GateCrashers
Part 8 Of The Thundersdawn Series
By Chaoseternus
"He attacked by stealth, bringing cloaked ships into orbit ready. As soon as his Jaffa started pouring through the gate, the cloaked ships dropped their camouflage, and started dropping into the atmosphere. As soon as they landed, Jaffa in their thousands poured out of the ships, some moving to join the Jaffa holding the gate, most moving straight to the Tok'ra base, they knew exactly where it was" Anise said, her voice shaky.
"What ships were they using?" Hammond asked.
"I could only see troopships and cargo ships from my vantage point, but I had just left the sensor relay and there was no ship detected then, so they had to have come in cloaked"
"What about the relay satellite?" Hammond asked.
"Intact, as far as I know"
"Ferreti, have the tech sergeant dial up the Tok'ra world, and see if he can trigger the relay satellite to dump its database"
"Aye Sir"
"How did you escape then?" Hammond asked.
"Well, I was running through the forest…"
"Sir we have most of the data dump from the Satellite, the Goa'uld destroyed it before the dump could be completed" Ferreti strode back into the briefing room, his face a grim mask.
"How bad is it?"
"Maktenos appears to be prepping an ambush, as far as we can tell the Tok'ra base is intact, it hasn't been breeched, the Jaffa are just containing the Tok'ra within it. The satellite picked up a number of Ha'taks, at least one mothership, a squadron of Al-kesh, as well of several ships that appear to be off a new design dropping into the system, and then going 'silent'. It appears Maktenos is expecting us to send our fleet to save the Tok'ra and is planning on it"
Hammond winched, wishing not for the first time that he had retired before Apothis paid his little visit that resulted in the reopening of the StarGate project.
"Ground assault also looks to be out of the question sir, those Gun towers would have been completed by now, and there is at least a full regiment of Jaffa on the planet, most likely two, we could never hold the gate long enough to get enough troops through to face that kind of opposition"
Hammond glanced up at that comment, the stirrings of an idea penetrating his mind, "Maybe, maybe not. It depends if SWD's equipment is as good as they claim"
Ferreti looked up, puzzled "SWD sir?"
"Classified Colonel" Hammond rose up from the chair, and swiftly fled to the confines of his office, and his phone.
Ferreti arrived back at the briefing room two hours later, one again summoned by Hammond. He paused slightly as he entered the room as he noted the sea of unfamiliar faces filling the seats, and standing around the table, their patches identifying them as part of StarGate team GC(P)1, GC(P)2 and GC(T)1. He frowned, he had certainly never heard of any team using designations even remotely like that.
"Now we are all here, I'll begin" Hammond said, his voice booming over the chatter that filled the room. The unknowns quietened, and turned to face the General, their expressions curious.
"General, you know as well as I do that our…" and older, grey haired man paused, glancing significantly at Ferreti and Anise "equipment isn't exactly combat ready. While we have all been with the project from the beginning so we know exactly what the suits are capable off, the suits themselves are untried and barely tested"
"Well, they are about to get tried" Hammond replied.
"Sir, we are not ready"
Ferreti snorted, "the school of hard knock life hardly gives a damn if you are ready or not, mister?"
"General, Brigadier General Roboute Guilliman, US Marine Corp Special Warfare Division" he responded at Hammonds nod.
Winching, Ferreti snapped off a nod, "Sorry Sir"
"But you are right, what is so important that you are calling us in?" Guilliman turned to Hammond, moving in a slightly exaggerated fashion as he turned.
Ferreti looked puzzled, and then watched the other GC team members, each was moving in an exaggerated fashion, something he had only seen by deep-sea divers who had just reached the surface, or astronauts who had just completed a mission. They moved like they were in a space or diving suit.
"The Tok'ra base has been captured in a sneak attack, many of the Tok'ra are held within. We need to rescue them but unfortunately a space assault is out of the question, and a standard gate assault would be suicide. I'm afraid I have no choice but to call the GateCrashers into service, this is what your project was created and funded for"
Guilliman snapped off a salute, "Sir, we will need to start prepping the suits for combat operations"
"Dismissed" Hammond replied as the GC's poured out of the briefing room.