Disclaimer: I don't own either the Stargate series or the Fallout series. Probably for the best for both that I don't, really.

Combat scenes are not and have never been my thing. I tried to make this one better, but as it usually turns out when I try that, it just left me stalled on the chapter. So I just breezed through most of the details.

In general, I was stalled a lot on this chapter, then went and got distracted by other things. I'm back to this now and plan to stay back (while not totally abandoning other writing projects). I was planning to have them be done with this planet during this chapter, but then plans changed.

Lots of talking, not a lot of action, but a lot of important talking.

Wasteland Gate

By Kylia

Chapter 5: Wars of the Gods

Unknown Planet
D Plus 8, Project Blue Book Rediscovery

To be honest, Victoria wasn't even sure how much the six of them - Her, Sheppard, Veronica, Arcade and the other two - were adding to the ongoing firefight. The attackers with the snake hats and tattoos and the defenders with the bird tattoos were doing most of that themselves, and with the humans involved hiding behind cover and taking potshots at the Jaffa only occasionally, most of the casualties had been from the two sides.

It was only when the tide of reinforcements from wherever the teleport rings died down that she started getting serious about shooting the Jaffa again, using the pillar to good effect, but still only shooting one Jaffa at a time, VATS delivering two shoots - one ot the head, one to the chest - to make sure each went down.

And it tended to work. She knew her body was going to be sore beyond belief tomorrow, with how much she was relying on the machine-assisted aiming of VATS and the toll it took on her, but she didn't have the time or the opportunity for freer-handed shooting.

By contrast, Sheppard and the other two members of the CDV were able to lay down much greater fire, their automatic bursts burning through ammo but doing a much better job getting the Jaffa - who seemed to have no notion of taking cover - to keep their heads down. And Arcade's laser was doing a good job punching through the armor of the Jaffa.

Okay, fuck this, I'm sick of staying here behind cover. Victoria was not really one for explosives, but she did know how to throw a grenade here and there, and for desperate situations, she always made a point to carry a couple. This counted as one of those desperate situations. She pulled the grenade out, peered out of cover and pulled the pin:

"Grenade!" She shouted, even as she tossed it, and as it landed at the feet of the leading Jaffa, they too dove for cover - but that was good enough, because it meant they weren't firing. Stepping back out from behind the piller, Victoria filed six shots in quick succession, two on three targets, moving forward, diving behind another pillar, and reloading.

"Fire in the hole!" Sheppard shouted - and then she saw him throw another grenade at the Jaffa who were starting to pick themselves back up - and then they were down again, Sheppard and his buddies firing full bursts, the sound of their bullets crashing into the armor a steady plinking noise underneath all the other blasts. Turning around, she dove back into the cover provided by the pillar, and looked back onto the battlefield.

Except that the battle seemed to be done. At least for the moment. No more Jaffa were coming up from the rings, and all the Serpent-helmet ones seemed to be down for the count.

Victoria took a breath, reloading her gun quickly, and then stepped back out of cover. "Everyone else, stay covered, watch my back. Let's see if we can make sure if these guys are all dead." She didn't want to have to deal with any suicide bombers ready to blow her up before they died of their wounds or people playing dead. She'd had to deal with both before, and neither were fun.

She kicked the bodies of the bird-tattoo ones, not wanting to get close in case more of the snake-things jumped out - and sure enough, moments after she started kicking, she had to deal with one slipping out from the pouch on the dead Jaffa and slither across the floor, away -

Victoria shot it, not needing VATS this time. The thing was dead with the one bullet, at least.

"Here's a thought - bring flamers, or at least Shishkabobs, next time. Burn the bodies, keep these things from getting away." The rest of the snake-things for the moment seemed content to stay in the pouches, so she quickly crouched down and grabbed one of the staff weapons, finding the catch to open the bulbous head quickly.

"Doesn't look a thing like any Plasma weapon I've ever seen. No place to put more microfusion cells, seems... simple. Elegant." She looked over to Veronica, "Catch," she tossed it over to the former Brotherhood Scribe, who caught it and started looking it over.

A quick storm of bullets behind her saw her turn around and there was another dead snake-thing.

"Madre de dios! Warn a girl next time, Sheppard!" Victoria demanded, and the man shrugged.

"Sorry," he didn't sound very apologetic. Victoria inhaled sharply and rolled her eyes, before returning to checking the bodies. She shot two more of the snake-things, and then she reached the serpent-head helmet guys. They'd taken the brunt of the grenade blasts, and yet, as she kicked each of the bodies in turn, one of the bodies actually moved, grabbing onto her leg as it rolled onto its side, trying to pull her to the ground with strength that Victoria hadn't faced in anything the size of a human. But with agility born of great practice, she managed to stay on her feel and kick out at the Jaffa's chest and broke free of his grip.

"Seems like this one is alive," Victoria said quickly, darting backwards and aiming her gun at him. She saw Sheppard and his men point their guns at him, but Victoria held up a hand. "Let's see if we can take him alive. His armor is a wreck, he has to be on his last legs."

The Jaffa struggled up into a sitting position, one hand still on his staff-weapon. But after a moment, he dropped the weapon, and his helmet opened, sliding open as the front collapsed forward, revealing a dark-skinned face with a snake-tattoo on his face, only it was in gold rather than ink.

He was handsome enough, but it was the face of a warrior, rugged and showing a man who had killed many times in his life and expected to kill more. A veteran soldier, not some raw recruit or recent conscript.

What the hell? Did they cut his head and pour molten gold in there?

"Humans, you have my surrender," the Jaffa said, speaking loudly, his expression a pained one as he struggled against the ruin the attacks must have made of his body.

"Seriously? You're just going to surrender like that? It looked like you guys were all fight-to-the-death," Victoria gestured to the dead bodies of both sides. "Just like that, you surrender to us?"

"The Jaffa of Heru'ur still follow their false god. As do all too many of the Jaffa of Apophis," he gestured to his own fallen comrades. "I do not."

"Seemed like you were just now, when you and your boys took shots at me and my people," Victoria pointed out. "So... Apophis is another Goa'uld? The one you work for?"

"The one who I swore to serve, in the time before I came to realize that the Goa'uld's profession to be gods was false." The man corrected, his voice grim. He tried to stand, slowly, but grunted in pain and fell back to his knees before he could pull it off. "There are only a few who reject the divinity of the Goa'uld, and none that I took with me to this planet to take it from Heru'ur's forces."

"Seems awfully convenient for you," Sheppard pointed out. "That all the guys who might have kiled you if you turned on this Apophis are dead, but you're alive to surrender to us." He sounded skeptical, but then, so was Victoria. Still, she had wanted a prisoner. If they were stepping into a galaxy they did not know, it would do to have some idea of what the fuck was going on. Current events.

"I'm in a great deal of pain, and I could very well die before my symbiote heals me." The man countered flatly. "And it is entirely possible you will kill me. But at least I will die free, and with my killers knowing I die free."

Free? She could hear the fervency in his voice as he said 'I will die free', and it reminded her of former Legion slaves, even former Legionaries - all too many made poor prisoners of war, after Second Hoover Damn, but some, for all that they had been broken to the will of Caesar had managed to retain some small spark of freedom that had been renewed with Lanius's death.

"So... these Goa'uld enslave you as well as command you?"

"All are slaves to the Goa'uld, or so they would claim," the Jaffa said. "I would as a question of you, if you would answer it." He grunted in pain again as he tried to stand once more - Victoria and everyone else all kept their guns pointed at him, but this time he did manage to stand, hand pressing on the blood wounds on his chest, though at least they didn't seem to be bleeding as much as they should.

So the things in their stomachs' makes them heal faster? That's what it sounded like, from what he'd said, what she was seeing now.

"Go ahead and ask. I won't promise you an answer." She was hesitant about taking anyone that was carrying around a weird parasite-thing back with them to Earth. Healing or not, it would have to go, but either way, any information was information. And you could learn a lot from the questions someone asked.

"You carry the weapons of the Phantom Godkillers, but you do not bear their armor. You do not fight as they, and you allowed my surrender, rather than killing me out of hand as they do. But none else in the galaxy wield a weapon like that one does." He gestured to Arcade and his energy pistol.

"Phantom Godkillers?" Victoria said, furrowing her brow. The people who went to Abydos after the bombs dropped! They're still alive!

Well, their descendents, anyway. They could be like the Enclave - but... not evil. Hopefully. Perhaps they had continued to develop new technology.

She'd seen Enclave Power Armor in action at Second Hoover Dam, when Arcade's parents' old Enclave buddies joined the fight. It was orders of magnitude above even the T-51 Power Armor. Designed after the war, on the Enclave's oil rig...

If these Air Force Personnel had gone to Abydos, and stayed alive, it was possible that they might have done something similar, improving on the technology of 2077 in some ways. And it seemed they were continuing the fight against the Goa'uld.

Phantom must imply they come and they go with ease... hit and run attacks?

"Their armor... does it look anything like this?" Sheppard asked, pulling a photograph out of his pocket. Still mostly facing the Jaffa, Victoria walked backwards and accepted the photograph of T-45 Armor. She couldn't tell if it was well-preserved pre-war or taken with a surviving Camera, but it didn't really matter. She walked back towards the Jaffa and half-tossed/half-dropped the photo on the ground. It sort of drift/floated most of the distance towards him between the two of them, and he crouched, managing to keep from making any audible noises of pain as he picked the photo up and examined it.

"Yes. Much like this, though some things appear to be different."

Well, that confirms that then.

"We have their weapons because we come from the same world as they once did - their ancestors, anyway. Our people... lost contact with them, two hundred of our years ago. It is good to know they yet live." Victoria said carefully, not elaborating in the how of all that. No need to let the Jaffa know how weak Earth actually was, all said and done.

Yeah, we aren't using the armor because we blew ourselves up and can't make more and have to carefully husband the suits we have left.

"Why do you call them the Phantom Godkillers?" Victoria asked, but she could guess.

"Because they strike without warning, kill all Jaffa they can find and any Goa'uld. They steal all weapons, all Naquadah and other useful materials and take them with them, and leave no trace but death in their wake. They take their dead with them, and have destroyed themselves rather than be captured if need be, or so say the stories." The Jaffa spoke as if he was - and he was, likely, if the 'kill everyone' thing was more or less true - relaying folklore or myth and legend rather than recounting facts he knew well. "Only the scattered reports of survivors who hid, or slaves who did not fight, speak to the truth of their actions. Many years ago, one was killed by a direct blast from an Al-Kesh. Their helmet and their weapon, a larger weapon than the one he wields," once more a gesture towards Arcade, "were recovered mostly intact. Apophis holds them as trophies, though none of his master sorcerers have been able to replicate the magic of either."

Sorcerers? Victoria bit back the urge to scoff. So not only did these Goa'uld claim to be gods, but they professed that their technology was magic. The 'master sorcerers' must be the scientists or technicians or something like that.

"There's no such thing as magic," Veronica cut in. "It's just technology. Anyone who pretends a laser rifle is magic is a cheap huckster."

"Well, that's not really the point," Arcade shook his head. He stepped forward, standing by Victoria. He looked over to Victoria, murmuring a question, "do you think a stimpack would work on him?"

"That's a good question," Victoria murmured. "He looks like he's mostly human, but between the pouch and the strength and supposed faster healing... though maybe that comes from the Symbiote thing..." She raised her voice and looked back at the Jaffa.

"What's your name, anyway?" She asked.

"I am Teal'c, of Chulak," the Jaffa said.

"Teal'c," she tested the name. "Say we bring you back with us, as a prisoner. What's to keep that... parasite in you from leaving, trying to infect one of us?"

"My symbiote is young, a larval form of the gods. They take many years to mature, and they do not leave before then unless they have no choice." Teal'c replied stoically.

"A big gamble for us to take on believing you," Victoria said. "If we take you back with us, we're taking it out."

Teal'c shook his head, shifting his back leg a little, into a defensive stance. "Jaffa were created as the incubators of the gods, slaves and soldiers to their will - we require the Goa'uld to survive. Remove my symbiote and I would take ill and die in days. They are a boon to our skill as warriors, our longevity as slaves, but they are the curse that chains my people."

Shit. Talk about an assurance of loyalty. If a Jaffa ever started getting a little disloyal, or even just not as ass-kissing as some 'A God Am I' bastard wanted, no more larva inside to keep him or her going. Clever. If evil. Addiction, but... worse, really.

This all assumed the Jaffa was truthful, but looking at him, Victoria didn't think Teal'c was lying - there didn't seem to be any tells, anyway. Of course, he was also an alien, so who the hell knew what their tells would be. Then again, he still looked really human.

There's still the fact that he said it was possible he could die before he healed his injuries, symbiote or not.

"Jaffa are made from humans, no?" Victoria asked. Created. So... like Super Mutants? But... not green crazy fuckers? Okay, that wasn't fair. Not every Super Mutant was crazy. Though a lot of them are. Even some of the friendly ones. "So would medicine that works on humans work on you?"

"It does," Teal'c said after a moment.

"Good." She pulled another new-model stimpack out of a belt pouch and tossed it to Teal'c, who caught it easily. "Inject it into your bloodstream through your neck. It'll hurt going in, but it'll help with the healing." Teal'c injected it impassively, not even wincing as the needle went into his neck.

"Keep an eye on him for a second," she told Arcade in a low voice. "I'm going to see what Sheppard thinks."

"You're going to accept his surrender, right?" Arcade deamanded. "We can't just kill him when he's unarmed and not fighting."

"That's the idea, but I'm not sure we can just go taking Prisoners into someone else's home without asking first, now can we?" Victoria pointed out. She gestured to Sheppard and they both walked a bit away from everyone else.

"I'm for taking him in." Sheppard said quietly. "I don't think he's lying, and even if he is, I don't like killing people who are unarmed."

"Me neither, if I can help it," Victoria agreed. "On the other hand, he could be some sort of ticking time bomb." She inhaled sharply, "on a third hand - I actually met a guy with one of those, actually," she went on, getting sidetracked for a moment as she thought about that guy she'd met down in the south, near the Glow. Hadn't even been a useful third hand, just growing out of his side like the start of an arm.

"Anyway... we need his intel. We walked right into the middle of a war, and who knows how many more of these 'gods' there are running around? If we want to get any use out of the Stargate, we'll need to know what we're getting in for."

"Pretty much. I say we take him in - Colonel Mitchel will make sure he's treated fair. We even treat raider prisoners well."

"Why would you take raider prisoners?" Victoria shook her head, "Not like you can rehabilitate them back into society."

"Intel, usually, or if they're related to or buddies with raider bosses, for ransom or hostage," Sheppard shrugged. "But you'd be surprised - get them clean and give them something to do, and some become decent people. A little mouthy, but no one's screwed forever."

"Still, we need to know just how much we can trust him." Sheppard added. "What's that Old World saying? Trust, but verify?"

"Well, we're still at the 'trust' stage, but I think that's how it goes. Or something, yeah."

"Point. I have an idea. Unless you want to turn around and head home already."

"Hell no. Still a lot to do."

"Agreed," Victoria dropped her pack onto the ground and crouched, biting her lip a little as her chest, still throbbing a bit from the earlier plasma blast, pained her at the motion. She pulled a long length of rope out of the pack and went back over towards Teal'c.

"Hands on your head," she told him, not stepping closer until he complied, if he complied. She didn't like the idea of going mano y mano with someone as strong as he seemed to be, wounded or not. "We're going down into wherever those ring... things go. You're coming with us - unarmed, hands tied behind your back. You'll probably know more than us what the hell we'll find there."

"Apophis believed it to be a supply depot and listening post." Teal'c supplied. "This world is remote, but lies near several important key links in Apophis's supply lines. Heru'ur has been using it as a base to spy on and attack Apophis."

"So those two are at war?"

"They have been at war since the Death of Ra, with many intermittent and ultimately temporary truces forced on them by the other System Lords. Heru'ur blames Apophis for his father's disappearance and presumed death, and Apophis consisers Heru'ur his chief rival for the title of Supreme System Lord, once held by Ra."

"System Lords?" Victoria stepped closer once Teal'c put his hands on his head.

"The greatest of the Gods. Many thousands of years ago, Ra forced all the other gods under his leadership, and created a council of the mightiest of them to rule the Goa'uld Domain as his almost-equals. His death two centuries ago changed all that." Teal'c narrowed his eyes a little as Victoria moved behind him and grabbed his wrists, tying the rope around them as she moved his arms behind his back, making sure not to put him in too uncomfortable a position.

"Apophis has always maintained that he killed Ra, and yet, if he had, he would have been in a position to act on that death immediately. He did not - he only acted when he was sure, when all the other Systems Lords were sure, that Ra had truly vanished and his throne empty. And the Phantom Godkillers arose a few years after Ra's disappearance. Your people killed Ra, did they not?"

Well, I'll give him this, he's not an idiot.

"Pretty sure, yeah."

"Then you can understand why I would wish to surrender to you. Long have those Jaffa who sought to be free hoped to face someone who could be a threat to the Goa'uld, who would fight them and could win. None else who oppose the Goa'uld have ever done such damage to the Gods as killing Ra did. It ushered in decades of war, and the system created after that remains unstable... and the few numbers of Jaffa who see the truth has only grown as a result, though from few to only a few more."

"You want to help us free your people." Victoria nodded. She could get behind that.

"Indeed," Teal'c murmured.

"Alright then. Help us out on this, help us figure out things we can't understand that we find down there, and we'll take you back to our world. After that... Colonel Mitchell and Councilman Hammond seem like good, decent men. If you don't jerk us around, you'll be well treated, and given a shot at freedom."

Or I'll just break him out so I don't get made a liar by someone else being an asshole.

One or the other.

"These are acceptable terms." Teal'c said after a moment's consideration. "If you truly can free my people, I will gladly offer your world my service."

"One thing at a time, big guy." Victoria slapped his shoulder lightly and gestured to everyone. "Let's grab one of these staff-blaster-things each. Take them home, maybe figure out what makes them tick. They pack a bigger punch than any plasma rifle I've ever had the misfortune to be hit with."

It didn't take them long to grab some, Bosworth even grabbed two, and then they all moved to the rings.

"Any way we can all go down, Teal'c?" She asked, looking at the controls written in an alien language.

"Assuming the rings have been primed from recent use and do not require a specific code - which is likely - pressing the upper left button twice and the middle right button three times should active a delay long enough for someone to get to the rings."

"Alright then." Victoria gestured for everyone to stand where the rings had appeared, Teal'c with them, and then she pressed the buttons, quickly moving into place as the high-pitched whining sound was heard and the rings appeared all around them.

Down we go.