, as more and more Wraith Darts were destroyed. Two of the six cruiser escort remained and the Hive ship was receiving a beating. But it wasn't going fast enough. They needed to destroy the hive ship now.
"Colonel, this is Novak in engineering."Lindsey Novak said over the Intercom.
"What is it?" Steven asked as he observed the battle.
"Well, Haemoid just wanted me to remind you that our shield strength will be greatly diminished without the Zero Point Module tied into our power systems." Novak replied.
"I'm well aware of that, thank you Doctor. Caldwell out." Caldwell replied.
"Major, do you recommend any target on the hive ship?" Steven asked turning to Sheppard.
"One of the fighter bays sir." John suggested.
"That would increase the chance of secondary explosions." The Colonel understood.
"I know, that was my thinking." Sheppard nodded.
"I agree. Weaps, fire the Phase Cannons as well as a barrage of Photon Torpedoes." Steven didn't want to risk taking it easy on the Hive.
The Hive ship had now turned to face it's healthy armoured side towards the Daedalus. The Darts were protecting the Hive, while the two remaining Cruisers were battling the Odyssey. The two Phase Cannons attached to the hull of the Daedalus, fired as four Photon Torpedoes were fired at the Hive. The red beams cut into the open bay and slag was decompressed into space as it cut through the inside of the ship.
The hanger bay doors on the Hive began to close. As they closed, they were melted upon crossing where the Phase Cannon fire was impacting the ship. This time, two of the Photon Torpedoes were intercepted by Darts and the remaining two slammed into the hanger bay doors causing the ship to physically crumple and warp under the pressure of the impact. Now a large chunk, of what used to be hanger bay, appeared in the armour.
"This is taking too long." John said what Caldwell was thinking.
"Weaps, prepare two mark eights." Caldwell ordered.
"Sir, they're slower than the Photon Torpedoes. They won't make it through the fighter screen." Marks informed the Colonel.
"Is there anyway to deliver a warhead the same way you plucked me out of the Jumper?" Sheppard asked no one in particular.
"The Asgard have already considered us using the technology as a weapon Major. There are fail safes build into the system to prevent us from using it as a delivery system." Caldwell replied.
"You got one of these Asgard onboard? Can he override the failsafe?" John asked.
"Why would he do that?" The Colonel asked trying to find a way to accomplish the task.
"Well, his butts on the line just as much as ours." The Major explained.
"Novak, I need you and Haemoid to figure out how to get a site to site transport lock on a set of coordinates inside that hive ship." Steven informed the scientist.
"No, no, no, no, Sir, Haemoid isn't going to like that." Lindsey replied obviously concerned about the Asgard complaining.
"Get it done doctor, that's an order." Steven closed the channel afterwards.
John and Steven watch as the Daedalus continues to spray rail gun fire at the hundreds of enemy fighters. The Phase Cannons had now stopped firing to reveal the blackened and chipped Hive ship. Sections and areas of the massive ship were exposed to space, yet it continued to fire at the Odyssey with all bearable weapons. The fast vessel had destroyed another cruiser and was now dodging the Hive ship. The remaining cruiser was pursuing the Odyssey. The enemy fighters seemed endless. The Hive was continuing to pour fighters out of its one, operational hanger bay. The Daedalus was continually destroying the Wraith fighters, but more and more kept coming.
"Colonel, Haemoid is standing by for warhead transport. But I can to tell you, he is not happy about this." Novak informed Steven.
"I'll take that under advisement." Steven nodded and returned to his chair.
"Are we within transport range?" Steven asked Marks.
"Yes sir." Marks nodded.
"Transport warhead when ready." Steven ordered. Marks flicked a few switches and typed in a command.
"Ready, five, four...Weapon is away." Novak informed after an alert tone sounded. Haemoid can be heard in the background muttering to himself in what assumed was Asgard. John and Steven look out at the damaged Hive ship. A small explosion located at the heart of the Hive, quickly blossoms into a flash of nuclear fire. Shielding their eyes, the whole bridge staff wait for the light to die down. After a few seconds, they look out of the window to see nothing but the remaining Wraith cruiser and a few hundred darts.
"Novak, I need you to prep another warhead for transport. We have one more Cruiser to take out." Steven ordered.
"Sir wait." John indicated that the remaining Cruiser was in fact entering hyperspace.
"Colonel, the remaining cruiser is breaking off and entering hyperspace." Marks informed.
"Seeing as what we just did to the remaining Hive ship, I don't blame them." Steven said relieved.
"There's still a lot of Darts out there." John pointed out.
"Alright, lets clean this up." Caldwell nodded.
"Sir, the Wraith fighters are regrouping." Marks reported to the Colonel.
"All rail gun positions stand-by for defensive fire." Steven ordered.
"We're not the target." John somehow knew.
"Major Sheppard is right. The formation is heading toward Atlantis." Marks informed.
"Elizabeth, you got a problem." John said over a new radio channel.
"Yeah, we see that Major." Elizabeth replied.
"We're moving to intercept, but neither the Daedalus or the Odyssey will be able to get there in time." John informed her.
"Not a chance, they're coming in too fast." Chuck said in the background.
"Oh my god. Their approach is ballistic." Doctor Radek Zelenka also in the background informed.
"What exactly does that mean?" Weir asked the physicist.
"Their impact velocities will be in the excess of ten-thousand kilometres an hour. No part of the city can survive that." Radek explained.
"You better get the damned shield up!" Sheppard shouted trying to hurry them.
"How much time do we have?" Elizabeth asked Radek.
"Forty five seconds." Zelenka replied. The Daedalus and Odyssey continued to pursue the Wraith fighter formation that would destroy the city. Unfortunately the massive formation was outside of the ships weapons range.
"Rodney, we need the shields up in forty seconds or we're dead." Elizabeth informed the scientist.
"What are you kidding me?" Rodney joined the conversation whining.
"No." Weir replied.
"Because I think your just trying to determine the point which I completely snap." McKay replied over the channel. John looked down listening into the conversation.
"Rodney." Weir tried to hurry him.
"That should do it. Fire it up." McKay replied.
"That didn't do it." Weir replied after a short pause.
"What?" Rodney asked in disbelief.
"It's not working." Telya replied.
"I heard what she said." McKay defended.
"Twenty seconds." Weir informed them. Steven and the whole crew of the Daedalus listen intensely while continuing to chase the fighter formation.
"Okay, SNAP! THAT'S IT! WE ALL HAPPY NOW?" Rodney shouted in frustration.
"RODNEY!" Weir snapped.
"Okay, okay, okay, try it NOW!" McKay ordered.
"Yes." Radek said in relief after a beep signalled the activation of the shield.
"Sir, impact." Marks could only manage those two words.
"Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in. Atlantis." John tried to reach the city over the radio.
"Elizabeth. I repeat. This is Sheppard, what is your status?" John tried again.
"Oh, well, we're still here. That's our status." Elizabeth replied over the radio. All of the ship sighed in relief.
"Don't scare me like that." Sheppard sighed.
"Sorry, what about the Wraith fleet?" Elizabeth asked curious.
"The remaining cruiser withdrew from battle." Steven answered.
"Thank you Colonel. Thank all of you." Elizabeth thanked the crews of the Daedalus and Odyssey.
"Glad to be of help." Steven replied.
"Likewise." Colonel Paul Emerson of the Odyssey added.
"And who is this?" Elizabeth asked trying to ascertain the name of the Odyssey captain.
"Colonel Paul Emerson, Commander of the Odyssey, Ma'am." Paul replied.
"Well thank you Colonel." Weir said gratefully.
"We're going to remain in Geo-synchronous orbit for the time being. Can we be of any further assistance?" Steven asked.
"Well, we could use some help with the Wraith in the city." Weir offered.
"We'll send down some people to help with that. Daedalus out." Caldwell nodded.
"Major Sheppard, I'm sure your anxious to get back to Atlantis." The Colonel asked as he joined him at the front of the bridge.
"Yes sir. Thank you." John nodded before leaving the bridge. Steven watched as the Daedalus moved to flank to Odyssey which was already orbiting the planet.
There you go people. I had a little computer trouble that deleted the original chapter…but I like this one more. Hope you all enjoyed it and don't forget to REVIEW! I need more… -Spearhead.