*****
Xander and Phoebe joined the group that had gathered in the War room, where the meeting had already started.
"Are you sure these are complete schematics?" Jarod asked he looked over a large sheaf of papers.
"Absolutely." Captain Carter watched, a little surprised, as Jarod began planning out the internal defense of the base from the briefest glance at the blue prints.
"We'll establish bottle necks, here... here... and here." Jarod said pointed to tunnel junctions on the plans. "Send two squads to this point here, and reinforce them with a rifle team at this fallback point."
The Military personnel were nodding, a little stunned, at Jarod's suggestions. Hammond finally turned to O'Neill and spoke quietly, "Who is this man?"
Xander leaned over and responded before O'Neill could answer, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, General... at least not until its finished giving."
A couple low chuckles were heard from some of those who heard Xander's comment, but the General fell silent and turned his eyes back to the planning. Between Jarod and the military personnel the planning took remarkably little time, and soon orders were being sent out to the units now preparing to defend the underground base.
"When is the exterior force going to be in place?" Jarod asked, looking at O'Neill.
Jack checked his watch, "In about forty minutes. We arranged the attack to coincide with the approximations Captain Carter was able to give us after they started cutting. We still on schedule?"
Carter checked the camera's and crunched the figures. "They've stepped it up. They could come through in as few as twenty minutes."
O'Neill cursed, "Dammit. That's too soon!"
"Relax, Keep an eyes on them and we'll notify the exterior teams that the schedule has been moved up."
"How are you going to..." Jack stared at Xander for a few seconds. "Oh, right. Never mind."
"I want to announce the presence a Yautja to the Jaffa anyway." Xander said with a quiet smile.
The SG1 team actually smiled at that, remembering the reaction the last Goa'uld had to the kid's fashion sense.
*****
Major Teal looked over the access point to Cheyenne Mountain through a powerful pair of field glasses. He shook his head as he tried to count the milling troops that had taken over the visible portions of the base.
"Perkins, get up here and tell me what you think of this."
The Sargent stepped up and accepted the glasses. He whistled a few moments later, "Hoo wheee... What the hell have we got here?"
Teal shook his head, "I don't have a clue, but they don't look like Iranian terrorists to me."
"That's because they aren't."
The voice from behind them caused both veteran soldiers to jump and spin around, their weapons swinging up to cover the two men who had managed to sneak up on them. The one in armor just smiled at the reaction. "Pass code, Omega blue thirteen."
The two soldiers relaxed their fingers from the triggers of their weapons, but kept the two intruders covered. "Who in the hell are you?"
The two men looked at each other, as if sharing a private joke, before the armored one grinned. "We're messengers from the base. That's all you need to know for now."
"All right, then how about you explain what you mean when you said that the Tango's aren't Iranian Terrorists."
"I think that was fairly easy to understand. They aren't Iranian Terrorists. What they are doesn't matter too much right now, suffice to say that the schedule has been moved up. They'll finish cutting through the blast doors within fifteen minutes."
The two soldiers looked at each other, and nodded in understanding. "Check. Our teams have been awaiting the go order for an hour anyway. We're good to go."
"Excellent." The second man answered before turning to the armored form. "I'll go back and inform them that things are back on schedule."
The armored form nodded, "Go ahead. I'm going to shake up the Goa'uld a bit. Be in touch."
"Right." The second man vanished into the trees.
"How the hell was he going to get back into the base?"
The armored figure just grinned as he slipped on a helmet, when he spoke his voice was distorted. "Need to know, Major. Need to know."
The armored form began to move away, but the major stepped in front of him. "I do need to know what you're planning, buster. If you mess with those troops they'll be expecting our attack."
The armored head tilted slightly. "Hardly. I promise you that they will assume that I'm working alone." the man said as he stepped past the Major.
"How can you be sure of that?" Teal called after the retreating back.
"Oh I'm quite sure, Major. Quite sure." The armored form shimmered out of existence, leaving only a rapidly fading blur in its wake.
The two soldiers looked at each other in shock. "New stealth armor?"
"I don't know, Major... that stuff looked old to me... real old."
*****
Xander broke into a loping run as he cleared the perimeter the soldiers had setup, weaving through the trees as he headed toward the Goa'uld encampment.
You do have a plan this time, right? Elan's voiced echoed through his mind.
Xander just grinned in response, with bother to mentally form any words.
Alexander! Elan protested, You must be kidding! Do you intend to spend the rest of you, soon to be short, life playing things 'by ear'?
"Relax, Elan." He muttered as he swung himself up into the branches of a tree and started to scale the forty foot plant. At about thirty feet he stopped and crouched on a thick branch, looking down at the Goa'uld encampment and memorizing the layout as quickly as he could. "I've got it covered."
Would you mind sharing your reasoning with me, Alexander? The irate battle staff asked as her bearer suddenly dropped from the tree, snagging occasional branches to slow his descent.
"Not at the moment." Xander snickered under his breath, knowing his response would aggravate the ancient weapon. When his feet hit the ground he broke into another quick jog, heading slightly to the right of his previous course.
In the recesses of his mind he could hear a frustrated metal sigh from Elan.
*****
"It's almost time." Jarod said as he watched the big blast doors glowing red hot.
Around him the first wave of defenders nodded and brought their weapons to the ready.
"Ok, men." Riley said to his troops, "You heard the Captain. If its packing any of those weird weapons or armor they showed us it's fair game. Don't stop shooting until it's down."
The troops nodded, their attentions focused on the glowing door. The first rivulets of white hot molten metal began to poor onto the ground, exposing the first hole in the bases's defenses.
"I can't fucking believe I volunteered for this shit." Jack Crow whispered under his breath as his grip tightened on the M-16 he'd been issued.
Beside him the young priest who had been his companion for the past few months smiled, he knew that Crow talked a lot rougher then he actually was. "Look at it this way, Jack. Think of it as a vacation."
Crow snorted, "Fucking right. Beats the hell out of my regular clock punching doesn't it?"
The two friends chuckled quietly as the tensions mounted around them.
On the other side of the room a very nervous Slayer looked at her best friend in confusion, "Where did Xander *find* these psychos?"
Willow shivered, "I don't know. I don't even know what I'm doing here... I'm not ready for this."
Buffy reached over and steadied her friend with a hand on the shoulder, "Relax. Your gonna be all right."
Willow hefted the odd weapon Jarod had given her and nodded, her face growing more resolved. She glanced down at the identical weapon in Buffy's hand and shook her head. "Where do you think Xander and Jarod got these guns?"
"I don't know." Buffy admitted, "But when this is over you can bet that I'm going to find out."
Their conversation was broken off as the massive blast doors finally collapsed under their own, superheated, weight.
*****
Xander watched, motionless, as the Jaffa patrol marched by underneath him. He hadn't been able to spot the Goa'uld in charge yet, and it seemed that he would have to stir things up a bit to get what he wanted. As the group came level with him he dropped from the tree and landed in their midst, still cloaked.
Elan bucked in his hands, extending to her full seven foot length, and knocked two of the Jaffa off their feet. Xander dropped his cloak and swept the ancient battle staff around, knocking another Jaffa out before he could react.
In an instant there were only two left standing, and both were considerably more nervous then Xander was.
"Yautja!" One of them screamed, his voice echoing through the area, attracting the attention of several other patrol groups.
Xander grinned under the mask and leapt past the screamer, knocking him cold as he did, and vanished into the trees. He activated the shift field and quickly circled back around, removing himself from the killzone that erupted behind him as the Jaffa fired blindly into the trees.
"Jaffa, Kree!"
Xander grinned and paused at the edge of the clearing. Now this is more like it.
"What is going on here?!"
"My Lord, a Yautja attacked on of the patrols."
The Goa'uld paled, "Impossible. What would the Yautja be doing on this wretched ball of mud?"
"I do not know, My Lord. But several patrols saw him activate his shift suit and vanish into the trees."
"How many were killed?"
"None, My Lord."
The Goa'uld paled further. "Then he is not hunting Jaffa."
"No, My Lord."
"Guards! To me now!"
The Goa'uld and his guards retreated quickly through the wooded path, unaware that they were being followed by a nearly invisible predator.
*****
Inside Cheyenne Mountain
"Here they come!" Jarod's voice echoed over the clanking march of the armored Jaffa.
In the next instant all sounds were drowned out in the reverberating echos of the gunfire. Initially the Jaffa took the worst of the exchange, being forced to advance through a narrow entrance against the concentrated fire of the defenders. Before long however the first returned shots ricocheted off the tunnel walls, and impacted into the defenders lines.
The Jaffa fell with every passing moment, but more surged through the barrier to take their place. The defenders had no such luxury and, as they fell, holes opened up in the ranks. Holes that gave the advancing Jaffa their opportunity.
"Fall back!" Jarod ordered, his soul tearing as he watched the men... HIS men fall under the barrage. Still, he stayed tight to the plan and called for the strategic retreat to the fall back points.
*****
The Charmed Sisters retreated down the long corridor, along with several soldiers they had been assigned too. As they reached the end they looked back and saw a group of five Jaffa racing after them. In a quick flurry of exchanged fire two of their soldier companions went down and Prue saw red.
She screamed in fury and brought her hands up violently. To the Jaffa it seemed that the planet's gravity had suddenly decided to reverse itself. All five crashed into the tunnel ceiling with brutal force, their weapons jarred from their hands. Prue abruptly cut off the attack, and all five hit the floor with a sudden, boneless thud.
Beside the sisters Graham turned in shock to his friend, "I think we just saw what threw that guy at us in the airport." He whispered under his breath.
"Ya think?" Forest muttered as he saw the fury seep off the beautiful face of the eldest Halliwell. "Harris has got some balls... hanging around with women who could rip 'em off takes guts."
The other initiative soldier grinned slightly as the two struggled to pull their wounded comrades down the corridor.
"I don't think he's gonna make it." Forest announced after he checked on Devon's wounds.
Piper looked down at them, "We're not losing anyone." Her hands flashed up and the soldiers froze into place, then she waved them again and the uninjured soldiers were released.
"What the!?" Graham muttered as he looked at the injured man, and at the wounds that no longer pumped blood from them.
"Leo!"
A brilliant shimmer announced the arrival of the witches' Guardian Angel. He looked down and nodded once, his hands reaching out with a golden glow that quickly regenerated the wound. In a flash he did the same to the second man, and then turned back to Piper.
"I have to go, there are others hurt."
Piper nodded and unfroze the two soldiers as Leo vanished in a shimmer of light.
"What the!?" Forest asked in shock.
"No time." Piper snapped, "Move it!"
"Man," Forest whispered, still shocked as he helped his man to his feet, "That's what I call a medic."
Beside him Graham only nodded silently as he hooked the second 'injured' man's arm over his shoulder.
*****
"Go!" Buffy yelled at the team she'd been assigned to as she ducked around a corner and waited. "I'll hold them back, buy you time."
The team hesitated, but they had their orders and it didn't really matter what the little girl was up to anyway. The majority of them moved down the corridor, falling back to the next rally point.
Buffy waited, tucked into a corner beside the access hatch to the corridor until she saw the first of the staff things the armored freaks were carrying. As it came through she grabbed it and swung around, pulling the armored trooper into the corridor violently and slamming him into the wall.
As the figure slid down the wall, knocked senseless by the impact, Buffy turned back to the rest of the four-man team and muttered. "And another bites the dust. Who's next?"
*****
Jarod nodded his gratitude at Leo as the Angel orbbed away after saving another four of his troops from their wounds. Thank God for him. Then Jarod smiled wryly at the irony of thanking God for an Angel, and got back to work.
"Get ready!" He yelled, "They'll be coming through any time now."
Around him the determined soldiers, a mix of Air Force and Initiative personnel tightened their grips on their weapons and glared daggers down the empty tunnel.
One of them turned to Jarod and asked quietly, "Hey man, is what was said at that briefing true? They want to bring an invasion force through?"
Jarod nodded grimly, "Yes."
The Initiative soldier nodded one, understanding the stakes. "Thanks for bringing us in on this one."
Jarod nodded to the man once, letting a slight smile show on his face. "No problem."
Around them the initiative and Air Force people shared looks of understanding as they waited for the enemy to approach.
A few seconds later they heard the metal clanking of the marching Jaffa, and the air was filled with flying death once again.
*****
O'Neill's P-90 bucked in his grip as his finger caressed the trigger, sending a trio of 5.7mm armor piercers into the advancing Jaffa. As the bullets put the lead Jaffa off his feet, two others advanced through the breech.
Beside him Teal'uk opened fire with his staff weapon, dropping a second target. And Carter's finger tightened on her own P-90, pulling the select-fire trigger back into full auto mode, cutting into the last Jaffa with a burst of the AP rounds that flipped the armored figure onto its back.
"That's it!" Jack yelled, "Time to drop back."
The four members of the SG1 team fell back as more Jaffa forced their way through the breech.
*****
With a loud grunt Buffy flipped another Jaffa to his back, finishing the fight with a heel strike that split the man's armored faceplate open and knocked him unconscious. She straightened up, her hair falling across her eyes as she panted from the exertion, and froze when she heard a noise behind her.
A noise she had recently learned to fear. The sound of one of the enemies Staff's being prepared to fire. Buffy spun around to see the imposing weapons leveled straight at her and the trooper behind it staring at her impersonally from behind his armor.
An electrical pulse sounded and Buffy's eyes clenched shut involuntarily. When she felt nothing she opened them again to see the enemy soldier still standing there. Then his staff drooped to the ground, and his legs bucked, and finally he hit the ground.
Buffy turned around to see Willow standing behind her in shock, her Zapper gun pointed at the ground, dangling limply in her hand.
"Willow?"
"I... I got worried when you didn't catch up... is he...?" Willow said tonelessly.
"No!" Buffy rushed to her friend, "Remember what Jarod and Xander told us? One shot just stuns..."
"Oh..." She said quietly, "yeah... that's good..."
"Yes. Very good, now come on... we have to rejoin the others."
The Slayer grabbed the red wiccan and pulled her down the hallway, leaving a pile of unconscious Jaffa behind them
******
"Come on you sick fucks!" Jack Crow yelled over the sound of his own M-16 as he emptied the last of his clip into the advancing horde. "Got some more of this waiting for ya!"
Deftly the man thumbed the release on the rifle and slapped a new clip home before the spent one had even hit the ground.
"Come on, Jack! We have to fall back!" Guiteau pleaded as Crow opened fire again.
"Fuck that, Padre!" Crow snarled as he dropped another Jaffa to the dust.
"Jack, the plan! Remember the plan!?"
"Shit!" Crow cursed and nodded in agreement, starting to fall back, firing as he did.
The two vampire hunters turned and ran down the long tunnel, the clanking sound of the marching Jaffa on their heels. As they rounded a corner the sound suddenly stopped, bringing them up in confusion as it did.
"Hey, Padre... Weren't they chasing us?"
Guiteau nodded and looked back down the silent tunnel for a second before shaking his head, "Doesn't matter. Let's move."
"Right."
The two turned and continued their retreat.
*****
Jen'tuk paused in his pursuit of the two retreating Tau'ri soldiers, suddenly unsure as to what direction he was running. He blinked under his helmet and looked around him in confusion. Behind him he could hear the muttering of his unit and knew that they were in the same position.
The walls seemed to be closing in on them, and the shadows were reaching out for the huddling Jaffa. In a moment the darkness shrouded their very being. None of them felt the attack when it came.
*****
Father Cranston looked down at the odd alien weapon he had removed from the belt of the lead attacker and smiled. "What frightens monsters? The Shadow knows..."
A low cackling laughter rolled through the tunnels as the old priest made his way back to the fall back point.
*****
Outside the Mountain
Xander stared as the Goa'uld vanished behind the cloaking device of his scout transport. You can run, but you can't hide... not anymore at least.
He flipped through the frequencies of his bio-helmet and finally registered them on the higher end of the spectrum. "Found the comm Jammer." He muttered under his breath as he prepared to move in.
Take care, Alexander.
Always, Elan.
Xander grinned widely as Elanthielle's mental snort echoed through his mind. Then he detached himself from his hiding place and began a zig-zagging approach to the Goa-uld vessel.
******