Ghosts of Reach
Prologue:
It was over.
Reach, Humanity's Great Fortress… Slowly, steadily turning to Fire, Ice and Glass.
All because of the Covenant.
The Army rifle thudded rhythmically against his shoulder three times, then five, then three more, behind him S-52's machine gun roared, a glance over his shoulder told him Jorge was mowing down a platoon of reinforcements coming up from the lower decks.
Another burst dropped the last Elite, exactly as the bolt slammed open with a snap that sounded as loud as a church bell in the hangar.
Jorge's MG fell silent as he turned around, a quick look showed that all hostiles were dead, the two Spartans shared a glance then headed back to the Pelican.
He reached it before Jorge, he input a command on the console, then swore loudly as an error message flashed on his HUD.
"So it's gonna be like that?" he sighed, he turned to face his brother, flinching as his armour protested the movement.
'Time's finally caught up with me,' he thought, running his hand over the worn plating that had served him well for over twenty years.
"I've got good news and bad news," he began, shrugging off the re-entry pack, "this bird took some fire and the thruster gimble is toast."
"And the good news?" Jorge asked.
"That was the good news," he deadpanned, "the bad news is the Timer's fried, it'll need to be fired manually."
"That's a one way trip," Jorge commented.
"We all pay that debt eventually," he said, letting his British accent slip for the first time in years, "You'd better get going, they'll need you down there…"
"Six, they need you…" Jorge started, picking up the re-entry pack and holding it out but his friend pushed it back.
"No," he said determinedly, "Reach is your Home, It's your right to fight for it, I won't take that from you."
"Six…"
"I won't be able to keep up with them," he admitted, glad he could hide his face behind his visor, "I'm old, Jorge, so is my Armour, unlike you, I haven't gotten spares in a long time, I'll be a liability."
Jorge looked at him sternly, "You aren't a liability, we wouldn't have been half as successful since this began without you."
He shrugged, "I'm a man of secrets, Kat told you all that, but she didn't tell you… I've a great many sins to my name, too many… this is my chance to redeem for some of them, don't take that away… please, brother."
Jorge stared in shock, then his eyes widened in recognition, "Orion?" he whispered.
The other Spartan gave only the briefest of nods, he took off his helmet and let it fall, holding Jorge's gaze as his fellow II stared in disbelieve, the man's eyes drinking in every detail of a face he hadn't seen in decades.
"Jorge…" Six began hesitantly, bringing the Reachman out of his trance, he hesitantly reached for his Dog Tags and pulled them over his head.
Jorge blinked as something gold reflected light into his eyes.
"…when you get to Earth… give these to her," Six said, regret thick in his voice, "Tell her… tell her I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise."
Jorge stared as the tags and chain fell into his hand, not noticing Six fit the re-entry pack to his armour, not until Six pushed him to the edge of the shield.
"Wait!" Jorge protested, "how will I know who to give these to?"
Six just looked at him sadly, "She'll come to you," he said, "she'll look for Noble, if not the last person to see me… promise me you'll get back? You'll find her for me?"
Jorge looked into his lost Brother's eyes and nodded, "I promise," he said solemnly.
"Thank you," Six said, gripping Jorge by the shoulders.
"Tell them… To Remember Reach…. Tell them that as long as one free human still draws breath, the hearts of our people can never be broken…. Tell them to remember our sacrifices…"
Six looked Jorge in the eye, his body coiled like a cobra ready to strike, "Tell Them… To. Make. It. Count…"
Six's body drew back ever so slightly and then he was falling…
It was beautiful… in a way, tranquil. The corvette grew smaller, shadowed by the massive bulk of the Carrier behind it, but he never took his eyes off of the smaller craft.
Just as his mind finally registered stars on either side of the Carrier's hull, there was an arc of lightning from the tiny purple speck he was watching, then a wave of purplish energy, finally a huge purple sphere exploded rapidly around the speck before expanding to encompass over a third of the Carrier's hull, severing it in two and sending the remaining parts into freefall.
"Guess this is it?"
Six spun around to find four of the Sabre pilots still alive, their body language showing a mix of terror and resignation.
"Gods, I'm sorry… I thought you'd all been killed," Six apologised quickly, "I might be able to throw you back up to your fighters if we're quick and Dot lowers the gravity…"
"It's ok, Sir," the smallest pilot said, he sounded young, "we knew it was a one way trip, Just… didn't think I'd go out with this big a bang."
"He's right, LT," the tallest pilot said in a Bronx accent, "we all made arrangements before setting out."
Six looked between the four men, each nodded in turn. Six walked back over to the rear of the Pelican and grasped the manual trigger, he looked to them over his shoulder then pulled.
The rain seemed to embody the mood in the Falcon, not even Emile could say anything. Noble had lost their second Six, they hadn't been as close to him as his predecessor… perhaps that made it worse, they'd kept him at arm's length at first and only just started to warm up to him… No Noble would meet another's eye.
Jorge looked at Kat, who was staring unseeingly out the door, he wondered if she blamed herself for Six's… no, Orion's death, it certainly didn't help Thom had been killed by a similar complication.
He took out Orion's tags numbly, if only to occupy his shaking hands… his hands never shook, and he hadn't cried since early boot camp, but he'd cried when the 'Bomb' activated…
Inspecting the tags, Jorge realised what had shone golden when Six had given them to him.
Looped into the chain were two gold rings, matching male and female, an intricate Celtic pattern was woven around the outside edge and there were Celtic letters on the inside face, forming two words.
"What have you got there?"
"Six's tags," Jorge told Emile, "and a pair of Engagement Rings."
Every Noble looked at him sharply.
"I didn't know he was engaged?" Emile said in wonder.
"I didn't know Spartans could get engaged," Kat retorted, "I've never heard of it happening."
"I heard of a II that applied to marry," Carter said softly, "but he was refused."
Jorge nodded sadly, he too knew of the II in question, "Six made me promise to get off Reach and give these to his girlfriend."
"With luck we can keep that promise," Carter declared.
An unspoken conversation was held as each member of Noble team glanced to each other, then back to Carter, silently agreeing.
"We're Alive…"
Six looked down his chest at the pilot who'd spoken, who'd also been knocked down by the Drive's activation.
"Dot? Can you access the ship's sensors and tell us where we are?" Six asked the Dumb AI he was issued.
The pilots looked at him curiously and were surprised when a cool female voice answered the Spartan, "Of course, Noble Six."
"Who was that?" the youngest asked.
"Dot," Six answered, "Noble team's dumb AI, we were all issued a copy."
"I have accessed the sensors," Dot said a few minutes later, "we are entering orbit of a world like Gaia but the constellations are wrong."
"What does she mean, Wrong?" the Bronx pilot asked, clearly dreading the answer.
"The constellations visible do not match UNSC star charts for Gaia, those that are visible are also in the wrong place," Dot answered, "The planet below is geographically identical to Gaia and possesses a Human population but the civilisation is considerably less advanced."
"How less advanced?"
"Late 20th Century," Dot confirmed.
"Shit!"
"You said it," Six muttered.
"Spatial rupture detected," Dot intoned, each man looked up then out the hangar shield. They couldn't see anything but they all had a funny feeling they were no longer alone.
"Two unidentified vessels have exited the rupture and are now approaching the sixth planet in the system," Dot informed.
"We should head for the bridge," the others didn't need telling twice.
"Bra'tac?"
The aged Jaffa struck out at O'Neill, sending the Colonel to the floor clutching his nose.
"Hassat!" the Jaffa exclaimed, "you have doomed yourselves And your world!"
Daniel and Sam stared in shock as Bra'tac continued, "It is all I can do to keep you alive."
"Do you know all I have done to regain the trust of Apophis, and rejoin this Campaign?" he demanded indignantly, "Hmmm!"
"Tak'ma'tae Bra'tac," Teal'c greeted.
Bra'tac turned around and smiled at his friend and student, "hello again my friend," he greeted.
"Your son grows strong, one day he will be a great warrior," he informed Teal'c.
Teal'c took the news stoically.
"But you should not have come," Bra'tac informed them.
"I stand by my friends," Teal'c told him, "I believe this world may one day be our only hope in overcoming the False Gods."
"Yes," Bra'tac mused, looking over Daniel and Sam, "Pathetic as that may seem at this time?" he sighed heavily, "I agree."
"You do?" Daniel asked.
"I may even have been able to save this world," Bra'tac told him.
"Hey!"
They all looked to O'Neill who stood up, "What do ya think we've been trying to do?"
"It is our world you're talking about," he pointed out.
"Enough Human!" Bra'tac said forcefully, "this is not the place to talk of such things."
"I have been ordered by Apophis himself to execu…"
"Bra'tac! Stay your hand, I wish the Tau'ri dogs to hear the destruction of their world's last defenders!"
"I didn't expect that," Daniel stated.
"He must be preparing to engage your ships," Bra'tac concluded.
"Yeah… we don't have any," Jack explained.
"Yeah, we're basically limited to fighting through the Stargate," Daniel explained.
Bra'tac stared disbelievingly between the two.
"Then who is Apophis preparing to engage?"
"Tau'ri! Surrender your ship and bow before your New God!"
There was a haunting silence for several seconds.
"Bow to your God? Not Bloody Likely, Invader! You want this planet? Then you can pry it from our Cold. Dead. Fingers!"
"Kaffa! Krenol!"
"Main Battery, Slag that flying junk heap! I Want It Out Of My Sky!"
"Sir, that was definitely English!" Carter exclaimed.
"Maybe one of the other teams hijacked a ship from another Goa'uld," Daniel suggested.
"Doesn't matter," Jack said, looking at Bra'tac, "we don't want to be here when it starts firing!"
Bra'tac nodded, "agreed, come."
"Stable orbit achieved," Dot stated finally.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, they'd really been unsure whether the damaged engines would allow them to reach safety.
"Staines, Brooklyn! Get down to the gunnery station, we're about to have company," Six ordered.
"I'm from the Bronx!"
"Get moving!"
The two pilots jogged out of the room, back tracking to the weapons stations.
"ETA of those ships?"
"Three minutes," Six swore.
"Not a lot of time," Baker noted.
"I have analysed the ships' defences, while they possess energy shields they are noticeably weaker, concentrated fire shall quickly overwhelm them," Dot informed them.
"Some good news," Cromer said, "I think the lead vessel is hailing us?"
"Put it up."
"Audio only, sir," Cromer said.
"Tau'ri! Surrender your ship and bow before your New God!" a distorted voice demanded.
Six cocked an eyebrow, then looked at Cromer and Baker who gave him equally disbelieving looks, "Bow to your God? Not Bloody Likely, Invader! You want this planet? Then you can pry it from our Cold. Dead. Fingers!"
"Kaffa! Krenol!"
"Main Battery, Slag that flying junk heap! I Want It Out Of My Sky!"
"Aye, Aye!" Staines replied over the comm.
"We're away!" Carter called out gladly as the Death Gliders flew out of the hangar.
"We're not out of the woods yet," Jack pointed out, needlessly pointing to the massive ship that was firing long trailed shots that had decimated Apophis' flagship and were now curving in flight to strike the ship they'd just left.
The first Hat'tak hung in space, burning fiercely from what little structure remained intact, then, after a full minute, exploded in a brilliant white flash.
The second Hat'tak, Klorel's, was straining under the enemy ship's fire, its shields were shining brightly as plasma projectiles the size of tanks slammed into its shields, which held for a surprising amount of time, roughly twenty direct hits, before succumbing, three more hits were all that was needed to send the ship to join its sister.
The blast wave washed over the three fighters, causing the systems to fail except SG-1's own radios.
"That was impressive," Jack complimented.
"Glad they're on our side," Carter agreed.
"Don't get ahead of ourselves, how do we know the crew aren't using this attack for their own purposes," Daniel pointed out, "Teal'c, Bra'tac? Do either of you recognise that design?"
"I do not, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c stated, "the design is unlike anything I have seen or Apophis knows of."
"I agree," Bra'tac concurred.
"Unidentified fighters, this is the Ardent Prayer, state your identity and intentions or you will be destroyed!"
"Not good," Jack muttered, "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill of the United States Air Force, we are escaped prisoners of the force you just destroyed, repeat, we are Friendlies."
The silence was deafening.
"Colonel O'Neill, permission is granted to land in the Hangar bay, we wish to speak to your superiors."
"Confirmed, I'll see what I can do, but we lost power when the blast wave from the second Hat'tak hit, we may need assistance," Jack replied.
"Acknowledged, stand by, we'll try to manoeuvre so the entrance is in you path, but if you have any control, it'd be a good idea to use it, Hangar's pretty crowded."
"No pressure," Jack muttered, then turned to the task of guiding his fighter into the large vessel.
'This has been one weird day,' he thought as the hangar came into view.
AN: I'm not decided on who Six will be engaged to, but I'm considering either Kelly 087 or Miranda Keyes.