The Birth of Iconia

Chapter 19

A/N We do not own any of the franchises represented herein. We are just fans.

Chapter 19

One month after the Iconian attack at Origin, news came from Che Ryl of berserker drones attacking human worlds in the Cimmerian part of the galaxy.

Thor was in Atlantis when news came, and O'Neill started pounding on the door of the apartment Thor used while on Earth. Thor opened it and O'Neill stood toe to toe with him. In a bit of irony, Thor actually had two inches on O'Neill now.

"You said the Berserker drones weren't a problem, Thor," O'Neill said, his voice icy calm.

"I know I did, O'Neill," Thor said, his voice heavy with sadness. He turned and sat down heavily on one of the couches in the room.

O'Neill, for his part, was left unsure what to do. He had been prepared for defensiveness from Thor. Instead, Thor was clearly as confused as O'Neill about the attack. He sat down across from Thor and they didn't say anything for a long while. Finally, Thor said, "We need to get out there, see how many drones we're dealing with, and take them out."

O'Neill slowly nodded. "I agree, but let's make sure this ends them. I don't want to be worrying about drones when we've got the Ori to contend with."

Thor and O'Neill met with Bra'tac and they dispatched forty Iconian ships to deal with the drones. The drones were in deep space, moving in tight formation, heading in the general direction of Galara. Major General Cameron Mitchell was in charge of the Iconian fleet, and his flagship, the Valhalla, launched its starfighters as soon as they dropped out of hyperspace. The second Valhalla, Yggdrasil, did the same. Ca Rel, The Commander of the Air Group on Valhalla had his wing line up on the drones. "It's like shooting ducks in a barrel!" he exclaimed as he started his run.

"More like Galaga!" Joey Thompson, his second in command shouted as he started a run. "Just hold your trigger and you'll hit one of them!" He gave a war cry as he started his run, and while it wasn't quite as easy as he said, it did seem as though every shot he and his squadron made was connecting with a drone.

On the other side of the drone formation from Valhalla's air wing was Yggdrasil's. The CAG for this wing was Ca Ra. After the Battle of Heliopolis, she and her brother had both received their postings. Placing Ascended Ancients aboard the Terran carriers had triggered some animosity among the Terran elite fighters, but that faded soon after the skills the Ancients were demonstrated. In turn, the Terrans impressed the Ancients with their skills, and a competition was started between the two carrier's air wings. For this battle, Ca Ra and Ca Rel had decided their air wings would meet at the center of the formation of drones, giving each wing five layers of drones to work through.

Ca Ra started her run, and immediately realized something was wrong. She pulled her formation away from the drones and watched as the next formation attacked. "Yggdrasil, can you give me a reading on the shield frequencies these drones are using?"

"Affirmative, CAG. They appear to be identical to Ha'tak frequencies."

"What?" Ca Ra exclaimed. "How can they be identical?"

The flight officer aboard the carrier sounded perplexed. "Unknown, CAG. But I can superimpose the frequency scans on each other and there are no variations at all."

On board Valhalla, Mitchell was listening in. "The missing Ha'tak," he said into his microphone.

"That's a good bet, Sir," Ca Rel said. He had realized the problem almost as fast as his sister. "Recommend we use phasing drones." Both his and his sister's ships were the Alteran version of the starfighters, but the vast majority of his air wing had Terran versions. The fighters were being upgraded, but only twelve percent of his wing had been completed.