Earth's Solar System
As the dead and dying husks that were once Wraith cruisers drifted towards Earth still in formation, elements of the Tauri fleet and Earth defense assets rose to the occasion. Lagrange defense satellites opened fire, as the six Athena's beside Nimitz unleashed similar fire from their Grodins. Due to the detonation of the Sol Invictus, Tauri sensors were unable to discern which of the cruisers were out of action. Despite this limitation, they fired again and again.
Beams that impacted incinerated vessels did nothing more than scatter the dead remains of the ships and their deceased occupants. Vessels rendered incapable of operation due to radiation exposure welcomed the quick end to their slow demise. Volley upon volley of Grodin and Lagrange satellite fire poured into the drifting graveyard. As dead and dying vessels were struck and broke apart, debris impacted neighboring ships, scattering the charred bones of vessels once the scourge of the Pegasus galaxy.
Those fourteen surviving cruisers wisely decelerated at the tail end of the drifting wreckage, waiting for Primary and her Hives to join them.
Though that wait seemed an eternity to those aboard the cruisers, the end came at last. Charging through the field of dead Wraith warships, the Hives stalked toward Earth. Had they arrived minutes earlier, residual radiation would have attacked their hulls vigorously. Cruisers intermixed into the Hive-dominated formation. Together, they continued their march toward a new and rich feeding ground.
Coordination and timing were critical to this next portion of the Tauri defense plan.
Destiny and her Copernicus cohorts closed in on the Wraith formation. Having performed an aerobraking maneuver, the craft had bled off excess speed while bringing their angle of approach to optimum. As they raced toward the Wraith, twenty-four Improved Daedalus-class vessels led by the USS George Hammond closed from behind on that same formation.
Shields already raised and weapons powered, the twenty-four BC-304s opened fire with their Asgard plasma beam weapons. Instead of being the main thrust of a counterattack, this maneuver was simply a feint to open the door for Destiny and her group.
Open the door it did.
Multiple plasma beams tore into the rearmost five Hives. Cruisers and Hives alike began maneuvering in all directions as the Destiny group slammed into their flank.
Destiny and her sister ships opened fire with their main weapons and anti-fighter batteries as they closed. Gold-tinted bolts of energy raced toward their targets. Lacking the power of more modern warships, these bolts failed to kill—but they inflicted incredible damage upon the unshielded Wraith vessels.
Many Hives maneuvering to confront the attackers managed snap-shot broadsides at the vessels crossing their flank.
Primary's Hive ship, in particular, was extremely accurate.
Twenty-six blue energy bolts slammed into Galileo's conformal shields. Shimmering with each strike, the vessel continued to race past. On the twenty-seventh impact, Galileo's shields failed.
Seeing the opening, Primary's Hive fired another broadside.
Four shots found their mark.
The first bolt slammed into Galileo's main weapon, ripping it free and reducing it to twisted metal. The second struck the right wing, rupturing the hull and venting sections to space. The third tore through the base of the rear tower, opening five levels to vacuum.
The fourth was fatal.
Striking the rear drive section, it triggered a catastrophic chain reaction. Sublight and hyperspace generators exploded. Power conduits severed. Systems failed.
Galileo was dying—and her AI knew it.
Raising her nose, the ship climbed. Banking hard, she turned one hundred eighty degrees.
Then she charged.
From Primary's Hive, the sight was almost unbelievable. The crippled vessel, already doomed, drove forward with what little speed remained.
Wraith fire hammered her hull. Plates tore free. Still she came.
Ten seconds.
That was all it took.
Galileo struck.
Her nose punched through the Hive's upper armor, tearing deep into the vessel that had destroyed her.
On the throne, Primary had been celebrating her victory.
Then came the impact.
The ceiling buckled. Hundreds of thousands of tons of wreckage burst into the chamber. Realization came too late.
Her body fused to the throne before being torn apart.
Moments later, Galileo's neutrino ion generator went critical.
The explosion ripped the Hive apart.
---
At the rear of the formation, the 304s turned chaos into annihilation.
Divided into groups of six, they unleashed everything—plasma beams, anti-fighter weapons, nuclear-tipped missiles.
Seven Hives fell.
More remained.
Hammond, Odyssey, Vauchamps, Andrei Sakharov, Scepter, and Aeneas pushed deeper into the swarm.
It was a mistake.
Wraith Hives closed in, surrounding them. Fire came from all directions. Shields held—briefly.
Then came the darts.
Weaponized and relentless.
Vauchamps fell first, consumed in explosions.
Aeneas followed moments later—pierced and destroyed from within.
Andrei Sakharov, maneuvering beneath a Hive, was engulfed when her target detonated.
Scepter died defiant—detonating a Mark IX warhead and taking three Hives with her.
Hammond and Odyssey ran.
Carter made the call.
Hyperspace.
The window opened inside a Hive's flank. Hammond and Odyssey escaped as the collapsing window shredded the enemy vessel nearly in half.
---
Meanwhile, surviving darts pressed toward Earth.
Admiral Grant refused them passage.
The Nimitz battle group advanced.
Grodin fire raked the incoming wave, but numbers remained high.
So Nimitz unleashed Aegis.
Six hundred launch cells opened.
Missiles roared into space—accelerating to near-light speed.
No explosives.
Just kinetic death.
At those velocities, impact was annihilation.
Darts vanished in chains of light.
UCAVs and F-302s cleaned up the rest.
Within a minute, nothing remained but drifting debris.
---
Arkos
The captured Ori warship entered the battle.
Three men aboard.
No hesitation.
Ferretti gave the order.
They jumped.
Emerging into chaos, they joined the fight instantly.
Moments later, reinforcements arrived—Aurora-class vessels, Replicator ships.
Together, they unleashed devastation.
The remaining Hives turned and fled.
Earth was still their goal.
---
Homeworld Command – Pentagon
The battle map told a grim story.
Wraith ships closing.
Too few defenders.
General Jack O'Neill saw the problem immediately.
No drones.
No fire from Antarctica.
No one in the chair.
That changed fast.
O'Neill ran.
Down stairwells, through corridors—no hesitation.
He reached the chair.
Sat.
Activated.
The system responded instantly.
---
Antarctica
Nine thousand drones launched.
A golden river of light.
They crossed continents, oceans, cities.
People looked up in awe.
No one fully understood.
But they cheered anyway.
---
Beyond Earth's Moon
The final battle.
Nimitz and her escorts advanced.
Darts swarmed.
Fighters clashed.
Then—
The drones arrived.
A golden tide.
They cut through everything.
Effortless.
Precise.
Unstoppable.
Cruisers died.
Hives followed.
For three minutes, destruction reigned.
Then—
Silence.
Only Tauri ships remained.
---
Across two galaxies, wreckage drifted.
The cost had been staggering.
Ships lost.
Lives lost.
But Earth survived.
Bloodied.
Unbowed.
Humanity lived to fight another day.