Chapter 16: Downfall of the Goa'uld

As the command crew of the Archangel where beginning their meeting about their repairs, refit and resupplies aboard the docked at its orbiting base station, two very different groups of people were walking into the main courtroom at The Hague, there were no bailiffs, guards or clear's within the room and not a single member of the public within a mile of the building that wasn't needed due to this being the opening day of the hearings against the stargate command and the original nations of the IOA. The US vice president, Robert Kinsey, had managed to get the members of the panel to agree that this should be a classified matter.

Arriving in the presence of the tribunal which had been assembled for the hearing, general O'Neill was requester to remain standing as the rest of the party for his defence team took their seats, while the lead speaker addressed the remainder of the officers and diplomates.

"General O'Neill, as you are aware this isn't a full trial. Much to the disappointment of a number of people whom pushed for one and wished to have you strung up for your actions. The core members of the Security Council and a selection of others, including those countries which were hit by the orbital strikes in the attack have taken your side. However enough of the members from the organization have come forward to require this investigation into the conduct of the battle. At the end of this inquiry we will decide whether you or any of the people within the chain of command are indicated to be at fault then a date for a full trail will be set. Do you understand these terms as they have been laid out?"

"Sir. I do sir." O'Neill replied in perfect military control.

"Very well." The head of the tribunal said as he picked up a sheet of paper from the folder in front of him. "To begin these proceedings, the following list of grievances has been drawn up against both the United States Military and against you personally general. The first is the proliferation and use of armed orbital warships, orbit capable fighter craft and the use of high yield nuclear weapons in direct violation of the strategic arms limitation talks and the non-proliferation of orbital weapons treaties, and breaches of the militarization of space on top of a number of NATO and SEATO based treaties between the United States and the other members of said organisation." He continued, taking out a second page from his file. "Additionally a number of charges have been filled against you personally general O'Neill, up to and including the proscribed use of weapons against non-hostiles, genocide, murder, disobeying direct orders of your commanding officer, theft, dereliction of duty and treason against the people of earth."

The chair of the tribunal put the second page of the charges down and pushed his glasses back up his nose as he looked around the closed room. O'Neill had remained in perfect parade ground at ease pose while the list of two hundred charges were readout while his defence team, consisting of colonel Davis, navel captain Harmon 'Harm' Rabb jr, US Marine lieutenant colonel Sarah 'Mac' Mackenzie both from the judge advocate generals office and doctor Weir, who had been recalled from Atlantis all sitting behind him. A number of other officers from both inside of and outside of the IOA, even several of the JAG officers attached to the Archangel had offered their services to assist O'Neill in his defence, but he had politely turned them down in favour of people which he knew would do everything to make sure he survived this politically motivated inquisition.

"This panel will now hear the arguments for both sides before we will make any decision, however be warned that any attempts at slurring or disparaging remarks and I will not only have the offenders removed but also fined for contempt as well. Now general Aramaki of the North Korean Army has been put forward to speak on behalf of the plaintiff's group, general your opening statement if you would."

"Thank-you mister chairman." The Korean officer said, his native accent coming out due to his announce, "Ladies and gentleman of the panel, a number of sovereign nations and international organisations have empowered me and several other officers from NATO, SEATO and the former WarPac to speak on their behalf. No doubt many of you have been to or have had some contact with the regions which were attacked. The United States and their secret governmental projects brought the Goa'uld to our very door step. Their unprovoked attack resulted in the loss of millions of people across the planet, because of this many areas of the planet will lose their native culture within the next few generations. The nation of Japan has been lost, the history and her people. The United Sates and her allies were fortunate in that they suffered very little in the orbital bombardments. Their possession of extremely high yield nuclear ordinance, space capable fighters, heavy bombers and orbital warships which are carrying those same WMDs and the experimentation and build-up of these forces and weapons which have the power to vaporise the surface of the planet, for use on their enemies, enemies that could take on any form. What is stopping them from turning those weapons upon those that disagree with polices here on Earth?"

"For seven years, this Stargate Command and its personnel have been placing this planet in danger on average three times a year from attack, suicide bombers or their own fault, and hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost because of the American military belief in a manifest destiny, this divine right that they should be allowed to do as they like and take their own style of social and ethical morals to the rest of the galaxy by force and tell them that it is for the 'Greater Good'. So, rather than informing the world and allowing us all to develop an organised and coherent defensive force, they have horded the technology and then drip feed it to those nations which they believe are the most trustworthy. France and England are understandable as they have been allies since the late 1930's during the Second World War, but Russia, China and the former nation of Japan? Those three nations have been at odds for over half-century with the members of both NATO and SEATO and now all of a sudden they have become the best of friends with those nations. Enough that they have several squadrons of space capable fighters and several battleships able to achieve orbit which have been built or are under construction by them, enough that they could hold power over every nation on the planet if they so wished."

"I will with my team, strive to show that the personnel of the SGC and by extension the US military and its allies have been irresponsible and devastating to our world and those that they have visited over the past seven years. If this panel decides to allow this case to be taken to a full war crimes tribunal then we shall also attempt to prove beyond a doubt that general O'Neill and his command are responsible for the suffering which we have been through over the past six months." He said taking a sip of water before nodding to the panel. "I thank-you."

"Colonel Davis, the defences opening statement if you would please."

Davis stood up, fixing his dress blues jacket. "Thank-you Mr Chairman, members of the panel for the past seven years the United States military has fought an ongoing war against a galaxy spanning empire dedicated to the enslavement and eradication of any culture, race or species which they decided is a threat or has value. Stargate Command and Homeworld Command were tasked by the US president to not only defend the United States interests but the planet as a whole against said attacks and to advance our technological base level so that we could repulse any attacks."

"We didn't start this war, it began when the system lord Apophis assaulted and kidnapped senior air man Watering while killing the rest of the detachment that was on guard duty in the storage room that the gate was in and at the time of his attack we were no threat to him, or the Goa'uld, yet because we dared to stand up to him, and the other Goa'uld, his forces attacked us to which we retaliated. Each one of the System Lords whom have attacked us we have returned their attacks in kind, at no time have we escalated this conflict or have we actively hunted out and killed those same System Lord, but we have removed them when we have needed to in order to protect the planet. The United States had its reasons for holding back the information about the stargate program and anything relating to off-world activities. The fear of a public panic, that countries would attempt this and try to undercut America and her allies, both on and off-world, by demanding that there be open access to the public so it can be abused by those who have their own agenda. Since Anubis's attack and the revelation of the project itself, more than a quarter of a million world-wide have been murdered due to their religious beliefs, working in the preservation of ancient historical site or with ties to the IOA."

"We, and those nations allied with us, for our own reasons, some of which was monetary as the air force couldn't fund the program on its own, therefor the allied nations created the international oversite authority. After we have been able expand all of our activities both on and off world, including the construction of the planetary defence grid. Thanks to the stargate program, homeworld command, the IOA and its people, for the first time in ten to fifteen thousand years the Sol system is truly safe from the predilections of the Goa'uld. But by no means is the Earth safe from attack as the raid last month by a lone Alkesh on Memphis demonstrated. The System Lords collective nature is stuck in the mind set of someone who has ideas of godhood that want us to bow down and follow them as a salve race. The System Lords wish to claim the Earth and send us back to the Stone Age."

"We can't bring back those that have been lost in battle or the aftermath, but the SGC and its people are doing everything possible to make sure that this never happens again. Already a number of allies which we have gained through the use of recognisance by teams operating out of stargate command have begun to send us supplies and are assisting us with technological assets which would have taken us centuries to discover and build on our own. Already the radiation and debris which was left from Anubis attack has been safely removed, as well as the dust clouds created by the numerous volcanic eruptions with the volcano's themselves being capped and or tapped for geo-thermal power, with supplies that have been brought to Earth being distrusted across the planet. None of this would have been made possible without the work done by the SGC and its allies. Could we have done better than we have? Possibly. Should we have allowed the world to have known about the stargate? No, we shouldn't have. Would we do things differently if we had known what was out there? Yes we would have, but Earth as a world was already known to them through legends of the Jaffa and Goa'uld, it would only have been a matter of time that one day we would have faced someone who would have forced us to expand our view of the rest of the universe."

"With our eyes open we have not only seen sights out in the universe that most famous science-fiction artist would be unable to dream up, but also have the ability to defend ourselves from the worst that can be thrown at us. Some would claim that it is too little too late while others would state that we are neither mature nor intelligent enough to face these dangers correctly. If we are to defend the people of Earth and our allies then we need to be allowed to continue our jobs. The forces already assembled are the best chance that the planet has to defend against those who would wish us harm. If it is the decision of this panel to continue on to a full tribunal, then the defence will endeavour to show that the SGC and those with whom are associated with it have, and will continue to put the safety of Earth and here people above anything else. We have lost a great many service personal and civilian consultants in the time that the program has been running, but for each life lost millions more on countless other planets have been saved from persecution, slavery and death."

"General O'Neill, his predecessors and successors in command of the SGC and all those that have fought alongside him deserve congratulations, not ridicule or condemnation, thank-you." Davis said surrendering the floor and returned to his seat at the defence teams table, with the JAG lawyers next to him and doctor Weir on the end furthest from the central isle.

"Thank-you both, we will adjourn for the day and recommence at nine am tomorrow." The chairman said as he banged his gavel to end the current session, walking down from the bench the six men and three women of both parties stood as he left the court room.

The SGC team sat back down, being joined by O'Neill as they watched the prosecution filed out of the room, as they did each gave O'Neill a nasty look which O'Neill returned with natural calm gaze until the group was gone and the doors to the court had been closed again, the group waited a few moments to make sure they weren't going to be disturbed again.

"Harm, to Prometheus, we're clear. Bring us up." Rabb said after getting a small nod from O'Neill.

"Acknowledged." Came the reply from the Prometheus' comm-office a split second before a blueish-white light filled the room and transported them out, leaving the court room empty.

-{[]}-

"Nice work Davis, that should give those not on Kinsey's payroll something to think about." O'Neill said as they walked out of the modified ring room into the corridors of the Prometheus heading to the aft conference room behind the modified bridge of the upgraded ship, since it was the safest place to discuss the next stage of the defence proceedings.

"Thank-you sir." Davis said as O'Neill loosened his dress uniform tie and jacket, forcing the younger officers and doctor Weir not to laugh since it was well known to those within the SGC how much the general hated to wear his dress uniform. "But I'm not sure how much I might have swayed them, however I feel it isn't necessary to sway them at present sir. This was just the opening of the investigation, we'll have to wait a little longer to convince all parties that both the SGC and the Tau'ri Defence Force is still the most logical organization to defend the planet, at least foreseeable future at least."

"The problem however," Weir said as the group took a seat around the conference table in the conference room, "is that there are several of the SGC's most recent projects are highly classified. The original disclosure and leak of the SGC was bad enough, but the discovery of the Pegasus expedition could seriously push the public and the courts against us."

"There are somethings things that we can't allow to become public knowledge ma'am, your command amongst them." Mackenzie replied as she opened her bag and took out her leather portfolio. "The same with several of the secondary sites, if any of them are discovered then we will explain about them, but for now they have to remain under wraps."

"I don't like this. The longer that we keep the city out of the eyes of the public, the more problems we will have once the truth comes out. I do understand that we need to keep it classified but we are opening ourselves up for more problems than a disclosure would solve. Especially from the families of those that we have lost out there." Weir responded sounding slightly upset thinking about those who had been lost recently in defending Atlantis from the Wraith and Genii. "The more we lose during the missions out there the more people will want to know why, and Atlantis could come under threat again, and this time not only from the Wraith or the Goa'uld but from our own people as well."

"Kinsey." Muttered Rabb while making it seem like he was coughing, which made everyone smirk knowing how much the current vice-president of the US was hated by both O'Neill and Rabb.

"The city's identity will come out, but only when it is suitable and not before doctor." O'Neill said, using his command voice before switching to his normal joking tone that always left people either queuing for some aspirin or heading for O'Malley's bar and grill for a shot or twenty, "and at the moment it isn't suitable. Besides think of it this way, if anybody was to start running around claiming 'hay we've found the lost city of Atlantis but it is millions of light years away on a planet in the Pegasus galaxy' they will call in the men in white coats and be locked up in a padded room long before the SGC, NID or anyone else gets to them. The public may believe in aliens and giant aliens roaming around the galaxy, but they sure as hell won't believe that Atlantis has been found."

"Giant aliens?" Mackenzie asked raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Never mind major, you know that is classified?" O'Neill smirked remembering the sight of the macro-sized pilots from the Archangel nearly stepping on Kinsey as he toured the Zentradi warship trying to get them to turn over command to the NID. "The fact of the matter is at the moment that city is more like an ark if something devastating was to happen here in the Milky-way. If we were to let the planet know about Atlantis, how long do you think it would be before the rest of the galaxy knows? How long before we would have the Goa'uld, Tok'ra and any other space faring race, except the Asgard, coming after us because we have access to the city of the gate builders? No the city stays secret until it becomes absolutely necessary."

-{[]}-

The signature flash of a blueish-white of a transporter system filled the heavily secured receiving room deep under the salt-flats by the recently upgraded Area 51, since its designation as the planet-side base for the Tau'ri Defence Force headquarters. As the flash faded two Tau'ri defence force officer materialised only to be met by several heavy weapons emplacements, made up from a mix of 50 calibre machine gun nests, staff cannons and several tri-barrelled mini-guns, all maned by operators from Seal Team Eight behind one meter of laminated ships armour and Tok'ra security shields, leading to a laminated ships armour blast door blocking the only physical way out. A pair of micro CCTV camera's pointed down from the ceiling zoomed in on the pair as nearly two dozen hidden scanners started to scan the pair.

"Place any weapons you may be carrying onto the trays to your left." A synthesised voice said from the concealed speaker.

O'Neill placed his side arms as well as a pair of short knives, a butterfly blade and an old battered Swiss Army knife from the ankle holsters and hidden compartment in his belt buckle. Once he was done he moved aside and was stunned to see Davis place not only his standard issue Beretta and his holdout Walter P99 into the tray, but also a pair of butterfly knives, several throwing knives, a short sword, two tactical boot knives before rolling up his right sleeve to remove a gauntlet with a half a dozen small throwing stars and a combination taser and tranquiliser dart launcher.

"Major?" O'Neill asked raising an eyebrow.

"Sir, I've been with the program long enough to know it is better to be safe than sorry." Was all the junior officer said with a perfectly straight face, before O'Neill could respond the officer at the security station triggered the next section of the entry sequence.

"Place all electronic and electrical based equipment into the tray to your right."

"Alright that one's new." O'Neill said jokingly as he placed his watch, mobile, mag-lite and backup locator beacon in the tray like Davis, and was shocked for the second time that day as he saw two extra mag-lite's and a pair of pen torches like they used in the infirmary.

"State your name, password and clearance code then standby for an identity scan."

"O'Neill, Jonathan, password 'Peek-a-boo', clearance code Sierra Golf Charlie Actual one nine six seven two Alpha Tango."

"Davis, Paul. Password 'Henderson', clearance code Prometheus Delta nine five seven two three one three Gamma two."

"Now I know that I've done this before." O'Neill whispered softly.

"Standard procedure in all Tau'ri defence force insulations and council facilities now sir, better get used to it sir." Davis replies politely as the security scanner began sweeping over them. "I think there was a memo, sir." He joked. As they continued to make small talk the pair where being checked for any concealed weapons, infestations of any kind or hidden bugs. The possibility of the two men having been replaced was a fact not being discounted, and for several long minutes every piece of identification verifying technology that the SGC had managed to beg, borrow, steal or create of their own volition. Everything from their cloths, their bodies' right down to their very DNA was scanned by the mass of sensors surrounding them, once all the scanners had confirmed that they were who they said they were the force shield over the door deactivated and the seal team were given the all clear.

"Continue on to the next room."

Walking into the next room, the two men heard the door behind them hiss shut and lock before a very strong burst of ultra-high and ultra-low frequency static, which was combined with both an extremely powerful and focused EMP and sub-space pulse, altogether it was designed to disable any and all known listening devices encountered by the SGC, Asgard and Zentron, including the ones that executor Granger had in his small kit. After the pulses the exit door opened to allow them access into a much more familiar style of room.

"I think that I still prefer the mountain." O'Neill said as he walked out and over to the trays to retrieve all of their personal items that they had removed before going through the identity check and decontamination sweeps, with Davis. "But this new look Area 51 seems nice."

"Yes sir. The base is now a whole lot safer than the SGC. The defence grid, air wing and ground detachment make Cheyenne Mountain, Fort Knox, Crystal Point, Pearl Harbour and the White House look like open houses by comparison." Davis said, though he knew it was redundant since the general had designed the over style with several of the SG team leaders.

"It would do, and thanks to Anubis this place is a fortress and then some. How long until the second phase of construction is completed?"

"The construction crews think about six months," Davis said as he tested his gauntlet was comfy and still working, "We began the upgrade and redesign just before the Pegasus Expedition departed, and thanks to the Asgard beaming technology and the Zentradi nano-lathes we've actually almost finished the dock-yards, hangers and underground fail-safe complex, all we are missing are the city ship class shields from Anoke stations and the tunnel to the secondary airfield."

"That's a bit of a risk isn't it?" O'Neill asked raising an eyebrow. "Having a tunnel like that will be a compromise in the perimeter of the bases security grid?"

"Yes sir, but the shield will go through the tunnel and down another fifty feet, with internal security shields, blast doors every twenty-five feet and fixed defences equipped with heavy weapons and remote demo charges designed to not only bring the whole tunnel down but vaporise anything and anyone in it." Davis explained as the last room unsealed as the pressure equalized within the airlock allowing them entry into the base from the decon rooms.

"So where is the mess hall?" O'Neill asked suddenly looking at the map of the base behind the security station, causing the two MP's to stifle their laughs having pulled several tours at the SGC.

"I'll take you there sir, I believe that the rest of the new TDF joint chiefs are at lunch currently." Davis said, amazing the battle worn general with the knowledge of the bases layout that he had only visited a few times. "You know, if they have spent even a small percentage of the budget on this place for something other than coffee, then the food here should be good."

"I can't say sir." Davis said fighting back a smirk. "However, I have heard off the record sir, that the food is better than over at the Pentagon."

"Excellent." O'Neill said in his best mister Burns impression meets a Goa'uld to date.

The mess hall was barely occupied as the pair of officers arrived, with most of the upgrades to the base incomplete, the majority of the staff where awaiting transfer to the planetary headquarters and training academy, yet a number of high ranking officers were on the base receiving a tour of the complex. Strangely enough, after the surface areas of the base had been upgraded and the receiving room of the new security station was built, the first section to be completely finished was the mess hall. This was something that the base personal, Seabee's and air force construction teams had been grateful for and used to their fullest extent.

"Okay." O'Neill said having eaten at the Pentagon's mess hall a few time. "Please tell me they have jello and cake."

"I believe they have green, blue and chocolate fudge, sir."

"I am officially impressed with the new headquarters already major."

The counters in the mess hall where stocked with food and drinks of all kinds, O'Neill was more than a little surprised at the spread, but his time at the SGC had almost spoiled him with the selection of off-world delicacies which were on offer 24/7, but perversely he had missed the standard selections available at normal military bases. However what he could see in front of him even the best chefs in the military, the planet over, would be given a run for their money. Grabbing a helping of pasta bandin and a piece of triple layer chocolate fudge cake with cream and a mug of coffee, before heading to the table with the other joint chiefs.

"Gentlemen." O'Neill said nodding to the other officers that now made up the upper ranks of the new Tau'ri Defence Force, even though the captains of the Minerva class ships had been saying this to the Goa'uld when they encroached on planets under the protected planets treaty, as Davis took a seat further down the table from the superior offices with his own pasta bandin.

"Jack, commiserations on your promotion." Joked Hammond while Jumper had a knowing smile on his face, given how it was public knowledge to those that knew him how much O'Neill hated being promoted.

"Yes, general congratulations on your recent promotion." General Longbottom, the British logistics commander, said lifting his cup of tea in salute. "Welcome to the ranks of the damned."

"Death by a thousand paper cuts." O'Neill deadpanned, grimacing at the thought. "You know I tried to get general West to come back, but he's claiming that his golf game has improved a lot the he might be able to give general Abernathy a run for his money soon, so I'm stuck with the job."

"It's not going to be that bad Jack." Jumper replied with a slight smile as he took a sip of his coffee. "So how was it over at the Hague these last few months?"

"The usual crap. Kinsey and his people tried to blame me for everything from the attack to water being wet, and that the whole of the TDF should be under the command of the NID with him in charge. I think his best mistake was when he said that as the Zentradi where distant cousins of earth that they should give them everything on the Archangel, the response that commodore Hudson gave to that 'request' had me wishing that I had a camera." O'Neill said with a small smile at the memory.

"Oh, what did he do?" Hammond asked curious, having heard some of the ways that the Zentron commodore liked to use explosives.

"He asked if he liked his new belt, seconds before a belt made up of det-cord appeared around the lead prosecutors and Kinsey's waist and that computer-thingy on his wrist lit up. Anyway the panel are now out deliberating so we just have to wait and see what happen. Either way I think that the vice presidents days in the white house are growing short."

"Hayes and the original members of the TDF council are on your side. Don't know about the rest of the new council, but The Hague can't touch you without the rest of the planet turning on them." Jumper said. "Just forget about it, we have more important matters to deal with than a politician whose career is on the way-out and setting the courts on you just because you did your job to well and has a bug up his ass about what happened."

"Yeah, I've gone from being a grunt in command of a small recon team, to the one in charge of the whole of the new fleet and second-in-command of the whole of the TDF in just one year. Yep, I'm right up there with the rest of you in the ranks of the damned."

"Ahh, Jack being in the ranks of the joint chiefs isn't that bad, just a lot more paperwork." Hammond said smirking.

"Maybe, but until we get more than two battle-groups in the fleet I've not got much to do. Fortunately that shouldn't be too much longer if those schedules that major disaster Davis over there has shown me are correct." O'Neill said causing Davis to grown at the nickname that he had gained within the SGC due to how he would only show up when there was a major problem related to the project.

"How so?" Longbottom asked.

"I've got sixteen Minerva battle carriers on the slipways at the moment, plus a dozen mixed Nelson, Drake, Acidalium and Prometheus spec two's on top of that the keels for the next two Mississippi's where laid yesterday. The home fleet is almost repaired from that raid by those minor Goa'uld's last month and we have nearly three thousand fighters and support craft, including Argama class explorer class light carriers, complete. Most of the flight systems, life support systems and other systems are easy to build along with the fuselages and main hulls, but we don't have enough exotic materials which we gain from our off-world sites like mother lode. The worst of it is that we don't have enough personal trained to fly and crew them even after eighteen months, what with the majority of them being sent to the Peg-site." O'Neill said using the name for Atlantis that was known only to those of the high command.

"What about all of those supplies that the Hebridian Alliance have been sending our way?" Jumper asked having finished his meal.

"The vast majority of it is raw ore, not weapons or construction grade as we had hoped for." O'Neill said as he continued his own meal. "In fact I've gave orders for Anoke station to decommission nearly two dozen of those Magellanic class heavy cruisers which are still docked as we need the Trinium to help with the repairs which task force alpha, all the over-halls to the Minerva class, the construction of the orbital defense grid and the new space dock, it seems like we are up that infamous creak with no paddle and a big hole in the side of the raft. The thing is even if we did have the ships we don't have enough people to crew them."

"I find that surprising, considering the lines I saw the last time I was in London it was out the door and around the block." Said Longbottom, looking around the table and seeing similar looks on the others.

"Oh, we've got recruitment the likes of which even the Japanese attack on Pearl back in 1941. The two main problems we have are firstly, the new recruits are going to take time to train up, and secondly, is that those transferring from the dozen or so nations a third of them are coming from nations with no navel and or air service, and the ones that do their current fast jet and rotary wing pilots are all having to be retrained so that they can pilot the star fighters using those new training simulators that are here which the Zentradi built for us." O'Neill said.

"Soooo, how long?" Hammond asked, using a tone that O'Neill had used in so many briefings at the SGC when he was in command of the base.

"About six weeks before the Drakes and Prometheus spec twos come on-line, I'd reckon about the same for the new Nelson's. Arcadia stations main reactors are still being a little twitchy, even for the Zentradi so we've asked the Asgard to come and take a look at it, but what I could understand from Carters report is that the whole thing needs to be stripped out and replaced at the very least." O'Neill said pinching the bridge of his nose trying to rub his fatigue away. "The rest of the fleet, going by the reports, are fully operational and awaiting orders or are assisting with the construction and deployment of the defense turrets, cannons, the new mass accelerator cannons and the outer system sensor net. I'm still waiting for a few reports from the newer members of the TDF before I even think about how we are going to patrol the planets that are part of the protected planets treaty."

"How is that new ship yard construction coming along?" Hammond asked.

"It's set to build ten Minerva and Two Mississippi class all in orbit and over core council nations with five smaller ones on the surface in each of their nations themselves, nut providing them with the materials and resources to build the ships is an altogether problem. We should have a decent stockpile of materials and resources by the time that the last of them come online, but it will still take a minimum of twelve months to get the fleet to one that the politicians want. I need a new idea here."

"There is always the shipyards that the Hebridan Alliance offered, I think that they said they would build a dozen Minerva and Two Drakes." Longbottom replied thinking of the logistics involved. "With their technology I'm sure that they could provide us with at least six Minerva's every few months or so."

"Yeah, we could rent their yards." O'Neill said putting his hands up in surrender, acting very grown up for a change. "The problem is with some of the equipment that is installed on the ships, namely the Asgard based shields and hyper-drives, the same with our homegrown computer systems would have the whole of the alphabet soup having kittens thinking that it would be out in the galaxy."

"What about if we have them build the hulls over there and then tow them back here to fit the Asgard, home grown and Zentron systems once we get them here?"

"We could but the aforementioned soup would be going on about hidden surveillance bugs all over them. Since the attack by Anubis and the problems with the NID, the council have been more than a little paranoid then normal about allowing any of our homegrown tech out of sight. We'll most likely take them up on their offer but only for support ships like Argama explorers and the new Gecko class supply ships."

"Wouldn't they have just as much chance of ripping off our systems we have on those ships, and what about those Magellanic class heavy cruisers which we found out at Anoke station?" Davis asked from his seat, "They looked big enough to some serious damage, especially if we could adapt the cannons, however I'm not a technical expert like major carter but how hard could it be to refit them with the scrapped Dulfim class assault ship equipment?"

"I don't know and I am not asking unless it is in the infirmary." O'Neill admitted remembering the time he had asked how the stargate worked back when the program was first starting up. "The truth is we are having enough problems trying to get the next batch of Acidalium and Drake classes ready, if we could get those in place there CIWS arrays and missile banks should be able to hold off any serious attack by the Goa'uld at any of the planets under the treaty and our off-world stations until reinforcements arrive."

Jumper looked thoughtful as he finished off his own desert. The vast majority of the fleet was being kept close to Earth, due to the politicians, with only the ships of taskforce Atlantis not being kept in the home system which was causing problems with the planed exploration and resupply of the Alpha, Beta and Gamma site. The additions of the massive drone carrier battleships that the Alterans had built, along with the Minerva class that the Zentradi where building at a rate of one every three months should solve a massive number of problems which the young fleet is looking at more so once the new ships and construction yards all came online. "Out of curiosity how powerful are the rounds fired from the heavy cannons on the Magellanic class?"

"Carters projections show that they could blow clean through one of our homemade ships if their shields where to go down, so I'd have to hazard a guess at fairly strong, yet against a ship or station with shields it would be like firing a musket at an M1 Abrams tank a waste of time. We have already seen that over PX3-595. Unless they can sustain a rate of fir to overload their targets or use the kinetic force of the shots to physically move the generators within their housings then they are not really useful." O'Neill replied.

"That's what I thought." Jumper said playing with his pilots wings. "They are practically useless here in the Milky Way without a major overhaul of their weapons systems which would be very costly but the addition of a shield system would be rather simple."

Davis looked up at that, realising what the implications of what the four star general was suggesting. One or two Magellanic class with shields would be of considerable use to the young fleet, by using some of the larger versions and several of the Ha'tak's which had been captured by SG teams other than SG1, it would allow them to have a second layer of defence between the fleet and the heavily depleted drone store of the Antarctic outpost. Used against the Goa'uld those weapons be a match while the advanced shielding system that the Zentradi had gifted to them, would make them all but impervious to the equal fire power of the Goa'uld.

"There is another enemy whom we seem to have made recently out there who would be extremely vulnerable to the weapons systems already installed, especially the armour piercing and high explosive rounds used in the heavier cannons, we already know that if the Wraith are caught unawares they can be crippled by one shot from an 'Isolde' cannon or the rail guns on a Nelson class." Davis said having seen the after action reports from the defence of Atlantis. "The spinal and large flack cannons would piece most of, if not all of the armour on a hive ship, and sir if we give them the same shields as on a Minerva class, then Peg-base would have a decent defence perimeter."

"I don't see that as being feasible major." Longbottom replied looking over towards the major. "The amount of resources that we would need to redirect to the retrofits on those ships, it would cripple our production of the fleet. You are talking about replacing almost every system, not to mention adding the new mark III Vibranium naquadah arc reactors, modifying the flight decks to hold our fighters and transports. Combined we are looking a boat load of badly needed personal and supplies for each one that we upgrade."

"I understand that sir, but if we scrap half the ships we recovered from the attack by Anubis, construction of most of those systems will out strip the demand, and that is taking into account the use of spears from repair or testing. We should be able to construct enough reactors, power conduits and computer systems to refit ten possible fifteen of the larger Magellanic class within about four or five months, maybe another five if we could increase the amount of trading we do with our off-world allies."

"I guess we could use those dry docks that we've been offered, you know I think that we should reclassify them," O'Neill said toying with his jello cup that he had snagged off a passing airman in the mess, "their ability to act as a mobile starbase like we're making in orbit crossed with the firepower of what our Zentron cousins call a Kanji class medium scale gun-destroyer. That kind of firepower would be fatuus esset dampnas to waste, the paranoia of the alphabet soup about spying which would be non-existent since the tech base of the Hebridan Alliance is about the same as our own now, which I might add is around ten to a hundred times greater than that of the Goa'uld."

-{[]}-

"Thanks" Campbell said as she stretched in her chair at the helm as Cochrane walked back over from the raktajino machine with two of the life giving drinks, totally unaware of what was going on at Area 51, "You read my mind, urg third watch, why does it always seem to last forever."

"Oh I don't know," Cochrane said blushing but hiding it as he took a sip of his drink, "it all depends on who you have to spend it with."

The pair drifted into silence on the deserted bridge, as the Archangel sat in her dock in earth orbit, watching as the various fighter squadrons from the Archangel ran drills with a few of the TDF star wolf interceptors and the newer star cobra fighter inceptors on the main sensor display at the front of the bridge, before noticing something incoming fast through hyperspace.

"Deculture! Incoming on the hyperspace scanners and its huge!" Campbell practically screamed as she read the data on the display.

Profile suggests at least one Anubis class, two Apophis class and nearly two thousand mixed Ha'tak's classes including some that look like those cruisers we tangled with over Ptah's planet." Cochrane said hitting the ship wide alert, which would be relayed over to the TDF command with their sensor data.

"Report!" Hudson said on the hot screen as he pulled on his T-shirt.

"Incoming armada sir." Cochrane reported while Campbell began the combat launch sequence, using the stations reactors to cut down on some of the power up requirements. "It would seem that Ba'al has finished playing with the other Goa'uld and decided to try and complete Anubis work, sir."

"TDF command reports no response from interrogator signal, sir." A crewman shouted up from the equally understaffed lower level comm-scan stations. "Area 51 has just activated all operational orbital defence platforms."

"All fighters are reloading for combat." Hill said looking over the flight-ops station and fixing her hair into a lose ponytail. "Alert fighters are in the tubes and scans show that the TDF fleet is moving into attack formation."

"Orders from TDF command sir." Comm-scan officer said, "All forces in Sol system are to hold fire!"

The bridge crew of the Archangel held their breath and went deathly pale as the collective forces of the Goa'uld system lords reverted from hyperspace, more ships than they many had seen since the last battle of the Disruptor War, just beyond the effective range of both the defence turrets and fleets weapons range.

"People of the Tau'ri. I am your god Ba'al. Bow down and worship me or face my wrath."

Hudson began muttering every prayer from his upbringing on New Hibernia that he knew, hoping that this wasn't being broadcast to the public on the planet below heading into the underground shelters that had been constructed, but a quick glance at Granger, as he maned the comm-scan station that was set to record ZNN, showed that it wasn't. "Commodore scans show that they are breaking and moving into an attack formation similar to that of Imperial formation Sju Trenio."

"Deculture!" Hudson swore, that was designed by the imperials during the Disruptor war to vaporise a moon that had been turned into a fortress. "Activate the stations defence grid and then get us out there!"

With that the space doors, allowing them to see the massive armada of Goa'uld ships being fired upon at range from the fifty completed hyper positron cannons of the incomplete defence network crossing with plasma fire from the upgraded Ha'tak's in response. The beam turrets were the first to take hits as several of the Al'kesh made a micro jump and engaged them at point blank range, pummelling their shields.

"Commodore! The turrets are taking a pounding sir, their defence net wasn't designed to handle these sorts of numbers." An ensign on the lower bridge informed him.

"Hill have the ghost move to assist. Have our station try and take some of the heat and tell St Laurence to target five cannons per mothership leave the fighters to the auto turrets." Hudson ordered as the forward elements of the TDF fleet fired off a massive alpha strike of Gottfried and Tannhäuser cannons followed a split second late by a wave of wombat anti-ship missiles.

When the alpha strike hit, nearly fifty of the leading Ha'tak's lost their shields and where vaporised by the following missile salvo, a small cheer went up over the open comm-link from Arcadia station, however it was short lived as both of the Apophis class motherships opened fire destroying the entire cannon network between them in an alpha strike of their own.

"Deculture. Weapons target all forward batteries on the Apophis class at orange two three one bravo! Secondary cannons on the other one five seconds after it!" Hudson ordered taking a fast look at the overall tactical picture.

Like a massive wave, over two dozen Monster and Tomahawk II class destroids opened fire along with the forward Gottfried's of the Archangel sending a mixture of green, blue and gold beams towards the massive mothership turning it into a massive pin cushion seconds before it exploded, this was followed up by a wave of wombat and sledge-hammer missiles and gauss cannon rounds slamming into the other ship overloading its shields before vaporising its power core, as the nearby Ha'tak's started splitting off into wolf packs as a stream of plasma smart drones from Arcadia passed through the fleet and fighter fur-ball going on off the bow of the Archangel, and into two dozen Ha'tak's and all of the troop transports surrounding Ba'al's Anubis class flagship just as a pair of condensed golden orange beams left the upper supper structure of the ship sweeping across and destroying a few Drake class frigates and clipping the Mississippi's shields causing it to flare dangerously.

"Ready the main gun." Hudson ordered, recognising the beams as first generation over-technology guided converging beam shots as the Monster class destroids alongside the bridge fired while the Minerva class ships TDF Freedom and TDF Independence moved to flank their Zentradi cousins. While the main could be used to take out a single target, its main purpose was the destruction of entire fleets with a single shot, but the Archangel was meant to work with a squadron of five other ships of the same design backed up by at least two Macross III super dreadnoughts making those on the receiving end of the shot nothing more than space dust. Once the main gun finished it's charging it unleashed a spear of bright blue almost white beam of super dimensional energy at the Goa'uld armada vaporising a full third of them, which was followed up by an alpha strike from the Mississippi backed up by the remaining orbital defence stations in a truly massive time-on-target strike on Ba'al's flagship breaching its shields and opening a massive gash in its hull.

-{[]}-

Ba'al slowly pulled himself upright in the smoke filled Pel'tak of his flagship, as more consoles sparked and overloaded filling the ship with more smoke to join the multiple fires already burning around the ship.

"Fools. I am a GOD! You cannot kill me I will resurrect and my power will be ten time stronger." He said having been spouting the same to his followers, along with the rest of the Goa'uld, for centuries that he believed every word of his own propaganda.

-{[]}-

The remaining two thirds of the two thousand strong armada of the collective might of the Goa'uld was quickly destroyed by the Tau'ri fleet as the closed to point blank range, during this the ships of the Acidalium third destroyer squadron had been holding station around the orbital docks not joining the battle yet as their orders where not to engage unless the Goa'uld moved to attack the shipyards directly. Major Couseus, the commander of the squadrons command ship the TDF Tyco opened up a channel as the tactical display showed two wings of Al'kesh bombers moving to attack them.

"Third squadron, this is squadron commander, break and attack. Use your superior manoeuvrability, concentrate on the ships with weakened shields first."

He received a chorus of affirmatives as the squadron broke up to attack opening up with their Gatling style rail CIWS cannons and a wave of the new hydra missiles.

-{[]}-

Ba'al was slowly attempting to make his way to the hanger deck where he an upgraded Al'kesh ready to escape the slaughter mumbling to himself as his mighty dreadnought shook again from the weapons of the Tau'ri causing the ship to list heavily to the left.

"I am a god, I cannot die! I will make these shol'va pay a thousand fold for betraying their GODS!"

He would never get a chance to enact his plans of revenge as six sledgehammer torpedoes slammed into the exposed main reactor core of his unshielded flagship, killing Ba'al in a massive naquadah enhanced fireball before he was even a third of the way to his hidden escape craft.

The rest of the battle raged for another three hours as the Goa'uld armada took heavy fire from the Zentradi station, surface based SMAC cannons, Arcadia and elements of the TDF fleet jumping in from Anoke station. The Prometheus and Acidalium classes did their best to stay mobile as well as avoiding damage but it wasn't as easy as they thought it was going to be since a Ha'tak was designed to be able to fire on any target at any time removing any blind spots for an enemy to exploit so four of the ships of the third destroyer squadron where destroyed outright, with the two cutters of the squadron having to make an emergency jump to Anoke station before the battle was over, but the destroyers hadn't been destroyed in vain.

For the collective might of the Goa'uld, this defeat was total with only a minor system lord called Benna being the only one to survive the attack by having his Ha'tak jump into hyperspace just before two Tannhäuser beams would have hit, but it was on fire across several decks and massive gaps in her hull while the rest of the ships which he had been pressured to bring to the fight were now either slowly expanding clouds of scrap or burnt out hulks in space thanks to the thrice damned Tau'ri. As he watched the swirls of hyperspace he thought that all of this destruction would have been wrought on the Tau'ri if the system lords hadn't banish Path allowing them access to his power sources. It was luck that the TDF had be fortunate in that case.

-{[]}-

The comm-scan operator on the Archangel, who had taken over from Cochrane after the battle which some of the MACO's and fighter pilots where calling the 'Massacre of Sol' was taking a sip of his coffee when once again the long range sensor drones which had been launched to pick up the slack till more sensor platforms could be built picked up more incoming ships through hyperspace.

"Sir!" The technician shouted from the lower bridge to where Hudson was talking over the comm-link to their base in the Lantea system. "I've got several capital grade ships inbound at orange twenty one mark seven delta closing fast."

"When it rains it pours." Muttered Hudson, "Okay, bring the ship back up to level one battlestations, major increase speed I think we are going to need those ghost drones this time."

"Aye sir," Sisko said over the link before it closed. No sooner that the link closed and the alert klaxon finished its two tone blast did a second one open from Area 51.

"Attention all force in the Sol system stand down." Hammond's voice came over the comm-link. "We have confirmed IFF signal of the Asgard seventh fleet lead by the supreme commander's personal flagship."

"Thank the maker." Sighed Hudson as he dropped into his command chair, his exhaustion showing despite his Varauta heritage. "Stand down from level one battlestations and set level two across the ship and dock station, and set a CAP. Murdoch work with the teams in the dock to get all our damage repaired and reload all of our spent old school munitions."

"Understood commodore, it should be done by the time major Sisko arrives with the Neidhart and Korinthos torpedoes from Archangel Base." Murdoch said over internal comm-link before the channel closed, as Hudson turned to face both Granger and Welsh at the damage control station. "I want you two to take Devil Air and Land and do a full sweep of that Ha'tak at blue fifteen for any and all intel."

"Aye sir." Welsh said catching the unspoken order to keep the worst of it out of the TDFs hands but to let them have first pick of the cargo and any weapons caches they found, as she left the bridge to go gear up and brief both Rockwell and McCloud.

-{[]}-

Light years away from the sol system Lord Benna, the only member of the Goa'uld system lords whom was able to escape the from the massacre which was the attack on the first world, slowly stood and limped back to his throne in the Pel'tak of his dying Ha'tak as it slowly fell from orbit of the planet that served as his homeworld. His loyal first prime lay dead at his feet with a piece of metal sticking out of his neck and several other Jaffa were scattered around the area slowly bleeding to death, as he took his seat he saw several sections of the outer armour from what was once his prized flagship peeling off like dry skin through the view port.

He knew that the Goa'uld couldn't have won this fight, not when that massive warship had launched from an asteroid and took out both of the Apophis style motherships before it fired a beam of bright blue almost white energy that was off the scale for his ships sensors destroying a full third of the armada in one shot in a matter of seconds. He couldn't even retreat to his personal escape craft due to the hallway being blocked because of a near miss by one of those blasted atomic weapons which the Tau'ri loved to throw around. He looked when he heard a new grown, just in time to see a strip of armour from around the viewport peel away and the inner hull start to glow as it was exposed to the plasma of re-entry. All around him his once mighty and powerful warship continued to shake itself apart burning up as it continued its uncontrolled decent through the atmosphere. His last thoughts before being vaporised by the burst of heat from the re-entry plasma entering the chamber was how far and fast the Goa'uld had fallen in the decade since the death of Ra.

-{[]}-

As the Asgard's seventh fleet and the non-basics of the other ships from the Alpha, Beta and Gamma sites where arriving in orbit of Earth, the Minerva class battle carrier TDF Daedalus was on course through hyperspace towards a planet which had been discovered in the database of the massive fortress colony ship, which going on the information they had it was a ship similar to Atlantis, but only smaller, and it had gone missing in the days of the war with the Wraith deep within the Pegasus galaxy, and following the siege at the start of the year the politicians' of the newly formed TDF council wanted to increase the size of the force in Pegasus while continuing with their exploration and a ship like Atlantis would be an ideal start.

"We're coming up on the target system sir." Marks said from the plot table at the rear of the raised bridge between the communications and operations stations.

"Drop us from hyperspace," Caldwell sighed after sipping his coffee in his command chair. "Full scan, I want to know what's out there." He ordered following the attack on the Daedalus while they had been checking out a distress signal from an Alteran battlecruiser on the edge of the galaxy as the view through the transparent Trinium suddenly filled with darkness as the ship tore its way through the space-hyperspace barrier and back into normal space. In the distance they could see the remains of at least one hive ship and a few dozen smaller Alteran cruisers and destroyers hanging in orbit against the blue and green of the planet.

"Report!" Snapped Caldwell almost hitting the level one alert button as the Daedalus' two Nelson class battleship escorts dropped back into normal space and took up an immediate flanking position around their command ship.

"Sir, it looks like the reports in the Atlantis computers where correct," Marks said looking at the sensor data on the plot table, "I'm seeing debris from at least two hive ships, twenty cruisers and five destroyer analogues of Wraith origin plus debris from maybe twenty Alteran warships."

"Any active power readings on the Wraith ships."

"Negative sir."

"Ok, set level two battlestations, but keep the shields active in case there are any unexploded war heads out there. Helm take us into a high orbit."

"Aye sir." The helm office said over the active comm-link from the main bridge below in the command bunker.

Slowly and with great caution the three ships made their way into orbit of the planet, their shields and CIWS taking out a few unexploded plasma drones and Wraith bombs.

"Now in orbit sir." Marks reported as two Starmax's where launched causing the ship to shudder as they left the linear catapults to do a more detailed scan of the orbital battlefield for anything of value, such as unexploded drones. "Commencing scans of the surface now."

After five minutes, during which Caldwell had moved from his command chair to stand and look out the view port of the Earth like planet below his ship. "Anything?"

"It is confirmed sir." Marks said nodding in response, not that Caldwell saw. "Based upon these readings there is a large structure on the surface, it looks like a smaller version of an Atlantis type fortress colony. Going on these readings it would appear as if it is half, possible two thirds buried, with most of the super structure destroyed, sensors are showing that the six piers and the control tower only."

Turning around slowly Caldwell sent him a questioning look even raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure major?"

"Yes sir." Marks replied. "Both our escorts have confirmed our readings, sir."

"It's shield grid?"

"Mostly intact but without power I can't say for certain, sir." Captain Keogh said looking over the readings at the engineering station, while making a note that they would need to land soon to purge the main sub-light manifolds soon. "We are also reading around one hundred human life signs within the central tower and close to a thousand within smaller settlements surrounding it out to a ten kilometres radius. It would appear to be a small farming community, I'd guess somewhere around the medieval stage of development."

"That complicates things. Okay send a hyper burst to Atlantis with all of the information and tell them we need the diplomates." Caldwell said pinching the bridge of his nose at how a simple recovery operation had turned into a massive headache, but he did have an idea how they could recover the city and make nice with the locals, he only hoped that doctor Weir would agree to help him in convincing the bean counters back home that this would be worth the cost involved.

-{[]}-

Exiting the stargate in orbit of the planet where the Daedalus had been sent to recover a sister ship to Atlantis, the small Alteran jumper class shuttle from Atlantis moved quickly towards the planet as two Star Cobra fighter interceptors took up an escorting position around it. Not long after the three ships where in formation they began the transition from the cold void of space into the protective embrace of the planet's atmosphere as the capital ships crested the curve of the planet.

From there seats in the front of the gate capable short range shuttle, Lorne, Weir and Zelenka watched out the windscreen as the top of the fortress colony slowly came into view, the only sections of the massive city ship that they could make out was the area from the infirmary up to the top of the command tower. For a moment the passengers of the transport all looked stunned as to the fate which had befallen a ship which was probable the jewel of any fleet half buried, yet it had left its sister ship virtually untouched. Noticing that their escort had peeled off Lorne began to circle the tower heading for the clearing that they had been using for the last two months located about halfway between the tower and the largest of the villages.

Exiting the transport, Weir, Zelenka and the members of AR-2 moved along the familiar path through the woods towards the tower, which was sticking up over the small hill and the taller trees. The two marines from the team were scanning the area with their eyes, looking for any threats like they had been trained for, as they walked while weir was stealing herself for this last round of negotiations.

"Stop!" The group heard as they rounded the last bend in the path by the tower and the two of the constables of the Lord Protectors personal guard slowly approached them, their hands on their short swords. "State the purpose for your visit?"

"We are here to discuss a matter of great importance with her highness, the royal lady Mara." Weir responded, calling on all of her time at the U.N. to remember the correct way to address a member of a nation's royal family. "If you could please inform her highness that the leader of Atlantis requests the pleasure of an audience."

"Please wait here." One of the constables said as he quickly retreated back to the tower leaving the other to watch over their group while the two Star Cobra's that had escorted them down put on a small air show for the children in the village while their parents went on with their day and traders from other villages coming to trade. Lorne was taken aback with how the people where much happier now compared to when AR-1 had made first contact a few months earlier, and going by the looks and dress of the people it would seem that Lady Mara had the welfare of her people higher than that of both her late father and brother, so the people were beginning to live their lives rather than in fear under the veil of oppression that they had for generations.

After several minutes the guard returned and informed them that their audience request had been granted and then ushered them quickly into the tower and the audience chamber, which on Atlantis was the hologram room, instead of the more formal council room up on the control room level.

"If you would please wait here." The constable said more politely this time compared to their initial meeting outside. "Her highness will be with you shortly." Before he turned and left to stand a little further down the hallway.

"Colonel Sheppard's reports say that Lady Mara will be very receptive to our offer." Weir said as she took a seat while two of the marines stood opposite the door mirroring the constables down the hallway.

"Yes ma'am, it does appear that the good colonel knows how to treat the ladies of this galaxy and what their needs are." Lorne said chuckling a little while Zelenka and the older members of AR-2 just smirked knowingly.

"Didn't the colonel have to stop her from getting into his pants?" The newest member to AR-2, private McMannis, asked bluntly proving just how young he was.

Hearing that question Lorne laughed while Weir blushed slightly and Zelenka, the other members of AR-2 and the constables that had heard just snickered at the next 'volunteer' for duty to M7G-677, before they all settled into an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, which felt like hours to those in the room. Unsure how to continue their small talk, the group waited in silence for lady Mara to arrive.

Lady Mara arrived around ten minutes later and as the petite blonde woman entered the room the military members of AR-2 and her own constables all snapped to attention while Weir and Zelenka stood respectfully as she came in and quickly sat down. "Is Sheppard not among your party?" She asked as she gestured for everyone to be seated or relax again.

"Regreatafully colonel Sheppard had other duties to attend to I'm afraid." Weir answered politely, while thinking on how McKay's coment last year about how Sheppard was a real life James Kirk from star trek.

"Oh, he is an amazing man for whom I would do anything for." Stated lady Mara with a slight blush, which Lorne spotted and shot a glare at McMannis thinking that a few months on M7G-677 with the kids and only basic rations and equipment, as the other marines and two royal constables fought to suppress their laughter having heard the earlier conversation.

"Yes your highness, I will pass along that you were asking about him, and we are thankful for granting us an audience." Weir said humbly, using all her skill from her time at the U.N. not to blush herself.

"It is a pleasure, how may my people be I be of assistance to the people of Atlantis?"

"My-Lady, I have come seeking a chance to trade, however perhaps you and I could talk while doctor Zelenka, major Lorne and his men tour this majestic structure."

"That would be fine." Lady Mara said with a short nod as she turned to face Lorne and Zelenka. "Gentlemen, please feel free to tour these halls as much as you like."

Taking that as their que to leave Zelenka and the most of the members of AR-2 left the room, leaving the two leaders alone. As they left one of the royal constables moved closer to the door and softly closed it.

"My-Lady, as you know out two peoples have been enjoying a very fruitful trading relationship these last few months and it is in the friendly nature of that relationship which is the reason that I have requested an audience this day." Weir responded politely, before taking a sip of the tea made from a local plant.

"Yes this is true, the medicine and farming techniques which have been provided have gone over extremely well with both the royal court and the people of the villages, and we owe you a debt of gratitude for that. In the eyes of many of my people those from the land of the ancestors are being revered as those who brought about a new age for our world." She answered taking a sip of her own tea as a handmaiden brought in a selection of local pastries.

"As you may be aware, my people are currently fighting the Wraith and protecting many other planets throughout the galaxy, which has had a number of victories for our forces however this fight against them is far from over." She said picking up one of the smaller pastries.

"Doctor Weir," Lady Mara said before taking a sip of her drink and placing it back down, "as you know my people are not warriors but farmers, I fail to see what it is that we can offer to assist you."

"I understand your confusion My-Lady, and you have done much to distance yourself from the actions of generations of your family it is my belief that we can help you close the door on the final chapter. While the sweeping changes you have enacted in the areas of economics and civil liberties for the average citizen on your world, all that remains is the symbol of the old government."

"I thank-you for your kind words about the changes that I have enacted, and it is true the change was needed if we not only survived but grew as a people as well, yet I am curious as to this symbol which you speak of."

"To be blunt your highness, this very tower." Weir said softly. "To your people and yourself to truly move forward into a new future with the symbols of the past haunting them."

"This tower has been the home of my family for generations, doctor Weir, surely it is not your intention for us to tear it down and live in a thatched roofed hut." Mara asked slightly upset but with a hint of anger in her voice.

"That is not what I am suggesting my-lady. As you have seen over the last few months my people are fair and we would be honoured if you would allow us to build a new permanent settlement for your people, one which will offer shelter and protection from the Wraith for many generations." Weir placated the angry monarch, "If you would allow it, we will also construct irrigation canals to your fields so that each of your future harvests will make those collected at the moment look small in comparison."

"Construction on that scale would take many years to complete." Mara counted, some of her anger being replaced with curiosity.

"That is correct if it was only your people doing this undertaking, however my people have a technology which will allow for the tasks that need to be completed in a matter of weeks at the most so time need not be a factor in this."

"I am not a child or a fool doctor, you have come offering much with the guise of giving aid and helping my people forget the past and let it be just that, the past." She said politely and leaning forward. "So why don't we cut the Wraith shit and tell me what it is that you really want?"

Seeing that the route that the TDF council had ordered her to take wasn't going to work, she shifted mental gears so she could try and gain control over the heavily damaged fortress colony ship they were currently sitting in. "The very presence of this tower endangers the continued safety of your people, and since you no longer have the ability to scare off the Wraith and by the current path they are on they will reach here and after all of their previous attempts to cull your people have failed. I fear that they would simply attack from space because you have resisted them in the past. If you do agree to our proposal we will not only build you a city which will protect you from the weather for generations, but will also provide medical assistance and teach your farmers ways to increase the size of the crops that they grow like we have been doing, but we would also provide a small garrison to help protect your people from any threats that your people might face." Weir said with a smile.

"Were it not for the actions of Sheppard when our two peoples met, I would have been married to that monster Otto," Lady Mara said with a slight shiver, "I trusted your people then and so I shall do so again now, you have my blessing and consent to remove this tower, but only once the new settlement is built since if you can build it as fast as you claim due to the winter season being almost upon us." Lady Mara said with a polite smile that was filled with a dignified submission.

For the following several hours the two leaders finalised the details of the new settlement and the agreement, and at the end of it Lady Mara gave thanks to the ancestors for whatever fate had brought the people of Atlantis to her people, while Weir simple breathed a sigh of relief that these negations had gone much more smoothly than with the Genii.

-{[]}-

As the Genii where using the Atlantis personal to help them with their coup d'état, back in the Milky Way the massive six mile long form of the Alteran built space station Arcadia was a buzz with activity as it orbited the home of the Tau'ri, Earth, as people from all over the planet went about their business, accessing the massive battlestations databanks and translating the Alteran text into their native language. Just outside between one of the sets of cargo stabilizers a Hebridian cargo ship sat unloading supplies that where needed for the shipyards over the new lunar construction site building the next Mississippi and the first of the new Dulfim class assault ships. In the three months since the climatic, if one sided, battle against the full might of the Goa'uld system lords the people of Earth had had needed to rebuild their forces so that they could defend the territory that they had recently acquired around Earth and within the greater Milky Way, as well as their commitments in the Pegasus Galaxy.

With the upgrades to Area 51 complete and the SGC being transferred to one of the new sections of the base, the TDF had decided to turn the station into their main orbital command centre and the main point of contact for ships from their off-world allies capable of space travel to receive supplies that they traded for. With both Anoke station and the lunar dockyards constructing the new ships, and the small amount of damage that the station had received had been fixed, and its used drones had been replenished from the stores at Anoke station so that the station was fully ready to defend itself if needed, and for the first time since the stargate program had begun, everything in the sol system was peaceful.

It was at this time that fate decided throw a curve ball to the Tau'ri in the form of an Asgard Basilisk class destroyer dropping out of hyperspace at the L4 LaGrange point requesting docking instructions, after setting off every alert in the system due to it being unexpected. Once it had entered a paring orbit alongside the station, its captain, Thor, beamed over to the stations control room level briefing room.

"Good evening Thor." Jackson greeted, while Hudson snapped off a salute to the supreme commander of the Asgard forces.

"And you doctor Jackson." Thor said nodding to the Zentron commodore in greeting before he sat down in his hover chair that had been beamed over with him, since he needed it to move around large distances due to his races extensive use of cloning resulting in their bodies being very frail.

"What brings you around these part Thor?" Hudson asked taking a sip of his raktajino while being polite. "I would love to hope that it's just because you were missing Midgard?" he joked, in an O'Neill like manner thanks to the medication that he was on to control his Varauta heritage, even though his post war spec-ops skills where telling him that it wasn't going to be that simple.

"Unfortunately not, however I wish that was the case." Thor said lowering his head a little in shame, while remembering some of his youthful adventures on Earth. "I have come to inform your cousins of earth as to the reason that the Alteran's abandoned this station in the nebular where it was discovered and about the ancient enemy of the Alteran's and Asgard."

"Err, Thor buddy, why are you telling us this now?" O'Neill asked as he and the rest of the TDF joint chiefs entered the briefing room, having been beamed up when Thor had docked after informing the station the reason for his visit.

"The Alteran's, or as my people called them the 'Toei Olympus' created this battle station as a kind of mobile capital for use within their commonwealth within the Milky Way, Earth or as my great, great, great, great grandfather called it when he was young Peux Midgard, was the capital world and where their main fortress colony ship Atlantis was until they left for the Pegasus galaxy." Thor explained as the TDF officers took their seats around the table. "This station was evacuated several centuries prior to that when they were infected with a plague released on them by an enemy from their original galaxy called the Ori."

"Ori!" O'Neill mused aloud as the other people in the room stiffened, even Hudson who had read the reports and seen the sensor logs from when they had recovered Arcadia from its nebular resting place.

"You have heard of them?" Thor asked with a touch of surprise in his voice.

"We encountered a ship about a year ago when we moved the station to Earth," O'Neill admitted pulling up the visual logs from the Athena and its contact with the Ori ship. "It took concentrated fire from two Minerva's to make an opening large enough to beam a wombat missile through, but not before it destroyed one ship and severely damaged another three including the Athena, before it was destroyed."

"That was a D'Shara class heavy destroyer." Thor said blinking rapidly in shock realising that they had destroyed an Ori heavy capital ship with such low losses. "But as I was explaining, before the Alteran's arrived in the Milky Way they shared their homeworld with the Ori, and while the Alterans were more scientific in nature their Ori brothers where dedicated to warfare, and wished to dominate not only their brothers but also the rest of the universe. The Storr Alliance was originally formed for the sole purpose of defending the younger races against their invasion fifty million years ago."

"Wait… this galaxy, you mean to tell me that the Alterans weren't even from the Milky Way?" Hudson asked, some of the information that the Archangel's crew had discovered digging through the Antarctic outposts databanks making more sense, while beating Jackson to the punch.

"That is correct commodore." Thor clarified using his chairs computer to ready all the information that the Asgard had about the Alterans for the Zentradi. "You see the original homeworld of the Alterans and the Ori is a planet called Celestis in the M-33 Triangulum galaxy, some 2.723 million light years from earth. They were in the midst of a civil war, where the Ori were using weapons of mass destruction able to destroy whole star systems just to kill one or two Alterans, therefore all of the surviving Alterans decided to flee rather than use a weapon which would force the Alteran philosophy upon their Ori brothers."

"I take it that the Ori didn't like that idea?" Longbottom asked hoping that he was wrong, but didn't think so given what Thor had said about the old alliance. "But I'm guessing that they were stopped but not before they released a bio-weapon, right."

"Indeed." Thor said nodding, "Using a newly constructed battle ship, the Hyacinthum Noah, we were able to push them back to M33 and destroy the planet with the plans for stargate they had created to send ships to this galaxy and the gate itself as we left, at a very high and gruesome cost."

"I think it is safe to say that your forces missed one on this side before you destroyed the supper gate." Joked O'Neill.

"Clearly." Thor admitted, having been working on a plan to have the council start production on a newer version of a Hyacinthum Noah class as he had been talking due to his races ability to multitask on up to ten things at a time.

"But that doesn't explain why they left this station abandoned? I know that the Alterans are the galaxies worst litter bugs, but still to leave a station like this intact and fully functional." Jackson said from where he was sat working on information that the teams working on Anoke had uncovered as he listened to Thor, having activated the recorder on his tablet when he had beamed in. "Not to mention that you implied and what we have discovered this station is more a battle station come mobile capital city which was abandoned due to the plague, but when we arrived on board the whole station was fully active and operational."

"That is because around fifty thousand years ago a race called the Tesh spread out through the stargate network from their homeworld and found the station," Thor continued as he had his ships historical files on the Tesh translated and sent to doctor Jackson for him to read later. "Then one day they just vanished completely leaving no trace that they had ever existed, the high council at the time hypothesized, after several scientific expeditions, that they had been destroyed by the rising Goa'uld but couldn't confirm it as the replicators where already encroaching upon our space, but given the fact that you have recently destroyed an Ori heavy destroyer it would appear to shed new light on that theory."

"These Tesh, they must have been fairly advanced then?" Hudson asked thinking that they might have left information with the Asgard that they could use to find a way home.

"They were, however the only technology that we have left from them is a small box which measures the amount of light within a room. And since this station was abandoned from the plague in the Ori's last attack before they were forced back to their home galaxy and the completion of Anoke station it became redundant." Thor continued, in a teacher mode enjoy it like when he was a domino magistro certaminis. "Yet despite their technology and use of bio-weapons their ship based weapons are only based on plasma sheathed metal slugs fired from mass accelerators powered by stellar matter harvested from the heart of a star, but their overall output pales in comparison to that of a ZPM module."

"But they are still coming." O'Neill said, mind now in full on planning mode. "When we destroyed that ship, SETI in New Mexico detected a burst of ultrahigh frequency signal that was tachyon enhanced over sub-space aimed at M33, so unless they have regressed back to the Stone Age they will be coming."

"Not to mention the priors that several of the SG teams have encountered in the recent weeks." Jackson said, having spent more time in the SGC recently than any of the other people present.

"The Ori, if they haven't changed their methods, were very good at seeding doubt through the use of misdirection to turn the minds of their enemies allowing them to strike from the shadows as it were." Thor said recalling his history classes in his youth.

"Like the Kree-Shiar back home." Hudson muttered darkly, thinking of the shape-shifting race that had help the Disruptors in the war that had destroyed his home.

"That D'Shara destroyer which you destroyed would suggest that they will be coming for you." Thor said in a matter of fact tone. "And the fact that your SG teams have encountered Priors on worlds within this galaxy would suggest that they are on attempting to take over the universe again." Thankful that he was recording this meeting to show the high council sine Hudson had let slip a few small things about his part of the universe.

"We'll be ready for them." O'Neill said already sketching out an idea to have Carter work with the design teams at the shipyards to build some ships from his first and second favourite TV shows, deep space nine and battlestar. "You can bet on that." He finished with a small nod.

"So I see." Thor said reading the outline that O'Neill was working on, while thinking that he should have Hogun, Sif and the rest of his old warrior five unit meet to discuss approaching the council about designating the Tau'ri as their successors, since each newly cloned body was lasting less and less time compared to the one before it, and they were already beginning down the path to being the fifth race following their destruction of the Goa'uld system lords while aiding those that had been enslaved and the protected planets treaty.

"General O'Neill." Harriman's voice rang out from the comm-unit on the desk.

"Yes Walter, what's up?" He asked with a sigh, thinking that the days since the last 'galactic emergency' counter that SG-3 had made was about to be reset and a trip to the infirmary for some aspirin was in order since it had been one thing or another since had been cleared by The Hague and promoted to the joint chiefs.

"Sir the Waverider reports a contact on their long-range scanners and it doesn't match anything in the war-book." Harriman said calmly, even though he was talking to the assembled top brass of the TDF, Asgard fleet and Archangels commanding office.

"First contact?" O'Neill asked raising an eyebrow knowing that the war-book, or ship database, contained a list of every ship and station class known to the Asgard, Alterans and Zentradi had ever built or encountered.

"Not at this time sir, however sir, its power profile is similar to that of the ship which the Athena was attacked by." Harriman said a touch of worry in his voice, which was picked up by the open comm-link. When the group in the briefing room heard it their blood froze, before they moved to command centre since they had only encountered one ship with a stellar matter drive core, the Ori Heavy destroyer, so naturally when Harriman had informed them that the TDF Waverider attached to the mission to Tollana had picked up a signal of a ship with a stellar matter power signature it was both surprising and more than a little worrying.

"Talk to me Walter, were are they heading?" O'Neill asked in full on command mode as he entered the command centre, while Hudson, Thor and the other joint chiefs were on their personal comm-links to their respective commands.

"That's just it sir, they are on a course for Tollana, and I've cross checked it with Area 51, Anoke station and lieutenant Cochrane in the Lantea system, before you ask sir." Harriman said placing the data from thee Waverider on the central holo-display in the centre of the room.

"Have the TDF Defiant and her escorts prepare for launch." O'Neill ordered while silently praying that the recently constructed TDF flagship wasn't about to have a baptism by fire while it protected the ships of taskforce 'Helping Angel', as he looked around he noticed that other joint chiefs and Thor where nodding with only Hudson shaking his head at the unasked question.

"The Archangel's in dry dock." Hudson said sadly, "she's undergoing a Baryon sweep to remove excess baryon particles due to our use of high hyper-speeds the last few months, and won't be finished for another 72 hours."

"Well than we'll miss you at the party." Hammond said channelling his inner O'Neill. "But we'll try and save you some cake." He said before him, Thor and O'Neill beamed out with a smile on O'Neill's face.