Stargate

Repairs are finished

It was 3 days before rhe dialing fromangara was to occur, and Eli looked at the readouts from the most recent shipwide diagnostics. The repairs to the shields, engines, weapons, stellar plasma, hull, power conduits, and everything had finally been completed. The bots had all returned to their deployment stations, and Rush, Franklin, and Zalenka joined him on the bridge.

"Engine repairs are finished, all 16 modules are showimg overall 91 percent efficency." Rush reported.

"Full ship diagnostics show we are now operating at 87 percent efficency. We are ready to go, we just need to determine which star we are going to use." Eli said as Rush pulled it up.

"This one is perfect, and it is one that they are likely to leave unguarded once the wormhole is detected. It is 80 light years, and we should be able to reach it and recharge before the Drone Ships realize." Rush said pulling up the calculations he had been working on.

"Excellent, I will be connecting via the stones. Rush, I suggest you join me on Earth." Eli said to them all as he stood up. "Even if it is for a few hours, we both need some time off the ship." he said.

An hour later they were both on Earth, and were whisked into confidential meetings about what their status was in the program. It took another hour before Telford walked in and collected each of them and led them to a conferemce toom.

"Well a lot has changed here has it?" Rush asked looking at his patches and rank.

"Yes it has, and you should be thankful for that. Although I don't think you will appreciate the new Destiny Mission once the rendezvpus is complete." Telford replied as they walked in.

General Young was there with Chloe, and a few others that would be transporting to the ship soon. Telford made the introductions, and they all sat.

"Well, what is the status of Destiny?" Young asked Eli.

"Repairs are complete and ship is operatimg at 87 percent efficency. Power reserves are at 28 percent, but should settle somewhere in the 90 percent range. We are ready to proceed." Eli reported to him.

"Excellent, we will be ready to dial in 3 hours time. There will be 20 minutes meeded for the supplies to be sent. Chloe will be disconnecting with the two of you, and after rechargimg she will set course for our rendezvous point with Destiny. Eli, Rush, you are to begin waking everyone as soon as you return. We will need everyone for what is to come, let us hope we have enough time to get the supplies before the first drones arrive." General Young replied.

"Very well General, what will Destiny's mission be once we rendezvous with Atlantis?" Rush asked.

"Our orders are to return to Earth for refit. We will be docking with Atlantis for the Wormhole jump back to Pegasus before we return to Earth. After refit our mission will be largely the same, however we will be following the trail left for us in the Destiny files. There were 6 Destiny Class ships launched, and our mission will be to recover each of them to recover their data and the ships themselves if possible. The information they contain will be invaluable to determining the threats we may face in the future. However before we depart our current location we will be conducting a dialing test. Eli, what have you determined needs to be our minimum power reading to attempt dialing Earth?" Young asked.

"Anything under 90 percent will not be successful." Eli replied honestly. "That will allow for 10 minutes before Critical Power is reached and the ship must be recharged."

"Excellent, we will hold an assmbly upon my return just before dialing begins." Young ordered.

Exactly 3 hours later he disconnected the stones, and General Everett Young returned to his body inside the gate room. Everyone was assembled before him, curious looks on their face. He cleared his throat amd the conversations ceased.

"Morning everyone." he said getting a few chuckles in response. "While we slept the endless work needed to repair the ship was performed by Eli and Dr. Rush, as well as two individuals on Earth. A lot has changed in the last 6 weeks you have slept, and as such our ordeal may not be as bleak as once believed.

"Thanks to Chloe, the city of Atlantis will be coming to rescue us. In a few weeks time Destiny will be returning to Earth. In a few moments Earth will be dialing the Stargate to send supplies we critically need, as well as more support personnel. We will be going tona nearby star to recharge immediately after the Stargate disconnects. Afterword we will be attempting to dial Earth due to repairs conducted to the ship, if successful we will have a 10 minute window in which to send those that wish to return now. Otherwise we will charge the ship again and depart to rendezvous with Atlantis for the journey ro Pegasus." General Young told them all the plan. It was clear to him Rush was more than a little pissed at this outcome. He however would learn the truth of the plight they were in after a few more months anyway.

Just as he finished the gate began twirling as the Stargate from Earth connected. They cleared the area where it would open, and were surprised when three bags came shooting out filling with air as they did so. Within a minute the entire area in front of the gaye resembled a big air cushion, and the first of the men coming through landed on it.

The officers helped him off just as the next person came flying through and they repeated the pricess until all 6 were aboard. "Clear the room." Zalenka ordered as he had been the last.

Just as the door closed behind the last to leave the first loud crash sounded as the MALP convoy came crashing in. There was 5 of them carrying thousands of pounds of supplies, and they jeard the Stargaye disconnect.

The bridge crew ran there, and Eli began bringimg the systems actually online. "Time to see how good we did." he said as the sublight engines fired.

"Greer, have the supplies organized and stored. After that is finished we should be arriving at the star for recharge, have everyone that wishes to use the gate reassemble in the embarkation room." Young ordered as the systems came online and the engines charged quickly.

An hour later they emerged from FTL in the center of the system, and the scans showed clear as they approached the star. Just as they exited, the signal from 5 Command Ships emerged where they had been broke down for several weeks.

"Set course for the Star Eli, we need to get this bucket of bolts charged quickly." Young said as Eli worked the controls for navigation.

The ship was making great speed through the system as the engines had been repaired as well when they rebuilt the FTL modules. Eli was a little surprised it had only used 5 percent of their power reserves, and hoped they would get the power they needed.

The ship entered the Corona sphere of the star, and it automatically deployed the ram scoops to harvest the plasma the ship meeded. "Open the valves on the Plasma Storage, open all of them." Eli ordered as he was still technically second in command at the moment.

A few seconds later the system opened the isolated tanks as Eli had concentrated their plasma to keep the efficency a bit higher. They all watched as the power gauge went red, and began climbing quickly as the Plasma entered and heated the storage tanks for the first time. They waited as after it hit 50 percent it slowed, and the ship was takimg way longer than normal to charge.

"Well, this is a good sign I think." Rush said when they reached the time they had taken to recharge before and the ship was only at 60 percent of capacity.

The ship continued charging for 10 minutes when the gauge finally reached 98 percent and it closed the collectors. The ship pulled out of the star, and Eli began steering as Rush realized there was no clock to determine their jump. "Start the clock, 4 hours." Young ordered Eli who did so quickly.

"We will be in position in 2 minutes. Scopes are clear so far." Eli said looking at the sensors as he piloted to a safe orbit around the star for dialing. As soon as he put the ship into orbit he hit the comms. "In position Zalenka, begin dialing." he ordered as Rush ran for the gate room.

Rush arrived as the 4th symbol locked in, and he ran to the secondary control panel next to Zalenka. There were roughly 20 people wanting to return immediately. Rush looked at the power levels, and watched as it began channeling into the Stargate. Until it passed the 7th symbol it was acting like a normal dialing, but when the 8th locked in the power levels spiked just shy of critical. The power levels began dropping quickly as the 9th Chevron spun around and locked into position. As soon as the Stargate connected the power levels dropped dramatically, however the power reserves were at 50 percent and falling fast.

Zalenka activated the Communication Stone, and was gone for roughly 10nseconds before he returned. Rush watched as the power levels dropped slowly, and knew they had a little over 10 minutes.

"12 minutes until Shutdown." Rush said.

"Everyone move into position, wait 15 seconds between travelers." Zalenka ordered as the first person went through.

They used the timer on the countdown clock and kept them equally spaced out, with just enough time for them to clear the landing area before the next one came through.

"7 minutes." Rush said knowing it wasn't his experiment to shut down. The power levels were stable as the Stargate remained active.

"We were instructed for a 10 minute test, we only shut down before than if we encounter critical issues." Zalenka replied as he monitored it from his screen as well. The power levels dropped sreadily the entire time, and as soon as they reached 10 minutes Zalenka terminated the connection. "Stargate disconnected, power levels at 20 percent. Feel free to set course for recharge."

Eli was on the bridge and had just adjusted course when they detected the first drone ship enter the system. It was further out than they were, and before it even launched drones they entered the sphere of influence where they could not approach because of the heat.

Destiny dived into the Corona again, and began sucking in the Plasma they needed to recharge the ship.

"Attention all Personnel, there is a drone ship in system. Report to your Battle Stations and prepare for combat." General Young ordered over the shipwide comms. "As soon as we come out I want Shields and Weapons at 100 percent. Set us into a close orbit around the sun, and do not allow any of them between it and us." he ordered as the others began entering the bridge to man the guns.

It took another 15 minutes for the ship to charge again, the expanded storage taking time to fill to pressure as the units were like brand new. As they rose out of the corona of the star, they detected 2 Drone Command Ships scanning the area looking for them. Eli switched control of the sytems over to local, and powered the shields and weapons systems.

"Shields and weapons online, tuning for expected battle conditions." Eli relayed as Chloe took over their course so he could focus on other things.

"Holy s**t, how many positions did you guys fix?" Greer yelled as they all came online.

"All of them, wouldn't be useful if we couldn't." Dr. Franklin said as she entered the bridge and took one of the empty chairs to control a section of weapons.

"200 drones coming into max range." Rush reported as he was monitoring the sensors.

"Let's see what she has now." Young said as they opened fire with the weapons systems.

Eli, would you come look at this?" Dr. Franklin asked as she looked through the commands on her console.

Eli stood up and Zalenka took his place shooting the secondsry weapons as the drones probed the ship in the ways they had learned before. Eli had accounted even for the k******e attacks, and the shields were barely fluctuating even when the drones rammed them.

"Minimal damage, nice job on the shields Eli." Rush said as the sustained fire took out the drones fasrer than they ever had before.

Eli looked over Dr. Franklins shoulder, and was a little surprised at what she had found. It appeared to be an automated close range suppression system designed for asteroid belts, but might have uses here. "Can we power it?" he asked as he hit the main control.

They were both a little surprised when it powered on, and began tracking the drones as they flew around the ship. As they entered the range of the automated system, it fired with hundreds of lower powered beams that would easily overwhlem the drones before they could impact the ship.

"Whoa, what the hell was that?" Greer yelled as he had seen the direct results in his screen.

"Automated defense system, just found it and brought it online." Eli reported as they stopped taking k******e hits to the shields.

"Power levels at 91 percent, shields holding at 92 percent and weapons fluctuating between 87 and 94 percent efficency." Rush reported as they finished destroying the drones that had already been launched.

General Young was impressed as they had easily managed that attack, and before it would have taken nearly everything they had to survive that attack. "How long on the clock?" he asked as they assessed the results of the battle.

"3 hours 30 minutes, but we should discuss that General. The engines will be ready for the jump in another hour." Rush reported as he projected the readout to the main display so Eli and Zalenka could see as well.

"Gunners keep an eye out, Chloe keep us in this orbit. Rush, explain." Young said as he looked.

"The engines are in a much better condition since the repairs. The reason they required 4 hours before was because of the damage that had already been caused to them. With that damage repaired it takes them far less time to reset between jumps." Rush said as Eli and Zalenka confirmed it.

"He is absolutely correct, we will be ready in roughly 57 minutes from now." Eli said after looking.

"Reset the clock, give me wide angle sensors back." Young reported as they detected 2 more ships entering the system. "Eli, care for a full battle analysis?" he asked as he smiled.

"Would live one sir, we need to know what we are capable of." Eli said as he returned to his station.

"Chloe, as we come around again, set a course fornthe nearest Command Ships. Gunners, prepare for close contact. Power the main weapons and lock on as soon as we are in range." Young ordered as Eli brought up the main weapons console where he was.

"1 minute till main weapons charged." Eli reported as the g*n deployed and Chloe adjusted their course.

"2 more Command Ships entering the system making the total 5. 2 are moving to flank us as we engage the one." Rush reported as hundreds of drones launched from the Command Ships.

"Take us in." Young said as he watched the sensors. It took only a few minutes to enter weapons range with the drones, and with all of the weapons online at once the drones did not stand a chance.

The Command Ships were not prepared for the new abilities of Destiny, and were having difficulties attempting to proceed in attacking Destiny. Eli locked onto the first one as it attempted to evade them, but was not able to match the new maneuvering ability of Destiny.

The 3 barrels fired at once into the rear of it, and the shields of it glowed as the 3 powerful beams sliced through them and deep into the ship. It exploded as Chloe adjusted course to begin tracking the next Command Ship as they attempted to flee from the encounter.

The second one was not successful as Chloe maneuvered expertly to cut it off as they continued firing on the drones that had become almost ineffective attacking Destiny. Their weapons were absorbed almost effortlessly, and the close support guns for asteroids prevented them from impacting in k******e attacks.

As soon as the second one blew up the drones around them fell dead and the third had maneuvered behind them and was engaging its FTL engines to flee the system.

The Other 2 Command Ships were doing there best to evade Destiny as the one behind them exploded as it attempted the jump this quickly.

"Ship is still in excellent shape, 42 minutes." Rush reported from his review of the systems.

They chased the other 2 Command ships for the entirety of the time but were not able to get into firing range of them. "Set course Chloe and engage FTL." Young ordered.