Asgard do not let their darker emotions out for air much. Even Hermiod, who was known to mutter under his breath when he was annoyed, did so in a language no one understood. He had to be one of the few Asgard in history to actually learn Alteran so that he had something to curse in.

In contradiction to his normally calm state Thor was very unhappy with his current situation. At this moment in time he had a half ton behemoth on top of him, pressing his suit so far into the ground it was probably leaving an outline, and tearing out chunks of the armour. As a result every curse word he knew in Asgard, Earth English, Alteran, the odd word in Furling and even Nox, although admittedly those were more along the lines of darn than actual swear words, was passing through his mind.

However in this particular case he decided that for the sake of moral he would only voice the well used phrase of a very good friend.

"For crying out loud!"

Warning signs blared on his android body's heads up display, courtesy of his direct link to the suit. Those damn superheated claws, combined with its monstrous strength, were cutting through the armour like a hot knife through butter, and its sheer weight wasn't helping matters.

He was completely pinned under the things massive bulk and needed to free himself if he was going to have a chance. He needed to think. Being in an android body gave him quite a few advantages over an organic life form, with one of them being that he could think faster than an organic ever could. Combine that with millennia of combat experience and you had a fearsome combination. Focusing his attention, in the blink of an eye he ran through the data he was receiving directly and came up with a plan.

He was surrounded on all sides, with his companions having retreated against the sheer tide of enemies pouring out of the seemingly infinite confines of the transport craft. He didn't blame them, since common sense was not something he frowned upon.

Step one was to get his arms free and stop this beast from tearing his armour apart before it was rendered completely useless. Plasma beams and fireflies were not an option, not with the damn thing right on top of him, so that left him with arm mounts. Shockwaves would need to be precisely aimed to have the desired effect and his plasma storm cannons were stuck pointed in completely the wrong direction. Flamethrowers it was then. Pure plasma in excess of ten thousand degrees blasting into your side was not something that could be easily overlooked by any creature. The behemoth squirmed as its sides were cooked, giving Thor enough room to move his arms again. A good thing too, since the flames were beginning to have an effect on his own suits armour.

Step two saw him seizing the opportunity presented and reaching up to lock hands with the behemoth, preventing the creature from continuing to claw at him. The behemoth squeezed hard and thrashed about, attempting to free itself, and thankfully failing.

Step three was to weaken the things frighteningly strong grip, and took the form of a firefly being fired directly upwards. With the reaction engine in the rocket set to short burst it quickly cut out a little while after being launched, allowing gravity to assert its grip and bring it plummeting back to Calium and right onto the large back of the behemoth. The, relatively, small naquadah/potassium warhead detonated on impact with the behemoth's armoured hide, creating a rather impressive explosion.

The behemoth roared as the explosive force did a lot more than simply burn it. Thor could not see the pain in the creature's eyes since it did not have them, only cybernetic implants, but he could see the pain etched on its features and feel its grip weaken. Perfect. With a single push he was able to knock its arms back. Now with room to manoeuvre he slammed his hands into the behemoth's side and fired a full powered shockwave from the emitters in his palms. The blow was enough to knock the beast back. With step four out of the way step five was suddenly very urgently required if he wanted to survive the retaliatory strike in the form of a spiked, and very heavy, tail slamming down on his already damaged chest plate.

Firing the booster engines in his feet he was propelled backwards, narrowly avoiding the aforementioned tail and taking out the legs of a few hulks on his speedy trip back to his own lines, and brief bursts of fire from his plasma storm cannons and flame throwers brought a few more to their knees. A well timed burst from the shockwave emitters embedded in his suits palms pushed him upright and onto his feet again. As gravity regained its grip he skidded to a halt, coming to a stop just in front of his kindred, much to their entertainment. He had certainly put on quite a display.

Another advantage of temporarily not being organic meant they could process at much higher speeds than their old forms. Something which certainly came in handy in moments like these, since in battle a single second can be an eternity. To anyone who wasn't an Asgard or Vanir and happened to be listening in on the conversation it two sounded like gerbils on helium. As the two conversed time seemed to stop around them.

"Nicely done Supreme Commander," his second in command on the ground said in amusement.

"Thank you Ullr. Now what is our status?"

Ullr sighed. "It will be a hard fight. A very hard fight. The enemy is multiplying with every second. Those transport ships are continually spitting out hulks and behemoths. If we do not act fast then we will be looking at over a hundred hulks and nearly fifty behemoths. A number which does not seem possible given the size of the ships."

"You suspect that we are missing something."

"I know that we are missing something. There is some secret about those craft that is thus far unknown to us."

"Is it possible that they have developed a hypercube?"

Ullr had to consciously resist the urge to roll his eyes. Even in a situation like this Thor would still try to figure out the problem to overwhelm the enemy with minimum effort, even if the situation called for less thinking and a lot more action. Although he had to admit such a strategy was useful in the long run. Unfortunately the short term was staring right at him, and he didn't like the look it was giving him.

"I don't know Thor. I am no scientist and neither are you. However that does not matter at this point, we need to deal with this threat and that means taking out those transport craft before more of those behemoths turn up and we get civilian casualties."

"Unfortunately you are correct in this case. However it would be nice to know if they have that kind of technology."

"If it helps old friend I sincerely doubt that they do. In my experience an enemy such as this with that kind of technology would not be so lacking in other areas. Can you imagine the possibilities for such technology? I can but only just, and quite frankly they scare me. However my biggest concern at the moment is the enemy right in front of me."

"Point taken," Thor admitted.

"Thank you. Now what is your order Supreme Commander?"

"How does fire at will sound?" Thor suggested.

Ullr couldn't help but crack a smile. "Sounds like my kind of plan."

With the end of their conversation time seemed to speed up and return to normal once again. Not necessarily the best thing if it means the bullets are coming at you a lot faster than they seemed to be a moment ago.

Thankfully the tide of behemoths seemed to have been cut at the source. Wherever the demonic creatures were coming from they seemed to have run out, although there was no sign of the tide of hulks stopping anytime soon. Annoyingly the behemoths seemed content to smash their way through any defensive line the Titans formed, and more often than not simply refused to die before they broke through, no matter how many plasma rounds were emptied into them. If anything this convinced Thor that Ullr had the right idea and they stop thinking and start bringing in more firepower. After all it wasn't like they didn't have the technology to simply restore the dockyards later on. Still there was probably an issue with doing a lot more damage in liberating a city than the actual invaders had while taking it.

What concerned Thor the most though was where the behemoths had gone after they broke through their lines. Most likely to harass the Tau'ri troops fighting their way through the city, rescuing isolated civilians and dealing with pockets of resistance, or reapers as they were more commonly known. And if the sudden flash of light and crackling plasma field above their heads was any indication they had even reached the towers generating the shield surrounding the floating island.

Unfortunately the lack of shield was too little, too late. The field of battle had changed to the point where the Titans and hulks were practically locked in mortal combat amongst the dockyard buildings and equipment, thanks to the charge of behemoths shattering their lines. They could no longer attack the docks with air support or artillery, not without risking their own hides, and orbital bombardment was entirely out of the question. Admittedly there would be no loss of life if they were to temporarily die, but they would lose the bulk of their deployed forces. And if their inability to establish a beam lock outside of the range of a transport pillar was anything to go by the Zarasians apparently still had a transport inhibitor active, which meant simply beaming the enemy away was out of the question as well.

Thor could remember a time when transport beams swept away entire armies with ease. Now it seemed that every enemy they encountered in this pocket sized galaxy had an answer to them. It was infuriating to say the least.

"Ullr, we need to finish this fight now," Thor stated. He back handed a nearby hulk and finished it with a blast from his hellstorm cannon.

Beside him Ullr fired off a shockwave that stopped a charging hulk dead in its track before following up with a second that knocked it off its feet. "I'm open to suggestions Supreme Commander."

"All units prepare to hunker down and launch firefly's skywards on my mark," Thor ordered.

"Are you insane?!"

"The shields can take it."

"Yours can maybe."

"All units, fire."

"I am not having a good day!" Ullr complained loudly, before carrying out the order.

Hundreds of firefly rockets were fired from twin pods on the shoulders of the gathered Titans. Across the entire dockyards in a ring around the island tiny specks of light could be seen from the miniature propulsion systems that pushed them upwards. Then as quickly as they rose gravity once again took hold of them and brought them spiralling down back again. Designed to detonate only impact the miniature warheads didn't detonate even after their short lived propulsion died. Though on their own they weren't that powerful when launched in the hundreds they were fearsome and when they did touch down the entire dockyards was consumed by fire as the naquadah/potassium warheads exploded violently.

The scene was one that played out across the entire perimeter of the capital city. As the smoke finally cleared it revealed the smoking hull of the Zarasian transport, along with the rubble and twisted metal that represented the remains of the dockyards. From under the debris Titan clad fighters slowly pushed their way out of their would be graves, covered in a fine coat of dust and their armour battered and marked. Not one single hulk had survived the explosion and subsequent collapse of the dockyard structures.

If the Titans hadn't crouched down and retracted their shields to cover them when they did they wouldn't be here. Unfortunately their shields weren't designed to protect them from the mass of rock and metal that came down on their heads, which had left their armour in its currently far from pristine state.

"Sound off," Thor ordered and received a lot of grumbled responses but nothing from Ullr. "Ullr, are you alive?"

"I'm still deciding on that." Thor resisted the urge to sigh as Ullr continued. "In this android body I do not need to eat, rest nor can I procreate. Can I, or any of us for that matter, be considered alive? Can a being who does fear death to the point that he will order his own people to effectively shoot themselves really be called alive?"

With the rather pointed monologue now over Thor noticed a patch of rubble shift as a Titan that looked a lot worse for wear clambered to its feet.

"If you can complain then yes. I realise you do not approve that your current existence was put in peril but it was necessary."

"Supreme Commander I have no problem with putting my current existence as you so eloquently put it in peril. There are certainly much worse ways to die than fighting to protect your brothers and sisters from an enemy who would do them harm. However I do not like potentially being the one responsible for their deaths because their minds did not download."

"I know old friend and I'm sorry about that, but none of our brethren have been lost this day. And if any had it would be on my conscience, not yours." It was true that several had been forced to download but none had permanently died. Those unfortunate enough to have their bodies destroyed were probably even now being transferred into new bodies, or were sitting comfortably in an Asgard data repository.

"Alright fine, I'm sorry. Now then I have just one question."

"And what is that?"

"Where have those damn behemoths gotten to?"

Thor realised Ullr had a point. The behemoths had not only avoided the potentially suicidal bombardment of the docks, but had vanished from the immediate area entirely. One moment they had been tearing through the lines of Titans and the next they had moved on for some other purpose. It was strange to say the least.

"I am not sure brother, but I intend to find out."

Both Asgardians gazes were drawn upwards as a small fireball bloomed in the sky above them. Due to the intensity of the fire fight and the fact that they had been focused on the hulks in front of them they had failed to notice the raging battle in the skies above them. Zarasian fighters and Tau'ri UAV's were locked in combat. Both types of aircraft were extremely manoeuvrable, and what the Zarasian craft lacked in firepower they made up for in sheer toughness. It certainly didn't help that the UAV's had only so much ammo available to them. While their railgun stores weren't going to run low anytime soon the same could not be said for their missiles and rockets, a fact that would need to be dealt with at some point in the future for the sake of prolonged engagements against superior numbers.

If anyone happened to glance at an ISIS avatar at the moment they would see her face was a mixture of concentration and annoyance as she engaged in a battle of wits against an unknown adversary. It didn't require much processing power to monitor the battle and undoubtedly her opponent only had access to so much given the nature of Zarasian technology. Logic dictated that her opponent had access to a vast library of combat engagement tactics, unlike her. It was the only way to account for the fact that the most advanced artificial intelligence in four galaxies was having to dedicate most of her run time to coming up with suitable counter manoeuvres. Each enemy fighter engaged her own with a different approach and yet in a co-ordinated manner. She was forced to make up engagement tactics on the fly, in the nanoseconds before it was too late, while her opponent simply had to pick and choose from a list. It was almost infuriating. Ah who was she kidding, she was annoyed. And as another of her birds was shot down, this one with a still practically full missile compliment, before she could devise a survival strategy for it, she officially graduated to being pissed off.

Nevertheless she would not be beaten so easily. Combined she and her duplicates had enough raw processing power to shatter the most advanced man made firewall on Earth with nothing more than a brute force attack, a feat no Earth designed computer could acclaim to. She may not have played this game before but she knew the rules and she was learning tactics very fast.

"Game on Zarasian," she whispered. "Game on."

Thor pulled a particularly large lump of rubble off a particularly unlucky Asgardian. Against all odds the Asgardian in question was actually perfectly fine. Even the Titan battlesuit she was clad in was perfectly functional, a testament to the high quality of its engineering or that said Asgardian was the luckiest bugger who ever lived.

As the final pieces of rubble were removed and the hunched over figure was revealed Thor realized that it was in fact neither. Skade had just known when to make herself small and divert all available power to shields. With the final major obstruction removed Skade unfurled herself and rose to a standing position.

"Intact?" Thor asked.

"Yes the suit is intact and I am fine as well," Skade deadpanned.

She surveyed her brethren, her battered and dusty brethren.

"You know," she mused. "I am glad that cleaning these suits is not a requirement for their function because I know I would have been told to clean my own by the maintenance teams."

Thor might have been inclined to laugh, if his race ever did so, but instead he allowed himself a small twitch of his lips that indicated a smile.

Skade took in the destruction from the firefly rockets. The shattered buildings, the wrecked equipment, the bloody and broken hulks and reapers, and of course the wrecked forms of Titan battlesuits. Several of their own had fallen to the deadly assault, and this was an example of the wanton destruction caused by the smallest ballistic weapon the Tau'ri had in their arsenal.

She gasped. "All this destruction, and from such a small weapon."

"Impressive isn't it."

"Impressive and terrifying."

"Be grateful that we weren't armed with NPD's. They possess a much larger yield than the weapons we just used. Isn't it amazing what these humans can come up with?"

"The Tau'ri are very dangerous."

Thor turned to walk towards the city whilst silently agreeing with Skade. The Tau'ri were very dangerous, but only to their enemies. A fact he was sometimes very grateful for but more often one he admired. The Tau'ri were much like the Asgard in that respect. Despite how much they claimed to be a peaceful race the Asgard had been able to bluff the Goa'uld for a long time because they were feared, because they would not hesitate to use what could be considered excessive force against those that crossed them. Generous to their friends and viscous to their enemies.

"That is what she said."

"Pardon?" Skade asked, slightly confused, as she hurriedly fell into step with Thor.

"Travell."

"The former Tollan leader?"

"Yes, I had an interesting conversation with her a while ago, courtesy of Freyr."

"We have time, do tell."

Thor had been on his scheduled downtime, relaxing in his private office on Concordia, when the message from Freyr had through. Thor was well of the fact that his fellow Asgardian had been constantly under siege by the former Tollan chancellor known as Travell in regards to the Tau'ri situation as she referred to it. Her relentlessness in this matter was almost admirable, or it would have been if it wasn't so futile. Apparently though she had taken to trying a different tactic as of late, and was trying to prove to the Asgard that the Tollan were in fact worthy of Asgard generosity. Clearly she had realized that nothing short of turning back time would bring the Tau'ri down to a more acceptable technological level, at least in her mind, and was instead trying to bridge the gap. Freyr had politely informed her that it was above his station and had decided to kick the matter upstairs, as the Tau'ri would say, and it had landed right on his desk, which was why he now had a meeting with Ms Travell.

He strongly suspected that Freyr had decided to get a little revenge against Travell by giving him specifically the task of explaining the situation to her. Anyone who knew him would know exactly how this conversation was going to go if Travell decided to take a pot shot at the Tau'ri.

When she entered his office he noticed Travell's eyes widened significantly right before she stopped in her tracks. He wasn't surprised at her shock, the only Asgard she had seen before had been occupying the strictly non-combat android bodies, which bore a much greater resemblance to the one he was currently using.

With a wave of his hand the holographic display in front of him vanished, providing her with an even clearer view of his terrifying appearance.

"You'll have to forgive my somewhat sinister appearance Ms Travell. My duties require the use of this combat form as opposed to the body you are used to. I trust you understand." He must seem like some demonic creature to her, a nightmare given flesh.

Travell nodded mutely before regaining her composure and taking her seat.

"Allow me to introduce myself Ms Travell," Thor continued. "I am Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard fleet. Freyr informs me that you wish to discuss a technological exchange between our peoples."

Thor studied her reaction his introduction with interest. He knew for a fact that Travell had not been told who specifically she would be talking to but had received sufficient cultural information about his people to know exactly who the major players were. He also knew, thanks to Freyr, that she knew about his personal history with the Tau'ri. This should be entertaining to say the least.

"Thank you Commander…" Travell began before Thor interrupted her by raising a single clawed finger. An act that caused a slight amount of fear by itself.

"Supreme Commander, Ms Travell."

"My apologies, Supreme Commander. As I was saying this is an impressive structure you have built here."

"You can thank the Tau'ri for the arcology," Thor replied curtly. "It was their design that made it possible, while the Asgard merely sped up its construction. The Nox are quite pleased with how well it integrates with the surrounding environment."

The name drop did not go unnoticed by Travell, who nevertheless rallied magnificently.

"They have certainly come far with your assistance," Travell said politely.

"On the contrary my people's technology only slightly upgraded the structure. The original design plan is perfectly functional without the technology we have gifted them integrated to it."

That brought Travell up short, even at their civilisations height the Tollan had never dreamed of building structures such as this. A million people occupying such a relatively small piece of land, it was almost unthinkable. Then again Thor had actually chosen to do the math before he would actually believe it, but no it was indeed a million people in a space you park a pair of warships. Where did the humans get these ideas from?

"I'm given to understand that this world now holds the majority of the inhabitants of this galaxy," Travell continued. "A prudent measure I'm sure given the threat you face. However I notice that this structure is significantly larger than the others."

Clearly Travell was fishing for information, not being aware of all the facts about matters occurring in another galaxy. And why should she? It wasn't like the alliance publically advertised what they were doing and the Tollan were rather isolated.

"The other structures do indeed hold the less developed humans of this galaxy," Thor acknowledged. "However this one serves a different purpose, being the Pegasus galaxy headquarters for the Alliance of Great Races."

"And who might I ask count themselves as members of this alliance?" Travell asked although she probably had a sneaking suspicion she could already guess more than one.

Freyr had been very devious with the information packets he provided the Tollan with. While he had included information about the major players on the galactic board he had neglected to include any information about the intergalactic alliance fighting against the Zarasian menace. She was about to get a rude awakening. It was only a matter of when she reached her breaking point.

"The Tau'ri, Asgard, Nox." She didn't seem surprised by that. "The Averians and Wraith." That got a raised eyebrow but not outright shock. The two of them were notably powerful races in their own right, certainly technologically. The Wraith had toppled the gate builders and the Averians had been entrusted with their legacy in order to avenge their defeat. "The Hebridians." That lowered the eyebrow. They were a Milky Way industrial powerhouse after all. "The Liberum, Jaffa and the Travellers."

"What!" Travell practically yelled.

Thor couldn't say he was surprised by this reaction.

"Is something the matter?" he asked innocently.

"I…no nothing Commander…I mean Supreme Commander. It's just…how do the Tollan go about joining this alliance?"

"You don't."

"Excuse me?!"

"To join the alliance you must first be invited to join and since we do not plan on inviting you anytime soon you will not be joining."

"I don't understand," Travell spluttered. "Why not? The Tollan have achieved much. We are a powerful race."

Thor raised a single finger. "Were."

"What?" Travell asked indignantly.

"The Tollan were a powerful race. Now you are largely dependent on the kindness of others, and owe your current well being to a race you would have betrayed."

"That is not true."

Thor's response would have sent shivers down the spine of the most sadistic response. "Yes Ms Travell it is. If not for the Tau'ri coming to your rescue your people would still be at the industrial level that you were during the stone age. You owe everything you currently possess to them and their generosity."

"How can you consider all of them to be great races? The Jaffa are barely able to maintain the technology they acquired from the Goa'uld, let alone understand it, and the same can be said for the Liberum. As for the Travellers they have little to no infrastructure to speak of and would probably have gone extinct within a few decades. The Tau'ri were bad enough but you consider them to be great races, why?"

Thor just let this tirade wash over him until Travell finally ran out of steam.

"The Jaffa have chosen to become the protectors of the majority of an entire galaxy, an ambitious task. They are also not afraid to ask for help and are willing to make the changes they need to in order to stand on their own and the same can be said for the Liberum," Thor added, echoing Travell's earlier words. "As for the Travellers, they did the impossible. Developed to the space age and survived in a galaxy without any actual means to combat their foes directly and even then when the time came they were willing to take on a galactic menace without hesitation."

"Is that a slight against my people Supreme Commander?" Travell asked viscously.

"It is merely the truth. You can only take slight if your people have done something wrong in the past. Perhaps your choice to not actively engage the Goa'uld while you had the chance is weighing on your mind."

"We survived and in time would have risen again," Travell stubbornly stated.

"Not in your life time Ms Travell and certainly not for several generations at best. In which case you would be at the mercy of any who might come across you."

"Then I count myself lucky that your people were watching over us. The Tau'ri would probably have taken our knowledge for their own if it wasn't for you watching over their shoulder."

Thor fixed her with a deep, penetrating stare as he steepled his fingers, composing himself before he responded. Travell shifted uncomfortably in her seat as the Asgardians dark eyes bored into her.

"Do I look a Nox to you?" Thor asked, catching Travell completely off guard.

"I…um…no."

"That is because I am not. I am a member of the Asgard and we do not take betrayal lightly. If it had been my world you had chosen to try to send a bomb through the stargate to then you would not have to worry about a Goa'uld Ha'tak bombarding your city."

"I don't understand…the Asgard are a peaceful race."

"No, clearly you do not understand. The Asgard do not start fights but we are by no means obligated to sit back and let such a betrayal slide. There is a reason, Ms Travell, that the Asgard were so feared by the Goa'uld that they chose to steer clear of the worlds under our protection.

"If a Goa'uld ship even entered the system we would destroy it. If their armies travelled to that world by the stargate they would be immediately transported away and placed in a storage buffer. Do you know what we would do next?" Travell was silent. "We would purge the buffer and those contained within would simply cease to exist. I can assure you that a similar fate would have awaited you and your Curia if you had managed to send that weapon through to Earth."

Thor let his words sink in before continuing.

"You wonder why we support Earth, because we see their courage and their honour. They are willing to protect the defenceless and ask for nothing in return besides friendship and acknowledgement, a small price to pay. And in many ways we see how much more merciful than us they are. If it weren't for the replicators the Asgard would have gathered our forces and annihilated the Goa'uld and their Jaffa servants from existence there and then. We would have ended the Goa'uld before the thought of rebellion could even the minds of the Jaffa and we certainly would not have aided it. The Tau'ri however saw that the Jaffa were just as much slaves as the humans they ruled over, something we unfortunately did not.

"Make no mistake Ms Travell the Tau'ri may be an aggressive people who will put their whole being into bringing down, but not necessarily annihilating, their enemies but the Asgard are far less kind when angered."

"But they are not united like your own people are," Travell argued. "Do you not fear they might self destruct with the advances in weapons technology you have given them?"

"Are you really that much of a fool?" Thor asked incredulously. "Any species that knows of atomic power can readily self destruct. I know for a fact that decades before they were even aware of the existence of other races that the Tau'ri possessed enough nuclear weaponry to annihilate all life on their world several times over with the push of a button. The only thing our advanced technology offers them is the ability to do so at a slightly faster rate."

Travell suddenly could not meet the Asgardians gaze. He was right. He was undeniably right. Once a race knew how to split the atom they were already presented with the danger of self annihilation. In all honesty it didn't even really require nuclear weaponry, with enough bombs of a sufficient explosive force you could damage a planet enough to ensure your own demise. She had humiliated herself.

"Now onto the matter that brought you here," Thor continued. "I believe your interest was in technology that could be used for defensive purposes, since you are well aware of the fact that we will not be providing you with beaming technology."

"Yes."

"Very well then. The Asgard would be willing to provide you with enough surface to orbit plasma cannons to defend your world, including the design specifications for them, as well as a defensive shield to protect your settlement. If you prefer however we can provide you modifications to your ion cannons to make them effective defensive weapons once again." As Thor holographic examples of the devices he spoke of appeared in front of him. "Which would you prefer?"

The last item certainly grabbed Travell's attention. "You can allow our ion cannons to penetrate shields again, how?"

Thor shook his head. "No, that is not possible. Not against ships with sufficiently effective shields at least."

"I don't understand. Why would shield effectiveness make a difference in this matter?"

"Because of the nature of how your cannons work. Given Asgard understanding of such weaponry the reason you have been able to bypass shields thus far is because the shield matrix of a typical Goa'uld Ha'tak was not sufficient to block such a loose collection of ions without letting some of them through. As a result it appeared that shields were useless against them. However when Anubis enhanced his vessels the shield matrix was dense enough to completely block the ion bolts and thus the weapons were rendered completely useless. It is fortunate for you that the Goa'uld valued one of their flagships too much to risk attacking your world with it or you would have met your demise much sooner. The solution to your problem is to adjust the density of the ion bolts thus making them powerful enough to affect the shield matrix without simply scattering upon impact."

Travell was stunned. Thor had just casually dissected one of her people's greatest accomplishments in a matter of moments, this was unprecedented. "How do you know this?"

"The Asgard also use ion based weaponry, however we were not simply content to accept that our weapons were unbeatable and looked for a way to defend ourselves against should it prove necessary. A course of action that turned out to be very prudent given the nature of the enemy we ended up facing."

"What would you want in return for this?"

"Your phase shift technology." Travell's eyes held a glimmer of hope, right up until Thor added, "The latest version."

"You ask a steep price."

"And you ask for a luxury you do not need. It is only your pride at not needing the help of race you consider beneath you that brings you here today. The question is, how much is your pride worth to you?"

Not all the Titans had been dispatched to the docks, several lone suits were roaming through the city, having been deployed by the Tau'ri transport pillar and were providing support where it was needed.

One particular suit was plodding through the streets in search of lone packs of reapers that might still be running around as well as marking any pockets of civilians that needed to be removed from the battlefield. Currently in the warehouse district the lone Asgardian by the name of Vili was beginning to get rather bored by his lack of discovery. The Tau'ri forces, being small, stealthy and more manoeuvrable were having better luck. He strongly suspected that the reapers were running away from him at the sound of his approach.

Suddenly his sensors detected the approach of a life sign, but only when it was almost on top of him. The wall of the warehouse next to him erupted as the full weight of a heavier than normal hulk smashed into his side, knocking him to the ground.

Red Eyes quickly got to his feet and studied his opponent. The sensor scattering implant had effectively masked his approach, now it was time to take advantage of that fact.

Identifying target. Target identified.

He quickly engaged his adversary in close combat to maintain the advantage and prevent the use of the Titan's powerful ranged weaponry.

Scanning target. Scan complete.

With his enhanced physiology Red Eyes was able to exchange blow after blow without having his bones shattered or his organs ruptured. Punches were blocked and exchanged evenly as the two danced around each other, buying him time. Which was exactly what he needed to win.

Identifying weak points. Weak points indentified.

He had the information he needed to win now he simply needed to exploit it.

Targeting weak points. Weak points targeted.

Ducking under a left hook Red Eyes spun around behind the Titan, his heated blade slide out of his wrist mount as he moved. In one perfect movement the blade pierced through the rear armour plating of the Titan.

Inside the metallic Vili stared in horror at the blade sticking out of his chest. His mind went blank as the damage inflicted triggered an automatic neural download and his body slumped in its seat. The Titan dropped to the floor, its operator no longer present.

Red Eyes retracted his glowing blade, the heat of the weapon vaporising the mechanical fluids spewing from the Asgard's lifeless body. Without even a backwards glance Red Eyes walked away in pursuit of new prey. With every step he took the information he gathered during his short lived fight against the Titan was being uploaded to his brethren. Soon they would all know the opponents weapons, strengths, weaknesses and, most importantly, how to kill them with a single blow.

The tide of battle was about to change.