Contact of Races

by wilkins75

Sequel to Contact at Kobol (Stargate/Battlestar). The Race has thrived for hundreds of thousands of years and who recently conquered their 5th world are heading toward Tosev 3, Earth believing the conquest to be ease against the sword swing savages. Little do they know that those sword swing savages are now one of if not the most powerful force in the Galaxy, the Tau'ri.

11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 The Wolves

The last rays of light from the star Vantic was disappearing from the sky as the world before the soldiers of the race became bathed in red light as they turned on their night vision systems. Their eyes saw better in the red light compared to Tau'ri who used green in their night vision systems and what they saw was tall trees which hid the stars from view. They knew that a threat was in the woods, intelligence estimated a force of up to 40 crawlers armed with weapons stolen from the Race. So both sides in this fight would be equally equipped or so they believed, that would make the difference was training, the race had more, equipment the race had better and more of those as well and most of all tactics. The Vantic people feared darkness and where far less active at night, add to that they glowed under ultraviolet light meant they couldn't hide among the brush. The 162 members of the Race who entered the woods believed they would win an easy victory and the only problem would be finding the crawlers but that would only take time. They couldn't be more wrong, everything was against them and they would learn that soon.

"I have contact, two scouts for the rest of the squad coming up behind them." Said the scout for the Delta Force attack team. His helmet showed the world around him in a greenish gray, the mix of night vision, heat vision and other ancient/Asgard sensory technology allowed him to see in the dark as well as in day. The Delta Force and the Spetsnaz team had split the area of action up between the two teams with the SAS team staying back with the civilians. Overall the Race had set up a traditional search line, they had line of point men moving in pairs front of the main search body with another large line moving behind them and finally a small rear guard.

It wasn't a half bad design search pattern but the Delta Force and Spetznaz teams had seen this before many times and knew how to break it. The main fault with the design rested in the layout of the enemy positions, the woods was thick and had never been cleared in any way so the trees didn't form any logical pattern. They made line of sight very hard if not impossible, that had allowed the point teams to be taken out without raising the alarm. The Race had spread out their line to cover more ground but there was still large holes in it where you knew where to look and with the drone and life sign detectors that was almost too easy for the Tau'ri special forces. The first goal was to get behind them, that was easy as they slipped between the gaps and got in behind the Race. With the Race, all looking forward it was time for the fun to begin.

"Something isn't right." Said one of the few Race civilians in the group of males, an expert hunter and tracker he was one of a few civilians trained on how to work a firearm. He had been trained on Home to hunt the most dangerous beasts in their habitat, he had come to Vantic 5 to keep the transplanted animals alive and to study the animals here. There weren't that many woods on Home and none was this thick but he knew what it was like. "The woods are too quiet."

"What do you mean?" inquired the nearest solider as he ran his ultraviolet light over a large bush, nothing glowed so he began to move on not noticing the Tau'ri Delta force member who had a gun trained right on him. The Delta force member let them go, he had something else in mind. Quickly he put a claymore down on the path followed quickly by two more, two on one side of the path with the third between the two on the opposite side of the path. Even after so many decades in use the claymore in his hands still had the somewhat funny label saying. "Front toward enemy."

"The woods are not quiet at night, not like most males and females think they are." explained the hunter "We should be hearing the calls of the night creatures waking up before taking flight, we should be hearing larger animals on the move but do you hear anything."

"No. The animals know true danger is in the woods that is all, they are afraid of us." admitted the solider as he kept moving forward. Unknown to him he was correct but he wasn't the true danger, they would never know what was really facing them, as the solider passed by one of the trees a blackened tomahawk wielded by one of the Delta Force came flying around the tree in a deadly arch toward him. He didn't even have time for his eyes to widened before the tomahawk struck him. The Delta force member had perfect aim on his swing, the blade struck the lizard at the neck and thanks to the force generated by the power armor the blade went clean through, it wasn't a total decapitation but it was close with only flaps of skin holding the head on and keeping the blade from going totally through.

"By the Empir…" exclaimed the hunter, unlike the solider he saw his killer, he didn't understand it but he saw it as a pistol came up and fired a double tap into the alien's head covering the tree with its brain matter.

"Point team down." reported the Delta force member calmly as if he was talking about the weather, as he pulled his tomahawk out of the lizards neck and looked at their weapons. The design wasn't half bad, but he would have trouble using the weapon because it was so small for him to use with easy.

"They appear to be using black lights." He reported back as he looked at the flashlight on the

"I got intercepts from the drone that might explain that." stated a voice over the radio. "sounds like Vantic glow in black light."

"Like scorpions." added member of the team as the Delta force team began to pick out their first targets.

"Delta check in are we ready?" inquired the Delta commander as one by one everyone under his command checked in. "Delta is ready, Spetsnaz are you?"

"Yes, lets the game begin." Said the Spetsnaz commander.

Located in the rear most part of the center line the Race's commander walked with his hands behind his back as if he was a midday stroll. He carried a pistol on his belt but it wasn't out and he was more focused on what he would have for the morning meal, maybe he would treat his males to meals as well depending on how many terrorists they captured or killed. He wanted to reward his males for a hard night work in the woods but he wouldn't want to see his account after it. He was just wondering if he could charge the bill to the base instead of his own account. When a sound he had never heard filled the air. It was unlike anything he had ever heard, it was a long cry of some kind but it didn't sound mournful it sounded like a call out to someone else.

"By the Emperor what is that?" inquired the Commander, he like every member of the Race had never heard the howl of a dog.

In the woods, the attack dog lifted his head back and howled like he had been commanded to do by his handler who knelt beside him with his rifle in hand. The nearby squad of ten members of the race had turned to face the source of the sound, with their eyes locked on the source they never noticed the three other Tau'ri opening on them with silenced weapons. The quiet pop, pop, pop sound of the bullets flying out and somewhat loader sound of the spent shell casings flying out of the gun was masked by the sound of another howl from the attack dog.

The Spetsnazs moved in on another 10-member squad only instead of using their guns they used their blades. With the howling sound drawing everyone's attention the members of the Race in the front most part of the Squad didn't notice when those behind them began to have their throats slit before being lowered to the ground to keep them from making a sound. With deadly skill the Spetsnazs killed eight of them without a sound, then on the second to last one he infantry male dropped his rifle causing the last living solider in the squad turn an eye turret around to see the rest of the squad. His eyes widened as he saw the bodies of his entire squad, the males he had trained with since before they left home, the males who he had slept beside in cold sleep on the way to Vantic 5 and the males he had fought and killed beside with now all lied on the ground dead and a group of figures with blades in hand was behind him. He began to spin around bringing is gun to bare when with a flash the creature nearest to him brought a knife across his throat. In reflex, he pulled the trigger as his rifle fired a dozen rounds into the ground to no harm at all to the Tau'ri.

The sound of gunfire only caused harm to his side as it caused three different nearby pairs of scouts to stop dead in their tracks and scan the area for threats. This was what the Race did biological when threatened they would use their independent moving eyes to scan the area of threats. Their stillness only made them as easy targets as range markers for the Tau'ri in the woods which had been stalking them in the dark with a few quick bursts of fire their lives ended.

"Report in!" hissed the commander as he waited for the different squads and the recon pairs to check in. When all was done two whole ten male squads where gone along with four recon pairs, he had no contact with 28 of his soldiers. Twenty-eight of the most highly trained and battle-hardened infantry males on Vantic 5 had disappeared with the only sound being that strange sound followed by a single burst of fire.

"Our point squad is one of those not reporting in." said a small unit commander "Requesting permission to move to last know location."

"Permission given." Said the commander

In the woods a single Tau'ri watched the group of ten lizards he had been stalking alone, if the Tau'ri had one problem was that their combat line was thin. They were following the path he wanted them too as he looked at his heads up display inside his helmet. The Tau'ri battle armor was one of the most advanced piece of equipment that was the hands of every single Tau'ri solider. It was the child of three parents, first the land warrior system developed in the United States in the mid 2000's, the second parent was ancient/Asgard technology and the last parent was Kull Warrior armor.

The Kull Warrior had been the most feared warrior in Goa'uld Empire and they had been next to impossible to stop by the Tau'ri or anyone else when they first encountered them. They had shields, enhanced strength and armor under their shields which surpassing almost anything a person could have on their person. There had been talk by some Tau'ri of just making a clone of the Kull warrior armor for their front line equipment however issues arose. First it was discovered that the power source for the shields and wrist mounted weapon released radiation which would be deadly in the long run for the person wearing the armor, a short amount of time was not that harmful but after a couple days in the armor it would have harmful effects. It was also found that Kull warrior armor wasn't capable with the new generations of power armor that would give the strength that the Kull Warrior had through DNA manipulation. In the end a new design was needed and while it lacked the shield, which was still proving a problem to have with projectile weapons for the Tau'ri. It did have the same type of armor plating that the warrior had, add onto that Ancient computer technology and Asgard power armor technology. Mix everything and add a few extra bits and you got the Tau'ri power armor and it had proven itself for almost a decade now, through the final days of the Wraith War and the entire Colonial War and with upgrades coming every couple of years it wasn't going away anytime soon.

The helmet had a heads-up display which gave the wearer a night vision overlaid with head vision which gave them almost as good of vision in the darkest night as they would in the brightest day. It also had computer controlled adjuster so that sudden bursts of light would not affect them. Another interesting trick was the camera attached to the gun which allowed them to shoot around corners without exposing their bodies. The Delta Force member looked down at his wrist mounted computer which showed the life sign detector and dot marking the location of his three claymore mines. He waited until the center mass of the group was in front of the claymore before depressing a hand control. That control was linked to a wire which ran all the way to the three claymores, he depressed the hand control and the woods came alive with sound and light as all three claymores went off.

The squad of Race soldiers had no idea what hit them and most would never feel a thing as they were sent into the next world. The Claymore exploded sending thousands of shards and ball barring sized projectors into their bodies. The bulk of the squad was whipped out in an instant but a single member of the race survived the blast at first, he was covered with wounds and he could feel his body weakening with each passing moment. It strangely didn't hurt, it was just a numb feeling over his entire body.

"Report!" yelled the voice of his commander from his radio as he turned over to look up at the sky one last time. Flipping on his radio at he did, he was expecting to radio in what had happened and that he was going to die as well when he saw it. It was tall, as tall as a crawler but it stood outlined against the sky coming through the gap in the trees. It was dressed in strange wrappings and held a gun in his strange hands.

"What are you?" inquired the male to the figure looming over him, he had forgotten about his radio but he had spoken load enough for the radio to pick him up and broadcast his worlds across the entire command's radios. The figure clearly noticed the radio as it looked at it before turning back to look in his eyes.

"We are vengeance, we are hunters." It answered back in a strange voice which was also transmitted over the radio, causing every single member of the race to stop what they are doing and wonder what in the name of the emperor was going on. "You are the prey and we are the hunters, so run, run for your life because death is coming for you because this woods if full of wolves."

Then a single gunshot was heard and the line went dead. The last words meant nothing to the Race, but it did cause fear to build up among the soldiers. They had never had to deal with anything like this in the war, however protocol was to not fall back but to keep advancing so after checking to see who was all still checking in, he came up 46 names short he ordered his males deeper into the woods. At the same time he radioed the nearby base and within moments four helicopters took to the air and headed toward his location each one carrying a dozen males.

"Delta, Spetsnazs we have four helicopters heading toward your location." Said Tau'ri command as they monitored the entire situation from the Odyssey.

"Understood we will take them." said the Spetsnaz team leader as two of his team headed toward the edge of the woods, away from the race but with a clear view over the fields. They quickly prepared their little surprise.

"Alright time for us to light them up." said the Spetsnaz leader "Switch to flash rounds."

"Confirmed." said the members of the Spetsnaz team as they ejected their magazine from their rifles and pick out a different magazine and placed it into their weapons. It wasn't the magazine which was different it was the rounds inside the magazine. The bullet inside the magazine was not the normal round but instead it was taken somewhat from the colonials. The Colonials had developed high explosive rounds capable of being fired from a standard bolt action rifle, the round was meant to take down Cylon centurions on the battlefield. The Tau'ri had studied the design and improved upon it, for their own uses. The size of high explosive charge which meant it had to be fired a 50-caliber round, the Tau'ri had taken some of the explosive charge out and magazine the other compounds until it fit inside of a standard Tau'ri rifle round. While this meant one for one the Colonial bullet packed a larger punch the Tau'ri could keep up a rate of fire which the Colonials could never dream of which countered the smaller punch. The Tau'ri had gone a step beyond and began to experiment with mixing different chemicals into the bullets, one of those special mixes was called flash rounds. The round basically began a mini flashbang that exploded with blinding flashes of light whenever they hit something. The rounds where very useful for the Tau'ri because the visors on their helmets had the ability to counteract the flashes allowing them to see while their enemies where blinded.

Far outside of the battle, on the highway overlooking the farm where the fight all began news crews had set up camera trucks and reporters to broadcast the news of the military operation to those males and females interested across Vantic 5. Their cameras turned and followed the four helicopters which flew over their heads toward the woods.

"As you can see four more helicopters have arrived on the scene." said the reporter "We have no official word about what is happening but the helicopters are likely here to transport the terrorists to a secure location for questioning."

On the edge of the woods a pair of Spetsnazs set up, they were both on one knee just under cover but before them was nothing but clear farmland and sky for the missiles to fly in. One of them raised a tube about half the length of his body up onto his shoulder while the other prepared four missiles which he had brought with him in a pack on his back. He placed all four on the ground and gripped his rifle as he scanned the area both with his life sign detector and with his eyes.

"Ready." Said the shooter

"Clear." Said the loader as the shooter locked onto the first helicopter and pulled the duel trigger on the controls. With that a roar of fire a missile came shooting out of the back of the portable anti-air missile launcher, within moments of leaving plastic coverings fell away as small wings extended giving it better flight controls. Before the smoke cleared the loader had opened a hatch on the side of the launcher and put in another missile in. While he was doing this the shooter locked onto the second helicopter and once the entire process was finished, which took about 15 seconds he sent his second missile down range.

The Race's helicopter pilots of the race had never had a threat larger then weather or ground fire in the form of large and inaccuracy fire from simple Vantic guns. They looked at the missile alarm in confusion at first and did nothing at first. That allowed the 1st missile to strike with ease turning the flying death machine into a hunk of burning metal which fell on the large group of supporting males on the edge of the tree line killing people on the ground and in the air. The rest of the choppers alerted by the explosion of the first chopper tried to evade but the missiles were already in the air and it was a race between them and death itself and death had a head start. Less than a minute of the first helicopter loaded with males went down all four where down with all hands lost.

At the same moment the spetsnazs opened with fire running up their total kills as the race was blinded by light from any rounds which didn't strike home. Unlike the Tau'ri who's helmet adapted to the change of light with ease. The race who had night vision equipment was blinded by the sudden flash of light and when they did take off the vision gear darkness with flashes of light too fast for their eyes to adapt to made them helpless.

"We have no idea what is happening in the woods but something is going on." said the reporter as the camera turned away from the burning wrecks of the destroyed helicopters to the flashes of light in the woods.

"By the emperor my eyes!" cried more than a few males as they were blinded by the light. Some began to fire randomly into the woods but they hit nothing but trees, rocks and empty air. The situation for one group got even worse as the Delta force attack dog was unleashed and it ran into one of the squads and jumped onto one of the males and began to sink its teeth into the arms of the males dragging him away. His screams where silenced when a round form his handler ended the race soldier's life.

"All forces report!" yelled the commander near the rear but all he got back was screaming. Then someone yelled run away and it caught on like a fire on dry brush. The soldiers of the race, some of the best where running for their lives through the trees heading away from death. They ran past their commander as fast as they could.

"Stop I command you!" yelled the commander as he grabbed one of his males by the arm as he ran past him. Fear danced in the male's eyes and it was clear he was still trying to escape his commander's grasp. "You are bringing shame upon the Emperor, the spirits of Emperors past will turn their eye turrets away from you if you…"

His words where cut short as the male's body was racked with rounds and he dropped the ground his blood covering the dirt. For a moment the commander prepared himself to meet the spirits of emperor's past but no bullets came to great him, in fact all the gunfire had stopped and the woods was quiet and dark again. Suddenly light from the moon came through a gap in the clouds and through a second gap in the trees and he saw it. Standing there with a strange rifle in his hands was a tale less monster, he couldn't see it's face but it was clearly not a member of the race or any of the other subject races. If he didn't know better he thought it was a Tosevite but that was impossible, then as the clouds moved back in and the darkness fell over the woods again. That strange sound which started the whole thing was heard again and it was the commander who turned and ran leaving behind almost a 120 dead males behind plus 48 more males in the helicopters because each one carried ten males plus two pilots and untold numbers who died when the helicopters crashed into them on the ground. The Race had just taken its worse defeat on Vantic 5 and they had no idea what they were up against. In the end a group of 20 Tau'ri special forces had just killed an estimated 175 to 200 members of the Race military including 120 of the most well-trained soldiers on the planet in the span of around 10 minutes taking no losses at all. With their job done and the evacuation all but done, the Tau'ri fell back to the waiting Owls.

She had heard the first explosion when she and boarded the strange craft along with her mother holding her baby sister and unlike her younger sister or the neighbor kid with her, Finia looked around in amazement at everything around her. She wasn't afraid as she felt this transport, an Owl the Tau'ri called it buck a bit as it flew. In total there was four Tau'ri in the craft with them, two of them sat at the controls up front with another one sitting in a chair facing her and her people. This one had a weapon clearly visible in his hands but while he seemed tensed he didn't seem aggressive. The last one sat by the ramp also with a weapon nearby but a much larger machine gun stowed away on a swinging arm.

"This is amazing." Said Finia to her mother who was still crying be it in fear or the lost of her husband and love of her life her daughter couldn't tell.

"Remember we didn't burry father, his ghost will haunt the land forever because of that." said her brother in a sad toon as Finia lowered her head in shame. It was their duty to honor their ancestors and now father was with them in the world beyond enjoying the warmth of the next world. For a moment she felt the same gloom then the Owl bounced again and she turned her attention to the front. She could just see out the windows at the front of the craft and what she saw was the last bit of white clouds fall away and the stars appear brighter than she ever seen before. Her two hearts ran cold for a moment as she saw a ship of the Race in the distance but the Owl flew past it. For a while there was nothing before them but blackness with distance stars. The Tau'ri pilots where speaking in their tongue but she couldn't understand it. Suddenly everything changed, one second there was nothing but darkness and then the next second they were flying into an opening in a building.

"Odyssey control this is Owl 47 we are inside the hanger." Said the pilot as he decloaked the Owl before heading toward to his landing zone. The Owl touched down and the back ramp dropped and the insect aliens he had been carrying got off. The pilot admitted to himself that the giant bugs did creep him out a bit but one of them he had seen multiple times look out the cockpit window in what he guessed to be amazement. He was half tempted to let him or her, he couldn't tell come up and have a look but the guard behind them might have a heart attack so he pushed the idea out of his mind.

Finia stepped onto the metal floors of this strange ship and her head began spinning around as she tried to take in everything possible. One of the Tau'ri jumped back when she turned her head all the way around to look behind her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." Said Finia in the language of the race.

"You can spin your heads all the way around?" inquired the Tau'ri

"Almost, we can look directly behind ourselves but we can't spin our head all the way around." explained Finia

"So like an Owl." Said the Tau'ri as Finia pointed at the craft which brought them here.

"Isn't that an Owl?" inquired Finia trying the Tau'ri world.

"Yes, but it is named after an animal from our home world which can do something like what you do." explained the Tau'ri

"I would like to see one of these Owls and your home world." said Finia

"Well let's get you a medical check and then some food before we take you to Earth." said another Tau'ri

"Medical check?" inquired her mother

"Don't worry, it is just to make sure any food we give you will not hurt you or your children." said the Tau'ri as the helmet translated his caring words into a flat monotone voice. Even so Finia and the other Vantic could understand the kindness in the voice as they were led away into the heart of the Odyssey.

In the Orbit of Pluto the TAV Yamato and the rest of the 1st fleet still held the Race's conquest fleet in check. They had been in the position for so long that most of the crews had gotten board because just sitting still was never interesting. It was even worse for the officers onboard the Yamato as they monitored the Race's meeting. So far they had learned very little aside from the fact that the race moved as fast as a glacier, they had debated the possible military plans to get to Earth however each of those plans where laughable bad but the Race still went over each of them in extreme detail. The only two pieces of actual useable information was that a large percentage of their combat force was actually made of combat engineers because they hadn't expected a fight from the sword swinging savages. That was interesting but given that those forces where not going to account for much in a space fight it was kind of pointless. The only other thing of note was when they began a six-hour discussion of the warning they sent to Home and what actions their Empire would take to prepare for a full war against the Tau'ri and what they could do to hurt them as much as possible for their Emperor.

"They still don't believe we travel faster than light?" inquired General Leong as she walked into the monitoring room after taking a few to get some sleep and something to eat.

"Correct General." Said the aid as General Leong took a drink of her tea. "They believe that it will take us about 17 years to reach Home and they are going over estimates of what the Race could have ready to defend Home when we arrive."

"Should we tell them that we are already over Home?" inquired another aid

"We already have, they just don't believe us." stated General Leong as she thought about it for a moment. "Maybe a demonstration is in order, we are rescuing some civilians from Vantic we can bring them here to show them what we are capable of."

"General, may I offer up an idea." offered the youngest officer in the room, a Major from Lanagara.

"Speak." Ordered General Leong

"We have a pair of Hadrian class transports coming in from Valhalla in about half an hour, they can come out near to the Race's fleet and that may help convince them as well." Offered the Major as the General eyed him, with those cold calculating eyes which caused even the most battle hardened special forces members to gulp in fear at this tinny Chinese woman, she wasn't nicknamed the Tigress for nothing.

"Not a bad idea, make it happen." ordered General Leong as she took a drink of her tea "Inform the Race as well it should make a show."

"Yes, General." said the Major as he went to carry out his orders.

Even with the shroud of darkness around them the Owl carrying the members of the SAS team which had first contact the Vantic people flew toward another location about a day and a half away on foot but only a couple of minutes in the air. On board was a single scared Vantic who looked around the compartment wishing he hadn't spoken up about knowing where to contact the resistance.

"Are you sure this guy is a safe contact?" inquired the Tau'ri leader

"She is a female, but yes." confirmed the Vantic "I hope I understood your map correctly, I am not familiar with the view from above."

"Well when we land we will make sure your right and then move in, if not we will correct the problem before taking you somewhere safe." said the leader

"Thank you." Said the Tau'ri leader

"Colonel." Said the pilot as Colonel Kumar turned his attention toward the pilots.

"What is it?" inquired Colonel Kumar

"Take a look at this." Said the copilot as he pointed out the window, the Owl had come to a stop hovering a little bit off from the location allowing both Colonel Kumar and the cameras on board to get a good look at the scene before them.

"My God." exclaimed Kumar as he looked at the camp before them, even at a distance and with darkness concealing some of it, he could tell it wasn't a place he would want to visit. It was surrounded with a large 12-foot-tall wall topped with what seemed to be thin metal strips, maybe the Race's version of barb wire. Watch towers stood about every 20 yards and armed guards patrolled the area along the outside of the wall and likely the inside of the wall as well. That wasn't what really stood out, it was all the low-lying buildings on the other side, they looked like warehouses and being moved around at gunpoint where Vantic civilians.

"So I am not the only own getting a holocaust feeling from this place." reported the pilot as the Owl began to circle the area getting it from every view it could.

"What is it?" inquired Kumar

"A reeducation center." Said the Vantic behind them. "That is where they put their own children and now ours and to be raised as true citizens of the Empire, they have them all over the planet but they have never been under military control before."

"Broadcast this back to Earth at once." Ordered Kumar as the Owl circled and began to document everything it could see. They took some time to do this but soon they found themselves outside of a darkened farmhouse with a 4-lane highway about a quarter of a mile away. The Owl touched down on the front yard as the Vantic stepped off the back ramp with four of the 6-member Tau'ri team with him. They moved to the front door with two of them moving to either side of the door while the other two moved to the corners of the house.

It took a couple of moments after their local guild knocked on the door for a candle to begin burning inside the house and after a short while another Vantic appeared in the doorway. She wore different clothing then the one they had as a guide but to the Tau'ri it was impossible to tell which one was the female and which was the male.

"Vaince?" said the female holding the candle "What are you doing here?"

"Janiea, we need to contact the Prince and the resistance." Said Vaince

"We?" inquired Janiea as she held the candle stand in her one hand and the other on the door handle ready to slam it shut and run.

"Sorry for waking you, but we mean you no harm." greeted Colonel Krum as Janiea's head snapped toward the source and saw the strange figure holding a weapon. "We are Tau'ri and we have come to help, but to do that we need to make contact with the resistance leadership on this planet."

"Janiea, these Tau'ri have already fought for us." Said Vaince as he raised both hands into the air and tilted his head down. "I swear by the spirits of the ancestors that they are our friends."

They waited for a moment then Janiea stepped back.

"Come on it." Said Janiea.

On Earth President Carter was facing a choice of her own, she sat behind the desk in the office she wouldn't officially take over for another two weeks but was unofficially hers already. She had in her hands reports about the mineral deposits on Vantic 5 of the key element to make ZPMs, Zephyr and if anything, the depot was growing in size and there was some evidence that there could be many more depots of the rarest element in two known galaxies on this planet. Some experts even went as far to predict based on the limited evidence they currently had that the element was as common as Oil is on Earth but that was still to be confirmed. If that turned out to be the case then they may have an almost unlimited access to key element to make ZPMs. The issue was that it was on an alien occupied world.

"I could easily sell sending in the military to liberate Vantic 5 and maybe even the other worlds of this empire, Halless One and Rabotev 2." Said Carter to Daniel and Jonas as she looked at the reports from the two Akula class steath ships over those worlds of the Empire. While those worlds lacked anything that couldn't be found anywhere else in the galaxy, the state of those worlds was of note. The native population of each of the world was only a small faction of the total population of the world. On each of the worlds the Halless and Rabotevs made up only about a third of the entire population of their own world, the rest had been taken over by the Race.

"The Race expected to do the same here, we would have been a minority on our own world." Said Daniel as he sat across from her along with Jonas Quinn, the issue would be that unlike Vantic 5 those worlds had been so integrated into the Empire that it would be almost impossible to break them away. The Race and its culture had totally destroyed the native culture of those worlds until nothing was left, there had been no evidence of the Race taking any of their subject's culture in any form. Instead they replaced and destroyed the culture, it was so bad that there was no evidence of what the Hallessi and Rabotevs had even called themselves before they were conquered. There was still time on to prevent that on Vantic 5 but the other worlds are too far gone.

"And if that had happened then the entire history of the galaxy would have changed forever." Said Jonas "However we may not have a whole lot of time, they are rounding up kids to be reeducated."

"I have seen the video of them shooting the Vantic civilian, that farmer. It sure will look bad if we release it." Added Daniel "Add onto that the video our Owl are picked up of their reeducation centers. Large walls, low buildings that look more like a cross between a Stalin Gulag and a Holocaust camp will not be seen well by the people. Even if the Race aren't killing the children, it looks like a camp and that is what the people will process it as."

"The issue will be making them relate to the people of Vantic 5, like it or not they look like bugs and that doesn't make people feel as much toward them as if they were humans." Said Jonas admitting something they all knew. "You said one of our teams is going to make contact with a resistance leader correct?"

"Possibly." Confirmed Carter to her Vice President.

"Maybe having him speak before the Tau'ri congress will get more people behind anything you decide." offered Jonas

"Not a bad idea, but I would still keep working on finding a peaceful way to make the Race leave." added Daniel "If the rest of the Galaxy found out about this being the key for us making ZMPs some of the other powers could possible consider a 1st strike. If we solve this peacefully this world will not even get on their radar until it is all too late."

"Agreed." said Carter as she picked up her phone and made a call.

"General Leong." Said General Leong as she appeared before Carter, before snapping to attention. "Madam President."

"General, I want you to send an order to the Odyssey if they make contact with a Resistance leader to bring them to Earth if possible so that they can address the congress with the hopes of getting support." Order Carter as she checked her watch. "In about an hour I am going to release the images from the power armor and our drones about the Race on Vantic 5, but not about the element."

"I understand Madam President, in about half an hour a pair of Hadrian transports are coming in from Valhalla. I am going to have them exit hyperspace near the Conquest fleet as a demonstration." Reported General Leong

"Very good." Said Carter as she took a breath. "Also General I want you and the rest of the senior staff to begin drafting plans for possible military actions on Vantic 5, ranging from small special forces arming resistance fighters to a full invasion."

"Yes, Madam President give me 48 hours for rough outlines with firmer estimates in 72 hours." Said General Leong.

"Very good and make sure that in each of those plans we liberate those camps." Said Carter as she saluted the general and waited for her to return it before cutting the connection. "Now let's see how things turn out on Home before we have to teach this Empire a harsh lesson."

Three Owl left the Missouri as scheduled and headed down toward Home, it didn't leave alone four Eagle fighters left as well formed up around the flight as an escort. They didn't expect anything to happen but they weren't going to take any risks.

"Attention, Tau'ri shuttle crafts your coarse is highly dangerous." Hissed a voice over the radio "You will burn up, recommend you take action at once!"

The pilots of the Owls and Eagles laughed to themselves as they dove into the atmosphere, the edges of their wings glowing a bit from the heat of atmosphere entry but that was normal. The Tau'ri flight entered the atmosphere with ease as the Eagles formed up in a box formation around the three Owls in the center as they headed toward the Race's capital city of Preffilo.

The radar technician at the space port of Preffilo held her breath for a moment as she watched in almost disbelief at the speed of the seven crafts which were heading their way. The sky was perfectly clear which gave everyone in the streets and the multiple news crew a perfect view of the dark shapes heading toward their capital, the Tau'ri had painted their crafts black instead of a silver white the Race used. Cameras zoomed in on the dark outlines of the ships, three of them appeared to be strange shuttle crafts while four of them looked like killer crafts.

"They have killer crafts capable of both atmosphere and space flight." Said on reporter

"That should be impossible." said the expert they had on the panel. "But I admit there doesn't seam to be another answer."

The black aircraft flew right over the massive Imperial palace, the first time since before the unification of Home 100,000 home years ago or 50,000 Earth years ago ships, none Imperial Aircraft flew over the palace. Back then anti-air missile barriers and radar controlled guns defended the palace from threats from above, those where long gone replaced by gardens and public spaces. The news crews couldn't see that two of the three Owls had their back ramps down and a single marine on the heavy 50 caliber machine gun located on a swimming arm. The Marine gunners kept an eye on the palace but they kept their fingers far away from the trigger. They could look down and see the streets full of lizard people looking up at them, the cars and trucks looked like they had all come off the same assembly line and appeared to come in only two dozen colors. The buildings where all the cube or box shaped aside from the palace which looked somewhat Japanese's in style with some Russian thrown into the strange mix.

The cameras where looking at them too and the Race got their first images of the Tau'ri however the Tau'ri marines wore desert cam BDUs with power armor over it. Including a full faced helmet and with a tinted visor they couldn't make out much about the Tau'ri.

"Landing in 30 seconds." reported the pilots of two of the Owls as the third pulled back with two Eagles in support. The spaceport was rather plain as well, a mostly glass and steel building was maybe two hundred yards away from their assigned landing point. The entire field was a long flat concrete pad with markings for landing spots, kind of like helicopter pads. They could see a line of Police about half way from their landing point and the terminal building and the Race's shuttle craft rested in the far part of the landing area as well as hangers for repair and protection from weather.

"Ten seconds!" yelled the pilot as the marines locked and loaded as the gunner moved out of the way. The Owls never touched down, they did this in case of the area being mined. Instead the marines rushed out of the back of the Owl with weapons raised and ready, the marines jumped the 18 inches between the bottom of the ramp and the ground with ease and spread out. Some slamming themselves onto the concrete tarmac with weapons pointing outwards while others took a kneeling position.

"By the Emperor they are armed!" yelled reporters as they looked at the nearly twenty strange Tau'ri rush off the two spacecrafts and run into different positions. Some slammed themselves onto the ground with light machine guns raised while others went down on one knee with their rifles ready. About a 100 yards away, the Race's defense was around 60 police officers armed with batons and none of them visible armed. A single Tau'ri was moving back and forth in a semi hunched position scanning the area, so the cameras zoomed in on that male.

"Calm down it appears that these are here to protect whoever is on the third shuttle craft." Said the expert "Like the police and guard escort which follows the Emperor whenever he leaves the palace."

"I see." Said the reporter somewhat calmer but fear in his voice, it was almost unheard of for police on home to even carry a firearm. Only highly trained tactical teams carried weapons on a day to day bases.

"If I didn't know any better I would say that is a Tosevite." said the expert over the tv "At least the same body layout, no tail stump, no visible claws or snout, that is an impossibly."

"Then what are these Tau'ri?" inquired the reporter as they began to get over the scare of seeing armed males.

"Likely one of two things, either these are Tosevites that have been assimilated by the Tau'ri Empire and are now infantry males. Kind of like if we put our subject races into the military whenever we go conquering." explained the expert "Or that evolution has guided these Tau'ri down a similar path of the Tosevites which is why from this distance they appear the same."

While all eyes were on the Tau'ri on the ground, none of the Race noticed that the two owls which had been flying in the force had begun to circle and that weapon pods dropped away from under their wings. These pods dropped about 5 feet away before opening into recon drones which instantly turned on their active camo before heading away from the Owls. Pods also dropped away from the last Owl, and soon 6 Recon drones covered the Race's capital city.

"We are good on the ground bring in the Admiral." said the Marine commander as the final Owl headed toward the center landing area. Here the Owl did touch down and the engines began to spin down as the pilots began to flip switches in the cockpit. While almost all the Tau'ri where in their battle armor a single Tau'ri wasn't in his armor. Admiral Hackett sat in the back in his dress whites with multiple metals on his chest and a cap on his head. On his shoulders where bars which was graced with three golden stars a sign of his rank and a golden tassel ran under one of his arms. He scanned the last report coming from Earth and prepared himself.

"Admiral we are ready." reported the pilot as the back ramp lowered and a blast of hot air rushed into the Owl. Almost instantly sweat began to form on Admiral's Hackett skin as he checked the temperature, it was almost 90 degrees out there.

"I wish I was in power armor at least they have a cooling system." said Hackett as he stood up and prepared to get off the craft.

Outside a delegation from the Imperial Palace stood waiting for the arrival of the Tau'ri delegation, among them where high members of the court. They had made sure all their body paint which was always kept in a perfect state had been freshly applied so that they appeared bright and perfect. In front of the larger delegation was a group of five, the senior protocol master, the head of the security office, an expert on relations between the Race and other species, a reporter who understood he wasn't to ask any questions only document the events and lastly a flag holder holding the golden standard of the Emperor.

"This is going to be a day that lives forever in the history of the Race." said the Protocol Master "I wish we had more time to set a proper standard so that future generations can follow our processes and protocols."

"The Emperor declared this to happen and so it has to happen." countered the security male. "I am just pleased we talked the Emperor himself from coming to meet these Tau'ri."

"I praise spirits of Emperor's past for that." added the Protocol master as the black transport lifted off the ground. When it lifted off they noticed that a new group had arrived, most of them where in the same strange wrappings and armed however standing in the middle with his back to them was a figure in white. "That must be this Fleet Lord Hackett."

"Admiral, they call it." corrected the Expert on race and other species relations. "But that is likely the same station which means this admiral should show you the same respect he shows to members of his Emperors court. I wonder why he would wear white, white is a middle color rank if he is a fleet lord he should be in a mix of golds, yellows and reds."

Out on the tarmac Admiral Hackett looked out over the area with his own eyes, he was not impressed. He had seen the Ancient City of Atlantis and the wonders of multiple worlds across two galaxies a barren runway in a place which temperature and climate wise seemed to be the middle of Sahara Desert wasn't high on his list of being impressed for. There as a lot of browns, reds and golds in the area and very little in greens or blues like Earth or any of the other planets the Tau'ri called home. Then again to a lizard this weather was likely perfect.

"Well let's go meet the locals." said Hackett to a nearby aid as he turned toward the terminal and the multiple cameras finally got a good view of the man in white. They were taken aback as they saw the pink soft flesh with white gray fur around the bottom of a nose and around the mouth but none running up to the fleshly hearing openings. The cameras zoomed in enough to see the blue eyes located in the front and unable to freely move in turrets.

"That is a Tosevite!" exclaimed the expert as the man in white moved forward with four additional Tau'ri, all of them where armed, the party stopped briefly as one of them got a poll and a flag from one of the crates that had been carried off the last craft to arrive. It took only a few moments and a blue banner unfolded itself from the pole. The cameras zoomed in on the flag, it was blue a color not looked upon well upon home or any world in the Empire. In the heretical ranking systems colors of body paints and their patterns told anyone looking at a citizen of the empire what that's persons job and rank was. The patterns told the job while the colors told the rank, the lowest colors where greens and was saved for punishment and for those just starting out in their jobs. The second lowest color was blue and a whole flag of blue only streamed inferior at the top of the lungs. The other colors was a bright silver which was the higher then blue for sure but not the equal to golds, yellows and reds. The symbol itself made little sense as well it looked to be an upside-down triangle with no bottom piece and a circle on top of it. A larger silver circle with smaller patterns in it was also visible was also there but either way it was inferiority in the eyes of every male and female of the race.

"Is this some kind of twisted joke?" inquired the Protocol master as the Tosevite stopped a few feet away. For a moment, the Tosevite looked at the members of the delegation of the race, in glory more than likely. Unaware that to Admiral Hackett this little group of lizards was as impressive as some kids in Halloween costumes, they were short not even up to his chest and they wore patterns of paint on their bodies which made no sense to him. The banner also made no sense either it was a pure golden banner which lacked anything else in it, like someone had taken a gold colored fabric and called it a flag.

"I am Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri alliance." introduced Hackett before the Race delegation could speak. Beside him one of his marines translated his words into the hisses and pops of the race. "I have been sent by the President of the Tau'ri Alliance and the Congress to work out the issues between our nations to avoid any conflict."

For a moment the members of the Race just looked at him.

"You are a Tosevite!" stated the member of the race in the center accusing. Hackett looked the lizard if he had to guess he was oldest because his scales had a more aged look and looked loser on the skin but that was a pure guess.

"I am a human not a Tosevite, that is your name for us but not what we call ourselves." corrected Hackett through his interrupter before repeating "I am Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri alliance."

"So your Emperor allows conquered races into the military and rise to the rank of Fleet Lords and you must be the 7th Fleet Lord in your history if you control this 7th fleet." Said another lizard "how strange."

"Well your world is about to be turned upside down because none of that is true, I am not the commander of the 7th fleet in our history, we have multiple other active fleets across our space. I am only the commander or Fleet Lord as you call it of the 7th fleet, our 1st Fleet currently surrounds your conquest fleet while our 9th fleet is currently conduction a war game near Atlantis and other fleets are spread out on different duties." stated Hackett as the Race looked at him confused. "We have more important issues to deal with, I recommend that we sit down and talk before the problems before us become too great to overcome without resorting to drastic means."

Well I hoped you liked this chapter, until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.