One Big Jump

by goulmeister1

AU:An Aerlion ship on patrol encounters the Cylons at the beginning of the first Cylon war and suffers a misjump, forty years later an expedition leaves Earth bound for Abydos, the Stargate has just been opened for the first time.

14. Chapter 14

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

"They're stable for now and should make a full recovery", Doctor Fraiser was explaining to Hammond and Colonel O'Neill.

She led them over to the beds where the three unconscious people were hooked up to machinery, the colour had returned to their faces and they looked better than when they first arrived.

"Too bad that sarcophagus was shipped to Earth, it would have had them on their feet in no time", O'Neill said as they looked down at the black haired man, "Any idea who they are?"

Fraiser picked up a metal tray from the bedside table, "He had these on him, dog tags"

Hammond picked up the steel chain and looked at the dangling tags, "Major Sheppard, United States Air Force?"

"I looked him up", Fraiser took out her tablet, "He's a shuttle pilot based out of McMurdo, Antarctica, and according to everything I can find is still there flying shuttles"

"A doppelganger?", O'Neill asked.

Fraiser shrugged, "His DNA matched what's in Sheppard's file, identical twins or a clone, take your pick", She waved to the two other people, "I have no clue who these two are, but both are recovering and the baby is healthy, I don't foresee any complications on that front"

Hammond nodded and examined the people, "When will they wake up?"

"I have them sedated, tomorrow at the earliest, right now they need to recover, in addition to the radiation poisoning they were all dehydrated and starving, they must have been stuck on that world for a few weeks"

"Right, keep me informed if there's any changes", Hammond said as they walked out of the medbay, "Lets talk in my office Colonel"

Hammond led them through the corridors of the station and waved O'Neill into the empty seat opposite his desk and took his own.

"Congratulations Colonel, you found another mystery"

"All in a days work, Sir"

Hammond leaned back in his chair, "I had our armourer run the serial numbers on the weapons you recovered", Hammond pulled out a data pad and passed it to O'Neill, "The two P90's were manufactured in 2001, part of a batch used by US special forces, they're both sitting in a warehouse in Texas right now, I asked them to check if they're still there, they are"

Hammond sighed, "Same story for the Berretta's, both have manufacturing dates from the late 1990's and were issued to the US air force and have since been decommissioned"

"Hmm", O'Neill hummed as he read the screen of the data pad, "I'm sensing a pattern, its either time travel or another alternate reality"

"Perhaps", Hammond allowed, "Things changed when we examined the radio equipment, outwardly they also look like early twenty first century technology but the techs found advanced technology inside all of them, I was told it is subspace based"

O'Neill raised an eyebrow, "They sure as hell didn't have that sixty years ago, we barely have it now"

"I'm aware Colonel, the man with dreadlocks had a weapon on his person too, some kind of energy pistol, it's power cells were depleted and we found no spares so we have no idea how it performs"

"Yeah, it is a mystery", O'Neill mused, "The only way to get answers will be when they wake up"

Hammond sighed, "I'll have some teams sent to P3R-233 to recover the artifacts there, all we can do now is wait"

O'Neill nodded, "I wonder what happened to bring them there?"

Several Weeks Ago

Another Reality

"Two minutes to landing", The pilot called out from the front of the helicopter, Sheppard nodded to himself and checked his gun again, thinking back on what let to him being here.

….

Things had gone to shit since the Wraith had gotten their clammy hands on that ZPM, who would have thought that Todd would betray them like that, he thought sarcastically.

After the ZPM came the super hive, the Wraith hadn't waited to hit Atlantis, the Daedalus and Apollo unable to stop the onslaught, a massive fleet of Wraith ships had arrived over the planet, the lesser vessels used as shields to soak up all their drones until finally the super hive arrived.

Left with no choice they elected to destroy Atlantis lest it fall into Wraith hands, the crew evacuating back to Earth and the two Daedalus class ships fleeing home too.

He hoped they were only going home to lick their wounds and regroup, to solve the problem of the hive, but no one expected the ship to follow them back home, it's organic armour now thick enough to stop everything they threw at it.

Darts swarmed the skies as they clashed with Earths air forces and defences, the hive sitting in orbit raining fire down on all resistance, the few ships Earth had already left to hide elsewhere, declaring the planet lost.

The Free Jaffa's token force had accomplished nothing, they were unwilling to send forces away from Lucian Alliance front, and then the Wraith had gated into Stargate Command, Todd had figured out access to the gate bridge, somehow got around the iris and invaded right through the back door.

Sheppard had fled with everyone else, now only the four of them were left, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon, they had managed to get aboard a helicopter fleeing the SGC, no one else had made it.

"Area 51", Rodney had said when they boarded, "Its our only chance"

Sheppard had expected to die soon, a blaze of glory fighting the Wraith, or perhaps leading some kind of resistance against an occupation but Mckay had another idea.

"What's at 51?", Sheppard had asked as he glanced back at Cheyenne mountain fading in the distance.

"The Quantum mirror Doctor Jackson found, there was some debate about destroying it after the last incident with it but cooler heads prevailed and it's been sitting there at Area 51 ever since"

"So, we just run away, leave everyone to die?"

"Their already dead John, at least this way we can live", Rodney nodded to the silent Teyla, her stomach visible under her clothes.

"I'm in", Ronon simply said to Sheppard's mixed angry and morose expression.

"John, please", Teyla put her hand on his shoulder, "Perhaps we can save others from this fate but remaining here is a death sentence"

John sighed bitter and broken, "Fine, I'll talk to the pilot"

Hours later and a refuelling stop and they could finally see Area 51 on the horizon, fires illuminating the desert for miles around in the darkness of the night.

"Looks like it's under attack, no response from the tower, I see firefights on the ground and radar is picking up darts on intercept vector, five mikes out, I'll get us down in four", the pilot told John who nodded and returned to his seat, "Looks like we'll have to fight our way in, the Wraith beat us here"

"I was getting bored anyway", Ronan pulled out his particle magnum and checked the power cell.

John turned to McKay, "You know where this mirror of yours is?"

Rodney nodded, "Sub level 4, past the vending machine and around two corners, that where it's stored"

"Good enough"

"Two minutes to landing", The pilot called from the front.

Sheppard focused back on the here and now, the fires in the base looming larger as they approached, he could see Wraith stunner blasts being exchanged with gunfire, burning buildings and crashed darts littering the ground.

Suddenly the helicopter rolled in the sky, evading fire from a dart that had sneaked behind them, "Hold on to your lunches", echoed out of the cockpit as the copter dove for the deck.

John watched as Rodney closed his eyes, his hand with a death grip on the armrest, his face pale and drawn, dark lines of tiredness under each eye, John imagined he looked the same, outside the ground rose to meet the helicopter, blue bolts of Wraith fire following them to the ground.

The pilot misjudged the distance and the helicopter bellyflopped into the tarmac of the runway, crumpling the front and tossing the passengers around, John was wrenched by the harness as the momentum propelled the craft into a roll along the ground.

Blacking out for a second John opened his eyes to the carnage, the helicopter was upside down, he cut the harness and dropped to the ceiling, a glance to the front told him the pilot wouldn't be coming with them any further.

Ronon dropped down beside him and reached up to help Teyla as John set to work cutting Rodney free, "OW", Rodney collapsed into a crouch on the ground, "I think I'm going to puke"

"Everyone out now!", John grasped Rodney by the back of his jacket and dragged him put of the helicopter, Ronon carrying Teyla ahead of him, he spied a building near by and the group sprinted into cover, just in time as the dart returned and fired several bolts into the helicopter, igniting its fuel and causing a large fireball, the burning remains lit up the runway.

"Which way McKay", John asked as he looked to the other side of the base, he could see Wraith already heading their way, "We have incoming, fifty plus Wraith"

Rodney shook his head and looked around, "There, we can get inside through that building", He pointed to the building near their own, a glass fronted office it looked like to him, "It's the research lab entrance"

"Right, lets move"

A short sprint had them inside but the Wraith were catching up, "Lead on Rodney, we don't have time for sightseeing"

The interior was littered with the remains of a previous battle, drained husks of humans and dead Wraith drones were strewn about the lobby, shattered glass and the occasional small fire burned away, fortunately there were no living Wraith waiting for them.

"This way, the elevator is this way"

The ran again, this time to the elevators, disappointment awaited them though, the doors were torn open and the cable had been cut, John poked his head in and looked down to the wreckage below, "We're not going this way"

The sound of smashing glass was heard from where they entered the building, "Stairs", Rodney exclaimed and rushed over to a closed door, the rest of them followed and they all rushed down a dark stairwell into the depths of the base.

They rushed down the dark stairwell, only the emergency lights illuminating their way, a solid metal door barred the way to sublevel 4, John and the rest banging futilely until Ronon shooed them out of the way, a bright red bolt from his pistol on full power solved the issue, a hole big enough to crouch through now blown through the inch thick steel.

"Move" John stood watch as Teyla and Rodney crawled through first, he spotted a shadow moving near the top of the stairwell, the Wraith were catching up, a burst from his P90 kept them back as he covered the team climbing through, stunner blasts impacting the door as he dived through after them.

"This way", Rodney took off in a sprint and the rest of the team follow suit through the shadowy corridor, it looked like the personnel had already left before they had arrived, their footsteps echoing through the silent corridor was the only sign of life down here.

They followed Rodney around several corners before he led them to another solid door, Ronan dealt with that the same way as the last one and they all quickly made it through, "Here", Rodney pointed to the corner of the room, under a sheet he could make out the shape of the mirror, the rest of the room was a mess of dark shadows and large wooden crates.

McKay yanked the sheet off the stone framed mirror, his face dismayed as he found something missing, "The remote, we cant turn it on without it"

"Find it then", John crouched by the hole in the door, eyes peeled for the Wraith, "Ronon, Teyla, cover the door with me while Rodney does his thing"

Rodney ran off into the back of the room while the rest of them waited, the stomping of feet was growing nearer as the Wraith finally caught up, "Here they come", Ronan said as he fired a red projectile into the first one around the corner.

John fired a burst into the next around but more followed, the three of them laying out a carpet of dead Wraith, blue stunner bolts flew back and impacted around the hole in the door that was their cover.

"Rodney, we're a bit short on time here, hurry up", Sheppard shouted out.

"I found it", a shout came back, then a muffled thump sound, Sheppard fired another burst into a sneaky Wraith and tapped Ronan on the shoulder, "I'm checking on Rodney, back in a sec"

He received a grunt for an answer, John left them to move deeper into the room, a wet slapping sound brought his attention to a large crate, or rather what was behind it, "Rodney, is that you?"

Not waiting for an answer he moved around the corner with his weapon drawn, shock and anger was the emotions he felt when he saw what was there, a Wraith had it's hand planted into McKay's chest, the man was barely alive, a mere husk of his former self, John let loose into the Wraiths head, splattering its brains all over the wall behind it.

"John, go", Rodney spoke weakly from the ground as stunner bolts flew in from the back of the room, the Wraith had flanked them, Rodney raised a withered finger and pressed a button on a metal device in his hand, the mirror in the corner turning on as he did so.

Ducking behind cover, John let loose several shots towards the Wraith coming from the back of the room, McKay lay silent on the floor, no longer moving, a hand grasped his shoulder, Teyla's, "John, he is gone, we must leave"

A roar left his lips as he fired a stream and turned, he joined Telya in a sprint to the mirror, Ronan already there firing shots through the hole in the door, "McKay?", he asked as they ran up, John silently shook his head, too angry to speak.

Ronon gave a silent nod and touched the centre of the mirror, a pulse of light flew over his form and he was standing on the other side, Teyla followed suit as John kept a fusillade on the door, once she was gone he followed her through.

The room they found themselves in was brightly lit, spotlights on the ceiling shining light down on displays lining the walls, back on the other side the Wraith were climbing through the doorway, a few fired shots at the mirror, several actually travelling through to impact the far wall before they stopped in confusion and began to walk closer.

"Sheppard, their going to come through and I'm nearly out of ammo", Ronon stated as they watched the Wraith approach the mirror on the other side.

John sighed, "Shoot it, it's our only option"

Ronon and Teyla nodded and all three of them unloaded on the mirror, bullets and particle bolts impacting the frame, electric arcs lanced out as the machine was damaged, the Wraith faded away like a TV turning off and the last few shots shattered the glass like centre of the machine.

John felt the energy drain from his limbs, he slumped to the floor tiredly, Ronon and Teyla doing the same, he tamped down on the despair and anger coursing through his mind, a sense of numbness spread instead, shock at losing one of his few remaining friends.

He didn't know how long he sat there like that, a small hand shook him to awareness, Teyla's dirt and tear streaked face looking down on his own, "John, we need to leave, find out where we are and what to do next"

Sheppard silently nodded and stood up, aches and pains assaulting his legs and back as he did so, he whipped out his canteen and took a long drink, Ronon was already waiting at the doorway, he nodded to John, "Sorry about McKay, he was annoying but I liked him"

Sheppard nodded, "Yeah", he paused, his words nearly choking out, he shook his head and gathered his resolve, "Lets get a move on, I'm sick of concrete"

They travelled through the gray interior of wherever they were and arrived in a large room, what looked like industrial electrical equipment surrounded a welcome sight, a stargate.

"Lets try the beta site, I forgot to bring an IDC with me", John tried to inject some humour into his voice but it came out flat, he rounded the gate to come to a sight that drained the blood from his face, one of the electrical pylons had fallen over, it had smashed the large orange gem in the centre of the DHD, they were stuck.

"What now?", Ronon asked as they took in the sight of the DHD, John racked his brains to remember any details about this planet, he never really did study the old SGC logs as much as he should have, it didn't seem important when he was in a different galaxy, he was drawing a blank.

"Lets find the exit, cant be worse that being stuck inside here and we're low on food and water"

They wandered around the dark room until they stumbled across the alien version of a restroom, "Here's water", Ronon commented, John just sighed and the continued on until they found a corridor that sloped upwards, they followed it, ignoring the side passages until they came to a massive steel door, a hole had been blasted through near the bottom, big enough to walk through.

An incessant beeping began as they approached the door, one that John heard before in training, his rad alarm was going off.

"Wait", he stopped them and pulled the small device out of a pocket, trying to remember how to read it, the speed of the beeps equalled the intensity of the radiation he remembered.

"Radiation", he looked back to the door, "I've got a bed feeling about this"

They crept closer to the door, the machine beeping faster as they approached, he noticed that at the edges of the hole the steel had melted into a puddle, the solid pool was covered in a layer of rust and so was the hole in the door, it must have happened some time ago.

He glanced out the door, the machine now giving off a flat tone, devastation met his eyes, ash fell from the sky and the temperature dropped significantly outside, he could see the collapsed remains of a city off in the distance, the skeletal remains of skyscrapers jutting out like broken teeth, his eyes spotted shapes under the ash, a boot reached out to roll one over.

The ash covered corpse emerged to face him, dessicated flesh hung loosely to the bones, its clothing sporting a large burn mark in the centre, empty eye sockets stared into his soul and he shivered, this world was a tomb.

"Back inside, there's too much radiation here"

John popped an iodine tablet he had for all the good it would do and they made their way back down to the gate, they were trapped here, waiting to die.

….

John jerked awake, his every bone and muscle screaming in pain, a familiar sound had echoed through the structure, the sound of a gate disengaging, the first he had heard since they arrived here, weeks ago or months, he could no longer remember.

He feebly raised an arm to grip the table and raise himself up, he throat was too parched to even utter a sound, they had stopped drinking the water several days ago when they realised it had been contaminated, surviving only on what had been in the cistern of the toilet, it wasn't enough.

A groan passed his lips and he attempted to haul himself up but his hand slipped and knocked the metal cup off the table, the metallic racket echoing in the concrete room, his face contacting the ground as he collapsed under his weak limbs, unconsciousness returned.

Light stabbed into his eyes, their lids still closed, he felt cocooned and numb, his mind telling him things had gotten better, eyelids slowly opened into harsh artificial light, the pain he felt before hidden under the euphoria of strong painkillers, he could hear the sound of beeping machines and quietly talking voices, a glance down showed that tightly tucked in sheets were holding him prisoner.

A loud voice stabbed into his ear, "He's awake"

Battlestar Atlantia

Deep Space

Tense silence filled the CIC, apart from the beeping and other noises from the various consoles, Ferore stood rigid beside Major Tito as they waited for the return of the advance scout, a trio of raptors they had launched to check out the derelict.

BSG-14 had left Colonial space several days earlier, their two Cylon passengers and one Lord Baltar in tow, another character in the fleet was their own Gaius Baltar, he had remained aboard the Adamant class frigate Illyria to monitor the new weapons systems.

It was after those ships had arrived that Ferore learned the extent of the refit, apart from the lasers and reactors Baltar had automated many of the systems onboard, the point defence and other kinetic weapons were now controlled by computer systems but at least they weren't connected to the comms, he was told it was necessary due to the loss of much of the crew quarters to reactor space, the ships had barley two hundred crew each.

So far the two Baltars had not met each other, and if it was up to Ferore they never would, the relic of the past had been kept to his quartes, his interaction with the crew limited, the only reason he was even on the ship was if they encountered this Lucifer or his forces and Baltar's expertise was required, once they were back home he could go and rot in his new mansion.

A beep brought him back to the present, new contacts appearing on the screen, "Dradis contacts, it's the raptors"

"Put Lieutenant Drummond through", Ferore ordered as he watched the three craft make a bee line to the ship, he picked up the wireless handset and waited for the signal, "Atlantia actual to raptor flight, mission status?"

"Drummond here Admiral, the mission was successful, the ship was right where they said it was"

A feeling of relief came over him and a growing sense of excitement, "Good work Drummond", he put the handset down and turned to Tito, "Get the gun camera footage up here asap"

Tito nodded and wandered off to order the crew about, this could be the biggest technical coup the Colonies ever had, if Baltar wasn't lying anyway, they had even expended the effort to go around Cylon space rather than right through it, they didn't want Cavil or Lucifer to notice what they were up to.

Minutes passed before Tito returned carrying a folder of developed photographs, "Here it is", he handed them over to Ferore who dumped them out on the plotting table, the black and white image of a battlestar front and centre in each one.

"Pegasus", Ferore's finger pointed at the name plate, it's ancient Kobolian letters still readable after all this time, "She's been through the ringer"

Tito nodded as his eyes tracked over the damage done to the ship, "She's split in half alright, its only those landing bays holding her together, we'll need to deal with that before we jump her"

"Send a copy of these to the Lemnos, let the engineers know what they're in for", he turned to the crew in the room, "Prep for a jump in five minutes, we're going to that ship", a nod to the comms officer, "Inform the fleet we're leaving"

Turning back to Tito, "Get those Cylons up here, it's time", Tito nodded and moved off, Ferore waited as the activity and noise around him increased, "Jump engines charged, Admiral, coordinates locked and transmitted to the fleet, all ships report readiness"

Ferore nodded to the ensign as he watched the two Cylons appear undr guard past the glass door of the CIC, he nodded to the marines and they parted to let them through, the Leoben character stood back but Gina moved over to stand beside him, "You wanted us Admiral?"

"We're about to jump to the Pegasus, I'd like you to be on hand if we run into any issues", he nodded to Leoben, "The engineering teams were impressed with Mr Leoben's notes on the ships computer systems"

Leoben shrugged, "I'm only scratching the surface so far, I only had the one drive to work with but it did give me insight into the programming language they used"

"Even so, I'd like you to be available to assist our recovery effort"

Done with the Cylons for now he turned to Tito, "Start the countdown"

Soon after the ships disappeared, the Atlantia leading the way, she reappeared to an explosion of light, now floating serenely near the derelict ship, around her more bursts of light heralded the arrival of the fleet, the Lemnos coming in last.

"Lets see her", Ferore ordered, his eyes trained on the screen, the small overhead monitor changed from the Dradis to show a view of the ships powerful telescopes, the grey hulk of wrecked battlestar appeared on screen.

"Looks like an Artemis class", Tito commented from beside him, the blocky engine module at the back of the ship was facing them, they didn't look like standard engine nozzles to Ferore, nothing like the Artmis class battlestar from the war, but the general shape was similar.

"It's bigger, around two hundred meters longer", Ensign Flint commented from his post in the back, "Wider too"

Ferore was entranced by the ship, so old but so similar to what they built today, he remembered his last conversation with Greenhill, before the other admiral had returned to his duties, a disturbing idea he had put forward.

"There's rumours that the Terrans recovered a Goa'uld device that can return people from the dead", Greenhill had told him, he wanted Ferore to recover the bodies and keep them on ice so to speak, he was going to put out feelers to the Terrans, see if the device was available for their use.

His eyes glanced to the Dradis screen still on the other screen, the name of a ship there, a civilian frozen goods transport that Greenhill had sent just before they had left, there to store the bodies from the Pegasus.

"Sir, the Lemnos is requesting permission to deploy the advance teams to the Pegasus"

"Granted", Ferore's eyes returned to the telescope feed, watching as the shuttles and survey teams began their work on the Pegasus.

Tollana

Ambassador Batten paced the antechamber to the Tollan Curia, his frustration visible to everyone who caught sight of him, beside him sitting on the provided bench was Captain Chau, who had accompanied the Ambassador as he presented their case to the Tollan.

At first the Tollan were making all the right noises, they seemed willing to pursue relations with the Union, they had agreed to share cultural works and were open to allowing visitors to their world, things had gotten frustrating when the topic of trade had arose.

Batten started small, floating the idea of trading things like foodstuffs and raw materials, the Tollan seemed open to that idea but not anything more, they had flat out refused to even talk about technology, the information or even finished goods.

Batten had put a little pressure on Omoc to see if he could manage anything, that brought them to now, waiting while they debated the merits of trading technology with the Union.

A functionary approached the Ambassador, dressed in the same robe like clothes the Tollan seemed to prefer, "The Curia will see you now Ambassador"

Batten nodded and waved Chau over, the two men followed the Tollan into the Curia chamber where the leaders of the Tollan sat high over any supplicants, leading them was High Chancellor Travell, a stone faced older woman, Batten had his own word to describe her in his mind.

"Ambassador Batten, the Curia has debated the merits of allowing trade of advanced technology to the Terran Union", Travell began, looking down on them from on high, to Batten anyway.

"I see, what were your conclusions, High Chancellor"

"Unfortunately the Curia is unwilling to allow trade in such materials, doing so would violate our highest law, we are still wary after what happened to Serita and do not want a repeat on our conscious, we will not allow trade of technological items to any undeveloped society"

Batten kept his face neutral, even though inside he was galled at the sheer arrogance of these people, calling a space faring power undeveloped.

"That is unfortunate, what about my proposal to allow citizens from the Union access to Tollan library's and higher education facilities"

Travell shook her head, "I'm sorry ambassador, allowing information like that to Serita is what allowed them the ability to create the weapon that doomed their world and ours, we will not share knowledge of our advanced technology through education, our decision is final"

Up among the Curia Omoc stood, "Although we will not share our technology we are still willing to trade non technical goods with the Union, perhaps in the future when we know each other better we may revisit this discussion"

Travell gave him a tight lipped smile, "Well said, representative Omoc, trade of raw materials and cultural materials will be allowed in the future, once we have constructed the Tollana gate, but right now we are too far apart for regular exchanges"

It was something of a shock to Batten when he learned the Tollan could construct their own gates, they could have a completely separate system if they wanted, he suspected that Travell would slow roll the construction though, he got the sense she didn't like the idea of the Union.

"I thank the Curia for listening to our proposals and hope our relations continue to improve, on that matter I'd like to put forth another proposal"

Travell raised an eyebrow and waved for him to speak, "You may Ambassador"

"The Union controls several worlds but we lack stargates to connect to them, we would like to ask the if the Tollan would be willing to construct gates for our use, and to answer the question, we don't need to know how to do so ourselves, we would be happy to simply have the use of them"

A murmur broke out among the members of the Curia, voices were raised as debates grew louder before Travell finally called things to order, "We will need to debate this matter further, on its face it seems like an attempt to gain access to our technology", she said somewhat crossly to the Ambassador.

"But I can see the option of leaving the gates under our control and renting them out to the Union, this will not be a matter decided upon quickly but one that will take many months to decide upon"

Batten nodded, a dismissal in all but name but the possibility was there in the future, "Understandable High Chancellor, a matter for the future then, one I hope you consider carefully"

They were dismissed soon after, out in the waiting room Narim was waiting, "I watched what happened, it was as I expected, the Curia are loath to share technology right now, even if you have something useful like your jump drives"

Batten shrugged, "We knew it was a long shot, our talks make that quite clear, but we had to try, lets hope that trade will open up your government to better cooperation in the future"

"Let us hope so", Narim bowed his head, he turned to Chau, "I understand you are leaving tomorrow, returning to your world?"

"Yeah, we did what we came here to do, too bad about your lack of a gate or we could have phoned home"

Narim bowed his head again, "Yes, it will take several months to finish construction, the facilities on Tollana are not as developed as those on our old world and we are prioritising construction of more ion cannons"

Chau shrugged, "We knew what we were in for, I'd say the mission was successful anyway, we got you home after all"

Narim smiled, "And for that you have my gratitude, I will endeavour to contact the Union as soon as our gate is constructed, this will be our farewell, Captain, Ambassador, may fortune favour you both"

The two men from Earth watched Narim walk away and disappear around a corner, "He's a nice chap, a bit dry for my tastes but nice", Batten commented.

Chau shrugged, "The whole lot of them are dry, friendly yes but isolationist, I was amazed they even let the crew have shore leave here"

Batten sighed, "We'll not get an answer on those gates anytime soon, I've done all I can here, I'll see you back on the ship", with that the ambassador walked off too, Chau watched him go and turned to leave himself, he had a few errant crewmen to round up.

The next day he was stood in the CIC, a screen showing the faces of Omoc and Travell, "We hope you enjoyed your stay on our world Captain, we wish you a speedy journey home"

"Thank you High Chancellor, Omoc, we wish the Tollan good will too, hopefully one day we can be called great friends and allies"

"Perhaps one day, but not today, for now we shall see where this goes, good bye Captain", Travell said and disconnected, Omoc sighed through the screen, "She is still emotional over the loss of Tollan, Captain, it is not personal"

Chau shrugged, "I've gotten worse back home, anyway, it's been an interesting experience Omoc, maybe one day we'll talk again"

"To the future then, goodbye Captain"

The screen went blank and Chau dropped into his chair, politicking was draining but necessary, "Navigation, is the route plotted?"

"Yes, sir, we can jump on your order"

"Lets go home"

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

John blinked away the bright light shined into his eyes, a cold doctors hand gripped his wrist as they checked his vitals, "You're well on the way to recovery Major, a few more days and you should be on your feet"

"Thanks Doc", he croaked out, his throat still sore from dehydration, he looked down to the needles piercing his arm, still feeding him nutrients and pain killers.

He watched the woman walk away to check on the others, his mind still processing the ghost in front of him, although before his time Doctor Fraiser was well known even to him, he knew she had been killed sometime in the past and it was jarring to see her work away in the medbay.

He relaxed back into the pillows to think, they must have been rescued by the SGC, in this universe Fraiser must not have died, he wondered what other differences there were, did they destroy the super hive here, was Atlantis still safe back in Pegasus?, he find out soon enough.

He closed his eyes to rest but must have fallen asleep, a gentle hand was shaking him back to awareness, "Major, there's some people here to see you", Fraiser said as his eyes slowly opened.

Two men were standing at the foot of the bed, he knew both of them, one by reputation and the other in person, Generals Hammond and O'Neill, his eyes focused and he started to pick out the details, strange grey uniforms were the first thing he noticed, the colonel rank on O'Neill was another and Jack looked a lot younger than the last time they met too, did McKay send them back in time instead of another universe?

"Major, this is General Hammond, the leader of this facility and Colonel O'Neill", Fraiser told him before she excused herself.

John sighed and looked to the two men, "I imagine you have some questions?"

"Some he says", O'Neill shook his head and extended his hand, "Jack O'Neill, and your Major John Sheppard, United States Air Force, last we checked you were stuck flying things down in Antarctica"

John shook the offered hand as Hammond spoke, "We'd appreciate some answers son, you caused quite a stir when we found you on P3R-233, how did you get there?"

John looked to the two men, "It's a long story, but first I have to check, what year is it because it looks like the early days of the stargate program to me, like 1997 or 1998?"

The two men shared a confused looking glance, "That explains the guns I suppose", O'Neill said to Hammond, John raised an eyebrow from the bed, did they not have P90's yet?

Hammond sighed, "Son, its 2065"

"What?", John exclaimed, he looked around the room with fresh eyes, metal walls and medical devices that didn't look out of place to him, nothing that screamed the future, "Maybe our calenders are different, we were fleeing the Wraith through the mirror, McKay said it allowed travel to alternate universes"

"That thing that was smashed?", O'Neill asked.

"Yeah, the Wraith were right behind us, if we didn't destroy it they would have followed us through, how long has the stargate program been active?"

"Over a year now since I blew Ra to pieces, what year is it where you come from?", the name Wraith garnered no immediate reaction from the men John noticed.

"Two thousand and eight", John sighed, "The year we lost everything, first Atlantis then Earth, fleeing through the mirror was our only option"

"Woah, one thing at a time", Jack raised his hand up, "Lets focus on the time difference first, any major events happen back then, like nine eleven?"

John nodded his head, "Yeah, that happened, so it really is 2065?"

"Sure is, your universe must be sixty years behind ours or something, so they turned on the gate in the late nineties, must have been a struggle"

"Colonel, a word", Hammond announced from beside O'Neill, the two men moved out of hearing distance and exchange a few words before Hammond left the room.

O'Neill returned to the bed, "If you're from when you say you are you'll have a lot of catching up to do, I'll get you a data pad, but first", O'Neill paused and

looked directly into John's eyes, "Tell me everything that led to you coming here"

Battlestar Atlantia

Deep Space

Things had changed in the few days they had been here, the Pegasus was now in the steel embrace of the Lemnos, the massive ships was cradled while engineers and other workers scurried over the hull of the ship like a hive of ants.

Although mostly intact the structure of the ship had been compromised, spilt in half and only held together by the flight pods, if they had tried to jump the ship out it was liable to fly apart under the strain, right now teams were welding reinforcement beams directly onto the hull to reinforce it, they had told him it would take several days to finish the work.

While that was happening other teams were scouring the interior for artifacts , they had already amassed quite a collection of items from the ship, from the crews personal things to armouries worth of hand weapons, the flight pods themselves had contained several wrecked vipers, shuttles and their parts and even two armoured land vehicles of some type, they had all been transported off the ship and onto the many transport craft they had brought along.

It was a similar story with the crew, their remains had been carefully removed to the freezer ship, whether Greenhill's plan bore fruit would remain to be seen but Ferore doubted anything would come of it, even thinking about it caused him nightmares, imagining his spirit being trapped for thousands of years in a drifting hulk.

The work to salvage the ship was slow going, crews carefully removing the debris from wrecked corridors in zero gee, shoring up the spaces lest they collapse, respectfully removing any remains and artifacts, while the engineering teams came in behind to prepare the ship for jumping, not something Ferore would like to do, it sounded beyond dangerous.

Dangerous enough that he had denied every attempt by Doctor Baltar to get access to the ship, Baltar had been pestering since the first day here for access to any of the recovered technology or to get aboard the derelict ship, since he had no hazardous environment training it was an easy thing to deny, Baltar was only seeking glory anyway, Ferore doubted he would have more to offer than the professional physicists and engineers they had especially brought for this.

Sighing Ferore put down the latest request, balling it up and throwing it into the waste paper basket in the corner of the room, a glass full of an amber liquid drew his gaze, a sip of the Virgonian whiskey was enough to stave off the headache threatening to form.

He looked to the desk in his office, even out here in the deepest black of space the amount of paperwork astounded him, reports from every minor issue the fleet encountered made a stack up to his head in height, he really needed a secretary to deal with the chaff.

A loud knock on the door broke his thoughts, "Enter", he shouted through the metal walls, Major Tito entering afterwards, "Bit early for drinking Admiral?".

Ferore waved him to sit, "At my age you take your pleasures when you can, I'm only nursing it anyway, so, what brings you here Major?"

"The Cylon, Leoben, he's over on the ship helping the teams there recover the computer drives, apparently they found the main computer drives, he wants permission to remove it from the ship"

Ferore raised an eyebrow, "Permission?, why didn't they just take it like the rest?"

Tito shrugged, "Apparently it's big, like size of a room big, we'll need to clear a lot to get it out"

"The computer or the drives?"

"The computer I think, he said they'd need to dismantle the whole thing to get the drives out"

Ferore shook his head, "No, it can wait till the ship is back in the Colonies, tell him to stick to the smaller things for now, we're nearly done here anyway, the engineers on the Lemnos told me the ship would be ready by tomorrow"

Tito nodded, "Alright, I'll pass that along"

Ferore nodded and stood up, "Time to get back to the CIC anyway, lets go"

A short trip later had both men standing before the plotting table watching the activity around the fleet, the small screen showing the activity around the Pegasus, actinic light flashing as workers welded the girders over where the ship had split apart.

"We're making good progress", Tito commented as he watched.

Ferore grunted in answer, "I'll be happy when we're back in Colonial space"

Time passed slowly, inane chatter and reports flying back and forth, Ferore had moved over to the stained looking coffee machine they kept in a cupboard at the back of the CIC, near the toilet, when the alarms started to blare, throwing the mug down he rushed back to the plotting table and stared at the Dradis displays.

"Three contacts bearing 133 carom 245, distance ten thousand kilometres, ID'd as Cylon baseships"

"Set condition one through out the fleet, get us in front of the Lemnos and have the transports move to the far side"

Tito began to scream out orders as he felt the alert vipers launch, "Get all our vipers in the air, have red squadron cover the Lemnos", he turned to the ensign at comms, "Tell the Canorus to hang back and cover the Lemnos but tell them to send their upgraded vipers with ours, have the Valkyries form up around us, the Bezerks at the rear and have the defenders cover the transports"

Tito turned back to the Admiral, "What about the Adamants?"

"I want them in the middle of our formation, if the stats are right they have the range to engage at this distance, we're going to sit here and see what the Cylons do, we're still bound by the Armistice until one of us attacks"

"We'll split the ships into three's and have each group target a basestar, we'll leave the last in reserve"

The alarms had silenced by now, out in space the large ships were firing thrusters and main engines to move into formation, the four battlestars at the lead leaving a large ring in their formation for the ten frigates to fill, the large eight hundred and thirty meter long ships pointing their noses towards the distant baseships, their capacitors warming up, behind them the two Berzerk cruisers moved to cover their rears.

Vipers rocketed from the launch tubes lining the sides of the ships, in minutes hundreds were in space, moving to guard their mother ships and the laser armed frigates that lacked their own fighter craft, back near the Lemnos the Canorus launched its own squadrons, the Columbia class ships raced out to their own objectives and one special squadron rocketed towards the others on flumes of fusion thrust.

"They're launching raiders", Tito commented, the Dradis screen blooming with contacts around the three baseships, hundreds of raiders flying out and forming up ahead of them.

"Thermal bloom, ordinance launch detected, multiple inbound", the sensor officer called out, predicted tracks displaying on the screen as the missiles began accelerating, "Radiological Alarm", were the next words out of his mouth.

"Bastards aren't pulling any punches, that's a declaration of war regardless", Ferore muttered, "Have the flak gunners ready, tell the vipers to clear our firing lines"

In space the basestars began to accelerate towards the Colonial fleet, following behind their missiles, ahead of them the raiders began to accelerate, half of them escorting the missiles, the other half began to jump instead, the ships vanishing only to reappear right behind the Colonial formation.

Ferore grimaced, "Vector the Canorus' vipers to engage the ones behind us, send blue and green squadrons to help", he jabbed his finger at the plot, "The rest of the vipers will accelerate and engage those missiles and raiders", he turned to Tito, "Status of the Adamants?"

"Still charging their capacitors, thirty seconds"

Ferore looked at the incoming missiles, over fiver minutes away at their velocity, the bastards really should have jumped closer.

Cylon Baseship

Moments Earlier

Cavil's anger was like the burning of a star, the damned Colonials had dared to encroach on something that he owned, something he had found, he would not let the humans take his salvation from him.

The three ships he had scrounged up were not going to be enough, judging by the size of the enemy fleet, they would have been shredded by the battlestars if they had jumped closer, in his anger Cavil didn't care, only a burning need for vengeance filled his veins.

"Launch all raiders, I want those humans dead", the Four and Five beside him only nodded numbly, they had tied their fate to Cavil and were starting to regret that, he had been unstable ever since the ones had brought him back, prone to excessive moods swings and a short temper.

The three baseships began to disgorge their small craft, soon over twelve hundred swarmed towards the Colonials, Cavil grabbed the Four beside him, shaking him like a loon, "Start launching missiles you fools, why are you just standing there, every nuke we have I want firing at them"

The Four fearfully nodded, placing his hand on the bio interface, Cavil muttering to himself, "Those damn traitors told the humans the ship was here, it's the only explanation, I was right to destroy their traitor lines"

"If I cant have it no one can", he put his hand on the interface, "Half the raiders should be enough"

"Cavil", the Five asked timidly, "Shouldn't we leave, we lost enough ships already and we wont be able to do anything here"

Cavil stared at the Five, his eyes bulging in anger, he reached down to his side and withdrew the pistol he had taken to keeping on his person, a single round rang out in the chamber, the walls painted with the brains of the five.

"You're lucky I put a resurrection ship in range this time", a crazed look bored into the Four, "Remind me to have him boxed when he get back"

"The Colonials cannot not be allowed to gain the technology on that ship, even at the cost of ours, we'll ram it if we have to, Four, calculate a jump, right on top of that derelict", Cavil said, seemingly calmer now after venting his anger on the Five.

Ten thousand kilometres away the ten Adamant frigates had finished charging their weapons, nearly at once nine of them let loose, ruby beams reached across the vast distance, illuminated only when a stray bit of stellar dust intersected them, they crashed into the three ships, twelve beams for each.

Cavil was thrown off his feet when they impacted, the beams burning through the relatively thin armour, streams of molten metal floating away, the beams burned a path right out the other side of the ships in seconds, secondary detonations blowing bulges in the hull, they lasted for several seconds before the capacitors drained.

One of the baseships exploded as fires reached their missile stores, pelting the other two with debris, both drifted powerless in the aftermath, small explosions still dotting their hulls while fires burned and atmosphere rushed out of the massive rents in the hull.

Cavil blinked his eyes and pushed the heavy metal panel off his body, standing up in the dark, emergency lighting turned on to illuminate the destruction, the Four had impacted the wall at some velocity, his head bent at a fatal angle, centurions rushed in to begin repairs, Cavil wiped a stream of blood from his face and staggered over to the bio interface.

"Fracking bastards", his hand impacted the interface just in time to watch the other basestar succumb to internal explosions, it's fuel tanks sending it flying apart like a nuclear bomb, a status report on his own ship showed it didn't have much time left, fires were raging and main power was down.

The ship was doomed, he ordered the centurions to fight to the last and pulled out his gun, a single shot to send him back to the resurrection hub was the only option, he'd return with the full force of the Cylon nation, he'd show these humans the price for defying him, a single shot rang out and Cavil's body collapsed to the floor.

…..

Ferore watched as the lasers went to work on the baseships, "Impressive", Tito commented from beside him.

"Two confirmed kills and one disabled, at ten thousand kilometres too, probably the distance record", the tension had left his body after the weapons had shown their power, a morale boost to the whole CIC, still they had over a thousand raiders and missiles incoming.

"The missiles are still coming, eta three minutes, raiders are right behind", Tito nodded to the Dradis, "Looks like the Canorus' vipers are engaging the others"

"Order the last Adamant to open fire, I want that ship gone from my skies", Ferore's eyes glared at the disabled ship.

While the others were recharging the tenth ship opened fire, four beams instantly boring holes through the drifting basestar, one hit where the two half's joined together, hitting something vital there the ship flew apart, the two separate pieces crumpling as they lost structural integrity, joining the cloud of debris as they drifted away.

Ferore nodded as he watched the screen, "Load flak shells in the main gun, time to thin out those raider numbers", he looked over to the helm officer, "Point our nose right at those frackers"

…

Behind the Atlantia a large group of raiders began to move toward the Pegasus, all that stood in their way was the ageing battlestar Canorus and it squadrons, Lieutenant Croft among them, his squadron was at full burn heading to intercept as the Canorus lumbered into position between them and the wreck.

"One pass then we turn and hit them in the back, silver and gold will be coming in behind us and the vipers from the Atlantia are a few minutes out"

Croft listened as the plan was explained to him by the CAG, his own squadron, blue squadron, was at the front of the Canorus' fighter swarm, seconds from engaging the enemy.

A volley of missiles launched from the raiders ahead, conventional anti fighter types, guns spoke in return, space filling with tracer rounds as shells began to take their toll on the incoming fire, Croft went evasive as one began to vector in on him, a roll managed to place it right in his wingman's sights who quickly dealt with it.

Hitting the afterburner the whole squadron leapt forward, guns firing all the way through the cloud of enemy craft, fireballs and debris pelting the canopy as he raced past, racking up kills along the way, his craft flipped on the other side, he felt the g's as the compensators struggled to keep up with the turn.

He wished they had time to load their own missiles but it was an emergency launch, they'd have to make do with the guns, he hit full throttle as the squadron began to race after the raiders who had just kept going towards the Pegasus.

A glance around showed less vipers than when they began, they had lost a good few people in the pass through, ahead he could see silver and gold going in for an angled approach, hoping to catch the raiders in a pincer.

Blue squadron had already thinned the herd and now gold and silver were taking their toll, explosions lighting up space and the hull of his viper as they chased after the raiders ahead, but it looked to be a losing proposition, the raiders edging out in acceleration over the viper mark six's.

Ahead he could see gold and silver complete their pass, the raiders now only two hundred strong but still not slowing in their race to the derelict, a large lumbering shape had interposed itself in their path, the Canorus large bulk obscuring the Lemnos and Pegasus behind it, he could see the flashes as its hundreds of guns opened up, a veritable wall of metal flying out towards the raiders.

Shells flew into the Cylon formation and exploded into shrapnel, shards of metal tearing the raiders to pieces as they attempted to evade the fusillade, parting around the battlestar like a rock in a stream, scores died every second as tracers from auto cannons entered the fray, he could see the bullets stitching up individual raiders.

Seeing their mission was going to fail the raiders leapt forward, nuclear missiles rippled out of the few remaining to impact the thick armour of the battlestar, Croft closing his eyes as the flashes lit up space, his visor preventing him from going blind, the few raiders flew in behind their strikes to impact the hull of the ship, he could see the craters in the armour as he slowed his ship down.

Fires burned on the Canorus but the ship was intact, Croft let out a sigh of relief, his thoughts turning to the battle on the far side of the Atlantia.

…..

Captain Leda's viper raced towards the raider swarm, behind her the rest of her squadron followed suit, all of them were flying the test model Viper mark six E, a tech demonstrator armed with two laser cannons and fusion engines, it was able to accelerate faster than any previous Colonial small craft or Cylon raider and right now they were at full thrust catching up to the Atlantia's squadrons.

"Atlantia control to all vipers, clear firing lanes, ordinance inbound"

Leda glanced down to the Dradis display, her squadron was well outside the projected cone from the Atlantia, she saw the large objects fly in from that direction though, the large guns on the front of the mercury had spoken, multi ton shells flying towards the raiders ahead of her.

Massive explosions erupted in the middle of the raider swarm, shrapnel flying around and taking out the Cylons and their missiles, her own vipers were now caught up with the others and raced ahead, clear of allies she ordered her men to open fire.

Twin beams shot out at light speed, the raiders unable to respond to the fire, still at the range they were hitting anything was more luck than skill, the ships kept their fire up as they raced towards the enemy, beams started to find their mark as the range closed, the medium lasers carving through the raiders without resistance.

"Black squadron, priority target is those missiles, take them our first", Leda spoke into the squadron channel, she jinked out of the way of a Cylon missile and around a burst of tracer rounds finding one of the large anti capital weapons right in front of her.

A bevy of beams intersected its main thruster, the missile exploded with the force of a small bomb as she flew past with several raiders on her tail, hitting max thrust she out paced the craft and did a rapid flip, her weapons pointing directly at her pursuers, twin beams pierces the strobing eye of the raider, blowing it to pieces, the other firing explosive rounds towards her, a barrel roll threw her around the shells and the raider joined its brother moments later.

Leda dove back into the growing furball, the vipers from the Atlantia having caught up, explosions lit up space around her as vipers and raiders clashed, shells tore off the wing of her viper, a deft turn and roll had her behind the offending craft, lasers sent it to Hades with the rest, a quick glance told her the craft would survive for now.

….

"There goes the last one", Tito said as they both watched the fight, the new vipers had reaped a toll on the raiders before his own squadrons had joined in, there were losses but far better than he had expected, "Get the SAR birds out", Ferore said to the flight controller without turning his head.

"Forty one vipers lost from the Canorus and twenty seven of ours, the Canorus reports they have the internal fires under control now too, minimal damage otherwise", Tito racked up the losses, "I'd say this was the most one sided fight we ever had with the Cylons"

"Double our patrols until we leave, the Cylons might come back for more", he turned to Tito, "The Cylons have just broken the Armistice, we're back at war, see if the Lemnos can speed up their timetable, I want to be gone from here before they come back"

Stargate Command

17th July 2065

Jack was heading to Hammond's office after his latest conversation with Sheppard, still amazed at a whole alternate universe, one that had their stargate program in the 1990's, that had a base in another galaxy, it was mind blowing stuff.

Sheppard's two friends had also woken up, the man, Ronon, was someone who had little to say, in fact the only thing he asked about was the location of his gun, the woman was soft spoken and mostly concerned with the other two and her unborn child but otherwise knew little of use to the SGC, her knowledge of the various cultures of the Pegasus galaxy was mostly of interest to Daniel.

All three were recovering well enough according to Fraiser, but he sensed that Sheppard was fragile right now, he had lost everything he had, his friend, his world, the other two were more emotionally stable, Ronon had already gone through a similar situation and Teyla had her child to worry about.

He was treating Sheppard with kid gloves for now but he had been forthcoming on general informaion, Jack sensed that he was holding a lot back, Sheppard gave off an air of paranoia, like this whole situation was not real and enemies would pop out of the woodwork at a moments notice.

Still, what he did learn was valuable, more people had been shipped to the Antarctic after Sheppard told him about the ancient outpost supposedly located there, with it's drone defence system able to easily take care of Ha'tak's, a small team had been left after they found the gate there now hundreds more had arrived with heavy equipment.

Hammond's door loomed ahead, he knocked and entered, seeing a face he didn't want to see, "Maybourne, I thought I smelled something rotten onboard lately"

Harry Maybourne raised a smug looking eyebrow, "Really Jack, is that the best you've got"

A loud harrumph turned their heads towards Hammond, "If you want to behave like children I can open a daycare centre onboard", he nodded to the chair, "Sit down and knock it off"

"Why is he here", Jack bit out.

"Command wanted a trained interrogator handling the prisoners you have, they sent me"

"They're not prisoners you ass, General, you cant seriously expect him to interrogate those people"

Hammond sighed, "As the Colonel said, those people are guests, I expect them to be treated respectfully, especially in light of the information Major Sheppard has"

Hammond leaned back, "I spoke with General Blackthorne and the Council, they agreed to let the SGC handle things, Maybourne will be on hand to assist though"

Jack relaxed a bit at that, at least no one was disappearing into a black site never to return, "Good, I don't know what help he'll be though", he nodded to Maybourne.

"We'll see, but first, tell Maybourne what you learned from Sheppard, he needs to be caught up"

Jack sighed and leaned back, "I'll start with the basics, Sheppard and his team come from an alternate reality similar to our own but also vastly different, their gate program began in the 90's, and Sheppard himself comes from two thousand and eight, they were based out of Atlantis, in the Pegasus galaxy"

"Atlantis, the sunken city?, in another galaxy?", Maybourne asked septically.

Jack smirked, "Did you not read the reports?", he saw Maybourne shake his head, "Anyway, yes the one and the same, apparently it was built by the Ancients, according the Sheppard they were a previous evolution of Humanity, they had fled Earth millions of years ago to escape some kind of plague"

Maybourne hummed, "We learned similar information from the entity on Kobol, Atlantis is new but the timeline seems off, Catius said it was thousands of years ago not millions"

Jack shrugged, "Maybe he was lying, or our universes are that different, but it tells me one thing, Atlantis exists here too and Sheppard knows the address"

Hammond leaned forward, "The Council wants the address but Sheppard has been tight lipped so far, we suspect he is highly paranoid after the destruction of his version of Earth, we've been handling him with care so far"

"We're trying not to overload him with too much information as well", Jack glanced to Maybourne, "Did you know their stargate program was in Cheyenne mountain too, ours was before they moved it here, he doesn't know he's on a space station, it'll be a shock when I bring him up to the observation deck"

"Colonel, please stick to the topic", Hammond glared at Jack.

Jack shrugged, "Sheppard joined the program after some Gould called Anubis attacked Earth, so far he gave us a brief history of his gate program but he's light on the details, he doesn't know the gate addresses but it is useful stuff"

Jack raised his hand and started counting fingers, "Apophis attacks Earth in mid nineteen ninety eight in his reality, I worked out that's around now for us, but they were discovered by the Gould almost immediately, apparently Apophis gated to Earth and kidnapped someone after I exploded Ra over there, so they were on the Gould's radar from the start"

"They somehow managed to destroy the two ships by gating in, they met the Tok'ra later on and some other Gould named Sokar popped up, he grabbed Apophis who led a revolt to take over, who was then killed by replicators, some kind of robots I gathered"

Another finger was raised, "They also met other human civilisations, like the Tollan and the Aschen, in their reality they gave them an address that led to a black hole, lucky them", Jack shook his head, "There were other names but Sheppard doesn't know any addresses"

"What good is he then?", Maybourne commented.

Jack glared at the man, "Like I said Sheppard was focused on Pegasus, but even then we now know about the outpost in Antarctica and some other Gould's on the way, the Wraith and these Replicators"

Still glaring Jack continued, "Regarding the robots, apparently they come from another galaxy too, Ida he called it, it's the home of another race, Sheppard said they helped Earth out a lot too, the Asgard"

Maybourne crossed his arms, "We've already heard of them, your pet Tok'ra told us they were enemies of the Goa'uld, they're no good in another galaxy"

Jack gave another shrug, "Sheppard mentioned a protected planets treaty that his Earth was part of, a treaty between the Gould and Asgard, I suspect we don't qualify though, too advanced, something to ask them when we meet"

"The rest of his info is all related to Pegasus, apparently those ancients left tech all over the place and Sheppard knows where a lot of it is, like actual space ships and still living Ancients", Jack leaned back in the chair, "He also said they made their own replicators called Asurans, something to stay away from"

"Still alive?", Maybourne leaned forward, "You said he knows the address to this galaxy?"

Jack nodded, "Supposedly it takes a ton of power but you can dial right in, he told me that Atlantis is at the bottom of an ocean though, something we'd need to deal with"

"Alright Colonel, I'm convinced", Maybourne sighed, "We'll do it your way"

Jack smirked, "I knew you'd see sense, once it's beaten into that thick skull of yours", he nodded to the exasperated Hammond, "With your permission sir, I think it's time to be more forthcoming with our guests"

Hammond waved his hand, "Proceed, getting these people on side is a priority right now"

Jack stood and nodded to Hammond, he walked out of the office with a spring in his step, Sheppard mentioned he was a pilot, apart from his helicopter days that was, flying something called an F-302, Jack thought a tour of the hanger would be a start, after the observation deck anyway, they had a squadron of Angel fighters stationed onboard he could show off.

Stargate Command

Pluto Station

John read over the pages of his book, a biographic of Johnny Cash that O'Neill had gotten him, he was still waiting for the promised data pad, as far as he could tell the musician's life was identical to John's own reality.

An opening door drew his attention, his eyes glancing over the top of the book, he watched O'Neill come into the room and have a quick talk with Doctor Fraiser, too far away for John to hear, before the Colonel walked over to John.

"How are you feeling?, the Colonel asked as he approached and sat on the end of the bed.

John placed the book down on his bedside table, "Better, it still hurts to move too much, the doc said it should be gone soon and I'll be back on my feet in a few days"

O'Neill nodded, "How was the book, I had to spend a favour to get it shipped over from Earth"

John shrugged, "Same as the last time I read it, identical in fact", his tone came out accusatory, he also noted the Earth comment, "Almost like its the same universe", he glared at the walls, "This better not be another one of those it's all a dream mental things, you back there Todd, or is it Michael this time"

O'Neill face palmed and looked to the sky in a why me way, he turned to John, "You up for a trip, I think it's time to show you the whole operation"

"Alright", John said as he collapsed back into the pillow, "I wont be up for much walking though"

John received a nod as O'Neill called over some buff male nurses, a wheelchair was produced and a struggle to get him into it lasted a few seconds, John feeling every sore bone and muscle as it happened, a wheeled pole with the IV bags was rolled into his hand, they were ready.

"Lets go", O'Neill wheeled him out of the medbay, the bright colours changed to bland grey metal corridors, full of people wearing the same grey uniform as the Colonel walking to and fro, O'Neill wheeled him over to an elevator and they entered, "Prepare yourself Major, it's quite a sight"

They travelled in the elevator straight up, a ding sounding out their arrival, Sheppard was wheeled out into a large green space, flat grass stretching out with tastefully placed flower beds and shrubberies, all contained within a large glass dome, the stars brightly shining in from outside.

John craned his head around, spotting an open seating area and bar before a large circular object caught his attention, a browny white sphere hung in the sky outside the dome, a planet.

"We're in space!", John exclaimed.

"Yep, that's Pluto there, you're onboard Pluto station, Sol system, it's where we operate our stargate program"

O'Neill wheeled him over to the edge of the dome, outside shapes became visible, metal arms connected to the structure they were on top of, a large ring shaped station, at the end of the arms were other modules, he spotted a flight of fighters patrolling around and three stationary large vessels, all armed to the teeth, silently watching the station, he spotted shuttles leaving and entering a hangar and a large craft docking at the end of another arm.

"Those are Shield class frigates, the fighters are Angel class", O'Neill spoke, seeing where John's eyes went.

"A space station", John shook his head, "Why the run around, why not just tell us?"

O'Neill sighed, "I saw how paranoid you were, now imagine how we felt, three unknown people just happen to be on a planet we visit, lots of stuff pointing to them coming from Earth, or Earths past", O'Neill moved over to the bench nearby and sat, "Frankly, we were seeing if you weren't some plot against us too, let our guard down them blam, the whole place explodes"

"I get it", John finally allowed, "We were stuck on Atlantis for the first year, no way to contact home, I extended a lot of trust that backfired, nowadays I have less to give"

O'Neill nodded, "Here", he reached into his pocket and withdrew a black rectangle, "The data pad I promised, there's a full encyclopedia on it", O'Neill handed the device over to him.

John held the surprisingly light computer in his hands, "Thanks, it's a start", his eyes turned back to outside the station, tracing the movements of the various ships outside, "We only had a few ships, the Daedalus class, my O'Neill managed to escape Earth with the ones still intact, I hope they can manage something"

"If he's half as good as me he'll manage something", O'Neill looked down to Sheppard, "Those ships of yours, good, where they?"

John nodded, "Yeah, especially after the Asgard worked their magic, we just had too few of them", his eyes turned to the three frigates, "I see things changed in the future"

O'Neill shrugged, "Sixty years is a long time but we did get some help about forty years ago, still I imagine your Daedalus would trounce those ships out there, they still use nuclear reactors and cannons"

John gazed at the guns on the ships in the distance, "Still more that we had at the start", he spied another fighter patrol coming in for a landing, "We didn't have anything like those either, they look way better than the F-302"

"Wanna see them up close?"

John perked up, "Sure"

Lunar Shipyards

Two men stopped to look through the thick viewport, outside the station cradled in one of the docks was the latest addition to the Terran fleet, the soon to be completed Vanguard, first of the Venus class heavy cruisers.

Director Harold Simmons stood behind the two admirals as they gazed at the new ship, both wore grim expressions, the Aschen had everyone on edge lately and mandates from on high to increase the pace of production had worn even Simmons to the bone.

"Will she be ready in time?", Admiral Sven Rooks had turned around from the window to ask.

Harold sighed tiredly, "We've been working flat out for the last several weeks, everything is done but some interior work and the space trials but we're still waiting on delivery for the new shield generator and subspace systems"

Harold motioned to the ship outside, "I've already sent the work crews off to the other ships", he wiped the crust from an eye, "We should be finished within the month, as long as our suppliers get those new systems here"

"I'll make some calls", Rooks turned back to the ship, "I want the best ships fighting the Aschen and she's our most powerful to date, barring the Pride", he turned back to Simmons, "What about the other ships, what's the timetable?"

"I had to pull workers off them to finish the Intrepid by your deadline, all are two months delayed, you can expect the next to launch in four months, after that the rest before new year"

Rooks nodded, "The first five by years end, they only finished the other yards so they barely started working on the ships", Rooks turned to the other man beside him, Admiral Borman, currently the most famous Admiral in the fleet.

"Now we just need a good commander, you sticking to your carrier James?"

Borman nodded, "My heart is with the Enterprise", his eyes scanned over the colossal ship, "We need a good crew too, most of the fleet is still green"

"I know, the academies are pumping out officers as fast as they can, same with the enlisted, we're training as fast as we can but everyone is untested, I've spread as many experienced former Star League officers around as I could"

Rooks sighed, "I'll need to consult with Admiral Coleman, he might have a good candidate to command", Rooks turned back to Simmons, "Can we see the interior?"

Simmons nodded and led the two Admirals towards the airlock, out side as they passed along the ship they could seethe massive turrets housing massive heavy naval particle cannons and smaller ones with large naval lasers, also dotted around the hull were numerous smaller guns, the point defence systems.

Rooks nodded in approval as they passed, it was about time that the Union started to produce heavy combat ships, they'd be needed against the Aschen and the Goa'uld, the combination of Star League and Colonial technology in the Terran Vessels made a potent combination, made even better with shields and subspace sensors.

As they walked Simmons began to explain the ship to the Admirals, "Those turrets each contain two heavy naval particle cannons and she has thirty six turrets", he pointed to one of the smaller turrets, "Twin laser turrets twenty four of those for long range fighting"

The arrived at the airlock and walked through the tube connecting the station to the ship, "We only pressurised her three weeks ago so the interior is far from complete but we can walk around", past the outer airlock of the ship the thickness of the armour became apparent, spanning meters before they got to the internal corridor.

"Impressive", Rooks noted, "Far thicker than a Hegemony vessel of similar size, our jump drives really were a bottleneck on ship design"

"Quite so, Admiral, I studied the documents about those vessels", Simmons shook his head, "The Intrepid has far more armour but also much greater acceleration thanks to inertial compensators, those fusion engines are powerful beasts, your old ships could accelerate far beyond what you typically did but crew health prevented using their full capabilities"

"Something I am glad for, the Pride refit included full gravity and compensators, along with the improved armour and fighter bays", Rooks smiled ruefully, "They even reworked the internal floor plan from vertical to horizontal, cant say I was a fan of that decision"

Borman raised an eyebrow, "Why bother?"

Rooks shrugged, "I was told it worked better for carrier operations, the Pride is basically half carrier now"

Simmons recalled looking over those plans, the extra space from removing the old KF drive had left the centre of the ship empty, the amount of work to reinforce the internal structure led tot the decision to gut the entire lot, the workers at Arcadia had rebuilt the whole interior with new hangar space for hundreds of fighters and large landing bays, as well as extra internal armour, turning the ship into a Terran battlestar in all but name.

Once inside the ship they dodged around workers welding panels and installing equipment, they eventually made it to the centre of the ship, the CIC, the command centre was already busy with workers installing the various control systems of the ship, Simmons directed the Admirals to the back away from the busy part.

"Similar layout to a Sword class, slightly bigger though", Borman commented as they watched the activity, "How strong will the shields be?"

"Somewhere around twenty shots from a Ha'tak's main guns is the current estimate, we wont really know until it's tested", Harold nodded to a station off to the side, "Subspace sensor station, it'll give you real time tracking of objects within two light years, you can filter out unwanted things too, like unpowered or things not moving"

"That'll be handy", Rooks said as he walked over, "We can use them to target closer objects too?"

Harold nodded, "Yep, no more light lag for things beyond a light second, the system can handle tens of thousands of contacts in combat too, ships, missiles and fighters"

"What about ECM?", Borman asked.

Simmons shook his head, "So far nothing, I've been told its currently being researched", He nodded to another console, "The ship still comes with the best standard sensors and EWAR systems we have, plus new stuff derived from Star League tech"

Borman hummed, "And comms, what's the ship have?"

Harold smiled, "Subspace tech, the engineers combined everything we learned from the Tok'ra and Rhososians to come up with the new system, good for a hundred light years for real time communications, past that you start getting transmission delays, past five hundred signal degradation"

The two Admirals looked pleased, "Makes the HPG look like two cans and some string, does it work with the K types?", Rooks asked.

Harold nodded, "Subspace comms work on similar principles as the black boxes, they should be able to receive signals on the old bands and transmit too, albeit with the same limitations as a K type"

Rooks moved over and sat down in the already installed commanders chair, "Comfy", he gazed around the room, "Very impressive, we need more though, lots more"

Borman nodded to Rooks, "We're expanding production as fast as we can, we need time"

Rooks leaned back in the chair, "I know, we need to deal with the Aschen fast, our biggest threat is still the Goa'uld and I'm not forgetting the billions they enslaved"

A grim silence descended over the two Admirals, both wore hard faces as they contemplated the future before Rooks stood up, "The Generals are waiting for us", he said as he looked at his wristwatch, he turned to Simmons, "Where's the ship we got from the Colonials?"

…..

Aaron DeChavilier stood beside General Conrad Armstrong in the slightly dingy hanger of the ship, they had arrived several minutes ago for the tour but were still waiting on the two Admirals to arrive with their guide.

"I heard you married Colonel Hazen?", Armstrong said after a few minutes of silence.

Aaron nodded, "She pregnant with my child, it's the right thing to do, even at my age", he turned to look at Armstrong, the muscular man nodded back to him as Aaron spoke, "It's a girl I'm told"

Armstrong clapped a hand on his shoulder, nearly bowling him over, Armstrong was a bit of a muscle head, "Congratulations", he fished his hand into a pocket and pulled out a small silver case, "Cigar?", he offered.

Aaron shook his head, "Sorry, I don't smoke", Armstrong nodded his buzz cut head and lit up, blowing a puff of smoke into the air.

"Normally I wouldn't on a ship but this thing is filthy, you'd think the Colonials would have given it a clean before sending it our way"

Aaron could only agree, he learned the ship had been mothballed for thirty years since the end of the Cylon war, the Colonials had gotten it running again and flew it here but the ship was covered in old grease and grime and had a mouldy smell through out the interior.

A loud rumble drew their attention, the hangar elevator was beginning to descend, the small crew in the hanger stopping their work to gaze as it descended, soon the ceiling door opened and down came a small shuttle, soon three men were walking over to the two Generals.

"Admirals, Director, glad you could join us", Armstrong spoke while he threw the cigar onto the deck, a boot stomping out the embers.

A short round of greetings and they began their tour, Simmons leading the way, "The Colonials gave her a service before they shipped it over, all the systems are working one hundred percent, right now I just have a few small teams cleaning up"

Armstrong nodded, "So, Artemis class is it, what's she named?"

"She called the Diana, they converted her into a marine support and transport ship mid way through their war and sent her to mothballs soon after it was over", Simmons led them through a large corridor connecting from the hangar.

"The wide corridors are for vehicle transport, the main hull is mostly bunk space for soldiers and room for vehicle transport", he nodded back to the hanger, "The hangar elevators are also bigger than on their other battlestars to fit heavy transports"

Admiral Borman nodded, "I noticed that, much bigger than the ones I saw, did the Colonials run vipers off the ship?"

"The officer who delivered the ship told me they used specialised ground attack variants of the viper, a mark three he called it, they did station a few fighters, mark two's I believe, onboard for defence", Simmons led them deeper into the ship, they passed large rooms filled with bed frames, the mattresses and linens long gone.

Armstrong poked his head into one as they passed, "Did he say how many men they fit onboard?"

"Twenty thousand plus two hundred vehicles", Simmons nodded to the ceiling, "They had to make compromised though, this ship lacks the main weapons common to the standard Artemis but it still has most of the defence cannons, there's no crew amenities and living spaces are small"

He pointed to a vent, "The life support systems are larger than standard and the amount of crew to operate the ship is reduced, mostly in the hangar bays, she carries a lot less fighters than a normal battlestar"

They finally arrived at the CIC, "Its smaller than the one on the Athena", Borman commented as they entered, he head looking around the room.

Simmons led them over to the plotting table, "Ships like this weren't expected to fight, they lack the command facilities common to other battlestars, I'm told, but it does come with some ground support weaponry, mostly in the form of missiles"

Armstrong nodded, "Do we have any?"

Simmons shook his head, "None I'm afraid, the Colonials stopped making them after the war and all their stocks are now expired, we're seeing if we can adapt the launchers to our own weapons but I wouldn't hold out much hope there, not without a full refit"

"We wont have time for that", Admiral Rooks mused, "What about shields though?"

"Not without a refit, the tylium energisers don't put out enough power to bother with them", Simmons seemed aggrieved, "Did you know they burn it like oil, these ships have boilers". He shook his head, "Highly efficient boilers thanks to their heat recycler tech but still boilers"

"So do we Director", Borman said, "Until two years ago our ships ran on nuclear reactors, which also use steam turbines"

Simmons waved his hand around, "Never mind", he reached under the plotting table and produced a bound manual, "The ship came with twelve of these large transports", he handed the manual over to Armstrong.

Armstrong glanced at the picture of the large transport but was unable to read anything, "It's in Colonial"

Simmons sighed, "Heracles landing craft, each can take one thousand men and ten vehicles of a similar size to our main battle tanks", Simmons pointed off to the side, "Ten of them are in the port hangars, the other two are down on Earth being studied"

Simmons finger jabbed at the book, "Roughly fifty meters long, thirty wide and twelve tall, it's a lot bigger than our Skymarshalls and has more useable internal space even if it was the same size, the Skymarshall was designed just when we cracked gravity lift engines, the Colonial version is much more compact"

"We only have a few new Leopard-C's and all of them are setup for civilian cargo transport and not enough Skymarshalls, these landing ships will be invaluable for invasions", Armstrong mused, "We'll need pilots though"

Simmons comm went off, he answered to a torrent of voices, the Generals and Admirals moved away as the deal with it.

"We can use her, we don't have those ground attack vipers but I can transfer some of our heavy ASF's onboard, they should do the job", Rooks said as they walked over to the corner.

"Aaron, what do you think?", Armstrong asked.

DeChavilier looked around at the ship, "We wont be able to fit mechs inside but it can transport all our other gear and men, we'll still need more transport capacity though"

"The Abyssal is coming too", Rooks said, referring to the Potemkin class ship, "She'll be handling your mechs, I also got a bunch of upgraded transport ships and jump ships, all with our most modern jump drives so we'll have no shortage of capacity"

Aaron nodded, "I don't like operating in the dark like this, we have no idea of the Aschen's ground capabilities or if we can even hold orbit against their space forces"

Armstrong shrugged, "From our prisoners we know they supplement their security forces with some kind of combat robots, how good they are is the question but we wont find out just sitting here"

Rooks looked to Aaron, "These people are as bad as Amaris or even worse, their first action when we tried to deal with them in good faith was to launch a bioweapon, they need to be stopped"

"I know", Aaron looked at his hands, "I'm just tired, Elizabeth is pushing to be included with the invasion force, something I don't want to happen", he sighed, "The first batch of Earth mech warriors have finished training and are going, she wants to be there with them"

"I wont let anything happen to her", Armstrong said his hand resting on Aaron's shoulder, "Should you fail to convincer her that is, when is the baby due?"

"Three weeks, enough time for her to recover and go with the fleet", Aaron shook his head, "Enough of my personal life", he glanced at his watch, "I need to talk to General Chernikov of the 316th in a few hours, then a demonstration of the new mechs for the Union army", he glanced to Armstrong, "I also heard rumours of a mech being developed for the Marine Corps?"

Armstrong smiled, "You didn't think we'd let the army be the only ones with mechs", he scratched his chin, "I can say much but it's something special", Armstrong paused in thought, "I might be able to show you the test model today, it's at the same testing grounds you're going to"

"I'd like to see it", Aaron turned to the two Admirals, "I assume the fleet can spare some people to crew the ship?"

Rooks nodded, "I'll arrange something, she'll be ready", he looked around at the ship, "A good supplement to the Abyssal"

"Alright then gentlemen, I have a meeting to get to", Aaron gave a shallow bow while the three other men watched him leave.

"I need to get back to it as well, I have some troops to organise", Armstrong gave the two Admirals a firm handshake and exited after DeChavilier, they watched him go as Simmons walked over.

"Lets get back to the tour then", Rooks mouthed to Borman, the two Admirals sharing a bored look.

Stargate Command

"Here she is, the Angel fighter", Jack waved to the parked craft in the corner of the hangar, "Twin twenty mil cannons and as many missiles as you'd want"

Sheppard was staring intently at the craft, he wheeled his chair around to take it in from every angle, "I'll say this much, it looks a whole lot better than an F-302, more fighter less like a bat"

Sheppard turned his head and stared at Jack, "When can I fly it?"

Jack laughed, "Lets try for walking first, then we'll see", he see if they could get some time in a trainer, they'd need to go to Earth for that.

The next few minutes passed with Sheppard bombarding him with questions about the performance of the Angel, until his comm beeped angrily at him, "O'Neill here"

"Sir, you wanted to be reminded when Abydos dialled in"

"Right, thanks, I'll be right up", Jack disconnected, after the discovery of Sheppard's team the rest of SG-1 had taken some leave while he dealt with Sheppard, Teal'c had gone to be with his family on Abydos and check up on Rya'c's health.

Carter had disappeared into her lab a few days ago with Jolinar, working on who knew what, Jack had stuck his head in a few times to get them out but they were having non of it, Daniel on the other hand had taken Sha're on a trip to Earth, he did notice a growing bump earlier, he might need to throw a party soon.

Jack turned to Sheppard who was still examining the fighter, "Fancy a trip to the gate?"

"Sure, beats being stuck in the medbay"

"Lets go", Jack grabbed the handles on the wheelchair and pushed it towards the door, a few minutes later he arrived at the embarkation room to see Teal'c descending the ramp.

"T, how was the trip"

"O'Neill", Teal'c rumbled, "It was quite pleasant, Drey'aue has allowed us to share a bed once more, she has forgiven me for taking her from Chulak"

"Ok, not what I wanted to know, so, hows Rya'c?"

"He is in good health, the Tretonin has allowed him to forgo having a prim'ta, it was fortunate indeed we found the Pangarans when we did but now he is the first jaffa to live without the leash of the Goa'uld"

"Ever consider taking it yourself?"

"Indeed, I have, but the Tok'ra have indicated that the drug is not as powerful as having a symbiote, I must contemplate the matter more but I did talk to a Doctor Zavech, he told me he is working on a cure for the jaffa immune system, he indicated that he had made great progress"

"Good to know", Jack nodded down to Sheppard in the wheelchair, "T, this is Major Sheppard. Sheppard, this is Teal'c"

"Hey", Sheppard gave a small wave, "I'm a big fan of your work"

"Indeed, I am quite curious about the efforts of my counterpart in your reality, perhaps you would regale me with his deeds"

"Sure, I'll find the time, not like I'm up to much else right now"

"Very well, I shall visit you afterwards", Teal'c nodded to the two men, "O'Neill, Sheppard", and walked off.

"He grows on you", Jack said as they watched Teal'c disappear around the corner.

Sheppard gave a small laugh, "You should try talking to Ronon, I think they'd get along", he motioned to where Teal'c had walked off.

"Alright, time to get back to the medbay before Fraiser puts me in there too"

Minutes later Sheppard was back in his bed, data pad in hand, "I'll read up on history tonight, is there really a one world government and the stargate is public knowledge?"

"Yep, there was no way to hide sending the fleet to Abydos that time, the Council thought it was better to just let it out but sanitized"

Sheppard shook his head ruefully, "I wish they knew back home, it would have made life easier", his expression fell, "We might have had a chance against the Wraith if everyone knew"

Jack nodded, "If you feel like talking about it I'm available", he shrugged, "There's also the quack psychologists if that floats your boat"

"No, I'm fine", Sheppard sighed, "I just need time to process"

"Alright, I'll be by tomorrow to chat", Jack scowled, "Maybourne too, if you feel like sharing more"

Sheppard nodded, "Tomorrow"

Jack gave him a small wave and left, hopefully Sheppard and his team would be more talkative then.

Aberdeen Proving Grounds

Earth

Elizabeth tiredly sat down next to Aaron, they had just had another argument before arriving but she had relented to his points in the end, she would not be going to war and leaving a child behind, really she never intended to go, she was just venting her frustrations on not being able to pilot a mech for months, soon though.

"I'm sorry", Aaron finally spoke once they were seated in the restaurant, around them were various dignitaries and military personnel, even Kerensky himself had arrived and was seated with another Council member in a private space at the back.

"It's fine, I'll be happy once the baby is out", she felt a kick in her stomach, which she patted, "Don t worry, you'll be the best mech warrior", she spoke to her baby, "I'll make sure of it"

Aaron nodded, "How are your students?, I heard they're piloting these new mechs?"

She shrugged, "Competent enough, we'll see what happens when it's real combat", she had put them through every star league training exercise and they had passed, not up to royal standards but good enough.

They had just finished a close up examination of the finished mechs, the Raptor, a sixty ton machine with reversed jointed legs, she had seen the inspiration for the design in those books, the Mad Dog, the Terran mech came with two large lasers, two medium and a pair of LRM launchers in the shoulders, a small laser was included for anti infantry work too.

Other than that the machines followed what she assumed was a Union design policy, putting as much armour on the mech as possible, the Union put more emphasis on survivability than speed, the mech only topped out at sixty four kilometres per hour and completely lacked jump jets.

She hoped they'd change that, jump jets added a whole level of versatility to mechs that the Terran models so far had lacked, not that her own mech had them but she understood their utility on a strategic level.

There had been a graduation ceremony where her students had received their new mechs, the forming of the first Union battle mech regiment and their new orders, they would be taking part in the operations against the Aschen, as part of the 316th Royal division, lots of soldiers had left since they arrived and one of the brigades had been assigned to Arcadia, the new 1st would fill out the ranks for the operation.

Her students had paraded their machines around afterwards, putting on a show for the various gawkers who showed up, after they had met up with Kerensky, they were both discussing some political things before she had dragged him off to have an argument, she had wanted to go with her students, the call of war was still strong.

She patted her belly, a soft smile gracing her face, once the child was old enough she could return to the saddle, who knew how long this new war would last and there was still the Goa'uld lurking in the shadows.

"I was thinking of names, what about Angela?", Elizabeth asked him.

She saw his face light up and fall all at once, a tear forming, "It sounds delightful, my first daughter was named that"

Hazen drew him into a hug, "I know", she patted him on the back, "We got the bastard Aaron, I just wish I was the one to pull the trigger"

Aaron composed himself as a large shadow loomed over the pair, she looked up into the eyes of a buff man wearing a Union marines uniform, his piercing steel eyes looking over them, a cigar was burning away in his mouth.

"General, Colonel, I'm not interrupting am I?", the man asked, he looked to be in his mid fifties to her, greying hair and all.

"Ah, no", Aaron waved to her, "This is my wife, Elizabeth", he nodded to the man who was sitting down, "This is General Conrad Armstrong, of the Union Marine Corps, he's in overall command of the ground operations against the Aschen"

"Ma'am", Armstrong nodded towards the window, "I saw your troops out there, impressive stuff, those machines too"

Hazen sighed, "Thank you General, is there something you needed?"

Armstron nodded, "Aaron was interested in seeing the new marine mech, one of the prototypes is in a hangar here"

"Really, mind if I get a look too?"

"No problem ma'am, there's no issue with you tagging along, you have clearance"

"Good", Elizabeth stood, "I wasn't hungry anyway"

DeChavilier stood up beside her and helped her to stand with her massive belly, Armstrong led them outside to a small white cart with a canvas covering on top, a golf cart he called it, he drove them a few hundred meters to a closed hangar, two marines were guarding the small side door, a flash of Armstrong's badge let them enter.

A large gantry was located inside, she could see the form of a mech being held within, an ugly one at that, the machine having strange flat protrusions, she stared at the mech wondering where she had seen a similar thing before.

"The Corps isn't looking to get involved with the heavy stuff like the army, our requirements were for a light and mobile machine that could reposition fast around the battlespace, optionally something that could be deployed from orbit and be fighting once it touched the ground"

Armstrong waved his had towards the gantry, "One of the prototypes for the Harpy land air mech, it's based heavily on the Wasp and Stinger designs from the star league database"

"I see", Aaron said from behind her, she continued to trace her eyes around the mech as they walked closer.

"We're running her through the ground trials here, another prototype is off on some airfield being tested in the air", Armstrong turned to DeChavilier, "It can fly down from space, fight in the air if necessary, land and fight immediately and it's ability to fly lets it reposition easily, everything we wanted"

"What about guns?", Hazen finally spoke up.

Armstrong pointed to the now visible barrels as they moved closer, "Two medium pulse lasers and one small, the whole thing weighs in at thirty tons I'm told, they had to skimp on the armour to make it work"

Hazen looked up from the base of the machine, "It's a bit short", she guessed around seven and a half meters tall, the mech was also a bit wider than other lights she'd seen.

Armstrong shrugged, "They tried to make it fit through a stargate, couldn't make it small enough in the end"

"When will the Corps be getting them?", DeChavilier asked.

"Not for some time, we're still in the testing phases, we only built the three prototypes so far", Armstrong shrugged, "Who knows, the program might be cancelled anyway"

"Why?"

"The Union isn't interested in mechs that much, no one wants to foot the bill to develop more than we have, especially when we have thousands upon thousands of armoured vehicles already and the Goa'uld as far as we know have none"

Hazen ignored the two men talking about money behind her and looked up to the mech while cradling her stomach, she was itching to try that mech out, even though she preferred an assault the idea of something that could fly and be agile on the ground appealed to her.

"I'll talk to General Kerensky, I'm sure he can push for more funding", she heard Aaron say.

"I appreciate that", Armstrong replied, "Want to try the pilots chair?"

Hazen glared at the two men, she was currently too big to climb into a mech, especially the tiny cockpits the Terrans insisted on, she couldn't wait to climb back into her mech.

Battlestar Atlantia

Deep Space

Ferore stood as usual at the plotting table, listening to the bustling of the crew around the room, an ensign approached with a clipboard in hand, "Sir, the Lemnos reports they'll be ready to jump in one hour"

Ferore nodded, "Good, tell the nav officer to start plotting the jumps back to Colonial space, I want the fleets drives spooled up now, the sooner we're gone the better I'll feel"

The ensign saluted and ran off, Ferore glanced to his side to see Tito going over the after action reports from the combat yesterday, engrossed in whatever he was reading.

"Good read?", he asked as he moved to look over Tito's shoulder.

"I was going over the effectiveness of the new weapons systems", Tito straightened his back and pointed to the text on the page, "The weapons we built are less powerful than the ones the Terrans demonstrated but they were able to pierce through the Cylon armour with ease"

Tito frowned, "I asked our Cylon guests about it, they told me that the new basestars have less armour volume compared to the old ones, instead they use some kind of organic resin to make up the bulk of their hull, it allows the ship to self heal in a way but I don't think the trade off was worth it, their armour is crap, especially against lasers"

Ferore nodded along, "A poor decision on their part"

"Maybe, Gina also mentioned they could build basestars faster that way, so it does have other advantages, my concern though it becoming to complacent withn these weapons, I expect older basestars will hold up much better against them and who know about Lucifers ships and our version is less powerful than the Terrans own"

"We'll see, right now I'm happy with them, even if they are less powerful, we'll be receiving weapons direct from the Terrans now so that issue wont be for long", Ferore's eyes looked up to the overhead monitor where a live image of the Pegasus recovery was being displayed, "And whatever technology that ship has will soon be ours too"

A sudden alarmed shout had the two men turning to the Dradis display, an ensign was reading off a contact, "Contact 211 carom 156, distance one hundred thousand, identified as a Cylon raider"

"Bring the fleet to condition one", Ferore shouted out, "I want all civilian ships to jump out immediately, everyone else cover the Lemons, keep all vipers on close defence"

Tito raised an eyebrow, "What are they up to?"

Ferore gave an angry grunt, "Not repeating their mistakes, that raider is marking our location, I expect the Cylons to jump right on top of us"

"Sir, civilian transports have jumped"

Ferore nodded, "Tell the Lemnos to charge their jump drives and leave, we've run out of time"

Ferore watched as the raider disappeared from the display, it had jumped back to its masters.

"Lemnos needs two minutes to jump", the comms officer shouted over, Ferore sighed.

Outside the various ships moved to en-globe the Lemons, vipers were launching and forming up around the vessels of the Colonial fleet.

A series of bright flashes illuminated the area, Cylon ships appearing all around the Colonials, they were heavily outnumbered.

"Fifty plus contacts, Cylon baseships, they're launching raiders and missiles", the alarmed sensor officer reported, "Radiological alarm, all missiles are nuclear, contact in thirty seconds"

"Get every gun shooting flak right now, thin out those formations", Ferore spoke as he watched the Dradis display struggle to handle the tens of thousands of raiders now barrelling towards them, hundreds of missiles racing ahead, "Tell our vipers to take out those missiles, have DC teams prepare for impact"

Lines of tracers and explosions lit up the Colonial fleet as the missiles streaked in, the missiles attempted to run the gauntlet, scores of them dying as flak and shells tore them to pieces, the numerous viper squadrons flying in to take out survivors but it wasn't enough, sheer numbers pushed through and the bright flashes of multi megaton explosions lit up the colonial fleet.

Ferore watched aghast as he saw their target, the Adamant frigates, they didn't have the reinforced structure of a battlestar and the anti capital missiles tore through them with ease, he watched as four ceased to exist after the light faded, a fifth in several pieces flying away, three more were damaged but intact and only two were unscathed.

"Frackers, they're taking out the laser ships", Tito swore from beside him.

Ferore ignored him and focused on the battle, the raiders were not far behind the missiles and he didn't have the numbers to contest tens of thousands of them, "Order all vipers to land, immediately"

He turned to the comms officer, "Is the Lemnos ready?"

The nervous officer spoke into his headset before replying, "Ten seconds"

"Right, as soon as the last viper lands, jump", he turned back to the display, "Keep those guns firing"

Already the baseships had loosed their second volley of missiles but before they would arrive the swarms of approaching raiders would be upon them, already they were dying in their droves as the flak and auto cannons took their toll, but thousands were pushing through.

Ferore watched as missiles sprung from the lead raiders to fly directly at them, he was knocked to the ground as the kiloton weapons impacted against the thick armour, he gripped the plotting table and hoisted himself up, staring doom in the face as thousands of raider launched nukes streaked into the fleet.

A defiant sneer appeared as he watched the Colonial ships start to vanish as they jumped away from the danger, the ship rocking as more missiles impacted but failed to penetrate the dense armour of the Mercury, he watched the last viper fly into the landing bay and the ship jumped.

Standing up he looked to the clear Dradis, "No enemy contacts, damage control teams are dealing with some fires on the port side but otherwise we came out mostly intact", Tito told him as he stood.

"The Lemnos?"

"She made it, the Pegasus twisted a bit during the jump but is still intact, they didn't manage to finish welding the last support girders"

Tito looked to the display, noting the lack of several ships they had started with, "We only lost the Adamants the other ships came through fine, but only three of them showed up, two failed to jump"

Ferore felt a pit form in his stomach, he hoped the crews managed to scuttle those ships otherwise the Cylons would gain access to the laser systems.

"Frack"

….

Cavil was apoplectic, the thrice dammed humans had managed to escape with the Pegasus, the bio console bent under the force his fingers were applying, blood flowing freely from his hands, rage was taking over his every thought.

"Cavil, look", the four gained his attention, his eyes followed the finger of the four in the cyber space, in the distance where the Colonial fleet had been were two ships, both damaged and powerless, slowing drifting apart, he could see raiders vector towards them to finish them off.

"Recall those raiders", Cavil ordered, "Those are the ships with the lasers"

Cavil felt something other than rage right then, a positive feeling, glee, "Get a boarding party onto those ships, I want those weapons"