DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, Stargate SG1 or any of the real or imagined characters, plots, or stories from those series, but I do own my own characters, plot, and story.
Harry Potter and The Tau'ri Resistance
CHAPTER 3
"If I may?" General Carter interrupted. All eyes turned to him. "General O'Neill, Dr. Weir, ultimately it would be dependent on how many ships you want Tollana to build and their size and configurations. But, I took the liberty going on the assumption that you would want to build the equivalent firepower of twice as many motherships that Sokar has on Earth in order to effect a successful campaign against him with minimal casualties. In consultation with Tollana, and running the numbers against what similar though infrequent deals of this nature have looked like in the galaxy in the past, we think you are looking at something on the order of about 7,300 metric tons of gold bullion." Jacob said.
O'Neill whistled again. "Wow, uhm, that's a lot." he observed.
"Well, Jack, Jacob continued… I did some back of the napkin comparisons to what we did back in the cold war. If you look at it in comparison to say each new ship would be about the relative scale of an Aircraft Carrier in terms of material and labor costs, time and effort to build and staff, fully loaded and armed. That same amount would equate in billions of US dollars to what an entire fleet of ten to twenty Aircraft Carriers did cost, if we actually paid for them in gold instead of paying for them on credit. Oh, and I based that brief analysis on the price of gold as it was before the invasion, I don't even want to know what's happened to it now." Jacob concluded.
Daniel, who was sitting on one side of Jack nudged him and whispered, "Don't say it…" Daniel just knew Jack wanted to ask Omoc if they took Visa.
"General O'Neill, from what I know and from the guidance I received from the President, that is probably doable. I think that if General Carter's estimates are correct that would amount to about ninety percent of the US's entire gold reserve. But, it's doable. Sokar hasn't even begun looking for things like that yet. Our real problem would be sneaking it out under his nose and getting to Tollana." said Dr. Weir, wanting to also make it clear to the rest of the room, while they were sort of having this internal discussion in front of everyone, they would most assuredly be going for this deal.
For the first time, Thor had something to offer that had not already been said. "Dr. Weir, I believe I can solve that problem for you easily enough. We could simply send a battle-cruiser under cloak to coordinates you specify, and with your permission, simply beam it to our ship and transport it to Tollana ourselves."
With that, there seemed to be no further questions nor objections to the plan. It seemed the Tok'ra in consultation with the Tollan and Asgard had worked out a very feasible plan ahead of time. Clearly they wanted to help, but they had to make it look and feel right to all parties and pass any smell test from the outside, particularly legally.
"I believe that on the whole, is the entirety of our proposal and plan to accomplish it—there are details to be worked out yet, but that is the framework." said Ren'al, taking back charge of the meeting. "Let us take a brief recess to allow everyone to discuss matters privately, then we can reconvene and see where we go from there."
…
With Dr. Weir gratefully accepting the proposal on behalf of the Tau'ri—the coalition immediately went to work.
For the first part, the Asgard took it on faith that the Tau'ri could deliver on the gold, so they immediately began delivering material shipments to Tollana, who in turn began warehousing them and building some manufacturing complexes and a training center to ready for them.
Anise smuggled back to Earth with the Tau'ri delegation and went to work with Harry, Carter, and Doctor Lee on ship designs—with input from O'Neill. While some Pentagon staff at Greenbrier supplied design requirements and ideas of their own, not knowing precisely the terms of their off world help, nor who the audience fully was (they weren't cleared for the wizard's part in it—that information was still being kept need to know).
When the battle to re-claim Earth would begin they would let leak a bluff that also served as more cover for their friends, that their fleet was built by their secret off-world colony that was off the stargate network that neither the Goa'uld or even Tok'ra ever knew about. And that after Sokar's invasion it obviously became their priority to prepare a counter-attack and liberate Earth. Let the enemy also waste resources looking for that non-existent world while Earth built up.
Greenbrier also knew that if they succeeded, the Goa'uld collective would then fear the Tau'ri threat and would likely come back with a larger united fleet to simply destroy them. Therefore, the war would not be completely won when the planet was liberated and they would not have time to simply lick their wounds and rebuild the world they used to have. They would need to focus on building organically built and operated Earth based shipyards from their new technology base to raise an even greater fleet and other defenses to prepare for the next phase of the war which would likely be for their right to exist at all. It was not anticipated that another Goa'uld strike would be simply to conquer and enslave, but to annihilate the threat. Thus, after liberation, the world would have to be forcibly united and society focused on inter-stellar war while it also rebuilt, until it could earn its freedom and safety permanently. It would be a new world for everyone, but first they had to liberate it.
Hermione thought it was ironic and typical that it was the elite and powerful people who had the most to do with bringing the destruction and the apocalyptic threat of annihilation to Earth's doorstep in the first place who would be the only ones with the power afterward to rebuild a new world order as they saw fit—never losing a step in their own power, only expanding it, likely forever after. But, other than sharing her thoughts on that with Harry, she kept her tongue.
When the ship design plans and their numbers were finalized, Dr. Weir went back to Tollana and negotiated for a bit more. They got included in the price, an additional hyper-space capable cargo container ship that would contain the major components, systems, and any spare materials from three of the five manufacturing and shipyard facilities that were being built on Tollana fully funded by the Tau'ri gold. Earth needed a portion of that capacity reinstalled on Earth so they could rapidly continue their own shipbuilding, repair, and maintenance facilities-since they realized there would be an even larger next phase to the war-for all the marbles.
Tollana was okay with the request since they were essentially getting to keep two of the five fully equipped manufacturing complexes and the training facility that Earth was footing the full bill to have built on Tollana in exchange for little more than essentially allowing them lease to use space on their planet and some labor in the shipbuilding program; of which the bulk of final assembly and unit testing was actually being performed by the Asgard essentially for no additional cost.
They decided to build twenty Tau'ri battle cruisers each with the comparable firepower of one Sokar Ha'tak. They wouldn't have the air wing capacity of those, but it was hoped with a superior number of capital ships that they could run them off anyway and reclaim sovereignty over Earth.
O'Neill was given the privilege to name the new ship design and he chose to call it the Texas class battle-cruiser, in honor of their fallen former General Hammond who hailed from Texas. Otherwise they followed the US Navy tradition of naming cruiser class ships after US states. Each would require forty officers, two hundred crew, and twenty-five pilots and copilots for each air wing and air staff. The ship would be more than twice the size and mass of the canon Prometheus, with Earth taking advantage of all their one time help to take what would've otherwise been self-limitations off their first design. O'Neill got his big honking space-ship with big-honking space-guns.
It would be hyper-space capable, and be the largest ship at five-hundred meters long based on Goa'uld tech to have its own ship wide cloak; powered by two parallel redundant sets of three serial naquadah power plants (total of six). It would possess twelve railguns in four sets of three ventral fire-linked turrets mounted on the landing bay arms and twelve missile launchers for various standard missile and special weapon payloads, including a new naquadah-enhanced nuclear warhead.
The Texas' primary weapons would be thirty-six fire-linked heavy plasma cannons on twelve omni-directional turrets of three each. It was believed to be a good match for the Ha'tak standard sixty cannons that had to turn with the ship. Based on ship sizes and profiles, during a typical engagement a Ha'tak would not be able to put more than twenty to thirty cannons on any one target at one time, so it was seen as a good match and the Tau'ri standard rules of engagement were going to plan on a minimum of two Texas class to any one Ha'tak whenever they could manage it.
The small air wing of each Texas class would include eight two-seater hyperspace capable space-superiority fighter/interceptors called the HX-101 Falcon, and two hyperspace and cloak capable combat shuttle/bomber/transports modeled on the cargo capacity and loadout of an Al'kesh, which they called the HS-101 Owl.
The Texas would possess four ring transporters for personnel and cargo; standard Goa'uld class shields, sensors, targeting computers, navigation computer, and long-range comms, made with Tau'ri human man-machine interface preferences in mind. Besides being based on Goa'uld tech, it would not appear in any way Goa'uld from the outside or the inside.
Even as the ship designs were still being finalized on paper, Major Davis and the Pentagon were busy identifying and spiriting qualified personnel a couple dozen at a time to receive training on Tollana being shuttled there by a nearly continuously running cloaked Tok'ra Al'kesh and portkey transports from the Order. All while Sokar was busily consolidating his power base and figuring out how he wanted to organize his human thralls, who were quite far still from being enthralled. He was still trying to understand the pre-existing industrial and technology base of Earth and hadn't even really worked out a strategy how best to use it yet. In his arrogance, with Kinsey making it appear that the Tau'ri elite and internal power brokers easily capitulated to him, he wasn't paying enough attention to what could be going on under his nose. While his security forces were regularly tied up in local skirmishes and minor peasant uprisings around the world, from people who still didn't want to listen to their betters; and the best of his espionage agents were off-world trying to track down SG-1 not knowing they were just android copies.
The entire effort took one year, even with Tollan and Asgard advanced technology to expedite things. There was still a lot of logistics to be done and the Asgard had only two ships, one industrial and one battle-cruiser to spare for the effort while they still fought their own losing war of attrition against the Replicators in their home galaxy. By the time the fleet was commissioned, crews of three thousand two-hundred and another nine hundred support personnel for over four thousand would be stationed on Tollana by the time the fleet was commissioned. All of it would be packed up and moved back to Earth following the successful liberation of Earth.
The full command staff for the resistance met at Mount Kosciuszko, except those who were attending remotely from Tollana via hologram projector courtesy of some of their new Goa'uld/Tok'ra tech. This was the first such meeting in which all flag officers, commanding officers, and their XO's were meeting all at once—and it was so Colonel Davis could brief everyone on the final operational plans for the counter-offensive approved by Lt. General O'Neill.
During the long presentation, Colonel Davis explained that…
During the past year while the Tau'ri fleet was being built, the command structures and organization was also being assembled and trained. Along the way there were a number of other unprecedented promotions. Unprecedented that is in the speed at which some of those people rose so high in rank, including himself. Other unanticipated moves were the decision to staff the battle-cruisers half with US Navy personnel, with experienced Navy Commanders serving as XO's on all the ships. It was determined that Navy experience in crewing, supporting, working, and fighting for long periods of time while living aboard a ship would be valuable to their success and that has proven true. It took a little while for members of the two branches of service to get used to each other, but now they are melded together quite well and united in common cause.
O'Neill had three stars and was made Lieutenant General, Commanding Officer of Homeworld Command. Carter who had been a Captain one year prior and just recently made Major, based purely on her unique abilities and experience with the enemy was bumped up a few more grades to Brigadier General, Commanding Officer of the Tau'ri Fleet, presently stationed at Phoenix base on Tollana, putting finishing touches on readiness for their new fleet of twenty Texas class battle-cruisers.
Davis had been advanced to full Colonel and was still O'Neill's liaison to the President and JCS in hiding at Greenbrier, and served as Joint Commanding Officer of the SR units along with the Director of the CIA whose operations officers lead each team. There were now one hundred-seventy, six-person SR teams in strategic locations throughout the world, maintaining an intelligence network. All of the other officers assigned as CO's of a battle-cruiser were advanced to rank of full Colonel, if they were not already.
Based in Mount Kosciuszko: Colonel Marshall Sumner led a Marine infantry regiment consisting of three combat ready battalions and a regimental headquarters company, alongside Colonel Nathaniel Serling who led an Army Brigade consisting of five combat ready battalions. Together with their combined support companies of engineering, logistical, and supply companies—a force of over eight thousand infantry dedicated to Homeland Command and the Resistance under Lt. General O'Neill. Beside those, the units protecting Greenbrier and a few select sites that had still gone undetected and the other various smaller under-cover fire team units assigned to SR teams; the rest of the active duty military was stood down. The survivors of I-day were sent home with their light-duty weapons to take care of their families and re-assigned as ready reserve, to be called back up when a counter-offensive would eventually take place; or afterward to re-build force strength and re-assert order after a successful liberation.
The other major exception is that the entire US submarine fleet was secure and in hiding under cover in large caverns dug out of coastal glaciers in Antarctica. They were supported by all the surface sub tenders and supply ships that survived I-day that they could move into hiding before the enemy would know to go looking for them and were surviving there by rationing. It was from there that they found most of the Naval officers and crew that were sent to Tollana to help staff the battle-cruisers.
They lost all surface carrier battle groups wherever they were when the invasion started and anything that didn't make it out of their Naval bases, the same way they lost all their major Air Force wings and airfields during the first week—just like all the other nation's military forces around the world did. The only thing that flew currently was Sokar's forces and collaborator commercial air that his forces approve of. For point of reference, the pre I-day average civilian air traffic of about five thousand flights in the air around the world at any given time was down to about one thousand.
…
"So, Colonel Davis said, that concludes an overview of the state of our official forces and assets."
"Before I begin to go over our enemy's forces, there is a bit of recent news we received this morning from the Order of the Phoenix, that we've been authorized to share. All of you in this meeting are already aware of the special nature of the Order of the Phoenix, so that much should not be a shock to you by now."
He paused for the usual nervous laughter that accompanied any discussion of their special friends.
"The wizarding world international legislative body continues to officially insist on remaining hidden and is by and large mostly confused and afraid of the alien invaders-and demand that their people strictly adhere to their Statute of Secrecy, as well as those few of us outside their hidden world that they've chosen to trust. We have of course re-affirmed our agreement to do so, only briefing in new people authorized by the Order leadership—even though they should continue to remain unaware of that technicality, according to the Order's leader Harry Potter."
"However, what most of you don't know is that the small Order of the Phoenix, a special brave and loyal group of young but very experienced wizards whose help has been invaluable to us, do have the secret but unofficial backing of one of their local Ministers for Magic who is the executive of the wizard's government in the UK."
"Mr. Potter has informed us that his old friend the Minister has been quietly working his own people and other contacts he can trust in order to recruit a small Army of their own, maybe as much as a company's worth of battle trained wizards who will be ready to stand up and join us on D-day. He also asked that when that day comes, if we see men and women in crimson red robes wearing odd looking hats waving wands, that we don't shoot them. Those would be our new friends."
The room had a more spirited chuckle at that.
"Now, as for our enemy's forces and our plan to defeat them…" Davis continued…
"Sokar still keeps ten Ha'tak motherships on Earth, spread out as command centers in geographically strategic locations, nearest the political centers of the ten most populated regions.
His Ha'tak brought ten thousand Jaffa warriors when they arrived. Half of them are constantly on the move piloting death gliders and Al'kesh bombers on patrols. Of the remainder, another half usually remain aboard and near their regional Ha'tak for their own force protection. The remainder, about five hundred per region have since been joined by another ten thousand total reinforcements that arrived by stargate. So that now there are fifteen hundred Jaffa in each of the ten regions, mostly divided into small companies or smaller platoons, who patrol and terrorize the civilian population centers in their region, as they continue to consolidate and expand their control.
That's it for enemy forces. Our strategists believe there will be little difficulty defeating the Jaffa forces on the ground even with the limited numbers of regular forces we have because of the asymmetric tactics we will use and the element of surprise.
The following is the currently approved strategy:
They keep control mostly through fear of what they demonstrated they can do with the power of their motherships and air-wings. Those are the real threats and the biggest problem we have to deal with. We expect that our fleet of battle-cruisers will be able to defeat all of their Ha'tak with minimal casualties. If we catch any on the ground those should be defeated quickly. Since our capital ships can cloak and theirs cannot, we plan to strike them all simultaneously wherever they are with numbers 2:1 against them and odds better than 3:1 in our favor due to the element of surprise. If we were to be lucky we might catch them all on the ground, but we anticipate only eighty-percent. Sokar generally maintains two of his Ha'tak in orbit at any one time managing the flights of their air-wings and providing an orbital eye in the sky for his Jaffa commanders.
The next problem becomes the nearly five thousand death gliders and over one thousand Al'kesh bombers he keeps in the sky at any one time to project his power continuously. For the death gliders we've devised a weapon and a tactic we think can level the playing field a bit.
Our Marine and Army Infantry battalions will be traveling light with standard arms, but heavy with two each of the new naquadah-engine-signature-seeking shoulder launched LAW rockets. These rockets are charmed feather light courtesy of the Order of the Phoenix, but when the soldier arms the rocket prior to launch, the featherweight is automatically disabled by the firing mechanism for normal rocket flight stabilization. The death gliders do not have shields, so one hit will destroy them. We will have more N-LAW rockets in the field on D-day than they have death gliders.
Our Order of the Phoenix allies are arranging large-scale magical transportation for each combat ready unit to their assigned target areas where they will rendezvous and join with the local SR teams. When that occurs, our infantry men and women will be told a cover story that it is technology that was provided by one of our off-world allies to assist us. Each platoon leader will be handed a prop device that is little more than a re-worked tape measure, made to look like an alien sci-fi hi-tech device, that when activated with all members of the team holding onto a part of the tape, the leader pushes the button and they are transported to their destination. In reality it is a magical portkey. The only mechanical device in it is to extend and retract the tape. The button simply activates the magic of the portkey and it will only work the one time.
The main problem after all that is that the enemy have an estimated two thousand eighty Al'kesh bombers that do have both shields and a cloak, not to mention can drop naquadah-enhanced bombs that can level an entire city block each. For that reason, our ground forces will break up into smaller units no larger than a platoon each, to minimize casualties from any one successful strike on their part. And if we get any more help from the wizard paramilitary people-we plan to deploy them to assist these teams as much as possible. But, we don't expect to get enough of them to support having one for each platoon. So, let's not count on that saving our men on the ground.
To reiterate, the Al'kesh will be our greatest threat on D-day. An N-LAW can shoot one down if they can hit it, but those odds are poor unless the enemy is stupid. And while they may not bother with their cloaks in atmo., we can be damn sure they will shield.
Right now, the main counter to their Al'kesh is planned to be, after successful completion of their first mission objective, the twenty battle-cruisers will begin hunting them down. Additionally, prior to the Texans having arrived at Earth to begin the operation, they will have already rendezvoused on the dark side of the moon and launched their combined full air-wing of one hundred sixty HX-101 Falcon interceptors and forty HS-101 Owl bombers. Unlike their death gliders our Falcons do have shields, but only the Owls and the Texans themselves have cloaks, and neither can fire and remain shielded while cloaked.
Our air-wing of two hundred will wait in standby for the word that the Texans have completed their mission against the Ha'tak and then arrive in Earth orbit and will be directed as one unit to any hot spots around the globe that large masses of Al'kesh squadrons are menacing our ground forces or civilian targets, to engage them in old fashioned albeit space-aged dogfights if need be.
That is the sitrep and the battle plan so far. Any questions?" Colonel Davis concluded.
"I have one." said Colonel Sumner. "Is there any chance that we can capture some of the Ha'tak intact?"
Lt. Gen. O'Neill decided to field certain big questions himself if they came up. "It is a good question Colonel. It is something we considered from many angles, and believe me when I say I know the value of doing that if we could."
"However," he continued. "I decided it was not worth the risk. The majority of the campaign has a chance to go very well for us with minimal casualties, if and I repeat if, we successfully take out all the Ha'tak in the first salvo. We will have the element of surprise only for that moment, and we need to take advantage of it."
"It will be a lot of dangerous work to take out his air wing's even after that. I'd hate for us to have to deal with Ha'tak while we're doing that if we can avoid it."
"Thank you General." Sumner replied, nodding his head in agreement.
"That was a good one though. Any other questions or comments?" O'Neill offered.
There were none, so O'Neill wrapped it up by saying "We have not decided the precise day and time yet but, when it is time we will give you forty-eight hours' notice. Until then, get yourself in a state of readiness to move with twenty-four hours' notice. It will be soon. You are dismissed." Finished Lt. General O'Neill.