SG Nova Roma, Chapter 3.02

2 – Three Bad Days

(Pentagon – Homeworld Command – 24 January 2018, 0800)

General Jack O’Neill sat down behind his desk and cursed. The International Oversight Advisory had learned about the loss of Spera and had gone into their standard mode of bickering and arguing. So instead of coming up with a plan on what to do next, they were wasting time on red tape and excuses. He had barely taken his seat when Daniel Jackson walked into the room. Daniel was carrying a folder, which he dropped on O’Neill’s desk.

“Daniel ?”

“Jack,” There was a moment of silence. “So, the good news is that we are ready to send a crew to the Delta Site.” After some discussion, it had been decided to rename the Outpost on New Hope Prime as the Delta Site. Jackson and Genera; Landry had been assembling a crew to man this outpost. “And the Beta Site power source is ready to go. The bad news….”

“Yeah, the IOA.”

~As long as those idiots keep trying to shift the blame away from themselves, nothing is going to happen.~ The two of them leaned back in their chairs. As they did so, O’Neill wondered if anybody was having a worse day than them.

(Destiny – Gate Room – 24 January 2018, 0805)

Commander Yarnok Zinar was the first person in Destiny’s Gate Room. Until a couple of seconds ago, he had been in charge of a Lucian Alliance base called Outpost 7. It was the complex that the Alliance had built with the goal to dial the ninth chevron. But he had been chosen by the leaders of the Alliance – a group of fools called the Council of Senior Commanders – to lead an assault force to seize control of Destiny. Counting Zinar, there were one-hundred and twenty of them.

The next person to come through was Captain Valerie Watson, his second-in-command. In her thirties, Watson was fit and skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Together, they had turned their team from a collection of criminals into a disciplined unit of soldiers. The ride through the Stargate was rough and the team was catapulted out of the event horizon. Zinar got his feet and quickly helped Watson do the same. More of the team arrived and had to be helped to get clear of the Stargate. While Watson took charge of that, Zinar turned to examine the room.

It was only then that he noticed the people on the floor. They were wearing Tau’ri uniforms and Yarnok thought he knew at least one of them. So he approached the man and carefully turned him over. ~David Telford.~ He checked the Colonel’s pulse. ~Still alive.~ But something was seriously wrong. It was at that moment that the last member of his force came through and the Stargate disengaged. Before he could tell his people to be on the look-out, there was a hissing sound.

“Gas !” Watson yelled. “Masks on !”

The team had been provided with plenty of equipment, including gas masks. But it was already too late. Whatever was being pumped in, it was a fast working agent. ~This is turning out to be a bad day.~ He felt dizzy and then the world began to fade to black. Before he passed out, he wondered if there was anybody who was having a worse day then them.

(Spera – Bridge - Day 151 / 19 December 12 BC, 0935)

Gaius the Elder was having a hard time wrapping his head around this place. Spera was a vessel, but one unlike any he had ever seen or heard about. Instead of sailing between lands, it sailed between worlds. And it was manned by beings that… ~Unlike anything you have ever seen ?~ But they talked like men. And they trusted his son. ~Do you ? Of course, you do.~ And if he trusted them, did it matter what they looked like ? ~No.~ He followed his son into the room that controlled this magical star vessel. Then he spotted a single chair that was clearly meant for the leader of the Spera. He walked to it.

“You want to try it, Father ?”

“No,” Gaius said. “This is your chair, son.”

“I would not have gotten it without your teachings, father.”

“Thank you, son,” Gaius began. “But it was your mother and her insistence on making you read everything in the library,” His mother had worked in a rich household and had smuggled young Marcus into the house to learn everything she could teach him. “All I did was teach you how to fight and draw. Now, what news is there ?”

“This,” A small, blond woman said. She was sitting on a chair behind something Gaius could not describe. “is a machine that allows us see what is around the ship. That blue dot is us….” She pointed to what appeared to be to map. But the map was constantly changing. “…and those red dots are sky ships that are travelling towards us.”

“Have you identified them ?” Marcus said.

“They are command ships and berserker drones, sir,” She paused. “Thousands of them.” Gaius did not understand, but the look on his son’s face made it clear to him that this was a major problem. The young woman realized that he did not understand and continued. “The vessels are like beehives and they carry machines aboard. And those machines are ballistae that can load themselves. And they attack anything that is not one of them.”

“And there is a legion of these beehive vessels coming towards us ?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Father,” Marcus said. “You have to take the family and got home. It is not safe here.”

“Marcus, there is no way that you can defeat all those vessels with this one. And if they burn this ship, the world will be next,” Gaius said. “Nobody will survive,” He paused. “Running back home will not help to stop this horde.”

Marcus looked at the screen showing the red dots on the display. He knew that his father was right. If Spera was destroyed, Earth would be doomed. Based on how fast the dots were moving across the display, he figured that they had two – or maybe three – hours before the ships arrived. And unless they came up with a way to defeat them, Earth was about have a very bad day.