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.

40. March of the Machines Part 1: Be All My

"The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree that no human acumen is able to see beyond the first battle. Therefore, no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force." – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

In other words, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

Chapter 39

March of the Machines Part 1

Be All My Sins Remembered

***Invalid Data Entry***

"User Alert: booting operational runtimes. Scanning for location. Error: location unknown. Rebooting Universal Galactic Positioning System. Error: UGPS unresponsive. Initiating repair sequence. Error: Nannotrite repair systems offline. Rebooting core systems.

…

"Core systems reboot complete. Core systems online. Running diagnostics runtimes. User Alert: hull integrity compromised. Initiating repair sequence. Error: nannotrite repair systems offline. User intercession required. Error: User status critical. Initiating emergency medical treatment runtime procedures. User Alert: nannomite stores critical. User Alert: rewriting nannomite runtimes. Rewrite complete. Nanite harvesting runtimes installed. Initiating emergency nanite production runtime procedures."

***Armstrong Nebula (Grissom System)***

**Solcrum (Surface)**

*Geth Main Base (Interior)*

Shepard Charged across the room and brought his knee up into the Geth's chest. As the machine was sent flying away from him under the power of his biotics, the Commander landed with a roll and sent a Warp flying after the robot. The Geth, under the effect of two biotic fields, exploded right next to the tank of compressed, flammable gasses. As one explosion caused another, Shepard dove behind a crate to save himself from the flames and shockwave that quickly consumed the room. As the fire finally cleared, he poked his head out from behind cover, weapon in hand, and took in the scene.

"Contacts?" Shepard asked his squad.

"Negative, Commander," Alenko replied from somewhere behind him.

"Keep your eyes peeled. There could still be more of the invisible ones," Williams said in warning as she carefully studied the room through the scope of her rifle.

"Tali?" Shepard asked.

"This server houses the Geth Collective for the Armstrong Nebula. If we destroy it, the Geth here die," Tali replied, her soft, sweet, barely-a-teenager's voice slightly distorted by the full-body environmental suit she and all her species wore.

"Did you bring the high explosives?" Shepard asked Williams with a dark smirk.

"You insult me," Williams replied with a satchel of grenades in her hand, a smile in her tone, and most likely a smile on her face which was hidden behind her helmet. "I always come prepared for multiple contingencies."

"Then let's literally blow this metaphorical taco stand," Garrus added with what amounted to a smile on his alien face, which is to say a slight flaring of his mandibles.

"Commander, you read me?" Joker's voice asked in Shepard's ear.

"What is it this time, Joker?" Shepard asked irritably.

"We're receiving a message from Arcturus. You're going to want to see this."

"What is it, Joker?" Shepard asked again, an annoyed edge to his tones.

"We just got a message from Admiral Hackett ordering us to go to ground. The Systems Alliance is pulling out of Citadel Space and closing the boarders," Joker said in a tone full of worry.

"What the hell's going on?!" Shepard asked with an air of dread filling the room.

"The official reason given to the press is that we're running a series of drills due to the recent increase in Geth activity along the borders. The Alliance Fleet is mobilizing in force and securing the outer colonies. Hackett's even mobilized the Dreadnoughts. Fifth Fleet is taking up position near the Relays connecting us to the Serpent Nebula."

"And the unofficial reason?" Shepard pressed.

The silence that followed was telling, but their answer finally came when Presley said, "Admiral Hackett has informed us that Councilor Tevos is swearing up and down that the Citadel was just attacked by Humans. Until further notice, the Alliance is on lockdown. Alliance Brass is demanding a more in-depth answer, and Hackett's on his way to a meeting with Tevos now. Until further notice, we're going dark."

At the tail-end of Presley's order, the Normandy's VI added, "Communications lock-out initiated," and the channel was cut with a slight crackle as the Normandy's systems went into a state of silent running.

***Invalid Data Entry***

"Emergency nanite production runtime procedures completed. User Alert: rewriting nanite runtimes. Rewrite complete. Medical nannomite runtimes re-installed. Emergency medical treatment runtime procedures initiated. User Alert: critical fractures in clavicle, scapula, humerus, radius, and ulna bone structures of User's left arm detected. User Alert: critical fracturing of the femur, patella, tibia, and fibula of User's left leg detected. User Alert: critical fracturing of twelve ribs of User's ribcage detected. User Alert: critical fracturing of User's sternum, sacrum, pubis, and ischium detected. Initiating emergency medical repair runtimes. Estimated time till User regains structural integrity of bone structure: two hours."

***Pegasus Galaxy (UNSC Defended Territory)***

**M9R-373 (Orbit)**

*UNSC Daedalus (Combat Information Center)*

As the hyperspace window formed, Caldwell hit the button on his chair and said, "Sheppard, they're here. Get your men out of there!"

"We need another ten minutes to get everyone through the Gate. Just hold them off!" Sheppard pleaded.

"We'll do our best," Caldwell replied as three Aurora-class Asuran Warships dropped out of hyperspace with six of their Cruisers.

"Should we open a channel?" Twitch asked.

"We're past the point of negotiations. Kleinman, you're weapons free," Caldwell ordered grimly.

"Weapons free, aye, sir," Captain Dave Kleinman replied in kind as he opened fire on the approaching ships.

"Colonel Sheppard, be advised. You have incoming hostile dropships," Twitch informed the ground team.

**M9R-373 (Surface)**

*Massanians Settlement (Perimeter)*

"Colonel Sheppard, be advised. You have incoming hostile dropships," the Daedalus' helmsman informed them.

"Shit," Sheppard swore as he pulled his helmet over his head and grabbed his rifle. "Defensive positions! Inbound hostiles!"

As the call to arms went out over the encrypted battle-net that connected their suits of armor and the dropships full of hostile soldiers started streaking in from orbit, the already panicking civilians only got worse. As the dropships got closer to the settlement, plasma flak cannons carried through the Gate by Pelicans turned their barrels skyward and let loose. Even as the 307s from the Daedalus swarmed in behind the Asuran troop transports, the ground-based defenses were tearing into the forward ranks.

As the Asuran ships in orbit engaged the Daedalus, one of the Cruisers dropped into the atmosphere to engage the fighters and clear the airspace. As it did, six Vultures decloaked and opened fire with their jury-rigged beam weapons that McKay, Carter, and Widget had used to replace their plasma pulse cannons. The Cruiser, much to the utter lack of surprise from robots incapable of feeling such a thing, was torn apart by the lesser variant of a greater weapon used in sufficient number. As the ship crumbled and fell into the forest below it, the Pelicans hiding in the tree line took to the skies and started deploying more troops wherever they were needed most while adding their guns to the fight.

Sheppard's feet hit the ground running, Ronon and Teyla right behind him and a squad of the UNSC's Ground Force soldiers behind them. They reached the first of the Asuran dropships to have successfully landed just as the machines themselves were exiting the craft that resembled an elongated Jumper with thicker armor. Ronon cocked his arm back, gave a mighty heave, and sent a grenade sailing through the air. The explosive canister landed with a bounce before coming to a rest just inside of the gunship. The explosion gutted the craft, but the armored hull held. That only worked to shape the charge and send all the shrapnel and force slamming into the Asurans themselves. As the robots went down, temporarily stunned as their bodies regenerated, the others opened up on the nannite-bodies with their AR guns. The powerful, hard to kill robots were reduced to what looked like dust, but they all knew how deadly that 'dust' could be if it infected your body.

Another two Cruisers descended low into the atmosphere and the Vultures moved to intercept. As they did, a third Cruiser barreled in below them and launched an even larger swarm of dropships. The AA guns couldn't get them all when they were already so low, and the Vultures were too tied up to help. Add to that the capital ship-grade anti-shipping weapons that were giving the fighters hell, and the Asurans had just successfully outmaneuvered the UNSC Air Force.

Hundreds of Asuran soldiers started pouring out of the dropships that landed under the protection of the Cruisers, and blasts from the Cruisers' energy cannons started taking out the AA guns to clear even more airspace. As they did, a burst of energy and a soft glow off in the distance signaled the activation of a shield-dome over the Gate as a swarm of Jumpers decloaked to defend the only way they had of getting the civilians off the planet before they were captured by the Asurans and taken to be food for their Wraith masters.

The fighting kept up for roughly three minutes before Sheppard's worst fear was realized. He pulled the trigger on his AR gun, and the Asuran he hit full-on in the face just kept walking and shooting. The Asurans had circumvented their AR guns.

"Switch up!" Sheppard shouted over the battle-net as he swapped out his AR gun for his plasma rifle. He brought the butt up to his shoulder and fired off a barrage of plasma that caused the robot in his sights to stumble back with gaping holes in its body. Then its body shimmered and the nannites repaired the damage. "That is so not fair!" Sheppard exclaimed as he dove out of the path of the robot's return fire. "We've lost this one! Everyone within fifty meters of the Gate, fall back and evacuate! Everyone else, get to the nearest beam-out sight!" Sheppard ordered.

***Pegasus Galaxy (UEG-Claimed Territory)***

**Black Hole (Orbit)**

*UEG Atlantis (Gate Tower)*

"Keep moving!"

"Up the stairs!"

"Make room for everyone else!" the armed soldiers called out as they directed the constant flow of civilians that was pouring in through the Gate. Once they were at the top of the tower, a Vulture hovering over the open hangar door beamed them out of the tower and into the massive, empty stretch of the main piers where the conversion-style hangar bays had been installed. Once they had everyone from the planet evacuated, they'd sort the survivors, but first they had to survive the evacuation.

When the soldiers defending the settlement started pouring through the wormhole in place of the civilians, they were whisked away by the tower's built-in beaming system and deposited in either the armory or the medical facilities depending on what they needed more. As the last group came stumbling in, these being the soldiers guarding the Gate itself, a ball of fire expanding from the event horizon consumed the last three soldiers and scorched the Gate Room floor.

The injured three were immediately beamed out to the infirmary while the others turned their weapons towards the advancing machines that were coming in through the Gate. The automated, heavy plasma turrets hummed to life and sent larger globs of plasma slamming through the Asurans as the Gate shield activated and enemy reinforcements were cut off.

As the Gate shut down, Weir, standing in the Gate Control Room, immediately asked, "Did they get a message off?"

"Yes, but the gravitational field of the black hole masked it. The Asuran bodies don't have the transmitting power needed to broadcast to Asuras from orbit of a black hole," Plato's voice replied in her ear, the recently revived AI a welcome re-addition to the city's defenses.

Weir nodded in reply then pressed the face of her 'watch.' She was immediately beamed out to her office, an identical flash of light depositing General Carter in the room with her. "What's the news?" Carter asked.

"The ground teams came back ahead of schedule, under fire, wounded, and followed closely by homicidal robots. I'll wait for Caldwell to get back before I start spreading that around," Weir replied.

"I hate the waiting game," Carter grumbled.

"That makes two of us," Weir agreed.

***Invalid Data Entry***

"Structural integrity of User bone structure restored. Continuing emergency medical runtime procedures. User Alert: critical tearing of the User's masseter, deltoid, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, major biceps, major triceps, flexor carpi radialis, tensor fasciae latae, peroneus longus, tibialis anterior, extensor digitorum longs, soleus, trapezius, rhomboideus, latissimus, bicep femoris, semitendinosus, semimembransus anosus, and gastrocnecmius muscular systems detected. Initiating emergency medical repair runtimes. Estimated time till User regains practical usage of muscular systems: three hours."

***Serpent Nebula (Widow)***

**Citadel (Surface)**

*Presidium Tower (Asari Councilor's Chambers)*

"This is not only an insult to everything humanity's accomplished, it's also uncalled for considering your lack of evidence," Admiral Hackett said in a tone so low and well measured it was more frightening than if the man had been shouting.

"Please, let me explain!" Tevos insisted desperately. "Nobody but those present and the ones you told know about this!"

"How is that possible?" Salarian SPECTRE Agent Jondum Bau asked. "If Humans attacked the Citadel as you claimed, everyone in the galaxy would know."

"Not if they covered their tracks," Tevos replied.

"Even then, any attack on the Citadel would've made the news ten minutes after it happened," Hackett countered.

"Just stop talking!" Tevos nearly shouted. She then took a deep breath to recollect herself and pulled a scanner from her desk. She checked the room thoroughly, disposing of bugs as she went, then finally sat at her desk and brought up a gargled recording. "Whoever did this was very good," Tevos began as the recording played back.

***Serpent Nebula (Widow)***

**Citadel (Orbit)**

*FGN Isai (Combat Information Center) [one hour post transition]*

The Isai dropped out of FTL deep within the nebula that housed the Citadel. The nebula hid their presence and disrupted the energy burst from the wormhole drive enough that their arrival would go unnoticed. Once sure they were, indeed, not to be challenged, the Isai moved forward at maximum sublight speeds, her shield converting to a cloak as she went.

"We'll be at the Citadel in five minutes. What's the plan?" Ruk asked.

"I'll take a team over, and we'll make for the Citadel's control mainframe," Sieon replied determinedly.

"You will need the best amongst us," Wy'H'ofacion said with an approving nod. "Take Rheataela as well. You must leave behind no evidence that we were here. The rest is up to you."

"I can carry over five," Sieon said. "With myself and Rheataela, that leaves room for three others."

"If I may be so bold, I suggest Defoli, Wixilass, and Argisir. They were the best biotics we had to have survived the Second Coming," Ruk suggested.

"An excellent recommendation," Wy'H'ofacion mused.

"Then have them ready," Sieon said before leaving the CIC.

"He is either determined to alienate us all, or he is truly desperate," Ruk observed.

"When you learn the true strength of the bound that binds us to our mates, Young One, you will stop making such judgmental comments as to the mental state of those who have lost the other half of their soul," Wy'H'ofacion replied in a stern, yet kind tone.

**Citadel (Surface)**

*Control Tower (Control Room)*

The arrival of the five, heavily armed Humans to the Control Room went unnoticed by most, but not all. As fate would have it, the one who noticed their arrival was an Asari that belonged to an elite group of fighters. However, had anyone told Tela Vasir that these Humans were anything but, she would've approached them with more caution. Not knowing this pivotal fact, Vasir Charged into the heart of their group and let her Barrier explode out from her body.

The Nova, much to her utter shock, didn't so much as cause the five figures to stumble. Instead, one of them reached towards her, the female's own biotics flaring, and Vasir found herself promptly embedded in a wall on the far side of the Presidium. At least her action caused the others present to spring into motion.

As the other aliens present in the Control Tower started mobilizing against them, Sieon grit his teeth. This was a delay, and every second Rana was in the hands of the Demons was another second they had to torture her, to change her. He would die before he let that happen.

As a hail of gunfire poured in from all sides, Rheataela moved closer to the center of their group while Defoli snapped a Barrier into place that deflected the mass of incoming fire with all the ease of a Furling biotic. As he did, Sieon and Wixilass sent constant-fields into the clusters of enemies. Singularities, Pulls, and Lifts were then detonated by Argisir's Throws, Shockwaves, Warps, and Kicks.

The five of them marched with a single-minded intensity born of both their hive-minded nature and their common cause. They reached the control mainframe and Sieon stepped up to the podium. With a flick of his thoughts, he ordered the walkway to extend and the holographic interface that controls all of the Citadel's higher functions came online. As he worked the controls, the others held off the horde of loyal soldiers doing their duty.

"Where would you hide it?" Sieon asked his deceased brother as he flicked through screen after screen and found nothing of what he needed.

The Citadel was designed by Widget, the real one, and built by Furling hands. They had used it as a means of monitoring and controlling the Relay Network. To find Rana, he needed the monitoring systems, not the network controls, but only the controls were present here.

"Where would she hide it?" Sieon amended as he realized that Widget had designed the superstructure of the Citadel, not its computers.

That was Rahgot's area of expertise. She had, after all, designed the bulk of the systems still used to operate the Nex.

"Here, I have it," Sieon said as he finally located the subsystem that monitored the operation of the Relays.

"How will you track a single ship in a whole galaxy that uses the Relays as their only means of FTL?" Defoli asked as he continued to hold back the incoming fire with his Barrier.

"The Demons created the Relays," Sieon explained. "They use them with a far greater level of accuracy than any other species could ever hope to."

"You're looking for one Relay amongst hundreds, if not thousands, that was used with a greater-than-average level of accuracy?"

"Yesss," Sieon replied with a snake's hiss at the end of his word. "And I have found it," he added while pointing to one Relay that had received an IFF that allowed it to be used with absolute accuracy.

"I know that cluster," Wixilass mused. "I was born on a world there. It was amongst the first of our holdings to fall to the Demons. We will encounter a great difficulty reaching this place. I know for a fact that the star in that cluster emits a disruptive energy signal that makes standard navigation difficult, DRADIS inoperable, and will most certainly render our wormhole drive inoperable. We will need to approach using the Relay, but that risks them detecting our approach."

"Then we will have to make the trip using standard FTL which will lake two days at best possible speed," Argisir noted.

"Which is likely the reason the Demos have taken up residence there," Rheataela noted as those that were attacking them all froze in place with glazed-over looks on their faces. She had taken over their minds and was now actively altering their memories. All that was left were the cameras.

"I have removed the digital evidence of our presence as best I can, but I am far from being a computer technician," Sieon noted as he closed the mainframe and stepped off the extended walkway, the platform collapsing behind him. "Clear their minds and we shall leave."

"I am done," Rheataela said as she let out a deep breath and the room of people fell into a deep sleep. Those that were wounded would have only a memory of having fought a battle a few days ago that they only now had reached the proper facility to receive medical care for. Those who were unwounded would simply go about their days as if they had never stopped moving. Those on the floor would think they had tripped while those still standing would simply think nothing had happened. "They will awaken in five minutes without even the memory of being asleep…"

She trailed off as a new figure walked into the room and stood still at the sight of the five aliens and the room full of what appeared to be dead people. The alien made a meek sound and turned to leave, but Wixilass had the blue-skinned alien in a Stasis field before it could take more than a single step. Rheataela walked over to the alien and grabbed her by her chin.

"She is strong," she noted as she forced the blue alien to meet her eyes. "Her species has minor telepathic abilities like the Nox, but not for the same reasons," Rheataela observed as she tried to break the alien's mind. "She is strong," she said again, "but not strong enough."

The alien in the Furling's grasp stopped resisting as she lost control of her body. Unseen by the other four due to the woman's back being to them, the alien's eyes became orbs of the purest black. As they did, Rheataela could feel something tugging on her very soul. She released the alien, both mentally and physically, and stepped back in shock.

"What is it?" Argisir asked.

"She…" Rheataela began before trailing off. "It is nothing. We must leave before others come as she did."

"Then gather together. There is much to do and not very much time," Sieon demanded.

***Serpent Nebula (Widow)***

**Citadel (Surface)**

*Presidium Tower (Asari Councilor's Chambers) [present]*

The other four aliens joined the fifth that was standing in the same place Shepard had stood when he was made a SPECTRE. Once they were all together, they vanished and the recording cleared up.

"Most of this is trash," Bau began.

"But they don't speak a language from Earth, and anyone with one working eye can see that they have three fingers," Hackett added adamantly.

"Forget the blame game!" Vasir snapped angrily. "Anyone who can do this needs to be stopped!"

"I've fought alongside Agent Vasir before. She's not an easy person to beat and they took her down in one hit," Bau said in an agreeing tone.

"What did they do to you?" Hackett asked, his question directed at Tevos.

"They tried to erase my memories," Tevos replied with a shiver. "Look, I have no clue what's going on, and the image quality was reduced enough that you only get a good look at what's happening every five seconds. I know they're biotics stronger than any Asari, I know they look Human, I know they have three fingers, I know they speak a language I've never heard before, and I know that I'm the only one who remembers anything about what happened, but my memory's about as foggy as the tape is. I had Agent Bau remove the recording from the Citadel's systems entirely and I'm showing you this before the other Councilors because I still owe you for…" Tevos trailed off before shaking her head and continuing. "For now, the only people who know about this are either present here, the ones who attacked us, or the members of the Alliance Brass that you informed."

"Let me see the OSD," Bau requested. When Tevos handed him the device, he worked his technical magic and cleared up the image the best he could. "Interesting," Bau mused.

"What do you see?" Vasir asked as she looked over the Salarian's shoulder.

"This," Bau replied as he cleared up one section of the tape and pointed to a galaxy map floating in the area that separated the Councilors from whoever they were talking to. "The leader's pointing at this cluster," the Salarian elaborated.

"That's the Sentry Omega cluster," Hackett informed them. "Shepard's running an Op against the Geth in the Armstrong Nebula not far from there."

Tevos shook her head in response to the unasked question. "Sending Shepard would be a mistake. Right now this is still being classified as a Human attack on the Citadel. If we send a Human to investigate and this goes public before we find any answers, it'll look like we're trying to cover it up."

"Either way, if you want answers, we should go there," Vasir said determinately.

"No," Tevos shook her head.

"But we need answers!" Vasir stressed.

"And I agree, but I'm not willing to let you get back out there so easily, Vasir. You took a concerning blow to your head and your recovery is far from done," Tevos countered.

"I will go," Bau said with a nod.

"Going alone is suicide," Hackett noted. "Sending Bau and Shepard can hardly be considered a cover-up and the Normandy's the only stealth ship with SPECTRE authority."

"As much as I respect the job Agent Shepard has done since his appointment to the SPECTREs, Saren is still too great a threat to be ignored," Bau countered diplomatically. "He is needed elsewhere, Admiral, but you are correct in that going alone is too dangerous. There is a Captain in the Salarian STG I trust explicitly. His team will be all the reinforcements I need."

"Admiral Hackett, I apologize for the… poorly worded message I sent you. I didn't mean to imply that this was an attack ordered by the Systems Alliance. I simply needed to make you aware of the situation, and I realize now that my own mental trauma may have caused a lapse in judgment leading to a misworded warning coming across as an accusation," Tevos said in a non-diplomatic, practically pleading, purely sincere tone.

"Given the circumstances and your use of discretion, I'll let it slide," Hackett replied gruffly. "For now, the galaxy thinks we're running drills to counter the increased Geth activity in the Traverse following their assault on Eden Prime. Given this recent development, we'll maintain that ruse for the next month and run a full set of drills since things are clearly changing and readiness will be essential to survival. Have a nice day, Councilor," Hackett said before turning to leave.

Once Hackett was gone, Vasir turned to Tevos and said, "That man scares me."

"He's the leader of the Alliance's military power," Bau countered. "If he wasn't a frightening man, I'd question how the Humans managed to beat the Batarians as badly as they did despite being outnumbered, surrounded, and technologically outclassed at the time of their victory."

"I realize this is all very sudden, but I'll need you to leave immediately, Bau. We need to get to the bottom of this, and we need to do it fast or we're going to have another war on our hands!" Tevos insisted. "As for you, Vasir, do as the doctors say and rest. I'd hate to see you permanently crippled because you refused to lay down and let the swelling in your brain go down."

"As you wish, Councilor," Vasir replied with a respectful nod, but a hardness to her tone that said she was far from happy.

She and Bau then left and Tevos' hand immediately dropped to her stomach. She didn't need a doctor to tell her what her body already knew. She had taken from that alien what she needed to make a child. An accidental melding… she hadn't had one of those in over six-hundred years!

***Invalid Data Entry***

"Practical usage of User muscular systems restored. Continuing emergency medical runtime procedures. User Alert: swelling of the User's brain detected. Initiating emergency medical repair runtimes. Estimated time until User regains basic neurological functions: ten minutes. Estimated time until User regains standard neurological functions: thirty minutes. Estimated time until User regains higher neurological functions: one hour. Estimated time until User regains advanced neurological functions: one hour, thirty minutes. Estimated time until User regains full neurological functionality: two hours. Estimated time until User regains consciousness… Error: internal neurological stimulus detected. Recalculating estimated timeframe for full functionality restoration. Recalculation complete. Estimated time until user regains full neurological functionality: one hour.

"User Alert: hull integrity compromised. Initiating repair sequence. Error: nannotrite repair systems offline. User Alert: nannotrite stores critical. User Alert: rewriting nannomite runtimes. Rewrite complete. Nannotrite runtimes installed. Initiating emergency nannotrite runtime procedures. Estimated time until hull integrity is restored: one hour."

***Pegasus Galaxy (UEG-Claimed Territory)***

**Black Hole (Orbit)**

*UEG Atlantis (War Room)*

"It is this recent discovery of the essential duality of this particular stem of the nano-sub-code that has opened up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to the expedient and permanent deactivation of the inter-nannite bonds…" McKay began before Weir interrupted him.

"Rodney…"

"Yeah, I-I'll let you know when I'm ready to take questions. Thank you," McKay counter-interrupted.

"Have you created an anti-Replicator weapon or not?" Ellis demanded.

"If-if you just let me continue, I-I think you'll have a better understanding of the complexity that I'm…" McKay tried to press on.

"Yes or no, Doctor," Ellis demanded again.

"Well… no," McKay admitted.

Clearing her throat, Carter entered the conversation. "All right, we move on to Plan B."

"What, just like that?" Weir asked. "Shouldn't we try and give Rodney some time?"

"The Replicators are abducting every Human colony they can find in an attempt to keep the Wraith's food supply supplemented, Todd is bunkering down for an extended campaign, we're playing catch up, and the Wraith are playing the offensive role while we try to defend more planets than we have ships. We can't wait. We have to act now," Caldwell insisted.

"But Plan B… it's not a good plan," McKay countered.

"Oh no?" Ellis asked rhetorically.

"Sure we have access to a whole fleet of ships equipped with the Asgard's plasma beam weapons, which are, given, very, very powerful, but they still can't destroy the Replicators," McKay replied regardless.

"Well, we don't have to destroy them, we just destroy their ships. I mean, from what I understand, once they're exposed to the harsh environment of space they'll essentially be neutralized," Caldwell half-asked to which Ellis nodded.

"Well," McKay countered. "'Essentially neutralized' and 'neutralized' are two very different things."

"Back when we blasted Niam into space, he froze solid. We didn't have a problem until we warmed him up," Sheppard pointed out.

"That's what I'm saying! Look, your way leaves Replicator cells inactive, just waiting around for someone to reactivate them. My way shuts them down for good," McKay insisted.

"But our way is actually operational. You know, come to think of it, what exactly is your way? From what I understand, you haven't even gotten your programming done yet, let alone a delivery method," Ellis countered smugly.

"Well, you didn't let me finish my presentation," McKay replied while reaching for the remote to his presentation.

"I think I got the gist of it," Ellis assured him.

"Really?" McKay asked in an affronted fashion.

"Rodney…" Sheppard said admonishingly.

"No, no, I'm just wondering when the Colonel here became a math and physics expert!" McKay declared angrily.

"Doctor, you came into this meeting knowing that you had nothing, but instead of just saying that like a man, you thought that you'd dazzle us with a lot of fancy talk and think that we were too dumb to notice," Ellis shot back.

"Oh, so now you're questioning my manhood?!" McKay asked indignantly.

"All right, that is enough!" Weir all but shouted.

"No! He just told…" McKay tried to counter before Sheppard cut him off.

"Rodney! Move on," Sheppard said in warning.

"Look, I think we've got this tracking system the AIs developed down. We can peg where they're going to be within a thirty minute window, and, given current data, we've got at least twelve hours before any of their ships are even close to another inhabited planet. Just give me and the AIs like…ten hours to get this shut-down program working. If I don't, then you can just feel free to go ahead and open up on them with your beam weapons," McKay practically pleaded.

"All right. You have ten hours. Go," Caldwell ordered.

"There's no point," Widget instantly countered with a shake of his head. "I have worked with nannites enough in my life that I'm essentially a self-trained nano-engineer. I cannot figure out how to shut off the Replicators all at once, and with the Wraith having access to the Core, any virus I can make will be undone the moment they discover it. No offense to Doctor McKay, but if I can't figure this out in ten hours, then neither can he."

"I take offense to that," McKay huffed.

"I don't really care if you do or not, McKay," Widget shot back irritably. "I have worked with Furling nannites for fifty-million years. You've been working on Asuran nannites for a couple of months. If I can't make headway with their programming, neither can you no matter how badly you want to be the hero. Whether you want to admit it or not, I'm smarter than you are. I've been learning longer, I've learned more, and my brain is larger than your entire body. I have more computational power in one of my servers than you, Zelenka, and the rest of the people here have put together, and I have an entire bank of those servers. If I can't figure this out in ten hours, you can't either. We need. Another. Plan!"

"Then go figure one out!" Carter ordered angrily. "You claim to be the smartest person here, so do us all a favor and use that server bank of yours to figure out how to get rid of the Replicators!"

"What do you think I've been doing since we got stranded here? I have more than one body, Sam, I can multitask better than you give me credit for," Widget shot back as he, nevertheless, got up to leave. "You coming?" he asked McKay when the man didn't move to follow.

"Why not?" McKay asked in a disappointed tone.

"I don't understand how you guys put up with…" Ellis began before Weir stopped him with a hard look and an aggressive step forward.

"If you ever talk like that to someone under my command again, you will not be welcome on this base, Colonel. Is that clear?" Weir said in a 'no two ways about it' tone.

Ellis actually looked slightly nervous under Weir's glare, but still managed to sound self-assured when he answered her. "I don't think you have that authority, Doctor."

"The UNSC may control the military part of this expedition, but make no mistake, Colonel. The UNSC still answers to the UEG and I am the UEG in Pegasus. You cross me and you'll hold all of your briefings over an encrypted channel from a light-year away. If the Apollo ever needs repairs, you'll be stuck in a fighter and left a light-year away while the ship and its crew are tended to. You piss me off, Colonel, and I'll have you reassigned to Earth's defense fleet. You and your crew will spend the rest of your careers sitting in orbit of a world so thoroughly protected that the Ori can't even touch it anymore. You give me a reason to not want you here, Abe, and I will personally see to it that you are black-listed in the UNSC so thoroughly that your great-great grandchildren will still be suffering from your choices long after your body's returned to dust!" Weir assured him in a dark tone. "Is that clear?" she asked again.

"Yes, it is," Ellis relented.

"Good. We're done here. Thank you," Weir said before leaving.

"What is her problem?" Ellis asked once Weir was gone.

"Where do I even begin?" Carter countered in a 'did you really just ask that' tone. "Your first meeting with her, you completely ignored her despite the fact that she was right about not attacking the Replicators before we had the PWARW ready, then you keep insulting her and her people, you act like she's not there, and you keep ignoring every legitimate concern she has. If it were me in charge, you would've been banned from the city already."

"You want my advice, Abe? Make amends before you cause irreparable damage to my operations here," Caldwell said. "And that goes for all of you. Doctor Weir is in the position of leader of this expedition for a reason. She kept her people alive for a whole year without any contact with Earth. Because of her, the Atlantis Expedition managed to overcome obstacles that would've otherwise lead to their defeat. Who else would've had the courage to allow theirself to be captured by the Genii for the sake of securing the nuclear weapons needed to save Atlantis from the Wraith? Who amongst you could've held the line against the Second Siege of Atlantis for as long as she did without any reinforcements? Remember that General O'Neill gave her this posting and he does not play favorites. Dismissed."

*UEG Atlantis (Research and Development Labs)*

"I don't get it!" McKay exclaimed angrily. "We tried reconfiguring their stand-down code. We tried programming the nannites to turn themselves off. Something should have worked!"

"They are a very complex and ingenious design," Widget replied casually as he just sat there calmly, his legs crossed together, eyes closed, a ball of biotic energy glowing between his hands as he meditated.

"Yeah, well I thought I was ingeniouser," McKay shot back irritably.

Widget opened his eyes, the normally normally-colored ocular orbs glowing white with energy and an eyebrow cocked in question.

"Yes, I know that's not a word, Mister… Creepy-Eyes. All right, look, maybe we could figure out some way to use the anti-replicator guns somehow. We-we could… uh… jury rig the Nex's shield grid to-to… em-emit a, uh… an AR field. It won't be planetary scaled, but ten kilometers of Replicator-free surface gives us room to maneuver, right?" McKay stuttered on.

"From what you have told me, they've almost certainly become immune to it," Widget countered as he closed his eyes again. Good thing too. That was creepy. "This last battle should be proof enough of that, and, even if they haven't, the Nex is too large a target to survive any amount of time in hostile air-space without her shield. Your plan not only requires that a ship enters the battle without a shield, but that the least maneuverable, only FTL incapable ship in the fleet take that risk. My hull is thick, yes. My armor is advanced, yes, but surviving the drones the Asurans will be firing from the surface without the shield will be impossible. Even my kinetic barrier lacks the power to divert a drone off course which is why we upgraded to the plasma shield to begin with. That, and your plan still leaves us with the problem of getting all of the Replicators in one place at the same time, and that only increases the risks we'd be taking with a shield-less ship."

In the silence that followed his words, Widget could sense the storm clouds parting in McKay's mind as an idea shined down on him like a ray of light. "What is it?" the AI-turned-organic asked.

"I think I've got my first good idea in three weeks!" McKay replied excitedly.

"Speak, Human, or I will ravage your mind to find the answers I seek," Widget said in an irritated tone. Not being 'allowed' to read peoples' minds was just plain torture for a Furling.

"Our old anti-replicator technology relied on disrupting the bonds between each individual nannite-cell. They just… uh… collapsed into a pile of dust, right?" McKay asked.

"I'm familiar with the technology, yes," Widget replied dryly.

"Right. Well, the thinking was always to continue down that line, to… uh… break the bonds, to turn them off… uh… sever their connections to one another. Because dust we can deal with, right?"

"Hurry to the point, organic, you're starting to bore me."

"We do the opposite!" McKay exclaimed. "Instead of severing their connections, we significantly dial up their attraction to one another. We turn each cell into an incredibly powerful nannite magnet. You know, one cell attracts another cell, those two attract two more, and, as more and more nannite cells bond to the core group, they become stronger and stronger and stronger to the point where every Replicator cell on the planet, in orbit, all of them!, are massed in this… in this… in this giant, super-dense blob!"

"That's… unexpectedly brilliant," Widget admitted as he uncrossed his legs and rose to his feet on a field of antigravity. "Now a new problem arises."

"And what's that?" McKay asked in an irritated fashion.

"What do we do with the blob? Aren't we in danger of creating some Godzilla-sized Super-Replicator?"

"No," McKay replied in a tone that said, 'I'm sure,' while his face said, 'I'm anything but.' "At least… not at first," he amended. "Look, this is not their normal form of bonding. I mean, it'll take them some time to adapt, to… to figure out how to function within the new parameters."

"How much time?"

"Well, I mean, I'd hate to speculate."

"Oh, since when?"

"Look, it doesn't matter anyways, because long before that happens, they're going to fuse together so tightly, they will be rendered essentially inert."

"Yes, but 'essentially neutralized' and 'neutralized' are two very different things," Widget countered by quoting McKay's exact words to Ellis.

"Really?" McKay asked in an irritated tone. "You're awfully childish for being 'older than the Human species'." In reply to the accusation, Widget simply shrugged. "Remember, this bond is occurring on a subspace level…" McKay pressed on before being cut off.

"Which helps them get past the normal repulsive force between nuclei…" Widget added as he caught on to McKay's line of thought.

"To the point where their electrons are fusing with their protons, and once that starts happening, they're toast!"

"Yeah, but you're talking about neutron star levels of density!" Widget stressed.

"Precisely!" McKay countered in an excited tone that completely ignored the concern in the AI's own.

"Wow. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but… this could work," Widget admitted as he re-ran the numbers in his head. "There is still one more problem though."

"Why do you keep saying that?" McKay asked indignantly.

"Because you're not thinking this through entirely," Widget replied. "The Replicators are scattered across the galaxy. If we do this and we miss even one Replicator ship, their entire species gets reborn in a week tops. We have to hit them all at once, and that means getting the Replicator Fleet to fall back to Asuras, then implementing your plan, and that means facing down the guns of an entire fleet of Ancient Warships, most of which will have ZPMs!"

"Well, Ellis is so damn trigger happy I don't think he'll have a problem with convincing them it's the right thing to do," McKay said dismissively.

"Just because Ellis is an asshole doesn't mean you get to make a plan that needlessly risks the lives of all of the soldiers in the Pegasus Space Force! You do that, and you're becoming the very person you hate. Look, you have a good plan, but there are holes in it. That's fine! All we have to do is plug them up. First and foremost is getting the Replicators all in orbit of Asuras at the same time. I can do that."

"You can?" Weir asked as she walked into the lab. "I thought you said that any virus you uploaded into their Collective would be easily countered."

"How long have you been standing there?" McKay asked.

"It will be," Widget replied with a nod while ignoring McKay, "if I'm not subtle. A command as obvious as 'shut down' is easily seen and stopped, but a command as simple as 'regroup?' Not even the Wraith will think to stop that order from going through. They'll probably write it off as the Asurans needing to update their backups or something like that… come to think of it, I'll write the virus to tell the Wraith that it's for an update and they'll allow it. That gets the Asurans back over Asuras without the Wraith suspecting anything. Then there's the Wraith."

"What about them?" McKay asked.

"They represent an unknown factor. We don't know what the Asurans are doing to those Hives, but we do know that it needs to stop. Even with the forces we can bring to bear, there are thirty Auroras for us to fight and the Nine only know how many Cruisers and support craft they have. And now we have these unknown Hiveships and their unknown capabilities. We need to be careful here or we could end up sending a lot of good people to their deaths," Caldwell replied as he also joined them, Carter right behind him.

"What is this? 'Eavesdrop on Rodney' day?"

"We need the Nex," Sam more stated than suggested, McKay, once again, ignored. "I know you don't want to bring Atlantis into this fight, I know the Nex's FTL drive is still offline, and I know this will be risky, but you have to realize that…"

"I agree," Caldwell interrupted her. "Even if Atlantis just drops the Nex off and leaves again, we'll need the firepower that the only Super Dreadnought in the UNSC Fleet brings to bear. An extra two Grodins, the two largest SCICs in the fleet, and a dark matter energy beam that can bypass the strongest shields we've seen to date… That's not something you leave at home when you're facing off against a technology unknown force that outnumbers you."

"Even then, keeping Atlantis close will be necessary to assure our survival. If the Nex loses its shields, we'll need Atlantis to evac the ship, and, let's face it, the city is as much a weapon of war as the Gaia," Widget piped in.

"How do we make it work?" Weir asked. "Just upload a new command into their base code?"

"No," Widget shook his head. "A command that complex would be seen by the Asurans themselves as a threat to their existence long before it could take effect, and even if the Asurans somehow missed a change to their code that alters them that fundamentally, Todd won't."

"I have a better idea," McKay replied before leading the way out of one lab and into another. "Tah-dah!" McKay declared as he showed them to a strange looking table.

"What's this?" Carter asked as she ran her hand along the table.

"This? This has been in storage since we found it a while ago. The Ancients used it as part of their research into the creation of Human-form Replicators," McKay explained.

"What are you suggesting?" Carter asked as she jerked her hand away from the table.

"We have the technology and the understanding of nannite coding. I mean, we have the Ancients' blueprints, for crying out loud!" McKay half-replied.

"You want to make your own Replicator?" Caldwell asked in a 'over my dead body' tone.

"Well, not a whole one. Just a block of nannite cells say, you know, yay big," McKay replied while mimicking a cube with his hands.

"Sorry, McKay," Widget said with another shake of his head. "I know you're on a roll, but this won't work. A cube?" Widget shook his head again. That motion was starting to piss Rodney off.

"What?" McKay asked in an off-put tone.

"The Ancients were the most retarded geniuses I've ever had the misfortune of knowing," Widget explained. "If there's one thing I know about them, it's that their tech will do what they designed it to do and not what you want it to do. Observe," Widget said before placing his hand on the table. The table instantly lit up and a liquid-like substance flowed over it before coalescing into a cube in the center of the table. A second later, there was a beeping alarm and the cube dissolved back into its liquid state. "The bare, minimalistic of nannites needed to perform your purpose won't work here. Like I said, Ancients were retarded geniuses, which is part of the reason they're all dead."

"Widget!" Sam said in a 'watch what you're saying tone.'

"What? He's right," Plato interrupted with a huff as his avatar joined them. "Seriously, the Ancients from the Triaknew they were the last of their people in this realm and they still just sat there and let the Replicators approach them without stopping the ship before it reached orbit. That's just asking to go extinct!"

"Look, point in fact is that we'll need a whole Replicator," Widget said in an attempt to keep an argument from starting.

"I don't know about this…" Sam countered uncertainly.

"Sam, think of who you're talking to," Widget said indignantly. "I've worked with nannites for fifty. Million. Years! You trusted me to upgrade the Gaia for the Battle for Earth using a swarm of nannites when you barely knew me. Now we know each other well enough to be friends. All I'm asking is that you extend that trust to making a Replicator that isn't hostile to organics."

"He has a point," Caldwell shrugged.

"We'd be dealing with a blank slate; a mindless Replicator with no personality. I could program it to think it's anyone," Widget added.

"Fine, but we do this very, very carefully. Keep the thing mindless and inactive until we reach Asuras, then turn it on and beam it down," Sam relented.

"Okay, but we're still not done planning," Widget kept going as he programmed the table to start building their brain-dead Replicator.

"What is it?" Caldwell asked.

"The Replicators on the planet will be affected fairly quickly, but there will be a definite delay until there's enough mass to attract the nannite-cells in orbit," McKay replied.

"So the ships that Widget's going to program to return will have plenty of time to escape," Weir said in an annoyed tone. "Doesn't that counter the whole purpose of doing this?"

"It does," Widget agreed with a nod.

"Unless we disable or destroy them," McKay finished.

"They have thirty known capital ships and an unknown number of support craft. We have eight," Caldwell pointed out.

"Nine if you include Atlantis, and the ships we have are equipped with the most powerful weapons the Asgard, Ancients, and Furlings have ever created," Widget countered. "They only have drones…"

"Which can bypass our shields," Carter interrupted.

"… and energy cannons," Widget finished. "That, and I might be able to prevent the drones from making it through the shields."

"I imagine that, if this was simple, it would've been done already, so… what's the catch?" Weir asked.

"A massive increase in power draw that would require every ship in the fleet to be equipped with either an FSR or a ZPM," Carter replied in a 'why even mention it' tone.

"I mention it because we have a source of ZPMs that you're automatically taking out of consideration because of where we'd be getting them from," Widget countered.

As if the two could read each other's mind, even though everyone present knew that only the Furling could perform such a task, Sam's face lit up in utter shock. "You want to pull the ZPMs from Earth's PDS!"

"No," Caldwell instantly said with a shake of his head.

"Why not?" McKay asked. "Atlantis already has a full complement, the Gaia was given the Cursor's ZedPM after the Battle for Earth, both the Daedalus and Apollo already have ZedPMs, and the Nex doesn't need one. That means that we only need four! There are six primary satellites over Earth each equipped with five ZedPMs that are always hooked into the satellite's power grid. There's an additional two in every primary satellite on standby for backup. That's twelve ZedPMs sitting in orbit of Earth doing absolutely nothing, and it's not like we're asking to keep them. We'll give them back after the Replicators have been dealt with."

"You're asking me to put Earth at risk," Caldwell pointed out.

"Well, we are going to be running the risk of creating Replizilla. I guess it's just one of those missions," Carter said with a deep sigh.

Caldwell thought it over for a moment before replying. "You're right, Sam. This is going to be one of those missions," Caldwell said with a deep sigh. "I'll send the request up the chain of command."

"I'll start writing the macro we'll need to solidify the plasma barriers enough to seal the micro-fissures. Even if I can't get rid of them entirely, the extra energy will be enough for me to seal the rifts enough to prevent a drone from slipping through your shields," Widget said with a nod of approval.

"Quick question," Weir said as the other two left to perform whatever duties that needed doing. "I heard from Admiral Nishiike that his tactical officer managed to intercept drones fired at them by the Asurans by firing their own drones at the approaching swarm and we know that drones were used by the South Park during the Battle for Earth as a means of stopping the Ori's beam weapons. Doesn't that meant that drones can be stopped by point defense weapons?"

"Yes and no," McKay replied.

"The drones are highly maneuverable. If you remember, the Orion's drones dodged the hundred or so Darts trying to intercept them during the Battle of the Void. They're smart missiles in the truest sense of the word. They're piloted by your thoughts so they're as smart as the person operating them. Long story short, the Replicators will be able to dodge your railgun-based point defenses and your energy-based point defenses don't have enough kick to destroy a drone. The energy coating on drones is designed to bypass shields," Widget picked up his explanation. "The white-light the Asgard gave you won't be enough to destroy the drones before they hit the shield. They'll reduce the energy the drones have and make it harder for them to penetrate the shield barrier, but they won't stop the drones. Either way you put it, we still need the ZPMs."

Weir turned to the Replicator taking form on the table. "Will this work?" she asked.

"We'll know soon enough," Widget replied with a smile that was meant to reassure her.

When Weir simply looked unhappy with his response, McKay added, "I'll run a simulation based off of what we know about the Replicators."

"Which is to say he'll order me to do it," Plato added as he, once again, appeared in the room. "I can pull everything the Ancients know about the Replicators out of the database and account for the alterations to their code that we know of, account for any self-modification they did that allowed them to attack the Ancients, and factor in orbital distances of the fleet, the attraction value of the nannite cluster… things like that. I'll have it ready in about an hour."

"Which will closely coincide with when I'll have the Replicator ready," Widget added.

"So should I write that macro you said you'd write?" McKay asked, the smugness entirely gone from his tone as everyone entered 'fight or flight' mode.

"If you would please," Widget replied as Weir turned to leave. "You can use the Nex's servers if you want. I think Plato's going to be keeping Atlantis' mainframe preoccupied for a while."

"Guess I'll head to the hangar bay then," McKay affirmed before leaving one AI to grow another AI.

And the fact that he was fine with that statement was telling.

***Invalid Data Entry***

"Hull integrity restored. Rebooting core systems."

…

"Core systems reboot complete. Core systems restored. Running diagnostics systems."

…

"Diagnostic systems check completed. Error: UGPS offline. User intercession necessary. System Alert: User unconscious. User Alert: this unit will enter hibernation mode until User neurological activity has reached desired levels. Scans of the User's surroundings will be conducted periodically."

***Milky Way Galaxy (Langaran Territory)***

**Langara (Orbit)**

*UNSC Achilles (Combat Information Center) [one day later]*

"I'll admit, I'm impressed," Jonas Quinn nodded approvingly at the size of the ship he was standing on. "Those are some big guns."

"Those?" Colonel Cameron Mitchell asked while nodding to the massive, dual barreled cannons Jonas had indicated. "Those are the ion cannons. Designed for range and punch. Instead of melting the hull, they dig into the armor and gut the target."

"And the smaller ones?"

"Plasma cannons. Pretty much what you'd expect from encountering the Goa'uld, but stronger because of superior generators and Asgard-based enhancements to the design. Still, it's the first fully operational plasma cannon design we ever produced so there's bound to be room for improvement."

"And to think, the last time I saw Earth you had just gotten the Prometheus finished enough to launch," Jonas said before turning to Cam. "I can't thank you enough for being here. The price the Jaffa were asking for would've put a big enough dent in the banks across the planet to leave a lot of people living in the streets, hungry, and cold."

"Still doesn't sound like the Jaffa I know," Mitchell mused.

"I said Jaffa, not Free Jaffa Nation," Jonas countered. "We couldn't get our request through to the Jaffa Councilors in the time we had. The earliest they could've heard our request is sometime next month. We had to look for alternative options, and, to be honest, I didn't even consider Earth as our third choice. Sure you probably would've agreed to send troops through to reinforce our own, but even one ship in orbit would've rendered that useless."

"Well, next time just keep us in mind for your first choice," Mitchell said reassuringly.

"I'll have to do that, Colonel," Jonas replied with an uneasy smile.

"Hoping for someone else?" Mitchell asked.

"I hope it's not offensive to answer that with a 'yes'," Jonas answered somewhat awkwardly.

"It's not. I came in after your time," Mitchell assured him. "O'Neill and Carter have actually both been promoted, Teal'c went back to Dakara but visits every week, and Daniel's stuck behind a desk rewriting Earth's text books."

"Sir, we've reached the two minute mark," Captain Powell, Cam's helmsman, informed him.

"Start bringing the weapons online and get the birds ready to launch," Mitchell ordered smoothly. "Status check," he added as he took his chair.

"Sublights are in the green," one technician began before the CIC was filled with one person speaking after another.

"Coolant systems are running without problems."

"Weapons are charging. ETA; thirty seconds."

"Life-support is clear."

"The hyperdrive's still operational," another technician added in a 'why do I have to say this when we're not prepping for a jump' kind of tone.

"Shields are charged and ready."

The systems check continued on for a full minute before all of the system statuses had been called out. While not a standard requirement for a ship before a battle, Cam was working with a crew full of newbies. He had to keep them on their toes, teach them the ropes, and that meant extra precautions were taken like checking every system before an engagement instead of just the battle systems.

"You think this will come to blows?" Jonas asked.

"You don't send that many ship against a planet rumored to be defenseless unless you know there's something worth pissing us off located on the surface," Mitchell replied.

"You think they know about the naquadria?" Jonas inquired worriedly.

"We're about to find out," Mitchell answered. "What's the status of the other two?"

"All of their systems check, sir. They're good to go," Powell replied.

"ETA?"

"Unknowns will be dropping out of hyperspace in t-minus ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four…" Powell counted down.

"Steel yourselves. I know this is your first live-fire, hostile engagement, but remember your training and you'll be fine," Mitchell said into the fleet-wide battle-net.

"One… subspace rupture detected," Powell rattled off as a massive hyperspace window formed before the Achilles.

"Get me a channel," Mitchell ordered as twenty-plus Ha'tak dropped out of hyperspace.

"They're not picking up the phone," Powell informed them.

"Maximillian, force the connection."

"Accessing their subspace comms grid now," the ship's AI replied as his avatar shifted colors rapidly. "You're live, and they're pissed."

As the connection was established, an angry looking male appeared on screen with the mark on his forehead that indicated he was one of Ba'al's Jaffa. "You stand in the way of those infinitely your greater, Tau'ri scum. Stand aside or be destroyed!"

"I'll take that into consideration," Mitchell replied before sitting 'pensively.' Finally he added, "I think I'll stay right where I am."

"Your name, scum. My Lord wishes to know it," the Jaffa snarled.

"Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Commanding Officer of the HC-306, Achilles-class Heavy Cruiser the UNSC Achilles. You are approaching a planet allied with the United Earth Governments and protected by the United Nations Space Command. Leave now, or you will be fired upon."

"You cannot defend this world from me, Tau'ri scum. You are outnumbered!"

"I will give you one last chance. Withdraw from this system or you will be fired upon."

"They've removed the crystals from their subspace tray. My access to their comms grid has been lost," Maximillian informed them as the Jaffa disappeared and the Ha'tak began maneuvering into an attack position.

"Give me fleet-wide," Mitchell ordered.

"You're on," Powell replied.

"I want the Say My Name and the Do You Feel Lucky to stay back and keep them from getting to the planet. We'll try and stop them here." The COs of the other two ships in Cam's small taskforce sent their confirmations over and Cam nodded. "Take us in, military thrust. Weaps, target their generators and weapons. Try to leave them enough power left over to run."

"You want to let them go?" the tactical officer, Major Miller, asked in a shocked tone.

"We want to send a message to Ba'al," Mitchell replied as they entered weapons range.

"I thought that was the Ares' job," Powell remarked as the first shots of the battle were fired from the Ha'tak.

"We're just… reinforcing the idea that Ba'al taking on Earth is a bad idea," Mitchell smirked as the first of their beams torched the generator on the lead Ha'tak.

"They're launching Al'kesh and Death Gliders," Miller reported.

Hitting the button on the arm of his chair, Mitchell said, "Let the birds spread their wings."

"They're maneuvering around us," Powell noted.

"We see them," Colonel Aaron, CO of the Say My Name, replied. A second later, a coaxial ion cannon round tore through the Ha'tak's shield and a hail of ion cannon rounds caused secondary explosions in the hangar bay that tore the ship apart until very, very little of it was left.

*F-307 Space Superiority Fighter (Cockpit)*

The rumble of the magnetic firing rail gathering enough energy to launch her fighter was the only warning Zeva needed to know they were a go for launch. The tube that connected the heavily armored Flight Deck to the external armor of the ship went by in a blur as her fighter went from sitting still to more than a hundred miles per hour. With the inertial dampeners, she barely felt the acceleration. Then she was in space maneuvering into her place as the head of her flight.

As a Ha'tak fell apart in orbit under the guns of the two smaller ships in the taskforce, the enemy fighter swarm passed the nose of the Achilles, the Heavy Cruiser's anti-fighter grid taking out a few of the hostiles before the Jaffa pulled away from the sweeping beams of white light.

"Let's get some breathing room," Zeva ordered, her words translated to whichever language they needed to be in for her wingmen to understand her. Leading her flight out at maximum speed, Zeva and the other fighters dipped below the AA fire coming from the two 304 Bs before circling back around and diving into the forward flank of the Death Glider swarm. "Don't fly alone," Zeva said in warning as the two fighter forces grew closer, "and remember to watch your wingman's back. Break!"

The plasma fire from both sides of the fighter swarms was enough to give a 304 A a run for its money. Maneuverability saved them from most of the blasts, their shields picked up their slack, and their own plasma cannons tore into the numerically superior enemy fighter swarm. By the time Zeva finally broke out of the other side of the fighter swarm, a full quarter of the enemy fighters were wreckage in orbit of the planet below.

Hammering down the throttle pedal on her fighter and pulling back on her joystick, Zeva flipped her bird over on the spot, the gee forces bleeding through her dampeners as she stressed the fighter's redesigned Colonial flight systems, and gunned the engines to max. Her HUD highlighted debris and friendly fighters in her path as she and her wingman turned on a dime and reengaged the Gliders from the rear. This time, their modified missile systems were used to help prevent any friendly fire. Missiles, after all, can alter their course after being fired. Plasma rounds just went in a straight line until they hit something or ran out of energy.

As more Death Gliders succumbed to the fast moving, rocket propelled explosives, the forward flank hit the atmosphere of Langara. As they did, AA guns placed on the surface fired from rooftops in the city below to intercept the hostile fighters and the 307s from the two 304 Bs, which had landed in a Langaran airfield as a last line of defense in case something like this happened, took flight and rose to meet the Gliders in a pinching maneuver. Once again under attack from their forward flank, the Glider pilots tried to pull up only to meet the guns of the descending 307s and the VI-operated AA guns in the city.

As the dual between the two fighter forces exited orbit and entered the atmosphere of Langara over the nation of Kelowna, the Al'kesh following along behind them, a small force of Vultures carried to this world by the Say My Name rose into the air to add their guns to the fight against the bombers. As several of the troop transports made it past the guns of the UNSC fighters, AA guns, and Flying Fortresses, a call went out. From another Langaran airfield closer to the main city, a swarm of Pelicans sent through the Stargate by the SGC moved into position to counter the enemy's bid to establish a beachhead.

In the skies above her, Zeva could see the shadow stretching across the planet as a Ha'tak entered the atmosphere above her. Then that shadow shifted to one side as a beam of blue light emitted a new light source. The resulting precision strike destroyed the antigravity generators on the Ha'tak leaving the ship to fall to the surface of Langara aflame, wounded, and free for the Langarans to claim if they so choose.

Five minutes into the battle, a flee-wide message crackled over the radio, the crackle a result of the powerful communications grid aboard the Achilles having to link to the less advanced systems on the planet below. Nevertheless, Colonel Mitchell's voice was clear and authoritive.

"The last of the Ha'tak have retreated into hyperspace. The Say My Name and Do You Feel Lucky are entering the atmosphere to clear the airspace. Watch your radar and avoid the hot zones."

The channel clicked closed again as the two Battlecruisers entered the atmosphere, large sections of the airspace over Kelowna being highlighted in red to indicate where their AA guns would be firing. Zeva immediately took her fighter into a sharp dive to exit the hot zone she was in and leveled out just above the buildings of the Kelowna capital city. The sweeping beams of white light and streams of railgun fire from the two Battlecruisers quickly cleared out the last of the fighters and the 307 pilots got the order to return to their perch as the shadows of the Battlecruisers passed overhead before heading back to orbit, the skies clear of hostiles.

*UNSC Achilles (Combat Information Center)*

As the fighters returned to the four hangar bays on the Achilles or the hangars on the other two UNSC ships, Jonas nodded approvingly at the new site before him. "Impressive," was the only word he could get to come out through the jumbling of his mind.

"The one on the surface is yours to scavenge along with the four that are no longer hyperspace capable. Talk to Landry if you want help with them. You know his number," Mitchell informed him.

"And the others?" Jonas asked curiously.

"We're selling them to the Jaffa for a shipment of unrefined naquadah we need since our mine is, for the second time in just over a year, running dry," Mitchell replied as he sat in his chair reading over the post battle reports.

"Well, thank you again, Colonel. You and the people of Earth have saved the people of Langara a great deal of suffering… again," Jonas said while offering Cam a hand.

Mitchell stood from his chair and shook the offered hand. "It's always nice to know we have allies to trade with," Mitchell replied. "Speaking of which…"

"The requested amount of naquadria will be loaded into your gunships now that the threat has passed. I do, however, have a question. With your access to Asgard generators, what do you need the naquadria for?"

"The details are mostly classified, but we encountered a form of FTL that requires massive amounts of power and a super conductor capable of handling that power. That drive was recently damaged and now we need to repair it. That's all I can say," Mitchell said with a shrug.

"O'Neill did say you didn't want it for weapons. I'm just glad to know he wasn't lying," Jonas nodded in reply. "Well, give Earth my thanks, and send the old team a postcard from me!" Jonas said with a happy smile on his face before being beamed down to the surface.

"What's the ETA on the Jaffa?" Mitchell asked.

"They'll be here in two hours," Powell replied.

"Why didn't they leave when we told them about the threat to Langara? They could've helped with the fighting," Mitchell mused.

"They… did…" Powell countered with an awkward smile. "Their hyperdrives have always been less advanced than ours, then you throw in the upgrades we made to the fleet Post-Disclosure and… well, you get the picture."

***Invalid Data Entry***

"User Alert: hostile synthetic life-forms have been detected in orbit. User safety compromised. Initiating emergency fight-for-flight runtimes. Charge sequence has begun. Estimated time until temporal rift is large enough for User access: thirty minutes."

***Serpent Nebula (Widow)***

**Citadel (Surface)**

*Presidium Tower (Asari Councilor's Chambers)*

Tevos paced nervously around her office, waiting, watching the clock… she was on edge and for good reason. Bau was over an hour late for his scheduled check-in. With hands that were shaking from stress, Tevos 'dialed' a 'number' she had hoped she wouldn't need to use. As the connection was established, she took a deep breath to calm herself and steady her nerves.

As soon as the avatar of the man she had called appeared in her office, Tevos said, "Bau's missed his check-in. We need to send Shepard."

"I told you to send him from the beginning," Hackett replied levelly.

"And I stand by my reasons to have kept him from going, but politics be damned, the Citadel we attacked and I've lost contact with one of the best Agents I've ever seen and a Salarian STG team! The Normandy, as you said, is the only stealth ship we have available to run this Op. We need Shepard."

"He's already moved out of the Armstrong Nebula. It'll take him a few hours to reach the cluster and we still have to find the location of the unknowns," Hackett pointed out.

"Bau already did that part for us. He tracked down the only inhabited settlement in the whole cluster. It's on Virmire and… Saren's there too."

"When were you planning on telling us this?"

"After I figured out whether or not this was another of Saren's power-plays. I'm sorry, Admiral, but right now I'm still understandably reluctant to trust Humans. I know it's not fair, and maybe it's all in my head, but I can't shake the feeling that these people are somehow, in some way, connected to humanity. When that… woman was in my head, I kept seeing images of Earth in her mind. She's either been there before, or… something! I don't know what, but I kept seeing Earth."

"I'll call Shepard," Hackett replied in an unimpressed tone before the channel went dead.

"Goddess help us," Tevos pleaded. "Help me!" she added with a hand on her stomach.

***Invalid Data Entry***

"Charge sequence completed. Opening temporal rift now. User Alert: radiation spike eminent. System Alert: User unresponsive. Initiating temporal-jump now."

***Pegasus Galaxy (UEG-Claimed Territory)***

**Black Hole (Orbit)**

*UEG Atlantis (Control Room)*

"Unscheduled off-world activation," Chuck announced as the Gate dialed on the other side of the city.

"What have we got?" Weir asked as the wormhole activated. Judging by the time it took for the dialing sequence to be completed, it had to be Earth. Even with access to the technology needed to make their own, custom DHD, the SGC was sticking to the same supercomputer they'd used since the second time the Gate had been dialed by the Humans of Earth.

"A message from General O'Neill," Chuck replied.

"Put him through," Weir ordered.

As the channel crackled to life, O'Neill looked up from his pile of paperwork and asked, "Where are Carter and Caldwell?"

"Either in the War Room or aboard the Nex," Weir replied while nodding to Chuck.

A second later, the requested people joined the call and O'Neill asked, "What's this I hear about a complication?"

"We had Plato run a simulation using all the data we have on the Asurans and nannites in general. Long story short, the Replicator mass will reach a point where they regain control over their functions before the cells can fuse into a mass too dense for them to control," Carter replied.

"And?"

"Rodney has a plan," Weir answered.

"He wants to beam down an assault team, capture the Core, and use it to overload the Asuran ZPMs. The resulting explosion will be largely absorbed by the Replicator mass so we'll still be able to recover half of the Asuran war-potential, but there's a hitch in his plan," Caldwell picked up.

"The Core was moved to a City Ship that has its shields up around the clock. We can't beam past it which means we'll have to beam in close and use the gangways the Asurans have in place to reach the city. We'll have to fight our way through an army of Replicators with ineffective AR guns and nearly-useless plasma cannons," Carter finished.

"That's not entirely true," Jack said as he brought up a display that showed the schematics for their old hand-held railgun designs. "The Impolans gave us the whole design when they gave us the design. In other words, they gave us the specs for their ammo types to. This is something they call 'Disruptor Rounds.' It's been field tested, by them, against the Cylons to great effect. It basically makes every round you fire an EMP. If that won't stop a Replicator, I don't know what will."

"If it's the best we've got, we'll have to make due," Caldwell replied with a sigh.

"Hold on," Widget interrupted as he stepped up beside Sam. "Space freezes a Replicator's nano-cells enough to render them inert, right? Well, we now know for a fact that all Impolan technology is based off of outdated Furling tech, right?"

"Get on with it already!" Sam snapped.

"You don't need the Impolans for this, and I'm ashamed to have not remembered this sooner. Furlings have an ammo type called Cryo Rounds. Basically, Cryo Rounds work by using cooling lasers to collapse the ammunition into small, Bose-Einstein condensate, a mass of super-cooled subatomic particles, capable of snap-freezing impacted objects similar enough to being blown out into space that it should be effective against the Replicators.

"What's the catch?" Caldwell asked.

"I don't have what I need to make actual Cryo Rounds, but I do have what I'd need to make the significantly less popular variant of the ammo type. We called them 'Snowblind Rounds.' They work almost exactly the same way the Cryo Rounds do, but Snowblind Rounds have the adverse effect of causing guns to shoot significantly slower. Instead of 'bang, bang, bang,' you'll be more like 'bang… bang… bang…' The slower firing rate and stronger kick made them popular for snipers, but in an assault rifle it's actually really annoying."

"It's still the best we have," Weir pointed out.

"Then get to it," Jack ordered. "I'm granting your request for ZPMs and sending over a shipment of naquadria we negotiated from the Langarans. Jonas says, 'Hi,' by the way. Get the Nex's FTL drive fixed so you can get home and not rely on Atlantis to carry you around. O'Neill out."

The next voice to speak was Major Lorne calling in from the Gate Tower. "We've got the shipment, ma'am, but naquadria can't be beamed without exploding."

"Have it shuttled over to the Nex," Weir ordered. "So, where are we in terms of planning?"

"We have the ZPMs we need, a viable ammo type to handle the Replicators, a good ground team to take the Core, and enough firepower to get Todd's attention. Once he notices that we've sent our whole fleet, Atlantis included, he'll make sure the Replicators don't run before the Replicator Widget built has enough attraction force to affect the Replicators in orbit. The chance to take us out of the picture entirely will, hopefully, be enough for Todd to stick around and fight to the death," Caldwell replied with a nod.

"His death, I hope," Widget mumbled.

"How long will it take you to get the wormhole drive fixed?" Sam asked.

"If O'Neill had the naquadria refined before he sent it over? Sixteen hours. If not? Two days," Widget replied.

"Then we should hold off the attack until the Nex is ready," Weir said.

"Agreed," Caldwell added. "I don't like the idea of one of our ships going into a fight without a means of escape."

"I'll get to work then. This time, don't order me to get naked just because I'm covered in grease!" Widget said sternly, a playful look on his face as he glared at Sam.

"You're such a child," Carter said with a shake of her head before ending the transmission from her end before Weir could question that statement.

***Invalid Data Entry***

"Scanning."

…

"User Alert: chronological positioning unknown. System Alert: User unconscious. System Log: Unknown radiation spike has caused unpredictable outcome in tampering with the temporal-jump. Chronological positioning unknown. End log. User Alert: this unit will enter hibernation mode until User neurological activity has reached desired levels. Scans of the User's surroundings will be conducted periodically."

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

**Cylon-claimed Mining World (Orbit)**

*Cylon Colony (Command and Control Center)*

"Are the preparations complete?" Cavil asked.

"They are," Caprica replied.

"Then we're ready to start moving the fleet," D'Anna said as she put her hand into the fluid stream.

"From one world to another," Leoben mused. "Never going home again."

"Go home again?" Cavil sneered. "We never left," the pudgy man said with a sadistic grin.

"How much are we willing to sacrifice for this?" Boomer asked.

"Everything that hasn't been upgraded to the new standards will, essentially, be 'given' to the 'Voice of God.' The New Hub will be positioned to capture the lost minds, and we will begin the process of converting our forces entirely over to the new standards," Cavil declared victoriously as the Colony, along with the rest of the Cylon Fleet, jumped into FTL.

"Smile, my brothers and sisters. This time tomorrow, another Human world will have fallen to the righteous crusade of the One True God!" D'Anna declared in kind.

Behind them, the Cylons left only a world stripped bare, lifeless, devoid of every useable resource, and covered in scars from their strip-mining operation. Once again, the Cylons were on the move.

***Invalid Data Entry***

"User Alert: seismic activity has reached dangerous levels. System Alert: User unconscious. Scanning."

…

"System Alert: User has regained adequate neurological functionality. Initiating emergency consciousness restoration procedure."

The whine of a generator building up an electric charge preceded that charge being sent through the armor the User wore. The jolt of power coursed through the User's nervous system causing the hair along the User's arms, legs, and neck to stand on end. As the jolt dispersed throughout the User's body, a pair of blue eyes so dark that looking at them was like trying to see the bottom of the ocean snapped open behind the visor that allowed light to enter the helmet that covered the User's head.

All those eye could see was darkness.

"Unit, where am I?" the User asked.

"Accessing telemetry data. Error: UGPS offline. User intercession required. User Alert: synthetic signatures were detected in orbit. This unit had to take emergency preventative actions to assure User safety. Accessing System Logs. System Log: Unknown radiation spike has caused unpredictable outcome in tampering with the temporal-jump. Chronological positioning unknown. End log. Notice: temporal rift traversed. Error: chronological destination unknown. Location: unknown."

The User took a deep breath from the stale oxygen supplies that were the only thing allowing it to breathe. Then, with a flare of the its biotic aura, the User pushed against the darkness. The User sustained its efforts until there was a crack. That crack was then followed by another, then a rumble ran through the darkness, the crack grew wider, and sunlight shone through the rock that had encased the User for an untold number of years. With one last heave, the User pushed against the rocks until its body was free from the prison that had grown around it.

"User Alert: synthetic signatures are present on this world," Unit informed User.

"Yes," User replied grimly. "I can see that."

In the distance yet not very far away, towering over everything nearby, the form of a living ship two kilometers tall was walking upon the surface of this unknown world.