Title: Hidden Destiny
Author: Ash's Boomstick
Contact: "Ash's Boomstick"
FR-15 For bad language
Summary: History tells us one thing, knowledge tells us another however ancient legends and hidden myths may yet hold the truth about the past and the future for the people of the known galaxy. A Stargate SG1 Crossover
NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.
-COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-
"Battlestar Galactica", its characters, and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by the Universal Studios Corporation and any new owners in the future.
"Stargate SG-1", "Stargate Atlantis" its characters, certain technological devices and/or references to such from the movie characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Gekko Productions Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and the SCIFI Channel.
The opening pages use the script from the episode 'Lost City Pt 2' with modifications for characterisation and narrative reasons
Only certain characters and technologies are mine and these are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.
THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY 'HIDDEN DESTINY IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIS STORY.
Dedication:
To the members of the Unusual Suspects who time and again have listened to my drivelling ideas for new fics and stranger ideas than this one and to the fans of my other works, while this fic isn't RaaB this one is just something to allow me to have
some fun.
Note: Over the course of the last five years the members of the Suspects have come up with ideas for a British version of Stargate Command, now considering the rapidly expanding numbers of AUs based on the premise on the net I decided that a new way of doing things was needed. This may be slightly Britwank in parts but considering SG1 is Ameriwank at its best I think I might be forgiven for this.
Second Note: Over the last few months I've noticed a few things in regard to Sgverse fics where the United States are not the major force behind some form of space travel. More than one person in threads on some forums have out and out argued and screamed against the very idea, if they don't like this kind of fic then why bother reading it at all?
This is one of five stories that I am posting for people to make their choice on which of these prologues people would like to see the most of.
"Hidden Destiny"
Chapter One: When life hands you lemons, get a mallet.
"The Goa'uld forces are still incoming, reading another flight of bombers and a hell of a lot of gliders entering the atmosphere. Four minutes until they close."
"We're taking damage to the outer hull."
"All the remaining F-302's have expended their ordnance."
"We can't take them back aboard. They'll have to divert to McMurdo." Hammond ordered.
Major Kirkland grimaced as the ship took another hit "We need to break off and recharge the shields.
"Hold your position!"
"Yes Sir."
Outside of the Prometheus the dozens of gliders and a handful of bombers had been rapidly reduced to splinters and burnt out hulls, the 302s had taken far fewer losses due to their better pilots and superior firepower. The Battlecruiser had take its own fair share of the Jaffa down in short order its weapons sending out salvos of AA fire in all directions, however with the majority of fighters out of the battle and a very few left behind to help defend the warship itself the next wave would be more than enough to overcome their advanced shielding and heavy armoured hull.
Singularly or in pair the 302s now devoid of armaments were forced to bug out leaving the single sole warship between SG1 and the massed forces of Anubis, *If we survive this* thought Hammond *I'm going to follow Jack's recommendation and say 'screw the treaty'*
"Shields are failing."
"Scout ship's cleared the hole." Gant said
"Set a course for Anubis's mothership. Move us out of here." General Hammond ordered Kirkland.
"Bring main engines online, emergency thrust."
"Sir we have multiple contacts coming in from within our atmosphere, coming in at approximately Mach six."
"What direction?"
"Coming in from Australia Sir, they are almost on top of us."
"Continue climbing, lock weapons on incoming signals."
The incredibly fast dots on the screen slipped across the Antarctic tundra heading towards the Prometheus' position when they began to slow and break of into several individual groups. Gant brought up the close range scans up eyes widening as a confirmation of allied IFF codes were brought up by the computer, rechecking the system she looked across at the General.
"Sir, the incoming fighters have NATO IFF transponders, the system is flagging them up as friendlies." Gant said, "The Goa'uld wouldn't bother trying to trick us with this kind of thing Sir they already out number and outgun us."
"What IFF?"
"Databanks show, Australian, new Zealand and United Kingdom Sir."
"What?" Hammond asked "ETA of the new fighters?"
"ETA is thirty five seconds, two of the groups are heading directly for the Goa'uld forces the third is heading for the remaining fighters from the last group." Gant replied, "Apart from relative size and speed I'm not getting much off of them, some kind of stealth is scattering our scans."
"Flag them as unknown but do not fire on them, if they are an ally then I want them on our side."
"Aye Sir."
"The American warship is heading for orbit Sir, Blue Wing are intercepting the remaining Jaffa fighters still within the atmosphere, white and green wings are diverting to hit the second attack wave."
"Very well, contact the rest of our ships and plot intercept course over Antactica. Raise camouflage fields, weapons to full power. Red Alert." Came the order from the captain.
"Red Alert this is a Red Alert, all hands to battle stations."
"Flight crews to their fighters, ready for immediate launch."
"Tactical Command to Tactical sections, lock all weapons into combat positions. Main guns to standby."
"This is the Exec, lock down all vacuum doors, ready emergency systems."
"Sir Digger One and Husky One are en route, both will be within range in Six minutes. They are requesting launch instructions." Comms replied.
The ship's master turned from his vantage point looking out through the massive window taking up one side of his command's bridge, the view of the star field slipped away as an armoured covering closed over the transparent metal. "All fighters to launch as they enter optimum range, focus on the fighters first then concentrate fire on one threat warship per squadron."
"Roger that."
"American ship is reading as out of the Atmosphere."
"Very well let's inform them of our existence. Heavy Gun Port to Command Flank One, Starboard to Command Flank Two."
"Enemy Targeted and Shooting Solution is confirmed."
"Fire One, Fire Two."
"Firing One."
"Firing Two."
From the underside of a truly monstrous ship a thick bright beam erupted. piercing through camouflage fields revealing the craft underneath and slamming into the side of one Goa'uld warship. One of the guard vessels surrounding Anubis' command ship itself, the heavy beam shattered the enemy shields like glass carving through the vessel's hull and out through the other side. The hole left behind crackled with energy as the beam passed through and into space narrowly missing another ship, with power disrupted completely the damage expanded within milliseconds causing the vessel to come apart before their very eyes.
A second beam fired from the now uncovered warship spearing a second Ha'tak from stem to stern and sending it the same way as its deceased sister ship, the beam shooting through and into the shielding of the massive command ship. Anubis' vessel shook slightly as the immensely powerful weapon shook the shield generators in their mountings, several of the closest warships pulled in closer through the debris of their brothers hoping to hold off the enemy ships before the human scum could harm their god.
Aboard the Prometheus Hammond's command shuddered as it took hit after hit from the closest cluster of warships, the massive energy pulses hammered at the weakening energy field protecting Earth's single home-grown warship energy bleeding through in some cases and damaging the thick hull armour. Already several sections were open to the vacuum of space where the heaviest blasts from the command vessel were breaking through.
Several of the CIWS guns fell silent as they passed by the last of the incoming enemy fighters scattering the Jaffa, several gliders fell to the defensive fire while others turned and attempted to fire back. Gant tapped in several more targets launching the small ship's last few missiles, several were simply intercepted while others impacted on the command ship's shields their explosive force wasted on the ancient enhanced shielding. Gant grimaced at his readout, the last of the conventional guns had ceased fire due to lack of ammunition, the missiles were used up and the defensive systems were redlining. "The Shields are down. Weapons are expended."
"The next hit's gonna take us out." Kirkland replied,
"Hold your course, brace for collision. If we go, they go." Hammond looked out at the massive Goa'uld command ship, the Prometheus could be used quite easily as the single biggest explosive built by Earth hands. Once they hit Anubis' ship the reactors and hyperdrive would erupt turning everything around them into plasma including both ships and their crews.
"Sir we're getting a signal, reads." Kirkland shouted as a heavy red stream impacted on one of the Ha'taks, a second pyramid erupted from another hit both vessels hulled and practically shattered by the impressive firepower of the unknown ship. On Kirkland's screen hundreds of small dots launched en masse into the void, more than a hundred fighters emerged from each arm of the ship heading into space before another salvo from the vessel pierced the shields of another pair of Ha'taks close by. "It reads 'Attention American Warship, pull back and watch you're six. This is about to get messy', its signed Group Captain Metcalfe Royal Air Force."
"Fire has slackened on all sides, shields are reforming." Gant replied, "Sensors are picking up two more unknowns on the other side of the enemy fleet. Same basic shape and size as the British vessel, massive fighter launches detected from both ships heading for the Goa'uld fleet at least four hundred fighters total possibly more."
"What the hell is going on here?" George asked himself.
"Digger and Husky are in range Sir."
"Order them to fire on targets of opportunity."
"Aye Sir."
"Fighters are launching from enemy ships Sir." Hazelden said from her tactical console, "We have the Americans on scope, they are badly damaged, shields are however reforming and recharging they should be up to full power within six minutes."
"Good, Comms. send to American ship. Return to Earth we've got this in hand." Metcalfe Replied, "All fighters to designated targets, if anything tries to escape kill it."
"Yes Sir." His exec grinned nastily.
The order was for little as a stream of light lit the skies above Earth, from the surface of Antarctica a column of tens of thousands of small projectiles hit the Goa'uld fleet full force ripping through their shields in into the ships themselves. Smaller branches broke off from the main stream with hundreds of the tiny weapons heading towards every ship, fighter and bomber in the Goa'uld force while the rest of the thousands upon thousands of the devices simply hammered Anubis' supership into shrapnel.
The rearguard ships sat terrified as their numbers depleted in moments, twin energy bolts from the rear entered one side of the hindmost ships whilst more of the projectiles entered the other. More of the giant pyramid vessels collapsed as their hulls were punctured by thick beams of coherent energy or vapourised by fire from the planet's surface. With several hundred of the newly arrived and unstoppable fighters already stripping their fleet of glider support the Jaffa could only watch as the vice closed on their ships… and their lives.
Within moments the last of the golden hued ships ceased to exist destroyed to a ship while the few fighters and bombers left fell to the guns of the massive numbers launched from the British ships. However three of the largest formations of the glowing missiles slipped through their formations, a few spinning around each of the small dart-like figures. While the majority headed straight for the three huge warships ploughing through space before ceasing as one ahead of the British vessels, hanging stock still before them.
"Well that wasn't what I expected." Metcalfe said eyes widened, "Adam are we running recognition pennants?"
"No Sir, we didn't see the need." His Exec reported, "None of our running lights or identification systems are online.
"Raise the Battle Flags." Metcalfe called across the Bridge.
"All identification systems now active Sir." The young Lt replied.
Alongside the name plates of each ship a holographic stream appeared as if unravelling, the well know red white and blue crosses of the United Kingdom's union flag on top of a white background.
A Battle Ensign of the Royal Navy.
The glowing missiles reversed course splitting into hundreds of smaller groups and headed back towards Earth returning to their launch cradles deep within the planet's surface. As the weapons leave the four remaining live and intact ships decrease their speed as they close in on the others, the Prometheus fired her retro systems bringing her to a halt high above the planet's surface well out of range of the billions of tons of debris that is now scattered across the trans-orbital space of Earth. Silently the crew of the American vessel stared at the three warships ahead of them, watching as the three battlewagons came to a halt well with the weapons range of either side.
With their weapons and armament all but depleted the Prometheus shut down both systems completely, without time or a chance to recharge their systems the Battlecruiser would stand little to no chance against even one ship especially one that could destroy several Ha'taks with a single strike. The fact that three of these vessels now sat within range meant that no matter their shield status or armament they would stand no chance at all against the huge vessels.
"A Battle Ensign on a ship claiming to be Royal Air Force?" Kirkland questioned. "How the hell did they get something that big let alone three of them?"
"I don't know. Hail them." Hammond ordered
"On all channels Sir."
"This is Major General George Hammond, Commanding the United States Air Force Ship Prometheus to British Space Forces please respond"
The crew held silent as they awaited the communications channel to respond, the three massive war vessels simply sat in space their crocodile like shape and hanging pods making them look far more dangerous than any ship that existed in this galaxy. After only a few seconds the channel spoke up, both audio and visual signals were received and put up onto the screens around the bridge, a middle aged forty something man looked back from those same screens a slight smirk on his face.
"This is Group Captain Paul Metcalfe of Her Majesties' Royal Air Force commanding the First Battleship Squadron. Could you give us your status please." The friendly request was less that than an order.
"We read you Group Captain, the Prometheus is intact with limited damage, we will be able to make landfall as soon as we are finished up here."
"Glad to hear it General." The British officer smiled. "We had hoped to be in place before the loss of your people got too heavy, I'm sorry we were late although that little light show pretty much meant you probably didn't need us as much as we thought and put more than a little scare into my flight crews. I assume that... whatever it is is now under United States military control?"
"As far as I know Group Captain, we had a few people on the ground looking for something."
"Well as long as it's under allied control that shouldn't be much of a problem, we sent a few squadrons to Antarctica once we realised that there was a battle going on. I'm sorry we didn't get there earlier to limit the losses you took but we had no idea this force was inbound until a few hours ago, it took us that long to get units into position."
"The help was appreciated Group Captain, although I'm surprised at the size of your forces especially as my government believed that the United States were the only military with a space going capability." Hammond pried slightly "Your ships are far more powerful than any we have seen outside of the Asgard."
"There are great areas of the galaxy that haven't been brought to heel by the Goa'uld or any of the other races, lets just say that more than one of them holds treasures that no-one on Earth could dream of. But for now General I will bid you farewell, we'll probably be seeing you again, Metcalfe out."
With that the screen went blank, the scanners and the old mark one eyeballs of those crew that could see the three vessels bank away from the Battlecruiser before vanishing from both screen and sight. Hammond leant back in his seat and rubbed his eyes with tired fingers, he had absolutely no idea how he was going to explain this to the President not to mention that idiot Kinsey.
White House
Washington DC
Twelve Hours Later
"Let me get this straight the United Kingdom has orbital forces?" President Hayes stood up from his chair rounding on his old friend, Hammond had been informed that Kinsey would not be at this meeting, simply due to the fact that the other politician was still trapped at Edwards until the NORAD systems were back up and running after being routed to Canadian airspace. George wondered what the former Senator now Vice President was going to think when he found out that he was now even further from getting his wishes than before.
"Not just orbital forces Mr President, but three space going Battleships more than twenty times bigger than the Prometheus." Hammond replied, "Plus an unknown quantity of fighters and shuttles that assisted in the Battle over Antarctica with a very large force of fighters launched from their vessels."
"How the hell did they get hold of that kind of hardware without us knowing about it?"
"Considering the size and complexity they must have been building them offworld, the ships are definitely human designed and built. Without access to those ships and their technology we don't know how far ahead of us they are, the fact that their weapons can destroy Goa'uld vessels with single shots makes them all the more impressive compared to the Prometheus or the Daedalus."
"The new ship design right?"
"Yes Sir, she's twice the size and three times the power of the Prometheus."
Hayes leant back on his desk, the Prometheus was the crowing achievement so far by the combined SGC/Area 51 boffins. The fact that they had been outplayed by the United Kingdom and her allies without even an inkling of the power that their old friends had was thought provoking, not to mention scary. While the SGC were working on larger and larger nukes and concentrating on Jack of All Trade type ships, the British now had three battlewagons each the size of a small city with weapons that could wipe out a planet.
"What did this Group Captain say exactly?"
"Not much once we had confirmed who we were and who they were, my guess is that they are simply waiting."
"Waiting. Waiting for WHAT."
"You Mr President."
"Me?" Hayes replied, "Why me?"
"The British have shown their cards, they know what we have and where we are. The only thing left is for the heads of our respective governments to acknowledge what we already know."
"The British Government already know about the Stargate and the Three-Oh programs George, what else can we tell them. Hell after letting them in on the Gate why the hell didn't they tell us about these superships they have?"
"My guess Mr President?"
"Go ahead."
"Considering the influence that Vice President Kinsey had both within and outside the government they may have decided that we couldn't be trusted with the knowledge especially with the NID trying to get their claws into anything to do with off-world travel. After his initial attempts to take over the SGC and the frankly transparent attempt at the disclosure conference I doubt many people on that side of the Atlantic trust him." George replied, "With the NID, the Trust and god knows how many other groups out there trying to get hold of both advanced technology and resources and willing to do anything to get it, I would be wary of anybody that wasn't part of my own command or under my government. Hell I'd be wary of people within my own, no offence intended Mr President."
"None taken General, given the things that I've uncovered in the last few weeks I'm surprised that the military haven't tried a coup of some kind. How the hell have you and the rest of Stargate Command got through this stuff let alone facing our own people over control of the gate?"
"With difficulty Sir, with great difficulty."
"So what do we do about the British forces, they are suppose to be our closest ally and friend these days although knowing that we trusted the Russians with information about the Stargate and our other projects long before we told them put a glitch in the relationship between Downing Street and the White House." Hayes sighed, "The problem here George is we should have trusted at least one of our allies, but our holding it secret combined with the fact that they had no reason to trust us with the information about their own space forces means that neither of us really knows what the other is up to."
"You can change that Henry." Hammond relaxed slightly, the two of them had known each other a long time and this conversation was heading very much into the informal. "Contact the British Prime Minister and ask him the truth, where they got their technology from and about a proper alliance against the Goa'uld. With the combined power and technologies of both groups we'd be able to defend this world a hell of a lot better than we have to date."
"You know that half of the people in the know in this country are gonna go apeshit George, we've gone from top dog in the space race to a seriously distant second in less than a day." Hayes looked to his friend, "The fact is the Brits have somehow bypassed every defence we have and brought themselves up to our level or higher."
"We don't know how much more advanced they are, there was no evidence of hyperdrives or shields just heavy guns and the massive ships themselves. They may be glass elephants big and powerful but easily taken down."
"Can we take that risk, if their defences are as powerful as their weapons then they could take out anything we could build."
"Mr President this is the British, an ally for more than ninety years. Their empire building days were long ago."
"I know that George but do you think that everyone in congress or in this IOA you helped put together will believe that. Unlike the US there is no reason for the Brits to share their ships and their technology with the rest of the planet, they obviously don't need it like we did."
"We just need to talk to them Mr President and I'm pretty sure that he's just waiting for you to contact him, by now their own people will have told him that we know who they are." Hammond looked to his Commander in Chief, "If we don't make the first move we may end up at logger heads and none of us want that…Sir"
Hayes moved back behind his desk and sat down, the hotline to the British Prime Minister sat to the side next to three other phones belonging to the other members of the IOA. Picking up the phone Hayes waited as a series of scramblers; redirects and a supercomputer coding sequence were activated before putting through the call to the Office of the British Prime Minister. It was only a few seconds before the other side was picked up, the British' own coding sequence securing their end of the line, a modified combination of the same secure lines between the SGC and the Pentagon was now used for the heads of the allied governments worldwide.
"Hello Henry." A highly accented voice came from the phone, "I believe I know why you are calling."
"Daniel, a relatively large birdy has informed me that the British government has been holding out on us."
"Not holding out as such Henry, more along the lines of not all showing all of our cards. I will attest to the fact that we could have let you know but after that serious debacle of a conference during disclosure my predecessor and now myself both agreed that we were better off keeping our force projection abilities to ourselves than allowing the rest of the world to know about it."
"Once the Stargate and our associated projects were unveiled to the rest of the IOA it seems that my government would have preferred that nothing that could be helpful would be held from the other countries involved."
"We to be perfectly frank old man, those in the know over here were more than slightly annoyed at the fact that your people decided not to let us know earlier than our old friends in the East."
"That was beyond our control…"
"Oh we're well aware of the amount of control that you had, it's just a shame that we had to wait seven years to hear about this when people who had been your greatest enemies and rivals ten years before were in the know." The Prime Minister said, "The problem here was one or trust, no matter how close our countries are in ties there is never going to be a time that either of will trust each other with the deepest darkest secrets. The ships you saw are just one of our own, something no-one else needed to know about until now."
"So are you going to tell the rest of us about this or are you keeping it a secret."
"Until the Queen and those in the council agree I'm afraid I won't be in an position to give away any information on our vessels, I assume that you understand the need for national security."
"When I go to the oversight committee about this they'll be an uproar Dan."
"Henry, with all respect I really don't give a damn about your committees, they've made enough of a mess as it is." The British leader's voice tightened, "Now I like you Henry and I believe we could even be considered friends with our common interests but the fact is that we've been screwed by our allies and enemies both over the last hundred years. So we're a little gun shy about allowing anyone else information about our capabilities."
"The manpower and costs must be astronomical Daniel, you can't possibly be able to continue this alone. With the combined forces of the United Kingdom and the United States we could easily combine our forces and take down anyone that threatens our world."
"Henry, Henry, Henry." The Prime minister's voice took on a smirk, "What makes you think that we haven't already got more than enough people and resources to keep our ships going, you really think that the fall of our empire was solely due to the Second World War?"
Hayes' eyebrows shot to his forehead as he unravelled the other politician's words, they had had access to their new technology for decades if not most of the last century. Supplies and money hadn't been used or disappeared when countries broke away or were given independence, Britain had fought harder than most and lost their Empire in doing so much to the cheer of the anti-imperialists of the American government. They must have been sending men, equipment, supplies and god knows what else offworld during the war in case the island nation fell, if so then after sixty years an incredible amount of growth was possible.
This was not something that congress or at least those in the know will be happy about, especially now that the British Empire was interstellar.
Not happy would be an understatement.