Stargate Command
The mood in the station had been poor lately, most of the gate time was taken up by people being evacuated from Abydos, most were heading to Heliopolis for the duration, like the natives from Abydos, others were coming directly to Earth while equipment and marines streamed through the other way.
Soon the evacuation would be finished and the gate closed on the other end, a concrete plug was ready on Abydos to prevent Ptahmose from sending any jaffa through, he's likely think the gate was buried on Abydos.
Carter and a team of engineers were entertaining the child from Orban, Merrin, Jack was surprised it was the same one from the reports, he expected another since it was a year earlier but the Orbanians sent her in this reality too.
Jack and the team had a long conversation with Kalan, one of the Orbanian leaders, on how children were educated on Earth, Kalan was obstinate but Jack did convince him enough to send another child to see how it was done on Earth, a small win that would hopefully lean to a better life for the Urrone children.
Teal'c, Jolinar and Daniel were still on Orban, imparting every thing they knew about the Goa'uld in exchange for the reactor tech, the Orbanians were also interested in gaining access to the jump drives and associated technology for use in their own nascent space program, something to be discussed once they signed up for the anti Goa'uld alliance.
Jack smirked as he recalled the incident with Maybourne too, Sheppard's files had painted a nice picture of the man, one that Jack wholly believed to be true, they had dragged the good Colonel in for a questioning session that Jack got a first class seat too, unfortunately they had nothing to pin on him, other realities aside, it seemed their Maybourne was squeaky clean, still seeing him squirm was rewarding on its own.
A whole host of investigations was ongoing regarding the people who would be in the NID in the other reality, chief among them was MP Kinsey, the stereotypical crooked politician, Jack hoped his career would fly off a cliff soon, other prominent names like Simmons were being watched like hawks for any sign of treason too.
There was a whole bunch of corporate types under surveillance too, the future members of the Trust, Jack doubted they would be a problem though, this reality was different to Sheppard's, advanced technology was already available to the public, the stargate program was public knowledge too, heck, it was even used for emergency travel between Union planets.
Jack passed dour faced soldiers as he walked to the lab, passing the vehicle bay he could hear the dull roar of the new hovercraft inside, the soundproofing was fully installed now, he could walk passed without going deaf, they had ten of the things now, four tanks, four APC variants able to hold a squad of infantry and two with missile artillery.
Once outside the lab he rapped his knuckles hard on the door before entering, inside Carter was hunched over a workbench messing with something shaped like two spheres connected together, the small girl looking on and correcting her, around them engineers and scientists worked away and took notes.
"Hows it going?", he asked, walking over to look.
Carter glanced over her shoulder before turning back to the generator, "We made this with our own materials but we're having a problem with current loss through the shielding", she leaned in closer to the machine in thought, "The trinium is absorbing it all", she said excitedly.
Merrin nodded, "Correct, but", Carter raised her hand and gently cut her off.
"If I reverse the polarity?", she moved some wires around, Jack felt a pulse in the air as the generator lit up.
"That's it!, we're in business"
Jack watched as Merrin's expression changed to confusion, "Why wouldn't you let me give you the solution?", she asked.
"Figuring something out on my own, especially if it's been eluding me a while is far more satisfying than having the answer given to me", Carter told Merrin.
"Kids, kids", Jack moved closer with his hands raised, "Merrin, its time for you to return home, Kalan is waiting in the conference room"
Jack felt bad for the kid, especially what was going to happen when she returned home, unlike the other timeline though he wasn't going to interfere, not with the Goa'uld bearing down on them, he just hoped things went differently for the Orbanians this time.
Jack waved the girls minder over, Sergeant Farrell, "Take her up to the conference room", he waited a she was escorted out, a resigned sigh escaping his lips as she went out of sight.
A few moments passed in silence, the engineers working away and Carter running scans of the operational generator, Jack turned to her, "So, it works?"
"Yep, this is just a proof of concept but it is putting out more power that any thing we have of a similar size"
Jack looked at the generator, it was small enough to be man portable, "Could it power a ship?"
He heard Carter chuckle, "Not this one, a ship sized one would be a lot bigger, it's going to take some time to get there though, we'll need to test this out and design a bigger reactor, if it all works out it will be a massive improvement over our current fusion reactors"
Jack nodded, more power sounded good but how exactly would it help, "What does more power mean in real terms?"
Carter put down her scanner and stood straight, "Think of it like this, the new shields we have could be more powerful without changing their design, the Rhososian design is mostly a copy of an old Goa'uld shield generator, simply using a kobolium reactor would triple the strength without any other changes"
That did sound like a big improvement, "Triple?"
Carter nodded as she folded her hands, "The design they used is old, triple is about the best it's going to be without upgrading the shields themselves, with a new reactor the new Venus class ships would have a shield half as strong as a Ha'tak that wasn't upgraded"
"What about weapons, can they use more power?"
Carter shrugged, "With some redesign work, yes, I imagine the next generation of pulse cannons to be far more powerful"
"Alright, I'm heading up to say goodbye, you coming?"
Carter nodded and they both left the lab.
PC8-3Z1
21st August 2065
Aschen Expeditionary Fleet
Marcus sat down heavily on the simple steel chair, around him the faces of the commanders of his little fleet wore sour expressions as he relayed the news from home, he had just spent the last day back on Earth being updated by fleet HQ, the communications orbs had kept them up to date on the journey but command wanted to break this news in person.
"They expect this Ptahmose to arrive in a week from today, there's nothing we can do here to help"
"So, what about our mission?", Commander Sheridan asked.
"We proceed as planned, once Jalrow returns and we know the lay of the land we'll plan out our approach"
Baltar placed his hands on the table, the stress of hearing about the impending attack was still gnawing at him, "We're not taking any unnecessary risks, we'll make some scans, try and intercept some signals, command wants the location of the other Aschen colonies"
He received nods, "And raids?", Commander Carlton asked, being former SLDF he was the most experienced Union officer.
Baltar sighed, "If we find a vulnerable target I'm all for it, if that planet is undefended I'll consider sending a ground force to gain intel, I want to know more about their forces in the region before I commit to that"
Baltar turned to the big screen behind him, a map of the current region was displayed but only three locations were highlighted, their current position, Volia and Aschen prime, "There could be another colony right beside us and we wouldn't know"
"When is the Tok'ra back?", he heard someone ask.
"The day after tomorrow, we'll run combat drills until then, I want to be ready for anything"
The meeting broke up after that, Marcus heading to his quarters as the others returned to their ships, he didn't get much sleep the night before and was going to use the opportunity to catch up, Sheridan caught up with him outside his door.
"Sir, the workers arrived and have begun construction of the new station but are reporting issues with the inflatable modules"
Baltar sighed, why they had sent those inflatable things along was a question for the ages, the technology had been proposed in the last century and now he saw why it never caught on, the reinforced fabric kept leaking air ever since it was inflated, hopefully once the outer shell was built they could stop that.
"I see, nothing we can do about it now though, we'll need that station if the fleet takes damage", Baltar thought about it for a second, "See if we can spare some crew to assist, they can also use our machine shops while we're waiting"
"Sir", Sheridan turned on his heel and walked off, Marcus shrugged and opened the door, too tired to think any more and fell onto his bed, he'd deal with things after he woke up.
PG4-225
Classified Research Facility
Project Open Door
Xavier Blackwell looked over the latest status reports, things were finally going well for the clandestine team working on the device, they called it the Red Jewel, it had come in as a molten lump of metal but careful work had freed the large jewel that made up the important parts of the machine, it was miraculously undamaged.
After the base had been set up, one thousand five hundred light years from home, it was the first thing they had done, but things had ground to a standstill afterwards, they could see the circuitry in the gem, it was on the pico scale but they could see it, all their efforts had turned to mapping out the complex three dimensional circuitry, the molten pedestal had simply been the power unit.
Xavier looked out his window from the drab poured concrete box he called an office, the rectangular buildings that made up the facility stuck out of the green forest like a sore thumb, his research was hidden under a false facade of black hole research, a massive radio telescope was located a few hundred meters away from the gate that the research facility was located beside, supposedly to study Gaia BH1, a black hole some sixty light years away but really he intended to use it as an emitter for his project.
Things had recently sped up, the discovery of another artifact related to dimensional travel having made it's way into his hands, a mirror that transported the user to another reality, it too had massive amounts of pico scale circuitry hidden under it's seemingly primitive construction, it was the break they needed to begin to understand just what they had discovered.
A new building was taking shape outside, a large dome to house his device, he would use the designs he could replicate from the mirror and combine it with the Red Jewel, once they tested it on a small scale it would be simple to use the radio telescope to tear open a portal to another reality, a portal big enough for a ship to pass through, then Royce could get all the technology he wanted.
It would take months but he was sure he could do it, but there was one issue, they had run the numbers, unless they wanted to build a colossal fusion reactor there was no way to power such a device, until a certain set of reports had made their way to Blackwell, reports from another reality that told him of another gem, the eye of Ra, backroom deals were already in the works to get the eye to him, soon they would be able to proceed.
Xavier stood and moved to the window, watching as the gate activated and the marines on duty formed up, more troops came through after the gate came alive, security had increased after the news of an impending Goa'uld attack heading to Abydos had spread, their fake black hole research facility included, he'd need to insure his team kept their lips sealed, his life was on the line if word about what they were up to spread.
Several trucks began to drive through, loaded down with men and weaponry, and behind them came several armoured vehicles and tanks, this place would soon be a small fortress, but it would all mean nothing if he caught the ire of Chairman Royce.
Xavier watched as the gate shut down, he moved over to the mirror and straightened up his expensive tailored suit before throwing his lab coat over it, a quick check of his expertly groomed black hair and a spritz of expensive cologne and it was time to get back to work.
PC8-3Z1
23rd August 2065
Aschen Expeditionary Fleet
Baltar sat down after another day of combat drills, the rest of the commanders looked equally tired as Baltar let out a sigh of fatigue, they were waiting for the arrival of the Tok'ra scout, Jalrow, his ship had docked on the large Colonial freighter a few minutes ago, those were the only ships in the small fleet that had landing bays, a staple of Colonial design.
At least the stations issues were solved, the workers had worked out a solution using some kind of liquid polymer to patch the leaks while the metal shell was installed, soon the repair bay would begin construction once the habitat modules were finished, the small foundry was already at full tilt manufacturing the struts and plating the station needed.
Command had even had a small mining ship sent through the gate in pieces, it was currently being assembled on the ground but soon would be sent out to gather more resources to feed the foundry, they should be able to manufacture repair panels for the ships soon enough.
The news from back home had kept everyone on edge but all they could do was wait, the latest report had informed him that all civilians had been evacuated from Abydos, at least none would be caught in the crossfire, the fleet was also rushing to get more shield equipped ships to Admiral Rooks fleet while the defences on the ground were prepared and hidden.
A clunk came from the doorway as the pressure door was opened and Jalrow walked inside, he nodded to the various leaders of the fleet and moved over to Marcus, a crystal and a small pedestal with a standard computer connector were placed on the table.
Jalrow sat and placed the crystal on the pedestal, "I performed many scans of the planet and the system", a deft hand connected the device to the holo-projector in the middle of the table, the room lighting dimmed as the machine came alive projecting a three dimensional image of the Volia system, every eye turned to take in the information.
"There were only three Aschen vessels present while I was there, one in orbit of the planet, another performing a patrol of the system and the third was guarding this facility", the map zoomed in on what appeared to be a small star, a metal framework surrounded it all connected to a small station.
"The natives told the SG team that the Aschen had turned a planet into another star, a gas giant I believe", Commander Carlton spoke, "It's another thing to see its real"
Jalrow nodded, "While the Goa'uld might be able to replicate such a feat it is not something I ever see them doing, the Aschen would have made better use of their resources by building solar farming stations than to make another star"
"Maybe, I think this was more a demonstration of power, to the Volians they would seem unbeatable", Marcus mused, "But only three ships, no freighters or transports?"
Jalrow shook his head, "No, nothing arrived or left the system for the duration of my mission, scans of the planet did show much activity around the stargate, the Harvester vessels sending their cargo back to the Aschen world was a regular occurrence"
"They must move all the cargo through the gate, based on what we know of Aschen FTL speeds freighters to here are probably rare", Major Boxman of Colonial Intelligence added.
"What did you learn about the ships?", Marcus asked.
Jalrow reached over and changed the image, a rotating picture of two different types of ships appeared, "There were two distinct classes of vessel in the system, the first", he pointed to the smaller craft, "is only seventy meters long and contains two turreted particle cannons of unknown power", the ship in question was a spiky looking thing, the forward section was a cutout shaped like a V and a forward swept wing was on either side of the hull, the ship was fairly flat too except for what looked like a command tower near the back, it rose out of the tan coloured ship a few meters, fairly low profile Marcus thought.
"My scans did detect a powerful power source on the ships, far greater than your own fusion reactors for it's size and strong shields, there were two of these ships in the system"
Jalrow pointed to the larger ship, "This one is two hundred and fifty meters long, it also has more weapons", the image zoomed in on the ship, two large twin turret mounts were present at the front and four smaller guns, similar in size to the ones on the small ship, were arrayed around the engine block at the rear.
Marcus's eye trailed over the contours of the ship, it too had a command tower near the back but looked more like what he expected a ship to look like, a flying rectangle, large plates covered the front of the ship like an extra layer of armour while the centre tapered in and out to the larger rear section.
Jalrow's finger pointed to the opening at the front of the ship, "The vessel also houses a forward mounted landing bay, what small craft it posses I do not know", the image zoomed out to the map again, "The singular vessel of this type was guarding the solar facility"
Marcus hummed as he took in the information, "Did they have shields?"
Jalrow shrugged, "The sensors on a Tel'tak are not the best for that kind of thing, without seeing them active I have no idea of how strong they would be but yes, they do have shield generators, it will be similar with their weapons, I wont know the power unless I can scan them while they fire"
Murmurs of disappointment came from the people in the room, Major Takeuchi spoke up next, "What about the planet itself, targets, defences?"
Jalrow fiddled with the projector and the planet appeared in the hologram, Goa'uld script denoting targets of interest, "I could find no defensive weapons emplacements on the surface but the harvester machines are armed with a shield generator and two cannons of some type, which are mounted under the ship, how strong they are I don't know", his finger pointed to what looked like a small urban centre, "This is the only other location of note on the planet, I assume it is where the Aschen administer this world"
Eyes followed as the image zoomed in on what would be a small town on Earth, small sand covered towers sat in the centre surrounded by what looked to be residential buildings and small houses, there was also a large landing zone with a harvester parked up beside some building that looked to be warehouses.
"Most of the world is covered in farmland with small farmhouses attached, there are also a small amount of villages but no other major urban centres", Jalrow's face became disturbed, "There is however evidence of much larger cities under the soil, this world once had a much larger population than it's current seven hundred thousand"
Angry faces scowled at the image hovering over the table, "How big is that town?", Takeuchi finally asked.
"Two thousand inhabitants"
The mechwarrior leaned forward in his chair, he pointed to a squat building with large antenna poking out of the roof, "Do you know what this building is?"
Jalrow shook his head, "I assume a communication hub of some type, it was emitting subspace signals towards the ships in system and towards where we know the Aschen home world is located"
Takeuchi gave the town a grim smile, "We could take it", he turned to Marcus, "That building could hold all the intelligence we want, fleet numbers, locations of planets, who knows what else"
Marcus nodded along, "It's a good target but we'd need to deal with those ships before I even consider landing a force", he turned to the senior ground pounder in the fleet, Colonel Méndez, "What do you think Colonel?"
The Hispanic Colonel rubbed his stubble as he considered the hologram, "I don't doubt our ability to take that town with our forces, but the moment we jump in those ships will head straight for the fleet, we'd need to fight our way down with no idea how long it will take for reinforcements to arrive"
The Colonel turned to Jalrow, "Does your cloaking device work in an atmosphere?"
Jalrow nodded, "It does"
Mendez nodded, "Rather than assaulting the town I propose we infiltrate instead, we can use Jalrow's ship to land an infiltration group, we can get what we need without having to fight those ships"
Macus looked to Jalrow, "Can you do it?"
Jalrow gave a slow nod, "It is feasible", he messed with the controls of the holoprojector and changed the image, "The sensors of the ship were able to penetrate the walls of the building in question", it became a wireframe of the building, interior corridors and rooms were visible, "This should allow you to prepare a plan"
"Sounds like a plan, we can have the fleet on standby if anything goes wrong", Marcus turned to Takeuchi, "The Major's mechs will can ready for a hot exfil"
Mendez nodded, "I have some people in mind for this, give me a day or two to work out a plan"
"Alright, I don't plan on kicking anything off until the situation back home is resolved anyway, for now I'm going to send the two survey ships we have towards the Aschen home world, we could use more intel on their space", Aschen Prime was only fifty light years from Volia, a few jumps for them but far longer for the Aschen.
Terran Union Council Chambers
25th August 2065
Stone hard faces gazed at each other across the crescent shaped table, tension was high among the leaders of the Union as they worked tirelessly to control the situation they found themselves in, information control had reached a new high to downplay news of the impending attack, at least until it was over.
"I have news from the Antarctic", Chairman Royce began the latest session once the councillors had settled in, "Good news at that", he picked up a file from the table, "Using the information from the alternate reality we have pinpointed the location of the ancient outpost, a laser drill is currently being assembled on site and they expect to gain access in the coming days"
Nods of relief spread around the room, "Even if the fleet fails Earth should remain safe from the Goa'uld, if the information on these drones is accurate", Councillor Dussel let out a relieved sigh, "Do we have someone on hand to operate the outpost?"
"Yes, Major Sheppard supposedly had a high affinity for accessing the technology in his reality so in ours we'll do the same, our Major Sheppard is part of the marine corps, flying shuttles down there, he's already being briefed on what will be required, minus any references to other realities, I doubt that secret will ever be revealed", Royce answered, not in his lifetime at any rate.
He received nods from the other councillors, "There is one other matter I would like to cover, the Colonial fleet coming to assist with the Aschen is also bringing a war prize, Admiral DuGalle has messaged that the Colonial government has transferred one of the captured baseships to us"
"Cracking their drives would give us a significant advantage, I understand they totally outclass the Colonials current best?", General Kerensky asked, he always made time for these meetings even though he was a non voting member, Royce had a feeling that with the way things were going the Council would need to expand soon, the amount of people living outside the solar system had dramatically increased over the last two years, dozens of new colonies had been founded.
"They do", Councillor Wei answered, "Their computers and organic technology will be worth looking into as well, DuGalle reported that the Colonials recovered two resurrection ships, we should see about getting our own scientists involved"
"I'll ask the president to bring it up with the Ambassador", Royce nodded to Wei, "We'll need to allocate some funds for the research on the ship, money is tight with all the military build-up but we can spare some for drives like the Cylons"
"Why not ask the Cylons directly, we received a message from their new colony, they were asking to be included in the HPG network", Councillor Pavlova spoke, "They don't have much to offer but help understanding their tech in exchange would be worth the price"
"I agree", Councillor Kumar nodded to Pavlov.
"Any objections", Royce asked, no one did, "Alright we can get in contact with them, see if we can work something out"
He received nods from the other councillors, "Onto the last point on the itinerary, the frozen ancient recovered from the Antarctic"
"According to the latest reports she had recovered physically and there are no signs of any infectious disease after Tretonin was administered, still, her mind is completely gone, she had picked up our language fast but remembers nothing of her previous life"
Kerensky raised an eyebrow, "If she could remember her past life, I wonder what she could tell us?"
"Nothing good if the information from the Asgard is accurate, a fascist empire ruled by the psychically gifted, which none of us are", Dussel reminded them.
"The reports from team interacting with her indicate no telekinetic or telepathic abilities, only her ability to heal, which itself takes a toll on her body", Royce shrugged, "We have nothing to fear from the woman herself"
A murmur of agreements flew around the room, "We are trying to replicate that ability, correct?", Councillor Kumar asked while he twirled a pen between his fingers.
Royce gave him a toothy grin, "Of course, the eggs we harvested have already been fertilised with top DNA, the embryos already implanted and work is underway to investigate possible genetic treatments too", he nodded to Kerensky, "We are also looking into Iron Womb technology"
"Its early days yet but I expect results soon", Kerensky said, "I understand you have an idea to recover her memories?"
"A proposal was sent my way, use the sarcophagus on her, it has been shown to repair brain damage in others, it's possible it might work", Royce shrugged, "The doctors believe she might recover them eventually anyway, her healing ability shares similarities to the device, which we know was based on ancient technology", Technology they were in the process of recovering, teams were already scouring the jungle in Honduras were the device was found in the other reality.
"It's worth a shot", Councillor Wei nodded, "Worst case it simply doesn't work"
The vote passed, afterwards the meeting turned to financial matters, more money was allocated to ship production and increasing the amount of shipyards, mostly in systems outside of Sol, the newly colonised worlds would start to see a massive investment in space infrastructure in the near future.
Ptahmose's Ha'tak
En route to Abydos
28th August 2065
"My lord", Ptahmose's new first prime called out, "We have nearly arrived at the planet"
Ptahmose waved the servant away, grabbing a handful of grapes, "How long?", he demanded.
"Ten minutes my lord"
"Good", he stuffed his mouth and continued to talk, "Contact Tjaru, tell them to start the gate assault", his muffled voice called out as he masticated his grapes, spitting the pits into a nearby bucket, his greasy hand wiped the juices from his face, his hosts corpulent body a testament to Ptahmose's indulgence, the man had been fit and healthy when Ptahmose had taken his body, now his bulk could barely fit into the Pel'tak's command throne.
While outwardly jovial, Ptahmose was raging, someone had attacked his operation on Rhosos, he had ruled out Heru'ur or Apophis, if they knew what he was up to there would be a fleet of Ha'taks over his world demanding his fealty.
When he had sent jaffa to investigate they had found no evidence of the attackers, not even any bodies of his jaffa remained, there was only one realistic answer, the ship that escaped his attack on Rhosos had returned, they must have killed his jaffa and rescued the remaining slaves, Ptahmose vowed to hunt them down but right now he had other commitments.
His original raid to garner more slaves had a reason behind it, his new master had promised riches and worlds to control but Ptahmose would need to increase the output of his mines, his new master required more resources, especially naquadah, Ptahmose shivered when he remember reporting the new delays, he had promised more than he could deliver, Rhosos was his answer but even that had not been enough.
His new master had not been pleased, he had sent minders to watch over Ptahmose now, his eyes glanced to the corner where one of them stood rigid, staff weapon in hand and red armour polished, the strange jaffa was an intimidating sight, Ptahmose knew he was an elite, able to easily defeat anything Ptahmose could throw at him, he even heard rumours that the armour even had a shield generator, a much higher standard of jaffa equipment compared to the other system lords.
A whole squad of them had arrived through the gate, only two had come with this expedition, he needed more slaves and trying to take any from the other Goa'ulds territory would only bring attention to himself, but he knew no one had gone near Abydos since Ra's disappearance, the slaves there were ripe for the plucking.
More slaves arrived carrying platters of food, Ptahmose stuffing his face as the minutes ticked by, "Lord Ptahmose, reply from Tjaru, the Abydos gate is blocked"
Ptahmose frowned, the slaves on Abydos must have buried the gate, why would they though, unless they did have something to do with Ra's death, Abydos was on the list of worlds he planned to visit and his last contact before he vanished had been from this region.
"We'll have to uncover the gate after we arrive, change our exit point to the orbit of Abydos, raise our shields as soon as we exit"
"Yes my lord"
The swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace gave way as a portal was torn open, the Ha'tak returned to normal space above the yellow and brown orb of Abydos.
"Scan the planet, find my slaves", Ptahmose ordered, his skin prickled in discomfort, his paranoia rising, was Ra truly gone or simply stuck, if he was he'd need to die, "Scan for debris, Ra's ship might have been here"
"My lord, there is a city on the surface, near the location of the gate and the landing pyramids but I am only detecting several hundred humans on the surface"
"Show me", the holo display came alive and zoomed in on the planet, a primitive sandstone city was laid out on the screen but it was built for a far larger population than several hundred, "Where are they", Ptahmose stood up and moved to the controls, pushing the jaffa aside, he moved the sensors over to the large naquadah mines.
They were as empty as the rest of the planet but something caught his eye, strange shapes concealed under cloth, he looked to the sensor readout, refined metals?, alloys more advanced than the slaves of Abydos should be able to make.
An alert appeared on the controls, someone was attempting to access the ring transporter, someone on the planet, with the shields up that wasn't an issue, but it meant that enemies awaited down there, Ptahmose moved back to the command throne, squeezing his flab into the seat.
Ptahmose felt the rage building, who dared to attack him, even if it was Ra he would fell the wrath of Ptahmose, the has been supreme system lords empire had already crumbled, Ptahmose would drive the final nail in, "Launch our gliders and transports, bring me whoever is in that pyramid"
His first prime saluted, "At once my lord".
…..
On one of the nearby moons of Abydos, known as Edfu to the locals, a ship waited, concealed under its cloaking device the Tok'ra tel'tak that belonged to Selmac was unnoticed by the Goa'uld, the occupants observed the Ha'tak through passive scanners.
"Status update", Commander Higgins asked, he had been assigned to the ship to make a vital decision if it was needed, the brass wanted a senior officer to make the call so he was taken off his ship and left here to wait.
"No change, it's still sitting in orbit with its shields up". Lieutenant Lin replied, she was one of the few who trained on the captured Tel'tak in their possession, beside her manning the control sphere was Selmak himself.
"Something is off, normally Goa'uld simply land and take their slaves, this is highly unusual, Ptahmose must suspect something", Selmak commented.
"Our comms are secure, we wont be detected if we contact the teams on the planet?", Higgins asked.
Selmak nodded, his distorted voice carrying back to Higgins, "The Tok'ra are masters at hiding from the Goa'uld, I have setup our comms to use frequencies that the Goa'uld do not normally scan"
"Sir", Lin called out, "The scanners are showing an energy build up from the pyramid, I think they're trying to send the bomb up"
"Foolish, with the shields up the ring transporter will not be able to get through", Selmak shook his head, "The system will not engage"
"Right, I think we've been blown, Lin, get on the horn, tell the fleet plan b is a go", he paused as small shapes began to launch from the Ha'tak, they appeared as dots on the scanners.
"The Ha'tak is launching death gliders and troop transports, Ptahmose is unlikely to land now", Selmak spoke as he watched the small craft launch, "I shall prepare the virus for deployment"
"Right", Higgins turned to Lin, "Tell the teams on the planet to get that shield up, they have incoming"
…
Ptahmose dabbed the sweat pooling down his face with a silk cloth, his flabby body glistened as he watched the troop transports head towards the surface, a beeping alarm sounded from the control console, his first prime looking shocked, "My lord, the sensors are detecting a power source on the planet, it was not there until recently"
"Where!", Ptahmose was on his feet in an instant, his Goa'uld enhanced physique still able to move rapidly.
"Here, my lord, there is a large building concealed in the city", the jaffa zoomed in on the primitive city where a more advanced building had been painted to match the local architecture.
"My lord, a shield is forming on the surface!", the sensors displayed a dome growing over the city, it rapidly expanded to cover the pyramid and city surrounds.
"Who dares", Ptahmose opened his mouth to curse out the people below when a slight jolt was felt, "What was that!", he pushed the jaffa aside again as the ship slightly shook a few more times, the shields dropping slightly to ninety nine point three four percent, he scanned the surface to find the source of the attack, four flimsy looking large structures with large lenses, the sensors told him what they were, high energy gamma lasers, powerful but nowhere on the same scale as Goa'uld weaponry.
"Primitives, is this where that ship fled?", Ptahmose felt relieved, it wasn't Ra after all, just more slaves for him to punish he thought in anger, he pushed his first prime back onto the controls and lazily returned to his seat, "Return fire, take that shield down", he spat.
As the first golden bolt left the ship it was surrounded by flashes of light, nearly a hundred ships appeared arranged around his own, "A trap", his finger angrily jabbed at the offending fleet, destroy them!"
…
"Jump complete"
"Shields online, weapons charged"
Rooks didn't wait, "Open fire", fell from his lips as the ships of the fleet opened up, a fusillade of energy tore through space and impacted the golden barrier around the enemy ship, the amassed firepower of nearly one hundred Terran vessels battering away at the powerful barrier, draining it to dangerously low levels.
"Enemy shields at ten percent", an Ensign excitedly called out.
Missiles screamed out of their launchers as the energy weapons recharged, golden bolts of power flew back, Rooks watched aghast as they tore through the Terran fleet.
At the front of the fleet was the Venus, the heavy cruiser took the brunt of the first volley, twenty five Gou'ald plasma bolts tearing into the shields, they held under the onslaught valiantly until the strain was too much as the twenty first impacted, the shield burst like a bubble of soap, the next bolt burned through the first few meters of the thick forward armour, the next tore through the last, and one glanced off the side, the last took out the main turret on the top section but the ship survived, badly damaged as it was.
The smaller ships were not as fortunate, a frigate took several blasts, it's shield barely lasting a second before the next rounds tore right through it and the ship itself, it erupted into a massive fireball as the missile armoury was hit, none survived.
"She charging her hyperdrive", a panicked voice called out, Rooks just grunted, Selmak better deliver he thought.
Another volley burst forth from the Goa'uld ship while their own weapons were still recharging, more ships were targeted this time, the small frigates evaporating under the heavy fire while the destroyers and cruisers shook from single hits and glancing shots, but the Venus was taking the brunt again, the large ship the closest target to the Goa'uld, more shots pierced its wounded hull, penetrating the weakened armour and tearing gaping holes through the ship, flames and smoke drifted out of the rents in the hull, bodies too, as the ship lost power before finally breaking in half, the two pieces beginning their decent into Abydos's atmosphere.
Rooks grit his teeth at the display, his own ship only saved by being near the rear of the formation, his eyes glaring at the recharge countdown in frustration, the missiles still closing in would be too late.
"Her hyperdrive stopped charging", the sensor operator had regained some of their nerve as they spoke, Selmak had pulled through, a few more seconds until the missiles started to hit, they had this.
The Ha'tak spoke again, this time smaller golden bolts joining in, some from the ship itself others from the redirected gliders who raced to intercept the missile barrage, a futile gesture against the massive volley, the main guns had other targets though, more deadly fire tore into the fleet, this time selecting the cruisers, the golden torrent crashed into the ships, battering down the shields, Rooks watched as three cruisers joined their larger cousin in death, while several more frigates and destroyers succumbed to the deadly onslaught.
But it was the last gesture that Ptahmose would make, thousands of enhanced nuclear missiles and torpedoes began to impact the weakened shields, multi megaton explosions lit up the sensors of every ship, the shields draining rapidly as hundreds went off on the energy barrier, even though most of the energy was harmlessly wasted into space the damage took its toll.
The Goa'uld ships shield finally had enough, vanishing from in front of the missiles and torpedoes, allowing them to impact the Naquadah alloy hull, the intense heat and radiation blasting chunks off the armour allowing the following ordinance easy entry to the interior, the ship flew apart as gigatons of explosive force tore it to pieces, leaving only debris to burn up in the atmosphere.
Rooks let the breath he had been holding release, "Get all our SAR craft out there", he turned to the sensor operator, "Tally up our casualties"
"Aye sir", came the replies.
Rooks watched grimly as the list appeared on the screen, The Venus, three cruisers, ten frigates and four destroyers, all gone, and twenty other ships needing repairs, thousands dead and injured, he vowed to pay the Goa'uld back a hundred fold.
His eyes turned to the map on another screen and the name lit up on it, Tjaru, he'd start to even the score there.
Abydos System
Post battle of Abydos
Small craft and shuttles painstakingly scanned every piece of debris as the fleet recovered from the hammering it had received, the occasional flash could be seen in the background as ships arrived to the system, the support ships of the fleet arriving to render assistance, near the moon the small repair yard had been reactivated and damaged ships were already being towed towards the station.
Rooks sat in his office, a small glass of whiskey lay on his desk as he faced the screen, faces stared back at him, the top commanders of the fleet all looking tired and haggard as the numbers were relayed from the search and rescue teams, the butchers bill had risen to the thousands, nearly half the fleet destroyed or disabled, but right now he had other concerns.
"We need to move on Tjaru soon, if we wait too long word will spread of our existence", Nods of agreement came through the screen, "High command has promised to sent reinforcements, once they arrive later today I'm going to split the fleet"
His eyes found Admiral Borman's on the screen, "Admiral Borman will remain here with the damaged ships and secure the Abydos system I'll also leave some others to help, I'm taking the rest to Tjaru, once the reinforcements and our ground element arrive, it should only take us three days to get there"
He watched as Borman nodded, "Understood, what ships will I have?"
"Including the Enterprise and the damaged ships, thirty five, I'll leave three cruisers, three destroyers and eight frigates here to secure the system"
Borman nodded back, "Yes sir".
Rooks glanced down to the casualty report again, they were lucky that the gate was on the planet, they had been able to send the worst cases direct to hospitals on Arcadia and Earth preventing the fleet and medical centre on Abydos from being overwhelmed, they were still pulling people from the more intact bits of wreckage too.
A hand went to his collar at the thought, feeling the rubber like material of his under suit and the thin metal collar around his neck, the emergency vacuum suit that had become standard gear in a combat situation, a small plastic mask was kept in a pocket and once attached to the collar would give a person a few minutes to get to safety if the compartment was depressurised, there was also a connect near the waist to connect to ship provided air but the suit lacked any kind of heating, still, the system had already proved its worth in the battle, countless spacers were saved.
"Fifteen seconds", an angry voice spat out of the speakers, it was Admiral Ivanov, "Half the fleet gone in fifteen seconds"
From the moment they arrived to the destruction of the Goa'uld ship, only fifteen seconds had passed, the smallest naval laser system in the fleet, those on the frigates, took twenty seconds to cycle, the whole fleet had only fired one volley of energy weapons and missiles, from a hundred ship that was thousands of shots and missiles, but the Goa'uld ship was powerful, withstanding the fleets firepower until the missiles had arrived, it was a sobering example of the disparity in capability.
"We'll need to change how we approach the Goa'uld in combat, who knows when we'll reach parity technologically, they do have thousands of years on us", Borman mused.
Rooks mentally re-examined the battle, jumping in at close range and unleashing all the firepower of the fleet was still their best option in the scenario they had, keep the Goa'uld ship penned in to stop it utilising it's immense acceleration advantage, if it had free range of movement they might not be able to win even with overwhelming numbers.
He scowled while thinking about the advantage they had, the sooner they had engines to close the massive gap the better, shields and weapons too, he sincerely hoped they found something on Tjaru to close that gap.
"If you have any ideas I'm open, but I think the technological gap is too extreme, we'll need to vastly outnumber them to win, right now I'd rather we avoid an open conflict that I don't think we can win", Rooks said.
"I'll need to think about it", Borman sighed, "I'll see if I can get some missile satellites shipped in, ones with the new gigaton missiles, a cluster of those should blunt another Goa'uld attack"
"I'll leave it in your hands James, things will be tight around here soon, once the damaged ships are up to jumping they're going back to Earth for full repairs, we need them for the Aschen front", Rooks turned his head to look at the beeping intercom, "If you'll excuse me gentlemen, I'll have the orders drawn up later".
Rooks reached over and hit the button, the voice of a crewman filling the room, "Sir, you wanted to be alerted when the reinforcements arrived"
"I'll be right up", he disconnected and turned off his computer, a short trip later had him arriving at the command centre, relocated from its original position at the front of the ship to a more protected and centralised location, he gave some nods to the crew who noticed when he entered, "Admiral on deck", was called out as me moved to take his seat.
"Sir, the reinforcement fleet is due any moment", Commander LeMarque announced from his own seat, his XO had been running the ship while he was in conference with the other Admirals.
"Good, as soon as they arrive bring them up on the holo projector"
Minutes later they did, Rooks watched as dozens of ships jumped in with two large vessels in the centre, the Abyssal was fully loaded with dropships, he could see the outline of two colossus dropships with a smattering of Dictator, Seeker and Confederate classes taking up the other twenty three docking collars, the 316th royal battle mech division had arrived.
Beside the massive Potemkin class ship was a smaller vessel, clearly of Kobolian Colonial construction the large ship was in formation beside the Abyssal, the Diana was a marine transport converted Artemis class battlestar, right now she was transporting the 1st division of the Union army, the men on board and the 316th were the main ground elements of the upcoming Aschen mission but first they would tackle the Goa'uld world of Tjaru.
Arrayed around the two large ships was an assortment of transports, there to handle the logistics of a ground invasion, most of them were vessels the union had bought directly from old Colonial stock from their Cylon war, given a quick service they were being pressed into service to serve as the cargo haulers of the fleet.
The arrival of Colonial jump drive trade had had knock on effects in the Union, along with legislation that opened up some of the restrictions on civilian jump drives, an explosion of commercial shipbuilding had begun, cheap colonial drives and excess stock from the Union fleet needing to upgrade its own jump drives had reduced the cost of buying FTL equipped ships, trade was blooming across the Union's planets and between Earth and Cyrannus, soon there would also be a massive tourism wave as civilian travel was allowed to the Colonies after the final defeat of the Cylons.
Such thoughts were of little import to Rooks, his current focus was on the enemies of humanity, he watched as more ships began to arrive, the reinforcements he was promised, twenty seven new warships had arrived, his experienced eyes noting their classes as he took in the fleet, five destroyers, ten frigates, and ten new smaller ships, corvettes fresh from the construction yards.
The last two ships were familiar to him, the Rondau and Muraca, an essex II and a Lola III, former Star League ships, both had received their own upgrades just like the Pride had, removing the old jump core and installing extra weapons, armour and ASF capacity while installing inertial control systems, a modern jump drive, artificial gravity and shields, the ships were a far cry from their old selves, they would be invaluable in the coming days, especially since the Venus had been lost.
He doubted the corvettes would be much use fighting the Goa'uld but they could be invaluable for ground support, he'd leave five of them here with Borman and take the rest along, the additional twenty seven ships would bring the fleet back up to their full compliment, once the damaged ships were repaired.
"Commander, start plotting a route to Tjaru, I want us on the way asap", He'd need to contact Command too, organise an attack through the gate to coincide with their arrival over the Goa'uld planet, he didn't want any of them to escape.
"Right away sir"
Rooks sat back in his chair as he brought up a list of ships on his command computer, he worked quickly to select which ships would remain here with Borman, messages flew from the ship as the fleet was reorganised, the chaos of rescue teams still scouring the debris field was left behind as the ships began to form up, soon they would be on the way to their new target, Tjaru.
Picon Fleet HQ
Picon
Admiral Nagala stepped into his new office, he took a look around to decide what to change before he sat down at the desk and got to work, Ferore was on the way out, once his mission with the Terrans was done he'd retire and Nagala would be taking over, it should have happened years ago as far as he was concerned but the old war veteran had a lot of pull with the fleet and ex military voting public.
Still, Nagala's friends in the Quorum had pulled every string until he now sat here, it was only a matter of time until he was fleet admiral of the colonies, his hand reached for the first folder on the desk, the newest threat assessment on the Goa'uld.
He settled in to read as a knock was heard on the door, "Enter", Admiral Greenhill, head of fleet intelligence walked in, a stack of documents held under his arm, "Scott, is something up?"
"Yeah, I just got the report from the investigation into the disappearance of the Cylon leader, Cavil, there's a high chance he's still alive"
The second highest Admiral in the fleet didn't like that, "He escaped then", he sighed out, they'd need to hunt that bastard down with prejudice.
Greenhill nodded and sat down, he threw the folder onto the desk, "Interrogations, manifests, its all there", his finger jabbed at the folder, "During our scouting prior to the battle we found several ships under construction in the colony", Nagala reached over and took the folder, "They're under 'Cylon Destroyer'"
Nagala opened the page, gun camera photographs taken by a raptor were blown up to show the large bays on the Colony, ships looking like single disk old basestars were being built in the image, a scale showed one to be about three hundred meters across, "A bit small for a Cylon ship, how many did they build?"
"We counted six under construction, we only accounted for five, one was missing", Greenhill sighed out, "They had limited resources with Lucifer having decimated their logistics and stolen their biggest shipyards"
Greenhill raised a finger, "But, they were also building lasers into those ships, the tech they stole from us, we suspect that Cavil managed to get one functional enough to jump out", Greenhill threw another photograph onto the desk, "We found evidence of damage consistent with a ship jumping out too close in the bay"
"All right, I'll divert BSG-70 to the Colony", battlestar group seventy was focused on recon, they had the highest amount of Raptors in the fleet and long range logistics support ships, "We need to track him down before he runs into the Goa'uld and leads them right back here"
Greenhill seemed mollified by that, "Anything else?", Nagala asked.
Greenhill took the other two folders he was holding and passed them over, "The latest from the Minotaur project and the Pegasus"
That perked Nagala up, he was keen to get something to show to the Quorum, "Did they pick out some hulls yet?"
Greenhill nodded, "The best ten left, the others were too far gone, the Terran engineering team arrived today too, we'll see what happens once the ships are towed to the dockyard"
"Hmm", Nagala hummed as he read, "The one over Tauron?", the Scorpia yards were full refitting the current fleet and new ships were being laid down there too, the yards over Tauron were the next best in the Colonies and the decision was reached early on to host the project there.
"Yes, everywhere else is either too busy or is not secure enough plus the new fusion reactor factory is located on Tauron, less shipping costs for the big items", Nagala knew the factory was only there because of politics, it was far cheaper to import one from the Terrans, they had more capacity to product things like that than the ability to build ships, leading to a massive surplus of weapons and reactors that the Colonies where now buying in job lots.
"And the Pegasus, how is the research going?"
Greenhill gave him an excited smile, "Better than we hoped", he pulled out the final folder and opened it on the desk, "The experts all believed that on a ship abandoned for that long everything would have degraded past the point of usefulness, they were surprised when they got their mitts on it, everything was preserved", he pointed to a bit of text, "The ship was already a thousand years old when it had its last battle, they could build them to last in the old Colonies"
Greenhill started to spread single pages around the desk, diagrams of weapons and systems of the ship were laid out before Nagala, "The weapons are some type of plasma cannon, using gasified tylium of all things for ammo, a laser to ignite the gas and magnetic coils to propel it, the gas is also ionised so it generates its own magnetic field to keep it together", Greenhill pointed out the various parts as Nagala leaned closer.
"Are they powerful?", It was the top question on his mind.
Greenhill nodded excitedly, "We ran the numbers, they should output around four times what a Terran particle cannon does for a weapon of the same size and have a rate of fire three times higher based on their performance against the Cylons anyway, but their range is anaemic in comparison, the magnetic field starts to collapse after two thousand kilometres"
Nagala nodded, finally something better than what the Terrans could provide, range aside, "Can we produce our own?"
"All the engineers say so, once they got a good look at how it was done they said it should be possible, but the power requirements are beyond any of our current ships"
Nagala sighed, there was always something, "What about the reactors on the Pegasus, can we replicate those?"
Greenhill nodded and pointed to another diagram, "Yes, the ship uses a type of tylium fusion reactor, much more efficient than what we currently do, ninety nine percent of the energy in the tylium is converted into useful electricity, the cost will be in fuelling it though, but it is something we can replicate that is more powerful than a standard fusion reactor per ton"
Nagala felt a stress he didn't know he was carrying fade away, he relaxed back into his chair, "This is just what we need to catch up with the Goa'uld", and the Terrans he thought in his mind, "What about the other systems?"
"Shields, sensors, comms, computers, all better than what we currently field, the shields are twice as strong as the Terrans design they sold us", he pointed to another diagram, "The comms and sensors are improved versions of our current wireless systems, multiple light year range communications and sensor detection of up to a light year"
Greenhill sat back, "We're still researching this stuff, it's going to take some time to get it into production"
"The sooner the better", Nagala rubbed his chin, "What about the Cylon ships, did we get anywhere with their jump drives?"
Greenhill shrugged, "Even with their help it's proving difficult, they used organic components in their navigation and control systems, we need to build up a whole branch of science just to understand what they were doing, expect only minor improvements in the near future"
The Cylon jump drives, while an amazing piece of technology, was not critical to their continued survival against the Goa'uld, their current FTL technology was already massively better than anything the snakes had, the one area where they held an advantage.
The meeting turned to the exploration of old Cylon space, now part of the Colonies, already ships were on the way to reopen the tylium mines of the Cylons, now they would be put to use to fuel the Colonial economy, the few habitable planets abandoned during the war and the several the Cylons had found after were already being looked at for future colonisation efforts, for the first time in an age the Colonies of Kobol would be explorers again, looking past the red line and expanding their holdings.
That suited Nagala just fine, they needed to expand, to become the greatest human power in known space, to beat the Goa'uld and whatever else lay in the dark of space beyond human eyes, they would prepare and grow.
Cruiser Dublin
Two light years from Volia
30th August 2065
Baltar sat in his chair watching the screen in the command centre, a bright blue dot was speeding towards the enemy held system hours away at the speeds the Te'tak could achieve, it was only an estimated position since the ship lacked any kind of faster than light sensors.
He hoped the Aschen hadn't picked up their arrival but jumping this close was the best option even if they did, the Aschen wouldn't be able to get here in time either way, they'd need to rely on the men aboard the Goa'uld ship for updates, the communications orb was mounted beside his chair just for that purpose, if they needed to jump in and cover the teams exit they would, they would need to engage one of the Aschen ships anyway, even if only to see how good they were, their mission was to gather intel after all.
His mind was still going over the last meeting about the operation, after they had received news of the defeat of the Goa'uld Ptahmose, Takeuchi had brought up his own ideas about Volia.
…..
The fleet commanders sat around the table in the cramped compartment on the cruiser, they had just finished planning out their assault on the communications building on Volia when Major Takeuchi put forth his proposal.
"The other day I said we could take it, I didn't mean that building, I mean the whole planet"
Suffice to say everyone was sceptical, "The whole planet, with a few mechs and men?", Baltar exclaimed.
Takeuchi nodded, "Most of the planet is farmland, all we need to control is the Aschen settlement and the stargate, then we can take our time to extract all the information we need"
Baltar looked to Mendez, "He's right, we have enough forces to take the town and we can always ask for more through the gate, the biggest problem will be the harvesters, if they're all armed it could be a problem", the Colonel pointed at the map laid out on the small table, "I have a company of men and a few IFV's, with the Major's mechs we can hold out against anything on the planet"
Baltar sighed, "Alright, but there's still the ships in the system, we have no idea how powerful they are, if we cant take them out we cant hold the planet", he glanced to the map himself, "And if reinforcements show up we'd need to withdraw, this small flotilla is no match for a proper force"
Takeuchi shrugged, "That could take months if our information is correct, and why not let them come, draw their fleet out here and let our own take them here, away from the defences of their home world"
Baltar sat back in thought, everything hinged on whether they could drive off the Aschen ships, "I'll consider it, we'll do the raid as planned and I'll get in contact with command about this plan", he paused and looked at the two ground pounders, "I'll see about engaging one of the Aschen ships, if we can take them we can go forward with this plan of yours"
…...
They had wargamed out some scenarios after, including one where they just landed and stole the gate, he'd keep that option open just in case, and command was onboard with the idea but any reinforcements would need to wait until the Tjaru operation was over, in the end he had decided it was worth the risk.
Thus the original plan was modified, while the Tel'rak was breaching orbit the fleet would jump in near the gas giant turned star and engage the largest of the Aschen ships, depending on how well the engagement went they would either proceed further and invade in full or just stick to the original plan with the raid, which would be happening either way.
Now it was a matter of waiting for the Te'lak to arrive, their jump engines and weapons were charged and ready, and hopefully draw off the other two ships while the ground team infiltrated, they'd get the information one way or another but finding out how good their ships were would foretell how the war would unfold, they needed that information.
Baltar's eyes stayed glued to the small blue dot, they had hours more waiting to do.
Tauron Shipyards
Astro design office
Senior Space construction architect Kyle Kenmore took a look around the brightly lit office, it reminded him of something from the 1980's with it's beige walls and brown carpeting, cheap looking steel frame desks were the norm in the office, slide rules and primitive looking computers filled out the décor.
Kyle spotted his colonial counterpart leaning over the large draughting table, a large blueprint was laid out, the Minotaur class that was the canvass he was working with on this project.
"Kyle, how was the tour?", Oliver Poplin asked without looking, he was the Colonial counterpart to Kyle, they shared leadership of the project.
"The interior of the ship was a mess but amazingly everything was still functional, it would take very little to get the ships back into service"
Poplin grinned, "They built them though and they kept up with maintenance, the war could have restarted at any time as far as everyone was concerned"
"I see", Kyle walked over and gazed at the complex blueprints laid out on the table, "Is there not a digital copy?"
"Nope", Poplin shrugged, "At least not one I have access to, a lot of that stuff was destroyed when the war kicked off"
Kyle sighed, his frustration evident to every observer, "Paper will have to suffice"
"Anyway", Poplin turned to look up at the man, Kyle's neatly combed hair and tall thin frame had him towering over most of the staff, a handkerchief was neatly tucked into his breast pocket of his slate grey jacket, Poplin just wore a shirt and slacks, his thinning hair and well groomed moustache made him easily identifiable to everyone, "What did you think of the ships?"
"A bit larger than I'm used to working with but I can see a lot of potential, we'll need to modify the hull though"
"Oh", Poplin raised an eyebrow, "How so?"
Kyle produced a small pocket computer from his jacket, he mover closer and shooed Poplin out of the way, using his phone he took a picture of the blueprints, the advanced programs on the phone easily transforming the flat images into a three dimensional wireframe, Poplin watched astonished as the machine worked.
"The app on my phone can turn blueprints into wireframe models using an image, photographs included, it's particularly useful in my line of work", Kyle motioned to the screen, "It's still no substitute for a proper digital blueprint but for situations like this its ideal"
A flat grey model appeared on the screen, it captured the essentials of the Minotaur class gunship, Poplin lamented the cost of the Cylon war, he imagined that things like this would be commonplace before the war started.
Kyle manipulated the three dimensional model, "These side parts of the hull, they stick out too much, if I draw the line of the hull from the front to the engine block, following the contours of the alligator head, it fills in the two sides of the ship, no more blocky sections just a smooth line from the front to back"
Kyle showed the screen to Poplin, the model had changed to what Kyle described, Poplin admitted to himself it did look better than the squarish midsection of the ship as it was, Kyle placed the small rectangular device down on the table for Poplin to look at.
"The ship is also hideously under armed for a vessel of its size, we'll need to change that", Kyle commented offhandedly as he looked back at the paper blueprints, "The Union has authorised its newest systems for this project, pulse cannons, our new reactors and engines and other assorted goodies"
Poplin looked up from the phone on the table, "They're going all in then?, I know my government has promised our best jump drives for the project, they want these things to be the answer to a Goa'uld battleship"
Kyle nodded, "I intend to fulfil that goal, once we're done here those ships will be the dagger we strike into the heart of the evils in this galaxy"
Volia Orbit
Cloaked Tel'tak
"PRIVATE THOMPSON!", A voice shook him out of the state of near sleep he was in, "You better not fall asleep on another combat drop", His eyes blinked open, inches from his face were the angry eyes of sergeant Brown, boring a hole right to his soul.
"No sergeant!"
"KP duty when we get back, I'll have you peeling potatoes until your fingers fall off", Brown stood to his full six foot two height, still glaring daggers at Chad, "Equipment check people, we land in five"
Brown stalked off to the front of the alien ship, Chad stretched out on the cold metal floor and stood from his position leaning against a wall, the ship had a serious lack of seating in his opinion, a quick pat-down confirmed he still had everything he came aboard with.
He bent over and picked up his new rifle, the whole company had been issued the new stuff before the fleet had left Earth, he ran some quick checks, battery fully charged, optics and lenses clear and clean, the L-1 laser rifle was a lightweight weapon compared to what the Star League issued, he was told it was based on something called an Intek, it was cheap and cheerful and could still blow someone's head off with one shot.
It was slightly longer than his old M4 and a hair heavier, but easily manageable compared to a Mauser 960, he heard they had used a new polymer to get the weight down from the originals and something else to get the batteries holding more charge while weighing less too.
Next he checked his new armour, a lightweight underlay that could stop small caliber bullets and melee hits, to Chad it looked like a pair of long johns, they even had a hood attached for head and neck protection, he wore his fatigues over them, over those was his new plate carrier and insert, rated to withstand a few staff weapon shots while also being light enough to wear all day, a vast improvement from the old chunk of metal he was carrying around before.
His helmet with integrated optics and comms was fully functional, his smart glasses were fully charged and working, next he pulled out his NBC suit, something they would be wearing on this mission, no one was taking chances with these Aschen, he quickly donned the gas mask and put his helmet on over it, he didn't need to wear the full kit today, the risk was considered low enough with Aschen civvies around.
His last item was safely stowed in a case, it was a new single shot rocket weapon, similar to the old LAW rocket launcher, like the LAW it was disposable once it had been fired, he was told it was just one of the Star Leagues SRM rockets converted for use by the infantry, Chad slung the thing over his shoulder, you never knew when a rocket could come in handy.
Done with his checks he crept forward to see what the brass was yapping about, Lieutenant Hope, their platoon commander was talking with the Tok'ra pilot, Chad strained his ears while he pretended to look busy.
"Can the roof support the ship?", Hope asked, "That looks like an access point"
"No, the building is a simple metal frame, the mass of the Tel'tak would not be supported", Jalrow answered, Chad could see out the cockpit to the building down below, they were close now, darkness surrounded their target, a sea of light in the dense farmland around the town, which was a few hundred meters from the comms building.
In the distance he could see the form of one of the harvesters they were told about, this one was landed at the small airfield, or what passed for one with the Aschen, it seemed to be undergoing some form of maintenance, it and the landing strip were lit up too, Chad could even spy some small forms walking around, possibly guards or work crews.
"Can the ship hover and still stay cloaked if we open the door?", he heard Hope ask.
"Yes, that is possible, I can hover the ship over the roof, your men can disembark"
Hope nodded and turned around, "All right marines, listen up", the marines in the ship all turned to him, "We're going with plan B, platoon Sergeant Brown will take 1st squad and assault through the roof access", Hope waved to the front of the ship, they were hovering over the building in question now, the roof door was clearly visible.
"The rest of us will land with the ship, 2nd and 3rd squad will take the front and rear access doors and the heavy weapons team will cover the outside", Hope finished.
"You heard the man, first squad on me", Brown stepped forward and stood near the door, Chad hurried over and so did the rest of the squad, soon the small entryway slid open, the cool night air coming in and prickling his skin, Brown hopped down the small distance to land on the roof, Chad following after, he heard the thumps as the rest of the squad followed along.
He turned back to watch the strange sight of a floating door, it slid closed and Chad couldn't tell where the ship was, a hand on his shoulder brought him back to the roof, Flint nodding him on, he moved up and got into position for the breach.
"Hold", Brown ordered with a raised hand, "Were waiting for the other teams to get into position"
Chad took a second while Flint was attaching the breaching charge, the door had no identifiable handle but looked pretty standard otherwise, a small digital pad was embedded into the frame, the text alien.
Stacked up Chad watched as Brown raised three fingers, he counted down and Flint hit the trigger, a small explosion blew the door open, Chad bursted into action, flying through the door with his gun raised, checking the corners as he passed through the doorway, a short corridor and a set of descending stars awaited them as the squad moved in, alarms now blaring from somewhere in the building.
"Go", They thundered down the stairs, coming out onto the top floor, Chad knelt down as his smart goggles picked up movement around the corner, a highlighted box was in his vision approximating the enemy location, a man wearing a metallic grey suit rushed around, a pistol in hand, Chad put a burst of laser fire into his chest, blowing viscera and bloody steam into the corridor, the man fell over dead with a surprised look on his face.
"Move Thompson, you want a medal", Brown waved him forward, Chad sprinted to the corner, peeking around, it was clear, we waved the rest of the squad up while the sounds of a battle rose from the lower floors, first and second squad must be encountering resistance.
Men split off at every doorway, clearing the rooms, Brown knelt down beside Chad and waved Flint and Williams over, he pulled out his tacpad, "This room here is the biggest, we think its the server room, Corporal Williams, take your friends here and secure it"
"Yes sir", Brad nodded, we waved Chad and Flint to follow, they raced up the metallic corridors as the sound of laser weapons and grenades exploding echoed around the halls, Chad was first to the corner near their target, he poked his head around to see a still object larger than a man in front of the door, the top twisted towards him, revealing the lenses of a machine, twin barrels extended from either side and began to spew forth a torrent of red bolts, Chad fell backwards onto his ass to avoid the fire.
"Fucking robot", He called out over the din of the particle bolts tearing into the wall, Chad scrambled back as they tore right through the thin metal, raising his rifle to fire back through the wall, the shots melted holes but he couldn't get a bead on the machine which had started to float down the corridor towards them.
"Shit", Brad reached for his belt and pulled out a grenade, tossing it to the corner, the three of them pulled back into a side room as the machine neared, a loud boom echoing down as the grenade exploded, a red barrier appeared around the robot which had been pushed back by the explosion, a flickering shield that absorbed the majority of the blast, the robot resumed its fire as it approached the doorway to the room.
"Fuck man, it has a shield", Flint spoke in a near panic, all three pointed their guns at the door, Chad could hear the whine of the things anti grav, he reached for a grenade when he felt something else, the single shot rocket launcher he had brought, a smirk formed on his face, "I got this"
Red bolts tore through the wall after he spoke, a shot clipping him in the shoulder threw him to the ground, he felt a strong sensation of burning where he was hit, bleary eyes turned to the left shoulder, the metal pad was burned and warped but it held, Flint was down with a smoking hole in his chest and Brad had dived behind some kind of desk.
A torrent of choughs came from Flint as the machine whined its way into the room, Chad forced his battered arm to hold steady as he pulled the rocket launcher out, "Eat this fuck face", a pull of the trigger and the rocket leapt from the launcher, the robots guns were turning to Chad as the rocket impacted the shield, it exploded on impact breaking through the barrier and slagging the front of the robot, it collapsed to the ground as a half molten pile of wreckage.
Chad was thrown into the wall from the shock wave, blacking out for a second, Brad was standing over him and pulling him from the debris, "Nice move Chad"
A few choughs alerted them to the now sitting up Flint, who was examining the large hole burned half way through his chest piece, "Shit, good thing this armour held up or id be gone"
Brad moved over had hauled Flint off the ground, "C'mon marines, we have a room to secure, lets hope there aint no more robots there"
"Yeah, cause I'm all out of rockets now", Chad dusted himself off, rotating his arm to get some feeling back, "I'll take point"
The men crept slowly to where the encountered the robot, Chad's goggles sensing movement in the room it was guarding, "Movement inside", he signalled, they formed up for a breech again, Chad's boot replacing the charge this time.
A large room filled with computer towers greeted them, a desk sat in the middle with a grey attired man hiding behind it, unarmed Chad noted, a pistol had been tossed to the ground in front of the desk, weapons were trained on him nonetheless.
"Alright, come out, slowly, keep your hands up", Brad ordered while motioning for Chad to circle around.
"I surrender", a surprisingly calm voice announced, a woman by the sounds of it, Chad eyes boggled as she stood, far too hot to shoot he thought.
"Hands behind your head, ma'am", Chad approached from behind, binders in hand, she was quickly restrained.
Brad raised a hand to his helmet as the other two kept watch on the door and the prisoner, "Williams to Brown, objective secure, one prisoner detained"
"Roger, sit tight for now, we're still clearing the building"
Brad turned to the other two marines, "All right, get that door closed, we're staying here for now"
Chad grabbed the chair from behind the desk, he could do with a sit down, now it was up to the fleet to deal with the rest.