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: Sensor scans are patchy at best thanks to the overpowered magnetic field, plus a large amount of rock in the way helps too. They'll certainly be able to register the power readings but an analysis isn't possible in the short term. I assure you Zarin never will change...well not more than he has already.
Oddliver: Oh it's going to be tough alright.
stormwolf3710: Sometimes people need to know what they are in for if they sit around and do nothing. It encourages them to get up and do something, or in this case accept help. Without help the locals would be demolished.
romanhellhound: Well it is Zarin after all.
EPetrelli: They are still a long way from being a major galactic power i'm afraid, although they do have the edge on a lot of the Pegasus natives.
Guest: Wait no more.
Cdoctor: Thank you.
Monsterjeffbuk: Enjoy.
Ruby Pena: Wait no more.
Milky Way – Enterprise
The Milky Way fleet flagship sat in deep space, far from any habited system. Her reason for being out here was to conduct a weapons test, and as such it was safer to be far from prying eyes. For the purpose of the test a massive asteroid had been towed along with her and was currently sitting several hundred thousand kilometres away. The aim was to destroy the asteroid, which had been fitted with a shield to allow them to fully test the prototypes capabilities.
"We ready yet Carter?" O'Neill asked from his command chair.
"Shield emitters are online. Power feed is in the green. Weapon is armed. We are ready."
"Remind me again why I am being denied seeing this with my own eyes?"
For the test the asteroid was directly behind the Enterprise, meaning the bridge was facing away from it. As a result the only way to watch the test from the bridge was using a holographic screen.
"Because the weapon is so large that the only place we could fit it was in the construction hanger," Carter explained.
"Ah. Okay then, lock on to target."
"Target locked."
"Power and arm Hellstorm."
"Powering. Weapon ready."
"Fire."
"Firing now."
From the main hanger a glowing white object surged at high speeds towards the asteroid, so fast it was barely traceable with the eye alone. As it hit the shield the object seemingly ignored them and continued onwards until a black hole appeared on the surface of the asteroid.
For a moment nothing seemed to happen.
"Sam?" Jack asked expectantly.
"Give it a moment," Sam suggested.
"Are you sure it was arm…oh."
The question died in his throat as the asteroid exploded sending chunks of debris in every direction. The Enterprise shuddered slightly as the small chunks of rock hit her shields, they had to be small since the explosion that had consumed the asteroid hadn't left much but dust and a few chunks that had been hurtled away as the rock broke up.
"Damn," Jack said softly.
"The detonation was perfect," Sam noted. "All readings are in the green, the prototype in ready for field deployment."
"Tell Argus they have a go ahead for installation on the Hellstorm Cannons," Jack ordered. "Begin mass production of the warheads."
Higher Plain
"Vejovis, long time no see," Janus said. "So what brings you here?"
"I'm here to tell you that you won't be allowed to send the Liberum back into the fight when they die," Vejovis said, his face a mask of stone.
Calium – Liberum Base
Tomin ran through the base corridors, heading right into the heart of the fray against the Zarasian forces. This was certainly not going according to plan. While they had fully expected Zarin to eventually betray them they hadn't expected him to do so straight from the off and certainly not in this fashion. They had detected the presence of the six transports but they had been in another system, admittedly a short jump away, but they hadn't been expecting them to come here. Apparently Zarin had never been planning to work with the Liberum at all. Instead he had been setting them up for stabbing them in the back from the beginning. Not only was it very problematic for them since they were now looking at a full blown planetary invasion, but it meant Zarin believed he could take on all comers. If that was the case then the allies were in trouble.
Reapers were pouring into the base from sixteen different incursion points. The ring platforms in the drop pods were allowing them to send in more and more soldiers with every passing moment. They needed to push them back and physically disable or destroy the rings if they were to have any hope of winning against them.
He had four thousand soldiers, the entire contingent that he had brought from their home galaxy, a single warship, along with its four hundred fighters, within the confines of the shield. The problem was though that the warship was ill equipped to deal with the enemy right now. The best weapon it had was a beam weapon capable of taking down the shields of a Zarasian strike craft in a single blow. Unfortunately the Zarasians seemed to have realised this and kept pulling back their forces to recharge their shields.
The Zarasians were continuing to fire shot after shot at the barrier shield in the hope of pushing it to its limit. That strategy would eventually bear fruit when the shield emitters finally overheated and burned out from constant use. If he was going to prevent that, and reduce the number of ships attacking them then he would need to act quickly.
Moving to one of the ring platforms the Liberum had installed throughout the base he activated another one on his flagship using his telepathy.
"Brothers," he said telepathically. "I need you to hold off their advance while I cut off their reinforcements. Organise the ground forces as you need them, I am leaving you in charge for now. Make sure they do not deactivate the main shield or the one around the stargate."
For this battle they had eight priors, not including him, participating in this battle. Without the support of others to share their power however their combat effectiveness would be limited. Even a prior could eventually be overwhelmed and killed if the enemy were willing to simply toss soldiers at them until they died. Hopefully though his gambit would pay off and the flow of soldiers would be stopped.
"What are you going to do?" Andose asked.
"I'm taking the warship into battle," Tomin replied. "It won't operate effectively without telepathic control so I have to be the one to do it."
"Why you specifically?" Caius asked.
"Because it will be risky and the ship is already operating on a skeleton crew," Tomin replied. "Besides I have the best control thanks to my advanced evolution."
"Just be careful," Andose said.
"I will," Tomin assured him.
Stabilizing his connection to the ships neural interface he powered the weapons on the Liberatus and raised the shields. Settling into the command chair on the bridge he focused his mind and directed power to the sublight engines, taking the ship forwards, out from under the protection of the bases shield, and into the upper atmosphere. Meanwhile, by his order, the ships crew ringed down to the base. He would only risk his life in this endeavour, besides they wouldn't be of much use anyway.
Concentrating his will, the ship surged forwards and upwards, ready to engage the enemy vessels. He was outnumbered, that was certain, and potentially even outclassed since he had no idea what the abilities of those unknown types were. His best choice at the moment was to engage the transports and hopefully destroy them before the others could intercede. At the very least that would stall their reinforcements.
It seemed that the Zarasians were fully aware of his attentions though and moved the transports back behind a wall of their smaller craft. The strike craft were being used as cannon fodder to protect the transports, which was fine by him since it meant they weren't bombarding the base anymore and the shield emitters would have a chance to cool down.
That was the one danger with barrier shields, when they were being pushed to their limit they were more likely to fail due to equipment failure than actually being overcome.
Moving quickly the Liberatus charged forwards towards the wall of strike craft intending to punch through as quickly as possible before the larger craft joined the fray. As the Liberatus swerved around trying to flank the enemy formation Tomin fired a volley from the ships secondary weapons. While the pulse cannons were less powerful than the main beam weapon they were still a formidable weapon. His targets of choice were the four strike craft that had lost their shields from the defensive fire of the Liberatus while she was still confined to within the bases shield. When the ocean blue pulses connected with them their hull armour offered little resistance and the ships shattered as they were struck. One hit on each was all it had taken to render the ships lifeless wrecks. On the one hand the Zarasians had only lost four of their weakest ships to the Liberatus' guns, but on the other there was now a hole in their lines.
Seeing the opportunity he had created with his opening strike Tomin urged the ship towards the gap at full speed. Evasive manoeuvring had been thrown out the airlock as far as he was concerned, now all that mattered was pushing through the gap before the Zarasians could close it. With a set course though the ship was an easy target for the Zarasian strike craft and their return fire saw a storm of plasma bolts pounding into the shields of the Liberatus. Tomin winced as the ship was struck, during the crusade a volley like that wouldn't have affected the shields in the slightest. But now, in the days of the Liberum, his ships shields had been reduced by almost 40%. It would have been much worse though he knew if he hadn't drawn blood first. Speaking of drawing blood he had a job to do, good men were fighting for their lives on the surface and he needed to ease their task however much he could.
Channelling as much power into the engines as he dared he forced the ship through the gap. As he closed the distance and eventually passed through he once again let loose his side pulse cannons. Two strike craft were shattered as he passed into the gap and another two were crippled as he cleared the mass of ships. Suddenly there was nothing between him and the transports. At last his prey was in sight and within his grasp, it was time to strike. The main beam weapon on the ship, which he had been neglecting to use so that it would be fully powered for just this moment, finally unleashed its fury on the transports. In quick succession two bursts of raw destructive energy tore into the shields on one of the transports. The shields of the transport however held against the raw destructive energy but were severely depleted. The pulse cannons meanwhile added their own destructive bite to the battle and ravaged the other transports as the Liberatus flew past the group.
Tomin quickly brought the Liberatus around for another pass hoping to claim a kill but it was then that the other Zarasian ships joined the fray. The three classes of ships had left the base alone entirely, choosing instead to target the one ship that was actually causing them harm. They quickly moved to cover the transports, forcing Tomin to rapidly adjust his heading to avoid a collision. He had expected such tactics from the Zarasians, a collision was something they could afford but he couldn't. It was the reason they had set up a wall in the first place. Tomin immediately went evasive as the light and heavy cruisers opened up with eight and sixteen plasma cannons respectively while the flagship added its own thirty. The hastily fired shots were easy enough to evade despite the size of the Liberatus since they hadn't really been aimed at his ship but meant to make him turn away from the transports.
He knew that his shields were not going to last long against the firepower those sixteen ships were capable of unleashing in a single volley. The Zarasians seemed to like to saturate their opponents with a sheer mass of firepower, much like their Averian cousins and the Jaffa. He supposed he was lucky they hadn't developed a beam weapon of their own to use against him or he would really be in trouble. It's thoughts like those that come back to bite you in the ass, as the Zarasians were about to prove. Before he even had time to register that they were firing at him a beam of raw destructive energy was tearing towards him from the prow of the flagship. The Liberatus shook as it was struck by the savage weapon.
Tomin's eyes widened in shock as realisation hit home. That blast had been as powerful as the main weapon on his ship. Worse still it was followed up by another two shots from the wings of the ship. This was definitely no ordinary flagship like the one the allies had previously encountered, this was a battleship!
Tomin grimaced as he realised his shields were down to less than 44%. This battle was not going the way he had intended and he knew he had to get back under cover soon. It was about to get worse very quickly though as the light and heavy cruisers neared and surprised him further by opening fire with their plasma beam weapons. They were only half the strength of the three fired by the battleship, or an APB equivalent, but sixty of them coming at you is not something you can simply ignore. To make matters even worse the battleship fired six of the same from its lighter guns, bringing the total up to sixty six. Tomin had already been on his guard though and that, combined with the long range they were firing at, allowed him to avoid every one in six. Unfortunately that meant eleven hit and his shields dropped to a mere 10%. It was definitely time to get out of here but he couldn't let his mission fail like this. If he could just kill one of those transports, even the already damaged one, then he would have achieved something here.
The Zarasians seemed to have other ideas however and had brought the strike craft in closer to form a screen between him and the planet. It was time for a risky manoeuvre that could possibly get him killed, assuming that the Zarasians didn't of course which wasn't very likely at this point. Frankly he was lucky to have survived this long.
Directing as much power into the sublight engines as he could without taking anything away from the shields he took the Liberatus further away from the planet. The Zarasians had a mission though and were reluctant to pursue him. That was fine by him since it gave him the opportunity he needed.
The Liberatus suddenly swerved round, once again facing the planet. A hyperspace window opened as Tomin executed one of the riskiest manoeuvres there is during a pitched battle, a micro hyperspace jump. The Liberatus dived into the window and without warning a second window opened amongst the cruiser formation. Tomin gripped his chair as he concentrated on turning the ship, barely avoiding scraping the shields of a heavy cruiser. The Zarasians didn't even have time to fire a shot before the Liberatus had escaped and was on the transports. Travelling at high speeds the Liberum flagship shot past the formation of ships, firing a hastily aimed beam and a volley of pulse blasts the damaged transport succumbed and exploded.
Without a moments hesitation Tomin took the ship into the atmosphere at full speed seeking the safety of the bases shield. The time the Zarasians took to figure out what had happened was all that needed for the shield to drop, the Liberatus to slip under its protective umbrella and to be raised again.
Tomin knew that the Liberatus would not be able to attempt another space battle until the shields were recharged and that would take time. It was better for him to help with the ground battle and leave controlling the ship to the crew for now. He ringed down to the surface as the Zarasians resumed their bombardment. He had achieved a significant victory here. Not only had he destroyed on of the transport craft but he had also temporarily halted the tide of enemy soldiers flowing into the base and allowed his own soldiers to make some headway. That would make all the difference for the moment.
After he ringed down he ordered the crew to re-board the ship and continue what they had been doing before.
"Brothers," he said. "I have destroyed on of the troop transports and several strike craft. They will be resuming sending down troops soon. The real fight begins now."
"Brothers," he said telepathically. "I need you to hold off their advance while I cut off their reinforcements. Organise the ground forces as you need them, I am leaving you in charge for now. Make sure they do not deactivate the main shield or the one around the stargate."
"What are you going to do?" Andose asked.
"I'm taking the warship into battle," Tomin replied. "It won't operate effectively without telepathic control so I have to be the one to do it."
"Why you specifically?" Caius asked.
"Because it will be risky and the ship is already operating on a skeleton crew," Tomin replied. "Besides I have the best control thanks to my advanced evolution."
"Just be careful," Andose said.
"I will," Tomin assured him.
"You heard him boys," Caius said. "Let's make them regret ever setting foot on this rock."
The message was spread to the Liberum soldiers by the Priors. It was eight priors and four thousand soldiers versus however many reapers were already pouring into the base.
"They have sixteen entry points into the base," Andose said. "We'll each take five hundred men and cover two entry points."
"Agreed."
"Follow me men," Caius said. "We have reapers to kill."
The Liberum soldiers cheered in response, they're heavy boots beating a steady room as they charged through the passageways towards the enemy. The inner corridors were dimly lit by hydrogen fuelled gas lamps. For some reason Caius took comfort from their presence. Maybe it was because of the part of him that had worshipped the Ori or maybe it was the symbolism that fire represented, lighting the dark and banishing away the cold, but for some reason he always felt comfortable around fire. At the occasional corner they came across an armoured power conduit snaking its way from the floor to the ceiling and along the occasional corridor. If one listened closely you could actually here the gentle hum from the large power generator in the main hanger below and the crackle of energy as it flowed through the conduits to the shield generators. The conduits worried Caius as, even though they were out the way and had been reinforced to protect them against plasma blasts from small arms they were still vulnerable if something heavy hit them.
Caius, like the rest of the priors, was not wearing his stereotypical prior robes or even carrying a staff anymore. Instead, like Tomin, he was now wearing a version of the foot soldiers armour composed of overlapping plates with a single solid piece for the breast plate. Adorning that breast plate was a large, but thin, blue crystal similar to the one that was present in the prior's staffs. Tomin and the others had come to realise that carrying a staff around in a combat situation was a bad idea. It had taken a long time for the crystals to grow large enough for them to be shaped so that they had the same volume as the staff crystals but it had been worth it.
The sound of the enemy approaching echoed ominously through the passageways. Just as they were getting closer to the enemy the enemy were also getting closer to them. That wasn't good. They needed to push them back in order to get at the drop pods if they were ever to destroy them, and with every moment that passed the amount of ground they needed to retake increased. Worse still the more ground they were able to take meant that the reaper incursion groups would be able to link up and support one another. The advantage the Liberum had over the reapers was being able to co-ordinate and support one another thanks to the priors and the large amount of adjoining passageways they controlled. If they lost that advantage then the reapers would be able to establish a foothold, deploy more forces and eventually press outwards and take control of the entire base. Losing control of this base was not going to happen. Well admittedly yes it was eventually going to happen. They had planned on it happening. But it wasn't going to happen without the reapers paying in blood for every square foot of ground they took.
It wasn't long before they rounded a corner and came face to face with the enemy. Caius quickly created a shield to block the plasma blasts being fired at him.
"Fire at will," he ordered, and his soldiers let loose a volley of staff blasts in return.
Both sides exchanged fired as they found their mutual advances halted by contact with the other side. They were unable to advance further because of the wall of opponents in front of them. Plasma blasts struck the walls of the corridors as both reapers and Liberum alike tried to score a hit.
In one section of the base an old prior named Darius was desperately marshalling his soldiers against the enemy.
"Keep firing," Darius yelled as he dodged yet another plasma bolt aimed at his head.
He punched forwards and sent out a telekinetic punch that sent one of the reapers flying backwards into the wall behind with a bone breaking crunch. That was another one down. A scream beside him grabbed his attention and he turned and saw a young man, no more than boy really, rolling on the ground in agony, a plasma blast having caught him in the face and melted his exposed skin.
One of his fellow soldiers dragged him round the corner and into cover before Darius knelt down beside him and placed his hand on the mutilated flesh. Concentrating, the boys face was enveloped in a soft glow as Darius healed his wounds. When the work was done the boy was healed and Darius moved back into the fray. He knew that that would not be last time he had to used his abilities to heal the injured to day, but he hoped reverently that it would not be the last he could save.
In the distance he could hear the thud of footsteps and he knew that meant more reapers were approaching. His guess turned out to be correct as further down the corridor another pack of the abominable creatures emerged, ready to rain hell down on the defenders of this base. Looking out with his minds eye however he could something entirely different approaching.
"Fall back," he ordered, gathering his powers and creating a barrier to block the volleys of plasma bolts.
Under the cover provided by their prior the mass of Liberum soldiers began to slowly retreat down the corridor. Occasionally they would stall and fire back down the corridor towards the reapers, providing cover for their brothers and lessening their priors load as the reapers stopped firing and took cover.
The reapers however believed that their opponents were weakening and sensing an opportunity for victory in this skirmish decided to press forwards. Emboldened by the swell in their numbers, courtesy of the swift arrival of reinforcements the host pressed onwards. Several staggered and fell as they were struck by staff blasts, some of whom did not rise again, but they continued onwards all the same.
Sweat started to form on his brow as Darius struggled to maintain the barrier while it was being subjected to constant bombardment. In an effort not to overtax himself he compressed it so that it no longer filled the width of the corridor. This had the downside though of leaving the soldiers pressed against the wall exposed. Nevertheless Darius continued to maintain the barrier, though his minds eye was focusing on something else. Distraction can get you killed on the battlefield but in this case it proved to save him.
"Attack," he roared suddenly, much to the surprise of the reapers.
As one the Liberum soldiers halted their retreat and fired volley after volley at the reaper host in front of them. The space between the two forces was filled with plasma blasts as both sides fought relentlessly to bring the other down. The reapers had thought that victory was assured but the enemy had shown that they still had some fight left in them. They still had numbers on their side and Darius was weakening by the second. It was only a matter of time before they slaughtered the humans, or so they thought.
From the two side corridors emerged a force of Liberum soldiers, who had been waiting round the corner of the intersection for the signal to attack and had been the focus of the Darius' minds eye. That signal had been given when Darius had called to attack and the soldiers had answered that call. The small detachment of reapers guarding the intersection was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer mass brought down on them. Emerging round the corners they caught the reaper host pressing down on their brothers unprepared and unawares, and more importantly with their backs turned to them. The reapers which had, until a moment ago, had the taste of victory on their lips suddenly found themselves in the middle of a withering crossfire that saw them decimated in short order. There were so many reapers in that corridor that it was a simple matter of just firing at will since you were guaranteed to hit something so long as your staff weapon was pointed forwards.
As their numbers began to dwindle and they turned to face the more pressing threat Darius and his vanguard once again moved forwards. Charging forwards the Liberum soldiers drew their swords and proceeded to hack their way through the enemy, so as not to run the risk of friendly fire. As the reapers turned once again to face the more immediate threat the soldiers from the other direction charged forwards and added their blades to the fray. Reaper blood ran thick along the stone floor.
Using their weight of numbers the Liberum pushed the reapers back at several points. Co-ordination and knowledge of the tunnel systems throughout the facility allowed them to push the reaper advance back while in the space above Calium Tomin harassed the Zarasian fleet and stalled reinforcements. This gave the soldiers the time they needed to counterattack and prevent the reaper incursion groups from forming into cohesive forces.
Pushing their way through the base corridors, with the priors spearheading the assault, the Liberum started to push the reapers back until they were close enough to actually here the sound of ring platforms activating. The strange was that they didn't hear the sound of rings activating which puzzled them for a little while until they realised that Tomin's attack on the fleet must be stemming the tide of reinforcements.
Realizing they wouldn't have this opportunity again the Liberum pushed forwards with everything they had until they had wiped the reapers out. The soldiers cheered when the priors reported the last of them killed but most remained sombre, knowing the battle had really only just began.
With the entry points surrounded the priors fell back from the front lines to heal the wounded, sadly though there were some that were beyond help. Death is something that even a prior cannot simply heal.
"Brothers," Tomin said. "I have destroyed on of the troop transports and several strike craft. They will be resuming sending down troops soon. The real fight begins now."
The priors barked out orders for the soldiers to prepare themselves. The next wave of reapers was due any moment now.
In the distance Caius could hear the sound of the rings activating and shouted out for the soldiers under his command to fire at will.
Suddenly he felt the ground shake and a bloom of heat radiating from the corridor where the ring platform was located. As he watched a wall of flame out of the corridor and right in front, the shockwave left him sprawling on the ground. His eyes widened in shock as he saw soldiers diving for cover, some barely making it while others weren't so lucky.
"Bomb," someone murmured, and Caius knew that could only have been it.
Then he heard the ring platform activating again and the gentle thud of footsteps. From around the corner came a reaper carrying a large metal cylinder on his back with tubing feeding into a rifle looking object in his hands that spat blue flame. The reaper was pointed it right at him.
Somewhere in the back of his mind Caius saw the weapon for what it was. A plasma flamethrower and it was being fired at him!
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