49:7:15
Safeguard
A researcher working on the disc retrieved from Kurava manages to access the device and awakes with a gate address in his mind. Dr Daniel Jackson has also been researching the disc, and reports it may be part of a weapon, allowing an experience similar to ascension in order to control the weapon. A mission sets out to find the weapon.
49:7:16
Safeguard
Rogue Squadron arrives on the world nicknamed Discworld and begins to investigate.
49:7:17
Safeguard
Hunter arrives at Discworld with its starfighter squadrons, and aerial recon reveals a mastaba apparently made of the same material as the disc, The team cautiously attempts to enter the building, but doors prove impossible to open, until Ilexa Thorn touches them—the building seems to be selective in the same way the disc is. But once closed, the doors refuse to open again, trapping the team inside and blocking external communications.
Inside, they find evidence that Imperial forces are already there, as well as alien presences. They gain access to hidden rooms of the building, where the buildings origin is documented. It seems it was built over a dais into which the disc fits—now located deep inside the mastaba.
Meanwhile, in orbit, an Imperial flotilla reveals itself and engages Rogue Squadron's forces. They are eventually fought off and retreat when reinforcements drop into the system.
In the mastaba, the team finds its way down to the dais and has the disc delivered to them. In the midst of a battle with Imperial forces, Thorn, Nick Fel and Andru Clayton enter the weapon. They meet a group of Ancients inside who agree to allow the weapon to be used once to defend Rogue Squadron's forces, if they can help them escape the weapon.
Amidst fighting inside the mastaba, they return the Ancient's preserved bodies to the disc so they can re-enter their material forms. The weapon is fired, removing all Imperial forces from the system, and the Ancients reawaken. They soon ascend, warning that Rogue Squadron should leave quickly.
As they abandon the system, the planet and the weapon are destroyed.
49:8:26
Bughunt
Searching for new allies against Malphuus's Empire, Rogue Squadron meets a mysterious alien race known as the Nqei. No sooner have alien delegates boarded Hunter, strange system failures start occurring all over the Star Destroyer, and it soon becomes apparent that the Nqei brought something with them...
Small bug-like creatures begin to appear throughout the ship, which the Nqei identify as their Fabricators, which are used to build their strange technology. Not only are the Fabricators loose, but they are breeding and mutating into vicious, killer breeds.
Chaos erupts across the ship as the crew try to keep the bugs under control, hampered by continuing malfunctions, and starfighter squadrons try to pacify bugs on the hull and in space. At the Nqei's suggestion, a team tries to get them back to their ship where they can work on a solution to the problem.
The bugs are eventually traced back to engineering, where a massive hive has been constructed. The hive and its Queen prove invulnerable to normal weapons, but at the last minute the Nqei unleash another creation--designed to eradicate the bugs and then die.
Seeing that their complacency almost led to disaster, the Nqei agree to ally themselves with Rogue Squadron.