Gateway
Chapter 3 Dari'm Part 1
18th June 2020
Free Jaffa Nation space, Planet Dari'm
Flannigan and Hall was patrolling just nearby and Cooper had barely settled in and put down her pack when Gate's voice came over the earpiece. She was sitting against some rubble with Roark.
"Coop! We got Advent at the gate!"
She jumped to her feet instantly.
"Sir? How many?" She asked through her earpiece.
Dozens and growing! We killed four but Locke is wounded. We are falling back to the ruins," Gate's told them.
"Copy that," she said and turned to Roark. "Inform our Sangheili friend and get those Kig-yar mercs up and ready. And tell the civilians to evacuate. There's a Jaffa fort to the south right, send them there."
"Got it ma'am," he answered.
Why where they here though? It couldn't be a coincidence that they were excavating an Ancient facility. She knew Advent had a spy network of humans spread out in the galaxy and it seemed likely that they knew more than she did about this facility. They wouldn't throw unnecessary resources on attacking the dig otherwise, although, as soon as she said it she acknowledged to herself that they actually might just throw manpower at them in hopes of getting something cool. Joseph Eli seemed to be nonchalant about losing men.
She moved her hand to her ear.
"Hall, Flannigan we have Advent incoming. I…want you in the tower west of camp Flannigan."
"Copy," the team marksman complied.
Cooper looked around her. There was four way to to get to the camp. The rest was blocked by the old ruined buildings. It wasn't long until Demetrius Roark returned with Jhelum and he looked damn angry. Jaffa laborers was climbing out of the chamber below their feet.
"Cooper, two of the men had Zats and is staying to fight with us, rest of the locals will head for the fort."
Cooper nodded. Then the garrison could protect them and she wouldn't need to worry.
"Unbelievable," Jhelum grumbled. "Fifteen minutes here and you draw the Advent's attention."
Wait, what? She thought. She went back to ignoring him for a moment. "Send those two to the tower. Flannigan will sit there in sniping position and they can cover him."
"Got it." He glared at Jhelum before he gestured the two Jaffa over.
Staff Sergeant Hall came running. She stopped in front of Cooper.
"I want you defending the eastern road to camp, I'll hold one of the northern, Roark will take the western and the hired goons and SG-18 will spread out and hold until General O'Neill sends backup," said Cooper. "When Gate's gets back here we'll see if he counted a more exact number."
Hall nodded, "Ma'am."
With that Cooper turned to Jhelum. He had remained silent for the moment.
"How are you so sure you can hold until your general sends help?" Jhelum asked in disbelief. "You are not Sangheili."
"We only need to hold out twenty minutes or so," Cooper said, a sigh escaped her. "Look buddy, Colonel Gate and his team was at the gate when Advent came and it takes some ten minutes from these ruins to the gate. O'Neill knowns this and he'll make contact within twenty minutes."
Roark came over to join us, "Birds are gone."
Cooper blinked confused, "Eh…what?"
Jhelum growled. He understood.
"The Kig-yar."
"They're gone. Just scrambled into the southern forest," Roark explained. "So much for your bodyguards for hire."
Jhelum snorted.
"If I catch them I shall rip out their throats," he promised furiously.
Cooper couldn't say she was surprised. Kig-yar was known as pirates and raiders to her people. Criminals with military grade hardware, like the Lucian Alliance. No surprise the drunk goons had no loyalty. Back when they encountered Kig-yar pirates they had been extorting some villages on a backwater planet. Only other time she had seen them was on a short joint operation with UNSCs army branch against a Covenant of the Hand base established close to one of their colonies, Valhalla.
Despite her aura of confidence she knew they wouldn't be able to holdfast against a too large Advent force to very long. Anything larger than a Platoon would be able to overrun their perimeter quick enough.
When SG-18 returned Gate's dispersed hid team to guard three of the approaches to camp with him and Cooper guarding the forth. Jhelum went back to work and Corporal Locke was in the underground chamber because of his injury. His hope was to get the door open and reach whatever was inside before Advent broke the Stargate teams perimeter. Gate's had counted at least three Platoons, around a hundred and forty or so.
"I at first thought we were dealing with a faction of Ex-Covies," Gate told Cooper as they shared cover behind a fallen pillar. "I counted thirty Unggoy first through the gate, but they returned after Advent's shock troops arrived."
Cooper frowned deeply.
"What do you mean they returned? Why send them through and back after encountering resistance?" It didn't make any sense to her.
"Well," Gate supposed. "The UNSC told us the old Covenant used Unggoy as fodder in the war. I'm thinking that Advent might be doing the same thing. What if Eli hires them or enslaved them or something rather, and is starting to use them as fodder. When they arrived my team withdrew and maybe a ground commander didn't want to let the fodder get glory for recovering whatever's inside…" he then lightly shrugged. "But I don't know. I'm only guessing."
"Hmm," Cooper nodded. "Sounds good enough for me. Let's make them regret that decision."
He smirked, "Damn right."
They heard a shot not too far a distance away. Gate reached for his earpiece first.
"Report!"
"Sir, took out a sharpshooter in the bushes," Flannigan reported.
"Good work son, keep it up," Gate stated.
Cooper studied his rifle. It was black with a silver lining with a scope, a firm handle under the barrel and a stock against the shoulder. It was the same weapon she had, the Adaptive Multirole Combat Rifle. It was a good and reliable rifle used since three years back.
"There we go," Gate' said, nodding over the fallen pillar.
Cooper nodded as she also saw the approaching soldiers in black and red armor. She counted seven of them, which suggested a scouting party to determine the level of resistance.
"Colonel, we have three hostiles approaching our position," Hall reported.
"Got give approaching here," one of Gate' teammates, Wolf, reported.
"Copy that," Gate answered.
He and cooper heard gunfire from the other positions.
"Same, four soldiers," Roark reported. "Scratch that, three."
Cooper smirked and aimed at the approaching men. The seven soldiers came forth moving from cover to cover. Cooper found a good opportunity and squeezed the trigger. The burst hit him in the chest and he fell backwards. Two of his comrades moved to pull him to cover; allowing Gate to hit one of them with two burst, killing him. The other soldier managed to get his sounded comrade behind cover of a collapsed wall.
Cooper ducked when they started firing back, twenty meters from them.
"This is not the first mission back I expected," she told Gate.
"No doubt," he answered. "But you missed this stuff."
He fired two bursts and scored a headshot.
"Yeah, a bit," she supposed.
She fired a burst and kept a shock trooper from changing cover. She heard Hall over the earpiece.
"We have twenty hostiles moving towards our position," she reported swiftly.
"Damn it," Gate cursed.
"Guess they're not holding back," Cooper said, realizing her scouting theory was wrong.
""Hold as long as you can Staff Sergeant," Gate ordered. "Staff Sergeant Flannigan focus your attention at Hall and and Fox' position."
"Copy. We'll hold," Hall said.
"Already on it, sir," the marksman answered.
Cooper let go of her rifle and got out a grenade. She lobbed it over and it landed behind the cover shared by two hostiles. One of them with quick reflexes leaped from cover in time for Gate to wound him and pin the other down. The following second the grenade detonated and agonizing screams followed.
"We're still on the same level," said Cooper and offered her superior a smirk.
He maintain a neutral expression as a fighter swept in over their heads. She identified it as an Advent Interceptor. It was based off the GA-TL1 Longsword Interceptor but unlike it the Advent model was black as the darkest of nights.
"Looks like they have a Carrier in orbit," Gate said, his expression hardening. Cooper and he shared a look and knew that the situation was becoming worse and worse. "We need to fall back to the Ancient facility."
Cooper reached for her earpiece, "Hostile aero support incoming. I need everybody to withdraw to the tunnels, now!" She looked to Gate. With a nod she told him she'd cover him when he moved.
