Ship of the Line: Pioneers Dawn
Authors Notes: I think it should be obvious by now that the Stargate elements of this story are set at the end of season one beginning of season two of Stargate SG-1 however I have had to tweak some of the events and timings of the season two premier episode The Serpent's Lair for story telling purposes in both this chapter and following chapters as well as clean up some discontinuities with later developments in SG-1. For example this time Teal'c recognised that they were aboard a Ha'tak-class ship, he is also capable of piloting the ship as other Jaffa have been seen to do even before the fall of the System Lords.
As always with my Stargate fics conversation in bold is a Goa'uld speaking while conversation in bold italics is a symbiote talking to their host. Now then without further ado let's get on with the chapter.
Disclaimer: I still do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement, so please no legal action I have no money to give anyone.
Chapter Three
Elsewhere In Sunnydale
That Same Time
Admiral Lisa Hayes-Hunter swore colourfully as she ducked down behind a convenient dumpster, just in time to avoid a thrown bottle that crashed into the wall and shattered. Showering the wall with its contents that from the smell was alcohol.
Peering cautiously around the dumpster Lisa noticed that strangely none of the three black robed individuals she could see seemed to be carrying any weapons. Instead the fireballs and what looked like balls of blue energy seemed to just appear in their hands. But then again it was just the latest in a series of bizarre events that had happened to her in the last half or so, ever since she'd woken up here seemingly transported through time and space to what appeared to be Earth – and an Earth that from the style of the architecture and the vehicles was a pre-Rain of Death Earth, possibly even a pre-robotechnology Earth given most of the vehicles seemed to have internal combustion engines – which had been phased out in favour of hydrogen fuel cells during the decade between the arrival of the alien ship that became the SDF-1 and the coming of the Zentraedi to retrieve said ship.
Quite how this had happened she had absolutely no idea. The last thing she remembered was being aboard the SDF-3 Pioneer in the quarters she shared with Rick after a long, hard day of discussions about what to do with Tirol now that the Regent and his Invid had been booted off the planet – but not before leaving much of the planet in ruins. As she recalled she'd been in bed, cuddled up to her beloved husband, and drifting off to sleep.
Next she was here, wherever and whenever here, was. Thankfully whatever had transported her here had dressed her in a clean uniform it would have been extremely embarrassing – not to mention more than a little chilly – to have been stark naked when she'd woken up on that pavement.
Awakening to a scene that she could only describe as being absolute pandemonium with strange alien creatures, which looked for all the world like various goblins and demons from common mythology, running amok. A few of them had tried to attack her, thankfully though she'd found her uniform also included the standard SAL-9 laser pistol sidearm – along with bizarrely enough a sharp wooden stake in one pocket – which had made scaring the mostly pint sized aliens/demons relatively easy. A few beams whizzing past their ears – or whatever it was they heard with – had been enough to send even the most ferocious of the little monsters running with their metaphorical tails firmly tucked between their legs.
With her safety secured she'd been able to turn her attention to her vibrating watch computer. To find that she apparently wasn't the only one to have been somehow brought back here to the past. Others were here as well, seemingly scattered all over the place, and that someone had set up a rendezvous point. Unable to establish radio communication, presumably because she was out of range, she'd started heading in the direction of the rendezvous.
Which had brought her to her current situation as she'd been about to turn down another street when the three men who'd chased her in here, men whose features seemed oddly distorted with glowing yellow eyes filled with a truly feral intelligence, overly pronounced brow ridges and fangs of all things. Instinctively knowing that whatever these things were they a) weren't really men and b) meant to kill her she'd turned and run into this alleyway. Only to find it was a dead end.
Lisa growled slightly as she heard the three men-things laughing at having gotten her cornered. Oh no you don't you're not going to get me without a fight she thought drawing her pistol and pointing it right at the man on the right.
Without hesitation she fired.
Instantly the blue-white lance of supercharged compressed photons that made up a protoculture-fuelled laser beam shot out and smashed into the man faster than he could blink let alone react. What happened next was truly shocking.
The man-thing she'd hit convulsed as the laser ripped into his body, before emitting a truly unearthly scream of pain as he erupted into flames. The inferno enveloping him with such a speed and ferocity that it was almost like someone had doused him in petrol or some other such accelerant. I know lasers and particle beams are hot but they shouldn't do that, she thought as before her surprised eyes the immolated man-thing seemed to implode – leaving a small pile of smouldering dusty ash on the floor.
For a few seconds the other two men-monsters gaped in shock at where their fellow had once been, the laser-induced manner of his fiery death having taken them by total surprise. Allowing Lisa a few critical seconds to shake off her own surprise at what had just taken place, aim at the man or whatever he was to the left and fire. As with the first person she'd hit he convulsed, then screeched in agony before dissolving first into flames then smouldering dust-like ash. The third emitted a deep, animal like growl.
"You killed Jake and Steve, I'm going to drain you dry for that, Slayer," he snarled but before he could move another laser blast, this time from somewhere off to the side, somewhere Lisa couldn't see, struck him. As with the other two the man-thing screamed in agony as the blast of energy drilled into his body instantly setting clothing and flesh aflame. In an instant he was gone reduced to a third small mound of ash on the floor.
Lisa sighed in relief and stood up keeping her pistol handy, just in case, cautiously moved towards the front of the alleyway. Just as a familiar blue-haired figure appeared a laser pistol identical to hers held in its hand. Even in the gloom of the alleyway she could easily make out the fact that the figure was both male and wearing glasses.
Which meant it could only be one person as their was only one man she knew who had blue hair and wore glasses. "Nice timing, Max," she said stepping out into the light and holstering her pistol.
"You're welcome, Lisa," Captain Maximillian Sterling answered, holstering his own pistol. "Now do you mind telling me what in the name of space is going on around here? One minute I'm getting ready to go on duty the next I'm here wherever and whenever here is. And what we're those things? Why'd they call you Slayer?"
"I wish I knew, Max," Lisa admitted, "I have no more idea what's going on here than you do as like you one minute I was in mine and Rick's quarters on the SDF-3 next I was here. Somehow we've been transported through both time and space back here to Earth, a pre-robotechnology Earth if I'm not mistaken, and we're not alone."
"You noticed the signals as well huh," Max commented not surprised, Lisa always tended to be on the ball with these things.
"Yeah I did. I was heading in that direction when those things, whatever they were, attacked me." As she finished speaking Lisa checked her watch to determine just how far from their destination they were, it only seemed to be a few more streets away. She also noticed that a number of signals had already arrived at the location with only two still further away – one of whom seemed to be only a few feet away.
"Looks like we're going to have company," she said gesturing to the entrance to a side street a moment before a tall blond-haired man wearing one of the old-style flight suits stepped out. Lisa and Max both recognised him instantly and froze in shock, even as the man turned to look at them – doing a double take of his own at the sight of them.
"Lisa is that you," Commander Roy Fokker asked gaping as he saw Lisa dressed in an unfamiliar red and black uniform with gold highlights, a uniform with the stars of a full admiral on the collar. A man he vaguely recognised as being a member of Rick's Vermillion Squadron was standing behind her, dressed in a similar uniform though his was primarily blue and white with black highlights. He was wearing the rank insignia of a captain.
"Roy Fokker?" Lisa exclaimed her brain busily interrogating her eyes about the impossible sight before her. "Impossible… you're… you're dead."
"Nah ugh not me," Roy replied frowning. "I'm alive and what the hell is going on? What's with the different uniforms?"
"You must have been caught in whatever this is just like we were," Lisa mused, "Roy this is going to sound strange but could you tell us what year you think it is?"
Roy scowled. "What year?" he repeated looking at Lisa as if she'd gone nuts.
"Humour me."
"Okay its 2011, March 7th if you want to be precise," Roy replied, and saw the look the two exchanged, which sent a shiver of worry down his spine. "It's not 2011 for you is it?"
"No for me it's 2024," Lisa replied.
"2025 for me," Max added.
"Huh you're from different times?" Roy exclaimed "guess that explains the uniforms and why you've got admirals stars on your collar Lisa. And why you thought…" His voice trailed off for a moment as understanding came. "I bought it didn't I?" he asked a cold feeling of dread forming in his stomach.
"Yes," Lisa admitted.
"Jesus. Okay, okay how did we all get here," Roy asked putting the news that he'd died on the mental back burner for now, there would be time to think about, or rather brood about, that later.
"I have no idea," Lisa admitted, "last thing I remember before waking up here was being in mine and Rick's quarters. Max remembers being just about to go on duty."
"Wait, wait you and Rick?" Roy queried stunned. "You're together?"
"I guess that would be a bit surprising to you," Lisa admitted. "Especially as Rick was still chasing Minmei in your time, but we're more than together in mine. Rick's not my boyfriend anymore or even my fiancée… he's my husband."
"I… I see," Roy stammered back mind going numb with shock. Oh he'd suspected for months that there was something between Rick and Lisa. The sexual tension between them – that had tended to manifest in blazing rows often over the comm. to the amusement of both listening pilots and the bridge bunnies – had been obvious to everyone on the SDF-1. Well except the persons involved that was; Lisa had kept insisting that Rick was cocky, immature and undeserving of the responsibility placed on his shoulders as a squadron leader, while Rick had continued to accuse her of being an inflexible old sourpuss. Though to be fair they hadn't argued quite so vehemently since their escape from that Zentraedi battleship.
But he wouldn't have in a million years expected them to acknowledge the truth about how they really felt and act on that truth, as in his experience both Rick and Lisa had stubborn streaks bigger than even the largest Zentraedi battleship. Said stubborn streaks, combined with the fact that both had strong alpha personalities that had to have the last word in an argument, kind of made it hard to believe that they'd ever admit that they loved each other let alone get married.
"Commander Fokker." Lisa's voice in full command tone jolted him out of his stunned state and he reflexively moved to stand at attention. "Stand easy you can go into shock over mine and Rick's exact relationship later right now we have other more pressing matters to attend to."
"You're right I'm sorry," Roy answered mentally shaking off the last of the shock-generated mental cobwebs. "So we've all travelled in time?"
"And space but yes," Max answered. "My self and Lisa were aboard the SDF-3 orbiting a distant planet called Tirol. Though don't ask how we all got here neither of us has any idea."
"We should continue towards the rendezvous point on our watch computers," Lisa said firmly deciding on a course of action. "Maybe some of those already there will have some real idea what's actually going on around here."
"Maybe we should try contacting whoever's there," Max suggested. "We should be close enough now for the radios in our watches to make contact."
"Good point," Lisa agreed knowing that while the radio in a comm. watch/wrist computer was short range – aboard ship or in groundside REF facilities long range communication was achieved through internal signal relays – they should be close enough to make contact now. She raised her watch and decided to try. "This is Admiral Lisa Hayes to whoever is at the rendezvous point being detected on our wrist computers," she said formally using her maiden name as she always did in her professional life – it prevented confusion in the ranks given Rick was also an admiral albeit one rank below her, "if anyone can hear me, please respond on this channel."
"Lisa," a familiar voice answered as the screen changed to show Rick. "You got caught up in this as well huh?" A concerned look appeared on his face as he noticed her somewhat flushed features. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Rick don't worry. And yes I did get caught up in this time space distortion whatever it is," Lisa replied smiling feeling more than a little relieved that whatever else was going on she'd be facing it alongside her beloved husband. "What about you are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Where are you and are you alone?"
"I'm about a mile or two from your current location. And I've got two others with me. One is Max the other… Rick you'd better brace yourself… the other person here with me is Roy." She wasn't surprised when Rick gasped before looking down and away at the mention of Roy. She knew full well how much Rick still missed him, how much pain Roy's death still caused him and how much suddenly knowing he was here alive again would shake him up.
After a few moments Rick seemed to pull himself together and looked back up, though not immediately at her. She could see his lips moving as he spoke to someone who was present with him but lip reading had never been her strongest skill. She got the vague impression that he was giving somebody some orders but couldn't read his lips well enough to determine exactly what orders he was giving. After a few moments he nodded, clearly acknowledging something presumably a response to whatever orders he'd given, before looking back at her. Though his face was composed she could see a tell tale shine in his expressive blue eyes that indicated he was holding back his emotions – especially those that would have been triggered by a living, breathing Roy being here.
"Lisa I'm sending some people to meet you and bring you here," he said his voice admirably level. "They're on the backs of production model Cyclones so they'll be with you in just a few minutes. Then once everyone's here we can make our way up to the ship."
"Understood Rick we'll be waiting for them," Lisa replied before registering the last part of his statement. "There's a ship in orbit? Is it one of ours?"
Rick nodded. "The Pioneer's in orbit I've tried contacting them however there has been no response beyond an automatic acknowledgement from the communications array," he replied, "it's almost like there is nobody aboard her, which like this entire situation doesn't make any sense at all."
"No it doesn't," Lisa agreed instantly feeling more than a small amount of concern about the SDF-3, and that fact that there appeared to be nobody aboard her. As Rick had said the situation made absolutely no sense at all but then neither had their whole night so far. "Hopefully we'll be able to get some answers soon."
"We can but hope," Rick answered. "I better go finish getting these fighters ready to launch for when everyone's here. See you in a few minutes, Hunter out." Rick's image disappeared as he closed the channel from his end allowing Lisa to lower her arm.
"What are Cyclones," Roy asked curious as he naturally didn't recognise the name.
"They're a type of infantry mecha that's supposed to have similar mechamorphic abilities as veritech fighters do only switching between a motorcycle and a suit of powered combat armour instead of the three modes of a veritech," Max explained. "They're still experimental right now, or rather they are in our time. Given Rick said production model the ones coming for us, along with their riders, are likely from a point further down the timeline. Just like Commander Fokker here is from an earlier point in the timeline."
"They sound cool," Roy commented already itching to try one out. He wondered if you needed specialist training to use one in the same way that you did a veritech fighter.
"Your not going to find out how cool they are, whatever they are," a voice with a distinct cockney accent said from behind them making them all spin around. To come face to face with a tall platinum blond haired man, a few more men all dressed in dark clothing and a host of the little aliens/demons they'd all seen earlier stood around him. "I'm going to give you one chance," the man said grinning in an evil fashion. "Surrender her," he gestured to Lisa, "to me and I might let the other two of you go alive."
"I don't think so," Lisa replied drawing her SAL-9 sidearm, aware that Max was doing the same while Roy pulled out a semi-automatic hand gun.
The man chuckled. "Aren't you forgetting something, Slayer," he asked with an amused smirk on his face, "bullets can't hurt vampires."
There's that name again, Lisa though, why do people keep referring to me as Slayer? She smirked back regardless. "Who says this fires bullets," she replied before snapping the pistol up and firing a laser blast at the closest of the men. The man shrieked inhumanly as the beam instantly set skin and clothing on fire, before crumpling into a smouldering pile of dust on the floor.
"You were saying," Lisa asked smirking at the gobsmacked platinum blond. A blond who shook himself, throwing off his surprise at seeing a real life directed energy weapon in action, before snarling as his features shifted and changed assuming the same distorted inhuman look as the three beings she'd encountered earlier.
"Get them," Spike yelled at the small posse of minions he'd assembled. Lisa, Max and Roy braced themselves as the hoard of creatures roared a variety of battle cries.
Then began to charge…
…a second before a bright whitish pink ellipsoid slammed right into the front of them and detonated, the energy of the plasma annihilation disc vaporising many of the onrushing creatures while the concussion wave of the blast sent the remainder sprawling. A moment later an enormous pink and purple mecha of Invid design – though the exactly model was unfamiliar – landed right in front of them. For something so massive it had moved with an admirable stealth as none of them had heard or seen it – till it fired that annihilation disc.
"What the hell," Max exclaimed shocked that an Invid had apparently come to their rescue as from his perspective he'd been fighting them a few days ago. Though this particularly Invid mecha did look different to the ones fielded by the Regents forces, sleeker and more advanced while still being clearly of Invid design and manufacture. Maybe it belongs to the faction of Invid aligned to the Regis, he thought as the mecha pointed one arm – and the heavy plasma cannon mounted their at the remaining creatures, including the platinum blond who'd first threatened them – in clear warning.
They took the hint and immediately scrambled away fleeing the Invid battloid and its deadly arsenal of weaponry. Slowly the mecha turned towards them.
"What the hell is that," Roy asked.
"An Invid battloid though I'm not sure what model it is," Lisa admitted cautiously watching the alien mecha for any sign it was going to attack them. At this close a range they'd have no chance of surviving should the mecha's pilot decide to shoot at them.
The shot never came.
Instead a yellow streak of light emerged from the centre of the mecha and came down to street level – before with a flash turning into a young woman, a woman with oddly styled light green hair, purple coloured eyes and wearing a form fitting purple and black jumpsuit. "Who are you," she asked.
"I am Sera, daughter of the Regis and Princess of the Invid," the young human-looking woman replied.
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "You don't look like any Invid we've encountered before," she commented prompting a puzzled frown from Sera. But only for a moment before she chuckled as she realised what the human woman – in older RDF uniform design – was getting at. She was obviously from the expeditionary forces that had engaged her people in combat over Tirol, Praxis, Kabarra and a dozen other worlds. The Invid form they would have therefore most encountered would be their stage three and stage four forms i.e. a vaguely slug-like humanoid creature. They wouldn't have encountered Invid transmuted to human form by the Regis – especially if her royal command battloids sensors were correct and they were out of their time.
"Understandable. The Regis only recently began transmutation of our people into a human-like form," she explained, while inwardly already beginning to plan how she could use this to improve things for Humans and Invid alike.
If she was stuck here in this planets past maybe she could help build a bridge between their two races, a bridge which would hopefully prevent them making the same mistakes they did last time. With the biggest of said mistakes being the invasion and conquest of this planet and a people who – despite looking a lot like the hated Tirolians due to the fact that they were apparently genetic cousins to one another – had never intended aggression towards the Invid and never would have harmed them if a) the Regent hadn't opened fire on them without warning or provocation and b) if the Regis hadn't led a full on invasion of their homeworld, an invasion the Regis herself had ultimately considered to be the error it was. An error she'd done her best to correct by returning the planet to its rightful inhabitants and destroying the neutron-s missiles as she and the vast majority of the Invid left. Only her sister Ariel and a few other human-form Invid remaining behind for their own reasons.
"You can put those away," she added gesturing at the pistols the three Humans were holding, two of whom were clearly energy sidearms – she could clearly sense the micro protoculture cells powering them – the other an unfamiliar design. "I am not going to hurt you," she continued as she sensed then heard some Cyclones approaching.
That did send a shiver of unease down her spine as while her battloid was powerful she couldn't hope to fight off a Cycloner assault by herself if they were ordered to attack her. Especially as they wouldn't hesitate to attack from multiple directions at once and it only required one good hit in the wrong place to turn her battloid to scrap. After a moment the Cyclones she'd been hearing and sensing – or rather she'd been sensing their protoculture fuel cells – came into this street.
And Sera felt herself relax somewhat as she recognised them. The three Cyclones approached and came to a halt, before the leader hopped off his bike. Removing the helmet of his CVR-3 armour in the process revealing the familiar dark blue hair and chiselled features of Scott Bernard.
"Sera?" Scott queried in surprise at seeing her, "how did you get here?"
"I suspect the same way that you did," Sera answered, "one minute I was watching Mother Regis leave Earth with my brethren the next I'm here. Is Lancer with you as he'd vanished when I woke up here?"
"No we can't find him either nor Lunk and Annie," Rand spoke up from the back of his Cyclone, "though your sister's here we left her back with the fighters."
"Ariel's here!" Sera exclaimed feeling a profound sense of relief as while it wasn't her beloved Lancer having Ariel here would at least meant she had some family – and wasn't that a novel idea that had, along with the ability to feel complex emotions and capacity for fully independent thought, come with her transmutation to a human form – around her.
"Yes," Scott confirmed.
"Ugh confused," Lisa said, "who are you? And who is Ariel?"
Rand sighed. "Sheesh doesn't anyone know who anyone is tonight?" he moaned.
"Well if we're all from different points in the timeline it would make sense that we don't all recognise each other," Rook pointed out slightly amused by her somewhat boyfriends antics.
"Which is something that can be easily remedied," Roy commented getting everyone's attention. Prompting a few mildly sheepish looks followed by a short round of introductions. "Now that that's out of the way maybe we should resume heading to the rendezvous point? And then make our way up to the ship."
"Roy's right we should," Lisa agreed. "You and Rick both mentioned fighters, Rand. How many are there and what kind are they?"
"There are six of them," Scott answered before Rand could. "Six Alpha's all with docked Beta's. And it's downright bizarre all the flight data and performance logs are blank. It's literally like they've just come off the production lines."
"Strange," Lisa commented, "hopefully we will soon get some answers about what's going on around here."
"This ship you are talking about where is it?" Sera asked "and which ship is it?"
"It's the SDF-3," Scott answered, "she's in a geostationary orbit over the town but there doesn't appear to be anybody aboard her, or at least nobody capable of answering Admiral Hunter's hails."
Sera frowned slightly, that was very strange indeed. "My battloid is fully capable of exo-atmospheric flight," she said, "I could go on ahead of you and attempt to reconnoitre the ships situation."
"That sounds like a good idea," Lisa agreed, "just be careful as even if there is nobody aboard the ships point defence systems might be operating on automatic. If they are and they detect that you're an Invid they'll blow you out of the sky."
"I'll be careful," Sera assured her even as she hoped the point defences were off as she didn't relish trying to dodge volleys of pulsed laser bolts from the SDF-3's defensive weapons emplacements, before teleporting herself back inside her royal command battloid.
"You all better get on," Scott said blinking as Sera teleported herself back aboard her battloid. I'm still not used to seeing that, he thought even though he'd seen Ariel do it a few times recently. He slipped his helmet back on and climbed back aboard his Cyclone.
"Agreed," Lisa replied, "Max you go with Rook, Roy with Rand and I'll go with Commander Bernard."
"Alright Lisa," Roy and Max agreed before jogging off to join their respective rides. Lisa for her part walked over to Scott's and climbed on behind him, feeling the young man stiffen slightly in nerves at who his passenger was.
"Relax commander I don't bite," she said amused. Well often anyway, she thought recalling some of the rows she'd had with Rick when he'd been this guy's age only if you annoy me.
"Sorry ma'am," Scott answered his cheeks colouring slightly in embarrassment before he made himself calm down "everybody ready?"
"Ready here, Scott," Rand replied a comment echoed half a second later by Rook.
"Alright then," Scott answered starting the engine on the Cyclone and bringing the machine around so they were facing back in the direction they'd come from. Rand and Rook did the same with their own machines and together the three Cyclones began making their way back towards where Rick and Minmei were waiting with the veritechs. A moment later they heard a roar behind them as Sera fired her battloid's thrusters, sending the mecha shooting up into the sky aiming for space.
A Few Minutes Later
The six Alpha/Beta combined fighters were all humming and pulsing with power as the three Cyclones and the six people riding them pulled into the currently deserted building site. Rick having busily moved between them bringing there flight systems fully online – or rather moving between the Alpha's bringing their systems online which had automatically caused the docked Beta's to power up as well – ready for the journey to orbit while he'd been waiting for them. The hum of multiple protoculture-fuelled engines filling the site with a constant rumble, a rumble that seemed to make the very air itself vibrate with power.
"Wow," Roy breathed climbing off the back of Rook's Cyclone gazing at the veritechs in awe. He could clearly see the lineage of the VF-1 Valkyrie in these fighters but these were sleeker and more elegant, obviously much more advanced. A slow smile made its way across his face as he couldn't wait to get behind the controls of one of these beauties and see just what it could do. His eyes slowly scanned the closest fighter noticing everything especially how it seemed to be two fighters in one. He could clearly see where the front two fifths of the fighter was joined to the rest. He could also make out multiple missile hatches and felt himself start to drool as he imagined the firepower these things must have.
A gasp came from somewhere off to his right. Jolted out of his contemplation of the fighter he looked in the direction the gasp had come from…
…and froze.
Standing there was Rick. He was dressed in a white and red uniform of the same style as Lisa and Max's though his had a high collared black jacket-like cloak over the top. Like Lisa's his uniform had the rank stars of an admiral albeit a vice admiral. He noticed two things immediately first was Rick had aged quite well in comparison to the last time he'd seen him, despite appearing to be in his early thirties he looked almost the same though his features were slightly sharper, the second was the look Rick was giving him – the look like someone who'd seen a ghost.
For a timeless moment they just stood there gazing at one another, the world around them seeming having faded away to nothing leaving just the two of them standing there in space. Then Rick just moved, and suddenly Roy found himself pulled into a desperate hug. And it was then that he truly accepted that in the time Rick, Lisa and Max were from that he was dead. He could feel the desperation and need to confirm that he was really here, that he wasn't a ghost or some other such apparition, in the way Rick was holding him.
He found he couldn't say anything – what did you say, what could you say in this kind of situation – so he did the only thing he could. He just hugged Rick right back. After a few moments he felt Rick begin to pull back. He allowed him to and for a few timeless moments their eyes met, Rick's eyes – shining with unshed tears – communicating without needing words that the two of them needed to talk later. Roy nodded in agreement then watched as a very military mask slid over his brother in everything but blood's face. The senior officer he'd apparently become taking over. He couldn't help but feel a sense of both wonderment and pride at that, he'd known Rick would go far in the RDF, he was a good pilot and an even better squadron leader, but to get that far so young was amazing.
Lisa choose that moment to speak, seeing herself Rick slipping into full military mode so the emotions stirred up by seeing Roy again wouldn't impair his performance during the current mystery they were facing. She couldn't help but be extremely proud of him and how he'd changed from the arrogant, cocky young adult she'd first met into a confident and thoughtful man – though there were times some of the old pilot's attitude showed and Rick still liked to fly a veritech whenever his duties permitted him to. Indeed when going planet side he preferred to take a veritech instead of a shuttle whenever possible. Which had saved his life a few times recently when marauding Invid loyal to the Regent had tried to kill him – only to find out just why Rick was still considered to be, next to Max and Miriya Sterling, one of the finest combat pilots in the RDF.
"Is everyone here now," she asked.
"Not quite, Lisa," Rick replied checking his watch/wrist computer which still showed one transponder approaching. In fact whoever it was they were walking around the perimeter of the building site probably looking for a way in. "The last contact's outside trying to find a way in here."
"Sir, Ma'am do you want me to go get him," Scott asked.
"If you would, Commander," Lisa replied.
Scott nodded and hopped back onto his Cyclone from where he'd been quietly talking to Ariel, filling her in on Sera's presence and where she'd gone, before driving off into the darkness of the night. After a couple of minutes he returned – with Doctor Emil Lang sat on the back of the transformable, armed motorcycle.
"Doctor Lang," Lisa said in greeting as Scott brought his Cyclone to a stop and got off. "It's good to see you despite the situation were in."
"It's good to see you too, Lisa," Lang replied in his normal thick German accent. "Do you know what's going on by any chance? As my last memory before waking up here was talking with Cabell and Rem about the exact physics of hyperspace folding."
"We all appear to have become caught up in a space-time distortion of some kind," Lisa replied before quickly and concisely filling the German genius who understood more about robotechnology than any other human alive on what they knew so far. And the plan to take the fighters up to the orbiting, seemingly abandoned, SDF-3.
"I see that does seem like a logical course of action to take," Lang agreed. "The Beta fighters should be able to accommodate all of us who aren't pilots. But we might have to leave the Cyclones behind."
"No need for that, doc," Rand broke in prompting everyone to look over. To see the three Cyclone riders had somehow been able to collapse their machines down into easy to transport cubes. At the looks they were getting Scott explained.
"In our time all veritechs carry Cyclones as emergency vehicles in the event a pilot gets shot down," he said with a smile even as he squatted down and picked his up. "They're designed to fold up like this to fit into the small cargo compartment of the Alpha fighter."
"Ah so we did work that little problem out then," Lang mused aloud as one of the things they wanted to include in the Cyclone, which the Tornado couldn't do, was the ability to compact down easily for just the purpose Scott had said about. But the team in charge of designing that particular ability was running into a few problems getting it to work properly as while the idea was simple the actual application was anything but – it was testing their skills with robotechnology to the limits in their attempts to solve the problem.
"Looks like it," Lisa agreed. "Alright you three load those into the cargo compartments of three of the Alpha's. Then we'll head up to the ship."
"Understood ma'am," Scott replied.
"In the meantime the rest of us should get aboard, I already sent Minmei to sit down in the back of the lead fighters Beta," Rick said. Lisa nodded in agreement seeing the sense in that as well as in Rick sending Minmei into the Beta where she'd be safe. Not for the first time she was glad the love triangle between the three of them had been resolved, it had enabled her to start a friendship with the singer. Which had been somewhat of an eye opening experience for both of them.
Immediately after she nodded Rick, Roy and Max headed for the cockpits of three of the Alpha fighters, hopping in with ease before strapping themselves into the seats. Roy for his part looking curiously at the slight changes made to the cockpit layout in relation to the VF-1 Valkyrie. The controls looked more or less the same though the overcomplicated mode-switch panel had changed to a single three position throttle-like lever. There were also fewer manual switches and dials with instead the functions being displayed on the touch screen displays, in addition the throttle markings indicated that the Alpha had VTOL capability that unlike the Valkyrie wasn't dependent on partially shifting the fighter to guardian mode to use. Nice, he thought as he finished familiarising himself with the new control layout.
"Oh this is going to be a joy to fly," he said softly as he closed the cockpit canopy. Immediately it locked into place and sealed with a green light appearing on one of the panels showing a good seal. He carefully checked all his controls for functionality and was satisfied that they were all working as they should, before sitting back to wait for the order to take off.
He didn't have to wait long as Rick's face abruptly appeared on the comm. screen. "All right everyone we're ready," he ordered slipping into the squadron leader role with an effortless ease that made Roy smile and once more feel more than a small sliver of pride in how his adoptive younger sibling had turned out. "Engage your VTOL jets until we reach two thousand feet then set course for the SDF-3 and engage main drives."
"Understood, little brother," Roy replied a slight smirk on his face before he moved the throttle into the VTOL position, while hearing the other pilots also acknowledging the order albeit a bit more formally than he had in all but two cases.
Immediately a rumble filled the fighter as on the underside of the paired Alpha/Beta fighter VTOL jets burst into life with a flare of energy. Pulling back on the control column slightly Roy felt as much as saw the fighter beginning to slowly, but with increasing speed, begin to rise into the night sky. He kept his eyes firmly on the altitude indicator as the fighter ascended higher and higher.
In no time at all he reached two thousand feet. Pulling back on the control column more he brought the nose up, before sliding the throttle forward to max power. Instantly G forces pulled him back against the seat as with a flare of brilliant light the main engines to the docked/slaved Beta fighter burst into life. The currently merged fighter shot forward like a spooked rabbit, causing a sonic boom to echo across Sunnydale as its speed quickly passing Mach 1 and continued to both accelerate and climb.
All around him the other fighters were performing the exact same manoeuvre at the same rate of speed and incredible acceleration. All six Alpha/Beta combined fighters heading towards orbit, the seemingly abandoned SDF-3…
…and unknowing an encounter with a destiny greater than any they had face before.
Authors Notes: I was originally going to have SG-1 make an appearance in this chapter but the events in Sunnydale kind of took on a life of their own, before I knew it I had 6656 words worth, so I decided to leave them out until the next chapter.
Before anyone asks about the three vampires that attacked Lisa/Buffy at the start of the chapter I added them as I've always thought it odd that of all the bloodsuckers in Sunnydale only Spike came out to investigate the chaos visited on the town – and the Scoobies – by Ethan Rayne and try to take advantage of it to kill the affected Slayer. So I changed it I hope no one minds.
As for the effects of lasers on vampires, when the one child/demon Rick hit in the previous chapter was only mildly burned and knocked on its ass, I would ask everyone to bear in mind that Buffy vampires are canonically extremely flammable. As such the intense heat of a laser beam would be more than enough to set them aflame.