Strategy Session One
At ease!" barked Admiral Tanaka.
The three Lancers snapped into a High Guard parade rest stance, Staff Sergeant Samuda wincing as he stretched the lacerated muscle of his injured leg. Their eyes widened in surprise when they saw Thor appear holographically in his command chair, but they were too well trained to react with more than that. Tanaka pulled out his communicator.
"Medical team to the command conference room, two injured personnel," he said, snapping the device closed. It emitted a soft tone and he snapped it back open again. "Tanaka here."
"Admiral, this is Seamus Harper aboard the Forge Victorious. We have 100 gauss rifles modified to fire Shorinol ammunition. The final tests look good. We are ready to transport them back to you."
Thor had been peering intently into the air before him and manipulating the control panel at his fingertips. Suddenly the air flashed and Harper appeared, along with racks full of lethal-looking long guns.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Harper, staggering backward. "I'll never get used to THAT!"
Over the next few hours, the ground teams were transported to the Siege Perilous. From all over the fleet came clothing and supplies and detection gear and communications devices. Thor had transported a Commonwealth military clerk to the Samantha Carter to assist with communications and procurement. The language translation nanobots were beginning to take effect in all SG-1 team members, but Thor still needed help with some terms and concepts. Finally all was in readiness.
One hundred warriors stood in loose formation in the staging area of the High Guard Atmospheric Attack Carrier Siege Perilous. All were equipped with cold weather clothing, communications, food and water, a med-kit, and a special gauss rifle with many spare rounds of ammunition. They had all been trained in its use and had fired at simulated Replicators in the ship's firing range. Harper insisted there was a special cadence to be followed during firing - first the Shorinol "paintball" round, then a pause of one second, THEN the projectile. The Shorinol, a thin fluid, would nevertheless need some time to spread fully in the cold atmosphere below. O'Neill suspected that once the fighting began in earnest there would be no hesitation between rounds, but he refrained from saying that out loud to keep from striking fear into the hearts of some of the younger warriors. Once the warriors had completed adjusting their gear, O'Neill stepped forward to address them.
"All right, listen up," he said, using the same bored yet authoritative voice that was used to begin every military briefing since military troops came into existence. "We've been over this several times, so I'll just do a brief recap and then we can get started. Thor handles all transportation to and from the planet's surface. Anyone transporting back up from the surface goes into the quarantine area, which is that big plastic swimming pool over there. You'll remove ALL your clothing, no exceptions, and be examined by a doctor. Then you will exit the pool and put on those spare uniforms over there while your clothing is scanned for any spare Replicator parts that might have fallen into your pockets. If anyone has a problem getting naked in front of other people, speak up now."
O'Neill scanned the group, but no one was inclined to say anything. The Lancers had no taboos over nudity. Neither did the members of SG-1, except possibly for O'Neill himself. And Harper was eager to see whatever female skin he might see.
"Once we get down to the planet, there should be no live Replicators on the surface," continued O'Neill, "Since Thor will have killed them all. We've mapped out four areas of intense electrical activity that we believe are underground caverns full of Replicators. Since our Replicator Death Ray won't work through more than a few feet of ground, we will have to enter the caverns ourselves and clean out the Replicators by hand. And once all the Replicators are in little pieces, then the cleanup crews will come down and collect all the pieces for disposal. That won't be our problem - by that time we will be back on board here. Now I understand Thor has something to say."
"Yes, O'Neill," said Thor. "We need to test the 'Replicator Death Ray,' as you put it, to determine its range. Since it is harmless to humans, I suggest we place a team on the ground near a group of Replicators and test the device from various altitudes to determine its optimum range. We need observers on the ground to report when the Replicators are destroyed."
"Okay. Good." said O'Neill, but without much conviction. "Do I have any volunteers?"
Before the other warriors could move, Teal'c and Tyr stepped forward to stand directly in front of O'Neill. Teal'c had uncharacteristically abandoned his staff weapon and looked uncomfortable carrying the gauss rifle, which looked small in his massive hands.
Harper edged in to stand beside Tyr. "I have to make sure the rifles work they way they should," he said.
"I'll go, sir," said Carter. She took a position next to Teal'c, looking highly dangerous and determined.
"Then that's it," said O'Neill. "Good luck and...keep in touch, kids."
The team vanished in a brilliant flash of light, as did Thor's image.
Strategy Session Two
When Dylan read the situation reports on Arzawa II he realized that the Admiral had been correct in his assessment of the situation and he had been wrong. Which he thought wryly might explain why Tanaka was a Fleet Admiral and he was a Captain.
Arzawa II was an island world there were no major continents just a multitude of islands and archipelagos. The largest island on the entire planet had an area of only about 100,000 square kilometers. It was named unimaginatively enough Prime. The vast majority of the planet's 120 million inhabitants lived in small communities where they earned a living as fishermen and farmers and were largely self-sufficient. In fact there were only four cities on all of Arzawa II that boasted a population of more than 1,000,000. With little axial tilt and lying close to the inner habitability zone of its primary, the planet's climate was tropical all year round. Dylan decided he would concentrate his efforts on the four major cities.
Four cities and four companies of troops; that simplified things. Of the cities only two of them really concerned him, the capital which had been named Prime City, unimaginative lot these Arzawan's, and Hidalgo located near what had once been a High Guard shore station, and later the headquarters for the planetary Home Guard. If there were heavy weapons to be found in the hands of unfriendlies it would be there. He decided that he would lead the capital force and Second Signifer Tran would led the force to secure Hidalgo. Technically Tran might be too junior to be put in charge of such an operation but he knew Tran; he was capable of the job and he didn't know the qualities of the men from the other two ships. Besides he could always argue that promotions were slow on the Andromeda. After all he had been a captain for over 300 years now.
To Dylan's dismay Tanaka did not release any heavy armor but after Dylan made several promises he knew he would later regret, the fleet admiral did agree to let him have some Gremlin general-purpose carriers and more importantly he released a squadron of Phoenix atmospheric attack craft.
Gremlins were open topped antigrav vehicles designed to carry troops or equipment. Their armor was sufficient to stop most small arms fire and they were equipped with three swivel mounted 14mm rapid fire gauss guns. Their biggest weakness was their open top. Most units had been modified by adding extension poles to the troop compartment and placing a roof of fullerene armor over the poles. It looked odd but was surprisingly effective. Dylan was not very found of Gremlins they were too lightly armed and armored for his taste but he was forced to admit the Ung Tae drop ships were not really appropriate for urban combat. They were too big and their AP guns were frankly too dangerous. Matter antimatter interactions produced spectacular explosions but they also released gamma rays, LOTS of gamma rays. In a crowded urban environment a blast from an AP gun would not only destroy its intended target but also give any unprotected civilian within a blocks radius of the target a potentially lethal dose of radiation poisoning. He also decided to give Signifer Tran Andromeda's two planetary warfare robots affectionately called Tweedledum and Tweedledee. If Tran ran into anything that couldn't be handled by his dropships, the Tweedles, and air support from the Phoenixes it probably couldn't be handled by anything Dylan would have on planet.
As an afterthought he decided to have each of the Gremlins tow a trailer. He would load the trailers up with Lancer emergency field rations. He wouldn't be able to feed everyone of course but a few tons of food could make a big difference to civilian morale. Lancer emergency field rations were called flat-rats because they came in the shape of flat bars. They looked and tasted like compressed wood shavings but a single bar contained enough calories and nutrients to support a Lancer's nutritional needs for a day. More importantly they needed no refrigeration. A package of 10 bars could support a civilian family of four for days.
With logistics and troop assignments completed as best as they were going to get it was time to go planetside.
