Chapter 182

White House

The phone call Landry had made to O'Neill had triggered several automatic responses. First, all defensive systems in the solar system had gone to high alert. Several vessels of the Tauri fleet lay around the moon, under cover of cloak. This phone call also necessitated an emergency meeting with O'Neill, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the President. That meeting was now beginning within the confines of the Oval Office.

"What have you got Jack?" President Hayes asked.

"This is hot off the presses. Less than three hours ago the Tok'ra provided intelligence of a credible threat to Earth. The Jaffa have learned that they won't get through the planetary shield, so they've shifted tactics on us. Now they intend to attack the moon." Jack stated.

"Is this something we should be concerned about?" Hayes asked.

"In many ways this is worse than an attack on the planet if we did not have the shield. If hit with enough firepower, the resulting debris field would engulf Earth and shield the planet from the suns rays. That's a planet killer. We're talking about the end of all life on the planet." Jack explained.

"Where is this attack expected to originate from?" Hayes asked.

"Cor'ak. That would mean that this is coming from the Jaffa forces we've asked the Progressive Jaffa to engage and eliminate Mr. President." Jack replied.

"Mr. President, in light of this new threat to the homeland we see no option other than to engage the threat ourselves." General Maynard added.

"I agree. The thought of placing the security of Earth in the hands of the Progressive Jaffa isn't one I like one bit. What are your recommendations gentlemen?" Hayes asked.

"I recommend that we treat this new threat as separate from the situation on Goronak. We have no alternative other than meeting this new threat head on as soon as forces can be brought to bear. That means a ground assault is a no go." Maynard explained.

"It seems to me that the Jaffa only understand one thing and that's servitude. Maybe its time we gave them something to fear." Hayes mused.

"You have my agreement on that Mr. President. The Jaffa are kind of like owning a dog. You may have owned that dog for years, and loved that dog. If that dog bites you though, you have no choice but to put it down. That's the only way to make sure you don't get bit again." Jack stated.

"They want to play tough then we'll give them what they want. On Goronak, I don't care what has to be done, but get our captured soldier back. Once that is done your forces have a go to beat the Jaffa into submission." Hayes said strongly.

"And on Cor'ak?" Maynard asked.

"This group has made it abundantly clear that they will not stop until this planet is a dead world. They want to see a moon destroyed? Then that's what we'll give them. Mirror their tactics and destroy Cor'ak's moon. It's time we put them in their place. If they want to play for keeps then we can do that. Make it happen." Hayes ordered with a steely voice.

Cor'ak

Laying silently in wait, the American Ajax, Russian Peter the Great, and British Agincourt Athena class vessels of the Tauri fleet had sat under cover of cloak. As the three powerful sh.i.p.s waited for the soon to arrive fourth vessel, final checks were made on all systems. Their wait ended an hour later with the arrival of the Sun Li Ren, also under cloak. Onboard the Taiwanese 304 was the last piece of the puzzle taking shape. That this last puzzle piece had no clue that it was in play in a larger overall game was a matter of little consequence in the overall scheme.

In a flash of silvery light, that puzzle piece was transported from the Sun Li Ren, aboard the Ajax. Appearing on the promenade of Ajax's bridge where this light source was now fading, stood Rak'nor and Ry'ac. Taking note of their arrival, Colonel Young rose from his command chair and greeted the two Jaffa leaders.

"Gentlemen, welcome aboard the Ajax. I'm Colonel Young." Young said graciously.

"Why have you summoned us here Colonel Young?" Ry'ac asked.

"You're here to witness a demonstration." Young replied in a vague manner.

"We are all aware the planet in front of us is Cor'ak. At your President's request our attack on this world was halted. Answers are due now Colonel. What type of demonstration are we here to witness?" Rak'nor demanded.

"That will become clear once we're done here, I assure you. Now if you'll please stand aside, my crew and I have a few matters to attend to before the demonstration begins." Young stated with authority.

Messages were quickly exchanged amongst the four Tauri vessels. These encrypted data bursts carried the instructions for the coming evolution. Breaking ranks, the Sun Li Ren sped towards the planet of Cor'ak. Her mission was simple; enter the atmosphere and perform reconnaissance. As she slipped away, Ajax, Agincourt, and Peter the Great assumed station behind the dark side of the planets single moon.

At Young's order, the sensor operator marked preplanned coordinates on the dark side of the moon. With these marked positions locked into the computer, a simple push of a button transferred this information to the transporter control station. From there an automatic cycle of preprogrammed action initiated. In the port side hanger bay three objects were engulfed in silver light and vanished. Seconds later, these objects rematerialized on the dark side of the moon. Were one to draw an imaginary line between these items, it would be noted that an equilateral triangle formed.

The objects themselves were benign in appearance to the untrained eye. One inch thick and three feet in diameter, these circular heavy metal disks were dark in appearance. Dark of color naturally, naqaudria was also one of the most volatile radioactive elements in the known universe. In an attempt to keep the evolution as simple as humanly possible, these disks lacked technology in any form. They were simply disks of naqaudria, albeit naqaudria refined beyond what would commonly be held as weapons grade.

Receiving word from the Sun Li Ren of the disposition of enemy assets on the planet below, the Athena's began to move closer to the planet. Ajax, Agincourt, and Peter the Great took station in mid planetary orbit. Weapons were powered as shields were raised. Assigned targets uncovered by the last minute reconnaissance of the Sun Li Ren were locked in the Athena's firing computers. Eighteen targets, that was all. It wasn't the number of targets that mattered in this case, but instead what the individual targets were.

Ranked in order of importance, the list was divided equally between the three Athena's. Targets one through seven were Ha'tak class vessels, resting on the temples controlled by the Illac Renin. Targets eight through fifteen, Tel'tak's, were scattered around these same temples. While unable to fly away themselves, targets sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen were still important nonetheless. These last three were transport ring arrays, which if used, could allow for escape to a vessel not seen. Refusing to allow such an eventuality, these too would be destroyed.

Taking a page out of the Goa'uld playbook written long ago, the three Athena's dropped their cloaks and opened up with their Grodin's. Six times the intense green tinted beams let loose. Orbital bombardment, horrific as it could be, was what this operation was structured around. In forty five seconds the destruction was complete. Instead of charred cityscapes and mass casualties like the Goa'uld and their Jaffa servants had visited on many worlds, twisted and ruined transport rings and vessels lay in the bombardments wake.

The first phase of the small Tauri fleet's task was complete. What that meant was all means of escape from the planet available to the Jaffa were gone. Sensor scans of Cor'ak revealed nothing that could prevent the second phase of the operation. Lighting off their individual sublight engines, the Athena's maneuvered clear of the planet, and made their way towards behind the dark side of the moon. Following orders, the Sun Li Ren maneuvered away from Cor'ak and took station five hundred thousand kilometers away from the opposite side of the planet facing the moon.

Ajax, Agincourt, and Peter the Great arrived on station and locked their positions in precisely. Inertial compensators ensured that the massive vessels drifted not at all from their chosen positions in space. On the bridges of the Tauri vessels, weapons officers initiated computer guided diagnostics of the powerful weapons that bore the name Grodin. Seconds later, with the diagnostics reading the weapons were fully mission ready, the vessels were ready.

Ry'ac and Rak'nor stood with unease on the bridge of the Ajax. It was true that the Jaffa on the planet of Cor'ak were these two men's enemy, but they were still kinsmen. Ry'ac, with his association since boyhood with the Tauri, was the more comfortable of the two. Rak'nor though was less than comfortable.

"This was the demonstration you asked us to witness? Our army was ready to strike at the enemy on this world. All you've done here is to destroy a few sh.i.p.s and ring platforms. Hardly the decisive victory I expected when agreeing to halt my army's advance." Rak'nor accused.

"Be patient, the demonstration hasn't started just yet." Young suggested.

"When then Colonel?" Rak'nor demanded.

"Right about now." Young replied.

"Agincourt and Peter the Great report weapons ready. Control uplink is interfaced and active. We have control of their weapons systems." Major Donaldson, the communications officer stated.

The uplink in question was a system rarely used. Conceived in the wake of the battle of the super gate, this system was the answer to future large fleet engagements. When active, the uplink networked Tauri vessels together, slaving their weapons systems to a designated command vessel. This control allowed a single vessel to control and direct incredible amounts of firepower. It also ensured that multiple vessels would not engage the same target. Elegance can be found in efficiency in the eyes of a warfighter.

Meeting eyes with the weapons officer, Young gave a nod of his head. Fingers danced over the controls of the weapons console. On command, the main weapon's of the assembled Athena's tracked in on their individual points of aim before locking on target.

"All weapons are targeted Colonel." Major Andrews, the weapons officer announced.

"Weapons free. Fire when ready Major Andrews." Young replied.

It wasn't everyday that a man was empowered to do what was about to be done. Andrews felt the weight on his shoulders, and could scarcely imagine the burden of command Colonel Young must be under. Taking in a deep breath, the Major focused on the task at hand. Moving his hand to the right side of his workstation, Andrews pressed the fire control button

On command, the three vessels simultaneously unleashed their main beam weapons. Beam strength for this volley was set for a low level twenty percent. Despite that adjustment, the green beams streaking towards the moon were hellish in their intensity. For four seconds the networked weapons systems sustained their assault on their pinpoint targets; the naqaudria disks emplaced on the moons surface less than an hour before. Each of these disks began to react to the assault milliseconds after the affront began.

In nuclear mechanics, the overwhelming majority of fission events are induced by bombardment of excitable material with another particle, a neutron, which is produced by prior fission events. Nuclear fission in fissile fuel is the result of nuclear excitation energy produced when nucleus of the fissile fuel captures a neutron. The energy resulting from the neutron capture is a result of attractive force acting between the neutron and nucleus. This is enough to deform the nucleus into a double lobed drop, leading the nucleonic fragments to exceed the distances at which nuclear force can hold the two groups of charged nucleons together. When this happens, the two opposing fragments complete their separation and are driven further apart by mutually repulsive charges in a process that swiftly becomes irreversible with growing distance. This growing distance led surrounding nucleons to collide over and over again.

Once begun, this cascade of subatomic events soon took on a personality of its own. Unimaginable amounts of energy were released in the forms of exothermic energy, light, gamma radiation, and kinetic force. Raw violent power was unleashed. Like the coming rays of a sunrise, the explosion illuminated space in sheets of pure white light.

Few things known to man could endure the vicious assault the moon found itself under. Moon rock was no different. Directly surrounding the three explosions many millions of tons of rock and dust were vaporized and simply disappeared. Shock and vibration from the event shattered the celestial body. Gargantuan chucks of rock and ore accelerated towards Cor'ak, pushed forth by the event. In all directions the detritus of the now destroyed celestial body moved. What had once been sixty million tons of material that had over a period of a billion years had coalesced into a moon was no more.

Continuing to expand, the debris field would soon find itself arrested around Cor'ak by the planets gravity well. Portions of the debris field would rain down as meteors and micro meteors for some time to come. Under the right circ.u.mstances, this alone might have been enough to end a good deal of life on the planet. What insured the end of all life on Cor'ak was more subtle than that. The many tens of millions of tons of rock now shattered into dust would shield the world's surface from sunlight. Plant life would begin to die, surface temperatures would plummet, and shortly thereafter sentient life would perish from exposure and starvation.

In the distance, the first of the explosively propelled micro meteorites entered the atmosphere. Each speck of dust, pebble of rock, or boulder sized rock superheated during their descent. While energetic events like this would grow in ever greater frequency and seriousness over the coming weeks, it mattered little. Unbeknownst to the Jaffa staring at the sky in fear, horror, and wonder, Cor'ak was now a dead world.

On the bridge of the Ajax, a deafening silence reverberated around those present. The event just witnessed defied words. Rak'nor and Ry'ac found themselves shocked and suddenly fearfully aware of the power the Tauri wielded so easily.

"You have killed this world! The fate you have leveled at the Jaffa on this world is not a death worthy of a warrior. Why have you done this?" Rak'nor demanded.

"You were promised a demonstration and it has been delivered." Young replied.

"A demonstration of what?" Rak'nor demanded.

"Our resolve to bring about commonsense in the Jaffa. Things have changed gentlemen. It's time you remember that the Jaffa were created from people taken from my world. It's time that those roots are remembered and respected, or consequences could crop up unexpectedly." Young replied lightly.