Authors Note: This is an AU timeline style story based on an idea that's been bugging me for the last few days. I won't be updating it that often but thought I might as well share it with everyone and see what you think. ~~~///~~~ Stargate: A Burden Shared August 1997 Two Goa'uld Ha'tak-class vessels are destroyed in Earth orbit by SG-1 who against orders had left Earth and boarded the vessels in an attempt to stop the attack of the Goa'uld Apophis. In order to cover up the appearance and destruction of the vessels as well as the launch of a pair of nuclear missiles the SGC and Pentagon put out a report that two large asteroids were detected on a course to impact Earth and that the missiles were launched to deflect them away. While the explanation is accepted by the media and other national governments the attempted Goa'uld attack seriously rattles all involved with the stargate programme and the president. All are painfully aware of the fact that if SG-1 had not believed Daniel Jackson and defied orders then the Goa'uld would have caught Earth completely unprepared and would have had no trouble glassing the planet from orbit. They are also aware of the fact that the Goa'uld have now improved their hyperspace technology to the point that Ha'tak-class vessels can reach Earth orbit within days at most from anywhere in the galaxy and that Earth has nothing in its arsenal capable of threatening an orbiting Goa'uld warship. President Clinton overrides the previous shut down order for Stargate Command but also agrees somewhat with Senator Kinsey that the Stargate is extremely dangerous and represents – due to the Goa'uld a threat to the entire planet. After carefull thought on the matter Clinton comes to the conclusion that the threat of the Goa'uld System Lords is to great for the United States to handle alone and that the time has come to start bringing in support from some allies. Despite protests from some in the Pentagon and the NID Clinton makes the decision to do what he terms 'I should have done in the first place' to inform a number of the NATO countries. Despite a last minute appeal to reconsider by a coalition of air force generals Clinton proceeds with his plans and invites the Canadian, British, French and German ambassadors to a private briefing at the Pentagon. Durirng the meeting Clinton and Colonel Simmons brief the ambassadors on the stargate, the threat of the Goa'uld to Earth and true nature of what happened in orbit at the beginning of the month. Holding nothing back he even admits to the US having two badly scorched Goa'uld fighters that are being held for analysis and possible reverse engineering. He also requests their assistance in the war against the System Lords. To say that the ambassadors and their respective governments are shocked by the revelations is an understatement. Clinton and the Pentagon are severely criticised for waiting so long to tell them and for arrogantly assuming the US had the right to act on behalf of the entire planet and get them into an interstellar war without even having the decency to ask first. The governments now in the know meet with each other – without US officials being present – to decide on how to respond to the threat of the Goa'uld and the US request for assistance. September 1997 After in depth discussions between themselves the governments send the British Ambassador to speak with President Clinton and the head of the air force on their collective behalf. They agree to provide assistance but have a number of demands and strings attached to the agreement the biggest being they want full participation in the stargate as equal partners – there will be no continued US dominance over the stargate and any technologies developed from its useage, the transfer of the stargate from the current locatioin under Cheyenne Mountain to a new custom built facility operated by members of all their militaries and that all matters related to the stargate now report to a joint council formed by senior members of the militaries and defence ministers of all involved. Though he finds some of the demands of the NATO counteries unpalatable Clinton agrees to their requests. Construction of a new facility to house the stargate in the Canadian arctic will begin immediately under the guise of a new arctic research facility, in the meantime General Hammond and the SGC are reinforced by new SG teams drawn from the militaries of the NATO counteries and are transferred to the control of the new Stargate Council which will meet temporarily in the Pentagon until custom facilities are built. Simultaneously new scientists arrive at Area 51 to commence the analysis of the two damaged Goa'uld fighters in US possession until the fighters can be transferred to new custom research facilities that have begun construction beneath the French Alps. Before the new SG teams can properly settle in the SGC experiences its first crisis under the new international regime. SG-1 are on the planet Nasaya when it is attacked by Goa'uld forces under the System Lord Cronus, they immediately evacuate the Nasayan people back to the SGC via the stargate but in the process Major Carter is infected by a Goa'uld symbiote. When discovered the symbiote inside Carter claims to not be a Goa'uld at all but a member of the Tok'ra a subgroup that broke away from the main Goa'uld race thousands of years ago. While old time members of the SGC such as Colonel O'Neill are reluctant to believe a 'snake' some of newer members are willing to give Jolinar the benefit of the doubt, especially when Teal'c confirms that the Tok'ra are indeed real. Reluctantly General Hammond refers the matter to the Stargate Council and senior military officials arrive to formally question Jolinar about the Tok'ra. It is at this time that another symbiote is revealed to be on Earth an elite assasin known as an Ashrak sent by the Goa'uld System Lords to kill Jolinar. A trap is set for the Ashrak and when the assassin infiltrates the SGC to kill Jolinar he finds an armed party of marines in Jolinar's 'cell' as opposed to his targat. In the following shoot out the Ashrak is killed. Jolinar is impressed and offers additional information on the Tok'ra and how to contact them. After a somewhat heated debate the decision is made to contact the Tok'ra. In the meantime Jolinar/Carter is moved to accomodation more suited to a guest than a prisoner. October 1997 The Tok'ra respond to the attempts by the SGC to contact them and agree to a meeting on an uninhabited planet. Jolinar/Carter accompanies the teams sent through to the meeting with SG-1 following along, upon contact the Tok'ra representative Martouf/Lantash is visibly shocked and delighted that Jolinar is alive as the Tok'ra had believed her to have perished. When Jolinar reveals the details of how she came to be in her present host Martouf contacts the rest of the Tok'ra and a willing new host comes through the stargate for Jolinar to transfer into. Accompanying the new host Tellyn is Ren'al another member of the Tok'ra High Council who makes a tentative offer of friendship with Earth as both have the same enemy in the form of the System Lords. The offer is accepted and Ren'al hands over a Tollan interstellar communications device for the SGC to use to contact them and in return is given a Sagan box to throw through the stargate if the Tok'ra ever wish to contact Earth. With Jolinar now transferred into Tellyn she shares a private few minutes talk with Carter in which the two decide to continue the friendship that built up between them during the time that Carter was a host. Shortly thereafter the SG teams and the Tok'ra both depart. Back on Earth Carter testifies to the Stargate Council about the Tok'ra, her testimony brings a sense of hope to the Council that they maybe on the cusp of having their first real ally in the war with the Goa'uld System Lords. Carter also reveals the location of a world given to her by Jolinar where the SGC will find a metallic ore that would be of huge benefit to them. Specialist survey teams and a military escort are sent to the world in question where they soon find rich deposits of a metal ore that when refined produces a metal a hundred times lighter than the best steel and over a hundred times stronger making it the strongest metal known to exist to Earth science replacing titanium. Carter reveals that the metal is referred to as trinium and next to naquada is one of the main building blocks of Goa'uld technology, in particular what they build all their spacecraft from fighters to Ha'tak motherships from. A decision is immediately made to establish a base to begin mining and refining the material. December 1997 The SGC is startled when the stargate is activated and a Sagan box thrown through to disintegrate against the iris. Analysis reveals it is the box the SGC left on Cimmeria the year before to give to Thor. A probe sent through finds Caerwyn cradling her dead husband and pleading into the camera for assistance as her world has come under Eten (Goa'uld) attack. Feeling guilty about the attack – as they did disable the Cimmerian defence Thor's Hammer to save Teal'c – the SGC asks the Stargate Council to authorise the deployment of a force to assist the Cimmerians. The request is granted and SG-1 leads a team of mixed US marines and British Royal Marines through the stargate to Cimmeria. On Cimmeria they learn that the planet is under attack from the System Lord Heru'ur who is attempting to replace his slain 'father' Ra as Supreme System Lord but currently lacks sufficient territory or resources to subdue the other System Lords and make the accept him in that position. They also learn of the existance of the Hall of Thor's Might where Thor supposedly left something that could be used to protect the planet from the Goa'uld. Believing that the Hall of Thor's Might holds some advanced alien weapons Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter join Caerwyn to access it while Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c and the marines attempt to slow down Heru'ur's conquesst of the planet through gurilla warfare tactics. The attempt is only partially sucessful as Heru'ur has brought a very large force of his Jaffa to Cimmeria. Meanwhile Jackson, Carter and Caerwyn have gained access to the Hall of Thor's Might and after passing a series of tests have come face to face with Thor himself – a Roswell Grey. Thor is startled by the events on Cimmeria and returns Jackson and Carter to the surface of Cimmeria while he speaks alone with Caerwyn. Shortly thereafter a massive alien ship descends from the sky over Cimmeria which a stunned Teal'c reveals to be an Asgard mothership. Before the amazed eyes of the SG teams Thor's ship disintegrates the entire Jaffa army and the landing pyramids they were building using blue-white rays of light. Heru'ur only just escapes through the stargate – fleeing while his army on Cimmeria is utterly annihilated by the vastly more powerful Asgard. After Caerwyn appears in a flash of light the Asgard vessel withdraws – fading into invisibility before returning to orbit. Caerwyn explains the nature of the Asgard and that they are no friends of the Goa'uld. When asked if the Asgard would consider contact with Earth Caerwyn explains that like the Cimmerians Earth is considered to young for that among the Asgard. Thor however will leave a teacher to help the Cimmerians now that they are exposed to the true nature of the universe and will repair the defence the Cimmerians had but with an exception to allow Teal'c access to the planet. After bidding goodbye to Caerwyn the SG teams return to Earth. While the situation on Cimmeria was being resolved the scientists at Area 51 made a breakthrough in their understanding of the power plants used by the Goa'uld fighters. They now believe that with some more time they could duplicate it and a number of other systems on the fighter but to do so they need access to more naquada than the small amounts individual SG teams have periodically brought back to Earth. Members of the Stargate Council reviewing previous SG mission reports notice that there is a major source of naquada that has so far been untapped, the original world the first SG mission went to Abydos. It is proposed that a delegation be sent to Abydos to discuss with the native population the possibility of establishing mining rights to the mineral in exchange for more assistance from Earth. However a decision on the matter is postponed until the new year.
Extremely nice. that's one of the things that has always bugged me about the series. There was an active mine on Abydos during the Movie, and yet, the SGC never even bothered to try mining it. Even if it had almost been completely mined out by the Abydonian's, it's likely that the SGC could have used modern mining methods to locate, mine and refine Naquadah, from locations that the Abydonian's couldn't reach, and from areas that had already been mined, as the Abydonian's/goa'uld's mining process is extremely inefficient
Interesting... very nice so far... TOC : Ajw . Timeline Archived .A Burden Shared Timeline Only Ajw.CH_01a -.BurdenShared -_ 2Ha'taks, Clinton&Brits, CanadianArtic, SGC, Jack&Jolinar, Teal'c&Carter, Cimmeria&Thor Ajw.CH_02a -.Jan 1998 -_ Abydos; Jackson, Shyla&Pyrus, Hammond&SGTeams, Feretti&Frasier, TellynJolinar, Sarcoughagus Ajw . CH_03a .CanadianArctic -_ New SGC Facilities; Sarcoughagus, Tok'ra, Area51, Researches Ajw . CH_03b .SGC Council -_ Daniel, Abydos, Tok'ra, Tel'tac, Battle, Apophis&Heru'ur, Sha're, BabyGone xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The gate was buried save for specific times if I remember, it's also possible that the mine was abandoned after Ra died and the people moved, primarily, to more hospitable portions of the planet since they no longer needed to supply Ra with a mineral they had no use for themselves
Bill McKay's Stargate continuation novels (which are based off of the movie and have nothing to do with SG-1) deal with this. The novel Retribution is about the US military establishing a massive presence on Abydos (complete with armored divisions and AH-64s) and a multinational contractor taking over the mines. The Abydonians begin to feel as if they've thrown off one conqueror and replaced it with another. It's an interesting read, if a little on the nose in some places. Still, on a tv budget you can't show a massive mine like we saw in the movie. They could have mentioned it in passing though. They might have decided against it given that Herur and Apophis both showed up on Abydos--it was too well known perhaps.
I think this would go more along the UN blue helmets type of deployment (particularly the permanent security members plus the two non permanent nuclears) and a few others, not a NATO exclusive. although NATO countries would get more representation that other non nuclear forces... Going solely NATO would be somewhat hard, and it would get pushed into UN Security council jurisdiction. in season 1/2 the permanent security members (russia , china,) and the non permanent members would insist upon that rather heavily... and would have the means to force the issue. And making it a NATO exclusive would rather heat up the rather calm nature of things. other that that, this has my interest piqued.
Russia will be involved eventually. Though what you have to remember is at this point the timeline is at 97/98 the Cold War hasn't really been over for that long yet (just 6/7 years) so the US and Russia still regard each other with a fair amount of suspicion and paranoia that has yet to fade. Politically it was alot easier for Clinton to just involve NATO to start with, and even then he had to have a major argument with his generals about it as they wanted the stargate and everything to do with it to be US only.
this will not make it less of a cold war. And when the Russians do recover their gate, they will definitely not share. Then there will be two star-gates and a new cold war, with either proxy warfare and off world shoot ours or a rabbit tech race if the UN can make it somewhat civil, that will make the American SGC (and the russian, chinese, indian, whatever)act lice cannon X-com eventually. Yeah. not really appealing. that is the good reason to put in under UN authority OOC wise. In Greenland perhaps. or somewhere. or allow non-NATO nuclears immediate access. Else it gets to such a outcome.
The Second gate was discovered in Antarctica, at the tale end of Season 2 IIRC? almost a year after all of this;7 The only reason they (Russians) had a gate was because Jack and co beamed the SGC gate up to Thor's ship in one episode to escape it before it crashed into the ocean; the ship burnt up in atmo but the gate survived and was found at the bottom of the ocean by the Russians -- and the SGC started using the Antarctic gate beleiving the Giza Platue Gate had been destroyed. Then Maybourne and the NID -- commiting treason by the by IIRC - gave the russians the sgc mission files and the russians found the missing Giza DHD during world war 2. P
well, is it? or is the fake one there with the NID having stolen the original? If it's still there, I can see it being transferred somewhere and set up as a secondary base, for emergencies, rather than having a permanent iris welded over it.
Yes there is. As I recall during the episode where Sokar attacked the SGC by firing a particle beam through the wormhole Martouf gave the SGC a Tollan comm device at the end so they could call the Tok'ra if they ever needed to meet. As I recall he said that the Tollan and Tok'ra are friends, which is also implied in the ease with which the Tollan Curia could summon the Tok'ra to Tollana to remove Klorel from Skaara during the episode Pretense.
Carter's only a Captain at this point, not a Major. She didn't get promoted until the 2nd episode of Season Three, when Thor showed up to get Earth included in the Protected Planets Treaty.
Very interesting so far. Just a question, is it going to be only the US designing the ships, or are the other Countries going to design some themselves?
Just so long as we don’t get something as retarded as the Prometheus. Interesting story, I look forward to seeing where it goes. By the way, the hyperdrive used in the early seasons wasn’t at the ‘cross the galaxy in days/hours’ level. That didn’t happen till Anubis came back with his knowledge of ancient tech.
Except at this time, the western countries don't trust Russia, China is a growing power (but, once more, not trusted) and the other countries in the UN? Would you really trust some of them with SG tech as of this time? The only reason that Russia got into the SGC in the first place was from blackmail and that's it. Then they tried to bring in the Chinese and that caused the US to bring in their allies. The 303 was idiotic true. However what was more so was that they didn't build anymore between then and when the 304 design was finalized. Even the russians were given the design and did nothing. Also, it seemed like they had, what? 3 designs in fifteen years and nothing more? You would think that they would have a small In-System defence ship just in case. As for the Hyperdrives, the upgraded Goa'uld could cross the galaxy in weeks, but across a System Lord's domain in days.
Not really. Going by the dubiously canon RPG, Ra hoarded some of the more impressive technologies for himself, including faster hyperdrive designs (though not Anubis-grade). Upon his untimely death, many of those technologies fell into the hands of his most frequent competitors and/or family members. Apophis and Heru'ur more than qualify as those. And if Cronus' Ha'tak is any indication, ~32,000c is a frequently-quoted velocity for said hyperdrive design. So that staging area for Apophis' aborted attack on Earth had to be very close by to Earth already; likely one of Ra's former holdings in the general region of Abydos, or even closer.
The ships aren't going to be designed by the US air force as they were in SG canon, those adhoc jack-of-all-trades designs that the USAF laughingly called battlecruisers aren't going to appear in this story. As it is I'm thinking of four main capital ship types to be developed at different points, designed to give Earth a well rounded space fleet. These types are:- Frigate - Designed for system defence and shorter range scouting. Cruiser - General purpose warship carrying fighters as well as firepower appropriate to its size and weight class. Carrier - Exactly what it says it is, designed to carry a large number of fighters and troops but unlike a ocean going carrier has enough firepower to defend itself and be part of the battle line if needs be. Battleship - As with the carrier its exactly what it says it is. Basically this class will eventually come about as a Earth equivelent of a Goa'uld command ship and will serve much the same purpose i.e fleet command and be very few in number. Add in fighters and short range non-FTL capable defence craft like a kind of spacegoing cost guard cutter and I hope to give this Earth a better space force than the canon one. Weapons wise I'm inclined to have Earth work with advanced forms of kinetic weaponry on its ships - at least for awhile until they figure out how to make their own directed energy weapons. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
One thing I'm hoping is that the Stargate Council manages to start building some fighter/attack type craft, and hopefully at least a year or so sooner than OTL. Even if it's basically a AU version of the canon F-302, if they can start building them sooner, and maybe get to the point where they are turning out at least a dozen or so a month if not more, that would make a huge difference. That amazed me in the final Atlantis episode. All the tech and resources, they'd managed to get four Deadalus class ships into service and the George Hammond was about to enter service, and when a Wraith ship attacks Earth they have maybe twenty F-302s tops. Heck, they should have had 200. One big thing I'm curious about, come season 3 when Earth starts dealing with the Tollan again, will their relations be improved at all by having more nations involved, even if the general public is still in the dark?
I do plan for a viable Earth grown fighter design to become available far sooner than the canon time i.e season six. To tell the truth I've never been that impressed with the F-302 its a terrible design and nothing but a cheap no-frills knock off of a Goa'uld Udajeet (death glider). My personal leaning towards fighter design for Earth fighters is something slender and sleek, designed to be able to fly through a stargate if needs be. Picture something similar to a Colonial Viper from both versions of battlestar galactica in style.
A few suggestions, some of them long-term: Destroyer: A "Pocket Battleship". Meant to give "ship of the wall" class re-enforcement to small fleets - Say, three-five cruisers and one destroyer. Most likely a later design. Missile Ship: Missiles, lots of. This would provide long-range strike capability, space superiority and the ability to overwhelm "point-defense". Later, tractored pods (Yes, I got that from the Honorverse). Most likely a later design. Railship: Possibly a later design; possibly something to do now. One giant railgun (or coilgun) with a ship wrapped around it. Long-range strike for massive damage. Cruiser: "General-purpose warships" should be a stop-gap solution. Once that's done with, turn them into long-range, fast, armed and armoured warships. Cruiser Refits: Fleet Carrier: Replaces the fighter capability of the cruiser. Basically a cruiser hull with most weapons taken out in favor of fighter launch bays and internal storage dedicated to fighters. Can still fight if it has to, at least long enough to retreat in decent shap. Explorer: A cruiser hull with some of the weapons taken out and replaced with sensors; dedicated sensor-processing computers. An exploration fleet would probably be one Explorer, two Cruisers and one Fleet Carrier. These would hang back while the Explorer does the actual contact - "Speak softly and carry a big stick." PD Ship: A cruiser hull with not much in the way of main weapons, but lots and lots of point-defense. Intended purpose is to provide fleet impenetrability vs fighters and missiles. Fighters: Intercepter: For shooting down other fighters. Missile/Bomber: Slow, lots of space for munitions, heavier armour. Can be outfitted for anti-shipping or interception (eight anti-fighter missiles from every M/B fighter should do a number on enemy fighters...) Scout: Stealthed as much as possible, as fast as possible, the best passive sensors possible and with a teeny, probably short-range hyperdrive. Get in, get the data and get out. Alternately, a long-range hyperdrive. Possibly two versions of scouts.
Sounds like a design by committee. First, without Ancient drones Earth fighters in Stargate do not carry effective anti-ship weapons. The Goa'uld used fighters against ground and atmosphere targets. The Wraith never scored a ship kill with their fighters, they were used as assault transports or point defense or dogfighters. Against Atlantis itself the best idea was to ram it at hypersonic speeds while the shield was down. The Ancients and Asgard had moved beyond fighters long ago. That leaves the fighters as ground support, which matches nicely with the troops on board the carrier. Like a modern day amphibious assault craft. But troop ship never never never never stand in the battleline. That's what their escorts are for. A 'carrier' with troops and also capable as a ship of the line? That is a battlestar equivalent, and those do not work on the design paradigm of every stargate power. Again, fighters and specialized fighter carrying ships when the best armament are cannons and nukes? In stargate? There are SF settings where fighters work in fleet combat. Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, ... . NOT Stargate. You want a carrier here, you need to make fighters viable first.
They didn't need 'em. The whole point of the 302 was to go up against death gliders (and potentially, the Hatak carrying them), back when all they had to work with for space superiority was the death glider design. That fell by the wayside when they brought the 303 (and later, the finalized 304 design) online. Makes sense then why the 303 and 304 had such limited hangar space. Yes, they could act as fighter carriers in a pinch, but they still worked within the Air Force mindset of only carrying enough for a single mission, as opposed to carrying enough for a deployment away from home that could easily last several years.
