A/N: Quite sorry for the long delay, Holidays were just a little too fun to sit down and write, not that you would have wanted to read my writing at that point ^_^ Sealurk has also been quite busy hibernating with Assassin's Creed 2 and toxic levels of chocolate along with the holidays:P Thankfully we both decided that it should go up BEFORE 2010 :P

Hope you enjoy!

"Someone's been doing some shopping."

Sam turned and smiled at the face staring at her. "Not me, the Air Force. Experimental armor for our teams that deal with industrial societies. It's actually quite…"

Interrupting her, Jack said. "…Scaly."

Sam snorted softly. "It is called DragonSkin."

Jack admired the form fitting ceramic armor and sighed. "These are those new Naquadah armor plates right?"

Sam could see that Jack was dancing around the real issue. She knew he was worried about this operation and couldn't put it into words. He always did this, laterally worry. "Yeah, Area 51 contracted some of DragonSkin's people and made their own version." She shifted in the flexible armor. "It's heavier than I like, but it's the best we've got and we're gonna need it."

Jack looked around the armory. He hadn't seen so many weapons in years. One weapon in particular had a mean look to it. "Is that what I think it is?"

Sam turned her head and nodded. "The SCAR? Yeah, just got em. P90s are still standard but any offensive action we've got heavier weapons. In fact, it's been awhile since we've used these but for a major operation like this…" She had to be careful, Jack had full authority to hold her back on this mission and it wasn't what she wanted. Revenge was somewhere deep in the back of her mind, but Sam didn't want protection, she didn't want someone to hold her back when the fighting got rough.

Jack was able to read it right away, and he lifted the rifle out of the case and examined it. "You gonna use this?"

With those words, Jack had just assured her that she was going down there. Going on the front-lines as was her job. "Yeah… little heavier but we need good armor penetration."

Jack only listened peripherally to it. He'd done what he came here to do and Sam knew he was going to send her, but he still cared.

"All teams report ready, sir. We'll be at out destination in four minutes. Cloak ready to engage."

Jack smirked, and looked to Daniel next to him. "Engage, you say?"

Marks winced out of sight, but nodded nonetheless. "Yes.. sir."

Daniel rolled his eyes and pulled up his station. "Life support, gravity, and power systems are all up to spec." Typically he wouldn't be doing this, but with a shortage of officers who'd been trained to use these systems, Daniel found himself drafted.

Behind them both, Vala stood working next to a Captain who manned the sensor and navigation station. "We're ready here." She poked the nervous looking Captain next to her in the ribs. "Right?"

Captain Alans considered doing something flirty back, but recalling all the stories he'd heard over the weeks and months, decided to keep his dignity intact. "Uhhh right, all systems at nominal, General."

Jack watched the edges of Daniel's lips creep up. He'd heard that SG1 were the only ones capable of reining Vala in and it seemed that it was true. "Alrighty then." He tapped the communication pad on the armrest. "Mitchell, you and your boys ready?"

The intercom hissed with static, but soon Cam's muffled voice came through. "Ready sir, Titans ready to kick the tires and light the fires."

Daniel muttered. "Titans?"

Jack smiled momentarily. "The DarkStar Titans. It's the wing name."

Nodding, Daniel finally understood. "Oh… fitting. now that 'stronger than the gods' thing Cam said to the pilots makes sense."

Jack snorted softly. "We pick those names for a reason Daniel."

There wasn't much more time for words though, as the blue of hyperspace flashed shut and on the screen, a pale blue green planet appeared. Major Marks swiveled in his chair and nodded. "We've arrived General, cloaking system activated."

Jack tented his fingers and bowed his head. "Excellent…"

Daniel just rolled his eyes. In a few moments, the 'battle' would begin and this whole mess could start to get sorted out.

"I'd ask if you were nervous, but even if you were, I doubt I'd ever find out."

Teal'c nodded once and stood stoically holding the drum clip loaded SCAR. "Anxiety is normal, without it, risk would be immeasurable."

Sam screwed her face in thought. "Daniel was right, you are deep.."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and gave a hint of a smile. "Indeed."

Around them, the three elite SGC teams prepared with their marine escorts. Sam watched as Reynolds nodded to Major Teldy, who after a quick nod moved off to take control of her own team for the duration of this mission.

Sam knew this was going to be a very hard mission. Even with their specialized weapons, there was no telling exactly what they'd be facing. The Goa'uld they'd found on Earth with the Kull armor made things tricky here, but that's why each team also had a heavy weapons package. Sam herself had opted to go for a shotgun attachment given that she'd be entering the castle building.

With any luck, the whole battle would last only 30 minutes, maybe even less if Cam and his wing could give them good cover and take out any heavy weapons.

Sam took one last look at the maps the Tok'ra scouts had provided and silently prayed.

"Coming up on the planet sir…" Major Marks stiffened in his chair.

Before Jack could say anything though, Vala interrupted. "There's a problem, the planet is surrounded by a large amount of particulate matter. Looks like the remnants of a moon."

Jack turned and furrowed his brow to Vala. "…All I understood was matter… so what does it matter?"

Major Marks decided to make it clear. "They'll be able to see us sir. The cloak bends light around us, not matter. They'll know something's up here if they're scanning."

That didn't make sense to Daniel. "Then how did the Tok'ra get information without getting found out?"

Jack already knew, and this mission had already hit a snag. "Small ship. We're a lot bigger." Internally he was cursing a blue streak. This meant that their element of surprise would be cut down. "Major Marks. Signal Earth. Have them dial the planet to hold em here."

Major Marks didn't hesitate and spun in his chair. "Yes, Sir." Inputting the information, The Major nodded. "Subspace burst transmission sent sir. Estimated four minutes for incoming wormhole, we'll be able to detect it.

Jack nodded and kept his poise. Tapping the controls, he keyed in the frequency for the teams. "This is General O'Neill, Colonel Reynolds please come in."

A moment passed, and Reynolds' voice came through the speaker. "Reynolds here. Ready for beam down sir."

Jack clenched his jaw for a moment, Snags were things that weren't expected. Odyssey was supposed to have remained stealthed until the last minute. Now it was going to be a fight right from the start. "Problem, we can't get close enough to the planet to beam you down without them potentially seeing us. The firebase idea is more than likely a no-go." Jack took a second to think, and then looked to Daniel. "Can you put a map of the planet on screen?"

Daniel looked confused for a second, but then nodded as he got to work and Reynolds replied. "Copy that.. order sir?"

Jack was torn as he surveyed the map on screen, a part of him wanted to order a full orbital barrage despite the order to capture as many as possible, another part wanted to wait, and yet another wanted to call the whole thing off. Nevertheless, one part, the part that gave him the strength to push forward said… "Reynolds, Do you have a map of the area there?"

"Yes, sir."

Jack resisted the gulp, and saw the tactical situation with logic. "We're going to put you down outside the castle near some ruins. The firebase idea is scrapped, we'll try and take out their defenses from up here."

A moment of hesitation, and Jack knew that every soldier was preparing themselves for combat. "Yes sir."

Cam settled in his seat and awaited the order to launch. As soon as the team was beamed down, Odyssey would open up with its railguns from orbit taking out the castle's larger defensive structures. The images and scans the Tok'ra had sent showed a heavily fortified castle with staff cannon emplacements. The hangar that was supposedly there as well meant that he might rack up some kills today.

None of that really mattered though, not as much as supporting his team did.

The mission had just started and already it had gone FUBAR. Odyssey was about to launch its first strike and drop the teams on the planet. He knew Sam and Teal'c could take care of themselves, in fact he knew every single SG team member could, but he hadn't been in a real war type situation since Antarctica, and even then there wasn't a ground based component.

Flyboys like him got to have the fun, flying around in multi-million dollar aircraft and shooting things up. It was the people on the ground who were likely to be the ones laying their lives down.

All Cam could hope was that the hangar was taken out of commission quickly, and his wing could move in to support the teams on the ground.

Cam kept an ear on the com channels. He heard O'Neill, Reynolds, and Carter all work out a new plan. Even Teal'c joined in and offered some of his Jaffa wisdom. Many people forgot that Teal'c was the equivalent of a General in the Jaffa Army, and as such knew much about tactics. Cam didn't forget about that though and felt reassured.

Still sitting in his bird, Cam felt jittery as he watched the planet slowly come closer through the open hangar bay doors.

He heard O'Neill give the order to beam the people down, and moments later Major Marks call out incoming targets. The battle had begun.

Grounding herself in reality, Sam quickly took cover behind a ruined rock formation and watched as the rest of the SG team did the same, all taking cover and preparing for the fight.

Sam looked up to the sky for a moment, oddly jealous that Cam would get to scream the trademark 'kick the tires an' light the fires' of an afterburner assisted takeoff.

Earth had sent the signal, the stargate was active, thirty eight minutes and this battle would be over one way or the other. Sam hefted the FN-SCAR and gave her last prayer 'Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.'

Looking at the Castle, Sam thought 'Screw that', Sam was going to live today and prayer wasn't going to save her. "Snipers! Take aim!"

The new cobbled together plan was simple, Odyssey would fire its railgun barrage as a missile strike would likely take out the SG team as well from the shockwaves. It was a new tactic as prior, only missiles would be able to survive reentry and achieve a proper target lock. The relatively small ten millimeter railgun slugs had been specially designed for orbital strikes in order to provide pinpoint accuracy and a high yield. The scientists at Area 51 had designed the warhead so that the heat of reentry would melt the protective Trinium jacket and actually cause the naquadah core of the slug to detonate on impact, causing severe yet very localized damage.. Sam had done the math and each shot was the equivalent of an 120mm HEAT round.

Only a few seconds, that's all they needed to wait.

So as Sam looked up at the castle that housed their target, she looked up in awe as the tracers of the railgun barrage fell through the sky, boiling the clouds and leaving hot steam trails. Then gasped in horror as the shells shattered against nothing, the impact sending waves across the shield that protected the castle from attack.

"A shield!? Why didn't the Tok'ra see that?!"

Vala of all people replied. "I'm guessing it's an Al'kesh shield they just put up. If they've hooked in generators to it, it can take much more punishment than a standard Al'Kesh."Vala then called out. "Speaking of which, three Al'Kesh are coming at us from opposite the planet. They were already in the air along with a wing of gliders plus what's coming at us from the ground."

Too much was happening too fast. The castle was defended, the asteroid moat had given away their cloak, and now the cavalry was approaching them. Only 37 minutes remained for the teams down below, words and thoughts would have to wait. "Tell Cam to target the ships coming from the planet! Marks! Charge those ships in orbit! All power to weapons!"

Not caring about the reference, Marks nodded and tapped in the controls. "Yes sir! Optimum weapons range in 2 minutes, Titan wing will be in range in 20 seconds."

Jack held back his concern. The teams on the ground were on their own for now, and he prayed that whatever god existed, he would stand between them and the bullets likely to be flying towards them now. "I don't care how you do it Marks, I want these skies clear and a clear shot at the ground ASAP."

"Yes, sir."

Clarity was something that every pilot achieved during those precious few seconds of perfect flight. Cam had felt it before, the first time he launched off an aircraft carrier, that day over Antarctica, and now as he led the charge towards the wing of death gliders supporting an Al'Kesh. "Alright, listen up kiddies, Gliders first, and watch for that Al'Kesh's main gun. Watch your IFF This is gonna turn into a furball and I don't want any blue on blue, copy?"

Several acknowledgements, and Cam let out one last breath and his ECO muttered. "Face first into hell, sir?"

Cam smirked under his oxygen mask, and somewhere he thought he heard someone say something about using the force. "Long as we come out the other end."

The opening salvo was impressive, and the wing of nearly thirty death gliders was cut in half, but Cam saw several of his wingmates take fire, how bad he couldn't tell.

From there it just degenerated, and Cam struggled against gravity as he pushed the 302 into hard turns following the death gliders.

This fight was different than Antarctica, those glider pilots uses tactics from having fought other Jaffa for a long time. Cam wasn't about to let that happen again, least of all somewhere that the oxygen was a little thinner than he liked. "Shaft, Fox four!"

As the F-302 spun around, a missile pinged off of the wing and the rocket engine ignited. It raced forward at an incredible velocity, following the glider he'd targeted.

Before he could make sure it was a hit though, an alarm beeped on his console as the left side of his craft took a glancing staff weapon shot, the heat absorbing materials the 302 was made of mostly negated it, but they wouldn't be able to take too many of those hits.

This fight was going to be a quick and dirty one, and hopefully on the ground it was going a little better.

Sam resisted popping out from behind cover and opening fire, she assumed it was an Al'kesh shield generator and only Odyssey or maybe a few 302s would be able to inflict enough damage to take it down.

Odyssey must have been busy, because with the staff weapons shots that raised columns of dirt with each hit, and the constant rat-tat of automatic weapons fire that broke off razor sharp shards of the rock they were hiding behind, Sam was more than ready for an emergency beam out. Hell she'd even be willing to accept the Star Trek jokes.

A scream from beside her, and she saw one of the Marines fall to the ground twitching, he recovered enough to roll behind better cover, his shoulder now pockmarked from a well placed bullet. His ceramic armor had shatted but it had survived the blow. They exchanged quick looks and nods. He was hurt, but okay for now.

That wouldn't last forever though, and these rocks and ruins would only last so long under the barrage of weapons fire pouring down at them from the castle.

Jack almost felt his stomach flip as Odyssey twisted into a corkscrew flight path, dodging incoming weapons fire from the Al'Kesh, but at the same time unleashing a torrent of railgun and missile fire.

The Al'Kesh responded by splitting up as the first wave of hits splashed across their shields, one Al'kesh was hit by enough firepower to knock the shielding out and it quickly fell back, trying to stay out of proper weapons range.

That didn't mean Odyssey got away scot free though, and the repetitive hits from the Al'kesh were starting to put a strain on the shields. "Shields at eighty three percent sir! One Al'kesh falling back and the other two flanking us!"

It was a ridiculous situation. Jack could already tell they were going to win, it was just a matter of time. The only issue was that there wasn't enough time.

This wasn't happening fast enough, and Cam knew there was only one way to get it done. "This is Shaft! Razor, Ox, on my six!"

He'd simply called out the pair closest to him, in the furball, coordination would be key if they were going to take out that Al'Kesh.

The named pair of 302s quickly blew through the chaos and formed up. Cam prayed that they caught onto his plan as it was quite ridiculous, but at the moment, it was the only way out and down to the planet.

Slaloming between incoming staff fire, dodging both 302s and gliders that danced on the edge of destruction, Cam approached the lazily spinning Al'Kesh. It spotted them, and the mounted turret beneath the ship aimed. "Incoming! Evasive now now now!"

The heavy bolts of plasma streaked across the hull of his 302, his copilot cursing a blue streak as the ship groaned from the sharp bank. He continued on course though. Moving upwards to attack the Al'Kesh from the top. "Shut yer engines on my marks and strafe the bastard!"

Cam hoped the simple orders were understood, he was borrowing something from that crappy new show Battlestar Galactica which Vala loved because it was all about "interpersonal relationships" or some claptrap. Cam had to admit, the space battles were pretty close to what they actually were in reality though.

Pulling up and dodging one last plasma bolt, Cam flicked the rocket engines off and uses his thrusters to spin the craft into a slide maneuver, his two wingmen had done the same and the maelstrom began.

The pair of 5mm Railguns mounted on the nose of the craft had almost 2000 rounds each of reserve ammunition, at a rate of fire of 800 per minute, it was almost like watching one of those electro balls you find in science centers that Cam couldn't remember what they were called as the three 302s strafed the top of the Al'Kesh. The heavy barrage first chipped away the shield, already weakened from multiple missile impacts. Firing one of his remaining 5 missiles, Cam managed to bring the shields down completely, and his ECO gave a small cheer as he'd finally grabbed the modulation frequency of the shields for the Al'Kesh, which would likely work for the castle below as well..

Cam didn't bother asking Sam about the shield modulator thingy the missiles the 302 used were all about. All he knew was that after enough hits, the missiles would just pass right through.

"Second Al'Kesh destroyed! The third one's making a run for it."

Jack looked down at his console and saw that the shields had never gone below seventy five percent, The Al'Kesh had to know that it was futile, they had to know that Odyssey would wipe the floor with them. Why had they just thrown away their lives? "Let him go, head back to the planet and fire all railguns at that castle I want those shields down now!"

Only a few times in Sam's life had she ever truly questioned whether she would survive or not. There was always doubt, but with her team watching her back, she was rarely if ever afraid.

This wasn't one of those times though, logically she knew that if they were under attack, the forces inside would try and escape through the Stargate, forget taking out the attackers, there was no chance they could take on Odyssey.

A few more people had been hit by stray fire, including Reynolds, but the entire team was keeping it frosty and making sure they were properly covered, The enemy force wouldn't bother sending out troops to flush them out, they'd just run away.

Or they would if Earth hadn't dialed the gate here. Sam had theorized that they might have an iris, or even a shield like Atlantis given the level of technology RedScope's inventory lists had mentioned. If they didn't, then Earth would launch a missile strike and try and seal the stargate area off.

She hadn't felt any quakes though, so it didn't seem likely. Instead, now five minutes into the battle, Sam heard something from up above. It took a second to decipher it from the cacophony around her, but as she looked up, the distinctive blade shape of the craft became clear… as did the sonic booms they created from their velocity. "Hit the deck! Incoming Air Support!" Sam hoped that the warning was heard as she screamed and covered her head.

Up in the air, Cam flicked the safeties off the final four missiles he had and input targeting coordinates. He clicked his radio on and confidently spoke as they approached the castle at supersonic speeds. "Razor, take out the north towers, Ox, south, I've got the ones facing our team, Let em have it!"

No need for more words,, and Cam flicked the final red cover off the firing button on his joystick. 'You just got Shafted."

The roar of the missiles firing went unheard at the velocity they were dropping into the atmosphere, but Cam still heard his copilot. "Aw that's horrible Mitchell."

Alicia didn't know if she was lucky, good, or just plain stupid. When the railgun shots had come down and hit the shield, instead of directly taking cover, she'd ducked down into a bush and used it as a makeshift ghillie suit. She was well and clear from the main line of fire and because of that, she'd taken the last three minutes to calm down, control her breathing and deploy the bipod on her rifle.

She watched in the scope as the others had taken cover, and through the transparent shield, she noted that the defenders were well armed, mostly equipped with automatic rifles though, not the best weapons for long range.

There was one exception, up above in one of the battlements. It was clear that the rifle being deployed was an M25 Sniper Weapon system. It was a hell of a rifle and as it fired through the modified shields, Alicia could tell it was a .338 Lapau Magnum load.

She'd been there for the briefing, and even more, she'd used that round before in Iraq. The automatic rifles were one thing, they were hard to aim at range, but that sniper rifle was going to kill someone, more than one person by the time the SG teams made it to the castle… if they did at all.

So forcing every muscle in her body to relax, Alicia looked around for some kind of windgauge, There, a shrub with some thick leaves not too far from the sniper. It wouldn't be the best, but it'd be the closest she could get.

Her heart was still racing though, she couldn't help that, the sheer volume of fire pouring out from the battlements was burning away the rest of her team's cover.

The sonic booms from up above that she heard over her hearing protection told her that she'd been right to take aim though, and she had the perfect viewpoint as almost a dozen missiles broke through the shielding and slammed into the heavy staff cannon emplacements. Stone and broken flesh exploded like a fragmentation grenade, the shards of devestation raining down across the battlefield through the modified shrapnel drove everyone inside crazy, everyone but that sniper.

He was a pro, and he wasn't going to be intimidated. Alicia felt fear for a moment, but it quickly passed as even more railgun fire came down, and she heard Carter's voice over her radio. "Once the shield's down,throw smoke and rush the gates! CQC! CQC!"

That's not what Alicia's plans were. Close Quarters Combat was for the muscle freaks and martial artists. Alicia was different.

The shields were starting to buckle from the combined fire from Odyssey in orbit along with the 302s now buzzing around above them, a few Death Gliders still antagonizing them.

'Tu vida esta en mis manos'

Alicia didn't dare actually say it, even the slight muscle contraction would move her rifle just a little, and turn a hit into a miss.

'Soy la sombra de la muerte, el juez del resto de tu vida."

The shields were almost down, and the rest of the team was preparing to move out. The smoke grenades would help, but any trained soldier knows to shoot into the smoke since you're likely to hit something.

'Dios me puso aqui… es Dios el que te da la vida… y el que me dice si la quere develta.'

The grenades were thrown, only about thirty minutes left on the mission ticker.

'Esta bala es bendita, esta bala salva vidas.'

Alicia had as good a shot as she was going to get, her target a clear view away. She had orders to go for debilitating shots instead of kill shots, something about taking as many prisoners as possible. That meant a headshot was out of the question. But she had to take that sniper down shields put up with one final strike from orbit, and finally shattered and fluttered away in an impressive visual show.

'Dios me mando.'

Alicia gently squeezed the trigger as she'd been taught, only moving the two knuckles at the top of her forefinger. With her rifle squeezed tightly to her shoulder, the kickback of the Steyr Elite Tactical was absorbed into her body, a suppressor at the end of the barrel keeping the flash from emanating. She disliked them, but at these ranges it didn't matter as much.

Her shot went straight and true, and just as the sniper had homed in on the SG team as they jumped out from behind cover, the 5.56mm bullet from Vega's rifle slammed into the back of his right hand that held the trigger. It bounced off the hard composites of the rifle itself and into his palm, causing a grievous injury. He screamed in shock and agony and fell back, his shot going wide and the rifle falling to the floor.

The castle battlements weren't wide, and in the panic of being injured, he backpedaled right off the end and fell forty feet onto the cold unyielding stone floor of the castle.

With Reynolds to her left, and Teal'c to her right, Sam charged forward holding her rifle at the ready. The smoke grenades had worked perfectly in tandem with the orbital airstrike, and their charge forward was mostly unobstructed. The few marines with heavier weapons had used them, and the entire castle battlement was in disarray from the mass combined fire.

That didn't mean the damn door was open. "Cam!" Sam screamed into her radio.'

"I read you, Sam! Where you need me?"

Sam smiled despite herself, even with bullets zipping past, the odd staff weapon landing near her, and the mad adrenaline of actually laying siege to castle (She knew Daniel would love to come up with some reference to a battle long since forgotten by the common man, but that would come later, this was now), it was reassuring to know that there was literally an angel of death watching over her from above. "We need a way inside!"

"10-4! Hit the deck!"

Sam made out the sounds, because with all the smoke she couldn't see anything going on above her, the wind suddenly increased and swept a completely dust and dirt storm around the castle, and a pair of staff cannon shots began to strafe near her.

As she prepared to jump out of the way, she felt a very strong arm pick her up and run with her. She didn't need to ask to know it was Teal'c, and that he'd seen the glider strafing as well.

A intense shockwave passed through the air, and up above in the clouds, a glider was barely visible as it spun out of control.

Sam wondered where all the ships had come from, surely RedScope couldn't have stolen them all. Either the Lucian Alliance or a Goa'uld must have been helping them, it was the only explanation.

Teal'c set her down and continued moving forward, Sam now watching his six as they approached the large wooden doors. Technically a few C4 charges and they'd be through no problem, but that would take time, and expose them to unnecessary risk.

So Sam enjoyed the show as she watched Cam's 302 buzz past a thousand feet in the air, then pull a hard hammerhead turn and open fire with its railguns.

The 2mm projectiles slammed into the door and quickly turned the area into a papermill, the ancient wood which had lasted the test of time couldn't hold against the barrage, and sending splinters out like a woodchipper, it quickly buckled under its own weight from the structural damage.

The 302 finished its run, and now the door was clear. "Doors open kiddos! Kick some ass for Shaft!"

Now resolute, Sam turned to the closest SG team members to her, Teal'c, Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Greer, and Sergeant Dusty Mehra. "Form up! We're first in! Go go go!" She raised her t-shirt up from beneath her armor, enough to cover her nose and mouth from the excess dust and shredded wood in the air. She noted most of the others do the same, some with bandanas.

Sam turned to Teal'c and motioned with her head, the Jaffa warrior remained silent as he led the charge into the castle. Something still didn't feel right to Sam, but she knew that more than likely she was about to find out.

The walls had been breached, and now the battle had become interesting.

A/N: The first half of the battle is over, and now the fun part begins, what will Sam and her team find in the depths of the dark mirror of the SGC that is RedScope's offworld facility? Is it the Lucian Alliance behind this, or something more nefarious? Will SG1 be able to catch the perpetrator in the remaining time till the stargate shuts down?

Find out all this and more, in the penultimate installment of…

Occupational Hazard.