Chapter 205: Christmas Season Part 1
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Chapter 205: Christmas Season Part 1
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 10th, 2001
"According to our operatives, the following System Lords have been sending scouting ships into Ba'al's former territory: Sokar, Cronus, Apophis and Heru'ur. Sokar and Cronus are more active than the other, and their territories are closer as well, so our analysts have deduced that Apophis and Heru'ur found out about those probes and launched probes of their own to find out what their rivals are planning there. So far, nothing indicates that they know that the Alliance has taken over the territory, but they definitely suspect that Ba'al's weakened and occupied with an interior or exterior enemy."
"Thank you." Adora nodded at Lantash/Martouf's presentation. She had read the analysis in advance, of course, but not everyone present at this briefing was cleared for that data. She stood. "We've seen off the recon forces with Ha'taks flying under Ba'al's colours, but as you've heard, we cannot maintain the ruse that he is still in control of his territory for much longer. We don't have enough such ships for the kind of retaliatory strike Ba'al would launch for such intrusions into his territory, not without risking discovery anyway, should our forces get overwhelmed or have to be reinforced by Clone forces."
The assembled Command Council members nodded. Most had already come to the same conclusion based on the data. Those present who hadn't had the clearance for this seemed to take their cues from their superiors.
"So, since our presence will be discovered sooner or later anyway, we have two basic options: We can fight a defensive operation against the expected invasions, using our shorter supply lines and better intel to ambush their forces when they enter our territory before launching a counter-invasion at the weakened territory on that border. Alternatively, we strike at the enemy while they are preparing for an invasion, using surprise and concentration of forces to inflict crushing losses on their forces before they are ready, followed by another offensive in the Earth sector against Apophis. For both strategies, we'll attempt to pose as remnant Horde forces as long as possible, to make the enemy believe that Ba'al was taken out by Clones from Horde Prime's former territory, whom he either attacked or unsuccessfully tried to recruit," Adora explained while holoprojections showing the expected areas of operation and forces present appeared in the middle of the room.
Admiral Larkin raised his hand. Adora suppressed the urge to sigh at the American and nodded instead. "Admiral."
"What about ceding the territory and withdrawing to avoid contact? That would gain us time to further prepare for a decisive offensive."
Adora was a bit surprised at the suggestion - Glimmer had expected the United States Government to push for an offensive to distract their people from the NID scandal. But it was a bad idea in her opinion. "We would have to evacuate or destroy too many facilities, not to mention move too many people, to make that feasible. Our war material production would take a hit that wouldn't be compensated by the time gained, and the enemy would quickly push against our new borders - and be more cautious after discovering that Ba'al's gone." Did the Americans plan to have those factories moved to their country? The other allies wouldn't support that, and it would add months of travel. And the Americans wouldn't be as stupid as to reduce the production capacities of the Alliance as a whole so their own would gain in relative importance, would they?
In any case, the Admiral scowled, but as everyone else seemed to agree with Adora, he didn't push the proposal.
"I support an offensive. Fighting a defensive operation will cede initiative to our enemies and prolong the war. It will also allow the enemy to gain experience fighting our forces before we strike at their territory and give them more time to adapt to our presence, potentially move the various Goa'uld factions to form a united front much earlier than we anticipate." And that would make the Goa'uld much more dangerous. They would still have to deal with their own logistical issues, and they were not expected to truly trust each other, but the numerical advantages would be a threat to the Alliance if they managed to concentrate their forces and make a push for a world the Alliance couldn't afford to lose and had to defend - such as Earth. Technological superiority could only compensate for numbers to some degree, as the Horde War had proven. They had to delay the point when the Goa'uld would realise they were facing an existential threat as long as possible.
"I agree with the assessment," Admiral Brown-Emerson said. "We have enough forces to take on two or even three System Lords with sufficiently superior forces to avoid mass casualties. The longer we wait, the greater the chance that the System Lords are alerted to our presence, and we not only lose the advantage of surprise but also face a more coordinated enemy."
"I concur," Glimmer said. "If we strike against the System Lords currently fighting each other, we should be able to quickly overwhelm them before they realise what is happening."
Catra snorted next to Adora. She didn't really think everything would go according to plan, Adora knew. But this was Catra's plan, and even if not everything went as planned, they should be able to compensate for any setbacks.
At the very least, Adora would rather face trouble in the enemy's territory, where one could fall back if everything else failed, than in their own territory. That was a lesson the Horde War had taught her as well.
As more and more members of the command council agreed, Adora was already going over the coming deployment of the forces available to the Alliance in her head.
Research Base Alpha, First Moon of Enchantment, December 11th, 2001 (Earth Time)
… and I regret to inform you that due to several classified current assignments that take priority, I am unable for the foreseeable future to assist in the Constellation II design project. Colonel Samantha Carter.
Samantha Carter finished typing her message to the United States Space Systems Command, checked for typos and hit send.
She knew she shouldn't feel quite so satisfied about this, but the cursed Constellation II-class had taken up too much of her time; the chance to have an excuse to ignore the requests for help for the next offensive at least was a godsend. Whoever delusional admiral had thought they could redesign the entire hangar layout of those ships after they had already been built should be fired! Sam wasn't going to waste any more of her scarce time on that project, not after they had kept ignoring her advice. Especially not after she had personally pointed out, multiple times, and with extensive documentation, that the latest version of the Phantom Aerospace Fighter was exceeding the design specs set when the Constellation II was laid down, and they had still gone ahead.
Granted - and this wasn't influenced by her being an officer in the Air Force, which would be using the Phantoms as well - the new aerospace fighter was a good design and she was looking forward to try one out once the General managed to get one for 'testing', better than the Death Gliders in all aspects except for cost of construction, though Horde automation should change that. It fared a bit worse when compared against the Horde Fighters, more agile and acceleration but less firepower and shielding, and inferior in range, even if you put them up against Horde fighters converted for living pilots. But for a first attempt at an aerospace fighter, it was a good plane.
Still, the Navy should have accepted that their boondoggle of a frigate class couldn't carry as many fighters as designed. It wasn't as if the ships would see much, if any, combat anyway - the ships hadn't been cleared for actual operations, and the redesign would delay that even further. But they would be decent training ships at least.
Especially for the maintenance and damage control training squads, she thought with a slight sneer.
Still, she was glad she wouldn't be dealing with the Navy's brass for a while. Working with Entrapta was so much better than trying to see stubborn admirals see reason. Her friend never ignored physical limits - those they couldn't either break or work around, at least.
Although, she thought as she stuffed her tablet into the side pocket of her uniform and walked towards the door ahead of her, now I have to deal with an actual crucial issue. Or a potential problem.
"Hello, Loki," he said when the door opened before her. "Hello, Alpha."
"Colonel Carter," Alpha greeted her, the holographic avatar bowing her head toward her.
Loki took a bit longer to look up from the screen he was staring at and nodded at her. "Greetings." After a moment, he added: "I assume you're here to check up on the host project."
"On all the projects in general," Sam replied. It wasn't quite a surprise inspection - they had done those before - but she hadn't announced her arrival too much in advance. "How are you doing with your main project?"
Loki scowled. "A few inconsequential delays, but we're more or less on schedule."
A schedule that had been extended before. "Viability issues again?" Sam asked.
"Yes. Nothing a bit more work can overcome." He nodded.
Which, as Sam understood the problem, wasn't actually a viability issue; the latest version of the Asgard clones would be viable and able to reproduce. She stepped closer and made a point of peering at the screen in front of him. "They look nice," she said, feeling a bit guilty about baiting him.
He scowled again. "There are several flaws I am still working on."
Meaning, they still looked too much like Horde clones for his taste. "Do you think your people will be easier to convince to use your solution if you alter their appearance closer to their current one?"
"Current data indicates that. If there were no differences in appearance, I could ensure that my solution is adapted by the Asgard."
Sam raised her eyebrows. That was very confident even for Loki, whose confidence regularly crossed into arrogance. So why would…? Ah! "You mean you'd try to change their cloning matrices and replace their old patterns with yours."
"Of course." He nodded firmly.
"That doesn't sound very ethical," She commented.
"If the survival of your species is in danger, duping them into being saved is perfectly ethical according to the vast majority of the material I have consulted," Alpha chimed in.
"It would violate their bodily autonomy," Sam pointed out. "And invalidate their own decisions about their future."
"If they want to die, they have the right and the means to commit suicide at any time they choose," Loki said. "But they do not have the right - and now, they lack the means - to condemn our entire species to extinction. But to fool them into being saved will require a perfect design that is, but for genetic changes that eliminate genome degradation, identical to our current genome."
"And what if you cannot produce such a genome?" Sam couldn't help asking.
His scowl grew more pronounced. "Then my best design will be the base for a reborn Asgard species."
Which had been his original plan. Or his original backup plan; Loki had gone through a few versions since he had started working on the problem.
"Good." They had talked long enough about this. "How is the Synthetic Host Project going?" Sam asked.
Loki sneered again. "In my opinion, the project cannot be completed successfully. Any host organism that provides enough intellectual support to serve as a replacement for sapient hosts will, by necessity, be sapient enough to violate the ethical limits you have stipulated for the project. I have pointed this out from the start."
He had. As had others. But this was a crucial component to winning the war in the long term without committing crimes against humanity.
"Although our co-workers from the experimental subjects native to Etheria are working on a possible workaround for that problem," Alpha said. "It's outside my expertise. However, they sound optimistic."
Sam suppressed a sigh. That meant magic. And she had learned quickly that you couldn't trust much less predict what Mystacor's researchers might come up with. "I see. I will make enquiries there, then."
Dealing with mad sorceresses was still less stressful than dealing with the Navy brass.
PZ-8623 System, Former Territory of Ba'al, December 14th, 2001 (Earth Time)
Catra watched the holoprojection showing the approach of the Goa'uld scouting ships. One Al'kesh and two Tel'taks. Not a significant force, even for a recon mission. She would have sent more and kept most back, sending one Tel'tak into a system so the other ships could monitor from a safe-ish distance and escape to report back if things went sideways. Or bail the Tel'tak out of trouble if needed and possible.
But whoever sent this force probably thought that three ships would have better odds of detecting anything important and escaping to report in case their communications were jammed or something. And it did look like the Goa'uld still had not realised just how good Alliance sensor technology was. They had to suspect something, though, seeing as they had lost scouting forces using stealth before, though the Alliance forces had only attacked from very close range, so…
The three ships started splitting up. The Al'kesh slowed down, and the two Tel'taks split up, one heading towards the Ha'tak orbiting the habitable planet of the system, the other taking a wider approach.
"They're testing our sensors," she commented. "As expected."
"Standard tactics, then, for the Tel'tak," Adora said. "Try to disable them."
"As you command, Your Divine Highness!" the captain of the Ha'tak replied.
Catra didn't think it would work - the Jaffa crews of the last few ships they had disabled had destroyed themselves before they could be boarded. Loyal unto death to their god, although killing yourself quickly was also a very rational decision if you were about to be captured by Baal's forces. Of course, Tel'taks were too small to offer a lot of safety margins to disabling shots, and it didn't take a lot to blow one up accidentally, either, at least if you were using a capital ship's batteries.
But they might have a shot at taking the Al'kesh intact if their plan worked.
"Spy bots approaching targets," another Clone reported.
Those were special models using the latest runic-enhanced stealth generators. They didn't have many of them, mass-producing them was not yet deemed worth the loss of regular spy bot production, so they were pretty much handcrafted, but given their better stealth generators and a much larger payload, they were perfect for this operation.
Or so the Alliance was hoping. Catra also hoped that this would convince the brass - especially her friends - to switch production. You had to keep ahead of the technology curve, after all. Sure, the Goa'uld didn't quite have the sensors to defeat the regular stealth generators, but you couldn't count on that staying the same, and Catra would rather err on the side of caution in this area. The spy bot network was the biggest advantage of the Alliance, and she expected the war to last long enough to render the current models obsolete before it was over, unlike more optimistic analysts.
"Tel'tak approaching red line," the Clone at the sensor station reported. That was the 'known' farthest detection range that the Alliance had demonstrated so far when dealing with those scouts. They hadn't seen any indication that any of the intercepted stealth scouts had been able to report the range back to their origin before being jammed and disabled, but they couldn't be sure.
"Tel'tak approaching blue line."
"Wait until the green line, then disable it," Adora ordered.
"As you command, Your Divine Highness!"
They would attempt to disable it, at least. Beam weapons would have been more precise, but with the older weapons mounted in this Ha'tak, accidentally destroying a smaller target was always a possibility.
Catra kept an eye on the other two ships. None of them showed any indication that they had detected the bots closing in on them. They were probably focused on the Tel'tak playing bait. Or mine sweeper.
She suddenly heard the slight rumbling from the Ha'tak's main battery, and the closest Tel'tak shuddered as it was hit by standard Goa'uld guns, followed by an explosion.
"We failed to disable it, Your Divine Highness!"
Catra ignored the report and focused on the two remaining ships. The bots had already been on final approach, so…
The projection flickered when the short-range jammers carried by one spy bot went into effect. Then the sensors adjusted - it was just enough jamming to disable the enemy communications, after all - and the holoprojection reported almost simultaneous contacts as the bots hit the enemy ships in groups of two and three each. One clamped onto the engines and blew itself up, taking the engines with them. The other, or others in the Al'kesh's case, used breaching charges to open the ship's hull and flood it with disabling gas, followed by releasing micro spy bots to deal with any crew members in sealed suits.
"Breaches in both targets. Engines confirmed disabled," the Clone reported.
Catra checked the readings from the micro spy bots. Tel'tak's crew was quickly confirmed to be unconscious. No surprise there with the small size of the ship.
On the Al'kesh, though, two Jaffa had managed to throw on breathers and were rushing to the bridge. "They're trying to trigger the self-destruct!" Adora snapped.
The micro spy bots were moving to intercept them, like a swarm of killer toys. But they were too slow. The second of the Jaffa was swarmed and taken down by the one-shot stun guns the bots carried, but the other shrugged off a glancing blow, shot another bot with his staff weapon and managed to reach the command console before the rest of the bots caught up.
The feed from the bots cut off, and a moment later, the holoprojection showed an explosion engulfing the Al'kesh.
"Disabling mission failed for the Al'kesh, Your Divine Highness."
Yeah, Catra thought, we can see that. Still, they had disabled one ship. Time to find out who was behind this set of spies.
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 15th, 2001
Things were picking up right before Christmas. Usually, Jack O'Neill would make a few jokes about having a good excuse to miss the Holiday stress, but… Compared to running a war on a galaxy-wide scale - or so it felt, no matter what Carter said about the actual astronomical scale - and trying to not think about Kinsey's parting shots, having to shop for presents, deal with relatives inviting him to the holidays and juggling the holiday schedules for his troops while they were about to deploy to the front, just having the regular holiday trouble would have been an actual vacation.
"So… they have been identified as Sokar's scouts," he said once he had skimmed the report from the Ba'al front.
"Yes," Catra replied. "They were wearing Apophis's armour, but the Tok'ra provided intel that tied the ships to Sokar's factory, and when Adora showed them her power, the Jaffa prayed to Sokar as well, according to Melog."
Jack shook his head. That had been a bit sloppy of Sokar - well, the ships; the snake couldn't really do anything about a magical cat reading the thoughts of his frantically faithful praying to you in what they think is their last moment. Not when such faith was what made them so loyal to him. Of course, a mind-reading magic cat would render most black ops procedures to hide your origin pointless, anyway. In that way, Melog was actually as much a crucial Alliance advantage that needed to be kept secret as the spy bot network.
"So, after Cronus's intrusions, we now have confirmation about Sokar's operations," Jack said. Not that he had doubted the Tok'ra's intel; it made too much sense based on Sokar and Ba'al's history - they had been allies, once, until Ba'al had grown too powerful and too ambitious.
"Yeah, but nothing more than that. The scouts we captured don't know anything about Sokar's intentions." Catra shrugged. "They were not even told whether they should expect Ba'al's forces, an usurper's, or anything else."
"Good operational security on Sokar's part," Jack commented. Not that he had expected anything else; you didn't become much less stay a System Lord if you had bad opsec; your rivals would eat you alive. Maybe literally in some cases.
"In any case, we've been gathering forces in deep space, so any scouts we miss won't find them except for sheer luck," Catra went on.
Jack nodded. That would put a bit of additional strain on logistics, but only a bit - the Clone fleet trains could easily handle it as long as they had more transport capacities to get the raw materials from the mining units. And the troop transports were designed for long-range deployments; the Brits had done good work there.
It would mean that the troops couldn't train on a planet while waiting, which would affect readiness levels, but at least Jack's forces - if he ever met the guy who had coined the term ASpecs, there would be words - could train in boarding actions and Zero-G operations; he knew that while they were skilled, they could always get better at those.
Though morale would be affected the most. At least for Earth and probably Etherian forces. No matter how nice the ship facilities were - and military ships, even space ships, were not exactly cruise ships - people stuck on board were likely to get antsy. Cabin fever. Hanging out in deep space without even the opportunity to get some fresh air would make it worse. And they couldn't even use the Stargate to rotate people to planets safely behind the frontlines for exercises or leave; the ships would have to be in a system for the Stargate to work.
Back at Stargate Command, he didn't have to worry about that particular problem. Not when the troops could head outside at the end of their shift. He had people - shrinks - to handle that, but when it came down to it, Jack was the one who was ultimately responsible for his troops.
And besides… "How soon can we be ready to launch recon operations?"
"We're estimating about a week or two until we've finished analysing the spy bot data we got."
That would narrow down the targets, but they would need more intel than that. Which meant planetary recon missions. Which meant work for his special forces since nothing beat eyes on the ground. "We need more runic stealth shuttles," he said. "I don't care what the brass says about the risks of losing one and exposing our technology; I am not sending my troops to infiltrate a planet with inferior technology." Besides, if they got caught, all it would take was one trooper being snaked, and the Goa'uld would know all about the Alliance's true origin, and that was a much bigger risk than a self-destruct failing.
Catra nodded. "We should have half a dozen upgraded by then. Including your own."
Jack grinned. Letting Carter and Entrapta use his own stealth shuttle as a testing bed for the upgrade kits paid out. "So, let's get ready for Christmas at the front."
"It's probably going to be more peaceful than last day gift shopping here." Catra matched his grin.
"Or the family dinners," Jack added. He didn't miss those.
But it would likely mean that they would miss out on the New Year's Parties as well, and those could be fun. Especially since the Etherians had started attending. Well, they would see how things worked out.
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 20th, 2001
"The Spy Bot Network continues to spread into Cronus's territory, but its coverage is still limited. We're surveilling several possible rallying spots and have detected a concentration of ships in one system, but it doesn't seem to be a build-up for an invasion, merely a home port for a reaction/patrol force. Our operatives are currently investigating to see if that's a new development or has been part of Cronus's border patrols for some time."
"Thank you." Adora nodded at Jakar/Mats's report. That was a good summary of the data they had. The Alliance had increased their reconnaissance efforts towards Cronus ever since they had identified his forces, but he hadn't been a priority so far, so this would take more time. Sokar, on the other hand… "Our surveillance shows that Sokar is building up forces, though they are too spread out so far to form a united invasion or reaction force. Our analysis has drawn the conclusion that he is preparing for a broad offensive, aided by the fact that Apophis and Heru'ur are currently engaged in a slowly escalating struggle over a system, likely fuelled by Sokar's covert operations, and so he can spare forces for a grab of territory. We don't know if he is aware or suspects that Ba'al has been taken out or simply interprets the lack of a strong reaction by Ba'al to his intrusions as a sign of a deeper weakness he can exploit; the Tok'ra operatives within his realm are too low-ranked to have access to such intel."
"If he thinks that Ba'al is too weak to oppose his land grab, wouldn't he wonder about the reasons for this?" Admiral Dubois asked.
"We assume he has intel about Ba'al's dealings with remnant Horde forces," Jakar/Mats replied. "Sokar would have had agents within Ba'al's forces, and while the former System Lord had compartmentalised his realm to a significant degree, he could not hide everything from everyone. We also have confirmed that the news of Horde Prime's defeat and death has spread throughout the entire Goa'uld Empire, so Sokar would be aware of that as well without having to launch recon forces into the former Horde territory."
In the middle of the room, the holoprojection lit up the various territories. "So, we lack enough intel for a strike at Cronus so far, but we have a much better picture of Sokar's realm, although still not complete," Adora said. "However, if we strike at Sokar, that will open up the possibility to strike at both Apophis and Heru'ur in a second phase, potentially eliminating all three System Lords and shortening our borders with the Goa'uld Empire to whatever remains of Sokar's realm and Cronus's territory." With the former Ba'al's territory forming a buffer zone between those and the former Horde territory that included Etheria. Earth would be even further from any Goa'uld realms, greatly increasing the Alliance's security. It would also lengthen their supply lines, but that couldn't be avoided anyway once they started to further advance into the Goauld Empire's territory.
"If we're striking Sokar and then Apophis and Heru'ur, we will need to cover our flank against Cronus," Admiral Brown-Emerson pointed out.
"We'll keep forces in reserve for that," Adora told him. "Specifically, we'll be building up another Clone Fleet in the border area and shift the decoy forces currently posing as Ba'al's ships to that border as well. If necessary, we can have the First Fleet pivot to cover the border as well." Now fully rebuilt and upgraded, it would be serving as a reserve for the invasion.
"Another Clone fleet?" Admiral Larkin clearly wasn't happy with that.
"We have the spare capacity and the experience to raise an effective force there," Adora replied.
"We know that this will work, unlike other attempts to build a fleet," Admiral Dubois added with a smile that had the American scowl at him.
"The build-up of Earth's naval forces will, of course, continue on schedule. More or less, at least," Admiral Brown-Emerson said, probably to head off another row. "We have enough Horde ships available for our training pipeline."
That was true, but compared to the Clone training program, it was still lagging behind. And the Americans didn't want to use Horde ships; they wanted to use their own designs. Not that mentioning that would be helpful.
"Now, that covers the naval forces assigned to this," Adora went on. "We are planning several ground campaigns as well, focusing on the key industrial hubs in Sokar's realm that we have identified so far."
"Alliance Special Forces will conduct recon operations on all potential targets," Jack added. "We'll adjust and detail plans once we have their intel."
That was standard practice, of course. You didn't drop an invasion on an unknown world - not if you wanted to win.
"That's the broad plan. Now, let's focus on the first phase," Adora pointed, and the holoprojection changed, zooming in on the border area where Sokar's ships were located. "This will be a priority target for the first strike, but in order to train operational surprise, we'll have to…"
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 21st, 2001
"After analysing the remains of the ships that were destroyed recently, we have found no sign of advanced technology beyond the known Goa'uld technology. However, since those were scout ships, and, based upon their mission profile and recorded flight profiles, likely expected to be lost in action, there is a high probability that the System Lords decided not to risk exposing more advanced technology by outfitting ships deemed expendable from the start. We have no evidence so far that Sokar and Cronus lack more advanced technology," Samantha Carter nodded at the assembled officers. "Although, while we also lack any such information about the forces of Apophis and Heru'ur, in those cases intel from the Tok'ra operatives inserted into their courts corroborated that lack of more advanced technology," she went on.
"Let's hope none of them found yet another lost Ancient lab and started playing with galaxy-destroying superweapons," the General commented.
A few of the officers laughed, but after everything they had faced so far in the war, and knowing about the Heart of Etheria, Sam didn't think the General was exaggerating too much, if at all.
"In any case," she picked up her briefing, "even if Cronus or Sokar had access to more advanced technology, they were not able or not willing to outfit their entire force with it; the data from our own recon efforts has shown that their border patrols are limited to standard Goa'uld technology." She illustrated the point by highlighting the weapons, engine and shield generators on a holoprojection of a Ha'tak.
"You've summed up your analysis quite succinctly, Colonel Carter," Admiral Brown-Emerson said. "But what is your personal opinion?"
Sam didn't frown; she had expected such a question. The General would have asked it if the British officer hadn't been quicker. "My analysis is based on the data we acquired. I stand by it."
"But what does your gut feeling say?" And here came the General.
She didn't frown either, but she glanced at him and narrowed her eyes when he grinned. "I think we have to anticipate encountering more advanced technology during the upcoming operation. Due to the System Lords' policy of spying on each other and trying to use plots and sabotage against rivals, they tend to keep any perceived advantage, such as better technology than what their rivals have access to, secret, usually with the intent to reveal it in a decisive action against a rival or to save their realm from an overwhelming threat."
"And do you have any idea what kind of technology we could encounter, Colonel?" Admiral Larkin asked with the hint of a sneer.
Sam kept her face impassive and her tone professional. "As I already said and explained in my report, we have found no sign of advanced technology in either arsenal so far."
"So, you have no idea about potential threats?" Larkin doubled up.
Was he carrying a grudge for her refusal to spend even more time on the Navy's design failures? "Since, as I have repeatedly explained, we have no data about this, any statement about a specific kind of technology would be baseless speculation, Admiral." Sam managed not to sound contemptuous in her reply.
The General, though, didn't bother to hide his sneer. "Last I checked, we didn't have oracles on staff." He cocked his head to the side in what Sam recognised as a decent attempt at a Columbo imitation. "Although now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind if we did hire such people; we could shorten those briefings by heading off such questions from the start. Of course, it doesn't take an oracle to predict some of those questions…"
Admiral Larkin glared at him. "I was merely trying to anticipate our future threats and asked the specialist in charge of assessing such threats to elaborate on their briefing."
Adora cleared her throat. "We'll be on our guard and on the lookout for any sign of such a threat. However, we are here to plan the first phase of our offensive, mainly the space-centred part."
They still had to conduct a detailed recon of the various planetary targets, but they had the naval assets of the enemy mapped out sufficiently, thanks to their spy bots. The task forces gathering should be able to handle them easily, even if they were split up to hit all enemy concentrations simultaneously. But that would leave them vulnerable to a concentrated counterattack, and if they had to concentrate their forces, they would have to do so in systems important for the enemy, to force them to counterattack there. And that would require better ground intel - all the data analysis Sam and the others had done hadn't helped with that. At least, Sam was reasonably certain that there was no upgrade program running on any of the worlds targeted in the first phase; there was no sign of prototypes or test flights, or yards busy with upgrades, just the usual maintenance.
Which was, of course, highly suspicious, at least in her opinion.
Tokyo, Japan, Earth, December 24th, 2001
"It really looks like a cliche," Catra remarked as they walked through the streets of Tokyo. "The lights, the stars above, and the slowly falling light snow." She looked up. "The slowly falling magical illusory snow that's just falling around this building."
Adora coughed. "Well, Illusa has a talent for that kind of magic, but she can't cover more than a small area."
"And her employers didn't want other businesses benefiting from her work for free," Catra added. The falling snow - that didn't gather on your fur and started to melt, but faded away without leaving any trace - did make for a beautiful scenery that was attracting crowds. Whether it was worth what the business had had to pay to Illusa was a question for the managers and accountants. "Still, to think that they hired a graduate from Mystacor for advertising?" She snorted.
"Earth's magical traditions tend to focus on other areas than illusions," Adora said. "With the exception of certain, ah, controversial myths."
Like those Fae and similar spirits - or gods, or whatever those creatures were supposed to be. The Wild Hunt was one of the most infamous magical events related to such traditions, but not the only one. Catra understood very well why the business here had decided to hire an Etherian sorceress rather than trying to get a deal with anything related to that.
She still didn't think it was worth it for advertising, but she wouldn't complain if it meant she could have a great date with Adora on Christmas Eve. Even if they had to disguise themselves to avoid getting mobbed. And that her idea to disguise themselves as 'cosplayers' of themselves had been shot down by Adora when she had found out that she couldn't just change into She-Ra because her height would have given the game away.
So, Catra was wearing sunglasses after dark, a 'beanie' and scarf to further hide her face, and her tail was wrapped around her waist instead of swinging free. The things she did for love!
And Adora, she noted while she squeezed her love's arm a bit more tightly and leaned into her side, got away with just wearing sunglasses and a different hairstyle. It wasn't quite fair.
Not that she would complain - having Adora to herself was a treat; the idiot was still working too much.
Which was why Catra had pulled some strings (and done some blackmail) and had bribed Bow with a new box of those Earth miniatures he collected to take Glimmer on a romantic date back in Bright Moon before she could get some ideas about spending the evening together as a group. All to ensure that, short of an invasion of Alliance space, no one would disturb this date. Just her and her love, on a romantic evening in Tokyo on Christmas Eve.
They'd have dinner in Tokyo's best sushi restaurant, dance in the hottest club of Shinjuku - she had gotten the perfect suit for this in Milano, after all, and Adora was wearing a hot dress straight from Paris under her winter coat - and then they'd head to the most expensive suite of the best love hotel in the city for the perfect night to conclude the date!
Catra flashed her teeth and rubbed her cheek on Adora's shoulder as they continued walking down the street.
Perfect.
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 10th, 2001
"According to our operatives, the following System Lords have been sending scouting ships into Ba'al's former territory: Sokar, Cronus, Apophis and Heru'ur. Sokar and Cronus are more active than the other, and their territories are closer as well, so our analysts have deduced that Apophis and Heru'ur found out about those probes and launched probes of their own to find out what their rivals are planning there. So far, nothing indicates that they know that the Alliance has taken over the territory, but they definitely suspect that Ba'al's weakened and occupied with an interior or exterior enemy."
"Thank you." Adora nodded at Lantash/Martouf's presentation. She had read the analysis in advance, of course, but not everyone present at this briefing was cleared for that data. She stood. "We've seen off the recon forces with Ha'taks flying under Ba'al's colours, but as you've heard, we cannot maintain the ruse that he is still in control of his territory for much longer. We don't have enough such ships for the kind of retaliatory strike Ba'al would launch for such intrusions into his territory, not without risking discovery anyway, should our forces get overwhelmed or have to be reinforced by Clone forces."
The assembled Command Council members nodded. Most had already come to the same conclusion based on the data. Those present who hadn't had the clearance for this seemed to take their cues from their superiors.
"So, since our presence will be discovered sooner or later anyway, we have two basic options: We can fight a defensive operation against the expected invasions, using our shorter supply lines and better intel to ambush their forces when they enter our territory before launching a counter-invasion at the weakened territory on that border. Alternatively, we strike at the enemy while they are preparing for an invasion, using surprise and concentration of forces to inflict crushing losses on their forces before they are ready, followed by another offensive in the Earth sector against Apophis. For both strategies, we'll attempt to pose as remnant Horde forces as long as possible, to make the enemy believe that Ba'al was taken out by Clones from Horde Prime's former territory, whom he either attacked or unsuccessfully tried to recruit," Adora explained while holoprojections showing the expected areas of operation and forces present appeared in the middle of the room.
Admiral Larkin raised his hand. Adora suppressed the urge to sigh at the American and nodded instead. "Admiral."
"What about ceding the territory and withdrawing to avoid contact? That would gain us time to further prepare for a decisive offensive."
Adora was a bit surprised at the suggestion - Glimmer had expected the United States Government to push for an offensive to distract their people from the NID scandal. But it was a bad idea in her opinion. "We would have to evacuate or destroy too many facilities, not to mention move too many people, to make that feasible. Our war material production would take a hit that wouldn't be compensated by the time gained, and the enemy would quickly push against our new borders - and be more cautious after discovering that Ba'al's gone." Did the Americans plan to have those factories moved to their country? The other allies wouldn't support that, and it would add months of travel. And the Americans wouldn't be as stupid as to reduce the production capacities of the Alliance as a whole so their own would gain in relative importance, would they?
In any case, the Admiral scowled, but as everyone else seemed to agree with Adora, he didn't push the proposal.
"I support an offensive. Fighting a defensive operation will cede initiative to our enemies and prolong the war. It will also allow the enemy to gain experience fighting our forces before we strike at their territory and give them more time to adapt to our presence, potentially move the various Goa'uld factions to form a united front much earlier than we anticipate." And that would make the Goa'uld much more dangerous. They would still have to deal with their own logistical issues, and they were not expected to truly trust each other, but the numerical advantages would be a threat to the Alliance if they managed to concentrate their forces and make a push for a world the Alliance couldn't afford to lose and had to defend - such as Earth. Technological superiority could only compensate for numbers to some degree, as the Horde War had proven. They had to delay the point when the Goa'uld would realise they were facing an existential threat as long as possible.
"I agree with the assessment," Admiral Brown-Emerson said. "We have enough forces to take on two or even three System Lords with sufficiently superior forces to avoid mass casualties. The longer we wait, the greater the chance that the System Lords are alerted to our presence, and we not only lose the advantage of surprise but also face a more coordinated enemy."
"I concur," Glimmer said. "If we strike against the System Lords currently fighting each other, we should be able to quickly overwhelm them before they realise what is happening."
Catra snorted next to Adora. She didn't really think everything would go according to plan, Adora knew. But this was Catra's plan, and even if not everything went as planned, they should be able to compensate for any setbacks.
At the very least, Adora would rather face trouble in the enemy's territory, where one could fall back if everything else failed, than in their own territory. That was a lesson the Horde War had taught her as well.
As more and more members of the command council agreed, Adora was already going over the coming deployment of the forces available to the Alliance in her head.
*****
Research Base Alpha, First Moon of Enchantment, December 11th, 2001 (Earth Time)
… and I regret to inform you that due to several classified current assignments that take priority, I am unable for the foreseeable future to assist in the Constellation II design project. Colonel Samantha Carter.
Samantha Carter finished typing her message to the United States Space Systems Command, checked for typos and hit send.
She knew she shouldn't feel quite so satisfied about this, but the cursed Constellation II-class had taken up too much of her time; the chance to have an excuse to ignore the requests for help for the next offensive at least was a godsend. Whoever delusional admiral had thought they could redesign the entire hangar layout of those ships after they had already been built should be fired! Sam wasn't going to waste any more of her scarce time on that project, not after they had kept ignoring her advice. Especially not after she had personally pointed out, multiple times, and with extensive documentation, that the latest version of the Phantom Aerospace Fighter was exceeding the design specs set when the Constellation II was laid down, and they had still gone ahead.
Granted - and this wasn't influenced by her being an officer in the Air Force, which would be using the Phantoms as well - the new aerospace fighter was a good design and she was looking forward to try one out once the General managed to get one for 'testing', better than the Death Gliders in all aspects except for cost of construction, though Horde automation should change that. It fared a bit worse when compared against the Horde Fighters, more agile and acceleration but less firepower and shielding, and inferior in range, even if you put them up against Horde fighters converted for living pilots. But for a first attempt at an aerospace fighter, it was a good plane.
Still, the Navy should have accepted that their boondoggle of a frigate class couldn't carry as many fighters as designed. It wasn't as if the ships would see much, if any, combat anyway - the ships hadn't been cleared for actual operations, and the redesign would delay that even further. But they would be decent training ships at least.
Especially for the maintenance and damage control training squads, she thought with a slight sneer.
Still, she was glad she wouldn't be dealing with the Navy's brass for a while. Working with Entrapta was so much better than trying to see stubborn admirals see reason. Her friend never ignored physical limits - those they couldn't either break or work around, at least.
Although, she thought as she stuffed her tablet into the side pocket of her uniform and walked towards the door ahead of her, now I have to deal with an actual crucial issue. Or a potential problem.
"Hello, Loki," he said when the door opened before her. "Hello, Alpha."
"Colonel Carter," Alpha greeted her, the holographic avatar bowing her head toward her.
Loki took a bit longer to look up from the screen he was staring at and nodded at her. "Greetings." After a moment, he added: "I assume you're here to check up on the host project."
"On all the projects in general," Sam replied. It wasn't quite a surprise inspection - they had done those before - but she hadn't announced her arrival too much in advance. "How are you doing with your main project?"
Loki scowled. "A few inconsequential delays, but we're more or less on schedule."
A schedule that had been extended before. "Viability issues again?" Sam asked.
"Yes. Nothing a bit more work can overcome." He nodded.
Which, as Sam understood the problem, wasn't actually a viability issue; the latest version of the Asgard clones would be viable and able to reproduce. She stepped closer and made a point of peering at the screen in front of him. "They look nice," she said, feeling a bit guilty about baiting him.
He scowled again. "There are several flaws I am still working on."
Meaning, they still looked too much like Horde clones for his taste. "Do you think your people will be easier to convince to use your solution if you alter their appearance closer to their current one?"
"Current data indicates that. If there were no differences in appearance, I could ensure that my solution is adapted by the Asgard."
Sam raised her eyebrows. That was very confident even for Loki, whose confidence regularly crossed into arrogance. So why would…? Ah! "You mean you'd try to change their cloning matrices and replace their old patterns with yours."
"Of course." He nodded firmly.
"That doesn't sound very ethical," She commented.
"If the survival of your species is in danger, duping them into being saved is perfectly ethical according to the vast majority of the material I have consulted," Alpha chimed in.
"It would violate their bodily autonomy," Sam pointed out. "And invalidate their own decisions about their future."
"If they want to die, they have the right and the means to commit suicide at any time they choose," Loki said. "But they do not have the right - and now, they lack the means - to condemn our entire species to extinction. But to fool them into being saved will require a perfect design that is, but for genetic changes that eliminate genome degradation, identical to our current genome."
"And what if you cannot produce such a genome?" Sam couldn't help asking.
His scowl grew more pronounced. "Then my best design will be the base for a reborn Asgard species."
Which had been his original plan. Or his original backup plan; Loki had gone through a few versions since he had started working on the problem.
"Good." They had talked long enough about this. "How is the Synthetic Host Project going?" Sam asked.
Loki sneered again. "In my opinion, the project cannot be completed successfully. Any host organism that provides enough intellectual support to serve as a replacement for sapient hosts will, by necessity, be sapient enough to violate the ethical limits you have stipulated for the project. I have pointed this out from the start."
He had. As had others. But this was a crucial component to winning the war in the long term without committing crimes against humanity.
"Although our co-workers from the experimental subjects native to Etheria are working on a possible workaround for that problem," Alpha said. "It's outside my expertise. However, they sound optimistic."
Sam suppressed a sigh. That meant magic. And she had learned quickly that you couldn't trust much less predict what Mystacor's researchers might come up with. "I see. I will make enquiries there, then."
Dealing with mad sorceresses was still less stressful than dealing with the Navy brass.
*****
PZ-8623 System, Former Territory of Ba'al, December 14th, 2001 (Earth Time)
Catra watched the holoprojection showing the approach of the Goa'uld scouting ships. One Al'kesh and two Tel'taks. Not a significant force, even for a recon mission. She would have sent more and kept most back, sending one Tel'tak into a system so the other ships could monitor from a safe-ish distance and escape to report back if things went sideways. Or bail the Tel'tak out of trouble if needed and possible.
But whoever sent this force probably thought that three ships would have better odds of detecting anything important and escaping to report in case their communications were jammed or something. And it did look like the Goa'uld still had not realised just how good Alliance sensor technology was. They had to suspect something, though, seeing as they had lost scouting forces using stealth before, though the Alliance forces had only attacked from very close range, so…
The three ships started splitting up. The Al'kesh slowed down, and the two Tel'taks split up, one heading towards the Ha'tak orbiting the habitable planet of the system, the other taking a wider approach.
"They're testing our sensors," she commented. "As expected."
"Standard tactics, then, for the Tel'tak," Adora said. "Try to disable them."
"As you command, Your Divine Highness!" the captain of the Ha'tak replied.
Catra didn't think it would work - the Jaffa crews of the last few ships they had disabled had destroyed themselves before they could be boarded. Loyal unto death to their god, although killing yourself quickly was also a very rational decision if you were about to be captured by Baal's forces. Of course, Tel'taks were too small to offer a lot of safety margins to disabling shots, and it didn't take a lot to blow one up accidentally, either, at least if you were using a capital ship's batteries.
But they might have a shot at taking the Al'kesh intact if their plan worked.
"Spy bots approaching targets," another Clone reported.
Those were special models using the latest runic-enhanced stealth generators. They didn't have many of them, mass-producing them was not yet deemed worth the loss of regular spy bot production, so they were pretty much handcrafted, but given their better stealth generators and a much larger payload, they were perfect for this operation.
Or so the Alliance was hoping. Catra also hoped that this would convince the brass - especially her friends - to switch production. You had to keep ahead of the technology curve, after all. Sure, the Goa'uld didn't quite have the sensors to defeat the regular stealth generators, but you couldn't count on that staying the same, and Catra would rather err on the side of caution in this area. The spy bot network was the biggest advantage of the Alliance, and she expected the war to last long enough to render the current models obsolete before it was over, unlike more optimistic analysts.
"Tel'tak approaching red line," the Clone at the sensor station reported. That was the 'known' farthest detection range that the Alliance had demonstrated so far when dealing with those scouts. They hadn't seen any indication that any of the intercepted stealth scouts had been able to report the range back to their origin before being jammed and disabled, but they couldn't be sure.
"Tel'tak approaching blue line."
"Wait until the green line, then disable it," Adora ordered.
"As you command, Your Divine Highness!"
They would attempt to disable it, at least. Beam weapons would have been more precise, but with the older weapons mounted in this Ha'tak, accidentally destroying a smaller target was always a possibility.
Catra kept an eye on the other two ships. None of them showed any indication that they had detected the bots closing in on them. They were probably focused on the Tel'tak playing bait. Or mine sweeper.
She suddenly heard the slight rumbling from the Ha'tak's main battery, and the closest Tel'tak shuddered as it was hit by standard Goa'uld guns, followed by an explosion.
"We failed to disable it, Your Divine Highness!"
Catra ignored the report and focused on the two remaining ships. The bots had already been on final approach, so…
The projection flickered when the short-range jammers carried by one spy bot went into effect. Then the sensors adjusted - it was just enough jamming to disable the enemy communications, after all - and the holoprojection reported almost simultaneous contacts as the bots hit the enemy ships in groups of two and three each. One clamped onto the engines and blew itself up, taking the engines with them. The other, or others in the Al'kesh's case, used breaching charges to open the ship's hull and flood it with disabling gas, followed by releasing micro spy bots to deal with any crew members in sealed suits.
"Breaches in both targets. Engines confirmed disabled," the Clone reported.
Catra checked the readings from the micro spy bots. Tel'tak's crew was quickly confirmed to be unconscious. No surprise there with the small size of the ship.
On the Al'kesh, though, two Jaffa had managed to throw on breathers and were rushing to the bridge. "They're trying to trigger the self-destruct!" Adora snapped.
The micro spy bots were moving to intercept them, like a swarm of killer toys. But they were too slow. The second of the Jaffa was swarmed and taken down by the one-shot stun guns the bots carried, but the other shrugged off a glancing blow, shot another bot with his staff weapon and managed to reach the command console before the rest of the bots caught up.
The feed from the bots cut off, and a moment later, the holoprojection showed an explosion engulfing the Al'kesh.
"Disabling mission failed for the Al'kesh, Your Divine Highness."
Yeah, Catra thought, we can see that. Still, they had disabled one ship. Time to find out who was behind this set of spies.
*****
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 15th, 2001
Things were picking up right before Christmas. Usually, Jack O'Neill would make a few jokes about having a good excuse to miss the Holiday stress, but… Compared to running a war on a galaxy-wide scale - or so it felt, no matter what Carter said about the actual astronomical scale - and trying to not think about Kinsey's parting shots, having to shop for presents, deal with relatives inviting him to the holidays and juggling the holiday schedules for his troops while they were about to deploy to the front, just having the regular holiday trouble would have been an actual vacation.
"So… they have been identified as Sokar's scouts," he said once he had skimmed the report from the Ba'al front.
"Yes," Catra replied. "They were wearing Apophis's armour, but the Tok'ra provided intel that tied the ships to Sokar's factory, and when Adora showed them her power, the Jaffa prayed to Sokar as well, according to Melog."
Jack shook his head. That had been a bit sloppy of Sokar - well, the ships; the snake couldn't really do anything about a magical cat reading the thoughts of his frantically faithful praying to you in what they think is their last moment. Not when such faith was what made them so loyal to him. Of course, a mind-reading magic cat would render most black ops procedures to hide your origin pointless, anyway. In that way, Melog was actually as much a crucial Alliance advantage that needed to be kept secret as the spy bot network.
"So, after Cronus's intrusions, we now have confirmation about Sokar's operations," Jack said. Not that he had doubted the Tok'ra's intel; it made too much sense based on Sokar and Ba'al's history - they had been allies, once, until Ba'al had grown too powerful and too ambitious.
"Yeah, but nothing more than that. The scouts we captured don't know anything about Sokar's intentions." Catra shrugged. "They were not even told whether they should expect Ba'al's forces, an usurper's, or anything else."
"Good operational security on Sokar's part," Jack commented. Not that he had expected anything else; you didn't become much less stay a System Lord if you had bad opsec; your rivals would eat you alive. Maybe literally in some cases.
"In any case, we've been gathering forces in deep space, so any scouts we miss won't find them except for sheer luck," Catra went on.
Jack nodded. That would put a bit of additional strain on logistics, but only a bit - the Clone fleet trains could easily handle it as long as they had more transport capacities to get the raw materials from the mining units. And the troop transports were designed for long-range deployments; the Brits had done good work there.
It would mean that the troops couldn't train on a planet while waiting, which would affect readiness levels, but at least Jack's forces - if he ever met the guy who had coined the term ASpecs, there would be words - could train in boarding actions and Zero-G operations; he knew that while they were skilled, they could always get better at those.
Though morale would be affected the most. At least for Earth and probably Etherian forces. No matter how nice the ship facilities were - and military ships, even space ships, were not exactly cruise ships - people stuck on board were likely to get antsy. Cabin fever. Hanging out in deep space without even the opportunity to get some fresh air would make it worse. And they couldn't even use the Stargate to rotate people to planets safely behind the frontlines for exercises or leave; the ships would have to be in a system for the Stargate to work.
Back at Stargate Command, he didn't have to worry about that particular problem. Not when the troops could head outside at the end of their shift. He had people - shrinks - to handle that, but when it came down to it, Jack was the one who was ultimately responsible for his troops.
And besides… "How soon can we be ready to launch recon operations?"
"We're estimating about a week or two until we've finished analysing the spy bot data we got."
That would narrow down the targets, but they would need more intel than that. Which meant planetary recon missions. Which meant work for his special forces since nothing beat eyes on the ground. "We need more runic stealth shuttles," he said. "I don't care what the brass says about the risks of losing one and exposing our technology; I am not sending my troops to infiltrate a planet with inferior technology." Besides, if they got caught, all it would take was one trooper being snaked, and the Goa'uld would know all about the Alliance's true origin, and that was a much bigger risk than a self-destruct failing.
Catra nodded. "We should have half a dozen upgraded by then. Including your own."
Jack grinned. Letting Carter and Entrapta use his own stealth shuttle as a testing bed for the upgrade kits paid out. "So, let's get ready for Christmas at the front."
"It's probably going to be more peaceful than last day gift shopping here." Catra matched his grin.
"Or the family dinners," Jack added. He didn't miss those.
But it would likely mean that they would miss out on the New Year's Parties as well, and those could be fun. Especially since the Etherians had started attending. Well, they would see how things worked out.
*****
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 20th, 2001
"The Spy Bot Network continues to spread into Cronus's territory, but its coverage is still limited. We're surveilling several possible rallying spots and have detected a concentration of ships in one system, but it doesn't seem to be a build-up for an invasion, merely a home port for a reaction/patrol force. Our operatives are currently investigating to see if that's a new development or has been part of Cronus's border patrols for some time."
"Thank you." Adora nodded at Jakar/Mats's report. That was a good summary of the data they had. The Alliance had increased their reconnaissance efforts towards Cronus ever since they had identified his forces, but he hadn't been a priority so far, so this would take more time. Sokar, on the other hand… "Our surveillance shows that Sokar is building up forces, though they are too spread out so far to form a united invasion or reaction force. Our analysis has drawn the conclusion that he is preparing for a broad offensive, aided by the fact that Apophis and Heru'ur are currently engaged in a slowly escalating struggle over a system, likely fuelled by Sokar's covert operations, and so he can spare forces for a grab of territory. We don't know if he is aware or suspects that Ba'al has been taken out or simply interprets the lack of a strong reaction by Ba'al to his intrusions as a sign of a deeper weakness he can exploit; the Tok'ra operatives within his realm are too low-ranked to have access to such intel."
"If he thinks that Ba'al is too weak to oppose his land grab, wouldn't he wonder about the reasons for this?" Admiral Dubois asked.
"We assume he has intel about Ba'al's dealings with remnant Horde forces," Jakar/Mats replied. "Sokar would have had agents within Ba'al's forces, and while the former System Lord had compartmentalised his realm to a significant degree, he could not hide everything from everyone. We also have confirmed that the news of Horde Prime's defeat and death has spread throughout the entire Goa'uld Empire, so Sokar would be aware of that as well without having to launch recon forces into the former Horde territory."
In the middle of the room, the holoprojection lit up the various territories. "So, we lack enough intel for a strike at Cronus so far, but we have a much better picture of Sokar's realm, although still not complete," Adora said. "However, if we strike at Sokar, that will open up the possibility to strike at both Apophis and Heru'ur in a second phase, potentially eliminating all three System Lords and shortening our borders with the Goa'uld Empire to whatever remains of Sokar's realm and Cronus's territory." With the former Ba'al's territory forming a buffer zone between those and the former Horde territory that included Etheria. Earth would be even further from any Goa'uld realms, greatly increasing the Alliance's security. It would also lengthen their supply lines, but that couldn't be avoided anyway once they started to further advance into the Goauld Empire's territory.
"If we're striking Sokar and then Apophis and Heru'ur, we will need to cover our flank against Cronus," Admiral Brown-Emerson pointed out.
"We'll keep forces in reserve for that," Adora told him. "Specifically, we'll be building up another Clone Fleet in the border area and shift the decoy forces currently posing as Ba'al's ships to that border as well. If necessary, we can have the First Fleet pivot to cover the border as well." Now fully rebuilt and upgraded, it would be serving as a reserve for the invasion.
"Another Clone fleet?" Admiral Larkin clearly wasn't happy with that.
"We have the spare capacity and the experience to raise an effective force there," Adora replied.
"We know that this will work, unlike other attempts to build a fleet," Admiral Dubois added with a smile that had the American scowl at him.
"The build-up of Earth's naval forces will, of course, continue on schedule. More or less, at least," Admiral Brown-Emerson said, probably to head off another row. "We have enough Horde ships available for our training pipeline."
That was true, but compared to the Clone training program, it was still lagging behind. And the Americans didn't want to use Horde ships; they wanted to use their own designs. Not that mentioning that would be helpful.
"Now, that covers the naval forces assigned to this," Adora went on. "We are planning several ground campaigns as well, focusing on the key industrial hubs in Sokar's realm that we have identified so far."
"Alliance Special Forces will conduct recon operations on all potential targets," Jack added. "We'll adjust and detail plans once we have their intel."
That was standard practice, of course. You didn't drop an invasion on an unknown world - not if you wanted to win.
"That's the broad plan. Now, let's focus on the first phase," Adora pointed, and the holoprojection changed, zooming in on the border area where Sokar's ships were located. "This will be a priority target for the first strike, but in order to train operational surprise, we'll have to…"
*****
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 21st, 2001
"After analysing the remains of the ships that were destroyed recently, we have found no sign of advanced technology beyond the known Goa'uld technology. However, since those were scout ships, and, based upon their mission profile and recorded flight profiles, likely expected to be lost in action, there is a high probability that the System Lords decided not to risk exposing more advanced technology by outfitting ships deemed expendable from the start. We have no evidence so far that Sokar and Cronus lack more advanced technology," Samantha Carter nodded at the assembled officers. "Although, while we also lack any such information about the forces of Apophis and Heru'ur, in those cases intel from the Tok'ra operatives inserted into their courts corroborated that lack of more advanced technology," she went on.
"Let's hope none of them found yet another lost Ancient lab and started playing with galaxy-destroying superweapons," the General commented.
A few of the officers laughed, but after everything they had faced so far in the war, and knowing about the Heart of Etheria, Sam didn't think the General was exaggerating too much, if at all.
"In any case," she picked up her briefing, "even if Cronus or Sokar had access to more advanced technology, they were not able or not willing to outfit their entire force with it; the data from our own recon efforts has shown that their border patrols are limited to standard Goa'uld technology." She illustrated the point by highlighting the weapons, engine and shield generators on a holoprojection of a Ha'tak.
"You've summed up your analysis quite succinctly, Colonel Carter," Admiral Brown-Emerson said. "But what is your personal opinion?"
Sam didn't frown; she had expected such a question. The General would have asked it if the British officer hadn't been quicker. "My analysis is based on the data we acquired. I stand by it."
"But what does your gut feeling say?" And here came the General.
She didn't frown either, but she glanced at him and narrowed her eyes when he grinned. "I think we have to anticipate encountering more advanced technology during the upcoming operation. Due to the System Lords' policy of spying on each other and trying to use plots and sabotage against rivals, they tend to keep any perceived advantage, such as better technology than what their rivals have access to, secret, usually with the intent to reveal it in a decisive action against a rival or to save their realm from an overwhelming threat."
"And do you have any idea what kind of technology we could encounter, Colonel?" Admiral Larkin asked with the hint of a sneer.
Sam kept her face impassive and her tone professional. "As I already said and explained in my report, we have found no sign of advanced technology in either arsenal so far."
"So, you have no idea about potential threats?" Larkin doubled up.
Was he carrying a grudge for her refusal to spend even more time on the Navy's design failures? "Since, as I have repeatedly explained, we have no data about this, any statement about a specific kind of technology would be baseless speculation, Admiral." Sam managed not to sound contemptuous in her reply.
The General, though, didn't bother to hide his sneer. "Last I checked, we didn't have oracles on staff." He cocked his head to the side in what Sam recognised as a decent attempt at a Columbo imitation. "Although now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind if we did hire such people; we could shorten those briefings by heading off such questions from the start. Of course, it doesn't take an oracle to predict some of those questions…"
Admiral Larkin glared at him. "I was merely trying to anticipate our future threats and asked the specialist in charge of assessing such threats to elaborate on their briefing."
Adora cleared her throat. "We'll be on our guard and on the lookout for any sign of such a threat. However, we are here to plan the first phase of our offensive, mainly the space-centred part."
They still had to conduct a detailed recon of the various planetary targets, but they had the naval assets of the enemy mapped out sufficiently, thanks to their spy bots. The task forces gathering should be able to handle them easily, even if they were split up to hit all enemy concentrations simultaneously. But that would leave them vulnerable to a concentrated counterattack, and if they had to concentrate their forces, they would have to do so in systems important for the enemy, to force them to counterattack there. And that would require better ground intel - all the data analysis Sam and the others had done hadn't helped with that. At least, Sam was reasonably certain that there was no upgrade program running on any of the worlds targeted in the first phase; there was no sign of prototypes or test flights, or yards busy with upgrades, just the usual maintenance.
Which was, of course, highly suspicious, at least in her opinion.
*****
Tokyo, Japan, Earth, December 24th, 2001
"It really looks like a cliche," Catra remarked as they walked through the streets of Tokyo. "The lights, the stars above, and the slowly falling light snow." She looked up. "The slowly falling magical illusory snow that's just falling around this building."
Adora coughed. "Well, Illusa has a talent for that kind of magic, but she can't cover more than a small area."
"And her employers didn't want other businesses benefiting from her work for free," Catra added. The falling snow - that didn't gather on your fur and started to melt, but faded away without leaving any trace - did make for a beautiful scenery that was attracting crowds. Whether it was worth what the business had had to pay to Illusa was a question for the managers and accountants. "Still, to think that they hired a graduate from Mystacor for advertising?" She snorted.
"Earth's magical traditions tend to focus on other areas than illusions," Adora said. "With the exception of certain, ah, controversial myths."
Like those Fae and similar spirits - or gods, or whatever those creatures were supposed to be. The Wild Hunt was one of the most infamous magical events related to such traditions, but not the only one. Catra understood very well why the business here had decided to hire an Etherian sorceress rather than trying to get a deal with anything related to that.
She still didn't think it was worth it for advertising, but she wouldn't complain if it meant she could have a great date with Adora on Christmas Eve. Even if they had to disguise themselves to avoid getting mobbed. And that her idea to disguise themselves as 'cosplayers' of themselves had been shot down by Adora when she had found out that she couldn't just change into She-Ra because her height would have given the game away.
So, Catra was wearing sunglasses after dark, a 'beanie' and scarf to further hide her face, and her tail was wrapped around her waist instead of swinging free. The things she did for love!
And Adora, she noted while she squeezed her love's arm a bit more tightly and leaned into her side, got away with just wearing sunglasses and a different hairstyle. It wasn't quite fair.
Not that she would complain - having Adora to herself was a treat; the idiot was still working too much.
Which was why Catra had pulled some strings (and done some blackmail) and had bribed Bow with a new box of those Earth miniatures he collected to take Glimmer on a romantic date back in Bright Moon before she could get some ideas about spending the evening together as a group. All to ensure that, short of an invasion of Alliance space, no one would disturb this date. Just her and her love, on a romantic evening in Tokyo on Christmas Eve.
They'd have dinner in Tokyo's best sushi restaurant, dance in the hottest club of Shinjuku - she had gotten the perfect suit for this in Milano, after all, and Adora was wearing a hot dress straight from Paris under her winter coat - and then they'd head to the most expensive suite of the best love hotel in the city for the perfect night to conclude the date!
Catra flashed her teeth and rubbed her cheek on Adora's shoulder as they continued walking down the street.
Perfect.
*****