The Thirteenth Tribe (nBSG/SG Crossover)

[Eternal_Freedom]

Flight II Lionhearts carry the same Air Wing and support crew as the Flight I's - 160 Cobras in eight 20-plane squadrons, plus twenty or so shuttles. I figure 200 pilots and maybe a thousand deck crew in total. The difference between Flight I/Flight II is the armour capacitors and some improved damage control gear, plus the recently-added Asgard beaming systems for emergency evac. If you recall, the Flight II's were nearing completion when the Battle of Terra happened, so they couldn't make any radical changes.

Future upgrades may include a single Scimitar or Scythe squadron that would launch from the forward flight decks, like Raptors do on Colonial ships. This squadron would probably embark as-needed for specific missions rather than being a specific part of the Air Wing.

"Ground" forces consist of a Battalion of Marines, but they're for shipboard security/boarding actions, not ground assault, unlike the full 1st Marine Division aboard Nemesis.

[fnord]

So the booties and ground crew are counted as part of the ship's complement, but flight crews aren't? That would give about 1000 actual ship's crew (splitting battalion of H. sapiens bootus bootus out at 500, and a thousand deck/ground crew - totals up at 1500).

If so, then the Excalibat's surviving air wing will put somewhat of a strain on Nemesis' air group support facilities

[LadyTevar]

So the booties and ground crew are counted as part of the ship's complement, but flight crews aren't? That would give about 1000 actual ship's crew (splitting battalion of H. sapiens bootus bootus out at 500, and a thousand deck/ground crew - totals up at 1500).

If so, then the Excalibat's surviving air wing will put somewhat of a strain on Nemesis' air group support facilities

Temporarily, they can be spread out over the rest of the fleet.

[Eternal_Freedom]

When I said the entire Air Wing survived, I meant all the Cobras that were already in the air. There will be some survivors from the deck crews that were beamed out of the starboard pod before it fell into the atmosphere, but that's it. I stated (IIRC) 247 survivors plus pilots. Only the Pilots int he Air Wing aren't counted as ships company, because while pilots and squadrons may transfer between ships easily enough, deck crews don't.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Fanning the Flames
Wraith Fleet Groups Two, Three and Four

The order had been given and simultaneously eighty Scimitar bombers and sixty Raptors jumped to their pre-planned positions. Meanwhile, one BC-304 and three Asgard O’Neill-class battleships dropped out of hyperspace, all weapons armed and spitting fire at pre-selected targets.

It was fast. It was brutal. It had all the hallmarks of a massacre. The Wraith fleet groups were still milling around in confusion after the loss of their High Queen. Groups Two, Three and Four had ceased their full-power engine burn and were now cruising towards Lantea while the assorted Queens argued over their shared psychic link as to who should take charge. The Hive Ships were also completely alone, the earlier attack waves had completely stripped them of either escorts or fighter cover. It was a recipe for utter disaster.

In and around the Hives of Group Two, eighty Scimitars appeared in flashes of light. They immediately began launching their heavy anti-ship missiles but unlike previous attacks they also volley-fired their light missile pods, sending an uncountable swarm of targets towards the Hives in advance of the slower nuclear rounds.

This was an extravagant waste of ordnance; the anti-fighter missiles had no chance of causing even minor damage to the huge Hives, but it was an effective decoy for the ninety-six heavier missiles that were locked on to each target. The Wraith quickly reacted, salvoing every available gun in the general direction of the bombers, but using heavy anti-ship guns to interdict bombers and missiles was always a losing proposition. Worse, the gunners made no attempt to avoid friendly fire, so a considerable number of shots missed the incoming targets entirely but impacted on other, undamaged Hives.

The mass launch was complete and the bombers jumped away, they’d get the sensor feeds and kill totals after the battle. The bomber crews knew they’d done their job and thrown an entire Fleet Group into confusion, how effective they’d been could wait.

The swarm of light missiles began impacting the mammoth ships, doing little more than scratching the paintwork – if Wraith ships were painted of course. Those Wraith within the targets breathed out in relief, these missiles were no threat; certainly their own comrade’s blind firing was causing more damage.

That relief lasted right until the first of the ten-megaton warheads detonated on the hull.

Each of the ten Hive Ships that were targets was hit with ninety-six of these warheads and while much of the emitted energy from the blasts was wasted on empty space, slightly under half of that titanic energy burned away the Wraith hull and structures with impunity.

Ten Hives died rapid and fiery deaths. Six of them simply vanished, struck on all sides by the detonations and crushed into nothingness by the eye-searing blasts. Another three were shattered into large fragments that went cartwheeling away. The last somehow remained intact, structurally at least, but every gun was burned away, the engines wrecked, the dart bays awash in flame. The ship was dead and everyone knew it.

The other ten Hives began frantic manoeuvres, hoping not only to throw off any other bombers that might be targeting them but also to avoid some of the larger fragments of their fellows. One Hive was unlucky in this regard; a kilometre-long shard of a destroyed ship speared its engines, destroying half the sublight thrusters and wrecking the hyperdrive. Fires ignited and raged through the entire rear third of the Hive as fuel and Wraith fed the inferno.

The situation was similar in Group Three, but here only six Hives had been hit by the Colonial Fleet Raptor squadrons. Racetrack had led the attack, only for a stray shot to clip her Raptor, ripping away one engine and jamming the release mechanism for her missiles. Skulls, her ECO, was already dead and she was badly wounded. This was the end for her and she knew it.

Even as the other Raptors jumped away and missiles began hitting their targets, she fought bitterly with her Raptor, trying to pull it in the right direction. She had thought to try and reach Daedalus, which was likewise racing through the Hives guns blazing, but that quickly proved unworkable.

Instead, she managed to steer her crippled craft directly towards the sublight drives of an undamaged Hive. She set the missile warheads to detonate on impact and then sat back to wait for death.

Her Raptor was just a few feet away from impact when everything went white.

USS Daedalus

The Earth battlecruiser had joined the Colonial Raptors in attacking Group Three and had dropped out of hyperspace practically on top of one of the Hives. Her railguns and Asgard energy weapons opened up at once, blasting craters out of the armoured hull beneath her even as a salvo of missiles raced out from point-blank range.

The missiles were the same ones she had used earlier, set for delayed detonation and were aimed at the hull sections already pitted by railgun and plasma fire to maximise their effect. The missiles had reinforced nosecones and a secondary booster engine that ignited just before impact, driving the hardened tips dozens of metres into the Wraith ship. There they would wait with machine patience as their timers slowly ticked away the seconds needed for Daedalus to get out of range.

The BC-304 was in her element here. Her helmsman flew her with skill and nerve, keeping her as close as possible to Wraith ships to minimise their exposure to their target’s guns. This had the added effect of guaranteeing that any other Hive trying to shoot them down would hit their friends instead. So far she’d only taken a handful of hits from stray bolts, her shields were strong and Colonel Caldwell was supremely confident.

She finished her run on the first target and was halfway to the second when the Raptor-launched missiles detonated, shattering another six Hives under punishing nuclear hammer blows. In her wake, a seventh Hive succumbed to the Earth ship’s missiles, its entire port side was vaporised by the delayed detonations, the starboard half began drifting away while secondary explosions gradually consumed what was left of the ship.

It was at this point that Caldwell’s tactical officer realised what was happening to Racetrack, the only friendly contact that hadn’t jumped away. Without thinking, Caldwell ordered a change of course to bring them close enough to beam the Raptor crew out. This wound up being a costly decision.

The surviving thirteen Hive Ships had reacted swiftly to this sudden and surprise attack. Small craft with nuclear weapons appearing and then vanishing was something unexpected – but a small, nimble warship making attack runs straight from hyperspace was something they knew how to counter from the last war. As soon as Daedalus was clear of her dying target, the Hives opened up with a withering barrage of massed fire.

They had aimed to bracket the small ship, forcing it to stay on one course and then they could aim a second, killer salvo. Caldwell’s rapid turn to port meant a large part of that first salvo crashed against the shields. The Asgard-designed protective field held up admirably against the onslaught but was seriously weakened. Caldwell knew they wouldn’t escape a second salvo undamaged, but he was determined to at least try and save Racetrack and Skulls.

They just reached beaming range and plucked the Raptor crew from their fate when the inevitable second salvo arrived. The battlecruiser had begun a radical escape turn right as the stranded pilots were beamed aboard so the Wraith plasma fire did not land the killing blow they had hoped. Instead, the first two dozen bolts collapsed the aft shields and another volley struck the unprotected hull. The port hanger and engine pod took the brunt of the damage, the engines were utterly smashed and the hanger bay and its compliment of F-302’s were gutted. The large dorsal superstructure that rose out of the upper aft hull also took hits, the structure and its delicate communications and sensor systems were wrecked.

Caldwell was fortunate in that he was seated when the blows came. Several of his bridge crew were not so fortunate and were thrown against bulkheads and consoles. At least one impact was instantly fatal from what Caldwell could see; the young Lieutenant’s neck twisted at an impossible angle. He knew his ship was badly damaged and so shouted for an immediate jump to hyperspace and safety.

The small battlecruiser leapt forwards into the blue-purple hyperspace window, barely missing a third salvo of plasma fire that would have sealed her fate.

Asgard Force
Wraith Fleet Group Four

Simultaneously, the three Asgard battleships were attacking the as-yet unengaged Hive Ships of Group Four, which had been rapidly approaching the side of Lantea furthest away from the main Task Force, aiming to swing around and act as the hammer to the anvils of Groups Two and Three.

Their Darts and Cruisers had been immolated by the nuclear mines earlier of course but otherwise the big ships, twenty-two in number were fully armed and ready. Twenty two Hives was a powerful force, nearly double the force that had weeks earlier driven off the entirety of Task Force Nemesis. Now they were being challenged by just three ships.

The Samantha Carter, Teal’c of Chu’lak and the George Hammond shot out of hyperspace in a perfect formation, energy weapons firing milliseconds after they returned to normal space. The powerful punches of the Asgard weapons began savaging one of the Hive ships. The Asgard moved in a careful dance, surrounding one Hive at a time, battering it and the moving on to the next one.

The first Hive had no chance. The enemy had arrived right in their aft and the huge and vulnerable sublight drives were the first to be hit. Huge blue bolts tore into the aft section, destroying four of the main drives in seconds. Several secondary drives and one reactor detonated under the mighty impacts, spreading the destruction and causing even more damage.

As the battleships passed, their weapons fire crippled other systems. The dart bays, now empty, were pumped full of bolts, utterly shredding them and sending vast fireballs blazing through the ship’s interior. Life support generators likewise were gutted while weapon capacitors overloaded with spectacular results.

The three O’Neill’s flew past their target’s bow, leaving behind a Hive ship that was utterly crippled and helpless. Their next target was already straining its engines to full in an attempt to turn and unmask her main batteries. The other twenty Hives were likewise manoeuvring. Just like their fellows in Group Three, they quickly set up a massive blanket of fire, disregarding friendly fire damage for the moment. This was their chance, they had three enemy ships trapped with overwhelming firepower, and they would make these little grey aliens pay dearly for their attack.

Bolts of plasma began striking Asgard shields. These were among the most powerful and effective shields in existence, second only to the Ancient and Terran city-shields and the shields on the Nemesis and they stood up to the barrage very well. But the slow game of attrition had begun; as more and more fire struck the protective fields, power had to be diverted from weapons and engines to shore up the slowly weakening shields.

This inevitably meant less fire was returned at the Wraith and the ships turned and accelerated slightly less rapidly than before, thus more and more fire reached its target, further draining the shields. It was a classic example of a feedback loop and it would rapidly spell disaster for the Asgard unless drastic action was taken.

A second Hive had now joined the first in becoming a flaming wreck and a third was under heavy fire, but the attack run was being steadily drained of momentum. The battleships’ shields were all below fifty percent and falling faster and faster. The Teal’c of Chu’lak was the first to suffer a fatal hit.

Baldr had spun his ship away from one volley of plasma fire only to blunder straight into another. The shields collapsed and the entire starboard wing structure was riddled with plasma bolts, burning through the tough composite armour in several places. It was pure misfortune that one of those places was over the power generator dedicated to the starboard weapons array.

The resulting explosion gutted the starboard wing, destroying the main weapons utterly and sending a powerful backlash through the ship’s energy grid, blowing out circuits and systems throughout the hull. The starboard main engine was automatically shut down by the damage-control system, pulling the ship into a hard right turn as the port engine was still at full thrust.

Baldr knew his ship was crippled and unlikely to survive further combat. Without waiting for clearance from Tyr, he activated the hyperdrive and escaped from the battle to lick his wounds. This damage would require a full Asgard shipyard to repair, if repairs were even feasible and the damaged engines meant he wouldn’t reach a shipyard for months. He and his ship were out of the fight.

Tyr saw what had befallen the Teal’c of Chu’lak and knew this attack run was over. His remaining two ships now had shields at less than thirty percent and they still faced eighteen intact and very angry Hive Ships. He gave the orders, both the Samantha Carter and the George Hammond shot forwards into hyperspace, heading for the rally point and comparative safety.

================

-Told you all there'd be a lot of big kabooms.
-Yes, Daedalus and Teal'c of Chu'lak are heavily damaged and out of action until they get back to Earth, Terra or Orilla for repairs. Be grateful I decided not to kill them completely.
-For those keeping score, the final Hive kill counts are:

Group Two: Ten KIA, One crippled
Group Three: Seven KIA, One crippled
Group Four: Two KIA, One crippled

So twenty-three Hives (including the High Queen's ship) are either dead or out of the fight, slightly over a quarter of their heavy elements. But...Task Force Nemesis has now also lost a quarter of it's ships as casualties, so things are actually quite even right now. And Group One still has 120 cruisers and about fifty thousand Darts left to use.

[fnord]

And lo, deliver unto the Wraith an atomic wedgie...

Have I misremembered that the Kobolian mob's capital vessels also have ship-to-ship missile armament? Or was that just the original Galactica?

[Eternal_Freedom]

The Warspite and the Pegasus have anti-ship missile tubes, plus groundstrike missile silos. The old Galactica had dorsal groundstrike missile silo that were replaced with the single-use anti-ship missile pods she used over Lemuria. The Lionhearts have an all-energy armament.

[Eternal_Freedom]

And another chapter, because I'm on a roll today!

The Last Charge
Warstar Nemesis Fleet Operations Centre

While the attack runs on the Wraith fleet groups were underway, the main body of Task Force Nemesis was consolidating its position. The Excalibur’s Air Wing was been recovered onto the Nemesis and was even now being transferred into the hangers below, the pilots alternating between incandescent rage at what had happened to their home base and desperate hope that some of their friends made it off the doomed ship in time.

In Fleet Ops, Jellicoe was deep in discussion with Captains Mace and Davies, who had come aft from CIC at the Admiral’s request. The two Captains were of the opinion that they’d inflicted enough of a bloody nose for their deception plan and should withdraw and leave the Wraith to be destroyed by the ZPM bomb. Jellicoe was of a mood for one last attack, and the bomber and Raptor strikes gave him the perfect chance to do so and maximise the impact.

One of the battle staff spoke up, silencing the three senior officers.

“Sirs, initial reports from the attack runs are coming in now. Scimitar Leader reports all birds safely at the rally point, sensor scans show ten Hive Ships killed and one heavily damaged in Group Two. Helo reports that Racetrack’s Raptor is unaccounted for. Group Three shows six Hives killed by the Raptor strike and one badly damaged, a seventh Hive was killed by Daedalus, but she sustained heavy damage and has retreated to hyperspace, apparently they managed to beam out Racetrack and Skulls before their Raptor hit one of the Hives with live nukes aboard.”

Jellicoe winced at the report of heavy damage on one of his ships. This was getting bloody. “And Group Four?”

“Tyr reports that two Hives were destroyed and one crippled, but the Teal’c of Chu’lak took massive damage that puts her out of the fight, and the other two ships have damaged shields and engines. All three Asgard ships have withdrawn as well.”

Jellicoe cursed. Between the Asgard and Earth contingents withdrawing and the loss of Excalibur, he was down to just seven ships, one of which was a non-combat Asgard Science Vessel. His force was effectively at half strength now, and the Wraith still had a lot of hulls to throw at him.

“Twenty three Hives destroyed or out of the fight…that’s only a quarter of their fleet and we’re at 50%. We can’t keep this up. Very well, time to pull out. Comms, signal Thor and have the Daniel Jackson bug out. Have the decoy platform set the ZPM bomb to detonate in ten minutes, and the Gatebuster nuke five seconds after that just in case.”

He paused for a moment. Ten minutes gave him a chance to both withdraw safely and hit the Wraith one last time from an unexpected direction. “Task Force Navigation, I need two jumps plotted. One from our present position to a point fifty kilometres aft of Group Two, I want all ships aligned so their main batteries can bear. Second jump will be from that position to the rally point.”

He turned back to the two Captains, their expressions showing both concern at engaging such a large force and eagerness to inflict a major blow before withdrawing.

“Alan, signal all birds, emergency recall, all decks, but have the Scythes jump to the rally point rather than waste time landing. Wayne, charge the superlaser and arm the missile batteries. Have all other ships charge main batteries and load missile tubes. I want a full alpha strike as soon as we jump in. We hit them, then bug out. Clear?”

The two Captains nodded and moved away to pass on the orders. On the tactical display, the icon indicating the Daniel Jackson began moving rapidly up and out of the atmosphere on an outbound course for the rally point. Other orders went out, and the countless fighters began wheeling around and heading for the landing decks. The Scythes likewise began jumping away.

The icon on Lantea’s surface for the decoy platform changed to blood red, and a ten minute countdown timer appeared. They had that long to be ready to escape or they too might be caught in the apocalyptic destruction that was approaching.

The Decoy Platform,
Lantea Surface

The platform was, by necessity, nowhere near as large as Atlantis was, but it remained an impressive structure especially when it had been built so quickly. But despite its size it was a cramped place, a great deal of large and important equipment had been needed which left little room for people.

The platform was now deserted of humans or Asgard, the few crew present having been beamed up to the Daniel Jackson moments ago. It was not devoid of life however. Janus was taking the chance to observe this technology first-hand. He thought the shield generators were particularly impressive, almost up to his standards in fact. The hologram generators and the jammers were similarly remarkable and Janus marvelled at how so many systems, from two different civilisations no less, merged together to form an impressive deception.

He had largely ignored the active Stargate lying flat on the deck under a heavy metal plate. He could see its purpose easily enough, and the occasional thump from the metal plate showed the Wraith were indeed probing the gate’s defences, so far without success.

He brushed over the large Gatebuster nuke, though he was impressed by the unstable naquada isotope they had used to enhance the yield even further. The ZPM he ignored completely, he was after all intimately familiar with them and knew what the humans had planned.

He felt another presence join him so he turned to see Morgan le Fay standing next to the ZPM, looking concerned. He smiled and moved over to join her, just in time to see a timer activate on the control panel. He assumed it was a detonation timer for the large nuclear weapon. He was, for the first time in thousands of years, completely wrong.

“Janus, this…what have they done?” Seeing an Ascended being almost speechless was a truly novel experience and Janus took a moment to glory in a new feeling before answering.

“They are finally breaking the cycle my dear Ganos.” She glared at him, clearly indicating he should use her preferred name. “My apologies, Morgan. The cycle is ending, just as we thought it would. Can’t you feel it? Something new is coming and very soon. This battle, this platform, the reborn Alliance, all of it. The galaxies finally have a chance to live free again.”

He was so focused on hopeful dreams of the years to come that he ignored Morgan’s biting glare hadn’t abated despite him using a different name. It occurred to him that something else had concerned her and was about to ask when she beat him to it.

“No you damned fool, I meant what have they done with this!” she yelled, gesturing at the ZPM as she spoke.

He smiled beatifically and glanced at the power source. He quickly saw it was altered in some way, clearly intended to act as a bomb. He knew the numbers of course, he knew the power sources had enough energy in them to vaporise anything within a million kilometres, more than enough to obliterate the sum total of the Wraith fleet and break their threat once and for all.

“They have turned it into a bomb Morgan. They’ve added a chemical to the outer surface that will shatter the device and release all the contained energy at once, destroying this planet and the entire Wraith fleet in…” he checked the timer “nine minutes and thirty seconds.”

Morgan had in fact already known this and wasn’t concerned by it. It was an unorthodox tactic but she saw the effectiveness of it. But she knew that wasn’t the only result.

“And what will happen when all that energy is dumped into such a small space without the containment structure? What will that do to this system, this galaxy?” The urgency in her voice prompted Janus to really focus on the tainted ZPM. He reached out and mentally probed every component, every atom. Even with his Ascended abilities, doing so and processing the results in his mind took a full thirty seconds. And then it took another fifteen seconds for him to realise the magnitude of the threat this innocuous power source presented.

“Oh no…this is bad. We have to stop it.” He was about to fry the countdown timer when Morgan stopped him.

“We cannot do that Janus! If we stop the power source detonating then that other bomb over there will still shatter the power source when it detonates, leaving us with the same problem. And if we stop both bombs, the Others will strike us down for interfering in such a dramatic fashion. We need their approval for something on this scale.”

“We both know they hate interfering Morgan! They won’t act, and everything will end!”

Morgan had her face set in determination. “They will act to save themselves. This would destroy them too.”

Janus had a look of horror upon his face as the implications of that set in. He looked down at the timer. They had eight minutes.

“We must convince them. Let us go.”

The two beings vanished, leaving two bombs behind that slowly ticked towards apocalypse without a care in the world.

Task Force Nemesis

The Task Force was ready to go. The Cobras and Vipers were landed, the Scythes had jumped away. The Daniel Jackson had cleared the atmosphere and shot off into hyperspace. Now it was just the big Battlestars and Nemesis left behind. They deliberately shut down their ECM gear, letting the Wraith get a good look at them and goading them to come in closer.

It worked. The Wraith forces, while bloodied, still had overwhelming strength and now a ten to one numerical advantage. The squabbles over command had finally been settled and the new High Queen ordered every Hive to drive in at full thrust.

Group One came racing around the moon, heedless of the presence of any more mines. The cruisers were in front to clear the minefields, and the fleet’s last fifty thousand darts swarmed from the bays of the cruisers and Hives, racing forward even faster. There was no subtlety in the new High Queen’s plan, it was beautifully simple – close in and kill the humans.

Group Four likewise came racing around Lantea’s horizon, aiming for the Task Force and not intending to stop. The Wraith would gladly trade a Hive Ship for a Battlestar in a collision at this point. Groups Two and Three were also closing, but at a slower speed, their leaders cowed by the shattering assaults they had suffered minutes before.

Task Force Nemesis did not initially react. They had sixty Hive Ships charging at them at full thrust but not one Battlestar so much as turned out of formation. They had their orders and they trusted their Admiral. They would move when they were told to, not before.

Jellicoe waited in Fleet Ops as jumps were plotted and triple-checked; there would be no room for error and no second chances this time. The tactical display showed the timer still ticking downwards, now just over five minutes remained. Then Navigation reported all ships were ready, while Mace reported that weapons were likewise prepared.

“Task Force will jump in ten seconds from mark…mark!”

The time flew by, and right as the ZPM detonation timer reached five minutes, the Task Force jumped. Flashes of light briefly confused the Wraith, had their prey broken and run, leaving Atlantis open to them at last?

They did not have long to wait. A fraction of a second after vanishing, the Task Force reappeared right behind the onrushing Hives of Group Two. They were perfectly positioned, and every available gun fired as one.

The Warstar’s superlaser fired at full power. She had been carefully positioned so that the beam lanced out, blowing through one Hive before proceeding to strike a second. Both vessels exploded into minute fragments moments later. The Nemesis had also cut loose with her megalasers and her missile batteries, and she was not alone in this.

Warspite and Pegasus had fired their own missiles and all the Battlestars had found targets for their main batteries. Thirty-four megalaser beams struck out at three Hives, burning through hulls and gutting systems in moments. In just ten seconds, half of the survivors of the Scimitar strike were just as dead.

But still five Hives remained, and the human ships needed time to recharge their main guns. Five Hive Ships was still a potent force and return fire began crashing against Terran shields. The missile salvo largely feel victim to this massive cannonade, and barely a third of the missiles launched reached their targets.

Just two Hives took hits, and only one was destroyed outright. The other was heavily damaged but only on her port side, her starboard guns kept firing. Now the human turbolasers added to the firestorm as red crossed with blue in the space between the two forces. As one gunner would later describe to his messmates, the weapons fire was so thick you could walk on it.

Strangely, both sides were playing for time, though only the humans knew this. The Wraith was keeping up the fire, aiming to pin the humans in place so the other groups could arrive and finish the job. The humans knew this, their sensors told them that Groups One, Three and Four were all turning towards them at full thrust.

The humans were keeping the Wraith busy until the bombs below detonated, an event that was now just two minutes away. This was foremost in people’s minds, even as the damaged Hive finally died under the punishing turbolaser salvos coming from Republic, Warspite and Galactica.

Jellicoe was cutting this close but he didn’t want the Wraith leaving before the end. He ran the numbers in his head and reached the decision.

“All ships will jump to rally point at detonation minus thirty seconds.”

Time continued to pass. The space between the four Hives and the six human ships was still a hell storm of crisscrossing plasma and turbolaser volleys. Shields glowed and Wraith hulls collapsed. It would be hard to judge which side had the advantage, though given that the human ships would soon have recharged their main guns an impartial observer would have ruled in their favour.

The countdown timer reached forty seconds and Mace began the jump clock. The jump drives were ready, the coordinates locked, the crews warned.

“…three…two…one…jump!”

The Task Force vanished once again in flashes of light. The Wraith fleet groups that were not yet engaged immediately began radical turns, so that if these ships had jumped to attack them as well they would find strong broadsides rather than vulnerable sterns. When the humans did not reappear, the High Queen took a moment to revel in glee at their victory before she ordered her ships in towards Atlantis.

On the decoy platform, the ZPM countdown timer reached zero.


========================

Oooo cliffhanger, aren't I a bastard?

Some of this, specifically the Janus/Morgan scene, helps set up the plan I have for ending this and setting up a sequel I am beginning rough plans for. If I say so myself, it's all come together rather nicely.

Also, with this chapter we cross over 120,000 words. I'm pretty pleased with that!

[Sky Captain]

Some impressive carnage going on here. Even Ancients freak out when you are about to blow star system.

[fnord]

Lemme guess, no ZPM-shattering kaboom?

And there's what, 30 Hives destroyed as at boom time?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, 30 Hives dead after the Task Force jumps out, with another four or so heavily damaged.

As for the ZPM-kaboom, wait and see you impatient git

[Sky Captain]

Even if ZPM don't blow as planned Wraith already have suffered massive looses, Atlantis is safe, fully powered and can easily retreat again if Wraith somehow find it. Overall situation is not bad for humans. Worst case scenario is Task Force has to return to Milky way to fully fix damaged ships, get some reinforcements. There are few new Battlestars built at Terra maybe bring those too on a next mission to Pegasus. When Task Force arrives again Atlantis will have a ton of drones produced. It should be possible to fit some drone pods on human ships. If hastily rigged outpost on the moon worked then putting pods containing few hundred drones externally or on a flight deck should be easy enough giving powerful Alpha strike on an ambush attack.

With full drone silos Atlantis itself is a powerful warship and probably could take out many Hives before drones run out. Its shield can be breached only by sustained long term attack although several Hives doing FTL ramming maybe could cause some sort of internal shock damage that may disable shield generators or power systems.

In the end it comes down to what kind of industry Wraith have, how well protected it is from attack, can they mobilize quickly and produce more warships than humans can destroy dragging out entire war. At least when Wraith defeated Ancients they should have had capability to quickly produce tons of ships otherwise they would never win.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Wraith losses at this point are about 25% for capital ships, 75% for cruisers and about 60% for darts, and only the Hive ships really count for major battles. The Task Force has taken much more of a beating. Excalibur is dead, Nemesis, Victorious and Warspite are all nursing damage from earlier attacks (which included damaged flight decks and losing two megalasers). The four Asgard ships are either heavily damaged (Teal'c of Chu'lak) or damaged enough that they can't survive another fight without repairs.

So basically the Task Force only has Pegasus, Republic and Galactica at full strength. Wraith losses are heavy but Task Force losses are of a similar proportion.

EDIT: As for Wraith industry, that's easy. Their industrial capacity must be substantially greater than Earth/Terra/Asgard combined, for the simple reason that the Wraith are a powerful galactic civilisation. Also consider that there is that Wraith Cloning Facility out there from Atlantis season 4 (IIRC) that is ridiculously effective - and the Wraith didn't need that to beat the Ancients. This is why Jellicoe has said time and again that they just can't win a sustained war.

[fnord]

I'm not sure if senior crews have even been picked by Moustache et al for the Lionheart hulls under construction at (literal) double-time.

At the moment, iirc, there's exactly one capital starship (Lionheart herself) available for homeworld defense - Eridanus is still being rebuilt and refitted. The original Galactica, with her FTL drives wrecked, is no longer a starship - currently en route to becoming a museum, at best she would be an overgunned system defense boat.

The Challengers are good, but they've already proven the hard way they cannot stand up to and slug it out with hostile capital ships.

Even if by Word of GitE_F, he has nothing in the works for Terra _at the moment_, how does (frinstance) Adama Senior know that? How would an old warhorse like him be remotely comfortable with the current paucity of homeworld defense?

[Sky Captain]

If Wraith industry remains intact then total destruction of this fleet if ZPM blows as planned will not end the war just buy some time. Wraith will just build new ships and attack again like they did against Ancients. To end the war completely every Wraith planet would have to be bombed into stone age to allow human civilizations become major players in Pegasus galaxy.

[fnord]

Or the damn thing doesn't go kablooie due to Ascended silly buggers (which, IIRC, would be a dick move that would be entirely in character), and we ultimately end up seeing battlestars going at it hammer and tongs with Hives in medium Earth orbit.

Well, I can hope.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ok, few things to address:

Fnord: You're right that at present there is one Battlestar and 24 Destroyers guarding Terra - the five Lionhearts that are nearing completion have Captains/XO's assigned, and Commander Kirov and Captain von Erich are whipping them into shape, we just haven't seen them yet because they aren't relevant to this story.

Sky Captain: You are correct that Wraith industry will be left largely intact after this battle...but while I have said Wraith industry is superior to Terran/Earth/Asgard, it isn't that superior. Starting completely from scratch, knowing they'd need at least a five-to-one superiority in Hive Ships (or design complete new vessels) will take them a great deal of time, more than enough for mopping-up operations to severely batter them. Add to this that there are at least two other players in Pegasus actively fighting the Wraith (the Genii and the Travelers) and the knowledge that the Wraith fleet is gone (which Atlantis will spread far and wide) and you could see a swelling of active resistance to the remaining Wraith forces - with only ground forces remaining (and not much of that) and limited to travel by Stargate, most of the Wraith advantages will be gone, making a major uprising a distinct possibility.

[Eternal_Freedom]

On a random other note, what happened to my TVTropes page?

[fnord]

I'm not sure if there was a TVTropes page on/about Eternal_Freedom. If you're talking about the fic's page, then yes, it needs more Word of Git. I haven't had the time (and, as a result, or much inclination) to update it.

[B5B7]

Come on Ascended people; you either have a policy of non-interference or you don't.
If you are going to stop the ZPM explosion then you have to substitute a Wraith fleet annihilation of your own, which you can do with a wave of the hand. So what are you going to do - not interfere or do a minimal interference to produce a reasonable consequence with equivalent effect to that intended by the humans?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Let's just say that they will interfere...because letting the ZPM bomb detonate unimpeded would be catastrophic. For everyone. I should say that I'm throwing out the canon depictions of ZPM "overloads" that we see because they're frankly laughable given the energy contained. I'm substituting my own idea of just what this puppy will do.

I should have a chapter detailing this up on Thursday/Friday, that's my next "writing" opportunity.

Fnord: That's a pity on the TVTropes page, Most recent mention seems to be about Nemesis# spinal superlaser under Wave Motion Gun (which is definitely counts as I think

[fnord]

Don't let me stop you going forth and supplying Word of Git yourself.

I'll chuck in swiping something from paying homage to XSGCOM - namely, a last-ditch biological weapon the Ancients were working on to really bugger up the Wraith for the return match. For a sample, check the reflection from your local mirror. Weir rolling badly on the Table of Sproing is entirely optional.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I don't think you can count the Terrans/Kobolians as a "last ditch weapon," the original bunch of humans were taken from Earth and raised to be a successor state to the Ancients/Lanteans, not a weapon - they learned that lesson with the Asuran Replicators.

[Sky Captain]

What effect ZPM could reasonably have to warrant intervention from Ancients. ? Even if it goes up with a force of supernova it will only wipe out this star system and maybe cause some damage to atmospheres of planets in closest neighbouring star systems. On galactic scale it is pretty much nothing like chopping one tree in a continent sized forest.

[Eternal_Freedom]

You'll have to wait and see. I'm rather pleased with the idea I've worked out.