In the shadow of the events and chaos of Disclosure, the first Battlegroup is formed...
And sent straight into action!
“So,” O'Neill shook his head, “we have a problem”
“Indeed,” Thompson said nodding, “the initial idea had been to send the battlegroup in for probing and vengeance strikes against the Cylons, maybe even a little salvage but this new assault by Anubis is something else. We have no real choice; we have to reinforce our allies”
Peters nodded, the annoyance on her face clear even through the monitor, “it's obvious that Anubis has kept these forces in reserve and not used them until now”
“Which is a problem, but one we perhaps should have expected sooner,” Thompson shook his head, “he might have been forced out of the former system lords territories but we don't know how much space he had in the realm he was banished too, not to mention exactly how much of the unexplored territories he has seized. It's a lot of space to hide or construct ships in”
“And those new fighters of his are murderous,” Peters grimaced, “you've all seen the reports. Something caused him to hide them since their first appearance at Edonia and now they are showing up in droves, full squadrons all of whom seem to be exceedingly well trained. Not only is he using stealth technologies now, but it seems he has decided to take the time to do things right and that worries me”
“Never was one for long-term planning,” O'Neill noted thoughtfully, “sounds almost as if we have forced him to adapt and improve”
“Also a problem,” Thompson shook his head, “whilst he has always been advanced technologically, almost painfully so at times, he has never been exactly smart and that has always been our edge. If he is adapting and thinking now, we just lost our only real advantage”
“That's an issue for another time though,” Peters shook her head, “right now, we have to deal with one simple issue: How do we reinforce our allies?”
“First Battlegroup,” Thompson said unhesitatingly, “there's nothing else we can send, the Cylons will just have to wait”
“That'll certainly be a blooding;” O'Neill grimaced, “are they ready for that?”
“They will have to be,” Thompson replied, “if we can rebuff Anubis's advance, maybe supply some ground troops to assist in the liberation of seized worlds, we could recall the group to launch a foray into Cylon space, perhaps when Atlantis launches…”
O'Neill shook his head, “two weeks and Atlantis will launch, and I don't think you will be able to stop Anubis that swiftly”
“No,” Peters shook her head, “we won't”
Thompson nodded, “so the First Battlegroup we send to reinforce, now we just need to free up some ground-pounders to assist as well as transports for them”
“Talk to the allies,” O'Neill shrugged, “I know Britain won't be able to spare a single regiment, I doubt my government will be able to free up more then two and the Russians are too busy assisting you're rebuilding, it's unlikely they will be able to spare any significant force….”
Thompson nodded, “Okay, have a word with your President, have him talk to the Germans, I'll see about scaring up a few Canadian, Austrian, Australian or Italian units”
“That still leaves the issue of transport,” Peters shook her head, grimacing, a cup appearing in range of the screens pick-up for just a moment, “and frankly, we have jack-shit as far as shifting units in bulk goes”
“The Paladins have the endurance,” O'Neill shook his head, “but not with a full load of troops aboard. The Ha'taks would really be my first choice, but the only three that are operational are fully booked”
“What about the three just shifted to refit?” Thompson asked.
O'Neill shook his head, “crews have already been scattered, the ships completely powered down and a number of vital crystals removed from the controls. They're sealed up on the surface right now, and could theoretically be brought back online but the reasons they were taken offline for in the first place would still exist”
“Perhaps, but we need the transport capacity” Peters noted.
Thompson grimaced, “O'Neill is right, the run to alliance space is almost invariably intercepted. Usually just catches the edge of an Al-kesh sweep but you know as well as I do that there have been full blown battles along the way. We know Anubis has units attempting to interdict any supplies and shipments between our space and the allies, the Standard Ha'taks do not have the speed to run from such an engagement nor can they be relied upon to fight there way out. If we use them, we put the crew and passengers at a not-inconsiderable risk, same with the Paladins ”
“The only alternative,” Peters shrugged, “is a Merchant with cargo pods modified for mass passenger transport. Time consuming to set up but it could work”
“Unfortunately,” Thompson noted, “ Liberty is queued for repairs, Merchant is highly involved in the Edonia run. That leaves just the Sir Lancelot and one ship alone will not move a regiment”
“It will have to do though,” Peters shook her head, “pity we can't send the Gatecrashers”
“Half the teams are guarding the temporary Stargate Command,” Thompson shrugged, “and the other half are involved with efforts to retrieve the Cheops class mothership team four found last year. That's going to be a long haul job, we can't afford any bug that can visibly break down the cells of any animal lifeform into the wild, but we could certainly do with that hull”
“A Cheops ?” O'Neill shook his head, “hell yes, but where would we refit it?”
“Planetary surface, most likely Alpha Prime, no other way to do it unless we build a customized bay just for the task” Peters noted.
“Has its advantages,” O'Neill commented, “but if you do refit that thing on the surface, I suggest you use a desert area and have a few nukes on standby ready to glass it should the bug be proven to have survived”
“We would like to avoid that if possible,” Thompson noted, “but I can see the point”
“So,” O'Neill noted, “I heard Thor paid a visit”
“He did,” Peters replied, “and he's headed back home again. Just popped in to get up to date scans of Exeter and the surrounding area, I heard President Hayes bent his ear a little though and he left with scans of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and a few other places”
“Sweet,” O'Neill shook his head, “but we're going to owe them one for once”
Thompson nodded, “if he manages the cleanup, I won't complain”
The Admiral glanced across at Peters screen, “any idea of what he plans? I haven't had a chance to read the reports yet”
Peters shook her head, “from what he said, they are refitting a few Beliskners for the task, which reminds me actually, we are going to need to reinforce the defensive picket when they arrive, Thor mentioned that they would be vulnerable whilst attempting to sweep the area of radioactive particles”
Thompson winced, “okay, well, as soon as the Edonia Patrol is cleared to report to their duty station, I'll have a fighter squadron or maybe a pair recalled from the nebula. That should help”
“Perhaps,” Peters grimaced, “but you know Intel is getting a bit itchy about the nebula. Somebody should have launched a serious attack by now, attempted to take such a powerful and valuable artefact from us, but they haven't. At this point in time, I would say we were more then slightly overdue”
“There have been attacks,” O'Neill pointed out.
Peters shook her head, “probes at best, none of the attacks have been pressed”
“This is fun,” Thompson noted, “really, a brushfire here, a brushfire there, and potential over there and a need to picket here. Again I say, we need more ships”
“Nothing new launching for a while,” Peters replied, “sorry”
“Just Atlantis here,” O'Neill shook his head, “then we're stuck with Ha'tak refits, both for us and for the Free Jaffa”
“I'm afraid we'll have to prioritise the Free Jaffa refits,” Thompson grimaced, “they have lots of ships but they are now for the most part seriously outclassed. The only reason they haven't been taken out is that Maktenos is content to let them be for the moment whilst he concentrates on Anubis but still”
“Maktenos is smart,” Peters commented wryly, “tries to fight his enemies one at a time, now why didn't we think of that?”
O'Neill grinned, “Sometimes you get the fish and sometimes, the fish gets you”
“Perhaps,” Thomspon replied thoughtfully, “but if we can refit the Cheops on the surface, why cant we do the Ha'taks too?”
Peters and O'Neill froze.
“Would get the crews some experience in case we do manage to get the mothership,” O'Neill pointed out, his mind scrambling to figure the new idea into his plans, “but the Free Jaffa will be doing most of their refits on a planetary surface so its best if we show them how to convert the ships to the new design on the surface”
Peters nodded, “make it easier for there crews to assist with the refit too, as they have some experience in constructing and repairing their ships on the surface, could probably teach us a few things for our own refits”
“Leaves all three of my warship slips free for other tasks,” O'Neill noted, “but we're talking a massive infrastructure to set up and we've already lost a lot of the normal cargo craft”
Thompson nodded, “I'm going to push a new merchant higher up the list, but in the meantime, those Ha'taks had Tel'tacs as part of their inventory did they not?” “Of course,” Peters noted, “we detach them from their ships for the duration of the refit and use them to shift supplies for the refits. Nice”
“Crews,” O'Neill mused, “should be easy enough to find, we're talking just three small ships here”
“Infrastructure wise, we're talking a new town, preferably in the desert so we can use the same facilities should we manage to get a hold of the Cheops ” Thompson pointed out.
“Right,” O'Neill nodded, “water pipeline, pumps for definite, oasis are very few and far between or so I'm told, landing platform, some anti-air, all the usual but a massive stock of moveable gantries, scaffolding, cranes and the like”
“Crew,” Peters pointed out, “we would need personnel trained for construction work and support personnel. It's a lot of people”
“We can scrape a few experienced crews to lead from all three existent facilities,” Thompson pointed out, “but the bulk would have to be green. Luckily, we have already started training additional personnel ready for Gaia station, considering the delays they will be ready before the station is”
“Can't pull too many people from here,” Peters shook her head, “in fact, I would be happier if you didn't pull anyone. I got problems; I need more personnel in the yards and fast. If you've read the reports from the First Battlegroups proving trials, you will know that quality control has slipped, too much hurry, not enough bodies, the morale kicker from Disclosure, hell, I have a malcontent element aboard the station now and that's a serious first. Saboteurs I've had but not this”
O'Neill and Thompson stiffened, “how bad?”
“Approaching dangerous,” Peters grimaced, “I've put reports through the channels but… well, the last response was a note of censure for exaggeration and scare-mongering”
“What?” Thompson officially and rather loudly blew his top.
“My feelings exactly,” the Commodore grimaced, “somebody needs some reality shoved right up there arse, as well as a careful reminder of exactly who is second in command of the Royal Space Service”
“I'll get Internal Affairs onto it,” Thompson responded, “it could just be some dick who needs a new arsehole but I'm afraid I don't like exactly how much of this bullshit I'm seeing evidence of. We may be looking at subtle sabotage, unlikely, but it's got to be investigated”
“Doubly so considering I've had a spare crew here for months,” O'Neill pointed out, “if Peters is short, that crew should have been posted to Thundersdawn”
Peters glanced across at O'Neill, “I'm short by about five crews”
“That's bad,” Thompson shook his head, “and it means, no, you can't space anyone for a surface facility”
“What about the Russians?” Peters pointed out, “I doubt every crew would have been at work in that yard of there's before it blew and as Russia is signed up to the SGC”
“It's a thought,” Thompson noted, “I'll get Hammond onto that”
“I'll start getting infrastructure setup,” O'Neill nodded, walking out of the conference room.
“Well, I've got arrangements to complete for three major hull repairs,” Peters grimaced, “going to be fun, catch you again boss”