Hello all and merry christmas, and yes it is christmas here in the UK. I figured i would post this one early as my christmas present to you all. The next chapter will be posted at the regular time next week. Enjoy.

Calium Hydrogen Production Facility

In front of the facility a trench line had been dug which the people of Calium had prepared to defend against a ground incursion that might be attempted. Along the length of the defence line numerous concrete bunkers and pill boxes had been constructed to add an extra layer of defence. Manning the defence line and armed with rifles and machine guns were ten thousand Calium soldiers, a large part of their standing army. Supporting them were the alien forces of the Tau'ri, Asgard and Vanir. Five hundred and forty Asgard and Vanir crewed various Titan battlesuits while four hundred Tau'ri were manning Abrams tanks upgraded with Homeworld Command technology. Joining the Calium soldiers in the trenches were five thousand five hundred Tau'ri soldiers, an entire brigade. A metaphorical line in the sand had been drawn and an army of reapers was heading right towards it.

The Tau'ri soldiers may have been fewer than their Calium counterparts but they were far more deadly. For one thing these men and women represented the best of the best, the alpha dogs of the alpha dogs from multiple countries across Earth. They had to be after all, since they and the only the only other two brigades operated by Homeworld Command could be all that stood between Earth and an enemy army. As such they had been given equipment that would not only keep them alive as long as possible but also bring as many of Earths enemies down as was possible while they were still fighting. Two years ago the multiple countries of the IOA had begun their mass recruitment drives for personnel. The majority had gone towards crewing the constantly expanding fleet but the rest had spent the following two years training to fight battles on alien worlds and the people from them. They had been trained to be the best and they been equipped with the best. For the sake of their survival they had been given Mark II tempest battle armour, with servo motors to enhance their strength and thick trinium armour plating that could shrug off regular bullets. For the sake of bringing down the enemy they had been armed with mass produced railgun rifles and a particle magnum sidearm. The railgun rifles were a dream weapon made possible thanks to superconductors, strong materials and a crystal power cell, the same power cell now found in the grip of Earth made particle magnums and making them universal. Accurate up to a range of nine hundred meters and with a maximum range of several kilometres, with a magazine of one hundred rounds and capable of firing seventy rounds per minute this was the most powerful rifle the Tau'ri had ever built. One in every ten man squad operated a weapons emplacement with a much higher firing rate, if admittedly a smaller range, an X-699 plasma cannon.

Against an army moving under the protection of mobile shield domes however these weapons were useless unless used up close when you would be within the confines of said shield dome. As a result the defending forces were playing a waiting game while the reaper army advanced closer. The truly frustrating thing was that even after they had taken out the main shield and then subsequently bombarded the drop pods from orbit they were still unable to use beam weapons offensively. The shields protecting the army were blocking the transporters. Those strange cylinders which had been deployed before the transport ships had been destroyed were even generating a shield of their own and were hovering above the ground, moving with the reaper army. Possibly these were some kind of command ship, responsible for directing the army and maybe even held the hatchery queen.

The shields protecting the reaper army were unbreakable with the weapons they had at their disposal. Though not from lack of trying. Railgun rounds, NPDs and plasma bombs that the Titans had unleashed on the shield had managed to weaken but not break through. Plasma beams had been more effective but the amount of energy expended to punch through the overlapping domes meant they were then unable to break through the heavy armour of the shield generating vehicles. The Zarasians had not taken any chances when designing them and they possessed the thickest and strongest armour of any of their vehicles.

Unless they wanted to charge straight into the fight they would have to sit back and wait for the reapers to come to them. Given that that would mean the enemy were attacking a fortified position with only slightly larger numerical forces the defenders were happy enough to wait until that happened and then have Titans jump behind the army to leave them completely encircled. No matter how Thor saw it the enemy were eventually going to lose this battle. To be extra sure he even had a few Titans performing raids. They would move into the shield dome, fire off a few rockets or plasma beams and then retreat before their shields dropped. Priority targets had been the surviving enemy tanks since the shield generators were far too numerous and this tactics effectiveness too short lived. When the shield domes finally encompassed the defence line the Titans and Abrams would eliminate the surviving vehicles while Calium and Earths finest dealt with the reapers. Hopefully when those floating cylinders went down the reapers command structure would as well, spreading chaos through the ranks and making it easier to eliminate them.

Of course that was assuming nothing else went wrong.

Calium Main Military Base

Commander Kavier sat at his desk faced with the bane of all military officers everywhere, paperwork. His mind though was not on the paperwork but the battle happening not very far from here. Technically it was out of his jurisdiction since it was purely a land battle and he commanded the air fleet but he would still like to be a part of defending his homeworld. He didn't like putting the fate of his world in the hands of others so he was glad that he had ground troops participating in the battle.

The fleet had been sitting idly in dock since the initial invasion by the Zarasians but they were preparing to move out again with the Zarasian fighters eliminated. Once they had been restocked and refuelled they would depart and take up position around the capital once again.

A knock at the door roused him from his musings.

"Enter," he said.

The door to his office opened and his second in command walked in, flanked by three stone faced soldiers and a little while later his aide.

"Sir, we have recovered some of the debris from the landing craft we shot down," the second in command said in a strangely monotone voice. "I thought you should see it."

Two of the soldiers stepped forwards and placed two metallic spheres on the desk while the third closed the heavy metal door.

"Strange," Kavier noted as he rose to his feet and moved around the desk to study them closer. "But why did you bring these to me?"

"I thought you should see them sir," his second in command repeated.

"I came to tell you that the fleet command staff are standing by for your briefing sir," the aide added.

Kavier turned round to stare at the aide.

"What briefing?" he asked, frowning.

"Commander Navin told me to arrange a meeting of the fleet command staff sir," the aide said nervously. "On your order sir."

Kavier turned his gaze on his second in command. "I gave no such order."

"I was saving you the trouble sir," Navin replied.

"I have no intention of giving such an order," Kavier replied.

"Not yet sir," Navin said emotionlessly. "But you will."

"Si…sir!" his aide spluttered, pointing towards the desk.

Unnoticed on the desk the two spheres had been uncurling to take the shape of large metallic centipedes, supported by needle like legs. On the top of their now exposed heads there was a single glowing, blood red light and two metallic tendrils.

Kavier drew his side arm and aimed at one of the things but before he could shoot his head was slammed down onto the desk and his gun wrenched from his fingers. As he struggled to break free of the vice like grip he turned his head and realised that it was two of his own soldiers holding him down. The third soldier had his aide in a bone crunching bear hug, preventing him from helping or fleeing. Meanwhile Navin, his trusted second in command, just stood there and watched without a flicker of emotion on his face.

"You will not be killed," Navin assured him. "Our directives require the preservation of life where possible."

"What are you doing you traitor?" Kavier demanded angrily but Navin seemed to have no more to say.

Navin stepped forward and picked up on the centipedes while the other hand pulled down the back of Kavier's shirt collar. Kavier struggled all the harder when he realised that Navin was lowering the metallic centipede to the back of his neck but try as he might he could not get free. He involuntarily shivered as he felt the thing moving down his back, the cold metal brushing against the nubs of his spine. Even though he could directly not see what was happening his imagination, fuelled by what he was feeling, painted a chilling picture. The centipede was being laid along his spine, the long legs clamping around his ribs and the head, and by the ancestors those tendrils, was being placed on the back of his neck. As the legs locked into place around his ribs he felt a sudden pain in the back of his neck, two stabbing points that seemed to go all the way through his spine. As it happens they did. The two tendrils had pierced his skin and forced their way through the ridged of his spinal column, tapping directly into the brain stem. As this happened Kavier's whole body slumped as his brains control of his body was severed.

As his body rose from the desk he found himself a mere puppet, his bodily functions under the control of another. He was still conscious and could see and hear everything going on around him but that was all. He was trapped, trapped inside his own body, unable to vocalise his fear, his rage or his despair. He could only watch and listen as something moved his body, spoke with his voice and remember everything that followed.

He saw how his body attended the meeting with the meeting with the fleet command staff and spoke with words that were not his own. How one by one the individual airship command staff were escorted into a private briefing chamber by a handful of guards and then shown the interesting pieces of debris from the Zarasian landing craft. He could only watch in horror and listen to their terrified screams and shouts of protest as they were restrained while one of those things attached itself to the back of their necks. After that they would scream no more. Like him they had become puppets, dancers to someone unseen persons tune. In the confines of their heads he imagined that, like him, they were screaming, crying and pleading for it to end. Death would be welcome over this.

The worse part was how quiet he and the others like him were. The thing controlling him didn't seem to need to interact with the others of its kind. They all seemed to know what to do next, when to do it and what needed to be done by some unspoken agreement. Just knowing what this enemy that held captive in his own body was planning would have given him some respite but he was denied even that.

He quickly learned to spot those that were like him. The stone faced ones who didn't seem to talk, or when they did talk it was in a flat voice devoid of emotion. Just like Navin had been when he had spoken to him. He realised he should have noticed sooner but that was what made these things so dangerous. They hid behind the mask of military professionalism until it was time to strike.

As his body walked away from the main hanger, past the departing airships, he realised that the time to strike, the time they would really strike, was getting closer and closer. He just prayed to the ancestors he was either dead or freed before he could see it happen, because he had no doubt that it would mean the end of his world when it did.

Unknown Location

"Tell me Azamoth," Zarin said. "How are things progressing?"

"Things are progressing well," Azamoth said gleefully. "Soon Etere you will have the results of the combat tests for the new models."

"And your puppets?" Zarin asked. "I trust the strings are all in place by now."

"Soon all the key pieces will be under my, our, control," Azamoth assured him. "Most of the strings are in position and the final few will be soon. Their military is already ours and their leadership will soon follow."

"Very good," Zarin said. "With the locals under my control I can force our enemies to leave this world or suffer the consequences. Remember though Azamoth preservation of life is key here or the punishment will be dire."

"Of course Etere, of course," Azamoth said. "The strings are following their directives to the letter in that regard. So far no civilian casualties have been sustained."

"I'm glad to here it, and you should be ready for when the Doom Bringer departs to claim this world."

"You intend to send the Doom Bringer itself Etere?" Azamoth asked, surprised.

"I do," Zarin confirmed. "Our enemies will know fear at what we are capable of unleashing upon them should they continue to stand against us. Hopefully it will make them easier to deal with and they will realise that the death of the Wraith and uniting the galaxy under one banner is a more favourable alternative."

"Of course Etere, of course," Azamoth said.

"Now how does your other project progress?" Zarin asked. "You have requested to oversee the final stages personally."

"Yes Etere," Azamoth confirmed. "Generating a successful combination of reaper and various reptiles DNA was difficult but I believe we have almost reached the optimal level of capabilities. I would like to personally test the prototype and from there oversee the implementation of mass production and modification."

"I do not like having you away from the Doom Bringer Azamoth," Zarin pointed out. "You are far too valuable an asset to risk."

"I understand your concern Etere," Azamoth said. "However this research base is one of more recent creations and has the latest defence technology. With no ships in the vicinity it makes the likelihood of our enemies tracking it down remote and the indigenous wildlife makes visits rare and very brief."

"Very well," Zarin said. "But I want regular updates on your progress and your latest designs for consideration."

"Of course Etere, and thank you."

"I reward loyalty Azamoth," Zarin replied. "And you have proven to be a very loyal asset to me over the centuries, and especially a useful one. Your creations are masterpieces."

"But of course Etere," Azamoth said. "I am after all the product of my work."

Calium Hydrogen Production Facility

The time had finally come. The shield domes had finally extended over the defence line and the reapers were in range to use their weapons. Bolt after bolt of plasma pounded the defence line while the return fire was none existent. The defenders stayed low in their bunkers and trenches, waiting for the best time to strike. Thor was being patient. So far the reapers were being hesitant, holding back instead of making a charge for the defence line. He was waiting for them to get closer. Slowly the shield domes inched forwards to cover the entire defence line, with only the Abrams and Titans left outside.

The reapers were now only a short sprint away from the defence line. Thor knew he had to strike now or the advantage would be lost. Wait too long and the reapers would be in the trenches already, but strike too soon and they would not be able to bring their maximum firepower to bear because of the shield domes. It was now or never.

"Attack," Thor ordered.

As one the CCTs and HWTs jumped into the air in a high arc, touching down inside the dome shield on the other side of the reaper army before opening up with everything they had. In the trenches Calium and Tau'ri soldiers stood up and started firing their personal weapons. Behind them Abrams tanks and LRTs moved forward so that they were inside the shield dome and unleashed their own monstrous weapons. The reaper army found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. Although in this case it was quite hard to tell which was supposed to be which since no matter how you looked at it both of them were beating the crap out of the reaper army. Someone in charge though clearly saw that the situation wouldn't be improved by just sitting their and taking it. The reaper army quickly advanced closer and closer to the trench line.

Calium and Tau'ri soldiers desperately tried to fend off the mass charge of vehicles and reapers. Plasma bolts, railgun rounds and bullets brought down thousands of reapers while hundreds of tanks were shattered by the defending armoured units but more were still coming. Soon the reapers made it right up to the trench line with the massive hulk reapers tearing a bloody path through the defence line. Thor saw all of this and urged his Titans forwards. Catching the reapers in a cross fire had been effective but it looked like they would now have to resort to a hammer and anvil strategy. It would have been nice though if the anvil was an actual barricade rather than a trench line, although the bunkers were giving the reapers quite some difficulty.

The Titans continued to carve their way through the rear of the reaper army while their counterparts on the defence line obliterated vehicles. The four floating cylinders felt the full wrath of the LRTs high powered plasma beams, their shields holding for a brief moment before they were finally destroyed. As they detonated they created massive craters in the area that killed dozens of reapers with fire and shards of debris. Thor hoped that would mean the reapers command structure would have been shattered and they could finally deal a decisive blow that would end this battle quickly. With their commanders dead the surviving forces would be disorganised and easy to overwhelm.

Apparently though it wasn't to be. The tank groups focused their fire on individual targets, destroying several of the Titans outright while the Abrams were taking a pounding but hanging on thanks to their slightly stronger shields. The reapers meanwhile were charging into the trench lines in co-ordinated groups, identifying the weakest areas of the line and moving straight for them. As it happens that was the area of the line defended by the Calium soldiers, with their weaker troops and inferior firepower. They were simply far softer targets with less effective weapons which made them ideal targets for pushing into the line. The reapers came down on them like a storm, overwhelming resistance with sheer weight of numbers.

Eventually they were in the trenches and then the hulks came into play. They carried massive minigun like weapons that spat out torrents of plasma, mowing down Calium soldiers as they advanced deeper and deeper into the trenches. There were forty eight of these things moving through the trenches and cutting down anything that got in their way. Some soldiers were brave enough to ambush the hulks but their bullets simply bounced off the thick trinium armour they were clad in.

"All ground troops pull back," Thor ordered.

There was no point prolonging this until they could come bring in a viable countermeasure to those hulks and that was the Titans. Or alternatively the obvious countermeasure was simple sheer overkill. Either way the best move in this case was simply pulling the soldiers back. At multiple points along the defence line there were concrete bunkers which separated sections of the trenches. Those were stall points where they could hold the reapers back until they could deal with the situation properly. In those bunkers the Calium soldiers could use the larger guns they had set up and the concrete would off protection against the plasma bolts. The Tau'ri solders were performing coral duty, moving into the thick of the fight where the reaper forces were strongest and holding them at bay. This allowed the rest of the Calium forces to perform mop up duty of the much smaller broken and scattered pockets of reaper survivors. All the while the armour of both sides fought with one another, neither side letting up an inch. The intense fight between them meant that the vehicles couldn't support the ground forces because they were too pre-occupied with each other.

"All forces have pulled back sir. Trench lines are clear," a voice reported.

Knowing that friendly forces had pulled out of the trench line occupied by reaper forces Thor took a moment to assess the situation. The bunkers were not offering as much of an obstacle for the reapers as he had hoped, while they had been designed to defend against an attack they were not meant to hold off against one from inside the trenches. Once the reapers pushed past a certain point the protection the bunkers offered became none existent as the open doorways allowed easy shots straight into the bunker. Of course that was only if the reapers were planning on going easy on the defending forces, instead they opted to throw in thermal grenades that obliterated the bunker occupants. By the time his group of Titans made it past the rest of the army they were up against they would have pushed deeper and deeper into the trenches and caused thousands of losses for the defenders. He was right in the thick of the action, tearing through reapers and vehicles like a lawnmower cutting through the grass but he still couldn't get there in time. He had no other alternative.

"Target NPDs," he ordered.

"Yes sir."

The LRTs immediately turned their attention to the trench lines, ignoring the enemy tanks for now. Thor took a brief moment to note how those vehicles and their mobile shield domes had made all the difference in this battle. Without them the reaper army would have been all but annihilated by the allied forces alone before they were able to even get close to their lines. Instead the reapers had been all but on top of them before they could be engaged properly. Clearly a countermeasure was needed. Perhaps multiple targeted bursts from plasma beams would do the trick. However that was a question for later.

"All units report target lock sir."

"Open fire," Thor ordered.

From their housings on the LRTs shoulders NPDs which had so far gone unused in this battle were finally brought into play against the enemy. As they left missile pod housings they swerved upwards into the sky, gaining altitude, before nose diving back down to the ground. The explosion generated by the combination of liquid naquadah and potassium was so powerful that they had to be fired at the centre of the trench line sections to prevent friendly casualties. Across the defence line miniature suns burned briefly as the reapers were engulfed by the explosions. Hulks roared as they were consumed by fire, their partly Wraith physiology allowing them to hold on until the power packs they carried on their backs detonated and finished them off.

Turning back to the rest of the battle Thor organised the disposal of the remaining reaper troops while the last of the tanks were finished off. He personally saw to mopping up some of the last of the troops, his Titan suit slicing through them with ease.

And finally it was over. The last of the reapers were dead. The tanks had all been destroyed. Even the shield generator vehicles had been destroyed, which had allowed the Titans to pull back and pepper the hold out forces with firefly rockets and artillery rounds.

Now the allied forces were withdrawing from the battlefield, their troops and vehicles being brought back to the ships for maintenance and medical attention. In orbit of the planet the Nightingale finally decloaked and started beaming up the wounded. Injuries had been light for the allies, with their superior armour protecting them. The Calium people however were not so lucky. They had lost a lot of good people as a price for defending their homeworld from invaders. Still with the technology and medical training that the Tau'ri vessels and doctors had at their disposal a large number that would otherwise have perished would be saved.

This victory had been costly certainly but it was a victory none the less. The Zarasian invasion force had been annihilated by the local and allied forces. As a result Zarin would not be able to place troops on this world until he got past the large and extremely powerful fleet in orbit, something that would not be an easy task to achieve. At least that's what Thor and the other allies thought anyway. They never imagined that it would be possible with a single ship.

Calium Capital City

Around the city numerous warships of the Calium air fleet were taking up position. They were forming a defensive screen around the city, supposedly to protect it from any who might attack it. At least that is what the locals and the allies thought. They were unaware that the command crews of those vessels had been turned into puppets under complete control of the string robots clamped to their backs. The crews of the ships followed the orders of the command crews. If they were told to adjust the guns to a certain angle and then fire a round they would do so. They wouldn't know until later what the target fired at had been. Likewise those manning the smaller defensive guns would be told to fire at a craft of a certain shape. They had never seen the enemy fighters before so why would they know the difference between the Tau'ri 302s and the Zarasian fighter craft. It didn't help that Commander Kavier, under the control of his string, had quite recently requested that the UAVs be pulled away from the city now that the last of the Zarasian fighters had been dealt with.

The crews of these vessels, both large and small, simply followed orders as they were given. When a stream of arrow shaped fighters began descending from the sky, followed by the wide winged UAVs the crews were given their orders. The airships, along with the guns on the surface began to fire on the UAVs allowing large groups of fighters to make it to the ground and deploy soldiers. Drop pods rained down from the sky but the defence guns remained silent, under orders from on high. Following the fighters were larger ships, the mobile deployment platforms touched down on the outskirts of the city and began to spit out vehicles. Tanks rolled into the streets of the city and local defence forces that had been confined to barracks, once again because of orders from on high, were powerless to stop them. Hordes of tanks, hulks and basic reaper soldiers poured into the streets to almost no resistance. Panic gripped the locals as these strange creatures appeared in their midst without warning. They didn't know that a similar scene was playing out on the planets surface in the grounds of the hydrogen production facility.

Moments ago, in the space around the planet, a single massive hyperspace window had opened and deposited an arrow shaped ship, sporting Zarasian markings, so large it blocked out the sun. At twenty kilometres long this was by far the biggest Zarasian ship that the allies had ever seen. The power readings the thing was generating made the allied fleets tiny by comparison. This one ship was capable of wiping out the present allied fleet without breaking a sweat. There was no question of fighting it. There was no chance of victory with what they had. Nothing in their current arsenal was capable of bringing down the shields on that thing, shields which were fifty times more powerful than even an O'Neill class warship. This was a ship that you could only feel fear if you knew it was against you.

The massive ship, the Doom Bringer, launched tens of thousands of fighters and hundreds of drop pods and mobile deployment platforms. As a massive swarm they descended on Calium, ignoring the fleet defending her, and heading straight for the planet.

On the bridge of the Doom Bringer Zarin smiled as his plans came to fruition.

Unseen in space, three energy beings watched the appearance of the Doom Bringer.

"So he finally decided to show himself," Janus said. "Let's end this."

Together Janus, Oma and Morgan flew straight for the bridge of the Doom Bringer, intending to bring Zarin down once and for all. Shields, hull armour, bulkheads, they all meant nothing to the three ascended. In an instant they were on the bridge and saw Zarin sitting smugly in his command chair. Together they gathered up their power and unleashed a blast of power that would deal a mortal blow to the target, and the target was Zarin.

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