1 Jan 2000The first order of business for the SGC fleet was to survey the Sol system for mineral sources and hyperspace jump points which could allow access to nearby star systems. A shocking find was announced on 26 February, as Major Chaing Shu Huan radioed his superiors aboard HMS Royal Sovereign and was immediately forwarded to the SGC command office on Earth. Major Huan, commanding an Athena-class geosurvey craft, had located the ruins of what had once been an extensive alien city sprawling across the surface of Mars. This precipitated the first major offworld military expedition by spaceborne transports in human history, with the SG-33 and 34 xenoarcheology divisions deployed to Mars, accompanied by the US 7th Infantry Division with two Kodiak BCTs and the SG-904 surface defense brigade. While the Solar system was generally considered safe from alien influences, the SGC had learned from experience with the Stargate project not to take any chances. The xenoarcheologists reported on 29 April that the ruins showed evidence that the race known from the Stargate project as the Ancients had been present, although the colony proper was not Ancient in origin. Over 150 installations remained intact and could be recovered by skilled construction teams, prompting the SGC to deploy the three engineering brigades of the Third Army to Mars, which immediately set about restoring the indicated facilities.
Aside from this startling discovery, the geological survey of Sol revealed several suitable colony sites, including Luna which would provide a strategic corundium reserve in addition to being relatively easy to terraform. Earth-based mining corporations eagerly awaited the survey results, wasting no time establishing for-profit enterprises on suitable bodies throughout the solar system. Major Alphonso Hikes reported strange anomalies in the geosurvey of Venus, which could not be resolved by orbital sensors, leading to the deployment of the SG-31 ground survey division to investigate. Curiously, survey craft commanders reported gaseous sorium within the atmospheres of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Neptune. In the long term, these could provide a valuable fuel source for Tau’ri ships, although the SGC had not anticipated this find and thus lacked any technology that could be used to extract these reserves.
Solar System Colonies:
Venus (ground survey 5 Apr 2000)
Duranium 36,927,043 → 60,611,147 Acc 0.8 → 0.9
Boronide 27,089,110 Acc 0.6
Corundium 14,079,305 Acc 0.1
*Neutronium 11,079,578 Acc 0.1
*Mercassium 21,155,584 Acc 0.1
Luna (populated colony, 1 Feb 2000)
Neutronium 1,652,202 Acc 0.2
Boronide 754,292 Acc 0.2
Corundium 188,573 Acc 0.9
Mars (military expedition, 26 Feb 2000)
Ruined City
Borrelly (asteroid miners, 25 Jun 2000)
Neutronium 37,338 Acc 0.9
Mercassium 30,201 Acc 0.9
Vendarite 15,780 Acc 1
Machholz (asteroid miners, 25 Feb 2000)
Duranium 48,711 Acc 0.8
Tritanium 5,951 Acc 1
Mercassium 41,801 Acc 0.8
Vendarite 22,509 Acc 0.7
Corundium 25,036 Acc 0.9
Reinmuth (asteroid miners, 11 Apr 2000)
Neutronium 59,153 Acc 0.8
Sorium 12,013 Acc 0.5
Uridium 32,396 Acc 0.9
Corundium 25,273 Acc 1
Van Biesbroeck (asteroid miners, 15 Mar 2000)
Neutronium 12,418 Acc 0.8
Boronide 71,930 Acc 0.8
Gallicite 26,852 Acc 0.9
Wild (asteroid miners, 4 Apr 2000)
Duranium 99,849 Acc 0.7
Corbomite 7,410 Acc 0.5
Sorium 40,748 Acc 0.8
Corundium 18,671 Acc 0.9
Chernykh (Farkas Group CMC, 1 Jul 2000)
Tritanium 19,671 Acc 0.9
Gallicite 27,809 Acc 1
Encke (Aksyonov Minerals & Ores CMC, 9 Mar 2000)
Duranium 63,569 Acc 0.8
Results from the gravitational survey took somewhat longer to materialize, but proved interesting as well. On 30 March, Major Alonzo Abdul discovered a pair of jump points just beyond the orbit of Neptune in close mutual proximity, barely two billion km apart despite being nearly five billion km distant from Sol itself. The cluster of jump points grew larger on 4 June, with a third discovered in the same general area, but this time within the orbit of Uranus and therefore less than three billion km from the sun. The fourth and final jump point in Sol was found on 15 June, roughly in a line with the first two jump points at a similar distance. With the completion of the geological and gravitational surveys on 23 October, the SGC assigned jump point probing missions to each of the four Odysseus-class survey cruisers, which departed from Earth orbit on 9 December after recovering their survey groups. The first survey cruiser to arrive on station was the USS Odysseus, which arrived at the innermost jump point on Christmas Day, 2000. She transited through and emerged in the Abydos system, 635 million km from the blue-white giant primary and, more importantly, only 193 million km from the third planet from that star, from which emanated massive thermal and EM emissions indicating the presence of an alien population on the planet.
The thermal and EM signatures from the alien planet corresponded to a population about 150% to 200% the size of Earth’s, thus Abydos III was almost certainly an alien homeworld. Colonel Gregorio Newmann immediately called home, recommending that the SGC send a Dionysus-class diplomatic ship to the Abydos system to decipher the alien language and begin diplomatic overtures. WIth an alien race scarcely three billion km from Earth, good relations would be imperative if humanity was to avoid fighting an existential war in their home system. Odysseus would remain on the jump point to Sol, to provide the diplomatic ship with hyperdrive support to enter the system and then as an escort, at least until communications could be established.
3 Jan 2001The diplomatic ship Dionysus arrived in Abydos on this date. In the intervening period, Odysseus had received unintelligible communications from the aliens, and had been briefly approached by a squadron of four contacts, designated Taiho-class and assumed to be the aliens’ version of scout ships. Currently, a 72,000-ton ship was positioned at the jump point, surrounded by what appeared to be several smaller escort ships. The mission of the alien squadron was unknown to the officers of the Odysseus, as the largest alien ship appeared to be ignoring the big cruiser and operating some sort of massive machinery mounted on its hull. Over the past nine days, sensor officers aboard Odysseus had detected numerous intermittent active sensor signatures emitted from various ships around Abydos III, and had identified around forty unique signatures including the ships which had approached or were currently positioned on the jump point. Back in the solar system, SGC officers were concerned about a Taiho-class scout which had transited on 31 December, but until communications were established there was no nice way to ask the aliens to leave, and SGC leadership preferred to hold off on asking in a not-so-nice way for the moment. In any case, as the aliens seemed patient enough and not overly hostile, Odysseus was recalled to the Sol side of the jump point, seeking to ensure that the aliens did not feel threatened while leaving the Dionysus to its work.
A group of alien ships jumped into Sol on 5 January, composed of eight ships each in the ~7,700-ton displacement range. Again, without communications established there was no polite way to ask the aliens what they were doing in Sol or to kindly cut it out. The Soryu-class contact, the largest of the group, did seem content to hold position at the jump point under the watchful eye of Odysseus, suggesting that perhaps this was their version of a diplomatic mission. However, the remaining group of seven ships proceeded in-system, sparking concern at SGC headquarters. As the aliens seemed to be heading for Saturn, the battlecruiser USS Daedalus was dispatched to meet them and ensure they did not try to do anything too suspicious during their visit. This, along with the later appearance of a Hyuga-class ship which darted off in the direction of the nearest gravitational survey location, indicated to the SGC that the aliens had decided to survey the solar system. As such, a spot of rudeness prevailed, and orders were given for Odysseus to release her survey crafts back into Abydos to return the favor.
Communications were finally established with the Abydos aliens, who introduced themselves as the Danakreg Commonwealth, on 23 January. The SGC quickly filed a diplomatic request that the Danakreg leave the solar system, which was received on 28 January and immediately rejected. The Danakreg, however, had no problem issuing immediate demands that the Tau’ri leave the Abydos system at the same time. While Earth was not in the business of giving in to impetuous demands made by blowhard alien races, in this case the survey groups in Abydos were reluctantly withdrawn for their own safety, as the SGC feared that hostilities were imminent. Upgrading the previous request to a demand on 2 February was similarly rejected by the Danakreg, who claimed that the system was important to them and that they would “defend” it, a form of rhetoric which struck several Russian members of the SGC as oddly familiar. As a precautionary measure, the USS Odyssey was deployed to Jupiter to join her sister ship, Daedalus, and reconstitute the 1st Fast Attack Wing opposite the Danakreg survey force in Jovian orbit.
In the coming days and weeks, a fierce debate would rage within the halls of the SGC and in the political houses of the member nations as to whether a preemptive strike against the Danakreg force in Sol was warranted or even ethical. As such, the SGC’s contingency planning teams would be working overtime for the foreseeable future.
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Nearly forgotten in the excitement of a new alien contact were the other three survey cruisers dispatched to probe jump points. HMS Royal Sovereign transited to the Chulak system on 6 January, a binary system with eight planets orbiting the system primary including three which were nearly habitable worlds. The second star in the system was orbited by two gas giants, an uninhabitable dwarf planet, and two asteroid belts, although with an average distance of around 25 billion km from the primary travel between the two stars would only be possible by way of the Lagrange points around each star. Royal Sovereign dispatched one of her survey scouts to ensure that none of the nearly-habitable planets was considered habitable by another alien race before starting the usual system surveys.
Later the same day, USS Hercules discovered the Simarka system, a binary star system with only two planets and a moon orbiting the stars, none worth noting. The primary interest in this system would be the results of the gravitational survey. Finally, FNS Jeanne d’Arc emerged in the Argos system on 12 January, finding no less than five near-habitable bodies within half a million km of the star, with a total of ten planets and 28 moons in orbit. A preliminary scouting run indicated no alien presence in the system, and the surveys were initiated in short order. For Hercules and Jeanne d’Arc, life in space was comparatively peaceful, or boring in the words of many crewmen aboard those cruisers.
For the Royal Sovereign, things were somewhat less peaceful. The Argonaut-class survey scout deployed to clear the system reported a pair of alien contacts in excess of 16,000 tons each in orbit of Chulak VI. Unlike the situation in Abydos, no strong thermal or EM signature was detected from the planet surface, indicating that the alien ships were not protecting a significant population but rather a small outpost or listening station. As it continued to approach, the scout observed EM emissions from missile warning sensors from both ships, confirming that they were military in nature. As the aliens had not moved to intercept, the scout’s commander decided to approach planetary orbit in hopes of establishing friendly relations. This proved unwise, as the scout suddenly found itself blown to pieces by twenty small nuclear missiles, similar in yield to the AIM-120ES missiles mounted on F-302 interceptors. Clearly, the aliens in Chulak were considerably more antagonistic than those in Abydos. Royal Sovereign called Earth for directions, and meanwhile dispatched her second Argonaut to recover the survivors from the first scout’s untimely demise, while carefully keeping a safe distance from their prickly alien neighbors. The planet’s orbital trajectory would eventually allow a safe recovery of the life pods from the wreckage.
Back on Earth, the discovery of another, hostile alien race within a single hyperspace jump from Sol was causing conniptions among the generals of the SGC. As the situation was clearly intolerable, with the relatively friendly Abydos aliens causing enough problems already, a forceful military response was the clear and preferred option. The 2nd Fast Attack Wing, consisting of the battlecruisers RFS Korolev and USS Apollo, was dispatched to the Chulak system to deal with the emerging threat and clear the system for survey operations. The one silver lining to be found was that the Chulak aliens had not opened communications and made grandiose proclamations about their abject superiority to the Tau’ri; therefore, at least the aliens were not Goa’uld.
Ruminations about the identity of the Chulak aliens quickly took a backseat to real, pressing concerns. On 3 February 2001, a massive Danakreg force approached the Abydos-Sol jump point. On arrival, the Danakreg ships destroyed the Tau’ri communications buoy stationed at the jump point. Five seconds later, a Danakreg Nagato-class destroyer fired at and destroyed the diplomatic ship Dionysus. Stargate Command was officially at war.
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OOC Notes: I will admit, the rapid pace of updates so far is blistering and perhaps unbecoming, but as it has been a three-day weekend in the USA there is not much else to be expected and as such I will make no apologies. Things have heated up pretty quickly, which I suppose is only to be expected when the first new system contains an NPR. Maybe someday Steve will create a diplomatic AI that can handle the concept of “borders”? This aside, so far Stargate Command has a 50% rate of discovering new aliens in new star systems. Clearly this is a lore-accurate AAR, that is my story and I will be sticking to it. 
