Smite 1701

by Richardson

At the end of SG S-7 episode "Grace", something is found out in the outer solar system that will rock Anubis's world. No matter where it is, no matter what form it takes, wherever she goes, she always changes everything. Spoiler SG-S7.

10. Ch 9 Ye Olde Overlord Baiting

(This is just a temp version of the chapter until I can de-busy enough to check it on the FF editor.)

Smite +1701

Episode the 9th: Ye' olde Overlord Baiting.

"Yeah. You, the one with the black clothes and glowery look. Yeah, I'm taunting you! Neenier Neenier!" Jack O'neill to Baal, once upon a time.

/Late October 2004, P9X-483/

KAWOOOOSH! The still of a semi-innocent planet was broken by the SGC dialing up, the wormhole burning a hole through thick jungle foliage. The slow gurgling of the event horizon was quickly broken by a SGC MALP-Droid Mrk 1, rolling through, before humming into the air on repulsorlifts. The sensor array and camera at it's top swiveled about, before it began to move through the jungle, the lifts giving it an advantage that the original timeline didn't have. The quirky little prototype had been put together over the past two months by the joint efforts of the SGC and the engineers of the 1701st as an attempt to manufacture a better MALP.

Remotely operated still from the SGC, it looked for signs of Jaffa activity or Ancient technology. It should have proven to be impassable to MALPS, and SGC teams. Not this time. The smallish droid device wobbled it's way through the underbrush, holding up to the slight strain put upon it. It passed over a small deep ravine, before finding something that made it stop, and do the droid equivilent of a boggle. It reversed course, entering full broadcom line of site to the stargate, and sent a secure datalink burst on what it had found, before thwoobing along on it's antigravs back to investigate further. The SGC was coming...

/SGC, 4 hours later./

"So, general, what has the full SG-1 in today?" Jack O'neill turned to General Hammond as he swept into the room, remotely activating the new holographic projector that was set up on the floor.

"P9X-483 has something that looks to be of great importance. The structure there is littered with writing that Dr. Jackson may find to be familiar..." General Hammond looked at the tall crystal-like spire, with the surrounding towers and structures. And the big, strange lettering around it that littered itself across the surfaces, in some cases looking like graffiti painted on.

"Ancient writing..." It was said reverantly, getting odd looks for the archeologist from the stormtroopers, and Jack. Carter and Teal'c gave him startled looks, or their variation thereof, as Daniel looked around at everyone.

"Ancient as in older than the dirt we're hiding in ancient, or ancient as in 'headsucked me and nearly killed me with information overload' kind of ancient?" Jack looked warily at the projection now, beginning to have unhealthy ideas as to what might be hidden inside the complex.

"Repository type ancient, yes."

"That's what I was worried about." Jack slowly sank down into his rolling chair, the frame creaking as he shifted. All the stormtroopers of the Eisleys gave him odd looks, wondering what he had meant by headsucking ancient artifacts. That had most assuredly NOT been on the job description for SG-1.

"You'll be moving out in a few hours, once a jungle equipped hovertank is shipped over from Fort Avalon. The vegitation is similar to the deep regions of the Amazon jungle, the entire area extremely hilly and difficult to traverse." General Hammond called up a topographic map of the region that the MALP-droid's scanners could read, the narrow path showing massive terrain shifts from something.

Everyone winced, or gave their approximation of it. The approach up to the droid's spot was going to be positively nasty. Jack's back began to slowly protest painfully just looking at the terrain map.

Jacob Stari nodded, knowing who was probably the soul who had 'volunteered' to try and figure out how to fly a hovertank through that mess. Khaar simply gave him a knowing gaze, before looking back to the map. Yeah. The volunteer had already been picked.

"Make your preperations, and good luck SG-1." General Hammond turned to the newly expanded team, watching as Earth's finest rose to their feet. As he exited again, to talk to a few individuals, SG-1 began to converse amongst itself.

"You as good of a general pilot as you say you are, Stari?" Jack looked over to the first of the redheads, who grimaced, knowing how painful most hovertank compartments were.

"Fairly good. I do best at sneak'n'steal, though." Stari moved over, getting into the semi-huddle which began discussing the general details of how to execute the mission.

"A few ever-utilitous lightsabers could come in handy. I'll see what I can dig up." Toral pulled out his pad, making a few notes on it as he planned. "Perhaps some blasting charges for entering without the last residents permission."

"C-4 or Blastex?" Stari ticked it off with almost no thought catalouging what he needed to be requisitioning from stores.

"Maybe a little bit of both. Plan for worst and best case scenarios. I'd rather not do more damage than necessary, even if all we'll find is another headsucker." Jack made a check on his own list, 'Avoid the headsucker things this time if at all possible.' He straightened out his uniform and scooted away from Daniel.

"Right. Plan for possible resistance? I can bring my big gun along if need be..." Dell smiled as the mention of his big baby started all of SG-1 to protesting. The last time he had practiced on earth, the richocet of his weapon's blast bouncing up into orbit had caused the most spectacular aurora that had been seen in several years.

"Yeah.. I'm not quite sure that the ancients build that tough. Let's not bring it. If we find a Ha'tak buzzing about, you can bug me about it when we get back." Jack winced at the thought of that weapon, not wanting anything to do with it on a mission that was supposed to be reconnisance. Maybe the next time they had to take out a Goa'uld compound...

"Alright. That's okay. I have plenty of other entertaining weapons." The Eisleys winced at that little statement, and the members of SG-1 prone to nervous sweating began to worry profusely.

"Standard documentation equipment. We'll need to make sure that even if we only get one shot at this planet, we at least get as much information from it as we can." Daniel had a happy smile on his face again, the sheer archeology dream that he was presented with making him break into a tic. This was what he had been looking for for so long.

"And if we should happen to find something that looks somewhat valuable, and is easily pilferable? Grab what we can?" Toral's eyes gleamed with an unhealthy look of slightly greedy manical thoughts. It never hurt when you were trying to understand a culture, if you grabbed everything not nailed down.

"Well, if it seems really, really important, sure. Otherwise, we'll be too loaded down with trinkets and other thingies to get back to the gate. And since it does seem to be a mostly untouched complex, expect our luck to be pretty bad in the Goa'uld avoidance department. There'll probably be an army of 'em." Jack grumped at the standard luck of SG-1, the good run they were having quite likely having run out this mission. SG-1 was cursed, after all.

"So, shouldn't that mean bring my gigantic happy gun?" Dell looked over hopefully, getting annoyed looks from the old SG-1. "No? Okay."

"Riiight... I knew it. We're also the craziest team. I should'a figured it out a long time ago." Jack nearly banged his head against the wall in frustration. They were completely and totally nutz.

/SGC, Gateroom, 6 hours later./

The whine of a hovertank slowly repulsing it's way down the entrance shaft to the gateroom filled the air, as the old core of SG-1 looked up at the craft slowly dropping towards them. They never had heavy backup before, and the addition of semi-heavy armor was a welcome change, at least. The twin blaster cannons mounted on the forward section of the turret looked rather nasty, along with the various other bits and pieces on it. All the oldtime personelle of the SGC not actively dialing the gate looked up to the strange sight, one that would become far more common in the new SGC complex at Fort Avalon.

"It looks a bit big to fit through the gate..." Carter watched Dell talking into an commlink up to his brother, er... clone, err... those two were rattling for the brain at times.

"The outrigger panels can fold up against the fuselage when needed. It'll fit." Toral fixed his engineering helmet further down onto his head, his brightly polished wrench still defying physics somewhat in it's back holster. "Then on the other side, Stari just drops them down, we get on, everyone is happy. Save for whatever fool decides to mess with us."

"Looks like it'll be fun, though a bit uncomfortable." Jack watched the repulsorcraf set down on the hard floor, bouncing ever so lightly off of the back wall, the hot exaust wavering the air before the control room, earning a glare from General Hammond. "At least the building is paid for, otherwise that could have been bad for our loan..."

"Sorry, it doesn't have rear-view mirrors!" The echoing voice of Stari came out of the open hatch as he put it into stationary hover mode, and popped up as best he could to watch the gate activate. 5 chevrons encoded, it was getting into the fun part.

"Imperial engineering. No common sense, no sense of pride, not even functionality, really. The great war of the cheapest bidder..." Toral glowered at the tank, never having liked several of the design decisions, as he loaded a box onto one of the holsters on the side of the turret that the SGC had welded on. Several individuals proceeded to load further materials onto the craft, sensor gear, food and water, Dell's BFG smuggled in inside of several diffrent crates along with various other weapons and grenades...

"Chevron 7, locked." KAWHOOOOOOOSH!

"I don't think I'll ever really get tired of that... and I still think it looks like one of your 'freshers flushing." Stari ducked back into the tank, bringing it up a little higher off the ground, the outriggers retracting against the hull as he was slowly guided up to the gate.

Jack watched the big grey warmachine slowly ripple through the gate, before shrugging under his new body-armor, which was being tested early, thanks to the help of the imperials. He turned to SG-1, pulling his P-90 close to him. "Well, General, we'll see you when we get back. SG-1, let's go. Lots of toys to test, lots of stuff to pillage."

"Just remember, pillage, THEN burn." Assorted groans replied Dell's helpful joke. SG-1, the other 7 not in the tank, stepped up the gate, squeezed tight together on the ramp, walking through the event horizon, and into jungle beyond, as well as a huge amount of trouble waiting.

/P9X-483/

Blurp!

The sound of Stari leaning out of the tank, and puking on the ground in front greeted the rest of SG-1 as they came out the other side of the gate, the clone leaning heavily over the front of the tank, heaving and wretching somewhat. Jack was taken slightly aback, as he looked to Khaar, who shook his head, and gestured to Dell, who started walking up to the tank to see how he was doing.

"Never saw him react like that to the gate before. Carter, anything unusual with the gate?" Jack turned to his XO, who gave a quick look of thought, before shaking her head.

"Not that I noticed. It might have been going through the gate in an enclosed vehicle, though." Carter moved up, as the wretching noises stopped, now more of a coughing wheeze.

"Something like that..." Stari flopped back, leaning onto the upper surface of the tank to try and steady his nerves. "It felt kinda wierd when I rolled through the gate, then I just got sick, and popped out as fast as I could..." The clone sprawled somewhat as Toral and Dell grabbed onto the handholds of the tank, pulling it along to get it out of the way of the gate, Toral thrashing at the undergrowth with his super-wrench. The silence that began to grow began to unnerve everyone. SG-1 slowly began to scan the trees with their weapons, looking for why nothing was crying out in the distance, until they realized, there was nothing out there.

"You all hear that?" Jack whispered now, just loud enough to carry over the humming whistle of the repulsorlifts. He tightened down his cap onto his head with his non-trigger hand, bad black-ops experiences coming back to him.

"Hear what Jack?" Daniel looked around the area, a Zat at the ready as he looked at the verdant green foliage, noting only a few sunlit motes that denoted insects flitting amongst various strange, colorful flowers high above.

"The sound of silence, DanielJackson." Teal'c carefully gripped the large Clone Wars era rifle, which had been proportioned similar to a staff weapon, looking along it as he watched for the slightest movement in the trees. Nothing. Only the slightest swaying of a breeze shifting them. "The sound of an ambush waiting."

"Let's not get too gloomy, campers. As soon as Stari gets his gut back into a condition that's not leaving him spewing, we'll move out. Carter, know where that MALP-droid got to?" Jack slowly moved up to the tank, climbing up onto the port outboard, looking out and watching for movement as Carter came up, fiddling with the reciever she had.

"It's still surveying the exterior of the complex. I've sent the signal to meet up back at the gate, it should only be four or five minutes." Carter climbed on as well, on the other side from O'Neill, watching warily as well. The quiet of the jungle worried her as well. She looked up to see Stari climbing back into the tank, as Daniel climbed up beside her, sitting more towards the front of the repulsorcraft.

"Well, it's better than taking a month to get someplace, then finding out when you got there after 15 days of searching that nothing was there." Dell climbed up on top of the turret, manning a repeater turret as he climbed down into it's crew pit.

The thwoombing of the droid's smaller anti-gravs caught their attention, the team looking out through a small opening in the nearly inpenetrable jungle growth to see the droid emerging. It wobbled over to them, beeping in a droid language. Jack looked around the turret at Carter and Jackson, wondering if they understood a bit of that.

"Well, Carter? You helped design that thing, you understand what it's trying to say? If it's saying the droid equivilent of either 'Timmy fell down the well' or 'Jaffa attack imminent' I'm going to be very annoyed." Jack looked from the brain-duo of SG-1, then back to the droid.

"No, sir. I don't have a clue. Daniel?" Daniel shook his head, then looked over to the Enforcers. "No. I don't know what quite to tell you, sir." Carter looked somewhat apologetic, before looking at the droid again.

Jack grumbled, before pointing a hand at the droid. "Speak English!" Jack waited a few beats, until the droid beeped again, this time somewhat questioning in it's manner. Jack wanted to facepalm, groaning as Teal'c smiled and Daniel laughed. The crazy Col. frowned at the droid, which continued to hover overhead, beeping at the SG-1 leader. "Fer'crying out loud, Carter, didn't you install one of those speech units in the thing?"

"No, sir." "Then what good is it?" "Advanced Recon in force and telemetry reporting, sir. Not field reporting, though. Sorry, sir." "Darn upstart MALP. Next thing you know, we'll be getting replaced by 'em." "Never sir."

Jack glowered up at the droid as Khaar climbed up onto the back of the craft, getting up onto the turret and sitting down up there. Stari put the craft into drive mode, lurching it into motion and turning it towards the opening, popping open the vegetation removal blades at the foreward end of the repulsortank as he sliced into the thick undergrowth.

"At least it's a new kind of trees."

"Yes, Jack. I think we all notice that." Daniel shook his head, as he pulled out his camcorder with his other hand, recording the local fauna as they moved out.

"Indeed, O'neill, they are most stimulating to look at."

"Teal'c."

"Yes, O'neill?"

"Let's not talk about the ways we can misinterpret that. Not talk about it or ever mention that again."

/ 45 minutes later/

"Are we there YET?"

"No, sir. It's only been 45 minutes sir." Carter was starting to get annoyed at Jack's constant chatter, though the unnerving silence of the planet wasn't much of an alternative. She looked down at her palmpilot, wondering herself how close they were. She couldn't take much more pestering, at the rate Jack was going. "Maybe we can find something else to do while we wait..."

"Nine thousand bottles of beer on the wall?" Jack looked over to the wincing looks of the whole SG-1. "No? What about I spy. I spyy with my eye... something that starts with a... J"

Everyone free scrambled to spot Jaffa hiding in the trees, looking around, before turning to Jack with annoyed looks on their faces. Teal'c raised an eyebrow instead, glancing sidelong at Jack.

"Teal'c. That's what I spotted." Groans. Teal'c closed his eyes, trying to ignore Jack for the moment.

The MALP droid swooped down over the group, turning it's sensor to Jack and beginning to beep-whistle-whoop at him. Jack looked up, pointing his weapon at it. "WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP! Dop-beep-wheeoop!"

"Carter! The MALP is sassing me! I want the old MALPs back, they don't talk back!" Jack's cry of annoyance resulted in eyerolls as everyone tried to ignore him. The repulsorcraft whined harder as it climbed up a high degree slope, chugging up like the evil twin of the little engine that could.

"It technically beeps back, Jack. At least you can't understand it." Daniel shook his head, as he started looking around with the sky breaking clear of the dense upper levels of jungle, hanging onto the tank to keep from sliding backwards.

"Sure he can. It doesn't like him. Can't exactly blame it, even if he is a manically loveable character." Toral smiled as he looked up at the droid, having programmed in the little quirk into the droid just to mess with Jack for the hilarity of it. His prank was working so far. Might work a bit too well, though.

"Can we disable the little speaker on it somehow? So I can ignore it sassing, and probably calling me dirty things?" Jack kept an eye on it, wanting to shoot it a few dozen times as they continued to chug up the hill, the whining of the repulsorlifts continuing to build as the top of the slope got steeper, pitching them into a nearly 50 degree angle.

"Indeed. It does become repetative after the first few times." Teal'c looked ahead, watching for any teltales of action, as the jungle slowly broke away, turning into bushland as they climbed higher. Everyone began to tense further at loosing the dense cover of the jungle, watching the foligage slowly break down further and further until the rounded over the top slope...

And the bushes broke away to reveal the massive citadel spire, crystal-looking towers shining in the sun despite the layers of dirt that had slowly been built up on them from various sources. A massive complex, city-sized, surrounding a central tower that streched up into the sky. Miles across, even. Everyone went silent at the magnificent sight, and Stari slowly brought the tank into a stationary hover so he could climb out to get a better look at it.

"Would you look at that... You don't think..." Toral looked over to Daniel, who was surveying the cityscape with his camcorder, taking in the sight like a thirsty person in a desert oasis.

"I'll say this, you guys got some good equipment, and if it wasn't for it, we'd never would have found this... Carter, what was the betting on finding a nearly untouched ancient city?" Jack relaxed, setting his weapon down to look ahead, as Stari looked out of his open hatch at the city. Grass swayed across an open plain, which was oddly distorted, like there was more of the city buried that couldn't be seen.

They all just took a moment to look, as if it would vanish if they came any closer. Their luck had been so good lately, it had to be too good to be true. Grass ripped in a stiff breeze that swept across the plains, shaking the tank slightly. Stari put the tank into drive, slowly easing towards the city.

"This is it, Jack. This has got to be an even better find than the Enterprise... This could have the weapons we need to defeat Anubis!" Daniel's shout echoed across the plains, a triumphant voice raised in thankfulness to whatever was letting them succeed again and again. The archeologist stood up on the tank, zooming in on the structure to look at it even closer, inspecting the slight damage it had sustained over the years. "Other than the graffiti, it looks fine."

"What's it say, Daniel?" Jack looked out, scanning along the plain for Jaffa. A slight sense of unease began to poke at his heart. It was too easy. Even easier than the last couple of missions. But, nothing. Not even insects now. He looked up into the bright blue sky, looking for any signs of deathgliders flying overhead, though no small black dots moved above. Just a few fluffy clouds.

The whine of the repulsortank's engines grew into a throaty roar as Stari opened up all the way on the throttle, accelerating towards the city. "We hope you have enjoyed your ride today, next stop is a mostly untouched ancient city, apparently having been in a volcanic eruption that has half-buried it. We thank you for taking Eisley Transit, and would like to see you back again sometime." Stari tried to keep from chuckling as he spoke, pulling off an aircraft captain's voice fairly well.

Daniel ignored him and looked at some of the writing, trying to translate it as best he could in his head. "I see... the gate address for Earth, and what appears to be a warning of pestilance and natural disaster. Possibly a volcano." Daniel didn't like the look of the writing on the city, and wanting to be somewhere else now.

"I have spotted one, DanielJackson. To what appears to be the north, smoking." Teal'c looked out across the plains to the massive mountain that threateningly smoked in the distance. The MALP-droid bweeooped affirmitive, sounding smug. Teal'c just raised an eyebrow, before ignoring it.

"We'll have to keep an eye on it. It looks pretty active." Carter held onto the tank as they accelerated still, wind whipping at her exposed hair as they passed 25 miles an hour, before leveling out there.

"No cantankerous pyramid of natural power is going to bother me. Let it ash, let it ash." Toral snuggled in his grenade launcher closer to him, wanting to blow quite a few things up. It just felt more natural in action instead of on the practice range. An auto-turret he had set up in the jungle traverse slowly tracked around behind him.

"We'll be fine." Khaar settled into the tank commander's seat further, using more of the blast shields around it, feeling worried as well. He felt like he was being watched.

They quickly reached the central tower, hovering around it looking for a door. The tarnished metal and gleaming still mostly reflective windows seemed unbroken, until a balcony slowly rounded around the tower as they moved along. Stari slowed and finally let momentum bring the tank into a hovering slow carress of the wall below it, the balcony still two meters above the group.

"Dell, you can drive pretty well, take over from Stari. Toral, with Stari and SG-1. Col. O'Neill, if you want..." Khaar slowly tracked up the side of the tower, pausing at a flicker of movement high above. He watched for a moment, before Jack responded.

"Demolitions? Sounds good to me. Don't look at me like that, Daniel. This is something we have to search, and I'm not letting headsucking repositories, stubbron doors, deathtraps, Jaffa, Goa'uld, or anything else stand in my way." Jack stood up, shouldering up his pack and grabbing two side sections, hooking them into the Molle lacing on the sides of his pack. A few grenades, a couple of magazines; a blaster carbine, spare power packs, and a few gas canisters for it. Just in case.

"I wasn't going to say anything. Just... make sure that we don't blow up anything important." Daniel suppressed a sigh of dispair, knowing but not wanting to carry through with it. The archeological find of... pretty much ever, and they would have to result to tomb-raiding. His nightmare, all over again. He hoped to never have to do something like that, shooting up a find.

"Relax, it'll be fine Daniel. Anyone got some grappling hooks?" Jack looked up to the balcony, wondering how to get up.

Dell eased into the driver's seat as Stari unlatched his weapon off the holster atop the tank, slinging on his own rucksack, grunting only slightly under the unwieldy weight. He squatted down, picking up his helmet and clicking it down onto his bodysuit's collar latches, sealing shut with a clicking hiss.

"Remember, hovertank? Dell, bring us up two meters." The filtered voice of the clone reminded SG-1 of who had been the first one to speak back on the Enterprise. Jack smiled as he filed away his funny blackmail material.

Everyone hung on as the tank lurched and rose wobbily up to the balcony, hovering at the right height. Jack was the first to slide off the vehicle and onto the city, jumping up and down a few times to make sure the balcony wouldn't fall off. He reached out a hand to Teal'c who used it to haul himself onto the balcony as well.

"Come on, it's fine guys." Jack held out his hand once again as Dell turned the tank around slowly, putting Carter and Daniel into range. Daniel hopped off easily as Jack winked at Carter, helping her down. She just sighed under her breath as they all turned to Stari and Toral, who both hopped off before anyone could help them off.

"See, I like our new stormtroopers. They even help themselves down. You just have to provide the food, and they feed, clothe and wash themselves. They even shoot straight! Everything you could ever need!" Jack smiled as he walked into the doors in the middle of the balcony, looking up at the arches overhead, tarnished green with age.

"Jack, they are not our pets, and we don't get to say 'Good Boy' to them." Daniel was constantly panning around to soak in every detail as they moved in. It took concentration on his part to keep from bouncing up and down like a kid in a toy store as they walked in.

"I know. Hey, Dell, Khaar, just... circle around, have fun with that thing, and if you see any Jaffa, see how well they splat." Jack waved as the two pulled away, accelerating off and away. The humm of the repulsors faded out as they whirled around the tower, starting an orbit of the city. "Alright. Take anything that looks fairly important. If it's not glowing, in it's own room, or something else, don't bother."

"Right. Are we going to split up?" Stari looked around, as Jack walked out the door, hanging around as the lights lit up in the corridor beyond. The group walked out into the hall, looking at the strange archetecture.

Jack frowned for a moment, before nodding. "Teal'c, go with Stari and Toral. Sam, Danny, you're with me. Take your time. The hovertank's got a good radio in it, and we've got that MALP-droid... thingy." He walked slowly down the hall one way, doors opening at his passage, leaving Stari and Toral to wait as Teal'c slid over to them.

"Good boy my ass. When we get back, want to crazy-foam his locker at the SGC?" Stari looked over to Toral, both of them grinning for a moment as Teal'c raised an eyebrow. The stormtroopers were odd individuals as far as he was concered. They made the Taur'i look sane, after all.

/On the other side of P9X-483 Prime/

In the darkness of the massive dust nebula, a Hat'ak slowly cruised. The area was long held in Goa'uld tradition to be haunted, a forsaken place that swallowed up many that entered it. The system lord Ba'al decided he would no longer take any part in it. Once again, the ripples of the Enterprise began to grow, Ba'al taking a risk he would not have in the original line. The Taur'i, and their surprising new weapons were trouncing his Jaffa in engagements. They had completely demolished a naquada refinery of his just the previous week.

He stood before the window in his throne room, scowling at the thick dust, which obscured his Hat'aks sensors, and his view. Inky black-brown swirls parted slowly, a glow growing. Possibly just another dead end, but... One could never be sure.

"My lord, sensors are picking up the signature of a chappa'i. Directly ahead. A planetary system." His first prime called ahead to him, before looking back to the readings. Ba'al turned around, his robe swishing around him as he made his way to the controls, taking over from his first prime. A viscious smile grew on his face, as he began to pick up the energy reading of one of the ancients miraculous power-crystals.

"Yes, you see, nothing bad here, just as I said. And at least one ancient power-crystal. An o- well, now... my luck is in today." Ba'al smugly engaged the Hat'ak's hyperdrive, jumping up and sprinting for the 6th planet of the system. This could make all of them pay...

"My lord?"

"Prepare the troops for landing. Tell them to be careful, we have a wonderous find we need to preserve." Ba'al looked out, smiling maliciously. Perfect. He could use this. He could use a great deal of what he had found. SG-1 was not going to stop him this time.

/Down in the bowels of the complex/

"I don't get it. None of these confounded, obstinate doors want to open for me, but the blasted contraptions will open for you, Stari. Why?" Toral was grumbling after 5 hours in the complex, having slowly worked deep into the bowels of the city. Strange things had been happening, doors not opening for Teal'c and himself, but for Stari. A couple of strange devices that had warped reality that they decided to leave alone...

"Oh, they probably don't like you. Twangy and all... The next thing I know you'll be going down to this 'deep south' we've been hearing about, and drink that 'moonshine' stuff while watching NASCAR. Ooooohhh..." Stari laughed back at the engineer, until a massive door opened beside him, revealing a vault-like room, with honeycombed walls filled with strange probe-like devices. "Well, they don't glow, but this looks very, very important. Want to grab one?"

"You go first. We have a spare for you." Toral looked at the demolitions/pilot man, rocking back on his heels just a bit, rubbing his nose to rid himself of the irritation of milleniums of dust. The city had been a tomb for the most part, only slightly uneasy from the stillness, but annoying.

"Indeed. If anything should, as O'neill would say 'headsucker freaky', you are the logical choice to go first. The ancients have many... unusual and difficult to understand devices that are dangerous in the wrong hands." Teal'c stood to one side of the door, looking around inside at the racks and racks of the devices. Something reminded him of a loaded missile bay, though he couldn't understand why... Such feelings in the service of the SGC had often given him excellent warning.

"Cowards." Stari confidently walked into the room, looking around and glancing to either side at the honeycomb racks. He walked up to one, jumping up and down in front of it, then making faces at it. "See, nothing wrong here." He leaned down on it, his hand pressing up against one of the devices. He thought about how funny it would be if one of them shot out between the two of them standing outside...

ZWOOOMP! The ancient drone lit up, shooting out in it's squidy glory and shooting past the startled pair and into the wall beyond with a massive smashing crunch, punching through and through the next wall, dissappearing out of sight. By that point, Teal'c and Toral had slammed up against the wall, shocked out of their minds. Then they realized that their cover would cover them from precisely shit if one of those things decided to come after them.

"SITH! What in corellian hells was that!?" Toral crouched down, combat instincts telling him to present as small a target as possible as he shouted wildly over his shoulder.

Stari, in the meantime, had hit the deck, finding his little joke to be not so amusing in real life.

/Orbit of P9X-483/

The drone had shot out of the far side of the city from the orbiting Khaar and Dell, but it was on a nice course for Ba'al. The confident system lord watched from his throne as his jaffa prepared for battle, unaware of the danger coming towards him, until his Hat'ak rocked from the impact, alarms ringing as several critical systems began to fail.

"My lord, we have been attacked! Ring transports and the hanger doors will not work! Our shield generator has exploded!"

Jaffa guards ran around, moving for controls or handholds as secondary explosions far below rocked the ship, the artificial gravity fluxuating rapidly from the detonation of the overpowered drone and the destruction it wreaked. Ba'al's smug look had rapidly turned into a towering rage as his stricken ship lurched a bit more, standing up against the fluxuating gravity.

"Incompetents! Repair the damage, move us to the other side of the planet to keep the defense systems from attacking us again!" Ba'al's eyes flashed with anger, his voice reverberating as he lost his normally strong composure in the heat of the moment.

"Yes, my lord!" The first prime activated the controls that fired the ship's engines, the drives engaging stutteringly, lurching the ship out of the direct line of fire of the complex below, looking drunken in it's movement as it's course was constantly corrected to account for off-axis thrust. With every lurch, he worried if his god was getting mad enough with him to kill him on the spot as the Goa'uld slipped on his hand device.

/back with the trio/

It had taken everyone a few moments to work up the courage to move from their spots, Teal'c the first to move, looking around the corner to find out exactly what had gone on. "Are you intact, JacobStari?"

"Yes, I'm fine. What in the blazes was that?" Stari slowly rolled back to a sitting position, before slowly sneaking away from the racks, not wanting too much to do them. He looked back, seeing the blackened honeycomb that had been fired, the one he had his hand on... he began backpedaling away, rolling around the doorframe out into the hall.

"Whatever the contraption was, it certainly is one hell of a missle. What did you do, Stari?" Toral glared over to the demolitions trooper, who just turned his head, the faceplate of his helmet obscuring his face. "Stari, answer me."

"Alright, so I just thought about how funny it would be to have one shoot off between the two of you, then put my hand down on it lightly, like you saw. Then, ZWOOOMP! and away it went." Stari gestured to help describe what had happened, skipping one hand off the other to demonstrate the drone flying off.

"Not very funny, was it? Teal'c, you want to grab one, maybe? I'm not sure that one will not go off the next time either of us grab one." The two troopers slowly backed away into the hall, crouched down, wondering if another one would go off as they slowly edged away. Nervousness didn't come often, but it twinged at them as Teal'c raised an eyebrow and looked towards them, a stotic look that could mean anything, before he started walking forward, heading over to the honeycomb rack.

Stari and Toral edged a little further back, unable to see what exactly was going on thanks to Teal'c standing before the rather heafty number of the micro-missiles. The sound of an object unlatching made them back away a bit more, until Teal'c turned around, taking off his rucksack to carefully place one of the deadly honeycombs in a bubblewrap roll that the group had started bringing, wrapping it up and putting it down in the bottom of the gigantic ruck. He looked around the room, seeing if anything else was in there worth grabbing. A small tablet was scooped up, as the trooper duo waved him out, getting worried with each passing moment Teal'c was in there. Ancient tech seemed to be a bit scarier than they had originally thought.

"Teal'c, you're not.. nervous about that thing on your back?" Toral slowly backed away from Teal'c as he came out, Stari standing beside him, eyeing the bulge at the bottom of the ruck warily. They weren't... entirely sure it was going to stay inert until they got back to the SGC. The troopers looked both ways down the halls. Only one or two encounters with the Jaffa had occured on the Eisley's watch, and though the warriors were clumsy, they still had their moments. Who knew what the disturbance might bring.

Teal'c looked both ways, wondering what the two were looking at, before raising an eyebrow. "The possibility that it may activate does concern me, SeargentToral, however I have pointed it down to ensure that it travels in a somewhat safe direction. That would be... the simplest solution to the problem." Teal'c straight-man answer had Stari choking back a laugh, knowing that was something neither of the two had considered. The Americans had been rubbing off on Teal'c.

The group began prowling down the halls, following a repeated set of signage, hoping that it would lead them somewhere. Usually a sign that repeated one set of symbols was either the fire exit, or a directional guide to an important room. If it led to an exit, well, at least they'd be able to give Daniel a few clues to the language.

The sounds of their steps echoing through the halls were starting to get unnerving, the materials of ancient floorings for some reason echoing loudly, even with their silence-sole boots. Of course, jaffa would be even louder on these floors, so they might miss the small trio's movements in the great loud clapping of angry, impotent marching.

Stari nodded vaugely in thought at that, thinking of Teal'c. Why had he changed sides, why was he working for Earth. He had even less in common than the crew of the Enterprise, less reasons to help. He had the best job in Apophis's armies, if what he had been told was true. Stari glanced over, wondering about the SG-1 member.

"Say, Teal'c. I read your brief awhile back, when we first joined up. That whole misson on Quinn's world, with that 'sploding varient of naquada. It wasn't exactly clear why you joined up with the SGC... I understand why you stayed working with them after your initial turning, bu-"

Teal'c furrowed his brow ever so slightly, Stari turning back straight ahead, getting the point. The deep grumble of annoyance from Teal'c was... rather daunting. He looked through a door that had auto-opened, looking around at bare crates, unadorned and unmarked, before turning straight ahead again, looking down to the junction in the corridor, nudging Toral right beside him, before pointing to the signage changing it's direction of pointing, heading off towards the center of the city.

"I do not often speak of it. Apophis was... a fool. I could stand the injustices no longer. Does this answer your questions, JacobStari?" Teal'cs deep and resonating voice was as stotic as ever, though the annoyance in the air was palpable. Teal'c slowly scanned about, a staff weapon lashed to his pack, a blaster pistol at his hip and P90 in hand. He liked to cover all the bases. "Was it not the same partially, for your turn to the Taur'i?"

Stari and Toral slowed a bit, looking at each other, then over to the black-BDU clad form of Teal'c. The insinuation wasn't a very pleasant one for them. The uncomfortable silence reigned for a little while longer, as they covered their movement into the other corridor,

"The Empire wasn't that bad..." Toral replied quietly, unconvinced. He didn't want to admit it, even in his own head, but the direction the Empire had been trying to take had been getting out of hand. 6 billion dead, for a failed strike at the rebels, and a fit of anger. Sad waste hardly began to describe the Alderann massacare.

"Then why did they build the Death Star, a weapon built only for destruction, chaos and terror? Why was it used in anger and malice?" Teal'c dark and roiling voice making the two back away again somewhat. Long ago people had determined Teal'c had about 4-6 facial poses. Puzzlement, Stotic, Anger, Vengance, All-out insane laughter, and extreme pain. At that moment, the two troopers got to see his Angry face. They quietly began planning their wills, not having been with Teal'c long enough to know he wasn't angry at them, but at their former Empire.

"Couldn't that be laid at the feet of one madman? Tarkin was the one to blame for the Death Star's genisis and use, if what we were told is correct." Stari winced as he said it, remembering that not all of the information coincided with that particular point of view. There were... rumors, dangerous rumors.

"Tarkin was not the creator of the idea of a Death Star. Your... emperor... thought of it long before your empire formed." Teal'c was in the mood to tear preceptions apart. He had moments of firebrand revolutionary, at least in jaffa format. Experience talking, as he grimly concentrated on his task at hand, trying to put an unpleasant thought of standing on the Death Star bridge watching it destroy Earth passed through.

"Wait... what?"

"Did you not know that your leader was in on the plan to create the death star from the beginning, since before the empire was founded?" Teal'c responded once again, stotic and having calmed his voice down into it's normal unemotional tone. The two stormtroopers were not exactly in the proper frame of mind to comprehend it. The crunching glass sound of shattered ideals was filling their heads.

Thoughts of how it couldn't be possible, how it had to be a lie rushed through their heads. Scenes of the old archival footage of the Jedi Temple issurrection passed through their minds, thoughts of BDZ's. Thoughts of one or two times having to fire into screaming masses of women and children, who supposedly were being herded as moving cover for suicide bombers. They had never found the truth in that matter either.

"No.. the empire is better than that. It's supposed to be the last hope for peace..."

"Peace through fear and destruction is worse than no peace at all, SeargentToral. A lesson I learned most painfully." Teal'c turned on his P90 mounted flashlight, as they entered into a stairwell, the lighting in it conspicuously dark. He frowned, and began to follow the dimly flickering signs, which pointed down the stairways.

They followed in silence, unwilling to press the issue.

/ Upstairs somewhere/

Jack distrustingly looked at the floor, after the mysterious rumbling down below, he wasn't totally convinced the city was safe, though he had to continue to chase Daniel, who was steadily climbing higher and higher into the upper city. The tarnished gold embossing on all the walls still had spots that shone brightly with gilt. Sam was ahead of him, her youth proving to be his undoing. How Daniel had managed to climb 50 flights of stairs was still beyond Jack.

Heck, even complaining about climbing 30 flights of stairs was beyond Jack at that moment, as he slowly took each step, looking up the seemingly endless staircase. Next time, he'd leash Daniel. He really was getting too old for the SGC way of life. The sound of Carter and Daniel arguing energeticly ahead in the passageway echoed down to him, as he stepped up onto the next landing, leaning over the balcony banister to look up. Ug, that was dizzying.

"Sam, we have to do something to record all of this!"

"Daniel, we're still limited by time and capacity! We're just supposed to grab a few things, take a quick look around, and come back. We're not a full-blown archeology team."

"We're supposed to find whatever it takes to win against Anubis! Sam, this could be the lost city we've been looking for!" Daniel's raised voice echoed down to Jack, as he shook his head and started climbing again. Why couldn't there be a transporter or something?

/Outside/

"Hey, LT. You see the hole in the ground up ahead?" Dell slowed the hovertank down, stopping by the edge of a large crater in the ground. The hole looked like something had exploded in the city, the bottom mysteriously blast-scarred. Khaar climbed up out of the gunner seat, hopping quietly down off the turret, then off the outboard, the soft dirt swallowing up the soles of his boots without a sound.

He trudged through the soft plains over to the hole, looking into it, and down into a corridor in the city. Something had blasted up and through, the outgoing force enough to create a spall effect, which left the ragged crater behind. Khaar looked up into the sky, following the straight path that the whatever it had been had taken, before looking back in. He cricked his back as he got up out of his squat, before trudging back to the tank, knocking his feet off on it's sides.

"Missile. Can't tell what kind. Looks like launched from a room in the city." Khaar swung himself back into his seat smoothly, as Dell began pulling bits and pieces out of various containers, the Eisely leader doing his best to keep from screaming in frustration. The only known handheld turbolaser in existance, getting put back together after having been smuggled out. Joy.

"Don't fire that off unless you have a Ha'tak to shook." Khaar settled back in, plugging the interphase for the systems back into his helmet's computer. Dell carefully put his weapon down into the seatwell next to him, grinning manically under his helmet.

"Right. You want to go hopping through the gates until we find one?" "No."

Dell shrugged, before whipping the hovertank around the crater, not too worried about the crater. The LHT was the class of tank chosen for preliminary SGC usage because of its advanced technology and intuitive repulsorlift tech. Aka, the onboard computers compensated for sudden terrain shifts, amongst other things.

Khaar slowly began scanning with the missile pods and main gun of the tank, twisting the turret about. He wasn't taking any more chances now that a possible danger had been spotted. Nothing like feeling a bit of indigestable worry to get the blood going. Finally, something to put his team to work. It had been boring, safely, mind-numbingly boring the past dozen missions or so on SG-1. Now, it seemed that the luck was back, and about to go into full swing.

The vacation was nice, but they were stormtroopers. They LIVED for wild, insane action. The only ones out of their compliment that had got a chance to get going again had been the Alpha Site personelle. Still no signs of whatever had been shot at, though. They had to come out eventually.

Here goa'uldy, goa'uldy, goa'uldy, the Eisleys only want to blow you to hell...

/Central Tower Control Room/

Jack trudged up the last few steps, thighs aching from the insanely tall staircase. He could still hear Daniel and Carter arguing, this time over something else, it sounded like whether or not they could pull a few control crystals without risking a systems meltdown. Jack shook his head, before trudging achingly into the massive room beyond the doorway.

The bright light of the late-afternoon sun streamed through stained glass windows, casting brilliant reflections across the golden floor, the room a riot of reflected colors and light. The strange stargate varient at the narrow end of the room shone brilliantly, crosslit by the starting to set sun. The green digital gate symbols were definately not standard on any gate that he knew of, and they didn't resemble the Milky Way symbols. He blinked for a little while, before realizing he had seen a gate with similar symboling and color scheme before.

The Asgard homeworld. It was an Ida gate, here, in the Milky Way. That was something new... Jack slowly looked about, taking in the upper balcony of the room, looking up at a strange hatch above. He slowly lowered his gaze, resting it on the bank of control stations at the far end of the room from the gate, watching Sam and Daniel gesturing wildly and arguing loudly.

"Daniel, we have no idea whether or not we can even touch those crystals!"

"CAMPERS! Calm down. Loot and study in equal proportions, we have no clue whether or not we'll get back." Jack silenced the two, knocking out his hat on his knee, before putting it back on his head and readjusting the bill yet again. "And this has to be the work of the little grey dudes, that gate is like the one on their homeworld."

"Sir?" "Say What, Jack?"

"The gate. It is the same as the one on the little grey dudes homeworld." Jack decided to play the ultra-simplistic attempt card, if that helped out. He headed over to the spiral staircase up to the control balcony, as Daniel and Carter began arguing over why that would be.

"Must have been a diplomatic station or something, Daniel. That would explain the other gate out there."

"Sam, why? The Ancients could dial out to the Asgard galaxy with normal gates, why make a new one?"

"Daniel, Carter, what happens if the Asgard galaxy doesn't have the same coordinate system?" Jack looked at the DHD console in the middle of the control center, his secretly not so dimwitter mind going over the facts. He could dimly remember some of the escapade to the Asgard homeworld, and he idly began pressing buttons. He wasn't too surprised by the lack of an engagement by the strange gate, but the fact that it began powering up for a wormhole was interesting. "Huh... the dump still has power..."

"Sir... wha- we haven't been able to get any reaction, how?" Carter came over, pressing at the console herself, only to find it still non-responsive to her.

"Must have to do with the whole headsucky bit. The same thing that makes them come after me must let me make the city go." Jack idly waved his hands over more consoles, seeing large screens light up and dodads come online. He slowly spun in place, watching as the room began to beep and come alive, a screen lighting up with what looked like a star chart. "I'll give 'em this, the ancients knew how to build a snazzy place."

"Well, I'm sure even they were capible of falling to pride. It's certainly looks like it's designed okay. What does this-" Daniel slowly reached in towards a large button, as his statement caught the attention of Jack and Carter.

"Bad spacemonkey! Don't touch anything!" Jack's shout jolted Daniel for a moment, before Jack ran over and got between him and the console. "We just got the place. Let's not invoke our luck before we have to." Jack looked at the console again, hoping that it wasn't anything important. The ancient script made it hard to be sure, though. The big button in the middle looked important.

"Let's just take this room one bit at a time, and nothing could go wrong. We're thousands of lightyears from the nearest system lord, and the only jaffa closer is Teal'c. There is nobody who could possibly come close, and the city is fi-" Fwhhoooommmmb... Jack blinked in the semi-dark room, the goldenish light playing sudden tricks with his eyes as he realized what he had said.

"Yes sir, you tempted Murphy." Carter clicked on her flashlight, playing it around the room, which had completely shut down again.

Their radios crackled, Toral hastily apologizing. "Sorry 'bout that folks. Don't worry, we'll put one of the crystal... thingies... back in in a jiffy." The slow re-activation of the lights, blinking on stutteringly was rather disturbing, as the trio upstairs looked at each other in worry.

"I swear that was not my fault." Jack wardingly held up his hands, P-90 clipped to his vest, as Carter ran to the window to look for Death Gliders.

"Jack... what was that about me taunting Murphy?"

"It's NOT MY FAULT!"

/rewind just a bit, ZPM room/

Teal'c appraisingly looked over the massive hole blown in what was once a door. Their signpost guide had led them to this semi-central point in the city, which was massively armored and re-enforced. When the door had refused to open for Stari, he had been annoyed. When it had refused to open for a shaped C-4 charge he had considered it an offense. When it refused to open for a fullerine laced block of Blastex, he considered it an affront to his honor and declared war.

24 pounds of Boomex and C-4, in alternating layers on the hinges, along with a central blast and duranium fragmentation particles, and a durasteel shaping sheath did the trick. Violently with great enthusiasm. They had hid in a side-passage 400 meters away. At 200 meters, the walls began to get scoarched. 50 meters, the blackened walls began to show heat blistering. The door to the room was embedded on the other side, scrape markings and small blast damages showing it's violent entry and removal.

"Perhaps 24 pounds of explosive was a few too many, JacobStari."

"You can never have enough 'splodies. There is no such thing as overkill." Stari stepped into the room, looking at the central pedastal that had just barely been missed by the huge door, looking around at the various screens and guages. "You know... I sorta get the feeling that this is either the reactor monitor room, or the central control room."

"Indeed. The defenses do indicate that this is a room of great importance. Let us take care that we do not cause damage..." Teal'c turned around from inspecting a console to see Stari bouncing two glowing crystals in his hands, starting to juggle them, as a third was slowly being raised up.

Then the lights went out. "JacobStari. Please put one back."

"Oops."

/just over the horizon/

Ba'al was most annoyed. But that was alright. He would have his revenge. He would have this city. Whatever fool had dared to damage his ship would find out what it felt like to have it fall on him. He watched as Death Gliders launched, his ship sputtering forward across the landscape. Oooh, yes, he was going to have quite a bit of fun when they got to the city.

"My lord, we will be at the city in approximately 30 minutes." The first prime turned around to his lord, who smiled, having recomposed himself over the past hour as they had come down around the planet, out of the guns of the city.

"Excellent. I have to commend your efforts to keep us out of the way of those cursed weapons. Just make sure that next time it doesn't hit us." Ba'al smiled, standing up and coming over to the window. The bare tip of the city could be seen, as he straightened his robes. "Prepare my personal equipment."

The Taur'i were inspiring, especially that strange one that he had scavenged that armor from. It had been most enlightening, though he would not say so openly to his subordinates. The materials were interesting, but his own material was better. His armor was a piece of beauty, and would prove to be the undoing of the troublesome Taur'i.

"Yes my lord."

Yes, they had given him the clues needed. This 'combined arms' that the Taur'i had developed was a most invaluable system, along with their various strategems and ideas. He had torn the thoughts out of Jack O'niell's mind, along with other plans from the Taur'i he had interrogated over the years.

His designers were being forced into a new direction, learning from the Taur'i way. They were dreadful annoyingly deadly meddlers, but they had changed the galaxy. It was only fair and thoughtful to his Jaffa to change with the Taur'i. Soon... very soon he would be the true ruler of the cosmos. This day would be the first test of his new plans for his Jaffa. Training had begun for their new weapons, and tactics were being developed after having looked at the encounters with the Taur'i.

Too bad for him, they had allies now.

"Aww, Ha'tak fall down, go boom"

/P9X-483/

The first sign of trouble was the small beep. Small little unassuming thing, ignored by SG-1 in their frantic quick runthrough of the city. Up in the control room, the local conditions map began to blink in a frame of red, as a symbol denoted itself coming down from the highlands nearby. A minute later, the city sensors picked up the hot charge in the Ha'taks main guns, and decided that was a very bad thing. It took approximately 5 seconds for the old gravitic-transform speakers to warm up, and begin the assault siren.

It took 3 seconds more for the minds of SG-1 to process the alarm, the strange warbling sound took a moment to register. It took another minute for their hearts to stop racing, especially those that had been through the early crisis's in the cold war. The sound of air raid sirens, even slightly alien ones, would always be chilling to one Jack O'Neill.

/Downstairs/

"What in the blazes is that alarm? Don't tell me we've done something to something important!" Toral looked about, the lighting changing ever so slightly with the alert. He mushed the stock of his Deecee into his shoulder pad, waiting.

"It appears to be an air raid siren, SeargentToral. Perhaps we should begin moving to an egress."

Teal'c remained stotic, gripping his staff weapon, waiting for O'Neill. He began to move faster, heading back along the path they had taken. "Col. O'Neill should call us soon."

"Teal'c, pack it up, the city's spooked, and I'd rather be out of here when whatever caused it shows up or happens." O'neill's voice squaked over the walkies, rather indignant at the interruption caused by the alert in the city. "Khaar, get the tank back to the entrance, we'll meet you there."

"I concur, O'Neill. I will move my team to the exit." Teal'c looked over his shoulder to Toral and Stari, who grumbled, then turned around to follow the jaffa. They were just starting to grow fond of looking around the old city.

The trio skidded around the corner, hearing a thunk of a security door engaging behind them, securing the mysterious crystal compartment they had recently left. "Rapid departure now!" Stari grabbed a block of Blastex from Toral's equipment webbing, boots screeching slightly as they ran down the hall, following their path back outside to safety. No-one wanted to be trapped in the old city.

The sound of things moving in darkened sections of corridor, of things shifting in the dark warehouses down below made them run faster. Whatever it was had the Ancient construct ready to do battle.

/Upstairs/

"Carter, chances on it being the Gould?" Jack slipped in a pile of dust as he ran down the stairs, before picking himself back up and running for downstairs. Daniel's protestations had only lasted for a few moments, before he gave it up and kept up with Jack and Carter. He winced every time they passed what looked like stain glass windows, wishing they had the time to take more documentation photos.

"Fairly good, sir. The MALP-droid didn't pick up any natural disaster indicators." Carter checked her scanner pack, frowning at a small reading. "I'm getting fluxuations in local gravity. Could either be an earthquake or an anti-grav system." She picked herself up off the archway she had propped herself on and jumped down a set of stairs to catch up with her CO.

"Well, I don't want to stay to find out!" Jack's boots squeaked as they tried to catch on the slick ancient flooring, dusty clouds rising up into the air from the running. Jack shined his flashlight down into the interior corridor, running for the exit. Occassional emergancy lights strobed red in the hallways, as they made for the exit.

"Jack, do we have a plan?" Daniel dashed to catch up, glad that all the years of being on SG-1 had gotten him in shape and ready for mad dashes. He stopped for a moment, looking down to what looked like a labratory, before wincing in annoyance and kept going.

"Get out, find out what's going on, and either deal with it or run away! The same plan we always have!" Jack jumped over a small step in the hall, wincing at the feel of his body protesting the extreme movements it was being put into.

"You'd think we would have a better plan!" Daniel shouted back up to Jack, arms pumping with both zats n hand as he ran to keep up with his two guardians.

"Well aware of it! If you come up with one, feel free to let me know!" Jack shouted back once more, as he ran through the way back once more, trying to remember ambush spots and chokepoints where they could fight off assaults in emergancies. "Carter, we need better weapons, no excuses now!"

"Yessir!"

/Khaar and Dell/

Khaar looked over the plain, watching the wind starting to shift and blow, the vegetation bending over from the strong wind. Backwash, was his assessment. "Ready your weapon. We've got trouble." He slid down into the commander seat fully, closing the hatch over himself.

Dell looked over to his rifle, before looking ahead, then down at the controls, putting the hovertank back into motion. As the vehicle pulled around the central tower of the building wating for both teams, the two came into view of the source of the wind. Ba'als Ha'tak hovered at the edge of the plain tenatively, as battalions of Jaffa marched towards them through the waist-high grasses, body armor that had most definately NOT been on the familiarization video.

"I'd definately call that a problem..." Dell strafed the tank back behind cover as the first rank locked out staffs and began volleying fire in their direction, plasma bolts just barely missing them and shooting across the plain, sheering tops of trees and beginning the start of a forest fire. Dell threw the hovertank into full throttle, turning around and gunning it for a better position. "I'll find cover, fire as we move?"

"Affirmitive." Khaar took the remote for the E-Web on the micro-turret, listening to the whine of power relays charging. The whine of repulsors built to a roar as Dell threw them into full power, jumping up on the anti-grav field onto a balcony just off the ground. A scream of scraping metal marked Dell's hard turn as the tank's repulsors overcompensated and dragged the left side into the decking.

"Sorry, hang on!" He pushed the tank up against the marble-tarnised wall, zigzagging with the contour of the inner towers and throtting back as they grew close to coming back out into the open. He flicked the safeties on the main guns, looking over to the missile launcher status lights. "All munitions green. Cannons hot, primaries ready for firing. Ready on mark."

"Prepare to fire for effect. Bring us around, 2 rounds down." Khaar watched the heat sensors mark down locations of Jaffa battalions charging the city. They didn't seem to understand that charging a tank was considered a trademarked bad idea.

A light touch to the starboard controls, and the hovertank drifted out nearly silently from behind cover, guns cycling up to power. The jaffa didn't even notice at first, continuing to charge and fire for it's last position. Dell flipped the firing safety covers that the SGC techs had put onto the firing studs for the main guns, before giving the Jaffa the typical imperial warcry of outgoing laser cannon shots.

FWAKOOM! The fireball rolled up into the air, Jaffa diving for cover from the sudden assault. Staff blasts thumped over the top of the tank as those farther away from the blast returned fire in the general direction of the SGC vehicle. Chunks of blasted metals clanged off the tank as bits and pieces of the ancient structure were blasted off the walls.

"Full magazine, starboard missile battery. Alpha spread." Khaar sent his own semi-random fire back out as he adjusted the remote sights for the weapon. Red shot through gold, some bolts explosively colliding in midair, others randomly deflecting off into the distance. Smoke rose over the city, the sunlight beginning to diffuse as a black cloud cast a twilight gloom onto the battlefield.

The tearing scream of 10 micro Ion-drives activating at once ripped through the air, the red-purple of proton torps streaking out, going ballistic and creating a rippling fireball across the forward flank of the jaffa army advance. They turned and ran, heading for the nearby towers. Enough of that, they'd let the Ha'tak take care of the the Taur'i monster. The warning alert of the emergancy shield klaxons blared in the two's ears as a low powered shot from the Ha'tak blew apart the balcony the hovercraft had been hovering over, sending it bouncing into the wall before tumbling to the ground, repulsors just barely catching it in a proper upright position.

"And THAT is why imperial engineering rocks! Permission to return fire?"

"Granted."

The Jaffa turned a minute later, as a lone figure with an absolutely massive rifle came screaming around the corner, before putting it to his shoulder and aiming up at the Ha'tak. The peal of outgoing turbolaser fire rang out again, as he was bodily slammed into the ground by the kickback. Ba'als Ha'tak got to taste plasma as a reminder not to screw around with SG-1.

/Mid-levels/

"You hear that?"

"Staff wea-" Carter's response was cut off by a warcry and staff FWUMP! that rocked over her head. P90s opened up on full auto as Jack and Carter took cover to return fire. Daniel dived into a nearby connecting corridor, knowing to just get the heck out of the way during a firefight. A surge of Ba'als warriors, looking to get away from the hovertank outside that had begun to open fire on the troops again now ran into blaster-pistol and P90 fire.

Jack popped up for a moment, picking a jaffa that looked to be organizing the assault, and proceeded to unload 10 rounds center-mass, wincing at how many it took to punch through the new, more advanced-looking solid breastplate. It almost looked like a golden section of stormtrooper armor. As the hapless squad leader started to get up, a trio of red tracers from Daniel's borrowed blaster-pistol slammed into the pitted section, slamming him back over, char smouldering as jaffa proceeded to pour over him for the assault.

"New armor, Carter. This is NOT good." Jack ducked back down into the alcove he was using as cover. He ducked back around firing at another, watching him stagger back, but take the hit. Carter's additional fire threw him to the ground twitching as one of her rounds punched through and proceeded to liquify his organs trying to find a way out of his armor.

Daniel's blaster rang out for a few semi-aimed shots, a lucky one catching a jaffa in his tattoo, the unlucky sap floping to the ground with a wet thump. The electronic buzz of Daniel's zat firing in as rapid of a procession as he could muster charged the air, a few jaffa falling to it before counter-fire forced him back. "I think we need a diffrent path, Jack!"

"You THINK? Tell me something I don't know, Daniel!" Jack leaned around his corridor, emptying out his magazine with a full-auto burst, watching the onrushing tide come at them. The sound of a three-round burst from a deecee blaster rifle accompanied the sight of a jaffa getting nailed, boots meeting head on the way down.

Jack looked over to Carter, who looked at him over slapping a new magazine in, before seeing a smoke trail of a launched grenade pass between them, and the bloody explosion that followed as the fragmentation ripped several jaffa apart. They looked back with surprise along their path to see Toral and Stari kneeling in the middle of the corridor, belting out punishment. A maelstrome of blaster fire countered the new staff blasts, as the two advanced, Teal'c hovering over Daniel protectively, returning fire with two-handed blaster-pistol fire.

"Now you didn't see THAT in the movies!" Jack pumped his fist, feeling the tide turning back into their favor as Stari climbed into the alcove with him, burst-firing, and them ducking back in with Jack. He proceeded to reach across the stormtroopers chest as the clone reached for his spare coolant pack, grabbing a random grenade, and finding the safety stud that had been shown in the familiarization vid. He leaned over, tossing the grenade down the hall, before ducking back in.

The deep bass of the grenade detonating concussively shook the green-tarnished halls, blackened char skittering across the floor. Stari looked over to O'neill, his rifle electronically whining as it powered back up to full. "Cover me while I move."

Jack gave him a short look, before the clone jumped out into the hall, firing rapid bursts down into the unorganized crowd of attacking jaffa. Jack leaned around beside him, going on full-auto suppressive fire. Haze filled the air, flesh smouldering on the jaffa side of the hall, Stari and Toral advancing forward on the crowd of beserker-attacking jaffa, calmly mowing them down, before ducking back into alcoves ahead.

"Carter!" "SIR!" "When they call for it, we go full-auto, and try and catch up!" "Yessir!" "Danny, Teal'c, same thing, try not to shoot me!"

The sight of the stormtrooper duo stepping back out into the halls was his only cue, and he took it. "MOVE!"

/Outside/

The arrival of the death gliders had shifted Khaar's attention skyward, E-WEB fire rising up into the sky as he attempted to hit fast-moving targets with the anti-infanty cannon. Didn't help the jaffa on the ground, who now were cowering flat to avoid being splattered on the front prongs of the hovertank. Dell had discovered some... unorthodox tactics that online and local players on the SGC Halo circuit had developed, and put the methodology to use. No matter what, getting sideswiped with a 50 ton MBT tended to ruin your day.

FWAKOOOM! The explosive crack of detonating laser bolts thumped through the air, thinning the thousands of jaffa further as the imperial rampage continued. The situation was bad, plane's lost both wings type bad. The E-Web was starting to overheat, after having claimed 10 gliders overhead. Both missile packs were gone, the currently difficult to reproduce proton warheads wasted on a second jaffa battalion, thinning a tenth of the of the assault in an orgy of destruction.

The two nearly cracked their heads on the forward instruments of their positions as the tank took a drop the wrong way, repulsors reacting hard and causing the craft to bounce heavily. They would wait and fight until they died, if that is what it would take to make sure that SG-1 extracted. It was what they did, part of their creed. A family bond that was far more than Earth armed forces usually developed.

The once verdant field was now a torn battlefield, great swaths of dirt blown up, craters from the tank's main guns smoking. Carnage, horrible carnage was the order for the day. The screams of the wounded and dying were almost swallowed up by the sounds of the warcries of the living, the thunder of the intense fire and counterfire. Another day in the life for the two. A scene that had repeated itself far too often for the two troopers. Since the last raspy gasps of the confederacy, to the pirate actions of the dark times, to the rebellion's rise. A hundred times they each had been in the thick, there would be a hundred more. Mechanical, now. Point and shoot, point and shoot.

"Sierra-Golf One-Charley, This is Sierra-Golf One-Alpha, situation grim, we need you to evac now."

The radio crackled for a moment, before clearing, the sound of the firefight staticly emerging behind O'neills voice. "The is Sierra-Golf One-Charley, we're on our way. Heavy resistance, over." The sound of a jaffa scream trailing off into a gurgle sounded just after, a gunshot cut-off as Jack clicked off.

"Main gun control transfer." Khaar pulled out the commander seat cannon controls, looking up through the upper sighting slits. A wet thump, and blood specks splattered on the slit as the upper half of an unlucky jaffa bounced onto the upper section of the tank.

"Control transferred. Get them out of the skies." Dell was starting to worry about the shield generators, a somewhat sick whine starting to develop in them as yet another deep thwoom of death glider staff cannons smashed against the tank, bucking it yet again. Time was running out.

The mechanical whine of the actuators for the main cannons engaging vibrated the seats of tank, the cannons moving upwards and tracking as of yet unknowing death gliders. Where the E-Web was a single-man AAA battery, the twin main cannons were the equivilent of putting a 40mm flak gun in their way. The imperial battlecry sounded out again, and the glancing blow sent a death glider spiraling out of control, fireball spilling out across the ground.

A good start.

/Inside/

Daniel ran to catch up with the team, the combatants of SG-1 leapfrogging up, pushing the jaffa back with every , while he kept behind somewhat, out of the line of fire. A few snapshots had been taken of the fighting from his vantage point, watching the two stormtroopers acting as the point for SG-1's long-awaited all-out ass-kicking of jaffa legions.

He came around the corner, watching Carter butt-stoke a jaffa before double-tapping him in the face, before turning to the wall, seeing a massive memorial mural. He jumped back, backpedaling across the corridor to the opposite wall, and starting to take pictures. It was unprecidented, even for the ancients. There was no way that he couldn't take the chance.

Snap-snap-snap-SNAPSNAP-snap-snap-sn

"DANIEL!" Jack grabbed ahold of the shoulderband of his tactical vest, dragging him towards the exit that had been cleared out, the archeologist trying to dig in his heels, boots squeaking on unbroken floor, and stumbling as they hit a small blast crater.

"Jaaack! We need to at least document this!" "Need to leave, NOW!" "Jack, it's the whole reason the city's here, the place is a-" "DANIEL, COME ON!"

Jack bodily grabbed Daniel, pushing him ahead of himself, trying to get him out. Daniel gave up, and ran for the exit, blaster pistol in hand. Jack followed, running out the door onto the balcony beyond, looking both ways, and grabbing Daniel, pushing him left. The archeologist ran his camcorder along the battlefield, now looking about and getting exactly what the complex was, part of what had happened.

The hovertank was firing up into the sky, the main cannons firing slowly, shards of broken death-gliders scattered across the battlefield. The verdant jungle was ablaze, the sky now a twilight smokey mess. 20 minutes of intense fighting had turned the plain into a destroyed mess reminicient of a WWI no man's land, Ba'als Ha'tak semi-crashed and smoking, a blast scar across its surface. A nearby blast sprayed dirt up the side of the city, Daniel holding up his arm to ward off the hot particles.

FWHOOM! The sound of tearing metal screached through the air as a death glider crashed into the ground levels of the city, fireball rising up. The caphacony of blasts, blaster fire crossing staff blasts, bullets ricocheting and echoing, dying death gliders continuing to cook off and detonate small naquada pockets, the oxygen detonating occasionally from some with explosive concussions.

Ahead, Teal'c and Carter had climbed onto the tank, taking cover behind the supplies as Stari and Toral crouched on the catwalk just above it, using the railing to cover themselves as they held off jaffa.

"Move, Daniel! Gogogo!" Jack started sprinting, feeling his age as his joints began to creak slightly, knees hurting as he was missed by staff fire. Daniel sprinted to catch up, heaving as he pushed his body to the limit. Almost there, the wide-open catwalk remaining, fire all about them. In future days, Jack would look back on that mad dash, wondering how in the heck he managed to avoid the massed fire of thousands of jaffa, as inaccurate as they were, still one of them had to have gotten lucky. Somehow, though, they reached the blasted end of the catwalk, taking flying leaps across open space onto the tank, crashing into it with wild abandon, Stari and Toral jumping on slightly more expertly, catching themselves with their weapons.

"Dell, MOVE! Get us to the gate!" O'neill flopped onto his back, grabbing the combat strap as he went. The clone had hopped out, though, sitting himself into a topside gunner seat as Stari jumped in, not even bothering to properly seat himself before gunning it. Centrifigal force tugged at everyone hanging on, as the tank whipped around, exausts blazing as Stari revved it to a standing start.

A swarm of death-gliders swooped in, blasts falling all around them as the insanely piloted tank whipped around and through the city, quickly outpacing it's foot-bound land pursuers, leaving the far more dangerous airal assault all over them.

The pursuit back to the gate would become one of the single most-watched clips of gun-camera footage in the SGC. A harrowing journey that streched for 5 miles of jungle, one for the record books. For new recruits, the sounds of the two halves of SG-1 finally merging into one working whole, the anger and frustration of all of them, as they dodged blasts, cries for help as they were nearly knocked off the tank time and time again, the sight of O'neill and Dell working together to hold the clone's turbo-sniper rifle in place, shooting a glider from the skies. A hundred exploits of valour, a hundred times of death being told to fuck the heck off.

A baptism of fire. In later years, even as the compliment of SG-1 changed about, old faces leaving, new ones coming, the departure of Daniel and Jack, the deaths of others in the line of fire, the remaining veterans would look back to that day and tell of how SG-1 as it was meant to be was truely forged. Look back on that day, with bitter memories of having lost a treasure, for a time, and not so bitter ones of the thoughts of Ba'als face, once they found out what exactly those crystals were, and utter thankful joyous celebration when the fruits of their labor paid off. Anubis, when he came, found the surprise a little less welcoming, however.

/Meanwhile.../

"So. You failed at capturing SG-1? ... Forgivable, if what I have been shown is true." Ba'al watched again, the sight of the strange new vehicle of SG-1. There could be use for something such as that. He would have to make one for himself, once he had studied how it had been used. Another of their infernal inventions, to be sure. But one that looked like it could be of immense use, especially in cowing some of the more difficult worlds. At the least, it looked like it could just squash a Kull Warrior, much like it had many of his own.

But, the real prize was the ancient's cityship. One had been discovered, once. Now it was bits of crushed rubble in orbit of a forsaken planet on the outer rim. The real prize would be the ancient power crystals that were in the bowels of the cityship. Those would allow him to be invincible to Anubis. The usurper would find himself banished to the void from hence he had come crawling from once again.

Only a handful of Goa'uld had the genes needed to allow them to operate the city fully, all of them remaining his mortal enemies. Luckily, the outpost he had discovered in his territory, devoid of power and weapons, allowed him to develop a partial bypass. He would have partial control over the city VERY shortly.

He stood up, the 10 Jaffa assigned to escort him through the potentially booby trapped city snapping to attention, their new armor rattling. Ba'al frowned slightly, knowing that he still had a bit to go yet, judging from how the new additions to SG-1 had ran through his jaffa much as jaffa would run through unarmed peasants.

"Come, we have a new capitol to set up. There is work to be done, so that the Taur'i will soon learn proper humility." Ba'al began to smile, the city continuing to keep his mood from souring, despite the damage done to it by the battle. A little bit of work would restore it nicely. His first prime bowed to his god, before marching in lock-step with the rest of the escorts, who had formed up around him.

Outside in the corridor, jaffa and slave work crews rushed back and forth, commiting repairs to the ship, nanite swarms mending gashes in walls where conduits had blown, or where the crash landing of the ship had buckled the corridor. Ba'al looked out upon it with the distain of an owner watching people repairing his property, when it should never have been busted in the first place. He could always replace the ship, though. It was the power crystals that he really, really wanted. Everything else wasn't worth his time.

With a flourish of his robe, he stepped up onto the ring platform, fiddling with his controls, setting it to lock onto the rings within the city. Four jaffa surrounded him, before they vanished in beam of the rings, zapping across the small gulf between the central tower and the Ha'tak, to beam into one of the teleport closets aboard.

Ba'al let the Jaffa open the door for him, stepping out into the control room of the city. He smiled, spreading his arms wide as he laid claim to his new domain. His glor-

Fwooommmb... The flickering of the lights, followed by the complete blackout of the city was not what he had in mind for a grand entrance. Dammed Taur'i...