A/N: Hello everyone. I know that this chapter took a bit longer than the previous ones. Ultimately, my intention is to do updates about once a month, but that may accelerate depending on my availability and interest in the story.
As always, reviews are appreciated. If you have any questions about the story, feel free to ask them publicly in a review or privately in a message.
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended. The Stargate franchise is owned by MGM, while Overwatch is owned by Blizzard Entertainment. This story is not officially a part of the Overwatch or Stargate universes. I am not using this story to earn profit. Finally, I am grateful towards MGM and Blizzard for creating these two wonderful fictional universes, as well as to the wikis for OW and SG for providing me with details for their respective canons.
Chapter 4
Ex Overwatch commander Jack Morrison emerged into a nondescript hallway with a scowl on his face. He closed the door behind him and walked a few steps into a dark room adjacent to the one he had just left.
"That wasn't much", Winston commented. He had been watching the notorious vigilante employ every tactic that he could, at least, the ones he could while the rest of Overwatch was present. Moira had not yielded any information; as far as either he or Jack could tell, she simply didn't know anything.
Ironically, Moira had been caught trying to interrogate the mentor of one of their agents. Evidently her name had come up when Talon went digging through some American military archives in search of leads on their missing agent. Overwatch had lost two agents in the same incident, so everyone was eager to see what the rouge doctor knew.
"She doesn't know anything else", Jack replied. "Has Angela had any luck with Cassie?"
"I haven't heard from her yet, let me call….", Winston was interrupted by Athena, the base AI.
"Winston, several satellites have detected activity off the coast of Busan. I believe the Gwishin have launched another attack."
That got both agent's attention. A rouge group of Omnics, known as the Gwishin, had been menacing the South Korean coastline since the beginning of the first crisis. In the recent months, they had grown bolder; their attacks had become less predictable and more dangerous. Several weeks ago, they had launched an raid only a few weeks after their last major assault, which was extremely unusual. Both attacks were barely turned back.
"Alert everyone else, get two jump ships ready", Winston ordered.
"Looks like duty calls", quipped Jack as he departed for the armory.
"Attention all agents. A large scale Omnic attack has commenced against the South Korean city of Busan. They will make landfall in approximately one hour, please be ready to depart within fifteen minutes."
The other agents of Overwatch dropped what they were doing and scrambled to get ready and get to the jump ships.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One hour earlier
McCree walked out of the room, still lightly chuckling. When he closed the door, Angela and Cassie were alone in the well-lit conference room. Angela looked out of one of the windows for a few seconds, briefly enjoying the view overlooking the ocean before turning towards her old mentor, who had been doing the same thing.
"Cassie…"
"Angela", Cassie was still smiling. When she had first arrived, several of Angela's coworkers had attempted to convince her to reveal what she knew about the collapsed base under the ruins of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Cassie had refused, stating that she didn't know much, and that those secrets were not her's to tell. Eventually, Jack Morrison had tried his no-more-mister-nice-guy routine, complete with a loud, dangerous voice and a cold, merciless stare. Cassie had sweetly grinned back and asked him if he practiced that look in the mirror. Reinhardt found that hilarious and broke out in booming laughter, which spread to almost the entire room in a manner of seconds. After that, the agents collectively decided that Angela might have more luck on her own.
"I understand that you value your secrets, but our agents are missing. They may even be dead.", Angela's voice adopted an almost desperate tone; the possibility that Genji might actually be dead was not one that she was ready to accept.
Cassie gave a sympathetic look to her protégé. Starting when she had brought him back from the brink of death, Angela had developed a close relationship with her patient. Most doctors would have described it as being too close, but Cassie was more sympathetic. Genji had been badly injured; even a sarcophagus would have had difficulty repairing the damage. Angela had thrown herself into rebuilding the injured man's body, a more poetic person would say that she had put a part of her soul into it. No one could become that involved with another person and not form a personal connection.
Then there was whatever had happened in China. Neither Angela nor Genji had been willing to discuss the specifics with anyone but their commander, who had also elected to keep his mouth shut. All that Cassie was able to discern was that their bond was solid to the point of being unbreakable. Yet, neither Angela nor Genji would admit how they felt. Angela might not have even been aware of how close they had become until Genji had disappeared.
The agony that her student was hiding accompanied the desperate tone in her voice.
Cassie frowned; even the American military had mostly forgotten about the stargate, she and General O'Neill could have been the only two people left with the knowledge.
She came to a decision; she wasn't telling the world, she was telling a heartsick friend. Besides, the stargate was initially kept a secret to protect the world from the fallout of its revelation. But the world was now a different place; humanity was no longer alone. It was time for the secret to be passed on to the next generation, they could decide what to do with it.
Cassie looked at Angela, who met her gaze. Cassie's features had an extremely serious look on them, which was why Angela was so confused about her response.
"How much do you know about twentieth century technology?"
"What?"
Cassie sighed, this was going to be a long conversation.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
When the announcement came that Busan was in danger, it took Angela a few extra seconds to respond. Nobody could have blamed her; her world had just gotten a lot bigger. And a lot scarier.
Aliens. Doctor Cassandra Fraiser, the legendary doctor who had practically adopted her in the infancy of her medical education, was an alien. But she was also a human.
Stargates. Evil alien parasites. Humans living throughout the galaxy. Angela had difficulty believing anything other than that her mentor was feeling the effects of age more than she had thought. That changed when Cassie began to get into some specifics about how these 'Go'auld' maintained their illusions of godhood.
Cassie had made a passing reference to a glove-like torture device. Angela had gone pale, which had broken Cassie out of her story to ask her what was wrong.
"Could you… describe what one of these 'hand devices' looks like?"
"I suppose. They have a red jewel in the center, over the palm. They use a ribbon shaped piece of metal to attach themselves to the arm and have a series of metallic finger gloves."
Now Angela was listening. That was a perfect description of the device that had been used on her in China. It had several properties which their scientists had not been able to make heads or tails of, especially given that Genji had practically cut the device and the hand holding it into confetti.
"Have you seen one of these devices before?", Cassie asked, an undernote of alarm entering her voice.
"Yes, but that doesn't matter now. It was destroyed.", Angela said. Cassie noted an expression on her student's face that indicated that she would have to get more details later.
In the present, Angela finally snapped out of her reminiscing.
"Do you want to come with us? This attack sounds like it will require all the doctors we can handle."
Cassie thought for a minute. Despite her age, she was still fully capable of rendering assistance to the injured. She nodded, and the two began to prepare.
Neither wanted to discuss what had been revealed until they returned to the base. The revelation of aliens was not something to be dumped on the team's heads right before a combat mission.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One hour later
Despite the tradition of audio effects in modern blockbuster thrillers like The Adventures of SKY-753 (directed by HAL-Fred Glitchbot) dating back to the original incarnation of Star Trek more than a century ago, space is in fact, silent. Thus, when a white fissure opened against the black starry background several hundred kilometers over a brilliant blue and green planet, it didn't make a sound.
At least not directly. Several satellites briefly detected the strange surge of radiation and the large object that emerged from it and disappeared. However, these readings were not given serious consideration by various national and corporate leaders as they normally would have been. They were busy watching a nightmare unfold; Busan was under attack, and this time, the Gwishin were bringing everything to bear.
Sombra was stunned. As a little girl, she had never dreamed of being able to see the world like this. It was beautiful, the force fields that this ship used in place of windows allowed her to take in the full splendor of the planet below. They were in a low orbit, so the Earth dominated their view. They could see a storm forming over the Indian ocean, as well as evidence of several major cities. It was hard to make out, but they could even see some of the damage done to the Australian countryside by the destruction of their Omnium.
"Wow… I think I understand what Winston felt like now, looking back at the Earth from here.", Tracer interrupted the silence. Sombra would have been annoyed, but she agreed with the sentiment.
"It is beautiful. I wish that Angela could see this for herself.", a slip of the tongue several months ago had revealed Genji's true feeling about Doctor Zeigler to the base personnel. Lena and Sombra were unsurprised, both had figured him out long ago via their own means. The rest of the soldiers and scientists were mildly intrigued, but not really involved enough to have a strong reaction.
Tracer turned to Dr. Jackson. "Do you think we could take this thing for a spin later?"
Doctor Jackson had seen his world from space several times. Unfortunately, most of them involved it being threatened in some horrible way. He responded almost immediately.
"I think that we could work something out."
Lena, who had decided to reveal her actual name shortly after the conference, smiled. She was looking forward to seeing Emily. Maybe a romantic spaceflight would be just the thing to make up for her extended and unexplained absence. She could tell that Genji was having similar thoughts.
Sombra felt a bit left out, so she turned back towards the stunning view. She could practically see the lines of data crisscrossing the surface and traveling between satellites above her. Looking down on the surface, she realized that while she still wanted to know what secrets were hidden on it, that knowledge was becoming more of a means to an increasingly uncertain end.
Wow, Carter was really starting to rub off on her.
The group's contemplation was disrupted by a voice from the wall.
"Lena, Genji, Sombra, didn't you mention an ongoing conflict near South Korea?"
The three looked at each other. This couldn't be good.
"Yeah, why?"
"Sensors are picking up an attack against one of the coastal cities. Busan, I think. Here, let me send you the readings."
There were no terminals in the room, so the information was sent directly to Sombra. She was the first to read it, and before she displayed it in a hologram over her hand, she turned slightly pale.
Lena and Genji had similar reactions. This was larger than any previous attack, even the ones that had taken place during the crisis. Lena spoke up.
"Major, whatever's going on down there, we need to help. They need us."
On the bridge, Major Carter and Teal'c looked at each other.
"Doctor Weir instructed us to avoid taking sides in any conflicts before we have made contact with both sides."
'Teal'c, you can't be considering doing nothing! There are people dying down there! What are we supposed to do, get them to sit down and talk about this?"
Teal'c pondered his teammates words for a few seconds. Daniel Jackson would want to do exactly that. However, Major Carter was correct, this was a time for action.
"No."
Major Carter relayed the decision to the rest of the team. Tracer and Genji looked relieved, as did Sombra. Daniel looked lightly alarmed but appeared to accept the verdict.
A few more communications determined a plan. About a month ago, Sombra had managed to rig up what she called an 'EMP bomb' by copying some of her own technology and combining it with some power cores from staff weapons. They had brought several with them and could use them if things got hairy.
Unfortunately, even with their advanced Go'auld ship, the bomb would disable their shields if they didn't get outside the considerable blast radius, so they were really a last resort.
Tracer would pilot the ship. She had taken to the pilot's chair like a natural, which made sense considering her test pilot past. Genji and Doctor Jackson would help Sombra in the ring room; they might need to ring aboard survivors, and Jackson had the best track record with panicking, armed strangers. Genji would be there to free up space in the cockpit.
A few minutes later, the ship turned and bolted for the besieged city.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Five minutes later
Two interns in a local hospital and had decided that their patients needed to evacuate more than they did and had sacrificed their spots on the final bus to get them out. It was probably an honorable thing to do, but at the moment, that didn't really affect their situation.
A horde of troopers was chasing them. Several shots from their weapons made their murderous intentions clear. The men ducked into an alley. Both yelped when they saw what was at the other end.
They reflexively dropped to the ground to avoid the bastion's line of fire. Behind them, the horde of troopers arrived.
The men covered their ears and tried to sink further into the filthy alleyway as the incredible noise from the bastion's distinctive Gatling gun grated their eardrums. The weapon stopped, and they were still alive.
Shaking, one of them looked up at the ancient siege robot. It had reconfigured itself into its reconnaissance form.
"Beep-boop", the Bastion chirped at them and waved. A bird landed on its shoulder and gave what almost sounded like an encouraging tweet. Both fully standing, the men looked behind them. The entire group of troopers lay twitching and in pieces behind them.
"Boop", the machine broke them out of their shock and waved for them to follow. Too stunned to ask any questions, the men followed it to safety.
About a week later, a local shopkeeper found footage of the incident on his security camera. It went viral, and that Bastion unit with its bird was forever immortalized as a symbol of Omnic heroism.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Several miles off the coast of Busan, at the same time.
"Hana, pull back, you're going to get yourself killed!"
"I can't, they've got a hold on that jet."
A moment later, the debate was rendered moot as a tentacle breached the cockpit of the fighter jet in question, instantly and messily killing the pilot.
Dae-hyun really wanted to freak out. He had served as Hana's ground controller ever since she had been recruited by MEKA. Before that, he had always helped her on her various crazy exploits, keeping her equipment in repair and reminding her to take care of herself. It was a tiring job.
This was different. As Hana would put it, the Gwishin were playing to win. Three titans, hordes of assault ships, called sentinels after some old American movie, and troop carriers had been brought to bear. If they lost the battle, they lost the city, possibly the entire country. Hana didn't make a habit of losing, and she wasn't willing to start one now.
"Ok, ROKAF wants to try another air strike against the T-1, if they can get its shields down, you and Overlord can..."
"Dae-hyun?"
Dae-Hyun had not been attacked, not had the link been severed as Hana feared. Her childhood friend was simply stunned.
"Hana, can you see it?"
"See what? There's too many sentinels flying around… oh", Hana saw it. A silver ship, way bigger than her mech was on an attack vector. She hoped that it didn't try to get too close; the titans had developed a super-powerful barrier for the titans that blocked pretty much everything thrown at them, including slower moving mechs that tried to bypass it, as Casino had found out.
The ship didn't make the same mistake. It angled up and fired its own weapons at the leading titan.
FWOOM! FWOOM!
Bright orange shots left the ship and impacted the titan. The Omnics hadn't reacted in time to prevent it from completing a full bombing run.
From the shoreline, the view was spectacular and terrifying. It was a clear day, but the battle over the sea had left a lot of floating debris, most of it from downed carriers and sentinels. Several towers of smoke rose from different parts of the city, and the airspace near the titans was a complicated dance between MEKA and hordes of sentinels. The titans had been slowly marching towards the city, ready to reduce it to rubble.
Then the ship arrived, visible to most of the evacuating residents. Cheers went up when several pulses of energy weapon fire from the mysterious vessel caused the shields on one of the titans to fail with a loud CRACK!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
On Board the Al'Kesh
"Shields down on the leading titan!", Tracer called out. The bridge crew acknowledged.
"We've got company!", Major Carter was the first to notice that several wings of the strange tentacled robots were now tailing them.
Teal'c used his own control station to fire the rotating turret at the pursuers, taking two down with each shot. It wasn't enough.
"Tracer!"
"I can't shake them Major!"
Carter thought for a moment, then opened the comm line, "Sombra, get ready."
In the ring room, Sombra primed one of her EMP bombs and set it inside the ring platform. If they were resorting to using one of these, they must have been getting desperate.
Back on the bridge, Tracer was taking in Carter's plan as she tried her best to evade the Omnics. They were going to get close to the nearest titan and detonate the device. It would disable any nearby flying Omnics, the titan's shields, and their shields if they didn't get out of range in time. Unfortunately, they would have to detonate it almost immediately to prevent the omnics from accessing and disabling it.
"You got it!", Tracer began to weave towards the closest titan, being careful not to hit its shields. Their own shields were getting dangerously low, so they wouldn't lose much when the device went off.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"What are they doing?" Dae-hyun had gotten over his shock at the unknown ship. Whoever was piloting it was as crazy as Hana.
"They're planning something! Everyone, get back!", could tell that whoever they were, they had a plan.
She was right, a flash came from beneath the ship. A moment later, before it could escape, a loud electrical crackling sound accompanied a brilliant flash of purple light. Hundreds of sentinels instantly fell out of the sky, and the titan's shields flared and vanished.
"Take that titan down! We've got this!", led the remaining members of MEKA towards the disabled Omnic. It and its still shielded companion began to turn away from the city, their escorts moving to cover their retreat.
"Pull out, it's too risky!", a new voice, that of Captain Myung came over the line. Everyone but obeyed. Dae-Hyun clenched his teeth, she was going to get herself killed.
shouted in anger as her fusion canons activated, landing a crippling blow against the titan's power system. It stumbled but kept moving at a reduced speed. A moment later, a cloud of missiles released from a nearby sentinel proved her captain right.
"Hana!", Dae-Hyun shouted. There was no response.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"They're retreating!", Tracer shouted. The remaining bridge crew smiled.
"Wait, one of the pilots got hit, they're going down, they need help!", Tracer then noticed a falling mech, an ejecting pilot, and a swarm of murderous looking Omnics.
"We can make in time; get the rings over her and we'll bring her aboard!", Cater responded.
Tracer developed a focused expression as she raced the Gwishin for their objective. The rest were still retreating, it seemed like these ones had a grudge.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hana fell towards the water. Unlike the attack several weeks ago, it was daytime, so a potential rescue would be easier.
The moment this thought crossed her mind, a swarm of sentinels blocked out the sunlight above her, leaving only their angry red eyes. The other MEKA pilots were too far away, and she had lost track of the mysterious ship, so she probably wasn't getting out of this one.
Hana had seen what the sentinels did to captured MEKA pilots. She hit the water but was too stunned to resist her buoyant flight suit as it dragged her back to the surface. Before she could try to swim away, a large object stopped directly over her. Hana looked up in confusion, explosions filtered to her ears as the sentinels began to fire at whatever was obstructing their prey.
A hole opened, revealing a bright light. A set of rings came down and surrounded her. Then there was a flash.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"We've got her, get us out of here!", Sombra shouted into the comm. Tracer obliged a fraction of a second too late.
BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!
"That was the reactor coolant system! It looks like we've got about five minutes!", a voice from the bridge clarified the explosion.
Hana was dazed. Where was she? She focused, recognizing one of the room's occupants.
"Genji Shimada? From Overwatch?"
"Yes. Are you injured?"
Hana considered his question. The answer was yes, and quite badly. Dae-Hyun wasn't going to let her forget about this.
"That voice, what's wrong?"
The voice came back on, as if to clarify, "I got in contact with ROKAF, they're going to let us ring onto a nearby base before we ditch the ship. We might have enough time for it to pilot itself into the remaining titan."
This felt eerily familiar. Hana asked the Overwatch ninja what she needed to do. The middle aged white man answered her question after Genji looked at him.
"Here, let's just get you out of the rings for now. It looks like we'll need to use them in a minute."
graciously accepted the help as she got to her feet.
A few minutes later, the bridge crew entered the room. Tracer had set the ship to autopilot, they had about thirty seconds to ring off before the ship took off after the fleeing Omnics. They all entered the rings, which flashed and deposited them on a bright white roof.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
blinked. MEKA, they were on top of MEKA. The roof wasn't a very interesting place; it was almost entirely white with a few odd machines protruding from place to place. The smoke from the battle was still pungent over here, and she could see columns of smoke coming up from her home.
Before she had the chance to feel horrified at the destruction, one of the ship's crew, a tall, dark man with a golden tattoo on his forehead pointed some kind of long weapon at her.
"Get down!"
Hana ducker, the staff fired a shot like the ones fired by the ship, but much smaller. A trooper squealed behind her. The rest of the crew began firing, while she pulled herself up, took out her blaster, and joined in.
It wasn't as bad as she had feared. Within thirty seconds, the Omnics were all dispatched.
"Freeze, lower your weapons!"
A group of soldiers had emerged from a stairway.
"Are you the ones from the ship?"
One of the crew members, a blond woman in an antiquated military uniform responded affirmatively. Both sides lowered their weapons.
"Hana, is that you?", Dae-Hyun had seen the ship stop over his fallen friend. His voice sounded hopeful.
"Dae-Hyun?", Hana moved to the front of the group, looking for her friend.
"HANA! YOU'RE ALIVE!", Dae-Hyun rushed towards his friend. She did the same, and the two embraced, each glad to see that the other was alive.
Coincidentally, at that moment, the ship's reactor finally overloaded, and a brilliant explosion went off in the distance, creating a beautiful glow followed by a deep rumbling, marking an end to the Gwishin attack on the city. Even if the final titan hadn't been destroyed, there was no way that the entire Omnic force had escaped unscathed.
Hana released her friend.
"You know, I think that I'll reconsider getting you into one of those fancy restaurants this time."
Still feeling elated from the discovery that his friend had survived her craziest stunt to date, Dae-Hyun grinned and laughed.
A moment later, both groups began to move towards the stairwell. Both MEKA and Overwatch wanted to meet them.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Mercy, this is Winston, over."
"Mercy reporting, what is it?"
"We need you at MEKA, they have the crew from the ship.", Winston paused, wondering how Angela would react to the news that their missing agents were among the crew. He decided to hold off on mentioning that until Mercy was safely out of the field.
Mercy was intrigued. She had not seen the ship directly, but she had heard reports about it. From what she had distilled from the rumors, it was about the size of a small office building, pyramid shaped, and used advanced energy weapons that outclassed even those that the titans were using.
During her brief discussions with Cassie, who had heard the same rumors, Cassie had suggested that the ship might be a Go'auld al'kesh. Whether or not it represented the Go'auld was uncertain, al'kesh's were a common ship throughout the galaxy, and often wound up in the hands of pirates, Tok'ra, and even occasionally Earth. Also, it would be strange for the Go'auld to only send in one ship.
Now she had the opportunity to get to the bottom of this. She responded.
"Understood. May I request that Dr. Fraiser be brought as well? I believe that she may have some insights to offer."
"Affirmative, see you soon. Winston out.", Angela never had told them what she had learned from Cassie. Winston had been able to tell from the expression on her voice that it was big, but she had just told them that it could wait until after the mission.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Captain Myung had been ordered to debrief the crew of the mysterious ship along with two representatives from Overwatch, who she met up with while walking towards the conference room.
One was instantly recognizable: Mercy. The famous Overwatch medic, who was still in her almost as famous valkyrie suit, had a distracted look on her face. The other representative, a familiar looking elderly woman, saw the question forming in her head and answered it immediately.
"We had two agents go missing a few months ago, they match some of the descriptions that your people sent over."
Captain Myung nodded. They had arrived, and her superiors, going up to the president himself, wanted answers quickly. The whole world was watching, and everyone knew that the ramifications could be massive. Cassie gave her one more piece of information.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Dr. Cassandra Fraiser."
"Captain Myung, MEKA"
She opened the door into the conference room. It was an inviting space; a single smooth, white, ovular table provided a place for its occupants to work and talk. One side of the room was mostly windows; they could see parts of the damaged city from them, and they let in plenty of natural light. The walls and floor matched the style of the table; clean and inviting. Between the advanced technology these people possessed and their rather spectacular introduction, her superiors had been insistent on making a good first impression. Captain Myung agreed.
All three women instantly focused on different people. Captain Myung noticed Hana Song and her partner, Dae-Hyun. Both immediately stood at attention.
Cassie had a more dramatic reaction. Her eyes went wide, and her face became a bit pale. Her person of interest, a blond, middle aged woman in an American looking uniform, returned the gesture.
"Sam?"
"Cassie… Is that you?"
In lieu of a professional greeting, Cassie ran towards the woman and embraced her tightly. The woman returned the gesture, several tears and a smile on her face confirmed to Captain Myung that these two people knew each other. Two other people from the ship's crew gathered around the elderly doctor.
"Cassie… You've gotten older."
Cassie hugged her godmother for a few seconds longer before turning to look at another familiar face. Daniel hadn't aged a day, it felt surreal.
"Danny, she went in for another hug."
"It is good to see you again, Cassandra Fraiser."
Teal'c. Cassie quickly pulled him in, feeling a bit of glee that he returned the gesture this time. Remembering that she had a mission, she pulled away, a warm smile on her face.
"It's so good to see all of you again."
Meanwhile, Angela had been going through a reunion of her own.
The moment she had entered the room, she had seen him, and he had seen her.
"Genji"
"Angela"
Genji was stunned. Would Angela be angry with him for disappearing. Had she missed him as much as he had missed her?
Angela raced across the room and enveloped her ex patient in a tight embrace, answering a lot of his questions. A few seconds later, she pulled away to get a better look at her missing friend.
"I'm so happy that you're alive! When you went missing, everyone thought you were probably dead. We were searching for months! Where were you?"
Before Genji had time to respond, she noticed another familiar face. Sombra.
"What is she doing here? Is she threatening you? Did she get into your cybernetics?"
Genji's normally lightning fast processing speed had abandoned him in the face of reuniting with the woman he loved. He just stared at her with a mixture of love, fear, and confusion.
Tracer, who had been enjoying the spectacle from the side, took mercy on the ninja and the hacker.
"Relax Doc, she's with us. We've got a lot to catch up on."
Angela noticed Lena and gave her a quick hug.
During both reunions, Sombra had moved towards the center of the two groups. She made eye contact with Captain Myung, who had a resigned look on her face.
"So, Captain, where do we start?"
Captain Myung was a little unnerved, how did this woman know her name? Regardless, her question might just get this meeting on track.
What did she want to know first? Where did that ship some from? Why were some of the crew dressed in antiquated American military fatigues? Who were these people?
That last one. It was simple; she could build from there.
"Who are you?"
Sombra looked around. Most of the room was engrossed in tearful reunions. Even the mech pilot and the tech were still trading glances with each other. She looked back at the captain, who had an expression that reminded her of Doctor Weir on a particularly difficult day running the Alpha Site. She began to identify her teammates.
"That would be Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, and Genji Shimada. I'm pretty certain that anyone would recognize Lena Oxton over here.", by this point, the rest of the room had quieted down, and was focusing on Sombra.
"And you are?"
Sombra frowned. She hadn't even revealed her actual name to the people in the SGC.
"Call me Sombra"
That got a reaction. Captain Myung had heard rumors of an elusive hacker collective, one that had mysteriously gone silent several months ago. The tension in the room began to rise.
"Sombra? The hacker group? Man, I hate hackers like you, they give gamers a bad name!"
Sombra blinked and looked at Hana. She was grinning, that was obviously a joke. This girl was good.
"Well, I'm pretty sure you're thinking of a different kind of hacking. And it's just me, no collective."
A few months ago, Sombra would not have revealed that information. But now she was beginning to feel a sense of attachment to the people at the SGC, and she didn't want to risk misrepresenting them or herself.
Also, she wasn't above a little professional pride when the situation allowed it.
"In any event, I'm sure that you have a lot of questions. Major Carter and Doctor Jackson are probably the best people to answer them. Me and the Overwatch pals here just got dragged along for the ride."
Sg1 collectively looked at Sombra. That wasn't entirely accurate, they had all played major roles. Sombra had even saved their lives. Technically, her EMP bombs had won the battle against the Gwishin. They would have to clear that up later.
Daniel Jackson was generally the team's first contact expert, so they looked to him. Where to begin?
"You may want to sit down, it's kind of a long story."
Captain Myung didn't doubt that at all. She and both of her underlings took a seat.
"Also, if you are recording or broadcasting this, you should be aware that we choose to keep this knowledge secret from our own people for years, for good reason."
Captain Myung nodded, she and her superiors had guessed that they would want to keep at least some parts of this interview under wraps. Hana and Dae-Hyun both knew how to keep their mouths shut, despite what someone watching the mech pilot's stream might think.
Daniel sighed, this was a long story. He wondered if he should just make an introduction video.
No, that was a bit too tacky.
"In 1928, a man named Dr. Paul Langford led an archeological expedition in Giza, Egypt. He discovered a device that we now call the stargate."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Several weeks later
Over its years of operation, the SGC and its derivative programs had faced many threats to their secrecy. Reporters would get their hands on a leak. Foothold situations would spring up. New technologies would raise hard to answer questions.
Nevertheless, they had maintained their cover. They had slain gods. They had saved gods. They had fought off invasions. They had had personnel die, and had several of them come back. As it turned out, multiple resurrections did not sit well with the bureaucrats.
So, the original SG1 consisting of Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c were understandably unhappy with how their decades long reign of secrecy finally ended.
Oddly enough, their direct intervention in a highly televised invasion with an alien assault ship wasn't what had revealed the existence of aliens. That could have easily been passed off as a prototype attack ship created by any number of governments or corporations for any number of purposes.
As much as the pilots in MEKA enjoyed fame, they understood the meaning of the word classified.
No, it was a fucking tabloid reporter. Some bottom-feeding, scum-sucking, bottom-of-the-barrel reporter who made a living off going up to the line between investigative journalism and blatant harassment and blowing past it without a second thought.
Hana had been assigned to the expedition to unbury the Ancient weapons platform in Antarctica. A coalition of governments led by South Korea and the United States were extremely eager to get their hands on it and the technology within. SG1 was happy to help; they felt that their commanding officer had been frozen down there for long enough. Orders were drawn up, people were assigned, and Hana had read her own piece of the paperwork in what she thought was the safety of her secured quarters in MEKA.
In fairness, this wasn't your average tabloid reporter. He had ambition. He had been spying on the MEKA pilot for months, ignoring the myriad of minor details that he would have normally sold to a magazine. He knew that once those details were published, his "source" would go dark almost immediately.
So, he waited. Eventually, something big would come up. Something big enough to get himself out of tabloid reporting and into real journalism.
And oh boy, did something big come up.
Aliens. Hana song was being sent to uncover an alien base. The orders were remarkably detailed; they had also informed him that the alien base was known to multiple powerful governments, that it had already been uncovered once before being buried by some catastrophe, and that this entire thing was going to be kept under wraps.
Some additional, quiet investigation had turned up more. That ship that had saved the day over Busan was no prototype, it was an alien vessel. Evidently, it had been crewed by humans from Earth, several of who had been missing for a long time. Seventy years couldn't possibly be right, but he wasn't able to get any more without going public.
The reporter pondered his discoveries. There was no way that something this big hadn't been found by other reporters. He had no idea how whoever was behind this had managed to keep them silent, but it couldn't have been legal. There were quite a few possibilities; would anyone suspect something if one or two reporters simply disappeared? Probably not. You could conceivably buy off or threaten another few. For someone who was willing to keep something like this a secret from the public, that probably wouldn't be an issue.
He couldn't just blow this open like a standard exposé. He needed to make sure that the information, which he had a decent amount of, hit all at once and through multiple outlets. If he did this the normal way, any article that he published would vanish within a few minutes. If he did an interview, it would go off the air due to technical issues, and he would develop some problem that kept him from appearing on air.
The solution was to not just poke a hole in the dam of secrecy. The solution was to blow a gigantic hole in it.
And blow it open he had. Simultaneously, multiple news sources, ranging from his usual clientele to respectable news outlets had received different pieces of the puzzle that he had partially put together. Other pieces had been leaked online and were making their way through conspiracy theory forums. The denizens of those forums had seized on the opportunity, uncovering more information, some true, some false, but all damaging.
It turned out that the primary perpetrators were the American and South Korean governments. The reporter had wisely fled the latter before releasing his information and was holed up in Numbani when the first 'damage control' team arrived. An unmarked van had tried to abduct him from his home, and nearly succeeded. The Numbani authorities had anticipated the situation however and caught them in the act. Freedom of the press was taken quite seriously in the African city, as were unsanctioned extrajudicial kidnappings, so when the kidnappers turned out to be linked back to the American government, the entire operation turned into an embarrassing and extremely public international incident, and the secrecy around the stargate was finally and irrevocably shattered.
Aliens were real. The Americans had first discovered this back in the late 1990s and had proceeded to launch a clandestine operation to explore the galaxy in secret. Of course, they had also managed to start several wars in the process. Evidently, they kept it a secret for so long because they thought that 'the world wasn't ready to know'.
Needless to say, that had not gone over well.
However, the fallout had several mitigating factors. There was no active alien threat to Earth. Evidently, whatever the Americans had been doing, they were all spooked, and avoided the place like a plague. Also, the arrival of a friendly alien ship which had promptly sacrificed itself to stop an Omnic attack was hard to ignore. And of course, most of these events had taken place decades ago, and most of the people who had made the decision to keep the stargate a secret were dead.
Ultimately, both governments were forced to start revealing details. The Americans had reclaimed their officer to assist in the excavation of the SGC and the recovery of the stargate. Along with the South Koreans and several other governments, they were leading an expedition to recover the Ancient weapons platform in Antarctica. Oddly enough, it was located almost directly under an old Overwatch base. Nobody at this point thought that was a coincidence.
In some ways, the revelation helped the South Korean government. It was an open secret that they were harboring and working with Overwatch; they were even sending some of their agents on the Antarctic expedition. Overwatch was still banned, but this wasn't getting as much attention due to the rewriting of history and the revelation of extraterrestrial life.
Dae-Hyun wasn't a decision maker in his government, but he did feel that they should accept small blessings where they could find them.
"Are you OK Hana?"
Hana looked at her friend. Her normally makeup was badly streaked from tears. Her hair had lost its normal tidiness.
"It's all my fault, how could I have been such an idiot?"
"This wasn't your fault. You followed all the security protocols to a letter.", Dae-Hyun felt a little nervous as he said this. It was true, but he wondered what would have happened if he had been the victim instead of Hana. She looked at him for a few more moments.
"Then why does it feel like we're being punished?"
"We're on an expedition to save our country. And possibly the world."
"Really, Dae-Hyun? It still seems a little unbelievable."
"I doubt that they would pull you or me from active duty if it wasn't real. And besides, if they are punishing you, why would they be sending me?"
Hana looked at him for a moment, and then moved closer. Dae-Hyun accepted her request for a hug.
"If that ship hadn't shown up, we would have lost"
There was no arguing with that. Hana was scared, they had had close calls before, but it had been apparent from the moment the first alarms went off that it would have taken a miracle to push the Gwshin back this time. All the pilots were slowly realizing just how close they had come to total defeat.
"But it did. And now the Gwishin have been pushed back, and we might have a way to defeat them for good."
Hana raised her head. Dae-Hyun was right, that base could change everything. And she was going to help them access it.
Even better, she would have her lifelong friend by her side.
Honestly, it would be more like she would be by his side. Evidently, he had an extremely rare genetic marker that would allow him to interface with the technology a group of aliens called 'The Ancients' had left behind.
Hana grinned when she remembered learning that bit of news. Evidently the platform's primary weapons were a swarm of remote controlled missiles with even more maneuverability than her mech. They were directly controlled by the user, which would have made them the perfect weapon for her and her fellow pilots. However, since Dae-Hyun was the only person in MEKA who had the gene, she had taken it upon herself to do her best to bring his skills and reflexes up to her own standards.
As far as anyone knew, only Hana Song met those standards.
Nonetheless, they had had fun, even if both were exhausted by hours of training every day. Command had approved of the pilot's plan and had allowed them to take a significant amount of time out of their schedules to implement it.
And Hana had seen results. While he still wasn't nearly as skilled as her, Dae-Hyun was more than ready to use the drones if the need arose.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Several days after the Battle of Busan
No sign of her. Reaper scowled; Moira had been captured by Overwatch and was now in the hands of the American authorities. The EMP bomb that had been used against the titan attacking Busan had clearly been one of Sombra's creations, but there had been no sign of her since. Ultimately, his original team of four was now down to two for the foreseeable future.
Compounding this problem was his employers. Reaper had never held any illusions about the true character of Talon's leadership; they would have no problem backstabbing him, nor he them. They were clearly hiding information about Sombra from him, so he wouldn't be able to involve them in her retrieval.
"Reaper, sensors are detecting an anomaly four hundred meters off the shore.", Widomaker broke him out of his thoughts.
Reaper and Widomaker had taken their dropship to investigate the site where the battle had taken place. With any luck, there would be some clues about the whereabouts of their missing teammate. So far, they had only found a whole lot of wreckage.
Widomaker turned the sensors to analyze the anomaly. It appeared to be a woman trying to swim for shore. However, she had virtually no thermal signature; she should be dead. Also, she appeared to be far denser than any human.
After an acknowledgement from Reaper, she turned the ship, and silently brought it over the anomaly. The 'person' looked up and shielded her eyes. She was clearly in distress and reached up towards the ship. Sighing, Reaper reached down, grabbed her hand, and hauled her into the ship.
Kim Seo-yeon was having a very bad day. The Gwishin had proven to be extremely unfriendly and had spent the last several months attempting to extract information from her. She had only escaped when they were distracted by some kind of attack. She had spent the intervening hours attempting to swim for shore, not an easy task for someone made of dense nanites.
If she had been human, she would have had a sick feeling in her stomach. Her mission was supposed to be a secret; it had been vital that she not risk disrupting whatever was stopping the humans from leaving their home world. Then she had gotten herself captured; the Gwishin would doubtlessly have analyzed the wreckage of her ship, which would provide them with a major advantage in their war against the humans. If the alliance figured this out, this would be interpreted as an attack on Earth.
She didn't even want to think about how the humans on Earth would react if they figured out where the Gwishin had gotten their sudden breakthrough in shielding technology from.
She looked at her savior. An extremely unfriendly looking skull themed mask stared back. She was really starting to hate this planet.
"What are you?", the voice dripped with menace.
"My name is Kim, I…", she couldn't come up with a convincing story fast enough.
The masked man pointed a weapon at her. From the lethal looking shotgun, the black trench coat, the skull mask, and the over-the-top menace, Kim decided that this human and Sokar would have gotten along splendidly.
"We know that you aren't human."
Kim sighed. Technically she didn't need to breathe, but part of imitating humans was learning the nonverbal communication indicators.
"No, I'm not"
The man waited for an answer, not lowering his weapon.
"To most people, we are known as replicators."
The mane kept staring at her.
"Machines, I'm an advanced machine."
The man didn't appear to like this answer, "So the tin cans look like people now."
This wasn't going well.
"She is unlike any known Omnic model, she may know something about the silver ship.", a human with an oddly flat sounding voice called out from the front of the ship.
The man looked back at her.
"Well?"
Kim sighed again, in theory, human form replicators were bullet proof. However, seventy years had passed on this world since their first encounter. Who knew what kind of improvements they had made to their weapons? Also, they weren't truly bulletproof; every hit on them disabled a portion of their nanite cells, too many would disable or even destroy them.
Between the Gwishin's crude attempts to extract information and the prolonged exposure to seawater, Kim knew that she wasn't going to fight her way out of this; she was having difficulty maintaining cohesion as it was.
"We are a race of self-replicating machines. Seventy years ago, human forms such as myself were created to better understand your people, and how you were able to defeat us."
Kim could tell that she had raised more questions than she had answered. At least these people were willing to talk things out instead of trying to kill her.
Several hours of explanations towards the disbelieving humans slowly began to clear up some of the confusion. Kim could tell that tensions were decreasing when one evidently important fact came up.
"About five of your months ago, we detected a pirate transmission that indicated that one of your people's old bases had been reclaimed. I was sent here to determine whether your people had become a threat again."
Reaper perked up, five months? If this 'stargate' was real and was really located in the facility that Sombra had infiltrated, then the timing was about right.
"Did this transmission tell you who was there?"
Kim shook her head.
"We were barely able to make it out."
She decided to take a small risk.
"Are you looking for a specific person?"
"Yes"
"Who?"
Reaper paused. This machine was trying to be friendly, which was really beginning to grind on his nerves. But she might have information about Sombra's whereabouts. Maintaining as much hostility and menace as he could, he described his missing teammate.
Kim didn't recognize much until Reaper mentioned an EMP. Before she had departed, the collective had intercepted rumors of a Go'auld suicide bomber who was stopped by a mysterious device. The two sounded similar.
"Does this EMP emit a purple wave of light? And does it have the ability to bypass failsafe systems in electronic systems?"
Reaper nodded.
"Before I left, there was a rumor of such a device being used by a woman against a Go'auld attack. We didn't know anything about it when I left."
Reaper looked at her. He had his information, now what?
Kim saw that the man had the information he needed. She quickly decided that the correct course of action was to keep being useful.
"If this teammate of yours is off world, I may be able to help you retrieve her."
Reaper pondered her offer. He didn't like working with Omnics, but this was an unusual circumstance. He looked back at her.
"Welcome aboard"
Somehow, even that sounded like a threat. Kim nodded.
"I was damaged during my capture and escape. I will need to go inactive for several hours to recover."
The man nodded. It wasn't entirely true. A substantial percentage of her cells had been damaged or destroyed. She needed specialized materials to repair them. But, she could patch some of the damage with a few hours of what could be called 'sleep'.
Kim leaned back into her chair and went motionless. If she had been a human, Reaper would have thought she was dead. He waved his hand in front of her eyes. Nothing.
"You think she can help us?"
"We don't really have any other leads."
The two humans on the dropship continued their investigation of the area surrounding Busan. They didn't find anything else.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A/N: So, this was the story's first major battle. I do plan on having others and may adjust how I depict them.
This first battle is pretty much the end of the scenes that I imagined when I first conceived of this story. I do have several new plot ideas however, so the story will go on.