Chapter Two – While the City Burns
New Orleans, Earth
"Brother, I am not sure our position remains tenable. I think it is time we sought sanctuary elsewhere."
Predictably Klaus scowled, his fist crashed down on the table, the already battered surface shuddering and cracking under the impact.
"I will not be driven from my home again. Do you understand me Brother?"
"Sadly, I understand you only too well."
The roof of the wine cellar shuddered again as another period of bombardment began, Elijah frowned as dust once again cloaked his hair and clothes. Out of reflex he brushed himself down, controlling his impulse to scream, to rip into someone's neck, to tear something apart, bathe him-self clean in the hot blood.
"What do we have left?" Klaus slumped back into the armchair he had brought down
"Very little, the humans are scattered and leaderless, more surrender each day or just die, it's frankly very annoying. A few do remain with Marcel and they will fight on but to what end…. We need an objective, something we can focus on, some victory that we can achieve."
"What about your little wolf queen?" The words quickly spoken, but his voice softened a little.
"She has taken her people and gone north, it is our hope that they at least may remain unnoticed by the invaders. Of course Rebekah wanted to go with her but…"
"She bloody didn't," Rebekah threw at both of them as she strode in, "I am tired, dirty and in need of a drink. What do you have left?"
She was tall and very blonde where her brothers were darker haired, she looked about 18 and was, like them, more than a millennia old. Her skin and clothes were indeed covered in blood and mud and other stains but despite this she still looked energised.
Klaus smiled, quickly moving to embrace his baby sister, who in turn grimaced as she discovered that she was not the only one in urgent need of a bath, before she returned the hug. Elijah poured her a glass of wine, shielding the contents from another flurry of dust.
"So where is Kol?" She asked after downing the wine in one gulp.
"Good question, I suspect he is hiding somewhere with Davina." The disapproval in Elijah's tone was unmistakable.
"Bloody typical, so what's the plan Nik?" she looked with some concern at her brother who had slumped back into the chair, his sudden burst of good humour vanishing as the seconds passed.
"I…don't know, Little Sister, I really don't know."
Disconcerted, she looked at Elijah for inspiration and found nothing.
"OooooKay, lets work this through." Neither of the brothers argued so she ploughed on.
"These aliens mostly look like us – except for the really icky snake things that live in their bellies. They have advanced technology but like to fight at close quarters – they are stronger and faster than most humans but can't match us, obviously. For whatever reason, they believe their leaders are our gods from the past – bloody weird that."
She paused again, but both of the men were still watching and listening.
"The snakes mean we can't compel them and we can't feed on them – tried that – tastes like acid – well what I expect acid tastes like." She grinned.
"Their weapons are powerful – those staff guns hurt like hell and their little snake pistols are not much better but can be useful….." She flourished one of the guns without activating it before replacing it in her jacket pocket.
Elijah took advantage of the pause to break in, "Yes, this we all know Rebekah, yes we can kill individual "Jaffa" at will, but we can't touch their ships and they seem to have no shortage of warriors to expend against our resistance."
"What about the witches?"
"You mean Davina? She is about the only one with any power we left alive. We can't find her and if she doesn't want to be found she won't be."
"So we need to get aboard the ships. So let's do that."
The two brothers looked at each, shrugged and smiled….
xx
Sabaratha, Ha'tak, above the ruins of Richmond, Virginia, Earth,
"Kemoc, your report"
The young woman on the command throne shifted slightly as she commanded the Jaffa Prime, her normally brown eyes flashing white in an unconscious display of her authority. She was clad in tight red leather, cut to enhance and display her figure, baring her well tanned arms. Her dark blonde hair was only partially tied back, one long tress hanging over her right shoulder, an elaborate gilded necklace sat prominently at her throat, her only jewellery. The symbol it formed proclaimed her allegiance and matched the larger emblem that arched above her throne.
Kemoc's powerful, still armour clad form had already dropped to one knee, his eyes averted as the two equally impressively muscled and well oiled servants on either side of the throne continued their ceaseless fanning of their mistress. A twin line of roaring braziers marked the appropriate avenue of approach.
"The conquest goes well, Lord, the processing camps are at full capacity, however the Tau'ri have, as we feared, regressed physically with their reliance on forbidden technologies. Some did provide adequate resistance and so it is likely that there should be potential in their descendants."
She nodded; there was nothing unexpected in his words.
"Resource surveys of the various regions are continuing, much of the region is suitable for crops and they seem to have eliminated any predators of consequence."
He sounded disappointed and she recalled his enthusiasm for hunting with a slight frown.
"As you commanded, clearance of a suitable site for the temple to our God has begun; those who have proved unsuitable for transportation to the home worlds are being pressed into service and are thus far proving adequate, it should be ready ahead of schedule."
"Good, Lord Ba'al will be pleased. Continue"
"Despite extensive searches and interrogations, no more of the Demons have been located and your forces have suffered no more attacks from the creatures."
"Excellent," she glanced up and beyond him as another supplicant entered the room, bowing low as he did so.
"See that the work continues for my eye is ever upon you, labour swiftly and well." She noted the thin bead of sweat trail down his polished bald head and was pleased.
The Jaffa inclined his head further, before rising carefully, bowing again and departing, not even glancing at the newcomer. He knew the spymaster well enough and would likely be seeing him in due course. For his part the newcomer merely bowed his head slightly as the warrior passed him.
Lord Zarin smiled as the man approached, he was short, dark skinned with short brown hair, clad in silks rather than armour and apparently bore no weapon. He raised his eyes boldly to gaze upon her as he walked closer, but received no rebuke.
"Masocan," her voice shifted from its unnatural vocal intonation as she savoured his name as much as she enjoyed his appearance.
"My Lord" he swept forward in an elaborate bow and flashed an insolent smile.
She smiled even more broadly and shifted again on her throne gesturing for him to come forward, exposing a considerable length of her bare leg as she did so. He moved smoothly forward to sit at her feet, smiling up at her.
"Speak" Despite the command; her voice was still soft and remained that of the host rather than the symbiote.
His own voice was deep and caressing but pitched low enough that it carried little further than her ears, "Jirced has reached the Tau'ri city of New Orleans, what remains of it, and hopes to make contact this evening. His guide seems to be living up to her promises."
"I should hope so," the voice had returned to that unmistakable cadence of the symbiote and his disappointment was evident but this changed as she continued. "Let us hope her desperation has been well harnessed."
"Her interrogation was lengthy and thorough, nothing was concealed from us." His voice was almost hurt at the possibility.
"You shall tell more of what else you have discovered about these Tau'ri Demons but first I require….refreshment…..Come!"
She rose and without further words swept through the purple silk curtains that billowed behind her throne. Masocan glanced at the impassive, unmoving faces of her attendants and followed.
Xx
New Orleans, Earth
The detonations had finally ceased, but the dust was still cloaking the air when the first wave came into the kill zone. They moved quickly and effectively, decades of training meaning they acted as one, energy blasts lashing the ruins ahead of them in precise focussed strikes.
They were spread out, reducing the effectiveness of any of the bobby traps the Tau'ri were so fond of. Several of them had fought in this part of the battered and burnt city before; they marked familiar ambush points with bolts of energy, hoping to anticipate the inevitable ambushers.
Above them several death gliders screamed down and unleashed even more devastation on the skeletal buildings that were looming before them. As they banked away, still shrieking, a single missile roared out of the back of a devastated truck trailer, trailing fire and its engine bellowing defiance at the invaders.
The formation broke up instantly, heading for the ground but the projectile had chosen its target well and matched its desperate manoeuvres until it could embrace it in an intense conflagration. The now stricken craft, shedding metal in a rain of molten debris ploughed through several shops and into a church before its fuel cells detonated.
Even as the jaffa leader was opening his mouth to command his men, the left side of his face blew apart as a high velocity round impacted and then continued on before burying itself in a brick wall. He grunted in pain and anger, lurched to one side and raised his staff weapon, even managing to fire it as the second bullet entered his right eye and exploded out through the back of his skull.
Most of the remaining jaffa were angered by the sniper and targeted his likely location with a storm of energy, but two of them were older and more experienced. They spun and swept their weapons round in an arc ready to counter the flanking attack they had sensed.
The rearmost warrior was not quite quick enough as a heavy machete took the top of his head off and a smaller knife rammed its way into his stomach and deep into the new screaming larval symbiote. The man who had killed him was already moving on to the next target, his momentum ripping free his weapon in a new fountain of blood that sprinkled his dark skin.
His companion, nearer the centre of the still moving formation was a fraction quicker and a little more fortunate. His enemy was fast, almost blurring as he accelerated towards the jaffa, but the staff weapon's bolt was faster. The ball of energy burst into the leaping mans chest, burning through to explode his heart. Side stepping the smouldering corpse of his attacker slamming into the cracked pavement, the jaffa looked for his next target.
The dark skinned vampire was now amongst them, his machete quickly cloaked in molten blood and raw flesh as he repeatedly struck and dodged at high speed. He parried one swinging staff with his arm and flung the resulting discharge into another jaffa, absorbing a powerful kick on one raised leg, quickly turning away from the blow and slashing the knife across his assailant's throat.
Another high velocity round cut through the skirmish and shattered on the armour of another warrior, but his escape was short lived as a full burst of heavy automatic fire began to chew through his body as it jerked uncontrollably from the impacts.
There were only five jaffa now standing and two were badly injured, bleeding out but their symbiotes keeping them in the fight as they sought to strike back at the attackers. The veteran rolled around and over a relatively intact sports car and lashed out again with his staff weapon, impaling the machine gunner with two fiery bolts, one through the chest, the other incinerating the mans head as the jaffa now brought the weapon up as he began to turn to face the other Tau'ri demon.
Blood flowed as the knife rammed up through his chin, nailing his tongue to the roof of his mouth and penetrating to the brain. Simultaneously the dripping machete was hammered deep into the abdominal pouch through the armour, but it snapped as the vampire tried to withdraw it. He cursed and flung what remained into the forehead of another warrior, whose weapon discharged harmlessly into an already burnt out school bus.
"We are done." Marcel faced and spoke to the last unsteady jaffa, his eyes watching the staff as it jerked left and right, its wielders motor control failing and vision stuttering. As it fired for the last time, he had already moved to the side and was then suddenly behind him, completing the ambush.
He looked up, checking if the gliders had returned, but he was fortunate and already on the move as he gathered several blood stained staff weapons and lopped into cover. He paused by the machine gunner whose still smoking body had dropped to the ground but he was as beyond help as the other vampire that had had his heart exploded.
"I am sorry, so sorry" He looked down at the former marine below and then back at the once flamboyant art student who had now died for the second and final time. Then he shook his head and tossed two of the staffs to the remaining human who had followed him into battle and who was now looking to him for orders.
"Hit and fade, that's the plan – so let's fade."
He knew his sniper had already departed.
By the time the street became, once again a firestorm, they too were long gone.
Xx
The next wave of jaffa was more than double the initial force, above them hovered a vast grey pyramid-shaped craft, two large wings extended from its base and curving back towards the front. A large turret on the bottom of the ship swivelled constantly as it probed the ruins with its sensors. Two more of the huge craft lurked both higher and further back, ready to provide fire support or transport reinforcements.
At the lead of the new force was a cloaked warrior, his skin was dark, his body taller and broader than many, his head hairless, like many of his jaffa. Upon his forehead was etched the golden symbol of his god, he carried both a staff weapon and a smaller weapon holstered on his wrist and he was not amused.
Teal'c, First Prime of Apophis stalked through the ranks of his men, looking for both their faults in deployment and noting where and how the ambush had taken place. He was sure now that the enemy had fled, not daring to face the retribution he was now leading and he was forced to content himself with the knowledge that the areas of the blasted city not under his control grew smaller every day. Soon he would be able to stand face to face with the demons and measure their strength for himself.
A rare smile blossomed; he was looking forward to it.