Plans Derailed
Warstar Nemesis Fleet Operations Centre
The distinctive spatial distortion and visual anomalies of an FTL jump faded away. Jellicoe was standing at the main plotting table, keeping an eye on the formation. Around him, his battle staff went about their duties with quiet efficiency – he had managed to shanghai the entire Fleet Ops staff from the Lionheart for this mission, given their prior experience at Terra. He’d even managed to borrow Captain Mace to serve as his Chief of Staff. Lethbridge-Stewart hadn’t been too pleased about it but Jellicoe had argued very persuasively.
“Jump 84 completed, all ships in formation. Victorious and Excalibur launching CAP now” reported one officer. Jellicoe just nodded. Eighty four jumps, each covering twenty five thousand light-years. Even that stupendous distance had become routine after so many jumps.
“Very well. Signal the Asgard ships, they’re clear to proceed to coordinates for jump 85.”
Instead of replying in the affirmative, his Comms officer turned to face him. “Sir, we’re receiving a subspace signal from Atlantis, priority one.”
The Admiral frowned, this was inevitably going to be bad news. “Very well, put it through. Have the Daniel Jackson remain with us and ask Thor to come aboard, I have a feeling he’ll want to see this. Send the battleships on ahead to the waypoint.”
His officers went about their jobs while Jellicoe and Mace turned to face the holo-communicator, another gift from the Asgard. It flared into life, producing three-dimensional images of General O’Neill and Doctor Weir. There was a flash of light and Thor beamed in to stand next to Jellicoe, completed the impromptu Council of War.
Jellicoe spoke first. “General, Doctor, what’s gone wrong?”
O’Neill and Weird exchanged a look. Either Jellicoe was prescient, or just extremely cynical. They both felt it was likely the latter.
”Our deep space sensors have detected a change in Wraith movements. Three Cruisers have broken off from the main force and are heading here at best speed. They’ll arrive in two days.” Jack neatly summarised the situation.
Mace grumbled under his breath, before looking at the Admiral. “Recon element?”
Jellicoe nodded. “It’s how I’d do it. Keep the enemy under surveillance, keep them on alert and help tire them out. And sit out of range of ground fire, letting the enemy know they can’t stop what’s coming.”
Mace scowled again. “Looks like our ambush plan is a bust, no way we’ll be able to kill every ship without word getting back. Guess it’s back to going in guns blazing.”
Doctor Weir’s hologram spoke up. ”I know I’m not a soldier, but if we know where they’re dropping out of hyperspace, can’t we catch them then?”
Jellicoe looked thoughtful before shaking his head. “No such luck, with only twenty Cobras and a handful of Jumpers there’s just no way you could take those Cruisers out with what you have available. And we can’t push our jump cycle any faster, so we’re still a week away. The only ships I have that can get there in time are the Asgard, and we need to keep at least two with the Task Force for jump calculations. If these Wraith are smart, they’ll spread out so that even an Asgard battleship can’t take them all out at once.”
O’Neill spoke. "The Asgard ships have effective cloaking devices, almost as good as those on the Jumpers here. I think you should still send one ship on ahead to join us, we could use the flexibility.”
Thor nodded approvingly, before moving some stones around on his chair. “I agree General. I have sent the Samantha Carter to Atlantis at best speed, she should arrive in 37 hours.”
”Hold it, I’ve got an idea!” The voice came from somewhere behind O’Neill and Weir, and was unmistakeably that of Rodney McKay, in full “I’m a genius” mode no less. The General, the Doctor, the Admiral and the Captain all rolled their eyes. Even Thor looked slightly agitated. McKay may have a brilliant mind, but his social skills left much to be desired.
Weir looked at him tolerantly as he stepped into view of the holo-comm system. ”Yes Rodney?”
”We need to take out those cruisers? At least one of them will pass within range of the last Lagrangian point weapons satellite. It’s meant to carve up Hive Ships so Cruisers should be child’s play. With an Asgard ship on hand we can get out there, get it operational, take out one or two cruisers and then you’ve got only one left to worry about.” Somehow, Rodney had gotten all of that out in one breath.
The others exchanged thoughtful looks. Jellicoe spoke up. “I see no reason not to at least attempt it. With the Samantha Carter on hand you can get to the satellite fast enough that if it won’t work you can return to the city before the Wraith arrive. Ok, go ahead and get everything ready. As soon as the Asgard arrive, get to work.”
Rodney nodded before turning and running off, already calling up Zelenka on his radio with a list of parts and tools needed. The others returned to their discussion. Jellicoe was still pessimistic.
“Even with an Asgard ship and that weapons satellite, if the Wraith are even remotely smart they’ll be able to send word that we’ve whacked their recon screen. So total surprise is out the window. But, tactical surprise is still an option. We’ll hide the Task Force around a gas giant in the next system over, then we can jump in guns blazing once the main Wraith force reaches the system.”
O’Neill smiled approvingly. “Any chance I can join you on your Warstar for that Admiral? I got a hankering to see that superlaser fire.”
Jellicoe smiled knowingly. “Sorry Jack, but here in Fleet Ops we don’t have a window. You’d get a better view watching on the sensors from Atlantis.” He became serious again. “I’m afraid that this is going to be bloodier than we planned. I can’t guarantee we’ll stop every Dart and Cruiser trying to slip by while we engage the Hives. I want you to have your shield raised as soon as the Wraith get within half a light-year of the city.”
The two Earth leaders nodded grimly. It was going to be a long two days.
Asgard Battleship Samantha Carter
Near Lagrangian Point Weapons Satellite,
Two Days Later
There was a small group gathered on the battleship’s bridge. McKay, Peter Groden, Zelenka and the ship’s Captain, Tyr. Their attention was divided between the long-range sensors, the view of the darkened and powered-down satellite weapon, and a countdown timer.
Groden broke the silence. “Two minutes.”
Rodney stopped his anxious pacing to glare at the other man, then turned his glare on the sensor display. Zelenka merely sighed at this colleague’s antics, while Tyr kept his calm, unblinking gaze on his controls.
The huge spindly weapon satellite hung in space. It had been successfully reactivated with the aid of a small Asgard power generator. Some circuitry had needed repairing, but the small team was confident the weapon would fire at least once. Since then, it had been powered down to standby mode to avoid arousing suspicion, while the huge battleship was hiding under its sophisticated cloaking system. The system had its own limitations – it wasn’t possible to fire weapons while cloaked and shields had to be deactivated to prevent the increased power drain being detectable.
The two minutes went by at a rate that seemed both agonisingly slowly and terrifyingly fast. It reached zero just as the sensor display showed three widely-separated hyperspace windows opening. Alarmingly, they each disgorged a Wraith Cruiser as well as a small group of transports and shuttles, which immediately peeled away from the larger ships, spreading out as wide as possible to provide as big a sensor picture as possible.
Tyr studied the situation for half a second before speaking. His voice was noticeably deeper than Thor’s, enough to make it easy to tell the two identical-looking beings apart.
“The Wraith vessels are spread out far enough that we cannot engage more than one at once, either with the weapons satellite, our own weapons, or the nuclear devices you brought aboard to be beamed into the enemy ships.”
Rodney looked annoyed while Groden and Zelenka just looked resigned. The Asgard continued.
“If I am correct in my analysis, the smaller transports that have deployed serve a dual purpose; they will act as both sensor pickets and messenger ships. Any attack on one or more of the Cruisers will see at least one transport return the main Wraith fleet, to inform them of our defences.”
Rodney looked even more annoyed. “I didn’t think the Wraith would be this paranoid.”
Tyr fixed him with his alien gaze. “The Wraith are by now aware that you are in control of Atlantis. They know the defences of the city. They are also aware of the cloaking devices on your “jumpers,” even if they cannot detect them. Spreading out their ships to limit damage from a surprise attack from cloaked vessels is an eminently sensible strategy.”
Zelenka, who despite the months of time around soldiers, did not possess a military mind himself yet. “Why do you say that?”
“It is what I would do.” He looked back at his controls. “The first Cruiser will enter the satellites engagement range in twenty seconds. The other two Cruisers will not enter weapons range without a drastic course change. I am preparing to fire the weapon.”
Within the satellite, systems reawakened. Power flowed from the new generator into a capacitor, building power for a ship-killing shot. With a small target charging the weapon took only a few seconds.
Tyr spoke again. “Firing.” The three humans turned to see the sight.
A brilliant green beam stabbed out from the satellite’s weapon emitters, crossing the distance to the target cruiser in the blink of an eye. The beam met virtually no resistance, cutting the cruiser in half right down its centreline. The beam carried on, fortuitously obliterating a transport that was in precisely the wrong place.
The newly-bisected cruiser died an impressive death. The two halves drifted away from each other while being consumed by secondary explosions, until finally one of the primary reactors detonated, removing all but the faintest trace of the ship.
The reaction was immediate. Both remaining Cruisers turned away, putting even more distance between them and the satellite while each launched their Darts, five hundred in total. A sizeable force, as many as a hundred, headed immediately for the weapons satellite, one group approaching from each Cruiser. Another group of fifty stayed around each cruiser, beginning elaborate patrol patterns.
The remaining three hundred, in two groups, began a full speed run towards the planet, and more specifically, Atlantis. Tyr likewise manoeuvred his ship in an evasive pattern. It was still cloaked of course, and there was no sign that the Wraith had detected them, but Tyr had not served for thousands of years in the Asgard Fleet without a healthy dose of self-preservation.
It would take several minutes for the Darts to reach the satellite, but everyone aboard the Asgard ship knew that the satellite was a lost cause. It was built to annihilate Hive ships in rapid succession, but tis weapon was far too imprecise to deal with a swarm of Darts. None of the humans, or Tyr knew that this is exactly how the other Lagrangian point satellites had been destroyed during the Siege of Atlantis.
They could not even race the Darts back to the planet without giving away their position. All they could do was send an urgent warning to the city to prepare their defences. What was worse was the sight of three Wraith transports turning away and vanishing into hyperspace. The secret was out.
======
-Like I said, I fully intend on having the Wraith fight smart. It's a bit of a challenge to juggle in my head, having each side needing to fight smart without giving them out-of-character knowledge. Good thing I've done enough RPG's in my time to be used to it.
Wave motion gun indeed.
