SG Nova Roma - Chapter 2.10

10 – The Alliance Attacks Earth

(George Hammond – Bridge - Day 75, 0807)

Sam Carter watched as the Lucian Alliance fleet approached. There were eight-seven Ha’tak-class motherships and eleven Cheops-class warships. There were also hundreds of Al’kesh bombers, many armed Tel’tak cargo ships and lots, lots of Deathgliders. All Earth had was three BC-304 class ships. The Apollo and Daedalus were not here. Homeworld Command had learned about the attack yesterday. But the two ships were three weeks away from Earth.

“Two minutes to weapons range, ma’am,” Kevin Marks said.

“Shields at full strength,” Dave Kleinman said. “Odyssey and Sun Tzu are in position, ma’am.”

“F-302’s?” Carter asked.

“All fighters have been deployed,” Marks said. Each BC-304 carried sixteen F-302’s. “And the squadrons from Earth are approaching.” Earth had was home to four squadrons of F-302’s, each sixteen fighters strong. So in total, there were one-hundred and twelve fighters against thousands of Deathgliders. “They will enter weapons range in thirty seconds.”

“One minute until the fleet enters weapons range.”

The Alliance fleet entered weapons range. All three Tau’ri ships bobbed and weaved, doing their best to avoid the rain of incoming weapons fire. At the same time, they fired everything they had, destroying as much targets as they could. The F-302’s soon joined in, hitting all the dozens of Deathgliders with missiles. But it was not enough. There were simply too many enemy ships. 

“Shields down to sixty percent!” Marks yelled.

“Maintain fire!” Carter ordered.

Carter knew that her crew was doing the best they could, but she also knew that it would not enough. ~Come on, Jack. Time to test the Point Seven.~ Back in 2004, SG-1 had found an Ancient outpost in Antarctica. Besides leading Earth to Atlantis, that outpost had also been home to Ancient weapons simply known as drones. Those drones were control by special chair that – very unoriginal – was called a Control Chair. Then, in 2009, the Control Chair had been destroyed by an enemy called the Wraith.

It had rendered Earth’s supply of drones useless. But after finding out about the pending attack, Earth had pressed the Mark Zero Point Seven into service. After the Lucian Alliance attack of 2010, Stargate Command and the Atlantis Expedition had begun trying to build their own version of the control chair. The 2010 version had been called the Mark Zero Point One or Point One. The Point Seven was the latest attempt. The problem was that even if it worked, Earth’s supply of drones was not that big.

“Shields are dropping fast!” Kleinman said. “We need….”

That was as far as he got before several yellow lights flashed by outside the window. ~Drones.~ The lights hit a nearby Al’kesh, which exploded. More lights followed and more ships exploded. It was enough to give the George Hammond a breather, and Marks used the relief to hit the nearest ship with everything the ship could muster. It exploded under the barrage.

“Shields are down to eleven percent!” Kleinman said. “The hull is taking heavy damage. Several of the ships have entered weapons range of Earth. They’re about to open fire, ma’am.”

“Ma’am,” Marks began. “We have more incoming, they’re about to…”

The new ships were the same designs as the Alliance fleet. But instead of shooting at the Tau’ri ships, they attacked the Alliance vessels. Kleinman’s console beeped. Carter could see the main display of his station and realized that the newcomers had just transmitted Friend of Foe signals. Their ID-codes identified them as Free Jaffa vessels. Stargate Command had asked both the Free Jaffa and the Tok’ra for help. Both had promised to send every ship they had in range. And both had. Because the Free Jaffa vessel had barely been ID’ed, when a small fleet of Tok’ra ships appeared and also joined the fray. Alas, it was that this point that the drones stopped coming.

~The drones ran out.~

“Shields are down!” Marks said.

“Evasive maneuvers. Keep firing!”

This was the end of the line and they all knew it. George Hammond was surrounded by enemy ships and taking heavy damage. Odyssey and Sun Tzu were in the same situation. And all three ships were giving as good as they had got. The friendly ships and remaining F-302’s were fighting for all they were worth, trying to break through.

~Goodbye.~

She was about to order a ramming course at the nearest ship, when a nearby area of space lit up with the light of a spaceship dropping out of hyperspace. Two seconds later, another ship followed. Carter looked at Kleinman’s console and frowned. ~Apollo and Daedalus? That’s impossible.~ Yet, somehow, the two ships were here. They opened fire and launched their F-302’s. Before Carter could respond to the development, several areas of the space around the battle wrinkled. When the effect was over, six satellites were hovering just outside the war zone. They cut loose with blue beam weapons.

The satellites made quick work of the Lucian Alliance fleet. Then they went dormant. ~What the…~ Carter got to her feet and made her way to a nearby console. She ran a scan of the satellites and frowned. The device appeared to be Ancient in origin, which was impossible. Unless… ~Something has changed, something big.~

(Lucian Alliance Homeworld – Hall of the Council – Day 75, 0930)

Gerhart Zinar couldn’t believe what he had just seen. The whole attack fleet had been wiped out. One moment they had been on the edge of victory, but then things had turned against them. ~Those satellites looked Ancient, but that is impossible.~ The Ancients were extinct. But… ~It would explain what happened to Outpost 7.~ But it seemed totally out of character for the species. They had fought wars, but never began them.

And Alliance Intelligence was not helping them either. The Tau’ri had very effectively clamped down on security. For the past three years, there was zero information on Earth’s attempts to dial the ninth chevron. If they had somehow had managed to contact a group of unknown Ancients thanks to Destiny, Intelligence had no proof of it. ~Something is about to come knocking on our door. Time to start preparing.~ He activated the communications console and began giving orders.

(Planet One – New Asuran Senate Chamber – Day 59 of the Spera Expedition, 0800)

Galaxies away and days earlier, Yorick – first of the New Asurans – walked into the Senate Chamber. His people were in control of eighteen planets in what they called the Hope Galaxy. Besides their own worlds, there was also Planet Nineteen. This was the new home of the Nakai Colonists and the Ursini survivors. It was also where Earth was planning to build an outpost. But change was in the air. After learning about the berserker drones and that they were headed for the Nakai Home Galaxy….

Well, the New Asuran Senate had debated their current stance on other species. And it had been heated. That had been twenty eight days ago. And things had been tense in the Senate ever since. Said Senate had eighteen members, one for each planet. After the debate, they had voted on ending the isolation of the New Asurans. There had been eleven votes against and seven in favor. But the debate had resumed after that vote.

“May I?”

There were nods and the two senators sat down. The Senate Chamber had been one of the first buildings to go up on Planet One. So it was a simple brick building, lit by candles and oil lamps. It was heated by a fire underneath the floor. He took his shoes off and moved to the center of the room. ~Here we go.~

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, it has been weeks since the arrival of the Nova Roma in our galaxy…” The ship had ambushed by the Nakai and so badly damaged that it had needed to be scuttled. “….and the birth of civilization on Planet Nineteen. But now we are approaching another major junction in our history. Tomorrow, the command ships will reach the Nakai Home Galaxy.” He paused.

“So, we have a decision to make. Will we continue to isolate ourselves? Or will we chose a new destiny? When we arrived here, thousands of years ago, we went into isolation. We did so to bolster our numbers so that, one day, we could have numbers to defend ourselves from Oberoth and our brethren. And perhaps the Ancients.” He leaned on the table that the Senators were sitting at.

“We no longer have that excuse to hide behind. Our brethren and gone and the Ancients…” He snorted. “The Ancients don’t care. They feel interacting with us is beneath them. Are we like that? Are we that arrogant? The time of isolation is over.” He paused. “In six days, I am leaving for the Milky Way Galaxy. And I will dedicate myself to making it better. The question is….. how many of you will come with me?”

And with that said, he walked out of the Senate Chamber. The moment the doors closed behind him, the Senators erupted into heated arguing again. They would no doubt considering not telling the general population. But Yorick had planned ahead. He reached into a pocket of his suit and took out the transmitted he had carried into the meeting. ~Transmitted every word.~ In the end, it wouldn’t matter what the Senate would what. The people would decide.

(George Hammond– Bridge – Day 95, 1211)

It had been twenty days since the attack on Earth. The repairs to George Hammond had been completed two hours ago. Odyssey and Sun Tzu had been relaunched yesterday. And now all three ships were on a shakedown cruise together. As for the Apollo and Daedalus, they had been sent on a mission. After the battle, the satellites had turned and begun flying away from Earth at sub-light speeds. The two ships had followed them, while running more scans.

Alas, as soon as they had passed Mars, the satellites had self-destructed. The two ships had then gone looking for clues for where they had come from. The formation had flown to the debris field near Mars and was now running scans on what little was left. Sam Carter was standing at one of the bridge consoles and checking the readings. As she did, she thought back to the debriefing of Colonel Caldwell and Colonel Ellis.

Apollo and Daedalus had been headed for Earth at maximum speed. Then an alien sphere had appeared above each ship. They had emitted a particle field, which had boosted the speed of the vessels. But that really confused her was that – just before they had arrived at Earth – the two spheres had flown away and self-destructed. ~Somebody really doesn’t want to leave anything behind.~ But interesting thing was that the energy signatures of those spheres were also Ancient.

~Or Asuran.~ The first time that option had been brought up had been mere minutes after the attack. But there was no way to tell Ancient and Asuran technology apart. And there had not been a peep from the New Asurans since the news of the Command Ships had come through. She was about start a new scan when her console beeped. An Aurora-class battleship had just dropped out of hyperspace. Carter ran a scan of the vessel. The computer identified it as the Tria. Next, the computer spit out that there were five people on board. And all five were Asuran. Then the Tria send out a transmission.

(Tria – Bridge – Day 95, 1215)

As Yorick had expected, the Senate had indeed tried to hide his ultimatum. And the people had heard the transmission, leading to them threating to launch an all-out rebellion. So the Senate had yielded. Ever since they had met the Tau’ri, Yorick had been studying the recent history of the Milky Way Galaxy. And that was when he had learned about the Protected Planets Treaty. The Asgard had formerly protected twenty seven worlds from the Goa’uld. Eventually, the Asgard had gone extinct and the Goa’uld Empire had collapsed.

As for what had happened to the planets after Treaty had been dissolved… Only two of them – Earth and Galar – had advanced technology to defend themselves. And the Lucian Alliance had taken over the twenty-fours others. The only planet that they had not taken was known as BP6-3Q1 or Svoriin. This was because the planet was infested by giant bugs that infected people and rewrote their DNA. They had wiped out the locals.

Two days after his ultimatum, the dust had settled and Senate had asked him what his plan was. It has at this time that he had told them about the Treaty. Yorick had announced that he intended to end the war between the Tau’ri and the Lucian Alliance. And he intended to do so by reinstating the Protected Planets Treaty.

The next nine days had been spent preparing the people and ships for travel. There had, however, been one major concern. The people on Planet Nineteen. Some believed that while going to the Milky Way was the right thing to do, they could not abandon their allies in the Hope Galaxy. And so, Yorick and the Senate had given them permission to stay behind. Of the twenty-seven billion New Asurans, twenty-one million had chosen to do so. They had joined the Nakai and Ursini on Planet Nineteen, which they had renamed Hope Prime.

And on day seventy of the Spera Expedition, the rest of the New Asurans had left the Hope Galaxy for the Milky Way. The trip had taken Nova Roma several weeks. And Ancient Aurora-class ships were slower than the costume-build vessel. But the New Asurans had spend their time in the New Hope Galaxy well. Their Aurora-class ships were faster than the Ancient versions. And for this trip, their Hyperdrives had been boosted by the installation of Zero-Point Modules. The whole trip would take fifteen days.

While the ships would carry several thousands, the rest would arrive make the trip by Stargate. Ironically, the first planet they had settled on was the one the Alliance had rejected, BP6-3Q1. Because New Asurans lacked DNA, they were immune to the bugs. And they had made quick work of them. It had been the first of eighteen worlds to be settled. But not the last. And the New Asurans had been smart about it. They had picked planets that nobody cared about. And so, nobody in the Milky Way Galaxy had known about their arrival.

But when the DSI Facility on Hope Prime had received Intelligence on the pending attack on Earth, they had decided to act. So they had seen to it that the Apollo and Daedalus would reach Earth in time. Next, they had deployed six weapon platforms to aid in the defense of the planet. When the fleet had arrived ten days ago, the New Asurans had been ready to go the next phase. They had scouted the twenty-four Protected Planets. And now they were ready for to make themselves known. ~Here we go.~ Yorick activated the transceiver and began speaking.