AN: I normally don't respond to reviews in my chapters but I felt that this one needed a public response. Everyone is entitled to his opinion and can share them, I will not begrudge that. But if you wish to criticize at least read the story first. This is the second time a reviewer calls the Terran, Tauri and comment on things not mentionned in the story. If you don't like my story don't read it, no one forces you to.
The reason I called the Federation the TERRAN federation was because the name Tauri was only used by the Goa'ould to name the people of Earth. If you wish to name your government you do not use the term your ENEMIES gave you.
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Lame : First, the augmented droids are not strictly Cylons and are not destined to fight ship/robot against the TERRANS. They are only designed for infantry assaults and manning the ships.
Second, as you said an Asgard mother ship is more than enough against an UNSHIELDED Goa'ould ship unless you are talking about Anubis. But you forgot that Larikos has also studied parts of the Alteran technology, has lived with them and like Anubis is more advanced than the typical Goa'ould as such his technology is more powerful than the Goa'ould ever were with over 10 000 years of study. And I can assure you Larikos would have equipped his Fleet with shielding technology.
Third, the beginning of the story is a synopsis spanning a hundred and twenty years AFTER the Series Finale (S10E20) in which the Asgard gave the Odyssey ALL their knowledge in the form of Asgard computers, weapons, generators and databases.
Last, I used Kilometers as a reference but did not give the height of the ship so as not to get into too many details. I only give enough details to give my readers a clearer image of the Ships. I do not wish to drown everyone in technical facts.
Chapter 11
New Amsterdam, Terran Federation Colony.
New Amsterdam was a special colony in the Terran Federation for it was there that the Terran Federation had centered their facilities for research in technologies. The planet itself was 3 times the size of Earth and composed of 15 Oceans and island type continents like Australia on Earth.
What made New Amsterdam the perfect place to shelter the research facilities of the Terran Federation were its location and its resources. New Amsterdam was located in an out of the way system never discovered by the Goa'ould and only accessible by ship after passing through a nebula unstable for Hyperspace travel. Fortunately the Terran Federation had discovered the 7 digits Alteran Address for the planet ( kept out of the general DHD update locating the Stargate Addresses in the galaxy making it invisible to anyone not privy to the Address first) as well as a hyperspace route unknown to anyone bypassing the Nebula. Secondly, the planet was rich in deposits of trinium, Naquadah and other minerals making her one of the richest planet in the galaxy in terms of natural deposits.
It was there that the Terran Federation Space Navy had its shipyards, able to produce an entire fleet worth of ships in under a year without any need for resources from out of the system making New Amsterdam independent and secure for the testing of new technologies.
But at the moment the major project ready to be tested was a ship. The new prototype ship, concentrating all the latest technologies and responding to a completely new strategy design for the Terran space Navy.
For a long time, the Terran Space Navy had dominated space with the combined power of its 134 fleets. But now rumors of unrest were making their way to the ears of the Joint Chiefs from the Ministry of Intelligence. The Free Jaffa Nation is starting to show an expansionist policy, ending its state of status Quo since their early years of existence after the liberation of their people from the Goa'ould, by annexing peaceful worlds near the fringe of their borders.
The Jaffa, whose entire society had been created by the Goa'ould, had never been able to escape their tradition and move to new levels. After a trial period where the council had been elected by the people directly, the state of affairs had rapidly deteriorated after the death of First Master Teal'c and his brother in arms, Councilor Master Bra'tac. After their deaths, the council had been disbanded in their democratic form to be recreated in a form more reminiscent of the Goa'ould System Lords than a democratic state with the various war lords of the Jaffa Nation, Teal'c's wishes for his brothers having been torn apart by his political opponents, warlords and criminal syndicates using the remains of the Goa'ould empire to fuel their ambitions. More, the populations under the Jaffa control had never seen the difference between the Jaffa and Goa'ould ways since the feudal system enjoyed by the Goa'ould had never been really disbanded despite Teal'c's efforts to accomplish it.
And now, after more than a hundred years of peace between the 2 giants, tensions were rising as the Terran Federation was defending several primitive planets barely out of the Renaissance whose population was entirely unaware of the interest they represented for the resource hungry Jaffa Nation whose goal was to expand its boarders at any cost. For the moment, no engagement had been opened but tempers were rising and the shadows of war were looming on the horizon, ready to spill at a moment's notice as each warlord was readying his troops.
Understandably the situation made the Joint Chiefs of Staff nervous as they knew the scales of balance between the 2 Nations were more even than they were comfortable with. While the Terran Federation was the more advanced nation in the Milky Way Galaxy thanks to the Asgard and Alteran Databases, the Jaffa Nation outnumbered their Ships 10 to one from the current estimations and 200 to one in infantry personnel. These kinds of numbers were too dangerous to ignore and the decision was made to start a new program of military developments based on a new philosophy. While before specialized ships were combined in a Fleet to cover all the needed military bases, with their more powerful ships made with a multi tasking viewpoint, Military, Scientific, Cultural and Economical to perfectly represent the interests of the Terran Federation. The existing ships were indeed very powerful but their specialization was a weakness in the Terran Navy since to be best utilized the entire fleet had to be deployed instead of specific ships.
Previously the military know how of ship building in the Terran Federation was inspired by the Asgard and Earth philosophies with ships light and small enough to be as mobile as possible on the battlefield as opposed to their old opponents who used ships very powerful but so big that maneuvering them was slow and made them vulnerable to smaller ships able to escape their massive batteries. The Terran Federation had always resisted previously any attempt by engineers and scientists to change that military philosophy as it was proved true by decades of battles against then superior opponents but the Terran Federation was at a turning point as their strategies had been studied in details by their, at the time, allies.
One of the things that had always made the Humans from earth one of the most feared strategists of the Milky Way galaxy was resumed in few concepts: creative thinking and unpredictability. Since the early years of their engagements in the galaxy, the then US Air Force was outgunned and out manned by the Goa'ould. However, thanks to the military strategies playing to their strength, they managed to hold off the Goa'ould until they gained the knowledge necessary to vanquish them.
The Terran Federation's strategies being known they lost their unpredictability, even if knew strategies were developed, the base capabilities of their ships were too well known and even with the superior technology they used the massive numbers against them almost nullified this advantage.
Thus the new prototype was created to resolve those problems as it focused entirely on the militaristic aspect of ship building and introduced a kind of firepower not seen previously in any other ship except the Alterans City Ships.
With a length of 8 point 8 Kilometers, large by 8 Kilometers and a height of 3 Kilometers at his highest point (1 Kilometer at his lowest point) this ship was the biggest ever constructed by the New Amsterdam Shipyards and used 25% of the available shipyard space. Its general form was a mix between a bird of prey and a trident with a tapered and wide base.
Its armament was composed of several specific systems for ship against multi ship warfare: 32 silos of Alteran Drones, 50 batteries of Plasma canons on each side and 3 Heavy Lasers placed at the head of each prong, and able to be combined when shot to form a Laser Beam designed for orbital bombardment of heavily shielded fortresses.
The prototype was also a heavy carrier in both Space Superiority Fighters and Infantry deployment ships: 2 bays 400 meters large each placed at the front between the prongs, able to deploy its 50 squadrons of 12 Arrows rapidly as well as a Larger bay placed on the back to deploy the 200 Puddle Jumpers, 100 Marauders and 5 Fishers for the deployment of the 100 000 Space Troopers as well as the 1 000 troops of Special Forces garrisoned onboard.
Special importance had been allowed to the design and protection of its vital systems. Added to the Global Shield that protected the ship in its entirety, several secondary shields had been installed to protect the engineering, Command Center, and crew quarters.
But a ship that size required a massive power source to function properly. There too the Terran Engineers outdid themselves, as they not only installed a principal power generator but also auxiliaries made to circumvent any attempt to disable in one attack the ship. The primary generator was created specifically for the prototype: based on the Arcturus Project started by the Alterans in the Pegasus Galaxy but unsuccessful and dangerous as it destroyed an entire solar system when it failed. Unlike the Arcturus Project however the new generator named the McKay Generator, in honor of the Theoretical Physics scientist who worked on the Arcturus Project, drained its power neither from our dimension nor a micro universe like a ZPM but from an artificially created wormhole connected to a Black Hole. This allowed the generator to draw power from an unlimited source.
Furthermore several power generators were tied to the vital systems ready to be engaged in the case of a strike against the McKay generator.
This predator of the stars with a size, armament and shape inspired the development team to name the ship the Vultur Gryphus, scientific name of the largest bird of prey alive, the Andean Condor.
A week later, Unknown location, the Hub
The Hub was a literal space cloning facility for both humanoid and raiders Cylons. Thousands of new bodies were ready to receive the consciousness of any fallen Cylon in its sphere of reception.
After the hijacking done by the Terran Space Troopers resulting in the total obliteration of centurions onboard the station and the death and revival of almost 300 humanoid Cylons, The survivors were confined to their quarters as a temporary solution before their interrogation by the agents from the ministry of intelligence. The humanoid Cylons at first resisted vigorously against the Terran Forces but even with their augmented force and speed due to the nanobots cursing through their veins they were no match against the Terran Infantry whose nanobots and Jaffa like augmented strength were 10 times superior to the Cylons and their weapons and armor impervious to the Cylon armament.
A leader for each line had been selected by the Cylons and they stated their demands, each of them being rejected except the ones concerning the basic necessities. The Cylons appeared to not realize the predicament they were in, still in shock in the face of the total defeat they suffered at the hands of the Terran space Troopers.
By the second day a team of Terran Corps of Engineers had been deployed from the Star base and started the installation of a hyperspace generator to transport the Hub in Terran Territories to be dissected. The Asgard council of Minds was very interested by the Cylon technology of mind downloading able to offer the Cylon virtual immortality if a resurrection ship was in range. The Asgard had searched for millennia the answer to the genetic defect they were subject to but in the end had to bow down to the inevitable. The key to their survival was not in the reverse engineering of their bodies like they believed but the need to find a suitable host for their enormously superior intellect. And this was not an exaggeration but a fact as an Asgard mind was not only knowledge but also memories, experiences, everything that made a being whole but accumulated during millennia of existence via thousands of cloned lives. The Council had hope that with the Cylon technology of mind transfer and the genetic knowledge they acquired studying the Human genome they would be able to leave their artificial realities and once again restart their own lives. What gave the Cylon Genome more importance than the Terran Genetic material found in the Terran Federation was their Alteran Ancestry.
While the Terrans were an evolution of the first form of Alterans, they lost in that evolution the developments the Alteran brain had acquired after millions of years. The differences were so vast between the Lanteans of 10 000 years ago and the Humans that each of them could be called a separate branch of the original Alteran Genome found at the Fall of Terra and the exodus to the Pegasus Galaxy.
The Cylons and the Colonies represented an almost untouched Genetic pool of Alteran based DNA, diluted by the inter mixed unions of the beginnings of Kobolian Society but still infinitely more representative of the Alteran Genome than the more advanced Terran Genome and that fact allowed the Asgard scientist the material to maybe create a viable host for an Asgard Consciousness. The experiment would be long to bear fruit but it was the best solution they had since the end of their Empire. The Asgard were a patient people, they had waited Millennia for a clue to their salvation, they could wait a few years more and maybe this time the mistakes of their past could be repaired.
However even if their salvation from virtual limbo was near, they had no expectation whatsoever of rebuilding their Empire. Their Empire stretched all over the Ida Galaxy at one time but after the Replicator war and the loss of population they endured, their dreams had to be downsized to a manageable level. This is why the Asgard Council of Minds had supported the creation of the Terran Federation, despite their initial uneasiness in supporting the humans at the time when the Asgard Databases were offered to them, that opinion slowly changed after careful observation of their actions after obtaining such an important legacy. If the Asgard race was able to achieve a physical representation of their minds then they had every intention of joining the Terran Federation as full members.
But as the Terran Engineers were interfacing their controls and equipment with the Hub's systems, they were unaware of the Fleet of enemy ships coming to the rescue of their brothers and sisters, armed to the teeth with their God's power.
Void between the Colonial and Milky Way Galaxy, 25th fleet road of patrol.
After finishing his escort duty of the Colonial Remnant fleet, the 25th fleet received its new orders: exploration of the planned road of the colonial remnant to Earth from Kobol. After the discovery of the colonial people on the fringe of another galaxy near the Milky Way, the Office of Exploration, in charge of the complete exploration of all new discovered space, asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to plan a mission of exploration following the original road to Earth as described in the Colonial Sacred Scrolls. The Office of Exploration wanted the road to be mapped completely and additionally make sure no isolated group of Colonials had followed the same road and gotten lost. The 25th fleet, being the most experienced with the zone of conflict was assigned the mission.
After hitting every road point the Colonials had mapped before stopping on the Ionian Nebula the 25th fleet had started to follow the next clue in the sacred scrolls. The 25th fleet was scanning space on several light years but so far no other colonial vessel or communications had been found even though more than 20 star systems had been mapped.
The 25th fleet jumped in hyper space traveling for a short jump to the nearest star system, sensors at full burst ready to detect the littlest object in space.
As the fleet exited hyper space, proximity alarms on each ship alerted the crew of a myriad of debris in space. The fleet immediately stopped all movement, sensors analyzing every cube meter of the system in front of them filled with metallic debris, clearly the results of a space battle.
The debris were carefully analyzed in their composition and general structures and already several shapes had been identified by the ships avatar. And the results were staggering.
Freya was still analyzing the field but was ready to do a preliminary report to Admiral Delterre, just entering the Bridge from his office after the proximity alarms had stopped. "Freya can you tell me anything about what happened here?"
"Admiral, the general composition of several of these debris reveal traces of Naquada and Carbon as well as gold. From the biggest piece of wreckage I can already identify some parts of the hulls of ships. I can spot parts of Alkesh, Ha'tak and Gliders but a very old design, not seen in Goa'ould fleets since several millennia. But I can't identify some of this wreckage, they appear to be fairly advanced, far more than the Goa'ould parts but still strange, like a cross between Lantean Technology but for example on this part of the hull you could clearly see an energy weapon emplacement but the position of it on the hull is not optimal as if the technology was added recently on a ship not designed for it. But here and here you can see on several fragments that the designs are a lot more ancient but more integrated, more evolved as if in time the civilization that created these ships had lost something important."
Looking at the pieces on display in the holographic tank the Admiral slowly reached to virtually manipulate them. He asked Freya while keeping his eyes on the holographic tank "Freya can you give me an approximate date of each piece of metal and of the latent energy emissions from the battle?"
"Yes Admiral from the data I collected, the oldest piece of hull is more than 10 000 years old and the youngest just over 4 000. But from the energy emissions the battle was approximately 4 000 years ago which brings us to 2 hypotheses, either there was multiple battles in this location or the fleets battling here were made of ships from different periods, old ships mingling with newer ships."
Nodding at the hypotheses the Admiral reached again to twist some more pieces before turning toward Freya "Freya can you reassemble those fragments to show the general shape of the ships and analyze them for general capabilities?"
Freya just mumbled something in Asgard before doing just that. Slowly in front of the Admiral the pieces arranged themselves displaying first a Ha'tak and an Alkesh from old Goa'ould designs then an Aurora class Battleship and some unknown ship with the form reminiscent of an elongated alligator almost 2 kilometers long.
As he saw the shape of the last ship Delterre turned toward Freya and asked her to compare it to the scans they had on file of the ships in the Colonial fleet.
"Admiral, you were right the last ship has ties to Colonial Engineering. I estimate a 75% chance that the unknown ship is an ancestor of the Colonial Battlestar; however it is much more advanced than the Battlestar Galactica, approximately at the level of technology Earth was when they launched the Daedalus Line."
Incredulously turning toward the Asgard ship Avatar Admiral Delterre only watched Freya for a time "then this ship must have been produced before the colonies where formed at the fall of Kobol. But to see this ship mixed with Auroras…..Freya, are the Auroras the ships older than 10 000 years old?"
"Yes sir, the others ships are all approximately 4 000 years old."
"I think I have a theory, can you calculate their approximate destination if you take Kobol as a starting point?"
"Calculating. From what I can calculate the fleet was headed to the Milky Way galaxy, on this heading."
"Is Earth on the vicinity of this heading?"
"Yes sir"
"This is my theory: 4 000 years ago the 13th tribe decides to travel to Earth for reasons unknown. To travel there they were escorted by an armed fleet which is made up of Kobolian engineered ships and Alterans Ships. On their trek they encounter a Goa'ould fleet, we know how they operate, always trying to take what they want by force. A battle ensues and we see the result of that battle in front of us. Can you extrapolate the results of the battle?"
"Extrapolating, from my analysis the Kobolians were victorious even outnumbered, however only a small number of ships survived and from the residual particles and dispersion of the debris I think they were heavily damaged. The trails left point to one of the planet on the system. I will launch a probe to the planet's orbit for a detailed scan. From your theory it might be possible that some survivors of the battle may have crashed on the planet."
"Very well keep me informed and prepare the fleet to orbit the planet if you find anything. I will be in my office."
2 hours later, the Admiral was asked by the PA system to report to the Bridge. The entire command staff was there from Commander Peng and his XO, Lieutenant Commander Jameson to the Rear Admirals commanding the 2 squadrons composing the fleet and Lieutenant Commander Mugabe, the Admiral's chief of staff.
As the Admiral entered the bridge followed by the XO, they proceeded to the Commander's ready room adjacent to the bridge.
Soon everyone was seated and Freya started her briefing "As the Admiral ordered I proceeded with a deep analysis of the system's 5th planet where the trails of the after battle led. The probe I sent settled into orbit to start the scans and immediately started reporting to me her results. From the analysis of the scans I detected 35 crash sites on the planet with a population of 29 million+. Several cities were found near the crash sites and from the examination, they are all Kobolians in design."
Frowning, commander Peng asked Freya "Are you sure they are from Kobol? They may only be Humans, maybe an isolated population stranded here?"
"My sensors detected in the genetic makeup of almost 70% of the population the presence of the Alteran Gene. The presence of the Alteran Gene in the majority of the population is consistent of the Colonial Genome. There is no error."
Stifling his laugh at the reaction from Freya admiral Delterre rapidly took control of the meeting before Freya started insulting everyone's intelligence in Asgard again "What can you tell us of their level of technology? The Colonials were advanced but certain aspects of technology like shields and energy weapons were far too advanced for them."
Freya indicated the holographic screen that appeared in front of them displaying several cities. "For the most part they appear to possess a technology base equal if a not a little superior to our own just after 2010. However, from the analysis of the planets resources I was able to deduce that they would never be able to leave this solar system without outside help. The probe's sensors detected no Naquadah, Trinium or radioactive materials powerful enough to create adequate energy sources. Even if they had the technological level to cruise the stars, they would be unable to do so for their lack of materials. They are technically stranded."
Rear Admiral Hitrakulos placed his shin in his hands before asking Freya "What can you tell us about their defenses?"
"They have several plasma based canons capable of defending their planet against an assault by ship, quite similar in fact to the Tollans Ion Cannons in reach but with a little more power. They would not, however, be able to bypass our shields."
Admiral Delterre read for a few seconds the reports, leaving his subordinates to discuss Freya's findings between themselves before addressing his staff. "Now gentlemen, what are our options? They clearly possess the technological level allowing us to contact them but should we?"
After carefully weighting all the options between them, the decision was made to de cloak the General's Glory in orbit of the planet and open official contact with the Leaders. As the official representative of the Terran Federation for First contact situation, Director Henrik Pedersen would be briefed and asked to talk directly with the Planet's Leader. The rest of the Fleet would stay cloaked in case of trickery and remain on standby.
In Orbit of an unknown planet in an unknown system, a Super Dreadnought appeared suddenly, causing every surveillance system to go haywire. As soon as the ship appeared all selected officials of the 13th tribe assembled to attempt to communicate with the newcomers.
Haram was the First Sage of the council, elected by the tribe to represent them and lead them. He was an old man of 174 years and the happy grandfather and great grandfather of 27 children. When he was selected to become one of the Sage on the Council 20 years ago he never expected to one day be the one to represent his people. But it was his duty and he will do it with pride and honor like the Lords of Kobol taught them.
He asked the technician to activate the communicator and stepped on the pedestal. "I am Haram, First Sage of the Council of the 13th tribe of Kobol. Our world is not without defenses, if you come in peace, please be welcome however if you come in war be wary, we will bow to no one!"
Haram did not have long to wait before a response appeared in front of him in the form of a hologram of Director Peterson. "I am Henrik Pedersen, a representative of the Terran Federation. I assure you First Sage Haram that we come in peace and offer only our friendship."
Haram stepped in front of Director Pedersen passing through the guards that shielded him when the hologram appeared. "Then I welcome you in the name of the 13th tribe of Kobol. May we know who our new friends are?"
"First Sage we are a Federation of worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy whose founding member is Earth or Terra Atlantus as you may know it. We were exploring this sector when we detected the remains of a battle and by following its trace came upon your world."
Haram's eyes widened when he heard of the words Terra Atlantus, the object of their original crusade to the stars and mission ordered by the Council of Kobol.
He turned toward his advisors and told them to summon the council of Sages for the Tribe. Returning in front of the hologram he bowed his head in the formal salute of his people, showing his respect for this member of their long lost brethren. "I first welcomed you as a stranger but let me welcome you now as brethren of the people of Kobol. "
Director Pedersen copied the salute then rose up to deliver his final message. "And I bring to you the greetings from the 12 Colonies of Kobol, descendants of the 12 tribes of Kobol and members of the Terran Federation."
And with that first meeting, rang the bells of reunion for the 13 tribes of Kobol after a 4 000 years separation.
Project Arcturus:
The project Arcturus was an experiment made by the Alterans in the Pegasus Galaxy to harness an energy source 25 times more powerful than a ZPM by draining power from our universe instead of a Micro universe like a ZPM.
This experiment was unsuccessful when the safeguards failed to stop the drain in power and destroyed half of the System.
Millennia later the experiment was found by DR McKay who tried to complete it but ultimately also failed bringing with it the complete destruction of the system.
Years later using the same principals but with another source allowed Dr McKay to finally achieve the Alterans Project; however its practical used was only finalized by the development Team of the New Amsterdam shipyards on the New Terran Space Navy Ship Vultur Gryphus.
The effects of the new generator still need to be tested as its effects as a ships energy source may vary.