1: Dawn Of Thunder
Third Edition
Author: chaos_eternus
When Earth is threatened, the USA and the UK join forces to protect our world…with help from an old friend.
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Chapter 4
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Ground Control - RAF ST Athan
“Control, this is Airhead 1-4-9, we are RTB, ETA 14hours, the components are now in a stable Martian orbit.” the voice of Pilot Officer Reynolds came blaring through Lieutenant Peters headset, degraded by static and the frankly excessive encryption that was being used
“Roger that, be advised Shunter's 1-5-1 and1-5-2 will pass by close approx. 3 hours and will be loaded.”
“Roger that GC, I'll be home in twelve, get the kettle on will you?”
Rolling her eyes, Peters turned from the console, “Its confirmed sir, the first components are in place and more are on route, the Quarters for the construction crews are being loaded onto 1-4-6 and 1-4-5 now and the next two tugs are ready to be loaded once 1-4-1 and 1-4-3 land.”
Peters glanced at the schedule and nodded, seemingly pleased, “We should be online within a fortnight, sir.”
“Good” Thompson smiled, mentally planning a commendation for his hard working Exec “have SG-1 sent to my office please.”
“Yes, sir.”
Turning swiftly, Thompson left the room, flicking his digital ID card through the reader by every set of doors he passed through to open them. Security was tight here, you couldn't go anywhere without ID or an escort, ‘good thing too' Thompson thought, he really dreaded to think what chaos an unauthorised person in here would cause.
He arrived at his office to find SG-1 already waiting, quickly motioning the guards out of the room, he closed the door and thoughtfully moved around to his desk, laying his arms on the varnished mahogany.
“SG-1, you have several space going warships don't you” it was more statement than question, “ Prometheus, Iwo Jima and Independence which is under construction?”
Sharing shocked looks, O'Neill and Carter mentally cursed, they hadn't even been told what the third ship was to be called yet.
O'Neill replied, cautious and startled “yes”
“And Russia ? Russia has a Prometheus under construction which is…” Thompson smiled, knowingly, “Strangely delayed?”
This time O'Neill gave a suspicious “yes”
“Any Space docks or repair facilities?”
“No, but as the Prometheus class is fully atmospheric…” Carter began.
“And what happens when you receive damage that prevents you from re-entering an atmosphere?”
“ Hammond attempted to procure funding for such a facility, but he failed.” Teal'c intoned.
“We didn't fail, Right now we have begun lifting pre-constructed components for a large space station into Martian orbit, before the day is out the construction crews and their habitat modules will join these components in Mars orbit and begin to put the pieces together. Within a fortnight we will have an operational base which will include Space dock facilities capable of taking 4 Prometheus class vessels at a time, and then we will begin to construct an asteroid mining operation to provide resources for these facilities”
SG-1 shot up in their seats, shocked, even Teal'c raising an impressed eyebrow at the scope of the plans and their speed. This was not what they were expecting. Thompson didn't fail to notice this.
“You were expecting construction of more warships perhaps?”
“Well yeah, we are at war, more warships are…”
“Useless. Colonel, without decent support behind them, a hundred or more ships are useless without support facilities behind them. You see, while you and Russia have been building ships and reacting to the Goa'ulds, we have been planning. You are needed out there, but we intend to make damn sure you and your ships have the support they need, and it is much easier to build spaceships in orbit, away from prying eyes.”
“How are you powering everything?” Carter asked, curious, the reply shocked her.
“Zero-point Energy Extraction” Thompson replied, deadpan.
“Buts that's impossible, you can't…”
“Not impossible, merely difficult, requiring a lot of expensive materials, and the collector also has to be designed for the solar system it is set-up in, the collector shape we have been reliably informed, is different in every star system, which is were you come in.” Thompson stopped there, they were intelligent, they would figure it out quickly enough.
“Naquadah Reactors.” said Carter.
“Yes”
“Ah…” Jackson suddenly found himself the centre of attention, “reliably informed? By whom?”
“Oh, just an out-of-towner we know.”
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, whilst Carter and O'Neill glanced at each other, ‘who did they know?'