StarDestroyer.Net BBS

A Change of Fate

I own neither Stargate or Halo...this is entirely written for enjoyment and no money will be made.

EDIT: This is technically my sister's (DX1998 on FF.N) story. I post this here with her permission.

Part 1: A New Home...

********************
USS Odyssey

May 13th 2007 (outside time-dilation field, 2057 inside)

A deep silence echoed through the halls of the USS Odyssey. Instead of the normal bustle of a ship and its crew, nothing at all made a noise. There was a small humming noise from the machinery, but that was the extent of things. And even that was quieter than it should have been, as the vessel was slowly shutting down as it aged, and its systems ran out of power.

If one walked through the halls, they would see small signs of rust, and other hints of the vessels age. If they continued further, they would start to hear soft voices coming from a side room. Inside the room, were the only people aboard the Odyssey. Looking at the group, it was readily apparent that the years had not been kind to them either.

There were two women sitting at the table, both with long graying hair. One of them was looking at a man standing next to the window, his hair somewhat long too. The other was eating some food across from another old man, with hair nearly as long as her own. The only person in the room who was not showing his age was a tall, well muscled man with only a single streak of gray hair.
The group appeared to be in the middle of an argument, though why wasn’t readily apparent.

“One of us has to stay like this? No offense, but I could do without the arthritis,” the man next to the window said.

“It has to be that way Cam. One of us needs to remember what happened, or we’ll be in the same situation…the time reversal will erase any memories of these years,” one of the women said.

“Well it certainly can’t be you then Sam,” the man, Cam Mitchell, said.

“I agree with Cam,” the other old man said, “We need your mind too much to let you stay this age Sam.”

Sam Carter turned to the man, “Daniel, the same goes for you. You know more about the Ancients and the Asgard than anyone.”

“Well I certainly won’t do it,” the other woman said, “I want my old body back thank you. This one is so old and ugly.”

Daniel Jackson was the one to turn his head this time, “Really Vala?”

Vala Mal Doran shrugged, “Hey, I’m just being honest. Don’t tell me you like this either Daniel.”

The argument the group was involved in was which of them was going to stay the age they currently were. The reason why one of them had to do so was simple…all one had to do was look out a window, and they could see a golden bolt of energy seemingly frozen in time. The Odyssey was sitting in a Time-Dilation field, with an attacking Ori Mothership right outside of it. The reason that this affected one of them staying old was also simple…the current plan was to use the energy of the beam to reverse time inside the field. The problem was that it would also erase any memories of the fifty years that the crew had spent in the field.

Thus, one of them would be shielded and have a crystal to shut down the Asgard Legacy, which would stop the Ori from tracing them. Of course, none of them particularly wanted to remain their current age, but all in the room knew it was needed. The last person in the room had been listening silently for that very reason. But now, he stood up and addressed the group.

“I shall do it. As a Jaffa, I age far slower than a human,” the man said.

“Oh come on Teal’c…you’ve lost just as much as we have. You’re what…150 now?” Cam said, waving a hand at Teal’c.

The Jaffa warrior just raised an eyebrow, “I am the only choice Colonel Mitchell.”

Before Cam could argue, Sam started to support her friend, “I have to agree with Teal’c on this one. The rest of us are at our limits.
But still…are you sure about this Teal’c?”

This time Teal’c just nodded, which was all Sam needed. She stood up and set out for the control room for the Asgard Legacy. They had wasted enough time after all…why bother waiting any longer than was needed? Teal’c followed her, while Cam continued to stare out the window. Quickly realizing what was going to happen soon, Daniel and Vala left to the formers quarters. This would be the last time they could stay together like this, and they were not going to waste it.

While they were going to the quarters, Sam and Teal’c had reached the Core Room. In front of them was a large Asgard device, identified by its smooth design and almost translucent white coloration. It had a gentle hum, indicating that it was still providing what power it had left to maintaining the field.

Sam walked up to the core, and moved one of the crystals on top. With that done, a panel opened in the middle of the device, holding several more crystals. Sam removed one of the panels, and handed it to a silent Teal’c.

“This is the program that will disconnect the core. You have to get this to me before I activate the time dilation field. It will be for nothing if you don’t do that,” the scientist said seriously.

Teal’c nodded again, “I will Colonel Carter.”

Sam smiled lightly, “I know you will Teal’c. I’ll miss this time I spent with you, Cam, Daniel…I’ll even miss the time with Vala.”

Teal’c remained silent, but his presence was enough for Sam. She let the smile trail off, and gave Teal’c instructions on where he needed to be for the shield to work. As the Jaffa walked off, Sam started to manipulate the console. The moment that her friend reached his destination, she activated a shield around his body, and dropped the dilation field.

The previously stationary Ori beam shot forward, and hit the shieldless Odyssey right in its long neck. The beam tore clean through, setting off a cascade of explosions, and destroying the ship piece by piece. In the center of this stood Teal’c, enclosed in his shield as fire grew around him. But as the stoic Jaffa watched, the fire receded, and the Odyssey ‘rebuilt’ itself.

But Teal’c neither knew, nor expected, just what that beam had done…

*************************

“Whatever you’re going to do Carter do it quick!!” Cam shouted from the bridge, as sparks flew around his head.

“Almost there…” Sam muttered under her breath, but right as she was about to start the dilation field, a hand stopped her.

Looking up, Sam saw Teal’c…but he looked different. There was a streak of gray in his hair, where before it had been pure black. Teal’c shook his head, and handed Sam a crystal. Trusting her friend, Sam inserted the crystal where he showed her to. As soon as the crystal was inserted, the Core shut down.

“Cam! The Core is down, we can jump to hyperspace now!!” Sam called through the radio.

But they didn’t feel the characteristic jump, and the Odyssey seemed to have not moved at all. This obviously confused both Sam and Teal’c, as they should have jumped, or the Ori beam would have destroyed them.

“Cam?” Sam asked.

Silence reigned, before Cam’s voice came over the radio, “The Ori ship…it isn’t there anymore. It just vanished into thin air.”

Sam and Teal’c looked at each other, both showing confused looks (or as confused as Teal’c ever showed).

Sam reached for her radio again, “Can you confirm that Cam? It just vanished? No hyperspace window?”

“Yeah, no hyperspace window or anything. It was there one second, and gone the next. Any idea what happened Carter?” the Colonel asked.

Sam really looked confused now. Unless the Ori suddenly had cloaks, they shouldn’t have just vanished like that. The only other explanation that made sense was the Ancients finally getting involved, but that was about as likely as a Goa’uld showing up to help.

Sam turned to Teal’c before gesturing for the door, “We need to get up to the bridge Teal’c.”

The Jaffa nodded, “Indeed.”

The pair left the Core, and started to ascend to the bridge. The ship was quiet, as no one else was wandering the halls. They had dropped off the crew before fleeing the Ori, and it showed. The only other people aboard the Odyssey were already on the bridge.

As Sam and Teal’c walked into said room, they saw Cam, Daniel, Landry, and Vala looking out the expansive window. All of them were looking towards where the Ori ship had previously been. But instead of the distinctive white warship, there was just a twinkling star field. Not even any debris to indicate the vessel had been destroyed.

Daniel was the first to notice Sam and Teal’c, and turned around. He naturally noticed Teal’c’s new gray streak, and commented on it.

“Teal’c…what happened to your hair?” the former Archeologist asked.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow, as the rest of the ‘crew’ turned around.

Vala was the second one to notice, “Yeah Muscles…dyeing your hair?”

The eyebrow rose higher, before Landry cut off the conversation, “As interesting as this is, do you have any idea how this Ori ship vanished?”

Sam looked over the sensor readings while Vala continued to examine Teal’c. Nothing that she saw made sense however…by all rights that Ori ship should still have been out there. The Odyssey had not moved in the slightest, and all the stars looked the sa…wait…

“Sir…you need to see this,” Sam said, bringing up an image of the star charts.

Landry walked up and examined the chart. He didn’t see anything different though.

“What am I looking at Colonel?” the General asked.

Sam brought up another star chart. And when one looked closely, they could see that in the first chart the stars were in a slightly different position.

“The first chart is the star chart from our current position. The second one is what it should be,” Sam explained.

“What it ‘should’ be?” Daniel asked, almost dreading the answer.

Sam nodded curtly, “Yes…according to the sensors, the stars have accumulated about 500 years of stellar drift. Whatever happened…it shot us forward that far.”

One could have heard a pin drop on the bridge of the cruiser. This was easily the only way the situation they had been in could have gotten worse. They had gone from being on their way back to Earth, hounded by the Ori, to being sling-shotted several hundred years into the future.

This was an ominous situation…was Earth still the same? Or had the Ori managed to conquer the planet? Would they return to find a slave world? Or a destroyed wasteland?

Questions like these were running through the heads of every member of the crew. The most prevalent question by far however, was if they could find a way back home. None of them wanted to believe they were stranded, with good reason.

“Sam…can you get us back?” Daniel asked.

Sam continued to study the sensor logs, before slumping her shoulders. She slowly turned around, and just as slowly shook her head.

“I can’t. I honestly don’t even know what happened to get us here…” the Colonel said sadly.

Teal’c stepped forward, “I can explain what I know Colonel Carter.”

And with that, he gave the group on the bridge a short tale of the 50 years he had spent on the Odyssey. The Jaffa cut out most of the details, and focused on Sam’s plan to save them from the Ori. When he detailed the plan to use the power in the Ori Beam to power the Core, Sam sighed and interrupted her old friend.

“That must be what did it then. I can’t believe what I was thinking…the power in that beam couldn’t be controlled. It is a miracle this is all that happened to us,” Sam said with a shake of her head.

“Hey now…don’t go blaming yourself Carter,” Cam said with a shake of his own head, “We’re still alive aren’t we?”

Of course, that was only technically true. While the group was indeed still alive where they were, they were ‘dead’ back home. And without the technology aboard the Odyssey…Earth most likely fell. Even the Antarctic Weapons Platform couldn’t hold back the Ori. And that was putting a damper on the mood of all aboard the cruiser. But they couldn’t let it stop them. So Landry stepped back up to the Captain’s chair, and started to give out orders.

“We can’t stay here. What is the nearest planet with a Stargate Colonel?” the older man asked.

“P3X-579 sir,” Sam answered immediately.

Landry nodded, “Is the Hyperdrive functional?”

Sam nodded herself, “Yes sir.”

“Then get us underway Colonel Mitchell,” Landry replied, turning to Cam.

The Colonel nodded, and sat in the vacant helm position. He activated the sublight engines first, sending the cruiser on a new course. Then he activated the Asgard Hyperdrive, sending the ship launching forward at speeds that no other race could hope to match. It would only take them a matter of minutes to reach P3X-579, though none of them knew exactly what they would find…

******************

Sigma Octanus System

UNSC Iroquois

July 17th, 2552

Meanwhile, a larger ship coasted through space. This vessel was also human in design, but it looked nothing like the Odyssey. This vessel was coated in heavy armor, and an even more angular/utilitarian design. As it floated through space, its four engines propelled it forward at a leisurely pace.

The ship was the UNSC Iroquois, a destroyer that had only recently been assigned to this system. This vessel was typical of its class, only being identified by the large red ‘warstripes’ painted along its side hull. At the moment it was on an extended patrol around the Sigma Octanus system, keeping an eye out for any Covenant incursions.

On the bridge of the vessel, Commander Jacob Keyes was idly tapping his old pipe against the arm of his command seat. It was a habit of his, along with chewing on the tip. He had only recently (a couple of months beforehand) taken command of the Iroquois, and this was a fairly routine mission.

Nothing in sight, and no sign of the Covenant. Let’s hope it stays that way, Keyes thought, looking out at space.

But while he was looking, an alarm started to blare throughout the bridge the destroyer. Keyes quickly stood up, as one of his crew called out what was causing the alarm.

“Unknown spatial disturbance ahead! Not consistent with Covenant or UNSC Splipspace portals!” the officer called out.

“Weapons! Charge the MAC and ready the Archer Pods,” Keyes belted out, as it was better to be prepared than caught flat-footed.

“MAC is charging, 10 percent and climbing,” Aki Hikowa called out, “Archer pods warmed and ready for firing.”

Keyes nodded in approval…he had been worried about his weapons officer, and she was proving to be competent. Now it was a wait to see exactly what was rapidly approaching Sigma Octanus. And it wasn’t a long wait, as a massive purple…rip…in space appeared in front of the Iroquois. It was similar to a Splipspace vortex, but different at the same time.

As the crew of the destroyer looked on, a small ship shot out of the ‘rip’ at an insane velocity. The ship then quickly slowed down, before coasting to a halt in front of the Iroquois. Looking at the ship, it bore some resemblance to UNSC ships. But it was more streamlined, and was only slightly bigger than a Corvette.

What was odd was the fact that the vessel couldn’t be quickly classified. At first, one would think it was a Corvette, due to the size and lack of a MAC gun. But the pods on the side appeared to be for fighters, which no Corvette could carry. And the power readings were off the charts, more equivalent to the likes of a Cruiser than a Corvette.

The ship seemed content to just float in space though. It made no move to attack the Iroquois or move past the Destroyer. Keyes was somewhat confused by this. If the ship in front of him was some experimental UNSC design (considering it looked like it could be), it would have communicated with him by now. And if it were, God forbid, a Covenant trick, they would have fired on the Iroquois. The whole situation was maddeningly confusing.

“Has the vessel made any attempts at communication?” Keyes asked.

Lieutenant Hall shook her head, “Nothing sir.”

Keyes nodded slightly, “Very well. Send out a query of who they are and their purpose here. It may be an experimental ship of ONI’s.”
Hall nodded and started to send out the ordered message. At first, the other ship remained silent, before a voice came over the radio.

“This is General Hank Landry in command of the USS Odyssey of Earth. Who am I speaking to?” an older male voice echoed over the radio.

In an eerie repeat of the earlier situation aboard the Odyssey one could hear a pin drop on the bridge of the UNSC vessel. All of the crew looked at each other, forgetting military protocol in a joint moment of shock. It seemed like this was indeed a human warship…but there was no vessel in the UNSC Navy known as ‘Odyssey’. And the ‘USS’ prefix hadn’t been used in centuries.

Unsurprisingly, Keyes was the first to recover. He walked up to Hall’s station and started to talk to the other ship, “This is the UNSC Iroquois, Commander Keyes commanding. You will understand if I’m doubtful of your identification. The UNSC is the military arm of Earth and her Colonies, and I have never heard of a Corvette named Odyssey.”

There was silence over the comms again, before Landry came back, “Earth and her Colonies? UNSC?”

“Yes, and I can only assume that you are Insurrectionists if you are not Covenant or UNSC,” Keyes said, using the only option that really made sense, “If so, I have to ask you to halt any forward movement and power down any weapons.”

The Odyssey still hadn’t moved, but that didn’t mean much. The scans from the Iroquois were being reflected somehow, and they couldn’t get a good reading on its weapons.

“We are not what you call ‘Insurrectionists’. This will be hard to believe, but our vessel is not from this reality, or even this time period,” Landry said, to shocked looks, “Have you ever heard of the alternate reality theories? It is possible, though difficult, to travel between them. We had a malfunction in our power systems, and it somehow sent us here.”

Keyes frowned at that explanation. After all, it went against everything he had ever learned in his years serving the UNSC. There had been ideas that it was possible to use Slipspace to break into another reality, but it was just that…an idea. There was no proof that an alternate reality existed. And time travel was just as hard to believe.

“That is hard to believe Odyssey. All of the UNSC’s experiments indicate that it should not be possible to break the dimensional barrier, even assuming there truly are alternate realities,” Keyes replied, “The same goes for time travel.”

“Perhaps we can send over our sensor log…” Landry started, before an alarm could be heard in the background, “Our long rage sensors just picked up something. We can’t tell what it is though.”

Keyes turned to his own crew, where one of them was holding up a report. The report was from a Slipspace monitoring station, which had picked up a large mass approaching Sigma Octanus. At first, it looked like a rogue asteroid, but that was horribly rare. Keyes remembered reading a report by one of the ‘washed-out’ Spartans, that might explain this. Large masses in Slipspace distorted space more than in normal space. And if one flew in close enough formation…like the Covenant could do…

Keyes’ eyes widened slightly. If he was calculating this right, the mass was four Covenant Frigates. More than a match for a single UNSC Destroyer like the Iroquois. But he still had to do something to stop the intruders.

“Where is the anomaly exiting Slipspace?” the Commander asked quickly.

An outline appeared on the tactical board a few dozen kilometers behind the Odyssey, “That is our best guess sir.”

Keyes nodded and turned to his helmsman, “Get us there Lieutenant!”

The man looked distinctly unhappy, but he still fired the engines and started to move the Iroquois to its destination. The Odyssey moved out of the way, not sure exactly what was going on. But they got their answer as a large purple hole opened in space, vomiting out not four frigates…but two frigates, a destroyer, and a large carrier…

Deleted.

I really need to stop with making new fics...in any case, I stalled on ANH, which is what this used to be. I do however have this idea going, and it is proving FAR easier to write. Still just an interest check here though I am still posting it on FF.N.

EDIT: Since my sister is fine with me saying so now, she is the one who wrote this. And she likes the interest it got.

Sigma Octanus System

July 17th 2552

UNSC Iroquois/USS Odyssey
****************

"What are they doing? We mentioned that anomaly and they just start ignoring us?" Cam wondered aloud.

And the 'UNSC' ship was indeed ignoring them now. The much larger warship was heading past the Odyssey at what looked like flank speed. It provided the SGC crew a nice profile view, inducing a couple raised eyebrows at the 'warstripes' painted on the ship. As they watched the ship move past their own flank, the sensors started to blare a warning again.

"Whatever that anomaly is, it's getting closer…and larger," Sam said, zeroing in on a part of space, right where the Iroquois was heading.

As the crew watched, a massive purple tear opened in space. It wasn't a hyperspace window, though it did seem similar. But instead of seeing part of the blue tunnel that was hyperspace, all there was in the center was a black abyss that seemed to swallow all light. Out of this abyss came four warships, all of an odd design.

They looked almost like an Asgard warship with the sleek, predatory lines. But they had large bulges on the front in the case of the larger ships, and the smaller ones looked almost like a teardrop. And even the smaller ships were far larger than the Odyssey. The difference in size was like comparing a mouse to a lion. The largest ship was as big as an Asgard Mothership, and looked just as powerful. And all the ships had high power readings, and some sort of shielding system.

"The smaller ships are charging some sort of weapon!" Sam called out, having taken over the sensors by now.

And a look out the window revealed the weapons. The flanks of the 'smaller' ships were glowing an angry red, as something charged along their flanks. As the light grew more and more bright, it discharged in an angry red…blob…that flew like it was being guided.

"It looks like some sort of plasma weapon! That ship is using magnetic fields to guide it," Sam reported, as the plasma flew at the Iroquois.

"Now what are they doing?!" Cam interrupted, watching as the 'UNSC' ship flew right at the middle-sized ship.

It seemed like the Iroquois was going at flank speed right at the larger purple warships. For their part, the other vessels ignored the comparatively tiny Odyssey and directed their plasma at the larger destroyer. It seemed like Keyes was suicidal, as the Iroquois didn't move out of the way of the plasma.

But at what seemed like the last possible second, the Iroquois moved out of the way of the plasma. It looked like the destroyer had fired some sort of emergency thruster, as it jerked like someone was pulling it out of the way. But despite that move, it continued on at what looked like its full speed. The plasma turned around, and started to literally chase the ship though.

"They can guide it this long? What kind of technology is that…" Daniel muttered, impressed by this new race.

As the SGC crew watched, they saw the plasma continue to track the Iroquois which didn't change course at all. The frigates turned to follow the destroyer, as it continued on to its purple equivalent. The Covenant Destroyer didn't bother to turn, as they expected their shields to take the kamikaze UNSC ship without being depleted. What they didn't expect was the Iroquois to make a last minute turn. The UNSC destroyer barely grazed the Covenant shields, though it still tore off all the lower armor and bulkheads.

The plasma following the Iroquois couldn't make a course correction in time, and first one, then both, bolts slammed into the larger warship. The silvery sheen of the Covenant shields held for a second against the first bolt, but it eventually failed, allowing the second bolt to gut the ship. The fleeing Iroquois fired a barrage of missiles, taking down what remained of the ship, before beginning a sling-shot around the planet.

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Odyssey the crew was somewhat slack-jawed as they looked at the results of Keyes maneuver.

"That has got to be the craziest move I've ever seen," Cam said with a little awe in his voice, "but it worked!"

The rest of the crew nodded (or in Teal'c's case grunted). That was indeed the craziest move in a spaceship they had ever seen. And that was saying something considering what Sam and Daniel had gotten up to.

But they were distracted by Sam noticing something, "There is something floating between the smaller ships. Sensors are scanning…it's a nuke! And a powerful one too!"

Shocked looks once again reigned aboard the Odyssey…just what was Keyes planning now…

*****************************

"We lost all of our bottom armor, and the lower decks are exposed to vacuum sir!" Hall called out, as alarms blared in the bridge of the Iroquois.

Keyes nodded, and watched as the Covenant ships receded into the background, "Fire Archer pods A1-C1!"

With that order, dozens of missiles flew out from the destroyer's missile pods, impacting what was left of the Covenant destroyer. The ship detonated in a massive fireball, obscuring the enemy frigates. Keyes took advantage of the distraction to push his damaged ship even further, getting into a slingshot orbit of Sigma Octanus IV.

"Engine coolant failure, sir," Lieutenant Hall said.

"Shut the engines down," he ordered, "Emergency vent."

"Aye, sir. Venting fusion reactor plasma."

The Iroquois was abruptly quiet. No rumble of her engines. The ship was dark and silent as it flew through space, the vista of Sigma Octanus IV in the foreground. The crew was silent until Lieutenant Hikowa stood and said, "Sir, that was the most brilliant maneuver I have ever seen."

Commander Keyes gave a short laugh. "You think so, Lieutenant?"

If one of his students had proposed such a maneuver in his tactics class, he would have given them a C+. He would have told them their maneuver was full of bravado and daring . . . but extremely risky, placing the crew and the ship in unnecessary danger. And highly unlikely to work, without destroying the ship attempting it. But he didn't show that in front of the crew, they didn't need to see doubt.

"This isn't over yet. Stay sharp," he told them, keeping their minds occupied, on something other than the damage they had just taken, "Lieutenant Hikowa what is the charge status of the MAC guns?"

"Capacitors at ninety-five percent, sir, and draining at a rate of three percent per minute."

"Ready MAC guns, one heavy round apiece. Arm all forward Archer missile pods."

"Aye, sir."

The Iroquois continued to coast through space around Sigma Octanus. The dark side of the planet shone with the light of its cities, creating a beautiful vista. But the UNSC crew weren't focused on that. They were waiting for their ship to finish rounding the planet, and as the Iroquois broke free of the dark side of Sigma Octanus IV, Keyes began belting out orders again.

"Fire chemical thrusters to break orbit, Lieutenant Hall."

"Firing, aye."

There was a brief rumble. The screen centered on the backsides of the two Covenant frigates they had passed on the way in, with the Odyssey floating in the distance, seemingly ignored.

The alien ships started to come about; blue flashes flickered along their hulls as their laser turrets charged. Motes of red collected along their lateral lines. They were readying another salvo of plasma torpedoes, aiming to destroy the Iroquois for good.

There was something there, however, that was too small to see on the view screen: the nuke. Keyes had launched that missile in the opposite direction—but its reverse thrust had not completely overcome their tremendous forward velocity.

As the Iroquois had screamed over the prow of the destroyer, and as they orbited Sigma Octanus IV, the nuke had drifted closer to the frigates . . . who had fixed their attention solidly on the Iroquois, ignoring the nuke and the Odyssey. This would be the last mistake the Covenant commanders would ever make.

Commander Keyes tapped his data pad and sent the signal to detonate the bomb.

There was a flash of white and the alien ships vanished as a cloud of destruction enveloped them. Waves of the destructive energy interacted with the magnetic field of Sigma Octanus IV, wreathing the planet in an artificial aurora. The cloud of vapor expanded and cooled, and faded till nothing remained of the explosion, or the nuke.

Both Covenant frigates, however, were still intact. Their shields, however, flickered once . . . then went dead.

"Get me firing solutions for the MAC guns, Lieutenant Hikowa. On the double," Keyes ordered.

"Aye, sir. MAC gun capacitors at ninety-three percent. Firing solution online."

"Fire, Lieutenant Hikowa."

Two thumps resonated through the hull of the Iroquois as the MAC's fired their heaviest shells.

"Lock remaining Archer missile pods on targets and fire."

"Missiles away, Commander."

If one was looking at the Iroquois they would have seen it disappear in a wall of fire as hundreds of missiles flew out from their pods. In front of the swarm of missiles were two 600 ton MAC shells, hurtling at an appreciable portion of the speed of light towards the Covenant warships.


When the MAC shells hit, they tore clean through the Covenant ships. One of the frigates was holed clean through, from its nose to its tail. The other ship was hit on her midline, right near the engines. Internal explosions chained up the length of that ship, bulging its hull from the damage.

The Archer missiles impacted seconds later, exploding through chunks of hull and armor, tearing the alien ships apart. The frigate that had taken the hit in its engines blew apart, spewing fire and debris in every conceivable direction. The other ship was lit up with internal fires, her internal structure exposed to vacuum. The frigate turned towards the Iroquois, but it didn't fire a single weapon. It was dead in space, just drifting.

"Position of the Covenant carrier, Lieutenant Hall?"

Lieutenant Hall paused, then reported, "In polar orbit around Sigma Octanus Four. But she's moving off at considerable speed. Wait…it's charging a plasma torpedo…"

"What is it targeting?" Keyes asked, even if he knew his ship was in no shape to attack.

"The Odyssey! Torpedo has been fired!" Hall replied.

As the crew watched in dismay, a massive ball of plasma headed straight for the corvette-sized ship. The Odyssey made no attempt to move, despite the bridge crew of the Iroquois begging it to move in their thoughts. Before their shocked eyes, the Odyssey vanished in the wall of plasma.

"The torpedo hit its target…the Odyssey is gone," Hikowa reported, a sad tone to her voice. After all, from all indications the crew of that vessel was just as human as she was.

Keyes started to turn away from the view-port, but a shocked gasp drew his attention back. As he looked on, the plasma dissipated, revealing the corvette to be unscathed. A blue energy barrier, similar to, yet not identical to, the Covenant's shields surrounding it.

"What am I seeing?" Keyes asked one of the other bridge officers.

"It appears that the Odyssey has some sort of shield system…they have suffered no damage from the plasma," the officer replied with a slight bit of awe in his voice.

All of the crew was more than a little shocked. Not only did a human warship have shields, but they were more powerful than the Covenant variety. No Covvie warship that small could take a Carrier's torpedo with no damage.

"Commander Keyes," Landry's voice came back, "Who just attacked us?"

"The Covenant…a group of alien races determined to wipe out humanity," Keyes answered, figuring that maybe…just maybe, Landry had been telling the truth with his wild story.

There was silence over the radio, before Landry said, "Acknowledged…excuse us while we destroy that ship."

And with that, the line was cut. Keyes had been ready to warn the Odyssey off, as shield or no shield, the ship couldn't possibly take on a carrier more than five times its size and win. But the corvette continued on, heading right towards the massive Covenant warship.

The carrier fired another torpedo, but this time the Odyssey dodged the angry red fire. The small ship displayed maneuverability far in excess of a UNSC ship, and was soon catching up with the carrier. The Odyssey fired off a handful of missiles that were intercepted by the pulse laser turrets.

The Odyssey was then forced to shoot 'up' relative to the carrier to avoid its return fire. What neither the Covenant nor Keyes noticed was a small flash of light next to the ship. When the Odyssey reached a certain distance away from the Covenant warship, a massive nuclear fireball erupted right next to it. The Naquadah-enhanced nuclear warhead was more than powerful enough to crack the shield, though the ship inside it survived relatively unscathed. At least until another nuke was beamed next to its hull, and detonated right on top of it.

As the crew of the UNSC ship watched, they saw a ship that could have cleanly gutted their own vessel be obliterated by a ship only half the size of the Iroquois. All that was left was a rapidly expanding field of debris. Keyes found it odd that the ship had retreated however…even with the shock of the Odyssey having shields, the Covenant never retreated. The Carrier had been heading for the planet beforehand though…

"Check the planet," he told Lieutenant Hall, "Look for anything…dropped weapons, strange transmissions. There's got to be something there."

Keyes desperately hoped there wasn't anything there. His ship was in no condition to fight, and the Odyssey could only do so much. But it wasn't meant to be…

"Sir!" Lieutenant Hall cried, "Dropships, sir. The alien carrier deployed thirty…correction, thirty four, dropships. I have silhouettes descending to the surface. They're on course for Côte d'Azur. A major population center."

"An invasion," Commander Keyes said, "Get FLEETCOM ASAP. Time to send in the Marines."

Meanwhile, the Odyssey had flown up to the Iroquois and used some sort of tractor beam to slow the speeding ship down. The two human warships were now floating together, waiting for a dedicated tow to show up for the larger warship.

"Also, let General Landry know that his ship needs to stay here. I get the feeling that FLEETCOM will want to know about him," Keyes added.

His day had just gotten a whole lot more interesting…

It's very good, but you might want to re-write some of the Iroquois bits. They are almost, if not word-for-word from "The Fall of Reach."

Yeah, I know that they are. I put that in the original disclaimer over on FF.N and forgot to do that here. I'm getting the majority of the work done, then going back and changing what needs to be changed.

Think of the Fall of Reach parts as place-holders for until I have the time to rewrite them.

EDIT: By 'majority of the work', I mean the Battle of Sigma Octanus. I was focusing most of my energy on the Odyssey parts, while using the Fall of Reach parts for the Iroquois. That being said, now that this is up, I'm going back and looking through the parts that are most glaringly taken from the book, and fixing them up before I post the next update. Never let it be said that I will keep stuff that isn't mine in here (at least in large quantity, as opposed to sentence or two) for too long.

EDIT Zwei: I went through and got the most glaring parts changed. Will change more if it is needed.

Intresting, story is now tracked.

0600 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

UNSC Iroquois/USS Odyssey , military staging area in orbit around Sigma Octanus IV

“They sure don’t skimp on the ships do they?” Cam asked lightly, looking at the dozens of warships floating around the system.

All of them dwarfed the Odyssey. But using the Iroquois as an example, SG-1 had a pretty good idea of which ships were which. There looked to be mostly ‘frigates’ with a handful of ‘destroyers’ and two larger ships. There was one massive warship in the distance too.

At the moment though, both the 304, and its new friend were docked at a massive refit station. The words ‘UNSC Cradle’ were written on the side, leading them to assume that was the stations name. It was easily big enough to handle a dozen 304’s, and at least six of the larger UNSC ships.

And it seemed to be needed too. While the Odyssey had come out of the battle untouched, the Iroquois wasn’t near as lucky. The entire bottom half of the ship had been sheared off…if Keyes had messed up even slightly, it would have broken in half. Work drones, and men in EVA suits flew around, cutting off the jagged plates so that new ones could be put in place.

But it looked like that could take quite a long time, as the damage was nothing to sneeze at. As it was though, Landry and Sam had transferred to the Cradle, in order to move over to the other ship for a meeting. They didn’t know what it was about, but they had to go.

As they transferred from Cradle to the Iroquois, Sam and Landry were directed to Keyes’ quarters. When they reached the room, they found the door already open with Keyes and an older man in an Admiral’s uniform sitting at the desk.

“Congratulations Captain Keyes,” the Admiral said, before noticing his guests, “Ah, your new friends have arrived. Well, don’t just stand there, come on in.”

Sam and Landry walked in, the former still in her BDU’s, the latter in his dress uniform. The small office was somewhat cramped, but Sam and Landry found the room.

“Scotch?” Keyes offered.

Sam shook her head, while Landry took a small cup. The two SGC members then found themselves being stared at by the UNSC men. It seemed like they were still in shock about the Odyssey being a human ship.

“Okay, Captain Keyes told me who you two are,” Stanforth started, “Or at least who you claim to be. You will understand that I find this hard to believe.”

Sam nodded, “If this hadn’t happened to us before, we wouldn’t believe it either.”

Stanforth and Keyes shared a look at that, before the former said, “This…reality jumping…has happened to you before?”

Sam nodded again, “Where we come from, a race called the Ancients built a device that allowed one to jump between realities at will. We called it a ‘Quantum Mirror’.”

“Ancients? And they could move between realities at will?” Stanforth asked, still sounding very skeptical.

“Yes…I know it is hard to believe Admiral, but it is the truth,” Sam said, “Just look at our uniforms…where we come from, it is only 2007.”

Stanforth admitted to himself that Sam had a point there. The uniforms that the Odyssey pair were wearing were ancient. Only in museums could you find a uniform like that. That didn’t exclude the possibility that the uniforms were fake, but it was still a point in their favor.

“Even if this ‘Quantum Mirror’ of yours is real, you didn’t mention it being able to send you forward in time,” Stanforth pointed out,

“And even if it had, wouldn’t you be able to use it to get back where you came from?”

“It can’t. But we didn’t use the Quantum Mirror to get here. We were under attack, and the enemy attack somehow flung us here,” Sam replied, with a small shrug, "the enemy attack overloaded some of the technology on our ship and started to..."

Stanforth’s eyes were glazed slightly over as Sam trailed off, “This is something for the scientists to figure out.”

Landry chuckled slightly, “I know the feeling Admiral.”

“I’m still not sure I believe your story, at least without sending technicians aboard the Odyssey,” Stanforth said after getting a slight laugh himself, “But if you are willing to help us against the Covenant, I will hold off on that for now. We need every ship we can get when they come for Sigma Octanus.”

This time Landry nodded, “I can understand that Admiral. These…Covenant…attacked us without any warning, and according to Captain Keyes are trying to wipe out all humanity. Where we come from, an enemy called the ‘Wraith’ was attempting to do much the same, at least to Earth. So we are willing to help you in this battle.”

“Thank you General. Well, I need to marshal the Fleet now,” Stanforth started, “I will send a message on where you need to be positioned when the Covenant arrive General.”

With that, the old man left the room. Sam and Landry shared a look, before turning to Keyes. The newly minted Captain just sighed.

“I’ll have one of my crew escort you back to Cradle…and I want to say thank you, for taking down that Covenant carrier. If it had escaped, that would have been another ship they would have to fight us,” Keyes said, before standing and shaking the hands of his guests.

With that done, Sam and Landry headed back for their own ship. They had expected a longer meeting…but with the obvious threat the Covenant were, it made sense that the UNSC needed more time to marshal their fleet.

Of course, they knew they were being watched the whole time. It only made sense that the UNSC would be suspicious of their motives, and who they were. So it didn’t surprise them that they were shadowed the whole way back to the Odyssey, or that a pair of frigates hovered next to the 304.

Did they just leave a fighter behind?
They aren't thar far into meeting each other enough to trust them with one of their fighters.
Might want to clear that one up.

Oni might be greedy, if the UNSC wants to get their help, including a (small) tech trade, they might want to offer helping the SGC ship to construct a new one or rebuild one of their older ones.
Miss-trust is curently the name of the game.

What are the Odessey her new sensors telling them?

If the SGC can give the UNSC their hyperdrive tech, well, that's a real game changer in the Human/Covenant War. Human ships would become even faster than the Covenant strategically and just as precise in movements. That alone could tip the balance of power.

Vianca wrote:Did they just leave a fighter behind?
They aren't thar far into meeting each other enough to trust them with one of their fighters.
Might want to clear that one up.

Oni might be greedy, if the UNSC wants to get their help, including a (small) tech trade, they might want to offer helping the SGC ship to construct a new one or rebuild one of their older ones.
Miss-trust is curently the name of the game.

What are the Odessey her new sensors telling them?

Whoops...I meant to cut that part out. It was from when I had them going to the Iroquois right away instead of going to the Cradle first (before I remembered that as a destroyer the Iroquois lacks a hanger). Thanks for pointing that out...

*goes to cut it out*

Would the Asgard Core have the blueprints of Gua'old ships?
I don't mean the latest one, but one from the time Ra ruled.
If they need to trade tech, use the oldest, lowest tech possible, first.

Sam better get that replicator build, pronto.
They might just need it.
If I remember right, the Asgards skipt on certain points, during their refit of the Odyssey.
They are currently docked to a mobile dockyard.
Hope they keep tight control if their firewalls.

Vianca wrote:Would the Asgard Core have the blueprints of Gua'old ships?
I don't mean the latest one, but one from the time Ra ruled.
If they need to trade tech, use the oldest, lowest tech possible, first.

Sam better get that replicator build, pronto.
They might just need it.
If I remember right, the Asgards skipt on certain points, during their refit of the Odyssey.
They are currently docked to a mobile dockyard.
Hope they keep tight control if their firewalls.

Older Goa'uld ships? First Gen Ha'taks and Cheops (Ra's ship) classes? Possibly...no evidence in SG canon of that though. More likely that it would have older Asgard tech (like Beliskner weapons/shields) since that would be easier for Earth to reproduce, and the Asgard DID give them everything supposedly.

Though giving the UNSC Goa'uld tech is interesting.

Yeah, including stolen copies of Earth´s internet, for one.
So who knows what else is in that thing, besides a Asgard and a Ancient core it´s knowledge.
I´m betting the Asgard have scans from Gua´old their ship construction process, quite detailed scans, ad in the knowledge copied from Earth and other parties and.....

2120 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

USS Odyssey, military staging area in orbit around Sigma Octanus IV

Sometime later, the Fleet had started to move into a new formation. The ships had tactical information downloaded to them, including the Odyssey. What surprised both the SGC-group, and crew of the Iroquois was the fact that Cradle stayed with the fleet.

“The Admiral wanted Cradle to stay with the fleet,” Daniel asked on the Odyssey, “Why would he do that?”

Cam turned to his friend/teammate, “Who knows, but there must be a reason. Maybe he doesn’t want the Covenant ambushing it?”

Daniel nodded, “Makes sense I suppose…where’s Keyes?”

“Right behind us. It seems like the Iroquois is supposed to stay with us,” Sam answered this time.

And that was indeed the truth, as the still damaged destroyer was hovering close to the Odyssey. It only had about 50 percent of the thrust it should have had however, so the 304 could quite easily outpace it. Then again, the Odyssey could outpace the entire UNSC fleet if it particularly wanted to.

Right now though, it was flying in the middle of the large formation of ships, barely noticeable to those who weren’t looking for the ship, as it was smaller than even the smallest UNSC ships in the fleet. But the Odyssey had a duty that far outstripped its size. Keyes had informed Stanforth of how easily the 304 had handled the Covenant carrier, and the Admiral had latched onto that. Now the Odyssey was the secret weapon of the UNSC fleet. The only question was, how effective it would be.

“So…what exactly are we going to do?” Vala asked.

“What do you mean?” Cam asked back.

“Well you saw what those ships have…we don’t have those big guns to use,” the former Goa’uld host pointed out, “And those purple blobs can handle our missiles.”

Which was the truth…the carrier they had fought earlier had easily intercepted the handful of missiles the Odyssey had fired at it without much difficulty. And from what they had heard on Cradle, the UNSC would often have to fire literally hundreds of missiles to get hits in. Granted, they could always beam the nukes again, but that required getting close to the Covenant warships, and they could only take a few hits from those plasma torpedoes.

Which really only left one real option…

“Are the Asgard weapons charged?” Cam asked.

“Yes they are. Though I have no idea how they will work against those shields,” Sam replied.

But they didn’t have time to plan much. A fleet of twenty Covenant ships was rapidly approaching the UNSC battlegroup. The human ships outnumbered the Covvies two to one, but anyone who had been in this war knew that wasn’t enough. What still confused the crews however was the tight formation the UNSC ships were floating in. One barrage from the Covenant would be enough to destroy them.

As it was, every ship but the Odyssey received firing coordinates, and a countdown timer. As the crew on the 304 watched, the Covenant fleet ahead of them started to turn and expose their flanks. Said flanks began to take on a bright red light, as plasma formed for their first salvo.

Meanwhile, the UNSC fleet was rapidly charging their MAC guns, despite the nervousness of their crews. After about a minute, both fleets fired their opening salvo. Dozens of MAC shells flew out from the UNSC fleet, rattling the Odyssey slightly. While from the Covenant fleet, a barrage of plasma torpedoes approached.

As the shells and plasma crisscrossed space, a message came from Stanforth’s ship.

“All ships: hold your positions. Divert all engine power to recharge your guns. We’ve got something special cooked up,” he paused for a split second, “Do not---I repeat, do not--- under any circumstance break position or fire before you are ordered to do so. Stanforth out.”

Obviously, the Odyssey had no guns to charge, but it was likely that Stanforth still had them receive the message to make sure that the 304 didn’t break formation. Which they had no intention of doing anyway, as they were at the center of the fleet, right next to the Leviathan.

As the crew of the Odyssey watched, they saw the first salvo impact the Covenant ships. Several of the vessels lost shields, after taking one or more hits. A couple were even knocked out of formation. But the angry red plasma continued to approach the UNSC fleet.

“How long till that plasma hits us T?” Cam asked.

“Ten seconds Colonel Mitchell,” Teal’c replied, a picture of perfect calm.

The same couldn’t be said for most of the UNSC crews, as they were quite literally staring death in the face. But they still followed orders, as the second salvo hitting the Covenant fleet showed. This time, several ships were destroyed. A destroyer took a hit from a heavy shell, and started to list to the side. That is, until another shell slammed into the damaged ship and tore clean through its already weakened armor and hull. The destroyer hung for a second, before it blew apart in a massive fireball, spewing debris into its fellow ships, and weakening their shields further.

While the destroyer’s fireball faded, a frigate took two hits in rapid succession. The hits knocked it to the side, where it collided with a second frigate. Both of the ships lost all power, and were locked in a deadly dance. They floated to the side, before colliding with a third frigate. The three vessels then blew apart in an even bigger fireball than the destroyer, flinging debris throughout the Covenant fleet.

But the plasma continued to get closer…

“We’re receiving another message!” Sam called out.

“Lead to all ships: hold your positions,” Admiral Stanforth said, “Make ready to fire. Transfer timers to your computers…and hang on to your hats.”

As Stanford said that, a shadow fell over the gathered fleet. The source was readily apparent, as Cradle floated down in front of the UNSC formation. It didn’t take a genius to know what they were doing either.

“They’re sacrificing themselves…” Daniel said with a slight tinge of horror in his voice.

And indeed they were. As the crew watched, Cradle took the impacts of the Covenant torpedoes, the sheer power behind the hits pushing the station back. If one looked at the center of the station, they could see a red glow beginning to form, as the plasma heated the steel and titanium beyond its limits.

“Can we get a lock on the crew?!” Cam shouted, watching as holes began to form on the station.

“Only a handful,” Sam said sadly, but she still knew what Cam wanted.

And thus, with a flash of white light, the Odyssey beamed what members of the crew it could reach. With that done, the station continued to float down, passing the horrified UNSC fleet. But they turned that horror into a cold fury. As soon as they were able to, the fleet fired the third volley. It was a twenty-one gun salute three times over. And the Covenant were going to pay…

“All ships: break and attack!” Admiral Stanforth bellowed, “Pick your targets and fire at will. Take as many of these bastards out as you can! Stanforth out.”

With that order, the UNSC fleet broke formation and charged at the Covenant lines. One ship even charged directly down the throat of the Covenant fleet.

But the Odyssey didn’t move right away, as an order from Stanforth came in, “Odyssey, you are to attack the Covenant center line. Make your shots count, Stanforth out.”

Cam looked over his shoulder, waiting for an order from Landry.

“Take us into hyperspace…we’ll drop out right over their center. Prime the Asgard weapons, and the railguns,” Landry ordered.

Cam nodded, and sent the Odyssey into the blue tunnel of hyperspace. It only lasted for a split-second however, before the cruiser dropped out. Looking down, they could see the battered Covenant fleet, battling with the approaching UNSC forces. But they weren’t expecting a ship to drop out over their proverbial heads.

“Fire all weapons!” Landry shouted.

Teal’c nodded, and started to fire the Odyssey’s weapons. And if the Covenant were surprised by the ship appearing over their heads, they were even more shocked when it fired energy weapons at them. The blue beams from the Asgard weapons blasted holes clean through the shieldless Covenant ships.

The Odyssey fired as fast as its weapons could cycle, blasting apart Covenant ships in a handful of shots. The alien warships turned up to fire on the human warship. A barrage of plasma flew at the 304, which dodged the majority of the shots. A pair of torpedoes clipped its side however, the plasma making its blue shields flare as they tried to absorb and reflect the energy.

“Shields down to 85 percent!” Sam called out, “More torpedoes inbound!”

Forced to dodge once again, the Odyssey missed its next pair of shots. But it quickly reoriented itself, and fired its railguns at a
Covenant cruiser. The small shells from the railguns didn’t do anywhere near the damage of a MAC shell, but the sheer volume of firepower was taking its toll. Chunks of purple armor plate flaked off and spun into space, leaving corridors and bulkheads exposed to space.

As the Odyssey battered away at the cruiser with its more mundane weapons, it turned to fire another barrage of blue beams.
The Asgard-designed weapons punched through a Covenant frigate, tearing holes through the teardrop shaped ship. In a split-second decision however, Landry didn’t order another barrage. Instead, they used the Asgard transporters to beam the crew into space. Capturing the ship could prove useful in the long run.

With the Frigate disabled, the Odyssey flew next to the hulk of a cruiser, where it continued to pump railgun shells into the next ship over. The Covenant warship shuddered under the barrage of fire, unable to retaliate with more than its pulse-lasers as the first volley from the 304 had wrecked the plasma conduits needed to fire the torpedoes. And the pulse-lasers were weaker than even an Al’kesh, so they did barely anything to the Odyssey’s shields.

“Damn these things can take a beating,” Cam said, as the ship shook slightly from all the blue energy hitting it.

“Indeed,” Teal’c replied, switching the railguns towards targeting the Covenant’s engines.

The concentrated railgun fire quickly disabled the engines of the Covenant ship. Before the Odyssey could fire its Asgard weapons however, a large MAC shell slammed into the disabled ship and blew it apart. The UNSC fleet had finally arrived, and started to blast apart any unwary Covenant ships. In the end, the shock from the Odyssey, coupled with fire from the UNSC, routed the Covenant fleet. The remaining ships flew in different directions, trying to flank the UNSC fleet. But after a few minutes, they suddenly broke off to retreat.

The reason was simple…the Iroquois had broken off from the main fleet, and taken out the stealth corvette that the Covenant fleet had been trying to distract the UNSC from. With their mission a failure, the ships had no reason to stick around. And thus, the five or so remaining ships jumped into slipspace, leaving a field of debris behind. The UNSC fared better, with only a handful of ships destroyed. The majority of the fleet had survived, thanks to the distraction that the Odyssey had provided.

But now, the crew had some major explaining to do. And in some ways, they were dreading having to do it…

Distraction? That wasn't a distraction, that was a massacre. Good thinking on Landry's part beaming the crew off that frigate.

0500 Hours, July 19, 2552 (Military Calendar) /

USS Odyssey, military staging area in orbit around Sigma Octanus IV

The area around Sigma Octanus IV was riddled with debris. Despite the aid from the Odyssey the UNSC had still lost a handful of ships, and Cradle. By far the lion’s share of the debris was from Covenant warships however. Blackened hulks floated through space, their once sleek hulls torn asunder. Several of the alien ships were shattered from MAC rounds, but the vast majority bore scorch marks, and shattered armor plate. These ships had been destroyed by the Odyssey either through its Asgard beams, or its railguns.

They were broken hulks, barely held together after the beams had superheated the interior of the hulls to the point where bulkheads and support beams caught fire. However, a couple of the ships were still marginally intact.

Because of that, the somewhat shocked UNSC was currently towing those ships to an orbit over the planet. They had never been able to capture Covenant ships, simply because whenever they damaged a ship enough, the crew would self-destruct. And a MAC plus Archer Missiles weren’t able to do enough damage to kill the crew, while leaving the ship intact. And lacking transporters…they were highly limited in their options.

Of course, the millions of small pieces of debris showed that the Odyssey was no different…it had taken a couple ships to make out where to shoot them without destroying the things. In the end, only one frigate was still intact enough to be repaired and taken to study. Though a destroyer was intact enough to at least strip it for parts for the frigate, and possibly use its slipspace drive on a UNSC ship for tests.

But that was still better than the UNSC could have hoped for, even with the cost in lives it took to get them. Said cost was painfully obvious when one looked at the massive burnt hulk that was Cradle. The repair station was slowly tearing itself apart in orbit of Sigma Octanus IV, with burnt and twisted girders spinning off into space.

Thirty volunteers had been aboard the station when it took the Covenant weapons fire. Fire that had made ten decks of armor and steel look like tissue paper. The Odyssey had only managed to beam off six of the crew…the rest had died piloting the massive station. And even those six had various levels of injuries, a couple even in comas. But they were the lucky ones, as one of the 304’s cargo holds showed. It was filled with recovered bodies, waiting to be returned to their homes. Assuming they still had homes, with how many planets had been lost since the war began.

“So much death,” Daniel said, looking out at the debris, “These Covenant…they’re worse than the Ori.”

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.

The two were standing at the bridge window, after helping with the cargo hold. The amount of death and destruction rivaled the first battle with the Ori. The difference of course, was in how the Covenant differed from the Ori. The latter was trying to convert the Milky Way, and was perfectly willing to let people stay alive. The former…they were trying to wipe out all humanity. All one had to do was look at Sigma Octanus itself. Three hundred thousand people had been slaughtered in Côte d’Azur. Worse than anything SG-1 had seen since the death of the Tollan.

“I hate to say it, but I don’t think we can just abandon the UNSC,” Cam added, “Even if we could get home…can we really justify leaving this many people to their deaths? You saw how much just having the Odyssey affected this battle.”

“I have to agree with Cam on this one, they need our help. And I have no idea how long it will take to get us home,” Sam pointed out.

She didn’t get any argument from the rest of the ‘crew’. They all wanted to go home…they all knew how little chance Earth had against the Ori without the weapons aboard the Odyssey. But by the same token, they couldn’t just leave the billions of people in the UNSC to their deaths. Not without doing everything in their power to help.

As it was, they couldn’t do anything to get home at the moment anyway. Sam was telling the truth when she said she didn’t know how long it would take. It was a complete fluke that had gotten them in this situation in the first place. So for now, all they could do was help the UNSC as much as they could.

And thus, the Odyssey followed the Iroquois in another circuit of the debris belt, doing what it could to help at the moment. It wasn’t much, not with the other searches. But they had to try…who knew how many people might still be floating out here? But before they could get very far, a message came over the comm systems, though it was text-only.

United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission 09872H-98

Encryption Code: Blue

Public Key: file/lightning-matrix-four/

From: Admiral Michael Stanforth, Commanding Officer UNSC Leviathan/ UNSC Sector Three Commander/ (UNSC Service Number: 00834-19223-HS)

To: Captain Jacob Keyes, Commanding Officer UNSC Iroquois/ (UNSC Service Number: 01928-19912-JK)/ Major General Hank Landry, Commanding Officer USS Odyssey

Subject: ORDERS FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION

Classification: SECRET

/start file/

Keyes, Landry,

Drop whatever you’re doing and head back to the barn (Keyes will escort you General). We’re all wanted for immediate debriefing by ONI at Reach Headquarters ASAP. You will have to slave your navigation to the Iroquois, Odyssey, as we cannot give you those coordinates.

It looks like the spooks at Naval Intelligence are up to their normal cloak-and-dagger tricks, and we don’t want them to have more ammo.

Cigars and brandy afterward.

Regards,

Stanforth

“Hmm…this is interesting,” Landry commented, “can we enter this ‘Slipspace’ that the UNSC uses Colonel?”

Sam shrugged, “In theory yes, sir. It resembles a different level of subspace…a more primitive Hyperdrive if you will. So as long as we stay close to the Iroquois we will be fine. We’ll probably have to go slow though.”

A small round of chuckles went around the room at that. With a ZPM and the Neutrino-Ion Generator installed on the Odyssey it was faster than anything short of an Asgard O’Neill class. But the laughter subsided, and the ‘crew’ got to work. They needed to prepare the ship for this jump, as none of them knew how it would go.

As the ship moved closer to the Iroquois, they both flew through a patch of vaporized titanium and steel. Most likely destroyed battle-plate from one of the handful of destroyed UNSC ships. The twin ships pushed the debris aside, most of it fading away in their engine washes. One piece of debris, however, floated near the Iroquois.

It was small, and blended in with all the other tiny pieces of debris. If anyone had been looking close enough, however, they would have seen that this particular piece of metal drifted in the opposite direction from all the other masses nearby. It trailed behind the accelerating Iroquois…and edged closer, moving with purpose. When it was close enough, it extended tiny electromagnets that guided it closer and closer to the Iroquois’ engines. However, instead of blending in with the destroyer’s engine, it collided with the Odyssey’s shields as the smaller ship dodged a piece of the Covenant debris. The small probe sparked slightly, before vaporizing from the impact…ruining the Covenant’s plans for the device…and inadvertently sparing Reach…at least for now.

Such a small change there at the end. But that will have major repercussions.

1000 Hours, August 12, 2552 (Military Calendar) /

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex, planet Reach, Camp Hathcock

It had taken far longer than the crew of the Odyssey had been expecting to reach their destination. The Iroquois was slower than any ship they had ever encountered, even a Goa’uld Ha’tak. Honestly, they were starting to realize why it had taken five hundred years for the UNSC to reach its current territory level.

But when they finally arrived on Reach, they had found it heavily defended. The amount of ships in orbit was impressive, even by the standards set by the Goa’uld. Not to mention the twenty massive guns in orbit…Jack O’Neill would love to be there, that was for sure. As the three ships (the Leviathan having joined the smaller warships) headed to Reach, they were greeted by an escort of UNSC ships. They still didn’t trust the SGC crew, within reason. They were somewhat surprised to learn that the Odyssey could just head in for a landing without any special preparations. So they had it land at one of the planetside shipyards, both to keep an eye on the trans-dimensional ship, and to study it.

Once the cruiser (though the UNSC stubbornly stuck with ‘corvette’) had landed, the majority of the ‘crew’ stayed aboard. The only one to leave was Landry, as he was the de-facto commander of the Odyssey. He was met outside the ship by Keyes, who was waiting by a ‘Pelican’ dropship.

“Good to see you General. I should warn you though, ONI is going to wring every little bit of intel they can get out of you and your crew,” Keyes said, walking with the other man to the dropship.

Landry merely shrugged, “Sounds like the NID back home. I’m used to it Captain, and so are my subordinates. We’ll be fine.”

“Good to know,” Keyes replied.

The two men sat in relative silence while they waited to reach their destination. When the bird eventually landed, Keyes stepped out first, leading Landry to what looked like a normal (if large) log cabin.

At the door, an MP saluted Keyes, and gave Landry an odd look. Which was what every UNSC soldier had done so far, as Landry’s USAF uniform stuck out like a sore thumb. But he had clearance to enter this base (with an escort) so the MP let the displaced General in, along with the newly minted UNSC Captain. As the two rode down to Subbasement III, they discussed some minor things about the battle.

Soon enough though, they reached the Subbasement and exited the elevator. Another MP greeted the 0two men, and directed them through a large door into the debriefing chamber. When they entered the dimly lit room, it took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust. A large, curved desk dominated the far end of the rectangular room. There was a domed ceiling curving over their heads, with cameras, microphones, and speakers positioned like constellations in the night sky.

As they moved into the center of the room, a spotlight came on and tracked the two men. And ruined their night vision, making it harder to see the officers sitting in the shadows at the desk.

Keep us from seeing them…psychological warfare at its simplest. This should be interesting… Landry thought, trying (and failing) to pick out any details of the other officers.

The first officer to talk was a woman, whose face was carefully hidden in the shadows.

“Captain Keyes, General Landry,” the woman started, “We have to congratulate you on your success over Sigma Octanus IV. You captured us two Covenant ships, and destroyed most of their fleet.”

“And you have certainly given us a lot to consider, you especially General,” an older man added, “I still find it hard to believe you came from a different reality, and with such advanced technology.”

“That seems to be the general opinion,” Landry replied with a small smile.

“Be that as it may,” a younger man said, “the technology aboard your ship interests us General. It is more advanced than the Covenant, and that especially has our interest.”

The woman started to speak again before Landry could, “Before we talk about that however, I have news for Captain Keyes. The Iroquois will be retrofitted with one of the shield generators we recovered from a Covenant frigate at Sigma Octanus. Your performance in that battle has earned you that much.”

Keyes looked visibly surprised by that, “The Iroquois ma’am? Permission to speak freely?”

The woman nodded, which was hard to see in the shadows, “Permission granted.”

“Shouldn’t the recovered shield generators be fitted to our cruisers? Or carriers?” Keyes pointed out, “They need them far more than a destroyer like the Iroquois.”

It looked almost like the woman had a small smile on her face, “All of that is true Captain. But that ties into what we have to ask General Landry.”

Said General lifted his head up, looking back at the other officers.

“Yes…we have a question for you General,” the second man said, “With the size of your ship, we can only assume that your version of a shield generator must be equally small. But yet it has power in excess of Covenant Cruisers. We are hoping you will share this technology with us.”

Landry had been expecting that. And honestly, he was in agreement with his ‘crew’ on this one. They had no current way home, and the UNSC was apparently horridly outmatched by the Covenant. Their ships didn’t even have rudimentary shields. So it only made sense to help them in any way he could.

“I can share this technology with the UNSC,” Landry began, “However; we must have something in return.”

The officers looked amongst themselves before the first man said, “What do you require General?”

“Commissions in your military. If we are to give you our technology, you will need our expertise to use it effectively. And we must retain the Odyssey for if we ever discover a way home,” the General replied.

The officers muttered amongst themselves for a few minutes, before the woman spoke again, “These terms are agreeable. We will have commissions ready for you and your crew General. Along with new men to man the Odyssey as Admiral Stanforth informed us how undermanned you are. However, we have more questions for you.”

Landry looked up at the Officers, and nodded, “Ask away.”

“We have read the report filed by the surviving members of the Repair Station Cradle’s crew. Those of them who are still able to file a report,” one of the women said, “And we are curious just how exactly you managed to rescue them. None of the Fleet reports a shuttle or dropship launching from the Odyssey, and as near as we can tell you just plucked them right off the station.”

“In a way we did,” Landry answered, “One of the technologies aboard the Odyssey is a point-to-point matter transporter. We call it beaming.”

A rapid flurry of murmurs started up upon hearing that. This was definitely something that not even the Covenant possessed. And the tactical potential…it was staggering to put it mildly. With this technology, it wouldn’t be needed to land Pelicans…they could just beam the supplies and troops to the surface. Battles with Covenant ships could go far easier, as a single Prowler equipped with ‘beaming’ technology could transport a minefield right on top of them. Which reminded the panel of something that had seemed odd in Keyes’ report.

“General, is this…‘beaming’…what you used to destroy the Covenant Carrier? Captain Keyes reported that it shot down all of your missiles, yet you still put two nuclear weapons in close proximity to the carrier,” the first man asked.

Landry nodded, “Yes it was. When we realized our missiles were being intercepted, I gave the order to beam the nukes next to the ship.”

Though it was hard to see in the shadows, the other man nodded, “That has immense potential against the Covenant General. However, two nuclear weapons should not have been able to destroy a Covenant Carrier so completely. Even our most powerful nuclear weapons would have trouble doing so.”

“Our nukes are enhanced with a mineral called ‘naquadah’. It increases the yield by several orders of magnitude. A standard naquadah enhanced nuclear warhead yields in excess of one gigaton,” Landry explained, “Though I would not rely on the naquadah or the beaming. We have no way of knowing if naquadah is present in this universe, and if the Covneant ever find out how to jam a transporter, it will lose its effectiveness.”

Even in the dark, one could see the shocked looks on the faces of the committee. If that was a standard warhead, one could only imagine what a truly large one could do. And standard in the sense of a 21st century nuke…nowhere near as powerful as larger UNSC weapons. Add this ‘naquadah’ to a Shiva…or God-forbid that NOVA that Whitcomb was working on…the potential was frightening. Even if there was no supply aside from aboard the Odyssey they could still take the ‘naquadah’ from its nukes and stick it on more powerful UNSC weapons.

“You have given us a lot to discuss General. Captain Keyes will escort you back to your ship for now, though we will have to talk with your engineers later,” the first woman said.

Keyes and Landry both saluted before walking out of the room. As they left, a nervous looking Corporal walked past them. But that wasn’t what drew their attention. What got their attention was the mountain of a man standing…no towering above their heads. He made Teal’c look like an average human, and that was saying something.

Keyes’ eyes went to the man’s service tag, and a small smile broke out on his face.

“At ease Master Chief…it’s nice to see you again,” the Captain said.

“Sir?” the giant of a man asked.

“We met a very long time ago. Dr. Halsey and I…” Keyes stopped, and sent a sidelong glance at Landry, “Hell. I’m not allowed to talk about it.”

“Of course, sir. I understand.”

The MP attendant appeared in the hallway again, “Captain Keyes, General Landry, you’re wanted topside by Admiral Stanforth.”

The Captain nodded to the attendant, “In a moment.”

He stepped closer to the Master Chief and whispered, “Be careful in there. The ONI brass are…less than kind. They will ask tough questions.”

“They will sir?” the giant of a man asked, sounding puzzled, “But we won…and won by a large margin.”

Captain Keyes took a step back and cocked a quizzical eyebrow, “Didn’t Dr. Halsey ever teach you that winning isn’t everything Master Chief?”

He then saluted the larger man, “You’ll excuse us…follow me General.”

The two men then left a confused giant behind them, with Landry somewhat confused himself. What Keyes had said didn’t make much sense at first. But the more Landry thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make. If what he had seen was normal of this Master Chief, it was likely he had an unshakeable faith in the UNSC leadership. Which would make it easy to manipulate him. Maybe Keyes was trying to protect the man?

And the ‘winning isn’t everything’ part was also true. They had won the battle at Sigma Octanus on every imaginable level…except for figuring out what the Covenant had wanted with the planet. Landry needed to remind himself to get Daniel to look over the data from that rock. Who knew, it might be something important, and Daniel was the best bet at translating what might be a new language.
But for now, he just climbed back into the Pelican, after joining Admiral Stanforth. He was going to have a busy time, having Sam show the UNSC how to build their technology. And figuring out how to integrate the crew they were providing.


(apologies for how long it took to get this up...writers block SUCKS)

You've over come it well. A very good chapter. Should be interesting with the new crew on board.

1500 Hours, August 12, 2552 (Military Calendar) /

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach, USS Odyssey

After another Pelican ride back to the shipyard, Landry found himself looking out the hanger of his ship. The Odyssey was surrounded by cranes and gantries, though none of them were working on the ship. The only work that had been done to the Odyssey was examining railgun slugs so the UNSC could produce their own to replace the depleted stocks aboard the cruiser.

Otherwise though, the ship was being left alone at the request of its crew. While they were willing to trade technology with the UNSC, it did not mean they were willing to let them swarm all over the Odyssey…at least not yet. So after one final look, Landry turned away from the hanger opening and began to walk deeper into the ship.

It was still as empty as ever, but the noise from the shipyard outside was echoing off the hull, giving the Odyssey a much more lively sound to its halls. In a way, it was like the ship had reached a new home, and was happy about it. As Landry walked through the halls, he didn't bother to try and pick out any individual noises. That would have been an exercise in futility.

But considering the small size of the 304, it didn't take Landry long to reach the bridge. This was where his 'crew' was gathered, ready to discuss the results of his meeting. They stopped talking amongst themselves when the General entered the bridge, and turned to look at him.

"How did it go sir?" Sam asked first.

"They accepted our requests," Landry replied, "though they want to put one of their own crews on the Odyssey."

Cam frowned at that, "I don't like the sound of that."

"We don't have much choice in the matter," Sam pointed out, "The Odyssey is heavily automated, but we can't keep running it all on our own."

"Yeah, well I still don't like it."

"Neither do I Colonel, but we just have to put stronger firewalls on the database and the Asgard Core. Speaking of which…Colonel Carter, have you found anything we can trade them in the Core?"

Sam nodded and motioned at one of the consoles. Displayed on the screen were the schematics of a Goa'uld Ha'tak, complete with weapons, shields, and power generators.

"We got lucky Sir. The Asgard included all their data on the Goa'uld in the Core, probably so we could be prepared if the Jaffa or Lucians ever upgraded their ships," the resident scientist explained, "On the plus side, this means we can give the UNSC the Goa'uld's technology, and they wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

Landry nodded, "Good work Colonel. I wasn't comfortable giving them Asgard technology and this will solve that problem."

"And keep us more advanced. Which is good because I don't quite trust them yet," Cam pointed out.

And he wasn't going to get an argument from the rest of the group. While they wanted to help the UNSC, and wanted to be friends with them, they couldn't afford to blindly trust their cousins either. The UNSC was in a desperate place against the Covenant, and everyone knew what desperation did to a person.

Hence the reason that SG-1 was giving the UNSC older Goa'uld tech. While it was still a major improvement on the UNSC's tech base (at least in weapons and shields) it was nothing compared to the latest Asgard tech installed on the 304. The real question mark was how the Goa'uld technology, even with the more powerful UNSC generators, would compare to Covenant technology. From what they had heard about Covenant Slipspace drives, the Goa'uld Hyperdrive would be faster. But if the Odyssey was any indication, it was up in the air how the shields and weapons would compare.

Knowing that thought was likely raging through the heads of her comrades, Sam brought up another schematic. It was the sensor readings that she had made from the damaged Covenant Frigate that they had captured over Sigma Octanus.

"I know what you're thinking. And I've been studying what we were able to glean from that Covenant frigate back at P3X…Sigma Octanus," Sam corrected herself, "This is a small ship by Covenant standards from what the UNSC has told us. But if I had to compare it, I would rank it roughly the same as a Cheops class Mothership like Ra used. A Ha'tak would be roughly equivalent to a Covenant Destroyer."

This time it was Teal'c who spoke up, "These Covenant are powerful if even their smaller warship is the same as a Goa'uld Mothership."

Cam nodded, "Not much of a threat to us considering how much of a beating we can take from the Ori, and we all know what they can do to a Goa'uld ship. But the UNSC, even with Goa'uld shields, are not going to have an easy time of things."

An uneasy silence descended on the bridge. They all realized what this war would expect of them. Even the Goa'uld War couldn't compare. The Covenant were more powerful, and by all indications far larger than the Goa'uld Empire ever was. And the Odyssey was just one ship too. So they had to do everything in their power to help upgrade the UNSC, and do it fast.

It was the only hope this realities version of Humanity had. Even for those of the crew who didn't believe in fate or gods, they knew that it was a god-send for the UNSC that they showed up. And SG-1 would never give up. They would rise to the challenge like they had so many times before, and show the Covenant just what Humanity could do.



(not quite satisfied with this but...meh )

Why do I have the sneaky feeling that the SPARTAN-II's original "capture a Prophet" mission is suddenly going to be a lot more attractive. Or, if they could find High Charity they could beam one or two naquadria-enhanced NOVA bombs next to it. Ouchies!

Would the Asgard Core be any good at repelling AI's? I do not want to imagine Cortana getting in there.

Eternal_Freedom wrote:Why do I have the sneaky feeling that the SPARTAN-II's original "capture a Prophet" mission is suddenly going to be a lot more attractive. Or, if they could find High Charity they could beam one or two naquadria-enhanced NOVA bombs next to it. Ouchies!

Would the Asgard Core be any good at repelling AI's? I do not want to imagine Cortana getting in there.

Naquadria...NOVA...

That would be one BIIIGGG boom.

As for the Asgard Core...touching somewhat on that in the next couple of chapters.

BIIIGGG boom? Given that the only NOVA ever set off shattered a small moon and vaporised an entire fleet I think "big" for a naquadria enhanced NOVA is an understatement. Someonce calced the NOVa yield as something like petatonne-range. And since ordinary naquada seems to enhance yields by 100-1000 times, ouch.

Solar system buster? Wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility when a regular Naquadria nuke (even assuming they used a Tzar Bomba yield bomb for the base...more likely one megaton or so considering size) has been calced in the teraton range...