Impeccable Timing
It was a fair walk back to the stargate, out in the plaza. Here, the Field Marshall was met by the sight of one of their transports completely obliterated, its remains pouring a thick column of smoke that wafted high into the air, stark against the brilliant blue sky. Not to mention the numerous bullet holes and other explosive damage that was visible about the plaza, amongst them dark purple bloodstains left by those of his soldiers who had met their ends at the hands of the human known as John Sheppard.
The Commander was out here, waiting with the rest of their own by the stargate. Speaking in his native tongue, the Field Marshall made his displeasure with the way things had gone very clear to his second-in-command. Yet the Commander assured him that John Sheppard had been eliminated, which for his sake, the Field Marshall hoped was true.
"Remain here and wait for the others," the Field Marshall ordered. Nearby, one of his own began to punch in a set of coordinates on the stargate's dial-home device. Chevrons lit up, and the stargate's inner ring began to turn, creaking audibly within its housing. Yet, for the many thousands of years it had existed, it still worked perfectly. The creators of these stargates had worked wonders, and the Field Marshall sometimes pondered what they had been like. Rumours abounded that they had been not dissimilar to humans, but these were rumours that the Field Marshall wrote off upon hearing them. How could anything similar to a human have created these machines, capable of instantaneous travel across entire galaxies and able to withstand the millennia without breaking down? Nothing 'human' could have created such wonders.
"If those within the fortress are not back in ten minutes, go and check on them." The Field Marshall watched as the wormhole within the stargate finally appeared, materialising in a whoosh of unstable blue-white energy. It settled almost immediately into its familiar standing puddle, shimmering blue and not too unlike the waters of his home-world.
The Commander nodded his understanding of the order. The Field Marshall and several of his soldiers followed him to the wormhole, and without preamble they stepped on through, returning to their rendezvous point, ready for the next stages of the Field Marshall's plan. It had been a long time in the making, and a sense of satisfaction washed over him as he stepped into the stargate. Finally, he would follow through with the mission he had been given more than twenty years ago. And once that was done, the memory of his son and of those soldiers who had died on Earth would be properly honoured by his people back home.
Joanne waited for the coming nothingness that she presumed followed the point of death. She had never believed too fully in an afterlife, but at the same time she was no atheist. For all the mysteries of the universe, not to mention the sheer immensity of it all, there had to be something behind it, surely? If so, then she could only hope to meet that 'something' when she died, which was only a few seconds from occurring.
Whoever or whatever this higher power was, it seemed they would have to wait a little longer to meet Joanne Bowers. Something exploded outside the control room, and Joanne recognized it as the sharp thump of a grenade. It went off just inside the doorway, knocking aside the three aliens who had been standing guard near there. All three were sent flying several feet, with at least one of them becoming mangled in the blast, an arm and a leg being torn off of its torso and thrown aside. The four standing in front of the group to be executed all spun around to face this new threat, which was perhaps a mistake. Without one of them watching the prisoners, Valkas was able to take advantage of this lapse. He rose to his feet and threw himself against one of the aliens, sending both of them falling to the floor. Now seemed as good a time as any to take action, with Joanne throwing herself against the alien in front of her, sending them both stumbling as she wrapped her arms around it and attempted to grab hold of its weapon.
John Sheppard appeared in the doorway, shrouded in the smoke of the explosion. He marched inside with a grenade launcher in one hand, his clothing looking strangely wet along with his hair. He swept up the rifle of one of the fallen aliens closest to the control centre entrance, before bringing it up to his shoulder. He blasted one of the aliens close to Joanne first, sending it reeling as the energy bolt struck the side of its head and blew away much of its face. Despite this, the alien remained standing, stumbling only a few paces backwards. From its throat came an awful gargling sound, as if choking on its own blood. John shot it again, this time in the chest, putting a hole through it that splattered dark purple blood all over Joanne.
Valkas was on top of the alien he had tackled and was laying into it with a series of cruel punches. Each one carried considerable force behind it, crunching the exoskeleton of the alien's skull, drawing blood from the cracks and its vertical slit for a mouth. Its struggles became weaker, more half-hearted, as its strength rapidly left it. Valkas snatched the alien's rifle from its grip and stood up, turning to the left and blasting the alien on that side at point blank. He fired about three times into its side, splattering purple blood all over his torso, before he pushed the mostly dead alien onto the floor.
Joanne had pushed the alien she was grappling with up against a nearby pillar. She had both hands on its rifle, pushing it such that the barrel pointed off to the side. She delivered a sharp knee-blow into its gut, but the alien hardly flinched, its exoskeleton absorbing much of the strike. Joanne was not blessed with the same kind of strength as Valkas, although she could count on him to roll up and provide a helping hand. The Calsharan simply strode up beside her and punched the troublesome alien in the face, knocking its head back so that it struck the pillar, hard and with a loud crack! Purple blood seeped out from the back of its head, and the alien emitted a pained groan before Valkas punched it again, this time putting a few visible cracks through its skull that oozed purple blood. The struggle ceased as the alien fell unconscious, probably with a fair bit of brain damage for its trouble as well. Joanne pulled the rifle from its grasp, before releasing the alien itself, allowing it to slump down along the pillar and onto the floor.
"Thanks," she said, glancing at Valkas. He offered her a smile, before both of their attentions were diverted to the bomb still ticking away in the middle of the control centre. Daniel was kneeling by it, eyes surveying the controls with an increasingly worried look within them, and on the rest of his face. Both of them ran over to it, with John joining them. The Colonel looked like he had been through a lot recently, bloodied and dirtied and, not to mention, he appeared to be strangely slimy.
"What the hell happened to you?" Joanne asked him.
"Weird alien stuff," John replied. Joanne figured it best to leave it at that. Behind them, Natalia had seated herself against a pillar, alien rifle in her hands as she kept watch on the control centre doorway.
John looked down at Daniel, his brow creasing into a frown.
"Do you know what to do?" He asked him.
"Know?" Daniel looked up. He sounded startled, and a little incredulous. "I'm an archaeologist, not someone from the bomb-squad. This isn't Goa'uld technology, so I can't even read the writing on the controls. I've never seen its like before." He shook his head, and Joanne could see that hope was leaving him quickly. "I don't know where to even start. Anyone?" He looked at the rest of them, eyes moving from one to the other in turn. They settled on Valkas, briefly. "What about you? Do you know how to turn this thing off?"
Valkas shook his head.
"Beats me, Doctor Jackson," Valkas said. Joanne could see that the display on the counter was most definitely ticking down. The symbols that it was working through were alien to her, and to the rest of them. This did not hide the fact that it was, indeedn, a countdown.
"If it goes off, all those people are going to die," Daniel stated. "We can't…"
"Daniel, most of those people are already dead." John sounded sure of this, and Joanne realised that Valkas shared a similarly glum expression. "I was in the town only about an hour ago. They were rounding up those people and shooting them, going door-to-door looking for Valkas and myself."
Daniel appeared resigned then, as the reality of the situation hit him. It was not hard to believe that the Field Marshall and his soldiers had simply killed most of the civilians here. It was certainly not the kind of fate they deserved, as most would have been mere slaves to the Goa'uld, forced to eke out a meagre and primitive existence under the yoke of those false 'gods'. And now that seemingly simple lifestyle had been brought to an unceremonious end by these alien interlopers.
"They're getting rid of any trace of their presence here," John said. "That's all this is for."
"Like they did on Earth," Daniel muttered, his hands roaming the edges of the container the bomb was encased. "They're doing it again, here, but on a larger scale."
"We have to get out of here." John put a reassuring hand to Daniel's shoulder. "The stargate's probably too hot. We could check the hangar. That Goa'uld here had to have some kind of ship."
"We sure as shit can't go back to the SGC," Joanne added. "Not when they won't even open the iris."
"All the more reason to take a ship." Valkas was the one to say this, and he motioned for the others to follow. "As the Colonel said, we need to get out of here. Quickly. I know the way to the hangar, and I do know that there should be at least one Goa'uld bomber in there, along with a complement of death gliders."
"Why didn't you take one of those on your escape the first time around?" Joanne asked. Valkas gave a light shrug of his shoulders in reply.
"Because I got caught trying to do just that." He smirked then, despite the pain that was no doubt associated with the memories of his imprisonment here. "You seem surprised, Joanne. It did take me a few attempts to get out of here. I got lucky the third time around, when I caught the guard-change over at the stargate. Sometimes these things involve a lot of trial and error. How do you think I know this place so well?"
He started for the exit. Joanne went over to Natalia, who looked a little sullen. She was probably lamenting the fact that the one thing present that could have helped her, the sarcophagus, was now a charred, smoking wreck.
"Come on, Sergeant." Joanne helped her up, and Daniel joined her to lend a hand. With the two of them propping up the wounded Sergeant, they started after Valkas and John, who lead the way into the corridor outside. Heading down the familiar length of it, Valkas took them around a corner and down a narrower, longer hallway that seemed to take them all the way to the very rear of the fortress itself. They moved as fast as Natalia's injuries would allow, all the while growing uneasy as the prospect of being incinerated in a large explosion grew more likely with each passing minute. Not only that, but they could hear noises echoing through the fortress behind them; footsteps and voices, snarling, guttural ones that no doubt belonged to their alien foes. Joanne wondered if the Field Marshall had sent someone back to check on what had become of his human (and one Calsharan) foes. If so, they had most certainly come upon the scene that had been left for them instead, their soldiers killed, and the prisoners gone.
Joanne knew she owed John one for that. If he had not come when he did, she and the others would be dead. So far, her opinion of the man had grown into a positive one, and his experience in the field certainly showed. She found herself looking to him for advice on what to do next, watching him and the way he carried himself to get a grasp of just how someone should go about a situation such as the one they had found themselves embroiled in. John had been with the Atlantis expedition from the beginning, and he had most certainly been through an awful lot over in the Pegasus galaxy. Yet, for all the years he had devoted to protecting Earth and fighting alien bad guys, he had been effectively thrown out of the stargate program for his continuing to push a return to the Pegasus galaxy. The man did not like to leave a fight unfinished, and Joanne was much the same way.
They passed through a few open bulkhead doors, likely used to lockdown the fortress in the case of an emergency. From there, Valkas took the group down a flight of steps and through a large set of sliding metal doors that opened onto the vast expanse of a Goa'uld hangar. The fortress, nestled on the edge of a cliff, was constructed such that the hangar opened up atop the cliff-face itself. The hangar doors were wide open, sunlight pouring in, the rays gleaming off of the smooth, bronze coloured surfaces within the hangar itself. The sun was descending to the horizon, as the day came to a close.
A very long day at that, Joanne felt, and she realised that it had been a good many hours since she had last eaten a proper meal. Her rations had been taken when she had been captured, leaving her with little more than a near-empty water canteen and the uniform she wore. She was at least armed now, even if the alien rifle she carried was not a weapon she knew well. There was a setting function on it, she saw, and it currently sat at about half its full charge if the glowing light meter along its side was any indication. She could only wonder what might happen if she turned the switch up all the way…
"There it is." Valkas stopped at the end of a catwalk, that put them above the hangar floor, giving them a clear view of the entire hangar itself. A warm breeze billowed in through the open hangar, drifting in from outside, where the blue sky was turning a little darker. Joanne would be glad to put this place far behind her. As for the ships Valkas had mentioned, they were here; four death gliders were parked on the hangar floor, and they flanked the oval-shaped hulk of a Goa'uld bomber. The term 'bomber', in this case, was a bit of a misnomer; the ship was certainly equipped with a heavy payload, as well as the staff weapon cannons that were also found on death gliders. However, the Goa'uld alkesh could serve as a cargo and troop transport if need be, and there were probably living facilities inside to accommodate crews on longer-lasting voyages. Here and now, it was the team's way out, and their only one at the moment seeing as how Earth had abandoned them. Flying back might take a while, even in hyperspace, but netting a fully-intact Goa'uld bomber would count as a win. It would be something, after everything they had been through.
"Does anyone know how to fly one of those?" Joanne asked aloud. Daniel raised his hand a little, yet even he appeared uncertain.
"I might be able to," he replied. "It shouldn't be much different to a Goa'uld cargo transport."
"Well, now you're our designated pilot." Joanne started along the catwalk, towards the stairs further ahead. However, she stopped as the sounds of boots clanking upon metal came echoing from the corridor behind them. More than one set of rapid footfalls at that, and all eyes went to the corridor and the group of armed alien soldiers storming down it. Joanne, upon seeing them, supposed that she should not have been so surprised. Her luck had been particularly poor as of late, and now, with escape within their reach, they had to be met with yet more trouble.
"Get the ship started," John ordered. He brought his alien rifle to bear as he turned his gaze to the aliens rushing down the corridor. "I'll slow them down. Valkas will too, won't you, Valkas?" The look he gave the Calsharan said something along the lines of 'stay here and fight, or I'll shoot you myself'. Valkas got the message right away, and he offered the Colonel a friendly smile, as if to show that there were no hard feelings to be had.
Daniel and Joanne were left to carry Natalia down the catwalk and onto the hangar floor. Behind them, John and Valkas opened fire on the incoming alien foes.
There were about four of the alien soldiers, John saw; they filed down the corridor with purpose, having presumably deducted where the group had gone. Unable to defuse the bomb and with the stargate guarded, the hangar had been the only suitable option for escape. Instead of these aliens escaping the impending destruction, they had instead been sent here to put an end to those humans who had put such a serious crimp into their plans. They were plans that John was still trying to work out, but what he did know was that they most certainly spelled trouble for Earth and the human race in general.
John crouched down on the catwalk, with the railing in front of him. Valkas was a short distance to his left, taking up a similar position. Both of them opened fire with the alien rifles they had salvaged from those who had been killed in the control centre, laying down a successive volley of white energy bolts. The aliens in the hallway scattered, ducking into doorways and alcoves before returning fire. Sparks flew as bolts slammed into the side of the gangway, and John stumbled slightly as a handful of them flew up into his face. As he recovered, he motioned for Valkas to fall-back, and that he did. The pair made a fighting retreat, sending shots at the encroaching group of aliens as they moved further back down the catwalk.
Behind them, Daniel, Joanne and Natalia were just getting on board the Goa'uld bomber. At least in that, they would be somewhat safe. All John and Valkas had to do was buy a little time, and even that was running out, with the bomb elsewhere ticking down to some unknown point. Would the Field Marshall send his soldiers here knowing they might be killed in the explosion? Somehow, John suspected that the Field Marshall would do just that, and then some. He had a serious grudge against humans in general, and such personal grievances could impair one's usual ability at an objective command.
John blasted one of the aliens as it stepped onto the catwalk, now above him as he and Valkas backed off down the stairs that descended to the hangar floor. The alien stumbled, purple blood spurting out of the smoking hole that had been shot through its chest. It keeled over and fell head-first off of the catwalk, before hitting the solid floor below with a loud thump, cracking open its oddly crustacean shell-like skull upon the bronze-metal floor.
Another one of them followed, firing its rifle rapidly. John ducked as energy bolts slammed into the railings of the stairs, sparks flying, smoke exploding forth as metal melted instantly. He felt some of the molten metal splash onto his combat pants, burning through the material rapidly before searing his skin. He grunted, as the heat subsided within seconds, leaving him with some black marks on one leg along with a few new holes to add to his overall outfit.
The alien above them moved along the catwalk, keeping to the high-ground as it continued shooting. Valkas was the one who finally took it down, sending an energy bolt into its chest. The alien fell over, its life leaving its body suddenly, causing it to slump awkwardly against the railing.
Now on the hangar floor, John and Valkas started running for the Goa'uld bomber. Through the cockpit window, John could just make out Daniel at the controls, an uncertain grimace on his face as he attempted to remember how it all worked. It would have been years since Daniel had last been at the helm of a Goa'uld ship, whereas John on the other hand had never needed to fly one. Puddle jumpers, sure, but they were a different beast entirely. Give him an F-302 any day of the week and he would be right at home.
Two more of the aliens took position up on the catwalk and opened fire. John threw himself behind one of the parked death gliders as their weapons fire hit the floor close to him, searing holes into the metal surface. Valkas ducked behind a set of metal containers as the alien gunmen continued to pour on the fire, doing what they could to pin the pair down. John remained behind the death glider for a further moment, giving his alien rifle a once-over. He had no real idea how it worked, or if it even needed to be reloaded. He did take note of the charge adjuster, and it was here that seemed as good an opportunity as any to put the weapon to its fullest charge. As it turned the dial, he heard the weapon emit a high-pitched whine as further energy channelled itself down the barrel, causing the normally subdued blue-white light within to grow far more intense. It even began to vibrate in his grasp, and he could feel the heat emanating off of the barrel and onto his hands. The whole thing felt as if it was about to explode, and he wondered then just what kind of power he could expect when he actually pulled the trigger.
The two up on the catwalk continued shooting. Behind John and Valkas, the engines of the Goa'uld bomber came to life, sending out a loud, continuous whine, backgrounded by a lower rumble. John watched the catwalk from behind the death glider, and he recognized the next alien who appeared straight away: The Commander strode into view, making his way for the stairs with his rifle raised, spewing forth searing bolts of energy. John ducked as a few of these bolts shot past him, striking the floor nearby.
As the Commander descended the steps, he paused in his shooting, if only briefly. John leaned around the side of the death glider and took aim at the two aliens still on the catwalk. Pulling the trigger, he felt the weapon buckle in his grip with enough force to knock him backwards. John fell on his backside as a bolt of searing blue-white energy lanced through the air, leaving in its wake a glowing white vapour trail that began to rapidly dissipate. The bolt struck the catwalk where the two alien soldiers were, and there followed a flash of white flame that enveloped the both of them. The catwalk itself was sheared away, sending a large section of it falling from where it had been suspended from the ceiling. Both aliens had been vaporized in the blast, little more than small blackened fragments left behind, with a cloud of ash blossoming forth from the heart of the explosion. Metal had been melted and scorched, and this particular section of the catwalk hit the floor ahead with a loud crash, pieces of metal scattering from the fall.
John did a double-take at the sight of the damage. Rising back onto his feet, he regarded the rifle in his hands, only to notice that the barrel was pouring black smoke and the stench of something burning, something metal tinged with something that smelled more natural, hit his nostrils with some force. He tossed aside the weapon, now that it had been rendered useless by the overcharged shot. Ahead, the Commander had stumbled somewhat from the force of the nearby explosion, but he had since gathered his composure before setting his sights upon John.
The Goa'uld bomber had began to descend, the landing legs retracting as Daniel worked the controls tentatively, unsure of himself in the unfamiliar ship. Nonetheless, he managed to spin the vessel around, now that it hovered about a metre off of the floor. This put the boarding ramp behind John and Valkas, and the latter began to make his way for it, not bothering to wait for John to give the order. Valkas had made up his mind, and he intended to get as far away from this place as he possibly could.
John, on the other hand, did not want to leave this loose end behind. The Commander marched forwards, firing a few errant shots at Valkas as he raced up the bomber's boarding ramp. John found that he was down to only his grenade launcher and the one explosive round he had for it. With the alien Commander pouring weapons fire in his direction, John felt that it would be rude to not give the Commander something similar in turn. Remaining crouched behind the death glider, John pulled the launcher from his waist and slid home the one shell he had left for it. He could almost detect the Commander's confidence, the way in which he strode forwards with his rifle firing.
Joanne appeared on the boarding ramp then, alien rifle in her grasp.
"Come on, Colonel!" She shouted. Several blaster bolts zipped her way, striking the ramp and the wall behind her, sending sparks flying. This essentially forced her back inside as the Commander continued to fire her way.
John readied the launcher as he stepped out from behind the glider. The alien Commander, momentarily distracted by Joanne, did not see him right away. This was something John rectified, if only for his own satisfaction.
"Consider this a farewell gift!"
Before the alien Commander could do more than turn his way, John pulled the trigger. The launcher kicked slightly in his grasp, before the Commander disappeared into a flash of fire and smoke. The explosion was sudden and abrupt, blowing the alien Commander into numerous fleshy, and mostly charred, pieces. Purple blood splattered every which way, and one of the Commander's deep purple arms came flying past John, trailing a ragged fleshy end behind it from where it had been torn from the rest of the alien's torso.
Taking a breath, John allowed himself to relax. They were in the clear, surely? Behind him, the Goa'uld bomber continued to hover. Joanne reappeared on the boarding ramp, eyes settling upon him.
"Colonel?" She asked, getting his attention. John turned to her, realising that he had become a bit caught up in the fighting. They were wasting time they did not have, so John rushed for the ramp and jumped onto it. Joanne grabbed him by the arm, helping him up, before she shouted back down the length of the ship.
"Let's go!" She released her grasp on John before she started back down the central corridor. Daniel must have heard her, as John felt a slight lurch as the ship blasted forwards, picking up speed at a rate no conventional Earth aircraft would have been able to achieve. Behind them, the hangar opening quickly fell into the distance, as did the fortress as a whole. Daniel sent them up on a gradual ascent, and as John remained standing in the cargo hold of the alkesh, the rear ramp began to raise, slowly closing them off from the outside world.
After all that, John felt a little odd that they were now leaving that place behind. Sure, it had only been about two days since they had left Earth and come here, but it felt longer than that. It was as if a whole military career's worth of bad things had happened in those two days, from the loss of a whole squad to his capture and torture. Seeing that fortress disappear behind them at the rate they were going, John felt relieved. More so than he had in a long time. His life, in recent years, had been fairly uneventful. Trust all the bad stuff to hit him all at once.
John made his way through the familiarly-designed Goa'uld-made corridors, all bronze metals and glazed surfaces. The interior of the bomber was a little cramped, if only to make room for whatever payload was being carried. The cockpit was at the opposite end, where the central corridor ended at a set of currently open doors. Daniel and Joanne were here, as was Valkas. The Calsharan offered the Colonel a smile as he walked in, standing off to one side of the main controls. Daniel was seated at the pilot's terminal, with Joanne leaning back against the co-pilot's chair. In front of them was a glass viewport, no doubt of the thick and sturdy variety, not to mention the protective energy shields that enveloped the whole ship. These bombers were known to be imposing opponents in a fight, at least from what John had read.
Through the viewport, the blue sky of Ra's private planet began to give way to the much blacker expanse of space. John looked about the oddly spacious cockpit, his gaze being drawn to a doorway to the left, which opened into a smaller adjoining room. Natalia was lying against the wall inside, flanked by Goa'uld-made shipping crates. She appeared sullen, not to mention exhausted. An understandable state, for someone in her condition.
"Are we clear of the planet?" John asked, as he returned his attention to Daniel. The archaeologist nodded, before he turned about in his chair to face him.
"Once we're out of the gravity well, we'll jump into hyperspace," Daniel said. He was sweating and dirtied, like they all were. None of them had had a proper rest since this whole ordeal had started, and all of them were reeling from much of what had occurred. Not to mention the many unanswered questions that they all had on their minds.
"Where are we going to go?" Joanne sounded tired, and she rubbed her eyes with a thumb and forefinger. John had to admit, they were far filthier than he had originally thought. Not to mention the smell wafting off of each of them, a crude mix of raw sewerage, sweat and blood.
"You think we can go back to Earth?" Joanne added. She was looking straight into John's eyes now, likely expecting him to have a better idea on the matter. He did have experience with this kind of craziness after all, but then again so did Daniel. "They left us to die back there. We go back to Earth and McClintock might lock us up."
"Set a course for Earth, Daniel." John had no intention of letting that weaselly bureaucrat get away with what he had done. No matter his reasoning, it had always been an integral part of the stargate program that no one was left behind. Rescue missions had been launched for less, and no SG team had ever been left behind to fall into the hands of an alien enemy.
"You planning on punching out McClintock?" Joanne asked him. She had probably seen it in his eyes, the clear intent he held for the man who had stranded them. "Because if you are, I'll happily join in."