Hey guys, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. Almost 250 reviews, and over 56,500 views, I never would have believed it. Anyways, thanks again.
Before you read this chapter, I want to make a suggestion. If you're looking for a good story, I highly recommend "Slayer of the Dead" by Locathah. It's one of the best stories I've read on and I think people are overlooking it for whatever reason. I can tell you that getting a review is a great ego boost and I'm sure Locathah would love to see that more people are reading his excellent story. Anyways, thanks again for reading an on with the story!
Chapter 15
"Xander! Wake up!"
Xander awoke with a start, then the pain kicked in and elicited a long anguished groan.
"Yeah, yeah I know my landing sucked, no need for the drama," Cortana grumbled.
Xander groaned again, then took stock of his position. At some point during the crash he had migrated back to the hold of the Pelican, and was now uncomfortably resting slumped upside down against one of the walls, his back jammed painfully into a row of seats. His chest hurt badly, as did his right wrist and the left ankle he had injured on High Charity. He also noticed that his heads up display seemed to be malfunctioning. There was no longer a shield bar.
Xander rolled over and stumbled to his feet. He limped to the pilot's seat and collected Cortana from the ships computer and surveyed his surroundings. There wasn't much to see, in every direction there was nothing but desert.
"This isn't good," Cortana said. "You and your armour have taken a pounding Xander. You've got two cracked ribs, a sprained wrist and you've re-aggravated the damage to your Achilles tendon."
"Hey, don't blame me," Xander replied, "You were flying."
Cortana ignored him. "What's worse is the armour though. The fusion power pack has been damaged. I imagine you've noticed you don't have shields any more, that's because the generator can't provide power for them any more. It's basically running in power saver mode right now, just trying to keep the critical functions of the suit going as long as possible. I'd imagine we have about three days more before it fails completely and the suit locks up."
"Awesome. Any more good news?" Xander asked.
Cortana sighed. "I'm pretty sure someone tracked us coming in, we were pretty hard to miss. We better get out of here. Take whatever rations you can carry."
Xander looked around at the, albeit wrecked, high technology around him. "What about the ship? Shouldn't we blow it up or something?"
"I'd say yes. If we had any explosives, that is. It's pretty badly wrecked, I doubt much is salvageable anyway. Now let's go, I'm sure helicopters will be appearing over that horizon soon." Cortana said.
Two minutes later Xander was trudging away from the wreckage, the heavy winds blowing away his footprints as he went. "So where are we, exactly?"
"A little ways south of Death Valley, about one hundred miles from Sunnydale." Cortana replied grimly.
Xander sighed. "Let me guess, it's the closest town."
"It is. We need to get there in three days too, because if we don't the suit will power down. It'll lock up, and you'll have no protection from the elements." Cortana cautioned. "I'm sorry Xander, this is my fault."
"No, it's not. We had no time to avoid that satellite. There was nothing you could have done." Xander said. He crested a sand dune and looked ahead. The desert had a kind of stark beauty. A line of mountains crested the horizon, and the air was incredibly crisp and clear. Still, Xander hated it. If he didn't walk almost thirty-five miles a day on a bad ankle it would be the death of him. Xander cursed the Powers inwardly and started forward at a fast walk.
Half an hour after Xander had left the wrecked Pelican the first helicopter arrived at the crash site. Less than six hours after that helicopters were flying over the desert in every direction looking for survivors and SG-1 was on scene, surveying the wreckage.
Jack looked over at Carter, who was in the remains of the cockpit, pouring excitedly over the wrecked but still fascinating technology of the ship. Something was bugging him about this whole thing. "Carter?"
"Yes sir?" Major Carter answered without looking up.
"Have we ever seen one of these ships before?" Jack asked, scratching his head. "It seems kinda familiar."
"No sir I don't think so. It's certainly not like any design I've ever seen," Carter replied. "It seems to be some kind of short range transport and gunship, not unlike a V-22 Osprey. But what's really interesting is how simple yet effective the technology is. I think with some reverse engineering we'd have a shot at reproducing a lot of technology from this ship."
"You don't see anything that looks like a recall device in there, do you?" Jack asked warily.
Carter smiled. "These systems are a lot closer to our own sir, I'm sure we won't have a repeat of the X-301 incident."
"Yes well, tell that to whoever flies it the first time because I'm sure as hell not going to." Jack replied. He left Sam to work and went to talk to Teal'c, who was surveying the desert.
"T buddy, ever seen anything like this ship?" Jack asked.
"I have not O'Neill, but like you I find the shape oddly familiar," Teal'c rumbled.
"Well we must have come across it somewhere, let me know if you remember anything. It's too much of a coincidence for both of us to recognize it." Jack turned and headed towards a small command tent, which had been set up to coordinate the sweep of the desert. He pushed through the canvas flap covering the entrance and walked in to see several men bent over laptops set on hastily erected tables. Most appeared to be watching camera or FLIR footage from some of the helicopters participating the in search, while some were watching screens from a mobile radar and controlling the search choppers.
Jack walked up to the closest lieutenant. "Anything yet, Lieutenant?"
The officer shook his head. "Nothing yet sir. There's a lot of desert out there and the sand is washing away any tracks. And we don't have any satellite imagery in this area because, well sir, we're in the middle of the damn desert."
Jack nodded. Satellites were being repositioned but it would be another four hours before they had even sporadic coverage of the area. The US government didn't generally waste satellites staring at the middle of an American desert. "Any survivors can't have gone far, we got here pretty fast. Stick to a five mile radius." He turned to leave as the officer replied.
"Yes sir, find anything helpful in the Pelican?"
Jack whipped around. "WHAT did you say?"
The officer smiled meekly. "The ship sir, it's looks like a Pelican. You know, from the Halo video game?"
Jack spun around and jogged outside to get another look at the ship. One of the engine pods was ripped off completely, and the stubby wings were sheared off two more. The hull was dented and bent, but now that his memory had been jogged the shape was unmistakable. "Oh for cryin' out loud, you have got to be kidding me!" Jack shouted. He spun to the lieutenant, who'd followed him out. "Get General Hammond on the line and I mean NOW!"
Xander gritted his teeth against the pain as he continued his fast walk towards the frustratingly distant Sunnydale. He had moved as fast as he felt he could away from the ship, and was now nine miles away from the crash site. He figured, and Cortana had agreed, that the initial search radius would be small. By jogging and fast walking, he had cleared that distance as fast as he could and figured he had done a good job of throwing off the search. The sounds of choppers were distant, and night was drawing close. Night would give much needed cover, and maybe a chance for a couple hours rest.
"Goddamn PTB. This is their idea of giving me a break?" Xander said angrily. "Hit the ground at mach 2, then walk one hundred miles through the desert in three days. The only breaks I get are ducking choppers and stopping to eat a Meal Rejected by Enemy. And you just know some geek at the crash site is gonna recognize the Pelican, and someone else is gonna figure out the truck at the military base was a Warthog, and they'll get together and make my life more of a pain in the ass then it already is. I hate everything and everyone."
"Relax Xander, it could be worse." Cortana said.
"Really, and how's that?" Xander asked. "And don't even bother telling me someone could be shooting us, because to be honest I wouldn't mind blowing something away right now. So other than someone shooting at us, how could this be worse?"
"Okay, I admit this is pretty bad. But at least you have my charming company." Cortana replied. "Come on Xander, quit whining. You're supposed to be a soldier, and a heroic one at that."
"Maybe I'm tired of playing the heroic soldier," Xander snapped back. "Maybe after we get back I'm just gonna go back to being a teenager again. Vampires are one thing, but all out war is horrible. I sick of the fighting. I'm tired of bleeding, of getting broken and burnt. I'm tired of having to kill. Maybe when I get home I'm just gonna hang this suit up and never put it on again."
Cortana remained silent. She decided it was probably a good idea not to mention that once they got home, he might not be able to use the suit again whether or not he wanted to.
All doubt of the origin of the ship was put to rest when Carter found the UNSC serialization plate in the cockpit. She was flummoxed, as was everyone else at the crash site. Jack looked at the ship and shook his head in disbelief. A real, honest to god Pelican had crashed in the middle of the desert. How the hell did that happen? Where did it come from?
"Carter?" Jack asked. Sam looked up at his with a kind of glazed disbelief in her eyes. "Is there any, and I mean ANY, chance at all that this ship came from Earth? Maybe someone thought the Pelican looked cool and made their own?"
Carter considered for a moment. "It might be possible, if someone had access to off-world technology. But I would say it's extremely unlikely."
"As unlikely as a ship from a video game crashing into our planet?" Jack asked.
"Well no, but not as far off as you'd think," Sam replied. "Sir, this ship isn't like anything we've ever come across. There is far more similarity to our own systems than anything the Goa'uld have ever come up with, but it's just so advanced! This is years ahead of us, decades even. If someone on Earth made this ship, they had a lot of outside help."
"Well someone must have help then," Jack decided. "What other explanation could there be?"
After a little over sixty hours in the harsh desert climate, Xander stumbled into the Sunnydale city limits. He was hurting, he was hungry, he was thirsty, and he was more tired than he had ever been in his life. Over the past two and a half days he had slept only four hours. Being careful to stick to the outskirts of the town, Xander made his way to his warehouse. As soon as he entered he felt the cool sensation in the back of his head fade and Cortana's holographic form appeared in front of him. She helped him out of the charred and battered armour then directed him to the medical bay.
Xander limped heavily over to the sink and took three full glasses of water before lying down on the hospital bed. He knew Cortana wanted to take a look at his wrist and his foot, but he simply couldn't summon the energy to stay awake. Only minutes after lying down on top of the sheets fully clothed, Xander was asleep. Cortana decided to let him sleep, his injuries weren't life threatening. She contacted the Scoobies to let them know that Xander was home, then started examining the battered Mjolnir armour.
Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c sat in the briefing room of the SGC. After more than two days without any luck on the search, the team had pulled off it and went back the Colorado for a debriefing. Hammond looked at his team members, then sighed.
"So Colonel, there's been no luck finding any survivors from the crash?"
"No sir," Jack replied. "I'd say at this point if there was anyone flying the ship they've either gotten away or died in the desert somewhere."
Hammond looked to Carter. "Is it possible the ship was flown by remote?"
Carter nodded. "Yes sir the ship has all the necessary systems to be flown remotely. I'd think that given the lack of a body or any blood at the crash scene that being flown by remote is the most likely scenario."
"I need to understand what we're dealing with Major. Is this an alien ship?" Hammond asked.
Carter sighed, and Jack smirked slightly. "I can't give you an answer sir. I'd say yes, if it weren't a ship out of a video game. I looked at pictures from the video game. In and out, this thing is undeniably a Pelican. It even has a serialization plate that labels it as a UNSC ship."
"So it must have come from Earth then," Hammond reasoned.
"But it's way too advanced sir!" Carter burst out, looking very frustrated. "No one on Earth could have built this without help from aliens, but the technology isn't like anything I've ever come across."
"Are there any other possibilities?" Hammond asked.
"Actually, there might be a couple," Daniel said. "I mean, we've traveled to alternate realities and traveled through time. Isn't it possible, however unlikely, that this ship came from another time or reality?"
"Okay, time maybe," Jack conceded, "but another reality? Where Halo is real? Come on, I mean that's just, stupid."
"Actually sir it's not as impossible as you might think," Carter answered. "I mean, theoretically there are an infinite number of universes and therefore anything is possible. It's entirely possible that there exists a reality in which Halo is real, or even one where the events surrounding the Stargate are a game or TV show."
Everyone in the briefing room looked at Sam skeptically.
"Come on Carter, us on TV? Who would watch that?" Jack asked.
"Anyway sir," Sam said with a smile, "Daniel does have a valid point. We may very well be dealing with temporal or dimensional displacement. Maybe someone was conducting some kind of experiment into time or dimensional travel with the ship. When it appeared above out planet they just got unlucky and hit something."
"Is there some kind of test that we can do to provide evidence for that?" Hammond asked.
"I don't know sir, I can take a look and see if we can find anything. Materials not native to our universe or something along those lines," Carter mused.
Hammond sighed. "The bottom line is I need to tell the President something, people. Colonel, in your opinion, should we classify this as a foothold?"
Jack shook his head. "I wouldn't sir. We've found no evidence of anyone alive or dead in the desert, and Carter already said the ship could be flown remotely. I think this was just an accident. As for where the ship is from, turn it over to the eggheads at Area 51, let them figure it out."
Hammond nodded. "I suppose that will have to do. Major, if this ship is from another reality, see if you can find some kind of proof. I'll give you three days before we hand the ship to Area 51. I know they're going to be very anxious to get their hands on it. Dismissed."
Xander woke up, feeling sore all over but at least somewhere close to comfortable. He noticed that an IV was hooked to his right arm, and his left wrist was wrapped in bandages. Lifting the covers slightly, he saw bandages around his mid-section as well. He was debating whether or not to go back to sleep with he heard a door slam.
"XANDER!" Willow shrieked as she ran over to his bed. She wrapped him in a tight hug.
"Broken ribs! Broken ribs!" Xander yelped, and Willow loosened her grip. He grinned at his best friend. "Hey Wills, good to see you too." He looked behind her to see Buffy, Giles and Oz standing near his bed, smiling at him. "Hi guys, have a good summer?"
"It was pretty good," Buffy replied. "Went to LA for a week with my mom, found a demon slave camp in another dimension. How was yours?"
"Oh you know, the usual. Met the Master Chief, fought the Flood, set off a nuke that'll crack a planet, and saved the galaxy." Xander grinned.
"Okay, you win." Buffy grumbled.
"Everything okay with your mom?" Xander asked.
Buffy and Giles exchanged a look. "Yes, and no. It's different, she dotes more." Buffy replied. "I don't think she'll ever completely accept it."
"She's understandably concerned about her daughter," Giles said. "I do think she's taking it more in stride than many mothers would. But what about you Xander? Are you all right? You look a little, er, worse for wear."
Xander frowned. "The Powers brought me back into our reality on a collision course with a satellite. We crashed in the desert and I've spent the last two and a half days walking here on a bad ankle. Plus Cortana said there's a lot of damage to my armour, where is she anyway?"
Cortana materialized out of thin air at the foot of the bed. She looked downcast. "Hi Xander, I've been working on the armour."
"How bad is it?" He asked.
Cortana looked at him, biting her lip. "The entire fusion power pack has been compromised, it's going to have be rebuilt."
Xander grimaced. "So how long is it going to be? A few days, a week?"
Cortana sighed. "I can't fix it Xander. You have to understand, the Mjolnir armour takes incredible amounts of power from a very small source. No element on Earth has enough potential energy."
"I don't understand," Giles said. "How did they create it in the first place then?"
"I said no element on Earth, not no element period," Cortana replied. "The power pack is centered around a highly concentrated core of an element called naquadah. Unfortunately, naquadah is not native to Earth, or even this solar system. I'm sorry Xander, but without a new naquadah core I can't repair your armour."
The room went silent for a moment. Finally, Oz broke the silence, summing the situation up perfectly in just one word. "Bummer."
End chap 15
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