Content Warning: Mild Language and Violence
Born of Fire
"Welcome back, Captain," the young Lieutenant said excitedly while saluting.
"Its good to be back, Collins," replied Sharp returning the salute.
"I'm to escort you to the General for immediate debrief, sir."
"Lead on, Lieutenant."
Collins nodded and led Sharp toward the General's office. "I can't begin to tell you what the last week has been like, sir. Captain Fox led two missions looking for you and just about pulled every string she could to set up a third before you finally made it back."
Sharp grinned and chuckled a bit. "Well, Riley is one of the most stubborn people I know, Lieutenant, so that doesn't surprise me. It is good to know, however, that I have people like that working beside me. It makes all the difference sometimes."
"If I may speak freely, sir, we're all excited to hear how you escaped that Goa'uld trap. How did you know that it wasn't really the SGC?"
"It just never made sense from the start. Besides, they tried that crap on the original SG-1 once before. If it didn't work then, why would they expect it to work now?"
Collins continued to escort Sharp, but now looked up at a him a little confused. "So, let me see if I understand this correctly. The Goa'uld used some sort of field to incapacitate you and tried to make you believe you'd moved twenty-three years into the future? What were they looking for?"
"I didn't stay long enough to find out for sure, but I'm almost positive it was to get a hold of SG-12's iris code."
"Well you're just lucky we didn't lock that code out after the rest of you team returned. How did you know that you wouldn't end up with your molecules spattered all over the iris?"
Sharp was a little surprised by Collin's direct and open dialogue, but once he considered the question, he realized that none of the answers that he could come up with, made a lot of sense. "Uh, Lieutenant, why wasn't my IDC locked out of the control computers? Isn't that standard procedure after the mission's operational window has passed?"
Collins smiled and turned a slight shade of red. "Well like I said, sir, Captain Fox pulled a lot of strings. She never gave up on you. It must be nice to have someone who loves you that much."
Sharp listened to Collins' explanation but continued to have a perplexed look on his face. It wasn't that he didn't believe Riley wouldn't do all the things Collins said, he just found it hard to believe she had enough clout to convince the General to expose the base like that. Sharp looked back up to Collins to continue his line of inquiry only to scared out of his skin at what he saw. Collins had been replaced by a bleached skeleton in an SGC uniform. Sharp cautiously back away, unsure of what the hell was going on.
"Is there something wrong, sir?"
****Earth (An hour since Harris left)****
Sharp shot straight up, sweating and frantically looking around to figure out where he was. His heart was beating loud enough that it seemed to echo in the empty room. Finally able to calm himself, he looked down at the mess of computer parts scattered all around him and then finally at the local power supply that had sent the surge of electricity through his body, rendering him unconscious. Slowly he began to remember what had really occurred. Once Harris and the others had left, Sharp decided that the base computers might hold some of the answers for which he was looking. Luckily, computers were one thing he knew about. He had eagerly tore into the personal computer cases around the base and then the base mainframe looking for salvageable parts to construct as least one working computer and to see which hard drives had survived whatever happened here. In his eagerness, however, he foolishly began to remove parts from a computer still hooked to the power system. "Nice job," Sharp said to himself, realizing that getting the computers up and running again would do him no good if he got himself killed doing it.
"Ok, let's see here," Sharp continued, as he removed the power feed from the offending machine, "I've got everything in place except for the decryption hardware. Now if I can find one that's not fried, I'll be in business." He again began looking through the piles of computer components looking for the hardware. "Ok, fried... fried... fried.... and why the hell am I talking to myself? Stupid question I guess. They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness and with all the insanity around me, it fits." He cocked he head to the right as if he was talking to someone. "So insane Glenn, what are we going to do tonight?" He then moved his head to look to the left. "The same thing I'm going to do every night, sane Glenn. Try to take over your brain." He tossed one of the fried board over into the discarded part pile he had created a few feet away and took a deep breath. "Get it together, Glenn! This is no time to be messing around!" Turning his attention back to the mess of wires and hardware, Glenn continued the work he had started a few hours before.
****P9T-573 (2 hours later)****
Stewart held his breath as he cowered in the bush several miles from what had been his home. He watched and listened for the two armed men who had been chasing him since he had escaped from those who had ruthlessly destroyed the camp. His mind wandered to the images he saw as they returned to the camp 2 hours earlier.
****P9T-573 (2 hours earlier)****
"Take cover, over there," Harris pointed. Each of the four with him quickly obeyed and found cover behind a few trees. Meanwhile, Harris crept closer to the camp, looking into the distance to determine what exactly was happening. Much to his horror, he saw several armed men, throwing lifeless bodies onto a large pile. If that hadn't been bad enough, he then saw two similar piles already on fire spreading the foul stink of burning flesh. As a young man, Harris had been taught by his father that tears only came from women and weak men, but this sight would have been powerful enough to invoke tears even from his father if he'd been alive. Completely enraged and with tears flowing, Harris chambered a round in his gun and prepared to take as many of them out as he could in retaliation for destroying his home and killing his adopted family, but before he could move, Davenport came up behind him and grabbed him.
"You weren't thinking of doing anything stupid were you, Robert?"
"Damn it, John, don't you see what they've done? They've murdered them all!"
"And they'll kill us too unless we come up with a better plan then running in, guns blazing!" Just as he had spoken the words, they both watched as Corra did exactly that. "Damn it! Luke's gonna get himself killed!"
"If you ask me, Luke's got the right idea!" And with that, Harris followed Corra into the fray.
"Well, this has been a short and awful life," Davenport sighed frustrated. He then turned to signal Grissom and Stewart to join him before advancing himself.
Stewart never thought himself as brave. He thought about how he'd much rather be back in that lab he saw on earth than in a fire fight right now, but Robert had looked out for him since before he could remember and he wasn't about to just sit there and watch him die. Swallowing the fear, he stepped out of his hiding place. He took two steps before Grissom stopped him. "What are you doing, Paul?"
"Hold up, Chris. I know you wanna play hero, but I need you to do something more important."
Stewart looked up at him as if to ask if he was serious. "What the hell are you talking about, Paul? We have to help them!"
Grissom remained steadfast. "You will be helping them. I want you to go and bring back Captain Sharp."
"But..."
"No buts, Chris. We need all the help we can get! Now get going!" Grissom ordered, pointing in the direction of the gate. Stewart slowly turned and then began to carefully make his way back to the gate, not knowing until later how much he would regret that decision.
****Earth (4 hours since Harris left)****
Sharp smiled as he watched the computer start up. It had taken quite a bit of brainpower and programming to repair the corrupted files just to get it to boot into a basic operation mode. "Still got it," he smiled. Once it had finished booting, he began to look through the hard drives he installed for any files that were still readable. After about one hundred straight unreadable files, Sharp was starting to get a little frustrated. "Damn machine! I don't know why the hell I ever wanted to mess with these things for a living!" Sharp's typing become angry and fierce. He was about to take a much needed break when he finally got a hit. Sharp read over the file growing more and more conflicted.
**********************
Mission report for test flight, TFC Destroyer O'Niell. Date: October 11, 2005 Commanding Officer: Captain James Wellington, Tau'ri Fleet Command
This is a general report on the strengths and weaknesses of the brand new line of Thor class Destroyers. It is my opinion that the O'Niell is the perfect instrument to use in the fight against the Maldorians. The weapon and defensive systems are on level with Maldorian destroyers and the increased maneuverability of the Asgard hyperspeed engines, I believe, gives us the edge we need to win this war. The only weakness I can see is its inability to fight effectively in short range engagements. It is for this reason I recommend the increase of the human gliders from a compliment of 24 to a compliment of 48. I have also submitted my recommendation for the commander of the glider wings. I understand this to be an unpopular recommendation, but I feel it necessary to the success of the planned follow up mission, Argos. I have provided the tests conducted and their results in my supplemental report.
***********************
Sharp read over the rest of the report but did not get anymore useful information. Closing the file, he did a search through the hard drives for anything related to the Argos mission and prayed that at least one of the files was still intacted. This time, the search was much quicker. Sharp hit upon what he was looking for in the first ten files. He opened the file to see list of code names. At first he wasn't sure what he was looking at until he noticed a grouping of six gate symbols beside each name. "A list of planets, but what type of planets? Maldorian bases? Shipyards? What?" He continued until he found the code name Argos. Reading across from the name, however, there were no symbols. "Damn! The rest of the file must have been corrupted." Sharp quickly took out Chrislyn's journal and began copying code names and symbols as fast he could in the blank pages. He had most of the list copied when he heard the stargate begin to activate.
****P9T-573 (15 minutes earlier)****
"Why can't we just shoot the piss ant and then take the other one out ourselves?"
"Because we have orders to take them both alive and bring them back to Kelsar and that's what we're going to do." The two men "chasing" Stewart were hidden about a hundred feet away, waiting for him to make his move. "Besides, if we're gonna route out the rest of the sorry excuses for a species we need to use morons like him. Whenever the going gets tough, these cowards go running to all the hiding places."
"It makes me sick just to look at them," he literally looked ill as he said it.
"Well at least you weren't part of an infiltration team. I had to live with them, eat with them, be around them all day long. The damn invasion couldn't have come soon enough for me."
"It's amazing you didn't go crazy. I don't think I could go a week without killing the whole lot of them."
"Yeah, well you do need a certain level of restraint to be an infiltrator and that's never been your strong point."
"And when I'm leading a battalion and you're still hunting wild game, you'll wish that level of restraint was a lot lower," he smiled.
The other soldier chuckled and then got serious. "We got movement." They watched as Stewart made his way to the DHD and began to dial. "Well so far our intel is right on the money. He went straight for the gate."
"Didn't even try to throw us off the track. Sometimes it's just too easy." Stewart finished dialing and the gate activated.
"Time to move out. Laser pistols only, stun setting."
"You really know how to ruin a soldier's day you know that?"
"Unless you want to explain to Kelsar why his prisoners are dead." The other soldier just grunted as they both ran to follow Stewart through the gate.
****Earth****
Sharp arrived in the gate room with his P90 just in time to the see the wormhole establish. He positioned himself at the base of the ramp and raised the gun, nervously waiting for whatever was coming through.
Stewart emerged from the gate and almost immediately spotted Sharp. "Don't shoot! It me, Chris!"
"What the hell are you doing back here?" Sharp asked confused.
Stewart ran down the ramp as he answered Sharp with fatigue and fear in his voice. "We need your help, Captain. The Maldorians found the camp, they killed everyone! Harris and the others tried to fight them. Please, you have to come back with me! We have to help them!" No sooner had Stewart finished then both of the soldiers who had been following him came through the gate. Both took aim and fired at Stewart and Sharp.
"Down!" Sharp yelled as he tackled Stewart, narrowly avoiding the shots. Realizing however that they were still exposed, he quickly jumped behind one of the larger debris piles and drug Stewart behind it with him. The soldiers took cover as well behind the ramp on the side farthest from Sharp. Sharp moved out to return fire, forcing the soldiers to duck behind the ramp. "Who the hell are those guys, Stewart?"
"Humans who have betrayed their race and fight for the Maldorians," Stewart replied, scared and breathing heavily. The two solders forced both of them back down with laser fire. "We assume that they were offered some kind of deal to infiltrate and eventually turn in any resistance to the Maldorian dominance." Sharp popped up to return fire again and then dropped back behind the debris pile.
"We're pinned down here." Sharp looked down to see Stewart holding his pistol. "You any good with that thing?"
"I'm a pretty fare shot, why? You don't want me to..." Stewart started with a look that spelled disbelief.
"I need you to cover me," Sharp interrupted him. "I have to get closer."
"Are you kidding me? I can't cover you!! Yeah, sure I talk about being a soldier, but I'm a thinker, not a fighter! An idea man!"
"You'll do fine, and besides, you're all I got." Without giving him a chance to object again, Sharp shot another volley in the direction of the ramp and began to move. The two soldiers, seeing this, moved up to stun him, but were surprised when shots were again fired at them from the debris pile. With their attention divided, Sharp managed to move close enough for a clear shot and he took advantage of it, landing kill shots on both. Sharp carefully moved closer to examine the bodies to make sure they were dead.
"Did you get them?" Stewart carefully poked his head back out to see for himself after not getting a response from Sharp. He watched as Sharp bent down to take a pulse.
"Yeah I got 'em," Sharp replied, letting out a deep breath. The sense of relief was short lived however as he noticed a device on one of the soldier's wrists that seemed to be counting down. "Stewart, get over here!" he yelled with an urgency. Stewart quickly ran over and Sharp shoved the soldier's wrist into his face. "What the hell is that?"
"Damn! It's a dead man's switch. The Maldorians use them when they issue a succeed at all costs mission." Sharp dropped the soldier's arm and headed for the door. "Where are you going?"
Sharp stopped long enough to answer him. "When that thing goes off, it's gonna bring this base and the mountain its in down on top of us. So unless you can disarm that thing, I'm getting us the hell out of here!" Sharp turned and ran to the control room, counting his blessings that one of the first things he installed on the working computer was the SGC dialing program. He quickly entered the symbols for P9T-573 and ran back down to the gate room. Stewart watched confused as the gate spun and locked in each chevron.
"I thought you said you didn't have a DHD?"
"This isn't the time! Just pray this thing finishes dialing before that guy give us both a bad day!" Moments later the seventh chevron locked and both ran through with only seconds to spare.
****P9T-573****
Both Stewart and Sharp landed safely on the other side but force of the explosive followed them through the gate and threw them another 10 feet. Sharp got up slowly holding his left arm which had taken the brunt of the fall. He looked over to see Stewart starting to get up as well. "You ok?"
Stewart got up holding his head. "Not sure."
Sharp moved over to take a look at the injury. "I'm no doctor but I think you'll be fine."
"And if I'm not?" Stewart asked, not completely trusting Sharp's diagnosis.
"Hey, you get what you pay for," Sharp replied smiling. "Now come on, we got some friends of yours to rescue." Sharp extended his hand and helped Stewart up. "So, what do you know besides the fact that the village was attacked?"
"Not much. There were at least a dozen soldiers, including the ones that chased me, but that's all I saw before Paul sent me to find you."
"Alright then, let's get moving. Follow me and be as inconspicuous as possible."
Over an hour later, they found a spot providing enough cover to hide but close enough to watch the camp. Sharp pulled out a pair of binoculars and surveyed the camp. Looking around, he saw several soldiers and three figures tied up and at gunpoint. "Well its looks like you were right on the money, Stewart. I count ten soldiers and three hostages. Harris, Davenport and Corra."
"They must not have found Grissom yet. Are they alive?"
"I can't tell from here. If they are, they're not in good shape." Sharp noticed the soldiers didn't seem to be doing much besides guarding the hostages. "I wonder what they are waiting for?"
"They probably are waiting for those other guys to come back with me and Paul. What are we gonna do?" Stewart asked, worried.
"I'm gonna distract the soldiers while you get Harris and the others out."
"You want me to do WHAT??!!" Stewart's eyes got wide as he started to shake his head. Sharp grabbed him by the collar and gave him a look that instantly snapped Stewart to attention.
"Look! I'm gonna get your friends out but I need your help! Now get it together and do what I tell you!" Stewart nodded his head and Sharp let him go. "Now, as soon as I draw the soldiers away from the others, get in there, untie them and get out. Got it?" Stewart nodded again. "Good. No heroics now. As soon as you guys are out, head for the gate and dial some place safe."
"We can't just leave you. And what about Grissom?" Stewart questioned.
"I keep telling you, don't worry about me. As for Grissom, if he's smart, he'll do the same thing I just told you to do. Now get ready." Sharp put the P90 on the ground and pulled out his 9mm. Spotting his target, he carefully made his way down near the edge of their perimeter. Quietly sneaking behind one of the soldiers, he waited until all of the other weren't looking and grabbed him behind from behind the bush. With one quick move he broke the soldier's neck and then hurriedly started to change clothes. After he finished, he grabbed the soldier's laser rifle and took his position, trying to evaluate the situation close up. When he was sure his plan was feasible, he approached the soldier who seemed to be the commander. "Sir, I just received a transmission from our capture team. They've captured the fugitives but one of them is injured. They'll need our assistance."
The commander looked at Sharp with a look that asked what the hell Sharp thought he was doing. "And why didn't I receive this transmission, Malson?"
Sharp was beginning to sweat it a little as he moved his finger to the trigger of the rifle. "I'm not sure, sir."
The commander was obviously not buying it and took a closer look at who was speaking to him. "You aren't Malson! Intrud..." But that was he could get out before Sharp shot him point blank in the chest. The commander's yelling and the shot quickly put the other soldiers on alert and several of them were already trained in on Sharp. He quickly hit the deck to avoid several shot fired in his direction and popped off a few of his own before making a mad dash for cover.
**************
Seeing all the commotion, Stewart swallowed hard and then made his way toward Harris and the other as quietly as he could and holding his pistol and the P90 Sharp had left behind. He almost had made to them when one of the soldiers who had been guarding the prisoners spotted him. As the soldier raised his gun, Stewart panicked and in a desperate move, closed his eyes and fired his pistol madly in the direction of the soldier. Bracing himself for the return from the soldier, he opened his eyes slowly when he heard a familiar voice.
"Hey Chris, nice shot! You wanna untie us now?"
Stewart looked over to see Davenport signaling with his head to come over and help out. Stewart then glanced over to where the soldier had been. Looking more closely, he saw a bullet sized hole right between his eyes. Stewart couldn't help but smile, but Davenport quickly ruined the moment.
"Sometime today, Chris," Davenport said impatiently. Stewart rushed over and began to untie them. Once untied, Davenport checked on Harris and Corra. "Luke's gonna be ok, but Robert is in bad shape. He needs some help and quick." Just about that time, Corra started to come around. "Luke! Can you hear me?"
Corra shook off the sleep and looked up to Davenport. "Yeah I think so. What's going on?"
"Time to kick some Maldorian ass, my friend." Davenport helped Corra up and grabbed the P90 Stewart was holding. He then tossed the dead soldier's laser rifle to Corra. "Chris, stay here and look out for Robert." Stewart nodded, forgetting all about Sharp's orders to leave and Davenport and Corra rushed to help out Sharp.
**************
"You know, insane Glenn, we really should have a talk about who gets to make the rescue plans around here," Sharp said to himself as he laid pinned down, returning fire when he could. He could hear the soldiers firing at him closing in on him, when he suddenly he also heard more fire coming from what seemed to be behind them. Recognizing the sound of the P90, he smiled and counted his blessings again. Rising to a crouch, Sharp helped Corra and Davenport catch them in a crossfire.
In a few minutes, it was all over. Corra had taken a shot to the arm, but he would be ok. Sharp came out from his cover and joined Davenport and Corra. They each just smiled and shook hands, congratulating each other.
"Did I miss all the fun?" said another voice, emerging from the brush.
"Paul! Good to see you. We thought they'd got you," Davenport exclaimed, walking over to give Grissom a manly hug. It was then that Davenport noticed that Grissom was not alone. "And who do we have here?"
Grissom stepped out of the way to allow Sarah and Christine to be seen by the others. "I found them hiding down by the river. They were gathering water when the attack hit." Sharp smiled at them, glad to see they had made it.
"Guys! He's awake!" Stewart yelled, breaking the moment. All six of them rushed over to check on him. Davenport was the first to get there and helped prop him up. Harris' entire body was beaten and bleeding.
"How you doing, old man?" Davenport asked.
"Been better, John. Did you guys get 'em?" he asked gasping for air.
"Yeah, but we had a little help," Davenport responded, looking up to Sharp.
"Come here, Captain..." Harris asked. Sharp leaned down. "Take care of my boys, will ya?"
"You got it, Harris," Sharp said taking his hand.
"I guess we were more alike than we wanted to admit, Sharp. Give those bastards hell." And then Harris was gone. For the next hour, there wasn't a dry eye on the planet. Not even Sharp's.
****P9T-573 (3 hours later)****
Each had something to say at the funeral before they buried Harris. Then Davenport and the rest except for Sharp, started burying the rest of the camp member's remains. Sharp has just returning to the camp, as they were finishing.
"Any luck?" Stewart asked.
"No. Earth's gate is buried. There is no going back there."
"So what's our next move, Captain?" Davenport asked.
Sharp thought about the code names and symbols he has taken down earlier. His only hope now was that one or more of those planets held the answers he needed. "We honor Harris' last words. We give the bastards hell. Who's in?"
"I think I speak for all of us when I say, we're in, Captain," Stewart responded.
********************
They arrived at the gate an hour later and Sharp began to dial the first sequence he had written down in Chrislyn's journal.
"So, where are we going, Captain?" Grissom asked.
Sharp smiled. "Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Where else?" Just then the gate opened and each of them took one last look, knowing that none of them could ever return home.
****To Be Continued in 'Proof of Life'****
Born of Fire
"Welcome back, Captain," the young Lieutenant said excitedly while saluting.
"Its good to be back, Collins," replied Sharp returning the salute.
"I'm to escort you to the General for immediate debrief, sir."
"Lead on, Lieutenant."
Collins nodded and led Sharp toward the General's office. "I can't begin to tell you what the last week has been like, sir. Captain Fox led two missions looking for you and just about pulled every string she could to set up a third before you finally made it back."
Sharp grinned and chuckled a bit. "Well, Riley is one of the most stubborn people I know, Lieutenant, so that doesn't surprise me. It is good to know, however, that I have people like that working beside me. It makes all the difference sometimes."
"If I may speak freely, sir, we're all excited to hear how you escaped that Goa'uld trap. How did you know that it wasn't really the SGC?"
"It just never made sense from the start. Besides, they tried that crap on the original SG-1 once before. If it didn't work then, why would they expect it to work now?"
Collins continued to escort Sharp, but now looked up at a him a little confused. "So, let me see if I understand this correctly. The Goa'uld used some sort of field to incapacitate you and tried to make you believe you'd moved twenty-three years into the future? What were they looking for?"
"I didn't stay long enough to find out for sure, but I'm almost positive it was to get a hold of SG-12's iris code."
"Well you're just lucky we didn't lock that code out after the rest of you team returned. How did you know that you wouldn't end up with your molecules spattered all over the iris?"
Sharp was a little surprised by Collin's direct and open dialogue, but once he considered the question, he realized that none of the answers that he could come up with, made a lot of sense. "Uh, Lieutenant, why wasn't my IDC locked out of the control computers? Isn't that standard procedure after the mission's operational window has passed?"
Collins smiled and turned a slight shade of red. "Well like I said, sir, Captain Fox pulled a lot of strings. She never gave up on you. It must be nice to have someone who loves you that much."
Sharp listened to Collins' explanation but continued to have a perplexed look on his face. It wasn't that he didn't believe Riley wouldn't do all the things Collins said, he just found it hard to believe she had enough clout to convince the General to expose the base like that. Sharp looked back up to Collins to continue his line of inquiry only to scared out of his skin at what he saw. Collins had been replaced by a bleached skeleton in an SGC uniform. Sharp cautiously back away, unsure of what the hell was going on.
"Is there something wrong, sir?"
****Earth (An hour since Harris left)****
Sharp shot straight up, sweating and frantically looking around to figure out where he was. His heart was beating loud enough that it seemed to echo in the empty room. Finally able to calm himself, he looked down at the mess of computer parts scattered all around him and then finally at the local power supply that had sent the surge of electricity through his body, rendering him unconscious. Slowly he began to remember what had really occurred. Once Harris and the others had left, Sharp decided that the base computers might hold some of the answers for which he was looking. Luckily, computers were one thing he knew about. He had eagerly tore into the personal computer cases around the base and then the base mainframe looking for salvageable parts to construct as least one working computer and to see which hard drives had survived whatever happened here. In his eagerness, however, he foolishly began to remove parts from a computer still hooked to the power system. "Nice job," Sharp said to himself, realizing that getting the computers up and running again would do him no good if he got himself killed doing it.
"Ok, let's see here," Sharp continued, as he removed the power feed from the offending machine, "I've got everything in place except for the decryption hardware. Now if I can find one that's not fried, I'll be in business." He again began looking through the piles of computer components looking for the hardware. "Ok, fried... fried... fried.... and why the hell am I talking to myself? Stupid question I guess. They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness and with all the insanity around me, it fits." He cocked he head to the right as if he was talking to someone. "So insane Glenn, what are we going to do tonight?" He then moved his head to look to the left. "The same thing I'm going to do every night, sane Glenn. Try to take over your brain." He tossed one of the fried board over into the discarded part pile he had created a few feet away and took a deep breath. "Get it together, Glenn! This is no time to be messing around!" Turning his attention back to the mess of wires and hardware, Glenn continued the work he had started a few hours before.
****P9T-573 (2 hours later)****
Stewart held his breath as he cowered in the bush several miles from what had been his home. He watched and listened for the two armed men who had been chasing him since he had escaped from those who had ruthlessly destroyed the camp. His mind wandered to the images he saw as they returned to the camp 2 hours earlier.
****P9T-573 (2 hours earlier)****
"Take cover, over there," Harris pointed. Each of the four with him quickly obeyed and found cover behind a few trees. Meanwhile, Harris crept closer to the camp, looking into the distance to determine what exactly was happening. Much to his horror, he saw several armed men, throwing lifeless bodies onto a large pile. If that hadn't been bad enough, he then saw two similar piles already on fire spreading the foul stink of burning flesh. As a young man, Harris had been taught by his father that tears only came from women and weak men, but this sight would have been powerful enough to invoke tears even from his father if he'd been alive. Completely enraged and with tears flowing, Harris chambered a round in his gun and prepared to take as many of them out as he could in retaliation for destroying his home and killing his adopted family, but before he could move, Davenport came up behind him and grabbed him.
"You weren't thinking of doing anything stupid were you, Robert?"
"Damn it, John, don't you see what they've done? They've murdered them all!"
"And they'll kill us too unless we come up with a better plan then running in, guns blazing!" Just as he had spoken the words, they both watched as Corra did exactly that. "Damn it! Luke's gonna get himself killed!"
"If you ask me, Luke's got the right idea!" And with that, Harris followed Corra into the fray.
"Well, this has been a short and awful life," Davenport sighed frustrated. He then turned to signal Grissom and Stewart to join him before advancing himself.
Stewart never thought himself as brave. He thought about how he'd much rather be back in that lab he saw on earth than in a fire fight right now, but Robert had looked out for him since before he could remember and he wasn't about to just sit there and watch him die. Swallowing the fear, he stepped out of his hiding place. He took two steps before Grissom stopped him. "What are you doing, Paul?"
"Hold up, Chris. I know you wanna play hero, but I need you to do something more important."
Stewart looked up at him as if to ask if he was serious. "What the hell are you talking about, Paul? We have to help them!"
Grissom remained steadfast. "You will be helping them. I want you to go and bring back Captain Sharp."
"But..."
"No buts, Chris. We need all the help we can get! Now get going!" Grissom ordered, pointing in the direction of the gate. Stewart slowly turned and then began to carefully make his way back to the gate, not knowing until later how much he would regret that decision.
****Earth (4 hours since Harris left)****
Sharp smiled as he watched the computer start up. It had taken quite a bit of brainpower and programming to repair the corrupted files just to get it to boot into a basic operation mode. "Still got it," he smiled. Once it had finished booting, he began to look through the hard drives he installed for any files that were still readable. After about one hundred straight unreadable files, Sharp was starting to get a little frustrated. "Damn machine! I don't know why the hell I ever wanted to mess with these things for a living!" Sharp's typing become angry and fierce. He was about to take a much needed break when he finally got a hit. Sharp read over the file growing more and more conflicted.
**********************
Mission report for test flight, TFC Destroyer O'Niell. Date: October 11, 2005 Commanding Officer: Captain James Wellington, Tau'ri Fleet Command
This is a general report on the strengths and weaknesses of the brand new line of Thor class Destroyers. It is my opinion that the O'Niell is the perfect instrument to use in the fight against the Maldorians. The weapon and defensive systems are on level with Maldorian destroyers and the increased maneuverability of the Asgard hyperspeed engines, I believe, gives us the edge we need to win this war. The only weakness I can see is its inability to fight effectively in short range engagements. It is for this reason I recommend the increase of the human gliders from a compliment of 24 to a compliment of 48. I have also submitted my recommendation for the commander of the glider wings. I understand this to be an unpopular recommendation, but I feel it necessary to the success of the planned follow up mission, Argos. I have provided the tests conducted and their results in my supplemental report.
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Sharp read over the rest of the report but did not get anymore useful information. Closing the file, he did a search through the hard drives for anything related to the Argos mission and prayed that at least one of the files was still intacted. This time, the search was much quicker. Sharp hit upon what he was looking for in the first ten files. He opened the file to see list of code names. At first he wasn't sure what he was looking at until he noticed a grouping of six gate symbols beside each name. "A list of planets, but what type of planets? Maldorian bases? Shipyards? What?" He continued until he found the code name Argos. Reading across from the name, however, there were no symbols. "Damn! The rest of the file must have been corrupted." Sharp quickly took out Chrislyn's journal and began copying code names and symbols as fast he could in the blank pages. He had most of the list copied when he heard the stargate begin to activate.
****P9T-573 (15 minutes earlier)****
"Why can't we just shoot the piss ant and then take the other one out ourselves?"
"Because we have orders to take them both alive and bring them back to Kelsar and that's what we're going to do." The two men "chasing" Stewart were hidden about a hundred feet away, waiting for him to make his move. "Besides, if we're gonna route out the rest of the sorry excuses for a species we need to use morons like him. Whenever the going gets tough, these cowards go running to all the hiding places."
"It makes me sick just to look at them," he literally looked ill as he said it.
"Well at least you weren't part of an infiltration team. I had to live with them, eat with them, be around them all day long. The damn invasion couldn't have come soon enough for me."
"It's amazing you didn't go crazy. I don't think I could go a week without killing the whole lot of them."
"Yeah, well you do need a certain level of restraint to be an infiltrator and that's never been your strong point."
"And when I'm leading a battalion and you're still hunting wild game, you'll wish that level of restraint was a lot lower," he smiled.
The other soldier chuckled and then got serious. "We got movement." They watched as Stewart made his way to the DHD and began to dial. "Well so far our intel is right on the money. He went straight for the gate."
"Didn't even try to throw us off the track. Sometimes it's just too easy." Stewart finished dialing and the gate activated.
"Time to move out. Laser pistols only, stun setting."
"You really know how to ruin a soldier's day you know that?"
"Unless you want to explain to Kelsar why his prisoners are dead." The other soldier just grunted as they both ran to follow Stewart through the gate.
****Earth****
Sharp arrived in the gate room with his P90 just in time to the see the wormhole establish. He positioned himself at the base of the ramp and raised the gun, nervously waiting for whatever was coming through.
Stewart emerged from the gate and almost immediately spotted Sharp. "Don't shoot! It me, Chris!"
"What the hell are you doing back here?" Sharp asked confused.
Stewart ran down the ramp as he answered Sharp with fatigue and fear in his voice. "We need your help, Captain. The Maldorians found the camp, they killed everyone! Harris and the others tried to fight them. Please, you have to come back with me! We have to help them!" No sooner had Stewart finished then both of the soldiers who had been following him came through the gate. Both took aim and fired at Stewart and Sharp.
"Down!" Sharp yelled as he tackled Stewart, narrowly avoiding the shots. Realizing however that they were still exposed, he quickly jumped behind one of the larger debris piles and drug Stewart behind it with him. The soldiers took cover as well behind the ramp on the side farthest from Sharp. Sharp moved out to return fire, forcing the soldiers to duck behind the ramp. "Who the hell are those guys, Stewart?"
"Humans who have betrayed their race and fight for the Maldorians," Stewart replied, scared and breathing heavily. The two solders forced both of them back down with laser fire. "We assume that they were offered some kind of deal to infiltrate and eventually turn in any resistance to the Maldorian dominance." Sharp popped up to return fire again and then dropped back behind the debris pile.
"We're pinned down here." Sharp looked down to see Stewart holding his pistol. "You any good with that thing?"
"I'm a pretty fare shot, why? You don't want me to..." Stewart started with a look that spelled disbelief.
"I need you to cover me," Sharp interrupted him. "I have to get closer."
"Are you kidding me? I can't cover you!! Yeah, sure I talk about being a soldier, but I'm a thinker, not a fighter! An idea man!"
"You'll do fine, and besides, you're all I got." Without giving him a chance to object again, Sharp shot another volley in the direction of the ramp and began to move. The two soldiers, seeing this, moved up to stun him, but were surprised when shots were again fired at them from the debris pile. With their attention divided, Sharp managed to move close enough for a clear shot and he took advantage of it, landing kill shots on both. Sharp carefully moved closer to examine the bodies to make sure they were dead.
"Did you get them?" Stewart carefully poked his head back out to see for himself after not getting a response from Sharp. He watched as Sharp bent down to take a pulse.
"Yeah I got 'em," Sharp replied, letting out a deep breath. The sense of relief was short lived however as he noticed a device on one of the soldier's wrists that seemed to be counting down. "Stewart, get over here!" he yelled with an urgency. Stewart quickly ran over and Sharp shoved the soldier's wrist into his face. "What the hell is that?"
"Damn! It's a dead man's switch. The Maldorians use them when they issue a succeed at all costs mission." Sharp dropped the soldier's arm and headed for the door. "Where are you going?"
Sharp stopped long enough to answer him. "When that thing goes off, it's gonna bring this base and the mountain its in down on top of us. So unless you can disarm that thing, I'm getting us the hell out of here!" Sharp turned and ran to the control room, counting his blessings that one of the first things he installed on the working computer was the SGC dialing program. He quickly entered the symbols for P9T-573 and ran back down to the gate room. Stewart watched confused as the gate spun and locked in each chevron.
"I thought you said you didn't have a DHD?"
"This isn't the time! Just pray this thing finishes dialing before that guy give us both a bad day!" Moments later the seventh chevron locked and both ran through with only seconds to spare.
****P9T-573****
Both Stewart and Sharp landed safely on the other side but force of the explosive followed them through the gate and threw them another 10 feet. Sharp got up slowly holding his left arm which had taken the brunt of the fall. He looked over to see Stewart starting to get up as well. "You ok?"
Stewart got up holding his head. "Not sure."
Sharp moved over to take a look at the injury. "I'm no doctor but I think you'll be fine."
"And if I'm not?" Stewart asked, not completely trusting Sharp's diagnosis.
"Hey, you get what you pay for," Sharp replied smiling. "Now come on, we got some friends of yours to rescue." Sharp extended his hand and helped Stewart up. "So, what do you know besides the fact that the village was attacked?"
"Not much. There were at least a dozen soldiers, including the ones that chased me, but that's all I saw before Paul sent me to find you."
"Alright then, let's get moving. Follow me and be as inconspicuous as possible."
Over an hour later, they found a spot providing enough cover to hide but close enough to watch the camp. Sharp pulled out a pair of binoculars and surveyed the camp. Looking around, he saw several soldiers and three figures tied up and at gunpoint. "Well its looks like you were right on the money, Stewart. I count ten soldiers and three hostages. Harris, Davenport and Corra."
"They must not have found Grissom yet. Are they alive?"
"I can't tell from here. If they are, they're not in good shape." Sharp noticed the soldiers didn't seem to be doing much besides guarding the hostages. "I wonder what they are waiting for?"
"They probably are waiting for those other guys to come back with me and Paul. What are we gonna do?" Stewart asked, worried.
"I'm gonna distract the soldiers while you get Harris and the others out."
"You want me to do WHAT??!!" Stewart's eyes got wide as he started to shake his head. Sharp grabbed him by the collar and gave him a look that instantly snapped Stewart to attention.
"Look! I'm gonna get your friends out but I need your help! Now get it together and do what I tell you!" Stewart nodded his head and Sharp let him go. "Now, as soon as I draw the soldiers away from the others, get in there, untie them and get out. Got it?" Stewart nodded again. "Good. No heroics now. As soon as you guys are out, head for the gate and dial some place safe."
"We can't just leave you. And what about Grissom?" Stewart questioned.
"I keep telling you, don't worry about me. As for Grissom, if he's smart, he'll do the same thing I just told you to do. Now get ready." Sharp put the P90 on the ground and pulled out his 9mm. Spotting his target, he carefully made his way down near the edge of their perimeter. Quietly sneaking behind one of the soldiers, he waited until all of the other weren't looking and grabbed him behind from behind the bush. With one quick move he broke the soldier's neck and then hurriedly started to change clothes. After he finished, he grabbed the soldier's laser rifle and took his position, trying to evaluate the situation close up. When he was sure his plan was feasible, he approached the soldier who seemed to be the commander. "Sir, I just received a transmission from our capture team. They've captured the fugitives but one of them is injured. They'll need our assistance."
The commander looked at Sharp with a look that asked what the hell Sharp thought he was doing. "And why didn't I receive this transmission, Malson?"
Sharp was beginning to sweat it a little as he moved his finger to the trigger of the rifle. "I'm not sure, sir."
The commander was obviously not buying it and took a closer look at who was speaking to him. "You aren't Malson! Intrud..." But that was he could get out before Sharp shot him point blank in the chest. The commander's yelling and the shot quickly put the other soldiers on alert and several of them were already trained in on Sharp. He quickly hit the deck to avoid several shot fired in his direction and popped off a few of his own before making a mad dash for cover.
**************
Seeing all the commotion, Stewart swallowed hard and then made his way toward Harris and the other as quietly as he could and holding his pistol and the P90 Sharp had left behind. He almost had made to them when one of the soldiers who had been guarding the prisoners spotted him. As the soldier raised his gun, Stewart panicked and in a desperate move, closed his eyes and fired his pistol madly in the direction of the soldier. Bracing himself for the return from the soldier, he opened his eyes slowly when he heard a familiar voice.
"Hey Chris, nice shot! You wanna untie us now?"
Stewart looked over to see Davenport signaling with his head to come over and help out. Stewart then glanced over to where the soldier had been. Looking more closely, he saw a bullet sized hole right between his eyes. Stewart couldn't help but smile, but Davenport quickly ruined the moment.
"Sometime today, Chris," Davenport said impatiently. Stewart rushed over and began to untie them. Once untied, Davenport checked on Harris and Corra. "Luke's gonna be ok, but Robert is in bad shape. He needs some help and quick." Just about that time, Corra started to come around. "Luke! Can you hear me?"
Corra shook off the sleep and looked up to Davenport. "Yeah I think so. What's going on?"
"Time to kick some Maldorian ass, my friend." Davenport helped Corra up and grabbed the P90 Stewart was holding. He then tossed the dead soldier's laser rifle to Corra. "Chris, stay here and look out for Robert." Stewart nodded, forgetting all about Sharp's orders to leave and Davenport and Corra rushed to help out Sharp.
**************
"You know, insane Glenn, we really should have a talk about who gets to make the rescue plans around here," Sharp said to himself as he laid pinned down, returning fire when he could. He could hear the soldiers firing at him closing in on him, when he suddenly he also heard more fire coming from what seemed to be behind them. Recognizing the sound of the P90, he smiled and counted his blessings again. Rising to a crouch, Sharp helped Corra and Davenport catch them in a crossfire.
In a few minutes, it was all over. Corra had taken a shot to the arm, but he would be ok. Sharp came out from his cover and joined Davenport and Corra. They each just smiled and shook hands, congratulating each other.
"Did I miss all the fun?" said another voice, emerging from the brush.
"Paul! Good to see you. We thought they'd got you," Davenport exclaimed, walking over to give Grissom a manly hug. It was then that Davenport noticed that Grissom was not alone. "And who do we have here?"
Grissom stepped out of the way to allow Sarah and Christine to be seen by the others. "I found them hiding down by the river. They were gathering water when the attack hit." Sharp smiled at them, glad to see they had made it.
"Guys! He's awake!" Stewart yelled, breaking the moment. All six of them rushed over to check on him. Davenport was the first to get there and helped prop him up. Harris' entire body was beaten and bleeding.
"How you doing, old man?" Davenport asked.
"Been better, John. Did you guys get 'em?" he asked gasping for air.
"Yeah, but we had a little help," Davenport responded, looking up to Sharp.
"Come here, Captain..." Harris asked. Sharp leaned down. "Take care of my boys, will ya?"
"You got it, Harris," Sharp said taking his hand.
"I guess we were more alike than we wanted to admit, Sharp. Give those bastards hell." And then Harris was gone. For the next hour, there wasn't a dry eye on the planet. Not even Sharp's.
****P9T-573 (3 hours later)****
Each had something to say at the funeral before they buried Harris. Then Davenport and the rest except for Sharp, started burying the rest of the camp member's remains. Sharp has just returning to the camp, as they were finishing.
"Any luck?" Stewart asked.
"No. Earth's gate is buried. There is no going back there."
"So what's our next move, Captain?" Davenport asked.
Sharp thought about the code names and symbols he has taken down earlier. His only hope now was that one or more of those planets held the answers he needed. "We honor Harris' last words. We give the bastards hell. Who's in?"
"I think I speak for all of us when I say, we're in, Captain," Stewart responded.
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They arrived at the gate an hour later and Sharp began to dial the first sequence he had written down in Chrislyn's journal.
"So, where are we going, Captain?" Grissom asked.
Sharp smiled. "Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Where else?" Just then the gate opened and each of them took one last look, knowing that none of them could ever return home.
****To Be Continued in 'Proof of Life'****
