Ok, I have to confess that this chapter will be more a narrative describing developments. But you will also see your fair share of character development plus a few other surprises.

So here it is

Chapter 9: Developments leading up to war

Earth, August the 3rd (D-Day+39), New IOA HQ, Brussels, 1423 hrs (local time)

Within a medium sized room the IOA members, both old and new had gathered. With them were SG-1 and other important people from the SGC and HWS such as Colonel Davis, Generals Landry and O'Neill and Dr. Carolyn Lam, CMO of the SGC.

It was not the first time they had met since that fateful day.

A lot had happened since.
The threat of the Colonial ground forces had been ended by a concentrated counter attack on the whole front, the armies of the USA supplemented with entire regiments, brigades and divisions from other NATO members had driven armoured wedges through the Colonial front, encircled them and in brutal battles forced them to surrender. Within two weeks after the counter-attack's start on the tenth day after the landing, the Colonials had been mopped up, forced to surrender and been propped for interrogation and internment. Some had fled into hiding and gone to ground. They had to be flushed out, but finally, on the 29th of July, D-Day+34, the last Colonial soldier on Earth was either dead or in custody.

Earth was now indisputable theirs again.

Another thing that had happened was that within a week after the first meeting of the IOA where the various countries had presented their plans for various new ship classes. Now though, the designs stood and were ready to be shown and presented.

Canada, for instance had approached the SGC the day after the fateful meeting and asked for the designs of the Goa'uld Al'kesh in addition to a preliminary scan of the Colonial gunstars. When asked why, they had vaguely replied they had a hunch. Shrugging the United States had did as requested.

Now the Canadians shocked everybody present with dual designs!

One design or suggestion could be expected but two? This was something that intrigued and astonished the new IOA.

With the speed of events being far above what anybody had predicted and the secondary countries finding a solution to just how many votes each country would get in record time, the new members had been fully inducted into the ranks of the IOA and had been given the files on technology as well as the plans on how to build the known ship classes.

With these plans Canada's plans had accelerated exponentially and they were already capable of presenting dual designs.

The designs were for gunships. One was capable of FTL, the other larger class was system bound.

When asked for their reasons of designing such ships, they had answered that systems defence had been overlooked. While planets and systems would be protected by the fleet, general systems defence was something that also needed to be taken care of. But while they too felt that a nation should not be capable of creating its own army, they did think it a good idea of creating a class of ships, big enough to deter pirates, escort freighters and generally secure the planets. These ships would not be capable of FTL, but under the control of those nations that commissioned them. It would free up ships for the fleet and when or rather if the war was won and over, the fleet would surely be reduced (a prospect the military would not like, but which they faced as a true possibility), so a force to protect their holdings would be needed.

The design had no name yet, but it incorporated shields, dual energy weapons (Tollan type), eight fighters (F-302's or the new type), four medium railguns and eight point defence railguns. It would also mount dual frontal launching tubes for nukes or torpedoes. It was to be about a hundred meters long , forty-five wide and incorporated the shape of a BC-303 or 304's head, the body of a Colonial ship and slight wings on which the energy weapons were mounted, giving them the ability to fire in an arc of over 180 degrees.

The second design was much simpler.

It was about twenty meters long, had a wingspan of a dozen meters and four energy weapons mounted on the wings. There were two pairs of wings, one vertical, the other horizontal, while the vertical wings could be rotated, for easier storage. The wings were curved forward and the body was conical shaped, with a forward mounted quadruple missile launcher to take out fighters or bombers.

The energy weapons would be modified and enhanced staff cannons. Dual quadruple anti-fighter cannons were located on the sides, small light railguns, each firing 1" projectiles.

They named this class the Raptor-class. It was fast, small enough to be carried by larger ships or attached to them or could even be incorporated into a fleet. The were designed to work in pairs, squads or even whole squadrons.
They were fast and pretty heavy hitters considering their size. Easy to build and with small crews they could be modified for scouting or stealth purposes. Pack hunters, the would tear apart enemy light ships and gunboats, opening up the way for larger ships or just generally being used for lightning raids on enemy installations or enemy shipping lanes when or if the means to intercept ships in hyperspace had been found.

They would fall under the control of Fleet Command.

The Germans and Japanese also presented a few ideas. Having studied the Vipers, they were impressed by their ability to turn 180 degrees without breaking a sweat. But incorporating the system would be a long and troublesome process.

Thus they had turned to another idea. Impressed by the Viper's abilities and agilities but unable to copy it in such a short time, the had turned to an easier solution.

Manoeuvring thrusters.

Each one would be able to be fired independently allowing it even greater manoeuvrability than a Colonial Viper as it'd allow the pilot to literally pirouette, dancing on all three axis simultaneously.

Going for a cheap and easy design, they utilized parts of many existing designs.

The cockpit module of a F-302, the body of an atmospheric fighter of the newest generations, such as the Eurofighter or similar fighters, the engines, energy generators and inner cockpit layout of the F-302s plus a few extras.

The result was impressive.

There were two designs.

One was a fighter with fixed wings, shaping it like a lying X. The problem with this though, was that this made the fighter unable to perform atmospheric combat, reducing it to space. It was not favoured though.

The other would be slightly more complicated to build.

It would look like an atmospheric fighter capable of fighting in space, which it was, continuing the line of thought and the experience gained from the F-302 fighters.

In space combat, the outer third of the wings would split, the two parts snapping up and down, creating am lying H. This would allow the manoeuvring thrusters to work to their full ability.

In atmospheric combat the wings would be folded, the split shut and sealed, with the thrusters acting as boosters, the dancing disabled.

This design was favoured, the new fighter given the designation of the F-402 Starfury.

The armament was impressive too.

With four energy weapons, larger versions of the weapons which the Kull warriors used, married up to the larger and shot for shot far more powerful blast of a staff weapon the Jaffa used, it gave the fighter four energy weapons capable of firing faster than anybody else. Under the wings were a total of six hard-points for anti-fighter missiles.

With the use of so many different modules (plus the additional weight for a smaller secondary power generator to feed the manoeuvring thrusters and the energy weapons, as well as the weight of those thrusters and the energy weapons it self) the size of the wings needed for atmospheric flight was quite easy to calculate, though some tweaking would still be needed, especially when it came to performance, although now matter how hard it seemed, data for adjustments needed could only be discovered by trial through fire.

The ingenuity of the design impressed the IOA, a fighter such as the one presented would be quite a boon and show the universe just how adaptable the Tau`ri were.

Next was China's turn. The plans for a frigate they presented were interesting.

Named the Weixuan frigate it was of course FTL capable, shielded and possessed a mix of energy weapons and conventional weaponry, something that was to be standard on Tau`ri ships. Like the smaller Colonial escorts it was supposed to destroy incoming enemy fighters, bombers, gunboats and missiles.

It had a lean design, but still possessed the characteristic boxiness and utilitarian design that showed in all Tau'ri ships.

Two forward curved, short wing-like appendages were situated at the back of the ship, positioned on the upper respectively on the underside of the ship. This was where the two energy weapons, derivatives of the Tollan weapons, that had become popular with the Tau'ri, were mounted. But because the Tau'ri liked to be tactically flexible the ship also mounted railguns. Along the sides a total of 32 light railguns were positioned, the upper and undersides both holding a total of eight medium railguns (4") and another total of 12 light railguns. The front also sported four missile tubes, capable of holding nukes and torpedoes.

The Weixuan (FR-308) was just what the Tau'ri needed. A fighter and gunboat killer.

Four Frigates escorting either two BC-304s or a DSB-306 would for example cut right through the swarms of darts the Wraith employed or just as easily through the mass of Colonial Vipers or Cylon Raiders or just ROR fighters.

With the Weixuan class Earth had a ship to secure their flanks.

The French were next.

The Richelieu class had been further developed. A design and a far better estimate of the numbers of armaments were now available.

The design was both a bow to their gone friends, the Asgard, together with the lethally efficient design of the Tau'ri.

The ship had two massive blocks on the edge, reminiscent of the Asgard Beliskner Class. In the middle a conical structure sat, that gradually widened from the front to the back and that gradually rose the same way.

On the side structures, two Tollan cannons each were situated on the top and at the bottom of each side structure. The block structure's sides were each covered in 24 light railgun emplacements, grouped into clusters of four each (each railgun was dual-barrelled, which had become custom). On the 'wings', the structures between the side blocks and the conical sphere in the middle, a total of twelve heavy railguns were situated, four on the top of each side, with the bottom having two on each side. The heavy railguns were accompanied by a total of 24 medium railguns. Again the top having double than the bottom side.

The wings were also quite thick and had a total of 24 light railguns that protected the four hangars from which a total of thirty-two fighters and sixteen bombers could launch.

The French had also been in contact with the Canadians, having noticed the strange Canadian request and after discreetly asking what they were planning, had accounted for this too.

The central structure held four hatches from which the Raptor gunships could be launched, the remaining eight were launched from the hangars on the wings.

With the improved energy generators of a Beliskner ship (the generators of an O'Neill being too big), while still being smaller than the Asgard model, the Richelieu was more heavily shielded than a Daedalus and still capable of powering more energy weapons.

On the central structure the main weapons were situated. In a diamond pattern another four heavy railguns were placed. Eight medium railguns surrounded them and sixteen light railguns provided anti-air defences. At the back of the structure another four energy cannons were placed. The two Asgard PPGs were placed at the front.

Six launching tubes for missiles were situated on the side.

The Richelieu-class was not as fast at sublight or as agile as the Daedalus class, but with its massive shields, terrifying frontal armaments, a length of nearly seven hundred and fifty metres while possessing a width of about four hundred metres, the Richelieu was a true battleship, a ship designed to take what the enemy could dish out and hit back even harder, a ship killer, designed to blow enemy capital ships apart.

They held the designation DSB-306

The design made many shiver in awe and fright.

Earth finally had a battleship that looked it. It might not be as big as the ships of other races, but it was the biggest ship class so far designed by Earth and with the weapons load out it possessed, it'd be the undisputed lord of the battlefield (as far as they knew, everybody considered the possibility of the enemy having developed even heavier classes).

The Russians were next.
"I am sorry to announce, that the Prometheus class is difficult to upgrade. The Prometheus was initially a test-bed for all the new technologies we had acquired and were acquiring during the years fighting first the Goa'uld, then the Replicators and finally the Ori. As such the original Prometheus spent as much time in dry docks being upgraded as in space. This makes the upgrading so difficult, as the original plans are no longer viable in all accounts. Shield strength,FTL speed, energy generators, sensor equipment and the armaments need to be redesigned and upgraded to the newest technology.

On the other hand, this does allow us to recreate the Prometheus-class in different patterns, allowing them to perform different duties.

For example, we believe that the BC-303 class could be easily upgraded to perform various roles. A fast, heavy hitter for example where we install an Asgard PPG but decrease the shield strength because of the power requirements. This would also mean no other energy weapons and only light railguns for anti-fighter purposes.

A stealth variant could also be designed with several medium and heavy railguns for defence and a far bigger and more effective sensor array, together with a cloaking device.

Another variant to be considered, is a dedicated missile launching ship, equipped with both nuclear missiles and plasma torpedoes, enhanced shield strength and speed with railguns, both medium and heavy for defence. This would allow them to strike from the flanks and deliver masses of missiles or torpedoes right into the heart of an enemy formation.

The last variant would be considered the standard variant. It would be boasting energy cannons, railguns of all sizes and two to four frontal missile launchers. A jack of all trades as you would say. They would act as escorts to the bigger ships.

This would also mean that save for the heavy hitter variant, the only ships mounting Asgard weapons are the BC-304 class or bigger, the ships of the line and the battleships."

The explanation of the Russian delegate made quite a few wince due to the implied time they needed to redesign the BC-303. On the other hand, the many possible variants showed the strength of the design and how well it would still work, even now, a testament to those how had originally designed it.

Brazil had no surprises for the IOA, but India and Australia had some.

They had banded together thinking about the new security issues for Earth and the new colonies that were being established at the moment.

Together they had created threat estimates of the various regions Earth had and later on the new Earth Colonies would have.

Unsurprisingly enough, those regions with the heaviest populations were prime targets with lower populated place rated lower on the threat list. The state of the industries and their output or the output of the power generated, or just having industries vital to the war effort. The criteria had an impact where a region was ranked, as well as the fact whether a region was a member of the IOA or being talked too and what values they adhered to. These criteria one has to say were quite a bit egoistical, but it had been decided that that this would be overlooked, as no one wanted their own country to go up in flames.

In the end it meant that especially the African continent but also large parts of Asia which were rather underdeveloped or had dictatorial regimes or were in a state of civil war, lost out heavily. These were the regions that were ranked lowest.

They then used these estimates to calculate just how many orbital defences the regions would have to be allotted to and of what quality these defences had to be to adequately defend them.

At first they had proposed to cover Earth in orbital defence platforms set in regular intervals. The sheer number needed though, made this impossible, especially since it was not yet even clear against what kind of threat the stations would have to be prepared for.

Against an enemy with Colonial technology for instance, missile intercepting systems as well as a heavy anti-fighter load-out would be required. The platforms would also have to literally hug Earth's atmosphere, because of the tactical advantage the Colonial FTL gave them.

Against an enemy using hyperspace technology and energy weapons on the other hand, the platforms would need energy weapons too as well as excellent shielding.

The entire problem was quite vexing, especially since it seemed to be impossible to intercept beam weapons (such as the main weapon on Ori mother-ships or Asgard PPGs), meaning that a beam weapon would simply be fired BETWEEN the platforms and strike the surface rendering the platforms useless.

The solution found by the two nations was astonishing.

They had not only presumed but counted on the fact that for an effective defence of a planet and especially Earth close cooperation between the Fleet and the defence grid was necessary.

Taking these facts and combining them with the threat assessments they had made, the two countries working together had come up with a very elegant solution.

Although it was taking the conclusion of the facts and of the future to its extremes, it nevertheless retained its elegance.

What they proposed were several general steps.

First of all with the beaming technology available to them, it was high time that somebody cleared up space around Earth. Tens of thousands of pieces were flying around, capable of doing extreme damage to everything in orbit.

Together with the detritus from the battles fought over Earth, Earth would gain access to quite a few resources, the destroyed Ha'taks from Anubis and the Ori mother-ships alone giving Earth large amounts of refined naquadah and other necessary minerals.

The other necessary step was to determine just where the docking stations for the ships off world were to located as well as where the docks to build ships would be stationed.

To this they proposed that several harbour-like structures to be erected in orbit, allowing them to be covered by several shield emitters. There the freighters from off-world would unload their cargo which would be either transferred to ships capable of transit between the surface and orbit or in-system freighters, as already the new IOA had agreed to very strict guidelines concerning such technology and restricted the use of such craft to very specific routes leading to harbours or landing strips from which goods would be transferred.

The new dry docks would also need docking capabilities for ships delivering the prefabricated parts and other supplies needed for the workers and the docks themselves.

The question still remained just how to defend these things and Earth in general.

This returned the attention of the IOA members back to the elegant solution India and Australia showed them.

The two nations had not only proposed several classes of defensive structures but also another thing, the thing that was truly remarkable.

The structures moved.

Oh, not all of them.

But the smallest manned ones and the ones of the medium class certainly would.

A net of small satellites would hug Earth's atmosphere to shoot down missiles and fighters. They would be shielded true, but only basically. With light railguns and a small amount of missiles, capable of intercepting missiles or enemy fighters, they were Earth's last line of defence.

The fist line of defence would be perpetually cloaked stations, twenty-four of them. With a dozen missile tubes and sixteen smaller quad launchers for small missiles, they would possess the captured Colonial FTL technology but not the sublight engines the smaller defence platforms were also graced with, allowing them onlz basic movement in space.

Should the day come, that anybody might dare threaten Earth, they would let the enemy pass between them and then jump behind them and unleashing volley after volley of nukes, torpedoes and anti-fighter missiles, hopefully severely reducing the amount of enemy capital ships.

Thy would then try to disengage, maybe needing to manoeuvre to be capable of jumping out again.

The second line was the one that was visible. Anchored around the biggest stations, who unmoving stood in geostationary orbit with only minimal sublight engines, guarding over the regions most important to Earth.

These giants would possess dual Asgard PPGs and shields even higher than those of a Richelieu. Armed with a multitude of heavy energy cannons, lighter energy weapons of the type used in the Raptors, with missile tubes and all sorts of railguns, these behemoths would be the hardest nuts to crack for an enemy, especially when supported by their smaller cousins and ships from the fleet.

True, the designers had not known of the Raptor- class or anything else, though that had not mattered, the designers had included smaller lighter energy weapons in the design and although it it was nothing more than a simulation and and the proper plans to construct such fortress did not yet exist except for schematics that detailed such things as the height, design and width of the fortress it was nevertheless enough to start on.

The two smaller classes were far smaller than their great cousin, but it mattered not.

They all shared the same basic design. At the midst was always a round disk which held the heavy energy weapons and heavy railguns as well as the missile tubes. From there a spire protruded jutting out above and beyond the disk. This was were lighter weapons were set, as well as the docking clamps for the gunboats on the middle sized ones.

The behemoths had hatches from which these would issue as well as hangars holding many fighters.

So it was that the basic model had two missile tubes, eight heavy railguns on the disk and a total of two heavy energy cannons mounted at the top and bottom of the small spire. The also possessed sixteen light railguns but no medium ones.

The medium sized platform on the other hand had not only the two missile tubes but also a total of ten heavy energy cannons (eight on the disk and one each at the end of the spire. The disk also held not only sixteen medium railguns (each side having four arrayed in a diamond pattern) but also four heavy railguns (one each in the midst of a diamond formation). A grand total of twenty-four light railguns (sixteen on the disk and four each at the ends of the spire) with four multiple missile launchers and docking clamps for four gunships (two each along each end of the spire) made them into something exceedingly nasty.

Together with their Colonial style FTL and "proper" sublight engines they were able to quickly converge on an attacking enemy fleet.

The civilian structures would be guarded by two medium platforms and four light platforms each, the dry docks on the other hand would warrant a heavy platform on either side, supported by a total of eight medium platforms and sixteen light ones, the Tau`ri would fight tooth and nail to keep their starship production capabilities protected. This was enhanced b the addition of several high grade shields, and an assignment of an additional 120 fighters and a doyen gunboats in addition to what the defensive structures would already carry.

Having seen the presentations of the others the two nations quickly updated their ideas by asking whether it'd be possible that Home World Command would possible be capable of commissioning the new heavy gunboats for Earth's immediate defence and security until a Home Fleet could be established.

In addition these would still be able to form a resilient backbone for Earth's defence, keeping out pirates, protecting any possible new operation within the Sol system, act as a first line of customs and acting in a myriad of other functions,something that would keep the Home Fleet away from such mundane tasks, leaving them to focus on one thing and one alone: The defence of Earth.

Nodding thoughtfully the other nations accepted the notion. The numbers and resources needed for such a massive defence were great but not impossible to manage.

Moreover it gave them a good idea on how their own colonies could be defended in future.

Finally it was the turn of the United States.

Looking increasingly stumped at the amount of new designs and solutions the IOA members had found, especially the newer members, for Earth's needs and growing star fleet, Colonel Carter almost shyly gave her report.

"It was the job of the United States to come up with viable solutions for many problems we now face, especially in the civilian sector. We have thought hard and come up with quite a few ideas more so after we conversed with other nations to gather their input.

But it is the military that we are now discussing and for that we had the job to create a new carrier class, capable of carrying many fighters, be they F-302 or other models into battle. For that we have conferred both with Admiral Helena Cain of the Colonies of Kobol and our own naval services, drawing upon our vast experience concerning aircraft carriers. Together with many other military officers and scientists we have drawn up first schematics for this new Carrier. While Admiral Cain cannot be here today for reasons to be spoken of later, her input and experience with battlestars were of great use as was the input of the Cylon Gina Inviere. With this information we have created a new class. The Venator- class! The name venator is Latin and means 'hunter'. An apt name for a carrier of fighters."

Taking a deep breath she activated the presentation of the new carrier class together with the simulation.

"The Venator class will be able to hold a total of one hundred and eighty fighters together with an additional sixty bombers or fighter-bombers."

The room recoiled slightly. Two hundred and forty craft? This was more than even a battlestar could hold, only slightly less than the massive warstars that had lead the attack on Earth.

How could such numbers be stored, launched, received, refuelled rearmed and generally maintained?

"You are asking about the logistics and wondering about the design aren't you?"

The design?

That brought up many short. Indeed the design looked...strange. A utilitarian look of course but slightly off.

"The design was inspired by both the flight pods of the Colonials and the hangars on our own ships. As you know, fighters taking off from our ships are also capable of making combat landings, even more so, considering the size of the BC-204s. Even so we have increased the landing zone by roughly two hundred and fifty metres. This allows us to take in many fighters at once. You can see two flight pods on either side of the central structure and a third hole beneath it. You can also see the seemingly gaping maws of these pods as they are so wide. In fact, these pods are so wide because they possess triple runways so that three fighters can take off at once easily. Together with the central hangar under the central structure it provides us with three hangars. The side pods are for the fighters, the central hangar is for the bombers or fighter-bombers. With the length of the runway, we can have nearly the entire complement of squadrons on the runway rolling and gathering speed, until the first birds leave the pods, making it very easy to quickly launch the entire load of 180 fighters

In battle the fighters would be launched first, under the cover of the railguns positioned around the openings protecting them. Then with the fighters launched and providing cover, the bombers would be launched.

While retrieving this many craft is hard in battle, it is not impossible. The width of the hangar or pods easily allow us to take three birds in one go or even four is the pilots are skilled enough, though this will be VERY close, or if the need arises. Once past a certain point, the fighter will automatically be beamed down on the deck below, where they can be immediately rearmed, refuelled or where they are repaired. Before a battle, or generally after the ground crew has finished, the craft will be automatically tagged as ready and the craft beamed up, once the pilot has checked in. Scrambles will beam the fighters up into the starting grids in the manner, that who is fastest also joins the battle fastest. We also have installed traditional lifts. Just in case."

The looks she received were priceless, Carter thought. Intra ship beaming? What...oh my, what a way... .

Carter continued, pleased by how much the others looked dumbfounded.

"Because the amount of fuel our fighters need is not that much, and the crew needed is not that much, considering the amount of craft the Venator can launch, there are more than enough decks for storage purposes, so that the Venator is good for extended campaigns. Indeed we have calculated that it could go for more than nine months with daily complete launches and combat until it needs to be restocked. We have also included another thing from the Colonies that intrigued us very much. The Mercury- class has manufacturing devices. This is something we have incorporated too, to allow us to create more spare parts for both the airwing and the ship if needed. The armament of the Venator will consist of eight heavy railguns, four heavy energy cannons, twelve medium railguns and a total of sixty light railguns for anti-fighters and anti missile purposes. However, the Venator class will stay at the back of the fleet, where they are more protected."

After finishing her presentation Carter sat down again, feeling slightly please for herself, the faces on the other delegates from the IOA had been priceless and she felt rather smug about having helped create such a hunter. In her mind she already nearly shivered with excitement when she thought what a Venator attached to a hunting group (four FR-308s and either two BC-304s or one DSB-306) would do to the Wraith. Slaughter was not even appropriate, massacre was more appropriate.

O'Neill entertained the same thought and he too knew, that with the Venator and the new fighter design by Germany and Japan the threat by the Colonies was severely reduced, when it came to fighters. Now on to the battlestars...

Finally, now the immediate military affairs of the Tau'ri had been taken care of, it was time to talk about their allies. For this purpose General O'Neill rose.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have to honestly say, that I am overwhelmed by your ideas. They have their merits and will strengthen our forces considerably once they have entered production. However, there are still classes missing. We have frigates, carriers, battlecruisers- our line ships-, mighty battleships and new fighters together with gunboats and systems defence ships. We have also been shown plans for mighty planetary defences. All of this is excellent, but in terms of striking ships we have gunboats and the Prometheus class, though of course the Daedalus class ships can fulfil that role too. However, we are seriously lacking in the cruiser department, both light and heavy and in the missile carrier area. Fortunately, we have allies. Allies whose ships can take the places of these classes. It is thus, that we need a unified alliance, a unified command structure and cohesive fleets. However with our allies we face problems. Problems that might one day destroy us."

He had the undivided attention of all those present, though many shared the same thought: 'The Colonials...'

"As many of you might have guessed, it is the Colonies of Kobol with which we have our problems. I doubt that even Cain has realized yet just how necessary the Colonies are for us to win the war. It is not in Cain that I see a problem. Admiral Cain is a woman whom I have come to greatly respect within the last few weeks. She is both a pragmatist and a realist and both highly intelligent and has an excellent grasp on tactics. Although she loves the Colonies, she has made sure to covey her thoughts on the current political administration. They are not favourable. But even though her love for the Colonies is great, her love for her ship, its crew and the fleet in general surpasses it. Cain has allied with us, because she sees in us her chance of not only gaining personal power, but also gaining power for the fleet and in a way she wants the war, for it will mean that her beloved fleet will have to be expanded greatly while at the same time gaining many new technologies and more power for the ships."
The audience winced. It was true. Cain was a pragmatist and if the war was won, then at the end the Colonies would have a massive fleet of powerful ships, something that easily had the power to expand the Colonies' borders and elevating the Colonies into a serious galactic power, something the IOA was very uneasy about.

Then O'Neill continued.

"But this is wherein our problem lies for a powerful Colonies of Kobol could easily turn against us. To illustrate the problems we are going to face, I wish for Colonel Carter to continue with the technological side of the problem. Colonel Carter if you would?" Turning, he gestured at Sam to rise once more.
With a heavy sigh she began.

"The main problem with the Colonial ships is their immense size. Even our most powerful ship, the Richelieu class as it will be called, is told to be seven hundred and fifty metres long. The Mercury class battlestar, their main ship of the line is more than twice as long with the length of roughly a mile. Older classes, such as the Columbia class or the Pacifia class or the ships they call Warstars are even bigger, the Warstars over three times as long! If we were to arm them in the fashion of our ships, then they would quickly become too much of a threat. On the other hand they need to be effective against the ships the ROR will field. As such we have made a few decisions concerning the armaments of their ships. As Admiral Cain has herself pointed out, the Viper will need to be their primary fighter, the upgrades we may offer them must be included in the current size. She has also pointed out, that the anti-fighter screens the Colonial ships can put up, has so far proven very effective, even against the shielded fighter-bombers of the ROR, simply through the mass of fire they can emit. Together with the fact that the battlestar design is not only a very sound but also an incredibly sturdy design the technological upgrades are as following. It will allow them to field strong ships without us giving away to many technological secrets."

The assorted diplomats and representatives of each country, both military and civilian, let out and audible sigh of relief. No matter how much Earth needed the Colonials, it was imperative (at least for the moment) that the Colonials be contained and that Earth's most important technologies would not leave Earth's hands.

With a little smile, Carter continued, she quite liked this compromise and had found the Viper to be quite impressive.

"Because the Colonial war industry knows how to build battlestars and Vipers and because the battlestars are designed for Vipers, we can only upgrade the existing models, although this does allow us to create a fighter that can be completely produced by the Colonies, with the same going for the battlestars, of which many can be built there, allowing a far greater production rate of ships for the war effort.

For the Viper we propose giving them an additional layer of armour, to strengthen them. Although it will be not as effective as our armour it will still be an increase in their abilities. The Viper's weapons will have to be replaced, though because of the Viper's design, this is a minor inconvenience and they too can be produced by the Colonies. The will fire a new calibre of round at a greater speed, accuracy and more power. The engines need only a little tweaking to make them more effective and as the Viper was already designed to work with a network, it is easy to install better security against hacking attacks and allow them to receive sensory data from the more powerful sensors of a battlestars to compensate when needed."

At this many raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed both by the excellent wok done by Carter and the other scientists and by the well thought out design of the Vipers.

"We call this version the Mk. VIIb and these upgrades will be done to all Vipers currently in service. The new Viper model, the Mk VIII will incorporate all of these changes from the start, but the armour will already be completely replaced by the new armour, the computers more powerful as well as the engines. Only when we have understood the Viper completely, will we start designing the Mk IX with the Colonial military scientists, which will be a new radical design, but of which as of now no great specifications can be made.
The battlestars themselves are a bit tricky to upgrade due to their design. There is no choice, but the entire engines and power generators will be have to stripped out, to be replaced with the power generators for the hyperspace generators, shielding and sublight, together with the power for the few energy weapons we will gift them with."

Seeing the slight wince on many a face, Carter herself grimaced though she stated quite clearly, that the only energy weapons Earth was going to give away would be the Tollan-style cannons. The Colonies would not receive Asgard weapons or any Asgard technology at all, indeed they would not even receive ring transporters.

To further assure the IOA Carter explained in detail just what the Colonies would receive.

The Colonies of Kobol would receive the plans for both the heavy and medium railguns to take the place of their coil guns, though the design would be further studied by the Tau'ri scientists to see whether and if so, what improvements could be made. For now they would also receive the plans for shield systems, power generators, hyperspace and sublight engines and Tollon-style energy weapons, each with double back-doors wired into their hardware. They would also receive better computer and sensory equipment. With these things, the number of personnel needed to run a battlestar was significantly reduced and the new ships would have smaller crews and the space newly freed, taken up by more fighters. The interior changes would be implemented into each ship, though those still in service would be upgraded and gradually put into dry dock during the war for repairs and interior redesign. Though only if another ship was there to take their place.
There was one thing that Cain was adamant about that they receive, these were the enhanced nukes the Tau'ri used. Also after hearing that plasma torpedoes were to be developed she requested some of those as well, though designed to look like missiles.

It was something that the Tau'ri were not too happy about, especially when they heard that the missiles would be remote controlled by the ship that fired them, but in the end they relented. Not only because they felt that they had to concede a point to Cain to keep her sweet, but also because she made an excellent point. The nuclear launching capabilities of a battlestar was nothing to laugh about. Although the effect was somewhat diminished by shielding, there were reasons why the Tau'ri still used nukes (even if they were enhanced by naquadah) in battle, so Cain's demands made sense, no matter how uneasy the Tau'ri felt about it.

Nevertheless, with the technologies given to the Colonials being the absolute minimum they needed to prove adequate against a foe with the capabilities of the ROR, the future looked if not bright but survivable, though it had to be said, that the sheer siye of a battlestar allowed it to be given many weapon making them near equivalents to Richilieu class ships, serving excellently as ships of the line alongside the Tau'ri BC-304s and DSB-306s.

Their smaller, older battlestar designs and those ships already designated as cruisers would take up these roles. In fact with the Colonials it was realtively easy to integrate them into their new fleet, some classes would have to be taken out of the lineup and either scrapped or completely redisgned.

It was then that the last military point of the day was brought up. The Free Jaffa Nation. Even though the Colonies of Kobol possessed industrial might and the Tau'ri the technolgy of the Asgard as well as the only access to Ancient technology in the form of Atlantis, the Free Jaffa possessed the territory. It was the Free Jaffa would would have to make up the brunt of the ground forces, if only because of population issues, no matter how mny soldiers Earth and the Colonies would be able to contribute. Even though Earth and the Colonies together had a population of more than 30 billion, within the realm of the Free Jaffa, an even larger population lived. If this realm could be irrevocably bound to Earth and the realm developed, then the galaxy would take a massive step forward in overcoming the legacy of the Goa'uld.

So it was vital to Earth that these, their most important allies, if only numerically, were given help. Help they direly needed. Help to counter the expected onslaught on their territories once the ROR had rebuilt its territories. Without adequate help the Free Jaffa would fall and with them Earth's only chance at winning the war. Now matter how powerful Earth and the Colonies got, against an enemy with the technological level of the ROR and the resources of over two thirds of the galaxy (the result of the fall of the Free Jaffa), Earth and the Colonies would fall, if only through overwhelming numbers.

With them the galaxy would fall and it all hinged on the survival of the Free Jaffa.
Their survival guaranteed the future of this galaxy, something Earth was loath to admit, but something that was true nevertheless.

The people of Earth did appreciate the irony though. They had been named the fifth race by the Asgard, the had been given all the technology of the Asgard and they were the only ones with access to the lost city of Atlantis, yet they were depending on a society, whose planets had individually nowhere near the level of civilization that Earth had in regards to social systems, common access to technology, transportation and most important of all when it came to education.

So it was no surprise that they saw O'Neill stand up as well next to Carter.

"The Free Jaffa need our help. Currently they are the only ones fighting against the ROR, retaking planets through infantry assault, although it has come to light, that these attacks are now slowing, as the ROR is consolidating its territories.

Nevertheless if we want to win this war we need to ensure the Jaffa's survival. I trust the leadership of the Free Jaffa, but many Jaffa do not necessarily trust us. Then there is the fact that Ba'al is still out there as is the Lucien Alliance. Both would love to get their hands on our technology and let us be honest in the end the will get their hands on whatever technology we gift the Jaffa with, if they are not eliminated first. Even so, we need to give them better weapons, better shielding, better fighter and either upgrade the Al'kesh or replace them although I prefer the upgrade. Colonel Carter if you please."
O'Neill gestured at Carter as he sat again and she nodded. In a strong and resolute voice she began.

"The upgrades to their hyperdrives and shields is relatively easy, by giving them more advanced power generators. We will also have to gift them with the Tollan-style energy cannons. A Ha'tak is pretty agile considering its size and with a better armament, better shielding and hyperdrives it will fill out the role of light cruiser or generally a cruiser analogue quite well. The Udajeet gliders are not bad actually, the are both atmospheric and space capable and they can do some damage. On the other hand, the Goa'uld have never put much emphasis on fighters in combat, as such the Jaffa pilots were and often still are inadequately trained. This will have to change. We are already preparing groups of military advisors to go to the Jaffa planets and teach them to fly properly. To this we have contacted the other IOA nations who have each graciously agreed to supply us with instructors."
At this the military representatives of the other nations nodded gravely. The Chinese looked miffed about losing instructors but they too had seen the necessity of doing so.

"To the new fighter design..."Carter slightly grimaced as she thought back to the preliminary talks with the Free Jaffa council.

Flashback

5th of July (D-Day+10), new HQ of the Free Jaffa Nation

The Delegation from Earth, Colonels Carter, Mitchell and Davis as well as General O'Neill were very close to exploding.

For hours now, the Earth-friendly fraction led by Bra'tac and Teal'c had argued to accept the proposals of the Tau'ri. For hours those who did not like or trust the Tau'ri had stubbornly resisted the Tau'ri and their brethren, stating they did not want to become dependant on Earth.

Finally it got too much for O'Neill.

"Look, many of you do not like me or Earth in general or don't trust us. Well. I don't care about that. Frankly I don't like many of you too. But Earth needs you to survive, heck the entire needs the Free Jaffa to survive, But as of now, with the ROR rebuilding and reorganizing themselves, you do not stand a chance. You Ha'taks will be destroyed as well as your fighters and Al'kesh. Then when you have fallen, the ROR will convert your worlds to help them expand their fleet and with so many planets under their control, not even Earth and its remaining allies will be able to stand. Your survival is vital if this galaxy wants to have a future. So this is the deal. You get better technology and better trained pilots and the Jaffa will be made into proper soldiers and for that we get a reliable ally and one who we can count on to be able to hold the line when the ROR attacks and whom we will help. This is the last offer. We will NOT give away the Asgard technology. So, even if I have to let this galaxy burn, accept it and take the chance to survive or be damned. Either way, I don't care."
With that O'Neill turned and motioned to the others to follow him as he made to leave.

Everything that had to be said had been said. Now it was up to the Jaffa High Council.

After they had left, silence reigned.

Finally a councillor spoke up, his voice showing how unsure he was.

"Will they really do that? Would they really let an entire galaxy fall just to preserve their pride and their technology?"

Bra'tac and Teal'c had been both shocked and resigned at O'Neills declaration. They understood his reasoning and however callous it seemed, they both knew it was Earth's only chance at retaining some control over the situation. They also knew that the Tau'ri could carry out the threat and leave the galaxy. They both knew of the Pegasus galaxy and of Atlantis. The Tau'ri could relocate, the Jaffa not. For good or bad the Council had pushed too hard and were now paying the price, The only chance either of them saw for survival was a quick, decisive decision and presenting a cohesive front.

It was with these thoughts on his mind that Bra'tac spoke tiredly though his anger at the council was unmistakeable.

"First of all, you seem to forget that the Tau'ri have the Asgard technologies. This allows them to cross between galaxies in mere weeks! If they see no other alternative, they can relocate somewhere else and rebuild to return some day. But we will not be there to see this day. We will be dead, fallen in battle protecting our worlds in futile attempts or hunted down as enemy leaders. If we want to survive, we have to take the Tau'ri up on their offer!"
"The Tau'ri have openly admitted as needing us. They should give us the technology to destroy the ROR on our own!" Another responded hotly.

Finally Teal'c had had enough. Standing up he actually shouted at the Council.

"You are fools! You have admitted to being distrustful of the Tau'ri. Do you think they will give you their most advanced technology to somebody who doesn't even trust them? If so you are a fool" he finished scathingly before continuing.

"Also we have been under the thrall of the Goa'uld too long. As such we still have many things that are a remembrance of this time. Our way of fighting for example. We are warriors, but the Tau'ri are soldiers. They are well trained, well equipped and have an excellent grasp on tactics. That is how we have to become if we truly want to become a power and stand a chance against the ROR. Also remember, the Tau'ri spoke of the disaster if the ROR controlled over two thirds of the galaxy. But many planets the ROR holds are Jaffa planets! We will regain our territory and what then? With the Asgard technology at our disposal many of you would turn on the Tau'ri. This is their fear, one I must agree with."
The other councillors look slightly abashed at that. It was true, with them showing distrust against the Tau'ri it was foolish to think that the Tau'ri would give a later enemy the technology to defeat them.

It was Bra'tac who took up Teal'c thread and declared in a proud voice: " We are Jaffa! We were under the thrall of the Goa'uld for ten thousand years but now we are free! Now another enemy threatens our freedom and all that we have fought for and for which many of our brothers have died for! Once again we must fight! The Tau'ri will gift us with the weapons to fight this new enemy! They too will fight, for this is their enemy! We will have the Tau'ri by our side once again, but this time not a just a few ships but they too and their new allies of the Colonies of Kobol will send fleets too. Their armies and war machines will join us too! Together we will stand and once again banish the darkness to secure our future!"

This speech bolstered the faith and resolve and rekindled the fire in the soul of the Jaffa.

As one the councillors stood and bowed to Bra'tac and Teal'c.

One by one they thanked the two giving them spirit and hope and one by one the pledged themselves to the cause.

The Jaffa would once again stand by the Tau'ri!

A runner was sent to get the Tau'ri emissaries.

Standing before the Jaffa High Council they received the good news with a stony face and barely a nod.

Carter strode forth and gave the councillors two data crystals each. On them were the plans for the new Tollan-style cannons, the new power generators and descriptions on how to upgrade the shielding and hyperdrives.

With a curt bow the Tau'ri left, saying they would return soon with the new fighter design.

As the Tau'ri delegation left, the Jaffa High Council sat in silence. They would have to redeem themselves on the field of battle. There had been no mistaking the anger the Tau'ri had shown and the councillors felt ashamed.

Only Bra'tac and Teal'c smiled grimly. After several minutes they too left the meeting chamber.

The others sat silent for a long time.

Flashback end

Thinking back at that memorable meeting Carter inwardly grimaced. She had rarely seen Jack so angry. Once back at the SGC he had nearly exploded, Hank Landry and the others looking on helplessly. Each understood his reasons to be so vocal about the behaviour of the Free Jaffa High Council and each inwardly agreed, though it was not too much of a surprise. The Tau'ri had been the ones to go to the Jaffa asking for their help. Even so, even with the Jaffa's understandable wish to get as much out of the deal as possible-these were politics after all- it had been made clear that Asgard technology was a no-go and secondly it had taken drastic words to get them to agree to the Tau'ri suggestions.
Samantha Carter was a very clever woman and as such not very surprised, that relations between the Tau'ri and most members of the Jaffa High Council had become very strained although she had heard that some covert moves were made to try and appease the Tau'ri. The Jaffa had obviously learnt their lessons and recognized not only the offer for what it was worth but also just how much the needed the Tau'ri, especially if it did come down to a long war, a possibility that had not, could not be ruled out by the Tau'ri.
Even so it had taken Sam many days to calm Jack down and cheer him up, she being the only person who even had a chance at achieving this.
Indeed most of the calming down was not down in the bas, but rather privately, in a way as privately as they were both allowed without crossing the line too much.

The members of the IOA only knew the official story and now knew that relations with the Free Jaffa Nation were not as good as wished and that it may take some time for them to return to the previous status as the diplomats so eloquently put it.

That O'Neill had been so mad as to nearly let the Jaffa go to hell, consequences be damned, few knew.

Still, she shook off her unease and returned to explain the new fighter design the Tau'ri had created for the Jaffa.

"This new fighter, whom we have named 'Ashjeet' is a more modified version than the Death Gliders previously used. It is leaner, faster, more manoeuvrable and more heavily armed. Like the Death Gliders its wings can be folded so that they can be more easily stored within the Ha'taks. Unlike the older Death Gliders it is a one man fighter. It is still armed with staff cannons, but with modified and more powerful ones and their number has increased from two to three, the third being frontal mounted. It is however atmospheric capable. We tried to convince the Jaffa to also allow us to install hard points for at least two miniature versions of the plasma torpedoes. Alas the Council voted against it, making them not viable to perform duty as a fighter-bomber. Even so, they are not to be estimated. Per salvo they pack the biggest punch in the alliance although from what I have seen the Starfuries will fire faster they are a step forward for the Jaffa and from what we have seen fro the ROR, equal with to their fighters. I would recommend the Ash'jeet working in concert with our F-302 and Raptor gunships for strike runs against enemy ships and for aerial support of ground forces, where their fire-power can be used to great extent. It is also there-in atmospheric combat- that they can more effectively fill out the role of a heavier fighter."
Left unsaid was that even though the Ashjeet was not the pinnacle of achievement when it came to fighters, they were nevertheless far superior than the enemy Death Gliders and Al'kesh of the Lucien Alliance or those still employed by Ba'al's forces, turning them into minced meat should they encounter them, although no one held any illusions that some at least would make their way outside the control of the Jaffa, Ba'a' being particularly a prime candidate for such a thing.

With better pilots trained better they would still retain an advantage against these groups even if they fif get their hands on this technology.

This was especially true now that military instructors were working to make the Jaffa better pilots, the far superior agility of human fighters and the quality of their training secured Tau'ri dominance when it came to fighter craft.

Answering the question about the Al'kesh and their upgrades, it was explained that they would only receive better shielding, better guns and faster hyperdrives. In short, the would be given power generators capable of a larger output. Nothing more, the design was used as it was at least for the time being an an Al'kesh was a effective design, combining many aspects where they could be used

The military details had been cleared, now came the civilians turn.

The European Union had sent two representatives too, although they had no say when it came to such things as the military or even the civilian parts of the IOA dealings off world as they were still in the hands of the respective countries, they were important nevertheless.

With so many countries in financial problems, the European Union was still important politically, as even now talks with many European nations were under way to include them in the new IOA.

Of course, many other countries were also being talked too, so that the IOA and Earth's power would grow. But Europe was different. The European Union was the only Union that had such tight ties, political and economical, between each of its members. Because the new colonies were now declared to be part of the country that had founded them, it was prudent to include the EU, especially with so many potential new members, even more so when one thought of the number of colonies the EU alone would be allowed to found in the first wave. No other power could singularly match this, even more so that with so many new colonies the influx of new resources and raw materials for the war would be enormous. Also the fact, that the EU was a regular meeting ground where experiences and monetary transactions with other member states could be exchanged was a good idea, alone the fact that the meeting was held here in Brussels, the centre of the EU's administration. Spoke volumes. With Great Britain, France and Germany in the IOA and other EU members lining up for membership in the IOA, a coordinated effort on how to plan and erect the new colonies was far more easily realized. It also put more emphasis and power behind any suggestions by the EU representative because it meant that this was the voice of all three countries.

So it was that the EU representative spoke up to explain what plans they had developed together with representatives from all of the other countries.

"It has been agreed upon by all countries that although the colonies are to be developed independently by the nation that settles the planet, a few preliminary facts will remain. For easier access when the planets were chosen by the different nations, the emphasis was put upon easily accessible resources that could be mined, preferably without creating deep mines, as they might take too long to build. It was also agreed, that each nation would contact firms that operated freighters. Both mass conveyance and container ships will be used. Another thing that was agreed upon was the fact that before people could settle there and the refining process manufacturing of goods could be initiated a large set of infrastructure had to be established first. Together with the fact that naquadah generators can only be used in the beginning, to make sure that not too much overly advanced technology is introduced, it is vital to ensure enough energy is created, both for the initial operations and later the settlers living there." Funnily enough, he thought, because of the necessity of creating enough energy as fast as possible, it ruled out most common power plants, so solar energy and wind energy would have to suffice at the beginning. Nevertheless he continued.

"It has been proposed, that while mining will start immediately or at least as soon as possible, the processing and manufacturing process will only start when the infrastructure for the needed workers and factories has been set up."

After musing about these agreements, he continued.

"Until then we propose that the freighters will ship the ores back to Earth and return with the needed parts to construct the space docks or at least the anchorages over the planets. We have also suggested that the nations enter negotiations with the companies who possess the means to mine the ores and process these."

With a wry smile he continued.

" It has been suggested, that entire refineries and factories be transported to the planets in parts, so that work may be unimpeded and the processing can begin immediately after arrival, although this plan is to be considered an idea, a suggestion, something that might be able to be implanted later."

The next sentences though were delivered in a stern voice.

" Considering what obstacles one must overcome to be eligible to be included, each nation is also solely responsible for the economic consequences. The estimates are that the infrastructure for the workers and the power for the ore refining structures will be ready within the next six months though naquadah generators will be needed for probably another year. When the houses for the workers, the municipal structures and things such as schools, kindergartens and libraries are ready, or at least so far completed that people can be shipped in as a first wave, we will begin proper colonization and population of the planets, though this may also take some time."

with a cheery attitude, he finished.

" Oh and another thing, the Colonial spacesuits are more advanced than our own so we thought it might be a good idea immediate begin mass production for the workers who will be building ships in space."

The proposals made sense and everybody nodded, even those who di not like the sudden influx of authority the EU had brought.
The representatives of the United States on the other hand, were rubbing their hands gleefully in their head. It would take a big weight of responsibility of their backs, allow them to regenerate and if anything went wrong, a scapegoat was readily available. They did trust the EU of course, they were their staunchest allies and they would be a great help in warding of some of the more zealous and aggressive voices in the IOA. Even better, it would give them a VERY large portion of a rather reliable amount votes in the IOA. Together the United States and the European Union could still more or less control the IOA, something they were pretty relieved to see.

These political developments had of course been known by the majority of the the civilian side all along, but this meeting was mainly for the countries to check the progress being made, to make Earth a proper galactic power, as well as bringing both the civilian military and civilian sides up to speed.
The meeting was the forum where civilian and military authorities exchanged the advances they had made in their respective fields to each other. This was necessary as although the sides would be intermingling, most of the time they were going to be operated separately, so that the possibility that military officers could be brought into political schemes was kept as low as possible, as well as to stop the politicians trying to have too much influence on how this war was to be waged. This would allow the generals to focus their attention on the war and not on somebody or something peering over their shoulders constantly.

Remembering something from the speech the EU representative had made, on how to best conduct the economical part of the colonization and the suggestion had been made to best organize this new Tau'ri Imperium, Federation or whatever, a military advisor from Australia stood up addressing the civilian authorities gathered.

"Excuse me, but I thought that no ships would possess both FTL and sublight engines capable of leaving a planet's gravity. It is nearly a given that you will be using the beaming technology to bring up the supplies and people, but is this really something that s good for Earth, as I though that we had agreed to keep the influx of advanced technology to an absolute minimum. If that is so, then how will the ships leave Earth or any other planet for that matter -though there this issue might not matter as much-. Speaking of this, then how far away is the completion of such a ship anyway, should such a method be used?"

"You are correct General Higgins, in assuming that no ships would possess both. Sure the freighters we will use will possess both, but those will not be allowed to leave or enter Earth's atmosphere, or any atmosphere for that manner. They do not need to, as they will operate exclusively in space. As to how these ships will enter a planet which has been singled to be colonised, well you provided the answer yourself. We will beam them down. Ever since the affair where a skyscraper with a naquadah enhanced bomb was beamed into space, it has been shown that even massive and exceedingly heavy structures can be beamed into space by the Daedalus ships. The ships, once they are sealed and upgraded will be beamed into space. Consecutive beamings will bring aboard crew, passengers and cargo, whether it be building equipment, temporary housings or entire factory parts. Once the upgrades are done they will leave Earth and jump to the planets you have designated as your new colonies where they will be beamed down again to land and provide a starting point from which the colony can grow. They will also carry with them the first soldiers, to garrison the planet, as has been previously been agreed upon.

Also in accordance with the previous agreement, no soldiers of the same nation will be sent to a colony, as you well know."

The others civilian representatives nodded at this, while the military ones sat flabbergasted. Even the members of the SGC were dumbfounded.
True, the Odyssey had beamed an entire skyscraper into space, but nobody had even thought of using such means en masse! The entire affair showed in what hurry everybody was to build up and then consolidate their position, not to mention that Earth's fleet desperately needed to be enlarged.

Another military representative, this one from China asked what the progress on upgrading the civilian ships was, seeing as the anchorage the Colonials had erected had already been finished and the repairs on the two damaged Daedalus ships had been nearly finished, only the new armaments still missing as well as some interior work.

"Within the week, the ships will have been upgraded and will be ready to transport the first builders to the new worlds to begin the construction of the infrastructure we will need."
This confident assessment was made by the EU representative

"On another notice, General O'Neill, how go the repairs on the Colonial fleet. Not only the military ships, but also of the civilian ones?"
It was Carter though who spoke up.

"The repairs are going well, as most of the ships that were lightly damaged, such as the Pegasus have already been fully repaired on the outside to their previous levels where it makes sense to. and twe are in the process of taking their engines out and we installing naquadah generators to keep the ships powered. After being towed away from the anchorage the crews are fixing the interiors and preparing the Vipers for the upgrade, while still creating as many Vipers as possible with the resources at hand. The manufacturing plants on the Mercury class ships are impressive. With us giving them resources such as steel or other things, they have already created enough spare parts to rebuild many of the irreparably deemed damaged Vipers, as well as many more parts for the more heavily damaged ships in the fleet. Although a few did have to be scrapped, as there was barely a frame left after they were finished cannibalizing them, the Colonial fleet seems to be able to save many more ships than previously expected. This is beneficial to us both, however we estimate that even so the remnants of the Colonial fleets that came to attack Earth will need up to ten months to be repaired, or at least to ensure the safety of the Colonials back in the Colonies. This means we will have to force the issue of allying with us quite hard when the time comes. On the other hand, the heavy repairs that need to be done on many ships are also quite a boon to us, as they allow us to cut down on the time needed for the exterior repairs such as the hull, the flight pods or the Viper launching tubes quite a bit."

Here she took a deep breath of desperately needed air, before resuming her dialogue.

"The reason for this is the new upgrade. Where we are replacing the previous armament with the new medium and heavy railguns or with the Tollan-style cannons, the previous weapons have to be taken out and the sites prepared for the installation of the new ones. On the more heavily damaged ships we can proceed directly to the preparations saving precious time."

Everybody clapped at this piece of news. A fleet of upgraded Colonial warships, even if didn't have the energy weapons yet, but only sublight, shields and railguns together with a full fighter complement, would help the defence of Earth immensely, securing the planet for nearly a year until the forced allying with the Colonies of Kobol could begin, by the very subtle way of impending doom either through the hands of the ROR or the Tau'ri using weapons of mass destruction, for the only reason of trying to nuke Earth as well as to deny the ROR the resources -industrial strength, minerals and manpower- alike. Nobody gave themselves any illusions about this.

"Even if this is an impressive achievement you have managed, which it is, you have not answered the question concerning the civilian ships. Also could you please give us an update on how the build up of our space forces is going?", the EU representative persisted.

O'Neill who was still sitting after Carter had explained the Colonials state, smiled sheepishly and jumped up to continue the report. Many who saw that inwardly sweat-dropped, especially those from the SGC. Everybody knew that O'Neill was not only very capable but also very clever and experienced, yet sometimes the façade he had put up to seem like an idiot or at least not quite as cleaver as he truly was, seemed to be the truth.

Nevertheless everybody assembled, except those from HWS and the SGC who knew what was coming, listened intently for this was a very important issue and a delicate one as well as there were a few concerns about the Colonial civilians captured.

"We have begun repairing those civilian ships which survived the nuclear counterstrike. They have not had their FTL removed, though it has been made very clear that we can easily follow them and while they are resting, spinning up their FTL drives, we will arrive and blow them out of the sky. This has allowed us to start mining the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. With some of their refining ships still intact, it has helped us greatly in the repair of the other Colonial ships, even mining some precious minerals for our use as well. Our forces? Well, we have already begun construction on three new Daedalus class ships as well as two more Prometheus class ships, though because of the new patterns, we plan on building the standard variation. In the different IOA countries we have begun the construction of new docks for Daedalus and Prometheus ships though their number will be limited as the main building slips for our fleet will be in orbit around the various planets. As or fighters, the first batch of 48 F-302s will be ready in two days. This first batch is small but the following batches will be much larger as the production of the F-302 will soon be started in bigger groups by every member of the IOA, although now that I have seen the plans, I would beg both Germany and Japan to finish the designs of their fighter within two weeks, should that be possible. If not, then please get it done as fast as possible so that we may start producing them in large numbers. As the engines, power generators, hulls and cockpit modules can already be produced, I would like the various countries to begin producing those in large numbers so that we only need to put them together once the finished plans arrive. To everybody else, everything except the Richelieu class is to have a finished design within a month, the Richelieu has six weeks!"
Blinking, the various members of the IOA couldn't believe their ears.
But the orders were unmistakeable, within a month HWS wanted the finished designs so that the build up for war could commence. The various departments responsible for the designs would have to work night and day and even then it wasn't clear if it was feasible. But the orders stood.

The clock was ticking.

"As to the upgrading of the complete Colonial Fleet. Do we even have the resources General O'Neill?"
A heavy sigh was heard, clearly signalling that this was question he had dreaded.

"We have spoken to Admiral Cain and we convinced her, that the only way to survive the coming storm would be to know each other as well as possible. This includes fleet strength. We told her, that indeed the four Daedalus ships she sees are our entire fleet, due to the building and resource acquisition process taking long because of the secrecy that needed to be maintained for the sake of the SGC. It did shock her, but we assured her, that now that full disclosure had happened, the rate at which we will build ships will drastically increase. Even so, it demonstrated exactly why need the industrial weight of the Colonies to add to our own considerable weight. Admiral Cain then revealed that the twenty-four battlestars sent to subdue Earth were a fifth of the fleet. She confirmed that the fleet had one hundred and twenty battlestars in operation with four warstars. Along the way to Earth, several bases and strongholds were erected, which were guarded by another thirty-eight battlestars. In total 62 battlestars and two warstars were used in the attempt to subdue Earth. The Colonies defences are therefore stretched thin. However by now the battlestars and strongholds along the way will probably have been dismantled and returned to the Colonies should the have received the news of the fleets' doom here. This is assured as some ships did get through and managed to escape. Therefore we must assume that the Colonies are strengthening the defences. To replace their losses a fleet building program will probably be initiated, its size being based on what the survivors will tell them about the battle. Many older ships are still within the boneyards, which makes sense and they will properly be reactivated to replace the losses as quickly as possible. Nevertheless many new ships will be built, the fleet will see this as a chance to get many of the newest and most advanced ships into the fleet. With the number of escorts available to the Colonies being around one and a half thousand, together with the many ships the army uses to ferry its resources and troops around, we are looking at several thousand ships, with tens of thousands of fighters. No, I do not think we will be able to upgrade the Colonial fleet in time for the war!"

The assembly was silent. The numbers were unbelievable. Tens of thousands of fighters? Over a hundred of these battlestars? Over a thousand escorts, some being older, smaller models of battlestars themselves!

The Colonies had a massive fleet, if they had had the technology of even the Goa'uld or even basic shielding...

And Earth would be upgrading and arming this behemoth too!

It suddenly grew very cold in the room.

Carter though now rose to give them better news.

"On the other hand, it does not look so grim if one looks at the situation in a different light. It is true that we will be the ones to arm them, but even so, the process will be a lengthy one, because even if we force the Colonies of Kobol into an alliance, upgrading their fleet is a wholly different matter. Just as we will be doing, the Colonies will need to find naquadah and start mining it. Setting up these mining and refining operations will take time. So, it will be rather so, that we will upgrade what is left of the fleets that attacked Earth and as many escorts, fighters and capital ships as we can, before the war starts. It has been revealed to us, by the Cylon Gina Inviere that the Cylons prepared a back-door into the new networked computer systems. We have had a look at these systems and indeed, we found the back-door. I and many others have been writing a new program that eliminates the back-door and strengthens the ship' computers against hacking attacks. We have recently finished writing the program and are currently installing it on the Colonial ships. With this new program, the Colonies will be safe from Cylon computer attacks and as the plan sees us going to the Cylons first to pen them in, the Colonies will be reasonably safe, even when we take the upgraded ships to the front to fight against the ROR."

With that Samantha Carter had thrown in her own two cents after O'Neill's explanation of the situation. Her explanation helped to alleviate the fears of many present.

Even if the Colonial ships were upgraded, they would instantly be sent to fight against the ROR. Only when the Colonies had built up their own mining complexes and started to construct the advanced technologies gifted to them by Earth in mass production, only then could the Colonies truly upgrade their entire forces. Before then, they would need to use all of their resources to build new ships and to gradually upgrade their old ones.

It was clear, that Earth and HWS hoped that by the time the Colonies' industries were truly set to the production of warships, fighters, bombers and everything else that came with war, Earth would have a fleet capable of fighting the Colonies should they turn on Earth

.

It was then that a German military representative spoke up.

"I have a question General O'Neill. We are all aware that we are preparing for a grand war against a technological equal foe and that this war may take long. However, we have noticed something. Indeed, when we talked about our notion to Great Britain and France, they too agreed, amazed that nobody had thought of it before. The thing we are so unsure about, is our ability to wage a ground war, something that will be vital for many of the more important planets we need to take. I am thinking primarily of Hebredia, Langara, Bedrosia and Langana."
At this declaration many, especially the Americans winced. It was not the fact that the speaker was German, but rather the fact, that they had not conferred with their European allies first. For the first time the Americans cursed the size of their countries.

Both North and South America had extremely large countries, only on the land-bridge between the two parts of the continent did many smaller nations exist. But these nations were not ready to join the IOA and would not for a very long time. The European countries however were.

At the moment, preliminary talks were under way for man European countries, some South American ones, South Africa s the only African one at the moment (though Egypt and others were being considered) and a few Asian ones.

But most importantly was the fact, that Europe still had many wealthy nations with compared to their size, exceedingly large populations.

Already the EU existed as a political, monetary and economic union. Most of those countries that were being talked too at the moment were European ones. From Africa only South Africa was being talked to. South Korea had entered the talks too. Egypt, Kenya and a few others had entered preliminary talks as well as the Asian countries of Turkey, Israel and its surrounding Arab countries also the middle eastern nations. They and the former Soviet republics to the south of Russia all had some issues to clear up before they could enter talks proper, those mostly concerning discrimination against people of other ethnic origin or religion, some also had issues concerning on how they were run, while others needed a stronger economy before they could enter the talks proper.

From the American continent Argentina and Chile were being addressed by the US. Venezuela, Mexico and Columbia all had some major problems that desperately needed to be addressed such as the all out drug war in Mexico.

The other countries making up the Australian continent were simply too small, though New Zealand had entered the talks.

But all in all it looked grim at the moment for the Asian and African nations. America was not much better off, due to the large nations there that reduced the number of candidates drastically, while the smaller European countries had much more economic weight and thus would be allotted more seats, though this could be somewhat alleviated by their population.

But this showed exactly the problem the German had addressed.

Many counties fighting the ROR would be considered rather small, though with a large and dense population, but the size of all these IOA countries, even the potential was did throw up a major problem.

Where to get the masses of soldier from!

Only China and India had such numbers to draw upon and feed the armies to be used especially on the ground, where the most casualties would be taken (when it came to numbers).

The face of Earth would not be clearly represented by the soldiers being sent to battle, even more so, when it came to the face Earth had in the galaxy, as those countries that momentarily made up the IOA were only a minority of the countries that existed on Earth.

Representing Earth would be a major problem soon, especially when it came to speaking for Earth. Most of Earth's countries were not even represented in the great council that was the IOA.

Speaking for those was a bit cheeky, everybody acknowledged that.

Even so, an European block was already forming, which was probably going to shape up into a powerful force.
The only consolation the United States had, was the fact that these countries were at least staunch allies to them and as such could be relied upon. Even if it had made them wince, this had not been a totally unexpected development. As stated before United States were also trying to create a block of their own, but as the needed some time to regain their strength and repair the damage wrought by the admittedly short-lived Colonial ground invasion, the only thing that drew in potential members, was the strength the US had previously displayed to the world.

But if they would not regain their strength in time...

It seemed that already the game of politics was on.

Although the German representative noticed the many, though subtle, reactions and doubtlessly understood the reasons behind them, he simply did not care. Just as in the Cold War when two blocks had dominated the world, the world would once more form into blocks, several countries either staying unaligned or aligning themselves with countries outside of the blocks one would expect. For instance both Turkey and Israel would probably increase the European block (though Israel might also join the Americans). North Africa, the middle and near eastern countries would probably form into an Islamic or at least Arab block. Russia would try and gather as many of their old dependencies around them plus Japan (though they were more expected to ally themselves either with Australia or the American block) while China and India would gather the rest of the Asian countries. South Africa had a large European influence within its history and culture so they might join them or they might try and gather the sub-sahara nation together with the other African nation to form a block to oppose the Islamic one.

The possibilities were large.

It was thus that the German representative spoke.

"When we conferred, it showed us quite clearly that we are seriously lacking in the ground warfare department. Specifically in the transportation department. I do not doubt that our well trained, well equipped armies will be victorious and the Colonials have shown their abilities as well and nobody doubts the Jaffas fighting prowess. Yet how are we to transport, deploy and supply these troops as the most important planets, especially Hebredia with its large population, shipyards and high technological level will be heavily garrisoned and fortified. Even if the space battle is won, the ground war may yet well take years and might involve hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops. No solution has been presented during this meeting and honestly we do not have one as well. We can and we probably have to use freighters at first to transport goods and troops to the planet and beam them down. If a forced landing is needed though, we will have to depend on the Colonial troop transports, though these will have to be upgraded with basic shielding at least to protect the material and men inside. This is a situation, that cannot stay this way! We need our own troop transports and supply ships! Only then can we actually fulfil the second part of the war. The liberation of the worlds under the yoke of the ROR!"

The assembled representatives clapped, the applause was long and loud, showing their agreement with the statement that had just been made.

Amidst this O'Neill leaned over to Carter speaking in a low hushed voice.

"Is this even possible? I mean so man ships will need to be built, the landing ships and transports need to be shielded, although there we might sacrifice shields for armour accepting possible higher casualties, but the need for naquadah will be greatly reduced. But the freighters and main troop transports will need to have not only shielding but hyperdrives as well, not to speak that some armament might be prudent too. Do we even have the resources for that?"
Shaking her head with a sigh, Carter answered tiredly.

"No, no we haven't. But even so, what he said is true. We will need to fight wars on the ground. Oh, of course once a secure camp has been established, we will be able to beam down any supplies and reinforcements, so the actual need for ships is somewhat reduced, but before? You do know what this will all entail?"

"Of course I do!" he snapped, rather a little too forcefully, at least more than he had intended.

"Just because I am air force, doesn't mean I don't know anything about operations on the ground." he shook his head, showing just how tired he really was.

"I'm sorry Sam, I didn't mean that. It's just...I don't know, I'm head of Home World Security and because of my years at the SGC, I am and probably will be,the effective Supreme Commander of all of Earth's forces sent off-world."

Soothing him, she took his hand. It was the biggest display of public affection for her superior officer she could get away with.

"I know, Jack. We'll need an entire new division of research and we already have three. One for spacecraft and fighters, one for weapons and general upgrades and one for research into the technologies we have found and not yet understood, as well as what is within the Asgard core and in Atlantis's library. We'll need a new division for upgrading our ground equipment and creating assault craft. Not to mention that the spacecraft division gets even more to do! And building all of these things...I have no idea how this is to be accomplished."

"Not to mention that we need to integrate the Colonial ground forces and their equipment and the Jaffa and their equipment into one working, cohesive force." O'Neill added wryly. "You know, these are exactly the moments in which I hate the fact that disclosure was made at such a time."

Carter as well as Mitchell, who had listened in, nodded, both grimacing at the thoughts of just HOW much work it would need to turn Earth into a true interstellar power.

They were however comforted by the fact, that neither fraction, not the ROR, the Colonials and certainly not the Jaffa were ready to wage war in such a way as was going to be necessary, as none had the right equipment for such a task, save for the Colonials, but their equipment, while well designed and capable of bringing large amounts of troops and supplies into a hot zone, was woefully inadequate against an enemy equipped with energy weapons.

So it was that once the realization of the vastness of the task ahead of them had settled in, the mood turned rather sombre, in fact so sombre and lost in thoughts that the three of them didn't even register the things said by the others concerning colonization, resource management, the war effort and most importantly money, though when this issue was mentioned the three perked back up. With the current financial crisis under way and so many countries under strain to keep up their economy (including the United States and a few European counties where those in the know, knew about the precarious state those countries finances were and just how teetering close the abyss of bankruptcy loomed), this new effort and crisis came at an exceedingly bad time, paying for so much war material and the new colonies, not to mention the costs of the massive new shipbuilding program, many despaired.

It was decided, that this issue would be talked about at a later date, the politicians asolution to buy them time and prevent Earth from collapsing uder the strain of its many existing problems before the war had even started.

Reading the sombre mood and the defeatism and pessimism in the reports,Mitchell jumped up and spoke up with vigour and optimism in his voice.

"It doesn't matter how daunting the task set before us is. We have done the impossible already! Yes, the task is great and will take a long time to accomplish, but this holds true for everybody. The war may start in a year or so, maybe sooner or earlier but by then, we will be fully prepared for an extensive, long hard war no matter how hard it may see at this time. The problems that we have delivering troops and supplies, or even creating those armies, ships and fortresses needed to fight a war, hold true for everyone. If the ROR attacks first, then we will weather their onslaught, but we will fight back and we will prevail! The war on the ground is a vital part of our liberation efforts, but if their fleets fall, then we can take back the worlds one by one, but when our ground forces are destroyed, then not even a mighty fleet will be able to ensure victory. Victory does not lie in the fleet's hands, not does it lie in the army's hands. Because only combined can victory be assured, this holds true not only for them but also for us. We need to stand together and be ready when the war starts or we will be we destroyed!

The fleets will clash and even though the army will not enter the war until it is sufficiently prepared, their role will be no less vital. The road ahead is a long and hard one, but we WILL overcome these hardships. We will prevail. It may take time, but we will grow stronger with each passing day and when the time comes we will take the fight to the ROR and retake the planets they have conquered!"

The impromptu speech was widely applauded for it gave the assembly heart. No matter the cost, no matter the hardships, they had to endure, they would overcome the ROR, though privately every military man and many politicians too, knew that this speech was nothing but a morale booster, it solved none of their problems.

But it gave them heart and stiffened their resolve if nothing else.

For the sake of the galaxy, for the survival of Earth for the right to be free and live a life free from oppression and a terrible religion, Earth would fight.

Together with their allies, old and new, a mighty alliance would take on form and stand against the new empire the ROR were creating and building

Earth was now at war and they would show the galaxy just what they were capable of doing when angered. It would take time, but one day they would truly fulfil their obligations and be the Fifth Race. As the Asgard, they would be the Lion of the galaxy and protect those too weak to do so and nurture those that needed nurturing.

Two emerging giants would clash, victory deciding the future of the galaxy.

Only Sam looked thoughtful at what was said and as her eye caught that of Dr. Lam, she noticed that she too was looking thoughtful.

Seeing Carter looking so sombre and Dr. Lam too, O'Neill wondered what had made them so

Then he remembered.

It was something that had happened the day Gina had surrendered herself.

Flashback

June the 28th 2010 (D-Day +3), SGC 1135hrs (local time)

Gina Inviere was sitting in an interrogation room her hands and legs were shackled as a precaution, preliminary analysis had shown that due to the genetic modification she was on the par with a Jaffa strength wise, a Jaffa who had a Goa'uld larvae implanted: She was also faster both in reflexes and in speed than a normal unaugmented human. Opposing her sat General O'Neill, Dr. Carolyn Lam and Colonel Samantha Carter. All three had a Zat holstered by their side. A hologram projector sat in the midst of the table, connected to the memory recall device attached to her head. On the other side of her head a Za'tarc detector had been placed.

Gina spoke first.

"Excuse me, but what are these devices you have placed on my head? I do not exactly feel good with them." she asked in a slightly nervous tone, Gina knew that the Tau'ri had incredible technology at their disposal and the thought of unknown technology excited and frightened her both, she wan't sure what they might do to her.

Carter smiled slightly as she answered.

"Do not worry, the left device is attached to the hologram projector on the table. It is a memory recall device, which allows to see your memories when you think of them. Relax it is not currently on and only if you concentrate on the memory will it become visible. The device on your right is called a Za'tarc detector and is a device which shows us if you are lying or not and it's foolproof." here the grin grew slightly vicious, sending a shiver down Gina's spine. The possibilities of these two devices cared her. So much power in such small devices.

It would only need a moments lapse of concentration and a memory that she did not want to show to the world, especially those concerning her intimate relationship with Helena Cain, well the intimate moments at least, she was not so naïve as to think that her relationship with Cain was to be scrutinized by the Tau'ri.

Dr. Lam intervene.

"I also carry several devices to scan and analyse samples. We have a scientific interest in how you are constructed and how it was achieved. We already know several things such as your artificial creation, how you were augmented to be faster, stronger and with better reflexes than a "normal" human. What we now want to know is how exactly you were constructed and what else you are capable of doing and how you are able to do so. Most of the scans will be non-intrusive and the samples will be just some blood and tissue samples. Nothing bigger than that."

Gina was not reassured, the possibilities such a venue opened up were not pleasant at all. Gina loved Cain with all her heart and had made quite a few friends on the Pegasus. But she also knew of the hatred against the Cylons, not without reasons she knew, and supplying a group of humans with access to such technology just begged for them to develop a biological weapon against human form Cylons. The differences were tiny but they were there and who knew what the Tau'ri were truly capable of? Gina did not want to be responsible for the death of her entire race.

"What will you do once we know how we work and in what respect we differ from humans? Develop a weapon against us?"she asked warily.

The older man in the middle who had until now not said any thing, the man who she knew from Helena's description was General O'Neill Earth's Supreme Commander, threw his head back and laughed heartily.

He laughed!

The sight of it made Gina angry.

"What's so funny? I will not let you develop a weapon against my people!"

Suddenly cold eyes fixed her and he answered her outburst in an icy tone.

"Don't be silly, girl. If we wanted to develop a weapon against the Cylons we have blood and tissue samples aplenty. You seem to forget that we have quite a few in our infirmaries around the world. No, what we want is information about you, the Cylons in general and the Colonials."

"You can forget about me telling you about the Colonial military. I promised Helena I wouldn't compromise Colonial security and I won't!" she firmly stated, her voice full of conviction.

"I can tell you about Colonial and Cylon society and what the Colonies are like though. I will not tell you anything that could be used against them in a direct manner, but I can explain what each planet is like, what their society is like and who their political leaders are and how their politics work."

And she began.

In the following hours Gina told the SGC all of the Colonial history she knew, she told them of the Colonials mythical flight from Kobol, how each tribe as they called themselves had settled on a different planet and forgotten the secrets of space travel. She told them of the rediscovery of the space travel and how they developed their unique style of FTL. She told them of the many wars between the planets and the creation of the Cylons and how they were soon a part of everyday life and how they were used in the wars between the colonies. She told them of the Cylon revolt and the first Cylon War and how one day the Cylons had suddenly retreated. When asked why, she said she did not know, the reasons were shrouded in mystery. The Za'tarc detector did not detect any direct lies and only when asked about the mystery did it clearly show that she was still holding back something. Something that was very to her or something with the Cylons in general, which was far more probable.
Upon questioning her on this issue, Gina admitted that it had something to do with a group of Cylons called the 'Final Five' though who they were and what purpose they served was unknown even to the Cylons. They only knew that they existed and that apparently they had played a role in ending the Cylon War. Anything else was unknown.

This revelation actually caused the members of the SGC to have a queasy feeling. Somehow they knew this was going to be a problem.

Another thing they winced at, was at the description of the cultures in the Colonies and what differences there were. The general state of the Colonies and what the politicians were like did nothing at all to help ease their mind.

Granted, it seemed that in each and every culture politicians were manipulative and always trying to increase their popularity to secure their victory at the next elections or trying to increase their own personal power (the politicians on Earth were no exception).

Indeed, O'Neill mused, the dame of politics with all their dirtiness and back-hand dealings and backstabbings, seemed to be a constant in the universe. On the other hand, what he had experienced when it came to the Ancients, it was no wonder they passed it on to their descendants, he sarcastically thought.

But what he and the others learned from Gina scared them.

The Tau'ri needed the Colonies of Kobol for their ability to build many ships and they needed them as an ally to boost the numbers on the ground and in space. Aside from Earth, they were the only forces that opposed the ROR that had a well trained and well equipped army of soldiers. The Jaffa were good and their bodies naturally more powerful being genetically modified. But in terms of tactics the Tau'ri and the Colonials were light years ahead. Indeed, a successful merging of both forces and both schools of tactic would be hugely beneficial for both of them.

The Colonials favoured rapid reaction and fast concentrated fire power, a sort of Blitzkrieg taken to the extreme, a concept understood all too well by Earth's forces which might even be made more effective and devastating with the combining of Earth's version, though taken down to battalion or even company levels was interesting but showed that more clearly that the Colonial's tactic was more of a combination of Blitzkrieg and Rapid Reaction Forces.

The Tau'ri understood these tactics, but their armour was more powerful and their rapid reaction forces, were not such in the Colonials' sense they saw them as completely separated groups, which in a way they were. So although the Tau'ri armoured forces and rapid reaction forces could not move together in such fluidity and coherence, and in such numbers as the Colonials could with their "mixed" forces

Both had special forces of course but waging a complex war on the ground in a conventional fashion, especially when it came to breaking layered defences, siege works or just creating such defences while generally operating on large fronts with an integrated command, was something the Colonials did not need and as such was only theory, or to put it more precisely, it was something they had more or less forfeited, the Cylons- their only enemy up to this date – needing an entire different school of waging war against, for which their equipment was excellently suited for.

On the other hand, this meant a great specialization, something which could only be overcome by mixing schools and equipment, to create new coherent units capable of taking on the tasks ahead.

But all of this might not happen due to the verdict of Colonial society and politics given by Gina. They would have to ask Cain and other high ranking officers to confirm what she said, but no lie was detected.

The strong religious overtones in their society and their politics as well as the entire cultures of some planets seemingly based on them, made it very difficult for the Tau'ri to come to terms with.

With them it was the same problem they faced with some of the nations on Earth, but the main difference there, was that this was not consigned to specific planets or persons of these planets. It was present in every planetary population. In some more, in some less, although apparently the poorer, more agrarian worlds were the most conservative and thus far more rigid in their religious beliefs. This was going to be a problem, a problem that needed to be solved soon and decisively, especially when it came to the religious aspect which had through it had found its way into the Colonial politics through the representatives of these religiously more conservative planets in the Quorum.
A problem that now, when the galaxy stood on the brink of all encompassing war, none could afford.

"We could always make sure, that they adhere to the same rules as our soldiers will have to. So even if we have to allow for priests or whatever the have, so that their spiritual needs are taken care of, especially when it comes to burials, there will be no preaching and trying to convert locals to their gods, not to mention that both all sides do not come to blows on religious issues." Sam said thoughtfully, when they later talked about it to Daniel, Vala and the others who arrived later on and were briefed on the proceedings of the day.

"You're right, Sam." O'Neill added. "We could create either mixed regiments, using men and technologies of all Alliance member, or as that seems more of a long term goal, just make sure, that there are always some of our men present when the Colonial soldiers are in populated areas. Another thing we need to hammer into them are the rules of war, especially the treatment of POWs and civilians from planets we have taken. These issues are not only about general treatment, but especially when it comes to religious issues and places of worship that do no harm. I want the first bastard who shoots an enemy prisoner, a civilian or a priest or whatever from a different religion, because of this, to be brought to justice immediately If I have to shoot them I don't give a damn. There are rules and they will damn well obey them!" he added in a vicious voice laced with venom.

The others slightly reeled back, but they knew he was right. Even Daniel, who was the voice of reason and who always tried to find a way of solving a problem through diplomatic means had to reluctantly agree. There could be no tolerance on such things, if begun once and not immediately rooted out, it begin to spread. The Tau'ri would have none of it and would be making it clear to both the Jaffa and the Colonials.
It was harsh, it was brutal, but if executions would be needed to keep the troops in line, on such a precarious issue such as religion, then it would be done, otherwise it might tear the Alliance apart.

The rest of the time had been spent asking Gina various other questions about both Colonial and Cylon society. They did ask her about how the Cylons would have gone about to destroy the Colonies.

The explanation they were given made them grimace, though they grudgingly did have to agree that it was a very good plan, albeit exceedingly ruthless (not that it mattered, even the Tau'ri agreed that it would have secured their objective with maximum results at a minimum loss to their side, something they too always tried to do. It was more the genocidal aspect, that they disapproved of).

Dr. Lam had asked Gina some more questions about Cylon biology and Colonial medical technology. Of course they had seen a lot of that during the aftermath of the battle, when the many wounded had to be cleared, but she was also interested in the civilian technology and what kind of diseases were particularly problematic to the Colonies.

At this Gina could not answer her very well, saying that she had a higher understanding of military technology, or at least of the technology that was used in her section upon the Pegasus.

Dr. Lam understood that of course, though she did not like it. Nonetheless Gina did recommend the medics who had more information on this subject.

About an hour or so into the questioning of Gina, both O'Neill and Carter had left Dr. Lam to ask Gina questions alone.

For another person had arrived that wanted to speak to the leaders of the SGC.

Admiral Helena Cain.

Ten minutes earlier, Colonial flagship of the Colonial Liberation Force (CLF), Battlestar Pegasus

Ever since Gina's revelation, Cain had been in shock. When in the CIC of her ship she had been absent-minded and quick to anger. Her often sarcastic comments and somewhat mocking but still very sharp mind had turned into something twisted. Now her comments were more barbed and vicious, her anger was quick to flare and her mood black and bleak.

Though often hardly reachable, when something did penetrate her shell, she unleashed her fury on anyone in her vicinity.

For the first time since she had taken command of the ship, her crew was genuinely afraid of her and her viscous mood.

Cain was moody, her mood dark and brooding and her mind numb.

After one particularly bad incident where she had all but bitten the head off the shoulders of both an innocent crewman delivering a report and her intervening friend Belzen, she stalked off angrily to calm down in her quarters.

Once there she fell down depressed, her mood once again swinging and leaving her drained and numb. Cain wanted to weep and rage but she had wept so much in the night and in the early morning hours, it seemed like her tear ducts were dry.

After a few more minutes of moping, she suddenly sat up.

This was enough! Cain was not somebody who gave up, no she would regain her senses and fight!

Marching briskly down the hallway, she barely noticed her crew hastily saluting and yet edging backwards in fear of her wrath.

Entering CIC, she demanded to be put through to all Colonial ships.

"This is Admiral Helena Cain. As you know, I have taken command of this fleet. I have also negotiated a surrender to the people of Earth, the Tau'ri, and later an agreement.

Those ships that have survived are now allied to the people of Earth. We will need Earth and more important its technologies to fight a foe greater than we have ever faced, including the Cylons!

But the Colonies of Kobol and its leadership is corrupt and arrogant and sent us her on the pretence of a crusade in the name of the gods to attack and take over Earth!

Many ships have been destroyed or damaged. Even more lives have been lost and many more are wounded. Amongst the dead and wounded are many of our best pilots and many high officers of Fleet Command. The ships sent on this foolish endeavour were amongst the best in the fleet, with the finest crews!

But now we are mere shadows of what we once were. But with the help of our brethren on Earth, and they are our brethren, even though they are not the Thirteenth Tribe, we will rise again from the ashes, equipped with better weapons and deadlier than ever before.

But now our wrath is aimed at those who sent so many of our friends to their deaths.

We will return to the Colonies and we will force the Quorum to accept this new reality, if necessary by force. We will liberate the Colonies from the arrogance and stupidity of those corrupt beings who call themselves our leaders.

We are the Colonial Liberation Fleet and we will be the vanguard of a new age of the Colonies. An age where we will rise again and overcome the stagnation and become greater and more prosperous than ever before!

With our brethren' help we will destroy the limitations and boundaries that have held us back for so long and enter a new stage: The galactic stage.
Now we can look to the stars and grasp them. Now we will be able to see the many wonders of our galaxy in its entirety and finally meet other species and cultures.

The future awaits and we are its heralds!"

In her room Cain had a moment of clarity. She would fight her enemies and focus her anger on them instead on innocent bystanders.

The first on her list were not the Tau'ri, not the ROR and not even the Cylons.
First on the list were the Colonies of Kobol.

The Colonies she had once sworn to defend.

And she would defend them but in her way!
She saw it quite clearly.

It had been the political leaders of the Quorum, the highest echelons of the fleet and the bloody priests who were responsible for this disaster.

Cain was still a believer in the gods, but she would never again allow religion to interfere so strongly in politics and certainly not in the workings of the fleet.

The fleet which she loved. The fleet of which half of it was sent on this crusade, nay this fool's errand, to subjugate the supposed Thirteenth Tribe.

The fleet which had suffered tens of thousands of dead and wounded in such a small time, the fleet that had lost more men, ships and fighters than ever before in such a short span of time.

Cain loved the Colonies but it was the fleet where her heart was.

And she would cut the arrogance, the foolishness, the corruption and the interference of others, the greed and everything that seemed to be even slightly religiously motivated, out.

To her, these were the factors that had lead to all of these deaths, unnecessary deaths.

They were the cancer at the heart of the Colonies and she would cut it right out.

Her words spoken to the fleet were true. To Cain this was a liberation and if she had to kill other people loyal to the Colonies, then so be it.

She would lead the fleet to liberate the Colonies and set them on the path to the future.

And she would let none cross her.

Seconds after she had made the announcement she ordered to be connected to a Tau'ri ship and be transported planet side.

In a flash of white light, she was gone.

Arriving at the SGC she was soon in a conference with General O'Neill and Colonel Samantha Carter.

They discussed both the state of the Colonial Fleet here, on the way back and within the Colonies. Cain also informed them of her plans and gave asked for a detailed description on what upgrades her fleet would receive.
It had been still a bit unclear just what weapons and how many the upgrade would consist of, but they had promised her both a substantial amount of conventional weaponry aka rail guns and a few energy weapons, though numbers were still unclear. It was once again made clear that no Asgard technology whatsoever would enter the Colonial military save for energy generators, hyperdrives and shielding (though the Tau'ri did omit to mention that their own hyperdrives were far faster. A Colonial hyperdrive, for instance, would not possess the ability to cross between the galaxies within weeks).

Cain had, although with quite a bit of wistfulness in her voice agreed to these terms. Nevertheless she had secured a good deal for the Colonies of Kobol.

Joint command, mixed fleets (even though no one had had an idea what the new designs were) and bases.

Then after the had been at it for more than four hours going over every detail again and again, the upgrades, the repairs, the mining operations, the dry docks and everything else that was important right now for the survival of the Colonial fleet here in the system and what was important and beneficial to the Tau'ri .

The Tau'ri had also made their stances very clear concerning the rules of engagement and especially when it came to the religious aspects.

Cain, had agreed with an almost frightening viciousness. Her opinion on everything that had to do with religion was very low, so she had no qualms agreeing to these terms, no matter how harsh.

The Tau'ri had also once more stressed the Cylon issue, thoughat that Cain went very quiet, almost withdrawing into herself.

In the end though she had steeled herself and asked to see Gina.

Her wish had been granted.

Though what happened in the cell, the Tau'ri could only see, not hear, it had been agreed that this was to bee a private conversation.

When the others to whom the day's events were told, nobody asked any further. It had been clear that both women had been more than stressed enough emotionally.

After five minutes of watching a sign was given and even the cameras went out, what ever passed between the two women was private and stay so. Only much later would the truth come to light, but Cain came out both a bit a flustered and yet somewhat shaken and grim, but was not asked about what had happened.

A few moments later she was beamed back up.

Flashback end

The talks with both Gina and Cain had been very illuminating and had shown the potential of both groups allying, but the uncertainties were many, only time would tell if this new alliance would hold and whether the many obstacles would be overcome.
The first great obstacle, the bringing in of the Colonies of Cobol into the Alliance would soon come.

With the forces and the rules of engagement... well, there had been a foreshadowing of the reactions of the Colonial troops to these new rules.
True, many of those in the prison camps were made up of the most fervent believers in the gods, but also many from the more open minded had joined in the great riot, that had been put down by the Tau'ri, using copious amounts of military and police.

In fact, the Tau'ri had been lucky that they had been able to quell the riot so quickly, otherwise it might have turned into a full blown insurgency which would have claimed many dead and wounded.

Even after the riot had been quelled, the anger had been simmering at the perceived injustice and of course at the brutal methods that were to be employed to enforce these rules.

It was then that Cain had made a speech in which she had made it explicitly clear that the Tau'ri and the Jaffa would fall under same rule and that it was their own damn fault for doing such a stupid thing such as invading for the reasons of religion.

No Cain explicitly stated that she held no sympathy for those would be executed if they did not follow the rules, seeing as they had only been introduced because of the Colonials' behaviour towards the humans of Earth.

No, there was to be no sympathy to be had be no one.

Then there was silence and the Colonial prisoners knew just how close they had come to summary execution at the hands of the Tau'ri due to their conduct during their fighting and just what the reason was with which they had brought so much death and destruction over Earth.

No, the Colonies might be important for the war, but still they had lost and had to play by the Tau'ri rules.

It was the start of a new age for the Colonies of Cobol.

PX-291, Rillietan D-Day +375

Miniak looked at his sons and smiled. This was their first proper journey with the caravan as filly fledged adults and warriors

Like him, his sons and the other seven other Jaffa and eight unaugmented humans walking beside the sixteen wagons loaded with the various goods the villages had produced in the last few months, they each wore the traditional Jaffa chain-mail armour with covering plates. They also had Zats attached to their waists. All in all, one would have thought them ordinary run of the mill Jaffa, if not for their various other implements.
They had served a minor Goa'uld, whose warriors had several distinctive differences. For one they possessed wickedly sharp forward curved spikes on their arms whose sides were razor edged blades.

The other difference was that they all held a sword in a scabbard strapped to their backs. These swords were of very high quality and together with other goods made from the dame kind of wetalwork, were highly prized and always fetched a good price on the markets of Thallys, the town they were currently heading too.

Thallys had prospered since the fall of the Goa'uld and had grown considerably and many traders came, buying the many things the town's industries or of the other towns and villages produced. Caravans bringing goods were constantly entering or leaving the town, either bringing goods to sell taking those bought home.

The more so that many traders nowalso came from off-world and Thallys had even built a spaceport to accommodate their ships, be they modified Al'kesh, Tel'tak or freighters from other planets with different designs.

All came to Thallys

So when they came to the entrance of the town, a well constructed stone gate, Miniak chatted amiably with the guards, before they entered, the guard -Shirek- being a friend, when suddenly one of his sons, Marek, cried out in fear.

"Father, look the skies are burning!"

"What? Don't be a fool!", his father snapped at him irritably, irritated at having been interrupted when he was talking with a fried. Such a thing was plain rude and told of bad manners.

But when his friend actually looked up too with a look of freight on his face, Miniak did so too.

What he saw terrified him.

Doyens of objects were falling from the sky cloaked in red flame.
Worse they were headed for Thallys!

Already Miriak could hear voices of wonder that quickly turned to fear when they realised that they would hit the town. Miriak too first thought so, that these were meteorites falling from the skies, but these were regularly.

Then suddenly dots that had been hidden by the bright flames falling from the sky materialized into shapes.

Fighters!

Fighter-bombers of the Ori!

They were under attack!

Suddenly Miriak had the sinking feeling he knew what those objects wreathed in flame were.

These were obviously troop transports, bringing troops for an invasion!
Thallys was under attack!

Then the fighters,fighter-bombers and gunships were over them and energy rained from the sky , tearing into the town and crowds that panicked and hysterically tried to flee.

Miriak had only time to shout for everyone to take cover, do so himself and then there was nothing but the sound of explosions, screams of people crying, panicing shouting and dying all melded into the cacophony that was an attack from above on an unsuspecting populace being brought war to.

He saw nothing for there was too much dust in the air flung up from the many falling stones around him having been blasted apart, or just where the troop transports had simply crashed through buildings to disgorge their passengers directly.

Then there was silence, or at least as silent as it could get after an attack, with all the moaning and crying of the wounded.

But another sound penetrated this not-silence as well: Weapons fire. The invading Ori troops were advancing solidly, from what Miriak guessed and were probably firing at everyone who tried to resist or even raised a weapon at them.

Miriak was no stranger to war. He had fought for his god in many engagements against other jaffa or even humans who had tried to defy their god. He had once even fought against the Tau'ri in an engagement and had lived to tell it.

The Tau'ri had been horribly outnumbered having only two dozen warriors, of which half had escaped though the Chappa'ai through a surprise attack taking with them several civilians.

The remaining dozen had been faced by over a hundred Jaffa in an unfavourable position.

But somehow they had gotten out, taken a better position and had then simultaneously not only defended but also counter-attacked.

It had been a terrifying experience for Miriak.

In the end after thirteen dead and over thirty wounded, the terrified Jaffa had practically melted away from the position controling the Chappa'ai when the Tau'ri had made a concentrated attack upon it.

With only three wounded the Tau'ri had retaken the Stargate, cut the Jaffa to pieces and evacuated.

To those who survived the experience the Tau'ri became feared.

Miriak too feared them and their prowess on the battlefield, but he and two others who he had later talked to, had after thinking it through made out the secret of the Tau'ris success.

Their training and their tactics.

The three Jaffa remembered how coordinated the Tau'ri had been, how disciplined and how cunning and ruthless they had been in executing their traps.

It had made a lasting impression on Miriak and he had tried to train the other Jaffa in these tactics. It wasn't much, everybody knew that, but already it had proven very useful when bandits had attacked the caravan once. With the well coordinated defence the Jaffa had put up, that held the bandits up, Miriak and several others had come from the flank.

The bandits had broken and this time the Jaffa had been able to follow up, overtake them and ruthlessly destroy them, even though being outnumbered by a margin not too shabby.

Discipline had paid off in that battle and it had convinced t continue the Jaffa in his villages and a few surrounding them to tentatively continue with this new train of thought and the new ideas.

Now Miriak knew that this battle was the ultimate test for him.

If he managed to hold the enemy back, maybe even retake some ground or if this was not possible, at least get a good impression of the enemy's numbers and tactics, get some more men out to continue the fight and finally organise a proper retreat, then he knew that he had done something unheard of, something that would make everybody respect him.

So when the dust settled a bit he waved his hand forward and the men and Jaffa guarding the caravan together with the guards followed him into the town, ready to fight the invaders.

On a hill overlooking the town, the Tok'ra Minnec had just left his cloaked Tel'tak to go into the town and gather information from the off-world travellers and how they felt about the current situation, since

Rillietan was not to far from the new border.

In fact the planet was something of a frontier planet.

When he saw the attack begin, Minnec recorded everything and cursed himself for not arriving sooner.
Now an undercover mission seemed impossible at the moment. The fighting was still on.

Anybody trying to enter the battlefield, might very well get caught, not even speaking of the possibilities of either getting caught in the crossfire or just apprehended by one side or the other and being arrested and killed as a spy, especially in such a mood.

No, Minnec thought, seeing that the ROR soldiers had already taken over the Stargate from which reinforcements were pouring.

He needed to return to his Tel-tak, reach orbit and tell the newly formed Alliance of the Free Peoples (AFP or just Alliance) to which they as the long term allies of the Tau'ri had been invited to, of the news.

When he left the planet he saw four new ships of various classes he and the other Tok'ra had not yet encountered so far.

On long rather streamlined yet boxy ship with a bloated head that seemed to have several open mouths and many intrusions into its side, each the same shape and evenly space.

In front was a smaller ship, but obviously more powerful, as it had positioned itself together with the two other ships in a protective triangle form the strange looking ship, which Minnec now thought to be a troop transport of some kind, the one responsible for the forced planetary landing.

The three ships protecting the troop transport were obviously warships assigned to protect the transport,

The larger one of the three, situated at the front, protected on either side by its two escorts, possessed the characteristics of Ori ships, with a large slightly rounded front for frontal fire, though tis time in regards to proportions , the flanks came out much better than they did when compared to the Ori mother ships.

The flanks came away in the typical Ori manner, but were now much higher and curved on the top and bottom in nearly ninety degrees, finally coming together at the back, where the thrusters came out.

It was a very odd design, yet elegant at the same time, the two long forward jutting over dimensional spikes doing nothing to dispel the effect. In fact they even enhanced it, housings of main weapons -which they undoubtedly were- seeing how the spikes themselves curved inwards, forwarding power to the long barrel of a cannon situated on top of the appendages.

The ships before him had a length of nearly three quarters of a mother ship and about a fifth of its width, clearly putting it into a class of wither a heavy cruiser or even a capital ship of the line.

The two smaller ships were much less elaborate. they possessed a flat rhombic design, that took two thirds until it reached the maximum width before it decreased again, dotted mostly with smaller gun emplacements but also several heavier guns , the flowing lines of the Ori only visible at the back of the ship, where a smaller version of the spike in reverse sat.

The length this ship was something around three hundred meters, with a maximum width of a bout sixty seventy meters. It was either a light cruiser analogue, Mennic thought or a frigate.

Whatever these ships were, he had some readings and numbers on them that the Alliance truly needed to see.

Even if he had not seen these ships, return would have been just as vital, for the Alliance nneded to know this.

The war that both parties had been preparing for, creating weapons and ships, training armies, building fortresses, consolidating held positions and hammering out treaties, was there.

Two great powers had risen from the ashes of the Goa'uld and Ori empires and both had known that only one could dominate the galaxy, that confrontation was inevitable and both had prepared for it as much as possible.

Now they would clash and from their clash only one could emerge vitorious.

The first shots had been fired by the ROR.

The war was on.

AN: Now, I am so sorry bout the long wait. First when I put the stoy on hiatus I had been in hospital for nearly two weeks, but it was clearly seen that this might take some more time.

In fact it took over seven more weeks!

I was unable to write on a computer there (no laptop) and when I return I first had to get into the flow again, be my own beta, correcting as many mistakes as could be found, and more importantly finding proper ways of expressing myself, getting sentences to work, entire paragraphs were rewritten (some tossed out. I am not joking, I took out about two or three pages of detailed financial, political and industrial aspects of the colonizing process and how that may be done in detail, not to mention about how the war would be financed etc..., something I was already prepared to write!) and then I had to get the story to work again.

Then I had a writers block and got nearly nothing done for two weeks.

But now, here it is. A chapter, 22,200 words long and 34 pages of text.

It is unbeta'd, because I wanted to get it up as soon as possible.

The beta'd version will probably be up soon, depending on how long the beta takes.

Enjoy and please review. A always constructive criticism is welcome and wanted. Please no flames.

If anyone has some issues concerning the details of the ships and designs or just in a general way, or just something you forgot to add in the review, feel free to PM me. I promise every PM will be answered.

Also those reviews who hold constructive criticism or questions will all be ansered, as long as I can reply to them. Meaning only registered members can be replied to.

So, see you and cheers.

Skipper 1337

P.S.: The challenge is still open for taking. If someone doea take it upon themselves, then I'd be happy.