Chapter 8: How long can we Hold?
It's strange, how when you've been in the dark so long, how dazzlingly bright the smallest light is. It's amazing that after so long you've been without hope, and yet...never really known how hopeless it was until you can see that it is possible to survive.
That it is possible to win.
The defenses that the UNSC had mustered to defend earth had been pathetic. Even with the bolstered forces the UNSC fleet had managed, it was a mere 89 vessels that had made up Earths defensive armada. The ships had been stripped from most of the inner colonies, and even with the skeleton defenses throughout the remnants of the United Nations colonies, there was no way the Fleet could defeat a determined Covenant assault. The bulk of the UNSC fleet had been at Reach, and they'd been devastated by it's destruction.
There was no way that the UNSC forces could hold out on it's own.
But three days after the summit meeting that had been convened the first vessels began arriving. A small detachment of eighteen vessels from the Human Alliance had arrived. Their boxy forms bristled with weapons and were defended with thick layers of Adumantium armor and heavy shielding. Missile launch racks were mounted on the prows of the ships. Even the six vessels in the center of the armada boasted large cavernous launch bays that carried swarms of heavy starfighters and assault craft.
The next day a large mixed detachment arrived from the Klingon Star Empire and the Federation. Four Akira class Heavy Cruisers and two Sovereign class Battleships made up the core of the Federation contingent, escorted by twelve lighter Intrepid vessels and ten Defiant class Light Cruisers.
The Klingon ships looked much more dangerous than their Federation allies, they had sharp, predatory lines and looked to be much more heavily armed. Eight Negh'Var class battleships made a strong core for the Klingon line. The heavy, massive ships looked like they could decimate any foe before them. Twenty Fek'Lhr class Heavy Cruisers were formed up around the core battleships. At the perimeter of the massive formation were a mixture of K'Vort class Destroyers and D'rek class Frigates. This force looked to be enough to smack down any Covenant assault on their own.
Arriving on that same day were twenty Asguard warships arrived. The massive, silver tinged ships dwarfed the large Negh'Var battleships. Their size and sleek lines seemed as though they were close to putting the Federation vessels to shame.
It wasn't just fleet vessels that were arriving either. The US had dispatched two Divisions worth of Colonial Marines, and forty Conestoga Class assault transports. The US vessels had Nuclear weapons and full complements of Cheyenne dropships and weapons. The Colonial Marines had some fierce ground troops; they were packing energy weapons and heavy armor, and enough to complement the UNSC Marine forces on world.
The Coalition forces – as the united governments had decided to call themselves – had standardized their rank systems and command organizations, but beyond that they had managed very little. Design teams and scientists were working feverishly on trying to make all the different technologies and military hardware to work together, but it wasn't easy.
A UNSC MA5B assault rifle and a Colonial Marine M41A Pulse Rifle were both projectile weapons, but they were radically different. The MA5B used a 60 round clip of 5.56mm ammo. The M41A Pulse Rifle used a 99 round magazine of 10mm rounds, plus a 30mm grenade launcher.
And those were the similar weapons systems. Even comparing a New Republic Firelance blaster rifle and an X-Com Mk.6 Tachyon Disruptor Rifle was difficult. The New Republic weapon worked by using Tabanna gas in power cells, the X-Com weapon used an extra-dimensional power source.
SGC, Asguard, Tollan and Tok'ra vessels were all powered using Naquida and Naquadria, elements unique to their galaxies. Federation and Klingon ships used Dilithium crystals. X-Com vessels and fighters consumed Elerium. The Colonial marine ships used Lithium-Hydride fusion for propulsion.
UNSC and Colonial marine armor was a layered form of combat armor. X-Com troops had full body suits with cloaking devices, layered shields and energy dissipating armor. The New Republic ground troops wore blast vests designed to work against projectile weapons and shrapnel, with limited energy protection.
But for all their differences they had, they still had one common goal, defeat of the Covenant. And for all their differences, they could at least hold that one in common. They had to win, because if they didn't no historians would be around to say they hadn't.
Deep Space near Gergidon 3 asteroid field, Human Alliance Covert Ops Battle Cruiser 'Forestall', Briefing room Alpha – 2
John sat in the briefing room in silence. He wore his simple set of marine fatigues with the Spartan unit patch on each shoulder. The other four Spartans sat with him, they didn't boast name tags, merely SPARTAN followed by their number. They didn't have names really, not for anyone outside the unit. Just numbers.
John glanced around at the other personnel in the room. From what he'd been told this was a Recon mission to get a better feel for the Covenant forces, and apparently they were going to make contact with spies inside some of the Covenant's forced subjects.
John's eyes drifted towards the X-Com troopers towards the back of the briefing room. They wore completely black jumpsuits. Their nameplates on their chests set out in gold lettering. On each of the troopers a small series of symbols and ribbons was set. Unit commendations and personal citations, and if number was any indicator, they were pretty well regarded.
His eyes darted to the next collection of people. There were four of them, and from the looks of them they were a cohesive unit. Their unit patches were slightly odd, a strange symbol that John didn't recognize, but he did know they were from the 'SGC'. John's eyes fell upon the strange tattoo that the largest one of them had on his forehead.
Clearly they weren't as professional as they seemed. Tattoos? In such plain view on 'professional' military personnel? Preposterous.
He glanced at the few representatives of the group called the Tok'ra. Apparently much like the 'Goa'uld', yet philosophically different. John didn't care much so long as he didn't have do worry about them shooting at him.
John returned his attention to the front of the room. A large holo projector dominated the front wall with a small podium. The small door set behind the podium opened and a robot strode through.
It had a humanoid form. Its body was very utilitarian. No real body plating, just something akin to a human skeleton, chromed and shining in the ship's light. The robot's torso boasted a series of insignia and symbols, rank and combat awards. Of course, in the UNSC, robots, AI's and other artificial constructs were not considered to be 'equal' to humans. But the Human Alliance had a large facet of their population from a group know as the 'Sentient Machine Empire', an organization that was entirely made up of mechanical and non-organic constructions. They were considered to be equal to organics in all respects, even military position.
"Attention on he deck!" John barked. His mind remembered the Human Alliance insignia for a Lt. Colonel that was prominently displayed on the 'collar' of the machine.
Most of the assembled troopers stood up at attention. But the oldest of the SGC soldiers with gray hair remained seated. The SGC officer was a Colonel.
"At ease." The Robot ordered. The stiff troops relaxed and sat back down.
"I am command unit RX-128-Alpha-9, manufacture designation. My Sentient designation is Lieutenant Colonel Yarn Ignations. I am chief Special operations command officer for operations sector code named 'Jurisprudence'. Responsible for the ninth quadrant of the Antran – Human Alliance border and on temporary duty with the UNSC military high command." The Robot, Lt. Colonel Ignations said. His voice was not the rasping, grating noise that one would expect from such a utilitarian design. It was rich and all too human. But it still held the over-informative nature of a machine.
"This operation was formed to launch an intelligence probe of the current Covenant fleet strength. New Republic Intelligence has sent 'Ferret' long-range stealth reconnaissance craft on deep probing missions into what we've designated as Covenant Space." The Lt. Colonel said. The Holo projector flared to life and brought up a swirling representation of the UNSC galaxy. A large swath of red that represented the Covenant covered a large portion of the galactic core and rim. The small patch of green representing the UNSC covered only a small part of a single spiral arm. But a large majority of the galaxy remained darkened, no green or red touching it.
Several small white splotches were on the map, close to the green and red border. The holo zoomed in to one of the larger spots. It was placed dangerously close to the border. As the image zoomed in, small labels appeared on several of the key stars. The blob was marked as 'Covenant Fleet Marshaling Zone one'; the closest star was marked as 'Sol'.
"We are currently two light years out from the extreme perimeter of the Covenant fleet zone. Our mission objective is to launch a small, Tok'ra transport vessel carrying the strike team. They will infiltrate the main Covenant battle station and extract a high placed Jaffa. He has vital information on Covenant fleet strengths and troop deployments. It is imperative that we extract him." Lt. Colonel Ignations said.
"In the case that our forces are compromised, the Forestall will come in and extract us with force. Elements of the 9TH Saurian Shock Division are on board and are prepared for combat." Ignatious said, but the Master Chief stood up.
"With all due respect sir, we're walking into an overwhelming number of enemy vessels, and they're Covenant, which means we're out classed, horribly. If you have to come in to extract us, we're already dead sir." John said being blunt.
"Don't get caught then." The robot replied.
"Yessir." John said and sat down.
"Who exactly is it we're trying to retrieve?" One of the X-Com soldiers asked, rising from her seat.
"His name is Brae'Tak a prominent Jaffa and leader of the Jaffa rebellion. Before the Covenant took control of the Goa'uld System Lords he was a hunted man. Now he still has a place among the Jaffa serving the Goa'uld, and by extension, the Covenant."
"We won't have to worry about the contact winding up dead before we get there will we sir?" Fred asked.
"Master Brae'Tak is a formidable warrior. He shall be present when we arrive." The tattooed SGC member said.
"Good, because I have dragging bodies back."
"The jump off time for the Shuttle is in four hours. I suggest you all spend that time getting ready for the mission."
Despite the large size of the Human Alliance vessel, it was like any military vessel, cramped and overcrowded. The different strike teams were crammed into one room that seemed to be vying for the title of 'smallest niche on ship'. And for all intents and purposes it seemed to be winning the title. The teams were keeping their gear secure in the room, they had bunks elsewhere. Thankfully they didn't all have to sleep in the room as well. But right now they were all in the room prepping their gear.
The four Spartan's hadn't removed their armor, they were in an unfamiliar environment...allies or not. The busied themselves with checking their weapons and equipment. They were still carrying MA5B assault rifles. There hadn't been any weapons shipments to the UNSC yet. But the Human Alliance, New Republic, and X-Com had all promised weapons to be provided...John would believe that when the weapons turned up.
The X-Com commandos were donning their own unique armor. It was entirely black, and had smoothly rounded edges. A large, 'hump' was on the backplate of each unit of armor. One of the X-Com troopers had explained it housed the shielding systems and cloak generator. John knew that they had better shields and cloaks than the Covenant, he'd seen them in action. John half wished his armor had shields that good and a cloaking device.
Another X-Com operative picked up one of their Mk. 6 Tachyon Disruptor rifles. It was slightly longer than an MA5B and had a slight bulge at the shoulder end. John had seen a demonstration of that as well. The weapon had boiled through four inches of titanium in less than ten seconds of fully automatic firing. The integral grenade launcher beneath the weapon's barrel could fire a range of projectiles using an electromagnetic launcher it was a mini-Rail gun. Add the different grenades that the X-Com troops had, Elerium grenades with as much power as a high explosive demolitions pack; Chemical weapons attuned to specific alien DNA patterns, 'Alien Gas' as they called it; monomolecular flechette grenades, capable of sending out a cloud of fragments capable of ripping through titanium body armor. The average X-Com soldier was capable of
If the X-Com team was best equipped, and the Spartans were best trained, the SGC team seemed to be least equipped to deal with combat. The extent of their combat gear were submachineguns, low caliber pistols, and a few light energy weapons. They appeared to be woefully under armed to deal with a full-scale war against an alien race. But the information said that the SGC had been fighting the 'Goa'uld' for almost a decade now, and they were winning.
"So, what's with that fancy suit of armor?" The gray haired SGC officer asked.
John paused for half a beat; he realized that his faceplate was staring straight at the officer.
"Sir?" John asked, noting the small insignia on the other soldier's collar; Colonel.
"How did you wind up with that fancy armor? Most of the other soldiers I've seen from your group boast simpler stuff." The Colonel asked.
"SPARTAN program, sir." John said. He wasn't eager to enter into a conversation with a Colonel.
"And that is..."
"Classified sir."
"Ah. Okay then."
"Yes sir." John said and lapsed back into silence as he stripped, checked and reassembled his weapon with almost no thought involved; it was basic...it was instinct to him. He'd been doing this sort of thing since he was seven. He'd been a professional soldier for so long he could not...he would not know any other life.
X-Com Squad leader Sergeant Harris von Kilmounge had been a part of X- Com for fifteen years. He'd joined up after leaving Megapol (The Mega Primus PD) back when the Aliens were launching the first attacks on the city. He'd fought for three long years, in a brutal war that had laid waste too much of the city over time and decimated X-Com's military forces. But the organization had prevailed, and SLS Kilmounge had been one of the veteran operatives selected to fight in the UNSC – Covenant war, or 'The Big'un' as many of the veteran troops were beginning to call it.
X-Com records and information dated back to the First and Second Alien wars, full-fledged invasion attempts of earth. And their brothers had beaten back the alien hordes and made earth safe. X-Com fighter wings fought the aliens on the frontiers of human controlled space, and Combat teams waged an unceasing war with the alien remnant. But X-Com had never had a part in a full-scale war, at least modern X-Com hadn't.
Corporate command was working feverishly to develop a much larger and stronger financial and industrial base for combat. Older designs were being reinstated and reworked for large scale production. Armor, small arms, explosives and Chemical weapons production were being pushed beyond their limits to assist in the war. Fighter production had quadrupled from 25 spacecraft to 100 per month. There was talk of boosting production to an upper limit of 500 a month.
But Kilmounge didn't care about that he was a ground pounder. He was donning his Disruptor armor. The black body suit was tight over his jumpsuit. But he'd worn it for almost five years now and it felt like a second skin to him. He felt the tingle as the Elerium power core charged and activated, then a sensation of static all over his body as the shielding and cloaking device activated.
Satisfied by the green lights in his heads up display, and the local area map placing the rest of his unit, Kilmounge picked up his Tachyon Disruptor rifle. The weapon was a comforting weight in his hands. Even though it was a strictly human design, reverse engineered and modified from the Aliens Devastator Cannon weapon, Kilmounge loved the instrument of death. It had substantial firepower on it's own, and even more flexibility from the integral grenade launcher beneath the main barrel. The veteran trooper slung the weapon and began to pick up his equipment. A selection of grenades was the limit of his secondary gear. Alien gas and stun grenades, along with Elerium charges, and monomolecular flechette grenades.
These were weapons that the old veterans from the First Alien War would have killed to have. Invisibility and energy shielding, energy weapons, and Elerium explosives; things the old soldiers could never have even thought to wish for. The old salts in high command had figured out just exactly how many of those old soldiers from the First Alien war would take to equal one Modern X-Com trooper. Something on the order of thirty to one. Amazing what almost seventy-five years equaled. Come to think of it, those old troopers from the First Alien war...they'd been armed much like the SGC team.
Kilmounge looked around at the other soldiers in the room and felt slightly sorry for them, they were so woefully under armed and armored for this type of fight. Even the UNSC Spartans with their excellent armor and training...they were still unprepared.
The haggard, veteran X-Com operative charged his Tachyon Disruptor rifle and looked at the others. How many of them were going to wind up dead from this mission. Kilmounge frowned, war with the Aliens had always had taken too many lives, too many good lives. He thought back to the X- Com memorial on Earth.
It was a simple wall in the center of Millennium Park, the largest green space in the epic urban expanse of Mega Primus. So many names adorned it, Names from the First alien war on the land, and the Second beneath the waves, names from the war for Mega Primus, names from the fleets in the outer rim, and soon...names from this conflict.
Countless thousands adorned the simple monument, how many more would be added from this conflict?
Colonel O'Neill laced up the remainder of his bootlaces and shifted the Trinium trauma plate in his combat vest. The lightweight, ultra tough armor plate was rated to withstand a Goa'uld staff weapon. Jack shifted at the unfamiliar weight. It was unnerving have something that light considered capable of stopping an energy blast. He'd been apprehensive when they'd considered using Titanium trauma plating, weight hand it's drawbacks. But this stuff was light, and it worked well. That was all Jack cared about.
But, he was slightly envious of the gear that the X-Com troopers and the UNSC Spartans had. Those were some pretty nice suits of armor. He noticed that the tinted faceplate of one of the troopers was fixed on him.
"So, what's with that fancy suit of armor?" Jack asked looking at the bright green body armor, so akin to medieval plate armor.
"Sir?" The Spartan replied.
"How did you wind up with that fancy armor? Most of the other soldiers I've seen from your group boast simpler stuff." John pushed forward.
"SPARTAN program, sir." The Spartan replied simply.
"And that is..."
"Classified sir."
"Ah. Okay then." Jack conceded.
"Yes sir." The titan of a soldier said and fell silent.
Jack shrugged and looked back to the P90 he was working on. He'd been told repeatedly, that if he wanted they could take along with them. M4s, CAR-14s, SAWs, anything they wanted they could have brought along. He'd wanted to stick with P90's, 9mms and a few Zats. Nothing fancy, if they did their job right they wouldn't have to worry about anything.
Unfortunately he had been thinking of the best-case scenario; stupid, stupid, stupid. The X-Com soldiers and the Spartans had been thinking more rationally. They looked like they were decked out to face an angry Jaffa army. Jack glanced at the rest of SG-1.
Carter looked like she was about to start drooling over the gear that the others were packing, human designed and built energy shielding and cloaking devices, human designed energy weapons and advanced explosives. Major Carter seemed like it was taking a lot of effort not to try and start tearing apart the various pieces of hardware everyone else was carrying.
Daniel sat in silence next to Teal'c, and as usual the large Jaffa was silent. Of course, the pair of them were looking around, but nothing exactly fit their fields of expertise. A linguist and an alien warrior were slightly out of place compared to the group of soldiers that didn't converse, and the group of mercenaries from an organization that fought against aliens for over half a century.
The hatch into the room slid open and one of the Tok'ra stepped in.
"Are you ready?"
"Good to go." SLS Kilmounge said.
"Yes sir." John replied.
"As we'll ever be." O'Neill replied.
"The transport is ready. And the Commander has ordered us to the bays." The Tok'ra said. A few nods were exchanged and the large assemblage of diverse Special Forces troops followed the Tok'ra through the corridors of the vessel.
As they walked they attracted a great deal of attention. Their armor and gear was wildly different from Human Alliance issue equipment, and they stuck out clearly amongst the gray jumpsuit clad ship's crew, and green camouflaged power armored forms of the 9TH Saurian Shock Division. Be they the immense forms of armored reptilian warriors, or the diminutive Gnomal ships crew, they gawked at the passers by.
The procession made it through the ship and to the main hangar. They boarded it without incident, the cargo bay of the transport slightly packed with all the people. The small transport was not designed to be a troop ship, and it was difficult for everyone to fit inside comfortably.
"Okay, we're launching. It should take us just about five seconds to head through hyperspace to the Covenant marshaling point. Our cover story is air tight, so we shouldn't have any problems. You all know what you're doing?" The Tok'ra pilot said as they lifted from the bay.
"Yes mom." Colonel O'Neill said caustically.
"Good." The Tok'ra replied, completely missing the Colonel's sarcasm. The ship shuddered slightly as it entered, and then rapidly exited hyperspace.
And the view through the main port was worthy of a sharp intake of breath by everyone inside who could see.
It was massive...A Covenant armada that was beyond number. So many ships flitted around in space.
At the center of the massive formation were five of the massive Covenant constructs that filled the role of fleet depot, shipyard, and battle station. These immense structures dominated the core of the formation, they were large enough to compare to a large asteroid. Covenant Super carriers were docked at each, along with the gargantuan Yuuhzan Vong world ships. Small swarms darted through space around these structures; Covenant, Yevetha and Yuuhzan Vong fighter wings.
Around these sleeping giants rested a fleet larger than any that had been before assembled. Covenant Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers sailed through the void in patrol patterns. Yevetha Star Destroyers glided in silent patrol in formation with Goa'uld motherships. Large saucers flew about erratically amongst this armada.
There had to be at least seven hundred Covenant Vessels, and their assorted allies amongst them.
The Tok'ra said something in Goa'uld.
"He's telling control that we're arriving with the load of Elerium requested." Daniel supplied.
A harsh response came back.
"We've just been challenged for the password."
The Tok'ra replied. The harsh response came back.
"And we're cleared." Daniel said sounding slightly relieved.
"Well, good to know." O'Neill said.
The small cargo ship flew through the jungle of enemy ships. Not a soul in the cargo bay dared breath. They were in the den of the enemy; if something went wrong...they'd be dead before they knew what they did wrong. For a few short moments, a flight of Yuuhzan Vong corral skippers, their asteroid like fighters fell in with them...then veered off.
After an extremely jittery five minute flight into the belly of the beast they landed in one of the plethora of landing bays held at the central battle station. With a slight bump the docking clamps engaged and they were docked.
"Now comes the fun part." One of the X-Com troopers said, a slight whine came from his weapon as it charged up. A few nods were exchanged amongst the Special Forces operatives in the cargo bay.
"Alright. Spartans, you're on point. X-Com, follow us and make sure that we aren't going to get hit from behind. Teal'c, lead the way." Colonel O'Neill ordered. He was in charge of this operation since he was the highest ranked individual in the unit. The Spartans moved to the door out and cycled it open, revealing an empty cargo bay. The four large warriors moved out, sweeping through the bay and pronouncing it clear.
SG-1 and the X-Com mercs moved out after them, falling into formation. The Spartans headed for the side wall of the small room and worked off an access panel they had known was there. They swept the interior, then disappeared into it's shadowed depths. The X-Com operatives sealed it behind them.
The external speakers on the Master Chief's armor crackled to life.
"We follow this for five hundred meters, then take it up fifty. That's where Brae'Tak should meet us." The female voice of Cortana said. Colonel O'Neill nodded and they moved forward. There was something deep within each of the soldiers that said his was far too easy, especially because of the lack of any guards, or security forces along the access corridor.
They reached the vertical ascent and began climbing. Still no Covenant...
"Okay, I've hacked into ships sensors and there aren't any Covenant Patrols in the area. It should be clear." Cortana said and they opened the access panel. Colonel O'Neill went through first and looked sideways, just in time to catch the end of a Staff Weapon along side the head. He grunted and flew sideways. Second through the hatch was the Master Chief, the weapon sliced down and John caught the weapon in one hand, te MA5B clutched in the other like a pistol, pointing around the side of the grate.
"Master Brae'Tak." Teal'c said calmly.
"So, it has taken you long enough to arrive." The wizened old Jaffa master said, stepping back from John, who lowered his weapon ever so slightly.
"Do you always have to do that?" Colonel O'Neill asked, his tone muffled yet menacing from behind his hands.
"I see that you have prepared yourselves somewhat better to face this 'Covenant' human." Brae'Tak said looking at the Spartans, then at the X-Com troopers.
"I thought we'd gotten past the 'human' line...Am I bleeding?" O'Neill asked, directing the second question at the Master Chief. John looked at the officer and shook his head.
"I am glad you have arrived the Covenant have learned that I am not what I appear." Brae'Tak said.
"And what do you appear to be to them?" Cortana asked through John's speakers.
"They believe me to be a loyal, mindless servant of their forces. I am not."
"Of course." O'Neill said, glancing up and down the alien corridor.
"We must go, the Yuuhzan Vong have been hunting me tirelessly." Brae'Tak said.
"Who?"
"Yuuhzan Vong...one of the many races this Covenant has subjugated beyond the Goa'uld, and the Jaffa." Brae'Tak said.
Colonel O'Neill was about to say something but was interrupted by the sound of marching feet in the hallway. Before anyone could move, an orange robed figure glided around the bend in the corridor. It's large hood covering its face in deep shadow. Weak hands clutched a large, bulky weapon. It looked almost too heavy for the being to hold. It seemed to glide slightly off the ground rather than walk along it.
For a fraction of a second they wondered what was making so many footfalls on the deck plating if this creature was hovering along. But that wonder ceased as it's followers rounded the corner.
They were a sharp contrast to the orange robed leader. While the leader was tall, it seemed to be slim beneath the robes as they fell lankly to the floor. The orange robed creature seemed to be physically weak as well.
These creatures were towering slabs of chiseled muscle. Their bodies looked like they were forged in the image of a god. They had no hair at all, be it on their body, or on their heads. They looked like they were capable of ripping apart one of the Spartans bare handed.
They all carried the same bulky weapon that the leader had, but they looked much more suited to wield the massive armaments.
SG-1 paused for a moment, they seemed to be waiting on Brae'Tak's actions. The Spartans waited on their orders. It was almost comical, watching the two groups stand still looking at each other. But the moment of not quite humor did not last.
The X-Com troopers opened fire on the squad with extreme prejudice. Their weapons erupted in a stream in purplish light, slicing into the formation before any of the aliens had a chance to raise their weapons in response. The Orange clad alien tried to flee, but it had been the first one targeted by six different Tachyon Disruptor rifles. Where a torso and head should have been beneath the robes was vaporized.
The entire patrol was simply mowed down as though they were blades of grass. They toppled down and lay twitching in the green ichor that was their entrails.
The X-Com troopers didn't even blink when they did this. They knew what those things were, the enemy from the First Alien war.
No one else had managed to even raise a weapon.
"That was...fast." O'Neill said.
"Ethereal leader with a Muton patrol. We had to vape them." Kilmounge said.
"I see."
"No Colonel, you don't. Ethereals are psionics, they can control your mind if they get half a chance. That means we had to kill them fast. And those Mutons bionic skin could shrug off your bullets easily." Kilmounge explained.
"What he says is correct. We could not have won in a drawn out battle." Brae'Tak said.
"Let's get out of here. They're going to be missed." Colonel O'Neill said nodding at the access shaft. Will turned back to the shaft and looked down, checking to make sure that it was clear. He ducked back quick, a burst from his MA5B flashing in the dim quarters. Something sailed up past his head as he yanked it back; it looked like a jagged spine of sorts. A few more peppered up through the shaft as Will pulled a grenade and lobbed it into the shaft.
"Company." Will announced unnessicarily.
"Let's move!" Colonel O'Neill ordered heading down the corridor past the slaughtered Mutons and Ethereal.
John and the other Spartans leapfrogged away from the open access shaft as the grenade detonated. A few more rounds came from the access corridor.
"I'm picking up a general alert on the Covenant battle net. I'd say they've set off the intruder alert." Cortana said over the speakers. She was cut off from further comment when a mixture of staff weapon blasts, jagged darts, and green energy pulses filled the air. The clatter of the Spartan's assault rifles opened fire at their assailants, a mixture of the large green 'Mutons', Jaffa, and strange, hideous humanoids that looked as though they were sheathed in some sort of shell armor.
The Spartan's weapons seemed to be ineffective against the Muton's skin, and sparked off the crab like carapace armor on the deformed humanoids. Only the X-Com Tachyon Disruptor Rifles had the capacity to take down these threats.
"Concentrate your fire on the Jaffa." Colonel O'Neill ordered the Spartans. The super soldiers redirected their fire on the aliens and began to drop them with lethally accurate bursts of fire. The rest of SG-1 were directing their fire at the Jaffa as well, they couldn't even scratch whatever the Muton skin was, or what that funky crab armor was. Somehow the stuff was just shrugging off bullets.
It wasn't shrugging of the X-Com weapons so easily. The purple energy discharges illuminated the halls of the Covenant ship, adding to the inhuman color schemes and patterns. The sliced through the encroaching throng of enemies with ridiculous ease, but there were a whole lot of enemies to slice down with ridiculous ease. They kept advancing towards the stalled special ops team.
"Move sir! We can hold them." Kilmounge barked over his comm. Colonel O'Neill nodded, cut down a charging Jaffa with a burst of fire and ordered the fall back. The Spartans did so without question, they maintained a heavy volume of fire on the charging Jaffa; they weren't going to waste ammo on the Mutons or Yuuhzan Vong.
The X-Com commandos didn't budge. They kept up their unrelenting barrage, not flinching at the sight of the advancing enemy. One of the troopers reached down and grabbed something off the side of his armor. It looked like a Frisbee with spokes around it. He fiddled with the center of the device, looked back and then lobbed the 'disk'. As one the X-Com commandos bolted backwards, running faster than they should have been able to do so encumbered by their layers of armor and gear.
"SEAL THAT DOOR!" Kilmounge screamed as his team sprinted towards the others. They had just passed through an archway representing one of the many internal hatches within the Covenant battle station. Major Carter lunged at the controls and began working with them. She fumbled with them, but Cortana shouted an order to her and she hit the right holo switch. The doors ground slowly closed, too slow, and yet much too fast. The X-Com soldiers were too far... They wouldn't be able to make it....
But a final burst of frantic speed sent the eight X-Com commandos tumbling through the doors in a forward dive. They ground slowly shut and sealed with a clang.
"What was tha-" Colonel O'Neill asked, but the X-Com troopers were still running.
"MOVE! That thing's gonna blow!" Kilmounge shouted over his shoulder as he kept running. SG-1 glanced at each other and started to run after them, and the Spartans followed, keeping pace with SG-1.
The cleared a bend in the corridor when an earsplitting rumble and the air in the corridor seemed to shake. A scant moment later, the sound of wrenching metal echoed in the corridor and the walls of the corridor behind them. Then came a brief gout of flames around the corner, and then a waft of smoke followed by silence.
"What was that?" Major Carter asked.
"Elerium enriched vortex mine. It's based on the principles of an antimatter explosive charge, and the Elerium enriched core of the device magnifies the explosive a hundred fold over the original interdimensional charge." Kilmounge said, covering the corridor they hadn't been down.
"Translation?" Colonel O'Neill asked.
"Big boom, really big boom. Sir." Carter supplied.
"That's all I need."
"Yes sir."
"That will not hold them for long." Brae'Tak said.
"They won't be coming through there. That charge vaporized fifty meters of corridor, and caused a collapse sixty meters back." One of the X- Com troopers said glancing around the corner.
"Okay, we need to move fast."
"They know where we are and we have to get out of here. But the Covenant forces are on full alert now. The cargo ship won't be able to launch, they've sealed the bay. We won't go anywhere until we unseal it." Cortana said, her position of being a bug in the Covenant battle network proving her worth once again.
"Alright. Master Chief." Colonel O'Neill said.
"Sir?" John said snapping to attention.
"I need you and the Spartans to clear a path to the shuttle bay. Kill anything that gets in the way, Covenant, Goa'uld, Muton, whatever. Get it done. Take Teal'c and Brae'Tak with you."
"Yessir." John snapped and moved off towards the Shuttle bay at a run with the other Spartans. Teal'c and Brae'Tak followed, looking as though they had to push to keep up with the human super soldiers.
"Kilmounge, you and your men come with us, we'll take down the control center and they get out of here."
"Yessir." Kilmounge replied and headed up towards what had been identified as the control room
The Spartans:
John sprinted down the hallway at top speed. The half ton of armor and human thundered along the hall as he and the other Spartans ran. Teal'c and Brae'Tak followed along with some difficulty. It was hard to move silently, and considering that the Covenant were actively looking for them, it would be foolish to attempt stealth. They had to hit hard and fast. He was shocked at the impotence their assault rifles had on the aliens. Covenant forces dropped easily enough, grunts, Jackals, Elites and even Brutes went down. But he'd sunk two magazines, a hundred and twenty rounds, into the chest and head of one of those Mutons, and it had barely paused...
John shrugged off the thought, he couldn't afford to dwell on the ineffective nature of his weapons, he just had to remember it and move on.
They rounded a bend and emerged smack dab in the middle of a patrol; this one was made up of grunts and elites, easy enough to deal with. Some rifle smashing, full auto and a few staff weapon blasts and the aliens were laid out on the decking, dead.
They could see it, the main access door to the hangar. It was so close; all they had to do was clear the way there and secure the transport. But between them was another patrol. Yuuhzan Vong and Yevetha troops, they were standing behind a pair of knee high black shields, they didn't flinch as the UNSC and rebel Jaffa rounded the corner. The Yevetha leveled their blasters, and the Yuuhzan Vong aimed some sort of organic looking contraption.
Crimson blaster bolts and a flurry of the strange chitin darts sailed down the corridor. One of the darts skipped off John's armor, causing his shielding to flare and drop slightly.
"Take them down." John ordered Linda, she nodded and raised her sniper rifle. With a quick dart around the corner, she aimed and fired four of the heavy sabot rounds in quick succession. She pulled back quickly from the corner as a smatter of chitin and blaster bolts hit the Covenant alloy bulkhead.
John leaned around the corner and looked at the barricade, none of the aliens had fallen. Linda didn't miss shots, something had to have happened...but what?
"Your projectile weapons will have no effect." Brae'Tak said.
"What?" John said turning back.
"The Covenant are like the Goa'uld. They steal what technology and weapons they have. They also bring many of the tactics and styles of the races they subjugated. These, 'Yevetha' use special shielding units that can fully stop projectiles." Brae'Tak explained. John frowned behind his faceplate. They had to get past this position, and clear out a passage to the cargo ship.
"Cortana, any passageways we could use?" John asked.
"As a matter of fact..." Cortana said and a small point illuminated on John's heads up display. "...This passage takes you right to the cargo ship, unfortunately, it's too small for any of the Spartans to get through." Cortana said.
"We shall enter the passage and attack them from the rear." Teal'c said. Brae'Tak nodded.
John was reluctant, the whole reason they were here was to yank out Brae'Tak and get the intel he had. If he got himself killed on the way to their exfiltration, it would not look good. But they had to get out.
"Okay, we'll move in when you have engaged them." John said, and watched silently as Teal'c and Brae'Tak climbed into the access corridor and disappeared, crawling towards the enemy position.
X-Com and SG-1:
They were sprinting, the X-Com troops holding back to say in formation with the SG-1 team. They hadn't run into any Covenant Patrols at the moment, and that seemed like a good thing. But good things now always meant bad things later.
Kilmounge could feel that the control room was heavily guarded; he could sense it. Colonel O'Neill could sense the same thing. The veteran officer knew such things were universal in this dimension, such things always happened.
And both of the officers were rewarded with a heavily guarded control room. They skidded to a stop outside the sealed access door and looked in. Mutons and Ethereals stood guard and worked the control equipment in the control chamber. There were enough of them to put up a pretty determined fight if they wanted.
"Okay, her-" Colonel O'Neill said, just as the X-Com troopers opened the door, tossed in a few grenades and sealed it again.
O'Neill looked at them and blinked.
"What the hell was that?"
"Alien gas. Handy little thing we developed in the Third Alien war. It kills specific alien species and it completely harmless to humans." Kilmounge explained.
"Genetic engineering?" Major Carter asked.
"Genetic tailoring is more accurate. But ask the techeads, I'm just a grunt." Kilmounge said with a shurug. He turned to the door and nodded, it slid open and the X-Com troopers moved in, weapons ready. A fine blue haze filled the room. The aliens lay about sprawled amongst the control equipment, many of them looked like they had simply fallen down. They didn't resemble beings that had suffered under the influence of Chemical weapons...it was odd.
"Okay, does anyone know how to deactivate this stuff?" O'Neill said looking around at the completely alien equipment.
"I can't even relate the language or character forms to a human dialect. It doesn't relate to Goa'uld or Asguard or the Ancients." Daniel said looking at the lettering on the control surfaces. He seemed to be frustrated at his inability to translate the Covenant language.
"These controls are like nothing I've ever seen. It's not even close to anything that I've even speculated on." Carter said dismayed.
"Then how exactly are we going to deactivate it?" O'Neill asked looking about the room, annoyed.
"Ahem." Kilmounge said, he and his team were holding up the ultra- powerful Vortex mines.
"Ah yes, really big boom." O'Neill said, he nodded to the X-Com troopers. They proceeded to set their charges about the control room.
"Spartan – 117, what is your situation?" O'Neill asked through his comm.
The Spartans:
John ducked the strange organic weapon the Yuuhzan Vong warrior was wielding. It was some hybrid of a whip and a staff, but a living creature that could change its form to suit the user's combat style at the moment. The weapon slashed through the air where his helmet had been moments before, the warrior had been unprepared for the rapid movement and spun around too far, he presented his side to the Spartan.
John rammed the muzzle his MA5B into a grove in the armor that allowed him movement in the rigid plate protection and jammed the trigger down. He had fifteen rounds left, but they were enough. The 5.56mm rounds punched up into the armor, through the weak point and proceeded to ricochet around inside the hardened armor. The mutilated alien warrior dropped.
John spun and slammed another magazine into his rifle, and dodged the pointblank blaster fire of a Yevetha guard. He slammed his rifle into the face of the alien and dropped it to the deck, bleeding profusely from its mouth.
"Spartan – 117, what is your situation?" John heard crackle through his helmet comm as he unleashed a hail of fire into the back of a Yevetha. He growled as he diverted his attention from the bloody melee he, the other Spartans, and the two Jaffa were engaged in.
Teal'c and Brae'Tak had dropped into the midst of the security team and distracted them enough so that the Spartans could charge in and help. The first team had gone down quickly and very bloodily. But they'd managed to call in reinforcements.
John sprayed another Yuuhzan Vong with fire, one of the rounds hitting it square in it's unarmored forehead.
"We are heavily engaged sir." John said all too calmly.
"We're blowing the control room now. Is the way clear?"
"For the most part sir, they're more content with us than with other intruders." John snapped as he ducked the blaster rifle one of the Yevetha had swung like a club, and hammered his fist into the side of his assailants head.
"We're on our way."
"Affirmative sir, hurry it up." John said and threw another attacker through the air.
They were doing very well considering they were heavily outnumbered. The Spartans and Jaffa were slaughtering their opponents in the bloody hand to hand combat, but the reinforcements might be too much for them to hold if someone had enough sense to hit them in force, rather than charge blindly into this fight.
John sent a burst of fire into the chest plate of a charging Yuuhzan Vong, knocking the warrior off balance, then finished with a trio of shots into it's head.
John grimaced as he reloaded and started firing into this bloody, vicious brawl that had developed.
SG-1 and X-Com
Colonel O'Neill frowned; they had to get out of here fast. This control room being vaporized was going to draw a tad bit more attention than a few intruders. He nodded to the others and they moved out of the room, sealing the door behind them. They broke into a full run and headed for the Spartans. The sounds of intruder alerts and weapons fire grew from soft background noises to a general din as they drew closer to the melee.
The X-Com troopers were slaughtering any patrols that appeared in front of them by cutting loose on full auto. They didn't care about recovering anything since they were trying to get out of there alive. SG-1 was trying to put down more fire, but their weapons couldn't touch some of the armor they were encountering. They tried to keep the rear clear and were doing a reasonably good job of it.
They turned the corner and saw the brutal fight the Spartans and the pair of Jaffa had put up to keep the cargo bay clear. Enemy corpses littered the ground in small mounds. Blood spattered the walls and ceiling, testifying to a frenzied and vicious engagement.
None of the veterans paused when they saw it. They were too concerned with getting out of here, fast.
"Go!" O'Neill snapped at the Spartans. They nodded and took off for the cargo ship. The side door was open and they practically dove in, terrifying the already shaken Tok'ra pilot. SG-1 made it through the hatch, and the X-Com troopers took up the rear, sealing the door just as the brilliant explosion from the control room reverberated through the hallways and hangar bay.
A klaxon sounded somewhere and the harsh sounds of the Covenant language filled the transport.
"Hull breach, hangar controls failing...abandon bay immediately." Cortana supplied. The massive hangar doors split open, the explosion that had immolated the control center must have set the doors to open. The bodies that the Spartans had killed darted through the hangar and into the dark lifeless void of space. A few ghostly tendrils of crystalline blood flew past.
The Tok'ra pilot activated the ship and spun it around, pointed out of the bay. He punched the throttle to full and it shot out into the blackness, dodging bodies and debris. The small Goa'uld transport vessel darted from the Covenant battle station, completely surprising the fighters and defenses; they were unable to hit the cargo ship before it darted into hyperspace.
Deep space near Archimedes gas nebula, Human Alliance Covert Ops Battle Cruiser 'Forestall', Briefing room Alpha – 2
The Forestall was making full speed towards Earth and the UNSC, hopefully they could relate the information Brae'Tak had fast enough to make a difference. The news that Brae'Tak had was far from cheerful. It was downright terrifying.
The Covenant fleet arrayed against the UNSC numbered approximately two thousand vessels, the core of which were five hundred Covenant ships, augmented by their new 'allies'. Their forces were numerically superior to anything that the Coalition could put together to defend the UNSC on such short notice.
And that wasn't even counting ground forces. Brae'Tak estimated that almost five million Covenant soldiers had been arrayed, along with six million 'allied' troops. There were simply too many for the Coalition to stop.
But even worse...
Their estimated time for jumping off was in four days.
The New Republic and Human Alliance fleets could make a difference. The limited naval assets that the SGC and both United States had were also on their way. Couple that with the combined Federation and Klingon fleets, and the remainder of the Asguard fleet, and the UNSC might have a chance.
But they were slated to arrive in one week.
Too late...
How long could the UNSC hold back the Covenant?
Were they to be destroyed now? When they finally had the chance to make a stand, and win it?
And... Cliffie...
Tune in again soon for the next chapter. Chapter 9: The battle for Earth
It's strange, how when you've been in the dark so long, how dazzlingly bright the smallest light is. It's amazing that after so long you've been without hope, and yet...never really known how hopeless it was until you can see that it is possible to survive.
That it is possible to win.
The defenses that the UNSC had mustered to defend earth had been pathetic. Even with the bolstered forces the UNSC fleet had managed, it was a mere 89 vessels that had made up Earths defensive armada. The ships had been stripped from most of the inner colonies, and even with the skeleton defenses throughout the remnants of the United Nations colonies, there was no way the Fleet could defeat a determined Covenant assault. The bulk of the UNSC fleet had been at Reach, and they'd been devastated by it's destruction.
There was no way that the UNSC forces could hold out on it's own.
But three days after the summit meeting that had been convened the first vessels began arriving. A small detachment of eighteen vessels from the Human Alliance had arrived. Their boxy forms bristled with weapons and were defended with thick layers of Adumantium armor and heavy shielding. Missile launch racks were mounted on the prows of the ships. Even the six vessels in the center of the armada boasted large cavernous launch bays that carried swarms of heavy starfighters and assault craft.
The next day a large mixed detachment arrived from the Klingon Star Empire and the Federation. Four Akira class Heavy Cruisers and two Sovereign class Battleships made up the core of the Federation contingent, escorted by twelve lighter Intrepid vessels and ten Defiant class Light Cruisers.
The Klingon ships looked much more dangerous than their Federation allies, they had sharp, predatory lines and looked to be much more heavily armed. Eight Negh'Var class battleships made a strong core for the Klingon line. The heavy, massive ships looked like they could decimate any foe before them. Twenty Fek'Lhr class Heavy Cruisers were formed up around the core battleships. At the perimeter of the massive formation were a mixture of K'Vort class Destroyers and D'rek class Frigates. This force looked to be enough to smack down any Covenant assault on their own.
Arriving on that same day were twenty Asguard warships arrived. The massive, silver tinged ships dwarfed the large Negh'Var battleships. Their size and sleek lines seemed as though they were close to putting the Federation vessels to shame.
It wasn't just fleet vessels that were arriving either. The US had dispatched two Divisions worth of Colonial Marines, and forty Conestoga Class assault transports. The US vessels had Nuclear weapons and full complements of Cheyenne dropships and weapons. The Colonial Marines had some fierce ground troops; they were packing energy weapons and heavy armor, and enough to complement the UNSC Marine forces on world.
The Coalition forces – as the united governments had decided to call themselves – had standardized their rank systems and command organizations, but beyond that they had managed very little. Design teams and scientists were working feverishly on trying to make all the different technologies and military hardware to work together, but it wasn't easy.
A UNSC MA5B assault rifle and a Colonial Marine M41A Pulse Rifle were both projectile weapons, but they were radically different. The MA5B used a 60 round clip of 5.56mm ammo. The M41A Pulse Rifle used a 99 round magazine of 10mm rounds, plus a 30mm grenade launcher.
And those were the similar weapons systems. Even comparing a New Republic Firelance blaster rifle and an X-Com Mk.6 Tachyon Disruptor Rifle was difficult. The New Republic weapon worked by using Tabanna gas in power cells, the X-Com weapon used an extra-dimensional power source.
SGC, Asguard, Tollan and Tok'ra vessels were all powered using Naquida and Naquadria, elements unique to their galaxies. Federation and Klingon ships used Dilithium crystals. X-Com vessels and fighters consumed Elerium. The Colonial marine ships used Lithium-Hydride fusion for propulsion.
UNSC and Colonial marine armor was a layered form of combat armor. X-Com troops had full body suits with cloaking devices, layered shields and energy dissipating armor. The New Republic ground troops wore blast vests designed to work against projectile weapons and shrapnel, with limited energy protection.
But for all their differences they had, they still had one common goal, defeat of the Covenant. And for all their differences, they could at least hold that one in common. They had to win, because if they didn't no historians would be around to say they hadn't.
Deep Space near Gergidon 3 asteroid field, Human Alliance Covert Ops Battle Cruiser 'Forestall', Briefing room Alpha – 2
John sat in the briefing room in silence. He wore his simple set of marine fatigues with the Spartan unit patch on each shoulder. The other four Spartans sat with him, they didn't boast name tags, merely SPARTAN followed by their number. They didn't have names really, not for anyone outside the unit. Just numbers.
John glanced around at the other personnel in the room. From what he'd been told this was a Recon mission to get a better feel for the Covenant forces, and apparently they were going to make contact with spies inside some of the Covenant's forced subjects.
John's eyes drifted towards the X-Com troopers towards the back of the briefing room. They wore completely black jumpsuits. Their nameplates on their chests set out in gold lettering. On each of the troopers a small series of symbols and ribbons was set. Unit commendations and personal citations, and if number was any indicator, they were pretty well regarded.
His eyes darted to the next collection of people. There were four of them, and from the looks of them they were a cohesive unit. Their unit patches were slightly odd, a strange symbol that John didn't recognize, but he did know they were from the 'SGC'. John's eyes fell upon the strange tattoo that the largest one of them had on his forehead.
Clearly they weren't as professional as they seemed. Tattoos? In such plain view on 'professional' military personnel? Preposterous.
He glanced at the few representatives of the group called the Tok'ra. Apparently much like the 'Goa'uld', yet philosophically different. John didn't care much so long as he didn't have do worry about them shooting at him.
John returned his attention to the front of the room. A large holo projector dominated the front wall with a small podium. The small door set behind the podium opened and a robot strode through.
It had a humanoid form. Its body was very utilitarian. No real body plating, just something akin to a human skeleton, chromed and shining in the ship's light. The robot's torso boasted a series of insignia and symbols, rank and combat awards. Of course, in the UNSC, robots, AI's and other artificial constructs were not considered to be 'equal' to humans. But the Human Alliance had a large facet of their population from a group know as the 'Sentient Machine Empire', an organization that was entirely made up of mechanical and non-organic constructions. They were considered to be equal to organics in all respects, even military position.
"Attention on he deck!" John barked. His mind remembered the Human Alliance insignia for a Lt. Colonel that was prominently displayed on the 'collar' of the machine.
Most of the assembled troopers stood up at attention. But the oldest of the SGC soldiers with gray hair remained seated. The SGC officer was a Colonel.
"At ease." The Robot ordered. The stiff troops relaxed and sat back down.
"I am command unit RX-128-Alpha-9, manufacture designation. My Sentient designation is Lieutenant Colonel Yarn Ignations. I am chief Special operations command officer for operations sector code named 'Jurisprudence'. Responsible for the ninth quadrant of the Antran – Human Alliance border and on temporary duty with the UNSC military high command." The Robot, Lt. Colonel Ignations said. His voice was not the rasping, grating noise that one would expect from such a utilitarian design. It was rich and all too human. But it still held the over-informative nature of a machine.
"This operation was formed to launch an intelligence probe of the current Covenant fleet strength. New Republic Intelligence has sent 'Ferret' long-range stealth reconnaissance craft on deep probing missions into what we've designated as Covenant Space." The Lt. Colonel said. The Holo projector flared to life and brought up a swirling representation of the UNSC galaxy. A large swath of red that represented the Covenant covered a large portion of the galactic core and rim. The small patch of green representing the UNSC covered only a small part of a single spiral arm. But a large majority of the galaxy remained darkened, no green or red touching it.
Several small white splotches were on the map, close to the green and red border. The holo zoomed in to one of the larger spots. It was placed dangerously close to the border. As the image zoomed in, small labels appeared on several of the key stars. The blob was marked as 'Covenant Fleet Marshaling Zone one'; the closest star was marked as 'Sol'.
"We are currently two light years out from the extreme perimeter of the Covenant fleet zone. Our mission objective is to launch a small, Tok'ra transport vessel carrying the strike team. They will infiltrate the main Covenant battle station and extract a high placed Jaffa. He has vital information on Covenant fleet strengths and troop deployments. It is imperative that we extract him." Lt. Colonel Ignations said.
"In the case that our forces are compromised, the Forestall will come in and extract us with force. Elements of the 9TH Saurian Shock Division are on board and are prepared for combat." Ignatious said, but the Master Chief stood up.
"With all due respect sir, we're walking into an overwhelming number of enemy vessels, and they're Covenant, which means we're out classed, horribly. If you have to come in to extract us, we're already dead sir." John said being blunt.
"Don't get caught then." The robot replied.
"Yessir." John said and sat down.
"Who exactly is it we're trying to retrieve?" One of the X-Com soldiers asked, rising from her seat.
"His name is Brae'Tak a prominent Jaffa and leader of the Jaffa rebellion. Before the Covenant took control of the Goa'uld System Lords he was a hunted man. Now he still has a place among the Jaffa serving the Goa'uld, and by extension, the Covenant."
"We won't have to worry about the contact winding up dead before we get there will we sir?" Fred asked.
"Master Brae'Tak is a formidable warrior. He shall be present when we arrive." The tattooed SGC member said.
"Good, because I have dragging bodies back."
"The jump off time for the Shuttle is in four hours. I suggest you all spend that time getting ready for the mission."
Despite the large size of the Human Alliance vessel, it was like any military vessel, cramped and overcrowded. The different strike teams were crammed into one room that seemed to be vying for the title of 'smallest niche on ship'. And for all intents and purposes it seemed to be winning the title. The teams were keeping their gear secure in the room, they had bunks elsewhere. Thankfully they didn't all have to sleep in the room as well. But right now they were all in the room prepping their gear.
The four Spartan's hadn't removed their armor, they were in an unfamiliar environment...allies or not. The busied themselves with checking their weapons and equipment. They were still carrying MA5B assault rifles. There hadn't been any weapons shipments to the UNSC yet. But the Human Alliance, New Republic, and X-Com had all promised weapons to be provided...John would believe that when the weapons turned up.
The X-Com commandos were donning their own unique armor. It was entirely black, and had smoothly rounded edges. A large, 'hump' was on the backplate of each unit of armor. One of the X-Com troopers had explained it housed the shielding systems and cloak generator. John knew that they had better shields and cloaks than the Covenant, he'd seen them in action. John half wished his armor had shields that good and a cloaking device.
Another X-Com operative picked up one of their Mk. 6 Tachyon Disruptor rifles. It was slightly longer than an MA5B and had a slight bulge at the shoulder end. John had seen a demonstration of that as well. The weapon had boiled through four inches of titanium in less than ten seconds of fully automatic firing. The integral grenade launcher beneath the weapon's barrel could fire a range of projectiles using an electromagnetic launcher it was a mini-Rail gun. Add the different grenades that the X-Com troops had, Elerium grenades with as much power as a high explosive demolitions pack; Chemical weapons attuned to specific alien DNA patterns, 'Alien Gas' as they called it; monomolecular flechette grenades, capable of sending out a cloud of fragments capable of ripping through titanium body armor. The average X-Com soldier was capable of
If the X-Com team was best equipped, and the Spartans were best trained, the SGC team seemed to be least equipped to deal with combat. The extent of their combat gear were submachineguns, low caliber pistols, and a few light energy weapons. They appeared to be woefully under armed to deal with a full-scale war against an alien race. But the information said that the SGC had been fighting the 'Goa'uld' for almost a decade now, and they were winning.
"So, what's with that fancy suit of armor?" The gray haired SGC officer asked.
John paused for half a beat; he realized that his faceplate was staring straight at the officer.
"Sir?" John asked, noting the small insignia on the other soldier's collar; Colonel.
"How did you wind up with that fancy armor? Most of the other soldiers I've seen from your group boast simpler stuff." The Colonel asked.
"SPARTAN program, sir." John said. He wasn't eager to enter into a conversation with a Colonel.
"And that is..."
"Classified sir."
"Ah. Okay then."
"Yes sir." John said and lapsed back into silence as he stripped, checked and reassembled his weapon with almost no thought involved; it was basic...it was instinct to him. He'd been doing this sort of thing since he was seven. He'd been a professional soldier for so long he could not...he would not know any other life.
X-Com Squad leader Sergeant Harris von Kilmounge had been a part of X- Com for fifteen years. He'd joined up after leaving Megapol (The Mega Primus PD) back when the Aliens were launching the first attacks on the city. He'd fought for three long years, in a brutal war that had laid waste too much of the city over time and decimated X-Com's military forces. But the organization had prevailed, and SLS Kilmounge had been one of the veteran operatives selected to fight in the UNSC – Covenant war, or 'The Big'un' as many of the veteran troops were beginning to call it.
X-Com records and information dated back to the First and Second Alien wars, full-fledged invasion attempts of earth. And their brothers had beaten back the alien hordes and made earth safe. X-Com fighter wings fought the aliens on the frontiers of human controlled space, and Combat teams waged an unceasing war with the alien remnant. But X-Com had never had a part in a full-scale war, at least modern X-Com hadn't.
Corporate command was working feverishly to develop a much larger and stronger financial and industrial base for combat. Older designs were being reinstated and reworked for large scale production. Armor, small arms, explosives and Chemical weapons production were being pushed beyond their limits to assist in the war. Fighter production had quadrupled from 25 spacecraft to 100 per month. There was talk of boosting production to an upper limit of 500 a month.
But Kilmounge didn't care about that he was a ground pounder. He was donning his Disruptor armor. The black body suit was tight over his jumpsuit. But he'd worn it for almost five years now and it felt like a second skin to him. He felt the tingle as the Elerium power core charged and activated, then a sensation of static all over his body as the shielding and cloaking device activated.
Satisfied by the green lights in his heads up display, and the local area map placing the rest of his unit, Kilmounge picked up his Tachyon Disruptor rifle. The weapon was a comforting weight in his hands. Even though it was a strictly human design, reverse engineered and modified from the Aliens Devastator Cannon weapon, Kilmounge loved the instrument of death. It had substantial firepower on it's own, and even more flexibility from the integral grenade launcher beneath the main barrel. The veteran trooper slung the weapon and began to pick up his equipment. A selection of grenades was the limit of his secondary gear. Alien gas and stun grenades, along with Elerium charges, and monomolecular flechette grenades.
These were weapons that the old veterans from the First Alien War would have killed to have. Invisibility and energy shielding, energy weapons, and Elerium explosives; things the old soldiers could never have even thought to wish for. The old salts in high command had figured out just exactly how many of those old soldiers from the First Alien war would take to equal one Modern X-Com trooper. Something on the order of thirty to one. Amazing what almost seventy-five years equaled. Come to think of it, those old troopers from the First Alien war...they'd been armed much like the SGC team.
Kilmounge looked around at the other soldiers in the room and felt slightly sorry for them, they were so woefully under armed and armored for this type of fight. Even the UNSC Spartans with their excellent armor and training...they were still unprepared.
The haggard, veteran X-Com operative charged his Tachyon Disruptor rifle and looked at the others. How many of them were going to wind up dead from this mission. Kilmounge frowned, war with the Aliens had always had taken too many lives, too many good lives. He thought back to the X- Com memorial on Earth.
It was a simple wall in the center of Millennium Park, the largest green space in the epic urban expanse of Mega Primus. So many names adorned it, Names from the First alien war on the land, and the Second beneath the waves, names from the war for Mega Primus, names from the fleets in the outer rim, and soon...names from this conflict.
Countless thousands adorned the simple monument, how many more would be added from this conflict?
Colonel O'Neill laced up the remainder of his bootlaces and shifted the Trinium trauma plate in his combat vest. The lightweight, ultra tough armor plate was rated to withstand a Goa'uld staff weapon. Jack shifted at the unfamiliar weight. It was unnerving have something that light considered capable of stopping an energy blast. He'd been apprehensive when they'd considered using Titanium trauma plating, weight hand it's drawbacks. But this stuff was light, and it worked well. That was all Jack cared about.
But, he was slightly envious of the gear that the X-Com troopers and the UNSC Spartans had. Those were some pretty nice suits of armor. He noticed that the tinted faceplate of one of the troopers was fixed on him.
"So, what's with that fancy suit of armor?" Jack asked looking at the bright green body armor, so akin to medieval plate armor.
"Sir?" The Spartan replied.
"How did you wind up with that fancy armor? Most of the other soldiers I've seen from your group boast simpler stuff." John pushed forward.
"SPARTAN program, sir." The Spartan replied simply.
"And that is..."
"Classified sir."
"Ah. Okay then." Jack conceded.
"Yes sir." The titan of a soldier said and fell silent.
Jack shrugged and looked back to the P90 he was working on. He'd been told repeatedly, that if he wanted they could take along with them. M4s, CAR-14s, SAWs, anything they wanted they could have brought along. He'd wanted to stick with P90's, 9mms and a few Zats. Nothing fancy, if they did their job right they wouldn't have to worry about anything.
Unfortunately he had been thinking of the best-case scenario; stupid, stupid, stupid. The X-Com soldiers and the Spartans had been thinking more rationally. They looked like they were decked out to face an angry Jaffa army. Jack glanced at the rest of SG-1.
Carter looked like she was about to start drooling over the gear that the others were packing, human designed and built energy shielding and cloaking devices, human designed energy weapons and advanced explosives. Major Carter seemed like it was taking a lot of effort not to try and start tearing apart the various pieces of hardware everyone else was carrying.
Daniel sat in silence next to Teal'c, and as usual the large Jaffa was silent. Of course, the pair of them were looking around, but nothing exactly fit their fields of expertise. A linguist and an alien warrior were slightly out of place compared to the group of soldiers that didn't converse, and the group of mercenaries from an organization that fought against aliens for over half a century.
The hatch into the room slid open and one of the Tok'ra stepped in.
"Are you ready?"
"Good to go." SLS Kilmounge said.
"Yes sir." John replied.
"As we'll ever be." O'Neill replied.
"The transport is ready. And the Commander has ordered us to the bays." The Tok'ra said. A few nods were exchanged and the large assemblage of diverse Special Forces troops followed the Tok'ra through the corridors of the vessel.
As they walked they attracted a great deal of attention. Their armor and gear was wildly different from Human Alliance issue equipment, and they stuck out clearly amongst the gray jumpsuit clad ship's crew, and green camouflaged power armored forms of the 9TH Saurian Shock Division. Be they the immense forms of armored reptilian warriors, or the diminutive Gnomal ships crew, they gawked at the passers by.
The procession made it through the ship and to the main hangar. They boarded it without incident, the cargo bay of the transport slightly packed with all the people. The small transport was not designed to be a troop ship, and it was difficult for everyone to fit inside comfortably.
"Okay, we're launching. It should take us just about five seconds to head through hyperspace to the Covenant marshaling point. Our cover story is air tight, so we shouldn't have any problems. You all know what you're doing?" The Tok'ra pilot said as they lifted from the bay.
"Yes mom." Colonel O'Neill said caustically.
"Good." The Tok'ra replied, completely missing the Colonel's sarcasm. The ship shuddered slightly as it entered, and then rapidly exited hyperspace.
And the view through the main port was worthy of a sharp intake of breath by everyone inside who could see.
It was massive...A Covenant armada that was beyond number. So many ships flitted around in space.
At the center of the massive formation were five of the massive Covenant constructs that filled the role of fleet depot, shipyard, and battle station. These immense structures dominated the core of the formation, they were large enough to compare to a large asteroid. Covenant Super carriers were docked at each, along with the gargantuan Yuuhzan Vong world ships. Small swarms darted through space around these structures; Covenant, Yevetha and Yuuhzan Vong fighter wings.
Around these sleeping giants rested a fleet larger than any that had been before assembled. Covenant Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers sailed through the void in patrol patterns. Yevetha Star Destroyers glided in silent patrol in formation with Goa'uld motherships. Large saucers flew about erratically amongst this armada.
There had to be at least seven hundred Covenant Vessels, and their assorted allies amongst them.
The Tok'ra said something in Goa'uld.
"He's telling control that we're arriving with the load of Elerium requested." Daniel supplied.
A harsh response came back.
"We've just been challenged for the password."
The Tok'ra replied. The harsh response came back.
"And we're cleared." Daniel said sounding slightly relieved.
"Well, good to know." O'Neill said.
The small cargo ship flew through the jungle of enemy ships. Not a soul in the cargo bay dared breath. They were in the den of the enemy; if something went wrong...they'd be dead before they knew what they did wrong. For a few short moments, a flight of Yuuhzan Vong corral skippers, their asteroid like fighters fell in with them...then veered off.
After an extremely jittery five minute flight into the belly of the beast they landed in one of the plethora of landing bays held at the central battle station. With a slight bump the docking clamps engaged and they were docked.
"Now comes the fun part." One of the X-Com troopers said, a slight whine came from his weapon as it charged up. A few nods were exchanged amongst the Special Forces operatives in the cargo bay.
"Alright. Spartans, you're on point. X-Com, follow us and make sure that we aren't going to get hit from behind. Teal'c, lead the way." Colonel O'Neill ordered. He was in charge of this operation since he was the highest ranked individual in the unit. The Spartans moved to the door out and cycled it open, revealing an empty cargo bay. The four large warriors moved out, sweeping through the bay and pronouncing it clear.
SG-1 and the X-Com mercs moved out after them, falling into formation. The Spartans headed for the side wall of the small room and worked off an access panel they had known was there. They swept the interior, then disappeared into it's shadowed depths. The X-Com operatives sealed it behind them.
The external speakers on the Master Chief's armor crackled to life.
"We follow this for five hundred meters, then take it up fifty. That's where Brae'Tak should meet us." The female voice of Cortana said. Colonel O'Neill nodded and they moved forward. There was something deep within each of the soldiers that said his was far too easy, especially because of the lack of any guards, or security forces along the access corridor.
They reached the vertical ascent and began climbing. Still no Covenant...
"Okay, I've hacked into ships sensors and there aren't any Covenant Patrols in the area. It should be clear." Cortana said and they opened the access panel. Colonel O'Neill went through first and looked sideways, just in time to catch the end of a Staff Weapon along side the head. He grunted and flew sideways. Second through the hatch was the Master Chief, the weapon sliced down and John caught the weapon in one hand, te MA5B clutched in the other like a pistol, pointing around the side of the grate.
"Master Brae'Tak." Teal'c said calmly.
"So, it has taken you long enough to arrive." The wizened old Jaffa master said, stepping back from John, who lowered his weapon ever so slightly.
"Do you always have to do that?" Colonel O'Neill asked, his tone muffled yet menacing from behind his hands.
"I see that you have prepared yourselves somewhat better to face this 'Covenant' human." Brae'Tak said looking at the Spartans, then at the X-Com troopers.
"I thought we'd gotten past the 'human' line...Am I bleeding?" O'Neill asked, directing the second question at the Master Chief. John looked at the officer and shook his head.
"I am glad you have arrived the Covenant have learned that I am not what I appear." Brae'Tak said.
"And what do you appear to be to them?" Cortana asked through John's speakers.
"They believe me to be a loyal, mindless servant of their forces. I am not."
"Of course." O'Neill said, glancing up and down the alien corridor.
"We must go, the Yuuhzan Vong have been hunting me tirelessly." Brae'Tak said.
"Who?"
"Yuuhzan Vong...one of the many races this Covenant has subjugated beyond the Goa'uld, and the Jaffa." Brae'Tak said.
Colonel O'Neill was about to say something but was interrupted by the sound of marching feet in the hallway. Before anyone could move, an orange robed figure glided around the bend in the corridor. It's large hood covering its face in deep shadow. Weak hands clutched a large, bulky weapon. It looked almost too heavy for the being to hold. It seemed to glide slightly off the ground rather than walk along it.
For a fraction of a second they wondered what was making so many footfalls on the deck plating if this creature was hovering along. But that wonder ceased as it's followers rounded the corner.
They were a sharp contrast to the orange robed leader. While the leader was tall, it seemed to be slim beneath the robes as they fell lankly to the floor. The orange robed creature seemed to be physically weak as well.
These creatures were towering slabs of chiseled muscle. Their bodies looked like they were forged in the image of a god. They had no hair at all, be it on their body, or on their heads. They looked like they were capable of ripping apart one of the Spartans bare handed.
They all carried the same bulky weapon that the leader had, but they looked much more suited to wield the massive armaments.
SG-1 paused for a moment, they seemed to be waiting on Brae'Tak's actions. The Spartans waited on their orders. It was almost comical, watching the two groups stand still looking at each other. But the moment of not quite humor did not last.
The X-Com troopers opened fire on the squad with extreme prejudice. Their weapons erupted in a stream in purplish light, slicing into the formation before any of the aliens had a chance to raise their weapons in response. The Orange clad alien tried to flee, but it had been the first one targeted by six different Tachyon Disruptor rifles. Where a torso and head should have been beneath the robes was vaporized.
The entire patrol was simply mowed down as though they were blades of grass. They toppled down and lay twitching in the green ichor that was their entrails.
The X-Com troopers didn't even blink when they did this. They knew what those things were, the enemy from the First Alien war.
No one else had managed to even raise a weapon.
"That was...fast." O'Neill said.
"Ethereal leader with a Muton patrol. We had to vape them." Kilmounge said.
"I see."
"No Colonel, you don't. Ethereals are psionics, they can control your mind if they get half a chance. That means we had to kill them fast. And those Mutons bionic skin could shrug off your bullets easily." Kilmounge explained.
"What he says is correct. We could not have won in a drawn out battle." Brae'Tak said.
"Let's get out of here. They're going to be missed." Colonel O'Neill said nodding at the access shaft. Will turned back to the shaft and looked down, checking to make sure that it was clear. He ducked back quick, a burst from his MA5B flashing in the dim quarters. Something sailed up past his head as he yanked it back; it looked like a jagged spine of sorts. A few more peppered up through the shaft as Will pulled a grenade and lobbed it into the shaft.
"Company." Will announced unnessicarily.
"Let's move!" Colonel O'Neill ordered heading down the corridor past the slaughtered Mutons and Ethereal.
John and the other Spartans leapfrogged away from the open access shaft as the grenade detonated. A few more rounds came from the access corridor.
"I'm picking up a general alert on the Covenant battle net. I'd say they've set off the intruder alert." Cortana said over the speakers. She was cut off from further comment when a mixture of staff weapon blasts, jagged darts, and green energy pulses filled the air. The clatter of the Spartan's assault rifles opened fire at their assailants, a mixture of the large green 'Mutons', Jaffa, and strange, hideous humanoids that looked as though they were sheathed in some sort of shell armor.
The Spartan's weapons seemed to be ineffective against the Muton's skin, and sparked off the crab like carapace armor on the deformed humanoids. Only the X-Com Tachyon Disruptor Rifles had the capacity to take down these threats.
"Concentrate your fire on the Jaffa." Colonel O'Neill ordered the Spartans. The super soldiers redirected their fire on the aliens and began to drop them with lethally accurate bursts of fire. The rest of SG-1 were directing their fire at the Jaffa as well, they couldn't even scratch whatever the Muton skin was, or what that funky crab armor was. Somehow the stuff was just shrugging off bullets.
It wasn't shrugging of the X-Com weapons so easily. The purple energy discharges illuminated the halls of the Covenant ship, adding to the inhuman color schemes and patterns. The sliced through the encroaching throng of enemies with ridiculous ease, but there were a whole lot of enemies to slice down with ridiculous ease. They kept advancing towards the stalled special ops team.
"Move sir! We can hold them." Kilmounge barked over his comm. Colonel O'Neill nodded, cut down a charging Jaffa with a burst of fire and ordered the fall back. The Spartans did so without question, they maintained a heavy volume of fire on the charging Jaffa; they weren't going to waste ammo on the Mutons or Yuuhzan Vong.
The X-Com commandos didn't budge. They kept up their unrelenting barrage, not flinching at the sight of the advancing enemy. One of the troopers reached down and grabbed something off the side of his armor. It looked like a Frisbee with spokes around it. He fiddled with the center of the device, looked back and then lobbed the 'disk'. As one the X-Com commandos bolted backwards, running faster than they should have been able to do so encumbered by their layers of armor and gear.
"SEAL THAT DOOR!" Kilmounge screamed as his team sprinted towards the others. They had just passed through an archway representing one of the many internal hatches within the Covenant battle station. Major Carter lunged at the controls and began working with them. She fumbled with them, but Cortana shouted an order to her and she hit the right holo switch. The doors ground slowly closed, too slow, and yet much too fast. The X-Com soldiers were too far... They wouldn't be able to make it....
But a final burst of frantic speed sent the eight X-Com commandos tumbling through the doors in a forward dive. They ground slowly shut and sealed with a clang.
"What was tha-" Colonel O'Neill asked, but the X-Com troopers were still running.
"MOVE! That thing's gonna blow!" Kilmounge shouted over his shoulder as he kept running. SG-1 glanced at each other and started to run after them, and the Spartans followed, keeping pace with SG-1.
The cleared a bend in the corridor when an earsplitting rumble and the air in the corridor seemed to shake. A scant moment later, the sound of wrenching metal echoed in the corridor and the walls of the corridor behind them. Then came a brief gout of flames around the corner, and then a waft of smoke followed by silence.
"What was that?" Major Carter asked.
"Elerium enriched vortex mine. It's based on the principles of an antimatter explosive charge, and the Elerium enriched core of the device magnifies the explosive a hundred fold over the original interdimensional charge." Kilmounge said, covering the corridor they hadn't been down.
"Translation?" Colonel O'Neill asked.
"Big boom, really big boom. Sir." Carter supplied.
"That's all I need."
"Yes sir."
"That will not hold them for long." Brae'Tak said.
"They won't be coming through there. That charge vaporized fifty meters of corridor, and caused a collapse sixty meters back." One of the X- Com troopers said glancing around the corner.
"Okay, we need to move fast."
"They know where we are and we have to get out of here. But the Covenant forces are on full alert now. The cargo ship won't be able to launch, they've sealed the bay. We won't go anywhere until we unseal it." Cortana said, her position of being a bug in the Covenant battle network proving her worth once again.
"Alright. Master Chief." Colonel O'Neill said.
"Sir?" John said snapping to attention.
"I need you and the Spartans to clear a path to the shuttle bay. Kill anything that gets in the way, Covenant, Goa'uld, Muton, whatever. Get it done. Take Teal'c and Brae'Tak with you."
"Yessir." John snapped and moved off towards the Shuttle bay at a run with the other Spartans. Teal'c and Brae'Tak followed, looking as though they had to push to keep up with the human super soldiers.
"Kilmounge, you and your men come with us, we'll take down the control center and they get out of here."
"Yessir." Kilmounge replied and headed up towards what had been identified as the control room
The Spartans:
John sprinted down the hallway at top speed. The half ton of armor and human thundered along the hall as he and the other Spartans ran. Teal'c and Brae'Tak followed along with some difficulty. It was hard to move silently, and considering that the Covenant were actively looking for them, it would be foolish to attempt stealth. They had to hit hard and fast. He was shocked at the impotence their assault rifles had on the aliens. Covenant forces dropped easily enough, grunts, Jackals, Elites and even Brutes went down. But he'd sunk two magazines, a hundred and twenty rounds, into the chest and head of one of those Mutons, and it had barely paused...
John shrugged off the thought, he couldn't afford to dwell on the ineffective nature of his weapons, he just had to remember it and move on.
They rounded a bend and emerged smack dab in the middle of a patrol; this one was made up of grunts and elites, easy enough to deal with. Some rifle smashing, full auto and a few staff weapon blasts and the aliens were laid out on the decking, dead.
They could see it, the main access door to the hangar. It was so close; all they had to do was clear the way there and secure the transport. But between them was another patrol. Yuuhzan Vong and Yevetha troops, they were standing behind a pair of knee high black shields, they didn't flinch as the UNSC and rebel Jaffa rounded the corner. The Yevetha leveled their blasters, and the Yuuhzan Vong aimed some sort of organic looking contraption.
Crimson blaster bolts and a flurry of the strange chitin darts sailed down the corridor. One of the darts skipped off John's armor, causing his shielding to flare and drop slightly.
"Take them down." John ordered Linda, she nodded and raised her sniper rifle. With a quick dart around the corner, she aimed and fired four of the heavy sabot rounds in quick succession. She pulled back quickly from the corner as a smatter of chitin and blaster bolts hit the Covenant alloy bulkhead.
John leaned around the corner and looked at the barricade, none of the aliens had fallen. Linda didn't miss shots, something had to have happened...but what?
"Your projectile weapons will have no effect." Brae'Tak said.
"What?" John said turning back.
"The Covenant are like the Goa'uld. They steal what technology and weapons they have. They also bring many of the tactics and styles of the races they subjugated. These, 'Yevetha' use special shielding units that can fully stop projectiles." Brae'Tak explained. John frowned behind his faceplate. They had to get past this position, and clear out a passage to the cargo ship.
"Cortana, any passageways we could use?" John asked.
"As a matter of fact..." Cortana said and a small point illuminated on John's heads up display. "...This passage takes you right to the cargo ship, unfortunately, it's too small for any of the Spartans to get through." Cortana said.
"We shall enter the passage and attack them from the rear." Teal'c said. Brae'Tak nodded.
John was reluctant, the whole reason they were here was to yank out Brae'Tak and get the intel he had. If he got himself killed on the way to their exfiltration, it would not look good. But they had to get out.
"Okay, we'll move in when you have engaged them." John said, and watched silently as Teal'c and Brae'Tak climbed into the access corridor and disappeared, crawling towards the enemy position.
X-Com and SG-1:
They were sprinting, the X-Com troops holding back to say in formation with the SG-1 team. They hadn't run into any Covenant Patrols at the moment, and that seemed like a good thing. But good things now always meant bad things later.
Kilmounge could feel that the control room was heavily guarded; he could sense it. Colonel O'Neill could sense the same thing. The veteran officer knew such things were universal in this dimension, such things always happened.
And both of the officers were rewarded with a heavily guarded control room. They skidded to a stop outside the sealed access door and looked in. Mutons and Ethereals stood guard and worked the control equipment in the control chamber. There were enough of them to put up a pretty determined fight if they wanted.
"Okay, her-" Colonel O'Neill said, just as the X-Com troopers opened the door, tossed in a few grenades and sealed it again.
O'Neill looked at them and blinked.
"What the hell was that?"
"Alien gas. Handy little thing we developed in the Third Alien war. It kills specific alien species and it completely harmless to humans." Kilmounge explained.
"Genetic engineering?" Major Carter asked.
"Genetic tailoring is more accurate. But ask the techeads, I'm just a grunt." Kilmounge said with a shurug. He turned to the door and nodded, it slid open and the X-Com troopers moved in, weapons ready. A fine blue haze filled the room. The aliens lay about sprawled amongst the control equipment, many of them looked like they had simply fallen down. They didn't resemble beings that had suffered under the influence of Chemical weapons...it was odd.
"Okay, does anyone know how to deactivate this stuff?" O'Neill said looking around at the completely alien equipment.
"I can't even relate the language or character forms to a human dialect. It doesn't relate to Goa'uld or Asguard or the Ancients." Daniel said looking at the lettering on the control surfaces. He seemed to be frustrated at his inability to translate the Covenant language.
"These controls are like nothing I've ever seen. It's not even close to anything that I've even speculated on." Carter said dismayed.
"Then how exactly are we going to deactivate it?" O'Neill asked looking about the room, annoyed.
"Ahem." Kilmounge said, he and his team were holding up the ultra- powerful Vortex mines.
"Ah yes, really big boom." O'Neill said, he nodded to the X-Com troopers. They proceeded to set their charges about the control room.
"Spartan – 117, what is your situation?" O'Neill asked through his comm.
The Spartans:
John ducked the strange organic weapon the Yuuhzan Vong warrior was wielding. It was some hybrid of a whip and a staff, but a living creature that could change its form to suit the user's combat style at the moment. The weapon slashed through the air where his helmet had been moments before, the warrior had been unprepared for the rapid movement and spun around too far, he presented his side to the Spartan.
John rammed the muzzle his MA5B into a grove in the armor that allowed him movement in the rigid plate protection and jammed the trigger down. He had fifteen rounds left, but they were enough. The 5.56mm rounds punched up into the armor, through the weak point and proceeded to ricochet around inside the hardened armor. The mutilated alien warrior dropped.
John spun and slammed another magazine into his rifle, and dodged the pointblank blaster fire of a Yevetha guard. He slammed his rifle into the face of the alien and dropped it to the deck, bleeding profusely from its mouth.
"Spartan – 117, what is your situation?" John heard crackle through his helmet comm as he unleashed a hail of fire into the back of a Yevetha. He growled as he diverted his attention from the bloody melee he, the other Spartans, and the two Jaffa were engaged in.
Teal'c and Brae'Tak had dropped into the midst of the security team and distracted them enough so that the Spartans could charge in and help. The first team had gone down quickly and very bloodily. But they'd managed to call in reinforcements.
John sprayed another Yuuhzan Vong with fire, one of the rounds hitting it square in it's unarmored forehead.
"We are heavily engaged sir." John said all too calmly.
"We're blowing the control room now. Is the way clear?"
"For the most part sir, they're more content with us than with other intruders." John snapped as he ducked the blaster rifle one of the Yevetha had swung like a club, and hammered his fist into the side of his assailants head.
"We're on our way."
"Affirmative sir, hurry it up." John said and threw another attacker through the air.
They were doing very well considering they were heavily outnumbered. The Spartans and Jaffa were slaughtering their opponents in the bloody hand to hand combat, but the reinforcements might be too much for them to hold if someone had enough sense to hit them in force, rather than charge blindly into this fight.
John sent a burst of fire into the chest plate of a charging Yuuhzan Vong, knocking the warrior off balance, then finished with a trio of shots into it's head.
John grimaced as he reloaded and started firing into this bloody, vicious brawl that had developed.
SG-1 and X-Com
Colonel O'Neill frowned; they had to get out of here fast. This control room being vaporized was going to draw a tad bit more attention than a few intruders. He nodded to the others and they moved out of the room, sealing the door behind them. They broke into a full run and headed for the Spartans. The sounds of intruder alerts and weapons fire grew from soft background noises to a general din as they drew closer to the melee.
The X-Com troopers were slaughtering any patrols that appeared in front of them by cutting loose on full auto. They didn't care about recovering anything since they were trying to get out of there alive. SG-1 was trying to put down more fire, but their weapons couldn't touch some of the armor they were encountering. They tried to keep the rear clear and were doing a reasonably good job of it.
They turned the corner and saw the brutal fight the Spartans and the pair of Jaffa had put up to keep the cargo bay clear. Enemy corpses littered the ground in small mounds. Blood spattered the walls and ceiling, testifying to a frenzied and vicious engagement.
None of the veterans paused when they saw it. They were too concerned with getting out of here, fast.
"Go!" O'Neill snapped at the Spartans. They nodded and took off for the cargo ship. The side door was open and they practically dove in, terrifying the already shaken Tok'ra pilot. SG-1 made it through the hatch, and the X-Com troopers took up the rear, sealing the door just as the brilliant explosion from the control room reverberated through the hallways and hangar bay.
A klaxon sounded somewhere and the harsh sounds of the Covenant language filled the transport.
"Hull breach, hangar controls failing...abandon bay immediately." Cortana supplied. The massive hangar doors split open, the explosion that had immolated the control center must have set the doors to open. The bodies that the Spartans had killed darted through the hangar and into the dark lifeless void of space. A few ghostly tendrils of crystalline blood flew past.
The Tok'ra pilot activated the ship and spun it around, pointed out of the bay. He punched the throttle to full and it shot out into the blackness, dodging bodies and debris. The small Goa'uld transport vessel darted from the Covenant battle station, completely surprising the fighters and defenses; they were unable to hit the cargo ship before it darted into hyperspace.
Deep space near Archimedes gas nebula, Human Alliance Covert Ops Battle Cruiser 'Forestall', Briefing room Alpha – 2
The Forestall was making full speed towards Earth and the UNSC, hopefully they could relate the information Brae'Tak had fast enough to make a difference. The news that Brae'Tak had was far from cheerful. It was downright terrifying.
The Covenant fleet arrayed against the UNSC numbered approximately two thousand vessels, the core of which were five hundred Covenant ships, augmented by their new 'allies'. Their forces were numerically superior to anything that the Coalition could put together to defend the UNSC on such short notice.
And that wasn't even counting ground forces. Brae'Tak estimated that almost five million Covenant soldiers had been arrayed, along with six million 'allied' troops. There were simply too many for the Coalition to stop.
But even worse...
Their estimated time for jumping off was in four days.
The New Republic and Human Alliance fleets could make a difference. The limited naval assets that the SGC and both United States had were also on their way. Couple that with the combined Federation and Klingon fleets, and the remainder of the Asguard fleet, and the UNSC might have a chance.
But they were slated to arrive in one week.
Too late...
How long could the UNSC hold back the Covenant?
Were they to be destroyed now? When they finally had the chance to make a stand, and win it?
And... Cliffie...
Tune in again soon for the next chapter. Chapter 9: The battle for Earth