Author's note: Happy Easter! Well, that about covers it. Let's move to the Q&A now.

Q&A

mrazab1994: I did write many goodies in the following five or so chapters. the bad part is that it is all still in the first draft stage, still in need of some major editing. But, there are many new things the Terrans have developed.

Arekanderu: Well. it will be a bit bigger than a virus. It will have a similar effect as antibodies attacking viruses. I just need to find the right time to write about it.

Random Norwegian: Well, I was planning it to be the same as Baylon One, except the tech used in it, is eons ahead. Let's say around ten kilometers tall mushroom and leave it at that.

ZhaWarudo: I'm fully aware of the many mistakes made during the writing of the story. However, this has turned into a story with more than a million words total. It is now not easy to go back and with a toothcomb try to clean the mistakes made. there's also the point that while doing that, I can't be writing the next chapter, so... As said in the PM, Vargas armor and shield are capable of beating phase shifting technology. Hope this answers your dilemma.

Thanks to my beta. Hope everybody enjoys this chapter.

As the doors parted ways, Rak'nor hastily slipped onto the ship. Immediately upon entry, he received the different sense he had felt barely a few times before. Even half a decade later, after the Jaffa had been freed from the oppression of the Goa'uld, they still needed to learn how to do things differently. The Goa'uld were egomaniacs who cared only for themselves and ways in which to fill their incredibly long life with amusement, no matter how repulsive their conduct to others seemed. Rak'nor knew that the Goa'uld thought of themselves as gods and of every other sentient race in existence as nothing more than ants. Yet, in his opinion, there were many indicators that, in fact, showed the Goa'uld were complete morons.

The Goa'uld that had designed the Ha'tak vessel seemed to prove that point very well, and the other Goa'uld that agreed on using the design afterward and for such a long time, with no meaningful improvements, seemed to confirm it.

It took quite some convincing for the Jaffa to realize how wrong the design of the Ha'tak truly was. Of course, for egomaniacs like the Goa'uld, having a throne on the bridge was simply a necessity. Also, pompous consoles used to control the large vessel also needed to be imposing. No Goa'uld would ever want for a Jaffa pilot or tactical officer to sit comfortably while serving on the Pel'tak. They needed to stand firm in front of their god, sometimes for endless hours if needed be. Of course, the slight problem with that was that during a battle it wasn't uncommon for the Jaffa operating the console to fly like a doll every time the ship sustained a strong blow. It didn't make any of the self-proclaimed gods think that maybe, just maybe, losing the ability to control all of the ship's systems at such a crucial and above all very perilous moment because your pilot had just smashed into a wall and was far away from the console, could be the main cause for the consequent defeat or even destruction of the ship. The Goa'uld lord sitting in his throne would then proceed to obscenely curse the Jaffa pilot who dared fly away from his post. As if the Jaffa somehow had to have an inertial dampener stuck up his mikta in order to glue him to his post, even under extreme battle conditions.

Rak'nor would like to say that the Jaffa were smarter than the average Goa'uld was, but their conduct since being freed from their oppressors in many ways suggested otherwise. It took five long years of constant nagging from a few enlightened Jaffa like Teal'c and Bra'tac under Terran directions for their leadership to approve the changes to the layout of the Pel'tak. No more consoles that forced Jaffa to stand like statues for endless hours and no more single console as the only means of operating the majority of the ship's systems, except maybe for the ship's weapons since those had always been of specific importance to the Goa'uld and therefore always needed a separate operator. For some reason, the Goa'uld thought that having a single Jaffa having to worry about piloting the vessel, navigational data, watching over the short and long range sensors, thinking about the ship's secondary systems, shields, damage control, power control and so on and so on, up until deciding if doors should be closed or opened, was something expected to easily be done by one single individual. Instead, today's Ha'tak had five separate consoles manned by five Jaffa specifically trained for their post and who were comfortably seated and strapped so that even if something disruptive happened to the artificial gravity, they wouldn't float away from their posts like idiots. There was no ego-pumping throne either, but instead a comfortable chair and countless monitors for the person in command to easily get all relevant data at a mere glance, crucial to make the right decision in the shortest possible time. After all, this could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

As Rak'nor sat in the command chair, holographic displays on both sides sprang to life, immediately showing a plethora of data. With these monitors readily available at a glance, he easily knew where they were and when they were going to reach their destination. There was also a list showing if there was something that needed his immediate attention. The list was currently empty, as everything was in perfect order. He didn't even have to ask any of the Jaffa on the bridge to know that.

Still, it wasn't a bad thing to speak to his own crew from time to time, regardless.

"Have the long-range sensors detected any other vessel traveling through hyperspace?" Rak'nor asked the sensors officer who was seated in front of him, slightly on his left.

"No, commander. The sensors haven't detected any noise indicative of such a possibility," the Jaffa replied.

No wonders there. It was the most advanced component the enemy had on their vessels. One that even the Ancients or Asgard couldn't develop with such efficiency. It didn't matter if it were Vargas ships, Hunter ships or Reapers. They all had the same stealth system capable of canceling out any subspace noise the installed hyperdrive produced during travel. It gave them an incredible advantage, being able to drop unnoticed or travel across the vastness of the galaxy without being detected by even the most advanced of races. Without the stealth system, the Reapers couldn't have become such a nuisance since the Second Great Alliance would simply continue disseminating satellites capable of detecting the hyper-wake created by all ships until all important sectors of the galaxy were completely covered. They could easily build early warning systems near important star systems, giving them the needed time to prepare for an incursion or even be able to locate where the Reapers were building more of themselves. The Vargas stealth system was giving them many headaches in this wretched war, and on this mission, it was introducing an uncertainty factor that Rak'nor did not like. Because of the stealth system, he couldn't be certain if there were more enemies nearby ready to enter the fray when least expected.

Still, there were many races these days in these parts capable of traveling through hyperspace, and this mission would be best carried out without any outside interference, no matter if it was a friend or a foe.

"Returning to normal space in thirty seconds, Commander," the pilot informed in a professional tone of voice.

Rak'nor said nothing. He simply continued watching the frontal view that was much bigger than anything any previous Ha'tak model had. This was the latest upgrade to the ship, yet they had decided to still call the vessel a Ha'tak type IV, the same as its predecessor, mostly because no Jaffa wanted to call it a type V if there were no direct changes in the vessel's offensive or defensive capabilities. They all concluded unanimously that changing the bridge, even though doing so could have increased the ship's overall efficiency, was still not enough to change the ship's type from four to five. There were plans for the next generation of Ha'tak, mostly by additionally changing the internal layout and some improvements to the reactors, but those plans were moving slowly, as even now they already knew that the changes were such that could not be applied to current Ha'tak vessel. Only newly built Ha'tak would be of type V.

On the frontal display, hyperspace was suddenly replaced with the darkness of normal space. As the view slowly rotated, a still distant and tiny blue star entered into view. His monitor chirped. There was a notification informing him the sensors have detected something of importance.

"The sensors have detected anomalous energy readings in the nearest asteroid field sixty light-seconds from our current position," the sensors officer informed him of the same thing as what one of his monitors was being displayed. "Commander, do you want us to use active scanning for improved resolution?"

Active scanning of a certain region of space gave a many times more detailed picture of what was causing the anomalous energy readings of what the passive sensors have detected, yet too weak to identify clearly. The problem with active scanning was that it was easily detectable by any race advanced enough to have at least passive subspace sensors, which was all spacefaring races. Still, on this mission knowing what was there was more important than being stealthy. Not to mention that a Ha'tak wasn't a very stealthy ship, to begin with. Even without the use of active scanning, whoever was there would soon detect their ship no matter what they did if they hadn't already. "Do it."

It took almost a minute for the received data from the active scanning to be processed, correlated and finally correctly interpreted by the ship's computer. "As we learned from the scout, the scanning is confirming the presence of a Reaper mothership in the scanned asteroid field. The anomalous energy readings are mostly coming from the construction yard currently processing ore to use in building a second mothership and more of the smaller Reapers."

Rak'nor processed what the Jaffa said while looking at one of the monitors showing even more detailed data on what was present in the not so distant asteroid field. It wasn't a clear picture what he was seeing, but it was enough to deduce that the second mothership was two-thirds completed. All this wasn't anything strange, or new. The Reapers simply operated in such fashion. A mothership would enter an uninhabited system and would find an asteroid field with the needed materials. It would then start mining and constructing, first the smaller Reapers and afterward the second mothership. It was the reason why dealing with the Reapers was such a pain in the mikta since they could tap into resources present in abundance in any of the billions of suitable star systems in the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy. There was no way to monitor them all, no matter how many scouts they had. Yet, on this particular occasion, luck was on their side as two days ago one of their scouts had stumbled upon this unremarkable system. It was an opportunity to get on the offensive, instead of simply waiting for the Reapers to make the first move.

"The Reapers are on the move. All craft except for the mothership are on an intercept course with us," the same Jaffa added.

There was no question now if they had or hadn't been discovered. Rak'nor sighed. It was time to go to work. The reason why they were here today. "It seems the mothership's AI has decided that we are an opponent they can take on. Divert all auxiliary power to the shield and bring all weapons online. We are going to battle."

The distance between the Ha'tak and the swarm of approaching Reapers was slowly diminishing. Rak'nor knew that the smallest and medium sized Reapers were no more than a nuisance. Only the biggest ones were tricky. Unfortunately, it appeared that many of the incoming Reapers present in this barren system were of the unwanted, latter type. In time, and if in enough numbers, the large type could penetrate even the resilient shield of a vessel like a Ha'tak IV. The Ha'tak also wasn't the ideal ship for fighting Reapers as it had a massive disadvantage. Its maneuverability compared to the Reapers was many times lower and the ship had many heavy plasma cannons meant for use against tougher but also slower capital ships. In the end, only the smaller plasma cannons had any real chance of hitting the diminutive and wanton Reapers.

As it had happened countless times before, after the Reapers had entered weapons range their trajectory changed so that the Ha'tak could bring the least of its fast firing plasma cannons to bear. They were all keeping together, knowing that a ship like a Ha'tak was the strongest when simultaneously attacked from multiple sides since it had weapon emplacements equally spread everywhere on its hull. This way only a few cannons were able to fire at the flight of almost twenty-five heavy Reapers supported by many times more of the smaller sized ones.

The Ha'tak shield was flaring intensely with each impact caused by the Reapers' weapons. Even without asking for a status report Rak'nor knew from his display that the shield was remaining strong. A Ha'tak type IV, upgraded with systems stolen from the Aschen and reverse engineered by the Tau'ri, had double the efficiency of the preceding shield. All previous upgrades had in some way contributed in reinforcing the vessel's shielding system. Because of it, it wasn't strange at all that the only thing he was feeling right now was a slight vibration echoing through the hull as a result of each impact. The main gauge depicted the shield was working at a hundred percent efficiency, with its energy reserves overcharged before arrival at 237 percent, almost two-and-a-half times over the nominal state. There would be quite some time before the Reapers could deplete the shield's energy reserves or overtax its emitters in order to cause its efficiency to drop and maybe allow some of the destructive energy currently impacting the protective bubble to instead bleed through.

As predicted, their weapons were having trouble locking onto their targets. The Reapers might be total junk that, except when in great numbers, proved not to be much of a challenge against today's Jaffa ships. However, one thing was certain. Their gravitic engine combined with their compact size was giving them incredible maneuverability, so much so that it was proving difficult to score a hit. One of the large main cannons installed on a Ha'tak could blast a Reaper clean off with a single shot. Too bad that hitting it with that particular weapon was impossible since the little devils were making such course changes that the slowly rotating cannon could not hope of ever getting a clear lock. The smaller cannons were having an easier job, yet even they were missing most times. The Reapers' prediction algorithms were capable of anticipating and therefore capable of eluding the weapons' firing arcs, hence able to enact the best possible course changes in order to evade the incoming bolts fired without having to worry for the crew's wellbeing during sharp course changes because there simply wasn't a crew to worry about in the first place. Since the Reapers didn't rely on shields, the only thing protecting them was a thick, yet cheap armor constructed of nothing else than simple steel interwoven with carbon nanotubes. It was cheap crap compared to armor plating composed of Naquadah and Trinium like the plating used on Ha'tak vessels. Because of it, even a few well-placed hits from the smaller cannons were enough to promptly send a heavy Reaper to the scrap yard. Yet, the hit ratio of the smaller plasma cannons was less than 1.8%, which meant a lot of misses for a possible score that wasn't enough to outright knock out the insolent bugger.

Rak'nor thought how the next upgrade for their vessels should also include a better targeting system. More specifically, to change the prediction algorithms that calculated the enemy's predicted position before firing. It was important since vessels in space moved so fast that firing directly at where the enemy was would certainly result in a miss except if the ship was coming straight at you, which was almost never. The problem with the plan of upgrading their ships was that he knew who the people to upgrade that specific system would have to be, and it was no one from the Jaffa Free Nation. They needed someone like Sam Carter, their genius Council Member Rodney McKay or some other Tau'ri scientist that had spent several decades learning and honing their skills, as opposed to the Jaffa who up to five years ago didn't even know that a place to learn such things apparently existed. The Goa'uld had intentionally hidden any and all aspects of their ship's functionality, those that would require Jaffa to learn something of value. Instead, the Goa'uld were the ones who did all those things, while the Jaffa only learned how to operate a ship without learning how any of the systems really worked and ending up attributing their workings to magic. Even after five years, in which time the Tau'ri had sent scholars to teach them many things, like math, science, chemistry and countless other subjects that the Jaffa knew only at a level of a sixth grader, they were still far, far from being experts. At least that was if the Tau'ri explained correctly what a sixth grader was and how much they knew at such a young age. Rak'nor knew it would take at least another ten years and the emergence of the next generation of Jaffa who studied since an early age in order to have true professionals doing jobs like reprogramming a targeting system as complex as the one aboard a Ha'tak ship.

It was incredibly frustrating, being so reliant on the Tau'ri. Even more frustrating was knowing that the Tau'ri weren't helping them because they wanted something in return. It wasn't that the galaxy, now finally without the Goa'uld, was such a nice place filled with countless selfless races. Most races in the galaxy - and probably the rest of the universe too - didn't do altruistic work very often. In that, the Tau'ri were the odd ones. Or maybe a better way to put it was to state that all members of the Second Great Alliance were the odd ones. They were helping others even though there was nothing for them to gain. Moreover, he knew the Jaffa weren't as stable a race as some might think. There was a good chance that in the not so distant future the Jaffa Free Nation could crumble, splitting into two factions with completely different philosophies on how things should or shouldn't be done in the Milky Way galaxy. If that happened, one faction would certainly be hostile towards the Tau'ri, yet the Tau'ri would have been the ones who taught them how to grow into a strong and independent race only to be betrayed by them in return. It appeared as if the Tau'ri were working against their own self-interest. Even though more advanced than the other races in the Milky Way galaxy, having a large group of Jaffa who they taught dangerous things and that at some point in the future could be used against them, shouldn't be something the Tau'ri want or like to have to deal with.

He could not understand that part about them. It wasn't that they were so naïve, thinking that the Jaffa race would never split with a good percentage turning against them, either. The ones who warned Bra'tac and Teal'c of that undesirable outcome - and as they'd explained, not just a possibility of that happening but a probability as well - were the Tau'ri themselves. It was from Teal'c that he heard about it. Apparently, and previously unknown to him, the Tau'ri had access to an Asgard Core filled with prediction algorithms capable of calculating with a high degree of certainty that at some point after the war with the Vargas was over and a longer period of peace passes, many Jaffa would become restless and eventually would split by forming a separate faction. He didn't need the Tau'ri to tell him that time of peace was the most stressful time for the Jaffa Free Nation, as that was also when Jaffa did not know what to do with themselves. The Tau'ri had stated that those who'd accept a new way of thinking, one in which a Jaffa can be proud even if he didn't necessarily follow the path of a warrior, those would be the ones to try to keep the Jaffa united inside the current JFN. They would go against those who spent most of their time reminiscing about the good old days, those filled with glorious battles. They would go insofar as to think even of the time during Goa'uld oppression as the period where the Jaffa were most proud and much better than the new ways in which the Jaffa were turning into simple workers with cozy home, lives and a steady job.

It was frustrating for Rak'nor, mostly because he was convinced the Tau'ri predictions were dead on. Maybe ten of fifteen years after the war with the Vargas ends and the unrest would finally reach a dangerous level, resulting in nothing less than a full-blown civil war. The Tau'ri further predicted two possible outcomes. The first was for the war to drag on for years, maybe even a decade, at which point not much of the JFN would be left standing. It was an option in which their side would still win but at a great cost. The second option was for the Jaffa to come to an agreement on how to split, in which case the greatest point of contention would be Dakara. The Tau'ri told Teal'c and Bra'tac that at that point they should use Dakara as a bargaining chip and concede it to the conservative faction for some truly valuable real estate elsewhere in the galaxy. This, regrettably, would cause for even more Jaffa among the undecided to side with the conservatives, but the Tau'ri predicted that the remainder would form a smaller but wealthier nation. Eventually, possibly decades or even centuries into the future, their overwhelming financial and social predominance would force Jaffa from the other faction to trickle back, individual after individual, until all Jaffa once again became one. Nobody liked the idea the Tau'ri were suggesting. The drawback would be to cede Dakara and form a separate nation with only thirty percent of all Jaffa currently in the JFN, yet the planets received as a recompense for surrendering Dakara would enable them to create a more cohesive nation, plentiful in natural resources, and wealthier in knowledge and understanding. That would allow them for a more rapid growth than what the other faction could muster, in any conceivable way.

Rak'nor didn't know how to feel about that. Especially since the Tau'ri had some very strange ideas for their own future. Apparently, once the Milky Way finally found peace, they were planning on closing their borders almost completely. Daniel's explanation was that they would turn their attention inward rather than outward, trying to better themselves by truly understanding who they had become as a race without interference from outside sources, except for the guiding hand of the other three races in their alliance. He agreed that the Tau'ri had internal struggles to deal with. They too were a young race, with the Genesis Project, with them only recently venturing into space, and with their relations with the other races in their great alliance of four. He could even understand that, with the advancements received from the other three great races, having constant contact with the other races in the Milky Way galaxy could have a detrimental effect on their society. That was especially true since the main and possibly only reason why most races would want to deal with them would be to gain something they probably weren't prepared to give. This could then turn into strained diplomatic relations very quickly, yet the Tau'ri would have nothing to gain from such interactions with other races still at a much lower level than them, which included the Jaffa as well.

It still bugged Rak'nor that he couldn't fathom how they were going to isolate themselves, especially once their own people started venturing into space freely. Even less could he predict what the consequences for the split Jaffa race would amount to. On one end, the Tau'ri told them what the not so distant future held. On the other, they told them that, for the most part, they would be on their own since they would take no active part in what will happen around the galaxy, for as long as it doesn't concern them directly or it isn't below a certain assumed level of morality. Introduce slavery back, and they are already knocking on your door, with a sledgehammer.

Rak'nor didn't know what to think about all this.

For now, the Tau'ri predictions were being kept secret, with only a small group of Jaffa loyal to Teal'c and Bra'tac being informed. It was important to prepare in order to prevent the fracturing of the JFN from happening, or if in the end, it wasn't possible, as the Tau'ri were foretelling, then to prepare for that eventuality as well. They needed to prevent from being blindsided once again like a few years back when Gerak decided to turn traitor.

During his reflections on what the future held for the Jaffa, the Reapers didn't simply stop with their attack. He was constantly feeling the same vibrations caused by the enemy's weapons that persistently kept hitting the shield. He was constantly darting his eyes at his displays, diligently keeping tabs on the situation even while thinking of other things. Of note, one of the Reapers had blown up a short time ago, their shield's efficiency was still strong at a hundred percent, and the energy reserves were still well above their nominally charged state. Things were still looking good, maybe even too good. As opposed to the strange race the Tau'ri had encountered in one of the satellite galaxies, the one capable of preventing a ship from entering hyperspace, here they could slip away at any time if the situation necessitated such action. Afterward, once their shield's energy was replenished and their emitters had been cooled down, they could simply come back and resume with the skirmish. Yet, that wasn't the plan. Moreover, outright showing how outclassed the enemy was in this particular battle wasn't good either.

Not for the plan they had devised.

"Lower the shield strength by a few percent and continue doing so every five or so minutes. And be certain not to be too conspicuous in your doing," Rak'nor ordered.

"Yes, Commander," the tactical officer replied.

He needed to make the Reapers think that they were slowly accomplishing something, even though in reality they weren't. It would take many time this number of Reapers to threaten a Ha'tak. He knew that he could order the shield's strength to be lowered below fifty percent and the enemy's barrages would still be unable to hemorrhage through. By fooling the Reapers, he was hoping they would decide against moving the mothership, the one currently busy constructing a replica of itself. He hoped that would be the case because at the end of the day they were here only as bait and nothing more. They were here only as a diversion in order to lure the smaller Reapers away from the mothership and in order for its AI to spend some of its processing power on monitoring this battle rather than monitoring its near surroundings where, hopefully, the Tau'ri were already busy doing their share of the assignment.

Rak'nor didn't exactly know how to feel about their role in this mission. They were here because using a Tau'ri ship as a bait was not possible since the Reaper's AI would most certainly decide that fighting such an opponent would result in utter defeat and hence would decide to escape, as a better option. Rak'nor really didn't like being used as the only ones who could accomplish this mission because they were also the ones having a weak enough ship to be the right bait.

Still, if at the end of the day this mission helped them in getting rid of the Reapers for good, who was he to complain about the role he had to play in their eventual demise? The important thing was to find a way to track down the Reapers and then to all together chase them down and destroy them until none remained in the whole of the Milky Way galaxy.

He wondered how the Tau'ri were doing and if their distraction would last long enough.

Cloaked, the nimble Defiant inched closer to its target, the three times larger and fully operational Reaper Mothership. The Defiant was the latest in the constantly growing number of different type of ships under the Terran arsenal. Hence, it was filled with the latest technologies currently at their disposal, giving the small and versatile attack ship unprecedented defensive and offensive capabilities, even such to go against opponents many times larger than its diminutive size would suggest as possible. The ship's strength didn't matter at the moment, though, as the mission didn't entail the use of brute force. Instead, the Defiant was now under stealth conditions, easily noticeable by anyone aboard the compact bridge because of the dimmed blue light pervading the room. The fact that the frontal view was showing the Mothership standing in front of them without firing from all of its many weapon ports was another indicator confirming they were still unseen by the enemy.

"We have reached the desired distance from the target, sir," the officer at the helm informed JJ, the captain.

"Good, good. A captain's boredom is never a good thing and I was really starting to feel it. Let's see if we can pull this off and all go home happy," JJ replied, thinking how the Defiant was a beautiful ship in so many ways, but comfort wasn't one of them. Its size precluded such a possibility. He turned to face the tactical officer. "Inform the raptor to proceed as planned."

"Yes, sir," the tactical officer replied, quickly giving the necessary command through his console. "Raptor One is on its way."

No wonders there. The Hangar doors had been opened before they reached proximity with the target and the pilots and marines aboard the small craft had eagerly been awaiting the go ahead. The pilot must have eagerly pushed the throttle, the instant the order came because the craft sped like a bullet. As expected, the only thing he could see of the craft was a blue silhouette representing the raptor on the screen. The frontal display didn't show the craft as it was, simply because it was under stealth, the same as the Defiant.

Once again, there was not much to do or see, but to patiently wait. The raptor was now nearing the port side of the still unmoving alien vessel, somewhere near the middle. There were no indication the craft had been detected, which was a very good thing. This was among the most dangerous parts of the mission.

"The raptor stopped with its approach at the predefined point, meters from the mothership," the tactical officer informed.

Now the most critical part was coming. One of the marines needed to exit the raptor under a personal cloak, reach the wall of the alien vessel, and then use the Tollan phase-shifting technology to pass through the hull. This was the most critical portion of the whole mission because the marine was extremely exposed while floating in space. Even more so, since he would have to turn his personal cloak off while using the phase-shifting technology. The two technologies simply didn't work well together. JJ was wishing for the marine to enter undetected and, once inside, safely reactivate the cloak that in theory should be enough to hide him from any internal sensor the automated ship might have.

"Who's the marine that's doing the difficult part?" JJ asked.

"Bubba, sir," the tactical officer replied.

"Seriously?" JJ was truly puzzled, and his face was most certainly showing it for everyone to see.

"Yes, sir," the same officer confirmed stoically, as that was his usual demeanor.

"I would never have thought the marine would choose a two meter tall and almost three hundred pounds heavy guy for this mission. I'm definitely surprised. Together with his personal armor, he'll definitely have trouble moving inside that thing that has never been intended to have people crawling inside it in the first place," JJ contemplated aloud.

"He's not wearing any armor, sir," the tactical officer replied.

"Well, I'm sure he's not naked, so my next question is - what is he wearing?" JJ asked, really wanting to know.

"He said that if he was discovered, wearing armor on this mission would serve no purpose whatsoever. Therefore, he opted for one of the newly developed skinsuits as it would give him much greater mobility," the tactical officer explained.

JJ clenched his teeth at the mention of the suits. It wasn't that he minded the marine using it instead of the combat armor. It was his decision after all and he should, in any case, be the one to assess and decide the best approach and tools to take on this mission. What he minded though was that the top brass was thinking of making the aforementioned skinsuit obligatory for all crewmembers at all times or, if not all the time, then at least for those currently on active duty. The idea behind this move wasn't a bad one, he had to admit that. The skinsuit, when worn with the paired helmet, turned airtight, something that could potentially save many lives if the ship was to suddenly lose pressure during a firefight. The skinsuit could keep a person alive in the cold of space for up to thirty minutes, and there was an embedded communication device in it that allowed someone stranded and floating aimlessly in the emptiness of space to talk to somebody and ask for help. This, combined with the Terran ability to beam people from one place to another in a heartbeat, could potentially save all those who didn't die in the initial blast and instead had ended up floating outside the ship during the sudden depressurization. Yet, for JJ to have to wear that airtight but also skintight suit on a daily basis was very unappealing. He would rather spend his duty hours on the bridge in his casual uniform, which in his opinion was the best the Space Navy has to offer when garments were the topic of discussion. So much so that he had taken three of them home to wear while doing nothing except lying on his sofa and watching The Simpsons.

No matter how he felt about the new garments the TSN was trying to introduce, he hoped that the same would make Bubba's mission an easier one to complete. It had been ten or so minutes since the big guy had slipped undetected inside the alien vessel, and he was starting to feel restless. They didn't know how much it would take the marine to reach the AI core and plant the device that, in theory, should allow unimpeded access to the core without having to deal with any pesky firewalls. All that was going to be done wirelessly through a dedicated subspace connection that, as the scientists who had worked on the device had passionately assured, was completely undetectable. It was the point of the whole mission. To connect to the Reaper's AI and maybe even to the underlying communication network they were certain must exist, the one that hopefully connected all motherships in the entire Milky Way galaxy. If they could determine the exact protocol the Reapers were using to communicate their location and attack priorities, they could find all of them at once and maybe end them once and for all on a galactic scale.

"Bubba's out of the ship, sir. He's moving back toward the raptor under the cloak. So far, there's no sign of discovery," the officer reported.

JJ put a broad smile on his face. He still didn't know if Bubba was able to plant the device, yet he assumed that the man had done it. He was certain the marine would have taken more time trying if he hadn't been able to do it in as little as fifteen minutes, the amount of time it apparently took to complete his portion of the mission. The raptor was now coming back, which meant the mission was quickly coming to a close.

"How are the Jaffa doing?" JJ asked. There was a separate portion of the mission they needed to keep an eye out, and the moment they were done, they needed to inform the Jaffa to stop acting as a dartboard for the Reapers.

"No damage to their ship thus far. Their shield is at 56% strength, but that could be a deception on their part. Our intel suggests the strength of a Jaffa's Ha'tak type IV shield should not have dropped so quickly," the tactical officer reported. "The reapers have lost five of the largest vessels and seven of the smaller ones."

It was true that the Jaffa were starting to employee other, more complex tactics than just the simple brute force approach to achieve their goal, and deception was certainly among them. The Terrans knew very well what a leap in shielding technology the Jaffa had received after the Terrans had captured and reverse engineered some key components of an Aschen warship before promptly giving all of their findings to the Jaffa. The Terrans knew all that, but as far as other races in the Milky Way galaxy were concerned the Jaffa were making do with a shield that was not much different from that of its predecessor, the type III Ha'tak.

"All right. The moment the raptor touches the hangar's floor, let's put some distance between us and the mothership," JJ ordered.

It took only a few extra minutes for the raptor to enter inside the small hangar bay located on the ship's underside.

"The raptor is inside. They are acknowledging the successful completion of the mission. The device has been planted, sir."

As ordered, the Defiant was already moving away from the mostly lethargic mothership that continued to diligently work on building a replica of itself. It seemed that their little stroll has gone unnoticed by the enemy, which was a very positive thing. Now it was time for the most important part to commence. Since the Defiant didn't have the processing power needed to accomplish their intended goal, another ship was needed to accomplish the actual intrusion into the reaper's systems. "Notify Landry that it is time for Hercules to shine, and prepare the Defiant to serve as a relay station for the signal between them and the device."

The installed device was supposedly perfect for smashing into protected computer systems, but it had a small downside. The device didn't have a very long range of communication. Because of it, the Defiant needed to serve as a booster in order for the signal to reach the dreadnought Hercules currently waiting outside of the system. They needed the ship's powerful AI, yet the ship didn't have the necessary cloaking technology to complete this mission on its own, hence the need for the Defiant.

"The Hercules is initiating the connection. Stand by," the communication officer informed the rest of the crew, also smartly putting all relevant data on the main view for everybody to see.

JJ didn't know what half of the things scrolling on the display were about, but he at least knew that the connection was established and that some data was now beginning to trickle between the Hercules and the largest Reaper in the system. Of course, their idea was to access its systems without the Reaper knowing that it was being hacked, yet JJ knew that when connecting to unknown and hostile systems plans and predictions rarely survived the first few minutes. Yet, he hadn't thought things would have gone south so quickly, or at least that is how it appeared right now from his mostly ignorant view on such matters.

There was an indicator on the screen that had gone red. Why he did not know.

"What's going on?" JJ asked.

"It seems the reaper has detected erroneous behavior in its systems. Maybe some separate anti-intrusion protocol is detecting that some code inside the core is being modified without authorization. It is probing the memory location that Hercules is currently modifying."

"Why is Hercules trying to modify the reaper's code?" JJ asked. He wasn't exactly a guru when it came to coding stuff.

"The easiest way for Hercules to gain the wanted access is to implant a malicious piece of code that simply opens a port through which data can be perused and eventually siphoned out for later inspection," the comm. officer answered.

"Yet, it seems Hercules will be unable to do it. At least if am reading the screen correctly that is," JJ replied while intently scrutinizing the data on the main display.

"It seems that way, but from what I can tell, what the reaper has detected is only a diversion. Hercules is simply formatting that memory location for no purpose at all while he's also modifying another, smaller portion with the real code. It seems it will be completely rewritten in ten more seconds."

JJ was starting to feel the pressure as if somebody was trying to defuse a bomb that stubbornly refused to shut down. Seconds were slowly passing by as if ten seconds were taking much longer than they should have the right to ever last.

"Hercules has succeeded in establishing a direct connection with the data frame. It is now only a matter of how much data he can go through before the reaper detects the intrusion. Hercules is first compressing data the malicious code thinks could be relevant to us in order to minimize the transfer time. Once copied aboard the Hercules, then it will try to learn if the copied data is related to what we are looking for, or if he needs to try looking for it elsewhere."

JJ didn't get all that was happening and, moreover, he wasn't certain if he should even feel bad about not getting it. After all, the mission would come to a conclusion no matter if he understood exactly what the comm. officer was babbling about or not.

JJ turned as he heard the tactical officer making a guttural and mostly incoherent sound that, he had to admit, startled him. "What is it?"

"Sir, I am detecting an energy buildup inside the reaper," the officer explained, now with a crisp and articulate voice befitting of an officer employed in the Terran Navy. The displeased facial expression remained, though.

From what he could see from the main view and all of the data displayed on it – or what he was able to track - it seemed as if the reaper didn't detect the intrusion into their systems. He was about to ask the comm. officer if he knew more than he did - knowing that the man could not know less in any case - when some of the data displayed abruptly changed. By their color, he was sure it was nothing that they would go celebrate later.

"Hercules is informing us that the alien AI has detected the intrusion and is taking appropriate countermeasures. As a result, Hercules has begun a brute force attack with the goal of taking full control of the automated ship, but it's warning us that the chances of succeeding are negligible. The most we can hope for is for the reaper to be slowed down in whatever it is trying to do," the comm. officer explained.

"I thought Hercules was an AI eons ahead of that reaper. Why is it having so much trouble, and why is it going to eventually lose?" JJ asked, still not sure what was happening and why it had to be bad.

"It is, sir. In terms of capabilities, the Hercules is on a completely different level. However, the reaper's AI is much simpler, which in this case is a good thing since it means it is also much sturdier. There are fewer ways to attack it since it has a much smaller set of functionalities. Also, the only point of entry that Hercules has at its disposal is the device we installed, which is far from being omnipotent in its ability to intrude into foreign systems," the comm. officer explained.

It made sense, in a way. A simpler system was usually very robust and hence more difficult to exploit since the number of methods that could be used was limited. Still, they went through a lot to make this mission become a reality and not only them. The Jaffa were also doing their part, which must be pissing Rak'nor off to no end. The man has to suffer hits from the Reapers as a decoy, and he knew the man wasn't built for that. No Jaffa was.

JJ looked at the display that had changed from the data they were looking until moments ago, to the view of the mothership. He understood why somebody switched the view when he saw several volleys flying from the active mothership towards the one that was being built. Plasma blasts rained on the half-done mothership, breaking large chunks of the still incomplete ship with each devastating impact.

The ship exploded abruptly, taking down the connected construction yard with it. JJ was about to comment on current events that were unfolding in front of him when the other mothership blew up in a million pieces.

"What the fuck happened?" JJ finally was able to speak.

"This is what Hercules was trying to postpone sir. From the moment the Reaper detected an intrusion through an unknown method, it began a self-destruct protocol in order to take out any evidence. Sir, it knew that it had no way of disabling the device we planted and the only way to prevent us from accessing any important data was to destroy both motherships," the tactical officer explained.

"All right, all right. What I want to know now is, did this mission fail or did we get what we came for?" JJ asked. A lot of work had been done for a result he could have achieved with a few well-placed hits from the Defiant's main guns.

"We won't know until the Hercules goes through the retrieved and still compressed data with a fine toothcomb. It is possible that there's some information pertinent to how the reapers communicate," the comm. officer reported.

"Great! That's just great! What about the smaller reapers in the system? Those currently attacking the Jaffa?" JJ asked.

"Umm, they have scattered, sir," the tactical officer reported.

"Oh, that's just great," JJ answered, suddenly feeling tired. They'd seen such behavior before. The moment the reapers were certain that victory was impossible, or that without their mothership they were, for all intent and purpose, lost in space, they would promptly scatter to all corners of the star system, as if taunting them to go chase them, and in the process lose days while doing it. JJ knew it would take time to chase them all down, which meant this mission just got extended for a few more boring days for certain.

"Let's go help the Jaffa clean up this system, shall we?"

It was going to be a long few days, JJ knew.

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