Timeline

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Date: 100109

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T I M E L I N E

Part 2:

Date : ... Three weeks ago ...

Location : ... Outpost 42 in Goauld space

Outpost 42 was the newest Goauld base in Lord Cronus's territory. Lord Cronus had it constructed to dissuade any attempts by his fellow System Lords from moving onto his turf. Its location was remote and furthest from the seat of power in Cronus's territory. Still the station was heavily armed It was there merely to signify the demarcation line between Cronus and any of the other neighbouring Goaulds that might dare to venture into his space. Even though its location was remote, or perhaps because of it, none of the Jaffa soldiers on the station expected to be at the forefront of battle anytime soon. After all, among the ruling System Lords, Cronus had the strongest fleet.

They were quite shocked, however, when alarm klaxons began ringing all over the base. They were even more shocked when sections of the outpost began disappearing in powerful explosions after the shields were raised.

Twenty minutes later ...

A large fleet of twenty Hatak Motherships had arrived at the Outpost after having received an emergency transmission from the commander of the outpost about an attack unknown aliens. The Jaffa commander was about to order a team to investigate the remains of the destroyed outpost when his Jaffa navigation officer shouted a warning.

"My Lord, unknown vessels appearing all around us. Size, twice the size of our Alkesh Bombers. They're powering their weapons. Raising shields."

"How many of them?" the Jaffa Commander asked nonchalantly.

"There's over a hundred of them! And they're closing in on our position at a speed faster than any fighter I've ever seen!" the Jaffa Navigation officer cried out in alarm.

The enemy fighters were large in size, bigger even than the Tel'tak cargo ships. They were shaped like some kind of bug and headed for the Goa'uld fleet like a swarm of angry bees.

The Jaffa Commander quickly barked an order after seeing their images on the screen.

"Release all Alkesh bombers and Deathgliders. Send a warning message to the rest of the fleet!"

"Open fire on the intruders! We will teach them the meaning of fear!"

Plasma blasts began hitting out at the enemy vessels but they easily avoided the clumsy and powerful bursts of plasma being thrown against them by the Hatak Motherships.

"All Alkesh bombers and Deathgliders have been deployed. Contact anytime now."

The Goa'uld fleet quickly engaged the unknown alien fleet in direct combat.

At first, the Jaffa Commander did not know what the alien fleet hoped to accomplish just by attacking the large Hatak Motherships with fighters, large though they may be. It wasn't apparent at all even when the Goa'uld fleet began to lose fighters left and right. It didn't dawn upon the Jaffa Commander in charge that something was wrong until the missile weapons and energy beams fired by the alien vessels began doing serious damage to the hull of the Hatak Motherships. Shields that should have easily stood up to weapon's fire from another Hatak Mothership were not standing up to weapons fire from ships that belong to a fighter class.

"Shield status? Seventy-five percent strength and regenerating. Shields are relatively intact."

"Then how is it that our Hatak Mothership has taken hull damage from these enemy fighters?"

Something was seriously wrong with this picture.

"Perhaps their weapons are like those used by the Tollans," his Science Officer suggested.

"But our spies and collaboraters have informed us that none of these Tollan weapons have ever been mounted on a starship!"

"Maybe our spies on the Curia were wrong."

"They also assured us that they would make sure that none of the technology from the Tollans would ever make their way to another of the more primitive cultures!"

The Jaffa Commander being part of his god Cronus's inner circle was well aware of the Serita Incident that was engineered by Ba'al, another Goa'uld in an attempt to destroy both the Tollan and Seritan people from the face of the universe. The situation of both the Tollans and the Seritans had been a source of worry to the Goa'uld for sometime now. The Tollans were a natural, peaceful-loving people while the Seritans had a more warlike nature like the accursed Tau'ri in that regard. Being a natural, peaceful-loving people had given the Tollans a greater appreciation for all life and they had focused their energies into their scientific endeavours. The Seritans being a more warlike and aggresive people had focused their energies into war.

The System Lords had been especially worried since the Tollans and Seritans lived in the same star system and were essentially neighbours. They were not too worried about the Tollans since the Tollans were not an expansionistic race and kept mostly to themselves. The Seritans on the other hand, were a different matter entirely. Had the Seritans not dwelt in the same star system with the Tollans, the Goa'uld would have annhilated them long ago.

The very thought of the warlike Seritans coming into possession of Tollan technology and being set loose on the galaxy had been a source of constant anxiety and nightmare to even the mightiest of the System Lords. Their location, however, which lay right next to the heavily defended Tollan homeworld prevented the Goa'uld from taking any direct action. Goa'uld saboteurs and spies had been sent to Serita to slow down if not stop any possible scientific advancements by the Seritans. They were also tasked with the mission of ensuring that any contact between the Seritans and the Tollans would come to nothing. At the same time, they also worked to ensure that Serita was constantly at war with itself. It was their very hope that the Seritans would destroy themselves in a civil war and spare them the hard work of having to destroy them with an invasion force.

Thus, when they received news from their spies on the Curia that the Tollans had agreed to share some of their secrets with the Seritans, the Goa'uld become understandably quite anxious. Ba'al, however, laughed at the whole matter and said that their problems would be resolved very shortly. The other System Lords had, of course, demanded an explanation for his words but Ba'al had told them nothing but to go home and take a rest. It wasn't until they had received news that the Seritan homeworld had exploded and that the Tollan homeworld was not in any better condition that the rest of the System Lords grudgingly admitted that Ba'al was right.

Although all of them took care from that day onwards to make doubly sure that none of their gifts from Ba'al were booby-trapped.

But judging from the losses of five Hatak Motherships to these strange alien fighers and the serious damage sustained by another five more of his Hatak Motherships, their spies on the Curia could have been in error. Heads were going to roll for this. He made sure to remind himself when he reported back to the First Prime.

The Jaffa commander was about to order the capture of one of the enemy fighters when he noticed five more blips appeared on the screen.

After confirming with his navigation officer, he realised that these blips belonged to five ships identical in shape to the fighters except that they were much larger versions of the enemy fighters used in this battle. Realizing that the battle was lost especially if those large capital class ships mounted the same type of weapons as the fighters, he quickly gave the order to retreat. Before they could leave, however, the enemy capital ships opened fire on their Hatak Motherships. Three Hatak Motherships were instantly destroyed in the weapons fire from the five enemy vessels while two Hatak Motherships were now drifting uselessly in deep space. The last three Hatak Motherships opened up a hyperspace window and departed the area in a hurry.

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"Well, pretty quiet around here," O'Neill spoke after the last person of the team had made it through the Stargate.

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Major-General Michael Nokumba of the Zimbabwean Army was not in a good mood. In fact, he was seldom in a good mood these days. The Army, the national pride of Zimbabwe was disintegrating, right before his eyes. Once a source of pride for the country and the people in their battle for independence, it had descended into nothing more than a large gang of thugs and bullies armed with guns and knives. It could hardly control the state of anarchy and unrest in the country, never mind an invasion from their powerful neightbour, South Africa.

Major-General Nokumba was well aware of the events that had transpired next door. The apartheid administration's growing power and its arrogance, its increasingly vile and oppressive policies towards non-whites, the threats they made against his beloved country and the scientific wonders that now permeated their everyday life. From their daily use of vehicles and generators that utilised 'heavy water' as a source of fuel rather than oil to their never before seen neural implants that augmented their physicial and mental well-being. He had asked for more funds to modernize the Army but there had been no response to his requests from Headquarters yet.

The soldiers were not receiving their paychecks and some of them had turned to crime in order to survive. Inflation was on the increase at a ridiculous rate and no one wanted to use the national currency in the country any longer. The roads and entire neighbourhoods were unsafe as armed gangs and thugs could be seen patroling the neighbourhoods in the name of the ruling ZANU-PF. Was this the type of country that they had fought so hard to free only to see it destroyed by their very own? This country was going to self-destruct from the inside out if this sort of thing continued.

Just what was going on with the central Zimbabwe administration, these days?

The current president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe was a fool to have allowed the situation to have degenerated this far. Didn't he learn from what happened to President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo when his soldiers did not receive their paychecks? His own personal bodyguard shot him in the back due to that incident and now his son was ruling instead. His father, the former President now lay six feet under the earth.

Suddenly, a soldier ran into his office breathless.

"Sir! They've taken down central command!" his sergeant gasped loudly.

"Dear me ... Who has??!!" The army commander asked, barely believing his ears.

"The SADF! They've launched a full-scale assault against our country!" the sergeant cried in alarm.

"Get the President on the line! Alert ..." his words stopped in his mouth as the sergeant fell dead to the floor.

There was a ripple in the air before him and the transparent outline of a heavily-armed man in protective gear shimmered into being in front of him like a chameleon. The weapon he carried which was shaped like a broken trident with a very sharp spike, was unlike any he had ever seen. There was no visible ammunition or explosives such as grenades that he could see at all. The headgear he wore was just as strange, covering the person's face so completely that not even the facial features could be seen. The protective gear around his body was seamless and covered every inch of it right up to his head that he guessed correctly that it was airtight.

'Why though? Wasn't it stuffy or hot in there?' he wondered.

"Major-General Michael Nokumba?" the man addressed him calmly.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Throw your weapons to the floor. You're coming with us," he added coldly.

TBC

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