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: albums/ae166/Senrab_Nomis/
Please review and i will respond. Or alternatively post in the thread for this story in my forum. topic/84023/35075481/1/
Review Responses
AlexanderD: Zarin would never hesitate to make what he considers to be a small sacrifice if it means salvaging a small victory from the jaws of certain defeat.
BIG Z1776: The supergate is going to be heavily defended and a very highly regarded secret. As for the rest, wait and see.
Shadows of Realm: Or dead since his last known position along with the rest of the SPECTRE's was on the surface near that outpost.
Cdoctor: Wait no longer.
Oddliver: We shall see.
Just a Crazy-Man: The most important things are never easily won or held on to.
stormwolf3710: Thank you.
vash1914: I was worried with how it would come off overall, glad you liked it.
Zarasian Outpost
Well it had once been a Zarasian outpost, as the fire and smoke from the blast cleared away all that was left was a massive crater.
On the bridge the Weir Colonel Sheppard leaned back in his chair.
"Pay attention ladies and gentlemen," he said casually. "This is the reason why we don't attempt a ground battle to take an insignificant outpost from a genocidal megalomaniac."
As the last of the smoke cleared it was apparent that floating above the remains of the outpost was a single Pegasus class vessel and a large Zarasian vessel. Both of them appeared to be completely untouched by the explosion and looking like they were in pristine condition. The Zarasian vessel was of course the Doom Bringer and the Pegasus class vessel was none other than the Weir.
"Tractor beam lock on the Zarasian flagship is stable," said Rodney from his workstation. "ZPM levels are in the green and the shield is holding, no damage taken."
"I told you it work," said Sheppard smugly.
"I never said it wouldn't work," argued McKay. "I just said it was the craziest idea either of us has ever come up with."
"More crazy than using the eruption of a super volcano to knock us into hyperspace before the blast killed us?" asked Sheppard sceptically.
"That was on an ancient ship with highly advanced shields and only for a few seconds," protested McKay. "This was sitting here and taking a blast wave in the face while expanding our shields around a ship even bigger than ours."
"Still worked though," said Sheppard.
"Never again Sheppard," muttered McKay. "Never. Ever. Again."
"Speaking of ships bigger than this one how is the Zarasian flagship anyway?" asked Sheppard.
"The shields held so it's completely undamaged, well aside from the damage they were fixing," said McKay.
"Tell Todd job well done and we'll be with him shortly," said Sheppard.
Zarasian Outpost – A little while earlier
Todd and the rest of the SPECTRE's had been charged with an important mission crucial to the success of this attempt to capture the flagship. Without it they would never have been able to pull this off and more importantly the Weir would have been as completely destroyed as the outpost below her.
The first part of their mission had been to paint the targets for the fleet to disable the stealth field and knock out the shields before they came online. To this end they had marked each of the emitter towers and sent the co-ordinates to the attacking fleet before moving on to complete their main objective.
Like ghosts the team of five moved through the outpost, slipping past reaper patrols and avoid sentries with ease thanks to a combination of their honed stealth and cloaking devices. Slowly but steadily they crept into the shipyard, carefully avoiding the paths of the maintenance workers, and then working their way into the Doom Bringer's interior through one of the open maintenance hatches. Scanning for power readings they were able to locate the hatchery containing Eurielle easily enough and by simply heading towards the rear of the ship they were able to locate engineering.
Avoiding the reaper patrols hadn't been that difficult either since they were few in number given the status of the ship, but they had very sharp hearing which doesn't help when you are trying to sneak around quietly while in full battle armour. Nevertheless they continued further and further into the ships interior until eventually the two teams reached their separate locations.
Eir and Teyla were the first to arrive at their objective since it was the easiest to locate. When you only have to search for power signatures and the hatchery was the only thing drawing a significant amount of power, given that it had its own independent power supply. There were two guards standing either side of the door, not surprising given the valuable nature of the prisoner inside. However the two reapers failed to see the SPECTRE's approaching since they remained cloaked. They did however sense a strange unease about them as they stood there almost as though they could sense the presence of the threat that stood right in front of them.
To the casual observer this is what happened. The two reapers seemed ill at ease, as though a chill were going up their spines or an unknown draft were blowing over them. They clearly sensed some sort of disturbance, as though something was not right with the situation they were in. Their eyes swept across the corridor trying to locate the source of this unease but found nothing to calm their nerves. Then suddenly they froze stock still as a red trickle appeared down their throats, their eyes widened and their jaws clenched. Their entire bodies slackened, going limp like rag dolls and their eyes deadened. And yet they were suspended where they stood, unable to fall despite their suddenly weakened limbs. Inexplicably their heads jerked back, revealing a wide and bloody hole just above where their heads met their necks. With a full body twitch blood and brain fluid suddenly began to spurt from the open wound, the contents of their heads emptying, as their lifeless bodies succumbed to gravities pull and they fell in a heap to the floor.
Out of thin air an armoured figure appeared, a pointed silver rod glowing slightly from the light of burning plasma held in each gloved hand. The rods were clean, the plasma field having cauterised the wound and the incredible heat having vaporised the blood and other fluids in the skull on contact with the red trickle escaping as the field grew in intensity. Silently, Teyla had approached her foe while the cloaking field hid her from view and then skewered them both without resistance while standing no more than a foot from either one. Reapers, these two had not proven worthy of the name when their own actions were compared to what she had just done.
Still silent Teyla stepped aside as Eir uncloaked and moved forwards to the sealed doors. With no hesitation the valkyrie slid her clawed fingers into the seam of the door and tightened her grip, her strong hands leaving imprints on the hardened metal as she applied pressure. The metal creaked and twisted as she wrenched the doors open, fighting against the mechanism all the way, but eventually they were split wide apart and the way was clear. The two advanced into the room with Eir leading the way.
Eir stepped forward to the containment pod, noting the palm scanner panel on the wall that Jakose had told them about. It was no obstacle to the android bodied Asgard who simply placed her hand on the scanner. On her artificial skin was a chemical compound that reacted with the air but was neutralised by the residue left by Zarins own skin each time he touched the panel. Normally this wouldn't work on a regular panel as the marks would have been smudged by multiple prints, but they had had a hunch that Zarin, in his paranoia, would be the only one to have access to this prisoner. It was a long shot at best but they had been hoping to get lucky. If not there were alternatives, like simply breaking the seal, but a simple glance from the valkyries robotic eyes had determined a single print of the palm reader and so they went with the easiest and safest option.
With a gentle hiss of escaping gas the seal broke and the circular door slid open, revealing the Wraith prisoner inside. Eurielle's body was completely still, with her head lolled to one side and a strand of long black hair hanging along her front. Eir moved forwards and studied the poor creature before her, noting just how much she looked like her mother. Gently the valkyrie approached and brushed that errant strand of hair behind her back, her glowing palms coming up to gently cup the Wraiths cheeks while the healing devices in her hands began scanning for signs of physical damage. The damage to her body was practically insignificant compared to the toll on her system the numerous drugs she was being dosed with seemed to inflicting on her. Her internal organs were showing signs of shutting down, with only her incredible Wraith healing abilities allowing her to survive and heal away all that was being done to her. Her limbs showed signs of atrophy, clearly she had been unable to use her limbs for some time now. Turning her focus away from the poor creatures body Eir scanned her mind for signs of damage and almost jerked back in surprise. All along her cerebrum were neural implants of varying shapes and sizes and looking with her eyes she finally noticed the wires covered by her hair trailing out the back of her skull and into the wall. Eir couldn't help but wonder just what had been done to Eurielle for the sake of victory.
With the scan complete Eir set about slowly deactivating the various machines pumping drugs into her system, carefully lowering the dosage of all the drugs simultaneously in an attempt to maintain stability while making adjustments as the life sign readings changed. She left the ones connected to the brain alone for the time being. If all went according to plan then they should have plenty of time to analyse just what those implants were designed to do.
While Eir set to work Teyla settled into a fighting stance, ready for whatever might come through the open door.
In engineering Todd, Jason and Ronon were beginning to set to work themselves, around them lay the dead bodies of reapers and Zarasian military officers alike. The three of them had wasted no time cutting down the room's inhabitants where they stood and worked. Appearing like phantoms out of thin air the three had slaughtered them all with skill and precision and most importantly control. None of the room's consoles or equipments had been damaged, much to Todd's satisfaction.
Standing in front of one of several large orb like structures that dominated the room Todd studied the complicated device before him. It was certainly an impressive piece of equipment and very intricately built. Most naquadah reactors however are pretty similar in their design, designed to receive an electrical charge into the naquadah deposit at the core of the reactor which creates thermal energy and a small amount of radiation which is then converted into raw current. The difference in the design lies in the efficiency of the conversion process which is why different species reactors are much more powerful despite being similar in size. The trick to disabling a reactor is to disable the initial energy input, effectively removing the spark plugs as you from an engine.
The hard point was finding the actual spark plugs, which is why Todd was up to his neck in the bowels of the machine looking for the equivalent.
"Have you finished disarming that thing yet?" asked Ronon while he and Jason kept an eye out.
"It's a highly advanced naquadah generator," said Todd. "Not a bomb."
"Try saying that when they overload it and it blows up," said Ronon.
"Not likely," said Todd as he ripped out a piece of equipment out from the machine and tossed it to Ronon.
Ronon caught the wire ended cylinder with one hand.
"What's this?" he asked.
"It's the power flow input regulator for the reactor," said Todd. "No initial power flow so no overload so no explosion."
"Nice," said Ronon. "So are we done here?"
"No, we still have to stop them from fixing the damage we've done," explained Todd.
"So we're stuck here," summarised Ronon.
"Until we receive reinforcements or every enemy on this ship is dead," said Todd.
"You know," said Ronon with a wry grin. "We could take care of that."
"No," said Todd sternly. "I need you two here to guard the reactor core until we have the ship in our hands."
When he noticed the disappointed look on Ronon's and Jason's faces he added, "When reinforcements arrive though…well that's different."
Ronon and Jason shared a grin.
"Now if you'll excuse me," said Todd getting to his feet. "I have to go disarm a few other generators."
"Stay in the room," said Ronon.
"You'll be the first to know if I leave," said Todd as he strode off to dismantle the other generators.
Ronon and Jason stayed where they were, their attention never having wavered from the door they were charged with guarding.
By the time that Todd had disarmed all the other generators in the room there were at least a dozen more corpses lying on the ground as they took down reaper patrols and errant crewman that wondered into the room.
There was a distant rumble and the whole ship was rocked by some unknown force. They were thankful for the magnetic clamps in their boots securing them to the deck plating, as main power had been completely disabled with minimal power coming from the suspension collar around the ship, otherwise they would have been tossed to the floor.
They may have managed to stay on their feet but the reapers weren't so lucky. They ended up bouncing off the bulkheads when the explosion from the outpost rocked the ship. Unfortunately reapers are made of sturdy stuff and it wasn't long before they were back to fighting off the approaching masses. They really weren't expecting there to have been so many present on a crippled vessel but apparently there were, presumably these were the forces that were normally stationed on the vessel and apparently hadn't left. There certainly hadn't been this many roaming the halls earlier so maybe they were all having lunch or whatever reapers did when they weren't needed. Unfortunately at the moment they had found a purpose namely killing the intruders, but the SPECTRE's weren't making it easy for them.
"Hey Todd," said Sheppard over the comm. "Just so you know Zarin blew up the outpost, so you owe me twenty."
"We're a little busy here Sheppard," said Ronon as he fired off another blast from the cover of a console.
"I can tell by the life sign readings we're getting," said Sheppard. "I'm preparing to beam reinforcements to you now. By the way how big is that room?"
"Big enough to fit a Titan in," said Todd. "Why?"
"Just checking," said Sheppard innocently and they could practically hear him smiling.
"He wouldn't," said Todd as he spotted the familiar light of Asgard transport beams.
As the bright light faded it revealed the ten foot tall form of a Titan.
"Of course he would," said Todd as the Titan set to work, mowing down reapers with its plasma repeaters.
"Teyla, how are things on your end?" asked Sheppard.
In the hatchery Teyla swung her plasma rod, clipping a reaper on the head and leaving him dazed and burned. Around her were three other reapers and they all sported numerous burns from where they had struck by the Athosians fierce blows. On the floor though there were a lot more than there were standing up.
"I believe I have the situation under control," she said as she parried the swing of a rifle and countered with a stab from below that caught the reaper on the chin and caused his head to snap back as he was impaled.
Teyla spun around and pulled her plasma rod out from the reapers skull to then drive it into the chest of another while her left hand pierced yet another reaper in its side. Her movements embodied the groups name, her agility and grace making her almost untouchable in close quarters combat. Try as they might the reapers just couldn't match her enhanced strength and superior skill in close quarters combat. Whenever she closed in on her opponent that reaper was assured to die and the three falling to the floor now were proof of that.
"Yeah I can see that," said Sheppard. "Three life signs just winked out on my screen, but you've got
more incoming and we're reading more popping up. We're trying to beam them out but the areas they are in appear to have shielding of some kind."
"You just beamed a Titan into engineering and you're telling me that you can't beam out a few reapers," said Ronon in disbelief.
"John, please tell me he's joking," said Teyla.
"They needed backup," said Sheppard defensively. "Besides now that they're free they can go help you."
Ronon grinned.
"So does that mean we can cut loose?" he asked.
"I believe we have the situation under control here," said Todd. "You two can go and purge the rest of the ship."
"Good hunting," said Sheppard. "We'll get the ship in a stable orbit and beam troops into the outer areas to secure the ship. It'll take them a while to get to Teyla though so in the mean time you boys get to have some fun."
Ronon and Jason shared a grin before rising out from behind cover and letting loose a hail storm of energy blasts at the reapers that were already reeling from walking into the room and coming face to face with a Titan. The two SPECTRE's charged forwards just as the Titan stopped firing, ghosting past the reapers before they even knew what was happening. They were out the door in mere seconds and the reapers that turned to face them suddenly found themselves being shot in the back as the Titan resumed firing the moment the SPECTRE's were clear.
"We'll head to Teyla first," said Ronon as the pair ran through the corridors, cutting down reapers that appeared in their path. "Then when the others arrive we'll leave Eir behind and the three of us can take care of the excess."
Jason grunted in response as he unleashed another burst into two reapers that had appeared from a side passage.
While they were running to the hatchery the Weir was slowly towing the flagship through the atmosphere and into space. All the while the shields were raised to further support the tractor beam and prevent any unexpected surprises from cropping up and ruining their heist plans. Admittedly this meant that they couldn't beam any additional troops on board from ships other than the Weir but they already had a small army in the form of the SPECTRE's and a Titan onboard anyway.
Ronon and Jason eventually met up with the tempest clad soldiers from the Weir but remained on point as they continued their advance on the hatchery. The Tau'ri soldiers just had to perform clean up and all they actually had to do was confirm that the trail of reaper bodies that they left in their wake were all dead, which they were every time.
As the two forced their way past reapers into the hatchery they found themselves looking at the backs of two stock still reapers. A second later and the two reapers keeled backwards, two gaping holes in their necks, revealing Teyla standing in front of them with her plasma rods thrust out in front of her. Seeing her team mates and the reinforcements piling into the room she straightened and lowered her weapons.
"I did say I have everything under control here," she said airily.
Jason and Todd took in the state of the room with its unmarked walls and a floor covered in dead reapers sporting various burns and stab wounds. Teyla on the other hand was completely unharmed to the point that even her armour hadn't been scratched, a testament to her skill as a close quarter's fighter. It was obvious how this battle had played out.
"I'll say," said Jason quietly.
Behind the display of carnage Eir was monitoring Eurielle's life signs and still lowering the dosage of the drugs being pumped into her system.
"I would rather not have a fire fight in the same room as my patient," she said, her attention never wavering from Eurielle. "So if you humans could set up a perimeter outside the room I would appreciate it."
The Tau'ri soldiers didn't even hesitate to position themselves so that the room and its occupants were outside the field of fire.
"You ready to take the fight to the enemy?" asked Ronon.
"So we're going reaper hunting then?" asked Teyla as she headed to the door.
"Just like when we used to go Wraith hunting," said Ronon. "No offense big guy."
"None taken," said Jason with a predatory grin. "It would have been fun to see you try to hunt me."
Ronon smirked. "Maybe after this we can find a nice empty forest and have a go with a couple of stunners."
"Sounds good," said Jason.
Teyla sighed. "Focus boys, we have reapers to kill."
Jason smirked. "Indeed."
"Then lets get to it," said Ronon.
And with that the three of them charged off into the bowels of the ship, intent on tracking down every last one of the reapers aboard.
Kalen Aror
After the annihilation of the planetary defence forces the Aror sat in orbit along with the rest of the allied fleet. Like the rest of the fleet the hull of the ship was unmarked by signs of battle, her shields never having come even close to failing during the conflict to secure orbital control.
On the bridge however it was obvious to anyone that something was wrong. The lights should definitely not be flickering the way they were.
"Would someone please tell me what is wrong with the lights?" asked Admiral Xander. He wasn't really angry but the sporadic strobe lighting effect was beginning to get on his nerves and he was worried it might be the result of a more serious problem.
"It appears to be a fluctuation in the lighting section of the power grid sir," a crewman reported.
"I thought we came out of that battle without any damage," voiced Xander, when he knew for sure they had having called for damage reports and received none.
"We didn't sir," replied the bridge engineering officer. "The fault seems to have cropped up after the battle."
"So are you really telling me that the most advanced ship in the entire Averian fleet came out of battle without a scratch but apparently developed a fault from sitting in space?" Xander asked in utter disbelief.
"Apparently so sir," said the engineer.
"However I think I have the problem sorted," he continued as the lighting stabilised.
"Nicely done," said Xander, just before every console screen and illuminated button on the bridge started to flicker.
"Report," he ordered.
"The problem seems to have…transferred…spread…," the engineer stuttered as he tried to work out what had happened. "However it happened the problem is now in the command control sector of the power grid."
Suddenly the problem seemed to disappear as the lighting once again stabilised. Xander paused for a moment, waiting for something else to start flickering or some report of strange activity only for none to come.
"Well done," he said, but his congratulations fell on deaf ears as the engineer frowned.
"I didn't do anything sir. The problem just seemed to vanish."
Xander's brain switched into suspicious mode automatically. No problem that appears out of nowhere suddenly vanishes just as easily. There was more to this than what met the eye.
"I want a full system diagnostic immediately," he ordered. "Something is happening to my ship and I want to know what."
"Yes sir."
"Um sir," said the helm officer. "The computer is plotting a course."
"Clarify," Xander ordered. "What do you mean by the computer is plotting a course?"
"The computer is plotting a course and I didn't enter any instructions for it to do so," said the helm officer.
Xander frowned at the news. Navigation was controlled solely from that one console so that excluded the possibility of someone else plotting a course.
"Run a diagnostic," Xander ordered. "And shut down navigation."
"Sir," said the helm officer with an edge of panic to his voice. "I'm locked out of navigation and according to these readings the hyperdrive is coming online."
"Confirm that," Xander ordered.
"Confirmed sir," said the engineer with a similar note of panic. "And it's not just navigation we don't have access to any systems at all."
"What in the name of the ancestors is going on?" Xander demanded as the ship jumped into hyperspace, unable to believe what was happening.
"Our computer seems to be following some unknown directive," said the engineer.
"I do have some good news though," said the helm officer. "I can confirm that we are on course for the Vanir homeworld and that we will open an exit window upon arrival."
That was good news, no one wanted to imagine what would happen to the ship if it just travelled through hyperspace until the reactors ran dry.
"Find out why this is happening and fix it," Xander ordered.
He wasn't angry, he was worried. Worried for the safety of his crew and worried about what might happen when the ship arrived at the Vanir world.
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