This is a from-scratch rewrite of the original GateWar. A lot has been changed, and some of that will be detailed below, with some kept secret until revealed by plot twists later. I abandoned GateWar because it really wasn't coming together the way I had hoped, and I was busy with other things (SGD in particular). I did discuss a revival or rewrite with Unknown_Fan over on SpaceBattles, and after reading the response to Cleanup Crew, inspiration struck. Without giving away any details, GateWar Redux will be deconstructing a lot of what we saw in canon and reconstructing some as well. As an additional hint, the codename for this story is Manifest Destiny.

Okay, so, what's changed? A lot, actually, and it might not even be fair to call this story GateWar. Earth has not suffered a devastating attack. It takes place in a pre-disclosure world rather than a post-disclosure one, and the United States retains control of the Stargate. Earth does not have colonies or a large army, although they do have a small fleet of ships. The SGC is still the front-line force, although SG-1 has retired. The Lucian Alliance remains the largest threat in the Milky Way.

This is a Gen4 story, which has several implications. First, it is one among a batch of stories, including the released Cleanup Crew, Above Top Secret, Among Fighting Men, and two unreleased stories. I am releasing the first chapters of each story and am hoping to get feedback on them. The stories I like and my readers like I will continue, the others will be abandoned or at least not developed as much. So if you want to see GateWar Redux continued, please leave a review, preferably a decently long one. I would rather have a review that calls a story complete crap and details why it sucks than one that says it's perfect.

Prologue: Shattered Discovery

Captain Sara Greene
USAF - SGC - SG-7
P4X-447
March 4, 2004
10 years ago

One by one, six green-clad figures emerged from the water-like portal in the middle of the ring. They moved down off the ramp, joining with another group waiting in front of it.

"Area clear, sir," one of the waiting men said to the leader of the newly arrived group. The Stargate was situated in a small clearing surrounded by forest- not an uncommon situation. A well-beaten path led off in one direction toward a village barely visible in the distance. Ruins scattered around the area suggested that there had once been something covering the device, or at least surrounding it.

"Carry on," Colonel Anderson ordered. He was a large man, a Marine, and military to the core. He turned to his own team, SG-7. A flyboy, a girl, a scientist, and, thankfully, a couple of fellow Marines. "We're going to reinforce SG-1. Move out."

"Why?" one of the group asked as they headed into the forest that surrounded the Stargate. Dr. Reimer was a civilian, actually an archaeologist by profession. For what they did, it had a lot more relevance than one might think. "The Goa'uld haven't ruled this planet for years- we freed them. And they certainly aren't going to give us any trouble."

"Are you willing to bet your life on that, Doctor?" the Colonel asked him, his tone light but serious.

"Uh..." the scientist trailed off.

"That's what I thought. The Goa'uld aren't dead yet. Anubis has his filthy little hands in everything. Even SG-1 alone would be worth a full-scale invasion."

"Yeah, 'cause we stand a chance against a full-scale invasion."

"Shut it, Marine."

"I just don't see how that could happen," the scientist continued as they trudged through the forest. "This planet is on the edge of the galaxy. How is anyone supposed to find out."

"Well, we found out about the Ancient ruins, so chances are someone else could too," the pilot told him. He was a scrawny man known formally as Lieutenant James Walker or less formally as "Two", a gentle prod and play on "Ace".

"Hell, one of the villagers might have even sold us out," Colonel Anderson added. The forest was beginning to thin out, and they could see a large, rolling hill past the treeline.

He suddenly turned to who he couldn't help but think of as "the girl". Captain Greene was fairly tall, with broad, muscular shoulders. She was Air Force, but trained as security, not as a pilot. In her capable hands she carried an M4A1 carbine alongside a pistol strapped to her hip. "Hey, Captain, you've been awfully quiet this morning. What do you think?"

"I don't like it, sir. Lots of open space with no cover, but plenty past the treeline. If we go inside the ruins, maybe there will be some cover we can use."

"I didn't mean a tactical assessment, Captain," Colonel Anderson chastised.

"Well, sir, SG-1 is here. Which means that we're probably going to get attacked by the Goa'uld, if their record is anything to go by."

"Yeah." SG-1 had a reputation both as the most successful team and as the one that managed to get into the most trouble. He joked darkly, "I swear, Doctor Jackson has died so many times it's gone from sad to funny back to sad."

"Colonel, how can you make a joke like that?" Doctor Reimer asked, disgusted.

"It's called stress relief. If you don't find a way of letting it off somehow, you go nuts and start shooting. Anyone, whether it's your squad, the local civilians, the enemy, some guy in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Uh..." the scientist half-replied, trailing off again. The military members of the team chuckled quietly.

Colonel Anderson cleared away a branch with his hand before they emerged into the sunlight. They were standing on a slight hill, which was mostly covered with grass. In several areas, however, there was grey stone visible where the dirt had been dug or blown away. Several rectangular holes dotted the hill, clearly entrances to a structure below.

"Huh, nobody said anything about subterranean ruins," he remarked, looking around. There was a lot of rubble strewn around, and he scanned for somewhere they could use as a defensive position. "Lots of rubble. Wonder if there was ever something above ground."

"That would be likely," Reimer told him. "The Ancients generally built both type of structure. Unfortunately, it seems that any historical records that had been built into the upper structure are now lost."

"What a shame," he replied, his tone making it clear that he thought it really wasn't. "All right, this isn't a defensible position. Looks like we're going in."

As they headed into the subterranean structure, Colonel Anderson remarked under his breath, "Damn."

"What is it, sir?" the very perceptive Captain asked.

"There's not enough of us. If Anubis comes here, his Jaffa are going to overwhelm us. The Jaffa may be the worst warfighters in history, but if there's twenty of them to each of us, we're gonna run out of bullets."

"Well, sir, if it makes you feel any better, SG-1 has gone up against worse odds." She clicked on the flashlight attached to her rifle as they descended away from the daylight. The tunnel was fairly narrow, but they could make out where it widened further below.

"And escaped with their lives. But what about the people in the village?" he gestured to the east, where they could just barely make out a medieval village. "They're going to be killed or enslaved. No way we can save them this time. If we had the numbers..."

"Sir?"

Colonel Anderson shook his head as they went deeper into the structure. "Nevermind. Forget I said anything, Captain."

"Yes, sir."

Without further conversation, they headed deeper into the ruins, exiting the sloped entrance tunnel into a large, flat room. Several glowsticks had been tossed on the floor, and there was an electric lantern illuminating the area. The architecture was clearly Ancient, and had only degraded slightly over the years. Several consoles and pedestals were located around the room, though nothing appeared to be active.

As he looked around, the Colonel asked, "What is this place, Doctor?"

"Hmm, it looks like a research lab," Reimer informed him, tapping one of the control panels. It did not respond. "Very interesting."

"Ring platform," Captain Greene mentioned, motioning toward a visible pattern in the floor. "Looks dead, though."

"Sir, what's this?" one of the Marines asked. He was kneeling in the corner of the room, beside one of the pedestals. There was a glowing yellow crystal sticking out of it. "I must have bumped something, it slid out of a chamber in the platform."

Reimer walked over and examined the device. "Hmm, very interesting."

"Everything's 'very interesting' to you, Doc," Colonel Anderson remarked. He asked, "What does 'very interesting' mean this time?"

"It appears to be a power source," he explained. "Its nature I do not know. I am surprised, however, that SG-1 did not discover it when they came through this chamber."

As he continued to look at the Ancient power source, the Colonel's radio buzzed to life. "SG-7, be advised that we have picked up unidentified contacts on radar, probable-"

The room shook around them, dust and loose stone dropping down on top of the team. They heard disturbing rumblings from deeper inside the structure, but the area they were in held fast.

"They're already on top of us! SG-1, what's your status?"

There was a few coughs, then Colonel O'Neill's easily recognizable voice. "We're on our way out! The tunnel we came in through caved in but there's another exit and we're taking it. Rendezvous back at the gate!"

"Copy that!" Colonel Anderson acknowledged. Beside him, the rings began rising out of the platform. "Shit! Defensive positions!"

They scrambled for whatever cover they could find and readied their weapons. When the Jaffa materialized, they found themselves up against an entrenched opponent with automatic weapons. Bullets tore through their thin metal armour before they could even get a shot off.

"Go! Back to the gate!" the Colonel ordered. He took point, leaving the Captain as rear guard. As they dashed back up the inclined tunnel, the structure rocked as it was bombarded again and more Jaffa appeared behind them.

Captain Greene raised her weapon and fired at the pursuing Jaffa, easily taking them down as they attempted to enter the tunnel. She was the last to emerge, and was knocked flat to the ground as a strafing run destroyed the tunnel behind her. She quickly picked herself up and kept moving.

"We've gotta move!" Colonel Anderson shouted. There was a Goa'uld ship above the hill that was in the process of breaking off, dropping powerful bombs as it did. Jaffa were visible on the other side in the treeline, advancing toward them and firing wildly with their staff weapons. In the distance, smoke was visible rising over the horizon.

"Roger that!" she yelled in response. They moved back toward the treeline, firing at the Jaffa as they went. She dropped the magazine out of her rifle and slammed in another one before unleashing several short bursts, each one dropping a Jaffa. It thinned the Jaffa out and gave them pause, allowing the team to escape into the forest.

It was a mad dash toward the gate. Moving forward was a priority over killing Jaffa. Captain Greene fired short bursts offhand as she ran- sometimes she would get lucky and hit an exposed Jaffa. Usually the bullets did no damage to anything but the trees, but they did have the effect of suppressing the not-quite-suicidal warriors. Staff blasts hit the ground and the forest everywhere around the SG team. It was a small miracle none of them were hit.

"SG-7, what's your status?" a voice shouted over the radio. Colonel Anderson recognized it as Major Howe, the man who had greeted him upon coming through the gate.

"We're almost there!" Anderson shouted.

Stray branches swatted at Greene as she ran through the bush. She pushed them aside with her gloved hands, only to be smacked in the face. Thankfully, she was wearing sunglasses- otherwise she probably would have lost an eye. The Jaffa continued to give chase, their strength advantage offset by their cumbersome armour. She was out of ammo for her rifle and had switched to her pistol, blind-firing at the oncoming Jaffa. One staff blast slammed into a tree next to her, so close she could feel its heat.

The forest began to thin out, and they emerged into the clearing with the Stargate. The team securing the gate was still there, defending the position against Jaffa marching up the path from the burned village. Death Gliders and Al'kesh swarmed above, craters and burn marks on the ground clear evidence of their attacks.

"We have to hold this position, sir!" Major Howe shouted. Beside him, a Sergeant took aim with an AT4 and fired. The missile streaked toward a Death Glider, and it exploded in midair, raining debris over the forest. "We're still waiting on SG-1!"

"I don't know if we can do that for very long!" Colonel Anderson shouted back, taking cover beside the Major, behind what looked like it had once been a stone pillar. "There's a line of Jaffa right behind us!"

As he said it, a staff blast flew out of the treeline and hit a machine gunner in the abdomen. He screamed in pain and dropped the weapon, collapsing to the ground. Some of the defenders shifted to face the new threat. Anderson turned to the Captain and shouted, "Get on that gun!"

Captain Greene ran over to the machine gun, an M240B that had been set up with its bipod on a ruined column. She opened fire, cutting a wide swath into the line of Jaffa. Seeing the new threat, they began firing toward her, and she ducked behind cover, still firing. They had, however, taken their focus off the rest of the team, who were able to peek out of cover and pick off the Jaffa.

"SG-1, what's your status?" Anderson shouted into his microphone, taking one of the warriors down with his assault rifle at the same time. To his right, the Sergeant fired another AT4, taking down another Death Glider, but not before its strafing run had already killed two of their men. They were running out of time.

"Almost there!" was O'Neill's frenzied response. There was a burst of gunfire, and some of the incoming Jaffa turned as SG-1 rushed toward them. Attacked from both sides, the Jaffa took heavy losses, but more continued to advance.

Colonel O'Neill ran up and tapped Anderson on the shoulder. "Let's go."

"Agreed, we're right behind you! Retreat, retreat, we are leaving!" With one hand, he deftly removed a black rectangular device, like a large radio, from his vest and input a code into its integrated keypad. "The door's open, move it!"

With one swift motion, Captain Greene folded up the bipod on the machine gun and hefted it, firing the heavy weapon from her hip as she moved backward toward the Stargate. The weapon was heavy and kicked hard, and most of her rounds missed. Several steps later, chased by Jaffa weapons fire, she turned and stepped through the Stargate.