FicWad

Vengeance Of The Gods

Chapter Three

Themis Ha'takA Few Minutes Later



Themis sat in thoughtful silence in her pel'tac throne studying the tactical holographic display that currently filled the trapezoidal view port. The larger Colonial vessel -presumably their equivalent of a Mothership - that had so rudely interrupted her interrogation of the Olympia'scommanding officer was sitting silent a few hundred metres from the drifting, lifeless hulk of the cruiser. Three of these Humans quaint little fighters had been launched a short time earlier towards the Olympia and had made afew obvious survey passes before heading back towards their Mothership, but Themis was not concerned with them.



What did catch her attention though were the tactical readouts of their mother vessel, the ship was literally bristling with armament. As with the Olympia the weapons were all primitive railguns and missile launchers, their were two larger coilguns set into the bow of the ship that could potentially pose a considerable threat, if they were able to accelerate their rounds to a high enough percentage of light speed to cause shield damage on impact.



Studying the information Themis considered her options for engaging the newcomer. The Colonial vessel outgunned her Ha'tak, but she already knew that Colonial armour offered little protection against Goa'uld weaponry, if destroying the ship was her objective then she could do it easily. Full power blasts from the main guns would tear the Colonial warship apart in short order, but destroying them was not her goal. She needed more information on these Colonials before she returned to Lord Zeus and the rest of the fleet, interrogation of her current crop of prisoners was currently not yielding the results she would have hoped. Maybe the Humans on this new ship would be more cooperative, but could she risk an engagement. She had already lost aconsiderable number of gliders if she lost more and didn't have something major to show for it then she knew Zeus would not be pleased with her at all. Gliders like everything else were hard to come by in sufficient quantities these days.



Changes on the tactical display caught her attention, the three fighters had disappeared back aboard their carrier vessel, but a further twenty had been launched and were deploying themselves to cover both vessels in an aggressive combat space patrol. Watching closely Themis noticed that the fighters emerged from pod-like things held away from the main body of the warship. Those pods must be the hangers, she thought, if we could get at them we could take the warship. Maybe with some modifications those fighters could be made to service my master.



Leaning back on her throne Themis considered the problem from as many angles as she could think of. She would prefer to avoid damaging the Human warship as badly as the Olympia, which meant she had to somehow have her Jaffatake the vessel without having to even fire a shot from her own guns. After a couple more minutes a relatively simple solution occurred to her and she smiled evilly. If it worked she would take the Colonial vessel without having to risk a single glider.



"Jaffa,"she thundered making every Jaffain the pel'tac turn away from their stations to look at their goddess, waiting for her to give them her bidding.



***



Starboard Flight PodBattlestar Solaria, Ten Minutes Later



Major Keith Matterson walked down the line of security marines and medical personnel that would be accompanying him over to the crippled, seemingly lifeless Olympia, silently checking that everything was in order. They were all fully decked out in environmental suites as they had no idea what the atmosphere would be like over on the Olympia, assuming the derelict heavy cruiser had any atmosphere left at all.



Satisfied that all was in order, Keith addressed them. "Now as I am sure you are aware we will be taking two Raptors over to the Olympia," he said. "We will attempt initially to dock with her via the external airlocks, however if this cannot be achieved we will land on her flight deck and burn through to the hangers below. Once we get onboard our mission has two main objectives, one survey the ship and attempt to recover the ships combat data recorders so we can find out who or what attacked her, two we will search for any survivors from the ships crew, if there are any to be found.



"I wont lie to you people," he continued. "Given the damage observed to the Olympia it is highly unlikely that any of her crew of six hundred and thirty four will be found alive. We are likely to see some terrible sights over there. If any of you do not feel that you will be able to stomach it then please say so now, no action will be taken against you." Not one of the assembled personnel moved. "Then board the two flight prepped Raptors. We will be taking off in one minute."



The assembled personnel immediately spun around and started boarding the two Raptors that the Solaria'shard working deck crews had made ready for flight and moved onto the platform lifts in record time. Keith watched them for a moment before following them aboard the closest Raptor, pressing the control to close and seal the hatch behind him. As the hatch closed and secured with a series of thuds from the locking clamps and a faint hiss of pressure equalising, Keith took a seat next to the pilot, a young man who'd only been assigned to the Solaria a fortnight ago. He could never remember the younger pilot's name. The only thing he remembered was the pilot's call sign, which was Pilgrim.



"All set, Pilgrim," he asked folding down the control panel so that all the Raptors instruments came fully online.



"Yes, sir," Pilgrim answered efficiently as he ran a final pre-flight check of all systems as the regulations demanded.



"Then lets do this then," Keith replied securing his helmet in place and speaking into his comm. "Demon you ready over there," he asked the pilot of the other Raptor.



"We're ready, Maverick," Lieutenant Brian 'Demon' Shrew answered.



"Okay," Keith said then switched channels to the launch control booth that looked out onto the landing deck itself. "Launch control, Maverick, search and rescue Raptors one and two ready to launch."



"Affirmative, Maverick; you're clear to launch," the voice of Captain Johnston the officer on duty replied. "Beginning launch sequence!"



"Understood," Maverick replied as he saw red warning lights pulse outside and felt a slight jolt as the platform lift began lifting the multi-ton spacecraft up out of the hanger onto the landing deck above them.



***



Standing near his Viper while its fuel tank was topped up with high pressure liquid tylium by the deck crew Captain Lee Adama watched the two Raptors rise into the ceiling. He wished he was going with them as he desperately wanted to understand the fate that had befallen the Olympiaand her crew. Yet at the same time he was glad that he wasn't going as they were bound to see dead people over on the derelict hulk of the cruiser, especially in those compartments that had been opened to space by fire from whoever had attacked her. He had seen people who had died in explosive decompression incidents before and it wasn't a pleasant sight.



He watched as the Raptors disappeared into the armoured shafts up to the landing deck and sighed softly to himself. Good luck over there guys, he thought before turning back to look at his Viper and the deck crew fussing over it. They seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time over something as simple as topping up the fuel tank.



"Is there are problem, specialist," he asked one of the knuckle draggers - as deck crews were often nicknamed by pilots in retaliation for the designation of flyboy they were always given by the deck crew. The specialist that he had addressed looked over at him.



"I'm afraid so, sir," the specialist answered. "The fuel intake valve appears to be frozen shut when it was perfectly fine earlier."



Lee frowned. "How can that be," he asked.



"I'm not sure but it seems to be a design flaw with the fuel feed valves on this model of Viper, I believe the brass are working on asolution."



"I hope so," Lee replied. "The Mark Seven is a wonder to fly, a quantum leap above the Mark Sixes we were still flying last year." The specialist nodded in agreement before returning his attention to wrestling with the stubborn valve.



Lee watched him for a few moments before turning to leave the hanger deck, with his Viper currently being sick and bad it was unlikely he would join the alert Vipers currently maintaining an aggressive combat space patrol around the ship. So he might as well go back to the pilot's quarters and catch up with his paperwork. As the second most senior pilot on the ship next to Maverick he had a lot of work to do beyond the normal flight logs. He was almost to the entrance to the hanger deck, when a series of dull thuds from overhead made him and others look up in confusion. What the frak is that, Lee thought frowning as another series of thuds came from the other end of the hanger deck.



Confused Lee started to walk down the hanger deck, noticing the deck crew and fellow pilots abandoning what they were doing to look around in confusion. None of them had ever heard a sound like those thuds anywhere on the Solaria before, it almost sounded like something very heavy hitting the landing deck, yet there had been no explosion or impact force to indicate that one of the Raptors had crashed and the ships emergency alarms were dead silent.



Bemused as to the source of the strange sound Lee was about to turn around and resume his journey off the hanger deck when a new sound began to echo around the deck, a strange, crackling, hissing sound. Four small sections of ceiling space equally along the deck began glowing and the acrid stink of hot metal filed the air and a few molten metal drops started to fall down. A specialist near to Lee yelped and started thrashing around as adroplet of superheated metal impacted his arm. Instantly the fabric of the specialist's uniform melted at the point of impact and the young man screamed in agony as the hot material inflicted ahorrendous burn. Nearby specialists and two Viper pilots raced to help, ripping off the smouldering coveralls while another specialist headed for a wall communications unit to summon medical assistance.



Before anyone could react further, or really move beyond the immediate concern for the injured man, four tightly focused beams of intense reddish white light burst through the glowing points in the ceiling streaking down to hit the deck below. One beam hit the injured specialist and the man screamed in intense agony a millisecond before his hair, skin, underclothes everything burst into flames instantly converting the man into a human torch, the terrible scent of burning flesh filled the air, a second before the mans agonised screams mercifully cut off and the blazing body collapsed to the floor. Meanwhile the reddish white beams began to move, cutting some kind of openings in the ceiling, while scorching and blistering the deck and slicing and burning anything that stood in their way.



Lee's mind overcame its stunned shock and he realised that the beams were lasers, lasers that were many times more powerful than anything the Colonies had. And they were cutting access routes into the hull, somehow someone or something had landed on the landing deck above and was burning through to this level. They had been boarded. But how, he thought in disbelief, no one could have approached us without dradis picking them up and the old man ordering them to be challenged.



He shook off his disbelief and let his training take over, they had all been trained for the eventuality of a battlestar being boarded should the Twelve Colonies ever find themselves at war again. "You," he said to the closest specialist. "Contact CIC tell them that someone is cutting an access route through the hull presumably to board us." The specialist nodded and ran for the closest comm. unit. "Pilots grab your sidearm, Chief Bates start getting your people off this deck," Lee continued.



Immediately the deck exploded into frantic activity as Lee and the few pilots and ECO's on the deck drew their sidearms and sought shelter behind crates of equipment, work benches and fighters ready to defend the ship until the marines could get here. Meanwhile Chief Lauren Bates began marshalling her unarmed deck crew off the hanger deck, just as the impossible laser beams finished cutting perfect, circular holes in the ceiling. The beams shut off and four large discs of metal instantly fell to the deck below, landing with resounding crashes that almost deafened the frantically preparing Colonials.



Instantly four shafts of brilliant light came down through the holes, four sets of four rings descended, stacking on top of each other with a very short distance between them. A brilliant light flashed inside the rings, and then they retracted back into the ceiling leaving behind four pyramid ball sized objects. For a moment nothing happened then each object emitted a blinding blast of light and a high pitched, piercing whine.



Though he was partially shielded where he was hiding behind a pile of heavy munitions crates the light and sound momentarily stunned Lee, making him drop his sidearm and clutch at the sides of his head as pain momentarily blasted through the whole of his nervous system. When the pain faded away after a few moments he immediately picked up his sidearm again, just as a series of harsh metal clangs came from behind him.



Awkwardly turning without standing up Lee found himself face to face with a humanoid figure completely covered from head to toe in armour and with a full helmet that looked like some kind of animal. The figure was holding a strange pistol that looked like a serpent uncoiled and ready to strike. Without hesitation Lee brought up his sidearm and opened fire, sparks erupted from the chest armour of the figure and it staggered back for a moment. Scowling seeing the bullets were having no effect; Lee flicked a switch on the side of the gun and pulled the trigger sending an explosive armour piercing bullet that was almost the same size as Viper bullets at the invader. The bullet slammed into the chest armour and exploded, shattering the armour like paper and eliciting a spray of blood and mangled flesh from under the armour. The invader stood stock still for a moment, then the light glowing in the eyes of the helmet faded away and it collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.



Before he could celebrate however another of the invaders appeared immediately behind the first one, also holding one of their snake-like pistols. Lee fired another heavy shot just as the intruder fired at him, but the blow went wide and the bullet only clipped the edge of the armour, ricocheted away to hit the deck and explode there. The invaders shot however did not miss. A bolt of crackling blue energy slammed into Lee and he felt his muscles convulse and lock up with unbelievable agony as the blast of energy shot through his nervous system. A small cry was drawn from his lips, then the pain from the shot became too great, he felt himself starting to fall, then he knew nothing at all as consciousness deserted him and he slumped motionless to the deck.



***



Combat Information CentreA Few Moments Later



Commander Julian Maynard stared at Colonel Roberts in shock and disbelief, the report she had just delivered to him leaving him completely incredulous.



"I'm sorry, colonel but can you repeat that," he said.



"We've been boarded, sir," Roberts repeated. "I don't understand how they got over here without us detecting them or where they came from but internal sensors in both flight pods indicated a very sharp localised rise in temperature in four locations on each landing deck. The heat levels are consistent with cutting gear of some kind burning through the hull. We've been unable to get in contact with the flight pods since."



"Get some marines down their immediately," Julian ordered, still not quite believing that someone or something had boarded his battlestar without dradis detecting anything or the alert fighters buzzing around seeing anything approaching them. "And seal the hanger pods off from the rest of the ship. If there are hostiles down there then I don't want them escaping into the rest of the ship."



"Yes sir," Roberts replied and moved away to deal with it.



"Lieutenant Foreman run a diagnostic check on all dradis systems," Julian ordered. "I want to know how someone or something could approach and dock with this ship without us detecting them."



"Yes sir," Foreman replied.



"Communications," Julian continued. "Contact the alert fighters, tell them to increase vigilance and have one of the them fly through one of the landing decks, see if they can spot our uninvited guests. Then contact Major Matterson and advise him of our current situation and that he is to stand by and await instructions. He is not to attempt to return to the ship until ordered to do so." He knew that if he didn't give that particular order then Maverick would immediately charge back over to the ship and attempt to board, especially as many of his pilots were on the hanger decks.



"Yes sir," communications answered as Colonel Roberts reappeared at Julian's side.



"The marines are on their way to both hanger pods sir," she said. "Damage control is trying to seal the emergency bulkheads but some are refusing to respond it looks like the intruders might have jammed them open."



"Sound intruder alert, all personnel prepare to repel boarders."



Roberts nodded and picked up the microphone on the side of the dradis table next to the phone while an alarm that had never been heard except in drills began to reverberate through the ship. "Intruder alert," she said into the microphone her voice immediately being heard throughout the Solaria. "Hostiles boarding the ship through both flight pods, all hands repel boarders. Repeat, intruder alert, hostiles boarding the ship through both flight pods, all hands repel boarders."



***



Crossover Corridor OneStarboard Flight Pod, That Same Time



Marine lieutenant Anton Thompson looked up briefly as the XO's voice reverberated through the ship along with the wailing of the intruder alert klaxon. He did not doubt that in afew more minutes more ships personnel would join up with the marine detachments closing on the flight pods, armed with pistols, heavy pistols like the sidearms some of the pilots had, and rifles taking from the armouries dotted around the ship. Between them he was sure that they would be able to kick the invaders off the ship in short order, through sheer force of numbers and weight of firepower if nothing else.



His attention was brought back to the corridor ahead that ran along one of the arms that connected the flight pod to the rest of that battlestar by a rhythmic clanking sound, like metal on metal. A moment later humanoid figures dressed head to toe in armour, with helmets that looked like an animal, appeared from the flight pod. There were nine of them, one in the lead holding a snake-like weapon that was presumably some kind of pistol, eight more followed two by two carrying staff like weapons.



"Jaffa,"the figure in the lead shouted though his/hers/its voice lacked any emotion, as Anton and his team were spotted. The intruders flattened themselves against the corridor walls, hiding between the slightly raised rims every few metres that were part of the complex interlocking, honeycomb of armour decks and compartments that made up the interior of the ship. Anton and the other marines flattened themselves against the walls as well just as the invaders pointed their staffs at them, the ends of the staffs opening with acrackle of energy, a moment before pulses of golden energy flew from the staffs towards the marines. The shots went wide and impacted the bulkheads or deck with puffs of smoke, flame and sparks.



"Open fire," Anton yelled at the top of his voice before pulling the trigger on his rifle, unleashing a hail of conventional soft tip bullets. The other marines followed suit, directing a storm of bullets towards the intruders. Most bullets missed, ricocheting off bulkheads in a shower of sparks, but others struck home eliciting sprays of sparks as they ripped into the armoured figures, steadily tearing away at their protection. The hostile boarders fired back through the storm of projectiles, as another group of them out of the flight pod and immediately started firing laying down a thick wall of golden energy fire.



Two Colonial marines were hit almost immediately by the additional barrage of energy, crumpling to the ground badly injured or dead. But the exchange was not entirely one way, one of the invaders armour riddled with bullet holes staggered then collapsed to the ground, very human red blood beginning to spread from the lifeless corpse. Amazingly to Anton and his fellow marines the invaders advanced through the storm of fire they were laying down, firing constantly even as another of their number collapsed to the ground dead. Two more of them seemed injured from the small rivers of blood that were starting to make their way down their armour but they kept coming. What are these things, machines? Anton thought as the two injured opponents succumbed to their wounds and collapsed to the ground. Whatever they are their frakking hard to kill, Anton thought as his rifle clicked empty. In one smooth motion he ejected the spent clip and inserted another, even as another of his fellows was hit, hit by two bolts of fire that ripped his armour and chest beneath apart.



"Fall back, fall back," Anton ordered as yet more invaders emerged from the flight pod. Laying down fierce covering fire the marines started pulling back, leaving behind their dead, while continuing to exact a toll on the invaders as more dropped to the deck dead. In moments the marines had fallen back beyond the bulkhead door and Anton slammed it closed and locked the hatch. That should hold them until we can get some more men down here, he thought heading over to a phone on the wall while behind him he heard repeated dull thuds as their uninvited guests pelted the door with their energy weapons, obviously attempting to burn through it.



Picking up the phone Anton pressed the button for the CIC and waited for somewhere there to respond while glancing nervously at the bulkhead door, it was starting to heat up, the paint visibly blistering in the centre of the heavy door as it was subjected to the concentrated fire of multiple enemies. It wouldn't hold them for long. Come on, come on, Anton thought waiting for the battlestars command centre to answer him.



"CIC," Colonel Roberts answered at last.



"Ma'am, Lieutenant Thompson crossover corridor one on the starboard side, we've been driven back beyond the bulkhead doors by enemy forces," Anton reported. "The door is under heavy enemy fire and wont hold for much longer, request reinforcements."



"That's a negative, lieutenant. All marine detachments currently engaged against hostiles boarders through all flight pod access points," Roberts replied sounding genuinely apologetic but Anton heard something else in her voice, anote of very real concern. He could well understand it, it was taking far to long for their conventional bullets to bring the hostiles down, even when their armour was breached they seemed to ignore the bullets ripping into them until their bodies couldn't take anymore and they keeled over dead. And to make matters worse the enemy energy weapons were fearsomely powerful things that made short work of standard marine body armour. There has to be something we can do to drive them back or they'll soon take the ship, he thought before thinking about the flight pods and the ruthless efficiency that their unwelcome alien -and they could only be aliens as incredible as that seemed - visitors had displayed. It was very likely that all pilots and deck crew in the flight pods were dead.



"Colonel have our guests breached the bulkheads yet," he asked.



"Negative, why do you ask?" Roberts replied.



"The intruders are very ruthless, ma'am," Anton replied. "It is very likely that all the crew in the flight pods are already dead. If they are then there is away that we can drive the intruders off the ship without having to try and fight them back. It takes to long for our weapons to kill them; if we keep fighting them then they will soon overwhelm us and take the ship."



For a moment Colonel Roberts was silent, but Anton knew that she was coming to the same conclusion that he had. It was a terrible choice to make as it could doom any of the crew left alive in the flight pods but there wasn't really an alternative. "I get what your suggesting, lieutenant," Roberts replied at last. "Pull your people back beyond the next emergency bulkhead; take any crew you find with you. I'll have a word with the commander."



"Yes, ma'am," Anton answered and put the phone down before turning to his waiting surviving marines. "Orders from CIC pull back beyond the next bulkhead and take any crew we find with us." The marines didn't question his orders, and covering themselves began to pull back away from the rapidly heating up bulkhead door.



***



Combat Information CentreA Few Moments Later



Commander Julian Maynard studied his executive officer in shock, stunned by what she had just told him. Their marines were retreating in all compartments, the flight pods were currently sealed off but their uninvited guests were bombarding the bulkhead doors with their energy weapons and would soon burn through. It was also very likely that everyone beyond the invaders in the flight pods were dead, nearly a third of his crew murdered by the ruthless, bloodthirsty alien boarders.



"The marines believe they can't stop them," he asked.



"I've spoken to several marine lieutenants besides Lieutenant Thompson sir," Roberts replied. "They all believe it's only a matter of time before the invaders overwhelm them. Our weapons take far to long to bring the aliens down, they just seem to soak up the bullets even after their armour is breached and it only takes one hit from the alien energy weapons to kill a marine, whatever it is that energy bolt just burns right through their body armour as if it doesn't exist. Sir I believe there is only one way we can stop the aliens from taking this ship, and regaining control of the flight pods."



"I know what your saying, colonel," Julian said a cold hardness settling in his stomach. This was the kind of situation that every Colonial military commander feared and hated being put in. It was just possible that there were surviving crew in the flight pods in sections that the invaders hadn't gotten to, but then again they could all be dead. If they weren't then the only action he could take to save the rest of the ship would definitely kill them all unless they were in suits.



After a few moments of considering the situation he sighed and spoke, pushing down the feelings of horror for what he was going to have to do. Lords of Kobol forgive me, he thought. "Begin emergency atmospheric venting of both flight pods and all crossover corridors," he ordered grimly. "And may the Lords of Kobol forgive us."



"So say we all," Roberts agreed softly, before turning and heading over to the damage control board to carry out the emergency vent action order. It took only moments to reach the damage control board; quietly without speaking to the operators on duty there she took her command access key from around her neck and unlocked a sealed panel. With a calm she didn't feel she pressed a series of buttons there to indicate which sections of the ship needed to be depressurised, then inserted her key into the activate switch. Silently praying to the gods that the action would be able to stop the seemingly unstoppable forces invading the Solaria she turned the key, setting the vent action into motion.



***



The battlestar Solariafloated silent and majestic in space, the earlier launched combat patrol shadowing her protectively. From the outside the mighty Guardian-class battlestar looked peaceful and serene, with no outward sign of the bloodshed and mayhem that had been unleashed inside both of her flight pods.



Until now that was. Massive vents on the outside of the battlestar abruptly opened, and massive silvery jets of atmosphere blasted out of the hull, carrying with it loose debris, moisture ripped from surfaces that instantly froze in the vacuum of space. Carried in with the streams of debris, rapidly freezing water and gas was the odd body of a Jaffa or dead crewmen who'd been caught too close to the massive heavy duty emergency dump vents.



The venting lasted only seconds, and then it stopped leaving the Solaria in the centre of arapidly dispersing cloud, large sections of her hull now in complete vacuum.



***



Themis Ha'takThat Same Time



Sitting proudly, regally on her pel'tac throne Themis opened her mouth slightly in shock as the Colonial warship abruptly vented the atmosphere from the pod-like structures on its sides. The action was completely unexpected; no one had ever used such a tactic against her kind before. From the number of bodies sucked out into space with the jets of atmosphere it was a devastatingly effective, albeit desperate, tactic.



After a few moments stunned shock gave way to anger, a deep burning anger that swelled inside of her as she realised she had just seen alarge number of her Jaffa die, that the Humans onboard the Colonial vessel had defied her will. She could not allow such insolence to go unpunished, no Goa'uld would and she was slightly more willing to forgive than Lord Zeus or Lady Hera.



"Jaffa," she barked angrily. Immediately the Jaffa on the pel'tac stopped what they were doing and turned to face her, ready for her command, their faces completely impassive, their implants preventing them even showing fear of their goddess rightful wrath. "Contact the boarding craft and advise them to return immediately with the prisoners."



"Yes milady," the Jaffaat the main console replied his head bowed, eyes aiming towards the floor, before turning to carry out her order.



"Then bring us around behind the Colonial vessel," Themis continued. "Weapons target their propulsion systems, secondary targets are the Human fighters prepare to decloak and fire on my command."



"Yes milady," came the replies from the respective Jaffa.



Themis gave a small evil smile and sat back on her throne, keeping her eyes on the tactical display in the trapezoidal view port, as her Ha'tak began to move. The Colonial vessel, its fighters and the crippled Olympia sat in the centre of the display, and as she watched a new group of contacts appeared from the Colonial vessel. The cloaked boarding crash and their two cloaked, escorting Alkesh leaving the warship behind, and moving to join up with her vessel, homing in on a beacon signal being broadcast on a specific subspace frequency that was almost impossible to intercept.



Moments passed as Themis waited patiently, relishing the retribution she was going to exact, while the Ha'tak moved into the firing position she had designated, directly behind the Colonial vessel, trailing it by fifty kilometres.



"We are in position, milady," the Jaffa at the main console reported at last. "Weapons are charged and ready to fire, shields are on standby ready to be activated the moment we decloak."



"Excellent decloak,"Themis ordered and immediately their was a slight humming sound throughout the Ha'tak as the cloaking device was deactivated, making the Ha'tak shimmer into view, and power transferred to the shield generators which immediately encased the Goa'uld warship in a cocoon of protective energy.



"Weapons locked on target, milady," the Jaffa at weapons reported.



Themis eyes glowed brightly and she smiled with evil pleasure. "Fire," she ordered.



***



The Ha'tak shivered slightly with recoil as abruptly every weapon that could be brought to bare on its multiple targets opened fire. Heavy volleys of whitish gold and golden plasma bolts blasted from the Mothership weapons arrays in a terrifying demonstration of the Goa'uld vessels awesome firepower.



As before when they had fired on the Olympia the golden plasma bolts fired by the turret mounted secondary gun arrays arrived first. However unlike with the Olympia the plasma bolts were not at half power, instead they seared the very vacuum of space itself with fully powered blasts of plasmatic destruction. The unexpected wall of fire slammed into the Colonial Vipers buzzing around the Solariabefore they could even begin to respond. Several vanished in momentary blasts of flame as plasma blasts struck them full on, turning each Viper into a plume of vaporised metal before the pilots even had chance to scream. The rest broke formation in a disorganised scramble as plasma bolts sought them out as well.



The slower moving but far more powerful heavy plasma bolts arrived then, slamming into the Solariawhich was just starting to come about to engage the surprise arrival. The movement saved the Solaria from instant annihilation. Instead of impacting the battlestars engines which could have started a chain reaction of explosions that would have torn her apart from within, the plasma barrage slammed into her starboard flight pod. The battlestars four metre thick outer armour layer absorbed the worst of the initial blows, disintegrating but in the process absorbing the worst of the energy so the thinner layer beneath the ribbing for the outer armour only glowed and began melting as the residual energy got through.



The Solaria rocked violently with the blows, but unfortunately for the battlestar it was not over. A second volley of supercharged plasma blasts came in, blasting through the gaps ripped through the outer armour. The metre and a half thick secondary armour layer over the hull was not an obstacle to energy bolts hotter than the core of a sun. Armour vaporised and allowed superheated material to play over the delicate innards of the flight pod, shattering tylium feed lines and flash heating the volatile liquid fuel way past its ignition point. But the lack of atmosphere in the flight pod prevented the superheated tylium from detonating, saving the battlestar from destruction.



Not that the rest of the battlestar escaped unharmed, systems crashed throughout the ship, power conduits overloading and blowing out starting electrical fires all over the ship. Main power flickered then died as the tylium reactors powering the ship went into emergency shut down as fuel lines, cracked by the force of the impacts spewed tylium over decking and bulkheads before pressure sensitive valves shut off the flow in the damaged lines.



Crippled the Solariaspun like a top as superheated tylium burst out of the ruptured starboard flight pod. The uncontrolled spin ironically saving the battlestar from further damage as the Jaffa gunners on the Goa'uld ship found it next to impossible to get a lock on the tumbling ship long enough to pump more plasma into her.



***



Themis Ha'tak

"Cease firing on the Colonial vessel," Themis ordered, smiling grimly as she saw the crippled warship spinning helpless and powerless. She was tempted to destroy them but decided against it, it would be much better to leave witnesses to the power of the Goa'uld behind. That way when she returned to this area, or if Lord Zeus himself came, then these Humans would know the futility of resistance to their gods.



Studying the tactical display Themis was pleased, most of the Humans fighters had been annihilated, the three that were left were too dispersed to be any kind of threat, not that a hundred of them with their primitive weapons would have had a chance of breaching her shields.



"Milady," one of the Jaffain the pel'tac reported. "All the boarding craft are back onboard and prisoners are being taken to the holding cells. Shall we implant them with agonizer chips?"



"No," Themis replied. "I will leave that pleasure to Lord Zeus, I am sure he will be able to get information out of our prisoners. Set course to return to the staging area, and then jump to hyperspace, we have accomplished all we can here, for now."



"Yes milady."



***



Silently and with an effortless grace that no Colonial vessel, with its bulky nuclear ion drives, could match the Ha'tak class Goa'uld Mothership moved away from the two crippled Colonial capital ships.



After a few moments a hyperspace window, a swirling vortex of light and energy, burst into existence ahead of it and the Mothership disappeared inside, vanishing into hyperspace leaving the Cyrannus sector in moments.



The first incursion of the Goa'uld was over, but it would not be the last.