Here's the next chapter for you all, questions will be answered and others will be asked. Note: I only own what characters i create, the names and places i invent and the ships and vehicles i seem to be designing in droves for this single story.
I would like to thank AlexanderD for all his help and i strongly recomend reading his story New Dawn. I hope he likes the character named after him Admiral Alec Xander.
For those of you interested in what some of the ships featured in this story look like here are a few sketches on photobucket: .com/albums/ae166/Senrab_Nomis/
Please review and i will respond. Or alternatively post in the thread for this story in my forum. .net/topic/84023/35075481/1/
Review Responses
AlexanderD: Incredibly advanced technology and everything going your way is a catalyst for complacency. One of your ideas is correct, then again you covered all bases so thats probably not too surprising for you.
Shadows-of-Realm: You see i told you if you read on you wouldn't be disapointed.
the brown cow: Tempest battle armour was covered in the time skip chapter so i suggest you go back and re-read it. The first time i introduced the Arima i gave its length being 15km.
s-david-m: If it came to it they could beam the stargate into space and it and may have been necessary to use it at some point.
Scourge75: They got complacent, overconfident and just generally relaxed. Besides after the umpteenth supply delivery from Midway people get tired of constantly disengaging the stargate. Boredom made them vulnerable. As for the rest, read on good sir read on.
romanhellhound: Or is it an old one rearing its head again? Read on and find out.
Celestia
The station was brand new and still in the process of having crewmen and supplies arrive, as such they had been taken completely by surprise when the stun bomb had come rolling through the gate. Now there seemed to be a full battalion of soldiers pouring through the gate intent on taking the station.
Like a flood they poured out of the gate room and through the corridors of the station. Every time they encountered an unconscious crew member they were bound using plastic ties to save them from having to drag the unfortunate victim of the stun wave with them. The stun wave had not had the ability to traverse more than a kilometre from the device due to the limitations of the power that could be put into a single burst however this still meant that the majority of the top part of the station had been affected by the wave. Since the current inhabitants of the station were still in the process of moving in this meant that the majority of the crewmen were in that area and had been affected by it. Luckily for them the people in the control room however had not been, since that area had been on the outskirts of the diminishing strength wave and had additional shielding to protect it. However since none of the life signs had disappeared no alerts had appeared to draw their attention to the catastrophic situation developing. Unaware of the danger approaching closer to them the control staff went on with their duties while the invaders penetrated deeper into the station.
Eventually it got to the point where the invaders encountered resistance, in the form of personnel that had not been inside the effective range of the stun bomb. The response of the invaders when they encountered conscious crewmen was to render them unconscious or immobile by whatever means they deemed necessary. Crewman who had the misfortune of encountering the invaders were either stunned or beaten into submission before they were also bound and their positions noted. With the limited security presence onboard though most of the people encountered were the unfortunate civilian personnel and those with military training were unarmed.
So far the situation seemed to be going entirely the invaders way, until of course one lucky individual had the good sense to run like hell when he turned a corner and saw the retreating forms of a group of the invading soldiers. Noting the heavily armed and hostile aura they were giving off his flight instinct kicked in very quickly. Once he felt he had put sufficient distance between him and the hostile forces he immediately put in a call to the control room.
Colonel Telford, the new commander of Celestia, was in the control room, sipping a cup of coffee in his office, at the time when the call came in. With a certain amount of mistrust still hanging around him after he had been brainwashed by the Lucian Alliance he had been denied command of a ship and had instead been given the slightly duller job of commanding the newest Tau'ri space station. The fact that it was this particular station rather than a Midway II variant was a sign that he wasn't being blamed for what happened. It helped that he had been willing to spend his time sitting in a chair on the chance that Destiny would make contact over the stones.
"Control room, this is Doctor Parker. Colonel Telford please come in," came the panicked voice over the comm."
Telford put down his coffee and pushed down a button on the console in front of him.
"Doctor Parker, this Colonel Telford in the control room. What can I do for you?"
"Colonel," came the shaky response. "There are armed soldiers on this station. I think we're under attack."
"What's your location? Where are the hostiles?" asked Telford, immediately switching into soldier mode.
"I was heading to engineering, I turned a corner and there they were. I…I ran for it before they could see me. I don't know where they are now."
"You did the right thing Doctor," Telford reassured him. "Keep your head down and we'll send help."
Closing the channel Telford walked out of his office and into the control room. The control room was a sizeable room, filled with numerous consoles and a large display screen on one wall. In the centre of the room was a holographic projection table like those the Pegasus class were equipped with.
"Listen up people," Telford said as he walked into the room, causing the people manning consoles to look up. "I just got a report that there are hostiles near engineering. I want to know what we're dealing with and how the hell they got on this station. Check cameras and internal sensors."
The technicians manning the control room immediately set to work. Cycling through sub systems they searched for any signs that might indicate how the intruders had managed to breach their defences without anyone in the control room realising. Sensor feeds showed activity in the station but nothing beyond normal movements. Switching to visual feeds around engineering where the intruders had been spotted several groups were noted moving around that were not friendly's, however there presence seemed limited to a few squads. It wasn't until the personnel count was checked against the current life sign count that it became apparent just how dire the situation was. There were nearly a thousand life signs more than what they should have on the station. That number was steadily rising.
"Damn it!" Telford swore. "Find out where they are coming from. Celeste."
"Yes Colonel," said the station AI, appearing in holographic form beside him.
"Status of station personnel," Telford ordered.
"All listed station personnel are alive and accounted Colonel," said the AI. "I feel I should remind you Colonel that if that had changed you would have been immediately notified."
Telford frowned. "Celeste, confirm that the life signs count on this station is increasing."
"I can confirm."
"Where are the new life signs appearing from?"
"New life signs are originating from the stargate."
Telford glanced at Jones, one of the technicians, who nodded back to him.
"Putting it on screen now sir," he said.
The holographic display screen lit up to show the gate room with its still active stargate. Soldiers were still marching out of the event horizon, armed and carrying crates of equipment.
"Celeste, check the sensor records for any unidentified energy readings and compare that with the time frame the life signs started increasing. I want to know how they got control of the gate room."
"Sensor records show an energy burst originating from the gate room precisely thirty seconds before additional life signs started appearing," said Celeste.
"Sir," said Chen, one of the female technicians. "I found something."
"Show me."
The image on the screen changed to show both the gate room control centre and the stargate. The stargate activated and a large metallic ball rolled out of the event horizon. The ball emitted a pulse wave of energy that spread throughout the room. On the screen showing the control centre the wave hit the technicians there and they immediately collapsed unconscious. Thirty seconds later and the enemy soldiers stated to pour out of the still active stargate, spreading out into the room and eventually outwards. It wasn't long before they appeared on the camera in the control centre.
"How far did that pulse get?" asked Telford.
"Sensors indicate a two kilometre radius sir," said Perkins.
"Why weren't we affected by it?" asked Telford, knowing they were within the blast radius.
"The control centre possesses shielding to prevent such effects," stated Celeste.
Telford took a deep breath and momentarily paused to think.
"Celeste, activate our emergency beacon and close off that stargate now," Telford ordered before addressing the rest of the control team. "The rest of, I need you searching for our people. Find anyone of ours and tell them to get armed and get ready. Check outside the burst area and expand the search from there. You're their eyes, help them avoid the enemy and find each other."
"Unable to activate shield or iris Colonel," said Celeste. "Sensors indicate that that the emergency beacon is active but the signal is not broadcasting past the station."
They must be jamming us, Telford realised. "Why can't you raise the shield or close the iris?"
"Overrides have been initiated from the gate room control centre," explained Celeste. "Remote access to gate room systems has been disconnected. The hard lines have been cut."
"See what systems you still have access to," ordered Telford. "I want to know what options we have for a lockdown for a lockdown. Now what have the rest of you got for me? I need options people."
"Sir," said Perkins. "The subcutaneous transmitters all personnel are given are still broadcasting and we can detect their signal. If we correlate them with the life signs readings we should be able to distinguish between our people and the enemy soldiers."
"And if we know who's who we can beam them out," added Jones.
"Do it," ordered Telford.
"On it sir," said Perkins and Jones, immediately setting to work.
"Sir, we have a problem," said Jones. "Whatever is blocking our subspace communications must be affecting our targeting scanners as well. I can't establish a beam lock on anyone on this station.
"Any good news?" Telford asked.
"I've managed to overlay the life sign and transmitter readings," said Perkins. "Sensors are now distinguishing between hostiles and our people."
"Well that's something. Celeste, what have you come up with?" asked Telford.
"Colonel," said Celeste. "Using the sensor modifications I have managed to determine the depth of the incursion, which I am calling the red zone. I have sealed all bulkhead doors within the red zone and also engaged force fields and locked down, however I believe they will eventually breach those barriers. I have also sealed and locked down the armouries within the red zone and these should hold much longer than the internal doors. Engineering, the control room, the main computer core and any other vital areas have also been locked down to protect them. Internal transporters are also locked down and unpowered."
"Can you use the new sensor updates to determine the difference between when our people are attempting to use a door and one of the enemies?" asked Telford.
"I can," confirmed Celeste.
"Then I want you to lockdown all sections of the station," ordered Telford. "Give our people free roam of the station but deny them access to any area containing hostile forces."
"Confirmed Colonel," said Celeste. "Initiating station wide lockdown procedures."
"Also lock down computer core access," said Telford. "I don't want them hijacking any of our core systems or taking you offline."
"Confirmed," said Celeste. "Access to core computer core outside of engineering and the control rooms is denied."
"Now what have the rest of you come up with?" asked Telford.
"We've managed to locate a number of our personnel still conscious and moving around," said Jones. "They're currently moving to meet up with each other and are heading to the armouries."
"Only a few dozen of them have any military training though sir," added Perkins. "The majority of them are civilians and even then there aren't many."
"At this point it doesn't matter," said Telford. "Get them all geared up and tell them to issue stun weapons to the civilians then get them somewhere safe for now. They should at least be able to defend themselves."
"On it sir."
"Sir I think I have a way to send out a distress flare," said Chen.
"I'm all ears," said Telford, grateful for some good news.
"We still have access to control systems for the recon drones sir," said Chen. "If we pre-program one of them on a set flight path and then order it to transmit an automated message then hopefully it should be picked up on the mining world. However there is no guarantee it'll work since we don't know the range of the jamming field."
"Try and program it to land on the roof of their control centre," suggested Telford. "If that doesn't get their attention then nothing will."
"On it sir," said Chen. "Bird is away."
"Celeste," said Telford. "Can you vent the atmosphere of the sealed sections containing hostiles?"
"I can," confirmed Celeste. "However I must inform you that these sections contain our own personnel and venting the atmosphere would kill them to."
Telford sighed. "It was worth asking. What about the gate room? Shouldn't that be empty of our personnel?"
"It is Colonel," said Celeste. "However they have already breached the doors leading from the gate room to other sections of the station that do contain our personnel."
Telford nodded solemnly. "Keep trying to break through the overrides on the gate room control."
"Sir," said Perkins. "The first group have reached the armoury and are gearing up."
"Tell them to stand by to receive instructions," ordered Telford.
"Lockdown protocols are holding for now Colonel," added Celeste. "I am unable to break through the overrides as of yet but I can cut the power if necessary. That will not however prevent them from dialling in."
"We'll save that card for when we can best use it," said Telford.
Throughout the station, in the past few minutes, bulkhead doors had slammed shut, armoury blast doors had been sealed shut as dead bolts locked into place and heavy doors to vital areas had automatically closed while force fields engaged. For the first time the invading forces found their movement impaired as they were forced to beat down the force fields and pry open doors. Meanwhile the station natives found their movement unhampered as the doors automatically opened for them as they approached. Moving under the direction of the all seeing eyes of the people in the control room they hurried down the corridors and gathered together. When they finally reached the armouries those with military training kitted out in tempest battle armour and grabbed whatever lethal weapons were available, while the civilians picked up Wraith stunners.
In space a lone recon drone was travelling at full pelt towards the mining world in the distance. As soon as it had exited the hanger bay it had started transmitting a pre-programmed distress message. Hopefully it would be heard by friendly ears. If not out of the conscious personnel still moving around on the station there were only a few dozen personnel with any military training, and only enough battle armour for them to use with the limited supply, compared to the hundred plus civilians.
Right now though all that they could do was gear up and hope.
Zarasian flagship
The Doom Bringer, this fifteen hundred metre dreadnought was the flagship of the Zarasian fleet as well as the personal ship of Etere Zarin. It was easily the most powerful ship in the Zarasian armada and was more than capable of dispatching a hive ship in short order.
On the bridge sat Zarin, master of all he surveyed.
"Status," he demanded.
"We have received confirmation Etere. We have a sizeable foothold on the station but have encountered some resistance."
Zarin grinned menacingly. "Excellent."
One hour ago
Jakose awoke from his pain induced stupor with a groan, a groan that echoed by others in the room. The last thing he remembered was running for his life before something had struck. Judging from the lack of willing movement on the part of his body he had probably been hit by a stun blast. Opening his eyes he realised he was slumped against a cold metallic wall that matched the rest of the room, it seemed like he was on a ship of some sort. On the other side of the room he saw his loyal bodyguard and friend Sovaer fighting with the two men who had captured him in the first place. There was another two lying bloody and beaten on the floor. As blow after blow was received and delivered Sovaer showed no signs of backing down but neither did his opponents. Neither one of them was holding anything back, delivering excruciating blows to his midriff while Sovaer blocked the rest. Any chance that Sovaer had of winning though was extinguished when another four of the brutes walked in to the room and pinned him to the wall. One of them held a medical injection gun which promptly got stabbed into Sovaer's neck despite his frantic struggles. As the liquid flowed into his system Sovaer's entire body went limp as the drug started to take effect.
"Well well he certainly put up a fight didn't he," said a frighteningly familiar voice from the doorway.
Jakose turned his head in horror to see Zarin walking up to him, carefully stepping over the two bodies of what were presumably his men. Zarin knelt down in front of him with a small grin of triumph on his face.
"Now tell me," he said. "Of the people you thought would be behind this I bet you never imagined it would turn out to be me."
"Zarin," Jakose spat wearily. "What have you done?"
Zarin looked at him thoughtfully.
"Oh don't worry," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Your loyal bodyguard is quite alright. That was just a muscle relaxer to stop him from acting inappropriately. He's actually still conscious."
Zarin smirked at him. "But you know I suspect you meant something different."
"Why are you here?" Jakose managed.
Zarin gave him a look of puzzlement. "Why am I here? Where else would you expect me to be? This is after all my ship."
"Why am I on your ship?" asked Jakose angrily, still unable to get up.
"These men, well those men, brought you here." he said pointing to two of the six soldiers still standing.
"Oh don't be so angry," he said, seeing the death glare Jakose was giving him. "After all I got injured trying to prevent your capture."
"You don't look injured," said Jakose doubtfully.
Zarin let out a low chuckle. "Yes well, I can heal quickly when the need arises. Now let's get you off of that floor."
He signalled to two of the masked soldiers who moved forward and hauled Jakose to his feet.
"Come on lets go," said Zarin calmly, as if this was a just a normal day and they were going for a walk.
The brutes dragged Jakose and Sovaer out of the room. The two dragging Sovaer though did not follow Zarin though and instead went the other way.
"Oh don't worry," said Zarin lightly, seeing the look of concern on his face. "They're just taking him to a cell and will be relieving him of any toys he might have. I didn't really expect him to be here to be honest. I was hoping for more valuable captives than him. Still I suppose you alone will have to do."
They continued through the drab corridors of the ship until finally they reached a large heavy set door. Zarin placed his hand on a panel set into the wall and with a slight rumble pistons turned and the door unlocked and slid open. Without a word Jakose found himself being dragged into the room.
Looking around he took in the strange sights. Immediately he was hit by the smell, the cleanliness the room reeked of, it reminded him of a hospital. The walls were lined with pods filled with liquid, some were empty but others had things growing in them. Strange shapes connected to a tube that led into the roof of the pods. As they advanced deeper into the room the things in the pods became larger and began to take a recognisable shape, two arms, two legs and a head. They were humanoid, yes but their green skin left him doubting that they were human. Then as they neared the end of the long line of pods he saw creatures that were nearly fully grown and immediately recognised them for what they were, they were the hybrid soldiers the Zarasian people had created to fight their battles.
"They're called reapers," said Zarin conversationally. "Each one created to further my cause. Perfectly loyal and obedient, stronger and faster than any regular soldier they are the perfect weapon and I have an army of them at my command."
"You know," he continued. "I must admit it wasn't easy arranging for this to come about with such little time to prepare, but over my many years I've learned to adapt to difficult circumstances. You cannot deny this has gone rather well. Well for me anyway."
They had reached the end of the room, set into the bulkhead were a row of empty stasis pods but one of which contained the time ravaged form of one of the reapers. The row of pods was broken in the middle though by a large half circle door protruding from the bulkhead.
"Ah yes this one," said Zarin seeing Jakose gaze linger on the occupied pod. "He was the one who wounded me. Unfortunately he failed to carry out his instructions properly and shot me in the leg instead of the arm, where I wasn't wearing as much armour. No matter though, he has paid the price and has helped heal my wounds."
"Why am I here?" asked Jakose, tired of these games.
Zarin gave him a sideways glance. "Ah yes, I suppose I should let you know. You are here to provide me with information."
Jakose snorted. "Good luck with getting anything out of me. Unlike your ancestor I have no intention of betraying my people."
Zarin chuckled. "Ah yes my 'ancestor', how you insist on going on about him. You really do know so little. Ah well perhaps in time you will grow out of that naivety…well provided you live that long."
He walked up to the door and placed his hand on the panel. With a hiss of escaping gas the door split and mist poured out through the crack. Sliding in their grooves the doors opened and as the mist cleared the being inside was revealed. Manacled to a chair, with numerous tubes from all manner of machines attached to her body and hair as black as pitch, was a Wraith queen.
Zarin walked up the captive Wraith and leaned over her chair. "Hello again little one, it's time again for you to work."
"Bring him forward," he ordered stepping away from the captive Wraith.
The reapers forced Jakose to his knees in front of the chair and Zarin pressed a button on a nearby console. The eyes of the Wraith sprang open as though a charge had run through her body and judging by the wires and tubes trailing into her body it probably had.
"Question time," said Zarin, pressing another button.
Before Jakose could even react to the sentence her hand shot forwards and clamped over his chest.
"Oh don't look so afraid," said Zarin. "She won't be feeding on you. The hold on your life just means she has a better grip on your mind. Now on to business."
He leaned over and spoke softly into the Wraiths ear.
"Where is Hope?"
The Wraiths eyes widened, as did those of Jakose as he felt the mind of the Wraith delve its way into his own. Then her eyes fluttered like the wings on an insect as she entered a trance and started to speak.
"Hope. Hope. Hope station. Last chance to survive if all else is lost. Almost lost. Attacked. Moved."
"Moved where?" pressed Zarin.
"Far from where it once was," she rasped. "In the gap between stars. Space. Deep space. Stay there. Safer. Help from friends. Gift. Has stargate now."
"Wonderful," muttered Zarin. "What else?"
"Station safe. Cannot be found by you now. Station strong. Station our pride."
"The stargate," Zarin said, slightly irritated.
"Stargate gift from friends. Friends good to us. We good to friends. Trade with them. They like Hope. We give them plans in trade. They build station. Station strong. Stronger than Hope."
Zarin looked up sharply, staring at Jakose who stared right back.
"Where is this station?" he asked in a low voice.
"Location unknown. Classified. Hidden. Do not know."
"What does he know about the station?"
"Station strong. Station powerful. Upgraded. Has stargate. Station new. May not yet be ready. May be vulnerable."
"Is the gate address known?"
"Yes. Address seen. Remembered. Known. May not work. Gate may not be online yet."
Zarin smirked. "Good enough."
He pressed the same button again causing the Wraith to withdraw her hand. With the connection severed Jakose immediately started gasping for breath.
"Thank you Minister," said Zarin gratefully. "You have been most helpful."
He tapped another button and the eyes of the Wraith fluttered closed. Up close like this and with his mind finally clear Jakose could clearly see the Wraiths face and he was surprised how much she looked like Echidna.
"Now then," said Zarin, turning back to him. "You can go to your own cell. Oh and in case you were wondering you won't be anywhere near your friend."
"Take him," he ordered, and the two reapers grabbed Jakose and dragged him from the room.
As soon as Jakose was out of the room and being dragged to his own personal cell Zarin set about issuing orders.
"This is Zarin," he said into the subspace com. "Ready a reaper gate insurgency force for a capture and control operation with location to follow. And I want a list of all additional forces ready for gate deployment immediately."
Present
In a storage cupboard, for even a warship had such things, there were two reapers slumped against the back wall. When they were finally discovered, and their bodies examined, their cause of death would quickly become apparent. They had had their throats slit by a very thin and very sharp blade. When they were identified by their production numbers it would be noted that they had been the two that had captured the Averian prisoners. But it would then be realised that they were also the two Zarin had ordered take the one known as Sovaer to a holding cell. What no one had realised so far, most likely because he wasn't even supposed to be on the ship, was that he hadn't made it there.
My dear readers, you didn't think it would always go the Tau'ri way did you? Please Review.