Stargate Universe: Continuation
Episode Two: Bait and Switch
Part Two: Under Fire
Everyone was made aware of the plan they moved out to find the Armory. Just as Eli said, it was nearby, and luckily no one seemed to be around. Several cases of their clothes were scattered around, and everyone found and pulled out their own before dressing.
Scott and the other military personnel quickly found alien weapons and showed them to Rush who test fired one.
"Triggers a bit far, but are they safe to use?" Scott asked.
"It should be fine. It seems to work by creating an energy sphere and firing it at high velocity at the target. This switch here controls whether the shot is lethal, or if the shot is charged with electricity causing a stunning effect." Rush said.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm setting mine to kill." Greer said.
Everyone in the military was eventually outfitted, and the more responsible civilians in the group heading for the docking bay were given pistols and basic instruction on how to use them. The bulk of the military was given to the civilian group, but they were given a five-man team to make a run on the fire-control room. It consisted of Corporal Becker, Lieutenants Scott and James, and two Captains that Eli wasn't familiar with.
Eli quickly gave directions to each group's destination before rejoining his own.
"Okay everyone, keep it tight and stay with me. This is going to be a quick in and out. We don't know how fast these things will go down even against their own weapons so don't think you can fire and forget." Scott said. "We move out after everyone else has left."
"Greer's already gone." Eli said.
"What can you say, he has attitude." Brody said. Neither Volker nor Rush said anything in response, but Eli could notice that Volker's face every time Greer was mentioned. As if there was some kind of bad memory associated with the name. They went and sat around as they waited for the main group to leave, and Eli went to Volker's side.
"Is there something wrong Volker?" Eli asked.
"No… no I'm fine." He replied.
"I know you're lying. We've been working together long enough for me to tell. Now come on, tell me what's wrong."
Volker remained silent for a moment.
"It's… it's Doctor Park." Volker said.
"What about her? TJ said the chances of her regaining her sight are still good you know." Eli replied.
"That's not it." Volker said. He rested his chin on his fists.
"Wait a second; I think I remember Chloe mentioning something about her thinking that you liked her." Eli said. "Were they true after all?"
"Yea, they were… okay?" Volker said aggressively before standing up.
"Well, that's a good thing, why are you angry about it?" Eli asked. "I mean, I know I'm not the best person to talk to about that sort of stuff. But I'm here, and I'll offer what advice I can."
"It's Greer. He likes her to…" Volker said. "I haven't seen anything concrete saying their together you know, but I've seen it get darn close. They hooked up in Novus vids to. Rush… he said I was the good friend type, the one with the shoulder to cry on. I don't want to be that type."
"Why haven't you told her how you feel?" Eli asked.
"I went and I tried to tell her. But Greer was there and everything got really complicated." Volker said.
"You gave up." Eli said.
"Yea…"
Eli stood up and stood next to him.
"Well let me tell you that I've made the same mistake. I waited too long, and I let an opportunity slip out of my grasp…" He said. "Maybe there will be someone else later down the line, but you can't always count on that."
"You mean Chloe don't you?" Volker said. "When we first got here, I saw how you looked at her. But you waited too long and Scott got to her."
"Yea, I did like Chloe. I… actually think I still do. It also doesn't help when your girlfriend is a computer." Eli said. "Anyways, this isn't about me, it's about you. You need to take the chance. You need to tell her how you feel before it's too late. Even if it doesn't work, at least you know you tried."
"Thanks Eli, I'll remember that." Volker said. He smiled.
"Okay, we're ready to move out everyone. Like I said, keep it tight." Scott said. They all grouped up and stepped out of the Armory. The civilian group was already far away. They went the other way and cut through the pod hall. They walked down it for several minutes in complete silence.
Eventually they saw two of the serpentine species that Eli saw in the program ahead.
"This place is to exposed, fire!" Scott said. They raised their weapons and opened fire on the two ahead. They were pretty far ahead, and the shots flew wide allowing them to return fire. They used the minimal cover along the sides of the walls where the pods extended from the walls. The guards were obviously better trained in the use of the weapons then they were and were able to pin them down. "James, throw a grenade."
Lieutenant James grabbed a grenade from her hip and pulled the clip before throwing it at the Aliens. They actually examined the thing before it blew up in their faces and sent them flying.
"If they haven't already signaled an alert because of that, we're lucky." Scott said. Suddenly, his radio came to life.
"This is Colonel Young." He said in Eli's voice. There were the sounds of energy weapons being fired in the background. "We're under heavy fire engaging a group of alien guards in the server room. We're fine for now, there's good cover, but it may not be that way for long."
"This is Scott, keep us updated on your status. We just engaged two enemy guards ourselves. What's your status Greer?" Scott replied.
"This is Greer; I'm shutting my radio off for now. I'm about to enter a heavily occupied area, luckily their distracted because of the escape. I'll give you an update when I've achieved my objective. Greer out."
"This is Scott, copy that." Scott said.
"This is Young, copy that." Young said. "Scott, we should be keeping the guards too busy to focus on you and Greer, just keep moving and tell us when those weapons are offline."
"Yes sir, Scott out." He said. "Okay people, you heard the man, keep it moving. Eli, how long before we get out of this hallway?"
"Not long, there will be a turn in about two-hundred yards that should take us to a lift we can use to get the floor that Fire Control is on." He replied.
"Sounds good." Scott replied.
They proceeded along the hallway and took the turn where Eli said it would be. They encountered minimal engagement along the way; just a few guards that they managed to take out without incident, and proceeded through the dark hallways of the ship. When they could, they hid while enemy guards ran past them.
After plenty of moving, they finally managed to reach the lift.
"It's locked down." Eli said.
"Well I think we can all see that." Rush said.
"I was pointing it out to Scott." Eli replied.
"What, you think because you have big muscles now you can sass me?" Rush replied agitatedly.
"Enough! Just get it up and running." Scott replied.
"This is going to take a few minutes." Rush said. "Eli, pop that panel over there while I get this one then we'll examine them and switch places recording any similarities."
"Good idea, the controls for the lift are locked out so that's pretty much the only way." Eli said.
"Even then though, the wiring is completely different from anything we've seen. They don't wire like Humans and they don't wire like Ancients, we'll need a virtual interface we can use to get in." Brody said.
"Well he's the engineer; does anyone have a Kino remote?" Rush asked. They all shook their heads. "Bloody perfect."
"Hey, wait a second, I took one with me." Lieutenant James said handing it to him. "I forgot to put it down. Wouldn't it have been damaged when we went into stasis?"
"Unfortunately, yes, it won't turn on." Rush replied. He threw it to Brody. "Fix it while I and Eli try and guess which wires to cut."
"How long is this going to take?" Scott said.
"I don't know." Eli replied. "It could take hours."
"We don't have that long." Scott said.
"I know, just give us a half-an-hour at most." Eli answered.
"Okay everyone, looks like we're going to be sitting her awhile. Everyone spread out and take defensive positions. Call out any targets you see and wait for my permission to fire." Scott said.
Elsewhere…
Greer slowly slipped by behind a large group of aliens as he ran through the route again in his mind. The way he was supposed to take was blocked off, and Eli hadn't given him any alternative routes. Knowing that he was going to have to go another way though, he slipped into another hallway and took a path around.
He was lucky, and got back onto the path that Eli had given him before silently moving forward more. He pressed on as much as he could, but the endlessly repetitive looking halls of the ship weren't helping. Still, he eventually found a window and looked out to see Destiny floating below the ship and above a planet that reminded him of Earth.
Still, he didn't care much and continued to move.
Elsewhere…
Young and the other people within the group pressed forward. The bulk of the group remained a room behind as they fought forward towards the docking area. In this body, Young was nowhere near as fast as before. He was sweating and exhausted already but kept the alien gun mounted to his shoulder and returned fire when there were breaks.
One of his personnel threw him a canteen of water which his happily drunk.
"Not liking that body sir?" He asked.
"Not one bit Corporal." He replied.
Back with Eli…
"Ha, got it." Brody said. He had gotten the Kino remote working just as Eli and Rush finished cutting all the wires.
"Throw it to me." Rush said. Brody threw him the remote and he ran one of the wires into a port that was configured to decipher any kind of digital signals. The first few wires were for electricity, but he eventually keyed into a data stream and managed to hack the engine on this side of the elevator and unlock it to access from the controls. "Okay, I've got this side. Eli, come over here and work these wires back together while I get the engine on your side to cooperate."
"Got it." Eli said as they switched sides. Volker stood off to the side looking as if he felt left out.
A few guards had passed by since they began twenty minutes ago. But Scott and team had either managed to avoid their attention or kill them.
"Wait, do you hear that?" Corporal Becker said. Eli was tapping together wires and the sound was damping whatever he heard out.
"Eli, stop that for a second." Scott said. He complied and the sparking sounds stopped. They suddenly heard thumps. "Oh crap, that's footsteps. Hurry up back there! Someone's coming!"
As he said this, a large wave of enemy troops rounded the corner.
"Fire at will!" Scott said. They started firing into the midst of the crowd of enemy soldiers forcing them to take cover.
"There's too many of them sir! We're going to get overrun!" Lieutenant James said. Suddenly, one of the two captains was hit by returning fire and he yelled as he was shocked.
"Becker, grab Captain Langley and drag him onto the elevator." Scott yelled over the firing of weapons.
"Looks like their trying to capture us alive sir!" James said. Suddenly, she was hit and collapsed in a heap. Scott ran over and dragged her onto the elevator firing with one hand. Volker was hit with a stray shot as he tried to stay down.
"We just need a few more seconds!" Eli said working together the wires as fast as he could. Finally, he finished. "I'm done, how are you doing Rush?"
"Engines cooperating, just putting back together the wires." Rush said. "Give me one minute and we can go."
"You have thirty seconds." Scott said. Eli grabbed one of the guns from the downed Airmen and mounted it against his shoulder. He found it rather easy to do with Young's arms. He started firing and taking down one after the other. "Wow Eli, you're a natural."
"Kind of helps not to be in your own body!" He responded.
"Done!" Rush yelled. He ran to the panel and keyed in the floor they needed to go to. Suddenly, the engines on the elevator made a loud noise and it shot upwards. They were dragged down to their knees with the force before getting used to it and standing back up.
"Good work everyone…" Scott said.
"What about everyone they knocked out?" Eli asked.
"We're going to have to leave us here; they'll just slow us down." Rush said.
"We can't leave them, they'll be recaptured!" Eli replied.
"Then we leave the last two Airmen besides Lieutenant Scott here. You are pretty good with that gun, you and Scott should be able to handle anyone that comes after us and we can come back for them later." Rush said.
"Rush is right, and that's as good as any." Scott said. He activated his radio. "This is Scott; we're headed to the floor with the Fire Control room now. What's your status?"
"This is Young; we have a few men down. Luckily, their trying to capture us alive and they've only been stunned. We're only a few rooms away from the docking bay." Young replied.
"Okay, that's all good. Scott out." Scott said. "We're going to need to be fast here. They may need to take off as soon as they get on-board a vessel. We need the guns down before then."
"Yes sir." Eli said.
"Wow, it is incredibly disconcerting to hear that from my Commanding Officer's mouth." Scott said.
"Well, if you like, drop and give me twenty." Eli said grinning.
"If you like, you can take this twenty…" Scott said handing him a twenty dollar bill. "…and shove it up your ass."