P4X-187
Milky Way Galaxy

It was a relief to be offworld, a respite from the chaos on Earth. Having been in and around the Stargate Programme since she was more or less a child, the reality of the universe was second nature to Hailey, it often escaped her mind as to just how shocking the truth would be, should it ever get out, and boy, had it got out.

There had been panic, riots, demonstrations, anger, fear… which was understandable really, one minute, we were alone in the universe, the next, there were burning starships falling from the sky, and their governments had been fighting an interstellar war without telling them. Media was dominated by nothing else, debating every facet of it as all the information was released, from how close the Earth had come to destruction, to whether modern religions had themselves grown out of alien interventions or not. It wasn't all bad, though. Hope and excitement were present too though, the world was now fascinated by anything and everything to do with the Stargate. Hailey had even heard rumours of a movie deal being signed. She was sure General O'Neill would hate that.

The other, more personal consequence of all this was that she didn't have to lie to her parents, to her friends and family any longer. That had always been tough, as a consequence she hadn't really talked about what she did, or rather, what she claimed to do. Perhaps it had led some in her life to think of her as being somewhat closed off or insular. But now, now nobody thought she worked in Deep Space Telemetry, now she could tell people the truth! What she hadn't considered was that, her parents knowing the truth meant her parents knew the truth. It turned out parents might be quite concerned about their only daughter travelling to dangerous planets. Proud though, but perhaps they might miss the boring, occasionally mentioned Telemetry days…

There were still some secrets though, like her parents having no idea that she was on P4X-187, nor indeed many people outside of the Mountain. The SGC had stepped up incursions into Lucian space, seeking out targets for military strikes. Obviously, they had always shied away from attacking overtly civilian ones, but that was doubly true now, with far more political oversight than ever before, and, of course, public opinion to consider. Things were very conflicted back home, it might have been a little easier to take had it been the Wraith or the Replicators, something decidedly alien, but that their attackers were themselves human… it was a tricky issue to digest. The SGC and other official sources had strived to portray the Alliance as an, for want of a better term, 'evil' force that had conquered worlds, subjugated their populations and forced them to fight against their will. Public opinion wanted to see retribution for the attempted attack on Earth, but there was little appetite for the destruction of those otherwise innocent lives.

Nor was there much strategic value in that anyway. The Alliance would be far more damaged by the destruction of shipyards, military bases or, like the world they had arrived upon, kassa farms.

It was sparsely populated, indeed, she couldn't be sure there even was much of a permanent population, her and the rest of SG-28 had snuck in alongside various workers, well, slaves was probably a more accurate description, to tend to the fields, presumably they'd be expected to leave again once their 'shifts' were done, leaving only the Alliance guards to protect the planet. A number of Al'kesh were being used to ferry workers to further away fields, then bring back market ready kassa for transport through the Gate.

It was nasty stuff, kassa, it looked like corn at first glance, but it was also a highly addictive psycho-stimulant. It could be purified into an even more potent, valuable drug, or, as some Lucian clans favoured, mixed into the foods supplied to their conquered worlds, the resultant addiction keeping cowed populations in line and loyal. It was a major part of the Alliance economy, and a method for the rivalling Clans to compete and outdo each other.

There had been no windows in the Al'kesh's cargo hold that they had been led aboard, but a rough estimate based on the amount of time the flight had taken suggested that SG-28 now found themselves at least a third of the way around this world from the Stargate, assuming it was roughly Earth sized. They had taken the opportunity to slyly disappear into the fields, the crop handily growing tall enough to make them hard to spot for any watching overseers.

"We've seen enough." The Colonel stopped, apparently confident they were well out of earshot.

"Call it in Xiu."

The Lieutenant produced her coms device from a pocket concealed under the Lucian civilian style clothing she was disguised in, quickly logging their position and what they had discovered. It was unlikely that the local Lucian forces possessed anything that could detect such a transmission, but Hailey's hand hovered instinctively over the Zat secluded under her own disguise nonetheless.

No bigger than the smartphones people back home had thought of as cutting edge until recently, Xiu signalled the 307 class battlecruiser, Minerva, that was on standby a few dozen lightyears away. The first fruits of Earth's new partnership with the Tollan, while the older members of the SGC were excited by talk of cannons and other exotic sounding things, this little sliver of trinium was just as worthy a thing to get all worked up about, handheld FTL communication.

They didn't have long to wait. It was crazy to think this was their first time behind the lines since they had been captured. So much had happened since, so many other worlds. She was a trained soldier, and was fully prepared for this mission, but she was still relieved as she felt the tingle of the Minerva's transporter beginning to convert her body into energy.

Besides, best to not be on the surface when the Horizon is deployed.