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.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Asgard Battleship Gungnir
Earth Orbit
"It has been confirmed?"
Thor's question hung pregnant in the air of his quarters aboard the Gungnir as she continued to orbit the Terran homeworld. He had been reading some reports from the deployment of the fleet, while the Gungnir remained over the Terran homeworld providing security and protection for the Nox as well as their own teams setting up the equipment needed to really begin regenerating the planet's atmosphere and biosphere he was still the supreme commander and thus regularly had to review the positions and activities of the Asgard Fleet, when the High Council had contacted him.
What they had had to say had been surprising to say the very least. Surprising and honestly very, very worrying.
"It has," First Councillor Penegal replied his voice grim in a subtle Asgard fashion. "A few days ago, our long-range listening posts that monitor the outermost edges of Tirolian space picked up subspace transmissions on a frequency band known to be used by the Wraith. We sent a probe to investigate."
"And?" Thor asked hoping that he would be told that it was a mistake or malfunction of some kind. While it was true that the Asgard and the Tirolians had frequently been at odds over the last few centuries – especially since the rise of the Robotech Masters and their transformation of the once peaceful, egalitarian Tirolian Republic, who they had been proud to consider friends, into the current imperialistic, totalitarian Tirolian Empire – and had openly exchanged weapons fire on more than one occasion he would not have wished the Wraith upon them. The vampiric species were undeniably an incredibly powerful and dangerous race, possessing powerful organic starships that far surpassed those of the Invid in terms of pure destructive capabilities, who through a combination of nearly unparalleled ferocity and sheer numbers had defeated the Ancients; the most advanced and powerful race to ever grace this part of the universe.
"The probe confirmed the report. It detected a group of hiveships and their escorting cruisers in a remote, uninhabited system in the remote outer fringes of the Tirolian Empire. While it couldn't get too close to them without risking being detected the probe has confirmed that all sixteen vessels have been significantly upgraded and now possess a primitive but fully functional copy of Tirolian space fold drives. A separate probe sent to Pegasus also confirms that many more hives and cruisers are being outfitted with the fold drive technology. There are also extensive culling operations going on among the human populations of that galaxy by the Wraith, we have ordered a step up in our operations in getting the human populations to the sanctuary worlds, but it is impossible to tell how many we will be able to save."
Thor frowned in concern, in a subtle Asgard fashion at that. While it was extremely distasteful – and not something that they could prevent with the bulk of their forces focused on guarding their borders against Tirolian, Zentraedi or Invid incursions as well as safeguarding the Protected Planets in this galaxy from the ever present threat of the Goa'uld – culling was a normal thing for the Wraith to do and something they did every hundred and fifty to two hundred years whenever the human population galaxy wide reached a certain critical number. What was shocking was they were doing it now, when not even seventy-five years had passed since their last great culling. The human worlds of the Pegasus Galaxy had had nowhere near enough time to recover their numbers and as a result numerous Wraith would certainly starve…
…unless they planned to exploit completely new feeding grounds and didn't care about potentially completely exhausting the feeding ground, they'd dominated for the last ten millennia.
"They're planning an invasion of the Empire," he said at last. The mere thought of that sending a wave of horror through him there were trillions of sentients from a dozen different species – some spacefaring, some not – living within the boundaries and under the rule of the Tirolian Empire. What the Wraith would do to them, especially as they didn't tolerate the presence of any advanced technology beyond their own, was thus too terrible to think about.
"That is our assessment as well," Penegal confirmed sounding just like how Thor was feeling. "Though we do not understand how they both found out about Tirolian space and where they acquired the space folding technology. It is likely that we will never know."
"However, they found out about the Empire and acquired the space folding technology doesn't really matter now," Thor pointed out knowing that now that the Wraith had it potentially the entire universe was in very grave danger as to the Wraith all other sentient lifeforms were simple cattle. Something that they could consume - by sucking the life energy from their victims' bodies causing them to age rapidly and die – at their leisure. "Has the council decided what we are to do about this?"
"We have."
"And?"
"As distasteful as aiding a known enemy of ours is we have determined that morally we have no choice but to warn the Tirolians about what is coming for them. Given how powerful they are we believe that the Robotech Masters' have a good chance of stopping the Wraith, providing they act before they become too entrenched. An expedition to travel to the border is being assembled as we speak."
"I see," Thor replied knowing that both logically and morally it was the only course open to them. The alternative would have been to do nothing and that was simply unacceptable. "What is it you wish me to do Penegal?"
"I would like you to choose who will command the fleet we send. It won't be a large force just three or four ships enough to gain the Robotech Masters attention without necessarily giving them the impression that they are being threatened. I will send you a file of the prospective candidates as soon as we finish this meeting."
"I understand I will review them and make my choice as soon as they arrive."
"Thank you, Thor. Now onto other even more important matters, I must inform you that a formal ambassador has been appointed and is on their way to join you in the Terran home system."
Thor did the Asgardian equivalent of raising an eyebrow. "Has something happened?" he asked surprised by the development as it was rare for the High Council to formally appoint an ambassador to a new civilization so soon, "does it have to do with the copy of Loki's research that I forwarded for analysis?"
"Indeed, it does," Penegal answered and a sudden hopefulness entering his tone. "Heimdall and other scientists including Ingirid and Vestar have thoroughly checked over Loki's findings and run thousands of simulations based upon them. They have concluded that Loki is correct this new clone design is not only fully viable but will reverse ten thousand years of genetic degradation and restore our ability to reproduce."
Thor blinked and felt a sudden hopefulness grip him as well. To be finally free of the scourge that had blighted the Asgard race for millennia before he had been even born. For him and his mate, the Lady Siff – not that either of them had had an actual gender for two millennia though like other Asgard in their situation they still considered each other mates, lived, and spent time together whenever there respective schedules and duties allowed – to be finally able to potentially realize their long-cherished dream of having a child. If everything worked as the simulations predicted – which was never fully guaranteed as there was always a chance, however remote, that something would go wrong – then it would truly be a miracle.
"I see," he said at last, "I assume that the ambassador is coming to negotiate for a supply of the right grade of protoculture needed to manufacture this first generation of the new bodies?"
"That is correct. The ambassador will negotiate for the supply of protoculture along with determining what we can provide the Terrans in return for them using the matrix to supply us with what we need," Penegal answered, before frowning. "Of course, there were some on the council who suggested that we simply take it and provide nothing in return."
"I think I know who they are," Thor commented with a mental shake of his head. The now reintegrated Vanir tribe had their own representatives on the High Council – though none in senior positions as it would be centuries before the formerly rogue group would be trusted to have such authority – and they always advocated a very negative, almost xenophobic, stance towards other races. "May I know the identity of the ambassador Penegal?"
"It is Lady Siff she insisted."
Thor gave the Asgardian equivalent of a smile. "Of course, she did," he commented knowing his mate well tenacious had been a word invented with her in mind, "very well I will eagerly await her arrival. Despite this development might I ask what will be done with Loki?"
"He will still face trial for his actions upon your return," Penegal assured him, "his tampering with the monitoring systems as well as the abduction and illegal cloning of humans are not crimes that we can simply ignore. While his sentence might not be as harsh as it otherwise might have been the Council is adamant that he must still answer for his crimes."
"I see that is very good to hear."
"Is there anything else you wish to discuss with me Thor?"
"No nothing else Penegal."
"Then I will bid you fair well for now, Thor. Contact me as soon as you have made your decision who will lead the expedition to the edge of Tirolian space. Penegal out."
The holographic screen that had been displaying the leader of the Asgard High Council faded away a moment before a bleep came from the small console built into the arm of his chair, letting him know that the files Penegal had promised him had been received. Thor immediately opened them causing a new holoscreen to shimmer into existence…
…prompting him to give a subtle Asgardian sigh before getting back to work.
Stargate Control Room
Fort Minotaur, That Same Time
General Micah Richards had a slight spring in his step as he arrived in the repurposed wind tunnel control room that, for a while at least until the new facilities beneath the Swiss alps were finished, served as the control hub for their operations through the Stargate. Operations that were about to resume following an extensive overhaul of the wind tunnel that housed the unbelievably ancient wormhole generating device.
The overhaul had involved a comprehensive reassessment of the defence ability of the chamber in the aftermath of Hades raid and the brief, but for the poor kid deeply traumatic, abduction of Sergeant Reed. As a result, the defences had been massively upgraded. In addition to the fitting of defensive barrier shield emitters that, when activated, would generate a force field over the event horizon of an incoming wormhole steps had been taken to turn the space in front of the gate into a killing field for any hostile force that managed to defeat the barrier. Steps that included the installation of deployable armour panels to provide defenders with cover and the installation of ion pulse repeater – the newly developed, modern robotechnology descendant of machine guns – turrets. He had considered ordering the installation of smart antipersonnel mines as well but well it would have been a bit too much a case of overkill.
Still, he was now confident that any attack from the Stargate would be repulsed in very short order. The Defence Council had obviously agreed with him hence why they had allowed operations to resume. Though there is also the issue of Lieutenant Grant, he thought with a mental grimace. Really what those idiots in the Anti-Unification League had been hoping to accomplish by infesting the poor man with a newly mature Goa'uld symbiote he had absolutely no idea. Whatever they had been planning it had backfired on them big time, costing the AUL operative who had done the reprehensible deed his life and causing them a planetary security nightmare as there was now a Goa'uld out there somewhere in the galaxy with knowledge of robotechnology.
He pushed aside those thoughts and looked around the control room. Noting immediately that all the staff were where they were supposed to be, every console was manned. Including the console that now completely enclosed the dialling device as it had been moved in here to deny any hostile force easy use of it. Putting a composed look on his face he walked up to where Colonel Kawalski was standing overseeing everything.
"Is everything ready?" he asked the other man.
"Yes, sir we are," Kawalski replied looking over at him for a moment. "The technicians have the new Condor drone ready for deployment. As soon as the wormhole is established, we can launch it."
"Very well," Richards answered before looking over at the lieutenant manning the dialling device. "Begin the dialling sequence."
"Yes sir," the other officer acknowledged before checking the address he had been provided with and beginning to push the buttons on the pedestal in the correct sequence. As the gate's inner ring began to turn in response and individual chevrons beginning to light up and lock in the glyphs Richards found his thoughts turning to the reason, they were dialling this particular planet and where its address had come from as it wasn't one of the variants of address from the cover stones that both Doctor Jackson and their computers had identified.
This address had come from the ship that had been found hidden on Mars.
After the vessel had been brought to the L5 shipyards by the Zentraedi, and Captain Hunter's team, they had sent people aboard it. Surprisingly it hadn't been that difficult for their people to access the ships computers and the written language aboard had had many similarities to some Celtic and Germanic languages. Just separated by a few millennia of linguistic drift. Thus, translating it had not been that difficult.
They had determined that the ship came from a world that its inhabitants had named Calora. Technologically they had been far more advanced than Earth had been before The Visitor – that would go on to become the SDF-1 – fell to Earth back in ninety-nine. Now it would have been a somewhat different story as while the derelict Caloran vessel was advanced, possessing some technologies that they currently lacked such as Star Trek-style transporters and true energy shields, in most areas its technology was either comparable to their own or less advanced. From the vessels logs they had learned that Calora had been at war with the Goa'uld System Lord Ba'al.
A war that had not been going Calora's way, even though they had a slight edge in technology over the Goa'uld. The Calorans, in a desperate search for allies, began sending corvettes – sparing their handful of frigates and cruisers for planetary defence – out to search for help. How the one had arrived here in Sol in early ninety-seven only to, just days after arrival, receive an emergency recall to Calora as Ba'al had launched an all-out assault on their homeworld. Yet for some reason the crew didn't return, instead all log entries had stopped, with a sign in the database that they had been deliberately erased, and the vessel had been landed in what they had believed to be a deep cave on the flanks of the Martian volcano Arsia Mons.
It didn't take a genius to realize that the crew had deserted though why they hid the ship and didn't destroy it was anybody's guess. And they would probably never know as it was very unlikely that the crew of the abandoned vessel were still alive given how many cities around the world had been destroyed either incinerated by the reflex cannon bombardment or levelled by the geological upheavals that had followed.
Regardless of the fate of the crew the Defence Council had determined that they would send a drone to Calora to search for any survivors of the Goa'uld attack. The reasoning being that if there had been survivors of a Goa'uld attack on Linkotis then there would certainly be some on Calora. Survivors that they would do their best to help, if they were there and hopefully, they would be less aggressive than the survivors of the Vallarta nation state on Linkotis. Even if there were no survivors there was some hope that there would be something, anything, left behind that could help them and shed more insight on the wider galaxy beyond what they had been told by the Nox, Asgard and Tok'ra.
It wasn't that they distrusted them or anything they just wanted to find some things out themselves.
The Stargate finishing the dialling sequence and the wormhole bursting into existence brought an end to his thinking about the reason for this mission. Now it was time to begin carrying it out, with the first stage being sending one of the new Condor fully autonomous reconnaissance drones through the wormhole to Calora instead of one the smaller and less capable Eagles which required a constant control signal be maintained. Which had seriously limited how far they could send the drone sent through the gate to Linkotis on the previous mission.
"Wormhole established. Confirming solid lock on destination coordinates."
"Very good," Richards replied. "Launch the drone."
"Yes, sir launching drone," the master sergeant manning the drone station acknowledged before giving the command to the Condor drone's controlling AI to launch and proceed through the wormhole. Through the newly reinforced permaglass viewports into the former wind tunnel Richards saw the Condor drone – a seven meter long, one-and-a-half-meter wide silver and black oblong with six individual tilt fan engines for propulsion and manoeuvring – light up as it powered up fully before lifting off its cradle. In mere moments it crossed the distance between the cradle and the shimmering water-like wall of the wormholes event horizon and disappeared through it.
"Condor drone on course," the master sergeant reported, "drone should reach Calora in ten seconds… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one. Drone reports successful arrival, receiving telemetry now."
"Put the telemetry up on the master holo display," Kawalski ordered.
"Yes sir."
As the order was carried out both Richards and Kawalski turned and moved to the back of the control room where a holographic display table had been set up. A table that immediately came to life showing the visual and other sensor feeds from the Condor drone.
The drone had emerged into a large rectangular plaza that reminded both men of the forum that would be built at the heart of Roman towns and cities, such as Pompeii – which was once again buried under pyroclastic debris after Vesuvius violently erupted in the weeks after the Rain producing its biggest and most destructive eruption since the Bronze Age – though with notable high-tech differences. It was also in ruins with what to have been a concrete surface scorched and pitted, littered with shards of broken glass and with numerous blast holes from Goa'uld staff weapons in the surface.
Beyond the edges of the plaza, they could see rows of shattered, broken buildings many of whom were showing signs of extensive fire damage, and the remains of an elevated maglev track. For both men the sight of the devastation brought back very recent and painful memories of searching for survivors in the scorched by quantum fire ruins of Earth's cities after the Rain. Readings from the atmospheric sensors showed that the air was a great deal cooler than would have been expected and spectrographic analysis confirmed that there was still a great deal of debris in the upper atmosphere from the Goa'uld assault upon Calora cutting down the sunlight and reducing the temperature considerably.
"Have the drone move up and commence a survey circuit," Richards ordered. "Also have it begin running comprehensive sensor scans of the entire area."
"Yes sir."
Within seconds the feed from the drone changed a bit as it ascended to a greater height revealing the blasted ruins of what had to have once been a very grand, high-tech metropolis. Everywhere they looked they could see signs of a massive bombardment that looked like it had levelled entire city blocks with single blasts. Beyond the city a range of mountains was visible all of them covered in a glistening crown of snow and ice, there were also long patches of ice in the city where ponds and ornamental lakes had frozen. A series of canals and rivers were also frozen over and out of the direct light of the planets sun there were visible mounds of snow and ice some as tall as your average full-sized Zentraedi.
"Looks like the planet is heading into an ice age," Kawalski commented with a frown. "Or at very least in the grips of a global winter."
"Not surprising," Richards pointed out, "we would be in such a winter now here on Earth if Breetai hadn't dropped some emergency atmospheric filters down after the battle with Dolza."
"True," Kawalski admitted knowing his superior was correct. In the immediate aftermath of the Rain of Death Commander Breetai had dropped emergency atmospheric filtration devices down to strategic points on the surface. They'd been a temporary, short use version of the atmospheric filtration and regeneration towers that were now being built all over the planet. The temporary towers had cleared the worst of the debris from the bombardment, not to mention the worst of the fallout from hundreds of volcanic eruptions as quantum energy bleed through supercharged many a volcanoes magma chamber causing even normally quite sedate volcanoes like Kilauea to violently erupt, that Earth had been spared descending into a nuclear winter.
Of course, they hadn't been able to do anything about the heavy ionization of the atmosphere from the passage of hundreds of reflex cannon beams and thousands of lasers and particle beams, ionization that even now nearly two years after the bombardment was still making the weather go crazy. But then you couldn't have everything, plus Richards was aware that both the Asgard and the Nox had said they would have the atmosphere restabilized within days once they finished setting up the appropriate technology to do so.
"General the drone is picking up a faint energy signature coming from somewhere to the northwest of the city centre," the master sergeant from the drone control station reported.
"So, I see can you identify it," Richards asked as a window opened on the hologram showing an energy waveform. An energy waveform that he had never seen before.
"I am attempting to do so now," the officer replied as he ran the signature through both their own and Zentraedi energy signature records. After a few more moments the results came back. "Sir I only have a partial match to an Ancient power source; however, the reading is far too faint to determine exactly which power source it is."
So, it could be either one of those potentia modules things or a gravitic reactor, Richards thought with a frown even as he had to wonder what the hell an Ancient power source was doing on Calora? "Can you tell how far from the city centre it is?" he asked.
"Approximately one hundred and fifty kilometres. It's underground as well," the operator answered, "wherever it is the shielding around the facility must be damaged in some way, possibly from Goa'uld weaponry, otherwise we wouldn't be detecting it at all. It's certainly not penetrating the atmosphere."
"We need to know what's generating it," Kawalski pointed out to his superior.
"Indeed, but the drones not going to be able to do it," Richards pointed out, "its sensors aren't designed to penetrate that deep into the ground."
"True," Kawalski agreed with a nod knowing that there was only one way that they were going to get any indication of exactly what kind of Ancient power source was on Calora. They were going to have to send people to the planet to go and look. "Orders?"
"For now, nothing I will need to speak with the Council. They'll want to know about this discovery before we do anything about it," Richards replied. "Peters program the drone to commence automated scanning of the city, look for anything else unusual and any sign of survivors. Once that's done shut down the gate."
"Yes sir," Master Sergeant Peters acknowledged knowing that once he gave the drones controlling AI its orders the drone would be able to do its job without any additional input from him. It would be able to do it for up to a month before the drones protoculture cell would need replacement. "Orders sent the drone has acknowledged and will commence surveying immediately."
"Disengaging Stargate," the officer at the dialling device added pressing the button on the device that would tell the wormhole to disengage. It immediately did so with a whoosh and a flash of ethereal vapours.
"Alright Kawalski contact Colonel Ferretti and tell him to begin preparing his commandoes for deployment through the gate," Richards ordered, "while you do that, I'll speak with the Defence Council."
"Yes sir."
Knowing his very capable second in command would see to getting the STORM Commandoes ready Richards turned and left the control room and began heading back to his office. And the secure comm station there that would put him straight through to the various members of the Defence Council. Members who were certain to be very, very intrigued with what he now had to report to them.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it as I am quite surprised how quickly this came together once I started working on it. Since I couldn't find a name for Martin's people in the canon, I gave them the name Calorans – they're descended from Ancient Celtic and Germanic tribes taken to their world by the Goa'uld millennia ago if anyone is curious – since it felt like it suited them to me. What kind of Ancient power source is on Calora and what is it powering, well that you will have to wait and see as the mystery of Calora, and its people is just beginning. Until next time.