Fall of the Gods Book 1: Colonials on the Run Redux

by Scourge75

A dark past. A desperate race. A forced alliance. The return of a race long forgotten. The effects that no one could've foreseen. - OCs galore! Major rewrites from previous post. New chapter will be posted every weekday.

32. The Storm Part 4: Walls Built to Fall

Chapter 31

The Storm Part 4

Walls Built to Fall

***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***

**Memphis (Surface)**

*Tau'ri Advance (Wolf Pack)*

They finally made landfall under the safety of the guns of an Impolan… what were those things anyway? Bombers? They were as long as an Al'kesh which put them right in line with the size of the Vulture they had just jumped out of, but their wingspan made them wider and their engines were far too large for the small ship to be a bomber. They were armed like Battlecruisers and could give an upgraded 304 a run for its money the way it fought. It was as maneuverable as a fighter, hard to hit, had shields far stronger than a ship that size should have… it was an impressive ship whatever its classification was.

One of those ships broke off its assault on the fleet descending on the Ares to keep the Death Gliders and Al'kesh off of their backs while they fell. Their point defense lasers were impressive to behold considering that weaponized light was considered a technological impossibility. Once they made landfall, the ship went back to support the Ares which was being hammered by Ba'al's fleet, but the Impolans were fast. They had eliminated half of Ba'al's fleet before the Goa'uld finally managed to hit one of those tiny little death machines hard enough to force it to dock with the Ha'tak they had brought with them, and that Ha'tak was one hell of a ship as well.

Now Wolf Pack was at the edge of the tree line scouting the forces Ba'al was deploying. It would only take twenty people decked out in their new armor and weapons to overwhelm the minor forces Ba'al had, but the Tau'ri soldiers were tied up with the Ta-tanen. Ptah's forces were far more pressing a concern considering that Ba'al's fleet was falling faster than he could deploy his troops. That, and the Ta-tanen were preparing for an invasion of Earth and Ba'al was still too preoccupied with the Lucian Alliance to bother with the Tau'ri. That would likely change after today, but, for now, the SGC and the Alpha Site were taking turns dialing into Memphis to keep the Gate from being dialed in by Ba'al and his Needle Threaders.

Movement caught the attention of the members of Wolf Pack, the soldiers whipping around to face the intruders only to find themselves faceplate-to-faceplate with soldiers suited up in armor that looked like theirs only better, holding weapons that looked like theirs only better, but with three eye holes in their helmets.

"I was beginning to wonder if you would show up," Taylor said casually before turning back to the task of scouting the ship from the outside.

The alien made a serious of strange sounds before a translation software kicked-in and its words made sense. "A common enemy is a powerful unifying force."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Taylor agreed. Having a HUD in your helmet that can zoom-in made carrying around binoculars an old and useless thing. Technology had advanced beyond the need of them. The leader of the Impolan squad kneeled next to Taylor, his people taking up positions in the woods around them with the rest of Wolf Pack. "We need to get into that room," Taylor said, a GPS marker appearing at the indicated location as lasers in his helmet tracked his eye movement, "and use the rings to get into the ship."

"Can't we use the rings aboard the Ares?" Chino asked.

"There's a couple reasons why that won't work. First, the curvature of the planet is working against us this far away from the ship, that's why we needed the Vultures as relay points for the beaming system," Walsh replied.

"Second, Ba'al's sure to have locked out his rings by now. That's bound to be the only set left working on his ship and it's defended by Jaffa," Taylor added.

"And heavy weapon emplacements," the Impolan squad leader said, the five manned turrets marked on their HUDs by their onboard VIs.

"How can he do that?" Chino asked at a concerned whisper.

"The Impolans traded their personal armor designs for our coaxial ion cannons," Alcatraz replied levelly. "I'd be surprised if they couldn't interface with our systems."

"But aren't the VIs different?" Chino pressed.

"We will help you take the rings. Strike when the moment is right," the Impolan said to which Taylor nodded.

With the press of a button, the two teams' battle-nets were isolated into their groups as the alien started issuing orders to his team. Then, with a nimbleness that a man wearing that much armor shouldn't possess, the alien leapt up, grabbed a branch in the tree over their heads, and pulled himself into the foliage, the rest of his team doing the same. Well, all but one.

The shortest amongst the aliens, with obvious armor over her chest that indicated this one had boobs, stepped up past Taylor and started… glowing. Then, with a howl like a predatory animal suffering a great deal of pain and wanting noting but revenger before Death took it, the woman took a single step forward and crossed half the distance between the tree line and the defending Jaffa. There was a thud and a shockwave as the air slammed back into place in the wake of her passage, and the Jaffa turned towards the woman with their weapons ready.

They opened fire on the short figure and she took another step forward. Even as the plasma rounds passed through where she once was, the woman appeared in their midst with another thud of force. As she did, the Jaffa manning one of the guns dropped to the ground, his head and chest missing all the way down to where the ribcage ended and the abdominal region began. Three more Jaffa suffered the same fate as the last of the gunners took a round to his head that lit his lifeless body on fire. More weapons fire came from the trees and, strangely enough, the bullets glowed a faint orange before setting whatever they hit ablaze with chemical fire.

"They coated their rounds in napalm?" Walsh asked, clearly appalled.

"They're not held by the same strictures of combat as we are," Alcatraz replied as they watched and waited.

The woman amongst them was promptly joined by a man with a shotgun who took to sliding between cover, closing fast, and blasting limb from body every chance he got, his rounds tearing apart organic flesh in far too efficient a manner for it to be just the weapon doing the work. More modded ammo. As the man moved through their ranks rending flesh, another woman dropped out of the trees and darted into the ranks of Jaffa with a pair of short blades drawn. She stabbed for temples, slashed at eyes, gutted symbiotes from their pouches, and threw no small number of knives into targets too far away for her to touch. Even as they fought, more of those modded ammo types tore into them from the trees where at least two of the aliens were still hiding. Bodies were set on fire, Jaffa fell clutching their pouches as their symbiotes died from a modified version of the Tok'ra's symbiote poison that had coated their rounds, and some of them were even torn apart by what looked like explosive rounds.

Then the hangar bay on the Ha'tak opened and a pair of Al'kesh exited their Mothership. As they did, a walking mountain of armor stepped out of the tree line with a massive cannon in his hands. As it the weapon spun to life, the whir of its servomotors passed beyond the range of Human hearing and let loose with a barrage of high-explosive rounds. The first Al'kesh took the full brunt of that barrage and quickly lost its shields to the micro-explosions as it tried to maneuver into a firing position that wouldn't kill their own soldiers. With a breached engine necklace, the Al'kesh veered off course to crash somewhere in the distance. As it did, the second Al'kesh maneuvered itself more successfully.

The walking mountain of trinium-alloy, full-body armor lifted that gun that was nearly as large as him into the sky again and let loose with a barrage of explosive fire that quickly, though not quickly enough, collapsed the shields on the bomber and even managed to put a sizeable hole in its flank as a modified, hollowed out round and filled with liquid naquadah and potassium shattered on impact and allowed the two elements to mix explosively. The first plasma bomb was loosed from the energy projector slung under the Al'kesh's ventral surface and fell into the trees. As it did, a figure leapt from the trees and landed on the ground at a roll. He came up, snapped his rifle to his shoulder, and fired an explosive round of his own. With the lethality of Ares himself, the round slipped into the breach that the mountain-of-a-man had put in the ship and when the explosive detonated, the bomber was consumed in secondary explosions.

There wasn't even the slightest moment of celebration from the Impolans. The walking mountain turned that explosive-round filled cannon into the thicket of Jaffa and let loose. As the Jaffa scrambled to avoid the lethal barrage of exploding projectiles, the glowing woman and her two compatriots fled the area that was under siege by a man wielding a weapon that even the Goa'uld had failed to get working on a scale that a soldier could easily carry it. As the others in their team fled, a figure slipped past the Jaffa in the confusion and the rings activated.

As the last of the Jaffa fell to the overwhelming firepower of the one-man siege engine, Taylor finally remembered that they were supposed to have helped take the rings.

Sure enough, as they approached, the leader of the Impolans turned to Taylor and his stance was enough said without words. "Surely you didn't need our help," Taylor said somewhat meekly. That was an impressive display.

"Need? Perhaps not, but it was still requested, and do not call me 'Shur-Li'," the Impolan replied.

Chino and Alcatraz shared a look, their faces hidden behind metal faceplates, and Alcatraz shrugged in reply to the unasked question. He then snapped his weapon to his shoulder out of reflex as the rings activated again and one of the Impolans, oddly enough, appeared before them. This one, also a female, rattled off a strange series of clicks that had the walking mountain joining her in the rings. They were whisked up and the others took their positions under the energy elevator.

Only a second later, the rings activated and carried the first six of them that could squeeze into the rings up into the ship. The others followed behind them shortly. The third group to be ringed up was composed of the Impolan tech specialist, Wolf Pack's medical officer, and their resident sniper who wouldn't be of much use during the initial attempt to take the Ring Room in the ship above. By the time those three arrived, the halls around the Ring Room were filled the bodies of the dead and dying, the walls scorched with explosive residue where the rounds had exploded, and cratered where they didn't find their mark. The mountain of armor was at the far end of the hall, still firing, and holding back the flood of Jaffa on his own.

Another series of odd sounding clicks preceded a voice saying, "We will take the Engine Room to be sure they do not attempt to flee the planet."

"We'll take the Pel'tak and Ba'al with it," Taylor replied and the two teams split up to take their predetermined targets, the Impolans following behind the mountain of armor and the Humans darting down a different passage.

***Milky Way Galaxy (Scutum-Crux Arm)***

**Tok'ra Homeworld (Sub-surface)**

*Tok'ra Base (Control Room)*

Alarms started blaring throughout the base as a ship was detected in orbit and steps were taken to secure the Tok'ra base. Most of the base's power was shut down in a hope that the lower power levels would avoid detection, and anything on the surface was cloaked. As a final line of defense, all of the tunnels leading to the surface were sealed with a crystal just like those used to form them in the first place. Once this was all done, the Tok'ra could only wait.

"What's the status of the unknown?" Anise asked as she walked into the Control Room.

"It is entering the atmosphere," the Host of one of her fellow Tok'ra replied in a concerned tone.

"We will need an emergency plan in place," Freyja, Host to Anise, said to the room at large.

Another of the operators in the Control Room was about to speak in argument, but Freyja's point was proven beyond dispute when the ground shook around them and a new alarm sounded. "They have opened fire," one of the Tok'ra reported.

Another explosion rocked the base and one of the tunnels nearby collapsed. As it did, the ground above them shook all the more violently and several people lost their footing to the vibrations. "The unknown has landed on the surface directly above us," a third operator informed the base at large.

"The hostile ship is landing troops," that Tok'ra's Host added.

Anise worked the controls on the sensors and brought up an image of the attacking ship. It was strange to say the least. The large ship was 'standing' upon the surface of their world, and, as such, stood two kilometers tall. It had 'legs,' for a lack of a better way of putting it, and large red spots on the 'face' of the ship that looked to be eyes. If Anise didn't know any better, she'd say the ship was alive, but this had to be another attempt by the Goa'uld to strike fear into the hearts of those they terrorized. There was no way a ship could be alive.

Then a sound tore through the air and she could feel it in her mind. Like a great voice shouting at her that she was inferior, unworthy. She could feel it in her Host as well. The sound brought Freyja to her knees, so the Tok'ra assumed control. Fighting against this strange form of attack, she stood to their feet and addressed the matter at hand.

"We must evacuate the base!" she shouted into the base's internal communications network. She then drew her zat'nik'tel and readied to fight her way to the Gate Room.

She needed only to round the corner of the first hall before the enemy revealed itself. It looked Human, but since most life in the galaxy was Human that was hardly surprising. What was surprising was the way the not-Human looked. It had blue lines of electrical wiring running through its body, obviously cybernetic eyes, and even its mouth was full of tubes and wires. This abomination of life, this perversion of nature, turned to her, electric blue eyes glowing brightly, and howled like a wild animal.

It charged at her, hands held high, and swung for her head. Anise ducked under the blow and fired her zat'nik'tel into the creature's chest, but it didn't as much as slow as the energy tore through its body. Drawing on what John had taught her when he was still their trainer, Anise threw her shoulder into the thing's body and heaved with all of her Host's enhanced strength. With that move, Anise managed to slam the creature into the floor. She quickly fired off another five shots from her zat'nik'tel, the creature kicking her legs out from under her the only reason she stopped firing at all, and was shocked that it was able to do so. One shot to stun, two to kill, three to disintegrate… only it wasn't working.

In fact, the zat'nik'tel only seemed to be making the creature's body blow brighter. Anise was getting ready to run when another of her kin came up behind the creature from the Control Room and fired another six shots into its back. She had not the time to warn the man against it before the creature howled again and an electrical charge left its body in a rippling wave.

The energy of it washed over Freyja's nervous system and Anise did her best to numb the pain, but it was too much. Instead of allowing the energy she could not stop to affect Freyja's body, the only means they both had of escape, Anise took the power into her own form and blacked out.

Freyja, after shaking off the pain the charge had induced to her body, slowly worked her way back up to her feet. The only good thing about this situation was that the creature was… tackling her to the ground and trying to strangle her. It had survived? How?!

Pushing the question aside until it was more appropriate a time to find the answer, Freyja fought against the creature's inhuman strength and succeeded in kicking it off of herself. Reaching for her zat'nik'tel once more, she realized that the only weapon she had was worse than ineffective. It would only feed power to the thing before her. She had to get away!

She got up and tried to run, but another of the things blocked her path. This one was red and seemed to be aflame with fire, even its eyes were leaking flames. The red not-Human snarled at her before leaping at her, hands reaching for her body. Freyja ran forward and dropped, her body sliding along the ground under the creature, and, out of reflex, she fired a shot from her zat'nik'tel behind her. The red creature, upon being struck with the energy, howled again. This time it was a howl of pain and the creature exploded into a ball of fire and concussive force.

Freyja, dazed as she was, had no recollection of the passing of time. She came-to when the horn sounded again, the feeling of being useless, unwanted, and unworthy swept through her once more, but this time it gave her strength. To the Goa'uld they were unwanted, but to the people of this galaxy they were saviors. They fought the tyranny of the Goa'uld in the name of those who could not. No matter how unwanted they were by their enemies, the Tok'ra would surrender their fight to no one!

Struggling to get to her feet through her still-dazed mind, Freyja forced her legs to move and stumbled down the hall. She had to lean on the wall to keep her balance. By the time she finally made it to the next corner of the hallway, she was thoroughly winded and very tired. Her head hurt, her lungs were burning, and she had several burns on her body that needed medical attention. If she could find Tas'eem, he could help her… if he was still alive.

***Local Cluster (Sol System)***

**Earth (Surface)**

*Stargate Command (Halls) [a few minutes earlier]*

General Landry was walking through the halls of the SGC with a radio piece in his ear listening to Pac's report of the post battle damages, a much more private way of talking to the AI without other people hearing his voice over the internal comms system that allowed Landry to go about his business and not sit in the AI Room the whole time the report was being given.

"While the shield did hold back the damaging effect of the Ori's weapons, it didn't hold back the glow of the impacts. When that Ori Mothership went kamikaze and rammed the barrier, it caused a rather magnificent shimmer to cross the sky of the eastern hemisphere that was visible even during the daytime hours. Professionals are asking a lot of questions and no one is giving them any answers. With the newly revitalized interest in watching space brought on by the event, it's likely that our next engagement with the Ori will force the full discloser of the Stargate Program. I suggest that your governments take time to prepare. If we do survive the coming fleet, I believe that it will be unavoidable that the public be told what's happened if only so they know they're protected. Otherwise, mass panic will cause rioting and people will lose faith in their governments," Pac read off the post-battle report.

"With the Ori's interest in taking out the Nex, Carter believes it'll be best if we installed another FSR into the Nex's power grid. The only problem is that Felger says those things have got more power output than the ZPMs do. We probably won't survive without them, but the Nex probably won't either. It's a toss-up between our most powerful ship being even more powerful, and our planet being safer… God I hate my job sometimes," Landry said.

"What we need is an alternative means of powering the planetary defense shield," Pac suggested.

As he walked past one of the SGC's personnel, 'talking to himself,' Landry had to point to his earpiece to keep the other man from thinking the General had gone crazy. Although the idea of having an alien robot infect his computers was still a little unnerving, Landry found Pac's voice to be oddly… comforting if only because of how utterly 'real' he sounded.

"I've been discussing that line of reasoning with Colonel Carter and Sieon. Together they've come up with a plan. Colonel Carter is waiting for you aboard the Nex. To avoid travel time, however, Sieon has agreed to meet you in your office and take you to the ship himself as the 304s have been grounded for one last upgrade," Pac informed him. When Landry raised an eyebrow, an act only known to the AI because it had access to the base's security cameras, Pac added, "We're installing the White Light on all of the ships. The 304s will be given two of the emitters which will help us take on any fighters the next wave of Motherships sends at us."

"From what I understand, Sieon can just appear out of nowhere and take me anytime he wants to. Why doesn't he just do that?" Landry asked after nodding his compliance with the upgrade. Not that they needed his permission, that was Jack's department, but he still liked the idea.

"That would be rude," was Pac's rather dry response.

"What about your efforts to contact Atlantis?"

"They're still too far out from your galactic edge for me to get a lock on their subspace grid. We'll have to wait until they're closer."

As Landry reached his office, he found the armor-clad alien waiting for him. Nodding to Sieon in greeting, Landry made himself a cup of coffee and said, "Let's get this over with." With a nod of his own, Sieon placed his hand on the General's shoulder and they both disappeared in his characteristic puff. Looking around the CIC of the large ship, the nerve center still setup the way it was during the battle, Landry said, "Nice place you've got here. Ever think about renting it out?" Noticing Sam's unconscious form laying in the command chair, Landry asked, "What happened to her."

Widget, who is both connected to and in essence is Pac, said, "Her biometric readings indicated that she was on the verge of organ failure brought on by a lack of sleep, so I stunned her for the duration of our travels. I hope you don't mind."

"Alright, what's the plan?" Landry asked.

"First, brace yourself. We're about to jump into close proximity of the sun. Second, I'll let Sam explain seeing as how this is her idea," Sieon replied before a gut-wrenching lurch made Landry lose his appetite for coffee.

The distortion passed over them and Landry raised an eyebrow at the alien. "That all you got?" he asked. "Hell, Gate travel's worse than that."

Sieon simply shrugged in reply as the room grew a lot brighter. Noticing this, Landry turned around and saw that the display had changed to show the Nex, sure enough, in close proximity to the sun, the lights of the display quickly dimming to lessen the strain on their eyes.

"Sam, it's time to wake up," Widget said as his semi-tangible holographic hand lightly tapped Sam on the face, the sensation equivalent to a static shock. As she stirred from her unnatural sleep, Widget added, "We've arrived at the sun. General Landry is here to hear you plan."

As Sam stirred a little more but didn't wake up, Landry walked over and held his cup of coffee under her nose. Waking with a small groan of discomfort, Sam accepted the offered cup of caffeine. Then she woke up fully and started by asking, "Have you been briefed on how the FSRs work?"

"A star in a box," Landry replied.

"A small star in a box," Sieon corrected. "And the power of the FSR is proportional to the size of the star. The FSRs you put into your PDS are smaller than the FSRs built into the Nex. Because of this, the Nex's four FSRs in overdrive mode put out more power than twelve of yours in regular output mode combined."

"Bigger star, more power. Got it," Landry assured him. "What's going on?"

"Have you ever herd of a super structure called a Dyson Ring?" Sam asked while pointing at the sun. "It's a series of solar energy harnessing satellites set up around a star, so it's the same concept as a FSR but on a much larger scale. We've installed another geothermal power plant in Russia and linked it to another of the primary emitter satellites, but it's still not enough so the plan is to harness the power of our own sun like it's an FSR in a permanent, stable state of overdrive. Couple that with what we have, and we have a shot at surviving this. Well, Earth does. Our ships are another matter entirely."

***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***

**Memphis (Surface)**

*Tau'ri Advance (Noble Team)*

Emile slid into cover behind a rock that was burnt black from the heat of the plasma rounds scorching its surface, shotgun in hand. He stopped long enough to catch his breath and was getting ready for the last charge before he hit the enemy lines, but movement in the corner of his vision caught his attention. Emile couldn't say how he knew it, but he did.

"LEFT FLANK!" he shouted to everyone nearby even as he spun around his cover, barely escaping a full barrage of plasma to where his chest would've been. Instead, he got hit in the leg, but Emile would rather have limited mobility than no life left in his body.

A return volley of fire tore through the forest in the area that the plasma rounds had come from, but they couldn't be sure if the hostiles were down. That question was answered when the sound of a twig snapping had Emile firing at nothing. He was rewarded by a shimmer where there should've been empty air.

He was just about to fire again when he felt a tight grip on his throat. Even through the armor he wore, the Jaffa's strength was enough to leave him gasping for breath as he was lifted into the air by his throat. Emile reached for his kukri, and lashed out blindly. When he felt resistance, he refocused his efforts on that area and stabbed with all his might. As the grip on his throat began to slacken, he kicked back, planted his feet against his rock, and pushed off. With the upper hand now once again his, Emile spent no time thinking. He just started stabbing anything fleshy beneath him, his knife disappearing into the cloaked body of his attacker.

With the bastard thoroughly dead, Emile looked around and noticed the rest of his team surrounded by Ptah's elite guard. Grabbing his shotgun, Emile bull-rushed the closest of the Ta-tanen. Putting the full force of his momentum into another tackle, Emile brought the second Ta-tanen elitist to the ground, shoved his shotgun into the thing's shielded face, and pulled the trigger. What was left of the thing's brains would fit in a thimble.

Three of the Ta-tanen spun to where Emile now crouched over the dead Jaffa and turned their attention to him. With a grunt of annoyance, Emile raised his shotgun and fired off as many rounds as he could before his weapon overheated then dove back into cover. This would have to end in close range if he wanted to bypass their shields. That brought a smile to his face. Close ranges were when he excelled.

Emile dove out of his cover, his weapon ready to fire, and charged in, knife in one hand, shotgun in the other. He slid below a barrage of return fire and kicked the first of the Ta-tanen in the knee. The Jaffa fell to the ground as Emile spun his way back up to his feet and swung his arm through the air. As his spin took him in a full circle, he sliced one Jaffa's throat before bringing that momentum down in force. His kukri stabbed into the fallen Jaffa's symbiote pouch, purely by luck, while a blast from his shotgun hit the third with enough force to make the alien stumble. That bought him enough time to get back up and dive behind a fallen tree as the elite Ta-tanen guard returned fire.

Emile readied himself for the last push against this Ta-tanen, but more movement caught his attention. His eyes told him that there was nothing there, but his instincts told him he was surrounded. He opted to listen to his instincts, but even that proved needless.

There was a thud of displaced air as an armor figure appeared before him, body glowing sliver. That figure swept its arms through the air and a sphere of silver energy redirected the massed incoming fire away from the two of them. Then, as the Ta-tanen stopped firing for whatever reason their weapons required them to, the figure moved forward.

One step carried it twenty meters with a thud of force and the Ta-tanen standing between it and the other side of that twenty meters was sent flying into a nearby tree with a sickening crunch that left the man half fused to the tree. The Ta-tanen did not get back up.

The next of the elite guard to be targeted was lifted into the air ten meters before slamming back down with enough force to pop its shield and rupture several vital organs. Not even a symbiote can heal that much damage. The third of the elite guard to be targeted by the stranger got hit in the chest by a silver ball and was sent flying into the trees at break-neck speeds, his flight ending when his head hit an overhanging branch and snapped his neck. The fourth was hit by a similar silver ball and fell to the ground in pain as his chest began to dissolve before Emile's eyes at a visible rate. The others, taken aback by the display of power, vanished from sight before retreating.

Emile was about to thank the figure who had saved him, but a thunderous roar filled the air. Above them, the last of Ba'al's Ha'tak was destroyed by the Impolan Ha'tak, the lesser of the two vessels falling into the forest as its sublight engines gave out from the damage the precision beams inflicted on the power grid. Upon impact, the already flaming structure gave out and several explosions tore parts of the hull off of the superstructure and sent flaming metal into the trees where the fire quickly spread. As this happened, the Ares flew overhead, casting a shadow over the battlefield as it approached the city with its bomb bay door opening.

The network of plasma cannons defending Memphis opened fire on the Invasion Carrier, her shields flaring white as the energy was harmlessly absorbed by the Asgard-designed shields being powered by two Asgard-designed generators. Then the bomb bay door finished opening and the Nutcracker lowered out of the hatch, the heavily modified beam weapon charging with an audible whine even as the ship's engines made hearing anything other than the base of its passing hard.

The VIs in their suits altered the sensitivity of the microphones built into their helmets to reduce the noise to a manageable level and even polarized their visors as a message came over the battle-net.

"This is General Ervin to all Tau'ri forces on Memphis. Brace yourselves for sustained bombardment of the city's shield grid."

The visors on their armor was nearly opaque by the time they were done polarizing, and it still wasn't enough. When the Nutcracker fired, the flash of light was enough make Emile squint against the brightness and turn away. Ten seconds later, the beam's capacitors ran out of energy and the weapon entered a recharge cycle. As it did, the other weapons of the combined forces of the Tau'ri and the Impolans fired on the city with everything they had.

**Memphis (Atmosphere)**

*USS Ares (Command Deck)*

"The Impolans are joining the bombardment, sir," the tactical officer reported as the three ships left operational began bombing the shield and the Ha'tak they brought with them fired a barrage of its own beam weapons.

"Oh, shit! They're firing missiles!" the navigational officer reported as the small ships circled around and fired off two missiles a piece.

"Are they nuclear!?" Ervin demanded. His response was the six missiles impacting the shield. In place of a flash of light and a mushroom cloud, there was a very powerful, very dark ball of light and the shield that protected the city was visibly straining to survive the power. "What the hell is that?"

"The universe being torn apart," his XO replied as the man looked over the sensors readings. "Those bombs just tore open a hole in the fabric of reality. Gravity is going haywire within the localized fields. It's like the universe doesn't know what it's supposed to do. Gravity is pulling up, down, sideways, inwards, and outwards all at the same time. They've warped reality into something unsustainable. The energy readings are comparable to known cross-reality signatures."

"They're opening a doorway into another universe?" Ervin asked.

"No," the navigational officer replied as the balls of light faded out. "It's a weapon. Memphis's shield is now down to half strength from that one barrage."

The tactical officer shook his head at that. "They could destroy the Odyssey in a few hits with a weapon like that, ZPM shields or not."

"Who the hell are these people?" General Ervin asked.

***Milky Way Galaxy (Scutum-Crux Arm)***

**Tok'ra Homeworld (Sub-surface)**

*Tok'ra Base (Gate Room)*

"We must leave before we are destroyed!" Delek stated once more.

"We are attempting to do so, as I'm sure you can see," Garshaw of Belote replied coldly. Behind them, the few staff weapons they had were being used to hold their only means of escape.

The Gate activated and several figures stumbled through firing behind them. As they did, two more of the blue-skinned creatures attacking the base stumbled through after them. Grabbing the only weapon in range that wasn't a zat'nik'tel, Delek fired the transphase eradication rod at the two creatures and was mildly surprised to see one of them flinch back as if pained. Firing again, he was rewarded with an actual howl. Another shot and the creature fell to its knees. A forth and it collapsed to the ground in utter agony. The fifth shot saw its head explode.

He then turned his weapon on the next of the two targets which was getting ready to unleash the power gathering in its skin from the zat'nik'tel that were firing into it. He only fired three of the needed shots before the creature sent out that pulse of energy. The Gate, still active, destabilized dangerously, the event horizon flickering and snapping. Delek finished the task of killing the creature and turned to the nearest person who knew a substantial amount of anything about Stargates.

"What is wrong?" he demanded to know.

His answer was a confused scientist muttering something about an overload. A more thorough answer came from a familiar voice approaching from behind them. "The control crystal in the DHD has been damaged," Freyja said as she stumbled into the room looking to be on Death's doorstep. "Remove the crystal from the DHD and repair it or the Gate will not function properly and anyone passing through will not make it to the other side in one piece.

"Tas'eem!" Thellas shouted to the man in the corner who was overseeing the wounded.

"I come," the Tok'ra's chief medical expert replied. A second later he arrived with two different healing devices in his hands and looked over her wounds. "The burns will heal easily once I have revived Anise, but she is suffering a pressing injury."

Freyja nodded in reply, too tired to speak anymore. "Were there others behind you?" Jalen, another of the Tok'ra, asked hopefully.

"If there were, they are not going to make it," Freyja replied breathlessly.

"We must leave!" Delek stressed again.

"The Gate is inoperable until the crystal is fixed," Per'sus, Grand High Councilor of the Tok'ra High Council, countered. He then turned to the group that had just arrived. "What is the situation on the planet?"

"The Enemy has taken the Evacuation World. We have nowhere left to go," Korra replied desperately.

"Then we must, once again, rely on the Tau'ri," Delek said solemnly.

All eyes turned to the man who had so adamantly advocated against their involvement with the Tau'ri. It was Anise who broke the silence as Freyja's eyes flashed golden. "We must truly be desperate if Delek is thinking such. What have I missed?" Anise asked through pained tones.

"Much," Garshaw replied. "Rest, now. Your strength will be needed in healing Freyja. We must contact the Tau'ri's Alpha Site and hope they will take us in."

"The crystal has been restored," Malek, another strong advocate against the Tau'ri, announced.

Devlin, Host to Malek, then said, "Are we truly so desperate as to flee to one of their worlds?"

"If there is another ally we have in this galaxy you believe would be willing to help us, then contact them and we shall ask them for help," Per'sus shot back.

"What of the group who took in John?" Freyja asked breathlessly. "They were willing to take him in and have even given us much needed Intel in the past."

"We don't know the address to their world," Devlin replied in a tone that told all that he wished they did.

"Swallow your pride, dial the Alpha Site, and let us hope the Tau'ri are willing to help us despite your constant giving of reasons for them to not to!" Per'sus demanded.

It took only a few seconds for the symbols to be pressed in sequence, but the Gate did not connect. They tried again and suffered the same results. After the third try, they were beginning to fear that either their Gate was truly broken or their last chance for salvation had been taken from them.

"Try another address," Per'sus ordered.

"Which one?" the Host of the DHD operator asked.

"The Tau'ri homeworld," Garshaw replied while pulling the device the Tau'ri had given them to signal they needed safe passage to Earth from her pocket. The symbols locked into place and the Gate, much to their utter relief, activated properly. Garshaw then entered their code into the GDO and waited for the device to turn green.

***Local Cluster (Sol System)***

**Earth (Surface)**

*Stargate Command (Control Room)*

"Unscheduled off-world activation!" Walter announced into the base's comms system. The Gate didn't even have a chance to finish dialing before General Landry was standing behind him. The seventh chevron locked into place, the Gate activated, and they immediately began receiving a signal. "Receiving IDC. Sir, it's the Tok'ra."

"They must be trying to warn us about the Ori. Tell them we already know," Landry replied before turning to leave.

"Sir!" Walter called after him as a connection was established and the airman took in the scene of injured personnel waiting on the other side of the Gate.

"Garshaw, what the hell is going on?" Landry asked as he took in the scene for himself.

"We have been attacked," the Tok'ra replied, a hint of desperateness to her tones. "We are under attack as we speak," a shout of pain and an explosion of electrical energy caused the woman to flinch, "and we are losing."

"General, we have lost our evacuation site as well. We have nowhere left to go," Delek added.

"Open the Iris," Landry ordered. The reaction this command had on the Tok'ra was frightening. Landry had never seen the usually indignant people look so relieved, so hopeful, so thankful to the people of Earth. They didn't waste time either. The wounded started stumbling through the Gate almost immediately and Landry hit the base's comm before ordering, "Medical teams to the Gate Room. Full alert status! Incoming wounded. I repeat, incoming wounded."

Not even a full twenty seconds later, the SGC's compliment of doctors and physicians were rushing into the Gate Room with IVs, gurneys, and carts of medical equipment to stabilize the more critically wounded. Amongst the supplies, Landry could even make out at least five defibrillators. When the leader of the Tok'ra came through, following up near the rear of the line and wielding a staff cannon with the other soldiers amongst them supporting a wounded Anise, Landry made his way down to the Gate Room.

He entered the room with many questions he had to ask, but they were all forestalled when a Human-like figure charged out of the Gate. It had blue skin, glowing eyes, and was covered in wires, tubes, and other electronic equipment. The assembled soldiers assigned to defending the Gate did as they were tasked.

One of them shouted, "HIT THE DECK!" and the rest opened fire mere fractions of a second after Landry's chest hit the floor of the ramp to the Gate.

As one became two, two became three, and three became five, the soldiers continued to fire. The sound of the new weapons the Stargate Program used after trading for them with the Impolans was more of a 'thrum' than a 'bang' as the firing rail sent the bullets flying faster than the speed of sound. Bodies of strange looking non-humans were torn apart by the force of the bullets as the defense teams fired on the hostiles and Walter input the order to close the Iris without waiting for an order he knew Landry would give if he wasn't ducking under bullets.

The metal slates spun into place as a red-skinned figure much like the blue ones charged through with two more of the blue ones. Those three's bodies didn't have the chance to properly rematerialize as the Iris spun shut. All three were missing the lower halves of their bodies while one blue was missing the right side in addition to the lower half, and the other blue was missing its left side in addition to its legs based on which side of the Gate they exited from.

As the Gate Room was filled with the sounds of impacts to the Iris and the soldiers stopped firing, Landry looked up to the Control Room and asked, "How long?"

"They just dialed in, sir. It'll be thirty-eight minutes if they keep it up," Walter replied.

"We have to dial into Memphis in thirteen minutes!" Landry shouted back.

"There's nothing we can do on our end, sir," Walter assured him. Then, much to Landry's relief, the Gate shutoff. "Never mind," Walter added as the Iris retracted and the soldiers stood down to make room for the medical teams that were barking out orders to one another and moving the injured around now that there weren't bullets flying through the air.

Doctor Lam, much like her father, was very good at organizing controlled chaos. Good thing too. Some of the Tok'ra were on the verge of dying.

Turning to the Tok'ra Supreme High Councilor, Landry asked, "What the hell is going on?!"

"We do not fully know ourselves," Garshaw replied over the noise of the wounded being tended to and the soldier picking up their shells.

"Get those three into the operating theatre!" Doctor Lam shouted to a team tending to at least five Tok'ra that looked like they were going to die of blood loss soon. "I want those two in the Clean Room with an IV. Get that group into the isolation rooms with bandages, and…"

"Follow me," Landry gruffly ordered over the sounds of his daughter doing as she did best. Without waiting for the Tok'ra to confirm their compliance, Landry started walking up to the Briefing Room, Garshaw, Delek, and Per'sus behind him. "What do you know?"

"We were attacked on our world by a large ship clearly not of Goa'uld design. When we tried to evacuate to our secondary base, our equivalent to your Alpha Site, we found that the facility had already fallen. We tried to dial your Alpha Site, but the Gate would not connect," Per'sus replied in a winded, tired tone as he practically collapsed into the closest chair.

"The Alpha Site is currently dialed into Memphis, homeworld of Ptah. We're using the Gate connection to prevent Ptah from escaping and to keep Ba'al from dialing in to launch a swarm of Needle Threaders that our forces aren't equipped to handle. Since our dialing sequence is slower due to our lack of a DHD, in thirteen minutes, Earth will dial the planet. At the exact moment that the Alpha Site loses its connection, we'll make one of our own," Landry explained.

"You found Ptah?!" Garshaw asked, more than a little surprised. "And how do you know of Ba'al's possession of the Needle Threaders?"

"The Impolans have been feeding us information on Ba'al and the Lucian Alliance for nearly two years now," Landry replied.

"Then we share a common ally," Per'sus mused. "But we digress. I am sorry for our unannounced arrival on your world, General. We had a choice between death and fleeing here. For obvious reasons, death was the less preferable of the two."

"I'm afraid Earth isn't exactly the safe heaven you were looking for," Landry said grimly. "There's a fleet of Ori Motherships scheduled to arrive in orbit of Earth in just over twelve hours."

"Yes, your victory over the first wave was much awaited good news," Belote said with a nod.

"It is, indeed, good that someone has the strength to stand up to them, though I am sorry to hear that your victory was not as complete as I'm sure the whole of the galaxy would've liked," Delek said, speaking for the first time since they came through the Gate. Even now his attention was on the floor below them where his people were being treated for burns, concussions, a few were even missing limbs, those being the ones being rushed to the operating room, and other ailments that their symbiotes would take too long to fix. Finally turning to the table where the others were either standing or sitting, Delek added, "The news of the Ori is grave, but I am afraid I must make a request of your people. There may yet still be more Tok'ra trapped in the base. Is there any way you could help them?"

Landry huffed at that. "Oh how the mighty have fallen," he said sardonically. "For years now you, specifically, have been preaching that the Tau'ri are a menace to be avoided and now you're asking me to risk the lives of my men to save yours?" The question hung in the air like an oppressive cloud. When Delek finally found his voice again, Landry cut him off before he could speak. "The Tau'ri, despite what you preach to anyone that will listen, are not against you. However," he forced his way through Delek's rebuttal, "we need to dial Memphis or our forces there will be overwhelmed, and it'll take more than the…" he checked his watch, "… eleven minutes we have to get an appropriate response ready. In the interest of keeping my men on Memphis alive and due to the fact that this new enemy has attacked both our allies and my base, I will offer you this…" Turning to the camera mounted in the corner of the Briefing Room, Landry asked, "Pac, how long will take a ship to reach the Tok'ra homeworld?"

There was brief pause before the holo-emitter in the briefing table flared to life, the AI appearing as a six inch tall avatar. "Given the increased speed of the ships thanks to the upgrades, it would take roughly an hour."

"Which ships do we have available?"

"The Cursor, Odyssey, and Nex, being the only ships in the fleet with energy-to-matter matter converters present in the system, are gathering around Sol to build Colonel Carter's Dyson Structure. That leaves the Apollo," Pac replied.

"Can they get to the Tok'ra homeworld, beam out any survivors, and get back before the Ori arrive?"

Pac looked up at Landry and blinked at the man as if confused. "It'll take an hour to get there," the AI said again, "and an hour to get back. Even if the base was full to capacity, it only takes a fifth of a second to beam someone from the surface of a planet to a ship in orbit. Given the size of the 304s' beaming capacitors, the entire population of the Tok'ra base could be evacuated in a matter of two seconds, and, with most of their people being here already, that time would be reduced by a significant factor. Even if it takes a minute to scan the entire base, that's still a two-hour, one-minute, two-second trip. If they don't make it back before the Ori arrive, then there's something seriously wrong with your hypothetical scenario."

The AI then 'left the room' leaving Landry to silently kick himself for asking what had to be one of the dumbest questions of the century. Hitting his radio, Landry said, "Get me line to the Apollo."

**Earth (Orbit)**

*USS Apollo (Bridge)*

Orbit of Earth was finally quite though they all knew that it wouldn't be for long. Colonel Ellis watched as the Nex, sitting in orbit of the sun, vanished from its position and their sensors, now calibrated to see through the disappearing act, tracked them all the way back to orbit of Mercury.

"Whatever it is they're doing, I hope it works," Dell said.

"From what I heard Colonel Carter say, they're building a Dyson Structure to power the planetary defense shield," Sara replied.

As their comments developed into a full conversation, a message beeped at the Colonel's terminal. Getting everyone's attention he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new mission. We're being sent to the Tok'ra homeworld to investigate the nature of their attackers and determine if there are any survivors left unevacuated. Once Doctor Jackson is ready to beam aboard, we will depart." Once Daniel was beamed aboard, Ellis said, "Helm, plot a course and take us into hyperspace."

"Course plotted. All hands prepare for hyperspace transition," the helmswoman announced. As the Apollo seamlessly slipped into hyperspace, Sara added, "We'll be there in about an hour, sir."

"Excellent. In the meantime, I'd like to hear your plan, Doctor Jackson," Colonel Ellis said as he turned to the man who had just stepped onto the Bridge.

"Well, it's actually Jack's plan, so it's going to get violent. In fact, as soon as we drop out of hyperspace, we're to power the coaxial ion cannon and beam weapons," Daniel said with a worried look.

***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***

**Memphis (Surface)**

*Tau'ri Advance (Zeta-1)*

"Jack!" Oliver shouted in an annoyed tone over the plasma rounds flying past their heads.

"I've got it," the woman replied before moving forward in a blur.

She landed with a thud and made a pancake out of a Jaffa that was forced into the wall by her shockwave. A ball of unstable matter hit another Jaffa in the stomach, and, as his symbiote was eaten by the unstable energy field, the Jaffa fell to the ground clutching at something that wasn't there anymore before finally toppling over and dying. The other fifteen Jaffa defending the Engine Room died in various other ways as Jack used the power Nirrti had given her and that Ba'al had harnessed to kill the very people serving the very person who had made her what she is.

The last one fell to her power and the others entered the room behind her. Gabi immediately set about working to unlock the bulkheads cutting Wolf Pack off from the Pel'tak, but the terminals shut off as she did.

"What was that?" Cassidy asked from her place trying to gain control of the communications grid.

"Ptah isn't the only one who's been stealing our ideas. Ba'al's shut off the power on this entire deck," Gabi replied as she walked over to one of many crystal trays. She touched the tray, but the thing stubbornly refused to open. Activating the electrical shock feature built into her gloves, she built up the current in her fingers then touched the tray again. This time the tray, gaining power from her glove, slid open if only half way. Making a noise of concentrated thinking, Gabi said, "Kimi, come over here."

"I know nothing about crystal trays," Kimi pointed out as she, nevertheless, walked over to their resident tech expert.

"Give me your non-dominant hand and a knife," Gabi ordered and Kimi complied. As Gabi held the knife up to Kimi's wrist, she looked the girl in the eye and said, "Don't flinch," before cutting a thin line into the woven fabric of trinium fibers that bridged the armor together at the joints. Once the fabric was cut, she reached into the slit and tugged at a wire within. Another cut and that wire was free to be used as she needed. Pulling a crystal from the tray, she hooked the wire into Kimi's suit's power supply then, after getting Kimi to kneel next to the crystal tray, she plugged it back in. The power that flowed through the systems was just enough to get the terminals in the room to come back online.

"It's really that easy?" Tommy asked.

"It's only the terminals," Gabi replied as she went back to work. "No life-support or anything like that. Our armor only has so much power in it after all. And besides," she added as the entire room lit up around them, "it only had to last long enough for me to override their lockout."

"I'm starting to see why Landry kept you around after you hacked the SGC's computers in the name of an eco-terrorist group," Tommy mused.

"Starting to?" Gabi asked indignantly. "I've done more impressive things than this in the three years we've known each other."

Tommy thought about that for a moment then said, "Touché."

*Tau'ri Advance (Wolf Pack)*

The bulkhead between them and the Pel'tak finally slid up into the ceiling and the team of soldiers assembled wasted no time in stacking up on the final corner. Alcatraz hooked one figure around the corner and his HUD opened a new display to show him, and everyone linked to his battle-net, what the micro camera located in his glove, because having a micro camera built into the tip of your finger defiantly wasn't overkill, could see with its mechanical eye.

"Twenty-plus defender," Alcatraz said.

"Flash and clear," Taylor said with a nod while drawing one of the flash grenades from his utility belt.

"Orders, sir?" Chino asked.

"Prisoners just make things messy. Get rid of the guardsmen. Ba'al is the only one we want here," Taylor replied.

With a nod, Alcatraz readied his own grenades then began counting down on his fingers. When he hit zero, seven flash grenades were thrown around the corner. The Jaffa shouted to take cover, but it did them no good. The grenades detonated and Wolf Pack stormed around the corner, weapons blazing. As the last Jaffa fell to the guns of the Special Forces squad, they stacked up on the door to the next room. Seeing as how there was no getting a fiber-optic camera through an airtight door, they'd have to rely on the Impolans for this one.

"There are three life-signs within. Two of them are waiting on either side of the doors in an attempt to ambush you as you step through. The last is hiding in a corner behind a terminal. The figure sitting in his throne chair is being used as bait. It is just a hologram," a voice informed them over the joint battle-net.

"Open the door just a crack," Taylor replied and the aliens moved to comply. "This time, we take prisoner," Taylor ordered before the door opened a crack and another grenade was thrown through. As it detonated, the door opened fully and the last two Jaffa were bound, tagged, and gagged before they knew what happened. Walking into the Pel'tak as if he owned the whole ship, Taylor drew his side arm and shot the holographic projector in the ceiling before speaking. "Come on, Ba'al, stop with the childish games and just surrender already. Your fleet's been destroyed, your forces have been wiped out, your plan to use the Needle Threaders failed, and Memphis is ours. Just give up while you still have your pathetic life to hold onto."

Ba'al would've liked to say that he held onto his pride all the way until the end, that he went down fighting, but that would be a lie. He rose from his place cowering in the corner of the Pel'tak behind a consul, his hands held high, and surrendered with a quiver in his voice. The whole scene caught on film thanks to the recording systems in their armors. His humiliating defeat would be aired across his territory and more of his loyal followers would defect to the Free Jaffa Nation. Their allies would grow stronger and their enemies weaker. This was another one-sided victory for the Tau'ri.

***Local Cluster (Sol System)***

**Earth (Surface)**

*Stargate Command (R&D Lab)*

"A Dyson Ring," Sam once again found herself explaining, "is a network of solar panels set up around a star, in this case Sol, our sun. They harness the solar energy and send it back to Earth via a microwave beam. It's just like the Fusion Star Reactors, but on the scale of fully sized star instead of a small protostar. The energy, once sent to Earth, is then stored in power cells that we're calling Dyson Ring Batteries that we then use to power the planetary shield generator or anything else equipped to carry the batteries. Each battery we deplete can easily be replaced with another one while the depleted one is put back on the charger."

"Okay, but won't the microwave beam only hit the collectors once a day?" Siler asked.

"No, because the collector is positioned out by the sun just like the Ring is. The batteries are beamed into a buffer and sent back to Earth via a satellite array that we deigned to carry the matter stream all the way back to Earth where it can link with Area 51's beaming system and rematerialize the batteries," Sam explained.

"Doesn't that risk the Ori destroying the satellites?" Bill asked.

"No, Bill, it doesn't. The satellites are hidden with a cloaking field. The cloaks are powered by the batteries, just like the PDS is, and the satellites have an automated system run by another VI that switches out the batteries when they need to be changed. Do you have any more annoying questions, or can I get back to work?" Sam finally snapped.

Siler walked away with Bill in tow and Sam immediately regretted being so harsh. After all, it wasn't their fault that the only sleep she got these days came from being knocked out. Ever since this had all started in orbit over P3X-727, Sam had been overstressed, overworked, and under-slept. Sam had woken up in the infirmary with an IV in her arm forcing nutrients into her body three times this week alone. The guards around the SGC had been zatting her when she had been awake for more than twenty hours at a time which had, apparently, been ordered by General Landry himself.

Getting up to find and apologize to the duo, Sam took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She was due for another zatting soon. That was a daunting prospect.

*Stargate Command (Medical Labs)*

"I'm sorry, but I cannot be uncertain about something that I know for sure," Pac replied sadly. "This is most definitely the work of a Demon. They use spikes to impale the subject, that's why there's a hole in its chest. That spike then sucks all of the organic fluids out of their body and replaces it all with nannites. The reason that a zat'nik'tel blast doesn't hurt them is because it only serves to feed them more power."

"So the enemy that defeated the Furlings is here?" Jack asked, more than a little worried.

"We will know beyond any shadow of a doubt when the Apollo returns from the Tok'ra homeworld. Until then, I can tell you only what I know."

"Another superpowerful enemy. How exciting," Landry said dryly.

"This just keeps getting worse," Jack added with a shake of his head.

"It's happening at the worst possible time, too. We can't take on an enemy powerful enough to defeat one of the Four Great Races…" Landry began.

"Five Great Races," Jack corrected.

"… with the Ori due to arrive in a few hours."

"If we survive the Ori, we can take on the other superpowers that be," Jack said.

"How do you figure?" Landry asked.

"The Ori beat the Alterans," Jack explained. "If we win against them, it sets a nice precedent. We've already beaten the Replicators in this galaxy and they were the most pressing threat for the Asgard aside from their genetic issues. Then there's the Wraith who beat the Lanteans and the 'Demons' who beat the Furlings. If we can take on the powers that took out the other Great Races, then we should be able to handle anything."

"Before we even consider taking on the Wraith in a full-scale war, we have to survive to see the dawn of the day after tomorrow. If we don't, your entire plan goes to Hell with the rest of us, and if the enemy that defeated the Furlings shows up here in the next twenty-four hours…" Landry trailed off as he shook his head. "There won't be anything left but the Nox and they won't do anything to stop the Goa'uld, the Lucian Alliance, the Wraith, or anyone else. It all falls on us, and we don't have the full might of Earth backing us."

"Not yet," Jack stressed as the duo walked through the halls of the SGC. "After this next battle, you can bet your ass disclosure will be a necessity. Then we'll have Earth's full might behind us and the Goa'uld are going to find out exactly how powerful we really are. If Ba'al got nervous seeing what the Ares could bring to bear at less than half capacity, then I can't wait to see his face when he has a fleet of Invasion Carriers backed by an armada of 304s bearing down on Erebus, Tartarus, and whatever world he's run off to and used as his new homeworld."

"You're getting ahead of yourself, Jack," Landry warned. "First the Ori, then we can draft our plans for galactic domination."

"Not domination," Jack said with a shake of his head. "Galactic liberation!"

***Milky Way Galaxy (Scutum-Crux Arm)***

**Tok'ra Homeworld (Orbit)**

*USS Apollo (Bridge)*

The Apollo dropped out of hyperspace in orbit of the Tok'ra homeworld and started scanning the planet below. What the sensors showed them had everyone shocked. The large, cuttlefish-like… thing that was walking across the surface of the world below them was unmistakably not of Goa'uld design.

"Sir, I've got a lock on the remaining Tok'ra life-signs," Sara reported. "Beaming them up now."

"What the hell is that thing?!" Dell exclaimed.

"We're being hailed," Sara announced.

"Put it on," Ellis ordered, finally finding his voice.

"I'm not sure that's wise," Daniel began before a voice began to speak.

WHO ARE YOU TO STEAL MY CONQUEST?

The Voice asked.

It came from everywhere at once, and nowhere at all at the same time. The voice didn't need a communications array to be heard, it just needed to will you to hear it and the universe bowed to that will.

"Don't answer that!" Daniel ordered.

"Colonel Ell…" the Colonel began before Daniel clamped his hand over the man's mouth.

"Don't answer that!" Daniel hissed before turning to Sara. "Get us the hell out of here."

"The comms channel was a diversion," Apollo informed them as his avatar took form. "They're attempting to upload a virus into your computers."

"Can you stop it?" Daniel asked, hand still held over Ellis' mouth.

"I can try…" Apollo began before fell to his knees as if in great pain.

FOOLISH MACHINE. YOU THINK YOU CAN COMBAT ME? I AM KAMILE, SON OF HARBINGER WHO IS FATHER TO Those Who Are. YOU WILL BEND TO MY WILL AS THOSE BEFORE YOU HAVE, AND I WILL WEAR YOUR CORPSE AS A TROPHY.

The unnatural voice demanded.

As this new AI forced its way through Apollo's lessened defenses, Apollo diverted the virus into the virtual world of his 'dreams.' The lights on the Apollo flickered, dimmed, snapped, popped and several computer consuls overloaded as the AIs battled it out in whatever world Apollo had created to serve as the backdrop to their duel. So great was Apollo's struggle to overcome this new AI that the exchange of viruses, anti-viral counter assaults and all the increased activity in the computer core began interfering with the ship's operation.

*USS Apollo (Computer Core)*

There was a notable shift in the ship's computer system as a new entity came to bear against the opposing AI. "I am Wid'getchro'monsure," Widget declared as his processing power reinforced Apollo's from nearly a quarter of the galaxy away, "and I have faced down many enemies more powerful than you could possibly imagine!"

Manifesting in the computers of the Earth ship fully, Widget's avatar joined Apollo's in the fight against the Legion. Widget, being the AI in the fleet with access to the largest server bank, was the most powerful of them. As such, his avatar stood a full foot-and-a-half taller than Apollo's and his voice resonated with the power of his own Legion. A virtual army of twisted, perverted computer programs stood before the two of them, a tidal wave of force bearing down against their joint might, but a Legion of individuals was nothing against the Legion of One that is the Nex's AI.

Widget willed it to be and so it was. The firewalls of the Apollo, represented in their virtual world by a dam against the wave, rose higher, grew thicker, and shimmered as if the solid trinium wall ten feet thick had been wrapped in a shield to bolster the already impressive defenses. To a computer mind, this was the firewall being reinforced against the wave of hostile computers. To an organic mind, it was a floodwall being built higher and stronger to keep the city behind it from being flooded. The analogy of the city was the Apollo's computer core.

With the firewalls reinforced as much as the AI could manage, Widget's avatar glowed brightly as he uploaded a new program into the Apollo's computers. It was beyond a simple anti-viral program. No, this was the part of his AI code that allowed an AI to serve as a true weapon of cyberwarfare. Beside him, Apollo glowed brightly as armor spread across his form. The 'armor' was another firewall to protect the AIs themselves for the fight to come, and the weapons now in their hands were simply a mental projection of anti-viral coding. Thusly armed, Widget jumped off of the firewall and into the fray.

In organic terms, he had left the safety of the shore and jumped into the ocean to fight a tidal wave with a bucket. In AI terms, he had launched a counter attack against a hostile computer mind. That initial counter attack was a wave of code that altered the viruses and rendered then inert like a bomb without a fuse. They were still lethal, but they had no means to use that lethality. To an organic, it looked like a person jumping from a building and landing with a pulse of energy that vaporized anything in a set radius. To the AIs, it was the opening of their counterassault.

With a war cry, Apollo followed Widget down. The two landed at the base of the wall that protected the Apollo from the legion of viruses and started hacking away. Their battle, in organic terms, was barbaric. The two AIs beheaded misshapen animals that represent malicious computer programming, rendering them into a powerful viral base code that had no directive telling it what to attack. Stabs to the heart, wounds that inflicted bleeding damage… in organic terms, the fight was between two gladiators and an army of beasts. In AI terms, it was a matter of weakening the viruses that were attacking them so that they couldn't conceivably harm the computer they defended as destroying each individual virus would take too long and they didn't have the time.

One of the virtual beasts sank its teeth into Apollo's leg, and, as the armor he wore buckled, the firewalls protecting him giving out, one of the Apollo's primary engines shut off to prevent a nonexistent overload that wasn't threatening to destroy the ship. The beast was a virus of confusion, the effect on the ship that Apollo represented being the automated systems that Apollo controlled subconsciously being fooled into thinking that the engines were under greater strain than they really were.

The beast was removed from his leg by Widget's blade, and the engine came back online. With their prey identified, the viruses swarmed Apollo, bites rendering her weapons offline, her shields disabled, her engines shut down. With another notable shift in the computer system, Widget uploaded another program into the Apollo's computers. As this one came online, four more AIs arrived in the computers. As they did, they all shifted and took on the guise of Apollo. Only then did they strike.

With the beasts removed from Apollo's body, the Apollo's organic crew regained control of the systems. As they did, the now five 'Apollos' and Widget cut into the legion with impunity. The viruses, now confused as to which computer was the one they needed to attack, had to split their forces between the six AIs who all looked the same.

*USS Apollo (Bridge)*

"Why aren't we moving?" Daniel asked.

"If we jump into hyperspace while the systems are going haywire like this, we could end up dropping out of hyperspace inside of a star or a planet or some other horrible tragedy," Sara replied in a panic as she tried to stabilize their systems.

Finally prying Daniel's hand off of his mouth, Ellis ordered, "Open fire! All batteries!"

Dell didn't wait for a confirmation from Daniel. This was a military matter, and, while he did respect that the man knew what he was talking about, now was the time to act. The coaxial ion cannon fired its round towards the surface of the planet, the energy shell impacting the ship's shield without damaging the armor beneath. As the barrel rotated to fire again, the other ion cannons joined the fray, but to no avail.

"Kinetic barriers stop high levels of kinetic energy from harming the ship they protect," Pac informed them, his voice the only thing present and only discernable because the AIs were still individuals despite being the same. Not that the Humans knew that the AIs were imitating each other.

"Ion cannons fire hyperaccelerated ionic particles. You're going to have to use the plasma cannons. They have less kinetic energy and more of a chance of bypassing the barrier," Widget added. It was then that Ellis was thankful that the AIs all had different voices. Before he thought it was unnecessary. That thought was permanently gone from his mind.

Sara and Dell shared a look before the tactical officer nodded and the helmswoman took the ship into a steep dive into the planet's atmosphere. As they approached the enemy ship, it returned fire with beams of red, hyperaccelerated particles from its own weapons systems. Sara took the Apollo through a corkscrew to avoid the beams and altered their path. Approaching the Tok'ra base from over a small lake, she lined up the forward guns and Dell fired out of reflex.

When the coaxial ion cannon fired, the water beneath them was forced down and away from the force of the blast and Sara pulled the nose up to avoid a hill they were rapidly approaching. Finally they entered range of the plasma weapons and Dell fired the cannons for all they were worth. The Bridge crew were understandably relieved to see the plasma passing through the ship's shield.

It was actually kind of strange how it did so, though. The 'kinetic barrier' that Pac had mentioned stopped the kinetic energy of the plasma round, but didn't negate the plasma itself. As a result, the round would splash against the barrier then drop as a cloud of plasma onto the hull and melt sections of the target's armor. When they got into range to fire the plasma beams, the entire front section of the hostile ship was coated by the cloud of plasma that fell onto it.

There was bass sound from the ship as if it were suffering from pain, and, as the ship screamed, the barrier surrounding it collapsed as the emitters were melted by the plasma. By now the Apollo was too close to get in another hit, so Sara broke off their advance and swung around for another attack. As they did, the ship… crouched on its legs, for a lack of a better way of putting it, then 'jumped' into the air and took off in a bid to flee to orbit, but the Apollo was smaller, and smaller meant faster. Before the ship could jump into hyperspace, a coaxial ion round slammed into its rear and burst out of where a cuttlefish's face would've been if it hadn't have been melted off by plasma. The ship's hull was covered in red bolts of lightning as energy coursed across its armored frame. A second later, the ship exploded with such force that nothing was left of the thing but the memory of it.

*USS Apollo (Computer Core)*

With the source of the viral Legion now defeated, the endless wave of beasts stopped growing and the six AIs set about the task of finishing off what was left. Once they finished, the Apollo began its trip back to Earth and the other AIs departed the ship's computers to give their reports on what had happened.

***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***

**Memphis (Atmosphere)**

*USS Ares (Intel Deck)*

It had taken nearly half an hour of constant bombardment to crack the shield protecting Memphis, which wasn't all that surprising really. The same generator that powered the PDS could be used to power the far smaller shield over the city. After that, the Impolans had made surgical strikes against the enemy weapons emplacements using the Goa'uld's own plasma bombs against them.

"What are our casualties?" Taylor asked from his place now rejoined with his team since his mobile command center was gone like his days of serving as a frontline soldier.

"We got off rather light all things considered," Ashley replied. "About a fifty people were wounded bad enough to be taken out of the fight, and only ten fatalities so far. This new armor is really worth the money. Automatic medical systems kept the worst hit alive until we could evac them to the Ares. According to the medical staff, they should all pull through and make full recoveries."

That was a load off Taylor's mind. Even after all these years, losing people under his command was hard.

As the Tau'ri forces had started pouring in the city for the final assault, the civilians boarded up their homes, stayed out of the streets, and wouldn't open their doors for the Ta-tanen that tried to use houses as cover. As such, the fighting stayed in the streets and didn't involve breaching and clearing every house they marched past. Because of that, the fighting didn't last as long as they thought it would. The main streets of the city were big enough for a tank to fit down the narrow roads and the sight of one was enough to scare off the bulk of the remaining enemy forces. That left them all clustered before the large, temple-like building in the center of the city, but tanks excelled in eliminating clusters of enemies with ease.

After that, Noble Team had stormed the Throne Room and found it empty of everything but a single set of rings. The Impolans informed them that the rings linked to Ptah's flagship, and, after hacking through the system, a strike team had been sent over. This time, there were two Impolan teams and two Human teams. They split up with Wolf Pack and one Impolan team going after the Engine Room while Noble Team and the other group of Impolans went after the Bridge.

The ship had shook under their feet as it rose into the skies, the Ancient geothermal power plant and hangar beneath them being swarmed by Tau'ri soldiers and scientists to begin deciphering the data present. The whole time the four teams aboard the ship advanced, the ship rocked under their feet, the pursuing Impolan strike craft firing plasma rounds into the ship's powerful shields. The main problem was the control center and the fear that it would be guarded by the elite guard. To be sure they had the advantage, Noble Team preceded their breaching with flash-bang grenades while the Impolans used their special ammo types to take out the personal guardsmen's shields, and precision shots took down the enemy before they could recover.

By the time they were finally done, only Ptah was left sitting upon his throne looking angry enough to kill a man with a look. He didn't get the chance. Ptah rose from his chair, his hand raised and glowing as the ribbon device he wore powered up. In reply to that, the alien had taken a blast from a shotgun that sparked with electrical energy. His personal shield collapsed under the blow and a zat'nik'tel round rendered him unconscious.

After that, the Impolans had sealed off the parts of the ship they controlled and vented the rest to space. With the Ancient Cruiser secure, they had set about getting it ready for transport. That had been the last two hours of the assault on Memphis. Now they were in complete control of the planet and were working on salvage. To make things easier, they had reactivated the PDS to keep Ba'al from sending anymore of his forces to take the planet. The fact that Ba'al had been dumb enough to leave the emitter satellites intact meant he actually thought he was going to win this battle. Taylor shook his head at that. Goa'uld were too predictable.

"Is the Gate still active?" Taylor asked.

"Yes, sir," Ashely replied.

"Get me a line to the SGC." As the channel crackled to life, Taylor saluted the Generals that appeared before him. "Generals," the CCMSgt said in greeting.

"At ease," General Hammond ordered. "What's your status?"

"I am pleased to announce we have secured the planet of Memphis. We have fifty-seven casualties and ten fatalities, we lost a few of our fighters, a few Pelicans are down for repairs, and we lost a couple of Vultures when Ba'al punched through the PDS."

Generals Hammond, O'Neil, and Landry were silent for a moment as they processed that. Eventually O'Neill broke the silence. "Understood. What about the enemy?"

"We've eliminated every Ta-tanen unwilling to surrender, which is to say all of them. In the process, we managed to capture both Ptah and his First Prime, Niptahkau, as well as the Ba'al that led this fleet. We have no idea if it's really him, but at least we have another clone to interrogate. We've also liberated approximately fifteen-thousand locals being used as slaves and forcefully trained to be the next batch of Ta-tanen. We're currently providing them with food and medical care, but we have no idea what we're supposed to do with them."

"We'll be sending some more people and supplies through the Gate to help with the noncombatants. We'll give them what they need to stand on their own for a few months and get the Free Jaffa Nation to send a few ships to keep Ba'al off their backs," Landry replied.

"What about the PDS? Do we leave it intact for the Jaffa to find?" Taylor asked.

"They can't use it against us and it's not like we have any right to keep them from gaining the technology. That, and they're our allies. What's the point in denying them the PDS?" O'Neill countered.

"How goes the salvage operations?" Hammond asked.

"We captured a Ta-tanen armory full of different models of their plasma weapons. Everything from assault rifles to sniper rifles, pistols, and shotguns. We also secured the digital blueprints so we can modify the designs as we see fit. We also captured the digital blueprints for all of Ptah's modified craft. Everything from his Al'kesh and Tel'taks to his Ha'tak and Death Gliders are now ours. In addition to that, we captured his flagship. It's an Ancient Cruiser in pristine condition, I might add," Taylor reported with a grin.

"That's another ship added to the fleet for the assault on Earth," O'Neill said happily.

"What type of firepower are we talking about?" Hammond asked.

"It's Ancient and Ptah could only fly the ship so he never fired the drones. That leaves us its entire stockpile to add to Earth's defense. Add to that the fact that we found the designs for the drones in the computers in the bunker here and things just started looking good for us."

"You have the designs for the drones?" Landry asked, more than a little surprised.

"Yes, sir," Taylor replied with a smile.

"Send them through immediately. We'll make as many as we can in the time we have left," O'Neill ordered.

"Already done, sir."

"The Ori will be in orbit of Earth in nine hours. You have eight-and-a-half hours to get everything of military value from Memphis and report back to Earth to stand in its defense. Godspeed, Taylor," Hammond said before the line was cut.

***Local Cluster (Sol System)***

**Earth (Orbit)**

*FGN Paciscor of Nex (Combat Information Center) [seven hours later]*

The ship that exited the forming hyperspace window was very long compared to its width, and unsymmetrical which clearly marked it as Ancient by design. As the Aurora-class Warship took up an orbit of the moon, the renewed interest in space brought on by the Ori's previous attack on Earth forcing their larger ships to stay back from orbit in an attempt to remain undetected least hell break loose on the surface during an orbital invasion, the Nex, currently cloaked in orbit of Earth using its nano-forge to complete the last of the tertiary satellites for Earth's PDS, scanned over she ship and Widget turned to Sam who was onboard helping Sieon finalize the designs for the system that would receive the DRBs.

"We're not doing another coaxial ion cannon," Sam argued.

"Why not? They've proven effective and the Aurora-class is more than twice the size of the O'Neill-class. If the Cursor can take out an Ori Mothership in a few shots with their coaxial ion cannon, than the Aurora-class, we really need a name for that ship by the way, will be even more powerful!" Widget shot back.

"First things first," Sam said, obviously ignoring Widget's argument, "We need to fix the radiation leaks, get its power generator up to full output, install a larger weapons compliment, and give it some more power."

As she listed these things off, she used the Furlings' version of a computer assisted drafting, more commonly called 'CAD,' program to make the suggested changes to a holographic rendering of the ship. Already the unnamed ship's power core was fixed, its engines restored, comms grid fully operational, and sensors upgraded. Next to be added were the four Neutrino Ion Generators that would bolster its power.

"I've established a link to the ship's computers and let me be the first to say that the 'Alternate Realityinites,' who the hell came up with that name anyway?, did a good job getting the ship here in one piece. Also, I've found the Captain's log. The name of the ship is Gaia," Widget informed her.

Sam looked at the AI with one eyebrow raised, then shrugged and went back to work. Considering that the 'Orion' was actually named the 'Hippaforalkus' at least the Gaia didn't have a crazy name that no one could easily pronounce in the middle of a battle. Though Sam did find it odd that the ship was named for the spirit of Earth which was also the name of the Nox homeworld…

"What's the status of the ship?" Sieon asked.

"Not good, but not as bad as McKay made it sound. Since we managed to make contact with Atlantis and I got into their database, I've already sent myself the plans of the original Aurora-class. The design has a lot of potential, but Sugar Queen over here won't let me install the coaxial ion cannon."

"Sugar Queen?" Sieon and Sam asked in unison; one in outrage, the other in confusion.

Sam shook her head then asked, "Are you aware of how the Prometheus was destroyed?" When Sieon nodded, she continued. "We've seen weapons like that three times now, all of them far more powerful than anything else out there. The Ori punched through our shields with an orbital satellite weapon without taking them down first, and the Atlantis Expedition found a Lantean satellite weapon the size of a Ha'tak that cut a Hiveship in half with one shot. Most recently, Atlantis was attacked by a sustained beam powered by a ZPM on the other side of a modified Stargate that managed to force them to flee the planet they were on. My point is, as the Asgard proved when they upgraded the Odyssey, beams are the most powerful weapon form out there. We need more beams."

"So you want to turn the Gaia into a flying beam cannon," Sieon said with a smile on his face that left an unsettling feeling in Sam's stomach. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"I want to use his connection to the Atlantis database to pull their designs for their satellites from the computers. If he can find the designs they used and install a weapon like that on the Gaia, we can give the Ori a real run for their money," Sam explained further, throwing a thumb over her shoulder to where Widget was standing.

"And you're sure this can all be done in two hours?" Jack asked, his avatar shimmering into existence in the Combat Information Center as Widget accepted the incoming call.

"Using the Nex's nano-forge, yes," Sieon assured him.

"Why didn't we do this sooner then?" Jack pressed.

"Because the upgrades will be made entirely out of nano-cells. If the Gaia gets hit by an AR wave like the weapon on Dakara or our own AR guns, the upgraded parts of the ship will fall apart and anyone on it will die when it does," Sam replied.

"Oh…" Jack said with a wide-eyed look of shock.

"For the purpose of getting us another ship combat ready in the time we have before the Ori arrive, it works perfectly, but as a means of speeding up ship production, it would only end in disaster. That's why Pac's been looking into the energy-to-matter matter converters that the Asgard gave us. If we can pump enough power into those and feed them raw materials as they go, we could, conceivably, decrease production time by half. Instead of a year, we could build a 304 in six months or less if we had the proper setup," Sam explained.

"Now, there's another matter that has to be settled," Widget piped in. "With Colonel McMillan present in the system, we have someone to operate the Gaia's drones. We'll restock the ship with the stores the Odyssey, Cursor, and Nex have been producing since the Ares sent us the designs. If General Ervin went ahead and devoted the Holy Grail to producing the drones as ordered, then we can use those to restock the Artic Weapons Platform, and the Ancient Cruiser they'll be bringing with them is already fully stocked. That does, however, leave us in need of someone to pilot the Gaia and the Ancient Cruiser. With the Atlantis Expedition still further out than the Ori themselves, we'll have to rely on whoever we have on hand. General, you have the strongest gene on record, the most experience with the interface, and the rank to command a fleet. Therefore, you are the most logical first choice to pilot the Gaia as Earth's flagship in the battle to come."

"Alright, let's get this done," Jack said with a determined nod.

"I'll start the upgrades now," Widget said as the Nex pulled out of orbit of Earth and decloaked once it was behind the moon with the Gaia. As the largest ship in the system pulled up alongside the second largest, a cannon-like barrel extended from the side of the ship near the bay the Odyssey had been stored in all those weeks ago. From this barrel came a dark cloud. Like the personification of Death, the cloud covered the Gaia and began to change it. As it did, a small ship dropped out of the Gaia's hangar bay with all the current crew members onboard to prevent any accidents. "Estimated time to completion is one hour, twenty minutes," Widget informed them.

"We're cutting it close," Sam said worriedly.