Chapter: Twenty-Five: Taking Action
Day 15
Katratzi – War Chamber
"Our forces would have been better off with a Charrid leading them!" Emperor Staleek roared at Apollo, his voice echoing about the spacious room. "We lost thirteen Scarran ships because of Commander Cain's incompetence!"
Confronting the furious Scarran, Apollo felt sweat starting to form across his brow. It wasn't from fear but from the heat radiating off the angry Emperor.
Apollo didn't appreciate being yelled at. He cleared his throat and did his best to keep the tone of his voice civil. "I'm not sure what you have been told, Emperor, but the video logs from the Pegasus clearly show that it was your fleet captain who decided to attack the planet against Commander Cain's direct orders."
Staleek used his great height to loom threateningly over Apollo. "Are you calling us liars?"
Apollo held his ground and replied diplomatically, "No, only that you are misinformed, Emperor."
Staring at the unflinching Human, Staleek growled lowly, "I want planet Darakan cleansed of Cylons, immediately."
"We already have a plan in action."
"Then carry it out!" Emperor Staleek spun about and marched away, exiting the chamber with his guards in tow. Apollo was alone with Jacob Carter, who stood quietly at the chamber entrance, witnessing the entire exchange. Jacob moved beside the Colonial commander, saying in a low voice, "I thought he was going to kill you."
"I looked into his eyes," Apollo commented slowly. "He will… Once he doesn't need us anymore."
Day 19
Darakan System
For the next four days, the allied fleet held their ground, just outside the effective range of the Cylon mega weapon. All the while, waves of Cylon Raiders harassed them non-stop. The situation grew even more strenuous when the long-missing Cylon warships finally appeared from behind the planet's sun.
This proved to Commander Cain that the machines were hoping to lure their entire fleet within range of their giant gun. If they had fallen for the Cylon trap, the hidden Cylon ships would then move in and finish off any survivors, probably once the gun had eliminated enough of their fleet.
The smaller Cylon fleet was unable to challenge Cain's, so it positioned itself between the allies and the planet, well within the protective range of the Cylon mega cannon.
The allies' only hope was the ground assault being headed by the SGC, using the planet's hidden stargate. At that moment, several hundred-rebel Jaffa, Luxans, Rygel's green Cylons, and Humans were preparing to attack. To help his or her forces, Commander Cain had to draw away every single Raider from the planet and to do that, he had to throw every single fighter of theirs had against the Cylon outpost.
"This is Commander Cain to all ships. Launch fighters!"
Vipers, Prowlers, Predators, nearly every available aircraft was launched into space to attack the Cylon defences, numbering in the tens of thousands. And rising to meet them were an equal number of very determined Cylon Raiders.
Long ago, planet Darakan had been home to a vibrant and growing civilization, but, for some mysterious reason, it had simply died out thousands of years ago. All that remained was the deserted and dilapidated stone cities. Had it been some disease that killed them all off, or had some natural or man-made disaster forced them to escape through the stargate? Its current Cylon occupiers couldn't care less.
To the Cylons, planet Darakan was the perfect location for their base and refuelling station for their assaults on the vast Scarran Empire. The planet was rich in Tylium to power their ships and the massive Mega Pulsar cannon.
With their defence fleet under threat of attack, the Cylons were on full alert and the perimeter about their base had doubled as they launched every Raider to meet the thousands of attacking alien fighters. They had to hold until reinforcements could arrive, but the machines had calculated that it was highly unlikely the invading fleet could survive long enough to land any troops to threaten the base.
One squad of Cylon centurions guarded the road leading into the north of the ruined city. They were electronically scanning for anything out of the ordinary on this dead world as the night sky flared from the distant battle in space above them.
Then something extraordinary happened. They detected movement outside their perimeter. Six figures approached their position… They were identified as Cylon centurions.
The commanding gold Cylon continued to scan them and was puzzled. These Cylons were not networked with them and they refused to answer to command signals. They had to be malfunctioning.
As the Cylon visitors continued to march toward them up the road, the gold Cylon noticed they were all painted green. This was very extraordinary.
Sparky and his command ignored the signals directed at them as they continued to close the distance with the regular Cylon squad.
A standard Cylon squad had six centurions assigned to it, but he could only account for five. Where was the sixth?
The gold Cylon confronting them now ordered aloud, "Cylon centurions, identify yourselves."
Sparky and his command continued their march forward without answering, attempting to get as close as possible. They had to take them all out at the same time or risk one alerting the entire base. He still searched for the sixth Cylon… Where was it?
The gold Cylon raised and aimed its rifle at them. "Cylon centurions, identify yourselves."
Sparky knew they wouldn't get a third warning. He felt… He actually felt nervous.
From behind a partially collapsed stonewall appeared the sixth Cylon, forming up with his squad. They were all in range…
Now!
In less than a micron, Sparky and his men selected their targets and in the blink of an eye, they struck fast and hard. Unable to risk using their rifles because of the detectable energy discharge, the six green Cylons drew their swords, raised them over their heads and threw them, double handed.
Each of the opposing six Cylons took a deadly, penetrating sword hit to the chest plate. The sheer force behind the thrown swords easily sliced through armor and deep into the inner workings to disable the power core. The Cylons all went down as though someone had flicked a switch into the off position.
Immediately, Sparky and the other green Cylons transmitted false signals to the Cylon base, making it appear as thought the Cylon guards were still in operation. Not breaking stride, they methodically retrieved their swords from the bodies of the inactive centurions.
Once Sparky determined the area was secure, he raised his hand in the all-clear signa. He snapped his fingers and, from the darkness, a small army approached. It consisted of more green Cylon centurions and, sprinkled amongst their ranks, were many Luxan warriors, rebel Jaffa, a handful of SGC teams, Colonial warriors and one Tok'ra female. Just behind them, powered by silent anti-gravity repulsors, moved three small, lightly armored Luxan skimmers.
In full battlegear, Starbuck kept a wary eye on Sparky and the other green Cylons. They were acting far beyond the norm of 'typical' Cylon behaviour. They were indeed learning, and, in the back of his mind, he worried they might start to question why they followed orders and switch sides to form their own little camp.
Next to him, Bra'tac commented to Colonel O'Neill as he studied Sparky and the other green Cylons, "For machines, these Cylons are impressive fighters."
"Oh, yeah," O'Neill replied. "They'll be perfect if we could only install a sense of humour in all of them."
O'Neill addressed the various officers and leaders of their mixed army. "You know the plan, Jaffa on the left and Luxans on the right, while Sparky and his troops open a corridor for us. With luck, they'll help us bypass the enemy patrols and lead us right up to the front doors of the base. Lets move."
Sikozu rested her head on her hands at the strategy table, staring long and hard at the holographic representation of the Replicator 'bug'. Compared to a Cylon, it was unimpressive, looking like a child's toy, but after reading the technical information on it, the Replicators were far more fearsome. Replicators were made up of hundreds of tiny blocks and all they did was devour whatever materials were on hand to make more Replicators. They literally consumed technology, which they used to fabricate more advanced versions of themselves. Thus, the Replicators had become a major threat to the Asgard and now were so advanced that there was little that could be done to stop them.
Sikozu wanted to be the 'hero' and save the Asgard, but still she had no idea what she could do to help. Frustrated, the Kalish swiped her hand at the Replicator hologram, causing the six-legged bug to react by rearing up threateningly.
"Vermin!"
Behind her, Thor left his station and approached the Kalish. "Sikozu?"
Sitting up straight, she looked at the Asgard. "I said they're vermin. All they do is eat and reproduce in overwhelming numbers."
"They are learning vermin," Thor corrected. "Their growing intelligence has allowed the Replicators to counter every measure we have employed against them."
"And the only effective weapons you have left are projectile weapons that the Humans from Earth use."
"Correct."
Sikozu stared at the fake Replicator again. "How do they communicate with one another?"
"They use a highly sophisticated pulse field conduction."
"Have your people had any success in either jamming their signals or deciphering them?"
Thor shook his head. "Jamming had little effect because they still carry out their basic programming to replicate and they use a self modulating codex for encryptions. It changes after every one hundredth of your microts, much too fast for us to decode in time."
"May I see it?" Sikozu asked. Perhaps her gift with communication could be of benefit here.
"Sam, why can't we just fling a nuke at the base?" O'Neill asked quietly to pass the time.
They cautiously made their way through the ruined city and were close enough to just make out the top of the Cylon base. So far, Sparky and his troops had enabled them to maneuver through the streets and around several patrols. O'Neill thought that they just might reach it without incident.
"Boomer explained it to me," Carter said. "Cylon defence fields behave differently in an atmosphere than they do in space. In an atmosphere, the polarized magnetic force of the field actually bonds the particles in the air closer together, which strengthens the barrier by as much as a factor of ten. Anything we do would be like trying to blast through a Goa'uld personal forcefield."
O'Neill just stared at her in disbelief. "I almost understand everything you told me, Sam."
Carter smiled. "The Cylons built the base to withstand an orbital attack. We have to get under its defence field to knock it out."
"So, we have to do this the hard way."
"Since when is anything we do easy?"
"I don't know Sam, would it be asking too much for a break once in a while?"
The Tok'ra couldn't argue with him on that point. "We'll get one, Jack." She grinned at him. "Don't you worry."
With a wave of her hand, Sam slowly approached the next street to see how the Luxan line was advancing through the city. O'Neill watched her leave and when he looked back, he spotted Colonel Green watching him.
"Something on your mind, Colonel?" O'Neill politely asked before marching forward again.
Colonel Green simply looked ahead and walked onward as well. "Nothing, Colonel. Whatever is going on between you and the Tok'ra Samantha Carter is none of my business."
O'Neill felt relieved. "Good."
"Just tell me what type of gift you two want for your wedding," Green smiled.
"You really like playing it dangerously," O'Neill snorted.
"Me and my team volunteered for this mission, isn't that enough of a clue?"
"And here I thought you came here for the nice scenery."
"Well, one of the reasons I joined the Air Force was all the free travel," Green chuckled. "I see you had Daniel sit this one out."
"This is a military mission, not a dig," O'Neill said. "Besides, and don't tell anyone back home yet, he and Chiana are having a kid."
"You're joking." Green had known something was going on between Daniel and the alien by the way they hung around and 'on' each other during Chiana's stay in the SGC. "Tell them congratulations."
"I'll pass that along."
"So, why don't you want me to spread the word back home?" Green asked.
"Things are touchy enough about our world leaders meeting and having to shake the hands with beings from other worlds," O'Neill replied. "We don't need to muddy things even more if they should learn that some Humans and aliens are doing more than giving each other firm handshakes."
O'Neill deliberately left out the possibility of millions, if not billions, of Humans on Earth carrying alien DNA from their ancient ancestors. Then he wondered how Ambassador Tigh and Dominar Rygel were doing on Earth right at the moment. Colonel Green said that when they left Earth, those two were supposed to meet secretly with the ambassadors from England, France, China and Russia at the Pentagon.
He could only imagine what was happening right now…
Back on Earth, deep within a secure level beneath the Pentagon, four top ambassadors from across the globe sat at a round table. They stared transfixed at Dominar Rygel as he maneuvered through the door into the room on his throne sled. Just behind him and nearly unnoticed was Ambassador Tigh.
In the same room, General Hammond and Major Davis watched the ambassadors' shocked reactions. They had done their best to prepare the ambassadors for this moment, but there was only so much one could accomplish with mere words and pictures.
Behind Major Davis, a large screen flashed images of the SG-1; John Crichton and his friend DK holding a small model of Farscape 1; another showed a smiling Apollo, Starbuck, Sheba, Boomer, and Jolly holding a banner stating in bold lettering, 'Greetings to the people of Earth.'
The ambassadors still stared in shock at Rygel, but the silence was finally broken when the slack-jawed English ambassador managed to get his mouth working enough to utter one word.
"Hello?"
A Jaffa warrior and his comrades moved down the long stone street, which was covered with rubble from many of the collapsed stone structures that lined it. Eyes sharp and ahead, he stopped when he spotted a small bronze sphere lying in the middle of the road. It was no bigger five or six inches in diameter.
He was close enough to tap the sphere with his foot, but thought better of it and left it alone. The Jaffa started to step by it when the metal ball jumped up and popped open to reveal ten long metal legs, all ending with razor sharp blades. Before he or anyone could react, it moved with blinding speed, latching onto his right leg, penetrating his protective armor and burying its bladed legs in his calf muscles.
Teal'c heard the blood-curdling scream of his follow Jaffa and hurried to investigate. Bra'tac joined him and when they arrived, what they saw was horrifying even to a hardened Jaffa.
Stunned Jaffa stood and watched as one of their own writhed in pain on the ground while a metal spider sliced into his leg. Its sharp metal legs rent his metal armor and flesh with ease, cutting right to the bone. The unfortunate Jaffa could do no more than scream as the little bladed machine hacked and slashed with the speed of a knife-wielding chef on a cutting board.
Before Teal'c or Bra'tac could react to the sight, another Jaffa stepped forward and tried to grab the vile contraption.
"No!" Bra'tac shouted but he was too late.
As soon as the Jaffa touched the top of it, the thing turned two of its bladed legs upon him, slashing at his hand. The Jaffa screamed, pulling back what was left of his hand, minus four fingers and a thumb.
The spider then leapt up high at the surrounding Jaffa, aimed directly at Bra'tac. The old Jaffa warrior reacted on pure instinct and brought his staff weapon up, batting the spider over his head and away from the other Jaffa. It landed upright on a pile of stone rubble, but before it could move, Teal'c tracked it with his staff weapon and blasted it to pieces with one clean shot.
Bra'tac shouted commands for aid to be given to his two injured warriors. It was then that they heard the clicking sounds of hundreds of sharp metal points cracking into stone. More Cylon spiders were coming, a lot of them.
O'Neill and Green also hurried to investigate the disturbance when they, too, heard the unnerving sounds. Scurrying through broken stone structures, streets and alleyways came hundreds of Cylon spiders. At first, O'Neill and Green thought they were Replicators, but these machines looked too different. And yet they moved with the same incredible speed of a Replicator and with obvious hostile intent.
The two men shared a glance before turning their attention forward and opening up with their P-90s. The armor-piercing rounds easily shredded the spiders, but more kept coming.
Elsewhere, Starbuck and Boomer with their small squad of Colonial warriors heard the screams and the weapons fire at about the same time they saw the Cylon spiders bounding toward them through the rubble of the city.
"What are those?" Starbuck exclaimed. It looked like the Cylons had developed some new and very nasty toys since their last major ground battle against the Humans thirty yahrens before.
Boomer watched the many-legged weapons as they drew nearer before shouting, "They're the unwelcoming committee! Just shoot!"
Every Colonial warrior opened up with everything they had.
Not far off, Lt. Hailey saw Colonel O'Neill and Colonel Green unload on several mechanical bugs, but then more appeared and before she knew it, Human, Jaffa and Luxan were all under attack from every direction.
Several of the Cylon spiders charged toward Hailey and she fired on them. She tried to make every shot count, but there were so many of them that it was easy to miss one.
Movement from her right drew her attention and Hailey wheeled about, ready to shoot, but in her sights stood Sparky, staring right back at her. For a tense moment, Hailey wasn't sure what he was going to do. Like Starbuck and many others, she didn't trust these things any further than she could throw one.
A Cylon spider closed in to jump high at the distracted lieutenant; the clicking of its bladed legs alerted the young officer to its rapid approach.
Hailey turned in time to see its ten bladed legs aimed straight for her face. She didn't have time to scream, let alone move. Then something batted it to the ground, cutting it cleanly in two. Hailey saw Sparky prodding the destroyed spider with his sword. Clearly, Sparky didn't know what it was either as the tip of his sword sorted through its broken metal remains.
The Cylon spiders facing them now stopped, confused as to why a Cylon centurion had attacked one of them.
Hailey saw the spiders' hesitation and lifted her weapon before saying jokingly to the Cylon next to her, "Stay close to me, Sparky, and I'll take care of you."
Sparky stared at the tiny Human as she fired on the Cylon spiders. He tilted his head, processing her words, and determined that she had made a joke. There was no way such a tiny Human could protect him.
More spiders approached and Sparky drew his rifle from across his back, firing. He immediately issued a command signal to his forces: Protect the Humans and their allies.
Colonel Green let out a curse as his P-90 ran dry while they were still nearly up to their knees in the spiders from hell and no time to reach for a flesh clip. He dropped the now useless weapon and pulled out his zat gun, hoping it would be effective against them.
He primed the weapon and fired. The blue bolt of energy struck one charging spider and it collapsed, flipping onto its back with its legs high in the air, much like a dead fly. He targeted another batch and fired, then kept shooting, killing more of them. Thankfully, unlike the Cylon centurions, these machines were nowhere near as well shielded against their weapons.
Green heard a scream and saw a nearby Jaffa go down with several of the spiders crawling all over him. He lifted his weapon and zatted the Jaffa once and the energy enveloped both the man and the spiders, shorting the spiders out before they could kill him.
Colonel O'Neill had just finished off the other wave of spiders when one slipped in behind them and jumped on his back. Its bladed legs went to work, tearing into him. O'Neill felt its weight and the blades cutting into his backpack and flak jacket. He tried to shake it off as it kept cutting into his backpack and the gear stored in it, trying to reach him.
Colonel Green turned back in time to see O'Neill's dire situation and zatted him along with the spider. O'Neill let out a painful gasp before toppling to the ground like a chopped oak tree.
"Colonel!" Green was by his side in an instant. "Are you okay?"
Green tossed the deactivated spider away as the weapons fire around them began to die down. Their army appeared largely intact and the spiders were either gone or destroyed.
O'Neill winced as he came around. "Colonel Green…" he grunted out. "You always were looking for any excuse to do that."
Green smiled, glad to see the old man was alive and kicking. "Well, Colonel, you do still owe me twenty bucks from poker night."
O'Neill tried to move with little success and Green offered a helping hand up. "Are the bugs gone?"
"Yeah." Green looked around. "They just stopped for some reason…"
Then he saw why -- just down the street in the direction of the Cylon base, several gold and silver Cylon centurions approached.
Then more followed in behind them… And after that, still more.
Carter was with the Luxans when the Cylon spiders attacked. She used her Ribbon device to eradicate the ones that challenged her position. Then, just as quickly as they had appeared, the spiders were gone. For a second, Carter thought they had managed to destroy enough of them with sheer firepower to drive the remaining spiders away, but moments later they all heard it.
A rumbling crash down the street drew their attention to a hulking engine of destruction. The spiders were something newly added to the Cylon arsenal that the Colonials hadn't known about, but this approaching monster was well known and feared from the thousand-yahren war. It was a towering twenty-foot Cylon juggernaut. Like the Human-size centurions, the juggernaut shared the humanoid form, but was designed to be a walking tank. It was bulky, armed with an energy cannon on its right arm and a missile launcher over its left shoulder. Like the Cylon centurions, its head had an eye slit with the ever-familiar red sensor probe swinging back and forth, searching for targets.
"Heavy weapons team forward!" Carter heard a Luxan commander shout to his men. "And bring up the autocannon!"
At first, the Luxans hesitated at the sight of the machine stumping down the street toward them. Carter couldn't blame them; the mere thought of being crush under those massive metal feet was enough to give anyone a reason to pause.
From her right, she saw Starbuck, Boomer and a squad of Colonial warriors coming down an alleyway. She hurried to meet them.
"I don't like the sound of that heavy metal thumping," Starbuck said to Carter as she approached them. "Please tell me Chiana followed us and she's playing her loud Earth music?"
Carter shook her head. "Guess again."
Starbuck sighed and looked to Boomer, muttering, "Frack…"
Both men knew what was coming down the street without having to take a peek.
From behind Carter the Luxans opened fire on the Cylon juggernaut. The Luxans had come prepared with a host of armor-piercing weapons, but even their most effective armament simply bounced off the metal skin of the towering mechanoid.
The juggernaut stopped halfway down the street for just a moment, eyeing the multiple targets before it. The hatch on the missile launcher flipped open before hurling a missile toward the Luxans and green Cylons. In an instant of exploding flame and debris, the frontline Luxan troops died violently along with their commander. Even the few green Cylons with them couldn't survive.
Starbuck and the other warriors rushed out of the alleyway to help the besieged Luxans. Carter followed right behind them, not sure what to do, when movement at the opposite end of the street shifted her attention.
Three light military skimmers swung into the street as more Luxans piled out amid shouted orders and clattering weapons. Two of the anti-gravity skimmers were mounted with heavy machineguns and the third carried a double-mounted autocannon.
One Luxan manning the autocannon slapped caseless rounds into the weapons receiver before signalling to the officer standing next to the vehicle that he was ready.
In the back of Carter's mind, she heard Jolinar's mental voice warning, "Starbuck and his men are in the line of fire!"
She was right. Carter turned to Starbuck and the others who had their backs to the autocannon. "Starbuck! Boomer! ALL OF YOU! Get DOWN!"
The well-trained Colonial warriors obeyed instantly, hitting the ground just as the autocannon fired with an unearthly buzzsaw scream.
Carter watched as the rounds impacted into the street and ran with explosive fury toward the Cylon juggernaut. The machine focused its attention away from the Luxans and to the firing vehicle as the screaming rounds reached it. Carter already had her ears covered from the booming of the autocannon and the clang and explosive roar of impacting rounds against the juggernaut's armor.
The machine shrugged off the deadly rounds as it continued to march forward, levelling its right arm with the attached cannon before firing a bolt of plasma. The energy blast touched the skimmer before going through like a blowtorch through butter. The heat detonated the ammo, which went off with a roar and a surging fireball that jetted skyward.
Luxans who were too close to the vehicles were tossed in every direction by the explosion. The officer in charged was scooped up by the blast and deposited thirty feet away in a shredded and bloody heap.
The two machinegun-mounted vehicles were still there. One was badly damaged and its mounted weapon was gone, but the second appeared to be intact. The vehicle idled further back, its crew either dead or badly wounded.
The juggernaut returned its attention to the Luxan and Colonial troops, using its deadly cannon and missiles. The thing was unstoppable and it brought the allied force to a standstill.
The Colonials that Starbuck led tried to formulate a plan to kill it without getting annihilated in return. The Luxans seemed in a state of confusion from the pounding they had suffered in the first few moments of the engagement. A few brave Luxans tried to return fire, which only brought down the wrath of the juggernaut's awesome weaponry.
Behind her, Carter heard the battle as O'Neill's SG teams and Jaffa fought against the Cylon force pitted against them one street over. All of a sudden, she felt very small in the grand scheme of things. Everything was spinning out of control.
"We have to do something, Carter!" Jolinar's mind voice called out to her.
"I'm up for suggestions."
Jolinar, through her host, saw and heard everything. Up and down the street, the Luxans held their ground, but didn't know what to do. They couldn't stop the juggernaut and any attack against it brought immediate retaliation to anyone who dared fire upon it. Worse, most of their officers had been either killed or wounded. They were afraid, and the fear paralysed them into inaction. No one was leading them
Back in her day as a System Lord, Jolinar had known all about leading men into battle. She had also seen many amazing things in that time. She'd seen entire battalions of men freeze and come close to breaking in panic while under fierce attack, but all of it could be suddenly turned by the action of one brave individual. Jaffa, Peacekeepers, Colonials, or even soldiers from Earth all had one thing in common. They would follow someone else's example. The one who did something was the one they'd follow. Someone had to do something…
Do something… do something…
Carter found herself running, her body no longer responding to her commands.
"Jolinar, what are you doing?" She mentally asked of her symbiont, who had seized control of her body.
"Doing something," came the quick reply.
"I hope it includes a plan!"
"Me, too!" Jolinar answered.
The Tok'ra ran toward the Luxan skimmer, still hovering almost undamaged in the centre of the street. When she jumped onboard, the impact of her mass landing on it sent the machine slipping sideways along the street.
The machinegun mounted on it was actually a high-powered gyro-jet weapon. Unlike Earth projectile weapons that used gunpowder, the gyro-jet weapon fired projectiles, which had their own little motor to propel them along. They left the barrel of the gun like a rocket, giving them greater range and accuracy. Unfortunately, they needed a bit of a distance to pick up speed to be effective in penetrating armored targets.
The weapon was located on a swivel mount positioned between the driver's seat and the observer's position. She checked the ammo feed and was thankful they had been quickly debriefed on the workings of Luxan weaponry before coming here. The weapon was belt-fed and could fire up to a thousand rounds a minute.
The skimmer was still drifting sideways when she opened fire on the juggernaut that still targeted the Luxans. Because of the vehicle's movements, Jolinar had to track to stay on target, but at two hundred feet away, she couldn't miss.
She held down the trigger as the pulsing roar filled her ears and the air reeked of the smell of chemicals. The heavy-calibre rounds splintered and sparked across the chest and head of the juggernaut. The weapon was having little effect as the death machine stopped and focused its full attention on her.
"We need a new plan," Jolinar said aloud.
"You think?" came the incredulous response from her host. "We need heavy artillery to dent it!"
Jolinar was considering jumping from the vehicle before the juggernaut could target her when Carter's mental voice spoke again with an idea. "Wait, maybe it'll use its missile launcher to kill us."
"What?" A shocked Jolinar demanded.
"If it goes to fire its missile at us, it'll have to open the launch hatch first," Carter explained quickly. "When it does, nail it!"
"That's insane, Carter."
"Two months sharing the same body and you just figured that one out?" Carter laughed. "Got a better solution?"
"No, I fear not," Jolinar finally admitted.
So, Jolinar held her ground and stared down the juggernaut barely a hundred feet away now, even as the vehicle she rode continued its slow drift. The Tok'ra heard Starbuck and Boomer shouting at her to get clear, but she ignored them. Her full attention was on the juggernaut, aiming at its left shoulder and the missile launcher. She just prayed that the machine didn't use its right-mounted cannon arm instead.
In the blink of an eye, the hatch protecting its missile launcher flipped open, exposing the warhead for a mere instant. Jolinar pulled the trigger just as the juggernaut fired the missile.
As it left the launch tube, Jolinar hosed the launcher area in a steady stream of gunfire; one round struck the missile right through its warhead. The missile exploded and Jolinar lost sight of the juggernaut in the erupting flame and smoke.
A heartbeat later, she heard Starbuck shouting excitedly, "SHE GOT IT!"
Jolinar started to smile when a gentle breeze kicked up and the smoke swirled away to reveal the Cylon juggernaut, which stood nearly intact. A deep scorching hole was torn through its left shoulder where its missile launcher once was.
Although it had no real face to display emotion, let alone the programming to show emotions, Jolinar believed that, if it did, it would be extremely pissed right about now.
TBC…