One Big Jump

by goulmeister1

AU:An Aerlion ship on patrol encounters the Cylons at the beginning of the first Cylon war and suffers a misjump, forty years later an expedition leaves Earth.

5. Chapter 5

Abydos Orbit

Enterprise

The minutes it took Borman to get up to the Enterprise were some of the longest of his life, the second the ship had docked he ran all the way to the command centre, Captain Anderson waiting at the central display, a map of the solar system was on it, one area highlighted.

"Captain, status"

"Sir", Anderson greeted him, "One hour ago the Intrepid jumped back to our position, she had been surveying this gas giant", She pointed at the map, a picture of the planet was there, it looked similar to Neptune, "She detected a jump flash a few million kilometres from her position, her main telescope was pointed towards the planet but her radar picked up a large signature at that location, she jumped back then"

"What about our sensors, anything yet?"

"We're still waiting for the light to reach us, another 40 minutes and we'll know more"

"I want every camera in the fleet pointed that way, and Captain" Borman pointed to a spot near the gas giant, "have a jump plotted for here, I'd rather deal with this away from the planet"

New Abydos Hospital

Nagada

Chad awoke to the clean filtered air of the hospital, his head still pounding, a sharp pain in his wrist drew his eyes to the IV line attached to him.

They had moved the hospital from the transport ship to new prefab buildings placed just outside the city walls, Chad had heard they were going to build a permanent structure after the base was finished, he could hear machinery doing just that right now, the sounds like nails in his brain.

"Chad, you awake?" Flint asked, sat beside his bed, he was freshly showered, his hair still damp.

"Ugh, just about, felt like I spewed up my intestines, while someone used my head as a punching bag" Chad weakly grabbed a glass of water Flint offered, a sip soothing his parched throat, he felt more thirsty than that time Brown had him run laps around a huge sand dune.

"How long was I out?"

"About an hour man, they had you in one of those MRI machines and everything"

Further questions were put on hold as a doctor entered the room.

"Awake I see, you gave us quite the scare young man", The doctor was in his late 40's with grey hair and glasses, "Anyway I'm Doctor Warner" he said reaching for the digital chart attached to his bed, "Your vitals are improving, but we're going to keep you over night".

"Doc, what happened, is it from the Bear attack?" Chad was worried, they had told him all about possible nerve and spinal damage, he brushed it off then, now the fear was real.

"As far as we can tell, neural overload, your neurons were firing off constantly, the overload of sensation caused the vomiting and your collapse, right now we haven't identified the cause, we'll need to do more tests", he looked Chad in the eyes, "I don't think it has anything to do with your earlier injuries".

Chad's mind raced, "Not the bear then, it has to be that stupid ruby, why did I even touch the thing, it's like I couldn't resist it's call", he mused internally.

"Thanks doc", Warner nodded and wandered out of the room, "Eric, did you see anything in that room, like a big ruby?"

"Yeah, I saw it", Flint's expression hardened, "You're in big trouble Chad, that whole ruby and the pedestal it was on, it melted into a pile of slag, tell me you didn't do something stupid"

"Er, no, I didn't do anything, you were there the whole time man" Chad protested, he wasn't taking the blame for that, when in doubt shut your mouth was his motto, time to follow it he thought.

"Except when I went off for a piss", his expression softened, "ah man, you're such a pain in the ass sometimes, Brown nearly blew a gasket when he saw it", he let out a small laugh.

"Anyway I gotta get going, the put the whole place on alert, something about ships jumping in"

Flint left the room waving goodbye, Chad was left wondering, "what ships?", he couldn't shake the feeling that he was responsible somehow.

Abydos Orbit

Enterprise

Forty minutes felt like forty hours to Borman, he was nearly wearing a groove in the floor from his pacing around, finally though an Ensign spoke up.

"Sirs, look"

They brought the video up on the screen, a flash, visible on the cameras, and some blurry shapes, they were too far to get a better image than that.

"Hmm, the colour is slightly off from our jumps, more blueish, the flash looked brighter too", Commander Vincent Kane spoke up, he was Anderson's XO.

"The eggheads can check all that later, bring up the image of the ships", The video stopped, changing to the blurry image, Borman and the rest examined it.

"Can we clean this up?"

One of the bridge crew ran an enhancement program, the picture becoming sharper, shapes more apparent.

"I thought the Intrepid said one ship, that's over twenty" Borman asked

"She didn't hang around to find out, looks like twenty three total, that big one is twice the length of the Enterprise too" Anderson commented, Borman saw the one she meant, a rectangular blob in the picture.

"Look here, this one is as big", they looked, "those two are nearly as big as us too".

Borman felt a pit form in his stomach, a whole alien armada, just by looking he could tell they weren't the ships they knew the Cylons to use, a distinct lack of the double disc shaped base ships in the image, they also didn't look like the footage of Ra's ship he saw, not a pyramid in sight.

They could try to contact them from here first, but the radio lag would be nearly two hours. No he decided, better to jump closer, then try to contact them.

"Captain, we'll take the cruisers and destroyers and jump to the location we discussed earlier, we can leave the frigates here to cover the civilian ships, have them prepare to leave if things go south, same for the ground forces, they can escape through the gate"

He paused, "Tell them to prepare demo charges, destroy everything if that happens, leave no trace about Earth"

"Sir" Anderson acknowledged him, turning to the CIC crew she began to issue orders, Borman sitting down in his chair, he hoped they hadn't found another enemy.

Abydos Star System

Near Gas Giant Planet

Earlier

Kerensky awoke to chaos, crew shouting and rushing about, his hand came to his temple, a massive migraine still pounding away, the taste of vomit still on his tongue, his stomach still nauseous but lacking anything to expluse.

Aaron floated over in the zero g, expertly dodging the disgusting clouds of vomit, "Aleksandr, are you alright?"

For the first time he really felt his 83 years, muscle and bone sore, he never suffered from TDS before, it looked like the whole crew had suffered this time.

"Better than a minute ago, what happened?"

"Right now we don't know, we're assuming some kind of misjump for the moment"

"The rest of the fleet?"

"All the ships we jumped with are accounted for", a pause, "the ones that jumped before, we don't know"

Kerensky felt relief and despair, his family were safe at least, his wife and sons were on one of the ships they had jumped with, he could only hope the other ships were safe.

As the crew worked away Kerensky took the time to go get cleaned up, he returned later to a more ordered bridge, someone had cleaned up too, the smell still remained though.

"Any updates Aaron?"

"We've contacted all the ships, no fatalities so far, whatever that misjump did it caused everyone to get TDS", he shook his head, "No damage to any ship at least, we're checking the jump cores anyway, we didn't arrive at the proper jump point either, were in the middle of the system near a gas giant",

That was odd, thought Kerensky, normally ships needed to jump in at the nadir or zenith of the star, outside the stars gravity, roughly five hundred astronomical units for small stars, or a pirate point if they were willing to risk it, they were lucky to be alive.

"Do we know where we are yet?", Kerensky asked as he floated over to his chair, strapping himself in.

"Look here", he produced a data pad, the sphere and surrounding space displayed on a map, "Here's New Samarkand", his finger stabbed the system, "Here's our intended destination, we planned to go around the Combine, through the periphery, hit any Star League basses for supplies on the way and lose any house forces that followed, then head to the galactic north"

"This is where we think we are", he pointed to a star far above the sphere on the map, one thousand light years from Terra approximately.

"That's quite a big jump, impossible I'd say", Kerensky knew the limitations of their jump drives, nothing has gone that far in one jump.

"I'd agree with you, we should be a cloud of charged particles after that jump, but there's not even any visible damage to anything"

"There's more, I can tell"

"Yes, there's a habitable planet in the system, looks like a dust ball, that's not all though, we picked up radio waves, and evidence of other ships", he fiddled with his pad, "Here, after we arrived, we picked up this flash near this gas giant, looks like a ship jumping out to me"

"Was there a pirate point there?"

"Where the ship was, no, the planet has no moons, no gravity null zones, it jumped without one"

"Troublesome", who could it be he thought, not aliens surely, "those radio signals, did you analyse them?"

"Too faint, they look to be wide area broadcasts from the planet, we'd need to be closer to get a clearer signal"

"I don't like this Aaron, increase the alert level till we know more, contact the commanders, we need to discuss our next move"

Unnamed Gas Giant

Enterprise

The small flotilla appeared in a flash, the destroyers moving to escort the Enterprise, the cruisers moving off to clear their fire lanes.

"Jump complete Captain, all ships reporting in", the ensign called to her.

"Sir, we have visual on the unknowns", another one said.

"Bring it up on the main screen"

Borman watched as the image appeared, getting his first good look at these newcomers, they all had smaller craft attached, some spherical others looking like modern space planes, the biggest ship there, a whopping one and a half kilometres long had twenty five ships attached.

"Hold on, what's that?", he just spotted something he didn't expect to see, "zoom in here"

The view zoomed in on the biggest ship, letters clearly visible, "SLS Abyssal?, that's in English"

"This one is SLS McKenna's Pride" Anderson pointed to the second biggest ship, it looked like a flattened cylinder with a fat head, several fins sticking out amidships and near the engine block.

"English writing, even the look of them, these ships are human, and from Earth"

"Are you sure sir?" Anderson asked him, "Is there a secret fleet?"

"Not that I know of", he told her, "only one way to find out though, comms, open a channel"

…..

"Jump detected", one of the crew called out, the general quarters alarm soon followed.

"What are we looking at", Aaron DeChavilier asked the sensor operator.

"Seven ships, unknown types, the biggest is seven hundred meters long, they all look like warships"

Warships, just what they needed, "No match in the war book?"

"No sir, completely unknown designs"

"Move us and the destroyers in front of the jump ships" he told the helm and comms officers.

The ships, Rondeau an Essex II and Muraca a Lola III, flared their fusion engines and positioned themselves between these new ships and the lightly armed jump ships, the McKenna's Pride moving between them, the Potemkin Abyssal moved behind the Pride and in front of the jump ships.

He looked at the sensor operators screen, a visual diagram of the ships was present, they didn't look like any Hegemony or great house design he saw, the ships were flat and rectangular compared to the cylindrical shapes favoured back home.

The jump core made that design necessary, taking up a lot of the space inside jump ships and warships, but if their jump engines could jump in a gravity well, could they be more compact too, letting them have those ship designs?.

He turned to Kerensky, "I don't think these ships come from the Inner Sphere".

"A periphery power?, one with warships?"

Aaron wasn't sure about that, he had heard of hidden periphery words being found before, of lost fleets gone missing and colonising a world, none of them had better jump drives than the rest of the Inner Sphere, let alone the Hegemony.

"Incoming transmission Sir", the comms station shouted out.

"Lets hear it", Kerensky told him.

"Patching it through to the speakers, now"

"This is the Terran Union vessel Enterprise to unknown fleet, please respond"

"Terran Union?, a bit rich a periphery power calling themselves that", Kerensky said to Aaron, "alright, open a channel, lets find out what's going on".

Earth

Pluto Station

Jack was going over personnel files at his desk, by this time tomorrow they would have finally excavated the Antarctic gate, a concrete plug was already on site to stop it functioning, he was waiting for that before returning to Abydos, he didn't want to be stuck there for long.

Some of the egg heads back on Earth had even proposed a defence mechanism for the gate, a metal iris device to block anything coming through, it would take a few weeks before the prototype was ready.

He was still looking for a fourth member of his team, a heavy hitter to back him up, he already had some people in mind for the other two, Daniel Jackson was one, translator and diplomat, and Commander Carter had been recommended to him, she had already accepted over the radio, he needed to talk to Daniel in person, he was afraid to leave his wife alone, Jack was sure he could convince him.

He would have gone with Kawalsky for the fourth but he had been offered command of his own team and had already snagged Ferretti as his XO.

He looked to his clock, deciding he spent too long on this for now he picked up the preliminary reports on the Gould weapons, the staffs recovered on Abydos, he knew first hand how powerful they were.

None of their body armour stood up to a shot from one, they were currently researching new ceramic compounds layered with the heat resistant metal design of the Colonial raptor, initial results were promising, but it was vulnerable to fracturing from the kinetic energy of the blasts.

He opened another report, this one from Abydos, straight from their Tok'ra friend, it was going over what she knew of Gould space ships, he gave it a brief skim, the ship Ra landed on Abydos was called a Cheops, a small Gould capital ship, Ra's was set up as his personal yacht.

It was an older design superseded by the Ha'tak, it was still powerful enough to fill out the escort roles of the Gould fleet, below that in size was the Al'kesh.

The Al'kesh was a design used for multiple purposes by the Gould, coming in different sizes too, the biggest were cargo ships and light capitals, smaller ones troop transports and the smallest were attack bombers, all of them shared the same design, they were also the most produced ships by the Gould.

Their heavy hitters were the Ha'taks, a jack of all trades ship, heavy weapons, carrier and troop transport, one was enough to devastate a world according to Jolinar.

She even mentioned a battleship analogue they had, she called it a Shu'tak, twice as big as a Ha'tak, fortunately there were only a few of them, serving as flagships for the system lords.

All that was based on Ra's rules though, with him gone there was nothing to stop them from having an arms race with each other.

His reading was disturbed by his intercom beeping.

"O'Neill here"

"Sir, General Hammond requests your presence in the conference room"

"Tell him I'll be right there"

A few minutes later he was sat at the table, the rest of the senior staff was there too, waiting for Hammond, they didn't have to wait long, he strode in with purpose soon after.

"Settle down people, two hours ago a fleet of unknown ships jumped into the Abydos system, they had to get the message from Antarctica to us by courier ship, we've since dialled them to confirm"

"Admiral Borman has led a detachment to confront these ships, no word back on that yet", Hammond sat down at the head of the table.

"I want all our teams geared up and ready to move out at a moments notice, we might be needed to support evac operations if things go badly"

"General, are these ships Goa'uld" Colonel Zukhov asked.

"We don't know yet, be prepared for the worst"

Abydos System

Enterprise

They had made contact with this Star League and Aleksander Kerensky, confirming they were human was easy, after that things got confusing.

"So they claim to be from Terra, which is Earth in Latin, where this Terran Hegemony is based?" asked an incredulous Captain Anderson.

"Yep, that they do, they also think the year is 2784 too", Borman was seeing the lighter side of things, it was better than a Goa'uld fleet here to exterminate them in revenge for Ra.

"They were shocked when you told them the year was 2064 too, that the Union is based on Earth, you get the picture", he finished.

All that took several hours of back and forth, just getting both side to move past the unbelievable aspects of things, it got worse when one of the crew had informed them of the fictional nature of the new fleet, they were keeping that to themselves for now.

"I don't normally go for the sci-fi explanation but it all adds up, they have to be from a parallel reality"

"How did you convince him to come over here, you don't have first meetings on unknown ships except on TV", he smiled at that, he was quite the skilled talker back in his college days, it translated well to diplomacy.

"I'm allowing him to bring guards, it a show of trust on our part, I think the fact we have artificial gravity helped too", he still remembered the unbelieving looks on Kerensky and his XO.

They had their chief intelligence officer, Lt Commander Hawk, going over all the files they had on this battle tech, nothing would be ready in time for the meeting though, he could see the shuttle approaching now.

It was escorted by two large fighters, they looked like something that should fly through the air rather than space to him, but then again the Angels had some elements from aircraft.

"I believe those are Rapier fighters sir, armed with energy weapons", Hawk told him, "the shuttle I think is an ST-46 variant, I cant be sure though"

"It's fine Commander, just keep reading, have a report ready for later"

Borman decided it was time to head over to the hangar, a marine welcoming party had already thrown out the red carpet.

The landing bay of the Enterprise ran the whole length of the top part of the ship, an exit at the back between the engine nozzles, designed that way to allow landings to be aborted, there were multiple elevators to take planes down to the pressurised hangars, the biggest elevators could just barley fit the two Skymarshall drop ships they had, the Star League shuttle would fit too.

The landing bay also had thick armour on the inside walls, the designers realising the vulnerability it was, with several meter thick doors to on either end.

"Ready Captain, Commander?" he asked.

"Yes, Commander Kane you have command", Anderson said, Hawk grabbing his data pad and following along.

The trio quickly made their way to the hangars, watching on a monitor as the shuttle came in to land.

…...

Aaron watched as they approached the ship, they had decided before hand that it was unwise to bring Aleksandr along, it would be stupid to risk their leader.

This Enterprise was a carrier he was told, he could see the landing bay through the canopy ahead, a long runway cutting through the ship, visible as the massive doors retracted, he spied marked landing zones inside, the shuttle heading for the biggest one, the two Rapiers escorting them had vectored to smaller ones.

He had spotted turreted weapons on their approach, dotted all around the ship, lots of smaller caliber ones too, more point defence weapons than would be on an equivalent Star League ship, he also had a good look at the two fighters sent to escort them too, Angels they were called, a bit smaller than their own Rapiers, less guns too.

He felt the clunk as the shuttle touched down, perfectly on target, that's when he felt it, the pull of gravity, no rotating section visible, the stars still steady outside, it felt like Earth standard, 1g.

"Holy crap", the shuttle pilot exclaimed, "it's real gravity", they were told but feeling was believing.

Aaron unstrapped himself and stood, grabbing a handhold to steady himself, not used to true gravity, the grav decks on the Pride were nothing like this.

"Talk to the hangar crew, Lieutenant, find out what you can", Aaron walked out towards the passenger compartment, and wasn't that a novelty, his escort of Star League marines already ready for him.

The elevator had taken then down to the hangar by that point, DeChavilier could even see through a porthole that they had rolled out a literal red carpet out, an honour guard already forming up.

He turned to the marine Lieutenant in charge of his escort, "What do you think of them", he said indicating the honour guard forming up.

The marine looked out, "It looks similar to Western Alliance gear I studied at the academy, they had a whole course on historical wars", he took a second to really look, "Similar, but it looks more advanced though"

He continued, "I doubt it stands a chance against our gear though", he patted the Mauser 960 he had slung over his shoulder, the pulse laser rifle infamous for it's heavy weight, Aaron was betting he regretted taking it today, lots of standing around in full gravity wouldn't be pleasant holding a 10kg weight.

Aaron turned to the civilian occupant of their shuttle, a former department of social relations worker, she worked as an ambassador for their PERT teams before the Exodus.

"Ready Mrs. Deitrick?" he asked her, her husband was an officer in the 316th Royal Battle Mech Division, most of the jump ships that came with them were ferrying the 316th and their dependants, roughly 100,000 people were on the ships including ship crews, 70,000 of them civilians, unfortunately the food and water supply ships had jumped earlier, they were looking at starvation in a few months.

"Yes General, as ready as I'll ever be", she brushed some imaginary dust off her smart looking pant suit.

"Alright, open it up", one of the marines was quick to hit the button, Aaron DeChavilier took one small step into the unknown.

…

Borman stood at the end of the carper, flanked by Anderson and Hawk, he watched the foreign marines come out first, they were wearing what looked like their dress uniforms, they even had swords and their guns, every one had an under barrel grenade launcher, Hawk whispering to him that they were lasers too.

Finally General DeChavilier dismounted, followed by a mid 30s woman wearing a suit, they took a moment to look around before walking the short distance to where he stood.

"General DeChavilier, welcome aboard", Borman extended his hand in greeting, DeChavilier's grip was strong, for a man just turned 70 he looked to be in great shape, a full head of hair unlike Borman's own shiny baldness.

"Allow me to introduce my officers, Captain Anderson, commander of the Enterprise and Lt Commander Hawk", another round of handshaking happened as DeChavilier introduced his own companion.

"Mrs. Jennifer Deitrick, diplomatic consultant".

"It's a fine ship Admiral Borman, especially the gravity", DeChavilier motioned around, "It certainly lends credibility to your claims"

"We can talk all about that, first lets get to the conference room, we can discuss things there", Borman waved the party further into the ship, some of the marines following them, others staying to guard the shuttle.

….

April jumped down from the cockpit, not even waiting for the hangar crew to bring over a ladder, she tossed her helmet to a passing crewman and jogged over to where the two Rapiers where waiting.

She got a good look at the planes on the flight over, April being one of the pilots selected to fly escort, they were big, both had large wings and a split tail with an engine nozzle sticking out the back, it was most likely atmospheric capable, her sensors ID'd the engine exhaust as coming from a fusion thruster, and she saw a few large weapon ports and a missile launcher.

She saw that the pilots had already dismounted by the time she arrived, Durant was already there talking to them, the deck crew standing around gawking at the planes.

She examined the pilots, one a male, pretty standard looking to her, possibly Asian, black hair, clean shaven, about five eleven.

The woman though, April was feeling jealous, at least six foot tall, beautiful and a red head, her bust large, compared to April's petite form, she looked like she had just left an expensive stylist, her long hair perfect, unlike April's own helmet hair.

They turned as she approached, Durant introducing them, "Phillips, meet Lieutenant Nguyên and Lt. Commander Kinsella".

"Hey, nice planes", She was kicking herself for that lame opener.

"Yep, they're beauties alright, royal model, 100b, has pulse lasers and an auto cannon in the front, and a bigger missile launcher than the standard models", Nguyên explained, "it's got four and a half gee's top acceleration and cruises at three".

April looked at the front of the craft, the so called auto cannon was as big as a tank gun, she didn't want to put her Angel in front of this thing.

"So Lieutenant Philips, why don't you show me your plane?", that was Kinsella, April had to look up into her eyes, her flight suit hugging her in all the right places, jealousy and lust, and she didn't even swing that way.

"Alright Commander, this way", She led them over to her fighter.

"So, I hear you're from the future?", she tried to break the ice.

"And I heard you're from the past, a bit hard to believe with the artificial gravity"

She decided to let it drop, any more talk would reveal things she wasn't cleared to talk about just yet, like the Colonials.

"Here she is, the SF-05 Angel, the Union's premiere fighter", April waved to her craft, "Weighs thirty two metric tons fully loaded, it's got twin auto cannons in front, internal magazine fed missile launchers in the fuselage, and can carry bigger ordinance on the wings, including nuclear anti ship missiles"

Kinsella didn't look too impressed, "Those auto cannon are a bit small, what are they an AC 2?"

"AC 2, what's that?"

"Ah, we group auto cannons into categories based on damage to armour, range and size, my ASF has an AC 20, that's the biggest grouping, yours look small, I'd peg them at a 2"

"They're 20mm, 450 rounds per minute till the ammo runs dry, depleted uranium tipped explosive rounds"

"Er, you don't over heat firing that much?"

"No, we have heat recyclers in the guns, 99% efficient, turns it into electricity, recharges the battery"

"That's interesting, I'd say your ASF is anachronistic, a mix of new and old"

"ASF, that's the second time you said that, what's it mean?"

"Aerospace Fighter", April nodded, made sense., now that they were going she was starting to like this Kinsella, a trip to the simulators was in order, she needed testing.

"Ever use a sim Commander?"

"We have those, is that a challenge I hear Lieutenant?"

"It sure is, lets ask my C.O, I'm sure we can put you through your paces"

….

Borman was sat down across from DeChavilier, marine guards standing at attention behind both parties, refreshments were laid out on the round table, pitchers of water and some fruit, straight from the freezers.

They had been talking for the better part of an hour now, mostly just to convince each other they were the real deal.

"General, debate is fine and all but we can prove we come from Earth, there's a device on the planet further in the system, a wormhole generator, a stargate we call it, we could have anyone you want travel through and confirm for themselves"

"Alright Admiral, I'm inclined to believe you, there's rumours of ships mis-jumping, never to return, it's within the realm of possibility they jumped to another reality, however unlikely that is"

DeChavilier paused to drink a gulp of water, some of it splashing as he put the glass back down, he seemed entranced by it.

"Artificial gravity, you claim it's the year 2064, and you have artificial gravity, I wouldn't believe it except here I am seeing it first hand"

He turned to Borman, "Fine, you can prove it to us, I'll gather a group to go through your stargate, I'll give them a list of world landmarks to visit, that'll prove things"

The meeting wound down after that, details were hashed out, who would go and how many, the Leaguers would jump a ship to the pirate point over Abydos and land one of their drop ships near the pyramid, from there they would send their group through the gate, before any of that though Borman needed to contact Earth, let them know what was going on.

SLS McKenna's Pride

2 Days later

DeChavilier was reading a history book Admiral Borman had given him, it covered up to the year 2020, he had already identified massive divergences from their own history beginning in the 1980's, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War, the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, all things that never happened in their past.

"Still reading old friend", Aleksandr Kerensky asked him, they were both in the grav deck relaxing after lunch, discussing what came next.

"It's very interesting Alek, did you know they never formed the Western Alliance, there was no second Soviet civil war, instead it collapsed in 1991, and formed into this Russian Federation instead"

"Humph, I notice they omitted the last 44 years of their history, the bit where they got all of these space ships"

"I noticed too, we'll find out soon enough, my money is on aliens right now though, it explains their artificial gravity, and I suspect their jump drives are superior too, when I was on the Enterprise, I saw no signs of a germanium core anywhere"

"Yes, I've had our intelligence officers interview everyone who was on that ship, apparently they have ultra efficient heat management technology, that far surpasses our own, imagine that equipped on our mechs", Kerensky ruminated on that thought for some time, a few mechs like that could win wars.

"So you believe this story of alternate realities then?", Kerensky asked him.

"I do, there's too much to fake, not on such short notice, unless you believe they have the technology to force our ships to mis-jump here"

"No, I think you are right, but I worry about the rest of the fleet, will they carry on without us?, Or will the house lords chase them down like dogs, they were already tearing the remains of the League apart. I'm afraid without me there to keep things in line they will be easily swayed to abandon the cause"

"It's out of our hands now Alek, I pray they hold the course"

Both men were silent for a few moments, thoughts on those left behind, both in the rest of the fleet now gone and old friends who didn't survive the Amaris coup.

"Anyway I hear preparations are complete on this trip through the stargate machine?", Aaron asked

"Yes, we finally received word from Admiral Borman that we could send our party, I was even thinking of letting Nicholas join them, it might do him good to get away for a time"

"Did you?"

"No, he refused, it's probably for the best anyway", Kerensky picked up a pad and waved it towards Aaron, "The Gold Moon will jump to this Abydos' pirate point in an hour, she's a Star Lord class, here's the list of places I want the team to visit"

Aaron took the pad, a cursory glance revealed famous world landmarks, the grand canyon, Eiffel tower, the great wall of china and many others, "Hard to fake things like that", he said.

"Yes, and things they should have in 2064"

Aaron looked at the pad again, it included the details of the journey, they would travel through this stargate to Pluto station, he'd ask them to take some pictures of the planet, then by transport ship to Earth orbit, and a space plane to the surface.

"Who's leading this?", Aaron asked, he was too valuable to go himself after all.

"Colonel Hazen, she's a bit aggressive but she'll ferret out any lies, I'm also sending Captain Gunther Dietrick of the 316th as her second, his wife is going too, she was your diplomatic advisor I believe"

"Yes, she was invaluable during the conversation with Admiral Borman", Aaron answered, his mind on Elizabeth, they had an off again on again relationship, even though he was a good thirty years older than her.

"Good, let us hope all goes well, the food situation isn't critical right now, but these people might be the only ones we can turn too"

Abydos Orbit

1 hour later

With a flash the Gold Moon appeared between Abydos and one of it's three moons, sensors reaching out to scan for threats, before long a drop ship detached from the side and began thrusting towards the planet.

Borman watched all this from the command centre of the Enterprise, they had returned two days ago to contact Earth through the gate and inform them of what had happened, he had left the Cruiser Korolev and two destroyers to monitor Kerensky's fleet, even sent the one courier ship they had over too.

"Sir, the drop ship is requesting permission to land", the comms officer asked.

Captain Anderson looked to him, he gave a nod and went back to watching.

"Permission granted", She told the comms officer.

Apart from talking with command he spent most of his recent hours going over the information on battle tech with Commander Hawk, if was even half true, some of the numbers really didn't add up, they needed to get these people on side, the trove of technology would rival the arrival of the Velos.

"That's a Confederate class drop ship, Sir", Hawk was standing by his side, watching with him.

"Is that so", he watched as the spherical ship began its de orbiting burn, the plume from the fusion thruster nearly blinding the camera.

"She's armed with 34 laser weapons and can carry a lance of mechs and two aerospace fighters"

34 lasers seemed like overkill for such a small ship thought Borman, that is, if the game documents were actually accurate to reality.

"Do a final confirmation on the landing zone, make sure everyone is clear", he was told they would be deploying their mechs to guard the drop ship.

A flat area with solid ground had been found near the pyramid, they'd had some bulldozers in to clear some small dunes but it should be good enough for the drop ship.

Borman finally got tired of watching the ship burn through the atmosphere, there was other work to do, he had been skimping on the paper work recently.

He left Anderson to run the ship and retreated to his office, a stack of reports waiting for him, he grabbed a mug of coffee from the machine in his office and got to work.

The first was a report on the mining and refining station they had brought along, it was fully operational now and was using the asteroids they collected earlier to manufacture large fuel storage tanks, a massive lattice of a framework was already being built around the station to hold them, future plans included a framework to conduct repairs on ships.

They were still loading one of the Colossus transports with kobolium ore, they were still on schedule to return to Earth via the newly discovered planet in a week and a half, a supply transport and escort had already left Earth for Abydos, they'd only take a month to reach here, now they knew their drives could handle the constant use.

Other reports went over the operation at the mines, they had taken a mining crew with them to Abydos, they were hard a work mining away ever since they landed, thousands of tons of ore already shipped up to the transport.

The landing strip at the mine was also complete, the spaceplanes they brought along now ferrying men and supplies down to the planet, they would remain here, the two large landing ships would be returning to Earth with him, along with the two experimental Skymarshall drop ships.

Yesterday he had said good bye to Commander Carter, she and Daniel Jackson had gone to Pluto Station to work for the newly forming Stargate Command, Daniel's condition of allowing his wife to live with him was granted, even the Tok'ra Jolinar had been moved there, and soon even Borman would be leaving Abydos.

There was one last report, they had found a hidden chamber in the pyramid just before the Star League fleet had appeared, one of the soldiers guarding the room had collapsed and an artifact inside had melted to slag at the same time.

Archaeologists had already moved the other artifacts out of the room for identification before shipping them to Earth, the remains of the melted one had been scraped up for further study at a specialist lab back home, Borman had a feeling it might be related to the appearance of the fleet, but there was no evidence of that and some subtle questions to Jolinar revealed such a feat was well beyond the Goa'uld's technical abilities.

Finished for now, Borman decided to return to the command centre.

Pluto Station

Sol System

Jack sat down with his two new teammates, they were going over their first upcoming mission through the gate, this one a simple escort mission.

"So, we're taking Jolinar to this planet, Gemmond, to get her a new host?", Daniel exclaimed.

"She told us she has candidates, people that willingly agree to be hosts in an emergency", Carter replied.

"She told us its only temporary until her own host, Rosha, comes out of hiding, Quinta is the same and she's let us know she prefers females", Jack looked Daniel in the eye, "There's another reason, it's to confirm her truthfulness, we can question Quinta after, confirm everything she told us".

"Fine, I still don't like the thought of one of them crawling through my head", Daniel scrunched up his face.

"I hear ya, still gives me the shivers", Jack clapped a hand on Daniel's shoulder, "Chin up, just imagine stomping them, it makes me smile".

Jolinar walked into his office at that moment, Carter whispering "Speak of the devil" Daniel, she sat down in the empty chair.

"I trust you have briefed your team", she spoke in perfect English now, Gould sure did learn fast.

Jack nodded, "Sure have, why don't you tell us about this world we're going to?"

"Gemmond, a former Goa'uld mining world long abandoned, it culture is similar to the Aztec's of Earth's history, a former slave I helped escape from Cronus lives there now, Eztli is her name, she agreed to help me in case of need, even becoming a temporary host"

Jolinar produced a hand drawn map of a city, "Their technology is similar to your renaissance, the Stargate itself is located at the top of this pyramid, in the centre of the city", she pointed a finger at the map, "I set up Eztli in one of my safe houses here".

"Although they do not use the gate themselves, they are aware of others who do, we might need to talk to the local leaders upon exit, a feast might be thrown in you're honour, I'd advise bringing gifts"

Jack followed along, gifts would be easy enough, he hoped they weren't the sacrificing kind of Aztec's.

Abydos

Near the Great Pyramid

Colonel Méndez watched as the drop ship came in, massive thruster keeping it aloft, it slowed to a crawl over the landing zone, turning the sand to black glass below, before it finally came to rest on large landing gears which had extended.

"Are all the camera's recording?"

"Yes sir", one of the men replied, they were currently in the command post for the pyramids, he had the striker platoon moved here just in case, but from what he was told the mechs brought by the newcomers would totally outclass them.

The air defence company back at the base had tracked the ship from high orbit, their S-800 missile system able to reach that high, designed to counter the Cylons it had two missile types, a 100kg anti ship warhead and a smaller one with tungsten ball bearings for Cylon raiders.

Four large ramps opened up on the drop ship, once they hit the ground the mechs stomped down, they looked like someone stuck a barrel sideways on top of a pair of legs and added some arms to Mendez, he turned to his "Expert" Brad Williams.

"What are we looking at Williams?"

Brad quickly perused his data pad, he had all his Battle tech files loaded onto it, "They look like Crab's, a medium mech, weighs 50 tons", Brad read on, "Should be armed with lasers, I cant tell more without knowing which variant it is".

Lasers, Mendez thought, watching as the mechs secured the area around the drop ship, before long a truck left one of the landing bays, heading towards the pyramid.

"Alright, Williams with me, lets go meet our guests"

It wasn't long before the truck pulled up in front of them, six people dismounting, Mendez didn't see anything untoward with the truck itself, it looked like a more heavily armoured seven and a half ton with an enclosed bed.

A woman in her 40's with a commanding presence walked up to them, "Colonel Elizabeth Hazen", she saluted him, he returned the gesture, "Colonel Juan Mendez", he offered his hand in greeting, she had a good grip.

"My team is ready to depart, where's this stargate I've been told about"

She was a woman of few words it seemed, the look in her eye reminding Méndez of veterans who had seen too much, "This way, it's inside the pyramid"

A few moments later they were standing before the gate, "Is this it, it looks like a big circle", suspicion laced her voice, "Just wait till we turn it on", Méndez signalled the man at the DHD, they watched as the chevrons lit up and the rings turned.

Gasps of surprise were heard as the gate activated, Méndez took out his radio and called the other side, "Abydos to Pluto Station, over".

"Confirmed Abydos, Pluto Station reads you, over"

"The Star League teams is ready to use the stargate, awaiting your confirmation, over"

The Leaguers were still watching the gate with awe as he had the conversation, even their Colonel's harsh facade had cracked slightly, "It's quite a sight isn't it", she turned to him at that, eye brow raised.

"I admit it is amazing, if it works that is"

"There's only one way to find out, their ready for you on the other side"

She turned to one of her men, "Palmer, go through and radio back if it's safe", the man Palmer walked up to the event horizon, first poking it with a finger before finally steeling himself and walking through.

A few tense moments followed before finally Hazen's radio beeped, "Palmer here, codeword Pyramid Power"

Hazen nodded at the radio, "Looks like it's real", she turned to the rest of her people, "Alright, head on through".

The party filed up to the gate, reactions the same as Palmer earlier, eventually only Hazen was left, she gave Méndez a singular nod before going through herself.

Pluto Station

Elizabeth shivered as she emerged on the other side, looking around she saw the rest of the team waiting for her, they were in a large metal room, a window on the far wall overlooking them, there were heavy machine gun turrets in the roof, deactivated, and soldiers in grey uniforms milling about, a bald man approached her, he looked to be in charge here.

"Colonel Hazen?"

"Yes"

"I'm General Hammond, Stargate Command", he extended his hand, she had the feeling she'd be shaking a lot of hands in the near future.

"The transport to Earth is ready to depart as soon as you are aboard", Hammond led them to the transport, near the exterior of the station they got their first look outside, the planetoid Pluto visible through the window, before long they were seated on the ship.

The ship undocked without issue, moving a small distance away before the pilot informed them they were about to jump.

She watched the flash from the viewport, one second Pluto, the next Earth.

"We just jumped into high orbit", someone exclaimed, amazed they weren't a cloud of atoms from jumping so close to the planet.

She took a good look at the planet in the distance, high orbit, she'd hardly call it that, they were half way to the moon by her estimation from looking out the other side of the ship, the moon visible there.

"That's definitely Terra, the continents all match", Gunther Dietrick was telling his wife, both of them glued to the view port.

She was forced to agree with him, that was Terra alright, looks like they weren't being fed a line of bullshit after all.

Before long they had docked with a massive space station, Sentinel station the pilot had said, a space plane was ready to bring them to the planet below, she brought up the list of locations, she added one of her own, Alexandria Virginia, time to visit home.

….

Jack, Daniel, Sam and Quinta stood before the gate on Pluto Station, doing a final check over of their gear, Jack had opted for his go to, an M4 carbine with optics, and a Sig M18, both loaded with AP rounds, R had upgraded their earbud receivers with a translation program, they'd be able to understand Gould but not speak it.

"Alright campers, today's trip is to a scenic volcanic wasteland, P4S-466, courtesy of our friend"

"I thought we were going to Gemmond?", Daniel asked

"We are, command decided all gate trips from Earth should first go to an uninhabited world, to stop anyone following", Carter told him.

"Ah, makes sense"

"Right then, dial her out", Jack shouted up to the command room.

Before long the four of them were standing in a frozen tundra, a large volcano visible a short distance away, it reminded Jack of a trip to Greenland in his youth.

They didn't stay long, Jolinar dialling Gemmond while the rest stayed alert for possible threats, once the gate activated they hurried through.

…

They emerged onto a stepped pyramid, the gate at the top, around them a large city was apparent, colourful buildings and wide roads in every direction.

Jolinar led them down to street level, onlookers curios about the newcomers, some running away to inform others, "This way", she led them through the streets to her safe house, they had given back her zat'nik'tel for the mission.

She was deep in thought about these humans, the Tau'ri, when they first met she thought them another human civilisation that just discovered the stargate, when they finally revealed more about themselves, how they had destroyed Ra, she was stunned.

They didn't even realise the damage they had done, how without Ra the system lords would engage in an ever escalating war with each other, the work of the Tok'ra destroyed, and then she laughed, all the years of the Tok'ra and some upstarts had done more damage in one day than all their previous efforts.

The Tau'ri were more advanced than she had first assumed too, having space vessels and faster than light travel, not advanced enough to matter to the Goa'uld though, one Ha'tak would destroy their fleet easily, they wouldn't send one if they found out about them.

She really needed to get back to the high council with this information, by now the other system lords had probably noticed Ra's absence, before long they would fight over his territory, a few well placed Tok'ra right now could wreck havoc among them, before it kicked off.

They were nearing the safe house now, Eztli should be inside, Jolinar had told her to stay put for now shortly before going into hiding from the ashrak, Eztli had been one of Cronus' bed slaves, Jolinar had used her as a source of information, anything he let slip in the bedroom was relayed to her, it brought her great satisfaction to steal her away, she made sure he knew who did it.

They had finally reached the house, a small walled building with an internal garden, there was a short wait after knocking before Eztli opened it, her face showing confusion seeing Jolinar's host, a short conversation and some code words saw them inside, the doors barred behind them.

…..

"How long will this take?", Jack asked, he didn't want to wait longer than necessary, the few locals at the gate running off had his hackles raised.

"I will need a few minutes to bond with Eztli after the transference, Quinta will need some time to recover too"

Jack didn't listen to the conversation Jolinar had with Eztli, he was busy looking out a window to the street, it seemed fine for now, lots of foot traffic and the occasional palanquin, he turned back to the room, this Eztli was a beauty, he could see how she was a sex slave to a parasite, bronze skin and deep black hair.

Jolinar and Eztli retreated to a room, for privacy, Jack went back to watching the street, there seemed to be less people about, and one person seemed to be casing the place.

"Carter, Daniel, stay alert, looks like trouble is brewing"

He motioned outside, Sam and Daniel drawing their weapons.

Some more time passed, the street traffic coming to a stop, Quinta emerged from the room, "That you Jolinar?"

"No, she has left, it's just me Quinta now", he sat down on a chair, "I need to rest for a moment, Jolinar should be ready in a few minutes"

Jack nodded, he moved over to the back window, the alleyway behind the house was empty, "Sir, look", Carter called over, out in the street several men were marching down, they had metal cuirass' and what looked like matchlock arquebus', they took up position on the other side of the street.

"Maitl in kouipan, anoso miki", was shouted over.

"Daniel, what did they say?"

"Er, I'm not exactly fluent in Aztec but I think they want Jolinar"

"Tell them they cant have her"

A loud bang was heard, Jack felt something whizz by his head, the window frame now sporting a gouge, "I don't think they care".

"Carter, suppress them, Daniel cover the door", Jack shouted as he dived under the windowsill, poking his gun over to fire off a few bursts, the locals were surprised at the return fire, diving for cover behind walls, their sporadic return fire doing little.

Jack could see more armed men running towards them from further up the street, at least twenty of them, "We're going to be surrounded soon, tell Jolinar to hurry up", he spotted one of them leave cover to raise their arquebus, before they could light it off he put a burst centre mass, the metal armour doing nothing against modern ammo, blood painted the wall behind the man as he dropped.

Everything changed when a large metal orb flew in the back window, Jack turned to look just to be blinded by an electric flash, he collapsed to the ground, nearly losing consciousness, Carter and Jackson were already down for the count, only Jacks distance from the grenade kept him awake, his muscles racked with spasms, he was unable to move.

He watched bleary eyed as a man kicked open the heavy back door, looking around before making a bee line to the downed Quinta, picking him up by the neck single-handedly, "Kree shak, Jolinar. By decree of the Goa'uld System Lords you will die with dishonour by the power of the Hara'kash."

O'Neill watched as the man raised his other hand towards Quinta's face, a ribbon of energy reaching towards his head.

"You are not Jolinar", The man threw Qiunta hard into the wall, Jack hearing the snap of bones from where he was, he mustered his energy and reached for his pistol, unsteadily raising it towards the man.

The man had turned to the door with Jolinar behind it, Jack managed to squeeze the trigger, sending a round into his back, and again, that was too much, the gun dropping from his limp fingers.

The man was unphased by two rounds ripping through his chest, turning to Jack and beginning to stomp over, Jack was thinking this was the end, his body not responding to his commands, his limbs numb, awareness was fading fast.

The man, no the monster, had made it halfway to Jack when the door burst open, Eztli stood in the doorway, strange weapon in hand.

She fired a bolt towards the monster, he actually sidestepped it, he tried to close the distance, that was a mistake, the second shot caught him square in the shoulder, he fell to his knees, still he tried to raise his hand again, she didn't wait and fired again, and again, she kept firing till the smell of burnt flesh filled the room, the body on the ground charred beyond recognition.

Jack felt the darkness claim him then.

…..

He awoke to a bucket full of water to the face, Eztli dumping it before moving to the window to fire more bolts outside.

"Get up, there's still men outside"

Jack climbed to his feet, picking up his rifle on the way, Jackson and Carter were still down for the count, he moved to the window and saw 7 men still firing at them outside, Eztli's electric bolt gun keeping them behind cover, several more still bodies lay on the road.

He fired off a few bursts towards the men's cover, the wood doing nothing to stop the armour piercing rounds, he dropped two before the rest lost their courage and ran off.

"What the hell was that thing?", he asked exhausted, moving to Carter and Jackson, they were unconscious but unharmed otherwise.

"That was an ashrak", she moved to Quinta, "Hmm, his shoulder is broken, he should live otherwise".

Jack moved over to the sphere that was thrown through the window, the silver ball had glass windows on it.

"That is a Tok'kal, a shock grenade in your language, non lethal, if it were not for your eye cover you would be blind for an hour"

Thank god for smart goggles and ear buds he thought, "Carter and Jackson, will they be alright?"

"They should wake in an hour, we need to move now though, there could be others around", She picked up Sam and Daniel, one over each shoulder before turning to Jack, "Take Quinta, I will carry these two"

Jack managed to lift Quinta over his shoulder, he grabbed the loose weapons on the ground too, including the shock grenade, he saw that Eztli or Jolinar, whoever they were, had taken a ring from the burnt corpse.

"This is a Hara'kesh, an ashrak weapon, wearing it will likely be fatal for others"

They made their way to a nearby building, hunkering down to wait for the others to wake, Jack took the time to bind Quinta's shoulder while waiting.

…..

"So, how did he know you'd come here?", he asked, a question she was asking herself.

Eztli hadn't betrayed her, but her memories revealed something she should have realised, she had been implanted with a subspace tracker, all of Cronus' bed slaves had one, it was short range but an ashrak would have no trouble finding it, Gemmond wasn't that far from Cronus' territory after all.

"Eztli has a tracking implant, I didn't know until now"

"Well, that's just great, so we just go back to Earth and tell all the Gould where we are?", he was angry, "Fat chance lady".

Jolinar entered a meditative pose, using her senses, enhanced by her Goa'uld physiology, she began to feel her body, before long she had found it, lucky for her Cronus' underlings had been lazy and implanted it in the upper leg, unlike a harder to remove location like the brain.

"Your knife, can I borrow it?", she asked him

He handed it over wordlessly, she looked down at her leg and realised she couldn't make the cut herself, she handed it back to him, he was confused for a moment, she pointed to just below her buttocks and he understood.

"Right here, half a finger length inside", she pointed to where she needed him to cut.

She released some chemicals to calm the host and numb pain, Eztli was in a near panic from all that had happened, O'Neill's cut was precise, he quickly dug the blade in and levered the implant out, putting a wound dressing on after, he them stomped on the tracker, destroying it.

"Glad that's sorted"

Her enhanced healing closed the wound before the others had awakened, once they were up they made their way back to the gate, quickly leaving the world, before something else happened.

Earth

Sol System

3 days later

Elizabeth Hazen was tired, they had been flown around the world dozens of times by now, her home town was what she expected, minus 700 years, some buildings had actually survived to the 28th century.

Other world landmarks were accounted for, the seven wonders, the grand canyon, they even went into the museums, had a look over this worlds history, it all matched up, there was no way it was fake.

She had the intel officers with them collect books, modern history specifically, that's where they learned about the Kobolian Colonies, where this Earth had gotten its advanced technology from, their guides had told them everything when asked.

She didn't relish the thought of genocidal robots, but they were real here, and a threat the remnants of the Exodus fleet, the Earther's had told her about an upcoming expedition to the colonies, she'd recommend to Aaron they put some of their own people on it.

They were done here, she needed to get back to the fleet.

SLS McKenna's Pride

Several Days later

Colonel Hazen had returned to the fleet with proof, they were no longer in their own reality.

"This is what I feared the most, that it was true, that we're now stuck in another reality while the rest of the fleet is still back home", Kerensky's tone was defeated, "I fear they will succumb to the temptation to return to the Inner Sphere, to join the house lords in their eternal war"

"That's a possibility, one we wont ever know though, there's now way back, not with our understanding of the universe, and the Union's isn't any better", DeChavilier was equally grim, however they still had a fleet to look after.

"Regardless of the situation at home, we need to look after the people we have here", Aaron waved around some folders he had brought to the meeting, "These are lists of our current resources, apart from some small pieces most of our industrial equipment was on the ships sent ahead, our food and water supplies too, all the experimental data we recovered from Terra too, we're looking at rationing soon, total starvation in four months, the water we can get from comets so we're fine there"

Colonel Hazen was surprised, "It's that bad".

Aaron nodded, "Yes, we've been keeping a lid on it but all the food transports jump ahead of us, we have several options, attempt to colonize the planet in this system, Abydos, a dry desert planet with little arable land", his tone indicated he wasn't in favour of that, "you should note all our terraforming gear was sent ahead"

"Another option is to start searching for a better planet in the nearby systems", he shook his head, "The chances of even finding marginal habitable planet is low as is"

"The last option is to get help from the Terran Union, frankly it is our best option, they can ship food through the stargate if they have too, and we now know their jump drives can get a ship here inside a month"

Hazen spoke up, "So we go begging to those people?, why did we even leave the sphere then"

Kerensky was deep in thought the whole time, he spoke up now, "We left because the Star League was finished, my efforts to prevent its collapse undermined by it's own leaders, the house lords, they we're dismantling it piece by piece, stealing men away to fight in their wars"

"Here is different, this Union is new, formed by the nation states of Earth", he paused, "We can't return, but we can make a change here", he turned to DeChavilier, "Aaron, old friend, contact the Union, it's time we had a talk"

…...

Dr. Elizabeth Weir was reading over her notes, she was currently in a small shuttle heading towards the ship McKenna's Pride, they were contacted by Aaron DeChavilier several hours ago about opening serious negotiations.

While a diplomatic team was being readied back on Earth, Elizabeth was to go and begin talks, the Union council had given her some offers to present, very generous ones in her opinion, to entice the Leaguers to share their technology.

Before any of that though she had to show them something else, Battle Tech, they had shipped the books through the stargate, even the originals from 1984, Weir was to present them to Kerensky and judge the reaction, she hoped it wasn't a violent one.

Finally they entered the small craft bay of the Pride, after closing the exterior hatch she saw the crew floating about inside, she told her assistant to grab the heavy bag of books and exited the shuttle.

She nearly threw up when she stepped outside, unprepared for the sudden zero G, she managed to keep it down though.

She eventually managed to get to the meeting room further in the ship thanks to the assistance of the crewman guiding her, fortunately it was located on the grav deck.

Three people were waiting for her, Generals Kerensky and DeChavilier and Colonel Hazen, a quick greeting and they were down to business.

"Before we begin, my government wants to inform you that we have prior knowledge of your existence"

The trio shared a look between themselves, Hazen's expression was turning to anger, Kerensky raised his hand to forestall an outburst, "I trust you will explain that"

"I will general, I ask you to listen because this will be unbelievable"

She motioned to her assistant, he handed over the bag of books, "Here, these books contain information about a board game called Battle Tech, set in the far future after the collapse of the Star League, how the Successor States fight wars with Battlemech's", she saw the disbelief on their faces, "The first book was published in 1984, eighty years ago according to our time"

Raised eyebrows on Kerensky and Hazen's scowl were her response, DeChavilier just shook his head.

"This is quite a lot to take in Dr. Weir, would you let us examine these books," he indicated the door, "in private".

"Of course, I'll be available to answer any questions you have"

…..

"Do you believe this crap", Hazen was the first to speak, DeChavilier had already opened one of the books, battle mech specs were inside, information they hadn't shared with the Union, "Grab a book and read", was all he told her.

She grabbed one a flipped open a page, "Oh look, warships", she skimmed over the listed stats, "Pfft, who wrote this, looks like they left a zero off the mass".

"Forget the details, look at the history, the politics, what I'm reading is ringing true", Aaron was feeling a pit form in his stomach, these succession wars we're exactly why they left the Inner Sphere.

They spend the next several hours reading the books, disbelief slowly changing to horror as they read, the fate of their expedition laid out before them, the Clans.

Finally DeChavilier summed up his feelings, "As loathe as I am to admit it, I think it's real, to the Union we were fictional, or from a reality close to what's described in these books".

Hazen nodded, "I hate to say it but I agree, some of the technical details are wrong, that's to be expected from a board game, but the history is right, and the details of the future, I can see it happening"

Kerensky was still silent, he thoughts turning to his son Nicholas, the mockery of the Star League in Exile he had made, his social Darwinist Clans an affront to Kerensky's own ideals.

He felt old, Nicholas was to be his successor, now, he didn't know.

"Aaron, do we have any psychologists in the fleet"

DeChavilier knew where he was going, "I'll ask around, there must be one", he put his hand on Kerensky's shoulder, "Have hope my friend, with help I'm sure he'll be alright"

"Regardless, he can't be my successor", he shook his head, "Now isn't the time to decide that"

"No", Kerensky looked at Aaron with fire in his eyes, "we can't waste time and effort worrying about those left behind, we have to ensure the safety of the fleet and people with us"

"This Terran Union, young and foolish, like the Terran Alliance before its collapse, if we are to go forward with them we'll need to set some conditions, to ensure the failure of the Inner Sphere does not repeat itself here".

DeChavilier hadn't seen Kerensky this fired up since the Amaris coup, "These books prove nothing in the long run", Kerensky had stood up now, gesticulating to Aaron and Hazen, "I won't allow us to become the degenerates in that dark future, nor will we play second fiddle to this Union"

Kerensky sat back down, fire still in his eyes, "Send Dr. Weir back in"

…

Elizabeth walked back in, the trio in the room all ramrod straight in their chairs, she took the one opposite them.

"Dr. Weir, your government has offers I take it?"

"Yes, for access to your technology, the Union is prepared to offer a joint colonisation project to resettle your people on a newly discovered world in the HD43325 system, some 84 light years from Earth, I have the details here"

She handed over the folder to Kerensky, he spent several minutes studying the document, "An Earth like planet with flora and fauna, almost perfect for human habitation, and you haven't colonised it yourselves yet?"

"It was only discovered a few months ago, we haven't even given it a name yet"

Kerensky nodded, "It's a fine offer, under other circumstances I might even go for it"

"I'm sensing a but coming", she quipped, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere in the room, DeChavilier and Hazen were stone faced thus far.

"If the Union wants access to Star League technology, they must grant the Star League in exile, my fleet, full membership status, and a position on the Union Council"

Elizabeth was taken aback, a position on the council, only the most powerful nations had members, Kerensky continued, "As for the planet, we'll take it, as an independent member nation of the Union that is, and allow joint colonisation as long as it's under our rule"

"That's a big ask, it's something I'll have to take back to Earth"

"I know, now lets talk about the Colonies of Kobol, I hear the Union is planning to send an expedition there, I approve, I'll want some of my people to take part too"

She just shrugged her shoulders to that, it was a small ask compared to the rest, "That shouldn't be a problem, anything else?"

"For now no, let us talk about the Goa'uld instead, tell me everything"

…..

Of course the Union would never allow someone to just drop into a council position, the next week was a lot of back and forward negotiations until both parties were satisfied enough.

Kerensky got his new nation, he named the planet Arcadia, they would colonise it with the help of the Union, part of the deal was granting them a seat in the Union parliament, and Kerensky was granted a position as a special advisor to the council, it allowed him the access he wanted, he could attend every meeting, he just couldn't vote, that was fine by him, it allowed him the influence he desired, whether in person or through a proxy sent in his stead.

He also managed to get DeChavilier into the Union's military high command, they would form a dedicated ground force, instead of relying on member nations' donations or it's small peacekeeping force, the 316th would form the core of this new force, those that decided to remain in the military at least.

The remainder of the black navy forces would be eventually folded into the Union's space force, after they figured a way to move all the civilians to their new home.

"Is this the path we should be taking Alek?", Aaron was asking, tying themselves so closely to the Union could be a mistake.

"I'm positive, we can influence its direction, prevent a repeat of our own history, stop anything like the Inner Sphere from occurring, or would you rather we go alone into the void, where these Goa'uld rule?

"I see your point", Aaron thought of the Goa'uld, he hoped they didn't exist back home, the Exodus fleet could have run right into them.

"You got a team into this Stargate command then?"

"Yes, only a small squad, enough to keep us in the loop", Kerensky looked up from his mound of documents, "Did you receive word about the food yet?"

"Earlier today I did, a transport ship is fully loaded with emergency rations, it should be leaving soon, it'll keep us fed until we can settle Arcadia"

Kerensky nodded, there were currently several plans in the works to move the hundred thousand people to Arcadia, one involved moving the spare gate found on Earth there and sending people through from Abydos, unfortunately all the remaining heavy gear they had wouldn't fit through it.

If they started jumping now it would take the better part of a year not counting any delays, no one wanted that, they would need the equipment on Arcadia with the people, and to send to Earth for study.

The Union had sent several engineers to have a look over the fleet, currently they had jump engines they could mount on the smaller ships, and engines from unfinished Enterprise class carriers could be mounted on the two destroyers but the McKenna's Pride and the Potemkin class Abyssal were too large for any existing drive, they would need to be specially build and shipped here.

All that was the work of months though, they could ship one of the smaller drives through the gate in pieces and assemble it on this side, doing that with the whole fleet would take time though, he planned to have the Essex class Rondeau done first and send it along with the expedition to the Colonies, along with some other forces.

"I had an interesting conversation earlier today", Aaron began, "A representative of an Earth conglomerate came all the way out here, how they got permission I have no idea, anyway this Airbus company wants to licence the design for the Leopard drop ship"

"Oh really?", One of the terms Kerensky got was monetization of Star League technology, Earth companies would need to pay a licence fee to use them, the money would be Arcadia's only income for some time.

"Yes, apparently their rivals beat them to a fusion engine design, obsolete compared to our own, and their own efforts so far have ended in failure, they want to take the Leopard and modify it into a civilian transport"

"Why not a Monarch? Or a Buccaneer?", Kerensky asked.

"He told me those designs were too big for their current infrastructure"

Kerensky considered it for a moment, "Tell them to make a militarised one too, the Union has a lack of ground to space transports"

"Of course"

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

It was a week after their tumultuous first mission as a team, Quinta was still in the sickbay mending his broken shoulder bone, they had questioned him extensively about the Tok'ra and Jolinar, he confirmed everything she had told them.

Jolinar had a new mission for them now, she wanted to get back in contact with the Tok'ra, there was another Tok'ra agent on a planet named Bagua, Jolinar wanted to meet them before any attempt to contact the High Council, she still wasn't ready to return just yet.

"Bagua, what's it like?" Jack asked

"A world under the control of system lord Yu, the Tok'ra operative Fuji poses as a merchant on the planet, Yu's realm having a thriving merchant fleet for the Goa'uld, the world is a major hub of trade"

"Expect heavy traffic at the gate, and lots of Jaffa guards, keep your weapons concealed under your robes and let me do the talking"

Jolinar had them produce some simple looking robes, typical for a middle class Goa'uld's servants, it was a shock to Jack that the Gould had a middle class, anyway they would pose as servants to Jolinar, and she would take them to this Fuji.

"And this Lord Yu, can you tell us about him", that was Daniel, always curious.

"Some would say he is the most benevolent system lord, his realm a place were some wealth is obtainable by even the human inhabitants"

"He runs his worlds on a strict rules system, similar to your Confucianism, he took most of his human stock from the area on your world known as China, even his host, that heavily influenced him"

"But Confucius was after the stargate was buried", Daniel interjected, "Thousands of years after"

"You do know the Goa'uld regularly take slaves from Earth, as recently as your medieval period"

That was news to all of them, "Other system lords and even minor Goa'uld sent ships on slave raids to Earth, it was a way of annoying Ra without directly attacking him, Earth is still nominally in Ra's domain"

"Anyway back to Yu, he is now the oldest living Goa'uld now that Ra is dead, his main rival is Cronus, both of them are on the far side of Goa'uld space, he is highly respected by his Jaffa and the human population"

Her voice turned bitter, "All of that means nothing to you though, he would destroy Earth in a heartbeat, the Goa'uld don't tolerate competitors"

"Alright that's enough history for today, we leave in three hours", Jack dismissed them with a wave.

They filed out of the briefing room, Jack following, he heard the new team was arriving today, he wanted to be there when it happened.

Before long he was stood in front of the gate beside Hammond, the gate opening with a woosh and six men in armour quickly filing through.

Hammond extended his hand to the leader, "General Hammond, welcome to stargate command"

"Colonel O'Neill, two l's", Jack shook hands with him too, he had a strong grip.

"Major Jenson, of the 13th royal mechanised division SLDF, what's left of it anyway",

"Lets get your men settled in", Hammond waved them further into the station, Jack took a good look at their gear, big honking laser guns alright, he wanted one for himself, he'd see if he could test one out when they got back.

He still didn't know what to think of these Star League people, they barely knew them and now they were part of the Union, the few he had met so far seemed like fine people, time would tell he supposed.

…

Before long SG-1 was on Bagua, they had come in from P4S-466 again to keep anyone from knowing where they came from, the gate was located just outside a large city, guard towers with heavy weapons positioned in front, a dozen Jaffa were checking anyone who came through, there was even a small queue.

In the city they could see small shuttle craft type ships taking off and landing. "Tel'tak", Jolinar had told them, small transports ubiquitous in the Goa'uld empire, they had passed through the checkpoint without issue, Jolinar convincing the Jaffa guards.

The interior of the city reminded Jack of Tibet, large small windowed apartments lined the street, leading to a great open air market in the centre of the city, it was there Jolinar had them wait while she made contact with the other Tok'ra.

"I wonder what they use for money", Daniel whispered, they had left most of their gear back at the base, including the translators, only bringing a small hand held radio and a sidearm each, Daniel had been teaching them Gould on their off time but it was slow going.

He looked over to the landing pads for the Tel'tak's, a slimy looking man looked to be selling them, he gave Jack a real used car salesman vibe, "Look, they're selling ships over there, something to note for future"

They wandered around the stalls for a good ten minutes before Jolinar returned, she seemed to be in a rush, "We should leave, I just got some very interesting intelligence, best not to discuss it here"

"We're not in danger are we?", he asked, eyes starting to track any possible threat.

"No, nothing like that", she started to lead them back to the gate, "This info is something you'll want to act on soon".

Earlier

Jolinar spotted Fuji's emporium, it was located on a side street from the main market, she casually opened the door and entered, Fuji was seated behind the counter, the rest of the building full of the useless junk he sold.

"Welcome customer, please peruse my wares"

Wasting no time she gave him a Tok'ra hand sign, they retreated to a backroom after, one of Fuji's underlings taking over the shop.

"Jolinar, I heard you vanished and now you're here in a different host?"

She shrugged, "There was an ashrak after me, I was hiding",

"I'll let the council know, they were looking for you, and Martouf he is still worried"

"I'm not returning just yet, I'm courting a new ally, I just need to know what's been happening"

Fuji scratched at his jowls, "Apart from the supreme system lord being missing, not much, Apophis and Heru'ur are moving to claim Ra's territory but that's it"

She nearly laughed at that, they still didn't know what happened to Ra, "Fuji, Ra is dead".

"Really, that is news, how do you know?"

"I'm working with the people who killed him, that's how"

Fuji's expression darkened, "Why?, with Ra dead the system lords will soon be at war, Ra's prohibitions will be gone, countless humans will be killed"

"I only found them after they had killed him", best not to reveal too much she thought, "they're an advanced human civilization and Ra was about to destroy them. I don't blame them for what they did"

"And now you're working for them?"

"They had no idea about anything, I'm just educating them, they might be good allies to the Tok'ra in the future"

"The high council won't like this", he shook his head, "you always were a wild one Jolinar"

He seemed to think for a moment, "Jolinar, there is some information, now that I know Ra's dead it might be important"

He let out a deep breath, and spoke in a whisper, "Rumor has it that Apophis is meeting Mafdet, who runs Ra's industrial world Khnum, on Chu'lak, supposedly he is going to turn it over to Ra"

"He controls the bulk of Ra's forces, that'll make Apophis the strongest system lord"

"Exactly, Heru'ur is already grabbing as many of Ra's outlying worlds as possible, he looks set to combat Apophis soon"

Jolinar's mind spun, she couldn't let Mafdet side with Apophis or Heru'ur, Khnum industrial output was leagues above any other Goa'uld's industrial world, Ra keeping a limit on the system lords, the balance of power would shift to whoever controlled that world.

If she could stop that meeting, turn Mafdet against Apophis, and Heru'ur too, make it a three way conflict, that would massively reduce the Goa'uld's power in the region, a great boon to Earth, and a crippling blow to two system lords.

"This meeting, Fuji, when is it?"

"Two weeks from today"

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

SG-1 and Jolinar entered the briefing room, General Hammod and other team leaders were already waiting for them, they quickly took their seats and Jolinar told Hammond the details she had received from Fuji.

"So, let me get this straight, Apophis, one of the Goa'uld system lords, is meeting Mafdet, who controls the biggest industrial world in the Goa'uld empire"

Jolinar interjected, "Mafdet also has control of the majority of Ra's fleet, and his territory, thousands of ships and planets, those not yet taken by Apophis or Heu'ur, they have only taken minor worlds so far, the possibility of Ra returning is staying their hands for now"

Hammond nodded, "And when they find out Ra's dead they'll rush to take the rest"

"Quite so, Mafdet must think Ra is gone or he wouldn't meet Apophis like this"

"The only possible reason is if he intends to swear allegiance to Apophis, rather than try to take over Ra's territory himself or join with Heru'ur"

Daniel spoke up, "Is there a reason he didn't pick Heru'ur?"

"The Tok'ra Fuji did hear rumours of a disagreement between Heru'ur and Mafdet, supposedly Heru'ur took Mafdet's favourite slave to rape, Goa'uld can grow attached to their servants, Human biology affects the symbiote too, emotional responses and hormones, anyway Mafdet swore vengeance but Heru'ur is Ra's son, he stopped any reprisal"

"Disagreement sure is a way of putting it", Jack was feeling angry, the depths of the Gould's evil seemed endless.

"Mafdet is unlikely to turn to Heru'ur then, I take it you want us to put a stop to this meeting?", Hammond got to the point.

"Yes General, preferably by implicating Apophis in treachery, rather they fight each other than Apophis or Heru'ur gaining Ra's resources, that would make them the most powerful system lord"

"And that's bad for us, Earth is still considered under Ra's control, he was fine letting us be for whatever reason but those two probably won't", Daniel said, Jack nodded in agreement, Ra didn't care about Earth until he found us on Abydos.

"That is likely Dr. Jackson, whichever Goa'uld took control would take a tour of their newly gained lands, Earth included"

Hammond spoke up again, "Its a nice plan in theory, but how can we fake Apophis attacking this Mefdet?"

Jolinar nodded, "I understand General, Earth doesn't have the ability to fake that right now, but what if you got someone else to do it?"

"Go on"

"The Tok'ra are not the only ones who fight against the Goa'uld, from time to time slave revolts and even Jaffa revolts happen, the legendary Sodan are a good example"

She continued, "The Tok'ra are aware of minor actions taken against Apophis, not by us, but by rebel Jaffa in his ranks, we know they operate from Chulak and we suspect their leader is Apophis' former First Prime, Bra'tac"

"You're sure of this", Hammond asked

"Not entirely but quite confident, there are rebels on Chulak, we only need to find them"

Hammond went silent, considering for several long seconds, "Alright, SG-1 go to this Chulak and try to make contact with these rebels, we have to weeks to come up with alternatives if you can't find them"

…

They had went over their plan for a few hours, more robe wearing to blend in while Jolinar put out feelers to find the rebels, they'd try this Bra'tac and see where he stood, the plan was to leave tomorrow.

For now Jack went down to the firing range, he had arranged for a demonstration of the Star Leagues small arms from Major Jenson, who was already waiting for him by the time he arrived.

"Major, all set up?"

"Colonel", Jenson waved him over to the counter, a gun was laid out on it "this here is the Star Leagues standard issue, the Mauser 960 pulse laser rifle", he hefted the gun up, showing Jack its features, "Integrated under barrel grenade launcher, retractable vibro bayonet", he pushed a button and the knife shot out, he could hear it humming away, "it can link with our helmets too, projecting a targeting reticule on our HUDs"

"Sounds fancy, care to demonstrate"

"Here", Jenson passed Jack a pair of goggles, "eye protection, you don't want to go blind from laser scatter"

Jenson turned to the target dummy down the range, he pulled the trigger once, there was only a slight electric click to indicate anything had happened, Jack thought he saw some light scatter along the path, he watched the dummy explode, flaming and melting foam flying in all directions, the kevlar vest on the dummy was on fire, slowly sliding down the support pole.

"Impressive, can I try?"

"Sure", Jenson handed the gun to Jack, once it was in his hands something became apparent.

"This thing's heavy, what's the ammo, rocks?"

Jenson smiled at that, "Ten and a half kilos, it's got a survival kit in the stock too, the battery is good for a hundred shots"

Jack aimed down the scope on top, he picked out an armour insert placed on the range, a squeeze of the trigger and ceramic exploded with molten metal running down the remains of the piece, a hole blown clear through bigger than his fist, he didn't feel a hint of recoil, holding the gun was tiring though.

"I'll take one, minus the weight"

Jenson let out a belly laugh at that, "Good one Colonel, me too", Jenson calmed down, he spoke while still smiling, "So Colonel, where can you get a drink on this tub?"

Arcadia

With a flash a large transport ship jumped into the system, a brand new Skymarshall drop ship detaching soon after, making its way to the green world below, contained in its hull was the Antarctic gate and DHD device gifted by the Russians.

It soon landed in the clearing the Prometheus Expedition had used before, a work crew quickly dragging out a platform and driving it into the ground, the gate followed, soon it stood erect in the field, the DHD ready beside it.

A quick test dial to Abydos proved its function, soon after Abydos dialled back, men and material streaming through the gate, Kerenskys advance party, they moved to setup tents around the field, already beginning to construct a base.

Soon enough more people would arrive, to build towns, cities and factories, civilisation had arrived to Arcadia.

…..

Kerensky walked through the gate for the first time, one moment in a desert pyramid, the next a green field surrounded by trees, he took a second to look around and take in the clean air, having been on a ship for months it was refreshing, more so than the hot air of Abydos.

Aaron DeChavilier soon walked up, having arrived earlier, "What do you think Alek?"

"A fine world to set up our colony, I see they already started", he indicated some excavators donated by the Union, their own equipment too big for the gate, they were already digging foundations for future buildings.

"No time to waste, I had our people draw up some initial plans based on the survey data from the Prometheus Expedition, this area will be a military base to guard the gate", DeChavilier pointed to the treeline, "Over there we will construct the first civilian accommodation, apartments to start, once everyone is housed we can expand to normal housing"

"Good, good, and the factories?"

DeChavilier's expression soured, "We lost most of our industrial equipment with the rest of the fleet, so don't expect us to pump out mechs for some time, I contracted some Earth producers to manufacture tooling, it'll take a few months before its done"

Kerensky nodded, "And suitable farmland had been found?"

"Yes, fortunately we still have enough of our seeds, better than what's available from the Union, our genetically modified crops will grow fast, we can expect to be food self sufficient very quickly once we start farming", DeChavilier smiled.

"Excellent, old friend, I won't keep you any longer, I want to have a wander around"

Aaron waved him off, he had a meeting on Sentinel Station soon, discussing the Unions future ground force, it amazed him he could be back to Earth in less than an hour, the Stargate was a wonder.

Chulak

The next day

It was night time on Chulak when they arrived, wearing the same robes as last time they moved out towards the distant city, following the dirt track that went from the stargate.

Jolinar was filling them in on more Gould trivia, "Chulak is a Jaffa world", she was saying, "a world dedicated to the raising and training of the Goa'uld's Jaffa armies, Apophis also keeps a palace here"

The dim moonlight barely lit the way, but Jolinar's enhanced vision was easily able to guide them, before long the city was visible, a sea of torchlight rising over the dark forest, the sun's were beginning to rise when they reached the gates, solid wooden constructions with some Jaffa standing guard.

Jolinar put on her Gould voice and shouted at the Jaffa, whatever she said was enough and the gates were opened, now inside it was time to find this Bra'tac.

They huddled in an alleyway to wait for morning, the daily bustle of the city starting in earnest an hour later, they made their way to the main market place, SG-1 following Jolinar around as she found out where Bra'tac's house was from the traders.

"I found out the location of his abode", Jolinar sure had a method of speech Jack thought, they found their way deeper into the city, eventually finding Bra'tac's house.

"I can't predict his reaction to a Tok'ra, Jaffa, even those fighting for their freedom, dislike the Tok'ra, when we attack the Goa'uld Jaffa die".

Jack nodded, "Daniel, you're up, we can't speak Gould yet", Jack said indicating Carter and himself.

Before they could even knock on the door things happened, four Jaffa came around the corner of the house, two on each side and surrounded them, staff weapons pointed aggressively.

They were led a short way down the street, a door was opened on a small building and they were ushered inside, more Jaffa with weapons inside, the man himself Bra'tac awaiting them, they were pushed to their knees and searched, their weapons removed and shown to Bra'tac.

He wore metal armour, chain mail underneath, and a metal skull cap, a golden emblem on his forehead, his grey beard giving him a distinguished look.

"A Gou'ald and humans, skulking outside my home", He shook his head, "My men have been following you since you entered the city, why have you come to me"

Jack looked to Daniel to translate, "Tell him we came to talk"

"Talk you say, then talk"

Jolinar spoke up, "I am Jolinar of the Tok'ra, we mean no harm"

He laughed at that but his face was angry, "A Tok'ra, the most infamous one, I should just hand you over to Apophis right now"

Listening to Daniel translate he knew they had to take a chance, it wasn't going well right now, "Tell him we know he works against the false gods", Daniel talked, "Tell him we can help, we have intelligence he'll want to hear".

"Quite presumptuous, even if I was why would I need your help, or help from the Tok'ra"

"Tell him Ra is dead, and that we killed him"

Bra'tac raised an eyebrow at that news, he paused in thought for a good minute before waving SG-1 up, "Say I believe you, what do you want from me".

He led them into a side room, a fire dominating the centre casting shadows on the walls, seats were brought in by other Jaffa and Bra'tac bid them sit.

He had been examining one of their pistols for some time, before placing it on a nearby table, "Weapons unlike those of the Goa'uld, tell me, how did you destroy Ra"

Jack decided the truth was their best ally right now, he had Daniel relay the complete story of their mission to Abydos and how Ra was destroyed by the bomb they had brought, Bra'tac occasionally asking questions about specific details.

Bra'tac had produced a pipe and lit up, smoking away while in thought, "So, Ra is dead, and Apophis suspects it too, what are the Tok'ra planning then?"

"Not the Tok'ra, we plan to disrupt Apophis' attempts to claim Ra's territory", Daniel translated for Jack again, "Ra's underling Mafdet is meeting Apophis in two weeks, we want your help to stop it".

Bra'tac puffed away at his pipe again, deep in thought, finally he made a decision, "I will help", he turned to one of his men, "Send word, I need to talk to Teal'c", he looked Jack right in the eye, "Tell me everything you know of this meeting, spare no details"

….

Sentinel Station

Sol

DeChavilier was done with meetings for the day, he had spent hours in conference with other military leaders from Earth going over the makeup of the Terran Union's new ground force.

They had decided to split it into two, a rapid reaction lightly mechanized force to serve as the Marines, they would also deal with shipboard security.

The other force would make up the heavy firepower. Armour, mech divisions, heavily mechanised infantry and artillery divisions would compose the Army.

The core would be formed by the 316th Royal Battlemech Division, the Union's member nations donating some of their own troops to fill out the numbers, for now they would initially raise five divisions, fifty thousand men total, at least two would be mech divisions.

The last meeting he had was with some military contractors, they had reviewed the technical data supplied by Kerensky's fleet and had some initial ideas, they had explained it would take time for Earth's industries to build the machinery to produce modern Star League technology, but more primitive designs were easier to reach, they had showed him some initial design concepts, combining native tech and old Star League stuff.

One of the problems was funding, the Union's priority was on developing space based technology so only a limited amount was budgeted towards developing a mech force, they would have to make do with what the fleet had for some time, he wouldn't want to use new Earth mech's for anything but training until they replicated enough Star League tech to be competitive.

He eventually made it through the meetings, crashing on his hotel mattress, they were still working on his new apartment on the station, sleep quickly found him.

Chulak

Bra'tac greeted Teal'c when he arrived, ushering him into his home, after the usual greetings Bra'tac got down to business.

"Tek'ma'te Master Bra'tac, I see you are in good health"

"As healthy as a hundred and thirty year old could be", Bra'tac jested, he bid Teal'c sit and became serious.

"Teal'c do you know anything about a meeting between one of Ra's underlings, Mafdet, and Apophis?"

Teal'c thought about it, Apophis had said he was expecting a guest in a few weeks, nothing about who it was though, possibly to keep it secret.

"No, he mentioned a meeting in two weeks but that was all"

Bra'tac nodded, "Hmm, I did receive some valuable information, Ra is dead", Teal'c looked surprised at that, Apophis had been attacking some of Ra's outer holdings lately, trying to provoke a response, none had come.

Bra'tac continued, "The source had revealed that Mafdet is coming to meet with Apophis to surrender Ra's territory, it would make Apophis the most powerful system lord, Heru'ur is also moving to take Ra's systems"

Teal'c understood what that meant, war between Apophis and Heru'ur, if Apophis controlled Ra's forces he would win easily.

"Master, what are you planning?"

"The ones who killed Ra brought me this information, they are looking to stop Mafdet from gifting Apophis Ra's territory and armies", Bra'tac stood, cape waving behind him, "I cant allow the false god Apophis to become supreme system lord, his cruelty is beyond that of Ra, freeing the Jaffa peoples would be that much harder"

He turned to Teal'c, "Come, there are some new friends I want you to meet", he paused and chuckled, "and a Tok'ra", Teal'c' raised one eyebrow at that.

"You might like her Teal'c, she hates Cronos with a passion too"

….

Bra'tac led him to another building, inside were five people, one of them a Goa'uld, the Tok'ra, the rest humans, wearing simple robes but underneath he could see they wore clothing unlike any he had seen before.

Their weapons too, most humans never got past simple crossbows, those that did usually were crushed by the armies of the Goa'uld, only several notable examples were spared, did Bra'tac find a people able to challenge the Goa'uld?

His thoughts flashed to the supposed advanced human worlds, the Tollan, the Hebridians, known to the Goa'uld, allowed to live because the price to kill them was too high for any single system lord, if they were actively opposed to the Goa'uld instead of hiding on their own worlds they would be destroyed no matter the cost.

He had heard of other humans worlds that became too advanced, the Goa'uld would bring their ships and bombard the planet till all that was left was radioactive dust, only sending Jaffa to gather slaves and secure the stargate if present.

But these humans before him, Bra'tac said they had brought low Ra, the supreme system lord, no Jaffa rebel or Tok'ra had ever done as much damage to them before, the infighting that plagued the Goa'uld, held in check mostly by Ra, was sure to flare up into full scale wars as they vied to become the new supreme system lord.

He decided to trust in Bra'tac, perhaps the day of the false gods demise was soon upon them.

The man he assumed was their leader approached, hand extended, "Jack O'Neill", Teal'c grasped him by the forearm, the traditional Jaffa way, the man reciprocated, "my team, Commander Carter, Daniel Jackson and the Tok'ra Jolinar"

"Well met O'Neill, I am Teal'c, first prime of Apophis"

"Come sit Teal'c", Bra'tac was already on a chair, a pipe smoking away in his hand.

Jolinar, that name was familiar to Teal'c, the most hated of the Tok'ra, apart from their queen Egeria, he knew she was a Goa'uld underling of Cronos before she joined them, Cronos' hatred of her was legendary after she tried to raise a rebellion on one of his worlds, second only to Teal'c's own hatred of Cronos.

They told him what they knew, Ra's death and Mafdet and Apophis' meeting, how they wished to prevent Apophis from obtaining Ra's old territory and armies, to manufacture a conflict between them.

Teal'c contemplated what was required, if the humans attacked themselves it would disrupt Apophis gaining Ra's territory but there would be no war, the Goa'uld underlings and Jaffa would join another system lords empire, Apophis and Heru'ur bordering Ra's meant they were the only two options, it was an acceptable outcome but not ideal.

If they convinced Mafdet that Apophis betrayed him, would he be able to rally what remained of Ra's Jaffa and fleet to fight Apophis?, even better if they could convince him that Apophis had a hand in Ra's death.

He realised that the best way to do that was with himself, the first prime of Apophis attacking Mafdet as he came to Chulak, gloating about Apophis killing Ra, let him escape, it would be best if Teal'c disappeared afterwards, Apophis' rage would see him dead otherwise.

"I will help, but you must promise to help free the Jaffa from the Goa'uld"

Jack nodded, "I will do everything in my power to free the Jaffa and destroy the Goa'uld"

Teal'c bowed his head in acknowledgment, "Very well", he turned to Bra'tac, "how many men can you gather?"

Bra'tac raised an eyebrow, "Enough for what you are planning, ten should do"

They planned for several more hours, Teal'c would lead the ten Jaffa to confront Mafdet, the humans would be there if anything went wrong to provide support, they offered him and his family sanctuary after it was done, Bra'tac would remain in his home for the duration, perhaps Apophis would turn to him after Teal'c's betrayal.

They parted ways soon after. Leaving one of their communication devices with Bra'tac, they would meet again the day before Mafdet arrived, until then Teal'c and Bra'tac had work to do.

Terran Union Parliament

New York, Earth

One week later

It was Kerensky's first time at the parliament building, he recognised it as the former UN building he had seen in old historical images, its presence proving it was a different time, the building in his reality had been destroyed long ago.

They had led him to the Council room, the parliament itself just a distraction for the masses, giving them the illusion of power while the council made all the important decisions, he knew it was asking for too much with a position on the council itself but the non voting advisory position was more than he expected.

The council members sat around the large table, representatives from the most powerful nations making up the Union, they had told him things would change as the Union grew in power, expansion of the council and parliament as colonies were formed and grew, like his own Arcadia, they had given them a seat in the parliament.

He was here today to discuss the future, both in the technology given to the Union and future politics, they had given them a copy of a Hegemony core, but none of the technology that would become a staple of the future clans was aboard any of the ships that had transitioned to this reality, those were left behind.

Still even with all the data things would take time to implement, factories and machinery would need to be made to make more machines to produce the final product. It would be faster than they had adapted Colonial tech, where the detailed information to produce it had to be developed from scratch, Earth's inferior copies of Colonial jump tech was mostly a problem of not understanding the complex production methods they used.

Several technical experts were led into the room, here to give a report on integrating Star League technology into the Union's space fleet, they had been studying the core data for several days now.

"Harold Simmons, Chief Design Director of the Union space force design Bureau", the middle aged man introduced himself, "and Dr. Singh and Engineer Freer, technical consultants from my team"

"Please proceed Director", one of the councillors said, the American Kerensky noted.

"Right, I'll start with the small craft first", a curtain was opened on the wall revealing a large display, an image of an ASF appeared, titled Valkyrie design update.

"The Valkyrie is the next generation fighter craft currently under development, it would have similar acceleration and manoeuvrability as the current Angel with greater firepower and better endurance, plus numerous electronic upgrades"

The fighter was around 21 meters long, with a neck connecting the cockpit to a fuselage at the back, there were two down swept wings on the fuselage with weapon mounts visible and a large missile launcher on both sides behind the cockpit., four large engines at the back completed the fighter.

"With access to the Hegemony data we revised the design, standard fusion engines allow better acceleration and fuel efficiency than our own chemical thrusters even using tylium fuel, four medium laser weapons to replace the cannons and new armour based on Star League technology, it will keep its missile armament as standard"

Simmons paused for a second, "We're using the space that was used for the large fuel tank to fit the reactor, very little other modifications are needed to make the changes, as soon as we can begin producing the components we can start building Valkyrie's"

New images appeared on the screen, it looked like a fusion reactor to him, "I'll let Dr. Singh cover this next bit", Simmons retreated to the back and the elderly Indian doctor moved to the front.

"Hello, my name is Doctor Ranjeet Singh, specialist in Nuclear Physics", he took out a pair of eyeglasses and turned to the display.

"I'll briefly cover fusion reactor technology, our own which we recently got working use the isotopes Helium 3 and Deuterium as fuel, this fuel is relatively expensive and only a few space planes and the Enterprise are equipped with them, apart from ground based power plants"

The next image he recognised as a reactor too, a Star League one.

"The Star League on the other hand has working reactors that function on Hydrogen, a much more abundant and cheap element, their power plants also somehow produce more power than they should, somehow relating to KF drive theory, and need more radiation shielding than our own reactors, put simply their reactors are more robust and cheaper than our own, to construct and run"

One of the council members spoke up, "So Doctor, how long until we can build these reactors?"

"Not long actually, the data core we received had plans for the early designs, those will be simple to manufacture especially using the factories that are already making our current reactors, the Valkyrie for example will be equipped with these so called primitive reactor designs, I predict within a year our industries will be able to manufacture the more advanced designs currently in use by the Star League"

Singh looked the councillor in the eye, "Make no mistake, that estimate", he pointed his finger at the display, "is not because of some inherent superiority of Earth technical know-how but because the data core contains the detailed information of how to build the entire industrial chain from scratch"

"Thank you Doctor", Simmons interjected, the Doctor feeling embarrassed at his outburst quickly apologised to the councillor and returned to his seat.

"Moving on, Mr Freer will give a brief outline of upgrading our current fleet of capital ships"

The moustachioed man stood up and moved to the display, "Calvin Freer, Chief Engineer of Sentinel Stations shipyard"

The display changed to an image of the current capital ships of the Union fleet.

"Like the Valkyrie we can upgrade our current designs while we work on creating new ones using the new technologies"

The image changed to the smallest one, a Shield class he believed.

"All our ships were designed to be modular, this is most apparent in the construction phases, modifying after the ships are finished is much harder, our current plan is to implement the new upgrades first on the ships still under construction, and a smaller upgrade package for ships currently in service"

He looked at the image, "For the Shield class, we plan to replace the Nuclear fission reactor and thrusters with fusion ones, replace the main weapon with naval lasers and replace the current armour design with a new laminate, the outer layer will be the ablative design from the Star League, the inner layers our current armour"

The image changed again, this time the Destroyer class ship.

"We have similar upgrades for the Armour and Sword class ships, and we are currently working on brand new designs to incorporate the tech from the start"

Charts now filled the screen, Freer continued, "The main limiting factor right now is time, time for our factories and foundries to produce the new technology, right now it'll be at least six months before the first bit of armour or weapon are available"

One of the councillors spoke up, "And how much is all this going to cost?"

Simmons moved forward and answered, "Billions to get our industry up to scratch, several million to upgrade one ship, those are our current estimates"

The American councillor stood, "Thank you gentlemen, that will be all for now"

The three men filed out of the room, a murmur of conversation starting as they left, the council members discussing the costs of the ideas presented, Kerensky tuned it out, he was impressed by the speed the Union had produced the design upgrades for their ships, it would still take time to manufacture the parts and actually do the upgrades though.

Other experts came, financial analysts and economists, the treasure trove of Star League technology would lead to an economic boom in their opinion, the cheaper access to space from the fusion engines and new anti grav lift devices would drive the price for bringing freight and passengers to orbit to a new low, they were expecting a boom in the space industries as a result, and increased emigration to New Hope and Arcadia, some were also predicting a population boom like they had seen after the arrival of the Velos.

Finally the upcoming expedition to the Colonies of Kobol, that interested Kerensky the most, part of the deal with the Union was sending some of his forces along too.

The council had agreed to delay the expedition until the Rondeau and a jumpship, the only Scout class they had, the Pathfinder, were outfitted with Union jump drives, once the engines were installed they would jump to Earth to join the rest of the gathering fleet.

Earth engineers had assured him the jump drive to be installed on the Pathfinder would also cover any drop ships attached to its singe docking collar, he was still deciding on what to send along, a lance of mechs perhaps?

Chulak

6 Days later

SG-1 and SG-14 were set up on a hill overlooking the stargate road on Chulak, wearing disguising robes to hide their identities, they were there to observe Teal'c's attack on Mafdet in a few hours.

Teal'c, Bra'tac and some of their Jaffa allies were waiting with them, they were going over the plan one last time, it was simple, wait for Mafdet and his guards to exit the stargate, Teal'c and the Jaffa would confront them, put on a show and let Mafdet escape, the two SG teams were there as backup in case things went south.

Jolinar had been in contact with some of her Tok'ra friends during the two weeks, informing them of what was happening, she had assured Stargate Command that she could convince them to stage attacks on Mafdet and Apophis, in a way that made them believe the other was responsible, adding fuel to the fire SG-1 was about to start.

They'd let Mafdet get some distance from the gate before springing the ambush, giving him the space to escape, all that was left was waiting

Earlier that day Teal'c had his wife and son moved to Pluto station, Earth offering them sanctuary from any reprisals, Teal'c's wife Dray'auc was mightily displeased with him but came none the less.

Bra'tac bid them good luck and returned to his home, he was hoping with Teal'c leaving he might regain his position as first prime, at least until Apophis could find a younger Jaffa.

O'Neill's radio beeped, "Sir, activity at the gate", the scout they had left back there radioed.

"Showtime people"

Teal'c and his Jaffa moved down to the road, Teal'c stood out in the open while the rest moved into cover, a few minutes later Mafdet and four Jaffa Horus guards rounded the corner from the stargate, Teal'c moved to the middle of the road and shouted over to them.

"Halt", he shouted, he raised his staff weapon threateningly towards Mafdet and his Jaffa.

"What is the meaning of this, I am here to meet your god, Apophis", Mafdet was somewhat pudgy and wore jewellery all over his body, he finished it off with a red silk toga.

Teal'c gave a very convincing belly laugh, "Ha-ha, that is exactly why I'm here, with you gone Apophis will be easily able to take over Ra's worlds, who do you think destroyed Ra in the first place"

Teal'c noted Mafdet was wearing a Goa'uld hand device, as he was spluttering denials Teal'c put a bolt straight into his chest, the shield saving his life, Teal'c did an acrobatic roll behind a standing stone and blind fired towards the Horus guard.

"Jaffa, Kree" he signalled the others to begin attacking, the plan was to put on a good show so their fire wasn't the most accurate, the Horus guards placed themselves in front of Mafdet as he attempted to retreat, their armour taking more punishment before one of them went down than what Teal'c was expecting, the benefits of being a Jaffa of Ra he supposed.

Mafdet had started to run when the first Jaffa died, Teal'c gave a signal and his men concentrated fire on one of the Horus guards, bolt after bolt smashing into him, he slowly toppled backwards smoke trailing from the holes in his armour.

The othe two had dived behind their own cover now, sending suppressing fire back at Teal'c, he could hear the gate being dialled now, time to finish this, "Jaffa, surrender, your god has fled"

His men were moving to surround the last two while he gave them a few seconds to decide, a shout of "Never" was heard as one of the Jaffa stood, bring his staff to bear against Teal'c, Teal'c's men pelted him with staff blasts in response, he fell smoking to the ground soon after, not even getting one shot off, Teal'c rounded the stone they had used for cover, the last Jaffa raising his hands in surrender and folding his helmet down, Teal'c saw he was just a boy, another victim of the false gods.

Leaving a man to guard the rest ran after Mafdet, he was just hitting the last button on the DHD when they saw him, Teal'c and the rest sent some inaccurate fire towards him, soon the gate activated and he dived through.

Teal'c hoped it was worth all this, the two SG teams were coming down the hill now, O'Neill walking over to him, "Good work, here's hoping he bought it"

"Indeed", they gathered up the bodies and weapons, while the gate was dialled, the Jaffa with Teal'c would return to Bra'tac with the news of what happened.

The SG teams went through the gate, prisoner included, Teal'c stood on the platform for one last time, he took a good look around, apart from some scorch marks there were no signs anything had happened, he bowed his head and walked through the gate.

Abydos Orbit

TUS Enterprise

1 week later

It was official, the Enterprise was now part of the Union space force, permanently, so was most of the national space force, the member nations and Union council pushing forward with greater integration in light of the Goa'uld threat, even Kerensky's people were officially part of the Union now.

Borman was going over some final reports before they left in a few hours, a relief force had arrived from Earth, a Destroyer and two frigates escorting a few freighters, they had brought food supplies for the Star League fleet and some more jump drives.

Contrary to prior plans the whole Prometheus expedition fleet would be returning to Earth, the freighters were now fully loaded with Kobolium ore and the tanker was topped up, even the Rondeau and pathfinder had their new drives bolted on to the hull, they'd do a proper job when the ships got to Earth, but for now it would work to get the ships back there.

The fleet was set to leave in a few hours, Borman had pushed for Colonel Méndez and his men to accompany the fleet on the trip to the Colonies too, most of them would take the gate back and rest on Earth in the mean time, a few squads would travel with the fleet to the unexplored gate address they were to check on the way back.

Borman killed some time reading a book, soon it was time, he made his way to the command centre, Captain Anderson was waiting there.

"Admiral, we're ready to depart"

"Good, is the route to P3X-972 plotted?"

"Yes, it should take us 15 days to get there, assuming no issues"

Borman nodded, "Very well, signal the fleet to jump to the first coordinates"

A few seconds the fleet disappeared in a flash, the original 13 warships and three large freight ships and scout ship Intrepid were joined by the Destroyer Rondeau and jump ship Pathfinder, they were on their way back to Earth but the first stop was P3X-972.