Chapter 7 World Turned Upside Down
Atvar titled his head slightly as he looked at this Tosevite female, this female who seemed to hold a position of high authority over the other Tosevites including the infantry males. A female holding a military position was unheard of in the Race, having a female on the battlefield would have caused nothing but trouble. It wasn't that they would cause an issue most of the time, however whenever they entered the mating season which they had no control over the smell of their pheromone would cause males to want to mate with them. That would cause something but problems on the battlefield, he briefly wondered if the Tosevites just dealt with the issues of a breading system that would be foolish but so was the claim this female was giving.
She was claiming that the Tosevites where never conquered and that they were the Tau'ri, that was clearly a bold face lie. To even attempt to pass such an idea that sword swing savages could advance to a level of technology which was beyond even the Race, which was the most advanced and cultured civilization in the galaxy was laughable. To make it even more laughable they claimed to have done it in 1800 years or 900 local years. In truth, he knew it was slightly longer than 1800 years, two years at home was just a couple of factions shorter than a year on Tosev 3. Still even if they advanced at the fast rate the planners believed possible they may have gone from sword swinging savages to sword swinging savages with better metal in the swords. It was so funny that Atvar opened his mouth and showed his rows of sharp teeth, in laugh of the Race.
Seeing his laugh, the other members of the race joined in his laughter even as the Tosevites showed some uneasiness at the sight of all of them showing their needle like teeth.
"Very funny." said Atvar as this Tosevite female looked at him. "Very funny joke, however we are beyond jokes and I demand to see the Viceroy that the Emperor of the Tau'ri placed over you Tosevites."
"This is no joke." repeated Sam "Look around Fleet Lord, did you see anyone who isn't a human or as you would call us Tosevite when you came from the space port? Do you see any statues in our halls which are not of a Tosevite? Do you believe we would set all this up as part of some joke? We are Tau'ri, Tosev 3 was never conquered and the sword swinging savages you were expecting are not what you find."
"What you claim, by the very laws of the universe is unbelievable." said Ttomalass "Society changes slowly, over graduate well planned steps and the changes you claim is impossible in such a short eye blink of time."
"It may be short to you but to us 900 years is a very long time." countered Carter "It was only within the life time of some of our older citizens that we first walked upon the moon and now we have advanced with help from our allies from across the universe that we have advanced to where we are now. We were never conquered, we are not lying to you. You are facing the Tau'ri right now and this world Earth is the Capital of a civilization that spreads out over 5 fully populated worlds with over a hundred outposts and military bases spread out across this galaxy and beyond."
"Once again you try to lie." stated Derfsab "Outposts across the Galaxy? You couldn't have travel between edges of the galaxy in such a short amount of time and to hear back from them would take millions of years."
"If you travel at just under half the speed of light which seems to be your max speed, yes." confirmed Carter "However we use hyperspace technology that allows us to travel much faster than light and with our system we can cross the galaxy in a couple of days and send messages through hyperspace using broadcast stations spread out across the galaxy."
"If that we true then you would have discovered us a long time ago." hissed Derfsab "Once again your lie is made so clear that a hatching still wet from the egg could see it."
"In truth, we should have found your worlds however none of the worlds was of any interest to us. From what we have learned of your worlds, too hot for our liking." Explained Carter "We are a race of explores and dreamers. We look over the next horizon and the with our hyper drive technology your worlds are so close they didn't seem that interesting. We also only a year ago finished a war with another civilization so our attention was focused on them for a while. That allowed you to go undiscovered until you were at our door. Now we need to decide what the next step will be."
"What you claim flies in the face of everything we know." admitted Atvar as he looked around at all the different statues and technology around him. "It is hard to understand such claims, even so the with the evidence before me I can't refute the claim with what I have before me. I still need to discuss the situation with your Emperor."
"Fleet Lord, we have no Emperor." added Carter, that was again a semi truth. There was still royal families in some nations but they were now more symbolic then what they had once been before.
"No Emperor?" inquired Atvar, that claim seamed to upset the Race more than the fact that the Tau'ri where in fact Tosevites.
"Do you have an Empress?" inquired Ttomalass as the other members of the Race looked at him. "One of the Empires on Hallessi One was ruled by an Empress instead of an Emperor."
"Very well…do you have an Empress?" inquired Atvar as he remembered the kinship rulers of Vantic 5. "Or maybe your rulers are based on blood kinship lines called families?"
"No, we have no Emperor or Empress, we have no family lines ruling us either." explained Sam "We are a representative democracy, where the people vote to decide who will rule us for a time before another is elected to hold that office. I am honored to hold the highest of the office President of the Tau'ri."
Carter had been elected in an election where no one ran against her so she was elected with no real challenge, she would likely not have to face a challenger when she ran again in a few years. After her two terms were up, then the real challenge would begin. The electoral system was set up to have a lot of candidates running for President or other office, so the system was set up in what was called an Alternative Vote or Instant Run Off. Basically, when a voter went to vote they would select in order their top 5 candidates in order of the one they wanted to hold the office. Once the votes were cast the bottom candidate was dropped off and their voter's votes would go to their second choice. This would go on until someone broke 51%. It was a new system to some in the Tau'ri but they were getting used to it.
To the race, who had always known an Emperor ruling them the idea of a different form of government was unsettling on the deepest levels. Even in the distance days when the Empire was limited to only part of home, they had fought against other Empires. In their mind, there was no other way to organize intelligent species, anything else was just beyond them. The only thing that came to their mind was an insult.
"Snout counters, they are snout counters." Hissed Ttomalass with hate in his voice, snout counting was something only used in very rare situation where someone of higher authority couldn't be found to clear up the issue. "Exulted Fleet Lord, they are snout counters."
"There is no way a society could reach any form of greatness by counting each other's snouts." Countered Derfsab
"And yet we have." added Carter through her translator. "We have reached levels beyond what you believed to be possible and we are still advancing. Under the treaty signed by the great powers in the galaxy, we control 20% of the galaxy."
"Great powers? How many powers in the Galaxy are there?" inquired Derfsab as he went digging for information.
"Some would argue how great some of the powers are, but in total 63." Answered Carter "Some of them only control two or three worlds while others have whole reigns of space under their control. Only about 18 of them are real powers and of them we have the largest percentage of the Galaxy under our control."
"And how could this conference of great powers be a true conference of great powers without us?" inquired Atvar "We are the Race."
"Part of the requirements for being in the treaty is to have faster than light technology which you don't have." Explained Carter, once again it was a semi lie. There was a second option to have a stargate and know how to use it. That allowed a lot more than 63 powers to take part in the treaty but most of them where tiny worlds which where atomically given control over their own world and left almost at once leaving on 63 real players. Even most of those smaller powers where basically under the protection of whatever main power controlled the area of space around them. They were basically like San Marino or Vatican City on Earth which is a nation surrounded by Italy only an planet size scale. "As such you had no part in the treaty."
"Then the Emperor will hold another conference of Great Powers to settle the new borders." stated Atvar
"No." stated Carter as Atvar was taken aback, no one should say no to the Fleet Lord the only correct answer should be it shall be done. "You don't have the authority to call such a meeting, you are a pre-faster than light society and as such you fall under a special category in the treaty, until you develop long range FTL capabilities then you can't call for a conference."
"You are telling the Fleet Lord, kin male of Emperor, chosen by his hand no? He speaks for the Emperor himself." inquired Derfsab "Who are you to do so?"
"I am President of the Tau'ri Alliance, which makes me equal in standing to your Emperor." Explained Carter as the Race hissed and anger as their tail stumps moved back and forth in anger. "I am the leader of the Tau'ri, your Emperor is the Leader of your people. That makes us equal."
"No one is equal to the Emperor." hissed Atvar as he cast his eyes down for a moment. "He is the one who will judge all our souls in the afterlife, none can rejoice in the world to come who do not know his name. To even subjects such a foolish idea shows how savage and lacking of knowledge you are."
"Well we don't believe in him and in our society, everyone can believe in whatever faith they want." counted Carter
"Billions of souls on 4 worlds believe in the Emperor, what do you say to that?" asked Atvar as what Carter thought was possibly a grin, however it was hard to tell given how little express they showed.
"And countless trillions of souls spread across this galaxy and all the other galaxies with their trillions of souls don't believe in him." countered Carter "None of that matters, you are here and now we have to plan out the path we are going to take."
"Simple, you will surrender to us." Offered Atvar as the Tosevites made a barking sound.
"No." laughed Carter "You should consider yourself luckily, we could see this conquest fleet as an act of war allowing us to go to war with your Empire."
"And the Empire would win." hissed Ttomalass
"Your Empire would fall in less than a day, it would take us longer to actually move ships and troops into position because we have much bigger threats then you." corrected Carter
"Then we will make contact with them and join them in conquering them." threatened Atvar
"A waste of time, they would conquer you not make allies with you." explained Carter, the current situation in the Galaxy was clear, the Tau'ri was the most powerful however they didn't have as many ships as other powers. If a single Free Jaffa Nation or an Lucian Alliance Nation went after the Tau'ri they would lose, if they all went against the Tau'ri it would be a slug fest with the Tau'ri likely losing a long and bloody fight. "You should consider yourself luckily, if you had come into contact with another power you would have been blown out of the sky before your Empire fell."
"We are the Race our Empire will never fall." countered Atvar
"I bet the Romans said the same thing before they fell, the Ancients may have believed the same thing before the Wraith, a lot of other Empires and civilizations have felt the same as you but they have all fallen." Countered Carter "Now we need to move forward with the situation at hand, you control 4 worlds."
"How do you know that?" hissed Derfsab as the intelligence officer went digging for information.
"We have been gathering intelligence on you just like you have been on us." explained Sam before pulling out a computer pad. "For example, we know you have been taking long range photos of our ships all well and good and you are trying to fit that into a tactically outlook, we expected nothing less. We on the other hand have gained access to your computer network and learned much. This is how we are able to communicate back and forth we have a copy of your language for our translation programs."
"You spy on us." Hissed Derfsab in anger
"You came to invade us." countered Carter "That could be seen as an act of war."
"Language isn't the only thing we learned, we learned that you recently conquered a world called Vantic 5 in your records but you strangely do no have a race name for the people of that world or the Rabotevs or Hallessi." explained Daniel as he tried to change the subject. "You named them after what your race called their stars, like you want to call us Tosevites after what you named our sun. Strangely you didn't record the names that those species called themselves, you only call them by your name."
"Because that is all that matters, you are Tosevite not this Tau'ri name." countered Atvar
"Actually, our species name is human and our organized government is called the Tau'ri alliance but that is a minor issue." corrected Sam "If I am to be understood your Empire gave you orders to carry out this invasion and you have to follow it?"
"No, I have the right to call off the Conquest." admitted Atvar
"Good, I highly recommend you do so." advised Carter
"I will…delay the conquest until I am able to discuss the situation with my ship lords." said Atvar as if he was given the Tau'ri a great gift.
"Very well." said Carter "If you want you can contact them with our communication system or you can return to your ship and we can meet again at a time of your choosing."
"I will return to my fleet and we will meet again." hissed Atvar as the Race turned and headed out of the building. When they were gone Sam turned toward the men and woman around her.
"That could have gone better." stated Daniel
"Madam President." Said a military aid as he saluted Carter who returned the salute before taking the computer pad he was offering.
"Admiral Hackett is requesting permission to make official contact with the Race's home world before their colonization fleet moves out." reported Carter "He is also reports that this world Vantic 5 is in the middle of either a massive series of riots or full revolt. He is sending in recon teams to confirm the situation on the ground."
"Why should we worry about this Vantic 5, it is just some backwater world, not even a human world." said one of the Senators who had monitored the situation, before Carter could jump on him another Senator beat her to the punch.
"Because if these people aren't being represented in their government and are crying out for freedom then that is something we can't let that go." countered another Senator "And what does being human matter? They are a cultured intelligence species, that is all that matters."
"Agreed, but first let's let the recon team do its work." Said Sam before turning toward the military aid. "Inform Admiral Hackett I will need a little while to study his plan but I am likely going to approve it so he can move his ships to their jumping off points. I will call him in 90 minutes."
"Yes, Madame President." stated the aid as he snapped to attention.
"We can't force the Ship Lord to accept the truth, however if their Emperor orders them to stand down they will." explained Carter as she turned to Daniel who confirmed her statement with a nod of his head. "There for we will go to this Emperor."
Dr. Rush sat in front of his computer in his apartment in the heart of Celin, the Capital City of Valhalla has been claimed by the darkness of night and a state of semi stillness had fallen. A city of this size never really slept but the streets had less cars on it and the trains running had less people on it. Most people were at home sleeping and in a couple of hours they would be waking up and getting ready for their day. Rush however was waiting for the right hour on Earth to make his phone call so he had to stay up. Not that he really minded, it allowed him time to look over the designs for both the Prometheus II and the Destiny II. Both ships while following the same basic outline had different designs to carry out their roles in the grand plan. The Destiny II which hadn't yet be constructed was the smaller of the ships even if it was four time the size of a Battleship.
It was designed to be built in sections which would be able to travel the massive distances between the super gate near the original Destiny and the new super gate they were going to make in another distance but much closer galaxy. The Second Destiny was going to be the most advanced ship the Tau'ri ever made, with every type of sensors and information gathering tools they had. It would be armed with five ancient beam cannons plus Asgard beam weapons and rail gun and drones. It would finish the mission of the 1st Destiny and solve the greatest mystery in the galaxy.
The Prometheus II was already being built and while much larger than any ship the Tau'ri have ever made being 7 size the size of a battleship and have just as many sensors and the information gathering tools it would in fact be less armed. What it had was something very special, instead of being as heavily armed it would in fact have less weapons but it would be able to bring a fleet with it. The Prometheus II had the single largest cargo bay every made, it would fit four battleships or carriers plus additional warships inside the larger ship. It would also carry all the pre made parts for the super gate inside and have docking bays which would allow two more battleships plus 12 Akula class stealth ships to dock on the outside and merge with the profile of the ship. In the end, the Prometheus wouldn't be as armed but it would be in fact carrying nothing short then a small fleet of warships along with it as protection.
Finally, it was time as Rush picked up the phone and made the call, the call was broadcasted up to a satellite which using subspace communication and a bunch of satellites allowed a phone to begin to ring on Earth in the Apple RND center on the new capital city. It was there that Apple and a bunch of other major companies had placed research centers to study ancient and Asgard technology to be used in the civilian market.
"Welcome to Apple RND information desk how can I help you?" said a woman as she appeared on the screen in front of Rush.
"Yes, can I talk to Mr. Eli Wallace." Said Rush as the woman tapped a few controls on her own computer pad. Rush knew that while officially Eli hadn't gone back to school, his skills in ancient technology had made him an instant want by every tech company on Earth. Apple won and he was making an annual salary that professional sports players make.
"And who may I say is calling?" inquired the woman
"Doctor Rush." answered Rush as the woman turned to another screen and talked, the video phone didn't pick up her voice but that was by design. When she turned back she still had a smile on her face but her eyes where warning.
"I am afraid Dr. Rush that Mr. Wallace doesn't want to speak to you, he is currently busy on multiple products." said the woman.
"Can you tell him I need to speak to him, I want his help…" started Rush only to have this glorified aid raise her hand to silence him.
"I am afraid Dr. Rush that Mr. Wallace doesn't want to speak to you and he has told me to inform you not to call again or he will get our lawyers involved and they will draft an order making to stop contacting him under penalty of law." said the woman "Now Good Day Doctor Rush."
With that the line went dead, as Rush cursed Eli under his breath. Eli like so many others from their time on Destiny had lost all the need to explore. The crew had all gone their own way and of those who knew about it none of them had shown any interest in going on this mission. With a sigh Rush turned off the computer and turned off the lights before heading to bed.
On Sagittarian, the arms dealer had returned to his base of operation, a large warehouse cut into the side of the mountain. Since living land was limited on the mountainous Sagittarian it was common for warehouse to be cut into the side of mountains with whole buildings built on top of. The warehouse itself didn't stand out in the line of warehouse, it had a faded logo painted on the door of a major shipping company. In truth, the company didn't own the warehouse but no one passing by would have paid it any mind. The warehouse had multiple colonial military crates full of bolt action rifles and assault rifles, a small mountain of ammo sat in one corner of the warehouse. The truck backed up into the warehouse before closing behind it.
With that done the arms dealer put his money in a safe before making a late dinner, he had just sat down and turned on the TV when he noticed the headline.
"Terror cell terminated by Tau'ri Special forces, there was no survivors." said the reporter as he stood in front of a warehouse, a warehouse he had been only a short time ago. "Multiple military grade weapons have been recovered along with children bound in chains in a separate room."
"I am a luckily fraker, they are all dead so they can't tell the Tau'ri who I am." laughed the arms dealer as he went to bring a spoon full of soup into his mouth.
"But we already know." Said a voice from behind him as he felt a barrel of a gun on the back of his head. The arms dealer's mind was racing as he spotted a second and then a third Tau'ri all dressed for a fight out of the corner of his eyes. "We need to talk."
"I want my lawyer." Said the arms dealer
"Who said you are under arrest and that we are even here?" inquired the Tau'ri behind him with cockiness in his voice. "Now let us talk about where you are getting these weapons and what is this line on high explosives."
"Frak." cursed the arms dealer.
"Sir, I got our weapons he was talking about." said another Tau'ri as he entered the room carrying a container holding the dozen or so pistols plus an Assault rifle all of them made by the Tau'ri. All of them taken from the battlefields of Tauron.
"In working order?" inquired the commander
"Seems to be, they are in locked down mode because of him trying to make them work but give me a few moments and they will be ready to go." said the one holding the container.
"Take them back to the Owl." Ordered the commander before walking around to face the arms dealer. "Now shall we do this the easy way or the hard way?"
"What will you give me if I answer your questions?" inquired the arms dealer
"We will hand you over to your justice system, but if not well we can get you off world without anyone knowing and no one will notice that you are gone." Explained the Commander
"Frak, alright." Said the arms dealer, he wasn't going to mess with the Tau'ri for no gain. "Getting a launching tub is easy, you can get them in a military surplus store."
"I assume they are disabled." Stated the commander
"Yes, however getting them ready is easy, the problem is getting the missile and explosive warhead." Stated the arms dealer "I have a contact at a Viper Production center on Virgon, I was going to get some of their training missiles. Put them with the launchers and pack them with explosives and you have something akin to our anti-tank round or our anti-air missiles. May not be the best weapon, but it is better than a bolt action rifle."
"I see." said the commander as he looked behind him. "He is all yours."
"What?" inquired the arms dealer as he saw two Colonial MPs standing there.
Admiral Steven Hackett commander of the 7th Tau'ri fleet stood in the war room of the Battleship Missouri along with some of the highest-ranking officers onboard. They also had holographic versions of the other Battleship captains under his command and some of the smaller ships captains as well. Hackett looked around at the Holographic images, he knew that almost every one of them where veterans of the Colonial War, he wasn't. He hadn't commanded a single ship in the war with the Colonials, instead he had been in command of all warships in the Pegasus Galaxy, he was second in command under General Shepard. While the other officers had been fighting the Colonials he had been using what little ships where left over from the war effort to hunt down the last of the Wraiths warships. He had cleansed the Pegasus Galaxy of Wraith warships larger then Darts, he had done so good that he got promoted to Commander of the 7th Fleet.
Another hologram appeared across from him, this one was a woman dressed in civilian clothing. As one every one of the officers including the holograms snapped to attention and saluted the hologram.
"Madam President." said Admiral Hackett
"At ease." said Carter as she returned the salute. "Admiral I and high ranking civilian and military leaders have overlooked your plan and you have a green light. We have brought the issue to the Tau'ri congress and they have signed off on it as well."
"When can we begin?" inquired Hackett
"At once." Said President Carter as Hackett nodded his head, as the president's hologram disappeared.
"Gentleman, ladies let's begin." Said Hackett as a tactical display of the Race's home system. It was an up to the minute detail map of the system. It showed not only dots over the planet for ships but holographic tiny outlines of the ships moving in space. The space overall was crowed with large groups of ships gathered over the North and South Pole, those ships where highlighted a shade of orange which marked them as the colonization fleet which was preparing to set off. Along with the ships there where a lot of space stations and satellites those where highlighted different shades as well. A single blue ship was outlined over the nearest world to Home, that marked the Akula class stealth ship the TAV Key West.
"The task before us is both easy and extremely difficult, we are basically making first contact with a culture which believes they are the center of the universe." Explained Hackett "The 1st contact with their military leadership didn't go as well as we can hope, we are now going to go over the head of their fleet Lord and go straight to their Emperor."
Hackett then went forward and gave details of his plans to the other captains and commanders gathered before him. Once everything was done he journey up to bridge and prepared for the mission. The whole of the 7th fleet had been pulled away from their current tasks to multiple launching off points within a minute travel in hyperspace from the Race's home.
On Vantic 5 Fleet Lord Straha watched multiple TVs each of his eyes turrets locking on one of the broadcast before moving to the next one. Each of them showed the same general thing in one form or another. Major riots where breaking out among the natives even in the areas where all the experts had agreed was more a line with the Race, riots where raging. The riots in the more cultured areas where more peaceful which was something but still the Vantics filled the streets and blocked traffic causing massive problems for the race who lived in the area. They protested and tried to march on government buildings. There the Race's police armed with riot shields and batons where more than enough to put down those riots. In the outline areas to the North and South was in full violent riots, the savage natives where not as peaceful. There they were throwing rocks and burning anything, they could get ahold of. There he had sent in the soldiers to put them down with deadly force if needed.
"We have gotten a statement form Fleet Lord Straha of the Conquest Fleet and Fleet Lord Reffet of the Colonization fleet." Said the reporter "They say that they have deployed soldiers to protect the Race's buildings in the hardest hit areas of these terrorist actions. While police will be used on the more peaceful areas. They have also placed a curfew into effect in the areas under military control. If any Vantic is out past curfew they will be arrested. They call on the Vantic to fall in line and be grateful that the Emperor in his wisdom and grace is bringing culture and civilization to this world."
"Some mess you got us into Straha." hissed a voice behind him.
"This needs to be done." answered Straha as he turned toward the Fleet Lord of the Colonization fleet, Reffet. He was the only member of the Race on the planet which was equal in rank to him, both of them where fleet Lords and so they didn't have to call each other superior sir, neither could order the other around, they were equals. "We have been dealing with Terrorist attacks for so long, we need to rip the band aid off instead of tugging it off slowly and painfully."
"We are in pain now." countered Reffet "However while I dislike your unilateral rule on the matter of this stupid food, I understand and approved of it."
"That warms my liver." stated Straha with anything but warmth in his voice. "And how do you feel about the next part of my plan?"
"To take away hatchling?" inquired Reffet as Straha gave the affirmative gesture. "Of that I also approve of in most respects however the planners have just given me an updated outlook of that action, have you seen it?"
"I have not." admitted Straha turning an eye turret to the situation on the monitors. "I have had my eye turrets turned elsewhere."
"They predict more riots larger then these here and even more violent." answered Reffet
"We already knew that." countered Straha "Do you have a point? I admit this will hurt in the short run but we are the Race, we take the long view and this will allow integration of Vantic 5 into the Empire in a shorter amount of time."
"I agree, this will allow us to fully integrate them within a single generation instead of having to wait multiple generations for full integration." said Reffet "You will have my support, I have already given the order for those males and females in hackling rearing to prepare for an influx of work."
"I have done the same thing with my infantry males." confirmed Straha, he had put only the infantry males on alert but the land cruisers, troop carriers and even killer crafts on alert for possible action. "We have 4 worlds in our empire we will not some riots and this idea that blood ties outside of line of the Emperor matter stop us."
"Should be 5 worlds soon." correct Reffet "Atvar will go down as the 1st conquer to take two worlds in our history when he takes Vantic 5."
"He can have that ice ball of a world." Hissed Straha with hate in his voice, Atvar would go down in the history as the conquer of two worlds while he wouldn't. "It shouldn't really count considering how easy the conquest of the sword swing savages of Tosev 3."
Fleet Lord Atvar stood in the massive audience chamber on the 137th Emperor Hetto, all the Ship lords from each of the Conquest fleet had gathered together. The plan was for them to get together for a meeting once they arrived over Tosev 3 but plans had changed. He would have wanted to have this talk over the radio however they Tau'ri have demonstrated that they can get into the system. So they gathered on board the Banner Ship. The ship lords where all talking among themselves with at least a single eye turret on Atvar who stood at the front of the room along with Kirel who was second in command of the fleet. He hadn't spoken about what he and the others to any of the ship lords or any other members of the Race since he arrived on the ship however it was clear to all the ship lords that the Fleet Lord was not in a good mood.
Finally the last of the Ship lords arrived in the audience chamber, the door closed behind him as all eye turrets turned toward the Fleet Lord.
"Exulted Males, we are in a situation that none of the planners throughout the history of the Race has ever dreamed possible." started Atvar as he moved to the center of the raised platform at the front of the room. "As you all know, we have made contact with another civilization as advanced and possible more advanced then we are. To make matters worse they claim things that go against everything we have ever known about not only science but the way intelligent beings operate. This civilization, the Tau'ri are the sword swinging Tosevites we came to conquer."
That statement went over just as well as Atvar believed it would all of them looked at him as if he was an escape patient from a mental treatment center.
"Going off what we saw from orbit these Tau'ri have not only settled Tosev 3 to such a degree that it would be too crowed to settle on it for us, but they have somehow made the planets of Tosev 4 and while we haven't confirmed it visually Tosev 2 as well into a habitual climate range. Both these worlds are also settled meaning that there are three habitual worlds before us all full of Tosevites." explained Atvar, he saw one of the ship lords waggle his eye in a way that told him he wanted to speak. When he allowed it the ship lord stood up and gave the posture of respect to the Fleet Lord.
"I am sorry exulted fleet lord but did I hear you correctly that these Tau'ri and the Tosevites are the same thing and they have a 3 world empire?" inquired the ship Lord
"For the most part you are correct, however their civilization so they claim spread over 5 worlds and an impossible large area they claim is under their control." reported Atvar as another wave of surprise and the beginning of a wave of anger rose over the ship lords. They were about to become as angry as a bunch of stinging flies after their nest was disturbed.
"But Fleet lord how…how could they have advanced as far as they claim?" inquired the same ship lord.
"We…don't know, they claim that they advance at a rate that is impossible but yet we can see how advanced they are." explained Atvar "They also so no respect to for the Emperor and they claim to be the most advanced and a great power while we are not. They have even gone as far to say our attempt to spread civilization and culture by conquering them could be seen as an act of war, opening them to destroying our Empire."
Just as he expected a wave of anger washed over the ship lords, some got so angry that they jumped out of their seats their tail stumps shaking in anger. There would be more in this briefing that would anger them, however here they would be able to formulate a plan that would lead them to victory over these Tosevites. Unknown to the Fleet Lord or any of the Ship Lords, a small drone had attached itself to the ceiling before using its active camo to blend in with the ceiling. With its powerful cameras and listening system it was capturing everything they said before sending it back to the Tau'ri intelligence teams standing by to study their actions.
Far above the surface of Vantic 5 the rocket engine kicked in when it was supposed to as Shuttle Craft pilot Nesseref double checked her instruments. The Race designed everything to work perfectly every time and accidents where very rare but she still checked. As she expected her flight path was right on course as she flew toward the extreme North of Vantic 5. She knew she was going into the hotbed of terrorist activities but she was going to a Race mining center located within miles of a Race military base. As she did a visual scan of the area around her through her cockpit window she thought she saw a second ship reentry the atmosphere right beside her. She checked her radar but nothing was there but her eyes showed the light that came off a ship entering the atmosphere right where her radar said there wasn't one. She was about to hit the radio to report that she may have a rare malfunction when the heat market disappeared and nothing was there.
"Must be a meteor." stated Nesseref as she made a mental note to report it when she arrived at the mining center port. As Nesseref's shuttle headed in for a landing the Tau'ri Owl which she had seen entering the atmosphere while under cloak de cloaked over a small clearing in a patch of woods. The clearing was too small for the Owl to land so two ropes dropped down from the back ramp of the Owl. Within moments a six person of special forces slide down the ropes and landed on Vantic soil.
Above the northern pole of Home, the atomic power plants which power one of the Race's colonization fleet came up to full power. It was one of the smaller ships in the Colonization fleet and one of only a dozen which was armed, normally none of the ships would be armed however since the Conquest fleet had journeyed first to Vantic 5 and then to Tosev 3 there had been no direct flights between Home and Tosev 3 like it had been on the last conquest. This meant there was a possibly of an asteroid or other problem that would need to be dealt with by the armed ships. They would go ahead of the rest of the Colonization fleet as scouts.
"The flow is good Superior sir." Said the ships pilot to the ship lord of the ship "The flight corridor is before us, requesting permission to head out."
"Make is so." Ordered the ship Lord as they headed away from Home, the birthplace of the race. The ship pulled away from the pole and headed down a path that would lead them out of the system and toward their new home on Tosev 3. All the ships of the race had reinforced glass windows which looked out into space and on the bridge they had a holographic video display which showed both their home and the space before them. Each one of the crew which wasn't already in cold sleep was at either one of the windows or at one of the displays watching home disappeared. Everything was going as planned as the ship headed out past the line of space stations and satellites, then everything changed. Suddenly space ripped open as a vortex of energy erupted almost right in front of them.
Alarms began hissing as the crew tried to come to grips with what was happening. They had never experienced anything like this or hand even imagined anything like it. Then coming out of the vortex before their every eyes came a ship, it was as large as they were and shaped like a sword with the area from the hilt down filled in.
"By the Emperor." hissed the Ship Lord as the dark shape passed to the right side of his ship going at speeds that should have been impossible. Then a beam of energy shot out and seamed to latch onto his ship, then like a professional long ball player his ship was thrown back toward Home. From the outside, it would have appeared as if the ship had been flipped over multiple times but thanks to not having any gravity on the ship the crew was fine. Their motors fired as the ship stabilized, however the unknown ship had come to a stop and floated in space directly in the path that would take them to Tosev 3.
"By the Emperor did you see that?" yelled a member of the race over the radio
"I am not sure what I saw." yelled another pilot as the radio came alive with alarmed calls. The news broadcast which had been covering the departure of the 1st ship now had something much more alarming to cover. Within minutes the news began to cover every channel as the normally scheduled broadcast was interrupted.
On board the Missouri, Admiral Hackett watched the situation develop as he had expected them to do. The Race was thrown into nothing short of a stunned panic, they had no idea what was happening or what was before them.
"Sir, we are beginning to get multiple radio calls coming in." reported the communication officers "Most of them are asking who we are and the like."
Admiral Hackett turned his eyes away from the window which allowed him to look out from the bridge into space itself. From this spot, he could see the red sand colored world of Home, it wasn't a place he a native of Canada would have wanted to go. He checked the countdown clock before nodding to the communication officer. With a push of a button on his holographic control the speaker near Admiral Hackett's collar became live and was broadcasted out to all of Home.
"Attention, this is Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri 7th fleet on board the Battleship Missouri, your conquest of Tosev 3 has been stopped." reported Admiral Hackett the computer automatically translating him into the hissing and pops of the race. "Your conquest fleet was intercepted and stopped outside of Tosev system by the 1st Tau'ri fleet and will not be allowed to advance any more under threat of war between the Empire of the Race and the Tau'ri Alliance. We have come to your world to open channels of communication to prevent this from happening, however we cannot allow you to launch any ship of your colonization fleet toward our world."
Hackett paused for a moment to let that sink in before going on and to send a message to the rest of the fleet.
"Therefor in accordance with the signed orders of November 17th 2026, Earth year, by the power of the Tau'ri alliance Congress and signed by the President of the Tau'ri Alliance, no ships with a flight path which could possible bring them to Earth or as you know it Tosev 3 will be stopped and turned around." said Hackett as multiple hyperspace vortexes opened up as multiple warships came shooting out as the 7th Fleet arrived in the system. The teeth of the Tau'ri military force in the Milkway galaxy had all arrived over home, 24 Tau'ri battleships, 18 carriers plus, plus escorts made up of cruisers and destroyers all appeared around Home. The Tau'ri fleet formed a bowel shaped formation around the path that the colonization fleet would take to get to Earth. "We are placing this world under blockade."
Well I hope you liked this chapter, sorry for the delay but the day after I posted the last chapter my boss put every department (even those like mine who are not behind or have anything to do with production) in the company on mandated 10 hours days plus 6 hours Saturdays for 56 hours a week. So my schedule has been eaten up by that. Still I hope you enjoyed this chapter and until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.