Boyzilla: Yes, I admit that Hakuno's position is somewhat complex. Normally, I'd say it's going to take a lot of fingering to get out unharmed, but... it's Hakuno! She's just going to be so adorable that everyone's going to think she's harmless. But at the right time, our cute main protagonist will instantly understand what to do. Therein lies her paradox, she always seems very naive (and she IS very naive)... but in fact, in an instant she learns more than anyone else. Remember what Leo said about her in Fate Extra? Hakuno is the epitome of innate talent.
edson. Izani: I center each episode on the character(s) most likely to lead us to where the action is. We won't see Gilgamesh in this episode either... but don't worry. On his next appearance, he will change the course of the entire Milky Way history. Well, it's Gilgamesh... Once again, he will not settle for second place!
Akashic Silhouette: I'm French.
Ultimate Warrior of Zera: I think like you. Hakuno is not really a "super cute anime protagonist" (she is the protagonist of a fighting game that requires having excellent memory and intuition to discover a flaw in the rival Servant techniques)... But it is also a mistake that all the protagonists of the Extraverse make with a few exceptions (Leo). In fact, she has a steel heart and always finds a solution to win. Underestimating Hakuno is a mistake one makes once, maybe twice but no one has ever made that mistake three times... simply because there is no living person who survived two battles against Hakuno!
Author note: Thank you, everyone, for your constant support, remarks, and explanations.
Might of the Asgards
Pegasus Galaxy, near black hole GW234688
A hyperspatial window suddenly opened.
The next moment, a spaceship came out, suddenly slowing down, almost seeming to freeze in the cosmic vacuum.
It was an Aurora-class battleship recognizable by its sleek and symmetrical appearance, with a "chunky" overall appearance, being lined with arrays of weapons turrets, reinforcing plates, windows, and other systems. Parallel to the main hull, there was a kind of arm attached to the section of the laboratories. The front of the arm was occupied by the long-range sensor arrays.
The vessel was the Persephone, an Asuran spaceship.
The bridge of the Persephone was a large room with white walls. Diffusers of light installed on the walls and ceiling created a bright light without generating shadows.
Between two metal pillars, the captain was seated in his rotating chair in the middle of consoles grouped together to form a crescent moon.
The other officers were set up in front of him, just under the windows revealing the cosmic void. Some were standing at their posts, others were sitting. A number of crew members were gathered behind them, looking at the holographic screens floating above certain consoles or along the walls.
All were dressed in white uniforms, except for the guards in brown and beige jumpsuits standing at attention on both sides of the entrance.
Hearing the sound of the front door opening, Liem turned the command chair and smiled at the newcomers.
"Hakuno, Thena, thank you for joining us."
Kishinami nodded and approached the officers chirping on the crystal buttons of his console. She looked through the wide front window, without showing any emotion in spite of the impressive vision. A formidable bluish whirlwind was spinning into nothingness. Its center was a black sphere, an ebony ball without any reflection, the entrance of a chasm literally without a bottom.
"This is black hole GW234688?"
Liem straightened himself, pressed a few buttons in front of him, and made appear a map of the galaxy... written in English.
"We've decoded the Tau'ri's coordinate system... It was hardly difficult since they used Lanteans' maps." He pointed to the dark disc that distorted the light of the stars around him. It's definitely GW234688. In fact, the data received by our short-range detectors also matches your memories, Hakuno."
The Last Master of the Moon had a perfect memory and had been on the bridge of the Sirius. She had looked at the indications of the measuring devices... It was enough for Thena and Liem to ask her a few questions so that she could recite without making a single mistake a sequence of information as relevant as the mass of the black hole, its kinetic movement, and its electric charge (1).
One of the officers pressed a few crystal buttons on his keyboard.
A holographic screen appeared in front of the canopy, showing a local map of GW234688 and its surroundings. Various objects slowly revolved around him, some fragments of a destroyed planet... but also wrecks of several hundred spaceships! A major space battle had taken place in a black hole orbit ten thousand years earlier.
"The black hole is about 900 meters in diameter. It's impossible with our energy reserves to set us free of the gravitational trap if we approach within ten kilometers of the event horizon."
"Now it's time to find the Sirius."
The head of the detection department nodded but showed little enthusiasm in his response.
"The black hole jams our sensors. Their operation is well below the nominal parameters."
Thena took the floor.
"Let's look first at wrecks that meet the specificities of Lantean technology, let's automatically eliminate wrecks using Wraith biotechnology. Then look for those wrecks that are still powered."
Liem agreed.
"Those are good proposals. Does anybody want to add something?"
"Call."
Several officers turned to Hakuno to look at her with surprise, doubtless wondering what she meant. At that time, it was difficult not to notice that she was truly apart of the crew of the Persephone. First because of her apparent age, but also because she was still wearing her brown school uniform.
Thena blinked.
"Call? Call who?"
"Call the Sirius."
Only Liem understood what she says.
"Hakuno is right. Sirius' onboard computer and transmitter are still working. If we call it, it will answer."
"At short range, in any case. Transmitters and receivers are as jammed by the black hole as our sensors" recalled Thena.
"But it's worth a try," said Liem, who turned to Hakuno to thank her with a smile.
Seeing her rival position himself as the defender of the girl annoyed Thena:
"It's not like I said otherwise. I just wanted to say that this method will only work at short range. This will not exempt us from a lengthy inspection of wrecks."
"There's no need to risk us closer to the black hole."
Liem manipulated some controls, bending the trajectory of the Persephone to put the ship into a distant orbit.
"We've got 12 jumpers on board. Let's send them in as scouts."
After the departure of the shuttles, several minutes passed in tense silence. The officers watched the screens relaying what the scouts saw. The images became increasingly blurred. Finally, they were replaced by pixilated fragments impossible to interpret. Before...
"All communications have been cut off."
The detection officer manipulated the controls in front of him.
"We're not even picking up the power signature of the Jumpers' thrusters."
"It was to be expected," Liem murmured.
All the officers suspected that the exploration of the wreck cemetery would be long. But they did not have long to wait, in fact...
A small sphere of golden light appeared among the debris. The officer in charge of the sensors had a very human reaction, frowning before changing the sensor settings.
"It's... an explosion" he confirmed.
"Position?"
"Where Jumper 3 was supposed to be, at least if it continued as planned. One moment... self-propelled objects approaching... they are Darts!"
A dozen techno-organic fighters appeared, emerging behind asteroids and shipwrecks. Their hulls were blue-grey and had an organic appearance with a rounded stern with two short wings. Their bow was like a long needle.
The space fighters rushed toward the Persephone and opened fire, spitting short bursts of high-frequency plasma projectiles.
The blue shots struck the shield of Persephone, which ceased to be invisible to appear as a translucent brown bubble.
Liem showed an emotion: anger.
"Let's get out of here!"
"But" began Hakuno Kishinami "we cannot abandon the Jumpers and their crews!"
The Last Master then frowned, realizing that the subspacial information exchanged by the nanites was dominated by two priority orders: First the hatred of the Wraith, a program implemented by the Lanteans to make them weapons to destroy their enemies. But also simpler programming, a very direct order "Never attack the Wraith!"
At first glance, it seemed like an absurd contradiction. Except that the ban on attacking came from the Wraith themselves. They hacked the nanobots and modified their programming, making them incapable of harming them. Obviously, there was no reciprocity to the 'forced pacifism' of the Asurans. The vampiric aliens did not hesitate to attack the Pegasus Replicators when the presence of the latter inconvenienced them.
Seeing the anger and frustration of the Replicators, forced to abandon their brothers and flee without even being able to defend themselves, Hakuno made her decision in an instant. The Asurans have been bullied since their creation. By the Lanteans first, and now by the Wraith. It wasn't fair!
The Last Master approached the mainframe... which was also a communication relay between all the Asurans onboard the Persephone.
"Code Cast: Hack!"
The Wraiths Fighters had just changed direction and were returning to the Persephone.
Already, the fighters at the forefront of the formation opened fire. The blue-white energy projectiles struck the shield of the Aurora-class battleship.
The pilots, masked and muscular Wraiths, followed their queen's orders with a mechanical detachment. Like ants, they had virtually no individuality... Ironically, though alive, they were more machines than the crew of the ship they were attacking. Because the Asurans had human-like personalities and were therefore capable of emotions.
For thousands of years, the encounters between the Wraiths and the Asurans had always been the same. It was some kind of routine. The Replicators would flee and the Wraith would let them go... the artificial creatures having no vital energy, they did not interest the vampiric aliens.
Except, in a totally unexpected way...
The batteries of the Pulse Weapons of the Persephone went wild, spitting out bursts of golden projectiles.
Two Darts exploded immediately. The eight survivors dispersed, initiating evasive maneuvers. But they were not saved, however, objects began to come out of various airlocks and deployed in pursuit of the Wraiths' fighters.
Like missiles painted green with four fins in the back, they were Hunter-Killer drones. They were different from conventional drones. These were autonomous mini-fighters piloted by AIs and armed with two low-caliber Pulse Weapons.
A fierce space battle began between the HK drones and the Darts.
Kishinami uttered a cry of surprise when Thena lifted her to hold her.
"That's fantastic Hakuno! Bravo!"
Liem and the other Asurans joined the cheers of joy.
The young Japanese girl hadn't just erased the programming forbidding the Replicators to attack the Wraith... she had also freed them from the hatred implemented by their creators.
Of course, only the Asurans on the Persephone were freed... for now. But as soon as they return to Asuras, they could make an update of the programming of all Replicators to set them to their new standard!
At that moment, an era in the history of the Pegasus Galaxy came to an end. After 10,000 years of undivided rule, the Wraiths were once again at war.
Milky Way, the orbit of Abydos.
The Prometheus has almost the same design as an Earth naval aircraft carrier, having a long nose with a visible bridge area near the rear of the vessel.
The Deep Space Battlecruiser BC-303, the second Tau'ri spacecraft (after the X-302, a modified Death Glider) was mostly the first spacecraft built entirely on Earth (although her shields, detectors, her hyperdrive, and Transporters were Asgard ones).
Dressed in a blue jumpsuit adorned on the shoulder of the SGC crest and the Prometheus crest at the heart's location, Colonel Lionel Pendergast was seated in the command chair. He was a man whose face was still young but whose hair had early bleached.
"Detection, where is this damn Ha'tack?! Can you find her?"
The detection officer on the right of Pendergast, his post facing one of the bulkheads, tried to adjust his sensors, but he only picked up the confused waves emitted by the stars of the Milky Way.
"I'm sorry, Commander. Even the Asgard sensors seem unable to find an occulted ship!"
As soon as it arrived in orbit, the Ha'tak attacking Abydos had become translucent, taking a strange pink-violet color before disappearing... the ships of this model (like all the ships that had belonged to the Sokar fleet) had been equipped with a cloaking system, which allowed them to become invisible at will.
Pendergast sighed. The idea of having an invisible starship looming nearby was not particularly pleasant. But the opponent was a mere Transport Ha'tack, the Prometheus had much better shields, and the railguns constituting her main armament were very effective against this type of opponent.
Pendergast turned to the communications officer.
"Call Major Mitchell (2) and have him join us in orbit as soon as he eliminates the Death Gliders!"
Indeed, the main danger represented by a Ha'tak was her squadrons of space fighters and Al'kesh heavy bombers. In a coordinated assault, they could overwhelm the Prometheus' defenses.
For a few minutes, almost complete silence reigned over the bridge. Conversations were limited to tactical exchanges of information. The eyes were turned to the screens insensitive to the beauty of Abydos and its moons on the velvet sown with all the stars of the cosmos.
"Colonel O'Neill requests permission to come aboard with the rest of the SG-1 team."
"Granted!" Pendergast turned to the officer in charge of the Transporter. "Locate the implants of SG-1 and beamed them up to the bridge."
"Yes Sir!"
A white light lit up the empty space in front of the helmsman and gunner's chairs. When the officers were able to accommodate their view, they distinguished four silhouettes that had just appeared in front of the main canopy. A blonde woman, a man with glasses, an older man, and a Jaffa. They were all dressed in desert camouflage.
Jack O'Neill lowered his sunglass before looking around as if he were surprised to be there. Recognizing the officer who had just left his chair, he raised his hand to his forehead to salute.
"Colonel Pendergast.
"Colonel O'Neill."
The commander of the Prometheus turned to the only woman among their visitors.
"Major Carter."
Then the commander reached out to Daniel.
"Doctor Jackson."
After shaking the hand of the archaeologist, he bowed to the Jaffa who replied in the same way.
"Teal'c."
"It's a no-fault, Lionel. You didn't give Daniel a military salute, or shake hands with Teal'c, before bowing your head to Sam."
Little accustomed to Jack's humor, Pendergast replied with a somewhat awkward smile.
"Prometheus is often used as a diplomatic ship. I'm getting used to it."
The captain of the Battlecruiser summarized the situation and Sam listened carefully. She nodded.
"I'll see if I can help the detection team to find the occulted mothership."
"Thank you, Major."
Leaning over the shoulder of the detection officer, Samantha Carter had just begun her explanation of how the Asgard sensors work, when the radar sounded a light beep.
Several orange dots appeared on the screen.
"Echoes approaching... nature... they're still too far away to know. They come from the 088."
The radio got hold of one of his headphones.
"I'm getting a radio frequency. Wait... It's Goa'uld!"
"In audio," replied Pendergast, turning to him.
Switching a tiny lever, the radio obeyed. Immediately, the bridge speakers broadcast a message:
"Shel kek nem ron."
Daniel frowned.
"I can translate this as 'I die free now'. But... why do I feel like I've heard this somewhere?"
Teal'c bowed slightly in front of the archaeologist.
"Because it's a Free Jaffa password."
Moving towards the radio, Teal'c flipped a switch.
"Jaffa, what is your god?"
There was a brief silence before a laugh answered.
"The Goa'uld are parasites, not gods."
All members of SG-1 recognized the voice that had just sounded, especially Teal'c. The jaffa smiled at his old friend.
"Tal'ma'te Bra'tak."
"Tal'ma'te Teal'c, it pleases your old master to hear your voice again!"
O'Neill turned to the commander of the Prometheus.
"Bra'tak is one of the leaders of the Free Jaffa and a reliable ally."
"I understand," replied Pendergast while turning to the artillery officer. "They are allies. Don't shoot."
On the radar screens, the spots representing the approaching spaceships changed from orange (unknown, probably enemy) to blue (allies). When they reached visual identification, the crew of the Battlecruiser recognized Death Gliders, two squadrons.
Having approached the communication console, Jack pressed the transmit button.
"Well, Bra'tak, what brings you here?"
" Apophis' machinations, O'Neill, as always!"
"Oh? That doesn't explain how you got here."
"Aboard one of the Ha'tak of the Apophis fleet. I still have well-placed friends in the army of the false god, and I have managed to recruit about 40 Free Jaffa as Death Gliders pilots."
"The Apophis fleet? Is Apophis here?"
"Him, no, but Zipacna is here with six Ha'tak."
The members of SG-1 exchanged worried looks, this minor Goa'uld lord was totally devoted to Apophis and particularly cunning. He had almost managed to take Tollana through a scheme outsmarted by Teal'c and the Nox Lya.
"It's always a pleasure to see Zippy again. We have so much fun with him. I hope to thank him with an armful of flowers this time... to bloom his headstone" Jack whispered.
"Colonel, Commander!"
That was Sam.
"I was able to set the sensors to detect the Goa'uls Cloaking Devices. There are six ships around us, and they're closing in. They surrounded us!"
The space around the Prometheus was streaked with bursts of bluish or golden projectiles. Swarms of Death Gliders swirled and fired while plunging toward the BC-303. Some exploded, caught by railgun fire. Further on, the F-302 and Free Jaffa's space fighters faced their brothers still serving Apophis in a shooting-streaked melee where an explosion occasionally bloomed.
Nevertheless, the Prometheus continued to advance. Sent in pursuit of the Tau'ri's spaceship, two Transport Ha'taks and one Apophis Ha'tak fired constantly. In front, there was another Transport Ha'tak. It also opened fire!
Shaken by an impact, Pendergast clung to the armrests of his command chair. From the ceiling, sheaves of sparks burst forth.
"Switch to missile fire."
The railguns stopped firing for a moment as the silos of the 12 VLS missile tubes opened.
Fired in rapid succession, the missiles left vertically before their trajectory curved, now heading in the direction of their target. Each nuclear missile was an improved version of an ICBM like those used on Earth: the explosion of a powerful conventional explosive, initiated the chain reaction of a load of fissionable material. Nevertheless, each warhead contained a few grams of naqadah... enough to dramatically increase the explosive power of each missile.
Two missiles were shot down by the Ha'tak Staff Weapons...
A blue-white light blinded the officers on the bridge of the Prometheus despite the optical filters automatically clouding the front window.
When they saw again, an expanding plasma sphere had replaced the Ha'tak. There were cries of joy. Unfortunately, a violent shock shook the bridge... an officer was thrown to the ground as a console exploded. Hit by several simultaneous shots, the Asgard shield fluctuated.
"Shield at 60%!"
"Two new Ha'taks approaching at 227° and 150°!"
Despite the destruction of a Mothership, there were still five... far too many for a single BC-303 to handle.
Suddenly, Sam straightened up. She had replaced the officer in charge of the sensors and quickly manipulated the sliders to change detector sensitivity.
"Hyperspace window! It's an... Asgard energy signature?!"
A huge spaceship like made of mercury with smooth and curving lines had just come out of hyperspace just behind the Prometheus. It was the result of a bold maneuver that spoke volumes about the qualities of the crew. Interposing between the BC-303 and her pursuers, the Asgard's O'Neill-class ship received several shots aimed at the Tau'ri's ship. Her stern shields vibrated under the fire of the three pursuing ships, but she seemed completely unaffected
At the same time, her four Ion guns started shooting at one of the Ha'tak that was trying to intercept the Prometheus.
The shields of the Goa'uld ship materialized in the form of a golden half-sphere. The Mothership accelerated and veered to take distance while fighting back. Nevertheless, the Asgards wouldn't let go of their prey and adjusted their shots accordingly.
One, two, three times they hit their target... on the fourth shot, the Ha'tak's shields fluctuated one last time before collapsing.
The O'Neill-class ship continued to fire and two more shots struck the central tetrahedron. The first impact created a deep melted crater in the hull. While several secondary explosions ravaged the ship's interior. On the second shot, the pyramid seemed to swell as if something was growing inside. Then burning gases blew out the central part while the superstructures disintegrate under the pressure of the expanding plasma sphere. A moment later, there was nothing left of the Transport Ha'tak other than ionized gas which was already beginning to cool.
Not content with a single victory, the Asgard were already aiming for the second Ha'tak.
The Mothership was accelerating and maneuvering, trying to escape the ionic projectiles surrounding her. But this proved to be in vain, the O'Neill-class ship had accurate detectors, she maneuvered almost as well as her opponent and her weaponry was incomparably superior. The second Ha'tak exploded after receiving only six shots.
There was still one Apophis Ha'tak (well recognizable by her cup-shaped superstructures and her hull that seemed made of bronze) and two other Transport Ha'Taks. Without trying to fight an enemy too strong for them, they had just accelerated and... fled.
Except that the first O'Neill had not come alone. Three other ships went out of hyperspace. Two had an outer hull made of some sort of solidified mercury and were of the same class as the first Asgard ship. The third had a dark hull and a more block-like appearance: a Bilskirnir-class ship. Although an older design and less heavily armed one, she was still a formidable warship more than capable against ships of the Goa'uld's fleet.
The three spaceships attacked immediately.
The space was crossed in all directions by energetic projectiles. The Staff Weapons projectiles looked like droplets of golden light. They hit the Asgard shields and dissipated immediately. On the contrary, the Asgard Ion Guns fired much heavier projectiles, shining with a dazzling blue-white light. Every time a shot crashed on a Goa'uld shield, it radiated into a vast golden half-sphere that trembled...barely withstanding the impact.
Jack O'Neill was watching the Ha'taks being destroyed one by one...
"I think I can safely say that the Goal'uld upset the wrong person!"
"Indeed, Colonel, it is a unilateral massacre," replied Carter. "The Asgard technology is far too advanced. The Goa'uls are completely overwhelmed. It's a bit like..."
The astrophysicist hesitated, looking for a comparison that O'Neill could understand. Daniel helped her.
"... like Hernán Cortés facing the Aztecs?"
"Exactly horsemen with harquebus and steel armors, facing naked warriors armed with stone clubs!"
On Abydos surface
The Marines turned to the sky, surprised to hear the thunder rumbling. And, indeed, a huge mass of grey cloud had suddenly appeared in the azure. White flashes appeared here and there in the cottony mass that swelled ever more. However, the storms were extremely rare on Abydos.
The Jaffas had suddenly stopped attacking and retreated in disorder.
They understood what was happening, and it caused a real panic. The Tau'ri heard them screaming:
"Reenlokia, Reenlokia!"
"What does that mean, Reenlokia," a Marine asked when he lowered his M-16.
His neighbor shrugged without answering... he did not speak Goa'uld, otherwise, he would have known that this was the name they gave to the Asgards!
Two huge masses gradually emerged from the stormy clouds. And this time the Marines recognized two Bilskirnirs.
With a sound resembling the furious hum of millions of bees, the Asgards began to shoot into the mass of fleeing Jaffa. The white rays they used looked like Transporter Beams ... As a matter of fact, it was the same principle. The deathray disintegrated its target at the atomic scale and threw its atoms into hyperpace. Except that there was no receiver at the other end to restore the Jaffa to their original form...
Slowly, heavily, majestically the Bilskirnirs flew over the battlefield. The weapon turrets beneath the hull were firing dazzling rays of white light. Wrapped in the white beams, the Jaffa disappeared one group after another. Disbanding and running in all directions, the Apophis' warriors hoped to get away or hide, in the hope of escaping their ruthless opponents. But the Asgards sensors guiding the deathrays were set to the vital frequency of the symbiotes. They would hunt them down to the last.
"SG-1 prepares to be transferred aboard the Haüstlong."
O'Neill turned to the officer in charge of the radio.
"The... what? It's a ship of ...
But it was cut by the bright light that enveloped the four members of the SG team.
... the Asgards?"
He ended his sentence in a completely different environment, a vast oblong room on two levels. Asgards terminals were lined along the exterior wall and the catwalks that circled the room upstairs. A ray of light (a degravitation beam) passing through the middle of a ring in the center of the catwalks connected the two levels. Several Asgards were walking slowly from one point to another. The atmosphere was calm, almost silent, except for a slight hum.
"Welcome aboard the Haüstlong."
The one who had just spoken was an ordinary-looking Asgard (a classical Roswell Gray). Standing, he would have measured one meter. He had grey skin, a huge head, black eyes, and slender limbs like a child.
Sitting in a grey metal chair with many built-in systems, he was only a few meters from where the members of SG-1 had been beamed.
Enthusiastic, O'Neill approached him with his arms wide open... he had of course recognized their interlocutor, even if it was difficult to distinguish one of these Aliens from another.
"Very good job Thor, you beat them up! I had long dreamt of seeing the Asgards ass-kicked this damned snakes!"
Slowly blinking, Thor - the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet- answered without being wary of the slangy formulation.
"Indeed, the Asgard High Council has long wanted to do something to protect the inhabitants of your galaxy. It was a great shame for us to be unable to help you. I'm glad we were finally able to intervene."
Daniel frowned.
"Wait, I remember you couldn't intervene because of your war against the Replicators."
"That's right, Daniel Jackson, except the Replicators suddenly evacuated the Othala Galaxy. We suspect they have headed for the Milky Way."
"Here," exclaimed Sam. "But why?"
Thor blinked slowly twice and raised a finger.
"We've come to ask you to answer this very same question, Major Samantha Carter."
"Me?"
"Have you forgotten? The current leader of the Replicators is this humanoid that Colonel O'Neill nicknamed 'RepliCarter'. Her appearance and mental patterns are copies of yours, Major Carter. So you are the person most capable of understanding your alter-ego's reasoning."
Author's Note: While the Pegasus Replicators has just gone to war with the Wraiths, the Othala Replicators were invading the Milky Way! While the Asgards attack Apophis!
This is a chapter full of upheavals!
The peoples of three galaxies are on the path of war.
(1) In fact, these are the only three parameters that make sense for a black hole. If you want to understand why, you have to read the "No-hair theorem".
(2) Yes, the same Cameron Mitchell (in a parallel universe) who became a colonel after Anubis' defeat in Antarctica and then was appointed to command SG-1. But it's in a parallel universe...