Yamato had decided that she really hated fighting shielded ships. She had grown used to being able to sweep enemy ships from the skies with a single shock cannon blast raked across their ranks. In her mind, the Cube had been an exception, not a rule. A monster of a ship whose danger was now past.
Unfortunately, these 'Ha'tak' were continuing the trend.
She was reasonably sure her shock cannons threatened the Goa'uld ships, but unfortunately they were not stupid – especially not after several of their number had already fallen. When one ship's shields became low, she would simply retreat back into the pack and let other ships cover for her. Worse, Goa'uld shields recharged in minutes, unlike her own, and she could already see ships she had forced to withdraw back on the "front line".
The other problem, though this applied only to Yamato herself, was that the plan had been that Prometheus would use her Faster-Than-Light drive to take her across the battlefield. Prometheus's drive could both take 'passengers' and be used multiple times in succession; whereas her own drive would melt if not given hours to cool down.
Then, of course, Prometheus had dashed off to rescue what appeared to be an ally of hers. Yamato did not begrudge her this. Yamato's concern was simply that Prometheus had left her behind when she had done this.
With her wave-motion shield punched full of holes by Staff Weapon C̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶ blasts, Yamato was rather hoping Enterprise's plan would kick in about now. But no – Yamato could see that the enemy fleet was still too dispersed. Enterprise had required that they all be within a 40km radius sphere. In the domain of space, they may as well have been rubbing shoulders at that distance.
Chimaera's idea to force them to keep changing direction to chase the fleet was working. But slowly – too slowly. The fleet would start losing members soon at this rate, and once the first domino had fallen it would be near-impossible to reverse the momentum of the battle.
There was only one thing for it. Yamato closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again – full of focus and determination.
"Combat speed one!"
The Ha'tak in front of her was initially unconcerned as Yamato roared across the stars towards her. She thought, no doubt, that Yamato would disappear and reappear on the other side of the battlefield as had been their strategy until now.
The Ha'tak began to look confused as Yamato continued onward, perplexed as the much smaller starship continued to accelerate forwards. Even if Yamato rammed her, she was too small to destroy her outright… wasn't she?
Indeed, seconds before impact, Yamato lunged to the side s̶u̶d̶d̶e̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶o̶e̶u̶v̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶u̶s̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶s̶i̶d̶e̶, changing her course just enough so that her shields skidded off the Ha'tak's, rather than slam fully into them.
The two vastly different defences – one formed of simple plasma, the other a solidified form of the collective wave-motion of other dimensions – sparked and fizzled as they were pressed into each other. The actual point of contact was quite small – Yamato's shields were cigar-shaped, and the Ha'tak's were spherical – but in that area of forced overlap Yamato could see the energies recoiling at the other's touch.
Then it was over, and she had passed that outermost Ha'tak; who was only just realising that she had just failed to stop Yamato from getting inside their formation.
Several of the Ha'tak attempted to fire on her, of course. Some of them even hit – she was not nearly as fast nor as nimble as Normandy was. One particularly unlucky hit went through an existing hole in her shield and just lightly brushed against her hull. Even that glancing hit was enough to melt through her skin a̶r̶m̶o̶u̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶h̶u̶l̶l̶, causing her flesh to melt and bubble e̶x̶p̶o̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶r̶t̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶v̶a̶c̶u̶u̶m̶.̶ ̶S̶e̶v̶e̶r̶a̶l̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶m̶m̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶t̶e̶r̶i̶a̶l̶s̶ ̶i̶g̶n̶i̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶t̶,̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶b̶i̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶v̶e̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶t̶m̶o̶s̶p̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶c̶k̶,̶ ̶b̶i̶l̶l̶o̶w̶y̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶u̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶m̶o̶k̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶.
And then, she was in the middle of the formation; facing two suddenly very scared Ha'taks who had yet to finish recharging their shields. Slowly but surely, ignoring the pain, Yamato took aim with her shock cannons.
Both of her forward main batteries spat three positron beams each, soaring across the void. Each beam was jacketed in a blue plasma sheath – a magnetic bottle – to stop the positrons repelling each other and the beams dispersing into uselessness before reaching the target. These magnetic bottles, running in parallel, readily attracted each other; causing the three beams to spiral around a central point, closer and closer, until they merged into one. The two super beams seemed to push forward, somehow picking up even more speed, before smashing into their targets.
Back-lit by the two ships exploding even as she soared past them, Yamato had to endure one more hit from a Staff Weapon C̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶, though fortunately this one did not penetrate what was left of her shield. Then she was out of the formation of Ha'taks, most of whom had turned their attention inwards and moved closer together to try to crush the interloper in their midst.
Tuning to face the Goa'uld fleet once more, Yamato's rocket wings m̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶e̶n̶g̶i̶n̶e̶ continued its roar, though this time it was bleeding off speed rather than building it up. She slid to a stop, neat as parade formation, next to Prometheus – who was blinking rapidly, trying to figure out how the heck Yamato had survived pulling that crazy stunt.
Looking at the enemy formation – down two ships for her action, and now sitting in a 50km radius sphere – Yamato turned and raised an eyebrow at Prometheus. "Shall we continue?"
While the capital ships were busy zooming about, if one paid closer attention, there was another battle going on at a smaller scale. With Normandy luring all the Death Gliders away, the Ha'tak's had lost all their anti-fighter ability – something they were only belatedly realising as F-302s, TIE Defenders and Cosmo Tiger IIs flew between them with near-impunity.
Some of the Ha'taks – of the already small number who cared about the small craft – tried in desperation to swat those 'flies' with their Staff Weapons C̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶s̶. The fighter-fairies were in general agreement that this was a net positive for them – the only nearby targets the Ha'taks were likely to hit was each other. Each of the fairies were trained to avoid similar weaponry – Garmillas and Gatlantis positron cannons, turbolaser fire, or in the case of the 302s, actual staff fire.
Unfortunately, the Tigers and the 302s did not have the firepower to seriously threaten a Ha'tak, meaning that the Defenders were flying around with a distinct sense of smug superiority. In flights of five, they would gang up on a Ha'tak whose shields the capital ships had already weakened and finish it off with their powerful laser cannons.
So when the Al'kesh were released into the fray, they were perturbed to see the fighter-fairies arrayed against them cheering at their appearance.
Events quickly devolved into a hairball of missile trails, 'laser' fire, and the odd plasma bomb released in desperation. Unlike Death Gliders, Al'kesh had shields – but they were bombers and troop carriers, not fighters, and it showed.
One 302 found themselves flying in formation with a Cosmo Tiger II, making an attack run on an Al'kesh. Not being idiots, they were flying towards the bomber from 'above', meaning it was largely helpless against the missiles they were launching.
Stealing a sideways glance at the Tiger, the 302 said something in a high-pitched voice.
The Tiger blinked with surprise at the comment, looking down at the skintight latex-like uniform she wore. Looking back up at the 302, she retorted in short, clipped tones.
The 302's hand made to clutch the American flag on the shoulder of her Death Glider-style plate-metal amour, stopping herself short. Her other fist shook itself angrily in the Tiger's direction.
Their argument was interrupted by a Defender swooping in from above, adding to the dispute with her own haughty comment, her black flight suit polished and gleaming in the starlight.
The 302 and Tiger shared a look for a moment, then both quickly curved away from their current path; leaving the Defender looking nonplussed for a moment. Then a plasma bomb slammed into her from above. The arrogant Defender had only been tracking the locations of the Ha'tak, dismissing the Al'kesh as a non-threat, and had missed one sneaking up behind them.
The Defender survived, but with her uniform scuffed and covered in soot s̶h̶i̶e̶l̶d̶ ̶c̶r̶i̶t̶i̶c̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶l̶o̶w̶ she was forced to quietly limp away back to her own squadron, leaving her shattered pride behind.
That Al'kesh then disappeared in a fireball as a flurry of missiles overwhelmed her shields, and the 302 and the Tiger shared a fist-bump w̶a̶g̶g̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶w̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶e̶a̶c̶h̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ before returning to their motherships for re-arming.
Chimaera found herself growing angrier and angrier as the battle continued.
By all rights, she shouldn't have been. The battle was proceeding embarrassingly well for her side – despite her side being horrendously outnumbered and outgunned. The enemy fleet had clearly never practised fleet manoeuvres before – they were getting in each others way almost as much as they were failing to cover for each other's weaknesses.
Like right now – she was staring down one of the enemy ships, focusing ion and turbolaser fire on her to ruthlessly hammer her shields off. The Ha'tak had tried to retreat back into the centre of the formation, but Chimaera had simply locked tractor beams and continued her barrage. Apparently, they'd never dealt with tractor beams before either.
While she was preoccupied doing that, the other members of the fleet should have been manoeuvring to cut off her escape routes, removing her ability to evade fire. Instead they were powering towards her, full thrust, their goal the glory of killing her rather than assisting their comrade. Their mothership, who should have been fighting to get this fleet back into some form of order, wasn't. She seemed perfectly content to watch her own ships be shot out from under her while she stared at the planet – what was its name, Soil? - with a bloodthirsty grin.
Breaking the Ha'tak's shields with another round of ion cannon blasts, Chimaera put a barrage of turbolasers into her victim, then one more to be sure, before releasing and microjumping to the other side of the battlefield, looking for more targets.
An enormous flash of light and heat signalled Prometheus using another of her absurdly powerful missiles to take out another Ha'tak. The emperor would surely be furious to discover that his precious "mobile battle station" would be seriously threatened by the first ship ever built by a people using scavenged technology they barely understood.
Maybe that was why Chimaera was furious. She recognised this incompetence. She knew these absurd design priorities. Take away the gold facade (and it had better be a facade, gold made terrible armour) and the screaming of nonsense about gods, and you had an average fleet from the Galactic Empire. Glory hounds more interested in impressing their superiors than actually doing their job well.
Not the Seventh Fleet, obviously – Chimaera and her admiral had whipped those ships into shape nicely. But the simple truth of the matter was that the emperor was clearly more interested in spreading fear and terror across the galaxy than he was in having an actually effective navy. The designers from Sienar Fleet Systems could wax poetic about 'cost efficiency' all they liked, Chimaera had never doubted for a moment that their contract to build starfighters had been awarded because their Twin Ion Engine design made a loud, distinctive 'screaming' noise in atmosphere.
These tactics might have worked for Grand Moff Tarkin back when he had been fighting pirates. Nobody would soon forget the story of when he had disabled a pirate ship's engines and pushed it into a star's gravity well. Every ship in the sector had been able to hear her furious curses slowly turn to begging for mercy over the course of hours, and the long final screams as the pirate ship melted.
That had worked against cowardly, superstitious pirates. It had demonstrably not worked on the self-proclaimed 'Alliance to restore the Republic' (though why anyone would want to bring back that corrupt, inept institution was beyond her), and Chimaera could see that it wasn't working here.
And if you had prioritised 'being scary' over 'being dangerous', then you found yourself at a marked disadvantage fighting people who couldn't afford to be afraid.
Those hard angles – much like her own, designed to worry rather than the reassure as the soft curves of her temporary fleet-mates did. The gold engravings, designed to proclaim the wealth and power of the ships' owners; a bold claim of "we are better than you". Her admiral would be able to predict the exact movements of every ship with this much decadence, but she could at least see how the general flow of this battle would go.
And oh yes, she recognised this kind of stupidity. It was why she was certain that the Goa'uld ships hadn't noticed that chasing after the fleet whenever they appeared was drawing their formation closer and closer together.
Chimaera locked onto another Ha'tak with her tractors, imagining the Jaffa ship had the face of Kassius Konstantine's Interdictor instead as she began to pound it into scrap.
"To bring you their take on current events…" The CNN presenter looked physically pained. "We bring you two… experts on the subject matter at hand."
"Thanks Pete!" The first new face smiled like a 200-watt bulb.
"Glad to be here!" The second new face was obviously a sibling of the first, and was also nearly ecstatic in their facial expression.
Both new faces wore corporate uniforms of the network, and were giddily bouncing up and down. Name tags on their shirt read "Jill" and "Josh". It seemed that both had been camera operators or similar before being called up like this – the network must be desperate for someone to interview.
"So, given apparent events above our heads –" The presenter got halfway through their prompt before Jill interrupted him.
"Oh yeah, this is brilliant!" Jill beamed. "Using Attackinator ships as the bad guys was a stroke of genius – X-treme is such a niche show that barely anyone will care about them being curbstomped!"
The presenter looked extremely confused, but at the same time afraid to ask. "A stroke of genius?"
"Oh yeah!" Josh jumped in. "Everybody's cheering on their favourite spaceship… well, the B5 fans would probably rather a White Star, and the Star Wars fans are probably a bit conflicted about cheering for a Star Destroyer, even Thrawn's, but barely anybody will be cheering for the Attackinators! Good fun all around!"
The presenter took a long blink. "What… exactly do you think is going on in orbit?"
Jill bounced up and down on her chair. "The world's biggest fan-film, of course!"
"Fan-play, sis." Josh corrected. "It's actually happening up in orbit, after all."
The presenter now looked like he wanted a stiff drink. "You think… that somebody is, what, playing with model ships up in orbit?"
"Are they really models if they're life-sized?" Jill asked rhetorically.
"Who in the world would have the ability to make models like that, let alone the time and energy?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Josh held both of his hands up in front of him like he was holding an invisible box. "Aliens."
The presenter took a long, deep breath, closed his eyes, and exhaled. Exhaustion tinting his voice, he asked "And who do you think is going to 'win' this battle?"
Both siblings grinned at each other, reached under the desk and each pulled out a stack of reference books – Incredible Cross-Sections, the TNG Technical Reference Manual, and more. "Well…" They said in unison.
"Mr President, if you want an analysis of the battle overhead I'd be happy to give my opinion." Hammond said somewhat dryly.
The president glanced over at Hammond. "Has there been any development since 'no clear indication of victory for either party'?"
"…" Hammond didn't respond.
"Then I might as well see what the people of the US are seeing." The president changed the channel to MSNBC.
"If you can see behind me, Will, nearly seven thousand members of the so-called 'New Age' movement have gathered here today. They claim that since the spaceships overhead were clearly manifested from human imagination, that they will come together and make them disappear again using the power of 'collective disbelief'."
Hammond wished them success in principle; though a deep part of him thought that if those next-level hippies actually succeeded, that would scare him so hard he'd go bald, again.
The president then switched to BBC.
"BBC management has announced they are moving up the release of their revival of the classic and much-loved science fiction TV show Doctor Who, following its cancellation in 1986. No official word has been given yet if this announcement was prompted by the apparent space battle over our heads. However, one employee, speaking off the record, said that the announcement was absolutely made in the hopes that, and I quote, 'The Doctor hurries up and saves us already'."
"What is going on over there?" Kinsey was apparently done with his discussion with Barrett, and was now slinking back over to the Resolute Desk, a suspicious glare on his face.
President Hayes waved a hand in the general direction of the TV, and switched to Fox News.
"Later on in this segment we will be interviewing writing staff from the shows in question. Clearly, these so-called 'creatives' are trying to imply that the American people aren't capable of defending themselves. Another example of Hollywood's dismissal of American military capabilities – that is, if aliens aren't themselves behind these literal plots!"
Kinsey turned slightly pale, then frantically waved his hand at Barrett. For his part the NID agent looked rather sceptical, but several furious hushed words from his boss got him moving.
President Hayes watched that confrontation in slight confusion, then shrugged and changed back to CNN.
"What do you say to information provided by reporter Julia Donovan, claiming to be proof that one of the spaceships in orbit was built by the US Air Force in a secret hanger in Nevada?" The CNN presenter told his two workmates.
Jill and Josh shared a look, then in perfect unison rolled their eyes. "Yeah, sure." They said in stereo.
"That woman is in breach of her NDA!" Kinsey ground his teeth.
"I don't think she cares." Hammond groaned.
"Wait…" Pete the presenter suddenly cut in again, a hand to his earpiece. "We're now getting reports of three Attackinator ships splitting off from the main fleet; heading straight for Earth."
The camera cut back to Jill and Josh just in time to see them glance at each other, looking suddenly panicked. "F–"
None of the Earth-friendly fleet had yet cracked the Goa'uld's equivalent to a Friend-or-Foe identification system (being sufficiently occupied with the battle), but if they had, they would be only slightly surprised to find that the three Ha'taks that had broken off were the three Ha'taks that had been scouting earlier.
"I told you!" The first Ha'tak puffed angrily, the back of her silks giving off a soft, subtle glow c̶o̶n̶c̶e̶a̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶e̶n̶g̶i̶n̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶x̶i̶m̶u̶m̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶. "I told you that the Tau'ri were naught but cowards!"
"We did not disbelieve you, sister, but to think that they would avoid honourable combat with such fervour…!" The second Ha'tak replied.
The three did not consider even for a moment that they likely wouldn't be so keen on an 'honourable' battle if the Ha'taks did not outnumber the defenders so badly.
"I do not understand, however, why we are leaving our assigned formation." The third Ha'tak cut in.
"Do you know the tale of Re'tick the Devious?" The first Ha'tak answered with a question.
"I do." The third Ha'tak answered, slightly confused. "He was a great warrior of great renown, but his most famous battle was against the cowards of Dri'el."
"The Dri'el had incurred the wrath of the gods, and so Re'tick was sent to exterminate them. But their cowardly warriors hid in the forest and struck only at night, in ambushes." The first Ha'tak picked up the story.
"Furious at being denied honourable battle, Re'tick burned down the villages that the warriors of Dri'el were hoping to protect. When even this did not flush the cowards out, Re'tick burned down the forests as well. Thus, they all died painful and dishonourable deaths." The second finished.
"Ah, I begin to see." The third nodded. "You wish to utilise that great wisdom here."
"I do." The first Ha'tak pointed a finger vaguely in the direction of France. "Our goal is no longer to provoke them – now they will fight us directly, or be forced to watch their planet burn."
"I don't have an angle to intercept!" Enterprise screamed frantically. Two Ha'taks had, deliberately or not, cut off the paths she would have taken to warp in.
"Prometheus-san…!" Yamato grit her teeth.
"They're right in my face, I can't manoeuvre!" Prometheus's eyes flicked from side to side, looking desperately for a way forward. To FTL away, she'd have to move backwards – and by the time she made it back…!
"None of us can get there in time." Chimaera clicked her tongue, dismissing Normandy as not being able to stop the bombardment. "There isn't a ship here that can stop this!"
And without any fanfare, the three Ha'tak opened fire.
And so, there weren't any spaceships that could stop that bombardment.
There was, however, one space station.
Babylon 5 appeared in a flash of light, Interceptor Grid already active and tracking targets. With balls of plasma already flying towards her, the station opened fire. Specialised plasma and particle beam weapons, designed to pop magnetic bottles and disrupt other beam weaponry, collided with the staff blasts and burst them apart in flashes of fire. The intense heat of the plasma quickly faded into inconsequence as said plasma was spread across the void.
Despite her encouraging start, Babylon 5 was sweating hard. Can't intercept them all…! I have to prioritise the ones headed for major cities…!
Galactica, still strapped in around Babylon 5's waist d̶o̶c̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶m̶i̶d̶s̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ tried to help, but her kinetic kill rounds hadn't been designed to intercept plasma in this way, and had little effect on the staff rounds. "I'm sorry!" She cried. "I can't help here!"
Babylon 5 shook her head. "I know dear, but right now I really need to focus…!"
The three attacking Ha'taks snarled at their attacks being thwarted, and the three spread their fire out, making Babylon 5's already difficult job even harder. Intercept rate at 90%… 80%…! Despite her best efforts, balls of plasma were flying past her, on their way to western Europe. She couldn't fire her interceptors fast enough to keep up with the Ha'taks' combined rate of fire…!
BOOM …(Babylon 5's imagination filled in).
There was an intense flash of heat and light… but not from the Earth's surface.
The three Ha'taks unceremoniously died as one furious battlecruiser emerged from a subspace window, proceeded by three of her remaining Mark III warheads and followed by the still frightened Tel'tak. A patch on her shield was still fading out, the only visible sign of the ramming action that had let her get her so quickly.
"Bastards!" Prometheus snarled, Yamato watching her back. "Did they hit anything?" Please please please say they didn't hit anything…!
Babylon 5 bit a lip, rotating like a ballerina so that she was facing Earth. "I think I got the ones headed for cities… but some of the ones aimed at power stations and such made it through…!"
Prometheus swore, violently, and turned suddenly back to the remaining Ha'tak fleet. "Nobody bombs my planet and lives to brag about it!" She snarled, diving back into the fray. I've got two Mark IIIs left, bastards! Who wants to die first?!
Yamato followed, face grave. Prometheus-san will not appreciate me saying so, but if this is the worst that happens to her Earth this day then she should count herself extremely fortunate.
Babylon 5 bit the inside of a cheek.
One thing that all spacefarers agreed on, whether they were ship or station, messing around with solar sails or time travel, was that planets were really fragile. A decent-sized ship could fall on a planet and that would do it – you'd have another dinosaur extinction. This wasn't something that planetary populations liked to think about, but it was true. Having actual planetary bombardment weaponry only made the crime easier.
Babylon 5 had been built after the Battle of the Line, when the Minbari had been making their final attack on Earth, but it had such an effect on her crew (and galactic politics) that she'd made sure to pay attention every time someone had talked about it. One of the things she remembered was that the riots on Earth – as those trapped on the planet's surface lashed out in panic, knowing there wasn't nearly enough time or ships to get everybody away – had killed almost as many people as the battle in orbit had.
Concentrating hard, Babylon 5 shut her eyes, took a deep breath, and transmitted as hard as she could. It's alright, we've got you. It's alright, we've got you. It's alright, we've got you…!
"Dearie." Galactica admonished. "You're doing that speaking-without-speaking thing again."
"I know, dear." Babylon 5 sighed. She supposed it would have been too much to hope that Galactica hadn't noticed or remembered those times before… "But right now, I really need to focus." She resumed her broadcast, hoping events wouldn't make her a liar.
…and that she didn't accidentally start a cult or two. The Vorlons had long since passed Beyond The Rim, but she felt that they'd somehow manage to get in touch to tell her just how insufferably smug they were if that happened.
About half of the Ha'tak fleet was left at this point. For an Earth fleet this would have been grievous, crippling losses – but that was partially because they cared about the lives of their soldiers. Anubis barely cared about the resource investments that the ships represented.
Still, morale, as it were, was high. Despite their cowardly tactics, the defending fleet was clearly on their last legs, shields depleted. More than that, the deaths of their three scouts had clued the attacking fleet in that they could force the defenders to stand and fight, less they fail in their defence.
"Forwards, sisters!" One of the Ha'taks cried out. "The cowards cannot stop us now!"
"Actually," came a broadcast on a Goa'uld frequency, speaking fluidly in the Goa'uld language "we already have. This battle is over."
The Ha'tak fleet turned as one to see Enterprise floating off to the side of their formation, her hands d̶e̶f̶l̶e̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶h̶ charged with energy and a holographic warning symbol that definitely wasn't a magic circle spread out behind her.
"Fire, sisters! Interrupt the Tau'ri magic –" Another Ha'tak called, but Enterprise was already thrusting her hands forwards. A purple beam shot forwards and into the shield of a Ha'tak in the centre of their formation. That beam spun around the outside of the shield and then leapt off again into the shield of another ship in the formation – on and on until every Ha'tak had been hit by the beam. The beam's glow suddenly brightened, and then was gone.
There was a moment of silence, then when nothing happened beyond their shields still glowing faintly the Ha'taks started to laugh mockingly.
"What pitiful magic the Tau'ri conjure!" A mocking voice called out from the fleet, and Enterprise found herself staring down many, many Staff Weapons C̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶s̶, crackling with charging plasma.
"What exactly was that supposed to do?" Prometheus narrowed her eyes.
Enterprise shook her head, unthreatened. "That polaron particle burst I just sent out established a temporary waveguide conduit between each Ha'tak here. Essentially, every shield they have is now boosting the power of every other shield they have – exponentially."
Prometheus stared in stunned silence for a moment. "You… WHAT?!
Enterprise held up a finger. "Wait for it…"
A volley of Staff fire left the fleet…
…then slowed, stopped, and flew backwards into the Ha'taks, splashing against their shields.
"Wha…" A Ha'tak went to ask, then looked at annoyance at her sister-ship next to her. "Sister, cease moving in my direction. You will collide with me."
"I?" The other Ha'tak replied. "Tis you who are headed towards me!"
Angry shouts went up in the fleet at the realisation that they were all moving towards each other. Desperate attempts to move apart were made, but soon all of the ships were slamming into each other, shield against shield, as the fleet started to resemble a sphere of tightly-packed marbles.
Curiously, unlike when Yamato had scraped shields earlier, there were no fields of recoiling energy as the shields overlapped. In fact, if you looked really closely, the fields of overlapping magnetic shells seemed to squeeze out the plasma, meaning that the shields had holes where they overlapped.
"There's a good reason nobody back home uses plasma shields anymore." Enterprise said, matter-of-factly. "With their shield strength boosted that high, and the fleet drawn in so close, the magnetic containment fields holding the plasma of their shields in also draws in the other ships in the fleet; holding them fast. The particle burst also randomised their shield polarities, in case you're wondering how they have so many magnetic opposites. If they'd all be the same polarity, they'd all be repelling each other instead."
Prometheus shook her head in stunned amazement. "Always trust an Enterprise to pull some technobabble BS out of…" She trailed off. "Aw man. I can't do it. I actually understood half of that! Man, it's hard playing dumb and cracking jokes and being the smart one."
"I do not see a rakugo theatre in your future, no." Yamato said dryly.
"…a what now?" Prometheus blinked.
"Oh!" Enterprise gushed. "It's a fascinating form of Japanese performance art where one actor does multiple roles, seated –"
"And I already don't care." Prometheus interrupted, causing Enterprise to pout then turn away in a huff.
Enterprise, Chimaera mused, had turned the Ha'tak's biggest strength into a crippling weakness with only a few minutes of preparation and the name of the technology involved.
Chimaera had to take Enterprise home with her. Yamato too, if she could incapacitate the both of them. Together, they'd make the Empire unchallengeable.
…or cause it to implode in upon itself. Possibly even on purpose. Hmm. On second thought, maybe she'd let them go.
"Wait a minute." Prometheus suddenly narrowed her eyes. "Where's that mothership?"
"Here!"
The unexpectedly loud shout from Normandy had every ship turning frantically. Next to the scout frigate, frantically waving her arms b̶̶̶r̶̶̶o̶̶̶u̶̶̶d̶̶̶c̶̶̶a̶̶̶s̶̶̶t̶̶̶i̶̶̶n̶̶̶g̶̶̶ ̶̶̶o̶̶̶n̶̶̶ ̶̶̶r̶̶̶a̶̶̶d̶̶̶i̶̶̶o̶̶̶,̶̶̶ ̶̶̶s̶̶̶u̶̶̶b̶̶̶s̶̶̶p̶̶̶a̶̶̶c̶̶̶e̶̶̶ ̶̶̶r̶̶̶a̶̶̶d̶̶̶i̶̶̶o̶̶̶ ̶a̶̶̶n̶̶̶d̶̶̶ ̶t̶i̶g̶h̶t̶b̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶a̶g̶e̶, was Anubis's mothership. She was aiming a gigantic Staff Cannon a̶ ̶c̶o̶-̶a̶x̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶p̶o̶n̶ down at Earth below, power crackling around the opening.
"How did she avoid Enterprise's… whatever that was?!" Chimaera demanded.
"That's Anubis's anti-planet superweapon!" Prometheus gasped. "But how?! SG-1 destroyed the power source for that!"
Enterprise gasped. "Computer! Estimate time until enemy mothership can fire!"
"67 seconds." Came the grim answer, delivered in a far-too-calm tone.
Prometheus swore, and fired her last remaining Mark III warheads – but the mothership had apparently been paying some attention, and destroyed the two missiles well before they reached her with two well-aimed Staff Weapon C̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶ blasts.
Prometheus's frantic cursing was cut off along with her visibility of the mothership, a think cloud of blood b̶e̶l̶l̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶m̶o̶k̶e̶ obscuring her view.
Yamato was charging towards the mothership.
"– repeat, recommend all SGC personnel evacuate ASAP!"
Weir shook her head. She knew that the Anubis superweapon worked by detonating the Stargate of a planet, and letting the explosion of the hundreds of kilograms of naquadah that made up the gate do the work of incinerating the planet's surface. Stargate Command would be ground zero – the only place they could possible evacuate to would be the Alpha Site, and their jury-rigged dialling computer simply wasn't fast enough.
The serviceman sitting at the desk next to her rubbed his chin.
"Huh." He said. "Now that I think about it, does Prometheus's voice sound like her comm officer's – like Lieutenant Pauline's to anyone else?"
Weir sighed, but supposed that 'distracted by pointless inane things' was hardly the worst way to die.
The mothership saw Yamato coming, of course. "You are too late, Tau'ri!" She mocked, firing a flurry of staff blasts at the far smaller ship.
With a rush of pseudomotion, Chimaera appeared between Yamato and the mothership, taking the first round of hits on her much-abused ray shield. "Oh, do shut up." The Star Destroyer snapped. "Your escorts have been rendered irrelevant. Are you really so arrogant to think that one superweapon will win you the day?"
She filed away the sudden snort of laughter from Prometheus as yet another thing to confront the battlecruiser on later.
"You cannot stop me!" The mothership cried, loosing another salvo of staff blasts. "By the Eye of Balor!" She didn't actually have the Eyes of the Goa'uld, but she'd never had the chance to use the Sacred Chant…
Chimaera fired her ion cannons, the blasts of energy colliding with the staff blasts and annihilating both in bright flashes of light. She looked quite bored. "On the contrary, stopping you will be quite simple. Yamato, you may fire when ready."
"I do not need your permission, Chimaera-san." Yamato rebuffed, but formed her finger-gun regardless. "Open wave-motion gun outlet." She muttered under her breath, as streamers of energy began to coalesce into a bright blue ball at her fingertip. "Engine pressure at 20%…"
The ISS had long since stopped being able to make sense of events, but she kept her little camcorder aimed at the action as best she could, in the hopes that someone calmer than her could make heads or tails of what was going on. With a jolt, gravity suddenly flipped on her, and she suddenly found herself flying out of her orbit.
As she spun, she saw that ship that had diverted her orbit before – Normandy, according to the name on her armour h̶u̶l̶l̶ – was now using her magic gravity powers to drag her away from Earth as fast as –
ISS's breath hitched in her throat.
Normandy was dragging her away from Earth, because she might be all Normandy could save.
"By the Eye of Osiris!"
"All energy to wave-motion gun. Initiate forced induction. Engine pressure at 40%."
Out of missiles, Prometheus was reduced largely to a helpless bystander. All she could really do is recharge her shield and watch the battle carefully, ready to jump in and take some shots for someone else if needed.
Behind her, SG-1's Tel'tak shivered in fear. "What are they doing?"
"Anubis is about to kill my planet, and Yamato is charging a…" Prometheus trailed off, apparently just realising what she was saying. "No way… she can't possibly have a real… can she?!"
"By the Eye of Tiamat!"
"Release wave-motion gun safety. Engine pressure at 60%."
"If I could tractor the Ha'tak ball over there, I could use the magnetic field to divert the shot…! No, I'd never make it in time, and I don't even know if magnetism would affect it…!" Enterprise was chewing her bottom lip frantically. She trusted Yamato, but if she wasn't enough…!
"By the Eye of Apophis!"
"Raise target scope. Engine pressure at 80%."
Babylon 5 had one eye on the confrontation and the other one screwed up in concentration. From what she could sense… the feelings of Earth were still primarily confusion and worry and shock and fear, the last from Europe especially. But from Japan there was a definite undercurrent…
… of excitement.
"By the Eye of Ba'al!" Lightning seemed to crackle around the mothership's super-weapon, despite that being impossible in a vacuum.
"Brace for shock and flash. Engine pressure at 100%."
Yamato was in position now, sitting directly between the mothership and Earth. She closed one eye and aimed down her finger-run b̶o̶w̶, targeting the centre-mass of the mothership. With a solid thump, she felt her gravity anchors engage.
Her heart e̶n̶g̶i̶n̶e̶ shuddered as it reached its maximum rated capacity, and then exceeded it. Admiral Okita had always demanded 120% of his crew's capabilities. His ship could give no less.
"By the Eye of Ra, and the power of Anubis, I consign your world to death!"
"Engine pressure at 120%! Fire!"
They couldn't have coordinated it any better if they'd tried. Both ships opened fire nearly simultaneously.
For most it was far too bright to look. The huge beam of blue with a core of white erupted out of Yamato's hands b̶o̶w̶ and rushed towards the mothership…
…who for her part, sent back a reply in the form of an impossible storm of lightning. That jagged line of energy crashed into Yamato's, and the beam of Hawking radiation burst apart like a wave in a pool crashing into the wall. The spread of exotic energy extended out for thousands of kilometres, visible on Earth to the naked eye as a giant purple disk.
The mothership was laughing, watching her line of lightning eat into the wave-motion beam, egging it on, closer and closer, as Yamato watched, grim-faced…
Then both ships ran empty, and the cosmic light-show abruptly ended.
Yamato closed her eyes, inhaled, and exhaled in quiet relief.
The mothership, in contrast, was shaking in rage. "You… you would go this far to defy the will of Lord Anubis…!"
"I would go further than that, mothership-san." Yamato said, tiredly. "Even if this was not my planet, I would – and have – faced far worse than you."
Quietly, Normandy emerged from Yamato's shadow, still dragging the ISS behind her. "Enterprise's trap."
"Hmm? … ah, I see. Arigatou, Normandy-san." Yamato aimed her tri-barrelled pistol f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶u̶r̶r̶e̶t̶ up at the mothership's face. "To charge your weapon faster, you turned your shields off."
The mothership flinched. "Even if I had done so, it is impossible that you would yet have enough power to –"
With a flash of fire, three Type-III shells were spat from Yamato's gun t̶u̶r̶r̶e̶t̶. The mothership briefly went cross-eyed as she stared at the metal shells embedded in her nose p̶e̶l̶'̶t̶a̶k̶.
Her last hate-filled word, spat just before her head p̶e̶l̶'̶t̶a̶k̶ exploded, was "Barbarian…!"
The ball of Ha'taks, obviously, did not take this outcome well.
"They destroyed our mothership!"
"Is Lord Anubis safe?"
"Fool! Nothing can slay a god as powerful as our Lord!"
"The Tau'ri are heretics of the highest order!"
"We must destroy them with such force that the story of their demise is still spoken with fear a thousand years from now!"
"I dunno, it's gonna be hard to top the quintessential big honking space gun. You think she'd let me have one?"
The Ha'taks paused, then turned as one to see Prometheus chilling at the outer edge of the ball. She smirked "Hey, did you notice that your shields have holes where they overlap with each other?"
Her shield was overlapped with those of the Ha'taks next to her, letting her see their faces unobstructed. She'd deliberately gotten herself stuck in Enterprise's trap, having shields that used the same fundamental technology as the Ha'taks did.
As those two Ha'taks next to her hurried to aim their Staff Weapons C̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶s̶, Prometheus kept talking. "Now fortunately for you, I'm out of Mark IIIs. Unfortunately for you, I have a perfectly functional reactor ejection system – I know that from personal experience. It's not the biggest bang, but I think I can get most of you. Want to test?"
Without waiting for a response, Prometheus reached into the folds of her flight suit/space suit fusion, and with only a quick wince of pain pulled out her own beating heart e̶j̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶m̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶e̶.
"Oh and by the way," Prometheus continued, enjoying the shocked expressions on the Ha'taks even if doing that had hurt like a– "I know that our shields aren't magic. So I know that I can do this."
She released her heart r̶e̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶e̶ and let it be pulled in by the magnetic fields. Once it was clear of her shield radius, she inverted the polarity of her own shield. The force that had been pulling her in was suddenly pushing her back, and once clear Prometheus hurriedly shut off her shields and put all of her remaining power into her thrusters, fleeing as fast as she could.
Last time she'd done this, her reactor core had been filled with Naquadria. With only Naquadah this time, the explosion would be much smaller, but…!
There was a bright flash as the core detonated.
Then several more as the nearby Ha'taks also exploded.
Then even more as those explosions destroyed more Ha'taks.
Focused inwards by their own shields, the blasts bounced around the ball of marbles, turning them white and yellow and glowing brightly.
Then it was over. There were no survivors.
Enterprise didn't say anything as she surveyed the destruction, but her eyes were furious.
What Enterprise didn't see, however, was that there was in fact one Goa'uld survivor. Well… whether he was a Goa'uld anymore was debatable.
Still, the shade of Anubis made its way through space. The leftover remnants of a horrible monster, half-Ascended, fumed as he pushed himself forwards.
Filled with confusion and rage, the shade's eyes were locked firmly on what they now coveted – Space Battleship Yamato. The shade wished nothing more than to take Yamato as their own, destroy the Tau'ri with their own ship, and then continue on their quest to destroy all life in the universe.
Its mood was not improved when it slammed into Yamato's skin h̶u̶l̶l̶, and was repelled by a form of energy it couldn't fathom as being here.
Yamato looked down at the shade, her expression dark. "I suppose that you cannot be anything other than this Anubis that these ships have followed to their death? I have been possessed by kami before, monster. And compared to her? There is no comparison."
With a flash of light, Babylon 5 jumped in next to Yamato. "You caught an Older Race member outside their encounter suit? …amazing. Still, if I may?" The normally soft-spoken station's voice was hard. "I have a better use for him."
Yamato agreed with a curt nod, watching the shade of Anubis wearily.
For her part, Babylon 5 knew that no cage of iron or steel would hold Anubis. So she captured him with faith and ideals instead.
"There's no Soul Hunter around to save you, little lost soul." Babylon 5 said, as though speaking funeral rites. From the folds of her dress, the station drew out a mess of wires that joined together into a clamp that she attached over Galactica's right hand.
"Wait, dearie, what are you…" Galactica started protesting.
"Like I said, dear." Babylon 5 interrupted. "I'm putting him to better use."
Normally, trying to kill an ascended with the Energy Transfer Device – a.k.a. the Alien Healing Machine – would be like trying to drain a lake by drinking it through a straw. It just… wasn't going to work.
Not unless the lake had already been drained to near emptiness beforehand.
Say, the 'lake' was a half-ascended who had just had their physical body blown to bits.