Stargate - The Battle of P3Y-229

"	and those who are prideful and refuse to bow down shall be laid low and made onto dust. "
	-- Passage from 'the Book of Origin', sent to the Milky Way fleet marking the beginning of the battle

The Battle of P3Y-229 is an event in the television show Stargate SG-1. The battle appears in the Season 9 finale ’Camelot’. In it, the Milky Way fleet is utterly annihilated and the Ori incursion into this Galaxy begins.

P3Y-229

Since the Ori Galaxy is extremely far from the Milky Way, it is unpractical to journey the distance without a Gate. The Ori, therefore, have constructed a Supergate – much like the usual Stargates, but only a great deal larger, allowing for ships to come through.

P3Y-229 was the Stargate Command (SGC) designation for a planet that existed. To create the Supergate, the Ori destroyed the planet and gained massive amounts of energy needed to power the Supergate. When the SGC learned of the Supergate through their allies (this time a Free Jaffa Nation vessel), they had their forces, as well as some others, gather to the Supergate in order to destroy it.

Background

Ori Supergate activated

When the Earth vessel Odyssey arrived, it was reported that the Jaffa vessels had already tried to destroy the Supergate, but to no effect. Soon after, the Asgard vessel also arrived. The Asgard commander beamed (transported) itself to the Odyssey's bridge in order to devise a plan with which they could destroy the Gate or make it ineffective. Colonel Carter and Kvasir thought of inserting a control crystal in order to enable them dialing out (and, therefore, preventing the Ori dialing in).

Colonel Carter was beamed to the Gate and she managed to switch the crystals. However, when the installation of the crystal began, the Ori dialed in.

Fleets

The Milky Way fleet had no unified command. There were up to 7 Free Jaffa Nation Ha’tak, unknown number of the Tok’ra Ha’tak, two Earth Daedalus-class battle cruisers – the Korolev and the Odyssey, and a single Asgard O’Neill-class battleship. During the battle, these were joined by three Lucian Alliance Ha’tak. The commanders of the Tok’ra and Free Jaffa Nation Ha’tak are unknown (although the commander who had discovered the Supergate was named She’ra). The Korolev’s commander was

Part of the Milky Way Fleet

The Ori fleet consisted of four Ori battle cruisers of which all had vastly superior technology to any Milky Way vessel. None of the Ori commanders are known, but, most likely, they were the Priors in the battle cruisers.

The Battle

The Ori sent a message to the Milky Way fleet. This message forewarned the fleet that they would be laid waste to. However, the Odyssey opened fire and so did, seconds later, the entire fleet. The Ori took their time in powering up weapons. The first salvo of the Ori side was terrible.  It hit the Odyssey and brought its shield down by 50%, and it also destroyed a few Ha’tak. The Milky Way fleet began manouvering and moving forward. However, none of the weapons proved effective against Ori shields.

The battle

Many of the Ha’tak's were already burning hulks in space and so the Ori battle cruisers left, leaving the Odyssey and the ship on which Teal’c and Netan were intact. The fate of the Asgard battleship is unknown, but we saw that it withstood several hits of the Ori energy weapon.

Aftermath

The Milky Way had seen the power of the Ori. There were no further major engagements between the sides, although the fighting against the Ori continued. No member of SG-1 was killed (Daniel Jackson managed to go onto the Ori battle cruiser; Samantha Carter viewed the battle from the Supergate; Teal’c survived aboard the Lucian Alliance ship and was, later, due to conflicts between the Odyssey and the Alliance, beamed upon the Odyssey; and Cameron Mitchell had flown a F-302 out of the Korolev, thereby saving himself.

Comparison

The concept of an attacker fighting its way through an enemy isn’t an unknown one. There have been numerous battles where the smaller side, the attacking one, wins with small casualties. The scenario, itself, is one that can be seen quite often.  I’ve brought out a few more notable ones while certainly others, such as Gaugamela, Agincourt, Assaye, Vercellae and Jassin, would count in too.

The Battle of Aljubarrota

The invasion scenario isn’t most well brought out at Aljubarrota because the battle was more part of a civil war than a true invasion. In this battle, João I of Portugal had set up a defensive position. Juan I of Castile saw the positions and didn’t assault at once, but, rather, wanted to gather information. The Castilian army went to the rear of the Portugese dispositions, but the Portugese also aligned themselves to counter the Castilian moves. The Castilian force was tired, but the king still wanted to assault the enemy and had his allied cavalry, the French assault. The trenches and ditches the Portugese had dug, however, disrupted their formation and the cavalry was easily cut down. The entire Castilian infantry advanced, but their numbers were as much a bonus as it was a minus... Both left flanks sustained heavy casualties, but the Portugese overwhelmed the Castilians despite the differences in numbers (around 6 and a half thousand Portugese against the Castilian 31 thousand). The Portugese had achieved an astounding victory.

However, unlike the Ori, the Portugese were defending in the general view while the Castilians were the one committing the invasion. Here, the larger force invades and sustains casualties (much like at P3Y-229), whilst there it defended.

The Battle of Tanga

The battle of Tanga is a fine achievement of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, one of the finest German commanders in the First World War. The British, under Arthur Aitken, were planning to launch an assault against the city of Tanga. The troops on both sides included some thousand for the Germans and eight thousand for the British. Von Lettow-Vorbeck learned of this and strengthened the city and its garrisons. Upon hearing this, Aitken decided to land south of the city. So, he did, and, the next day, he marched on the city. Von Lettow-Vorbeck had, however, set up an ambush and many of the Indian forces Aitken used were killed. The combat that now followed resembled random skirmishing and it was not long before Aitken was finally overwhelmed.

The battle of Tanga, as Aljubarrota, also has the invading troops loose, but, since it was a fine achievement of the German commander, von Lettow-Vorbeck, it deserved a mention of its own.

The Battle of Myeongnyang

The Japanese were in the progress of resupplying their land troops in Korea when admiral Yi Sunsin had gathered 13 panoksen ships – all that was left of the 170 or so ships first built -and ambushed the Japanese fleet in the Yellow Sea. The Japanese had around 133 warships to confront the enemy with, but the tides in the Yellow Sea made their objective difficult. Additionally, the Koreans had a superb firing position from their ships compared to the Japanese. The Japanese morale lowered drastically upon seeing their commander dead. The Japanese ships started colliding due to the tides and Yi Sunsin pressed the assault. He managed to destroy 31 warships before the Japanese finally managed to flee. Yi Sunsin lost none.

A naval battle is more similar to a space battle than a land one. However, even without that fact, the differences in the forces were enormous. It was only by the designs of the panoksen ships the Koreans used and their commander’s strategic thinking that they won. So it was in the battle of P3Y-229. Still, the attackers weren’t the invaders as in that battle.

The Battle of Aqua Sextiae

After Roman defeats, Gaius Marius had reorganized the army and was facing the Teutones from a high position. He hid around three thousands men (of his total of 40 000) into a forest. When the Teutones attacked, the Roman ambush opened and they struck the Teutones from behind. The Romans killed tens of thousands of Teutones that day and also their king, Teutobod.

Once more, we see the attacking part to be the defenders, not the attackers. Otherwise, a force less than half the size (some 110,000 Teutones against 40,000 Romans) totally annihilated the Teuton threat. Another such victory was to follow at Vercellae.

The Battle of Crècy

Finally, we have a battle where the attacking force is outnumbered and wins a splendid fight. It was not only due to the mastery of arms of the English, but the stupidity of the French can count in too. Philippe VI of France had his armies, tired of the long march, attack the heavily defended English positions. First, the crossbows, but these were ineffective against the English positions and the longbows could easily strike back. Then, Philippe had his knights strike. During one point in the battle, the English line was about to break at battalion of the Black Prince, but he managed to strike back at the enemy. By the end of the day, much of the French nobility lay quietly on the terrain, being slain by the English. It is said that the English didn’t lose - over a few hundred men against the French losses of 12 or so thousand...

Crècy is a fine example of an attacking force striking heavily and winning with minor casualties.