Episode 8: An (Unexpected) Awakening - The Sun Tzu

[Paul Riley]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

It had been five days since they'd dealt with the rogue Etruscan spy on board that had inhabited one of the crew. They had subsequently rescued SM-3 from Sirona. Colonel Riley was feeling a little worse for wear after the whole ordeal, but nonetheless they had a job to do. The ship's commander, standing shoulder to shoulder on the bridge with Commander Hawkins, finished updating Meropis via a subspace link. It became apparent that in their absence, the distress signal from base referred to an assassination attempt on General Conway. Thanks to an ancient device and a little help from both Paisley and Hanyuu, resident smart-ass aliens on Meropis, and apparently some time travel, the attempt had been thwarted. SM-3 had been rescued in the nick of time but now found themselves laying up in the ship's infirmary after what had appeared to be a form of torture by an aggressive industrial era race.

Then there was the small matter of the Etruscan that had infiltrated the ship. After eventually quarantining the raw entity on a lower deck, Riley had ordered it jettisoned into deep space and had then ordered Major Hunter rain down hellfire upon it with the Asgard beams. Content, that it was at a minimum disabled, the Sun Tzu plotted a course back toward Meropis. A curiosity had caught both the commander's eyes however. It seemed that in it's panic and desperation, the Etruscan had attempted to programme a course into the Sun Tzu's systems to take her to a remote star system on the edge of the galaxy, one with no Stargate. After a conference with Conway, it was agreed Colonel Riley would take the ship on a recon only mission and scan the planet in question. Any further information they could gain on the origin and rapid rise of the Etruscan race would be to their advantage. In particular, how they were able to quickly acquire an army of seemingly Anubis-level super warriors, the like of which had once attacked the base and almost killed SM-2, would be useful.

--------------------------------

"Give me a full sensor readout of the planet," Colonel Riley ordered as the Sun Tzu dropped out of hyperspace, "I wanna know right away if there's any ships nearby."
"All clear Sir," Major Hunter replied, tilting the screen toward the ship's commander indicating the scans had picked up nothing at all.
"Alright, start scanning the planet surface." He said, leaning forward in the command chair.
"Preliminaries show breathable atmosphere and temperate to tropical climate. Two percent axial tilt… Which means no seasons to speak of. Little to no surface topography, 30% of this hemisphere is covered by surface water… The rest has dense vegetation, no signs of technology." Major Hunter confirmed, tapping away rapidly on his console. This didn't make sense to the Colonel, why would the Etruscan want so desperately to take the Tzu to an uninhabited planet with no Stargate. They were missing something here.
"Take us on a complete orbit, scan the entire planet." Riley ordered. Hunter confirmed it and along with Major Booth began programming in a tight, low orbit and activating the sensor array.

The crew on the bridge watched as the planet rolled across the view screen in front of them. For all intents and purposes it looked like the perfect place to take a summer holiday. Eventually, a series of small ridges began to appear. Given the lack of any other identifiable features on the surfaces, these stood out as somewhat of an interesting feature. It certainly caught the Colonel's eye. The readouts on screen suggested the ridges covered an area about 100 million square kilometers wide. Suddenly, they dropped off and the smooth, flat surface features of the pleasant planet returned. The Sun Tzu had completed it's orbit and now had a whole-scanned image displaying on screen.
"Take us back over those ridges," The Colonel frowned, trying to make sense of the Etruscan's fascination with this planet. It couldn't be a mistake surely.

Major Hunter entered some further computer prompts as the ship returned and settled into geo-synchronised orbit above the area containing the ridges. The computer made a small, intrusive error noise. Major Hunter grumbled and re-entered his commands, Colonel Riley raised an eyebrow to Commander Hawkins.
"Sir, our scans are being totally scattered," Hunter reported, "All I'm getting is a grainy image, but there appears to be a network of structures beneath the surface... A LOT of structures."
Colonel Riley glanced at the screen, there appeared to be an angular, grid-like pattern of chambers and interconnected tunnels threading throughout the millions of kilometers underneath the planet surface.
"Bingo." The Colonel said quietly, thinking of his next move.

<to be continued>
<tag any Sun Tzu who wish to join in - Dylan Hawkins Shawn Booth Ryan Decker @adaofhearts Derek Banks>

Credit for the inspiration for this story goes to Aer-Ki Jyr FanFiction writer.

[Ryan Decker]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

The ordeal of having the Etruscan aboard the ship had meant they'd all been slightly suspicious of one another for a time, something that took a while to get over. Ryan had in particularly felt anger, anger about the feelings he'd had about the crew and the fact it had seemed to be particularly effective in taking down Colonel Riley while inside one of his men. It also had meant quite a lot of paperwork, in particular relating to the emergency command procedures he'd enacted, he was sure someone would have questions for him about it, but that board on inquiry was in another galaxy millions of of kilometres away along with quite a time.

The Colonel had made the call to follow the course the spy had tried to take them to. Sitting in his usual spot he focused his set of senors on the surrounding space, looking for threats, targets, however the space around this planet including any subspace signatures was what one would expect for one out on the edges, minimal. "Nothing on sensors and no recent subspace activity apart from our own sir." He informed the colonel.

Switching part of his display to the scans of the planet he listened as watched as the remarkable blandness of the planet was broken by a plateau of ridges before returning to remarkable flatness. Wiating for the next scans as they concentrated on the ridges it took a while before the sensors adjusted, the reading still weren't perfect but what they were getting was there. Why would a place like this be uninhabited and why under the only remarkable features of this planet were kilometers and kilometers of tunnels, tunnels that had to be made by something or someone.

"Sir, I can get a beam down location right on the edge of the top area. much further down and we wont be able to the transporters or radio. Should we attempt to see if the rings lock onto something down there?" When in doubt try the ring transports, they always looked for the nearest set of rings, and if there was one down there they would find them, if not they still had the Asgard beam transporters.

<TAG: Paul Riley, @other sun Tzu crew and SM-3>

[Dylan Hawkins]

Bridge

Sun Tzu

Triangulum Galaxy

Hawkins was wearing the RAF No.2 Service Working Dress -With the blue-grey jumper, and the stable belt- rather than the regular flying suit. The reason for this was that the Wing Commander had to appear before the promotion board. However, on account of being in another galaxy, he was allowed to do it over a video conference call. And for that, he had to be dressed appropriately. He was done now, however, and went straight for the bridge. He likely wouldn't be needed, and he could've gone to his office to catch up on the paperwork he'd been neglecting -The only paperwork he usually did immediately upon receipt was requisition forms for parts for his planes- 

Stepping on the bridge, he halted on the side of the room. A sent a respectful nod to the Colonel, and then looked out the window. It seemed he had come at just the right time. He knew that the ship was performing a recce of a planet suspected to be the source of the recent attack upon the ship. They were already in orbit of the planet, and the Skipper had just ordered a full scan. It didn't work out as well as it should've. Then another complete scan didn't quite work, at which point Hawkins looked at the Colonel, while rubbing his fresh-shaven face.

Finally, they found what they were looking for. A giant network of tunnels. It was at this point that Decker suggested beaming down, or using the rings. Hawkins had something else in mind. "Rather than giving ourselves away on their screens by beaming down, I think we should look into getting a cloaked Jumper down there instead." Hawkins said. Then he walked over to the screen. "As you can see, there's a site large enough to land here," He said, pointing to a clearing on the mountainside. "And there's what looks to me like an entrance to the caves there, about six-hundred metres away." the Wing Commander continued.  "If need be, we can always use the transporters in an emergency" he finally added, after which he was done. 

[Paul Riley]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

"Good work," Colonel Paul Riley replied to the suggestions of Decker and Hawkins, "sounds like a Jumper would be our best approach. I think we've just got the one on board. It's a crying shame that SM-3 are out of action, we'll have to put together an awa-"
"Sir, sorry to interrupt, there's something you need to see." Major Hunter exclaimed with just a hint of panic in his voice. Riley turned to the control screens to see what it is that had his experienced pilot and navigator so rattled. He noticed hundreds of small dots appearing over the ridges on the planet surface, headed on a trajectory directly toward the ship.
"We've got incoming!" The Colonel half shouted, "Raise shields."
"Numerous objects rising on an intercept course from the surface," Hunter replied immediately after.
"We've seen enough here," Riley turned to Hawkins, "We're breaking orbit, Decker, Hunter, take us out." He ordered.

Major Hunter programmed in a course and The Sun Tzu began to heave herself around on her sublight engines, turning away from the planet. The small objects were accelerating fast and were almost through the atmosphere by the time the ship had completed it's manoeuvre.
"Prepare for hyperspace jump," Riley ordered.
"Colonel?" Hunter interjected, sounding a little more nervous this time.
"I see 'em," he said gripping the soft leather arms of his command chair tightly as two ships at least three times the size of the Sun Tzu suddenly emerged from hyperspace directly in front of them. The ship vibrated gently as the fighters emerging from the planet surface began firing a barrage of green energy weapons toward the Sun Tzu's engines, their blasts being absorbed by the shield matrix. Even more of the small, pointed fighters began pouring out of the two mother ships blocking their path.
"Decker, return fire, all batteries and Asgard beams! Hawkins, get us clear enough for a hyperspace jump or we won't going home in one piece!" Colonel Riley ordered Decker and Hawkins as the ship shook violently under a hit from one of the mothership's massive green energy pulses. "Something tells me they wanted their planet to be kept a secret."
"SHIELDS BREACHED!" Major Hunter screamed over an impressively loud bang.
"What in the holy hell..." Riley muttered under his breath. These were unlike anyone they'd ever encountered before, even the Etruscans didn't have this kind of tech at their disposal. The ship's commander gulped and placed his full faith in the skills of his crew.

<tag all Sun Tzu folk, mainly Ryan Decker and Dylan Hawkins >

[Ryan Decker]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

The Asgard Transporters and Rings had served them well as had the Jumpers, but as recent evidence suggested the jumpers cloak wasn't the be all and end all, if your had powerful enough sensors you could detect them, so far they seemed limited to City ships and super hives, however underestimating your enemy was always a bad idea, beaming down might show on sensors but you were going to be far less exposed if they could detect the jumper and this planet certainly had the feel of something with more than a few surprises in store. 

"Rather than giving ourselves away on their screens by beaming down, I think we should look into getting a cloaked Jumper down there instead. As you can see, there's a site large enough to land here," The wing commander pointed at a clearing. "And there's what looks to me like an entrance to the caves there, about six-hundred metres away. If need be, we can always use the transporters in an emergency"
Decker glanced quickly at the Colonel as he thought over his choices.

"Good work, sounds like a Jumper would be our best approach. I think we've just got the one on board. It's a crying shame that SM-3 are out of action, we'll have to put together an awa-" Suddenly his sensors were filled with enemy ships, coming up from the planet along with some peculiar subspace distortions. "Sir, sorry to interrupt, there's something you need to see." Decker quickly hit the button to raise shields, he also immediately charged and readied all weapons, the rail guns firing in a pattern that would do as much as possible to thing out the incoming. "We've got incoming! Raise shields." "Already on it sir." He replied. 

"Numerous objects rising on an intercept course from the surface," Reminded Major Hunter "We've seen enough here," Riley turned to Hawkins, "We're breaking orbit, Decker, Hunter, take us out." As the ship turned and began to move he was left with only the rear rail guns able to target the contacts coming from the surface. Quickly enough he was faced with even grater problem, surprise capital contacts in front of them, 'why hadn't they shown up before.' his mind screamed as he automatically began to respond. the rear rail guns opened up on the fighters coming from the surface while he targeted two beams each at the vessels now in front of them. He also slit the forward railguns between the contacts and prepared firing solutions for the missiles. 

"Sir, the beams, they aren't having much of an effect..." He cut himself off, their shield strength wasn't depleting very much, however integrity around the remainder of the ship was. This gave him an idea. He quickly re target all beams at one of the vessels before targeting half of the missiles at it. Switching all beams to the one ship he continued to hit it with the mighty Asgard weapons before unleashing his first volley of missiles. 

The missiles streaked quickly towards their target, the enemies shields offered only a token shimmer as the missiles passed through the side area of the protective field before impacting into the side of the ship it brilliant flashes of light. switching weapons to the second ship as the first one melted and tumbled in the blackness of space it was out of action for now. Their shield strength was quickly draining, but Asgard shields worked, until they ran out of power, it seemed their enemies didn't.

Repeating the process, none of the missiles made it they were shot down or intercepted. "Damn it, they've already worked it out." Working furiously on another plan he called out shield strength. "rapidly approaching 30 percent shields." Then an idea struck him, combine his new defeated tactic with an older one. He locked the beam transporter onto the missiles in their launch tubes and started their engines. beaming them into space similar to before they rematerialised and streaked through the shield unable to be intercepted over the precious few seconds they needed to get inside the enemies shields, before they two exploded in brilliant flashes that knocked out the enemy ships, this one however seemed to have hit something else and it exploded.

"Hold onto something!" He yelled before the shock wave hit them further draining their shields and making the battle cruiser shudder and shake those inside. "should I destroy the remaining vessel?" he asked targeting it with the Asgard beams.

<TAG:Paul Riley , Dylan Hawkins , anyone else yo.>

[Dylan Hawkins]

Bridge

BC-304 Sun Tzu

Triangulum Galaxy



Sir Dylan was only a little bit pleased with himself over the fact that the Colonel went with his plan. Just a little bit. He was, however, professional enough, and had enough respect for Decker not to show this. Hawkins had moved to one of the intercoms, and said "Marine detachment, and Lieutenant Johnson, report to hangar bay two." he said, in order to assemble the pilot, as well as the security team at the jumper. 

Just then, however, they were being painted, and had incoming. First he hit a button that sounded an alarm, Then he hit the button to talk again. "Hands to Action Stations, hands to Action Stations! Set NBC state One, Condition Zulu" he said at a tone that was coming close to shouting. The call wasn't, perhaps, exactly what had been used before but everyone should get the information they needed. They'd man their stations. They would prepare the ship to receive nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons. And lastly, they would close all water -or in this case, air- tight doors and hatches. The major advantage to this was that if one room became depressurized, it wouldn't take the whole deck out with it. It made it a little harder for people that needed to freely move about, but that was something that they would have to suffer through. 

They were leaving orbit at that point, and just a minute later they were ready to charge up the hyperdrive. Then they were hit. In the blast, Hunter was knocked out, and had been taken out of his seat. Hawkins ran around and took over on the 'stick'. "Nav, get me a hyperspace lock! Anywhere away from here would be fine!" Hawkins told the Australian Sub Lieutenant in charge of Navigational systems, including the hyperdrive. 

While Decker and the Colonel were working on their other problem, Hawkins went defensive, like he would in a fighter. He flew erratically, making sharp turns and rapid changes along the Y-axis, which in the atmosphere of any planet would have been altitude. 

At that point, a shock wave hit them, depleting the shields. "I've got a lock, Sir" Caetano finally replied. Hawkins maneuvered the cruiser into position, and engaged the hyperdrive, taking them the hell away from there. "Bloody hell, that was intense. I haven't flown like that since I was still flying Eurofighters back on Earth" Hawkins remarked with the slightest hint of a grin on his face. 

[Paul Riley]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

The Colonel was glancing over the battle summary data obtained automatically by the ship's systems as the fire fight raged on around them, then he realised what they were dealing with... This wasn't better tech than the Etruscans, this WAS the Etruscans! Or at least it resembled the 'super warrior' ship the expedition had encountered nestled amongst the enemy fleet back when they first arrived on Meropis, and the Etruscan named Laran had assaulted the city. The ship itself fled the battle unscathed after depositing a legion of hulking menaces on the surfaces. Said soldiers had taken damn near the entire armoury to bring down. Since then, sightings of the super warriors had been far and few between. Until now - they'd found a whole damn planet of the things.

Colonel Riley grimaced as the ship was rocked under the impact of another enormous plasma weapon blast from the motherships blocking their path. Major Hunter flew out of his seat and slumped to the floor as sparks flew out of a conduit above his head. Hawkins ran over and took the reigns while Major Booth dragged Hunter to one side and started first aid.
"Sir, the beams, they aren't having much of an effect..." Decker exclaimed over the noise of warfare, "rapidly approaching 30 percent shields." Paul glanced at one of the overhead monitors, there still wasn't enough space to form a hyperspace window without risking serious, possibly catastrophic damage to the ship. The inertial dampeners were made to work hard as Hawkins pulled the Sun Tzu around into an evasive manoeuvre, narrowly avoiding more blasts from the enormous energy weapons fired from the larger vessels. Hundreds of enemy fighters peppered their shields even further.

"Hold onto something!" Decker yelled as the Colonel watched him beam two warheads inside of one of the enemy ship's weakened shields. The following shock wave stressed the Sun Tzu so much that Paul heard her creaking in complaint, something he knew they wouldn't get to hear twice. Once the blinding light from the explosion had cleared, there was some small amount of relief as the Colonel noticed that only one of the massive enemy ships remained. A good chunk of the fighters had either been caught in the blast wave or had been taken out by debris in the process.

"Shields down to 20%!" One of the airman shouted from across the bridge.
"Should I destroy the remaining vessel?" Decker asked as Hawkins brought the Sun Tzu back around and away from the planet once more, having ridden the shock wave as best as possible to minimise residual damage.
"Negative, Hawkins get us out of here, NOW!" Riley ordered with a hint of stress in his tone.
"I've got a lock, Sir." Caetano replied. With that, the Sun Tzu jumped to hyperspace as the window formed before them like a bullet into water. The noise and light from the battle suddenly faded away and was replaced by the calming blue and purple hues of hyperspace travel.
"Bloody hell, that was intense. I haven't flown like that since I was still flying Eurofighters back on Earth." Hawkins grinned, the Colonel had to smile at that, he too was glad to have survived against possibly one of the most formidable enemies they'd found to date.

Their narrow victory was short lived.
"Sir..." Caetano began.
"I know." Riley cut her off. He slowly stood from his command chair and gulped, what he was now seeing on the monitors couldn't be true, he shook his head in disbelief "that is impossible." On the screen they could clearly see The Sun Tzu's transit through hyperspace, and another marker represented the remaining enemy mothership they'd just fled from. Not only was it tracking them through hyperspace, but it was gaining on them - fast.
"Drop us out of hyperspace, now!" Colonel Riley ordered, "We've got no shields while we're out here, we're sitting ducks." The order was obliged, by somebody, almost straight away as The Sun Tzu emerged once again to the blackness of space and her failing shields were immediately raised.

Colonel Riley jumped back into his command chair and hit the emergency distress beacon just as the enemy vessel dropped out behind them and more fighters began to pour forth toward the Earth ship.
"Any ideas!?" He looked to Decker then across to Hawkins. 

The battle wasn't over yet.

<tag Ryan Decker Dylan Hawkins Shawn Booth Catarina Caetano Derek Banks>

[Dylan Hawkins]

Bridge

BC-304 Sun Tzu

Triangulum Galaxy



They had gotten away from the area safely, and Hawkins thought they were good. But then the heads-up display showed the unthinkable. The enemy ship had followed them into hyperspace, and was actually gaining on them. Then Riley gave the order to leave hyperspace. Hawkins tapped the required buttons to work the controls, and did as he was ordered. He quickly came up with a plan, which to a lot of pilots, including himself, would be counter-intuitive. Yet he had to give the option anyway. 

"We all know that when an F-302 gets destroyed, it produces a small electromagnetic pulse. And we all know that an EMP interferes with electrical systems." the Wing Commander stated. "What I propose is that we fly a fighter, armed with nuclear warheads using minimal power, and blow it up as close to the ship as we can. That should take care of their systems, and allow the warheads to kill it." he continued. He swallowed. "I volunteer to fly her, Sir. It would take too long to get rid of the safety mechanisms in the autopilot, and I cannot in rational thought ask anyone else to sacrifice themselves for us." the Englishman proposed. 

If giving his life meant that he could save those of his comrades, he would naturally do so. While there was a little hesitation -basically committing suicide would tend to cause that- he got over it quickly. Perhaps they would be able to beam him out in time. That would be great. If not, so be it. 

[Paul Riley]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

Colonel Riley gulped at Wing Commander Hawkin's suggestion as the shields took another blow.
"Shields down to 10% Sir!" Another airman shouted out, Riley knew that once the shields dropped offline they were toast. The raw power of the enemy mothership's primary weapon was just too much for The Sun Tzu to handle. And they could only fly evasive tactics for so long. What Hawkins was saying, in theory made sense, fly close enough to the sun so to speak, sacrifice a ship and use the E.M.P disruption to their shields to blast their enemy out of existence. The Tzu's Asgard beams weren't cutting it. Whoever had built this ship knew what they were doing, the shields were holding up well unlike their own.

"I can't ask you to do that Hawkins. And I'm certainly not going to order you to, however those enemy fighters are causing us a serious problem right now," he glanced at the shield readouts and saw that the stream of fighters had now reached them and had began firing potshots all over the ship. When the shield's went down, they'd surely be the death blow and evading the enemy primary weapon wouldn't even matter.
"That being said," the Colonel continued, "Launch the 302's. Buy us some more time." Riley braced himself in the chair as the ship flew hard on the X axis, putting the inertial dampeners to the test once again as they evaded yet another powerful green plasma blast for the other vessel and prepared to return fire.

<tag all>

[Ryan Decker]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

They weren't going to destroy the other vessel, he felt a mistake leaving them to inform someone else or to conduct repairs and come after them, with their battle experience with the Sun Tzu and her crew was a mistake, but the intentions behind the Colonels decision were also correct, they needed a break to make some repairs."Negative, Hawkins get us out of here, NOW!" Quickly enough the new navigation officer had the hyperspace generators running and they passed through the window and entered hyperspace.

"Bloody hell, that was intense. I haven't flown like that since I was still flying Eurofighters back on Earth." Decker stopped himself, the Sun Tzu was hardly as maneuverable as a eurofighter, not that he'd flown one but it certainly had the edge in awesome destructive power. The sensors flashed a warning by the sub lieutenant beat him to it. "Drop us out of hyperspace, now!" Ordered, the Colonel "We've got no shields while we're out here, we're sitting ducks."
Decker knew what they meant the precious second or so that their shields wouldn't engage were a significant draw back, however in this case by the time the enemy vessel caught up they would be up, the next concern was strength. AS soon as they emerged and the shields could go up he sent them up.

"Any ideas!?" Ryan was deep in thought. What they needed was another way to get a series of their warheads behind the enemies shield. "We all know that when an F-302 gets destroyed, it produces a small electromagnetic pulse. And we all know that an EMP interferes with electrical systems.What I propose is that we fly a fighter, armed with nuclear warheads using minimal power, and blow it up as close to the ship as we can. That should take care of their systems, and allow the warheads to kill it." he continued. He swallowed. "I volunteer to fly her, Sir. It would take too long to get rid of the safety mechanisms in the autopilot, and I cannot in rational thought ask anyone else to sacrifice themselves for us." Decker was about to respond when the Colonel made sure it wasn't going to happen.

"I can't ask you to do that Hawkins. And I'm certainly not going to order you to, however those enemy fighters are causing us a serious problem right now," Decker finally spoke up. "It wouldn't work, they just survived a mark eight at effectively point blank range, and that EMP field is significant;y stronger than a 302 exploding, besides I doubt their shields would let us through, ours were designed and modified by the Asgard to let certain small vessels through, " While speaking Decker had been monitoring the progress of the enemy ship,. when it reached weapons range the blue lance of the Asgard beam raced toward their target. As the enemies fighter craft approached the rail guns opened fire and began seeking and destroying targets on their own. "What we need is someone flying the jumper, if the drones can pierce the enemies shields, we might be able to get a lucky hit."

<TAG:Paul Riley , Dylan Hawkins , anyone else>

[Ethan Collins]

Infirmary - bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

He'd been arguing with the medical personnel for a while now, he wanted to give a proper report to Colonel Riley, one that could then be passed onto Meropis. Captain Collins had been subject to numerous sessions of abuse at the hands of the Sironan's, it had sparred most of his team the worst, thought he still felt most of his torture had been mental, he'd cooperated only to spare the members of his team more interrogations and beatings. The ship shaking and taking damage had given him his chance and the chief doctor finally relented, he had bigger problems now. "Fine, go..." Ethan nodded appreciatively.

The trip through the ship wasn't as fast as he'd planned he'd had to dodge more than a few people and systems overloading and showering the halls with sparks and other material. Climbing up the ladders had to have been the worst part. His body still ached, but if he could assist in someway, he had to.

Emerging onto the bridge he listened into to the Australian's weapons officer's comments. "I'll do it," He said stepping further into the bridge. "We could always beam a nuke onboard and beam me out at the last second if I get inside the shields..." He stumbled as another blast shoot the ship. "Sir?" he inquired to Colonel Riley.

<TAG:Paul Riley, Ryan Decker, Dylan Hawkins, anyone else>

[Paul Riley]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

Ideas were coming thick and fast from the crew as the Sun Tzu was being thrown around space trying to avoid the predator that was the massive enemy vessel. Hawkins was already legging it down to launch the F-302 squadron and buy them some more time, Decker suggested they throw SM-3's Jumper into the battle as well. It took Paul all of three seconds to mull over the idea, and his thinking was pretty clear. The BC-304 was going to be destroyed. They couldn't seem to fight these Etruscan super warriors off, their shields were almost all but gone, and there was no hope of out running them. If they jumped to hyperspace they'd only be followed, and if they tried to flee on sublight they'd present themselves as an easy target. The Colonel figured he could at least get some personnel off the ship and give them a fighting chance.
"Alright, get the Jumper out too," he replied to the man behind who had just volunteered to fly it. He turned and did a quick double take, it was Ethan Collins who he knew shouldn't be up and about yet after his ordeal with the Sironans. That was unfinished business he wished they'd have a chance to revisit and settle, maybe in another reality. He waved dismissively and heard boot steps as Collins promptly left the bridge.
"Shields now at 5% critical, failure imminent." Caetano called out.

The Sun Tzu had almost completely exhausted it's rail gun batteries, all of it's missiles had been fired bar one warhead and the Asgard beam was beginning to weaken due to the strain on the on board power systems. Thus far they'd managed to avoid all but a glancing blow on their second encounter. Major Hunter had finally roused and was doing his best to assist Decker, Caetano and Booth on the bridge at piloting the battle cruiser away from the enemies primary weapon trajectory. The saving grace was that the enemy primary weapon took a good 10-20 seconds to recharge which gave them time to fly hard and try and put loops around her. The enemy fighters were swarming over the Tzu like angry bees and were slowly bringing the shield matrix down, even as the on board naquadah generators and Asgard power core worked hard to refill the system.

Colonel Riley watched on the view screen as it depicted the small dots that were the ship's own fighters flooding out of both hangers, an ever so slightly larger dot then depicted the Jumper leaving as The Sun Tzu pulled away fast from it's deposited warriors. He tapped into the shared radio network and heard wolf squadron immediately engage a hoard of enemy fighters. The enemy weapon fired once again and narrowly missed the rear of the Sun Tzu as they curved around the back of the Etruscan's vessel.
"Sir, shields are offline!" Major Hunter called out, a hint of desperation in his voice as a small bang marked the shield system failing completely. Evidently the enemy fighters had finally chipped away at them enough.
"God help us all." Colonel Riley said through gritted teeth, looking out at the view screen as explosions appeared all around them.

<tag Ryan Decker Dylan Hawkins Ethan Collins Shawn Booth Catarina Caetano and try not to get blown up>

[Dylan Hawkins]

Bridge
Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

Hawkins used the 1MC once again. "Scramble, scramble, scramble! All pilots report to the hangar area and prepare for immediate launch" the Wing Commander said over the shipwide announcement system. Then he was off, running the quickest he had ever ran. Sure, he had had scramble trainings before, but that was just that. Trainings. If he wasn't quick now, he'd be dead. And so, 3 minutes after calling the scramble he was putting on his survival equipment. Another minute later, he climbed into his cockpit just as the ordnance was being loaded.

He'd be carrying eight modified AIM-120 AMRAAM active radar guided missiles on his wingtips and on hardpoints underneath his wings; And finally one naquadria-enhanced nuclear warhead carried in the bomb bay in the hull of the fighter. Lastly, he also had his railguns, of course. 

The warhead hidden away in his hull made him slightly heavier than war normal, but the craft easily compensated for it. Then he started the engine, and got on comms with the flight controller. "Wolf Squadron, scrambling." he said, and with that he increased throttle to maximum while his pilots followed. 

Almost immediately upon exiting the carrier, they could begin engaging enemy fighters. Hawkins banked left, and went along the Y-axis at a steep 20 degrees downward angle. He had his target though. "Wolf One, guns guns guns" he said into his radio as he let go of a burst from his railguns. He was making himself a path towards the enemy ship, while his squadron defended Sun Tzu. 

Hawkins was flying erratically, both to make it harder on the enemy pilots to get a bead on him, as well as to get missile locks and to fire his guns at the fighters. It took ten minutes to reach the ship. He powered down, and pretended he'd been disabled. He couldn't get through the shield, but knew that they had to temporarily disengage it in order to let their fighters get out. 

That was his opportunity. Another flight of them was exiting a hangar, near the rear of the ship close to where the generators had to be. The shield was disabled, and Hawkins powered up. He maneuvered his plane into that hangar, and touched down. Then he went about the process of arming his nuke. At the same time, he spoke into the radio again. "This is Hawkins to everyone on this net. It's been an honour lads. Keep up the good work." he said, closing his eyes.

The nuke was charging up, and Hawkins thought of home. Of the family he'd wanted, but never had. Of his mother, who after losing her husband so many years ago would now lose her son. And she would never find out why, or how he died. Most likely his death would be reported as a training incident. He gently pushed the button that triggered the bomb. A minute later he saw a white flash so bright, he could see it even though his visor and his eyes were closed. The nuke had gone off. And so ended the story of Wing Commander Sir Dylan Hawkins, the Duke of Sussex, Knight-Commander of the British Empire, Distinguished Service Cross, Military Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Cross, Royal Air Force.

[Ryan Decker]

Bridge
BC-304 Sun Tzu
Triangulum Galaxy

His suggestion that they use the jumper seemed to have aroused an interest in someone he hardly expected to find on the bridge, let alone out of sick bay, Collins. With weapons quickly drying up the Skip Weapons officer was running out of options, the shields were critically low, missiles out and all the power generations of the ship wasn't enough to keep the shields on he could dump power from the beams to shields but it wouldn't buy much time and they wouldn't have anything left to fight with.

As the pilots flew out of the ship Decker partly wished he was with them, what they did was why he became a pilot and joined the RAAF. Watching at Hawkins made his run he wasn't happy the aristocrat pilot was going to make himself a hero, if anyone of them survived it that was. Continueing to fire with what he had left he advocated the only the option they had left. "We should ram them!" he called out over the sound. Soon enough the shields finally failed and the ship shook violently. Partially still at his station he tried desperately to get a lock on Hawkins and ruin the man's 'plan'.

Colonel Riley said something as the ship shuddered and groaned, she couldn't take it for much longer surely. 

<TAG DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN, also no post for Collins just go without for now my friendo's>

[Jason Conway]

Bridge
BC-304 Apollo
Triangulum Galaxy

"I'm picking up a distress signal, Sir. It's the Sun Tzu." The first officer Major Kevin Marks relayed to ship's commander.
"Patch it through," Colonel Abraham Ellis replied with a look of concern etched on his face, "Alright, plot a course. Sounds like the Tzu need us to save their damn ship again." He said, leaning back in the command chair of the USS Apollo, the third USAF deep space carrier and the lead ship of the second tactical wing. A few moments later they'd arrived at their destination.

The ship dropped out of hyperspace just in the nick of time as the Sun Tzu's shields failed completely and she began taking severe small arms damage from the enemy fighters swarming her angrily like a hornet's nest. The Apollo flew forward from the hyperspace window and began sublight manoeuvring to bring herself neatly in between the Sun Tzu and the intimidating enemy mothership. They'd raised shields and activated railguns which subsequently began picking off enemy fighters. The enemy mothership fired it's primary weapon, but the blast was absorbed by The Apollo's shields and didn't make it near either of the Earth ships.
"Sir, detecting a friendly signature aboard the enemy vessel, and a mark 9 nuclear warhead right on their location." Marks informed.
"Beam them out!" Ellis ordered.

A bright light consumed Commander Hawkins who then blinked, and realised he was in the medical bay of a BC-304.
"Welcome to the Apollo." The Canadian nurse smiled at the British Wing Commander, still wearing full flight gear who had just appeared right in the middle of the room and promptly fallen to the floor. Outside, the battle raged on but the warhead blew. A huge portion of the enemy ship went up in flames around the fighter bay and the ship's shields dropped.

Aboard The Sun Tzu, a comms window opened on the monitors above the command centre on the bridge as both ships watched the ensuing blast. It was just enough to cripple the enemy but not destroy them entirely.
"Colonel Ellis, my God is it ever good to see you!" Colonel Riley announced.
"You too Colonel, seems like you've got yourself in a fine mess here!" Ellis replied, frowning at a monitor just off screen, "If I'm reading this correctly, these aliens damn near blew your ship up!?"
"That's right Abraham. They're tough. We think they're an advanced version of the Etruscan super warriors. Now you're here we might stand a chance."
"Well now," Ellis half-laughed, "I wouldn't want to take all the fun." With that he winked and cut off the broadcast, Riley frowned and looked across to Decker. Just then, Major Hunter called out some more good news.
"Sir! Detecting another friendly contact!"

<tag Edward Madge>