Chapter 21 Disregarded Demand
Night had fallen on Earth, the lights of the still being constructed capital city of the Tau'ri were all aglow as President Carter sat behind her desk in the Presidential estate. In truth she was still a week out from officially becoming president, but the Tau'ri Congress was already in session and everyone already acted like she was President. She let out a deep breath and looked down at her paperwork before a knock at the door caused her to look up.
"Enter." said Carter as the door opened showing one of the President's protective detail opening the door for an old friend of her. "Jack."
"Carter? Are you having fun yet?" asked the retired General of Home World Defense, head of the SGC and like her a former member of SG1 Jack O'Neill.
"Tons." Answered Carter as Jack sat across from her. "What are you doing here?"
"I was going to have dinner with my granddaughter but she is busy helping those Opochti refugees." Explained Jack as Sam nodded her head and looked at her friend. He was finally showing his age, all 74 years. With all the advanced technology coming from the gate life span for a twenty-year-old now was estimated to be an average of a 150 years and a newborn would see 200 or more years. The technology came too late for Jack and his generation or even her generation to prolong their lives as much as it would for the next generation.
"Enjoying fishing and your cabin?" inquired Carter as Jack nodded his head.
"Only real complaint is the aid that the military assigned me and people bugging me to write my autobiography." Stated Jack as he leaned back in his chair. "I am half tempted to just let Daniel do that and have him cover it all."
"I had a few requests for my autobiography as well, they say I would make billions from it." Stated Carter
"Same here." admitted Jack "However your story is far from over, unless they want a deep account of the same couple fish I keep catching in my pound it is done for me."
"Maybe." Laughed Carter
"Have you heard anything from Teal'c or Bra'tac?" inquired Jack as Carter shook her head.
"Not for a while, everything is kind in flux outside of our space. The free Jaffa nations which where unified have broken up into smaller nations and we have reports that there is unrest in all of them. Even the one Bra'tac runs." Reported Carter with a sad voice. "Not as much as in some and he isn't doing the crackdowns on his citizens like some are."
"Sounds like when the Soviet Union broke up." Added Jack
"Worse, most of the Jaffa can barely read and write, most are around the educational level of a six grader or lower." Explained Carter with a shake of her head. "They where taught only how to fight by the Goa'uld and they generally don't know anything beside that. They don't even know how their own ships and weapons work only what they need to do to make them same for the Lucian Alliance groups."
"Is anyone focusing on Educational?" inquired Jack
"Some are and they have the greatest chance of making it in the long run but stronger nations are risking to swallowing them." stated Carter as she let out a sigh. "Jack can I ask your advice?"
"Of course." Confirmed Jack
"I have a small Lucian Alliance nation which will be coming here in a couple days, officially they want an alliance to defend them from other larger powers." stated Carter "Unofficially, intelligence believes they will ask to join our alliance."
"Let me guess it's the one by Lanagara?" inquired Jack as Carter nodded her head. "If you accept them it will almost certain cause a war."
"I know." confirmed Carter as she thought about their position, it was a narrow front which they would have to protect against multiple other waring Lucian alliance and Free Jaffa powers. "It will be so easy to be drawn into a war if we accept them into the alliance."
"But if you don't then what will happen next time when we add to this alliance." Stated Jack "Well maybe once you get ZPMs it will be much easier."
Carter laughed a bit before shaking her head.
"I am not surprised you found out about the Zephry mineral on Ovea." Stated Carter "You are the former head of the Tau'ri military, you may be out of the loop officially but not unofficially."
"So what is your plans for the Opochti people?" inquired Jack
"Help them in any way we can and in return we get an exclusive deal to get Zephry." Stated Carter "We would have helped them anyhow just like we have been helping less developed worlds within our space with schools, medical aid and other technology."
"But the Opochti have something we want, kind of like…that was that black thing we always went after...Oil." laughed Jack, as Carter nodded her head in agreement. Oil was the life blood of the industrial revolution and pre-stargate warfare. That had been replaced with Naquadah fuel cells which burned far cleaner and Naquadah was actually somewhat common in the grand space of the galaxy. There where whole asteroids being mined over Venus for it, the asteroids themselves having being brought in from elsewhere.
"Well we are going to treat the Opochti people right and just because they have something we want doesn't mean I haven't made a few demands which they have agreed to."
"Like what?" inquired Jack
"Before the Race arrived they had slaves and indentured servitude." Stated Carter "That is going and Prince Unia has already agreed to those conditions as well as other issues like free access to basic education, equality between genders and trail by jury."
"Good and they agreed to all this?" inquired Jack
"Actually, the gender and trail by jury were already in their culture however in their system if a female commits a crime it is an all female jury and same with class, so the rich judge the rich and the poor the poor." admitted Carter with a shrug "So it was easy to get them to agree change that. I just hope that we can avoid any more bloodshed with the Race."
Kassquit was never so happy as she went into the heart of the Imperial Palace, as she moved through the ancient halls made of stone she couldn't help but remember the history she had been taught. The names of the Emperors who had forever shaped the Empire, the ones who lead great battles to unify home, who oversaw the building of greatness of the Race. All of them had walked down these halls and had lived their entire lives within these unconquered walls. Finally, they reached a door which opened to show a normal meeting room, with ten chairs spread around a large table. It was a room not that different then the meeting rooms where she had had talks with Felless and other researchers only here everything was of a higher quality and it was inside the Imperial Palace.
"Sit." ordered the Protocol Master as he pointed toward a seat at the head of the table, he moved toward the one nearer to the door while across from him sat a member of the Imperial guard in their gray body paint.
"It shall be done superior Sir." Confirmed Kassquit as she sat at the chair, the chair wasn't designed for her longer body and she always found it somewhat uncomfortable but this was what she always had known, so she was used to it.
"So you are Kassquit." said the palace guard "One of the guards radioed your name to me and I have contacted Senior Researcher Ttomalss. He has told me about you and confirmed that you where raised by him and that he left you with Senior Researcher Felless."
"Yes, superior Sir." Confirmed Kassquit as suddenly the door opened, thanks to having eyes which wrapped around the side of her head she had an extremely wide range of image. Actually, her and other Vantic had a greater range of vision then the race, however the Race's eye turrets where able to move freely which allowed them to watch two areas at once. The Protocol master turned one of his eye turrets toward the door only to jump out of his seat. The Palace guard did the same, followed moments later by Kassquit.
"Your majesty." Said the Protocol Master as he lowered himself into the position of respect reserved only for the Emperor, it was the same poster which the Palace Guard was assuming and Kassquit was trying her best to do. However her body wasn't designed to assume the position and she couldn't do it fully.
"That is enough, we have important issues to discuss and so I have come to hear what this junior researcher has to say about the Tau'ri." Stated Emperor Risson as he moved to take the seat across from her at the table. "So please Junior Researcher tell us about the Tau'ri.
"Your grace…the Tau'ri are all but at war with the Empire." Stated Kassquit "They took me when they raided an educational center, with infantry males and what looked to be land cruisers only wheeled not tracked."
"And why did they do this?" inquired Risson
"Your majesty Fleet Lord Straha had begun rounding up the Vantic young to begin to force educated them into being citizens of the Empire. The Vantic locals did not like this and they have a foolish idea that blood bonds matter outside of the line of the Emperor." Stated Kassquit "The Tau'ri seam to follow the same foolish idea and they took offense to what we where doing to help educate the savages and they have joined with them. They took me to their home world and showed me their capital city. They have thousands of our citizens there and they have taken over the city of Likna near the capital on Vantic 5."
"I see." stated Emperor Risson "So they are already attacking us."
"Yes, your majesty then they took me in one of their transports to Tosev 4 or as they call it Mars and to a military base there. They are preparing for war and they have a standing military." Stated Kassquit
"As you feared your Majesty, they waste resources on having a standing military force instead of putting limited resources to better uses." Stated the Guard as Risson raised one of his hands and instantly everyone fell silent, Kassquit held her breath while the other two who had more experience being around Emperors waited.
"You said, you where taken to Tosev 4 but unless I am mistaken that world doesn't support life?" inquired Risson
"You are correct your majesty when our probe reached the Tosev system that world and Tosev 2 didn't support life however they do now, the Tau'ri Tosevites have the technology to homeify barren worlds and they have done so on these worlds." Stated the Protocol Master "I have seen Tosev 4 or Mars as they call it with my own eyes."
"So their technology is even higher then we thought and with this technology and their capability to travel faster then light they can colonize systems which are normally lifeless." Stated Risson "And they are forming against us."
"Your majesty, this Fleet Lord Hackett informed me that the sword of war is drawn and ready." Added Kassquit "They do not have time for protocols and that their deadline is hard."
"No time for Protocols they are savages." Stated the Protocol Master "They expect us to hand over Vantic 5 and doom the locals to backwardness with no culture."
"And what will they do with our people who now call the world home?" stated Risson
"Your majesty, our colonist there are defended by the males of the conquest fleet they will not loss to these Tau'ri tosevites." Stated the Protocol Master "I oversaw the final stages of the plan to build a military and to launch the conquest fleet, they can't loss to sword swing animals."
"Protocol Master that is wrong, the Tau'ri already have a fleet over our heads and they can bring war fleets to every world within the Empire within minutes." Stated the Guard "They could crush the empire and if so what does it matter if Vantic 5 stays strong."
"In 3 days the conquest fleet they brought from Tosev 3 will arrive and Home will be safe." Stated the Protocol Master
"But the deadline is 2 days and if the Tau'ri deploy explosive metal bombs they could crush the Empire before the conquest fleet arrives to defend us." countered the Guard
"They wouldn't dare." Stated the Protocol Master
"You yourself stated they are sword swinging primitives can we expect them to be cultured in a way to avoid using nuclear weapons?" countered the Guard
"True." Hissed Emperor Risson as he turned to look at the Protocol Master "You said you had a rough outline of what happens when a foreign diplomat has an audience with an Emperor do you have any new information?"
"Not as yet your grace only the outline, we are missing the words that each side has to say to have it done properly and the proper position that the flag carrier has to come in." stated the Protocol Master "There is also word of a live band and singers to perform the Imperial Song of that Empire, however that was later replaced by auto recordings."
"Alright." Stated Emperor Risson as he checked the wall mounted clock, it was getting late in the afternoon. "You will have until dawn to finish your research, then inform the Tau'ri we will meet them in a day and half at noon."
The Protocol Master raised a hand in protest only to lower it when he saw the look his emperor was giving him.
"It shall be done." Said Protocol Master "I will send the message at once."
"Good." said Risson as he looked at his Protocol Master before turning toward Kassquit "I will make sure you have one of the guest rooms inside the Imperial Palace until the situation is solved."
"Thank you your majesty it is a great honor." Said Kassquit as Risson turned and walked out of the room.
"What an honor to stay inside the Imperial Palace." Added Kassquit in a wonderful voice.
"I hate to throw sand in your face but he is not trying to honor you." Admitted the Palace Guard as Kassquit looked at him. "If you leave the palace then someone outside these walls will see you and ask questions. He doesn't want males and females to panic with the knowledge that for the 1st time in the history of the Race a more powerful Empire now sits over it and can bring down destruction at any moment it chooses."
"I…see." Admitted Kassquit, the words the palace guard gave where harsh and had bitter sharp teeth but where very true as well.
The Tau'ri and Opochti defenders of Likna had been pushed back to the other side of the second roadblock, however they where making the Race pay for every yard. Preplaced machine guns mowed down race soldiers as they tried to get over the second barrier. Any vehicle which attempted to break through was destroyed in one way or another until their wrecks made a roadblock onto themselves. With the rising sun the Opochti were out in force and the increase in fire only caused the race to keep their heads down. The coming light allowed some of the Tau'ri defenders to get some rest and spend some time away from the front lines. When the fire suddenly stopped all of the resting Tau'ri grabbed their weapons and prepared for something.
"We have a green banner." Said one of the locals as the Tau'ri looked at each other.
"There is a member of the Race out there with a green flag on it." Explained a Tau'ri machine gunner who hadn't pulled back for a rest. "They told me to stop firing, must be kind of like a white flag."
"So they are surrendering?" inquired another Tau'ri as he and the rest of his team crawled to the top of the barrier and poked their guns over the top. The cameras mounted on the barrels allowed them to see that there was a member of the Race waving a green banner in the middle of the road. The banner was shaped like a pennant not a normal flag but the idea seamed the same. Moments later a group of Opochti and another two members of the Race came forward. One of the members of the Race waved a green banner as well.
"Command do you see this?" inquired the commander over the radio
"We do, Prince Unia informs me that is a sign they want to talk your orders are to blind fold them and bring them back to the temple in the main market." Ordered Colonel Drugov
"Understood." Said the commander as one of the freedom fighter began to move forward getting out of cover.
"Wait." Ordered the commander as the fighter looked at him. "Get some cloth and cover their eyes."
"But they are coming in under banner of truce, honor demands that they do not disclose what they see." countered the soldier. "It would a sign of dishonor to blind them."
"Fuck." Cursed the commander
"Your people will follow that right?" inquired the machine gunner
"Of course, they wear the cloths of an elder holy priests they will never bring shame on the ancestors by breaking this trust." Stated the soldier
"But will the Race?" inquired the machine gunner
"I see, I will blind him." Said the freedom fighter as he moved forward and after a much-heated exchange with the lizard and the two Opochti the lizard was blinded and led over the barrier.
"You dishonor the ancestors by doing this, blinding him is against the rules of this honorable event." Stated one of the priests only to have the freedom fighter point toward where the Tau'ri where lying in a prone position with weapons pointed down range.
"I follow the wish of an allie and we must honor the wish of a friend who is giving us aid." Stated the soldier as a Tau'ri came up to them and with a raised hand told them to stop. With a few taps of his computer pad he did a quick scan of the visitors only to stop and look at the lizard. With a quick movement he opened one of the pouches on his belt.
"What are you doing?" hissed the lizard as the Tau'ri pulled out a small disk about the size of a thumb tack. Then taking a risk he explained in the local tongue.
"Tracker, listening devises as well."
"You will not be able to follow us to the command area, we were right to blind you." stated the freedom fighter as the priests nodded their heads in agreement. With that the freedom fighter along with two others and two Tau'ri lead the delegation down the road. Past a few more roadblocks and more fixed positions, by the time the delegation had reached the temple in the town square all over the city the guns had fallen quiet. The temple had been built to honor the ancestors of the town only to be taken over by the Race to spread their own religion. The holographic images showing the images of the current Emperor as well as others had been turned off but not destroyed. The electrical lights had been turned off and instead a roaring fire once again burned in the center of the temple. Everything was cast in bright light and in pitch blackness. In the darkest corner away from the fire stood Colonel Drogov while Prince Unia stood beside the reignited flame of the ancestors. The banner of his house crest in all hung from a pole to his left which was the traditional spot for it while a blue and silver Tau'ri flag hung to his right. The town local priest which had been forced to work as a street cleaner to earn food after the Race had kicked him out of the Temple now stood tending the fire once again.
The two Tau'ri which had followed them in moved into the darkness as well allowing the locals to take the lead. They removed the blinders and the lizard blinked.
"About time." He said with a hiss
"You came to speak with me so speak." stated Prince Unia
"I am Bunim, I am a Regional Sub administrator for this area and I have been sent in by Ship Lord Binia and Fleet Lord Straha to demand your surrender at once." Hissed Bunim as his eyes scanned the darkness, however his eyes never locked on the Tau'ri hiding in the dark meaning it was likely he didn't see them.
"No, we declared that this is the free city of Likna and thanks to our allies the Tau'ri we will hold it and in time reclaim our world." Stated Prince Unia as he pointed toward the blue and silver Tau'ri flag. Bunim responded by opening his mouth showing all his teeth.
"Very funny, it is funny how you pretend like young still wet from the egg that you have friends who can stand against the might of the Empire." stated Bunim "Now let us deal with fact. You are surrounded, you have no way to escape and you have a city full of civilians here. You can't hold out forever so surrender hand over all weapons, terrorists, the hatchlings you took from the school and most of all yourself."
"We will never hand over our children, it is you who should be surrendering there is a war fleet over your Home and you can't win." Stated Prince Unia as Bunim opened his mouth again in a laugh.
"Your ability to fool yourself is amazing crawler, if you don't surrender within a single day the Fleet Lord has authorize the use of an explosive metal bomb on this city." Stated Bunim as all the Tau'ri in the darkness took note of the time and cursed to themselves. "We will not allow this rebellion to go on, so give up and save your lives and live under the glory of the Emperor."
For the longest time no one said anything as Bunim looked across the fire toward Prince Unia.
"No." stated Prince Unia as Bunim blinked rapidly for a moment. "We will not surrender."
"Maybe you will listen to your elder false religion leaders." Stated Bunim as he turned an eye turret each toward the two priests in expectation that they would convince him to surrender.
"Tell me Prince Unia is what you say true?" inquired the elder Priest
"It is." confirmed Colonel Drugov in the darkness as Bunim eye turrets flicked to his direction but in the darkness he couldn't see much. "You Regional Sub administrator has taken this to a new level, I hope you are prepared for the results of your threat. You may have just doomed your Empire."
"Drop this false front and surrender, you can hid in the darkness and use a speaking program on a computer doesn't change anything." Snapped Bunim "Surrender now."
"Never." Stated Prince Unia as Bunim looked at the priests who were suppose to connive the Prince to surrender, however unlike him they had seen the Tau'ri. "We are done here."
With that the freedom fighters put the blindfold back on and led the Regional Sub administrator out of the room. With him gone Colonel Drugov moved toward the light allowing the Priests to see him.
"What are we going to do?" inquired Prince Unia "These explosive metal bombs turn night into day."
"They used them here before?" inquired Drugov
"In the sky the day they arrived, it caused mass panic and they said it is a powerful weapon." Stated Prince Unia
"It is, but we have much more deadly weapons." stated Drugov as he tapped the computer pad on his forearm which active his long-range radio.
This linked him to the Akula class stealth ship already in orbit. From there the message was sent back to Earth and before the Race even knew the result of the meeting a military officer was walking toward President's Carter opened the door to find her still talking with Jack.
"Madam President, forgive me for interrupting but we have flash traffic from Opochti." Said the military officer as he saluted his president and the former General sitting across from her.
"No problem Walter, how is the family doing." Inquired Carter as she took the report.
"Well Madam President." Stated Walter as Sam scanned the document and let out a sigh.
"What is it?" inquired Jack
"The Race has threatened to carry out a nuclear strike if Likna doesn't surrender itself by this time tomorrow their planet time so 14 hours from now." Stated Carter as she took a breath. "Inform General Leong and Admiral Hackett the liberation of Ovea and the Opochti people will have to be pushed forward, we can't risk a nuclear strike. Send out flash traffic messages to all commands expect full scale military operations to begin with the next 8 to 10 hours."
"Yes, Madam President." Confirmed Walter as he snapped to attention and moved to carry out his orders.
The message of the Race's threat to launch a nuclear strike had reached General Jagar outside of the Ovea stargate before the news had reached Earth and his president. He stood around a folding table with a map of the area as around him the men and women along with local Opochti help prepared for their assault. Thanks to the strange trees which where far taller, with thin narrow trunks which opened up into wide sold branches like leaf covered mushrooms they had cover from above. The wide spacing between tree trunks allowed the tanks and other vehicles to move with some ease.
"The Race has threatened to carry out a nuclear strike on Likna unless they surrender within a day." Explained General Jagar to the officers around him and the freedom fighter leaders assigned by Prince Unia to work for him. "We have to assume our time table has just been pushed up by at least 7 hours. The question is can we make that deadline?"
"We will have enough tanks and other vehicles for the main thrust down on the forces around Likna before rounding to take the Capital." Confirmed one of his officers. "I am concerned however that we will not have enough up for a reserve force."
"I agree, we will have to throw everything into the first strike holding nothing back." Stated General Jagar as he studied the map. "I am also concerned about the flanks, if the Race moved quickly they could strike us before we fully take the capital. This base here to the North east concerns me the most."
The officers all looked at the base, it was a good distance off but still in a spot where a hard driving commander could get his forces into a flanking position in time to do some real damage.
"Our one grace there is that to reach our flanks they would have to travel east to this position here and cross a bridge over the canyon." stated Jagar "If we had more time to send in more forces I would send a unit there to take and hold the bridge but we don't have the time to get the units in place. So do we destroy it?"
"How big is this bridge?" inquired a Marine officer.
"About the size of the Brooklyn bridge only made totally out of metal and concrete no stone, it crossed over this canyon here which runs around the Northern part of the capital city." stated Jagar
"That canyon has always been a natural defense for our city, we thought no one could cross it but the race flew over it in their helicopters and aircraft." stated the freedom fighter as Jagar looked at the canyon again as an idea came to his mind before looking to the commander of the four Osprey ground attack and the dozen Adar attack helicopters sitting under cover waiting to go into battle. More Helicopters where sitting on Mars by the gate, when the time came the gate would open and they would fly through to join the fight.
"How wide is this canyon?" inquired the pilot as he looked at the map and studied it for a moment. "We can fly down it, avoiding their radar system and come up within a dozen kilometers from their airbase near the capital without them knowing we are there until it is too late and if we have too we can destroy that as well."
"How large is this park here?" inquired the marine as looked at the map. "And here and here as well."
Jagar tapped a few buttons on his computer pad and pulled up the area of each park and handed it to the marine.
"Large enough to land multiple owls full of troops and take the bridge." Stated the marine "We can pull marines from the 7th fleet or from back on Earth."
"Alright, they can take the bridge and hold and if have to we will destroy it to keep our flank safe." Stated Jager as he looked at the freedom fighters. "Can you get a couple squads with weapons to these parks without being discovered, it will be helpful to have local guides and seeing you will calm your people down."
"It shall be done." said the freedom fighter as Jager nodded his head.
The message of the coming threat of war reached Valhalla moments after the President had declared the likelihood of war. Here the threat the race put to the world was tiny and came mostly in the form of what forces may have to be pulled from defense duty to take part in the action. General Young commander of Valhalla looked at the tactical situation of his world. His defense fleet was located mostly around Valhalla, the 12 colonies and a little bit around the Cylon space, every ship could arrive back at Valhalla within 6 hours to respond to any threats. Outside of Earth's system which contained Mars and Venus, Valhalla had the most defense satellites and held the bulk of the shipyards currently under Tau'ri control. Countless factories most of them focused on military production was located on his world, from small arms to tanks, from owls to Battleships Valhalla was the beating heart of the Tau'ri Military.
General Young took a scan of the message and nodded his head.
"Well it is about time." Said Young as he took a breath and made a few notes before placing his call. He looked straight at the computer screen as the connection was made, an image of a man sitting behind his own desk appeared. A man he both respected and hated appeared.
"Doctor Rush." Answered Rush without even bothering to look up from his own work.
"Rush it's Young." Greeted the two men
"General how can I help you this morning?" inquired Rush not even realizing it was well past 4 in the afternoon.
"I thought you would be happy to hear it looks like they are going to take on the Race on Ovea sooner then we originally planned." Stated General Young "Which means we may have ZPMs sooner than we expected."
"But I will still not get them from my project." Countered Rush
"Not at first no, the first thing we are likely to do with them is swap out the fake ones we left with the colonials with the original ones. Once we make more of them it isn't worth all the trouble that would come up if they found out we had them." explained Young "Besides from what I have read Ovea is full of Zephry and how much Zephry would we actually need for a ZPM."
"Just under a ton." Explained Rush with a straight face which took General Young back. "A lot of it will be loss in refining it to the grade we will need for ZPMs, we don't put raw Zephry in it needs refined. You get our team 10 tons of Zephry you will get 10 ZPMs in about 12 months."
"Ok, that is a little more then I expected and longer time to make." Stated Young
"A ZPM is not a bullet or something else you can mass produce, every ZPM will take time and resources to make. You can't start an production line and expect to have the first one done in a few hours." Countered Rush "Didn't you read the report I sent in about that and why it will be far more useful to have the first couple ZPMs go to the Destiny II project because you can make more while we are on route to the target galaxy."
General Young glared at the man, Rush knew full well that he got dozens of reports a day and couldn't read them all in detail.
"I will make sure Doctor Jackson knows about that." Said general Young as Rush finally looked up from his papers.
"What?"
"You didn't read the memo sent out? Or maybe it didn't get to you." Said Young twisting his own knife into Rush. "It hasn't been decided for sure yet but either Doctor Jackson or Doctor Woosley will be leading up this project."
"But I am…." Started Rush
"The head science officer…maybe." countered Young "Some want you to be placed under Doctor McKay if he agrees to leave Atlantis or maybe Dr. Zelenka."
"I was promised." Started Rush as Young raised his hand.
"You are going to be the head scientist on the Destiny II when it launches from the supergate we will build in that galaxy to link with the ancient supergate. For the first leg of your mission you may be under someone for science lead and you are for sure going to be under someone on the civilian and military side." Stated Young "You are not a gifted diplomat and if we sent you to this galaxy as head of the civilian force we would be in a war over there in like five minutes."
Rush held his tongue for a moment before nodding his head.
"Very well." Confirmed Rush "Since you are here I have located the best spot for us to build the supergate."
With that the image on General Young screen change to show an image of a spiral galaxy, a spot was highlighted near the center of the galaxy.
"There is a massive black hole here which will be prefect for powering a supergate." Stated Rush as the image changed again to show another galaxy this one labeled Milky way. "Our galaxy is perpendicular to our target galaxy so we will actually be coming at it from what could be considered as below so we will not have to travel through the entire galaxy arm to reach it."
"I see." Said Young "Make sure you find some back up black holes as well. If this place is in the middle of some alien culture's space they may not let us set up there and we will have to move."
"But this is the prefect spot." Countered Rush
"We have to consider that possibility and hell we may have to cancel the mission or find another galaxy if all of the black holes are claimed by other cultures." Stated Young "We are not going to start a war for your mission Doctor Rush and that is one of the reasons you are not leading it."
"Very well." hissed Rush as he closed the channel and Young let out a sigh before going back to his own work.
The flash traffic warning of the soon to be war between the Tau'ri and the Race was sent to every military leader who commanded independent commands spread out across the galaxy and beyond. Far away from the battles brewing in the Milky way Galaxy, General John Sheppard stood on the bridge of the battleship Minnesota which was the flag ship of the 9th fleet. He was in the middle of having a friendly chat with the Admiral in command of the fleet and another Admiral who was in commander of the operation going on outside when an aid walked up and saluted.
"General Sheppard we have flash traffic from Earth." Stated the aid as Sheppard took the report signing the confirmation as he opened up the email.
"General Sheppard is something going on?" inquired the one of the Admiral.
"Nothing that really affects us, looks like the military is going to finally crush this empire of the Race." explained Sheppard as he took a drink of his coffee. With that done the head of Tau'ri military forces in the Pegasus Galaxy and second overall command of all forces behind General Leong turned and looked at the two Admirals. "So we are testing the docking today and if goes well then tomorrow we will test docking while the gate is activated and then in a week or so we will do an actual test, correct?"
"That is the general plan General, we may have to push it back a couple of days but not much." Stated the Admiral as Sheppard looked out the window toward the Supergate which the Tau'ri had just finished building. Nearby a large black hole was the power source for this super project as around it where dozens of defense stations and minefields. This was only the 4th known supergate and the first built by the Tau'ri. The other two built by the Ori for their invasion of the Milky way galaxy and the other one being an ancient supergate built to help the destiny program. This gate would be a model for a planned gate in a distance galaxy which would allow them to launch a new Destiny ship to finish the mission of the 1st ancient Destiny without having to wait millions of years for the ship to get it's destination by normal hyperspace.
The gate was similar in most ways to an ORI supergate with multiple panels forming a ring with energy transfer points clearly visible only here a large more solid metal ring was placed over the supergate as a whole. Shepard watched as it glowed for a moment as a massive energy shield expanded over the gate forming an iris similar to what was found on Atlantis's gate. That test lasted only a couple of moments and then the Ragnarok came into view. The ship which was in truth just a single moveable superweapon similar to the Dra'ka weapon moved into position before deploying out from the ship form to the weapon form which was in the shape of a large + sign. With that done it was moved forward toward the supergate by smaller towing ships. Once at a certain distance more ships came in and carefully placed 8 massive pipes which locked onto each of the four points of the ship. Two from each and angled out toward the larger supergate below. When it was done the General and the Admirals looked at what was before them. It was kind of strange, the Ragnarok was smaller than the Super Gate so the power lines which moved from each tip of the Ragnarok angled away to attach to their designed spot on the gate.
"Connections look good, all power flow seams good as well." Stated one of the Admirals "Looks like project Crucible has reached another milestone."
"Yes." Said General Shepard who didn't share the same joy in his voice as the Admiral. "We are one step closer to making an even more deadly version of the Dra'ka superweapon, we should be very pleased with ourselves."
Thanks to the speed of communication that the Tau'ri used General Sheppard in the Pegasus galaxy knew the results of the meeting on Ovea before even the commanders of the Race did.
"So they fail to see reason." Stated Ship lord Binia with a heavy hiss.
"Yes superior sir, they refuse to surrender and the two elders in their false belief refused to make the terrorist surrender." confirmed Regional Sub administrator Bunim
"But the terrorist Unia is in the city?" inquired Straha
"Yes Exulted Fleet Lord." Confirmed Bunim
"Then there may be some good in this after all." Hissed Straha "We nuke the city and he is gone and the last standing Prince of this world is gone and a new age can begin."
"Forgive me Exulted Fleet Lord but this was suppose to be just a threat are you considering dropping an explosive metal bomb for real?" inquired Ship Lord Bunim
"I am warming up to the idea." Stated Starha "Either that or just overwhelm the city with shelling and airstrikes until not a single stone is on top of each other. Burn it to the ground and lay waste to everything inside. Let this be the funeral flame for the terrorists."
"Exulted Fleet Lord, if I may we do still have males trapped within the city the ones sent in by helicopter." Stated Binia "We need to pull them out before we carry out any strike."
"No we don't." stated Straha as Bunim and Binia looked at him. The corner stone of the Race society was that members of lower ranks follow the orders of those above and in return those above a duty to look after the welfare of those below them by not sending in a rescue Straha was not looking after those males trapped inside. "By the Emperor I want to send in a rescue squad but how many males will die trying to save the 40 males still trapped within? More then 40 I believe."
"Truth." Confirmed Binia with a heavy hiss. "It will not be worth the lives of the males being sent in to rescue them. It would put them at too great of risk."
"Truth." Confirmed Straha as his body cried out for rest but he had to make one critical call. "I am going to go back to the Capital and await their answer. You need sleep as well Binia order your males to begin to pull out destroying everything as they do. The males in the rank will like that and order more artillery up, we will attempt to bomb them into submission and use the explosive metal bomb as a last resort."
"It shall be done." Confirmed Binia as Straha turned and headed toward his waiting car and while his driver headed back to the city he closed his eye turret and let sleep claim him.
The Sun was setting over the Martian grassland as Torren Shepard adopted Son of General John Sheppard stood in formation along with other marines. To his right Ashley Williams who he meet on the fields outside of the capital city on Tauron stood in formation as well.
"Listen up, the plans have changed." Yelled an officer to them. "The Race has threatened to carry out a nuclear strike on our allies in the city of Likna. We will be launching the attack early."
"Oh fun." Whispered Ashley
"Now our mission will be similar to what happened on Tauron we will take land in parks around the capital city and take key targets." Stated the officer "We will be inserting by owl transports."
In the distance the marines could already see Owls landing onboard a couple nearby Hadrian class transports. The Owl didn't have the range to carry out this assault on it's own so the massive flat cargo beds of the Hadrian would do take them most of the way. They could also see Condor bombers being loaded up with missiles and larger pelican transports being prepared, near the larger transports stood a large group of rangers. Their army uniform being slightly different then his marine one. Nearby he could also he a couple of Pelican gunships loading up for a battle as well. The massive ships where basically following down the same path as AC-130 Spectre gunship. It was a large cargo ship which was loaded with cannons, machine guns and two rail guns.
"We will be inserting and holding key positions until the army and other forces can reach us." Stated the officer "So prepare yourself."
Night was falling on Aquaria as Starbuck returned to her hotel room outside of the Tau'ri military base. She had flown three training missions against first the Tau'ri Eagle fighters, then again Wraith Darts and Ori Fighters. The last two where interesting, the Wraith Darts where ungodly fast, faster then the Eagle was and it could turn tight but it had it could only fire directly in front of them. It had no missiles like the Eagle's did. She had scored very well against them and even better against the larger and slower tear shaped ORI fighter. At the end of the day she finished at number 1 on the charts. Her wing mate Justinian was not doing as good after scoring just outside the top 20 he had dropped down to 27th but had worked his back to 23rd with Goa'uld death gliders, Cylon Raiders and a tangle with a Tau'ri ship tomorrow he still had a chance to make the top 20 and earn a job.
Starbuck pushed those ideas out of her mind as she ordered some Sagittarian food from a place that delivered and sat down to watch some TV. As she flipped through the channels she stopped as she saw a pair of girls in bright red walking across the field, she watched for a moment before smiling.
"So they did reboot the Ploutons." said Starbuck as she remembered watching the family of Hade's worshippers. Hades as the Lord of the Underworld was the only Lord of Kobol without a patron world not even Earth and was hardly worshiped outside of funerals, so having a family of Hade's worshipers was funny in a twisted way. Which was why as a kid Starbuck loved it, she watched the reboot show with a smile on her face as she relaxed. The show had the Ploutons three children visiting an old abounded temple.
"I want to see a portal to the underworld." Said a voice off screen as the three Ploutons children moved forward until they found a boy and a girl about their age with a married couple. A woman in a thin pure black dress and a man black and white striped suit.
"Now Pugsley, no need to rush it is such a wonderful place." said the woman
"And it isn't often that we can journey to another world to see all that they have to offer." Said the man in the suit as suddenly to Kara's confusion a hand moving on it's own tugged at the man's shoulder. "Not now Thing."
"Dear, it looks like we have company." Said the woman as the man turned to see the Ploutons.
"Why hello we are the Addams family who are you?" inquired the man with a smile as the intro song began however it wasn't the one Kara had grown up with. This one was twisted with a whole new family mixed in with the one she knew and loved. Finally, when the titled card came up it said.
"The Ploutons meet the Addam's Family." read Starbuck with confusion. "What the Frak is going on?"
Far away from Aquaira Admiral Hackett looked at the revised battle plan put forward by first general Jagar and later by General Leong. His staff had gone over it for the past few hours and the meeting was nearing an end. With a sigh he looked around the table at the men and woman gathered with him.
"Looks like the Race has decided to push this to a new level, you have all seen the plan and the time table will you be ready in time?" inquired Hackett, one by one everyone nodded.
"With time to spare." Confirmed the marine in the room.
"Alright then baring any sudden change the attack goes in in 6 hours, the fleet will break orbit and arrive over Ovea just before dawn and begin the assault." Stated Hackett "Dismissed."
Well I hope you liked this chapter, the war is coming to the Race much sooner then even the Tau'ri had planned for. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.