Disclaimer: Neither Stargate SG-1 nor Battlestar Galactica is mine. Not intended for profit.
The Basestar rocked as Sonja rushed to what passed for CIC aboard a Cylon ship. She had been off duty in her quarters when the alarms sounded, reaching Command just as another conduit overloaded in a shower of sparks. An Eight quickly yielded her post as Sonja tapped into the datastream for a quick update.
It was bad. The Cylon Civil War had split the fleet down the middle. A fact that had kept Cavill from openly attacking their side. Now, an entrapment formation and the element of surprise had quickly tipped the odds in his favor. The Sixes, Eights and Twos were fighting back, but they had already lost more than Cavill had. It was only a matter of time. She opened a channel to the Rebels' flagship.
"We're not gonna make it Natalie, we have to jump out."
"I know," the de facto leader of the rebellion replied. "Our jump drives went offline in the first salvo. You will have to lead those who can still jump out of here."
"By your command." Sonja quickly polled the remaining Basestars for those still able to jump. A pitiful five out of the entire fleet acknowledged. Six including our own, Sonja winced as she transmitted emergency jump coordinates and gave the go signal for an immediate jump. One of the five that responded had its transmission cut as it exploded in a hail of suicidal lobotomized raiders. Still another one's strained primary systems gave out during the act of pouring power into the jump drives. Only four made it out.
"There goes another one," Cavill grimaced as another one of his own Basestars exploded. He'd taken the rebels by surprise, but the rebels did not give up easily. Sixes were known for being vicious fighters, and Eights, despite their naivete, had learned to fight from the Colonials. Fortunately, his own Basestars were being run entirely by Centurions. This far out from a Resurrection Ship, he dared not risk more of his brothers than absolutely necessary. Only the flagship had human form Cylons in its crew, and then only a handful at that.
"A small group of Rebel Basestars managed to jump out." Cavill frowned at Aaron Doral's announcement.
"Do you know where?"
"There was an encrypted transmission just before they jumped out. I'm trying to decode. There." The Five opened his eyes with a satisfied smirk. "I have their emergency jump coordinates."
"Good. Take a heavy raider out to Basestar 18, then take Basestars 17, 20, and 21. I've already issued recall orders for their raiders, they'll escort you in. You know what to do."
"By your command." The younger looking Cylon thumped his fist against his chest before marching out of the Command Center.
Idiot. Cavill watched the Five march out like a lobotomized centurion before turning his attention back to the battle. Two more rebel basestars had been destroyed during the course of their conversation. Not the flagship, unfortunately. "Now then, let's see who else we get to kill."
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The USAF General George Hammond lay cloaked in geosynchronous orbit over P3X-985. It was far from any of the worlds where the Lucian Alliance was typically active, nevertheless, it had been determined to follow the old axiom, better safe than sorry. And for the Tau'ri warship, safe meant either cloaked, or shielded and visible. After tangling with a flotilla of Lucian Alliance Hataks over Icarus, the warship was finally complete. Then, three Hataks had proved a challenge to the half-completed Battlecruiser. Now with all systems installed and/or repaired, it would take far more than three for the Hammond to even break a sweat.
The planet below had been one of the planets under the Asgard Protected Planets Treaties with the Goa'uld. With the Asgard gone, their legacy included custodianship of such worlds. Not that the Goa'uld were still around to threaten them, but the Galaxy at large was still far from safe. At the moment, the BC-304 was on its shakedown cruise. When most of your ship's systems came from four different technology bases, you took your time ironing out the kinks. And so, Homeworld Command decided it would be a good idea to check up on the Protected Planets on a regular basis. Apparently not all had Stargates, so a ship in need of a shakedown cruise was just the thing.
The Hammond's contact team had spent most of the past two days surveying and exploring the civilization on the planet below. Nothing impressive, its technology was on par with the Renaissance period on Earth. Lots of interesting ideas, but without the technology base yet to make the ideas practical. Col. Samantha Carter had just finished debriefing the contact team when the call came in from the bridge. Spatial distortions had been detected at the far edge of the system.
"Report." Sam said as soon as she stepped onto the bridge. Maj. Jennifer Hailey, who as lead for the contact team had been in the briefing room with her, made a beeline for the sensor station.
"Gravitational-spatial distortions," Hailey, pored over the sensor logs. "Looks like there were four. Extremely localized. Spheres no more than a click or two in diameter."
"You think it's safe?" Sam was to say the least, intrigued. "Not reading anything now, just four ships. No apparent residues of the previous event. We're detecting radio signals going back and forth among them, but that's it." Hailey nodded.
"Alright Marks, lay in a course for the far side of the nearest moon or planet away from them, then open a hyperspace window. Let's have a closer look."
The hyperspace window opened close to a small planetoid, away from any eyes on the alien ships who might see, and the Hammond emerged from it. Going immediately to cloak, the battlecruiser looped around the planetoid and moved closer to the four ships whose arrival had been heralded by spatial distortions.
"Four ships, varying degrees of damage. Residues consistent with nuclear detonations on the hulls... still trading radio signals back and forth... no shields detected... power output isn't that high considering their size, less than the Hammond... life signs... some look human... or close enough, anyway." Maj. Jennifer Hailey rattled off what the sensors were showing her as Col. Carter stood up and moved closer to the forward HUD/window. "Still nothing on the means they used to get here." She understood the Colonel's concern. If the alien ships had used some type of Faster Than Light drive to get here, others might also show up. And while this was quite a distance from the habitable planet where she'd spent the past two days, it wasn't really far away enough in extraplanetary terms. On one side, the FTL drive raised definite questions. Hyperspace was hardly the only means of FTL available, as the Destiny attested to. And the Atlantis had also demonstrated yet another type of FTL. Yet Hyperspace was by far the most common. Earth had had dealings with spacefaring races from four different galaxies and all had used Hyperspace. If the ships were friendly and willing to trade the technology, it could be a definite tactical advantage against their enemies. If they were friendly. If they were willing to trade. If Earth could duplicate the technology. So many ifs.
Then her Sensor board pinged. "I'm reading four more distortions. Now I've got four more marks. More ships, same configuration, launching what looks like... a fighter screen. Huh? Doesn't seem to be any life signs on the larger ships, but fighters are definitely showing life signs. Not human though. There you are, one life sign on one of the newcomers. Newcomers are moving into an encirclement formation... and they're firing. Conventional warheads." Jennifer frowned at her sensor board. "Plus some nukes. Estimated fifty megatons at the lowest." She looked at her Commanding Officer as Sam debated what to do. This was definitely a first contact situation. Except that whoever the aliens were, they seemed to be in the grip of a civil war.
Sam looked at the battle that had just ensued. The General George Hammond's priorities were clear. The habitable planet further in the system had to be protected. A nuclear shooting war between aliens within the same system went against that. She wondered briefly if there were any telescopes on the planet powerful enough to see this far out.
"Well, we definitely can't have that. Lower cloak, raise shields. And open up on all channels. Looks like they still use radio. I want to hail them."
Jennifer made the arrangements, then motioned to her CO. "You're on, Colonel."
"Attention unidentified vessels, this is the Tau'ri warship General George Hammond. You are fighting in protected space. Cease firing immediately and move out of this system. Take your fight elsewhere." Satisfied that the message was clear and short enough, Sam looked at Hailey. "Send that along with translations in all major dialects used by spacefaring races we are familiar with."
As Hailey followed Sam's instructions, Maj. Marks suddenly spoke out. "Spatial distortions off our bow. That was definitely an FTL jump. Several blips winked out from the vicinity of the second batch to suddenly appear close to us. Smaller blips though, fighters. That's strange, it looks like it transmitted a coded burst of some kind." Sam simply looked at him, puzzled. Marks turned back to his console, but did not elaborate further. "They're firing."
Sam frowned, but nevertheless, the reaction was immediate. "Railguns on point defense. Clear out the missiles, then clear out the fighters. I hate it when they do that." She quickly moved to sit on her command chair as the Hammond swung into action. "Helm, military thrust. Hailey, scramble with the Space Vampires squadron, but stay on the Hammond's six for now. Too many fighters for you to tangle with. We'll have to thin them out a bit first. Mixed anti-fighter and anti-capital ship loadouts." "Yes, ma'am," Hailey nodded then quickly trotted out of the bridge.
Sam scrutinised the HUD. It had now changed to reflect the tactical situation. The second batch of alien ships along with its fighter cover were now ringed with red icons for hostiles. The first batch, huddled together and clearly on the defensive, were still in neutral yellow. The 'hostiles' had the 'neutrals' in a pincer. They were spread out a bit, using their fighters to fill in their gaps. The Hammond was now coming in on one of the pincer claws, and fighters were clearly shifting to face the new threat. Hostile 4 was at the tip of one claw, the Hammond trained its Asgard batteries on Hostile 3 just behind it, slightly to the port on the Hammond's viewscreens. "Weapons, load fragmentation anti-fighter munitions on tubes one to four. Fire at will." Fragmentation anti-fighter missiles were recent adaptations of older techonology. Intended for enemies that used overwhelming fighter support, such as Wraith, it had never really been tested in combat conditions. Sam decided to use them now. The missiles arced out of the VLS tubes on the bow of the Hammond, then streaked out to the mass of fighters gathering to harass the Tau'ri warship. At a preset distance each missile then split into four, spreading out and continuing a ways before the warheads detonated by showering their forward arcs with shards of hypersonic shrapnel. For a capital ship, the shrapnel was only a minor inconvenience. For smaller targets such as unshielded shuttlecraft and fighters, it was lethal and it worked as intended. On the Hammond's HUD several of the smaller red circles winked out. The fighters themselves continued their previous course as a matter of inertia but now clearly with nobody on the helm anymore.
Meanwhile the Asgard batteries began carving into Hostile 3. The first beam stabbed right through the larger of the dorsal Y sections. A second beam gouged a deep gash through the central section. A third severed one of the shorter Y sections on the ventral side, and a fourth plunged back into the central section, this time piercing right through to the other side. The plasma beams tended to superheat any body of air it went through. In an open space such as a planetary atmosphere, the heat dissipated fairly quickly. In enclosed spaces such as the corridors of a starship, the corridors themselves would seemingly erupt in flames. One such eruption ruptured one of the tylium fuel lines. The affected ship died a fiery death. "Asgard batteries on Hostile 2. Keep railguns on point defense, pay attention to our six. Space Vampires, you are a go for Hostile 4. Jump behind the fighter cover and nuke it." Meanwhile, several of the enemy fighters had managed to get close to the Hammond, only to be killed by its railguns. Several more fighters began to mass, moving towards the Hammond as it bore down on Hostile 2. Whoever was in charge must have figured Hostile 4 was being ignored.
Hailey acknowledged Sam's orders then switched to squadron frequency. "Alright Vampires let's go. Setting course for hyperspace windows. And... jump." The 302's hyperspace window generator had already proved accurate enough to get within pointblank range of a target. It did so now. Within seconds Hailey and her squadron was ready bust the offending Hostile 4. "Arming tactical nukes... Fox fire one." Echoes called out on the squadron channel as others did the same. Hostile 4 was caught flatfooted. Its fighter screen was off chasing after the Hammond. As the 302's emerged from hyperspace at pointblank range, it could not intercept any of them. Eight miniature stars engulfed Hostile 4. Most impacted on the outer hull, which was admittedly, designed to withstand such strikes, though on a far smaller scale. Three however actually managed to penetrate past the outer hull. Hostile 4 was still visibly intact, if badly battered, but the resulting radiation and EMP shockwaves had killed everything on board, organic and cybernetic both.
"Shields down to 68 percent." Marks called out the status as the Hammond rocked from the hits. "Looks like Hostile 2 has taken notice. It's firing several spreads of larger anti-ship missiles." Sam pursed her lips. "Prioritise intercepting the anti-ship warheads for the railguns. Scramble the reserve fighters, Space Vampires should be on its way back."
And sure enough, Space Vampires was indeed on its way back. Maj. Hailey at the head of the formation saw the dogfights around the Hammond's stern first. "Oh look boys. Somebody's been taking potshots at the Hammond's tush." "I don't see anything, just roadkill." This from Space Vampire Two. Jennifer grinned, "Duly noted." As one the Space Vampires swooped in to their comrades' aid, clearing out the enemy fighters and quickly assuming escort positions aft and to the sides of the General George Hammond.
Moments later, it was over. Hostile 2 had fallen apart under the Asgard beams. The last remaining hostile had decided to cut and run. It along with its remaining fighters all disappeared in flashes of spatial distortions. Space was quiet as the Hammond banked to face the four that had arrived first.