Secret Constructive Destruction

February 2013

Part 1

Alex did the last thing he had expected to do. "General Sheppard, release nerve gas in complex seventeen."

"Prepare to be beamed out." John replied hurriedly. A flash of light struck the surrounding area and they appeared in the control room. "We're doing the same at the other crash site."

"Good." Alex looked at the now exploding orb. "What's that?"

"That 'was' a crush shield." He had probably made the name himself.

"All life forms in the crash zones have been neutralised." The weapon's officer, Bill, said. "Wraith shield shell is also destroyed."

"It's better than my name, shield shell, let's go with that." He looked as if he was silently praising the fact he had named something.

"Long range sensors have picked up ten hive ships approaching." The sensor officer, Kim, informed. "Another five are right behind them. They'll be here within two days."

"It's going to be a long week." He sat down and put his head back. "Go get some rest."

Kim and Bill exchanged looks and glanced to John again. "Really?" They said mutually.

"Yes," He said. "You deserve it."

"Thank you sir." They each said as they left the room. As the reached the door they were hand in hand.

Alex looked to John as he stood up and took a breath. "You lot as well." He looked around the room waiting for the entire staff to leave. "I need to think."

They started to leave but Alex cloaked as he left the room and went back in.

John was sitting in the chair, head in hands while his elbows rested on the chair's arms. He was staring out the front window at the mountain range beyond the APBW array.

"First missing resources and now a full on wraith attack." He said to himself. "What the hell am I going to do?" He wondered the control room in thought then stopped and pulled up some logs on a computer. "Why aren't we getting all the resources we should be?" He tapped on the keyboard a few more times and sat in the chair.

Alex silently moved behind him and looked at what he was staring at. Resource logs. He pulled up a graph that showed a dramatic decline over the past few months of outgoing resources to the estimated mined amount.

John put his head back in surprise. "That's not right." He tapped a few more times to find that maintenance of the mining robots had gone up over the past few months as well. Alex was as puzzled as John looked. "What do you think?"

Alex stayed quiet.

"I know your there Alex, I was hoping you'd stay actually." John said as he turned the chair on its rotation joint. "What do you think?"

Alex took his helmet off so it looked like it was hovering. "Seems like the maintenance teams are either taking the mined resources, or they're reprogramming the robots to make a stockpile in the mountains. Looks like a trust op to me."

"I thought so too." John agreed. "I'll have to tell Carter when she arrives."

"When is that?" Alex asked as he put his helmet back on.

"Later today." John said. "I'm meeting up with her about a new ship design."

"When are missions going to start again?" He asked. "My people are getting restless with just patrol after patrol."

"When she reveals why I was ordered to stop construction of the 304s in orbit." He chuckled. "She probably knows where my resources are going anyway."

"So it's not a trust op then?" Alex asked, starting to become puzzled.

"It might be, but I'm hoping Carter can sort this out."

"And if she can't?"

"We're screwed." John admitted. "I'm also ordered to start construction of this new ship when I've been told about it."

"What's it called?"

"Something like the FGS-three-one-one-oh-one. She says it's going to make me shit myself when I see it."

"Sam Carter said that?"

"Well, a bit less colourful, but in essence, yes." John said as he opened the door. "You've got patrol in an hour right?"

Alex rolled his eyes behind the helmet. "Yes."

"Put team three on it." John said. "Take the day off."

"Thanks John." He said. What am I going to do for a day? He thought to himself. It suddenly dawned on him. He'd do nothing. "John, with the lack of missions, there's been a lot of stress around the base."

"I know, what are you getting at?" John asked.

"It's just I have an idea that would pass for training, which could be a nice thing for troops to cool off."

"You're not going where I think you're going right?" John looked around for Alex. "If you are, I'm with you on that."

"I've been killed." Mellor said over the radio. "Can't help you I'm afraid."

"Damn numb packages." Edward muttered as he let loose a stream of red at the Netherland's eleventh squad to reach his position in the last two hours. "Alex, where are you?"

A red spark flew through the air and took down a soldier close to John. He looked around and saw Alex waving from a building window.

He fired another ten shots before he was pinned down by a constant rampage of red fire. Edward took his chance and made a run for it. His legs gave way instantly and then so did his arms. Another hit his chest then one red bolt hit his helmet.

He blinked twice as the feeling came back to his thumb. He saw lights surrounding him, bright ones at that. He heard a voice come to his ears.

"Can you hear me?" It was a female voice ringing through his ears. "Major Saunders, can you hear my voice."

"Yes." He said in splutter of numbness. "I can hear you." Not managing most of the letters while he spoke.

"Well, you took a beating." She poked his cheek. "Can you feel that?"

"Kind of."

"Ok, as I was saying, you took a beating during war games." She finished. "They kept shooting at you, you must have pissed them off."

He suddenly realised that voice. "Lauren?"

"Yep." She said humorously. "I've been waiting to rub it in your face."

"Tell Sheppard those rounds need to be toned down." He croaked.

"They were down as low as they could go." She continued. "You were shot about twenty five times. So your armour stiffened up and then you went cold out." She pecked his cheek. "Still, it's good to be able to shoot something moving after this long."

"What day is it?" he asked.

"You've been out three hours." She corrected. "I've been out two."

"Oh." He tried to move his hand. He could move it slightly.

"Give it a minute." She said. "Alex fell down some stairs."

"Is he ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine." He said appearing from somewhere out of his sight. "Took me a while to pull myself back to base though."

"You were the one that suggested the time-dilation building." Edward said hoarsely. "Your own fault."

"Yeah, well get well soon." Alex said.

"Welcome to Pegasus Command Sam." John said as he stood in front of the gate. "And, Jack, you look younger, a lot younger."

"Clone." Sam said, as if that would mean anything to John. "Long story."

"What's it-"

"Call me Jack." It said dead-tone.

"What's Clone Jack doing here?" John asked, slightly confused.

"He's going to be in command of the PCDS-4."

"Ah, ok." John said. "Welcome to my command."

"Don't patronize me." He said. "I may look in my twenties, but I'm the same age as 'Real' Jack, here." He pointed to his head.

"Ok." John steered the conversation away by asking. "What's this new ship then?"

"I'll show you later, can I look around the base and the resource base as well?"

"Sure." John pointed to the right exit from the gate room. "This way."

"Is General O'Neil here or not?" A soldier asked John in the mess hall. "You keep saying he isn't but we see him around the base all the time."

John stood on the table, determined to stop these damned questions. "The O'Neil here is a clone, not General O'Neil. He was made by a rouge Asgard and he's going to be in charge of a fighter defence squadron for Pegasus command. Now, no more questions about this! It's driving me crazy!"