Robotech: The Stargate Saga
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: Well here we are the second part of the Battle of Elysium. Hopefully you all enjoy it. Finally my thanks to Inquisitor over on spacebattles for the idea of the name for the breaching pod mentioned later in the chapter.
Chapter Nineteen
War Room
Beneath Hades Palace
Elysium
Standing before the situation table in the war room Hades watched the battle taking place between his forces and the invading Zentraedi fleet. He had quickly come down here from the throne room after Commander Neleya had refused his generous offer to leave, arriving just in time to see the clash between the Zentraedi scout ships and those gliders and frigates that Charon had dispatched to intercept them. To say that he was displeased by the outcome would have been an understatement as while they had stopped the enemy reconnaissance force said force had destroyed most of that initial force of gliders with a volley of missiles that was so large it had frankly been ridiculous.
Though what he found even more frightening was the way that the five Nar'kesh frigates – the development and deployment of which had done so much to somewhat revolutionise space combat among the Goa'uld – had been destroyed or disabled. The Zentraedi capital ships had opened up on them with a storm of energy beams that – from sensors feeds from both Charon's fleet and the defence platforms over Elysium – were a combination of some type of charged particle beams and lasers. Given the size of the enemy capitals the size of the barrage hadn't been that surprising, though the power of said beams was deeply concerning as nobody known to the Goa'uld this side of the Asgard had ever been seen to possess weapons with those kind of power levels before not even the likes of the Tollan or the Serrakin, what had been surprising and terrifying was the sheer range of the beams.
For thousands of years the Goa'uld – and indeed every spacefaring race known to them even the Asgard – had worked on the basis that energy weapons were relatively short ranged; the blasts being only able to travel ninety thousand to a hundred and ten thousand kilometres. Beyond those ranges the bolts or beams from an energy weapon – be they plasma weapons like those of the Goa'uld and Serrakin or particle weapons like Asgard and Tollan weapons – rapidly lost all cohesion and dissipated. It had long been one of those immutable laws of physics that defined when and how you could fight, especially in space. Now it appeared that that law was not as absolute as it always had been. The reason being that the Zentraedi had opened fire upon his frigates at three hundred thousand kilometres more than twice the range of any energy-based weapon ever encountered before.
Hades had absolutely no idea how that was possible. He was however looking forward to finding out as he didn't doubt that once they defeated these Zentraedi interlopers Thanatos would have little trouble investigating their technology from the wreckage of their admittedly impressive ships. He would especially have him focus on the weapons systems as reverse engineering whatever technology they had that let them project beams so unthinkably far would be a huge boon to his forces. With that technology under their control then who knew what might become possible, he might even stand a chance at finally getting his long sought after revenge upon Cronus and maybe, just maybe, even more.
Silently he scolded himself and shook off those thoughts before he could start fantasising about what he would be able to do, the mighty empire he might be able to build, with the Zentraedi weapons technology under his command. They still had a battle to win to even begin acquiring that technology and he was experienced enough at war to know that victory was never certain until the very end of a battle. So he simply stood and watched the holographic status display as thousands of miles above his head Charon's fleet crossed an invisible line in space…
…and the Zentraedi opened fire.
Pale blue charged particle beams and the blueish-white lasers erupted from the weapons arrays of the leading wave of Zentraedi warships as the gunnery crews obeyed the latest order from Commander Neleya to open fire as soon as the Goa'uld fleet entered cannon range. Travelling at light speed the lasers were the first to slam into the approaching wave of Goa'uld ships making their shields flare into visibility as they resisted the intense streams of supercharged photons.
The leading Goa'uld ships shuddered under the fire but kept coming, the conformal shields around the frigates and the older bubble-style shields around the Ha'tak – which couldn't be fitted with the newer shield system without needing an extensive refit – glowing but weathering the storm fairly well. Then the slightly slower, but far more devastating, particle beams arrived ripping into the energy fields with searing force. Heedless of the relentless barrage battering at there shields the Goa'uld ships continued their charge, aiming to get the Zentraedi into the range of their own guns to begin hitting back.
A second barrage slammed into the Goa'uld then a third even larger barrage as the fleet entered the range of standard particle cannons alongside the heavy cannons. It was the third barrage of laser and particle cannon fire that claimed the first casualties of this phase of the battle as the shields on one of the Ha'tak and two of the Nar'kesh failed in a blaze of photonic pyrotechnics as they were overpower allowing particle beams and lasers to impact the hulls. Immediately all three ships erupted into titanic fireballs as the naquada in their hulls, which normally easily absorbed the heat and kinetic force of plasma weapons allowing a ship to remain fighting even when shields failed, amplified and conduct the disruptive force of the particle beams even as it suddenly catastrophically destabilized.
Charon's Mothership
Sitting on his pel'tac throne Charon scowled as he observed three of his ships explode as their shields failed and the Zentraedi particle beams cut into them. He had no idea what was causing the ships to do that whenever the particle beams hit them as the effect was very different to what happened when they were only hit with lasers. This battle was not going anywhere near as well as he would have liked, as he was still nearly two minutes from weapons range, and he'd already lost three ships.
Fresh explosions erupted a moment before a rumbling boom echoed through the ship as well as sympathetic shudder in the deck as the artificial gravity field fluctuated as a fourth volley of Zentraedi particle and laser cannon fire slammed into his ships. This time the victims were a pair of Ha'tak their older style shields not weathering the beam assaults anywhere near as well as the newer shields like those on this ship and on the Nar'kesh were.
"Time to weapons range," he asked as the ship shuddered again. "Shield status?"
"One minute my lord," Kel'nor reported immediately as the ship shook again. "Shields are currently holding at ninety percent. Curious my lord the enemy appears to be only targeting us with their lasers, which our shields can withstand far more effectively than the particle beams."
Curious why would they be doing that, Charon thought knowing that militarily it would make far more sense to focus particle beam fire on this ship. After all it was a general rule in combat that you tended to destroy the biggest ships first, they generally had the most powerful weapons after all as well as being the place where the fleet commander was usually found. Thus tactically destroying the biggest ship first was usually the way to go. The fact that this Commander Neleya wasn't doing that was thus somewhat curious. It was almost like she wanted to disable his ship with her lasers and not outright destroy it.
Then he realized that was exactly what she wanted to do. The Zentraedi wanted to disable his ship so they could board it, capture him and take him back with them so they could remove him from this body. He growled softly as he would never let them do that no Goa'uld would. Humans existed to serve them as slaves and hosts, any who tried to escape that destiny would die. Another shudder through the deck brought him out of his thoughts and he glanced at the tactical display to see that another Ha'tak and three more Nar'kesh had been destroyed with one of each falling out of formation trailing debris and venting atmosphere.
"Ten seconds to firing range my lord," Kel'nor reported.
"Excellent prepare to fire main guns as soon as we enter range. Instruct Lord Orpheus to jump in behind the Zentraedi one minute from now."
"Yes, my lord."
"What's the status of our gliders and bombers?"
"They're hanging behind us my lord they will engage the enemy within seconds of us doing so."
"Good," Charon replied with a pleased smile that the Jaffa pilots had thought to use the shields and mass of their ships as cover against the incoming storm of high intensity energy beams – which would easily vaporise even a Nal'kesh heavy bomber as its shields just weren't strong enough to repel beams with these power levels - while they got into firing range.
"My lord we are within firing range. One of the main cannon batteries has a target lock."
"Fire!"
At the very extreme tip of one of the four points where the vaguely diamond-shaped superstructure that surrounded the pyramidal core of the Sha'ha'tak a pair of massively oversized staff cannons began to crackle and glow. Before, with a brilliant flash, first one cannon discharged, then half a second later its companion both unleashing bolts of plasma comparable in size to an Al'kesh bomber. Half a second later the first cannon fired again, then the second half a second later. Both cannons firing a further two times before there energy reserve was depleted.
Like bolts of malignant golden lightening the massive plasma bolts sliced across space and within seconds the first bolt contacted the forward hull of a Tou Redir-class frigate. A brilliant flash of light erupted as the Zentraedi armour absorbed the intense heat and energy of the bolt, a plume of ejecta erupting forth as melting ablative armour broke off into space exactly as it was designed to do. The Zentraedi vessel shuddered under the force of the blast but before the crew could react to it the second bolt arrived, burning away more of their armour, and sending a shockwave rippling through the hull. The third bolt arrived burning away the final layer of ablative armour allowing the fourth bolt to slice into the hull. Gas and debris flew into space from the resulting breach in the hull even as emergency bulkhead doors slammed closed isolating the breached area off from the rest of the ship.
It did little to help for at that moment the fifth bolt arrived, slicing deep into the interior of the Zentraedi vessel melting and burning everything in its path before its force was absorbed. The sixth bolt arrived passing down the passage already ripped deep into the bowels of the Zentraedi vessel by the previous blast, where it ultimately sliced into then through the reflex furnaces powering the vessel. No longer contained the organically based quantum energy and antimatter-particle infused plasma produced as a by-product of the primary reaction phase burst outwards smashing solid matter apart, wiping away anything and everything in its path so completely that it was like they had never existed at all. The hull, suddenly deprived of key supporting structures, collapsed momentarily in upon itself before meeting the explosion coming the other way and being instantly both disintegrating and being blown away as a fiery cloud of superheated plasma and torn metallic fragments.
The remaining two bolts passing right through the cloud having nothing left to impact.
Zentraedi Battlecruiser XL-17401
What in Zor's name was that, Commander Neleya thought as she stared at the spreading cloud of plasma and dust that had once been frigate ZKL-994167. A frigate that had been just torn from the sky by a series of massive energy bolts launched from the Goa'uld flagship. She had known from the battle between Captain Serval and Lord Solec over Linkotis that the Goa'uld were a formidable species with plasma-based energy weapons that – while they might be somewhat more primitive than their own particle and laser weapons – were definitely not something to sneer at power wise. However, nothing had prepared her for the Goa'uld having weapons like that.
She didn't have much time to think about what that could mean for fighting this enemy. For at that moment the rest of the Goa'uld fleet opened fire with their more conventional weapons, sending streams of high intensity naquada based plasma bolts towards their foes. Particle beams and lasers answered back ripping into the Goa'uld shields and within seconds claiming yet more victims as another two Ha'tak and a Nar'kesh went up in flames under the power of their guns. It was immediately clear to her that this battle was going to turn into a race between her forces and those of Charon with whoever destroyed or disabled the most ships first being the ultimate winner of the contest.
"Increase firepower to maximum begin launching short range missile salvos," she ordered, "all ships focus laser firepower on Charon's mothership, all other ships are to be targeted only with particle cannons and missiles. I want them all annihilated."
"Yes commander," the tactical and weapons control officers acknowledged from the consoles on the level below her command blister.
Neleya crossed her arms and watched as her instructions were carried out. Immediately new icons began appearing on the tactical displays as the missile turrets that peppered the hulls of all Zentraedi warships, though they were still fewer in number than the laser/particle combination cannons that had long formed their standard energy armament, came to life launching salvos of Letkes Deuawhaug and Gliquoun Touwhaug, Scrappers and Granites in Terran parlance, missiles at the Goa'uld.
The sudden missile barrage seemed to take their opponents by surprise, which confused her somewhat as missile weaponry was a common site in space combat. Even the Terrans – inexperienced in space warfare as they had been when Commander Breetai's initial force had defolded in their systems – had known and embraced that fact. Indeed, the offensive missiles they'd used, while primitive chemically fuelled things, had packed a quite respectable punch capable of inflicting significant damage to her peoples ships and the defensive missiles they used. Well, those things had come as a very, very nasty surprise given how damned fast they were and the smart targeting systems they utilized. Which raised the question why the Goa'uld were surprised by the appearance of the powered projectiles and didn't start reacting to defend themselves with some kind of rapid-fire plasma pulse cannon for nearly four seconds.
Four seconds in which the first salvo of missiles crossed the distance to the enemy capital ships, and the fighters and larger attack craft coming out from behind them, without opposition. Cauliflowers of plasma energy materialised as the missiles impacted the shields around the Goa'uld capitals making them flare and ripple with distortions revealing the quasi-crystalline structure of the defensive force field. The shields on two of the Goa'uld frigates – already weakened by beam strikes – failed allowing the next missiles to impact their hulls and detonate sending shafts of superheated plasma tearing through their insides burning, melting and generally destroying anything and everything in their path. Both frigates lost power and immediately began drifting out of formation with heavy damage, though they did not remain for long as particle beams raked the ships from stem to stern triggering the now familiar massive explosion that consumed the ships from the particle strike. We really need to figure out just what is causing that, Neleya thought with a mental shake of her head as she had honestly never seen particle beams do that before.
For the Goa'uld fighters and attack bombers the missile strikes were even more lethal. Dozens of fighters a second flashed out of existence as they were instantly targeted and engaged by Granite missiles which, much like the even more lethal Terran Foxfire, were primarily designed to be used against hostile fighters and battle mecha. The shields around the bombers meant they weathered the initial assault, though follow up hits knocked them down and started ripping open hulls to tear the otherwise fairly delicate – by the standards of the robotech warcraft they were meant to be used against – craft apart or damage them so severely that they fell out of formation.
Even as their missiles did their deadly work the Zentraedi cruisers continued pounding out storms of particle beams and lasers, each strike inflicting more and more damage upon their opponents. Though they were now taking hits themselves as every Goa'uld capital ship was now pounding out fire in dual or single streams from their cannon positions. The golden naquada-generated plasma bolts steadily boiling away meters of ablative armour and punching deep burning wounds in the hulls of Neleya's ships. The Zentraedi ignored it as all the ships that could bring weapons to bare upon it finished locking their lasers on the Goa'uld command ship…
…and fired.
Simultaneously a hundred and twenty beams of laser power slammed into the Sha'ha'tak-class vessel, every single beam focused on the exact same area of the shields. As powerful as they were the shields stood no chance against such a sudden, massive and focused onslaught on the same shield arc. The Goa'uld shields flared brilliantly – surrounding the entire vessel in a corona of brilliant light – before collapsing in a blaze of pyrotechnic light as the energy matrix of the force field came apart allowing the beams to slam into and nearly instantly burn through the hull and deep into the motherships interior, opening compartments across dozens of decks to space and triggering a blizzard of secondary explosions and outbreaks of electrical fires as damaged power conduits overloaded and blew out.
The lasers vanished but the damage was done as Charon's mothership fell out of formation, trailing debris, and the bodies of dead and dying crew from the enormous hole ripped deep into its innards by the beams that had so quickly and effectively obliterated its shields.
"Enemy flagship has been disabled," sensors reported, "scanners confirm that they have lost primary power and all defensive and propulsion systems. They're dead in space."
"Excellent," Neleya said pleased even as the deck beneath her shuddered as her flagship absorbed a dual stream of heavy plasma bolts from the main turrets of one of the Goa'uld frigates. A frigate that did not live to regret its mistake as her gunners returned their favour with every particle and laser turret that could bear on the vessel, ripping through its weakened shields to rip it apart in a single massive salvo of coherent energy. "Are the STORM commandoes and breaching pods ready?"
"They are commander."
"Then launch the pods."
"Yes commander."
Neleya smiled a second before new alarms rang across the bridge, specifically proximity warnings. Now what, she thought. "Report?" she ordered.
"Commander more enemy ships have appeared from a subspace distortion of some kind behind us," sensors reported, "we read six cruisers and twenty-four frigates."
Trying to outflank me are we, Neleya thought as the tactical holograms updated showing the fresh squadron of enemy warships that had appeared behind her forces. Warships that were currently launching fighters and were beginning to target her ships. She had to admit that the Goa'uld positioning was good as one of the few weaknesses that there were in Zentraedi warships was the fact that the vast majority of their heavier firepower was directed forward and towards the flanks, their aft weaponry was very limited in comparison as was their ventral firepower. It was a weakness in design philosophy that they had inherited from the Robotech Masters.
She glanced at the first group of Goa'uld ships, even as a few light jolts ran through the deck as four of the new Skofnung-class breaching pods launched from her ship and began streaking towards the disabled Goa'uld flagship. She noticed that there were only three of the enemy cruisers and four of the frigates of the original force left, the rest having been destroyed or disabled by the guns and missiles of her ships. As she watched another of the icons representing the enemy cruisers flashed and vanished as the ship was destroyed.
The battle had not been one sided, however. Several of her frigates and one of her heavy cruisers had been destroyed with two more frigates and a cruiser drifting out of formation heavily damaged and out of the fighting. Still, she knew that this was a battle that she was going to win, though it would be costly as the Goa'uld were certainly not pushovers and were actually quite skilled at space combat, the enemy reinforcements having not arrived in time to make too much of a difference.
"Communications order half our remaining operational ships to come about and engage the ships attacking from the rear," she ordered, even as the newly arrived Goa'uld ships opened fire on her fleet.
"Yes commander."
Neleya turned her full attention back to the tactical holograms, noting idly that the breaching pods were about to make contact with the enemy flagship and had activated the same photon-shield that the SDF-1 had used in their infamous and utterly devastating Daedalus attack. The field would let them punch right through the hull and allow the STORM commandoes to disembark straight into the interior of the enemy ship. From there it probably wouldn't take them long to acquire their target. Putting that out of her mind she observed as some of the icons representing her ships began to come around to engage the newly arrived enemy even as the rearmost ships in her formation took heavy plasma fire, the icons of two of them flashing to indicate that the ships were taking severe damage. After a moment first one then the other went out as the ships were destroyed.
Some return fire from the few aft batteries her ships had – all of them combination cannon turrets – pelted the Goa'uld ships making their shields glow and ripple with distortion but not being enough on their own to overstress them. She had to admit that the Goa'uld energy shield technology was quite impressive and could withstand a surprising amount of punishment from robotech weaponry. She hoped they acquired it soon as outside of the Guardian fleet no Zentraedi vessel had ever been equipped with even the most basic of dispersion shielding let alone true energy shields like what the Goa'uld seemed to have.
"Commander we're picking up another of those subspace distortions opening directly above us," sensors reported, "there are ships emerging."
"More Goa'uld," Neleya asked with a slight frown of concern on her face.
"No commander…. Commander the ships are Asgard. We're reading eight frigate weight ships, four battlecruisers with the same energy and sensor profile as the Skuld and one unknown class of ship in the battleship weight class."
"Zor, help us," she breathed, horrified as an Asgard force that big was something to be feared. "Are they targeting us?"
"No commander. They're firing upon the Goa'uld, ion based particle beams."
"Beams not bolts?" Tashka said exchanging a surprised look with Neleya. Previously when they'd encountered the Asgard their warships had always fired ion bolts, they had never shown any sign that they possessed beam-based particle weapons. "They must have improved their technology."
"Indeed," Neleya agreed as she observed changes on the tactical hologram as the Asgard came in firing a barrage of high-intensity particle beams that – if their sensors were correct – would be powerful enough to rip through the shields of any vessel in the Robotech Masters fleet this side of an Azashar-class mothership as if they didn't exist. They certainly seemed to be devastating against the Goa'uld with single hits turning the warships into plumes of burning plasma and dust. The effect on the Goa'uld formation was devastating as the enemy fleet seemed to lose all cohesion as completely understandable panic set it.
"Commander we are being hailed by the Asgard battleship," communications reported.
Well, this will be interesting. Talking to the Asgard with words instead of particle beams. How times have changed, Neleya thought before steeling herself and hoping that she didn't screw this up. "Put them through," she ordered.
"Yes commander."
Another projector field activated and another holographic screen pixeled into existence in front of her. She was immediately greeted by the sight of the diminutive – even by micronian standards – grey form of an Asgard sitting in one of the odd sweeping throne-like chairs that the species seemed to love so much. The small, but undeniably extremely powerful so much so that even the Invid or the Robotech Masters would approach the Asgard with caution, alien was clearly on the bridge of his/it's ship as behind the being she could clearly see the glowing column of neutrino-ion energy that was such a distinctive feature of an Asgardian bridge.
"Greetings," the Asgard said, "I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. To whom am I speaking?"
"Supreme Commander Thor I am Commander Neleya of the Free Zentraedi Forces," Neleya asked, "might I enquire as to why you have come here?"
"I have been sent by the Asgard High Council to assist you in your battle against the Goa'uld Hades," Thor answered, "in addition I will be removing the Goa'uld Charon from the body of a Sergeant Reed, is it?"
"It is," Neleya asked, knowing better than to ask just how the Asgard knew that Sergeant Reed had indeed been taken over by the Goa'uld Charon. The little grey aliens were after all one of the oldest known spacefaring races and possessed a level of technology that few species could hope to match. They would thus easily have the means of knowing that. "We have already sent some boarding pods containing some elite commandoes provided by our Terran friends and allies to capture and detain him."
"I am aware," Thor replied with a nod. "Though they will not need to do so. I have already captured and detained Charon aboard my vessel, the Gungnir. Charon and his host are currently being held in stasis, when the time is right I will remove the symbiote and terminate it for its crimes against sentient life."
Neleya blinked and was about to ask how the Asgard could possibly have done that. Then she remembered that the Asgard had a form of teleportation technology that allowed them to transport anything including entire starships from one location to another – or disassemble them and leave them floating in space as a cloud of sub molecular dust. The latter function had been one the Asgard had used to devastating effect against the Zentraedi on more than one occasion over the centuries at least until one of the Robotech Masters science triumvirates had come up with a device that rendered the Asgard transporter beam technology completely ineffective. A device that had quickly been distributed throughout all Tirolian and Zentraedi fleets and been incorporated into all new ships as a matter of course. Which had forced the Asgard, in the last few confrontations the Zentraedi had had with them, to rely entirely on their more conventional ion weapons in combat.
"I see," she said at last, "I will inform the STORM commandoes that Charon has been apprehended and transported to your ship."
"Thank you Commander Neleya," Thor answered before looking over to one side as someone else on the bridge of the Gungnir addressed him in the Asgard language which to most other species, including the Zentraedi, sounded like a very rapid fire whisper. Thor said something back then turned his attention back to her. "The last of the Goa'uld ships, with the exception of the flagship and other crippled vessels, have been destroyed. What are your intentions now Commander Neleya?"
"I still have a mission to complete here Commander Thor," Neleya answered, "my orders from Commander Breetai are to proceed to Elysium and destroy its defences in order to explain to the Goa'uld that you cannot attack a friend and ally of ours without enduring the most severe of consequences."
For a few moments Thor didn't speak and she could see that the Asgard was weighing up how to respond to her words. He was also no doubt thinking about how his own next action could help or hinder the Asgard in developing a relationship with both the Terrans and the Free Zentraedi.
"Then we will assist you," Thor replied at last. "With their ongoing civil war individual Goa'uld System Lords have been getting a bit too brazen in their actions recently. This will serve as a useful reminder that actions do have consequences."
"On that we can agree. Allow me a few minutes to reorder my fleet formation and then we will be ready to begin our approach to Elysium itself."
"That is perfectly doable. Contact us as soon as you are ready to move out."
"As you wish."
Thor nodded back and closed the communications link between their ships down from his end. The holographic screen pixeled out of existence leaving just the tactical screens hanging there. Neleya took a few moments to assess the information being displayed for her. As Thor had said the last of the Goa'uld ships, with the exception of the disabled vessels, had indeed been destroyed with even the last of the enemy fighters reduced to cloud of cooling plasma and/or clouds of sub molecular dust. Relieved that that part of the battle was over she studied her fleet status reports. Her fleet had suffered a significant mauling at the hands of the Goa'uld with many of her surviving ships having some form of damage, though in most cases it was mostly cosmetic with just armour damage – damage that was already being repaired by automatic damage control systems.
Still a dozen vessels were too damaged from the fierce fight the Goa'uld had put up to continue.
"Communications instruct our most damaged vessels to remain here," she ordered after a moment, "have them watch over the crippled Goa'uld vessels. If one regains power and looks like its about to either try to escape or cause further trouble they are to destroy it. Also advise Colonel Ferretti that Sergeant Reed has been recovered by the Asgard and is being held aboard their command ship prior to the removal of the Goa'uld Charon from his body."
"Yes commander."
"Navigation begin plotting a course for our remaining ships for Elysium."
"Yes commander."
"Commander. Colonel Ferretti has acknowledged that Sergeant Reed has been captured by the Asgard. He has stated however that he still intends to capture the Goa'uld vessel as intact as possible so its technology can be later examined, and its database probed."
"I would expect nothing less from him," Neleya answered with a smile. She hadn't interacted much with Colonel Ferretti and his STORM Commandoes, but she knew their reputation and knew that they were not the sort to let such a potential source of intelligence on the nature and technological capabilities of the Goa'uld to get away from them. "Tell him good luck."
"Yes commander."
"Course for Elysium plotted commander. Passing to the helm now," navigation reported, "all the ships that are coming with us have acknowledged the course and indicate that they are standing ready."
"Excellent then it is time to end this. Helm take us to Elysium maximum speed."
"Yes commander."
At the rear of the remaining operational ships in Commander Neleya's squadron ion fusion sublight engines roared into life and they began accelerating. Moving away from their previous position between the orbits of the third and fourth planets heading straight for the third planet and its waiting defensive grid. The thirteen Asgard ships, led by the massive two kilometre long, kilometre wide form of the battleship Gungnir, fell into formation with them all heading towards Elysium.
The final phase of the operation against the Goa'uld System Lord Hades was about to begin.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. Next chapter will be the final part of the Battle of Elysium and we will see the fate of Hades, his Queen Persephone and of course the fate of Charon soon. Though the battle to come over Elysium is not going to be as easy as anyone might think as Hades does still have a few quite nasty surprises to spring upon the invading forces of the Zentraedi and the Asgard. Until next time.