Beyond Alpha Centauri :::

[Lonestar]

Somewhere in Hyperspace.

After considerable debate, the new Super-Heavy Battleship Riothamus had been chosen to carry Lord Protector Pym to Earth. The Riothamus was the third of the troubled Harbringer program. Although the Prototype had done exceedingly well testing the advanced Matter/antimatter plant, construction on the other ships had temporally ceased as the Protectorate tried to back-engineer the Bree Hypermatter drives and plants. Now, after a delay of over a year, the Riothamus had finally been accepted by the Protectorate Navy. It's engines allowed it to move over 50% faster than the Alchemax-49 Antimatter Drive that was the mainstay of the fleet. The fact that the Harbringer class was the first to be designed from the keel up incorporating Dosi Technology increased it's Lethality and capabilities to points unheard of amoung Human nations.

Too bad we're only going to have 8 by the end of the year Pym thought, sitting in the Royal Stateroom onboard the Riothamus. He glanced at the intricate model of the ship, a Nano-neutronium beast stretching over 5 km, with a "wingspan" almost as long. The UA's "super terraformer" test had lit a fire under the Protectorate's Advanced Research Project's Agency, but Intial production of such a new warship had been slow.

Pym sighed again, the thoughts turning in his mind. That bastard Yoon is trying to undo everything that's been accomplished over the last several hundred years. And he was in charge of the Defense Committee. Getting rid of him would be tricky. Pym didn't have Ian's amazing mental abilities; the ability to just influence someone to do whatever he damned well pleased.

Even worse was one of the Intel reports lying on his desk. A Massive Proginator starship had arrived at Chiron recently, and the Peacekeepers had actually made an effort to keep it quiet. That Lal would try to deny anyone information was a poor omen. If he didn't cooperate with Protectorate Inquiries, he might have to be dealt with.

The other Intel report was disturbing. Ranger ships had picked up increased Military chatter from the UA. It was clear they were fighting someone, but who? He'd have to bring it up at the summit.

The comm clicked. Commodore West's voice came over.

"Sir, we'll be entering realspace shortly." Pym nodded, knew his advisors would be upset he wasn't preparing a speach, some empty words.

"Thank you Mr. West."

The ship shuddered and Pym looked at the viewscreen, which was set to immitate a window. A blue marble was approaching the ship rapidly. For the first time in Hundreds of years, he was returning to Earth.

[Sovereign]

Goa’uld designed their shields to withstand as much energy as possible from energy-based weapons such as laser-types, laser-analogs, particle weapons, and similar weapons. They had virtually no projectile weapons, therefore they did not foresee the need for ship armor or tighter shielding.

The outcome was never in doubt.

Waves upon waves of missiles tore through the Goa’uld shields like tissue paper. Multiple hull breaches spread throughout the massed motherships, causing thousands of Jaffa warriors to suffer an excruciating death due to decompression.

More than a hundred ships flared into miniature supernovas as their reactors lost containment, were breached by missiles, or became overloaded with the release of missile kinetic energy.

The missiles kept coming, even through the collapsing superstructures of ruined Goa’uld ships. The remaining orbitals and motherships kept firing, but to no avail. The University fighter and bomber swarm engulfed the remaining motherships.

The Titans closed to Gauss Cannon range of the orbital fortresses and weapon platforms. Suddenly several orbitals appeared to shatter into hundreds of chunky fragments as the Gauss shells impacted their hulls at nearly the speed of light.

The remaining missiles plowed straight into Ptah’s homeworld at incredible speeds. Trillions of tons of rock and seawater were vaporized upon the release of terawatts of kinetic energy upon the planet. Dozens of bright flares and mushroom clouds could be seen erupting all across the surface and ocean of the planet facing the armada’s vector. Several shattered Goa’uld hulls became fiery balls as their superstructure disintegrated in Ptaha II’s orbit, wreaking even further destruction upon cities, factories, pyramid bases, and Goa’uld hatcheries.

Armageddon.

---------------------------------------------------------

Captain Sean Donnell smiled.

“Flawless victory.”



-------------------------------------------------------
Battlestation Alpha
Orbiting Earth

The lights flared to life as the Academician tapped a panel on his maghony table.

He was smiling.

The Goa'uld finally conquered.

The Protectorate asking for peace.

The Titans proving their worth in battle.

Project Forge coming along nicely.

The University is finally a super-power, and no longer a nation that can be bullied.

-------------------------------------------------------
Transmission to Lord Protector Henry Pym

Your terms are accepted. We shall proceed with the peace treaty, establishment of embassies, and opening trade.

I am willing to meet you in person, and then make the treaty official on Earth within the next several weeks if possible.

Hopefully we'll be able to see eye to eye, and perhaps in time, our people may be able to call each other friends.

Live well.

[Sovereign]

Bridge of UAS Hercules
Approaching Ptaha III

Captain Sean Donnell tapped several touch-pad buttons on his armrest. Several displays materialized out of thin air in various spots in front of Sean. He took a deep breath to relieve the tension slowly building inside his guts.

My first major fleet command. This is so different from the Army.

The Academician recognized my command talent, from the Battle of Sol, and felt my talents would be best used in the Navy instead of the Army. In the Army, life was simple. You just follow orders, and shoot anything that isn’t friendly.

The Navy has a lot more greys than black and white clear-cut situations. I must prove to the Academician and Grand Admiral Devlin Yezprach my worth in a pivotal battle.

Eight years ago, I was a simple civilian, content to work as an engineer in the Memoria system, constructing a new class XII shipyard. After three years, I was transferred to Spira to oversee the construction of several new planetary to space defensive systems around Bevelle, Luca, and Zanarkand.

Then the terrorist attacks in Chronopolis occurred. I wanted to take a part in restoring the sense of security in the Alliance. I thought if I joined the Army, I’d be able to blow up some terrorists. I went into some grunt training, and used several exercising regiments to toughen up my body.

Then my infantry unit got sent to the offensive in North America during the Battle of Sol. Thus, began my fast track of promotions and heroism.

Funny, really.

In a short period of time, I changed from a senior engineer, to a grunt in the Alliance’s army, then a captain, commanding several units in the Mid-East. Then just as quickly, I am now a captain in the Navy, commanding this battle.

How times change.

I miss my beloved Lucentia, and my two daughters and my only son. I wonder how they are doing. After this campaign comes to a close after this battle, hopefully, I am definitely going to request some leave, so I can visit my family.

Without them, what is the point of fighting? What worth is freedom, security, and life without others to share it with?

Sean took another deep breath to calm his thoughts. He could still smell the fresh metallic tint in the air, mixed with several chemical and plastic odors.

A display floating a meter up and to the right of Sean displayed the status of the freshly built Titan class ship, the new flagship of the UA fleet, the Hercules.

The nine-kilometer Hercules comprised of a long cylinder that has been stretched along its two-kilometer diameter, while having a raised section resembling an Enterprise class arrowhead hull on the left and right sides. The raised sections snuggled perfectly on the stretched cylindrical superstructure. Another smaller arrowhead section rested directly on top of the first raised sections, in a somewhat double-layered arrowhead structure. The sections are perfectly mirrored in the front, rear, and bottom sections of the Titan, to create eight arrowhead formations on its hull.

Several statistics scrolled down the floating display, detailing the Hercules’s armaments, defensive systems, energy levels, among others.

Sean lapsed into another bout of deep thought.

Commanding a nine-kilometer Titan.

The Academician has put forth a program to produce the largest battleships ever conceived by Mankind. He feels that the aging Relativity and Einstein Battleships won’t be able to keep their edge much longer. These battleships could still keep their own with most Human ships, such as Drone, Hiverian, Spartan, and Morganite ships, in thirty years. However, the threat of the Protectorate and hostile aliens demand a technological and engineering supremacy.

The Relativity and Einstein battleships were designed in the 2640’s while the Enterprise Carriers were built in the 2690’s. They were the most advanced Human ships built at that time, with antimatter reactors, tachyon weaponry, and neutronium hulls.

The Titan class is the first pure battleship designed and produced by the Alliance within the past fifty years. It incorporates the very latest in the Alliance’s technology. It is the first standard class of ship that uses the new Quantum Reactors, which provides ten-fold more power than the old antimatter reactors. In addition, these new reactors take up less space than antimatter reactors, because it simply doesn’t need storage pods for antimatter / matter.

This allows larger ships to be built, because without the Quantum reactors, a Titan ship would require nearly half of its hull mass to be devoted to antimatter reactors. This is due to the huge energy requirements to run life support, lighting, artificial gravity, and essential systems throughout such a large ship. It wouldn’t be feasible or efficient to do so with antimatter reactors, with its extensive infrastructure. Hundreds of storage tanks would be required for the fuel to quant-space jump a ship with a mass numbering in the billions of metric tons.

The Titans employ the next generation of weapon technology, based on the recently developed Quantum technology. One Quantum cannon is capable of an energy discharge three to five times as potent as the old Tachyon cannons. One Quantum reactor exclusively powers all the Yamato super-cannons mounted on the Titan, increasing their destructive potential by four times over anti-matter powered Yamato cannons. This technology is being refined further. It is likely that upon the Titan’s first dry-dock stop, their weapons will be fine tuned to give even more power.

The Titan has unsurpassed amounts of firepower available. It has approximately five thousand anti-fighter and anti-missile flak cannons, one thousand standard cannons of upwards to one-meter diameter, one hundred cannons of five-meter diameter, while mounting twenty-four anti-battleship cannons of fifteen-meter diameter. The Titan has eight fifty-meter Yamato cannons, one for each arrowhead formation, providing ample fire to cover its approach and retreat vectors.

In addition to the Titan’s energy-based cannons, it is the first Alliance ship to mount projectile cannons. Using the Xaos Principle, the basis for the infamous Alliance’s Xaos Swordfish missiles, the projectile cannons use dense Neutronium “bullets” as ammunition, firing them at 70 percent light speed. Due to such dense matter being fired at high velocities, the kinetic energy released upon impact, as well as the projectile itself, is guaranteed to rip through any material known to Mankind, even the Alliance’s unique Neutronium hulls. The standard name and type of these projectile cannons is known as Xaos Gauss Cannons.

The Titan possesses missile banks capable of firing thirty-six missiles per salvo per missile bank. The ship has seventy-two standard missile mounts with a complement of one-meter missiles, twenty-four heavy missile mounts with a complement of five-meter missiles, and eight ultra-heavy mounts with a complement of twenty-meter missiles. The banks can fire a full standard salvo every ten seconds, heavy salvo every twenty seconds, and ultra-heavy salvos every 45 seconds. In doing so, it creates a large cloud of missiles that is designed to overwhelm enemy point defense weapons.

The Titan’s defensive systems are quite formidable, in comparison to the Alliance’s most fortified ship class, the Enterprise Carriers. The Titan employs a completely revolutionary hull design, using newly developed materials with the Smart-Material and nanotechnology enhancements. The ship class employs five hulls, divided in two areas, the Outer Hull and the Inner Hull. The outer hull comprises of the outer, middle, and inner hulls, while the inner hull comprises of the outer and inner hulls.

The Outer-outer hull is the first hull to employ materials impossible to fabricate a mere decade earlier. In addition, it has an ability to self-seal hull breaches, given that the hull breaches do not exceed more than ten meters in diameter, thanks to rudimentary nanites and sufficient metal reserves. The self-sealing technology isn’t as efficient or quick as the Protectorate or the Dosi, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The material that comprises this very hull consists of enhanced Admantium, which is ten times lighter than Neutronium while providing an increase of thirty percent toughness over standard Neutronium. This enhanced Admantium metal was developed by arranging Admantium atoms in interlocking patterns, then compressing several dozen sheets of the interlocked Admantium into a single sheet.

The Outer-middle and Outer-inner hulls are comprised of Neutronium, due to the fact that the new Admantium metal, termed Admantia, is in short supply. Metal fabrication plants are rapidly developing equipment to create Admantia, which will ensure plenty of Admantia production within the next few years. Finally, the Inner-outer and Inner-inner hulls are comprised of Admantia, due to the smaller area it must cover and protect.

The three Outer hulls are layered in a diamond pattern to provide stronger resiliency towards hull buckling. The hulls are located right on top of each other, and cover the entire Titan superstructure. The Inner hull follows the same pattern, but only covers the Command Bridge, Main Engineering, several dozen decks in-between, and several weapon emplacements enclosed inside the ship.

The Titan is also the first Alliance warship to have the Outer-Ship and Inner-Ship system. In case the Outer ship takes grievous damage, the Inner-ship activates. It blows off the ruined Outer-ship hull, then either fights as a smaller and weaker version of the Titan, or flees the battle with most of its command staff and valuable data intact. Essentially, the ship has two “lives” giving it a further edge in combat.

Such firepower, redundancy, size, and strength of the Titan was demanded by the Academician to ensure that the Alliance will have the most modern warships. Also, it was designed in mind to ensure there wouldn’t be any Sab Abar’s happening in Alliance territory. The destruction of entire planets, with billions of lives at stake, is a sobering reality after the Protectorate’s attack on Sab Abar. Countermeasures must be taken to ensure that such destruction doesn’t rain upon innocent Alliance citizens.

The Titan, the paradigm of the University Alliance’s engineering skills. I am indeed proud to be commanding one of the only four Titans in service. I will do the Academician proud.

Captain Sean Donnell snapped back to reality upon the blaring of the alarm klaxons.

Sean’s tactical officer, Jack, sat at the Tactical station to the front and left of the Captain’s chair. Jack tapped several touch panels quickly, then spoke up over the din of the bridge preparing for war.

“Captain, Goa’uld sensors have detected our approach, before being destroyed as per standing orders. Several dozen Goa’uld motherships are already getting battle-ready, as well as several of these hybrid ships. They are forming up in a X-Y square formation directly in front of their apparent homeworld. Our sensors detect several large orbital batteries and space fortresses powering up.”

“Remember, all Goa’uld ships are equipped with these infernal shields that reduce our energy weapon effectiveness considerably. Have the [I]Athena, Zeus,[/] and Apollo form up in a triangular formation with the Hercules at the center.

Upon completion of the formation, fire all our missiles for several minutes directed at the orbitals and fortresses. This will provide tens of thousands of missiles for the Goa’uld to try and shoot down. Their shields cannot block our missiles at all, as proven at the engagement at the PX-973 system. Hopefully this tactic will take out several of these larger ships as well.

Have the rest of the fleet form up right behind us, adding their missile fire with ours. Once we’re in range, we shall give the Goa’uld a nice surprise with our Xaos Gauss Cannons. In the meantime, power up our Quantum Cannons and the upgraded Yamato super-cannons.”

“Your orders shall be carried out, Captain Sean.”

----------------------------------------------------------
Several minutes later


The four Titans wasted little time maneuvering into a triangular position directly ahead of the main battle fleet.

Several minutes passed as the Titans readied their potent missile armaments to unleash upon the unsuspecting Goa’uld. The rest of the fleet formed up directly behind the Titans in a circular formation to provide maximum missile dispersal, as well as support fire against fighters and any incoming enemy vessels.

Large missile banks, supplemented with smaller missile pods began their song of death. Multiple explosions could be seen throughout the missile bearing ships, creating the illusion of self-destruction. Several minutes would pass before the true nature of the explosions would be revealed to the enemy.

A cloud slowly formed in front of the University armada, as thousands of missiles were forcibly expelled from their homes on the ships.

---------------------------------------------------------------

“Begin Phase Two.

Begin at T minus ten minutes. Upon T minus zero, initiate Phase Three.”

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T Minus 9:40

The armada matched the missile cloud’s speed and trajectory, which created the illusion of a gigantic shimmering ice field. Thousands of cannons began gathering terawatts upon terawatts of energy, enough to power a small star. Armor on hundreds of ships began to deploy over docking hatches and fighter bays to provide solid protection against penetration of weak spots.

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T Minus 8:57

The Goa’uld fleet maintained their position, under the watchful eyes and teeth of their planetary defenses. Several thousand Alkesh bombers and Death Glider fighters spewed forth from the huge ziggurat vessels, in an attempt to probe the incoming University armada. Huge shields shimmered to life around the large orbital battle stations and the largest Goa’uld warships. Smaller glimmers could be seen as the fighters activated their weaker shielding.

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T Minus 7:32

The energy output of the University armada spiked as the dreaded Yamato Cannons began charging up. A slight warping of space could be seen around the muzzle of each enhanced Yamato Cannon mounted on the Titans. A white glow could be seen forming inside the muzzles, while the older anti-matter powered Yamato Cannons glowed with a reddish hue.
The fleet and missile cloud continued towards their final destination. The Enterprise Carriers began launching their fighters and bombers in waves. Instead of charging forward to engage the approaching Goa’uld fighters, the University fighters veered away. It appeared to the Goa’uld that the fighters were conducting a mutiny, fleeing the battle.

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T Minus 6:25

The Goa’uld fighters and bombers formed up into rigid formations, preparing to do attack runs upon the approaching armada. Four Death Gliders formed a square around each Alkesh bomber, to provide support and to cover the bomber as it made its bombing run.

The shields around the planetary orbitals and Goa’uld motherships became fully charged, and the energy emitters began to power up to maximum.

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T Minus 5:55

The University armada drew first blood of the engagement. Several long-range cannons began tracking and firing upon the initial wave of Alkesh bombers and their escorts. Several squadrons were transformed into free-floating energy and atoms as the energy bolts rained from the fast approaching University armada.

The University fighters and bombers swung around the planet Ptaha III, increasing their speed considerably. They established a course straight at the large motherships sitting in Ptaha II’s orbit. The fighter and bomber squadrons expected to arrive in roughly several minutes, within the final couple of minutes of Phase Two.

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T Minus 5:43 - 3:19

Several Goa’uld squadrons managed to breach the anti-fighter defenses, and made attack runs upon several Battleships, Heavy Cruisers, and Strike Cruisers. The Alkeshs launched their payloads, expecting dazzling explosions as the enemy ships were destroyed. However, their expectations were half dashed, as the trademark University neutronium armor absorbed a considerable amount of explosive energy.

The Alkeshs had more success against the lighter ships of the armada. The cruisers, frigates, and destroyers were much lighter armored than their heavier brothers. Several destroyers and frigates exploded as dozens of Alkesh squadrons managed to concentrate their bombing runs at the center points of the warships.

The next several waves of Alkeshs and Death Gliders attempted to destroy as many missiles in the missile cloud as they could. Long-range cannons kept up their challenge, pounding more and more Goa’uld fighters into oblivion.

More destroyers, frigates, and cruisers were either destroyed or crippled as the Alkesh squadrons kept swarming around the fleet. Eventually the sheer number of anti-fighter batteries mounted on the Titans and the Enterprise Carriers, backed up by surrounding battleships managed to cut down the majority of the fighters.

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T Minus 2:50 – 1:15

Both fleets achieved energy weapon range just as the last several dozen Goa’uld fighters and bombers were eliminated. The Goa’uld ships fired wildly, attempting to shoot down as many incoming missiles as they could. The orbitals added their long-range firepower in shooting the missiles down.

The University armada held back their fire, so not to vaporize their own missiles. Several University sips on the fringes of the circular formation were targeted by Goa’uld motherships and orbitals not directly in the path of the approaching missiles. The Goa’uld shielding deflected a considerable amount of energy from the counter-fire from the targeted University ships. Several University ships suffered various states of damage, ranging from moderate to critical.

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T Minus 1:14 - 0:01

The Goa’uld ships became more and more frantic as thousands of remaining missiles kept coming like a swarm of angry locusts. Several ships began firing in random directions, in hopes of hitting more than one missile at a time. Two ships accidentally fired upon friendly Goa’uld ships, as panic began to set in.

A second swarm, of a different kind, arrived from behind the Goa’uld fleet. The fighters and bombers disengaged their cloaking devices, catching the Goa’uld main fleet between the incoming missiles, and the stings of angry fighters and bombers.

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T Minus 0:00

Impact.

[Mr. President]

False Dawn

Fringe of Omega IX system

Commodore Franco ordered two battle groups to assist cleaning up the Hive advance fleet, intending to cross the Oort radius of the unknown system with the other four. He tapped a note into the ship's black box via his handheld keypad.

Intention to scout / test planetary defenses of Hive system. After will request reinforcements from MI-135.

The bridge rocked as the Liberty Bell hurtled through a cluster of comets. None of the objects were large enough to damage the hull's integrity, but Franco felt clearly his ship's lack of suspension systems. He could stand it.

"Astrometry," he ordered. "What sort of planetary defenses are you seeing?"

"None yet, sir. I've got a couple of comets, and a planet . . . whoa! Lots of Hiverians!"

Franco passed over the officer's lapse in verbal discipline. "Lots of Hiverians," he repeated, "but no planetary defenses? No sensor systems?"

"None that I can see, sir."

"Patch everyone into the tactical readings." A second later, the sensor schematics appeared on his readout. Sure enough, there were a horde of Hive ships orbiting the planet, more or less evenly distributed above most of its surface. Franco saw three of them lurch suddenly on a strange trajectory, directly into the planet's gravity well.

"What the . . . ? Put that on viewscreen and magnify."

The magnification at this range resulted in a slight loss of resolution, but the commodore could see the Hiverians' hulls reddening for just a moment before they vanished into the white clouds.

"What are they doing?" Franco mused. "Looks like some sort of self-sacrifice ritual."

He stood. "It doesn't matter. I want to wake those guys up a bit. Cast a torpedo spread adrift at our current position. Remote detonation. After we set it off, we're gonna loop around and come at them from that planet's south."

The torpedos went into space. When detonated, they would form a spectacular glowing chevron pattern. But Franco's moment of musing appeared to have cost him. His sensor readout clearly showed several Hive ships breaking formation and turning to face his direction . . .

[Frankychan]

In Orbit above Omega IX
Planetary Bombardment in progress…


Admiral Trasssk split her attention from the variou viewscreens of the bombardment and the statistics that were scrolling on a nearby screen. Various survey probes were sent to gather data on the fleet’s progress. Satellites above the atmosphere gathered climate changes, counted the living organisms and their fast-dwindling numbers, and even monitored the progress on the ground.

One satellite image caught the Admiral’s eye. On that satellites viewscreen, it displayed a birds eye view of what was happening in one of the planet’s minor cities. Trasssk stepped forward to get a better view and chuckled softly.

The scene was one of utter chaos. The natives were rioting in the streets, fires were erupting sporadically among the buildings and looters were running with armfuls of stolen goods. She noticed some activity and wanted a better view.

“Zoom viewscreen 32’s image by 5.”

The image instantly magnified and confirmed what Trasssk suspected.

A group of natives was embroiled in an enormous brawl. She observed some natives carrying large sticks and waving them around threateningly. Others were obviously going mad from the Hive bombardments.

An officer from behind her broke her concentration.

"Sir, our three ships are requesting the order to commence the suicide attack on Omega IX."

Trasssk turned around and nodded.

The officer waved the confirmation order to the awaiting commofficer.

Trasssk immediately shifted her attention to the viewscreen displaying a broad picture of the planet. She watched as her ships fired their engines and began the suicidal bombardment.

"Impact in 5 standard seconds."

The Admiral watched intently, wondering what the destruction would be from the resulting impact. When the countdown ended. She leaned in closer.

As if on cue, three large explosions rocked the planet in pre-determined points. The flash of the ships explosions were so bright and large, the Hive fleet in orbit could clearly make them out. The atmospheric disturbance pushed the clouds far away from the blasts.

Trasssk looked at another viewscreen showing what the conditions on the planet were.

In one region, winds from the blasts tore the flora from the earth and flung them up into the atmosphere. Debris whipped around the air like earthly shrapnel.

In another region, the explosions created enormous tidal waves that washed up and over the land, submerging the earth underwater for miles inland. Whole cities were washed off the face of Omega IX.

The three cities that were designated as the final path for the three Hive ships were nothing more than charred, smoking craters. The kinetic energy from the collision of the ships, added with the Hive reactors breaching upon impact, resulted in devastation previously unseen on Omega IX.

Overall, the mission to eradicate life on Omega IX was a great success. The debris kicked up into the atmosphere would cause the temperature of the planet to drop substantially, killing off most of the surviving flora and without vegetation to eat, the native creatures would starve. A chain reaction of global proportion would wipe out the remaining survivors of Omega IX.

But Hive command would not wait until all the planetlife was destroyed, all they needed was 80% of the planet's life to be eradicated so they could start the mining of the precious ore in the earth.

Trasssk nodded in approval, not the least concerned of the global disaster she just witnessed. The planet would die a slow death, accelerated by Hive mining and it's eventual environmental destruction.

"Order the fleet to maintain orbit."

Trasssk paused.

"And check on the progress of our ships sent to the Fringe. I want to see how they are fairing."

[GeneralTacticus]

Knives in the Dark

Rebel Command Complex, Iron Mountains

In the shadows cast by the dim, night-time lighting, something moved.

Private Adelphos Forakis, making his sixth circuit of the main storage area that night, jerked his head around to search the shadows not ten metres away.

Nothing.

Well, that wasn't all that surprising. He switched to IR vision.

Still nothing.

'What the-?'

"You saw something?"

That was Corporal Talos Mamalis, the other soldier assigned to this area. Adelphos glanced back at him before continuing to search for the source of that motion.

"I'm sure I did, sir, but there's nothing there, even on IR. I really wish they'd hurry up and get the security system finished here..."

"Well, that's strange. Let's have a closer-"

Before he could finish the sentence, the corporal's voice had cut off abruptly. For a second, the world seemed frozen, Adelphos standing still and no unusual sounds coming from anywhere.

That lasted for a single heartbeat before Adelphos heard the loud *clang* of a helmeted head striking the floor. He spun, bringing his rifle around, but before he could even try to open fire, something razor-sharp sliced across his throat, and the world spun crazily as darkness enveloped him. The last thing he ever saw was a visored figure in heavy combat armour the same colour as the cargo crates behind it, holding a long, thin blade in it's hand and standing over the headless corpse of Corporal Mamalis... and himself.

* * *

Peering through the door of the storage area, Sergeant Mandraphilias frowned worriedly. Corporal Mamalis should have reported in over 60 seconds ago, and he was a great one for punctuality. He activated his commlink and opened his mouth to request a report... but he got no further, because at that exact moment, two shadows detached themselves from the greater shadow inside, and something whirred through the air before striking him full in the face, slicing through his armoured visor with such force that his was hurled back almost a metre and his helmet was sliced in half.

* * *

"Captain Matsoukis, over the past ten minutes, we've lost contact with no fewer than eighteen guards and three security sensors. "

Matsoukis, the officer in command of security on this shift, swore under his breath as he absorbed this. 'Eighteen, and three sensor installations...? What could possibly have done this, and with raising an alarm?'

He swore more loudly as the trooper delivering the news continued.

"What's more, sir, we've plotted the lost guards onto a map of this complex, and they form a rough trail heading for Lord Lysander's quarters. At this rate, they'll be there in under five minutes."

Somewhere else in the security station, someone cursed, then turned and raised her voice.

"Captain, we've just lost two more sensors and five guards. Someone at least managed to get off a shot this time, but they're only a corridor away from LYsander's quarters."

Matsoukis didn't hesitate. "Sound the alarm!"

Someone did, and the entire complex was immediately lit to full daylight standards, while a blaring klaxon awakened everybody not already dead.

"Get me video feed of what's happening outside Lysander's quarters!" he shouted, trying to make himself heard over the klaxon. A few minutes later, one wall of the room swirled and turned into an image that simply defied belief. The two heavy-weapon emplacements outside the door to Lysander's quarters were smoldering wreckage, those manning them no better, and two looming figures in armour the same colour as the corridor walls were running for the door while spraying the corridor with rifle fire. Even as the stunned security officers watched, the last of the defender went down, and the intruders reached the door. One crouched opposite it, hefting a rifle in his right hand and a grenade in his left, while the other was planting something on the door. He appeared to finish whatever it was, stood back, and then to door was ripped clean out of the wall, torn into several pieces, and hurled inwards so hard that one of the pieces wedged itself into the plasma-steel wall. Both intruders ran into the room, the one behind reaching for his belt and hurling half a dozen grenades onto the floor along the corridor. They didn't go off; proximity-detonated, presumably.

* * *

Lysander had been asleep when the sirens began to blare, and was still half-so when he heard the loud blast of his outer door being blown apart. That brought him wide awake, and he snatched up the shredder pistol that he kept by his bed. Useless, perhaps, against something that could penetrate all the way here, but still better than nothing.

Keeping one eye on the main door to his bedroom, he felt along the wall behind him until he found the concealed sensor pad a few metres to the right of his bed. As he pressed his hand to it and waited for it to process his handprint and open the hidden door out of his room, he heard a series of explosions from outside, followed by loud screams, and then, as the door was hissing open, the inner door to his bedroom exploded inwards, immediately followed by a blizzard of rifle fire perforating the opposite wall. It all made Lysander very glad that the room had been designed so that the bed was not in the door's field of fire.

Relief faded, though, as the shooting cut off and a massively-armoured figure stepped through. Behind it, Lysander could hear more rifle fire, more explosions, and then the characteristic sound of a heavy rocket-launcher being fired. It struck something, exploded, and suddenly all fire cut off.

A heartbeat later, it seemed the whole outer part of Lysander's chambers had exploded, silhouetting the apparently unaffected intruder, who was now raising his own weapon and aiming it at Lysander.

He ducked as the first volley came, spraying across the wall; ducked rolled through the door, his own shredder pistol blazing back. A steady hail of fire struck the intruder, but it didn't even seem to notice as it pulled a grenade from it's belt prepared to hurl it.

As it's arm drew back to throw, however, another figure could be seen running through the flames behind it, a figure carrying a rocket-launcher. Before the grenade left the intruder's hand, one of the launcher's long, sleek projectiles left the barrel and slammed into it from behind, lifting it from it's feet and hurling it across the room and into the passage, and past him in a broken mess. Even before it had stopped moving, though, the figure with the rocket launcher was screaming at the top of her voice.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE NOW, SIR!"

Without thinking, he dived back into his own room and to the side, and just as his foot cleared the door, something massive exploded in that passageway. A jet of flame surged out across his room and blackened the opposite wall, along with a few bits semi-molten, flying metal. Then it was over. No more shooting, no more explosions, no more sounds except the crackle of flames, the moans of the wounded, and heavy breathing from everyone.

Getting to his feet, Lysander could see that the outer part of his rooms were a ruin; much of it was still burning, and the rest was strewn with wreckage; the doorway into the corridor was completely gone, with a much larger hole in it's place, and through it he could see a number of charred corpses lying about, with a handful of wounded guards standing over them.

"What... what happened?" he asked, running the sequence of events through his mind. "What were they?"

"Myrmidons, sir," answered the woman with the rocket launcher, who, he could now see through a layer of blood and soot, was Captain Arete, who had arranged for the capture of Dienkes Base and made the entire uprising possible.

"What?" he asked, searching his brain. He was sure he had never heard of any military or intelligence unit by that name.

"You wouldn't have heard of them, sir," she replied, dropping the rocket launcher and holding herself up on the doorframe as she breathed heavily. "They were Dr. Graves' brainchild, a group of elite soldiers removed from their units, trained to perfection, and cybernetically enhanced to the point where they were barely human any longer. They received the best weapons and armour the Cadre could give them, and functioned as Menelas' bodyguard and elite hit-squad. There can't be more than a hundred at the moment; for two to have been sent was a pretty significant investment, although I shudder to think what might have happened if more had come.

"Regardless, they can be identified by one crucial feature: on missions like these, they explode when killed. One of the cybernetic enhancements they're given is some extremely powerful high explosive set to detonate as soon as they die, unless specifically disabled. It's meant to let them do some more damage, even in death, and it can kill the target right when he thinks he's escaped... and as you saw, it nearly killed you even after I blasted it."

"And why, Captain, would I not have heard of this unit?"

"The whole project was secret; it was known only to the very highest ranks and some members of the security forces. You certainly weren't eligible to know, but I was."

"I see. I want an investigation, Captain Arete. I want to know how they got in here, and I want to know what can be done to stop them if more are sent."

"Yes, sir. It will be done."

[Lonestar]

We interrupt this broadcast...

* Cue John Williamsesque theme*

* Gold Interstellar Networks Logo descends and centers on Screen*

Narrator: This is ISN, the date is June 4th, 2703. Tonight's top stories...

Lord Protector Henry Pym offered a major new Peace intiative today...
"Mr. Zakharov, the people of the Protectorate are ready to walk into the future...will you join us??

The Border War between the Hive and the Drones heated up...

And the Protectorate Cup, will Ross City beat it's 50 year slump?

*finish intro Music*

Cynthia Garcia: Good evening on this June 4th. Tonight's top story is the Lord Protector's ambitious new Peace intiative. During a speech today at the University of San Angelo's graduation ceremonies.

Pym: Today I am proposing to Acadamecian Zakharov a new treaty of state. While he has been kind enough to grant us a consulate on Earth, I would like to treat him as we would any other nation; with a complete trade, and a embassy on the Univeristy Capital.

Cynthia: With us tonight is Senate Minority Leader Edward Yoon. Thank you for joining us tonight Senator. What is your Opinion of the Lord Protector's new plan for peace?

Yoon: I think it's obvious, Cynthia, that Dr. Pym is trying to patch the perceptions that foriegn governments have of us. He pissed away the goodwill that came from His Late Excellancy's assaination attempt. The attack, I would even call it massacre, of Sab Abar has caused other nations to shun us. Dr. Pym has abused the power of the office, and is now trying to cover his idiocy up.

Cynthia: Idiocy? Senator, He has 7 PhDs, 4 of which he aquired before MM interfaces were introduced.

Yoon: Yes, forgive me...I did not mean to insult his intelligence. The office of Lord Protector was meant to have a Great Man fill it, Ian McDiarmid was such a man. Henry Pym...he isn't. He's a smart man, but not a great one. His policies have led to a foreign relations disaster. People like Yang end up looking better than us. This is what happens when so much power is concentrated in one man.

Cynthia: The Protectorate thrived for hundreds of years under this system Senator. Are you seriously suggesting to change it? Haven't you ever heard of the phrase "If it ain't broke..."

Yoon: "...don't fix it." Yes, I know. But the point is, we didn't thrive under a system, we thrived under a Great Man. Dr. Pym isn't a Ian McDiarmid, and he never will be. All he is is a man with a gaggle of degrees who happened to be best buds. The Country shouldn't be run on the "Good Ol Boys club" theory. That's why the Whigs will be proposing a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate the office of Lord Protector at the start of Senate tomorrow.

Cynthia: *shocked Silence*

[GeneralTacticus]

The Kraken Wakes

Cadre frigate CSS Helot, currently hyperspace

Chiron Standard Time: 07:38:02

"Dr. Mernok, we are approaching the system now. FTL drive disengaging in five seconds."

Mernok nodded, and leaned forward eagerly towards the viewscreens as though it would make them show more. He hadn't moved from his seat on the bridge through the entire ten hours of the trip; he'd just been sitting, staring fixedly at the viewscreens, which, in the absence of anything outside, had been showing footage of the ship they were there to investigate.

Shortly afterwards, the images on the screens shifted to show a field of stars as the Helot dropped below lightspeed and into the system that had been designated Windfall. A minor course correction and a few minutes later, and the vast derelict ship cmae into view, dwarfing the Helot, it's two escorts, and the four transports they had brought along. For a few moments, the whole of the bridge crew simply stared in awe, before gradually remembering their jobs and getting back to them. Mernok, meanwhile, just kept watching, and when the Cadre ships entered what appeared to be one of the ship's docking bays, he smiled, a slow, ecstatic smile.

* * *

Encrypted Video Transmission:
To: General Kane, Laekdaemon Prime
From: Dr. Zacharias Mernok, Windfall System
Subject: Preliminary report
Time: Chiro Standard, 19:09:54

"General Kane, we've only been here about twelve hours, so we haven't had time to do a whole lot, but we've found out some quite interesting stuff.

"First of all, it appears that this ship was run mainly by automation; there are AI modules everywhere, seemingly where they could run nearly every major system on the ship. The computer networks themselves have a lot of similarities to Progenitor resonance computers; we haven't got the right equipment to operate them properly here, so I've requested some from Laekdaemon. Hopefully, once it gets here, we can activate some systems and see about taking this ship over.I don't think there's much risk of the ship turning on us; the Progenitors wrote that this race was very paranoid about that possibility, and hence placed strict limits on the capabilities of their AIs. They could only be instructed to attack whoever was operating them presently by feeding them some code that was over 6 billion digits long and known only to a very few among that race.

"Secondly, we have some more information as to the ship's capabilities. A surprisingly large quantity of the ship in fact consists of manufacturing facilities, presumably intended to build ships and ammunition. It's all very self-contained; you feed resources in at one end, plug in the design of whatever you want made, and it comes out the other end. Given the scale of this ship, that should prove very useful - we could produce capital ship segments with amazing speed, and the only limitation would be finding enough crew.

"In addition, the ship, as you have seen from the information we received previously, is quite literally covered in weapons; they have some interesting designs here, including some kind of four-stage anti-fighter system, which is capable of spreading lethal quantities of plasma over an area several hundred metres in diameter. It also has some big main guns, and when I say big, I mean really big. These things are energy beams capable of obliterating small ships in a single blast, or vapourising fortified cities.

"Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, the ship has some kind of energy shield generator on board; it appears to work as some kind of armour reinforcer, by taking part of the energy of a shot and dispersing it across an entire segment. Unfortunately, it's quite badly damaged, and certainly in no state to be used, but hopefully we'll be able to figure out how it works before too long. Further reports will be sent regularly. Mernok out."

*MESSAGE ENDS*

[Mr. President]

Into the Valley of Death

Attention Drone Fleet

You are in violation of threatening sovereign territory held by the Greater Hive Empire. Your forces are ordered to withdraw from the Hive fringe immediately or you will be destroyed. Repeat withdraw or we will be forced to destroy you.

“Get that off the intercom,” Franco spat. He pointed directly at the central Hive Corvette, whose name he could not have known was People’s Vigilance. “That,” he ordered, “is going to be the point of the attack. I need a pincer movement on that ship’s wingmen. And we, my hearties, are going straight through the middle.”

The numbers were overwhelmingly in his favor. Nonetheless, the command center crew glanced at each other nervously. These three ships had appeared so fast, and with the Hive’s deadly ability to hide its ships from scanning, no-one knew what might be lurking on the other side of the welcoming committee. Their training took over, however, and they put the plan into action.

The timing could not have been worse. Five ships outflanked the Hiverians on each wing, led by destroyers Righteousness and Carlos Santos. Just as Franco’s navigator put the Liberty Bell into high gear, propelling it towards the damaged Hive corvette, the proximity sensors triggered.

“What the hell is that?” Franco shouted. But it was too late.

Three more Hive Corvettes had appeared from above and behind the three that had destroyed the Emancipator. They were closing fast. And the Liberty Bell was hurtling towards them at almost four stellar travel units. And hitting the brakes now wouldn’t stop his ship for another half a light-year.

“Commodore! They’re firing!”

“Brace for impact!” The new Corvettes unleashed a wide-angle barrage on the onrushing Drone ships. Franco heard loud screams interspersed with crackling static. A frigate and a cruiser disappeared from his tactical readout. The lights flickered and all the computer readouts went haywire for a moment.

Then they were past them, gradually slowing to a stop. But the braking systems had clearly taken a direct hit, as there was practically no suspension and the command center jerked sickeningly.

“Damage report!” Franco ordered. The answer wasn’t good.

“Severe damage to braking system. Minor damage to weapons, and sensors. Power leak in tertiary conduit. The Hive leader is broadcasting a name. . .Drone Taskmaster.”

Some of the bridge crew turned pale. Surely this was an ill omen . . . Emancipator destroyed, and now the command ship hit by Drone Taskmaster?. The astrometry operator interrupted.

“Commodore! Gravity readings indicate . . . that we are just outside the Oort radius of a star system!”

A Hive system? This was something major. Once they got out of this, he would summon more ships from MI-135 and Station Insider. And they would pound the planet like the wrath of God. What a coup it would be, to put Drone Marines in the caverns of the Hive and disenchant Yang’s mind control! He imagined the headlines: “Slaves Yesterday, Free Drones Today”.

But first, there was much more fighting to be done. He calibrated his sensor readout and saw Righteousness and Carlos Santos’s battle groups engaging the Hiverians. Though they possessed a numerical advantage of ten against six, they were struggling against the enemy’s communal tactics. The corvettes worked in tightly-flown pairs, cutting off cruisers from the destroyer before inflicting heavy damage. For just a moment, Franco marvelled at the precision, the efficiency, the mutual support of the Hive commanders.

Then he ordered, “Order anyone who’s still alive to regroup and head back in there. And make sure someone stays facing the star system. We don’t want any surprises.”

[Lonestar]

University of San Angelo
Beta Hydri 4

Once upon a time, Henry Pym had been the Proctor of this University. Everyday he felt his history stretching behind him farther and farther, and this visit, in many ways, inflicted pain on him. Of the original 17,000 members of the Endeavor mission, there were now less than 200 left. Much better than the number of Unity survivors, but it still made him feel like a fossil.


"...And we are honored to have his Excellancy, visit us today. Without any futher delay, the Lord Protector of Beta Hydri, Roving, Eoforwic, and Sluis Van!"

The University's Preseident's speach snapped him out of his revile. Smiling, Hank stood and walked to the podium. His Foriegn Minister, was off to the side, mouthed It's Done. Pym gave a small nod, and cleared his throat.

"Well I'm glad to be back here at the home of the Minutemen!"

The crowd roared their approval. Pym smiled, let the crowd of students cheer for a bit, and raised his arms. The great mass of soon-to-be graduates quieted.

" All you fine young men and women are here today to get what you worked so hard to achieve, a Diploma. All of you now have your framed pieces of paper, archaic in this day and age, I know, but it's one hard copy that will never crash."

There were a few chuckles, mostly from older faculty members, but even more blank looks. Computers didn't really crash these days in the Protectorate. Hank made a silent d'oh! and pressed on.

"I know what's on your mind today, because it was the same thing that was on my mind at Kyle Field, Texas A&M, lo those many years ago. You're done with your six years of schooling, and are now ready for the real world. Some of you will go on into the civilian sector, some, I see quite a few Cadet Uniforms here, will go on to serve and become citizens. Both are admirable goals...and both have uncertainties. The Cadets', who worked so hard to achieve their commissions, may be wondering if they're up to leading the finest soldiers in the galaxy. I can assure you, if you're anything like the previous classes of USA, there isn't any doubt. You will bring nothing but outstanding Quality to our ranks."

The Cadets cheered, and the civilian students looked mildly peeved. Pym continued.

"For civilians, you may be even more uncertain. In many ways, it is much more difficult to work and live in the private sector than in the citizen one. Work may be more difficult to attain, maintain, and, horrors of horrors, retire from if you find it enjoyable. This is nothing to be worried about, I was underemployed for the first 3 years after my graduation, while working on my first Ph.D. I can assure you, however grim your prospects are, nothing is grimmer than having a BS in Astrophysics and working at a McDonalds."

There was much more laughter now.

"This school, like so many in the Protectorate, produces some of the finest citizens, engineers, teachers, doctors, and just plain good people in the Galaxy. You have nothing to worry about, the future is yours for the taking."

Applause.

"I hope you'll forgive me if I move a bit away from graduation ceremony, and more onto the future. The Future concerns me as well. We were attacked, our beloved Lord Protector nearly killed," Many looked down at the ground, tears in their eyes at the memory, "And have avenged the insult, although at great cost. All the while, a war nearly broke out with those who should be our natural allies, our fellow humans.

"I am not denigating our beloved friendship with our clutch-brothers, the Dosi. Merely commenting on the sad state of affairs when our cousins and ourselves come to blows over trvial differences and misunderstandings.

"Well, no more! Today I am proposeing to Acadamecian Zakharov a new treaty of state. While he has been kind enough to grant us a consulate on Earth, I would like to treat him as we would any other nation; with a complete trade, and a embassy on the Univeristy Capital. The treaty, of course, would have the same terms for the University Alliance.

"Our two nations are both human, both know the immense value of knowledge, especially knowledge for knowledges' sake. I worked with his Father on the Unity project and, while I had many, many, many....," He paused, giving a look of exageratted exhasperation, whcih made a few people chuckle, "..many disagreements with him, he was still a good man. Like his son is. I suspect Prokhor Zakharov would be proud of what his son has accomplished.

"I only have one, minor quibble that might cause trouble for the treaty signing. I do not want to sign it here, on Beta Hydri 4. I do not want it signed on the UA's capital...I want it signed on Earth, in the city of Geneva, which has traditionally and historically been neutral. Mr. Zakharov, the people of the Protectorate are ready to walk into the future...will you join us?

There was a few moments of silence, then the crowd roared it's approval. Pym thought he was going to get his hearing damaged.
--------------------------------

The speech was broadcasted live to University Planets, it was exceedingly like Zakharov would view it soon.

[Frankychan]

Hive Fringe
Aboard the Hive Corvette People's Vigilance
Drone-Hive engagement in progress...

Alarm klaxon's blared throughout the bridge while the crew tried to get things in order. Captain Rubic grasped a railing with his right hand to brace himself to stand.

"Report! I want to know the integrity of the hull."

The last barrage to the ships underside did more damage that what it seemed. Power was failing and weapon systems were operating at minimal efficiency.

"Captain, that last barrage reduced us to 37% efficiency. The underside hull is cracked and we are sealing off the depressurized area's."

Rubic looked at the viewscreen and watched as one of the Drone ships drifted off away from the battle, effectively neutralized.

"What of the Humility and Workman's Dream?"

"Captain, both ships are reporting nominal damage. It seems we took most of the damage."

Captain Rubic shook his head. Ever since his patrol task force intercepted the Drone message, things seemed to spiral out of control. Estimating that the Drones would enter the system before being intercepted, Captain Rubic ordered his patrol task force to attack the Drone fleet in a suicidal attempt to buy Hive command time to organize a defence.

Rubic smirked. 3 Hive ships on Patrol against an entire Drone invasion fleet. Lovely odds.

He continued to watch as the entire Drone fleet advanced on his position and signaled the comm-officer.

"Begin wideban transmission to the Drone fleet."

The comm-officer checked the instruments and nodded, "Ready to begin sir."

Captain Rubic nodded. "After the message has been sent, tell the rest of our ships to target the closest Drone ship for our next attack run."

***********


Attention Drone Fleet

You are in violation of threatening sovereign territory held by the Greater Hive Empire. Your forces are ordered to withdraw from the Hive fringe immediately or you will be destroyed. Repeat withdraw or we will be forced to destroy you.

--------------
Hive Fringe inside Hive space

The three Corvettes from the Hive VII Fleet arrived at their destination without fanfare. The Unification, Tormentor, and Drone Taskmaster took up observational positions and scanned the location where the Drone message originated from.

Immediately, their sensors picked up that 3 additional Hive ships were already engaged with the Drone fleet.

The captain of the Drone Taskmaster picked up the transmission being sent out by the People's Vigilance.

".....you will be destroyed. Repeat withdraw or we will be forced to destroy you."

Captain Durek smiled as the rest of his crew listened to the People's Vigilance threaten the Drone fleet.

Durek spoke.

"Remeber the Emperor's decree. The Drones exist to serve the Hive. Any act of dissention is ordered to be crushed. These Drones think they can invade the Emperor's territory.....they must be taught a lesson."

The crew nodded in unison. No one questioned the fact that the Drones should be taught a lesson....their numerical superiority was not a factor.

"Signal the Unification and Tormentor. We will join our fellow brothers in suppressing the Drones."

The comm-officer nodded.

"Signal the Fleet. Tell them that hostilities between the Drones and Hive forces has begun."

Captain Durek glanced at the massed Drone ships, paused, then addressed the comm-officer one last time.

"And unmask our ships name so that the Drones can see who we are."

[Sovereign]

Ptah’s Throneroom



A metallic clad human rushed up to a solitary figure sitting on an elaborate golden throne. Several other humans with heavier metallic armor stood to attention, while lowering their force staffs into attack position.

The human knelt before the figure on the throne, with head bowed towards the ground.

“My lord! I have news!”

The seated figure, clad in golden armor and a silk cloak spoke.

“Rise. And report.”

The human swallowed, for Ptah is an imposing individual, even more so being a God.

Ptah stood and glared at the human.

“Report!”

“My lord, as you might remember, your forces have valiantly attempted to defend several of your important worlds. The Heathens kept coming, despite your valiant warrior’s efforts.”

“These infidels! We will preserve. Gods are never defeated by infidels!”

“My lord, I have further news.”

“Continue.”

“All contact has been lost in several solar systems, including our major Nadquah mining facilities in the Erathia and Xeen systems. Worse still, our scout drones were able to get a glimpse of the Heathen fleet approaching the Yu system, Lord Yu’s home system. Before being destroyed, the drone sent information regarding the fleet.”

The human swallowed again before continuing.

“Data received indicates that the Heathens have managed to acquire several of our largest capital ships, as well as our recently developed hybrid vessels with Asgard and Fraal technologies. But that’s not the worst thing of all.”

Ptah became more and more livid as his subordinate reported every setback. He kept his face straight, yet it was all he could do not to strike down the subordinate before he finished his report.

The subordinate continued.

“Our three fleet shipyards has been overrun at the Ronvas system. In the final tranmission from there, your Fleet Prime reported that the Heathens have acquired even more ships, because the shipyards were caught completely off guard. They did not have time to initate the self destruct on the majority of the dry-docked ships and new ships under construction. Apparently, the Heathens risked staying in faster than light speeds until the very last millisecond, appearing right next to the shipyards. A small consolation is that several of the Heathen vessels exploded as their engines overloaded due to the gravitional fields emitted by Ronvas VI.

With the loss of our shipyards at Ronvas, we are limited to just two ship building systems. They are in this system and the other one is in the Lendrikas system.”

Ptah kept staring at the subordinate. After a long and uncomfortable silence, he growled out two words.

“Kill him.”

The guards jerked their force pikes slightly, causing the front end to flare to life with a orange energy hue. The four guards jerked their pikes towards the subordinate all at once. Two orange blasts of energy caused two neatly cauterized holes to appear squarely in the middle of the subordinate’s torso. The two other blasts drilled holes in the subordinate’s skull. The unfortunate human fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Ptah motioned to one of the guards.

“You are now my new First Prime. Do not fail me!”

The guard bowed his head, while kneeling in front of Ptah.

“Yes, my lord.”

Alarms began to blare throughout Ptah’s throne pyramid.

The new First Prime quickly made his way towards the console, next to a blank golden slate opposite of Ptah’s throne.

The golden slate took on a life of its own, as it became a viewscreen. The view zoomed past Ptah’s capital planet towards the next planet, Ptaha III.

The First Prime turned towards Ptah with a face of shock.

“My Lord, this simply is not possible.”

Ptah shouted out in frustration.

“What is it?!”

“My Lord, the Heathens are here.”

“What!”

“From the information provided by the sensors on Ptaha III, the Heathen fleet is quite large. My Lord, the sensors have just stopped transmitting data! However, I was able to ascertain the approximate size and numbers of the Heathens.

They appear to have over one hundred battleships, three hundred heavy cruisers, six hundred ships of destroyer to cruiser class, and several dozen of your ships, presumably captured. In addition, there are several six kilometer monsters, which is likely their carriers. However, there are also four of these unindentified nine kilometer behemoths.

I have a running inventory of your forces in this system and nearby ones. We have a total of about one hundred ziggurat vessels, two hundred Ha’tak vessels, several dozen hybrid vessels, and the planetary defenses. We are outnumbered by almost three to one.”


For the first time in as long as Ptah could remember, he felt one emotion. The forbidden emotion of the Goa’uld.


Fear.

[Lonestar]

Chiron Space Command
Nessus Prime

It was a slow watch. It was always a slow watch. Technical Sergeant Pardeep of the Peacekeeprs for the UN Mission to Chiron watched the sensor screens lazily. The Even lazier orbits of the hundreds of Peacekeeper warships and 4 dozen or So Terran ships that had fled to Chiron in the aftermath of Earth's conquest made her sleepy.

She sighed and took another sip of her Slurm soda. Then she glanced at her chronomter for the 5 time in the last minute. Jesus, she was so bored! She heard footsteps walking up behind, and sighed again. Right on time.

"So, Pardeep, you doing anything Saturday?" Tech Sergeant Chan asked, the same damn thing he asked every watch.

"Yes. But not with you."

"Oh." And he walked away like a puppy again. Pardeep sighed and glanced back at the screen...and did a doubletack. There was an unusual elevation of Tachyon particles...and there wasn't any one scheduled to arrive in that particular sector for another hour...The number of tachyons grew and grew....Jesus it was big! She grabbed the Microphone.

"Alert! Alert! Large Inbound Sector 23-1!"

------------------------------------

UNS Calicut

Captain Bhutto leaned forward. By God it was big. And it was just sitting there, completely powered down, battered, and devoid of life if the sensors were reading it correctly.

It was the largest Progenitor ship he'd ever seen, but was it Caretaker of Usurper? The ship looked un salvable, they must have done evrything just to get here. Were they really that Obsessed with Chiron?

The Comm officer turned and spoke to Bhutto...

"Sir...we're getting a rather large data transmission, from the ship. It's addressed to Secretary-General Lal...and it's repeating."

Bhutto scratched his chin. "Inform the Joint Chiefs. Better yet, put them on the phone. This needs to get up as fast as possible."

[Lonestar]

Kelowna Orbit

Larel Transported onboard her flagship, the Star Domniator Manifold Gaurdian. She was quivering with rage. It appeared as if the only Caretakers who would break with the Grand Council's Decision were the warships directly under her countrol.

This was not good.

Soon the Proginator Union, under that Madman Shagrat would go to war with the Sashanians, and then on to the Orion Arm. The Only power of note there were the Dosi, as it seemed the Gorn/Bree deathstruggle was finally ending. The Humans would be wiped out in a matter of months. If the Caretakers won't stand up to Shagrat, others would have to.

This would mean betraying my race to Humanity. Still, they must be told. Larel turned to the Astrogator.

"Set course to the Sixth Manifold. Even our Escorts to prepare for an interdiction."

The engines roared to life, and even 15 km away from the start of the main plant, she could feel the ship viberate. Her personal comm on the command chair chirp. She answered it, and Shagrat (no, Supreme Leader Shagrat, damn him!) appeared on the viewer. He had a look of barely contained glee.

"I don't recall giving your ship clearance to leave orbit, Larel."

"We're leaving Shagrat, I do not recognize this farce. Someone has to stop you." Larel was notcing about a dozen of other Proginator ships, some Shagrat's, some other's (all Shagrat's now!) were getting into attack postion.

"I'm sorry you feel that way." Shagrat said, with what he probably thought sounded like remorse. The Proginator vessles opened up on Larel's little flotilla. Her escorts started to explode, then the Manifold Guardian shook violently as the sin guns poured unto her. The Hull was screeching as it buckled, and the shields failed.

"Drive activating in five...four...three...two..."

Larel saw a flash of light, then nothing.

[Sovereign]

Lubrecht Research Facility
500 Kilometers deep inside the planetary mantle of Nova Secundis VIII

“What is the progress on Subject 87,463?”

“The Subject has shown significant response to the experiment.”

“I was under the impression that the drug would cause severe brain damage, due to disruption of neural activity between the host’s brain and the symbiote.”

“The Subject has responded to several rudimentary commands, such as ‘sit’ and ‘raise arms’. However, there still are issues with higher brain functions.”

“Such as?”

“Subjects have failed to think for themselves. They cannot formulate solutions to problems, and they have shown no signs of creativity that is the sign of sentient species. Their communication is nonexistent. They do understand our commands, but fail to procure any verbal or intelligent response to any type of conversation.”

“We must have these Subjects retain their higher brain functions. Otherwise, the Academician will be quite upset by the loss of untapped resources.”

“The problem is our viral agent. It keeps attacking the Reasoning centers of the brain, instead of the Memory centers. The actual problem lies in that the Reasoning center cells seem to be, for a lack of a better word, more ‘delicious’ to the viral agent. One other problem is that the symbiote overcomes the virus, due to its regenerative abilities. Once the virus is eliminated, the symbiote ‘re-boots’ the Jaffa’s mentality.”

“Fix it. You know the price of failure.”

“I have been trying for the past few weeks!”

“This facility has the most advanced bio-genetic technology, tools, and devices in the Human Sector. There is no excuse for failure, given the circumstances and the tools at your disposal.”

The tall and slender officer in a pure black uniform latched his steely glare on the thin, pale skinned, and bald scientist.

“If you persist in making excuses for not making progress, we will have to make the effort to have you reassigned.”

The officer leaned across the comatose body of Subject 87,463 and drew out the syllables of the last word.

Two long heartbeats later, a plump scientist ran into the laboratory room, out of breath. His hair was slightly disheveled, eyes widened a little too much, and had several sweat drops forming on his forehead.

“The two new RNA strands did it! It has finally achieved the solution to our problems! With the addition of the strand, the virus rejects the ‘taste’ of the Reasoning centers in Subject 5,291’s brain. Instead, it flocks to the Memory centers, rewriting memories, and erasing the memories we do not want him to keep. In addition, the second RNA strand enables the virus to mutate into a secondary form, to purely focus on breaking down the symbiote into organic waste matter.”

The officer turned towards the plump scientist, with a genuine smile.

“You did what the Senior Scientist in charge of this project couldn’t do. You solved the problem, so I shall put you up for recommendation.”

The elder scientist shrank even further.

The younger scientist spoke up again.

“Test results in hundreds of other subjects should be arriving any minute now. If it proves successful, we can enter full production of the viral agent within the day. One gallon of the viral agent should be enough to affect an area the size of Australia on Earth.”

“Very good. Procure several thousand gallons of the viral agent, with a quarter-million gallons by the end of the next week.”

Three minutes later, a nondescript scientist arrived, full of exuberance.

“The test results are positive! The two RNA strands have aided the virus in its intended purpose. It is now able to congregate in the Memory centers of the brain, rewriting memory cells to become blank slates. We had successes using nanites to add memories and impulses. Examples of this include memories of being a citizen of the University Alliance, along with absolute loyalty. The symbiotes were broken down into waste matter far quicker than we anticipated.”

The officer scribbled several notes in his datapad.

“Excellent. Begin production immediately. I shall notify the Head of Intelligence that the Jaffa Solution has been completed.”

--------------------------------

Flyer 743 woke up to a tingling sensation throughout his body. He could not pinpoint the exact origin of the tingling, but he knew for certain that something had happened.

He thought he had died, for his world was black. He opened his eyes, and the surroundings did not change. A few minutes passed by, then a pinprick of light shimmered into view in the ceiling, directly above his stomach. He stared at it, as the pinprick grew in size. Several more minutes later, the light grew to the size of a human fist.

Flyer 743 could make out a man sitting in a chair to his left, in a black uniform.

The man spoke in clipped tones.

“What is your name?”

“Jas’tuh.”

“What is your planet of origin, and home region?”

“The planet Leftwyne, and I grew up in the village of Dadlos.”

“What is your occupation?”

“A fighter pilot.”

“What civilization does Leftwyne belong to?”

“The University Alliance.”

“Who is Ptah?”

“A monster that deserves to be destroyed.”

“Why?”

“Ptah is a evil creature bent on eliminating the free will of people, and the enslavement of the entire Human Race.”

“Whom do you serve?”

“The Academician.”

“Very well. You may return to duty, upon a final comphrensive examination to determine your health.”

Jas’tuh noticed the tingling sensation was gone. He slowly swung his legs over to the side of the cot, and tentatively stood up. His eyes had become accustomed to the lighting provided by the glowing sphere in the ceiling. He could make out a door several meters in the opposite direction from the seated man.

“Dismissed, Jas’tuh.”

As the door closed behind Jas’tuh, the officer opened a communication channel.

“Ronald Suverich reporting.

Subject 80,772 has proved that the viral agent was a success. The viral agent only attacks the Jaffa, due to the presence of the symbiote within. I am unaffected, because I am a pureblood Human, with no traces of any parasitic symbiotes inside myself.

The Subject, to all extents, has had a successful memory modification. He remembers some of his original history, but the roles of his leaders and loyalties have switched perfectly. He now is loyal to the Academician, and considers Ptah a monster.

In my interrogations of several dozen other subjects, similar patterns have emerged. They retain some of their original memories, such as their names and homelands. Some subjects have been able to recall their previous occupations. However, memories of the most questionable occupations such as advisers or personal Goa’uld bodyguards, appear to have been overwritten with less important ones, such as farmers or hunters.

It is my belief that the success of the Jaffa Solution is an absolute certainty. We will be able to transform the Goa’uld pet warriors into a civilized and loyal society, depriving the Goa’uld of approximately ninety to ninety-five percent of their Human fighting forces.

End Report.”