Rating PG-13

Chapter 7 - Lost - part 1

Buffy ran away from gate as fast as she could, though she knew it was too late to hide. She wished she had left to LA to visit Fred and Angel with the others, instead of trying another Chappa-Ai address Gulnar gave them and bursting right into an outpost of an unknown Goa'uld. Buffy planned to stay on Earth for some time. She didn't see Giles much in the last few months and she missed spending time with him. Of course she did visit Earth quite often, but she never stayed for long. This time it was supposed to be be different. Faith and Willow promised to take care of everything and she would have a whole week to watch Giles drink tea, clean his glasses and make his life miserable. She was looking forward to doing the old fashion things like staking vampires, watching girly movies or introducing Giles to modern music. Buffy wondered how Giles managed to stay sane in a school with over three hundred teenage girls when she alone was able to drive him crazy when she was younger. Now instead of a deserved recreation, she was on an enemy planet, all her companions were dead and her transmitter broke right after she had sent a warning to Giles that he should forget about sending reinforcements. The gate was heavily guarded, she even spotted a Ha'tak landing on the other side. She traveled to this planet with another three slayers, hoping to find new allies and of course finding nothing but plenty of Jaffa.

The others didn't agree with Buffy's idea to ask people from the worlds they visited to actively participate in their fight, but when Buffy summarized how much the SWC managed to change in the last few months, she came to an unpleasant conclusion. Nothing. Her's, Faith's and Kennedy's teams overrun several Jaffa troops but it didn't change the distribution of power in the galaxy and it only got a number of slayers killed. The SWC needed an advantage - something that would give them superiority over the System Lords's fleet. Buffy knew they were unable to build ships themselves, because it's a little useless to have a factory without the necessary material which was naquadah. Xander said his crew had found small deposits of naquadah on a planet called Verona, a world previously ruled by a Goa'uld called Anubis who left the planet six hundred years ago and maybe one day they will be able to reconstruct the old Goa'uld mine. Buffy was also thinking about stealing some ships from Apophis, but it's easier said then done. It wasn't like she could just knock on his sarcophagus and say: Hi. Can I borrow your new warship? I promise to bring it back before midnight! Willow didn't have so much luck with modifications of the Goa'uld technology as expected and they still didn't understand most of the information Gulnar gave them. Willow's only success was the almost finished prototype of an advanced staff weapon. Maybe Fred, who left back to L.A. with Connor several days after Gulnar's capture, could help but Buffy didn't want Angel and especially Wolfram&Hart to know about stargate. Buffy, Giles, Fred and Connor agreed they won't reveal anything unless necessary.

Buffy reached a group of trees, hoping it would give her enough cover and took out her zat gun, regretting she wasn't able to save any other weapon during their encounter with the Jaffa few minutes before. The guards attacked them as soon as the four slayers left the wormhole and Buffy was very lucky to be alive at all. She ducked behind a large rock, watching another group of Jaffa with a symbol on their foreheads she had never seen before emerge from the gate and advance to her position. Buffy prepared to attack them when she heard a pair of Death gliders flying towards her and the group. She fetched a sight of relief when the ships continued flying towards the gate, which meant they probably didn't notice her. It wouldn't change her situation a lot though - the enemy already knew where she was hiding. Buffy stood up and wanted to run again to find a better place to defend herself when she heard a zat gun fire. She didn't notice that another Jaffa was coming from the other direction when she was hiding from the gliders. Buffy felt the impact of the shot on her back and tried to fight the feeling of weariness that started spreading through her body even though she already knew it was useless. Her legs lost the strength to support her and she fell to the ground unconscious.

----

Once again Hammond summoned Jack's team and Jacob to his office for briefing and to discuss to events of the last week. It has been three days since Jack pretended to steal a disarming device from the Tolan and leave the SGC, which enabled him to infiltrate NID's secret offworld operation and with the help from Thor he managed to catch all their agents. When the Thor's ship arrived to the secret NID base, it transported away all stolen Asguard equipment, however several objects the NID was working on stayed and one of them was the reason of this meeting.

Carter put the unknown weapon on Hammond's table together with the results of the test she made. "Do you know what this is?"

"It seems to be an assault rifle Major Carter.", Teal'c stated the obvious with his typical stoic expression.

Jack took the weapon, studying it carefully, trying to remember if he ever came across that type of construction. He noticed a writing on the bottom of the gunstock - SteyrACR, followed by a combination of letters and digits, that could only represent a serial production number. There was another symbol on the weapon, this time only three letters: SWC. "I've never seen this design on an assault rifle." , Jack frowned. "You're telling me the NID is manufacturing their own guns?"

"I seriously doubt it sir." Carter disagreed. "NID agents used mostly the standard MP-5 and this rifle is too different from any other produced on Earth, though it uses same principles as some of our riffles. It has grain carbon steel flechettes, synthetic case, gas system to actuate the breech mechanism, very fast flight speed, flat trajectory, able to penetrate almost all body armor we use. Also the NID had only one and several magazines, which means they couldn't reproduce it."

"And because we all know the standard NID approach, it's clear they didn't ask if they could borrow it." Jack snorted. "Which means our NID friends probably made a great impression on an advanced civilization with technology similar to our own. It will be even worse, won't it?"

"We think this weapon belonged to a slayer.", Jacob's symbionte Selmak joined the discussion. "The emblem SWC on the gunstock supports this theory."

"Thought so.", Jack sighed, expecting this answer. "That would explain why they didn't hesitate to blow up that temple with our doubles inside. What do we know about them?"

"Few months ago started random attacks on numerous Goa'uld planets." Jacob informed the others. "Nothing major and in the beginning the System Lords though SGC was behind it, but these slayers take on even outposts that are heavily guarded and the Goa'uld are aware Tauri never risk the lives of many soldiers. The problem with our lack of information is simply caused by the fact that till now these warriors were always successful and only one Jaffa ever survived an attack, which means we have no idea how strong their army is or what technology they use, except the knowledge about the projectile weapons."

"But why do they attack the Goa'uld?" Jack wondered. "I mean why NOW, because the reason is quite clear. Why didn't we hear about them before?"

"Perhaps they found their stargate recently and realized how dangerous the System Lords are for their world." Daniel guessed. "If their level of technology resembles our own, then stargate is their only way to travel to other planets."

"There is another thing." Jacob got the attention of Hammond and SG-1. "The Jaffa who survived said his squad with sixty men was attacked by only ten warriors. The fight didn't last longer then five minutes and he was the only one who managed to escape. He described how a slayer threw a Jaffa more then twenty feet against a tree like it was a piece of paper. Even an Unas can't do that. The Jaffa fear the slayers, saying they are the souls of heretics who oppose all gods and can't be defeated."

"Great. Souls of heretics." Jack smirked."That's very useful. These guys are real and so are their weapons. The question is if they choose to be our allies or enemies. Do we have any idea where they come from?"

"We found an address in NID's reports attached to the description of the weapon. A MALP is being prepared as we speak." Hammond informed Jack, standing up, indicating to the others to follow him to the control room. "Seventh symbol set.", a voice echoed through the corridors as the stargate activated, creating a connection to Risol. "Send the MALP." Hammond ordered, waiting eagerly for the probe to reach the other end. As soon as the MALP exited the wormhole, the eyes of all in the control room turned to the screens, nervously studying the first images.

Jack could recognize a large valley with mountains on the horizon, the surface covered with forests, a lake on the right side as the camera slowly turned to examine the complete surroundings. He couldn't see any industrial structures though. After the MALP finished the complete rotation, there was a major surprise waiting for all SGC members. The empty plane in front of the gate was suddenly full of soldiers armed with swords, axes and bows, aiming at the probe.

"This might be a good time for our 'We come in peace.' stereotype.", Jack observed the medieval looking troops. One of the soldiers armed with a large double-axe walked carefully towards the MALP, presumably trying to determine if it meant any threat for his friends.

"These warriors don't fit the description of slayers.", Teal'c noted. "Their weapons are obviously primitive, compared to the one NID found. Maybe the address was wrong."

"Why don't we just ask?", Daniel was even more enthused then usually to make the first contact with a new culture and switched on the audio module on the MALP. "We are not your enemies.", he tried to persuade the warrior. "We come from Tauri and we're friends of all nations that fight against the Goa'uld."

"You are Tauri?", Firon replied, his features hardening when he realized the device belonged to the people who murdered two slayers and ten of his men.

"Yes.", Daniel nodded. "Perhaps you will allow us to visit your world?"

Firon raised the huge axe above his head and in one killing blow he sliced through the upper half of the MALP, crushing all it's systems. With a victorious smirk he kept hitting the probe until there were only small pieces of shattered hardware left on the grass around him.

Jack watched Firon's reaction and the screens going black as the connection was cut off. Literally. "I guess that meant 'NO'."

----

Buffy woke up to find herself chained to a small metal seat inside of a transport ship and saw a Goa'uld study her combat outfit with interest. She was now dressed in simple brown linen clothes typical for the villagers from the planet where she had been captured. The Goa'uld had the same strange symbol on his forehead as the Jaffa who captured her and she also noticed several villagers in the ship with their hands tied behind their backs with two Jaffa guarding them. "You are not one of them." the Goa'uld stated, looking at the villagers. "And attacked my brave warriors. Who are you?"

Buffy was thinking about how she should react, deciding that the best choice would be to use the typical Goa'uld arrogance. "Brave warriors? You needed twenty of them to catch me." Buffy smirked. "You and your leader are obviously just a bunch of amateurs."

"My Lord Anubis will make you pay for this insolence.", the Goa'uld hit Buffy with a glowing rod. She awaited a blow, but the pain caused by the device was far beyond what she expected. The effect resembled the Goa'uld hand weapon they often used to torture their victims and it made her feel like all molecules in her body started boiling. She summoned the rest of her strength and tried to get rid of the chains without success.

"You will be tortured and you will tell me everything little girl.", the man stated and being a Goa'uld he was naturally absolutely sure about his success.

I'll be tortured? I SO didn't see that coming. But thanks for the information about your leader, Buffy thought. Anubis. She couldn't remember Willow mentioning him. Perhaps he was one of the less powerful snakeheads who hoped to gain more influence. "Don't think you'll get something out of me with the ribbon device.", Buffy replied, trying to look confident and make the Goa'uld angry, but she saw it didn't have the desired effect.

"Fortunately. I have another option." the Goa'uld took out a small silver orb with a number of spikes coming out of it's top. "This device will connect your memory with this ship. We'll soon know everything." The Goa'uld attached the orb to her skull and Buffy lost consciousness once more."

End Chapter

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