Near the Aschara System
Twelve Hours Later
"Still no movement sir"
Borman sighed, the Aschen were content to stick to their system, even blasting the subspace sensors hadn't gotten them to budge an inch, the most they did was turn their own scanners on to his battle group.
He turned to the comms operator, "Have we made any progress on their encryption?"
"No sir, whatever they use is beyond us, the teams back on Volia and Earth will have better luck thanks to their access to the computer systems but our own will take years to get anywhere"
Borman nodded, he expected as much, the Aschen computer systems recovered on Volia were years ahead of Earths and while they gained access to some systems the encryption protocols were still being worked on and that was simply the civilian ones, he imagined their military protocols were even better.
"Sir!", the sensor officer exclaimed, "A ship just arrived in orbit, its massive"
Borman walked over to the plotting table where the feed from the Sceptor was still being displayed, the new contact was heading towards one of the orbital transfer stations, he glanced at the information, it was massive at three clicks long and one and a half wide, one of their massive automated freighters.
"Not much we can do to it there", he rubbed his chin, "The defences are too heavy"
Anderson walked over, she pointed her finger at another of the freighters docked to a different station, "Look here, this one is starting to move"
"Sensors, plot its course", Borman leaned closer to the contact on the screen, "Is it heading towards the fuel refinery?"
Borman watched as two smaller ships began to move alongside the freighter, enemy corvettes for escort, "Yes sir, its current vector puts it directly on course with the gas giant", the sensor officer called out.
"What are you thinking James?", Anderson asked.
"I've been putting off the bomber attack until we drew some of those ships away but now I see an opportunity, if that ship is moving to refuel we can take out two birds at once"
Anderson followed his finger down to the icon of the fuel refinery, "I'll get the pilots ready"
"Sir, all three contacts have gone to hyperspace"
Borman's eyes turned to the disappearing contacts on the table, "STL would take hours to get there even at their accelerations", he turned to Anderson, "Get the bombers prepared"
Borman stood and straightened his back, "Comms, contact the Aster and Lilac", two of the corvettes assigned to the battle group, "They're going with the bombers"
A trio of contacts reappeared on the table right beside the fuel refinery, Borman smiled, "Bring the fleet to combat alert, if those ships around the planet take the bait I want us ready to act", his finger traced around the orbital stations.
…
Multiple flashes of light lit up the space near gas giant and fuel refinery, the two bomber squadrons of the Enterpirse had arrived and beside them two larger forms, Tower class Corvettes.
"Sixty thousand clicks, right on target", Lt Commander Mason Decker's navigator and sensor co pilot announced from behind him, "Sensor returns coming in now"
Decker pressed a button, opening a channel to the other bombers, "We'll do a full burn towards the refinery, release the torpedoes at fifty thousand clicks and jump out"
"Roger", "Yes Sir", came the replies from the other twenty three bombers, Decker vectored the Athena towards the distant refinery, only a spec on his scopes at the distance it was, he hit full burn on the new gravitonic enhanced fusion thrusters, sending his craft towards the refinery at near a hundred gravities of acceleration.
"Lilac to squadrons, incoming enemy corvettes, eta thirty seconds", Mason watched as laser fire streaked past the bombers followed by the actinic flash of ppc's, speeding off towards a distant unseen target, behind the bombers the corvettes were opening up with all their weapons, missiles streaked out of the launchers, the sixteen nuclear warheads speeding off towards the approaching enemy craft.
"Target locked sir", his copilot announced.
Mason flicked a toggle switch, the four Shockwave torpedoes were armed all two hundred megaton kobolium enhanced warheads ready to go, their status lights turning green on his hud.
His eye tracked the approaching enemy corvettes speeding in at unreal accelerations, the other watched the shrinking distance to the refinery, fifty five thousand, still outside the maximum range of the torpedoes.
"Drones launching from the refinery", he heard the comms officer of the Lilac report over the channel, the tiny five meter long space craft turned and began to accelerate towards the Bombers, another fusillade of fire leapt from the corvettes, streaking downrange towards the enemy ships.
Red orbs began to streak back, hammering into the shields on the corvettes, they held for now, fifty one thousand, he confirmed the target lock again, "All bombers, weapons free"
"Movement from the enemy fleet, several ships have entered hyperspace, eta one minute to arrival", the Lilac again, he heard the blaring of sirens in the background, far in the distance bright spheres burst into existence, the earlier missiles from the corvettes beginning to hit, fifty thousand, he pushed the guard off the button, a press sent all four torpedoes speeding forward as he angled the bomber away.
They leapt forward, their simple fusion rocket thrusters kicking on to max thrust, sending the heavy weapons towards their target, the puny maneuvering thrusters and simple targeting systems keeping it on track towards the distant refinery and freighter.
"Decker to Lilac, bombs away, we're RTB", he looked back to his copilot, "Wang, get us out of here"
"All bombers return to the Enterprise, our job is done", coordinates popped up on the nav console, the drive was charged from the battery, time to leave.
Flashes lit up space as the assault force vanished as fast as they arrived, the corvettes loosing one last missile volley before joining them, leaving the Aschen return fire to pass harmlessly into space, one of their corvettes wasn't so lucky, taking the brunt of the missile volley, leaving only floating debris.
The torpedoes were closing the distance fast, their rocket engines pushing them ever faster, the drones angled in and opened fire, red bolts of energy lashed out and took dozens out but the rest rushed past, too fast for the drones to change vector and catch up.
Over half made it past as the refinery opened up with its own defensive emplacements, more red fire downed more torpedoes but there wasn't enough time, over twenty torpedoes impacted the refinery, another ten the docked freighter, its light shields unable to withstand the explosive forces crumpled under the barrage.
The shields dropped letting the next torpedo through, erasing the freighter in an instant, the refinery went next, the impact of hundreds of megatons collapsing its shields, sending the station up like a new star in the system.
As the debris cooled down the reinforcements from the planet arrived, far too late to matter.
Minutes Earlier
"Sir, looks like enemy forces are moving out from orbit"
Borman watched on the table as several of the contacts around the planet began to move before disappearing completely, "Enemy units have gone to hyperspace"
"To reinforce the refinery", Borman found what he was looking for, moving their ships off had left a gap in coverage around one of the five large orbital transfer stations, leaving only two of the enemies cruisers and some corvettes in defence.
"Navigation, plot a jump for the fleet to this location and transmit to the rest", he turned to Anderson, "We're going to hit this station with everything we have and jump right back out"
"Aye sir", Anderson turned to the command crew, "Sound alert stations, prep for a jump"
Alarms blared around the ship as men jumped to their stations, "Admiral, all ships acknowledge orders, ready to jump on your order"
"Shields up, weapons charged", Anderson reported, "Ready to fight sir"
"Jump"
Borman felt his stomach flip as the ship jumped, the plotting table updated with new information from the sensors, the battle group had arrived.
Thirty thousand kilometres distant was the massive orbital station, a cylindrical structure over ten kilometres long and five wide, able to service dozens of the massive automated freighters and transfer cargo but she lacked in weapons which soon became apparent.
"Fire"
The battle group unleashed its wrath on the stationary target, beams of light and charged particles raced ahead as hundreds of missiles poured out of launchers, the Castle class Sceptor was lit up like a Christmas tree, its rapid fire pulse cannons putting out a wall of fire at the distant station.
The few Aschen ships responded as drones raced from hangars on the station, red ion bolts flew back, impacting the shields of the Terran fleet which flickered under the strain.
The stations shielding held up under the barrage for a time, until the missiles began to close, the drones racing out to thin the herd but there were too many and not enough drones, even the corvettes only dented the swarm.
"Station shields failing"
Flashes of nuclear power obscured the sensor and camera feeds, when it cleared the station was in several pieces, slowly being dragged down by gravity.
"One minute to jump"
"Enemy forces converging on our position", the other Aschen ships had not been idle, igniting their drives and racing towards the Terran battle group, already red bolts were flying in, hitting the shields on the Terran fleet, which began to rapidly fall.
The closest enemy cruiser felt the combined might of the formation, its shields strained to withstand the firepower of the fleet but were ultimately broken, beams and pulses streaked through the hull leaving a burning wreck in their wake.
A Shield class came under the guns of an approaching Aschen battleship, huge double barrel turrets sent powerful red bolts tearing through its weak shields, burning holes through the armour, Borman watched as something vital was hit and the ship turned into an inferno, exploding into a cloud of particles.
"Jump drive cool down complete, LF battery ready"
"All ships jump"
The Terran battle group left as they arrived, leaving one dead frigate behind but taking a station and cruiser with them, the Aschen raced in to find the bitter taste of failure.
The lights and alarms stopped as Borman turned from the plotting table, "Fleet status", he ordered.
"Minor damage to several ships, the shields held for the most part but we lost the Bounty, all hands", the report ended with a stunned silence.
"Enemy casualties?"
"Total loss of the orbital station and one cruiser, damage to several corvettes and another cruiser", the officer replied.
Borman nodded, "Status of the bomber attack?"
Anderson looked over from behind the comms station, "Complete success, the refinery and freighter are gone"
"Stand down from alert status", Borman felt a weight settle on his shoulders, the loss of the Bounty was beginning to weigh on his soul, there would be more before this war was over.
Volia System
McKenna's Pride
9th October 2065
"Sir, new information from the scout frigate Spartan, they detected an additional twenty enemy vessels entering hyperspace in the Aschen prime system, last vector puts them on a heading towards Aschara"
Rooks nodded to the comms officer and turned back to the holographic map in the command centre, Borman and Ivanov had been performing hit and run attacks against the two Aschen worlds, they were finally getting a response.
"That makes a hundred ships sent as reinforcements to Aschara and Sythara, the Aschen have more numbers than we thought", an aged voice spoke from beside him, the Colonial Admiral Ferore, they had been talking a lot recently about the strategy against the Aschen.
"Their numbers matter less than their FTL speed, those ships will take weeks to arrive, weeks where they cant be sent against other targets, like Vyralon", Rooks' finger traced a line across the projection, "I'm betting that's the bulk of their reserves"
Ferore nodded, "I agree, Borman and Ivanov have caused quite the stir on Aschen prime, based on the speed of their ships they could be looking at starvation in a few weeks, if they don't have deep food stores"
"Perhaps, but I wouldn't bet on it just yet", Rooks zoomed out on the projection, changing it to the closest three Aschen worlds, "There's no way we can hold all their colonies, not with the forces we have", he drew circles around the planets with his finger, causing the display to draw them on the projection, "But these three are the most vulnerable, the least populated and least defended but still responsible for the majority of their food production"
Names popped up on the projection, Vyralon, the ice world, Thalaris, a dry sandy world with extensive agriculture projects thanks to the Aschens top notch climate systems and Noxara, a rare ocean planet with nearly ninety nine percent surface water, massive fishing operations took place there.
"While Borman and Ivanonv draw the Aschen to their more developed worlds we'll take these three, the resultant loss of food should give us the opening to force a change in government because I don't see a way to force past the defences of the other planets"
Ferore sighed, "I think you're right, especially now that they flooded orbit with more defence satellites and drones"
The Aschen had been quick to react to the early success of Borman and Ivanov, their advanced technology shining through as they flooded their orbital spaces around Aschara and Aschen prime with additional defence satellites and drone craft, which were now permanently deployed further out to stop any long range missile and torpedo attacks.
The Castle class frigates acting as scouts and AWACS systems had picked all the Aschen activity up with the Aschen unable to respond, their slow hyperdrives meant by the time they arrived the ships had already long since repositioned.
Rooks pressed a few buttons and brought up the Vyralon system, "Still the same amount of ships here", he circled the two Aschen battleships, "These will be the biggest problem, we'll send our heavy ships after them"
Ferore nodded and pointed to one of the planets two moons, a small rock half the size of Luna, "Jumping in behind this moon will be the best option, it's out of range of the defence platforms and we can use it to draw the Aschen mobile elements out of position"
Rooks zoomed in on the moon, "Our scans haven't picked up any activity on the moon so far, we can sit behind there and use our torpedoes to force the Aschen to move, their twenty ships, even with their advanced systems aren't a match for our own fleet"
Rooks zoomed out again, "If we send one of the cruiser battle groups in first, hopefully draw the Aschen around the moon then we jump in with the rest of our fleet and catch them in a pincer, simple but it should work"
Ferore nodded, "That works, what about our reserves?"
Rooks turned off the hologram and picked up a folder from the plotting table underneath, "I'm leaving Captain Checkov here to lead our reserve forces, his cruiser, five destroyers, six frigates and twenty two corvettes, I was going to ask you to assign a few ships too"
Ferore reached out and took the proffered sheet of paper, "They could use some fighter cover, I can spare the Galactica and two Berserk cruisers, they wont be much use in a direct fight against the Aschen anyway"
The biggest Colonial hitters right now were the Ranger class missile cruisers with their enhanced nuclear warheads, lasers were proving to be ineffective against shields, both Aschen and Goa'uld.
Rooks nodded, "Who commands her?"
"Old Burnside, he's a veteran of the Cylon war, was a viper jock back then"
"Experienced with commanding large formations?"
Ferore nodded, "I'd say so, he commanded BSG-51 during the Children of the Horizon attacks, they were a splinter faction from Saggitaron two decades ago, bombed a few military installations before it finally culminated in the hijacking of a passenger liner", a pained tone entered Ferore's voice, "The fifty first managed to stop the same thing happening on other ships"
"I see", Rooks said quietly, "Checkov has little experience commanding large formations, not many in the Union fleet do, I was thinking of offering command of the reserves to your commander", Rooks paused, "In the spirit of cooperation and all that"
Ferore cracked a smile, "I'm sure Burnside will be happy, I'll tell him to pass on some tips to the senior officers in the reserves"
"Good", Rooks nodded, "Everything is set then, I'll call for a briefing in the next hour, after that I plan to begin our operation tomorrow, I'll have a list of the reserve ships transferred to your man"
Ferore nodded, "I'll see you at the briefing", he gave Rooks a handshake and exited the command centre, Rooks turned back to the plotting table, strategies and tactics playing out in his mind.
P4X-639
The gate activated with a woosh, seconds later a metallic sphere flew through, its glass eye scanned around as other sensors tested the air for toxins and radiation, a few moments later it signalled the all clear to its masters on the other side.
Moments later five people stepped through with weapons raised, they scanned around with their own eyes, "Clear", their leader shouted out seconds later.
Jack took in the stone ruins the gate was in the middle of and the series of carved stone pillars trailing in a line towards a distant console, the whole area was bathed in a reddish light from the large sun in the sky, his sun glasses kept the worst out but the glare was something else.
"Who designed this place, looks like a Stonehenge reject pile", he poked at one of the nearby pillars, "This ancient design?", he asked Daniel.
Daniel walked closer, "Yeah, I think so, it's similar to the pictures of Vis Urban, I talked to that ancient woman they found in the Antarctic, she said it was a popular style back before she was born to use stone as the primary building material"
Jack nodded, "Alright, go do your thing", Daniel walked off taking out sheets of paper and charcoal sticks.
"Great, thanks to the outpost in Antarctica we have a full database of the Ancient language, I should be able to translate all of this", Jack shook his head as Daniel wandered off towards the wall near the console at the back, it was covered in writing carved into its stony surface.
"Carter, hows the sun, didn't the report mention solar activity?"
Carter was waving around her scanner, "Radiation is normal, no signs of any geo magnetic storms for now"
"Good, I'd hate to ruin my tan"
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, "O'Neill, your skin is untanned", his deep voice reverberated out.
"Yeah, I'd like to keep it that way"
Jack waved them on, "Tell me again why we're here, apart from adding to Daniels collection"
"According to the mission reports this machinery can loop time", Carter patted the stone looking console, square blocks stuck out of the top with ancient writing written on them, "I suspect it must have a power source other than the magnetic storms from the star, there's no chance they would have the energy to loop time for multiple planets"
"A ZPM?"
Carter shrugged, "Apparently they used them for everything, I'm amazed the Goa'uld didn't find loads of the things"
"They did", Jolinar spoke, she was leaning closer to the controls of the machine, "They fuelled the expansion of the early empire, allowed their ships to travel far further and faster than they are currently able to do, it's why there are so many abandoned worlds, once the ZPM's were drained many worlds became unviable to hold onto"
Jolinar stood back up, "This place however is new", she looked around the stone ruins, "We are lucky that the Goa'uld never discovered its location"
Carter nodded, "I think it was part of the database from the ancient repository in the other universe"
Jack scratched at his chin, "How'd that other guy find it them?"
"Malakai sir", Carter corrected him, "He could have found an ancient artifact with the address, unless we ask we'll never know"
Jack absently nodded, he spied a rock that looked suspiciously like a chair, "Alright, go poke around", he waved them off and moved over to the rock, he placed his hand down only to instantly pull it back off, it was scorching, "Should have brought a folding chair", he muttered.
He turned around and spotted another good looking rock, this one under shade, he moved over and got comfortable, pulling his cap down over his eyes as Carter and Daniel worked away, he had a nice line of sight on the gate and good cover, here was fine.
Minutes passed in silence, Teal'c had taken to exploring the rest of the ruins and Jolinar was helping Carter under the console, Jack let the silence flow through, he focused on the sounds of the others working away, scraping rock from Carter and the scrubbing sound of Daniel taking rubbing's from the walls.
It was a nice change of pace from their recent missions, he felt like they were simply following in someone else's footsteps recently thanks to Sheppard's mission reports, constantly rushing to the known advanced worlds, he missed the simple exploration.
His peace was disturbed by Daniel, "Guys, you gotta see this", he shouted out.
Jack was on his feet in an instant, he walked over to where Daniel was behind the wall, "Look", he pointed to the ground, the dust was scuffed but in the corner under the shade was a sheet, tools and old unfamiliar food containers, it looked like someone was camping out here.
"Recognise any of that", he asked Jolinar, she shook her head.
"Probably Malakai, the report said he was working on this for a few years until he got it working, which should be two years from now by our perspective", Carter poked at the empty food cans with her foot.
Jack sighed, it was never simple, "Alright, back to work, if he shows up we'll need to have a conversation with him"
"O'Neill, perhaps Malakai's people would be useful allies, according to the mission report he demonstrated advanced technology", Teal'c nodded to him.
"Yeah, if he shows up we can ask, but lets stick to what we came for first"
The team returned to work Jack abandoned his seat and stood near Carter and Daniel, occasionally wandering around to have a look at the rest of the ruins, some of the bits really did look like Stonehenge he thought, outside of the ruins was simply a flat expanse of sun baked dirt, no signs of life, not even a cactus, not somewhere he planned on revisiting.
"Eureka!", Carters muffled voice came from under the stone pedestal, they had managed to open a panel on the bottom, the stone opened to reveal a mess of glowing crystals with one large one planted in the middle, something he now recognised.
"Any luck Carter?"
"We hit the jackpot, it's a ZPM", She reached in and pried the large crystal power device out of the innards of the console, "Lets see", she plugged two wired into her scanner and placed them on the ZPM, "If the teams in Antarctica are right I should be able to tell how much charge is left"
The team watched as the screen lit up on her scanner, "Thirty percent charge, that's a lot more than the ZPM recovered on Praclarush Taonas which only has two percent charge left"
A ship had been sent to the planet Praclarush and returned with the ZPM there, it was enough to power the Antarctic outpost if any Goa'uld showed up, another ship was currently there working to recover the rest of the base, so far another control chair and additional drones had been found.
"Good work Carter, take the ZPM back to base, the rest of us will hang around here for awhile longer", Jack looked to Daniel, "How long till you finish?"
Daniel rubbed his charcoal stained fingers on his clothes, "Another few hours, I could take photos but it's not the same as a rubbing"
Jack nodded, "We'll wait", he glanced over to where the signs of someone sleeping were, "And if Malakai shows up, well, we can have a chat then"
Carter nodded and packed up the ZPM in her backpack, "I'll get to work on this right away Sir", she turned on her heel and walked over to the gate, Jack and the rest watched her dial out and Jack turned to waiting again, the heat here was a killer.
Hours passed but there was no sign of Malakai, "Hows it going Daniel?"m Jack asked as he wandered around again.
"Oh..", Daniel looked up from where he was kneeling on the ground, brushing away some dust from the letters, "Just this last bit then we can go, I'll do the translations back on base"
Jack nodded and waved Teal'c and Jolinar over, "Looks like Malakai is a no show, we'll set up some cameras to see if he arrives later"
The three of them set to work setting up the tiny micro cameras, placing them around the gate, it would be a simple matter to dial in and connect to see if anyone arrived.
"Time to hit the road campers", Jack shouted out, he watched as Daniel scrambled to place all his papers in a bag, soon enough the gate was being dialled, he'd call this mission a success, a substantially charged ZPM would make Earth a tough nut to crack now, heck, they might even move the whole Atlantis mission up on the time table.
…
After a hot shower to clear out the dust Jack and the rest were sat before Hammond, "I take it your mission was successful Colonel?"
"Very successful, Carter's hunch was on the money, a ZPM with lots of life left, we should be able to power drones until the cows come home now"
Hammond nodded, "Good work", Hammond opened a file on the table, "No signs of this Malakai then?"
"We found signs of a camp but he never showed up, we set up a few hidden cameras, we'll know if he goes back", Jack leaned back, "The time machine is broken now, so he probably wont stick around but we should be able to get the address of wherever he goes"
"We'll need to wait and see then", Hammond looked over to Carter, "Commander, what have you learned so far?"
Carter was a font of excited energy, "The power potential of the ZPM is amazing", her pad was out and she connected it to the holo projector over the table, a string of charts burst into life, "Using the lab equipment I work out the exact charge remaining, twenty nine point five four percent, enough to power the outpost for years"
She changed the projection, two galaxies appeared over the table in impressive detail, "We know from Sheppard that in his timeline dialling the Pegasus dwarf galaxy drained whatever was left of the ZPM from Taonas", she looked around at everyone, "That includes using the drones against Anubis' fleet"
"With this ZPM we should able to dial the Pegasus galaxy multiple times before it runs down, we'll need to get some accurate measurements of what opening a wormhole to another galaxy takes though"
Hammond nodded, "I'll forward that information to the council but I wouldn't count on them sending anything to Atlantis for some time", he shook his head slightly, "Without a way to send anything back it's a no go and they wont allow any of our ZPM's to go with any expeditions"
"Anyway, good work Commander", Hammond nodded to her, "We can all rest a little easier now knowing that our planet is safer, if only it was all of them"
Hammond stood up, "Excellent work, all of you, now if you'll excuse me I have a mountain of busywork to get done"
Jack watched Hammond walk out, he rubbed his chin in thought, "Could you use the ZPM to power a jump drive?, Sheppard mentioned something like that could get their ships to Pegasus fast"
Carter shook her head, "A hyperdrive yes, not a jump drive though, we already output more power than needed for those on our ships, their limited by other factors", she looked deep in thought for a moment, "We do have the designs for the Rhososian hyperdrives and the drives on the captured Goa'uld ships, it's something to look into"
Jack nodded, "They used Asgard hyperdrives, I know that much, we need to talk to our little grey buddy again, see if he can set us up", Jack had a whole boat load of questions that needed answers, like where the head suckers had gone.
A growling noise came from his stomach, "Anyone else hungry?", he heard they had pizza today, Jack stood up, "Lets hit the cafeteria"
Vyralon
10th October 2065
Behind the craggy surface of Vyralon's smaller moon a series of flashes lit up its dark side, fourteen new objects now orbited the satellite, two of them the kilometre long forms of Ranger class missile frigates, another being the Rondeau, an old Essex II class ship, she had undergone some changes from her Star League days, her old auto cannons had been replaced with more PPC's and she now sported advanced gravity control systems like inertial dampeners.
"All ships accounted for Captain"
Matthew Stone nodded absently, his mind was focused on the upcoming battle, "Status of enemy forces", he brusquely ordered, the single corvette assigned to his formation was their eyes and ears in the subspace realms.
"Enemy units are beginning to move out of orbit, current vectors indicate they will meet up before moving on to our position, eta three minutes"
"Orders to the battle group, all ships are to begin long range torpedo bombardment"
Trails of flame leapt from the destroyers and cruisers of the battle group, seventy two heavy torpedoes began to accelerate around the curvature of the moon, joining them were the heavy colonial missiles from the Rangers and all three barracuda's on the Rondeau, an impressive volley was speeding towards the approaching Aschen ships.
Hundreds of drones raced ahead of the Aschen ships, both from orbit and launched from their hangar bays, the Aschen were learning, the drones speed ahead of the Aschen formation towards the approaching torpedo barrage still tens of thousands of kilometres away.
Stone watched as the torpedoes accelerated hard towards the enemy formation, the drones swooping in and shredding them in job lots, their poor maneuverability left them easy targets to the much faster Aschen craft, the torpedoes lacking the time to get to greater speeds, he watched with a grim expression as every one of the near two hundred torpedoes were erased from existence before they got anywhere near the enemy ships.
The drones turned back once the job was done, moving in to escort positions around the Aschen ships, "Enemy ships have converged, eta to arrival two minutes"
"Orders to fleet, vector one eight zero mark zero, half thrust and keep formation, let them chase us around the moon", Stone ordered, "Get the HPG warmed up, prepare to signal the Pride and include current enemy positions"
"Aye sir"
"All ships acknowledge, Sir, vector one eight zero mark zero"
"Sir, torpedo tubes reloaded"
"Hold fire for now, we'll just be wasting them now", Stone said without taking his eyes off the screen.
The Aschen ships were speeding towards the moon, edging ever closer as the slow Union and Colonial ships moved around the moon, someone must have had a bright idea as the drones sped ahead, moving to chase down the fleeing battle group.
While the Rondeau had been upgraded with advanced shields and jump drives in addition to the other upgrades it was still deficient in a major way, it lacked any point defence weapons like a lot of other Star League designs it relied on ASF for small craft defence, her usual six ASF had been kept in their hangar for the fight so far and Stone had no plans to change that, fighting in this universe had relegated them to near uselessness.
While the Rondeau suffered from a lack of point defences the rest of the ships were not so limited, the Terran ships opened up with their anti fighter weapons as soon as the drones crested the curvature of the moon, pulse lasers strobed out as interceptor missiles and auto cannon opened up on the approaching horde of robotic craft.
Stone watched as the lasers lit up on the small drones shields, it took a few pulses but they began to die as they raced in, tracer fire and missiles were hot on their heels as the drones raced closer, eh watched twenty millimetre shells exploding on the shields as the missiles impacted to great effect, the shields buckling under the strain of laser and shells, failing completely as the missiles impacted.
Drones died as they came closer, the Rangers added their own fire, sending flack into the swarm as the lasers began to reap a toll as the shields finally failed, red bolts few from the drones to harmlessly impact on the shielded ships, their weapons too small and too few to cause noticeable damage.
Over a hundred drones raced in, all were dead within forty seconds, only a few even managed to get close enough to retaliate, it was a massive miscalculation on the Aschen's part, "Enemy formation is coming around the moon, twenty seconds to visual contact"
Stone nodded, "Signal the Pride, enemy forces are in position, all ships are to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees and begin retrograde burn, weapons free for all ships on my mark"
"Aye sir"
The ships all turned on their axis, hitting their drives to slow down, the Aschen raced closer beginning to slow themselves so as to not overshoot the battle group, the first of the twenty Aschen ships poked out from around the moon, "Fire!"
Laser beams and PPC bolts rocketed from the battle group, the Aschen cruiser crumpled under the torrent of energy unleashed on it, dissolving under the power, it's shields held for a bare second, behind the cooling mess the rest of the Aschen formation opened fire as they raced around, red bolts flew back in vengeance, hitting multiple ships in the fleet, the heavy ships in front took the brunt.
"Shields at fifty percent", Stone shook his head from the ringing, those Aschen battleships packed a wallop, more red fire streaked in, he watched as a shot penetrated the shields on a destroyer burning the armour away, it held but another would penetrate.
"Forty percent", the ship rocked again.
The Aschen slowed as they fired, beginning to coordinate their targets better, return fire concentrated on another Aschen cruiser, reducing it to floating atoms before bright flashes illuminated space behind the Aschen, dozens of ships were jumping in and catching the Aschen in a pincer, heavy PPC and lasers began to lash out, the overwhelming firepower reducing the Aschen ships to scrap but not before they clawed their price from Stones battle group, two frigates and a destroyer were left as burning wrecks.
Seeing that the battle had turned the survivors attempted to flee into hyperspace, Stone watched as the Aschen battleships came under the guns of the Pride, a fusillade of heavy ppc fire battered through the shields and cleaved the ship in two, only two enemy ships escaped, a corvette and a cruiser.
The acrid stink of burnt electronics flooded the command centre, "Damage report!", Stone felt sweat cling to his uniform, the room was now uncomfortably hot.
"Shields at ten percent, minor armour damage from bleed through and reports of a fire on B deck, damage control has it out already"
Stone let a breath he was holding escape, "And the rest of the battle group?"
"No response from the Vanguard or Congress, sensors detect fires on multiple decks, the Franklin reports multiple fires too and loss of pressure on several decks, other ships are intact but have varying degrees of armour damage"
Stone leaned back as SAR craft flew out from the newly arrived forces, "Sir, Admiral Rooks is on the line"
Stone stood and saluted the holographic image that appeared, "Sir, we took some damage but it worked, the orbit is clear of enemy ships"
Rooks gave him a grim smile, "Good work Captain, keep your battle group here for now while the damage and wounded are assessed, we'll handle the defence satellites"
Stone nodded and collapsed back into his chair, it was in others hands now.
The newly arrived fleet began to move away from the moon, they cleared their firing lines and sat outside the satellites range, the slow process of picking off the satellites began, soon the ground forces would arrive, the invasion of Vyralon was about to begin.
Near the Volia System
Deep between the stars four portals burst into existence, the barrier between normal space and subspace was violently ripped open as four ships exited rapidly before coming to a stop, sensors reached out towards the distant planet as a communication link was established between them.
"Sir, I am detecting multiple subspace scans emanating from Volia, all are weaker than our standard sensors"
Tirron raised an eyebrow, "Can we be detected?"
"Unlikely, the scanners do not have the power required to scan this far although I will advise against active scans, those will be detected", Lubon gave his monotone explanation.
"Bring up the map and connect Commander Kaelen to our comm system, I want her input"
A hologram of Volia appeared before him and beside it was a holographic image of Commander Kaelen, she commanded the three ships dispatched from Vyralon, "Commander", she gave him a small nod.
"Lubon, give me a full status update on the enemy forces in Volia"
"Currently our passive sensors are detecting several enemy vessels in orbit of the planet and also four vessels outside the system, those are emanating the most subspace signals, I suspect they are some type of picket craft"
Lubon zoomed in the map, "In total we are detecting thirty seven enemy vessels in the system, including these three large vessels, they are much larger than the type previously encountered by us"
Another raised eyebrow, Tirron already thought the enemy ships were on the large side, "How large are these new ships?"
Lubon brought up a three dimensional image of the craft in question, simple grey textures had to do at the range but it gave Tirron an idea of the ships, "The largest is one point four thousand meters long and contains what I believe are large hangar bays on both sides, the smaller vessels are eight hundred and sixty meters long, both ships also mount several large turrets"
He watched as Kaelen frowned, "This is a larger force than you indicated to the Council, much larger"
"Lubon, can you discern any details about the enemy ships from this distance?"
"No sir, we will need to be closer for our scanners to pick up more"
Tirron ran a hand through his hair, he felt the stress start to effect his emotions, he'd better take his next dose of proterzium soon, he looked to Kaelen with tired eyes, his sleep had been poor lately, most likely the result of the battle and loss of the ships under his command, "Commander, I would like to request one of your corvettes perform a reconnaissance operation"
Kaelen nodded, "I concur, it is the best method to gain information on the enemy forces present, I shall instruct one to do a quick hyperspace jump in and out, it will have to suffice for now"
Tirron nodded, all he could do now was wait, it would take two days for the corvette to cover the distance from here, he cursed their slow faster than light speed, it was clear the enemy had a major advantage in that field.
"Lubon, can you calculate the maximum safe distance we may approach the system before the enemy scanners detect us?"
Lubon nodded and set to work, his highly trained and intelligent mind was quick, minutes later he spoke, "I have found an exploit sir", the holographic map returned as Lubon stood and pointed a finger at a seemingly random location near Volia.
"This location contains a highly charged particle cloud, I have noted that enemy scanners have trouble penetrating the interference if the readings are right, we should be able to exit hyperspace here between sensor sweeps and evade detection, timing will be critical"
Tirron nodded, "This location will allow us to get more detailed scans of the system?"
Lubon nodded, "Our own sensors do not have the same issue, I recommend we utilise this location for further information gathering, using the corvette will alert the enemy to our presence"
The hologram of Kaelen nodded, "That is a more optimal course of action, I concur with your officer"
"That is what we shall do then, plot a course Lubon and transmit it to the other ships"
Moments later four hyperspace portals opened, the ships accelerated and vanished through them.
Vyralon Orbital Transfer Station
A loud clunk was heard as a ship attached to the docking port, banging noises could be heard soon after, the defenders rushed to the airlock, guns raised as the banging noises continued.
A deafening roar was heard as the airlock doors exploded out into the corridor, catching two defenders and crushing them against he wall, the rest opened fire, red bolts flew into the enemy craft as they unleashed all their firepower.
The response was 40mm grenades in return, the grouped of men were minced as the fragmentation explosives reduced them to shreds of flesh and piles of moaning and broken men, "Move up!", a voice shouted from within.
Chad raced out of the ship along side he others of his squad, they had been tasked with taking the singular orbital station around the planet, it had refused to surrender when the fleet had taken out the defence satellites in orbit, Chad wished they had just blown the place to hell but command had other ideas, they wanted the station intact.
While the army and Colonial marine divisions were landing on the planet, Chad was stuck in close quarters combat in a tin can, he smirked, just the way he liked it, the army could freeze their balls off down there, he was fine right where he was.
"Sergeant Brown, take your squad down the left corridor", Chad heard Hope tell Brown as he stacked up against the wall, around he station the rest of the company was assaulting through other airlocks and docking ports, theirs was closest to what everyone thought was the command centre.
Brown clapped a hand on Chads shoulder, "You heard the man Loverboy, hop to it"
The squad moved out, it was quiet for the first few corridors before they started to encounter resistance, rusty red coloured uniformed men, the stations security forces he assumed, had set up a barricade across at the junction ahead, the narrow corridor they were coming up led to a much larger one.
Red energy weapons fire had them diving into cover, "You get a count Flint?", Chad opened up with his laser rifle sending the men into cover.
"Looks like twelve", Flint pulled out his mirror on a stick, "Some kind of metal barricade, no heavy weapons though"
"Corporal Williams take Flint and Thompson and hold them here, the rest of us will move to flank", Brown nodded to Brad, before raising his hand and waving the rest of the squad down a side corridor, the three marines took a few potshots at the Aschen to keep their heads down.
Chad ducked back from some return fire, molten rivulets were carved into the walls of the corridor where his head had just been, "Damn", Chad shook his head, "Those guns are no joke"
Flint popped out and let fly with a blast, the beam impacted one of the Aschen in the chest, blowing open the cavity and sending splatter on his friends, return fire had him diving into an alcove, one of the red bolts catching him in the back.
A scream of pain was followed by swearing, "Fuucck!", Flint ripped off his plate carrier and tossed the smoking armour onto the ground, a massive hole had been blasted into the ablative layer, nearly burning clean through.
Williams checked over him as Chad kept up the suppressive fire, "Minor burn, the armour stopped the worst of it", he poured a bit of his water canteen on the smoking chest plate, "Get that back on before they really hit you"
Chad ducked back as more fire came in, "I see movement, looks like some kind of floating orb is coming"
A soccer ball sized metallic orb was floating down the corridor towards them, a singular barrel was poking out the middle that sent a burst of bolts into the corner Chad was hiding behind, "Shit!, it's some kind of drone"
Chad watched as it shifted it fire towards Brad and Flint, the bolts impacted the sides of the alcove where they were taking cover, he noted the shots left burn marks and not molten gouges in the metal, "Looks like the guns not as powerful", he shouted over.
Chad took his chance and popped out, a burst of laser beams intersected the orb, melting through its thin casing and scorching the delicate internals, it fell to the ground with a metallic crash.
Further away the defending Aschen turned their fire in another direction, Sergeant Brown had arrived, the three marines leaned out and added their own, downing another two Aschen, grenades flew in and silenced their fire, when the smoke cleared five injured men were holding their hands up in surrender while the injured moaned out in pain.
"Move in marines!", Browns voice carried down the corridor, Chad, Flint and Williams rushed forward to join the rest of the squad who were already binding the surrendering men and dealing with the injured.
Brown nodded to Williams and produced a map on his pad, "Our best guess puts the command centre right here", his finger jabbed at a large room the ships sensors had detected, Brown nodded up the corridor, "It should be fifty meters around that corner"
Brown put the pad away, "Take half the squad and scout the route out"
Williams nodded as Brown turned away and pulled out his radio, "Charlie 1-1 to Alpha, junction one has been secured, over"
Chad and Flint followed Brad as he rounded up more squad mates, "Vance, Trent, Shaw", Brad waved the men over, "Lets go"
They moved up toe the corner, Chad poked his head around, the dull grey metallic corridor was free of obstacles and enemies, "Clear", the half squad moved on, half the men taking the wall on the other side, they moved on towards the large door visible near the end.
AS they reached the half way point, holes in the ceiling near the door opened and orbs dropped down to float at head height, everyone dove to the ground and opened up, the roar of Shaw's machine gun drowning out the relatively quiet hiss of the laser rifles, beams and bullets tore the orbs to pieces but not before several bolts hit Vance, he collapsed to the floor.
Trent was on him in moments, "Vance!", he cried out shaking the body, Chad dropped to his knees and checked him over, there was light burns where he was hit on the face but otherwise he was unharmed, a check of his pulse revealed he was alive.
"I think those were some kind of stun weapons, he's fine just unconscious"
Brad sighed, "Flint, hit him with stims, should get him going"
Flint nodded and opened his pouch, he withdrew a single use syringe and jabbed Vance in the arm, Vance shot upright holding his head in pain, "Man, anyone get the number of that truck?"
"Get him up", Brad ordered as the rest kept watch for more Aschen or orbs, a quick check and Vance was back into fighting condition, Brad silently waved them forward again.
They reached the heavy looking door at the end, "Locked?", Shaw tried to prise them open to no avail.
Brad hit he button on his radio, transmitting on the squad channel, his helmet mic picked up his speech, "Williams here, we've cleared to the door, looks like it's locked, over"
"Roger, hold position for now but see if you can break through, the rest of us are stuck until beta squad arrives, most of the fighting is happening near the main docks, the rest of the company are fighting their way through", Sergeant Browns deep voice reverberated over the speaker.
Chad tuned the rest out, he spotted a control panel beside the door, "Wonder if this opens it?"
"Don't try man, for all you know it'll set of a self destruct or something", Flint walked over to stand beside him.
Chad paused his reaching hand, he never considered self destruct systems, a staple of all sci-fi, did the Aschen have them too, his hand slowly moved away from the panel.
Flint spotted a small door in an alcove beside them, "Wonder if this is the crapper?", the door slid open revealing a small closet sized room with a control panel, "What's this, the janitors closet?"
Chad looked over, "Nah man, that's one of their transporter things, probably for getting to the docking bay fast"
Flint nodded, he turned to Chad, "So, what do you think of that special mission you volunteered us for"
Chad's face started to turn red, him, Flint and Williams had been assigned to escort his new girlfriend on a special upcoming mission that was in the works, at her request, it involved that strange Tok'ra agent and a trip to Aschen prime, he wasn't thrilled, neither were Flint or Williams.
"I'm just hoping nothing happens, we fly to the system and let her contact her people, simple as, after that it'll be up to the brass"
Flint opened his mouth to speak when they heard the clunk of large locks disengaging, the door was about to open, the six men all dived for cover in the small doorways that lined the corridor, the large doors slid upwards into eh ceiling as the men waited with guns ready.
Nothing happened, no men rushed out to fight, no orbs or combat robots, they waited for a moment before a voice called out, "We surrender"
Waiting behind the door were a dozen grey clad Aschen, men and women both, all with raised hands and no weapons, the leader stood at the front as the marines rose and advanced into the room with weapons at the ready.
"I am senior administrator Norrin, leader of this station, we are not combatants, you have clearly won so there is no point in further conflict", a greying Aschen wearing the same dark grey robes as the rest spoke.
Brad waved the marines in, "Bind them, we'll sort everything else out later, Chad, Flint, check out the room"
Chad moved left in the room, it was full of consoles and other machinery for the operation of a space station, there were no other Aschen lurking around, "Clear"
Flint called out the all clear too, they had taken the command centre, the station was theirs.
Vyralon Surface
Domes dotted the equator of the planet, the so called temperate zone, most of the world was covered in glaciers and ice, a sub zero wasteland, but temperatures near the equator reached as high as minus ten degrees Celsius during the summer, the Aschen had built massive domes around it, dozens of kilometres wide, the domes were chock full of automated farms.
Around the outside of every dome were several landing pads for massive trans-orbital freighters, the kilometre long craft would ferry the product to the orbital transfer station in orbit for loading onto automated freighters which brought the food to Aschen prime.
None of that was important to General Chernikov, securing the freighters at the landing pads was her priority, after that they would enter the dome and make sure no one caused any trouble.
The planet had surrendered without a fight after Admiral Rooks had threatened to break open every dome and let the planet finish the job, the Aschen were quick to throw down their arms after the station fell, now her forces and the forces of the 1st division and Colonial marines were being sent in to secure the valuable freighters and domes.
The Union wanted them intact, so they could resume the food shipments once the war was over, it was also a good opportunity to get some first hand access to Aschen space craft technology, but that was left unsaid.
Soon enough mechs would be stomping down the few streets in the dome, the farms were automated leading to a relatively small population for the size of the dome, only a few thousand, they would be able to secure them fast enough and if anyone caused any trouble, she'd like to see then try that against an assault mech.
They wouldn't be on the planet for long in any case, one of the other nations in the Alliance had promised troops to garrison the world for the duration of the war, the Tagreans, one of their cold weather formations was already shipping through the gate to FOB Gamma, from there they would be transported here and she could kiss this ice ball goodbye.
"Ma'am", her adjutant spoke, "The advance forces have entered the dome, no resistance so far"
Chernikov nodded, "Good, let me know as soon as those ships are secure, our engineers are giddy for access"
PG4-225
Classified Research Facility
Project Open Door
Xavier stood in front of the windows of his office, down below men scurried about digging trenches and pouring concrete, a wall was being build around the complex to his consternation, a solution to a problem he would rather be without.
The Union in all their wisdom had chosen this world as the site of their new open air prison, thousands of Nazi wannabes had been shipped here after the Union had taken over their bunker and unfroze them, the ring leaders of the war on Euronda had of course been separated and were being kept in a real prison but that still left nearly ten thousand angry and confused people on his world.
Miles away from he window he could see the smoke from rising fires, the gap in the forest where trees had been felled to build the new wooden bunkhouses, temporary accommodation while actual concrete structures were constructed, a new town had formed outside a classified research base, their stellar cartography cover story would not hold up against much scrutiny, he cursed whoever thought this was a good idea.
He had contacted Chairman Royce of course, but he got nowhere, simply told to shut up and keep working on the project, this was the only other world in Union space with a gate and not currently populated, so here the Eurondans went.
That was why a wall was being build, he didn't trust the Eurondans not to cause trouble so machine guns and concrete would be used to keep them away from him, and if they thought otherwise the base had a platoon of tanks at the ready.
He glared into the distance, the Union had allowed the Eurondans to take many of their tools and supplies from their base, they were supposedly to be used after their war was won but now were being used to rebuild their little town, all the weapons were confiscated but they still had their technical databases, he was betting that would bite them in the as later, for now the best he could do was to suggest to the military commander of the base to keep regular patrols in the new settlement.
He turned from the window and pushed his thoughts on the Eurondans out, the project needed his full attention, things had progressed greatly in the time they had been researching here, soon they would be ready to test the system.
The reactor complex was the biggest hold up right now, as soon as the new reactor was ready they would begin their first tests, opening a small hole into another reality and seeing if signals could be transmitted through, after that would be years of testing and calibration.
Xavier smirked, soon the secrets of the universe would be laid bare before him, he would become a god among men and Royce and the others would have no idea.
Lucia
Described by all as a hive of scum and villainy, Lucia was home to the largest markets in Goa'uld space, situated near the centre of the Goa'uld domains it was ruled by the siblings, two Goa'uld from the same queen, corpulent and debauched, they existed only to pursue the pleasures of the flesh, their tiny world was ignored by the system lords except as an avenue to trade amongst them selves.
The siblings were content to remain in their palace and engage in their activities and allow their Jaffa to rule in their stead, corruption was quick to follow, the Siblings uncaring as crime and vice spread over their resource poor world, using the growing black markets and criminal enterprises to fuel their economy.
Hundreds of years passed like this, turning Lucia into a world where anything could be purchased for a price, where no one asked any questions or they ended up dead in a ditch, weapons and drugs flowed freely through the gate, the paid off Jaffa enforcers part of the many crime syndicates and ruling over them all was the Alliance, a conglomerate of the Lucian crime families, their reach was so great it extended past the planet.
A man walked out of the gate and into the large open air market, a bribe allowed him past the Jaffa's standing guard, a few coins minted from weapons grade naquadah, the currency of choice between Goa'uld realms.
The man brushed a hand through his dark receding hair, amazed he had any now, relatively short he looked around the markets and walked, dancing his way through the crowds he made his way to a seedy looking bar on the far side of the city.
The man was deep in thought as he walked through the alleyways and streets of the city, his current methods were a product of his age, now he was rejuvenated it was time to return to what he started as, a rebel, he would need followers, soldiers, he would bring his war to the Goa'uld.
But to fight he would first need to recruit, and what better place than Lucia, here the seeds of his new rebellion would be found, where weapons could be purchased, even ships, enough to reignite what he had failed to do so long ago, end the supremacy of the Goa'uld, to have his vengeance.
He stopped in front of the bar, electric lights lit up the front, Lucia having far more technology available to both slave, human and Jaffa than many other worlds, he walked inside, finding his way to the back where his business awaited.
A large Jaffa barred his way to the back rooms, a quick jab had the unfortunate Jaffa on the ground clutching his windpipe, not that he cared, his enhanced strength was enough to bring the Jaffa low and he pushed the door open.
A series of dark corridors awaited, his enhanced hearing allowed him to find the right direction, the murmur of voices leading him on, lights illuminated his destination, a meeting of the Lucian Alliance council, his target.
His boot sent the wooden door flying into the room, his pistol out and set to stun he dived into the room, a blur of motion to the men sat at the dimly lit table, energy bolts flew out and disabled the guards who were still scrambling from the door, a back flip had him sailing over the table to land behind the leader of the Alliance, Netan.
A thin arm wrapped around Netan's neck, far stronger than it should have been, the man's eyes bulged out before a sickening snap was heard, the body was flung out of the chair, "Now that that's out of the way, lets get down to business"
Ma'chello smirked as he idly held his pistol in his hands, "I'm taking over this criminal alliance of yours, any objections?"
Ma'chello put a small object on the table, a pad, he hit a button and small glowing machines flew out and entered the stunned men, screams of pain echoed around the room, Ma'chello held up another pad, "If I leave them in there for a few days, death will be slow and painful, if you like living then it's time to bow to your new leader"
A confused voice spoke up, "Who are you?"
"Call me Sharn"
Volia System
11th October 2065
Four portals ripped open the fabric of space time as the Aschen ships returned to normal space, the radiation cloud hid their arrival thanks to crewman Lubon's timing of the Terran sensor sweeps, the ionised particles cast a veil over their presence.
"All ships accounted for sir, we are now within one light year of the planet", Lubon calmly announced upon their arrival, Tirron nodded and gazed out the front viewport, the length of the ship was visible, stretching out from the bridge at the rear.
Stars twinkled outside, the cloud that hid them was invisible to the naked eye, "Enemy forces?"
Lubon brought up the sensor readings on the holographic projector, "Enemy forces remain the same, no changes"
"Start scans then, I want a full analysis of these new ship designs"
Minutes passed before Lubon turned to him, Tirron had Commander Kaelen join them in holographic form, "Analysis complete", Lubon's monotone voice belied his nervousness after he saw the results, "The enemy ships currently in system are similar models to the ones we fought weeks ago but are different ships"
"Different ships?, explain"
Lubon nodded and brought one up on the projector, "Leaving the large ships out the rest have the same design as the ones we encountered but there is one critical difference, all enemy ships have shield generators installed, a major difference compared to our first encounter where none of the enemy vessels were equipped with them"
The hologram of Kaelen frowned, "Your report said the enemy ships were primitive, subspace sensors and now shields, a far cry from what you described"
Tirron was feeling vexed too, "Can you explain this discrepancy Lubon, where did these shields come from?, how are they powering them with simple fusion reactors?"
Lubon kept his blank expression, "I'm afraid our initial analysis of the enemies technological prowess was flawed, scans show their reactors out put far more energy than one would assume for their size, they are utilising some form of advanced fusion technology, something unknown to us"
Areas on the ship being projected were highlighted in red, "This was the largest enemy ship during our first encounter, the one we damaged prior to our withdraw", Lubon stood and indicated the red flashing parts, "Scans show that this ship is a similar type but not the same vessel, while the weapons remain the same the scanners are picking up shield emitters at these locations, we wont know how powerful they are unless they activate"
Tirron sighed, he felt a headache approaching, "And the massive vessels?"
A more detailed image appeared than the early scans had acquired, the massive vessel was covered in armour and guns, it was imposing, two massive hangar bays were on either side of the ship, Tirron estimated that thousands of drones could fit inside.
"Our scans show this ship is older than the others, over forty years while the smaller ones are one to two years at most", Lubon's finger pointed to a bulge on the ventral side, amid ships, "Scans indicate this is a recent addition, a fusion reactor and shield generator under this armoured hump"
Tirron rubbed his chin, "An addition?, it looks far too small for a ship of that size"
Lubon nodded, "Fortunately we were able to can the ship while the shields were powered, it seems they are not as powerful as the shields on our own cruiser, I estimate they are only fifty eight point five percent of our own on a ship sized for the shield emitters, on that vessel they will be considerably weaker"
"Apart from the shields it would appear that enemy laser cannons have been retrofitted into the design but not the particle weapons", Lubon pointed to the hangar bays, "I surmise that the vessel is an old ground support ship that has been upgraded for use against us"
Tirron nodded, "Good work Lubon, what of these new small warships the enemy has deployed?"
"They seem to serve a similar role to our own corvettes, light weapons and shields but not much of a threat unless they are numerous"
Lubon nodded and hit a button on his console, the image changed to a map of the system, red icons lit up around the system, with concentrations around the planet Volia and the solar condenser at the artificial star in the system.
"The enemy has multiple ships performing patrols around the system with concentrations of forces at the planet and solar condenser, the large ship is in orbit over the planet with several cruiser sized escorts, the same type of vessels we encountered last time"
Tirron nodded, "I see", he stood up and moved closer, examining it in detail, watching as the red dots slowly moved, "You have a suggestion Lubon?"
Lubon nodded, "The massive vessel is vulnerable, their shields clearly not designed for a ship of that size, I propose a rapid assault via hyperspace, we exit near the ship and perform a flyby then exit once we pass before enemy forces can arrive to block us"
Tirron looked to Kaelen, she seemed reticent, "Our mission is to gather data for the coming forces under Superior Commander Jorlem arrives, combat is not our priority, especially now it seems the enemy is both more numerous and advanced than initially thought"
"A valid point commander but I believe we need better data, combat data", Tirron turned to Lubon, "Plot a hyperspace vector to that ship, we shall perform a simple fly by attack, make sure to keep all our sensors active during the manoeuvrer"
"Yes sir", Lubon turned back to his console, "I shall plot an exit vector too, this location will most likely be scrutinised after the battle"
Tirron nodded, "Pick somewhere outside the sensor range of those ships", Tirron glanced to the holographic image of Kaelen, "Prepare your ships commander, we shall be leaving presently"
Kaelen nodded and disconnected, "Course plotted sir, eta nine hours", Lubon announced.
"Engage"
Battlestar Galactica
Volia Orbit
Commander Charles Burnside stood before the main DRADIS display, his eyes were on the plotting table below, icons representing the reserve forces of the invasion were plotted out in detail, he had the forces under his command performing a series of war games, he felt the Terrans were a bit green and could do with a helping hand.
"Hmm", He watched as the small detachment under Chekov were manoeuvring around one of the distant gas giants in the system, another force was assigned in the defence of an imaginary outpost there.
"He's caught them with their pants down", His XO commented, the defensive force had all their guns pointing the wrong way, a series of decoy thrusts with a frigate had then out of position.
Burnside nodded, "They'll need to learn not to leave themselves open, a common mistake"
Burnside felt his gut touch the table, he had packed on a few pounds as age caught up, he hoped the new Terran treatment would give him the energy to get back into the gym, he brushed an errant crumb off his uniform, "I think we'll try high speed engagements next"
"Commander!", a shout came from the sensor ensign, "Multiple DRADIS contacts, bearing three three zero carom two two one, Aschen ships"
"Battle stations", Colonel Lain shouted, "Get the alert vipers in the tubes"
A klaxon sounded throughout the ship as gun turrets rotated towards the distant enemy ships, "Contacts closing at one thousand gravities, eta forty seconds"
The speeding Aschen ships aligned themselves to pass the massive battle star, red bolt flew out of their guns, closing the distance and impacting on the blue barrier around the ship.
Burnside felt the ship shake as the enemy fire impacted, "Shields at eighty percent", the Aschen raced passed the slow vipers on patrol, firing as they closed, the ship groaned under the impacts, even through the shields.
"Shields at twenty percent"
"Lasers targeted"
"Open fire", Burnside shouted, the turrets on the battle star let loose with their new weapons, crimson beams leapt from the turrets, massive chemical lasers released their energy on the approaching Aschen ships as the few frigates and Berzerk cruisers nearby did the same, the beams lit up the Aschen ships like a rainbow as the shields deflected and absorbed the energy.
The Aschen had closed the distance, bolts flew out as they passed the ship faster than an eye could blink, the first shot hit the shields and collapsed them completely, the rest tore into the port flight pod, tearing through the thick armour and ripping massive chunks from the hull before penetrating right through.
Burnside felt his feet leave the ground as he was bodily thrown into the plotting table, bashing his head on the way, the Aschen ships let off a final volley as they tore open hyperspace portals, the last shots tore through the grand old girls engines, ripping through the cowls and tearing into the thrusters, fires bloomed as tylium burned.
Smoke filled the CIC as Burnside gripped the table and hauled himself upright, blood ran down his face as he looked to the rest of the crew, he spotted an ensign who's head was bent the wrong way, he shook his head and helped Lain stand, "Damage report!"
"Port side flight pod is completely open to space, engines are down and we have fires in tylium bunker one and three"
"Damage control teams are en route, the ship is dead in the water", Lain had moved over to the damage control board, red lights lit up the rear of the ship and port flight pod.
"The enemy ships?"
"Gone sir", the sensor ensign responded, "I think they went to hyperspace"
Burnside felt a dizzy spell, he pulled his handkerchief out and dabbed at his bleeding head, "Recall all our forces in the system, I want them in a defensive formation around the Galactica"
He turned to the helm officer, "How is our orbit?"
"Stable for now sir, but we'll need the engines or a tow in a few hours or we risk becoming unrecoverable"
Burnside nodded, "FTL drives?"
"Functional"
Burnside wandered over to Lain, he felt himself lean against the wall, darkness encroaching on his mind, before he slipped into a sitting position, he felt hands haul him up, "Get him to the medical"
He felt himself fade out, his thoughts turning to hoping the Aschen didn't come back and finish the job before darkness claimed him.
…
A calm sense of accomplishment filled the bridge of the cruiser Starlight, retribution for their first failure against the barbaric enemy they faced.
"Course plotted, our initial arrival point two light years outside the system, eta forty seven hours", Lubon announced.
"Excellent, hopefully Superior Commander Jorlem will have arrived by then", Tirron was feeling pleased, he had hit a blow to the enemy, hopefully the damage caused to their largest ship would instil the proper respect for the Aschen in them.
His pleasant mood lasted for a few hours, even Kaelen had send her approval for his victory here, in her cold manner as usual, that was until the transmission arrived.
"Sir, transmission from the cruiser Sunburst, they were assigned to the defence of Vyralon", Lubon suddenly announced hours later.
Tirron frowned, Vyralon was out of comms range with the communications centre and relay in Terran hands on Volia, how were they receiving them?
"On screen"
A visibly wounded man appeared on the screen, Commander Derin, bandages were wrapped around his head and cuts and scrapes littered his body, "This is commander Derin, I hope this message finds you in time commander, things have taken a turn for the worse since you became incommunicado"
Tirron glanced at the timestamp in the corner, the message was eight hours old, "Vyralon has fallen", Tirron felt his heart rate spike, "A massive enemy force arrived and destroyed all defensive craft apart from my cruiser and a single corvette, details on the force will be included with the transmission"
Derin had a faraway look in his eyes, "Before that we received reports from Aschara and Sythara, enemy forces were operation around both planets, they destroyed several automated freighters, a refuelling station and one of Aschara's orbital stations"
Tirron's mouth dropped open, he even heard gasps from his bridge crew, a rarity on Aschen vessels, a defeated sigh escaped Derin on the screen, "Superior commander Jorlem will not be arriving, his force was transferred to Aschara, we received orders for you before the planet was lost, return to Aschen prime"
Tirron watched as Derin slumped in his chair, his skin was sallow and sickly, red lines ran across his eyes, "What remains of the Vyralon fleet is on course to your rendezvous location, we should be able to talk in person in a few days, Derin out"
Tirron's earlier joy was gone, a dark pit of despair was forming in his soul, "Contact Kaelen, we need to talk", the order left his lips like a sign of defeat.
McKenna's Pride
Vyralon System
Frowning faces surrounded the conference table on his ship, "Latest from Volia sir, updated casualty reports", an ensign arrived to dump more bad news on top.
Ferore sighed, "Looks like Burnside is past the worst of it, internal brain haemorrhage, good thing the doctors caught it before it was too late"
The Galactica had been savaged, they didn't have the parts or ability to repair its thrusters out here so the ship was dead in the water for now, she could still jump so they'd probably just send her home, hundreds had died in the port flight pod though, dozens more in the rear section of the ship, their biggest loss so far.
Rooks felt a spike of anger, they'd need to find a way to ferret out any hiding Aschen ships now, he cured the inability to track ships in hyperspace, something he was told not even the Goa'uld could do, "Captain Stone", he looked to Matthew Stone, "Are your ships in good enough condition to jump?"
Stone nodded, "If we leave the Vanguard and Congress behind yes", the two frigates were write-offs at this point, dozens dead and fire gutted, they were probably going to be scuttled unless a repair ship showed up to tow them back, Rooks had been promised one at the start of the operation but so far he was still waiting for it to arrive from Earth, they had purchased it from the Colonials and were giving it a service before letting it come.
"Good, take your battle group and reinforce the Galactica for now", Rooks leaned back, "As soon as the Tagreans arrive I want us on the move, we'll keep the pressure up on the Aschen"
He hit a button and the overhead holoprojector came to life, "Thalaris, an arid desert world, similar amount of defences as here too", Rooks highlighted the enemy forces in orbit of the planet, "Twenty five ships, five of them Aschen battleships and ten cruisers according to the latest intel"
Rooks stood up, "We'll begin operations to take this world the day after tomorrow, I want plans on my desk by tonight", determined faces nodded to him, "Dismissed"
Aschen Cruiser Starfire
Commander Kaelen closed the door to her office behind her and hit the lock, two people were waiting, her XO, Lieutenant Laris and crewman third class Korth, the ships sensor officer.
"Well", Kaelen demanded as she turned to the two men, "Did you get the scans?"
Korth nodded, "The settlement was intact, nearly all two thousand civilians were accounted for, only security forces tags read as deceased, no signs of orbital bombardment or bio attacks"
"So, these Terrans, you think they can help?", Laris asked.
Kaelen nodded, "There's no one else to turn too, our people have been under the yoke of the council for too long, while the rich are allowed off world to Aschara everyone else toils in the polluted wastes of Aschen prime, while the council controls multiple worlds that support life we're all stuck living in a toxic soup taking emotional suppressing drugs"
Laris sighed, "I know, I just hope these Terrans let us speak, we haven't left the best impression"
Kaelen let out a sigh of her own, "Until we knew they weren't just another bunch of monsters like the council I wasn't going to risk my position, now we know, I think they are the allies we need"
Laris' eyes bored into hers, "Are you prepared to take the final step?"
Kaelen nodded, "Most of the crew are my people, only one third are loyalists, we'll round them up and put them in storage bay two, then we turn around and try talking to the Terrans"
Laris stood, "Very well commander, I owe my life to you, I shall follow"
"About time, do you know how hard it is to pretend you feel nearly nothing, lets do this", Korth stood too, a smile gracing his youthful features, "We'll need a way to contact our brothers back on Aschen prime, the rebellion will need to know what transpires"
"We'll work that out after", Kaelen stood with the others, "You have your orders, start arming our people, we have a ship to secure"