The remnants of SG-9, 10, 15 and 4 filled into the briefing room. O'Neill sat at the head of the table shuffling papers looking extremely pissed. As the American and single Russian teams sat around the now crowded table O'Neill sighed heavily and looked up from the jumbled mission reports.
"Well first I want to say that I completely object to this." O'Neill said earning him some odd glances. "The higher ups have decided that after your 'exemplary performance' at Amit's fortress." He said making the quote mark signs with his fingers before sighing heavily. "That you are all going to be combined into our primary assault and re-con unit, in effect until SG-1 finds a replacement for me they will be relegated from the big missions and after witnessing the scale that the Marines and Imperium is going to do things they have decided to make the SG-teams twelve men strong. That's where you guys step in this mission will be a test of this new strategy." He finished.
"I don't see what's so wrong about that." Millar said adjusting his glasses.
"It's not that that got me pissed. I know losing a team-mate is a terrible thing and you need time to adjust to the new guys but seeing as you know each other that won't be so bad. No what's got me is that you're being thrown to the wolves straight away." He paused to fish around for a file.
"So boss man what's going down?" Anderson asked happy to be working again.
"Ah, here we go." O'Neill said fishing out a folder. "We received a transmission from the Asgard High Council that the Replicators have returned more powerful than ever. The message also stated that the disruptors didn't seem to have a lasting effect anymore and that the Replicator armada is steadily advancing on their remaining core worlds." O'Neill read off the sheet.
"So that's it straight after our last bitch of a mission we're getting saddled with fighting supper Replicators. Just my idea of fun." Fisher grumbled crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yeah pretty much." O'Neill replied with an empty smile.
"Well fuck me and call me Nancy." Peterson said making Macdonald snort.
"One thing sir. Who's the new guy?" Smith asked looking around for the twelfth member of their new team.
"That would be me. Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell at your service." Mitchell said leaning casually on the door frame his green outfit brand new from stores. That was until the red blob called Baltus eagerly barrelled past him and into the room.
"They said you had need of me?" Baltus asked a little annoyed at being distracted from his work.
"Um, yeah. Angelus told me about this thing you guys have called a Stasis Field. I was wondering do you have one and can we borrow it." O'Neill replied.
"Why O'Neill we have several small Stasis Field generators aboard the Emperor's Light but I will not let you borrow any of them. Only those blessed by the Machine God can be permitted to tend to them." Baltus said his servo harness waving around like a third hand to emphasise the point.
"I assume that covers you then." Getting a nod and a grin from Baltus he continued. "Very well then I would like you to accompany the new SG team to the Asgard home world Orilla."
"I would be honoured too." Baltus responded with a happy smile.
"Speaking of the Asgard how's Thor doing?" O'Neill asked.
"Well…" Baltus replied hesitantly.
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Thor was not having a good time. Here he was tied to a chair in a dark room with some crazy man in black armour dancing around and waving what he swore was a severed finger bone at him. The chanting was on the verge of driving him insane on its own but after the small prep talk he had gotten from O'Neill he decided not to voice his discomfort.
Thor slumped in his chair as Ishmael launched into another round of prayers and litanies waving around what to Thor appeared to be a small chunk of broken plastic in a jar. If he hadn't seen some of the video footage from the Marines' battles he would have suspected O'Neill of being mad but having witnessed a ship, a human ship, that could possible out strip some, more like most, of their own fleet in sheer power made him realise just how important these Marines were in the grand scale of things.
Ishmael on the other hand was having a great time, he always enjoyed praising the Emperor and testing the small grey Xeno for three hours straight was probably going down into his list of all time joys. The relics had not once reacted to any form of Warp taint or anything that signified the Xeno was hostile. He was considering faking it for a second but after careful consideration and the fact that Levi was probably watching him he decided against it. The last thing he wanted was Angelus beating him within an inch of his life. Sighing as he finished he started to untie the Xeno; he was going to have to stop calling the Asgard that, but old habits die hard.
"You are free to go little Xeno. May the Emperor's light shine into your cursed existence." Ishmael said in his mass voice.
"I thank you Marine Ishmael. I hope we can work together in the future." Thor retorted with his most polite voice while silently praying that he never saw the man again; but he knew all too well that fate wasn't that kind.
"Now go little Xeno and spread the glory of the Emperor as one guided by his light!" Ishmael shouted practically snapping the door of its hinges and he threw it open. It was times like these he wished he had a podium or a rock; he loved rocks, they were so good for delivering the word of the Emperor from and shooting people.
Thor walked past the Marine who was busy trying to imagine the perfect rock to stand on and preach. Shaking his head in disbelief Thor quickly scampered away to find O'Neill, he got two steps before the armoured bulk of Angelus blocked his path.
"So how'd it go Asgard?" Angelus said moving his hand towards the infamous Bolt pistol.
"Your priest has stated that I'm guided by your Emperor's light or something to that effect." Thor said unwaveringly. He was quite proud of himself, even though he was probably going to die.
"Well that's good to hear." Angelus replied happily. If the relics didn't hate him and O'Neill practically begged them not to kill the little grey Xeno, which was something to Angelus after he saw how passionately he hated the Goa'uld. Angelus therefore had little to no doubt that Thor was trust worthy.
"Well then I will be on my way." Thor said trying to get round the huge bulk of the Marine.
"O'Neill is in a meeting right now but I'm sure Vanem and Carter would love to talk to you about technologies." Angelus offered.
"I have had many discussions with Samantha Carter. Who is this Vanem?" Thor asked slightly intrigued.
"Vanem is one of the Tech-Marines from our Battle Barge; he was very interested in some of your technologies Samantha Carter showed him." Angelus responded walking off leaving the Asgard to his own devices.
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"… Thor is doing just fine." Baltus finished.
"Well that's good to hear." O'Neill said cheerfully while on the inside wondering what the Marine definition of fine for an alien was.
"Sir, can we continue the briefing?" Peterson asked.
"Oh sure, well basically it's this go in help the Asgard any way possible and using the stasis field capture a Replicator." O'Neill said.
"So were being marched into the gates of hell just to capture a bug; an extremely aggressive, genocidal and not to mention self replicating bug. Well that's just fantastic." Robertson groaned.
"You forgot to mention helping the Asgard." Macdonald dead panned.
"You know that's the most I ever hear him say." Anderson joked to Smith.
"Yes, maybe it's an infiltrator sent here to weaken us before the final blow." Smith replied with all seriousness before adjusting his sunglasses.
"Mmmm, possibly. Yes that's possible; they might have gotten the personality wrong." Anderson said nodding his head.
"I suggest that you guys shut up." Peterson offered nodding towards Macdonald's hand which was slowly creeping towards a set of knives on his hip. The weird thing was that he looked like he didn't know it was happening.
"Maybe I shouldn't have signed up for this." Baltus muttered to himself.
"Don't trouble yourself, they may look useless but they are actually a good team." Titov said discreetly to the Marine.
"Well now off you go I have some sleeping… er I mean paper work to do, yeah paper work." O'Neill cheerily said waving his hand towards the door.
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Fifth withdrew his hand from the twitching Asgard's chest. Blood gushed out of the hole covering Fifth and the walls. Spinning around, his silver hair glinting in the artificial light, he decapitated another Asgard and watched as the blood reached the roof flowing out of the stump. His hand lost its silver edge as he searched for more prey. With a mad cackle he turned around and kicked the wall; dust and debris flying around him obscuring his vision for a second. Crunching the fallen rubble under his feet Fifth walked through the hole and looked at the group of stunned Asgard as they tried to rig the self destruct device for their base.
"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. Can't have any of that now." His arm formed into the end of a Gauss flayer and unleashed its deadly blasts into the terrified Asgard.
Just as the last Asgard's shadow disappeared from the green flames a tide of Authen Replicons poured in through the hole Fifth had made. They immediately descended on the explosive device and weapon stores. Fifth smirked as the sound of spraying acid and crunching metal echoed through the blood stained halls.
Laughing Fifth punched down a second wall revealing a Asgard holding a Replicator disrupter. The Asgard looked fearlessly at the grinning Fifth and fired his weapon. The blast wave hit Fifth dead on but he didn't drop in to a pile of small white crystals instead he slumped to the right clutching his limp right arm. The Asgard fired again causing Fifth to stumble backwards his the right side of his face sliding off. Roaring in rage Fifth lunged forward and grabbed the Asgard's throat. Lifting the small alien up he threw him into the wall. The Asgard's frail body was no match for the uncaring hard wall and splattered over the walls leaving nothing but flat skin and cracked bones to slump to the ground. Fifth stretched his neck as thousands of tiny silver lines raced and weaved across his skin reawakening his arm and returning his face to normal. Clenching the now reactivated fist he punched the wall for good measure, his hand went through it like paper, with his normal grin in place, he then walked back into the feeding ground of the Replicons.
"Awww, look at that it's so pretty!" Seventh squealed pointing at one of the several rather long blood smears on the walls.
"It's just blood calm down." Ninth muttered, sighing as she ran off to look at more of the 'delightful' blood patterns. Jeff was walking along beside him, his wings twitching every time Seventh squealed. As Seventh shouting like that was normally followed an extensive course of Jeff being petted, something the Neo Replicon seemed to despise with a passion.
Fifth climbed out of the hole in the wall, dusted himself off and followed Ninth down the scorched and broken corridor towards the outside world. Stepping into the deep yellow of that planets sun the two human form Replicons paused to look over the ruined planet. The surface moved like the ocean as thousands if not millions of Replicons swarmed over it devouring every single molecule of useful material they came across. Black obelisks marred the horizon as they steadily climbed higher.
"Never fails to impress, does it? The accumulation of another world into perfection." Fifth said, several new Dirge class ship took off floating up to the waiting armada.
"Yes it's truly a spectacular sight." Ninth replied watching as a mountain range crumbled into its hollow core.
"Father, we have taken the last world of their outer defences. All is as you wish it." Fifth said through the link.
"You have done well. Now return to me. The others have all ready crippled their fleets." The Harbinger responded in its metallic rasp.
"Feast my brothers! For tomorrow we dine on Orilla!" Fifth screamed out over the feeding horde of Replicons. His voice carried over even the metallic click of the Replicons movements.
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There are few things that surprise you after working at the SGC for over a month. The list of things that can surprise you is so small that you could list it off on both hands with a finger or two to spare. Major Peterson found another thing to add to that ever so small list, waiting in the Gate room was Colonel Titov standing perfectly upright. Now you might wonder what's so spectacular about that but the thing is he was completely asleep, even snoring slightly, when Peterson walked into the room. After staring for several seconds he composed himself and went to lean against the wall waiting for the rest of his rag tag team of misfits, sometimes he thought that the SGC was just trying to kill him and these idiots around him. He would have to see if any of them had pissed off the top brass at some point.
The next to appear was Davidenko who shrugged at the raised eyebrow and slight nod towards the snoring Colonel from Peterson. After that things got interesting; Stuart walked in and in classic brass character walk over and poked Titov in the forehead. What happened next would scare Peterson every time he thought of waking the man. Titov pulled a knife out of, somewhere, and before you could even blink had it pressed against Stuart's jugular. Blinking to clear his eyes Titov stared at the woman in front of him who had frozen mid step back. Blinking again he lowered the knife and it once again disappeared somewhere.
"It's not wise to wake him." Davidenko supplied with a smirk.
"No shit." Stuart mumbled rubbing her neck.
The rest of their team filled in without any more incidents involving the napping Colonel. That was until Smith and Anderson enter and Anderson nearly decked the taller man as he once again referred to him as 'Mr Anderson'. The last to enter was Baltus who had under his arm something that looked like a very over sized tray covered in pipes.
"Good luck." O'Neill's voice boomed over the intercom as the Stargate began dialling.
The team passed through the event horizon each and every one of them prepared to find hell on Earth or Orilla on the other side.
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The O'Neill class ships hung around the world like flies to a carcass, in other words there was a tonne of them. The outer and mid fleets had been all but annihilated by the Replicators in a series of daring and spectacular raids that left all but the best strategists pissing themselves in fear. Entire felts had been boarded and consume without even one shot being fired in defence, the Inertialess Drive saw to that.
The sliver ships glinted in the light from their sun as they awaited the inevitable Replicator attack. The Harbinger never one to disappoint an enemy dropped the entire Replicon fleet in the midst of the Asgard fleet. Immediately anti-Replicator weapons discharged. Hundreds of Dirge and Jackal class ships broke apart before reforming some quicker than others. Plasma and Gauss flashed around as the fleets blasted at each other, the Replicon having decided that they couldn't afford to waste time consuming fleets.
The Gand fired off its anti-Replicator weapons again only to witness the ship reform themselves. Magni did notice that the ships took longer to reform if they were hit by two blasts one after the other but he was too distracted to think it through. Gauss fire ripped through his shields and vaporised a massive hunk of the Gand's hull. Moving the Rune Stones around his table at a blurred pace his ship swung around and began a ramming run on the Replicator command ship. The Jackals and Dirge tried to intercept but all they did was tear holes into the all ready floundering ship. Firing off the anti-Replicator weapons again he tried to force a hole through the enemy by blasting away with the plasma and energy weapons it was in that instant that he saw something that would change the outcome of battles to come.
The wreckage of a single Jackal class ship had what appeared to be a silver liquid jumping between its dispersing lumps. He watched in slow motion as ever time an anti-Replicator wave hit the sliver liquid would slow down or stop trying to reach further away pieces. Then a plasma beam hit the liquid as it tried to make a long jump, the thing pulsed and writhed before vaporising under the extreme punishment. After that the ship didn't reform. That was the key; Mangi stared in wonder as his ship began to tear its self apart. Whatever that strange liquid was it could reconnect the Replicator blocks but it seemed vulnerable to weapons the Replicators had proven to be resilient too. He instantly began sending out messages to the fleet but only a garbled half transmission ever escape his ship as the Replicons that had boarded were already tearing it apart. He never notice the wave of Gauss blasts approaching his bridge until they flayed him apart one atom at a time.
Space became a mix of blue and green energies as both fleet set about trying with every fibre of tier being to rip the throat out the other and stomp on their heads. O'Neill class Battlecruisers exploded as their reactors were sabotaged, entire waves of Dirges were blasted apart only for most of them to reform and through it all the Replicon command ship sat at the heart of the storm and poured Gauss and boarding Replicons into the fray. The Harbinger watched with cold indifference as his fleet and the Asgard's engaged in mortal combat with each other.
The Asgard fleet put up a valiant defence fighting to the last man and giving the Replicons a run for their money, even with their regenerate abilities they could only go so far. The Gauss cratered hulks of two hundred and twenty ships that comprised the Gamma line of defence around the Asgard core worlds had in total scored twenty Jackal and fifteen Dirge class ships destroyed by blasting them apart more than the Necrodermis could repair. Although this was a significant improvement on the total invulnerability the Replicons had enjoyed during their previous engagements it didn't even make a dent in the Replicon fleet.
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Millar stumbled out of the event horizon and leaned against the light blue wall trying to catch his breath. Long ranged Gate travel can be a real bitch some times. Slumping down against the wall he watched as the rest of his team re-materialised with practically the same conditions. When Baltus stepped out of the gate totally un-phased he found a row of SGC personal leaning against a wall panting heavily each and every one of them looking very ill. Except of course Titov he was busy trying to sleep it off.
A small Asgard came walking up to the SG-team with a very worried expression on her face. The small grey alien was also holding several Rune Stones in her hands.
"I am Beyla, I have been assigned as your guide. Please follow me we have little time to bring you up to speed." The female Asgard said waving them to follow as she walked back into the city.
"So what's the big rush? I mean this place looks OK." Fisher said looking around the peaceful city under its perpetual summer sun.
"The Beta line has been engaged by the Replicators and we have no way of knowing the fate of the worlds beyond that." Beyla said.
"Have you begun evacuating the outlying worlds?" Titov asked all traces of his sleepiness gone.
"Yes but it's a slow process, so far we've only managed to evacuate the outermost worlds." Beyla said as she tried to gather the SG-team back together; Baltus had wandered out of sight.
"How are your evacuation plans for this world?" The perpetually tired Colonel continued.
"They are in place but the Replicators have destroyed all other worlds we might consider." Beyla said ushering them into a large room with cream coloured walls and floor and a large window showing the city.
"Have you ever considered falling back to the Milky Way?" Titov asked as his mind began to spit out solutions.
"Yes, that is our final contingency plan if all else fails." Beyla replied as they got seated.
"So why are we hear?" Kerensky asked.
"Humans have proven that they are quite effective when battling the Replicators, due to your projectile weapons and illogical natures. We hope that you can stall if not destroy this new threat." Beyla said as part of the wall retracted revealing a screen.
"Do you have any tactical data on these new Replicators?" Titov asked his mind switching into overdrive.
"That's why we are in this room. We have several bits of footage of the Replicators in battle along with power readings and spectral analyses." Beyla said handing out the Rune Stones.
The room darkened and the screen began to play. A Replicon Jackal class released a jet of Gauss energy into the hull of an Asgard O'Neill class; the ship's hull twisted and warped under the relentless blast. The blast stopped but the hull was already damaged, the significantly thinned hull buckled under the uneven pressures of the gasses within. Bursting out wards a cloud of white crystals streamed from the ships as it listed away.
The view changed this time it was of a Neo Replicon chewing away on a wall. Suddenly a plasma blast from off screen hit it and it fell off screeching. The Necrodermis on its back had a blast mark in it and it launched itself off screen. After the sounds of the Asgard death finished the Replicon returned and began eating the wall once again, the Necrodermis rippled and green sparks cracked over it then the blast mark simply vanished and the rippling stopped.
The screen darkened again and the next image was of Fifth laughing manically as he broke an Asgard in half. His green eyes shone cruelly as he kicked the broken body down the hallway. His laughter was cut short as an energy blast hit him in the back, stumbling forward he turned slowly around the hole in his back already repairing. Fifth levelled his hand at the Asgard, green light filled his forearm as his finger elongated and formed into one. His finger retracted up his arm revealing the end of a gauss flayer. The green flames leapt forth and caught the Asgard just as the image when fuzzy then dead.
The images reappeared once again but this time it was something they had never seen. A tall metal man stood in the middle of the Replicons and with a movement of its hand the Replicons flocked around him almost like waves being controlled. With an elegant swing of its arm the Replicator wave surged off screen in a blue mass. Turning its gaze to the small camera in the walls the Harbinger glared at it. In the room everyone was filled with a sense of complete dread about something they couldn't quite understand, pure primal fear. As suddenly as it had come the sense of impending doom left as the Harbinger walked off screen. The image died and the lights returned to normal.
"Well what the fuck was that thing?" Stuart demanded gesturing at the Asgard.
Beyla gave Stuart an annoyed glare before answering. "We believe that that was the new leader of the Replicators. We have practically no data on the creature as the only other time it was caught on camera it was just walking down a corridor followed by two beings of similar design."
"Most interesting. Beyla could you show me the energy patterns of that ships weapon first." Titov said as he began examining the mass of patchy and scattered data on the Replicators. Some thing was nagging at the back of his mind he was sure Gideon had shown him a picture of something that closely resembled that metal man. The only problem with that was it was from the Imperial Universe, he would need to get all the data about these metal men from the Marines.
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"Got any twos?" Ninth asked as he sat across from Seventh in the middle of a wrecked Asgard fleet.
"Go Fish." Seventh said happily.
"You heard the lady Jeff, go fish." Ninth said. The Neo Replicon pushed off from Ninth's head and floated into the debris fields. Several minutes later Jeff returned with the desiccated corpse of an Asgard.
"Looks like I'm winning." Seventh chirruped happily patting the pile of slowly spinning Asgard behind her sending one spinning off into the void.
"Not for long. Got any fives?" Ninth asked.
"Aw, damn and I was doing so well." Seventh pouted as she pushed herself off to find a corpse.
"That girl comes up with the strangest past times." Ninth said to Jeff as they floated and awaited the return of Seventh.
The Replicon fleet consumed as much of the Beta fleet as possible before they had to move on. The Asgard were learning how to combat them as their losses in the last encounter were significantly higher, so they had to hurry before an effective strategy was drawn up. The Harbinger help a crackling ball of lightning in its hand as it watched the Replicons devour everything. The lightning faded as the armada's vanguard began to move once again.
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"That's all well and good but what I'm saying is that chicken tastes better than duck. That's all." Mitchell said to the Smith, minus his normal sunglasses, who nodded and rubbed his chin.
"Hmmm, hmmm, yes; I can see where you're coming from but I still stand by my original thoughts. What do you think Mr. Anderson?" Smith asked. Anderson was firmly asleep leaning on Davidenko who was steadily getting redder in the face as Anderson started to hug her, out of embarrassment or anger was unknown, but to be safe Mitchell and Smith slip further away from the Russian woman.
"Millar come here for a sec!" Smith shouted across the table to the glasses wearing man who was staring out the window at the clouds.
"What do you want Smith?" Millar demanded without even looking at him.
"I want to talk to you about life, the Universe and everything." Smith retorted sarcastically.
"I'm not marrying you." Millar grumbled closing his eyes.
"Well you know just now to ruin a good day, don't ya." Smith said in mock hurt and went into the corner to pretend to cry.
"Macdonald what do you think?" Mitchell asked as Smith returned to his seat grinning. The perpetually lazy man cracked open an eyelid and stared at them for a second.
"Duck." Was the short replied, well at least it wasn't a grunt.
"There I win." Smith stated jumping out of his seat.
"Shut up and sit down!" Stuart shouted swatting Smith over the head.
"You might want to watch this." Kerensky said holding up his hand fingers splayed. He started to count down on his fingers as Davidenko's face got redder and redder.
At the exact moment when he reached zero she snapped and threw Anderson across the table and into Fisher who was celebrating her seventy third victory over Robertson in table coin football. Anderson smacked head first into the laughing Fisher sending both of them sprawling to the ground. Davidenko sat down with her hands firmly clasped in her lap looking very embarrassed as Anderson commented on what a nice dream he was having and something about soft pillows that comment got him smacked on the head by Robertson for being lewd. Fisher spent the next ten minutes ranting at him about the proper way to behave around a lady.
"Why are all the women in this team complete psychos?" Peterson whispered to Titov as they both continued to pour over the replicator data.
"Maybe it's not the women maybe it everybody else." Titov replied smirking slightly.
"Can you ever give a straight answer?" Peterson bemoaned double checking the observed rate of healing on the Replicators.
"Net." Titov said as he once again examined the Jackal class ship's weapon.
"I would suggest that you get some rest soon. The other members of your team are beginning to act strangely, even for humans." Beyla said pointing to the snickering Smith and Mitchell who were enjoying themselves at the expense of Anderson who was still getting lectured by Fisher. She had somehow gotten a marker pen and was writing things up on the wall for Anderson to remember, this of course added to Beyla's desire to get rid of the humans.
"Da, that sounds good." Titov mumbled trying to suppress his laughter.
"Alright you idiots get some rest." Peterson said stretching the kinks out of his back.
"Hey don't compare me with them!" Millar shouted falling out of his seat.
"Shut up Millar! Now go get some sleep!" Peterson shouted while pointing at the door. Millar hung his head and shuffled towards the door mumbling about idiots.
The SGC personal followed Beyla out of the chamber and to a set of prepared rooms one for each of them. The setting sun outlines the gleaming city in blood red.
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Baltus was having the time of his life, the Asgard employed thousands of A.I.s to run things and these were remarkably similar to Machine Spirits. He sat in a corner his mind linked in discussions with the thousands of A.I.s that had gathered to examine the intruder. He analysed the Asgard technologies at an astounding pace quickly learning were they could be applied to benefit the Imperium. The Asgard that scurried past him had learnt to ignore the unmoving red armoured human. That was until Beyla found him.
"Were have you been?" Beyla demanded of the unmoving Marine.
Baltus remained silent as his mind was currently searching through all the data on Replicators something he found truly fascinating. He was searching through the most current data when he found something that made his blood run cold. There was a video recording of a Necron Lord commanding the Replicators. Quickly questioning the A.I.s he found out that they knew next to nothing about this figure but suspected it to be the leader of the Replicator horde. Baltus's eyes snapped open to find a rather angry Beyla glaring at him with her large black eyes.
"Take me back to the Stargate." He ordered getting up and disconnecting himself from the wall panel. Beyla blinked at the Marine who had ignored her for several minutes making her feel like an idiot.
"Shouldn't you rest before continuing? The other humans are." Beyla questioned, a little annoyed at being ordered around by the human.
"Marines can work at optimum efficiency without sleep for extended periods. It is just one gift of many the Emperor saw fit to bestow upon us." Baltus replied off handily.
Nodding hesitantly at the Marine's faithful declaration Beyla guided Baltus back to the Stargate and dialled Earth for him.
"Hello, SGC how may we be of assistance?" A voice responded out of Baltus's Vox caster.
"Could you please connect me with Brother-Captain Angelus?" Baltus asked politely.
"Yeah no problem." The voice became quieter but Baltus could faintly hear someone shouting to bring up 'that Marine guy'. A small argument ensued about who the hell 'that Marine guy' was. Baltus sighed in resignation as the two continued their little spat. After some minutes the heavy footsteps of Angelus could be hear over the Vox.
"What is it Baltus?" Angelus asked, he sounded slightly annoyed.
"Angelus we may have a big problem. I was looking through the archives on the Replicators and I found a recording of a Necron Lord. The worst part was it looked like it was leading the accursed little machines." Baltus reported to his Brother-Captain.
"If it turns out to be the Necrons I'll send through a Company of Marines to back you up." Angelus said he sounded deadly serious.
"No, that wouldn't be wise. Some of the Brothers are still against the Asgard and the last thing we need is to start slaughtering our own side." Baltus stated glancing at Beyla who was staring at him oddly.
"I see, well then; if it's a Necron Lord you are to carry out the mission O'Neill gave you and on top of that try and find out the limitations of this Necron. We will need all the information we can get if it attacks us." Angelus ordered and then he cut the link.
"Alright Beyla, now can you show me to a dining area? I'm hungry." Baltus asked trying to distract the curious Asgard from the worrying discovery.
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Fisher was having a nice dream; she was enjoying lying in the soft bed the Asgard provided. Granted it was a little small but never mind. Opening her eyes to the morning sun she was greeted with Beyla's face hanging inched from her own.
"What the hell are you doing?" She screamed startling the Asgard.
"I was sent here to wake you. The one called Titov has something he wishes to discuss with you." Beyla said leaving Fisher to get dressed.
Walking through the door still wondering if Beyla had said to eat the yellow food blocks or the green ones. Fisher stopped as she saw he impatient glares of the rest of her team.
"You took you sweet time getting here." Millar said.
"Were you know… having a little personal time?" Smith asked his sunglasses once again firmly on his face. Anderson began to snicker before both of them were hit in the face by pads of note paper.
"You two shut the hell up or I will castrate the both of you." Stuart growled. Immediately both of them stop laughing and stood at attention.
"It's best if you ignore them. They tend to tire themselves out eventually." Macdonald said to the heavily blushing Fisher.
"Now that every one's here I can begin my briefing." He moved one of the many Rune Stones on the table and a 3-D image of a Cairn class Tomb ship appeared. "This is the main Capitol ship of a race called the Necrons, they originate from the same Universe and time period as the Marines and have almost god like powers."
"This is all good but what has this got to do with anything?" Peterson asked tilting his head towards the piles of data on the Replicons.
"We all saw the image of that strange metal being leading the Replicators." Titov said pausing for a slight shiver to race down his spine. "Well take a look at this." He moved a second Rune Stone and the image of a standard Necron Lord appeared in 3-D. The image spun slowly letting everyone get a good look at the Necron. "This is a Necron Lord recorded during a large scale battle with the Imperial Guard."
"So you're telling us that something else came through with the Marines." Stuart clarified.
"No, the remains of the ship that the Prometheus observed were totally dead. This thing arrived at a different time and place." Titov corrected shifting through his Rune Stones.
"So how is it connected to the Replicators?" Millar asked as he examined the slightly flickering image of the Necron Lord.
"Well we have seen it command the Replicator bugs and we have also observed a Necron designed ship under Replicator control not to mention the complete integration of a Necron weapon into a human form Replicator." Titov answered brining up the slowly rotating images of Fifth with his transformed arm and the Jackal class Replicon ship.
"So the Replicators have assimilated this Necron into their army. It's not the first time something like this has happened." Peterson pointed out.
"I'm afraid not." Titov said bringing up a slightly blurry picture of Ninth and a cleared one of a Neo Replicon he continued. "See those strange silver patches on the human form replicator and the complete change of appearance to this Replicator the presence of these and along with other factors had led me to believe that the two races have merged. Becoming…" Titov paused to find an appropriate name. "…Replicons, or something to that effect."
"I don't see how that can be. According to this data provided by the Marines the Necrons are genocidal to the extreme." Fisher said pointing at the selection of data pads that had the entire Sons of Sol library on the Necrons stored in them.
"That is true but we aren't concerned as to why they have merged instead we have to focus on how to stop them." Titov responded.
"This is where the noble sacrifices of our fleets comes into play." Beyla said.
"Yes, after reviewing the videos of the Beta fleets battle and the garbled message from the Gand we have pieced together this." The room darkened as the screen was once again revealed.
It showed a Jackal class ship getting blasted by anti-Replicator weapons its blocks floating apart only to be pulled together by some unseen force and start reforming, until a energy shot hit one of the larger sections and the ship ceased to reform.
"Well what's so special about that?" Smith asked as the video ended.
"Watch closely now." Titov said and replayed the video.
The Jackal took the hit from the anti-Replicator weapon and block drifted apart them reformed just as they had another wave hit it and the blocks floated further apart this time.
"There, see if the blocks aren't given enough time to fully reform before they are disrupted again it takes longer for them to complete the process." Titov said pointing out the small difference in the area covered by the scattering blocks. "Now watch this closely." He said and played the section just before the energy blast in slow motion.
Between two of the larger masses of replicator blocks a sliver liquid seemed to jump from each one to another. When it attempted a larger jump it was caught in the open by the energy blast and had vanished after the image cleared. The Jackal ceased to reform after that.
"What in the name of Jesus was that sliver thing?" Millar asked his gaze flicking between the image of the Necron and the paused Jackal disintegration.
"It seems to be the same material that the Necrons are comprised of. This strange material, that the Marines have dubbed 'Necrodermis', seems to have the ability to reconnect the Replicator blocks after they have been separated by our weapon." Titov said.
"But that doesn't explain why that ship lost the power to reconnect after the energy hit or why its regenerations started to slow down." Kerensky argued.
"Well from the Marines' data it seems that Necrodermis isn't invincible and an energy burst of significant power will render it totally inert while a Plasma gun can deliver a blast strong enough to severely damage it. This explains why the Tomb ship was destroyed when it arrived here. From this I have deduced that the Necrodermis and Replicator blocks and cells are in some kind of symbiotic relationship. The Replicator blocks defend against the energy weapons and the Necrodermis defends against solid particle and anti-Replicator weapons. This of course is only a sketchy theory that needs proper study but that's why we're here to catch one." Titov explained.
"So what you're telling us is that these Replicons have become nearly indestructible and impervious to the only weapon that had a guaranteed kill rate." Mitchell moaned as he slumped back into his chair.
"Not indestructible, they can still be destroyed if the Necrodermis core is removed." Beyla said tying to cheer up the depressed human.
"This of course only applies to those that have been enhanced by the Necrodermis the others are probably still totally susceptible to the weapons it's just highly likely that the modified Replicons can reawaken the normal types." Titov said.
"So what your saying is that we have to keep blasting the things with anti-Replicator weapons until this Necrodermis is forced to show its self then we blast that and hey presto, no more Replicator." Robertson enthused.
"Replicon." Macdonald corrected him.
"Shut up you lazy bastard." Robertson grumbled rounding on Macdonald.
"Not lazy, care free." Macdonald corrected holding up his index finger.
"Whatever." Robertson muttered with an exasperated sigh.
"So what's the number of times we have to shoot the little buggers?" Stuart asked trying to keep the conversation on something combat based.
"About five or six times to be sure to expose the Necrodermis then anything from an Imperial Plasma pistol up will destroy it." Titov said. "Although none of us carry any plasma weapons and I have no idea of the equivalent power of an Asgard hand held weapon." Titov finished glancing at Beyla.
"I would need to examine an example before I could give you an answer." Beyla said scanning over the Marines data.
"I think Baltus has one." Anderson ventured.
"Yeah where's that guy got to? I haven't seen him since yesterday." Smith queried looking around.
"Apparently he has been communicating with the city's A.I.s. according the more advanced ones he much more interesting to talk to than us." Beyla said as she left the room to find Baltus and his Plasma pistol.
"You know the Marines never cease to surprise me. First they appear from nowhere and decree the start of a human empire then they completely massacre the Goa'uld and now that goofy guy is talking to computer programs who actually like him." Robertson listed off the Space Marines' accomplishments, getting nods from the rest of the group except Titov who was once again staring at the arranged data in front of him.
"Well if we can find a way to drastically increase the power of the anti-Replicon weapon then we could stand a chance of repelling them." Titov muttered mainly to himself.
Just then a tall Asgard burst through the door panting heavily, what little colour was normally in an Asgard's face had completely drained away. "The Alpha fleet has been destroyed; all that stands between the Replicators and Orilla are the defence stations." The Asgard nearly shouted before running off to inform the next group.
"Well looks like it's finally on." Stuart growled.
"Trust her to actually be looking forwards to this." Robertson whispered to Macdonald.
"Like you said she's one scary lady." Macdonald replied as he walked out the room.
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The first sign that the Replicons had arrived was thousands of green lights in the sky shining like evil stars. Plasma and energy beams streaked up from the surface and brightened the sky with the superheated air in their wake. Blast waves could be seen from the ground only for the green lights to remain. Every firing point was silenced by a hail storm of Gauss blasts after they made their location know. Once the ground defences had been wiped of the face of Orilla the invasion began.
The Replicon blocks started to fall from the heavens, in manner not unlike the Tyranids that infest the Universe of the Imperium they fell like rain in small capsules. Hundreds of thousands of football sized blocks tore through the once peaceful sky leaving flaming trails streaking behind them. Entire blocks of Asgard buildings were flattened as groups of the Replicons impacted into the cities. The SG-team watched in awed horror as the horizon flashed as each new wave impacted into Orilla. The city was ripped apart as burning Replicon blocks smashed through the buildings on their inevitable collision course with the ground.
Fifth stepped out of his capsule, his foot crushing the skull of the dead Asgard that lay at the edge of the impact crater. Behind him the capsule collapsed in on its self and reform into Authen Replicons. Replicons poured from the craters to his left and right, laughing he sprinted into the burning city.
"Humans, here are the weapons you requested." Beyla said not sparing her burning city a second glance.
"Did you get Baltus's Plasma pistol to compare?" Titov asked as he holstered the small sliver weapon.
"No I could not find him. The anti-Replicator weapons are waiting for you at the entrance to this building." Beyla replied while showing Smith how to operate the small pistol.
"Well then we've… Get Down!" Peterson shouted as a Replicon block smashed into the floor above them. The entire building shook at the sudden deceleration of the Replicon projectile.
"Hurry humans, we must leave." Beyla ordered as the clicking of Replicator feet became louder and louder.
Titov grabbed Beyla and much to her displeasure carried her underarm as they sprinted down the five flights of stairs, snatched up the anti-Replicator weapons, forced any Asgard they came across to come with them and ran out into the streets.
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Titov slowly led his little group down a small alleyway as they crept towards the building that housed the Stargate. The sound of plasma weapons and anti-Replicator weapon discharges filled the air as the Asgard fought to stall the Replicon advance until their capital was fully evacuated; so far it was not going well. Since their escape from the science building they had found hundreds of dead Asgard filled with the blocks the Replicators would fire when threatened. Most disturbing of all they had found a single Asgard whose head had been ripped off and broken open, the brain was found smeared on the wall further down. Several of the Asgard shivered in terror at the sight.
Kerensky suddenly signalled for everyone to stop and the sound of disturbed rubble floated through the air. No one dared breathe as the crunching sound came closer and closer. In front of the alley way a tall man with something on his head appeared, hands in pockets with a very lazy posture.
"Well Jeff what do you think?" He asked into the air.
Davidenko had to suppress a gasp as he turned his face into the light from an adjacent building the entire left side of his face was the cruel uncaring death mask of the Necrons while his right arm and leg were in the same state. The biggest surprise was the new version of Replicator that was planted on his head, it single green eye pulsing lazily.
"Ack, all right we'll go to the armoury." He said kicking the wall sending a large crack racing up it. The Replicon on his head squeaked and they walked slowly off.
"Well that was just fucking weird. What the hell's Jeff?" Stuart asked as soon as the human form Replicon was out of earshot.
"I wouldn't know and I really don't want to know. So let's get going." Anderson retorted poking Fisher in the back trying to get her to move.
"All right lets go, watch your backs." Titov said. Then he and Fisher sprinted across the street one looking forward one back.
Just as Kerensky and Millar were about to run a hand burst out of the buildings wall and grabbed Kerensky by the throat Millar fell backwards and everyone else froze. Two glowing green eyes stared at them from the darkness.
"Well, well what have we here? Oh my it's the SGC how nice of them to come to the party. I hope they brought cake. I love cake." Fifth said as he stepped out into the alley way lifting Kerensky off the ground.
Every one took a step backwards when he started to laugh manically. Stuart slowly started to raise her anti-Replicator weapon but was stopped when Fifth started to wave his index finger at her in a taunting manner.
"None of that now. This is a party, we should have fun." Fifth said grinning. Kerensky was barely conscious from the lack of air.
"What kind of fun?" Smith asked slowly slipping his Plasma pistol from its holster.
"Why the best kind of fun. The kind where you die!" Fifth shouted as he snapped his hand closed breaking Kerensky's trachea and spine.
"Fuck you!" Peterson shouted as he fired his anti-Replicator weapon.
Fifth stumbled backwards his arms hanging limply as he growled in annoyance the thin sliver lines already weaving across his skin. Kerensky's dead body crumpled to the floor a surprised expression etched onto his face. Everything seemed to move at slow motion as a Servo-Arm soared out of the hole Fifth had made and smacked him right in the face. Fifth's face distorted horribly as the Servo-Arm ploughed into him. Time returned to normal as he smashed through the opposite wall showering the SG-team and Asgard in rubble. Baltus stepped out Stasis Field generator in one hand a Plasma pistol in the other.
"Here take this." Baltus said handing the large piece of machinery to Millar.
"I thought only you could use it?" Millar questioned as he got up and tried to life the heavy machine.
"You won't be using it, only holding it. I'll catch up with you in a second." Baltus responded with a small smile as he stepped through the large hole left by Fifth.
"Enough talk lets go. Grab an Asgard and haul ass!" Mitchell shouted as he grabbed the closest Asgard and sprinted across the street.
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"Oh, who might you be?" Fifth said as his jaw slid back into place.
"I am Baltus Tech-Priest to the Adeptus Astartes Sons of Sol Second Company." Baltus said with a little mock bow.
"Well that nice to know. So what's an Adeptus Astartes?" Fifth asked as a thin sliver blades formed between his wrists and the end of his smallest finger and on the tips of his shoes.
"That is of no consequence to you." Baltus replied his Servo-Arm opening and closing menacingly.
"You're no fun. Guess I'll just rip it from your mind." Fifth growled before getting into a fighting stance.
"You can try Xeno, you can try." Baltus taunted priming his Plasma pistol.
Fifth grinned madly and launched himself forward. Trying to cut Baltus across the stomach he swung low. Baltus jumped back and brought both fist down on the Fifth's back. Fifth smashed into the floor he just managed to roll away at the last moment as Baltus foot came crashing down where his head was. Clambering back to his feet Fifth charged forward and punched the Marine in the chest before Baltus could react, the heavily armoured point absorbed most of the damage giving Baltus a heavy bruise at best but the Power Armour was cracked all the way through and some of the power cables and muscle bundled had been damaged. A spider web of fissures spread out from the impact point and Fifth thought he had the upper hand until a pointed knee guard smashed into his stomach and a fierce upper cut sent him soaring backwards.
Flipping back onto his feet he charged Baltus again this time he fainted towards the left with his fist and caught Baltus with a powerful kick to the ribs. Baltus skidded backwards from the force of the blow, he moved his torso uneasily a few ribs were broken but nothing major beyond that but his armour had a large gash out of it where Fifth's blades had caught him. Fifth laughed as he observed the damage he had done, bounding forward again he tried to decapitate Baltus. Leaning back at the last moment Fifth slash soared over his head, Fifth caught the smirk on Baltus face just before the Servo-Arm swung around an grabbed his head. The Servo-Arm swung him around smashing him into the walls each time cracking the damaged ruin even more. Pinning the struggling Replicon against the cracked walls Baltus unloaded several bolts of plasma into the Replicon. Fifth grunted as he twisted the Servo-Arm that had clamped his head, the metal screamed in protest as it was slowly bent out of shape. Baltus quickly withdrew the mangled Servo-Arm once he saw the plasma blasts just sink into the Replicon's body.
Fifth dropped to the floor and the impressions of the Servo-Arm on his face disappeared in a shimmer of Replicon cells. Baltus holstered the Plasma pistol and got into a guarded position as the Replicon straightened up grinning madly and cracking his neck. Lunging forward Fifth tried to cut across the Marine's chest only for Baltus to side step his lunge, grab his arm and throw him into a wall. Fifth was not amuses as he landed upside down on his head, glaring at the Marine his green eyes flashed dangerously as he slowly got to his feet.
"As fun as this has been I think it's time to end it." Fifth ground out as the green light appeared in his forearm.
"Oh and here I thought we were just getting started." Baltus quipped flashing the insane machine with a smile.
"If only human." Fifth said, before the Gauss flayer formed in his arm.
Baltus dived out the way as the green wave raced towards him. The wall behind him was not so lucky and was completely shattered. Baltus knelt on the floor as Fifth released another wave of Gauss, this time he wasn't so lucky and the blast removed a large portion of his left shoulder guard. Laughing as the Marine stared at the smouldering lump that once held his Chapter symbol Fifth prepared to fire another blast. Rolling forward and under the wave of green Baltus delivered a powerful punch into Fifth's stomach. The Replicon doubled over and received a kick to his face which sent him fling backwards embedding him into another wall. Baltus was panting heavily all he took a hell of a lot to even make a Replicon flinch never mind send them flying. Pulling himself out of the wall Fifth was truly pissed now. Screaming Fifth jumped forward intent on killing the Marine as brutally as possible, Baltus tried to dodge the Replicon but received a large slash across his face. It ran from just above his eye all the way down to the top of his lips. Blood instantly started to clot but he still got some in his eye and couldn't risk removing it with the psychopathic Replicon lunging at him.
Fifth charged the Marine again expecting him to dodge. What happened next completely surprised him, Baltus grappled the Replicon into a crushing bear hug. Fifth struggled against the enhanced strength, covering Baltus's armour in long and deep cuts from his bladed feet and hands, the Marine of course Baltus was no match for Fifth but he help him long enough for the remains of the Servo-Arm to clamp around Fifth's neck. The Servo-Arm clamped shut and Baltus released the Fifth from the bear hug; acting quickly before the Replicon broke free again he grabbed onto Fifth's head and pulled with all his might. Fifth screamed in agony as his head slowly separated from his body. The sudden release of pressure made Baltus stumble forward the now useless Servo-Arm hanging limp. In his hands he held Fifth's head he promptly threw it into a pile of rubble letting the body crumble to the ground. Baltus turned and left; his Power Armour groaning in protest at each movement, at every point he had attacked with or been hit the armour was cracked and damaged. Now all he had to do was find the SG-team and pray to the Emperor he didn't run into another Replicon, he didn't have a spare Servo-Arm or set of armour for that fight.
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Several hours after Fifth had his head ripped off by Baltus, Seventh stumbled across the battle site. Sitting side ways on the pile of rubble was Fifth head screaming at his body while it fumbled around the floor. Seventh completely lost control and spent the next ten minutes laughing at them.
"Will you shut up?!" Fifth screamed at his sister.
"But this is so funny." Seventh managed to say through her laughter.
"Shut up! Left you stupid piece of junk! I said left! Why? Why do you hate me so much?" Fifth's head screamed as his body continued to walk into a wall.
"Need a little help?" Seventh asked leaning over the disembodied head giggling.
"Shut up and go away I can do this myself." Fifth shouted as his body charged through the wall arms out stretched.
"So you got the shit beat out of you." Ninth muttered dropping through a hole in the roof.
"Not you as well. Listen just leave me alone and I'll fix this." Fifth pleaded trying again to move himself with his tongue.
"Jeff help him." Ninth commanded with a sigh.
"No! You stay away from me you hear! I'll tear your legs off! You little bastard wait till I get my body back then you'll be sorry!" Fifth shouted as Jeff rolled his head down the rubble and across the floor.
"Just be quiet and let him do his thing." Ninth said leaning against the wall.
"I got his body." Seventh giggled sitting on top of the flailing headless body.
"You know something about this is just so surreal." Ninth said as Fifth's head rolled passed his feet propelled by Jeff who seemed to be enjoying himself.
"I hate you both." Fifth mumbled readjusting his head.
"And we hate you to." Seventh said jumping off his back.
"Let's go." Fifth grumbled as he sulked out of the building.
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Titov was normally a calm man but now he was very worried. It had been several hours since they left Baltus to fight the Replicon and without him they were truly screwed. After a quick check they had discovered that none of them even had the beginning of a clue as how to operate the Stasis Field generator. The ominous rectangle of pipes, wires and machinery was far beyond them. Well at least they had left all the Asgard safely at the Stargate, the evacuation of the planet was not going well. Nearly every city had been over run in a few minutes because they hadn't been informed of Titov's discovery, the only place that his theory had been put into practise was the Stargate building and so far it had worked well. Most of the survivors of Orilla had fled to the Earth the only ones who remained were several brave Asgard technicians who were busy downloading and then destroying all the data cores and the SG-team who were still trying to capture a Replicon.
Scratching his head again Titov continued to lead his group of humans around the area that Baltus was last seen in. God how he hated that man, not only had they to wait on this overrun planet but they also had to circle around hordes of Replicons as the damnable little machines ate the city.
"Mitchell you see anything?" Fisher asked as they lay behind a fallen wall.
"Nothing but thousands of the bugs." Mitchell answered pocketing his binoculars.
"Well let's get going. Robertson you take point." Millar directed.
"Fine." Robertson griped with an annoyed tone.
Rounding the corner they hear him shout, seconds later he came flying backwards with a large smocking crater in the middle of his chest revealing blacked ribs and charred organs. He smacked into the wall with a sickening crack, pieces of roasted organ flew out of his wound and crumbled he to the ground, obviously dead.
"What the fuck…" Anderson never finished as the Harbinger rounded the corner Warscythe twirling grace fully, its cold eyes bearing down on the huddled humans.
"Run!" Titov screamed as another blast of lightning incinerated the spot he had been seconds before.
The SG personal turned to flee the other way but the Harbinger was upon them before they could blink. Swinging the deadly Warscythe the Harbinger cut open Mitchell's back, barely missing severing his spine. Mitchell fell to the floor but Davidenko grabbed his arms and dragged him along with her. Without missing a beat the Harbinger grabbed Smith by the head kicked him in the knee, breaking it with a sickening snap, the Necron Lord flung him over its shoulder. Stuart turned and tried to stab the Necron in the eye with her Combat knife but the Harbinger easily caught her wrist and with an audible crack snapped it. Twisting the broken limb bones cruelly tearing through her skin the Harbinger threw the screaming woman forward into the rest of the humans it raised its Warscythe to finish her until Smith jumped onto its back. Throwing its self back into the wall making Smith cough up blood the Harbinger attempted to dislodge the man but it failed to notice the Plasma pistol being jammed into its ribs.
Smith threw his self away from the Necron and covered his face; the Harbinger was confused by this strange movement until it felt the energy emissions of the rapidly building charge in the gun crammed into its ribs. Before it could phase out a blinding white light engulfed it and the humans who covert themselves as best they could. A high pitched wailing filled the room before the resounding boom of the blast overcame it.
Climbing out from under the dirt and rubble that covered him Peterson turned to look at the Harbinger. Its entire left side had been elongated out; its shoulder was now above its head the arm swinging randomly, the bottom half of its chest hung at its knees and its head was twisted at a funny angle (Terminator 2, T-1000 when he gets hit with explosive shell). It would have been humorous if it wasn't still moving or staring at him with those cold eyes. Looking over he spotted Smith propped against a wall, Smith mouthed 'go' as the Harbinger let out a metallic screech.
"Move it!" Peterson shouted grabbing Mitchell under the arm and running away with the rest of the battered group. He absently noted that the Stasis Field generator had been damaged in the blast. "Fuck, this is the last thing we needed." He muttered to himself.
The screeching continued even after the humans had left. The Harbinger slowly reformed into its normal shape its body flickering with green parks the Necrodermis flowing like liquid. Turning its head around while its ribcage morphed back together it glared at the grinning human in front of it, something was different about this human. Smith smiled at the Necron showing of his blood stained teeth. Coughing up more blood he winced as he moved to a better position.
"Well that fucked you over." He hissed. Lifting his arm, even with the darkness clouding his vision, he gave the Harbinger the middle finger. He fell unconscious as the Harbinger slowly advanced on him flexing its reformed left arm.
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"Hey, I think I see Baltus. Yeah he's over there fiddling with his arm thingy!" Anderson shouted trying to ignore Mitchell's grunt and occasional screams as Fisher crudely stitched his back up. The Disruption Field had done a good job at shredding up the wound. He'd never seen the back of someone's ribcage and frankly he never wanted to see it again.
"All right lets go pick him up. Stuart you stay here and look after Fisher and Mitchell." Titov said shouldering his P-90 and running his hands through his hair. The woman grunted in response cradling her broken wrist in a make-shift sling.
"Move out." Peterson said scanning the area for Replicons.
Baltus was not having a good day, his Servo-Arm was totalled, he could maybe save it if he got it back to the Emperor's Light without any further damage; he snorted at the prospect of that. His Power Armour on the other hand was a lost cause, the entire set would have to be redone with new Cermatics and Plasteels, new muscle bundles, new servos, new paint job, new everything. He sigh at the lecture he was inevitably going to get when he returned oddly the Machine Spirit of his armour seemed perfectly fine about getting damaged in battle with a strong opponent. He was so busy thinking about the list of excuses he could give Angelus that he failed to notice the SG-team come creeping towards him.
"Yo, how's it going?" Anderson enquired patting the Marine on the shoulder.
"What?" Baltus shouted as he shot up and spun around one hand on his Plasma pistol the other poised to smash Anderson's teeth out.
"Easy there. We've come to get you, it's time to capture one of those little bastards and leave this God forsaken place." Millar said.
"We've got a small problem with that. Remember you broke the device, dip shit." Peterson growled poking Millar in the chest.
"It no longer matters, Baltus will fix the device then we will complete our mission." Titov broke up the fight before it started looking around to make sure no Replicons had been attracted by the noise so far none had.
"Let's just get back to the camp." Macdonald grumbled.
"Alright; carefully now." Titov whispered as he cautiously began the walk back.
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It had been two days since they had found Baltus and every ones tempers were wearing thin as the Tech-Marine cannibalised more and more of their weapons and gadgets; he'd even stolen Mitchell's watch. At first he had said it would only take him a day but after examining the device the first thing he asked was what the hell they had done to it. So now on the morning of the third day they were greeted by two very odd things number one was Baltus proclaiming his greatness and holding up what they all prayed was a operational Stasis Field generator and the second was during breakfast a bloody, bruised and beaten up Smith returned.
"Where the hell have you been?" Anderson shouted practically launching himself at his friend when the severally injured man dragged himself into their little camp. His knee was hanging at a funny angle, he was bending a little to his left probably due to broken ribs and his jacket was stained with blood.
"I was a little busy." Smith mumbled with a grimace.
"So what happened?" Fisher asked.
"I don't know, I blacked out just after you left. Thing probably left me for dead." Smith replied weakly as he collapsed into Peterson.
"Easy there, we got you." Peterson cooed soothingly as Smith fell unconscious again.
"How this bastard dragged himself all the way here with these wounds is amazing." Peterson muttered as he lay Smith down next to the small fire.
"Well how that everyone is safe and the device is working we can complete the mission and go home." Titov assured everyone before handing the last of the medical supplies to Stuart. "You will remain here with those two and tend to them until we return." He ordered her, indicating Mitchell and Smith.
"Alright let's get this shit over with." Macdonald said with his usual enthusiasm.
"If we don't return by the end of the day, leave." Titov said as he left.
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"I can see the target. It is about to enter the trap." Davidenko whispered into her radio.
"Roger that. Baltus stand by." Titov replied.
"This is Fisher nothing else is coming this one's all alone." The woman said.
"It's over the trap, go now." Peterson hissed.
The Neo Replicon casually marched down the street on a patrol looking for the remaining humans; it wasn't paying much attention to the ground as it scanned the horizon for movement. The Replicon paused as it perceived everything to slow down. It tried to jump away but it only got a few millimetres off the ground. The Replicon froze suspended in the air as the faint hum of the Stasis Field generator floated through the air.
"Mission successful." Macdonald stated as he walked out from his hiding point.
"Okay, Baltus let's get that thing and go." Millar said happily.
"Fisher, Peterson and Davidenko. You three go back and retrieve the others. We'll meet you at the Stargate." Titov commanded, constantly scanning the darkened ruins for any signs of movement.
"Yes sir." Davidenko relied crisply as they jogged away.
"OK here we go." Baltus nodded to Titov as he carefully lifted up the generator.
"I hope nothing bad happens." Anderson muttered looking at the frozen Neo Replicon.
"Move out." Was Titov's quick retort to Anderson's worries. They quickly walked towards the ruins of the Stargate building.
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"Alright here they come." Anderson said as the group of six came into view.
"Wait do you hear something?" Millar asked a frown on his face.
"Nope, you're just getting paranoid." Anderson answered cheerfully.
"No; I swear I heard something, it's like thunder." Millar continued unabated.
"Wait, it sounds more like…thousands of feet." Baltus said staring at the six running people having left Macdonald with the generator.
"Oh shit." Millar whispered going wipe eyed. "Titov dial the Gate! Dial the Gate!" He shouted as Fishers shouts were carried by the wind.
"What's got him…so…" Anderson stop speaking as a black carpet appeared to be following the six human across the city. "Um, Titov dial the gate." He mumbled quietly as the thousands of Replicons charged towards them.
"Baltus go get them. Anderson you help!" Millar shouted pushing the two towards the running people.
Baltus ran out and picked up both Mitchell and Stuart, putting one across each shoulder he sprinted back to the Gate. Anderson helped Fisher support Smith as they were covered by Davidenko and Peterson who fired sporadically into the mass of Replicons. Running back inside the crumbling building they saw Titov punching in the final digits on his GDO. The covering fire intensified as the Replicon horde closed in. Titov and Millar ran through the Gate followed by Macdonald manoeuvring the Stasis Field generator plus Replicon through the Naquadah ring. After him Baltus, plus his two injured passengers, ran through the Stargate. Davidenko ran out of ammo and ran through the event horizon followed by a heavily swearing Peterson.
Fisher let go of Smith and ran through the Gate and Anderson helped the still crippled Smith through the ring. Just before they passed through the event horizon Smith twisted around and looked at the impassive Harbinger standing in the door way of the building surrounded by Replicons; for a instant before the wormhole swallowed him Smith's eyes flashed green.