Chapter 37 - Arrival and First Contact
Surprise at the end of this chapter. Also i plan to follow the Tv series where everyone speaks basic English as its a pain in the a** to try and keep track of many different languages.
I plan to change when a few events happen just to give my story a little extra twist but the rest of the timeline is safe for the most part for SG1 but will see large changes to SGA.
Last thing releases may vary more over the next few weeks with Xmas and new years.
Edge of Pegasus Galaxy - ET-July-2004
Leo's fleet appeared back in normal space as they reached the edge of the Pegasus galaxy after 3 months of almost constant travel only making stops to position the relay satellites and to allow for the engines to cool down or to perform necessary maintenance.
On the bridge of his flagship Leo was once again looking out on the blackness of the void as they had agreed to drop out just short of the first system of the Pegasus galaxy. The plan was to send out probes and scout ships to gather intelligence and to find the ideal world to set up their base camp on.
He was about to head off to a command briefing he had scheduled with the captains of the scout ships(Corvettes) when he was called by the XO of the ship.
"Admiral, One of our probes is picking up some sort of distress signal from a system on the edge of the galaxy." Said Colonel Agathon. "By what the probe has relayed the planet has come under attack of the wraith and they are losing badly."
Leo didn't respond right away as he needed to make a hard decision on what to do. He thought through all his options when he decided that having some allies that call the galaxy there home would be advantageous.
"XO have the captains return to their ships and set condition one throughout the fleet." Leo then looked at the helmsman and gave him new orders before turning to the officer in charge of monitoring the probes. "Lt, plot a course for the edge of the system at the highest possible speed. Captain, see if you can get the probe to shift its course and get us more data from that system."
Both officers responded in the affirmative and got to work fulfilling their orders. Leo was informed of confirmation of the captains returning to their ships and that the fleet was ready for combat. Twenty minutes later the fleet jumped into hyperspace and made their way to help fellow humans.
It took them a better part of an hour to reach the system edge from where they were after pushing the engines to the max. Leo had already instructed the non-combat vessels and two corvettes to remain at the system edge and to be prepared to flee back towards the last relay satellite if things went bad.
The minute they jumped out of hyperspace they received the update from the probe and what he saw shocked him as it looked like a late 1940's earth drama that was fighting off an alien invasion. The probe picked up four ships in orbit that the colonials recognised from the Ancestors descriptions as a hive ship and three cruisers and several hundred darts.
As Leo was thinking of the best tactics the Hive ship in orbit pulled away from the planet and entered hyperspace leaving the three cruisers to continue bombarding the planet.
"Sir, just before the Hive ship left orbit we picked up some sort of signal from subspace that matches the wavelength of the communications between the enemy ships." Said the Sensors officer.
Leo nodded and decided that this was an ideal chance to see how their ships stood up to the lowest level of capital ship the wraith had. Leo had the captains of each ship on a conference call as he laid out his plan for attack. He assigned each Alteran cruiser a wraith cruiser as a target while the corvettes would take advantage of opportunities to do any damage they could without risking themselves. Lastly the ANS Legacy and the second Legacy class the ANS Courage would focus their fire on a single cruiser at a time to ensure their destruction. The ships would launch every viper they had and focus on taking out the darts before they could focus their attack on the capital ships.
The others agreed with the tactics and prepared their crews and ten minutes later the ships used their jump drives to appear right on top of the wraith cruisers and launch their attack.
Unknown Planet - Battle in Orbit - ET-July 2004
Above the planet the wraith cruisers were spread out firing their energy weapons at several of the populated cities while the darts continued their attacks on any concentrated group of defenders.
The sudden appearance of the Alteran ships stunned the wraith as their sensors didn't pick up any hyperspace windows opening up so were slow to respond and this allowed the Alterans to launch their initial attack successfully.
Both plasma and conventional weapons were launched at the wraith cruisers by these new ships while smaller ships that had a similar profile to darts were launched in mass. The wraith cruisers took some damage from the initial salvo but were hardly out of the fight as they moved to confront this new threat.
As the wraith cruisers moved to intercept the new ships the darts left the planet surface and made their way to attack these people who interrupted their culling. They gathered together and moved towards the growing confrontation in orbit as a combined force and were aiming to attack the intruders when they were intercepted by the Alteran vipers and a massive dogfight was started where nearly even numbers from both sides confronted each other.
While the small craft were fighting their own battle the capital ships had their own battles to fight. The wraith cruisers were taking continuous hits from the Alteran ships but they laughed at the power these weapons had and fired their own weapons at whatever targets they were in range of.
The Alterans on the other hand were worried at how ineffective their weapons were and were glad they waited on those shield upgrades before launching the expedition as it seemed to be the only thing saving them from all out defeat.
Leo looked at the reports he was receiving and gave the order to increase the output on the weapons and bring them close to their limits while reducing the rate of fire. He watched as his orders were followed by each of his ships and thankfully the Wraith cruisers were now starting to take damage.
The battle continued as the wraith closed the distance between the two fleets while maintaining their rate of fire but the change in power to the Alterans plasma weapons started to show effects as the hulls of the cruisers took more and more damage.
Eventually one of the Alteran cruisers had taken so much damage that their shields started to flicker and tried to retreat from battle but the wraith sensing weakness pushed on and continued to pound the retreating enemy. But in their lust for battle and seeing a fleeing enemy they didn't notice the two Legacy class ships position themselves above their ships.
As the wraith cruisers advanced they found themselves attacked on three fronts with the Alteran cruisers to the front, Corvette's at the rear and the Legacy class heavy cruisers from above. The retreating Alteran cruiser managed to gain some distance between them and the wraith due to the damage inflicted on their engines from the Corvette's taking shots at the rear of their ship's.
The battle raged on for a good ten minutes and things were starting to look bad for the wraith especially their Darts being all but wiped out by the more manoeuvrable Vipers. The Viper losses weren't small but still within acceptable margins and with the new safety measures installed on the newest models allowed for more pilots to survive than would have if they were using the older style colonial vipers.
Those looking up from the surface wondering where the wraith had gone witnessed a bright flash in the sky as one of the wraith cruiser's took a critical hit to their engines causing an overload of their generators. The explosion caused damage to one of the flanking cruisers and with the continued fire from the Alteran ships it became dead in the air with its weapons and engines cutting out.
Leo looked at the Dradis and continued to direct the battle to finish off the other cruiser but he received strange looks when he ordered the continued firing on the disabled wraith ship to the point he had to justify himself.
"They treat humans as cattle and feed off our life force. There is no way we are in a position to hold them prisoner and as the ancestors explained they don't see us as equals but as cattle to be herded and butchered as they see fit. So are you willing to risk lives by trying to treat them as anything but rabid animals to be put down?" Leo said with anger and venom in his voice. When no one spoke up on his shop or over the comm's from the other ships he ordered. "So if you will destroy that ship as we have people in need of help and not much time to do it."
They followed his orders and not long later the Wraith cruiser disappeared in a ball of flame and debris that bounced off the Alteran ships' shields. The last Wraith cruiser seeing no hope decided to initiate a suicide run on the cruiser in its immediate flight path. Their engines flared as more power was directed towards them but expecting as much the captain of the cruiser targeted used their jump drive to perform an emergency jump a safe distance away.
The remaining cruiser didn't last long as the other Alteran ships concentrated fire on them and they soon became a burning wreck that slowly broke up into several pieces of wreckage.
From the bridge of his flagship Leo looked at the reports from each ship describing their level of damage and the numbers of small craft lost. The overall result wasn't high but he knew that they lucked out that they were only facing cruisers and not the much bigger and powerful hive ships.
He finished looking over the preliminary reports from each ship and turned towards his comm's officer. "Order all ships to hold in orbit and have Spartans deploy to finish off any ground troops of the enemy. Once the all clear is given, launch rescue efforts planet side and SAR teams to collapsed structures asap. Have the sensors scan the planet and get a rough estimate of the number of survivors and where they are concentrated." He paused and then gave another order as an afterthought. "Also have the ships holding at the edge of the system join us and join the rescue effort."
"Yes, Sir" Replied the comm's officer.
Leo went back to the reports and saw that the Cruiser who took the most damage would need some time to make repairs before he could put them into a combat situation again.
Unknown Planet - On The Ground - ET-July-2004
Nikan had been a member of the Army for over ten years and had never seen this type of devastation on any of the worlds they had visited since finding the ring of the ancestors buried 5 years ago. They have visited dozens of worlds and have found themselves both friends and enemies, He has even met a few of them when his unit was assigned to escort trade delegations or sent out in response to conflict with those who thought themselves better than the rest of the galaxy. He thought that the worst they would find out there was the Genii especially with the amount of times they have clashed over off world resources but that all changed the moment the wraith attacked without warning and devastated their world. If their historical records were right they weren't due to attack for another 50 years or more but something must have happened that drew their attention to their world.
He had been leading his unit in defence of one of the shelters from enemy attacks when he was informed that his worlds leaders had used the Ancestors ring to escape the attack with their select few before the building collapsed on what was left of the gate and those who survived were captured by the wraith.
He led what was left of his unit through the streets directing survivors towards a shelter he had set up in one of the surviving buildings when the wraith stopped their attacks. He didn't know why but he thanked the ancestors for the reprieve and continued to direct whoever they could find towards the shelter or in the case of surviving forces to join his unit.
They made their way towards the hospital looking for both survivors and supplies for the injured when there was the sound of multiple craft making their way towards them. "TAKE COVER!" He shouted to his men.
The men in response scattered to take cover wherever they could before aiming towards where the sound suggested the craft were coming from. Nikan waited and made peace with the chance he might not make it through this when the craft came into sight.
He noticed they looked nothing like the Wraith ships and they weren't firing at the survivors so he called out. "Hold your fire." He then waited to see what the craft would do when one of them landed in the clearing not far from them. The craft shut off its engines and what looked like humans stepped out and he could tell they were soldiers by the way they scanned the area for threats and then took up covering positions as more forces left the craft.
In all more than 20 soldiers left the craft before spreading out and securing the area and what looked like an officer called out. "To the person in charge i would like to talk, We mean no harm and are here to help." He shouted out.
Nikan waved for his men to stay hidden then walked out. "I'm the one in charge here. Who are you and what happened to the wraith?"
"I'm Colonel Jameson of the Alteran Ground Forces, The wraith ships in orbit have been destroyed and my men are deploying throughout the city to clean up any ground forces they left behind." He replied and then looked Nikan up and down before saying. "I have Medics and supplies being brought down but we don't have time to stand around talking as the Hive ship left before we arrived and there's no saying when they will be back."
Nikan nodded and said. "Thank you for saving us but what do you mean there is no time?" He asked the Colonel.
"Well the planet is no longer safe as the Wraith will return and finish what they started. We currently don't have the forces to take on the type of firepower the wraith can bring to bear on this planet so we plan to rescue everyone we can and relocate you to somewhere safe so you can rebuild."
Nikan didn't like the idea of leaving his home world but he understood the need to survive and the help these new allies were offering was already well beyond what they could ask for.
"We have a shelter in place not far from here where we have been directing survivors but searching through the rubble could take weeks." Nikan said. "Do you have enough ships to carry every one you find as this city alone housed over 70,000 people before the attacks."
Nikan didn't like the look on the Colonel's face as he answered his question. "I'm sorry to tell you this but our scanners are only picking up just over five thousand survivors on the entire planet. We suspect the Hive left because they have culled enough people and left the cruisers behind to finish the attack on your planet."
Nikan almost collapsed when he was told about how many people were left from a planet wide population of nearly 200,000 people. "What do we do now? So many have died or been taken."
The Colonel looked at the officer in front of him with sympathy before he could say anything else he received a message over comm's that he thought he should share. "While I am sympathetic about everything that has happened we have confirmation that we have eliminated what ground forces the Wraith deployed and we have limited time to rescue any survivors."
Nikan nodded, centred himself and turned to his men and called for them to leave the hiding places. "Front and centre men we have work to do before we can rest."
His men did as asked and less than 5 minutes later he had 30 men gathered ready to do whatever is needed to save who he can. They kept a wary eye on these new people but gotta work nonetheless.
The Colonel spoke again once Nikan's men had gathered. "My men don't know the area so I think it would be best if we pair my men with yours and have them spread out in the area. It will also allow our ships in orbit to guide us towards larger groups of survivors as it's easier for our sensors to pick up larger groups than individuals."
Nikan took a minute to judge the Colonels' motives before accepting and split his men into groups to work with the Alteran forces.
3 Hours Later - Unknown World - ANS Legacy - ET-July-2004
On board the Alteran flagship Leo was working with each ship captain to work out how they were going to move and transport as many of the five thousand survivors as they could before the Wraith returned.
He looked up as his Aide walked onto the bridge and said. "Admiral, We have finished all rescue operations in the northern hemisphere and have managed to save 3457 people so far. As far as the southern hemisphere we have managed to save 3102 people but things are slow in the city as the destruction has left many people trapped and hard to get to."
Leo frowned and turned to his aide and said. "Get those we can onto the ships first then we will think about what to do about those still trapped after as i must still think about the safety of our own people first."
"Yes, Sir" The aide replied and then walked over to the comm's station to pass along the needed orders.
It took the better part of an hour to get the nearly seven thousand people onto the ships and they were just planning about what to do about the people trapped in shelters or under rubble when the sensor operator spoke out. "Sir, We are picking up incoming ships. Indications suggest they will arrive in less than an hour."
Leo stood and said. "Get our people and anyone else they can into orbit now. I want the Supply ships, The Triumph and the Corvettes to leave now back towards our entry point to this galaxy."
"Yes, Sir." The bridge became a hive of activity as a sort of controlled chaos spread as officers and crew went about getting their people off the surface.
30 minutes later everyone they could save was aboard along with their own people when they started to break away from the planet when the sensors sounded out in warning.
"Incoming vessels sir. Sensors register them as Wraith, 3 Hive ships and 7 Cruisers." The sensor's operator called out. "They are vectoring towards us and trying to intercept."
Leo frowned but didn't panic at the number of ships. "Direct all ships to power up their jump drives for a short jump away from the system." It took less than 3 minutes for the ships to announce they were ready but before he could give the order there was a shout to his left.
"Enemy Darts incoming." Shouted Lt Korvin " 3 minutes out, numbering 800 and counting."
"Order all ships to jump." Leo said. He felt the familiar lurch of the ship jumping and breathed a sigh of relief.
2 Days Later - Admirals Quarters - ANS Legacy - ET-Aug-2004
Leo sat in his office when the door chimed to signal that someone was waiting to enter.
Leo pressed a button on his desk for the door to unlock and in walked Colonel Jameson and a native of the planet they rescued a few days ago.
"Sir, May I present Sergeant Nikan, He asked to meet you as a representative of his people as the highest ranking survivor of their military." Said Colonel Jameson as they entered.
Leo nodded and looked at the Sergeant and said. "Welcome aboard Sergeant. I'm sorry for what's happened to your people and that we couldn't get there sooner."
Nikan nodded and centred himself before replying to the colonel. "I understand that it wasn't your sight to begin with so with that said i would like to thank you on behalf of all Satedan people you have rescued."
"There is no need for thanks Sergeant." He then indicated for them to take a seat opposite him. "The question is now what we do with you and your people as we don't currently have anywhere we can take you."
Nikan looked worried that his people were going to be abandoned and left to suffer the stigma of being refugee's in a galaxy that was cut throat and bloody. "Admiral, We would like to help you in whatever you plan to do as even I can see from your ships and crews that you mean to fight the Wraith and have the technology to do so even if you don't have the numbers."
Leo contemplated this response and replied. "Well I see no reason why we can't work together to rid the galaxy of the Wraith but you must understand that our priorities will always be the safety of this fleet and the people in it and not revenge for your people who didn't make it."
"Sir, I think that the Satedan's would make a valuable addition to our people. It might take some time to get them trained and educated in our technology but their skills in combat and their drive to better themselves would more than make up for it." Said Colonel Jameson.
Nikan's back straightened while listening to what was said and Leo saw the pride in his eyes and smiled. "I can't see why we can't offer sanctuary to what's left of the Satedan people but I'll leave it to you to figure that out while I find somewhere for us to pitch our tents."
With that they both stood and the Colonel saluted and they both left Leo to his work which just got a lot harder with the fact that the Wraith would now suspect that they were there which made recovering technology so much harder.
Just to be clear, I don't plan for Leo and his group to find Atlantis before Stargate command does.
Also the only tv series that Leo had in his previous existence was Battlestar 2003 so doesn't have inside info on the stargate world beyond what he has been told by the Ascended.