Zarasian Outpost

It is a well acknowledged fact that out of all the races encountered in multiple galaxies thus far that the human race, or sometimes more specifically the humans currently inhabiting Earth, are the most vicious and aggressive race to ever exist. Naturally the humans, especially those of Earth, will try and dispute this fact, citing races such as the Goa'uld as an example of species worse than they are. However the question has to be asked, how many races lacking genetic megalomania do you know that have spent the better part of their recorded history inventing, and sooner or later utilising, new ways to kick the shit out of, if not kill, each other? Now that is not to say that that as a whole humanity is generally a bad race and many of their deeds have proven them to be quite the opposite in fact. However the point, the main heed this warning or you probably will not live to regret it point, is that if you anger them you can expect them to lash out with a viciousness that would make the most blood thirsty Goa'uld wince. The Asgard had even begun to agree the point when their good friends had decided to blow up a sun to take out their at the time biggest enemy. Even the Goa'uld had rules about doing things like that.

The angered humans in this particular instance happened to be the Averian race and to make matters worse they had been attacked by their own kin, the Zarasians, in a time when they were supposed to have left such actions in the past long ago. Needless to say they weren't going to let their exiled brethren off lightly.

Unfortunately for the Zarasians the Averians had been given the location of one of their very valuable supply outposts, whose main fleet had been moved away in an attempt to strike a potentially crippling blow to the allied offensive fleet. Well what the Zarasians assumed to be the offensive fleet of their enemy. Little did they know that the fleet compromised of Asgard and Tau'ri vessels represented only a fraction of the allied races forces. They had been blinded by the repeated use of highly advanced and extremely dangerous technology at the disposal of the Tau'ri and Asgard, the fact that the Wraith had been solely on the defensive this entire time and that the Jaffa and Liberum had recently taken a heavy blow. As a result they had forgotten about the first of the allied races that they had struck out against two years ago, namely their own former people. But they were about to be reminded.

Human military tactics, having been honed after many years of experience, meant that they knew the full dangers of being caught in a surprise attack. Of course if being caught in a surprise attack was dangerous then being caught in an ambush was deadly. A well co-ordinated ambush where the enemy knew everything your forces had at their disposal and had planned how to neutralise every aspect of said forces, well that was literally the worse case scenario. The traitor twins Stheno and Euryale had learned this particular lesson, much to their peril. Now it was time for the Zarasians to learn it as well.

In orbit over the outpost the Aror and her escorting fleet of Averian warship dropped their cloaks. With their weapon nests open and ready to use the Averian vessels opened fire on the orbital satellite defence grid with their broadsides while their plasma beams started pounding on the barrier shield covering the outpost. The satellite grid itself wasn't particularly powerful, consisting of several hundred small scale plasma cannons protected by light shields. They were meant to act as a deterrent to fighters or attack an enemy capital ship on mass using sheer weight of numbers. Against the barrage of plasma cannon fire that an Averian warship was capable of laying down against them they didn't stand a chance. Their shields couldn't even take a single hit before shattering, with the rest of the satellite following suit moments later. Waves of fighter craft being launched in mass from the hangers onboard the warships added their own gunfire to the melody and by hunting in packs increased the tally that much faster.

In response the fifty Zarasian transport craft attempted to manoeuvre out of the line of fire from the fleet of ships and fighters as they waited for the enemy to come into range of the surface cannons. They didn't expect that while they were adjusting their heading a fleet of Jaffa Ha'tak's would de-cloak right next to them and begin to pummel them with heavy plasma cannon fire. With their noses already turned away from the planet they could only attempt to go forwards to get away from the barrage that was consuming entire vessels with ease while continuing to minutely adjust their heading. Thousands of reapers of the Zarasian army were dying by the second without being able to offer even a token resistance. Power that would normally be dedicated to weapons was instead being diverted to shields in an attempt to allow them to survive long enough to escape.

And then just when it looked like the first of the ships would escape the attacking vessels four hyperspace windows opened right in front of them. Emerging back into normal space the four Liberum warships immediately began mercilessly slicing into transport vessels with their beam weapons. As the transports swerved to the right the Ha'tak's continued to charge forwards until they were above the transports, bombarding them with the plasma cannons mounted on their under bellies. As the Ha'tak's were moving into position over the transport fleet the ships were getting clustered together as they attempted to get away from certain death. And that was the problem right there. Death was a certainty and they just didn't know it yet. Although if the pride of the Jaffa fleet and current flagship, the Anise, de-cloaking in front of them didn't get the message across then the storm of a hundred and twenty heavy plasma cannons as the ship opened fire did. They didn't stand a chance.

With the transport fleet dead or dying in space the Jaffa flagship turned and pointed its nose toward the remainder of the satellite grid. Having had a front row seat to the utter annihilation of the Zarasian transports the fighter pilots broke off their attack runs and got as far away from the satellites as possible. Being anywhere near those satellites at this point meant being inside the kill zone and that was not somewhere you wanted to be when the guns of a Jaffa and Averian fleet are designated weapons free.

A time honoured doctrine of military combat is to control the skies. Even with world war two level technology uncontested control of the skies makes it that much easier to defeat the enemy, sometimes without even firing a shot with your land based forces. For an interstellar race however that doctrine is further expanded to include a third tier, space. A high ground the Zarasians had now lost possession of.

Thankfully the outposts shield did protect them from the return fire as the ground emplacements opened fire on the enemy fleet in orbit. Designed on the same principles as a city shield the inhabitants of the outpost felt completely safe, knowing their enemy lacked the firepower necessary to penetrate the protective umbrella.

However there was still one piece left to be used by the allied forces, Borealis. The base ship had not been idly sitting by while the rest of the forces waited for the Zarasian fleet to cross the half way point. Moving under cloak Borealis had positioned itself over one of the planets poles and very slowly descended into the atmosphere, causing as little a disturbance as possible. Floating high amongst the clouds the flying fortress was able to position itself exactly where it needed to be, directly over the large compound that held the people taken from Calium and who knew how many other worlds. When the shooting started the base ship uncloaked, raised shields and dropped through the atmosphere like a stone. Appearing over the compound caused quite a stir amongst the native Zarasians. Even the semi-sentient reapers looked up in awe at the massive flying snowflake structure that could flatten them in an instant should its propulsion system shut down. For this reason they couldn't fire at it or it would be their undoing. The shield protecting the outpost wouldn't have even the slightest chance of holding up something so massive.

It appeared they were at a stalemate. The allies couldn't come closer for fear of the surface emplacements which they couldn't even damage while the Zarasians couldn't even scratch the base ship even if they wanted to. At least that was how it appeared to the Zarasians.

On the bridge of the Aror Admiral Xander saw the strategic picture very differently. Nodding to himself in approval as the Jaffa fleet swiftly dispatched the remainder of the satellite grid in an impressive display of firepower that would put even his own ships broadsides to shame. The Jaffa certainly didn't do anything half hearted. He noted with interest that the shots that missed the satellites and entered the atmosphere bounced harmlessly off of the outpost shield. Even parts of the shield that received a short and continuous bombardment remained intact and showing no sign of potentially collapsing.

He knew that the Zarasians probably expected him to order the fleet to hold back as long as the outpost shield was still active. Short of bombarding the planet in an attempt to collapse the mantle they didn't have a hope of getting at the planet with their conventional weaponry. So his plan was to target any and all reactors away from the compound that Borealis was currently hovering over. When he had heard the plan from the infamous Doctor McKay he had been sceptical. However the knowledge that the good doctor was willing to stake his reputation on it and what his fellow Averians would do to the man if this turned out to be a suicide mission helped assure him it would work. Hold a gun to his head, or his wife's come to think of it, and the man could probably build a fusion reactor out of a box of spare parts.

So without even a moment's hesitation he ordered his ships to move into weapons range and commence firing. The Zarasians probably thought that they had no idea about the properties of that shield, or that they were very stupid. Admittedly attacking a barrier shield with a weapon weaker than the shield is arguably a very stupid thing to do. No matter how many times you fire the damn thing then as long as it has power the barrier shield won't even fluctuate. Zarasian defensive fire saw several Averian vessels heavily damaged before they could even open fire. And when they did open fire no one thought anything of it. Boy, were they in for a shock.

Zarasian Homeworld

Zarin was enjoying his afternoon tea as he awaited news of the exploits on Calium. As a cyborg he now technically didn't need to eat or drink with any regularity but he enjoyed the taste of the drink and tea was the closest thing to coffee the people of Pegasus had. He was surprised when Malek entered his office. The fleet he had ordered deployed wasn't due to arrive at Calium for several hours yet.

"Ah Malek, what brings you here? I believe the fleet is still several hours away."

Malek hesitated before answering causing Zarin to frown. "Yes Etere they are. However that is not why I came. The outpost we deployed the fleet from is under attack."

Zarin's frown deepened into a scowl. With a mental command via his neural implants the wall sized transparent smart window dimmed and generated an image produced by said outpost's sensors.

"The outpost's status?" Zarin asked as the computer worked to compile all the relevant information to give a tactical overview.

"Last reports indicate the outpost defences are online and fully powered. However the satellite grid is on the verge of being neutralised."

That was good. As long as the shield was online they should be able to hold out. While he knew it was not as energy efficient as the ancestor's city shields they were certainly as effective. Zarin dismissed the latter information out of hand. The satellite grid was limited and meant to engage enemy fighter craft while the surface emplacements were designed to take on capital class vessels. He had not however overlooked the distinctive lack of information in one area of Malek's report.

"And the transport ships?" He already knew the answer.

"Destroyed." Big surprise there. Oh well, it wasn't like he didn't have more reapers to replace those he had lost.

The computer had finally finished compiling the data and started displaying tactical data on the enemy fleet faster than any human eye could follow. Being a cyborg however Zarin received the information directly with the screen simply providing him a visual image of the outpost and the surrounding space in real time.

He tuned in just in time to see the Jaffa flagship finish off the remainder of the satellite grid. Zarin snorted as he finished analysing the enemy fleet. His cousins the Averians didn't have the firepower necessary to get through that shield and the Jaffa weapons wouldn't even come close. That bloated monstrosity of theirs didn't even possess beam weaponry for ancestor's sake.

Malek meanwhile had been studying his data pad and gasped as he received the latest report.

"Etere, over the holding facilities," he said with a note of panic in his voice.

With a thought the image changed to show the skies above the outpost. Even Zarin's eyes widened as the base ship came into view. As was only practical he had studied the information on the Ancients in the database and knew what a city ship looked like. This thing, whatever it was, definitely wasn't a city ship but it did resemble one to a degree. It was certainly impressive. Even he had to admit that much. The question though was what was it? He frowned as he tried to figure out what it could be before realisation struck him. There was only one race he knew of that took design cues from the Ancients and that was the Tau'ri. They had even repurposed an Ancient warship and used it against him. Not to mention the fact that their larger capital ships even somewhat resembled that same class of ship.

It didn't make a difference anyway. So what if they had fashioned what appeared to be a flying fortress after the shape of a city ship. Even their strongest weapons wouldn't make a dent in the outpost's shields and even if they deployed that super weapon of theirs they would only kill the prisoners they must know he had.

He laughed when the Averian warships actually moved forwards and opened fire, with several being crippled before they could even power their weapons. But when several beams hit the shield at the same point and punched their way through his laughter died in his throat as his mouth hung open in shock and his eyes widened.

"Im-im-impossible!" he spluttered.

Time after time they fired, the beams destructive energy penetrating the barrier shield and destroying generator after generator. Eventually the shield started to waver as the power flow began to ebb, but what was worse was that a number of the secondary priority plasma cannons failed completely as power was automatically redirected to maintain the shield. Worse still with a weakened shield even single blasts from the Averian beam weapons were able to pierce the shield and the destruction of generators created massive explosions that consumed both shield emitters and plasma cannons alike, never mind shipyards and barracks.

"How?!" he demanded, smashing his arm into the armrest and warping the metal with his superhuman strength.

"I don't know Etere," Malek replied, equally shocked.

Regaining his composure he replayed the data of the multiple beams impact. Looking closely he noted how the shield initially held and the beams struck the same small area.

"How very clever," he mused as he finally figured out what had happened.

"Etere?"

"It is really quite simple Malek," Zarin explained. "On their own the beams are not powerful enough to penetrate the shield. However the total power of several beams concentrated on the same spot is more than enough to get through." He smiled a predatory grin. "But if it works on our shields it should work on theirs as well."

"Yes Etere, but the outpost…" Malek began before Zarin cut him off.

"The outpost is of little concern in the grand scheme of things. I have more, many more and far more valuable than this one. They have simply delayed our advance and our fleet will shortly arrive." He rubbed his jaw in thought. "Note how they have not used any weapons on the holding compound. In fact if the presence of that flying fortress is any indication of their intentions they plan to rescue our new subjects. Their heroism is a weakness we can exploit."

"Orders sir?"

"I see no reason to make their job easy." He smiled viciously. "Mobilize all surviving forces through the subterranean tunnels to the compound. Let's see how many of their people we can kill before they either succeed or give up."

"Yes Etere."

"Oh and order the fleet to push their hyperdrives to three hundred percent."

Malek frowned. "Etere, that is well beyond the safety margin."

Zarin raised an eyebrow, causing Malek to flinch. He chuckled in amusement. Not many people had the nerve to question him of all people. However he had little use for those who would not even point out facts. "It will not be for long and is sustainable for a little while, but it will be enough to surprise our enemies. No doubt they intend to be off of Calium before we can get to them, unfortunately that will not be the case."

He steepled his fingers together as the image on the screen changed to show a very different world. "Now let's see how Red Eyes is doing."

Azamoth had truly outdone himself with his latest creation, a cyborg like no other. Like him they were a perfect fusion of manufactured biology and cybernetics. In this war Red Eyes and his kindred would be a valuable asset, with each one able to learn from the experiences of the others. With each battle they would grow smarter, become better leaders and maestros of the battlefield.

The super hulk in question was actually quite busy, attempting to form a more complete tactical picture of the situation than he already had. Communication is one of the keys to waging a successful engagement. Without knowing where your soldiers currently are, or the enemy for that matter, you are essentially leaving your troops to survive against any enemy forces they might stumble across. An entire army, with each soldier separated and alone, can be defeated by a single opponent they never even knew was hunting them.

The Zarasians form of communication however was different than a regular militaries. Each and every soldier, be it a reaper, hulk or even a behemoth was linked by their inherent telepathy to form a hive mind. But instead of thoughts or feelings their hive mind sent complex computer coding, making it completely impossible to hack into by any normal means. With the soldiers transmitting data about their current location and anything their senses detected back to a hatchery queen coupled with sensors, and processed by advanced computer equipment, a surprisingly detailed tactical map can be formed.

Malek had not been aware of this, and unfortunately neither were the allied forces currently storming the planet, but Zarin really didn't trust the capabilities of this particular human commander. For that reason he had secretly smuggled onto the planet a lot more than forces than anyone imagined. Zarin never doubted for a second that the allies would not be back. Being the heroes was in their very nature for ancestor's sake! They just couldn't seem to help it. So he had a secondary hatchery queen quietly installed and a large amount of ground troops secreted away in warehouses, just waiting to be activated, something surprisingly easy to do when your movers are an army of cyborgs operating on automatic. No one had even batted an eye as crate after crate was moved into warehouses across the planet.

The coming engagement would act both as a field test for the new Red Eyes model and strike renewed fear into the hearts of the Zarasians enemies.

As the final computations were performed, and a full three dimensional image came together in the confines of his skull, Red Eyes proceeded to study the image and make plans. He had an entire army of behemoths and hulks at his disposal, and what reapers had survived the initial assault by his adversary of the day.

His attention turned to the airborne transport craft and their accompanying fighter craft. Currently there were numerous enemy air assets on an intercept course, their intent obvious. Tactical evaluation of previous encounters determined that the reaper pilots were unable to match the abilities of the enemy craft at even optimal range, which was much shorter than the enemies own engagement range.

The first to intercept his assets would be a squadron of eight aircraft, all flying in precision formation. There were dozens more fighters approaching on mass some distance behind them and their very presence doomed his convoy of transport craft. Clearly a sacrificial move was required to ensure his transport craft reached the capital city, and the hydrogen production facility beneath. A single transport and its accompanying twelve fighter craft peeled away from the pack, heading directly for the first UCAV squadron. Accelerating to their maximum possible speed, well beyond the upper limit for target acquisition, the fighters and transport quickly found themselves upon the enemy squadron. The AI monitoring the approach determined that the aim of the enemy craft was to bypass this first squadron. The solution to which was to engage them at range with the second, much larger wave of fighters. What the AI did not predict was the minute change in heading of the Zarasian fighters that saw them collide with the F-302's, miniature fireballs blossoming on impact that consumed both craft. The response from the AI's was immediate, with a wave of NPD's from multiple craft being launched at the transport craft, having been deemed the greater potential threat, but Red Eyes was once again one move ahead.

The surviving Zarasian fighters immediately moved to intercept those drones, screening the transport craft just long enough for it to overload its reactor. The blast wave itself was fairly limited, barely touching the edge of the swarm of 302's. The shockwave however was felt by all of them. Nearly two dozens fighters were destroyed as they collided with each other, while the rest frantically manoeuvred to remain airborne. They were then easy prey for the Zarasian fighters that descended on them, clearing the way for the transports they were escorting.

The score stood at one point in favour of Red Eyes.

Weir

"Son of a bitch," ISIS swore, much to the surprise of everyone present.

Sheppard couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Rodney, who could only shrug in response. Everyone who knew anything about the highly advanced AI knew that ISIS was capable of evolving, with her personality matrix expanding to become so close to sentience that it was impossible to tell the difference. But nevertheless this was the first time they had seen the avatar wearing a mask of anger, let alone swearing.

"Problem ISIS?" Sheppard asked.

"My sisters and I have been outmanoeuvred," ISIS replied with a frown. "A group of Zarasian transport craft has broken through the fighter screen surrounding the capital and is landing now."

"Numbers?" Sheppard asked sharply.

"Seventeen transports touching down, with two hundred and four fighters remaining outside the shield."

"Life signs?"

"None detected in the transports."

Rodney immediately started working at his console, bringing up the sensor readings for him to analyse personally.

"The transports are putting out large amounts of focused energy, most likely from a single piece of technology. The energy field is disrupting our scanning beams and preventing us from getting a precise lock."

Sheppard nodded. "So they could be empty…"

"…or full to the brim," Rodney finished.

"Send a priority one message to Thor and have him intercept those assets."

"Yes sir," a crewman replied.

"And have our units take down that damn shield already, that was supposed to be a primary objective," Sheppard ordered.

"Units are reporting heavy resistance around the transmitter pylons sir. The majority of Zarasian forces are concentrated around them but our own forces are beginning to push through. Two out of eight pylons are destroyed, with three more damaged. The shield is beginning to collapse."

Every second that they waited more troops could be deployed onto the battlefield. He just hoped that Thor and his titans were able to destroy the transports whole before too many troops were offloaded. And that was assuming there were actually troops in those transports.

Thor had to admit, he had missed this. In the good old days before the replicators the Asgard had been a race to be feared because of those like him. Those who would dispense swift justice against parasites like the Goa'uld. It was with a heavy heart that he had allowed the Protected Planets Treaty to even exist but he knew it had to be done. The replicators were far too dangerous a threat to allow any other course of action and if they hadn't focused on them races like the Tau'ri might never have discovered electricity before the lights of their lives were snuffed out. But even the fight against the replicators had not allowed him the outlet he needed, because against such a foe it was a constant series of raids and sneak attacks since drawn out combat was simply not an option.

His one respite had been when some Goa'uld was stupid enough to actually enter a protected system. Once that happened Thor would give a single warning, but not always, before unleashing the full force of the weapons at his disposal. But this, fighting in close quarters with his brothers and sisters at his side, was truly therapeutic. There was a reason that Norse mythology portrayed him and his kin as such fearsome beings, and it was not simply because of the powerful technology at their disposal. Standard practise for dealing with intruders on the surface of worlds under their protection was to capture them in a transport beam and then simply delete the stored patterns. It was swift, effective and utterly merciless. People who thought the Tau'ri were a fearsome enemy when roused had clearly never met a pissed off Asgard.

So there he was on the front lines of the battle for the Calium capital city carving through the enemy like a hot knife through butter, or if you wanted to be more accurate hot plasma through flesh and bone. Reapers littered the ground around him as he and two of his kin pounded through the dockyards, their heavy metallic feet creating small earthquakes with every single step they took.

Their current destination was the transport vessel that landed nearby only moments ago. The tactical alert from his allies above had been unnecessary since Thor had noticed them the moment they entered the borders of the shield surrounding the island. It had however allowed him to better position his forces by providing him with the exact locations of the transports for his titans to engage.

As he and his comrades came to a rest in front of the transport he saw that the large frontal doors were already beginning to open. The enemy would be most vulnerable however when the doors first opened and the cyborgs inside emerged, caught in the cramped interior with no cover to speak off except those in front of them. Standing in the middle of the trio, and with more armoured soldiers coming up behind him, Thor felt confident in his ability to defeat whatever was inside.

So he was very surprised when the doors opened and revealed nothing. Not single Zarasian cyborg was inside the darkened hollow interior of the transport. Inside his suit Thor blinked and considered the possibility that this might simply have been a distraction, or perhaps even an attempt to lure him and his forces closer so the craft could self destruct. And yet his suits sensors, coupled with the readings from ship based assets, were telling him that no overload was occurring. It was truly a mystery.

What he had not, could not, expect to happen though was the brief and faint flash of light deep from the interior of the craft. Suddenly from the gloom a behemoth that had not been there mere moments ago emerged, charging towards him at a frightening speed for its size. Thor had just enough time to identify the glowing red hot claws that came swiping at him before the full weight of the monstrous beast collided with his suit and sent him to the ground while a pair of hulks emerged behind it, weapons blazing.

Please Review.