Chapter 65

Athena

"Well that pissed him off" calmly stated Eckhart.

"The mothership and fifty nine Ha'tak's are maneuvering this way. They will be in weapons range in four minutes" replied Captain Franklin.

"Order in the 302's to attack the incoming gliders. Instruct the jumpers to drop cloaks only long enough to fire their drones at the incoming group. Let's see if we can whittle down their numbers some before they get here" ordered Eckhart.

"The approaching group is coming into range of the defensive satellites now" said the assistant weapons officer.

"You are weapons free with the satellites" confirmed Eckhart.

Seconds later the ancient designed weapons satellites powered up their energy buffer. This energy quickly reached firing strength. Automated targeting algorithms onboard the four unmanned weapons platforms selected their prey with precision. A green glow of energy began to build for three seconds before the satellites unleashed a five second continuous beam of bright green energy. Due to the distances involved it took a full four seconds for the beams to cover the distance to their individual targets. The targeted Ha'tak vessels stood little chance despite their upgrades. Each vessel's shields failed catastrophically failed and milliseconds later the vessels were torn to shreds. Sixteen vessels fell in this manner before the group passed out of range of the unmanned weapons systems.

"Jumpers are moving in for their attack runs now" called out Captain Franklin.

"Roger that" replied Eckhart.

Destiny

"Eli, the Lucian Alliance is going all in on this hand. Now might be the time to try that modification to the main gun you talked about" said Young.

"Without clearing away from our own sh.i.p.s we run too great a chance of destroying one of our own. We have to maneuver clear" interjected Rush.

"Rush is right. The modification will talk a few minutes. If you can maneuver us away for a clear shot I would really feel more comfortable" responded Eli.

"Ok Rush, let's open up some distance. Give me one half sublight. Put us on the far end of the far end of the Aurora's. Then we'll have a clear line of sight towards the approaching group" said Young.

With a few simple commands Destiny's sublight engines engaged and the large vessel began to deftly maneuver. Quickly he distance to their chosen vantage point was reached. While this was done Eli made adjustments to multiple systems. Weapons were recalibrated, energy conduits were closed and rerouted, and safeguards were overridden.

Appearing on the bridge Destiny began addressing Young. "The intruders are detained Colonel" he said.

"You're certain they won't break containment? I want you to be very certain they won't" responded Young.

"I can state with absolute certainty that will not happen Colonel" replied Destiny.

"Let me be very clear. If they do start to overcome the inertial dampeners I don't want to play any games. Just vent the atmosphere in the gate room. Understood" asked Young.

"I understand perfectly Colonel" answered Destiny before disappearing.

"We have an incoming text message from Athena advising us to remain within the defensive formation" said Rush.

"Inform them we've modified the main weapon and will lay down supporting fire" replied Young.

"We're good to go" stated Eli.

"Ok Mr. Wallace, let's make the magic happen. You're clear to open fire" answered Young.

Mothership Group

The rear guard Ha'tak vessels while advancing with the group maintained lookout for the thirty two hyperspace windows that had opened earlier. The sensors so far detected nothing, but that did not mean cloaked Tauri vessels were not approaching. Unknown to the Ha'tak vessels crews they were being shadowed by dozens of cloaked puddle jumpers. The lead jumper moved in at full sublight and quickly dropped its cloak while rapid firing six drone weapons before reengaging the cloak and speeding away.

The golden colored drones sped towards their target with amazing speed and agility. Easily sidestepping weapons fire directed at them the drones energized their phase shifting emitter. Rendering themselves out of phase the drones easily bypassed the Ha'tak shields before returning to phase. On impact the drones burrowed through the enemy vessels outer and inner hulls, exiting on the opposite side of the vessel before arcing over and tearing a new hole into their target and detonating.

Seeing the aftermath of the initial Jumper attack the remainder of the Jumper's opted to fire only three drones and directly target hyper drive systems and power conduits.

Athena

"Signal all vessels to open up with the drones. It's time to put this to an end now" calmly stated Eckhart.

Deep within the ship power channeled from the ZPM's into the drone weapons. Once powered and given the order to fire the drones flew clear of their octagonal weapons containers, through a force shield protected shaft, and exited from the cylindrical drone discharge platform. These weapons eclipsed the concept of smart weapons. The moniker of brilliant weapon couldn't even sum it up. These weapons were self aware of everything around them, and of all conditions that might or might not effect the completion of their assigned task. If a target were destroyed without utilizing all drones assigned the remaining drones could either reassign themselves a new target or in cases where no targets remained return to their launching ship and their weapons container.

The Athena class vessels in conjunction with their Aurora class sisters opened up with a massive salvo of drone weapons. Hundreds of the lethal hunter killers took flight targeting enemy vessels. To say it was a mismatch was an understatement. This swarming cloud of golden death raced towards those their producers had decided must be dealt a swift and brutally efficient end.