Elena nodded as she moved the R-547 through the debris field until she was a clearing over where the settlement was and got into a very low orbit over the area. "Starting the scans now General Black." She said looking down towards the sensor and quickly picked up the Nyx before watching it disappear once more. She could still see the energy signatures coming from the surface around the settlement and where the gate was, Elena then decided to start scanning around the immediate area for any other anomalies. "I'm still getting the energy signatures around the area of the gate, I think it might be safe to beam down the other teams."

Lawson

Lawson watched as the ship was brought into orbit of the ship, the ship had been tested sure but that was the shakedown cruise. He was watching everything work trying to make sure those handling the ship were doing it properly and that the ship was working properly. On the bright side the R-547 worked fined. He watched as the recon craft and her pilot returned too the bay, at the same time the ground team was beamed down to the area around the stargate, which according to the sensors deactivated at the same time. Lawson looked back at the General, and though she, as usual, look hardened he knew this was the time she hated most. The ground team was away, and they were doing their own thing.

That was that, they would just have to trust that they knew what they were doing. However looking at the sensor data he had another idea. One he felt the General would like, and would give himself and some other people something to do during the wait as well. "General, there's a Ha'tak out there possibly salvageable. It has atmosphere in most sections, permission to join an away party to go across to the other ship? I am sure that the pack members still alive on the planet would like to get their ship back in working order."

The moment they were beamed to the surface, Miyako, pulled her rifle right away and fell on a knee to prepare for possible fight just in case. She knew sometimes the scans of the surface were not always completely accurate. This time it seemed that was not the case as there were no incoming fire the moment they appeared. Lowering her rifle as she stood up, she looked around once again.

“I hear no weapons fire of any kind…” The medic stated and looked at the other soldiers. Both of the squads had their orders and they needed to stick to them for the moment. She turned in the direction of the settlement and after waiting for a few moments for the rest of her squad to prepare and eventually head to the settlement.

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

Miyako immediately halted any movement the moment she noticed the pattern in the ground when they neared the settlement. Those looked very similar to tank tracks. Something definitely went down here. There were also fires burning that could be heard and seen. The most important thing she heard though were screams of pain. Someone was wounded and was alive. Making sure her weapon was ready, Miyako began walking forwards in the closest direction of the screams. If they needed answers well a survivor of whatever went down was going to be the best source.” Is the situation at the gate clear? There are marks of heavy war machinery here and traces of battle at the settlement.” She reported over the radio. Now her first and most important priority was to find survivors and keep them alive.

Tanaka looked to the tracks and to the billowing pillars of acrid smoke. “Team let go take it slow and be ready for triage if the place is clear.” He said as he slowly started moving forward with his weapon at the ready scanning his surroundings. “Team make wedge and call out anything out of the ordinary you see, Doc take up the middle behind me.” He said as they moved Martinez to left and Nielson to the right. He moved toward the settlement.” Doctor please wait until we clear the area before you start working on people, We don’t have the heavy weapons on hands to deal with armor.” He said in a hushed tone as he walked.

Elena received orders to return back to the Nyx, she steered the R-547 around flying through the remains of the wrecks in orbit it was a rather quick flight back as she landed the R-547 back into the hangar of the Nyx. Flipping off all of the ship's controls, she unclipped the oxygen mask and pulled the pilot helmet off of her face. Elena took off the specially made flight jacket off of her as well laying it neatly in the pilots seat, pulling herself up and out of the cockpit Elena climbed down the ladder seeing the crew getting to work on the R-547 and refueling her for its next mission whenever that would be.

Elena decided to report back to General Black and Dr. Lawson, making her way over towards the bridge it took her sometime to find her way there. Overhearing Lawson asking General Black to get onto the Ha'Tak that was mostly intact, Elena gave the general a salute. "Lieutenant Fowler reporting that the R-547 worked perfectly."

The info coming from the planet was worrisome. SG teams in general weren't equipped to take on armor outside of guerrilla tactics. "Move us to low orbit, see if we can lay eyes on the enemy." Black ordered. There was something wrong with this setting, and she intended to find out what. "On screen, ma'am."

Having a look at the display, Kat overlaid a dimension grid over the screen. "That's too big to have come through the gate." she realized. That meant that either it was local, which she doubted, or, given the debris in orbit, a ship - or ships - dropped the armor off. "Alright people, change of plans. Drop the cloak and scan with everything we got. If somebody lingered to observe, I want them found. Stay sharp, we know little about this enemy so have the shields up and guns warm."

"The ground teams are not to engage the enemy - what are those even, drones? Have them observe and spot and let our railguns and piranhas pick them off for them. Have the missiles target outside of inhabited areas, and guns putting precision shots in where needed. Notify the ground teams of the nature fo the enemy and see if you can find out a pattern in their movements."

Turning to the now arriving Fowler, she nodded: "I'd like you to write down your opinions in detail, but that can wait. Go freshen up, you might be launching again depending on how the situation develops." she instructed and went back to see if the sensors picked up anything.

Tanaka’s sense of smell was assaulted by the smell of death and burnt flesh as he led the team into the settlement through a wall of smoke with screams growing louder as shadowy form started to materialize as the team grew closer. ”Stay close to the doctor we need to be careful here panicking people can be like cornered animals.” Tanaka said as he advanced the team through the last part of the thick wall of smoke. He passed a charred body lifeless body in the road as people were running around trying to cope with the aftermath of the attack, Bodies of dead and wounded filled the street as some were being treated well other people were just adding to the Chaos. He grabbed the shoulder of a man “I’m second Lieutenant Tanaka of Home world Command what has happened here?” he asked the man seeing panic in his eyes hoping he could find some answers.

Motion, in two theatres of combat. Inside the wreckage, robotic drones activated as soon as the Nyx decloaked. Apparently de-activated within the debris field they lurched out of the carcas off the Ha'tak like flies hatching from a dead host. Almost one hundred drones came streaming at the Nyx, when within range they released an unrelenting barrage of laser fire in perfect unison. While there were dozens of drones they moved and fired as if one ship. Trying to get shots in before the Nyx had a chance to respond.

Likewise, on the planet. The ground began to move and shift between the Stargate and the Settlement, at varying distances. Some of the ground was shifting barely a few metres away from the ground team as if it was sinking. However within a couple of seconds a clumsy looking device came out. A blocky humanoid torso started to rise, at the ends of its arms were some form of emitters though instead of legs it had tracks which struggled for purchase before gaining grip. "They're back!" one of the men in the settlement shouted, before firing a staff blast at one of the drones. The blast seemed to not bother it. It took several more before the robot just stopped. More and more of them began crawling out of the ground. The emitters on the end of their arms began firing, red hot laser blasts firing into the settlement, searing through the weak structures and into whoever was unlucky enough to get in their way.

Meanwhile Lawson was watching this on the screen, notcing the drones the second the sensors picked them up, hitting a key to bring shields to full strength. "We've got contacts-" There was another ping, and he moved over to another station. He really should have added his own in the room. "-Multiple, and we've got some form of contacts on the ground too."

“I’m sure the enemy has armored mechanical units, look at the tracks in the ground.” Miyako pointed out as she was studying the charred body.” Some form of energy weapon was at work here… powerful one at that.”

“Holy…” The lt. colonel shouted as saw the machine rise from the ground. The woman quickly jumped behind the strongest cover she saw.” Bloody knew it!” She shouted as the lasers blast began firing around and more machines began appearing.

“Those bastards have some form of energy resisting armor!” She shouted at the people who had staff weapons in attempt to stop them from becoming additional victims to the machines.” Don’t bother showing up and become a target!” Afterwards she very quickly looked over her cover to check the number of enemies and fired a single shot at the closest one to check the effects of their ammunition on it’s armor.

“2nd Lieutenant, what’s our plan of action?” She asked as a laser hit right next to her on her cover. It wasn’t going to stand much more impacts.

It worked - somewhat. Kat's plan was to draw out the enemy, yes. She did not expect a swarm of fighters though, rather preparing for the usual ship, or more of them. "Here we go. Railgun positions open fire, fire at will. I want those piranhas ready ASAP. Launch Alpha wing, have them punch a hole through to the planet and play ground support. Keep the main guns primed, something had to drop these things off!"

As the orders were given, Black observed the enemy. No life signs on board. Weapons packed a punch, as their dropping shield levels suggested. And mechanized ground infantry to boot. Definitely not the lucian alliance though. There was only one race that had this kind of technology, provided the enemy was someone they met. Apparently, the Aschen did not quite learn their lesson yet. A thought of ordering a jump to Aschen Prime and letting loose from the spinal cannon from a safe distance was certainly luring, but Landry and O'Neill would probably have her head for that. Oh well, next time.

The missile silos popped open and let the missiles loose. Short while after the Piranhas shed their fairings and released their submunitions that sought the enemy drones.

Empty casings trailed behind Tanaka as he fired at the drone putting a handful of shots into the center mass of the drone. He slid behind a corner of a smoldering building and released the half empty magazine and slid it into his plate carrier and replaced it with a fresh new magazine. Neilson and Mendoza weren’t far away putting fire into the drones from their cover; Mendoza saw roared unloading a fury of fire into the drones well Neilson fired slowly and accurately. “Neilson ,Miyoka get these people moving and find a place to hole up, we will buy some breathing room!” Bellowed Tanaka over the den of battle as he fired on the drone as lasers ate away at his cover. He pulled a frag grenade from his carrier and pulled the pin and counted. “Ichi, Ni, San.” He lobbed the grenade at the drone that had taken so many shots and timed it perfectly as the grenade exploded at point blank range finally bringing it to a stop. He released a salvo of combining his fire with Martinez well Neilson threw a smoke grenade between them and the drones before he fell back. “Everyone to the gate go!” He roared as he continued putting fire along with Martinez into the smoke. He fell onto his hunches as a laser passed closely to his shoulder burning through material and the top layer of flesh. He immediately went to work pulling the two blocks of C-4 from his pack and jamming detonators into the putty like bricks.

The drones on the ground continued to push against the settlement, still more crawling their way out of the ground. Some of them beginning to move in a curve to surround the settlement in retaliation to the new found resistance they seemed to be encountering.

---

In space the first wave of drones was torn to shreds from the pirranha missiles and other point defense systems, warranting a change of tactics, pulling themselves closer to the ship in order to try and draw the missiles from the Nyx to turn back on itself and cause self harm. Which was necessary as though while there was sustained fire the weapons of the drones were doing little to the shields of the Nyx. That was, when a large portion of guns were turned away from the rear. Another ship appeared, decloaking. It looked like a predatory fish, long and sleek in design. The hull began to flare with power, and then seemingly from nowhere in particular a beam of high energy pierced space making contact with the shields of the Nyx

---

The ship shook slightly, an damage alarm went off. Lawson had since pushed the poor officer out of his seat, he was navigation anyway. Lawson needed the seat. "Shields are holding at eighty seven percent, minimal damage. That was a hell of a beam, that would have damn near tore an old 303s shielding." He began looking over the readouts of the new ship, bringing up a hologram on one of the Generals screens.

"She's aschen all right, from the telematry we managed to save the last time this appears to be the exact same class of ship as we've dealt with before. If we can hit her before she cloaks again with something big this fight should be over. They don't have defensive shielding. At least last time we came across one it didn't."

Elena nodded she was about to leave the bridge when she looked back over at one of the sensor displays the moment the Nyx decloaked she could see about a hundred or so blips appear quickly making their way towards the Nyx. She also looked down at the planet's surface. When General Black ordered to mobilize Alpha Wing she quickly left the bridge making her way back down to the hangar seeing as the other F-302 pilots quickly getting in Elena quickly suited up as well. Climbing into the F-302 Elena joined up with the rest of Alpha Wing, just as the railguns and piranha's opened up on the drones. "Five of you with me to the surface and provide ground support, the rest defend the Nyx." Elena ordered through the radio as four F-302's joined her firing the nose mounted railguns at the incoming drones.

Elena flew her F-302 through the atmosphere eventually making it to the surface opening up a channel to the ground team. "This is Lieutenant Fowler here to give you ground support, I recommend you take cover now." Elena said as she flew closer towards the settlement getting a better view of the tank like drones on the surface and quickly opened fire on the one closest to the ground team.

"Don't wait for me, engage!" Black ordered. There it was, what she has been searching for. Fortunately the crew had the rules of engagement drilled into them and the four main turrets of the Nyx were pointed in different directions. One managed to return fire immediately, and one more begun the small adjustment to it's targeting solution before it could do the same. the other two kept in place - it would take them too long to rotate and track their target. That, and that ship might not be the only one.

The laser array on the turret flared to life, sending an invisible beam of lightspeed death towards the ship. Something flashed on its hull flashed and started melting and evaporating. The captain could only hope they wouldn't maneuver fast enough until they suffered critical enough damage. "Try the rear, if they rely on thrust based engines that's where they're going to be." she advised from what she could see on the visualization. It either didn't have enough resolution, or the ship actually didn't have any turrets past the main weapon. Why'd that? Kat thought. There could have been a number of reasons, the most disturbing that they could aim theri main weapon in wide arc and recharge it fast enough not to need many more.

“Roger that, 2nd lieutenant!” Miyako shouted as she began moving back towards the village, without really stopping firing at the enemy and running from cover to cover to avoid getting roasted to death by those lasers.” Come one people, those who can move, help the heavy injured ones. We need to retreat is there a well fortified place inside the village?” The medic asked one of the people from the settlement.

“Negative! We won’t make it even halfway to the gate with those drones in the way.” Miyako replied to the order from the leader of the group she was with.” Additionally the enemy is moving in to surround the village! We need to retreat completely before we are surrounded!” She shouted as she was helping one of the injured people to move.” We need air support! Any ETA on it?” She asked before leaving the injured man to one of the locals and starting to shoot at the drones who were trying to surround them.

At that moment she heard the message that the air support have just arrived. She smiled as she saw the F-302s fly by and start firing on the drones.” Roger that, Lieutenant Fowler. I’m the medic assigned to the ground team, we are moving a group of survivors inwards towards the center of the village. There are enemy units trying to flank our position. The enemy have high energy weapon resistance, staff weapons are useless, rendering local firepower to zero. We require fast help with the surrounding enemy.” She said still taking shots at any drones she can see. If those drones managed to surround them, it was going to be a slaughter if they were caught in the open.

Tanaka closed his hand around the detonator in his hand sending a signal to the detonators in the C-4 destroying the base of a wall in a fiery explosion bringing it crumbling down atop a pair of drones that were grouped close together. Martinez and Tanaka supported each other as they sported and handful of burns from close laser blast." Air support your free to engage anything not within the center of the settlement marked with smoke!" He bellowed over the radio as he fired his Glock at the drones as they fought to keep their lead on the drones. " Neilson pop a smoke and keep these everyone's head down."He ordered as they continued falling back to the center of the settlement.

"Roger that, got the targets!" Elena said over the radio moved her F-302 and the other four split up to take out the other drones that were on the outside of the village. Seeing the closest drone as it turned around seeing the drone charging up it's energy weapon at a nearby building just outside of the village, firing the chin railguns at the drone the drone turned it's attention towards Elena's F-302 and fired it's shot missing the curved wing by inches leaving a scorch mark on the wing she continued to fire at the drone until it finally exploded. The other F-302's quickly finished their jobs with taking out the remaining drones around the village. "This is Lieutenant Fowler the drones are neutralized, we will remain close by in case anymore show up."

The coupled heavy lasers bit savagely into the Aschen ship. Delivering only thermal damage unlike the Asgard plasma beams, it took a little while but the hull begun to sizzle and boil where the invisible deadly beams impacted. The enemy tried to maneuver away, but it was of no use - the lightspeed weapons didn't require any lead at this distance and yet they were not close enough to outturn the turret. Just as the other turret powered up for a strike, the enemy got another shot out and blown it out of its ring. The Aschen tried to engage their cloak again, but the accumulated heat in the hull made the tactic ineffective - too much heat bled through and allowed the Nyx to line up a shot.

The Nyx shook as the spinal cannon accelerated their deadly shell. On impact, the round torn the enemy ship in half. Since the Nyx was staying still it wasn't a relativistic impact, but it did the trick. That said though, the drones were not relenting form their assault. "Get us moving and into the atmosphere, those things got to have lower limit on reentry speed than us. Once we're there might as well do ground support."

Two piranhas launched form the tubes and punched a hole in the cloud of drones in front of the Nyx, allowing the ship to accelerate out and into the atmosphere where the drones that followed burned and crashed. "Damage report?" Catherine asked.

"One of the main turrets is jammed - a kamikadze drone took it out. Minor electrical fires across the ship when the main weapon hit us and the innertial dampeners will need a revision, but we're still in combat shape." somebody reported. "Good, let's mop up on the ground and go home."

Lawson

Lawson ran his hand over the console. "Well, that wasn't overly exciting." Damage reports were already running over his screen most of them inconsequential, minor scarring and electrical fires. Nothing that a full on battle would have done. "You know Captain, I may be too good at my job. It could be hard finding a challenge for you over in Ida you know." He stood up from his station and sighed. "Sorry Captain, I'm just too good. Though what I will do is go and get you reports on the fights and set about doing the repairs." He began walking out of the bridge when one of the techs shouted. "We've got a contact!"

Before the General could do anything, or anyone could do anything two hyperspace windows opened. The Sol and the Langford both dropping out of hyperspace. While the Generals old ship was smaller the Sol was far, far bigger. Lawson regretted not working on the ship that would be the flagship of the entire Earth fleet. The transmission came through at was relayed onto the bridge. "Well Catherine. We came as soon as we could though I see that was a bit unnecessary." The voice of General O'Neill was easily recognizable as it came through the speakers.

"I'm kind of disappointed actually, I've not had the chance to put this ship through her paces. Though while we're here, I have brought you your crew and supplies. I know the original plan was to return to drydock but so long as there aren't any problems after seeing the ship in action the IOA and just about everyone else is wanting a 307. You ready to go? Or do I need to tell them to hold off?"

“Please remain calm and begin recovery of your wounded and we will do what we can to assist you!” Tanaka Shouted as he stood on some rubble sporting burns and small cuts from his withdrawal and a coating of sot well he got recovery underway. “ Nyx this is second lieutenant Tanaka were a little ruffed up but no worse for ware and have begun assisting the locals with their wounded.” He stated as he dropped from the rubble and was limping toward their casualty collection point. He came upon the CCP with wounded all across the ground.” We’re going to need some extra hands down here we got a lot of wounded locals, over.” He continued before ending the radio message waiting for a response.” You may want to give them a more defined casualty list, Miyako to get the help you need. “He said as he offered his canteen and his individual first aid kit (IFAK) to her to help stretch supplies.