A/N We do not own any of the franchises represented herein. We are just fans.
Chapter 20
In orbit of Heliopolis...
In Avalon's Ops center, The Commander was working with the leaders of the Iconian races as well as the defense ministry, which was made up of O'Neill, Thor and Bra'tac. The Commander, while still subject to them, was in charge of the entire Iconian fleet. They were trying to discern a location in the Avalon Galaxy where the Ori could conceal a supergate under construction. They had narrowed the list of possible locations to... several. In order to search them, they dispatched twelve 304s and seventeen biliskiners.
"We need to do something about the berserker drones as well," Teal'c commented.
"I agree," O'Neill said. "That was just too much of a coincidence that the attack on Earth came just as the fleet was out fighting them."
"I agree with O'Neill," Thor said. "I suspect that the Ori and berserker drones have formed some sort of an alliance."
"And the Ori probably took our ha'tak," Bra'tac concluded.
"I suspect that is the truth, Master Bra'tac," Merlin said gravely.
"Which is why I feel that we must send some ships to contend with the drones."
"You're absolutely right, Teal'c," The Commander nodded. "I would think some 305's and O'Neills would be the best, don't you think, General O'Neill?"
"Yeah," O'Neill said. "I'm good with that, you?" he asked Thor and Bra'tac.
"That is agreeable to me," Bra'tac replied.
"Agreed, O'Neill," Thor said.
The Commander turned to his communications officer and had him dispatch the required ships.
From across the room, there was a flash, and en masse, the group turned to face the area. A man had appeared there, and he looked stricken.
"Janus?" Merlin asked.
"Hello, Father. I have just come from Vis Uban." He stepped toward the group, and stumbled. Jack Carter rushed to help him remain standing. "Thank you, Jack," Janus said.
"What's wrong?" Carter asked him.
As Janus started to collapse, a chair flashed into being and caught him. "Thank you," he acknowledged.
"Don't mention it," Carter said. Janus gave him a strange look but didn't say anything more. Instead, he looked at his father. "Watch the viewscreen, Father," he said.
The group turned to the floor to ceiling viewer as it came to life. The screen showed a planet, presumably Vis Uban, with a carrier group in Orbit.
"That's Atropos," The Commander said. "General Young is in command, if I remember right." He looked at Janus, who only nodded, dumbly.
Near the carrier, a hyperspace window opened, and wave after wave of the giant Ori ships started pouring out.
The Commander ordered, "Prepare for hyperspace!" but Janus shook his head.
"These events are all past, Commander, and the presence of Avalon at Vis Uban would not have changed a thing."
Everyone continued watching in horror as more and more Ori ships emerged from hyperspace. They completely ignored the carrier group and started bombarding the planet below. The starfighters launched and started strafing the ships, but to no avail. "Those ships are of the Dominantur class," Janus explained. "They are fully three times the size and strength of the Attack class that we used to see." Suddenly, on one side of the screen, one of the Ori ships sprouted an explosion and started falling out of orbit. En masse, the huge ships started pounding the starfighters. A couple more of the Ori ships fell to the small craft, but before long the fighters were gone. And the Ori went back to bombarding the surface.
The Commander noticed that one of the ships was holding back, as if it were coordinating the attack. "He's there, on that ship," he said, almost too quiet for anyone to hear.
"You're right, Sir," Janus agreed. "He has made himself the Doci, the most loyal of the Priors. He is leading this attack on the Avalon galaxy."
A movement elsewhere on the screen made them divert their attention towards the planet's surface. A magnificent city ship was raising into the atmosphere, it's screens flaring with every hit they took. They were starting to flare red, and seemed in imminent danger of collapsing altogether, when Atropos placed herself directly above the city, taking the punishment from the Ori weaponry on her own, up till now, untouched shields. Both ships continued to rise through the atmosphere, picking up speed. Atropos shields were growing deeper and deeper red as they continued to lift, finally collapsing completely as the city reached altitude and made the jump to hyperspace. The next moment, the carrier took a shot directly through it's reactor and exploded spectacularly.
There was a gasp in the room as the wreck of Atropos tilted, then started falling towards the surface. Very quietly, Janus spoke. "General Young ordered all but the bare minimum crew to the planet's surface before he took his ship in to protect the city. The crew that was transported to the surface took shelter in a cave, and were well when the battle ended." He paused for a moment before saying, "General Young and the rest of the people aboard Atropos did not survive."
The group was glad to hear that the remains of Atropos crew were safe, but the battle on the screen was continuing. The Iconinan ships had placed themselves in between the Ori and the cities on the planet's surface, firing continuously. The Ori hardly paused. They shifted their barrage from the surface to the ships. It took very little time before the Iconian ships were reduced to flaming wreckage. The Ori then returned to the task of leaving the cities below to the same fate.
After a few more minutes, the Ori vessels regrouped around the Doci's ship. Then, as one, they leaped to hyperspace.
The screen continued showing the scene of Vis Uban, floating in space much the same way as before, except for the red spots of huge fires that could be seen on the night side, moving eastward as the planet slowly turned.
It took several seconds for The Commander to announce, "Screen off," in a trembling voice, and even longer for the communications officer to comply. The lights automatically came up slightly as the screen went off.
Merlin turned to his son and asked, "Where were they going when they left Vis Uban?"
Janus had still been staring at the screen, and he visibly shook himself out of his shock when he heard his father's voice. "I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't stay around to find out. I knew you needed to know as soon as possible that thirty-five million people had been killed."
Merlin nodded his acknowledgement. He did understand.
"They're heading to Earth," Jack Carter announced.
"Vis Uban is quite close to Earth, Jack Carter. That would be a good supposition," Teal'c said.
Carter looked surprised at Teal'c. "It's not a supposition, Teal'c," he said, "it's the truth."
"Now, Jack," O'Neill chided, "I know they just…" O'Neill stopped. He was looking at Merlin, who shook his head at him. The Commander looked grim, and Janus was completely white.
"He's right, Jack," Jackson said. "They're really headed towards Earth."
O'Neill's voice was barely above a whisper as he agreed. "I know, Daniel. I don't know how I know, but I do. We've got to get there to warn people."
"Yes," The Commander said. He turned to his chair, pressed a couple of buttons, and the room reconfigured. As well, sirens started blaring as he told his helmsman, "Take the ship to Earth, now."
Suddenly, there was a flash of light as the group was no longer standing on the bridge of Avalon, but in the gateroom of Atlantis. Jackson took a look at where he was, then he sprinted upstairs to speak to Mr. Woolsey. When he finished giving instructions, Daniel flashed out of existence beside Woolsey and into the council chambers. The rest of the group was conferring below when the shields flared and the city shook. They were being attacked from orbit.
Elsewhere in Atlantis...
Samantha O'Neill was in her quarters in Atlantis when the city shook. It had stabilizers to keep it steady on the ocean, but the weapons from the sky glanced off the shields and boiled the ocean to one side of it. This caused the city to rock to that side as the ocean flashed to steam underneath. Immediately, Sam realized what was happening. She wondered where her husband and brother were, but she knew from her link to Jack Carter that they were both alright. Then her thoughts turned to her friends, and she thought of Janet and Cassandra at their homes in Colorado Springs. Atlantis was a city ship, and therefore, had extremely strong shields surrounding the entire city, but Colorado Springs had no such protection.
In the past, while Janet was medical officer of the SGC, she had a GD built personal shield, and this had saved her life many times, both offworld and on, but now that she was retired from the air force, she no longer had one, and Cassandra never did.
Sam looked around, and saw the city of Colorado Springs surrounding her. At first she thought she was just seeing things. Perhaps she had taken a hit from something falling in her quarters. She had, after all, seen a flash right before noticing she was no longer in Atlantis. However, if she was dreaming, she assumed that she should be seeing Colorado Springs as it had been when she had last been there. Not with buildings exploding from Ori weapons fire. People were running all around her, and the noise was terrific. Yelling, explosions. She had been in enough firefights to know the panic that always accompanied the destruction. She took her bearings, and started running for the area of town she knew Janet lived in. She guessed that she had about two miles to run as she had appeared in the central section of town, where the buildings were taller.
As she ran, she came near a parking garage which was crumbling. It had taken a glancing blow from a Ori shot, and there was a crater in the middle of the street adjacent to it. The structure was actually shaking as she approached. The entire side collapsed as she came near, and the resulting dust cloud was impenetrable. She slowed down until she could see but then stopped completely as she realized she was, quite literally, standing on nothing in the middle of the crater. She was still level with the street, but the collapsing garage had not filled in the crater completely. She hesitatingly looked to her feet and saw that there was a drop of about fifteen feet below her. Cautiously, she looked all around and saw the same thing. She started to tremble as she placed her right foot carefully in front of her and felt for solidity. She couldn't feel anything below her feet, but her foot would not sink, regardless. She put more weight on her right foot. So far, so good. More. There was something holding her up, but she couldn't tell what it was. Very gingerly, she placed her left foot in front of the right. It held. Right foot next… It held… She began to pick up speed now, and soon, was running across the top of the crater, heading for where she knew Janet and Cassandra to be.
This had to be a dream… That was the only explanation. She must be unconscious. This was like something Merlin could do…. Then she realized that maybe she was awake. Maybe this had something to do with Merlin. She was his granddaughter, after all. Maybe she had inherited some of his power. Perhaps that's how she could talk to her brother through their thoughts.
She was deep in contemplation and almost missed it. Running down the other side of the street she saw Cassandra. Then, Janet! They were running in the opposite direction from her. She started to cross the street, then realized that the building directly above them was collapsing. As if in a dream, she saw the rubble completely bury both of them. First Cassie, then Janet, was under a pile of dust, metal, and concrete. Without regard for her own safety, she ran into the falling debris, then she was on the other side. Janet was standing in front of her, with her arms around Cassie. Sam looked around and saw the debris pile behind her. She had been certain that both of them had been engulfed. Strangely, she didn't even see the path she had taken through the rubble either, and she was certain she hadn't climbed over anything. She looked back at the other two, and realized that there wasn't even any dust adhering to them. A look at her own clothes made her realize she was the same. Not a speck of dust on any of her clothing. What was going on here?
"Janet?" she said. "I thought you were both gone. I was sure you were buried in that," she said pointing behind her shoulder.
"Sam! What are you doing here?" Janet was shocked to see her friend.
"Looking for you two! Where's Dr. Rockwell," Sam asked. She knew that Janet and the scientist had been becoming an item for quite some time.
"He was heading to the transportation center to go to Atlantis. He had a meeting with Eric Marten," Janet informed her.
She was about to say more when suddenly, a bolt of light from the sky hit not more than ten feet from the three, blowing a huge section of building apart. Pieces of cinder block flew in all directions, yet none affected the three women. Sam was almost certain she saw a piece spin through Cassie, but when the girl failed to fall, or even appear touched by it, she felt she must have imagined it.
"We'd better get out of here," she said, and the three started out of the city. Suddenly, however, there was a flash, and all three were standing in Sam's apartment in Atlantis. The clock on the wall showed that absolutely no time had passed from Sam leaving the room to now. The city was shaking and shuddering, but it was shielded. It should be safe.
In the Atlantis Control Room…
Merlin had just flashed into Atlantis with The Commander and the others. He watched as Jackson conferred with Woolsey and then disappeared.
"Commander," he said. "Perhaps we should help with coordinating rescue efforts around the globe."
"I agree, Merlin." They were part way up the stairs to speak to Woolsey when they heard someone yell, communications have gone down all around Earth.
The Commander turned to Merlin. "You stay here, the rest of us can flash to major cities. They can't take down our communication."
"Agreed, Commander," Merlin said, "but there aren't enough Q here to get to every major city on Earth."
"Some of us will have to handle communications in several cities," The First said. They were completely up the stairs now, and Merlin whirled to where the voice had come from. The First and Eric Marten were standing behind him..
The city rocked again, almost knocking several people off their feet. Merlin waved his hand, almost dismissively, and all motion stopped. Richard Woolsey was looking at The First, but was completely unmoving. Below, people were in various positions, some appearing to run. One person was even in the process of falling, with no part of his body even touching the floor, but each person was eerily motionless. Trent Rockwell was there, motionless while running towards the falling person.
"First, will you contact the rest of the Q and see if we can handle most cities on Earth? Those who flash into city ships must be prepared to help protect stationary cities," The Commander said quickly.
"Affirmative, Commander," The First acknowledged. He paused for just a moment, then said, "They have been notified and are on their way. I shall go to New York City."
"I'll go to Tokyo. Daniel can coordinate here with Mr. Woolsey," Merlin said. There was no question as to where other Q were heading. That was simply known by all Q present. He turned to his grandson, "Jack, can you get to Los Angeles on your own yet?"
Jack was surprised. He wasn't a Q… He was about to protest when he remembered all the things he was able to do. Talk to his sister, even over long distances, the chair he had somehow conjured for Janus. There were other strange things he had noticed, but thought little about. Perhaps he was a Q, and didn't realize it?
"I'm not sure, Grandpa. I might need some help."
"I'll get you there, Jack," Janus said, grinning. He looked at The First and said, "Then I'll head to Mexico City." He waved his hands and he and Jack disappeared.
Eric Marten stepped forward. "I shall travel to London, First."
"Thank you, Doctor Marten. Are there any more?" The First asked as Marten walked away, fading from view as he did..
"Where's Sam?" O'Neill asked as they heard a commotion below. Someone was running. "Ok. There she is," he finished as he saw his wife, and Janet Fraser running towards the control room.
Samantha arrived at the top of the stairs, breathless. "Colorado Springs is being demolished," she gasped out.
"As is the rest of Earth," The First said. "Will one of you go to Colorado Springs to help with communication?"
"Yes, First," Janet said. "I received your message, and I'll go." She faced Merlin. "I remember."
Merlin merely nodded and smiled, Then Janet disappeared in a flash of light.
"Samantha, will you go to Paris?"
Sam turned to The First, stunned. "Yes, but…" She thought of what had happened to her at the crater. "I don't know how to travel the way you do, though."
"I will get you and Jack there," Merlin said and Atlantis disappeared from around them.
Paris…
Jack and Sam O'Neill flashed into the control room of Paris. The city had been rebuilt after the Aschen attack, and as with all of the Terran cities rebuilt into city ships, famous landmarks from the city had been incorporated into the city ship. Paris still had the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. The Louvre building was almost a complete loss, but the artwork had been preserved as much as possible. The Mona Lisa smile still graced museum visitors, as it had for many years before.
For the Eiffel Tower, much of the original structure had been brought to the city ship, but the metal had been molecularly converted to trinium at the Altair shipyards by construction mites. As a result, the Tower was much stronger and lighter than it had been before the rebuilding of Paris.
The control room for Paris was in the basement of the central building. The city had an ingenious setup which allowed the Seine to wind it's way through a canal and the port facilities. A few miles from the city site, the river had been diverted into a concrete channel, which perfectly matched the channels in and out of the canals built into the ship. While in it's place the city sat in a concrete bowl which extended for a hundred feet in every direction past the outer perimeter. The whole pad contained small pores which connected to an immense underground storage tank. This had been built to hold enough water to fill the depression. As the city sat down, the water was displaced into the higher pores, and from there through a series of one way valves into the tank. When the city lifted off, the water flowed back through the lower pores, and into the depression, turning it into a large manmade lake. The rate of flow through the pores was such that as the city set down, the water would settle to its proper place within three minutes.
In the control room, O'Neill and Sam looked around. They saw the prime minister of France standing looking at some screens. He too was motionless, but they both knew he would begin moving as soon as Merlin released the Q from the time dilation field they were in. They took the opportunity to look around and take in what the screens said.
"Sam," O'Neill said after they had looked around. "I can understand that you're Q. Your grandfather is one, and obviously, it seems to run in the family. Also, I know that The First put only Q into the time dilation field, Right?" His wife nodded acknowledgement. "So why am I here?" he finished lamely.
"Obviously you're Q too," she answered.
"Why?"
People started to move around them, and she shook her head. "Can we talk about this later, Jack?"
"Sure," he said. The prime minister was staring at them. Jack stepped forward. "Hello, Robert. How are you today?"
Robert DeSalle had been prime minister of France since the inception of the Iconian Alliance, and had even been to Jack's cabin in Minnesota for fishing as they discussed the defenses that would go into the city ship they now stood in. He looked blankly at O'Neill for a moment, then gave a wan smile. "Jack, What are you doing here?" As he spoke, the city rumbled and shook.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out, Robert!" O'Neill said. "We're here to keep you in touch with the rest of the world as the standard lines of communication are down." He was keeping one eye on his wife as he and the prime minister spoke, and it was apparent that she had heard something that she needed to say.
O'Neill nodded at Sam and she spoke up. "Sir," she told DeSalle, "Brussels is taking quite a bit of fire."
DeSalle acknowledged her and told his navigator, "Place us between Brussels and the Ori. I want it done ten minutes ago!"
Paris' Mayor looked shocked at DeSalle, then at O'Neill. There seemed little to say. He agreed with the order, and as it relieved him of responsibility for an action which could very well get them all killed, he let things stand.
All four of them watched the screens as Paris lifted off and flew swiftly to the northeast. Long before they arrived, they could see bolt after bolt descending. Brussels was a city ship itself, and had every bit as good defenses as Paris, but they would fail very soon if they didn't take some of the pressure off of them. Paris came in low, so it could cover as much of central Brussels as possible.
New York City…
New York City was composed of five city ships, each corresponding to one of the five borroughs of the larger city. Thus, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, and the Bronx had been built during the first part of the ten years that the Iconian Alliance had been in existence. Now, Newark, New Jersey was being added to the metropolis, but it wasn't complete yet. The first of the five to be built was Manhattan, which was also the first Earth city ship built using a Terran design. It was designed to fit into the midtown area, and each side of the ship reached all the way to the water. It was truly a massive vessel. The central building of the city was a 1000 meter tall spire which had been designed to look like the Empire State Building. The original building had been 381 meters tall. While the city was being built, students from the local engineering college set up a holographic gorilla to be projected onto the outside of the top floors of the building. It caused quite a stir when people came to the worksite in the morning and found King Kong holding Fay Wray above the streets of the new New York.
The control room for Manhattan was in the base of the new Empire State Building. The First appeared at the doorway in a flash of light. The mayor was standing a few feet from where he appeared, and as the light faded from The First's arrival, he turned. The two had met previously, so the mayor recognized him. "Welcome, First," he said. "Can you tell us what's going on? We don't have communication with anyone. Apparently, the plasma bolts from the Ori are causing ionization in the atmosphere, and breaking down our communication with the rest of the world."
The First nodded his acknowledgement. "You are correct in your assessment, Mr. Mayor. We Q, however, are providing assistance by facilitating communication between the cities of the Earth and Atlantis."
The Mayor nodded and went back to his screens. They showed the city from the vantage point of the top of the tower, surrounded by red flares as the beams from the Ori enveloped the shields. The communications between the five ships was accomplished by line of sight signals from the top of each tower. When the ships were set into their proper alignment on the ground, lasers set into the top of the central tower of each, lined up with receivers on each of the others. Newark was not entirely complete internally, but it's armaments and shields were ready to be used, and it was connected to the communications network of New York.
The First was seated at an empty station in the control room, hands folded in front of his face, with his eyes closed. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and told the mayor, "I am receiving reports of cities without adequate defenses taking heavy fire up and down the coast."
The mayor contacted the other ships and they arranged to protect the larger unshielded population centers to the best of their ability.
Mexico City…
Janus had appeared in the control room of Mexico City, and immediately started communicating reports from other Q to the mayor. Mexico City was the largest city ship in the country of Mexico, and the only one in central Mexico. There was little the city could do to protect all the small towns in the area, but where fire was the worst, they would protect.
It was while moving from eastern Mexico, past its own site on the ground, and to the west, that one of the scanners swept over Popocatepetl, the volcano approximately thirty five kilometers south of the city. The screen transfixed Janus. His jaw dropped, and he felt like screaming. Beams of energy were starting to pelt the mountain. Already there was glassing of the summit near the crater.
"Dr. Jackson," he directed his thought to Daniel, "I am afraid the Ori have another goal rather than just the destruction of our people." He projected what he was seeing to Daniel, who sent it out to the other Q.
Tokyo…
Merlin had appeared in the city ship of Tokyo and, like his son, had immediately started communicating for the city. The city ship had been protecting the outlying areas for several minutes as well as returning fire to the Ori ships in orbit when Janus' report came to Merlin. Immediately, he checked the sensors. The trail of destruction the enemy was making was leading Tokyo away from Mount Fuji.
"Kaito!" He called the Mayor. "Get us above Mount Fuji, as soon as you can."
"I cannot abandon the villages, Merlin."
"Kaito, my friend," Merlin said, "the Ori are targeting volcanoes. They will target Fuji very soon and then there will be no villages to abandon." Indeed, as Merlin spoke, the beams were starting to hit the mountain.
It took very little time for Tokyo to change direction and get between the beams and the volcano, but in that time, the Ori had dug to a point where pressure was released in a huge eruption.
Colorado Springs…
Colorado Springs had never been a mega city, but with the United States Air Force Academy in proximity, it was one that needed protection. Because of the existence of the Academy, as well as the SGC in Cheyenne Mountain, it was felt that the civilians in the city needed some help. The area would definitely be a target.
Janet had flashed into the control room and met up with the mayor. They began protecting cities as much as possible, then Janus' message came through about volcanoes. Janet explained to the mayor, whose face turned completely white. Nevertheless, she didn't question Janet's word. Instead, she ordered her city northward. They arrived at Yellowstone and joined three more city ships, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Boise. The four ships settled above the ancient caldera, but they were simply not large enough to do much deflecting. Seattle was busy trying to ward off shots above Mount Rainier in the Cascades and Portland was doing the same over Mount Hood. Unfortunately, that left Mount St. Helens and Mount Baker unprotected, as both Vancouver British Columbia, and Vancouver Washington were normal cities. City ships were not plentiful, and the nearest one available to assist at Yellowstone was Chicago and it would be several minutes before it arrived.
London…
Eric Marten and Holly materialized in London. They were standing outside a cafe in the main promenade of the city.
"You must stay here, Holly. I will return as soon as I can."
Holly nodded and entered the cafe. She took a seat at a table and thought of Doug. He was no longer the chief engineer of the Nathan Stark. Instead, he was working at Altair on a special assignment. She had worked with him on a few ideas, but he had refused to divulge the overall picture. He had spoke only to Merlin and Samantha Carter about it, and apparently they liked the idea. As a result, he, Henry, Rush, and Eli were not on Earth at the moment.
Eric Marten fondly watched his daughter take a seat in the cafe. She was very special to him, and he wanted to make sure she was safe. She wasn't Q, but he had given her the ability to communicate with him telepathically. This had the benefit of allowing him to monitor her safety constantly.
He flashed to the control center and started monitoring communications for the city. The mayor of London had spent time in the Royal Navy, and had little fear of taking his city into combat while defending the rest of the area. His strategy, however was to take the city high into the atmosphere so there was less need to move in blocking fire. From there, the vantage point allowed view of what was happening in the Atlantic Ocean.
"This is disturbing," Marten told Jackson. "The Ori are targeting the middle of the Atlantic."
"I don't understand," Jackson thought back. "Why would they be doing that? It doesn't make sense."
"Yes, it does," Sam thought. "They're targeting volcanoes. The Mid Atlantic Ridge is a fault between two plates, just like the San Andreas. If they punch enough holes there, they can cause much more volcanic damage."
Janus agreed. "By raising the water temperature, the poles will melt, the jet stream will change.. The damage to the planet will be catastrophic."
City ships were coming from all over to assist over the ocean. They were also positioned over the ring of fire, but there simply weren't enough to effectively protect every place necessary. The Ori outnumbered Earth's defenses and too many shots were getting through.
In the cafe, Holly Marten was monitoring what the Q were saying. She couldn't argue with Sam and Janus. She saw several ways to defend against the Ori, but there simply wasn't time. There was one idea that she had that could possibly work if they could implement it. She stood, as she realized it would work, but at that moment, the ridge below released pressure all at once.
Yellowstone…
In Wyoming, the caldera blew. The four cities had been gaining altitude, as they realized what the outcome of the Ori firepower would be. As the caldera exploded, a chunk of rock, about the size of a typical elementary school building impacted on the bottom of Boise. It damaged the engines and the city started to drop. Directly below, however, was hell. Rocks, ash, and lava were spewing out in a torrential flood. The geyser fields had been destroyed early on, and the ground which had been the national park was now spread across Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. The wind was blowing to the west, which would help protect Nebraska and the Dakotas, but the amount of ash accumulating in the upper atmosphere was greater than any volcanic action ever recorded.
Just before Boise was engulfed in the pyroclastic cloud below, it's shields dropped. The circuitry had shorted out completely. The city dropped into the growing cloud, and the heat started melting alloys and plastics. Seals blew, and superheated ash got into the buildings. The ventilation system picked it up, and before the ash could destroy blower bearings, it was spread throughout the habitable areas of the city. Within moments, people were dead or dying as they breathed the gases and dust into their lungs. The Nox virus had strengthened them, but they still needed to breath. Moments after the last person fell to the power of the volcano, the entire superstructure liquified. Anything not susceptible to melting, carbonized and blew away, while every metal piece of the city joined with the lava flows building up on the landscape.
Boise was simply a memory now. There was nothing left much bigger than a small pebble.
Now, however, the Ori started the next phase. One of the ships dropped low into the atmosphere. as close to the Mid Atlantic Ridge as it could get. It started a huge electromagnetic field generator which somehow combined with the release of magma and began a slow, inexorable magnetic pole reversal of Earth.