Disclaimer: As Always, I don't own Stargate SG-1 or Fallout: New Vegas

As promised, this chapter will have the second expedition through the Stargate begins.

Unfortunately, many of the worlds from canon don't always work for every story, even allowing from the RPG. But I will be using canon worlds on many other missions.

We do see Jaffa using horses and other livestock, and given that we don't really see the Goa'uld have any land vehicles, and their general unwillingness to hand around fancy tech when manual labor will do, the idea of Jaffa Cavalry makes sense.

Epona was a Celtic goddess of horses that the Romans adopted.

Wasteland Gate

By Kylia

Chapter 9: Raid, Ransack, Return, Rinse, Repeat?

January 12th, 2283

Sublevel 27, Stargate Command

Briefing Room

"So, we're settled then?" Victoria said, looking around the table. "Because I don't want to get up, get to the door and then have someone raise an objection. Again." Okay, granted, that had been only once, and Woolsey had actually made a good point, but still. "I'd like to go through the Stargate again before I'm dead."

"Given how complicated these affairs are, I don't think the negotiations taking four days is all that unreasonable, Miss Fernandez," Woolsey commented, his characteristic precise stiffness unchanged, despite the last four days of horse trading between the NCR and Cheyenne, with Victoria stuck playing referee.

Hammond and O'Neill both trusted her to do the job fairly, and she had. She was a citizen of the NCR, she loved her homeland and she wanted to see it do well. Just not at the expense of people who were just as capable of building themselves up on their own.

Ideal scenario is that Cheyenne becomes the center of another state in the NCR, but that's impractical for now. Not until the Legion's fragments between Hoover Dam and here could be swept aside, and that would be decades, probably. NCR needed a breather now that the Mojave and more of the land of Nevada had been absorbed and was being integrated.

So with that ideal scenario unavailable, Victoria wanted to see Cheyenne get a fair deal out of this. Hammond wasn't an idiot, and despite being a bean counter, Woolsey didn't seem interested in trying to stack the deck in favor of the NCR too much, though he'd tried to pull a few small tricks in the language of the final agreement. And maybe a few more she hadn't caught. But nothing large enough to poison the deal.

"What can I say, I'm more used to action," Victoria shrugged. "But we're all agreed then? A five-man committee will oversee the day to day management of the Stargate Project - myself, Woolsey, Hammond, Mitchell and O'Neill. Woolsey and O'Neill can be replaced by the NCR President, as they serve in their capacities as civilian and military heads of the NCR side of the project. Mitchell serves because he's in charge of the CDV, and Hammond as the representative of the Cheyenne Council - and they can replace you. And I can just nominate the successor to my seat however I want. As long as they aren't an official in the Cheyenne or NCR governments." It was a cumbersome system, perhaps, but it should work for their needs for now. She hadn't really planned on ending up on the leadership of the Project, and she'd probably just leave someone to sit in her place while she was offworld most of the time, but she'd been talked into being on it as a tiebreaker, if it came to that. And her own experiences in the wider wasteland offered a 'unique perspective'.

The last thing I wanted was to be even ankle deep in bureaucracy. Now I'm at least knee-deep in it. Yay!

"Agreed." Hammond nodded. "And we're agreed on all the prices the NCR can pay for supplies and materiel, beyond what they bring in as needed. And adjudication for any criminal complaints between our respective sides, if something happens, god forbid."

"There's already been a few brawls," Victoria said.

"Something important," Hammond clarified. "Soldiers brawl - trying to stop it would be a waste, as long as it doesn't get out of hand."

Mitchell nodded in agreement. "Harmless, so far. Taking stock of each other - your troopers are good men, O'Neill. Some of my people were expecting them to be pushovers in a one on one fight."

"Oh, we didn't bring the pushovers with us. Have to make a good impression after all," O'Neill quipped. The man was constitutionally incapable of taking anything one hundred percent seriously, it seemed. O'Neill looked down at his copy of the final form of the agreement. "I see nothing worth complaining about here. Though I don't plan to stay behind a desk most of the time either."

"Just make sure you write reports on your missions through the gate, Colonel," Woolsey said, using Jack's not entirely honorary, not entirely real 'rank'. "The President told me you have a history of taking far too long at that."

"Yeah, sure, youbetcha," Jack said dismissively, calm, self-assured and flippant. Woolsey let out an exasperated sigh.

"Good." Victoria read through the rest of the terms quickly, making sure it was all as they'd agreed - six more teams would be formed, four made up of mixed personnel, to go through the stargate. She could pick her own team, of course. Equal sharing of technology, and alien materials - naquadah, this metal Trinium that Teal'c had told them about, et cetera. The NCR would pay for their own food and supplies, beyond what they bought themselves via caravan. They wouldn't have to pay for bullets, not with the bullet forge here in the base, which was nice, because Victoria suspected they were going to be going through a lot of ammo, quickly. The NCR was going to get a good deal on what they did buy, though. And they might just pay in some of their share of the 'loot' from the Project itself.

The NCR didn't need every single staff weapon they found, after all, or the Zats. Just enough for testing, creating new ones, or at least some sort of knock-off using microfusion cells or something like that.

Maybe it'll put the Van Graff energy weapons monopoly out of business for good. Though the NCR would probably just hand the tech over to some magnate who was bought up with the right people.

So maybe not much of an improvement.

"So where are you planning on going first then, Miss Fernandez?" Woolsey asked, once they finally went through everything. "I understand Mr. Tea'lc provided a list of a dozen candidates based on our list from the..." He looked through the papers in front of him, "Abydos Cartouche?"

"He did. In between intel debriefings and teaching Arcade Goa'uld. We won't know if any of his intel is good until we check one, of course," Victoria frowned. "So we're still at every risk of walking into a trap."

"I thought you trusted the big guy," O'Neill leaned back in his chair, eying her carefully.

"I do. But verification never hurt anyone. I'd like to go for one of the Naquadah mines he identified, but those are some of the most well-defended planets. Mitchell recommended that we make sure we don't focus too much on one System Lord, which was a good point." That way they wouldn't risk creating too much attention for themselves from any one of the leading Goa'uld. "So we're going to be checking out a world called Viluntia."

Victoria shrugged, "According to Teal'c, it's a lightly defended world that is part of Apophis's domain, but he doesn't pay it much mind. But it'll have Jaffa guarding it we can take weapons and tech from, and perhaps more importantly, the planet produces a lot of food for Apophis's slave mines."

"Food? And it's lightly defended?"

"There's always more slaves available if some die of starvation," Victoria said. "According to Teal'c, Apophis has been stripping a lot of his outlying worlds bare for his war with Heru'ur, which includes Viluntia. We can hardly take the world from him, but we could disrupt his logistics, even a little, and get our hands on samples of offworld food, even goa'uld farming technology. Or 'magic', as Teal'c says. He doesn't know much about it, and I know less about farming, but the farmers over at Fort Carson said Teal'c might have been talking about some sort of fertilizer that ensures they food crops are plentiful and grow quickly."

"The NCR is always in need of more food, and I'm sure Cheyenne wouldn't say no to a way to improve yields." Woolsey said. "I see no problem with this mission."

"Neither do I." Hammond agreed. "I agree we can't afford to target any of the major depots of any of the system lords, or their Naquadah mines. So we'll do what we can, take what we can get, and gather intelligence."

"So basically: Raid, Ransack, Return, Rinse, Repeat?" Jack offered.

Victoria nodded after a moment, "That is one way to look at it, yeah." When he put it like that, sounded basically like her career between delivery jobs before Benny, and half of what she did in the Mojave - find a place that hadn't been picked clean, or that was occupied by raiders of one sort or another, and clear it out, then take everything she could as salvage for sale.

Basically, that was the Stargate Project on a larger scale, wasn't it?"

"Seems like the only way to look at it," O'Neill countered. "Not that I have a problem with it. Who am I to judge - I've done my fair share of plundering the people I kill in the field for supplies."

"But not for money or loot." Victoria guessed.

"If I wanted money, I wouldn't have signed on with the Rangers." O'Neill got up. "Alright, so if this little pow-wow is done, I want to have a talk with Teal'c as well. Got some questions for him. I assume you want to ask him some more details on Viluntia?"

"I do. Let's go see him together." Victoria looked to the other three, "Unless there's something else to discuss?" When no one said there was, Victoria took the opportunity to get out of dodge before they changed their mind, O'Neill right behind her, humming a cheery little tune as he too escaped paperwork and meeting hell.

January 12th, 2283

Sublevel 25, Cheyenne Mountain

Teal'c's Quarters

Though the CDV trusted Teal'c enough to let him on the surface to patrol with them, they were still concerned enough to keep one man outside his door, when he was there. Teal'c didn't mind, from what he told her - he wasn't actually not allowed to go anywhere, but they did want to keep an eye on him.

Perfectly understandable.

Nodding to the guard, Victoria went inside. Teal'c was seated on a man, meditating. She looked around. "No bed?"

She hadn't actually spoken to Teal'c in his quarters before.

"Jaffa do not sleep," Teal'c explained, opening his eyes and standing up quickly. "We Kelno'reem."

"That's a mouthful," O'Neill observed.

"It is a meditation ritual. It requires absolute focus and control." Teal'c explained. "How may I assist you, VictoriaFernandez?"

"Just want to run a few questions by you about Viluntia. And Colonel O'Neill wanted to meet you."

"Call me Jack," O'Neill insisted, holding out a hand. Teal'c, still not totally familiar with the gesture, accepted the handshake after a moment. He inclined his head in a small bow.

"An honor to meet you, O'Neill. You are one of the Rangers? Greatest warriors of the New California Republic?"

"Not that I want to toot my own horn, but..." O'Neill nodded. "And you're First Prime of Apophis. How do you get a fancy title like that? Deathmatch in a pit?"

"The First Prime of a Goa'uld must be the greatest warrior in their service. Any Jaffa of sufficient rank may challenge for the title, in honorable combat."

"Must be fun. Face a lot of challenges?"

"Only in my earliest time as First Prime." Teal'c nodded. "I have heard many tales about the prowess of your kin, O'Neill."

"Oh? Do tell."

"In a minute," Victoria held up a hand. "Yesterday, you told me that Viluntia's stargate only has a half-dozen guards. Even allowing for Apophis stripping the world bare for his war, that seems low. Food may not be naquadah, but his slaves and his Jaffa need to eat."

"The Stargate had six jaffa when last it was inspected, by the Third Prime less than a year ago. Apophis has not since drawn warriors from that world." Teal'c explained. "Most of Viluntia's garrison is otherwise occupied. The slaves manning the farms are restive, and wide-spread. They must be watched by many smaller units."

"Restive? Rebellious?"

"No. Such impudence would be punished brutally - once, long ago Viluntia was rebellious, and they were punished for their offenses. Much of the world's southern continent was burned from orbit, and the Stargate and the survivors were moved to the north. Apophis's underlord, So'tal, leads a ritual to remind the people of the price of rebellion. But many slaves flee the farms, moving to the hill country. Jaffa are occupied watching the rest and finding the escapees." Teal'c explained. "They are punished most gruesomely, by So'tal himself. He takes great pleasure in it."

Teal'c's voice had the slightest expression of disgust as he spoke of the man. After speaking with him more since she returned, Victoria had realized he was merely very good at schooling his emotions, than an expression as his manner of speech might seem.

"You called him without honor, yesterday."

"Even by the standards of the Goa'uld, So'tal is a liar and deceiver without peer or limit. And yet he is still able to fool former slaves into returning, with promises of amnesty." Teal'c explained, finally unclasping his hands from behind his back. "He uses words like daggers and poison, and when they return, they are punished, in the dungeons underneath his fortress. But word of their fate never spreads."

"Sounds like a real charmer," O'Neill added. "Hands on, I take it?"

"Almost all goa'uld enjoy causing pain 'hands on', as you say, RangerO'Neill," Teal'c answered.

"The farms are dispersed widely around the gate, in small settlements, because the farms take up a lot of space. Would the Jaffa have to walk - or march, or run - to the Gate to respond in case of attack?"

"They would ride."

"You didn't say they had vehicles there. Or ships. No death gliders either." She doubted Teal'c had lied to her, but left her wondering what he was talking about.

"They have horses. Many horses. On worlds such as this, where the Jaffa range far from the Stargate, Apophis has provided horses, from the stables of Epona," Teal'c explained.

"Animals? They rode animals?" Victoria's brow furrowed. "How - how the hell does that work? What's a horse anyway?"

"Four-legged animal." O'Neill explained, "Cowboys used to ride them all over this part of the country, couple centuries before the War." He gestured to Victoria's hat when he said 'cowboys'. Victoria eyes him. He shrugged, "Found a bunch of Old World books, cowboy stories. Fun adventurers."

Now that O'Neill mentioned them, Victoria vaguely remembered hearing about them. But she couldn't recall any details.

"Are horses dangerous? Teeth, claws? Hardened scales?" Victoria asked Teal'c.

"A horse trained for battle can be deadly, if one gets in range of it's hooves, or it's bite - their teeth are not sharp, but they are powerful enough to break skin. Those from Epona's stables, or descended from her breeds, can even break bone with a bite." Teal'c explained. "A horse can be a fearsome beast to tame, if wild-blooded enough. But most are not trained for battle - merely used for travel or beasts of burden, like your Brahmin. They will flee unless cornered, or their young threatened."

"Who is this 'Epona', then? You mentioned her twice."

"A minor Goa'uld once in service to Poseiden. When he rebelled against Ra and was defeated, she passed into Ra's service for a few centuries. After Ra's death, she has ruled her small domain, selling the horses and other animals she breeds to all System Lords. Many would seek to have exclusive control over her stock - but none would risk the wrath of all others by forcing it." Teal'c explained.

"Well, that's one way to stay free. Be too useful to too many to be invaded." House had tried that for a while. Hadn't lasted forever though. Idiot had insisted on believing she would ever be his minion. If he hadn't, she'd never have been able to get in and unplug him from his machine.

"So these horses are uh... common, out there? In space?" Victoria said hesitantly.

"On many worlds, yes." Teal'c said. He looked at her carefully. "You are nervous."

"I don't have the best experience with large animals, Teal'c. You've seen the surface. Apart from Brahmin and Bighorners, all the rest have always tried to eat me." Victoria admitted. "But they're not dangerous?" She wanted the assurance she wasn't going up against some sort of tame Yao-guai.

"Rarely, as I said."

Victoria let out a sigh. "Good. That's good." she said quickly. "So we shouldn't linger too long, but it might take a few hours for large number of reinforcements to arrive then?"

"A few. But not more. The horses of Epona's breeding are faster than any others. She uses a technology only she possesses to ensure they are." Some sort of advanced genetic engineering, presumably, like the Think Tank used to create Nightstalkers and Cazadores.

"Did she design it?"

"So she claims. But the Goa'uld are parasites. And there are those who came before the Goa'uld - I know not their names, but when their technology is found, Systems Lords will fight over it, to claim and steal it for their own."

"Do you know of any words where that technology is?" Victoria asked, mostly out of idle curiosity. The idea of having tech even the Goa'uld wanted was appealing.

"Only rumors. But they would always be well-guarded." Teal'c answered.

"So you're saying we shouldn't be planning to visit?" O'Neill raised an eyebrow.

"It would be unwise," Teal'c confirmed.

"Well, we'll focus on just the one world at a time. Viluntia will be a good start. Hopefully we can even capture this So'tal alive." She doubted he'd be so willing to hand over intelligence, but she was also hoping he could be scared into spilling. Dangle him in front of a Deathclaw nest, maybe. If not, there were ways to trick someone into talking. Not one of her talents, interrogation. But others could do it.

"Most Goa'uld would rather live than die. Many defeated gods are brought into the service of their conquerors." Teal'c answered. "Apophis took great pleasure in bending his enemies to his will."

"Good." One way the Goa'uld were different from Caesar. He was petty and egomaniacal, but he understood the principle of death being just good enough for his enemies. But if they were used to being captured... She nodded to Teal'c. "Thank you. I'm sure you were expecting the chance to actually fight the Goa'uld directly when you defected. Rather than just... lots of talking. But hopefully you'll be able to join us after this mission."

"You seek to confirm my honor. It is...trying, but I understand," Teal'c said. "The challenge of facing the predatory creatures of your world is one worthy of the greatest of warriors."

"I heard you're planning on bagging a deathclaw, eh?" O'Neill chuckled.

"I have seen this fearsome beast from a distance, and it is said to be the deadliest beast of your world." Teal'c nodded. "Have you fought one, RangerO'Neill?"

"Not alone, and not by choice, but I've had to kill a few of the pesky lizards," O'Neill nodded. "Happy to share, if you can fill me in on Jaffa tactics."

"Of course." Teal'c looked to Victoria, and she nodded.

"You've answered my questions. I'll leave you to it." Victoria gave Teal'c a small, polite bow, and left.

January 13th, 2283

Viluntia

The Eyebot that they sent through first with a camera and the sensor arrays borrowed from the schematics in the SGC computers was shot down a minute later by the Jaffa guarding the gate - six, as promised by Teal'c, but no matter. They had more, and it could be repaired. What was important, now, was moving through before reinforcements could be called. Within seconds of the eyebot being shot down, Victoria was through, diving and dropping. The wave of disorientation she'd felt last time wasn't there now, thank god.

Staff blasts flew overhead as she rolled down the ramp leading up to the stargate. Jumping to her feet, Victoria fired off a full six rounds at two Jaffa, moving to take cover behind one of the large stone pillars surrounding the stargate.

The Gate was in the open, clear to ensure the free passage of cartload after cartload of food for Apophis's other worlds. She winged one Jaffa on the shoulder, but got the other on his neck. He may or may not have died from that yet, but he went down nonetheless. More staff blasts hit the pillar, exploding chunks out of it as she holstered her .357 and pulled out her .44. She also had several new guns, all brought with her from the Lucky 38 - Benny's gun, that he'd used to kill her and a pair of .45s.

Even as she'd taken cover and fired, the rest of the team came through the gate - O'Neill and Carter, both firing NCR service rifles, Sheppard with his gun, and then Arcade and Veronica right behind them. Arcade was wearing combat armor under his lab coat this time, and Victoria was wearing the same, though she'd only agreed under protest.

The shooting was over with quickly, six people versus six Jaffa, and those six were clearly not the cream of the crop. No injuries, thankfully, though a few grazing shots along the combat armor melted parts of it.

"We need to make something better than this for dealing with staff weapons," Veronica said, eyeing her damaged arm guard. "Mass producible, too, ideally."

"Sounds like a tall order." Sheppard commented, grabbing staff weapons and Zats from the fallen. "We can't carry all of these the whole way," he noted. There was nothing very close to the stargate, but according to Teal'c that too was by design. With the draw down of forces over years and years, So'tal had decided to limit what raiders through the Stargate could do.

And there's supposed to be a flight of gliders stationed here, but they got stripped away and never replaced. Victoria could guess the open space would have been perfect for bombardment attacks on gate-based raiders.

"Very. We should take some of the Jaffa armor, so we have more sets to test, too." Veronica agreed.

Carter was looking at the DHD, "countless supercomputers linked together to run the gate on Earth, and all it really needs is this." She crouched, poking around. After a moment, Victoria watched her pull a panel away from the device. "Holy Hannah," she murmured, looking at the internal circuitry of the thing, whatever it was. Victoria couldn't see from this angle. "I can't even begin to imagine how this works." She murmured, as much to herself as to them.

"We'll worry about it later, Carter," O'Neill cut in, tersely. "We've got work to do."

"Right, yes sir," Carter replaced the panel and straightened back up.

"According to Teal'c, that should be So'tal's fortress," Victoria pointed to a large, imposing tan-colored structure, looking like it was made of some sort of stone, off to the east, assuming her Pipboy had the orientation right. "Maybe fifteen minutes walk for us. A lot more guards than the stargate, and we have to assume they're on alert."

"Could mean we'll have some friendly company to greet us on the way then," O'Neill mused. "Either way, let's get moving."

"Colonel, what do we do with all this?" Sheppard gestured to the pile of staff weapons, Zats and pieces of Jaffa armor.

"Stash it by the gate, and we'll grab them on the way out. With the half-destroyed eyebot," Victoria suggested. She turned to Arcade, who was looking at the lines of goa'uld writing on the pillars. "Arcade, anything useful on there?"

"Prayers extolling the glory of Apophis, mostly," Arcade said. "I think, anyway." He snapped several pictures of the inscriptions. "And a few lines about So'tal's ever so slightly lesser glory." Arcade's tone dripped with sarcasm like only he could do it.

"Of course." Victoria chuckled.

"Twenty caps says this So Tall fellow is planning on betraying his boss first chance get gets," O'Neill offered. Everyone else looked at him. "Yeah, sucker's bet. Let's go."

He headed off first, taking the lead, and Victoria was right behind him. The road from the gate to the fortress was made of some sort of fused stone, as if it had been hit by nukes. Obviously that hadn't happened, given all the greenery around, but some sort of intense heat had melted the stones together.

They were only on the road for a few minutes when they heard some sort of... sound.

Victoria couldn't describe it - it was loud, getting louder, and repetative. Sort of a sharp sound, clicking against the stone.

It was coming closer.

"Off the road, now!" O'Neill shouted, and everyone scrambled to get off the road - but there wasn't much in the way of tree or undergrowth cover. Sheppard, Carter and O'Neill laid flat just below the rise of the road, but it wasn't exactly much in the way of cover. Victoria dropped into a crouch, Arcade and Veronica doing the same. Switching to one of the .45s, Victoria grabbed binoculars and looked ahead - but she didn't really need to, as it quickly became clear what was coming towards her.

Six more Jaffa, staff weapons in one hand, and the other hands... on some sort of ties, or leashes strapped to the elongated heads of the... things they were riding. Four legs, each long, holding up a tall, long body, covered in fur. It was like no animal Victoria had ever seen, but she could only guess these were the horses.

They ate up the distance to them quickly, and as they drew close, the one at the lead shouted something and they all brought their staff weapons around, firing wildly, one handed - Victoria didn't even need to duck for nonexistent cover to avoid the blasts. She started shooting from the .45, dropping it and grabbing the next, everyone else starting to fire. The horses took several shots, proving to be quite hardy, moving rapidly making it hard to hit the, and bullets bouncing off the armor of the Jaffa. When they were within fifteen feet, the Jaffa jumped off their horses nearly in unison, dropped into crouches and their snake-head helmets all unfolded, covering their faces.

Seems like we're going up against the competent Jaffa now. Fun.

Now it was a more traditional shootout, but without any cover, Victoria found herself moving, quickly, not really getting much of a chance to aim as she fired. "Veronica, flank them!" She tried to shout over the sound of the shooting as she dove under another blast. One Jaffa went down after a hail of bullets from Sheppard - and then another went down, as O'Neill fired a hunting rifle from close range right at one of the eyepieces, smashing through and downing the man, the bullet no doubt in his brain.

Shooting blindly before jumping up and moving again, Victoria felt heat and pain flash across her side as a grazing shot hit her, some of it bleeding through the armor, but not enough to make her stop - but it did make her stumble.

"FUCK!" Victoria switched to Benny's 'Maria' pistol, the first she could reach and fired off more shots, hearing them all plink off the armor. Fuck fuck fuck fuck...

Diving off the road and rolling down the slight rise it was on, Victoria cursed again and then heard the sound of a loud shout - surprise as much as anything else, it sounded like - and then a loud thud, as a Jaffa landed with a thud after flying off the road.

Veronica.

The former scribe, power-fist on hand was now in hand to hand combat with another Jaffa, who was trying to use his staff to hit her hard, but unable to land a solid blow, while she was trying to get an equally solid blow on him.

The single combat actually drew the attention of the other Jaffa still standing for a moment, and that was all the rest of them needed.

Another hail of bullets later, the Jaffa were down. No way to carry all this loot, but Veronica, odly enough, helped herself to one of the staff weapons, and they all took the Zats - three this time only - and two Tok'kal grenades. As well as what looked like some sort of more conventional grenade. Test those somewhere safe.

The horses were standing there, with some sort of strange harness attached to a long leather... thing on the creature's back. It was kind of shaped like... a seat. And it was in the right place.

"So this is a horse." O'Neill commented, looking it over with a somewhat apprasing eye. "I'd love to take one back to Earth with us."

"It's odd the Goa'uld would use these, rather than some sort of vehicle. Maybe some sort of motorcycle or something." Carter observed as she moved to stand near them. "But I don't think we could take it back. Even if we could get it to the surface, I don't think the ambient radiation there would be very good for it."

"Of course not," O'Neill might have sounded a little disappointed.

"Well, they're in our way, so unless we can get them to move..." Victoria said, approaching one, slowly, carefully. It made no sudden moves to attack her, which put it head and shoulders over most animals she'd seen - even literally, given its size.

As she drew close though, suddenly the horse let out a loud sound that could only be called an aggressive whine, reared up on its hind legs and tried to lash at her with its front legs. Victoria barely jumped back in time, landing on her ass, hard.

"Madre de dios!" Victoria swore, scooting backwards out of the reach of the creature as he reared again - and then Veronica was there, driving her power fist into the horse's neck, the force of the blow enough to snap the creature's bones. It crumple sideways. The other horses bolted, away from them, apparently smart enough to have self-preservation, at least.

"Teal'c did warn you," O'Neill, "Pride goeth, and all that." He still extended her a hand and helped her up.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. At least the rest of the horses are gone." Victoria officially did not like these things. She made a note to just start shooting the rest.

"It's a pity this one was aggressive," Veronica mused. "It was kind of pretty."

"Pretty!?" Victoria raised an eyebrow. "What the hell, Veronica? It's big and bulky and... ugly."

"But it has such soft, sleek fur. Shiny too," Veronica gestured. "Look!" Victoria looked, but she didn't see it. Sure, the fur was sleep and shiny looking, but she didn't see how that made it pretty. "Don't see it?"

"Not even remotely."

"Hardly looking, strong. Large. Very large. Teal'c said these were bred with genetic engineering?" Arcade noted. He crouched by one of the dead jaffa and pulled an elaborate wristband-thing off his arm.

"He implied it. Said this Epona person had special technology to make her horses better than anyone else's, so their descendents would be stronger. What's that?" She nodded to the thing he pulled off.

"I think it's some sort of communication device, if I'm reading these symbols right, which is a big if," Arcade stuffed it into a pocket. "We can worry about that later."

"Right. We Still have to get to the fortress." It was still there, in the distance, and if there were more Jaffa on the way to the Stargate, they might have more enemies between now and there.

January 13th, 2283

So'tal's Fortress, Viluntia

They didn't face more Jaffa on the way to the fortress, passing several farms full of lush trees and crops bearing fruits or whatever else Victoria couldn't identify - samples dutifully taken, the locals apparently hiding from the band of well-armed strangers, judging by furtive glances from inside wooden shacks and huts and a few houses made of stone or what might have been primitive brick. Under other circumstances, Victoria would have wanted to speak with these people, but they were on a clock.

Unfortunately, as they drew close to the fortress, a cluster of stone buildings between them and the structure itself, they could see that it was on alert.

This was expected, but annoying.

Unfortunately, the fortress had been built well - the cluster of stone buildings didn't get too close to it, leaving a clear space all around it. There was an escape route, Teal'c knew, but it was inaccessible from the outside, and he didn't know exactly where it let out anyway. Good for leaving, not for entering.

The entrance to the fortress was sealed, closed up, but there were a number of windows on the upper levels, each one facing them and the structures with a Jaffa waiting, staff weapon poised.

I'd be more scared of those things didn't have the accuracy of a shotgun. But still.

The stone buildings looked like a local center for the farmers - shops maybe, judging by the collection of random, primitive looking items. Another place might be a bar. Probably only for favored farmers, or maybe Jaffa. Victoria made a note to ask Teal'c about that.

"Okay, Courier, got a plan for how we get in? Teal'c have anything interesting to say?" O'Neill asked skeptically.

"There's no way we could have come through the stargate without alerting people." Victoria defended herself.

The shops and inns had been emptied out by their arrival. To get out of the line of fire from those inaccurate staff weapons, Victoria ducked inside the inn, and the rest of them followed her.

"I repeat myself: How do we get in? Front door's locked, and I forgot my keys in my other pants," O'Neill demanded. "Also, new rule," he hissed, seemingly for dramatic effect as for any need to not be overheard, "no hiding the plan!" He gesticulated a bit with his hands, almost as if grabbing and shaking something.

"The door's locked. Whatever shall we do?" Victoria mock-pouted. She nodded to Sheppard, and the CDV Captain pulled four small bricks of C4 out of his pack, along with detonators. She'd been shocked Cheyenne had C4 after all these years, but it turned out, they knew how to make it. It was expensive for them to make, requiring hard to get or hard to make chemicals, and form what Hammond had said, it just wasn't as good as the pre-war stuff. The last of that had been used when he'd just been a new Private in the CDV.

Still, even this knockoff stuff should be good enough to blow ahole in the door. Sheppard had brought more bricks if needed.

"Is that-?" O'Neill asked.

"C-4? It is at that. We just need to get to the door, and then kaboom," Sheppard nodded.

"Just get to the door." O'Neill deadpanned. "It'll be a walk in the meadow."

"I'll go," Veronica offered. Victoria tensed a moment, the possibility of Victoria getting hurt not a pleasant thought, but she also knew that Victoria was the fastest person here - and she had even more experience dodging enemy fire than Victoria did, given her preference for closing in with her power fists.

"How many do you think the door will need?" Arcade looked to Sheppard, since he was presumably the expert.

"No idea. The blast doors inside Cheyenne Mountain - built to handle explosions - take three of this kind of C4 to make a hole big enough to move through if you stoop. I don't know what the doors are like," Sheppard shrugged.

"I asked Teal'c about that, when he warned me this would happen. Apparently the Goa'uld answer to this problem would be to bring in bombers from orbit or some sort of heavy staff weapon through the gate - carry it in pieces, set it up and fire." Victoria had been stunned at that, but apparently the Goa'uld just didn't like a lot of variety in terms of how to get through sealed doors. "Their solutions to most problems is overkill. To be safe, I think we should use these four, but I think we might only need two. Or less. Impossible to say without testing."

"Let's test it out then," Jack suggested, sounding like he looked forward to it. He looked to Veronica, "We'll cover you - not that you really need it against Jaffa."

"Just stick these to the door and run back here." Sheppard handed her the small blocks of explosive. "Not too close together, but close enough to supplement eachother," he explained.

"Just don't push the button until I'm back," Veronica said. "Or else I might think you don't like me." She grinned, before stepping outside. Everyone else followed suit, and the Jaffa all raised their weapons, readying them for attack. But they were smart enough not to fire yet.

O'Neill made a few quick gestures, to a blank expression from Veronica and everyone else there that wasn't Carter. "Right," He muttered, seemingly as much at himself as anyone else. "On my mark," He ordered quietly. "Suppressing fire - don't bother aiming." He added.

"Not exactly something I'm very familiar with," Victoria countered, though she pulled out the .45 autos and made sure both were fully loaded.

"Well, won't it just be thrilling to know it's not very hard, Courier," O'Neill replied. "Promise I won't tell anyone that you actually missed."

"I've missed plenty of times before." Mostly before VATS, but still. "I just make sure I fire the last shot in the firefight."

"Good philosophy," O'Neill agreed. He turned to Veronica, who had the C-4 in hand, each of the four pieces with a small explosive charge attached now, ready to go when Sheppard pressed the detonator. "Ready?"

Veronica nodded.

"Run there, place the C-4, run back. Comprehend?"

Veronica rolled her eyes, "I think I can manage."

"I'd have worried if you couldn't." O'Neill replied, deadpan. Veronica chuckled lightly, then turned, moving one leg back a bit, bracing herself to run.

"On my mark," O'Neill said slowly. Victoria readied one gun, aiming upwards at the windows, not specifically aiming at any Jaffa. Ten windows, ten jaffa. From what Teal'c said, there should only be about twenty jaffa stationed at the place at any given time. At most. If the other six were from here, which made sense, then they should only have fourteen left. Easy enough to deal with.

'..rk!' Victoria nearly missed the command, but heard the last bit, and started firing maybe a second after Carter and Sheppard joined their fire to O'Neill's. Though the CDV was not the NCR, the military training those three had showed as they shot the suppressive fire, carefully controlled sprays along the windows.

Arcade was just sort of firing wildly up at the windows, not landing any hits as far as she could tell, though she had to admit she was trying vary hard not to pay close attention. Instead, she just started firing, switched to the next when she was out of bullets, then reloaded both as quickly as she could, slamming fresh clips in and firing some more. Without needing to aim, without taking any care as long as she shot 'up', she could pull the trigger quickly.

Finally, Veronica was there, and back again, looking unharmed. Several of the windows were empty, but it was hard to say if the Jaffa were dead, or just showing enough brains to take some cover. O'Neill shouted for them to cease fire, and they did. Victoria grabbed Arcade's arm and tugged him back with her as they all moved a bit more out of range.

"Fire in the hole," Sheppard observed, "Look away, cover your ears," then pressed the detonator. For a split second, nothing, and then an explosion, loud enough to ring in Victoria's ears even from this distance, a blast of fire spurting out of the door and the ground shaking just a little. But though the light flashed in the corner of her vision, at least it didn't damage her eyesight.

When they turned back, there was a gaping hole, and one of the Jaffa at the window was shouting 'Kree!' as he pulled back inside. The door was blasted open, as well as a big chunk of the wall as well. Looks like four was overkill indeed. Any more gone, and she might have worried about the structure integrity of the structure just a little.

"They seem to be a bit riled up," O'Neill observed.

"Well, It would be rude to keep them waiting," Victoria pointed out. "Let's go."