Hel'tec grimaced as she glanced over the tactical displays at the warships arrayed before her, the aging Ha'taks, oversized Cheops and Ral'tecs and a scattering of Ha'tens seized from Maktenos's forces. Too few were upgraded, most still at the levels of technology and systems the old system lords used. With the exception of the Ha'tens, none was a real match for the warships of Anubis or Maktenos but they would have to do. They had no other choice, Ba'al was the last lingering remnant of the System Lords and he had to be dealt with.
Of course, that meant a trip of several months to an unexplored area of space for which they had little intelligence to try and face off a Planetary defence network that had almost certainly been completed in the near year since they first attacked Ba'als fledgling Empire, and this time they had to do it without Tau'ri assistance. They had enough troubles of their own.
Still, lessons were being learnt from their allies, the Free Jaffa warriors had the benefit now of Tau'ri training in small unit tactics and some ship to ship skills, still not up to Tau'ri levels but still far better then the stupid ‘stand up straight, walk towards enemy and shoot' tactics that had gotten so many Jaffa killed before the rise of the rebellion. Not to mention, the addition of basic rockets and missiles to all the Udajeeet fighters and the addition of some basic targeting systems. Simple improvements but when the pilots knew how to use them, those simple additions made the Udajeet so much more deadly then there unmodified predecessors. Of course, the day had already passed for the fighters, more weapons of intimidation then actual fighters to be replaced, but still they had to soldier along with what they had.
These small changes created a qualitative edge over Ba'als troops… probably. Ba'al was a wily, dangerous one, never to be underestimated. But the job still had to be done and for the second time, she had to be the one to do it, despite the attempts of certain members of the Jaffa council to have her killed for her failure.
“The support ships have arrived and are ready… Warleader.”
Hel'tec nodded, ignoring the Jaffas hesitation at the unfamiliar title, and gave the command to make way.
Hel'tec knew something was wrong as soon as they hit the world that on the first trip had held the remnants of an early coal based industrial society. The world had been devastated before the previous trip, between their visits the world had been stripped, every piece of refined metals taken from the cities, towns farms as well as anything else remotely usable… including the populace.
Not a single person left alive on the surface that they could find and not a single scrap of refined materials. It was eerie and the mount of effort it would have taken… yet the rubble left behind was already being covered with small plants and the beginnings of growth. The project was obviously long completed meaning it must have been done almost immediately after they left and done swiftly too.
Each world they passed was much the same, if the natives had anything of the slightest value then it had been taken and that included the natives themselves. There were scattered remains on the surface of each world but mostly off the old and infirm, those useless in Ba'als eyes.
Truly not at all surprising given the nature of the System Lords, just unusually through and well thought out and executed.
But still, they had yet to arrive at Ba'als new homeworld and its formidable defences.
“Ba'al has been busy,” Hel'tec commented idly, whilst inside she shook with shock and more then a little awe.
Twenty defensive platforms, each the size of a full mothership but being fixed orbital emplacements, having no need for the massive hyperdrives and in-system propulsion systems. All that free space, devoted to more weapons, more shields, more power…
It was frightening.
There was of course one bright side to this, the scans showed the facilities to be of variable quality, some were built with trinium to full Goa'uld standards… most used only Goa'uld circuitry and systems, the bulk of the stations being hastily thrown together from lesser metals, iron, steel, even some bronze.
At least she now knew why the primitive worlds had been so well stripped of metals, and also were the humans of those worlds had gone, the planet below teemed with life, transmission sources and pollutants.
There were no ships however and that sparked disquiet. No ships was surprising, Ba'al would almost certainly want some way of getting away or ambushing her own forces. If he had managed to produce enough cloaked ships they could be a very real threat and what they could not see they could hardly fight.
Yet she couldn't risk this bastion remaining here and strong, it would be all to easy for Ba'al to use it as strong point to rebuild and then slowly expand into the surrounding worlds. No, it could not be risked; it also threw the pre-existing plan of a straight assault into doubt. Yes, she had expected a few more stations operational but not so many.
A rethink was needed.
Perhaps… she narrowed her eyes, gazing closely at the sensor displays then nodded sharply, her mind made up.
Eight seconds.
In battle, eight seconds was a major window of vulnerability, eight seconds in which they were vulnerable, protected only by the ships armour and the surprise of their close arrival, carefully dropping out of hyperdrive dangerously close to the planets gravity well, bringing the enemy weapons platforms straight into weapons range… and them right into the enemies kill zone.
It all came down to who reacted faster, a large part of her expected to feel the cold, dead blankness of space long before her own weapons went live. Her chest hurt and she forced herself to breathe, forcing herself to trust in the warriors fighting with her, they knew how critical the timing was, how well things could go if they got it right and how badly if they were caught by the enemy.
The ships shuddered, and she breathed out slowly as she realized it wasn't the harsh crash of inbound fire, but the muted rocking of their own main weapons opening up.
She glanced at the tactical display, and grinned, her won forces all had their shields up, the first immediate blasts of weapons fire at the closest target had ceased and now the fire of the ten ships she had brought was being co-ordinated on quickly killing the most vulnerable of the platforms in range.
The grin slipped, the sole ‘original' station in range had opened fire but far too slowly and far too reactively, there was no prediction or adaptation in its patterns. The other, newer stations were slower still and far too inaccurate.
Unnoticed, she began to chew her nails as an icy pit settled in her stomach. Something was wrong here; she just could not see what…
She glanced up momentarily as a mild cheer filled the room, glancing back at the display she nodded as their first target, a station whose hull was weak bronze and overly heavy iron and steel began to break up, the heavy parts quickly being drawn to the planet as the stations dampening fields failed.
Moments later, a second station failed, almost intact bar a large whole where some critical component, either the primary power distributor or the generators themselves used to be. Dark and powerless, it began to drift, ignored by both sides.
A third station collapsed, leaving just the ‘original' station protecting this small area of sky, at least until the other platforms shifted orbits, adapting to fill the new hole.
This would be the tough nut, but it needed to be cracked before the rest of the fleet could move in and exploit the bridgehead. But she had a plan for this too.
“Launch fighters, and tell them to begin the attack in sections,”
Udajeets were of little to no threat to Goa'uld stations or ships, simply because the shields could easily shrug aside the strikes from their enlarged staff weapons, as could their armour. But she had modified Udajeets, mounting either a pair of missiles, one under each wing, or a pair of unguided rockets, all tipped with refined naquadah.
A Ha'tak died whilst the fighters launched, its shields finally overcome by the weight of oncoming fire, and two more broke off, debris trailing in their wake. Then, abruptly, hundreds of bright spots of light danced across the shields as if, for just a moment, the station was under attack by a legion a fireflies. Vengefully, the station turned its fire from the oncoming warships, sending bolts after the fleeing fighters and Hel'tec began to have a dreadful suspicion, even the greenest Jaffa would know they were spent, their missiles fired, no further threat. Ba'al certainly would… yet the station continued to ignore the greater threat, it was almost as if…
“A.I.”
Of course, Ba'al knew his location had been compromised somehow so instead of hanging around to face the return of his attackers he had fled, but not before ensuring some payment would be enacted from anyone returning to complete the job.
There was undoubtedly some clue either on the ground or on the stations to where he had gone, but Ba'al most likely assumed they would simply destroy the station without realising what had happened. This could be of use, not merely for information but as a base of operations for the area.
“Sound the retreat, defensive fire only and find me some way of communicating with the Tau'ri pronto. I need some computer techs.”
If the defense grid could be turned to their cause… they would have to break down some of the more pathetic stations of course, the parts would be needed to maintain the other stations and repair the damage done to her own ships, but the potential… It was an idea at least.