A/N: Thank you for reviewing LC and Little Redhead. It is nice to know that at least two people are reading this.
Field Test Four
As Thor withdrew to a safe distance, the High Guard ships began their attack once more. The shields of the Replicator ship blazed a blinding white as they were irradiated, pounded, and blasted with everything the High Guard could throw at them. But the short rest had allowed the Replicator ship to bolster its defenses, and now it moved continuously outward under the merciless attack. The High Guard ships retreated before it, and it was obvious that the standoff could not continue for long. The Commonwealth fleet only had so much energy, missiles, and ammunition. Once they were gone, so was the Replicator ship.
Thor's hands flew across the control panels, setting up the conditions for the test. The ship was not designed to operate under such conditions, but the Asgard had built into their ships a degree of flexibility that had saved the day more times than they could count. There was a great risk in what he was about to do, but the Asgard had never been afraid of risk.
The ship's shields withdrew to a minimum configuration, just enough to protect vital areas and damp down the spillover energy from the attack. A tendril of shield energy extruded from the nose of the Asgard ship and moved toward the Replicator ship. When it made contact, information began to flow across Thor's viewscreens. He tied the information into the ship's computer, which rapidly determined the solution. The defensive screens of the two ships became a single screen. Thor widened the shield tendril to a laser-straight column and fired the weapon of the Ancients at the Replicator ship. Things happened fast after that.
The Replicator ship dissolved into its component chips.
The Replicator shield failed, and the ravenous energy of the attacking High Guard fleet reduced the chips to their component atoms.
The back blast through the wide-open shield tendril struck the Samantha Carter, sending it spinning out of control down into the atmosphere.
The humans stared at the Replicator and it stared back at them. Finally Harper spoke.
"So, what's your name?" he asked, nervously.
"My name?" said the Replicator.
"I know," said Harper, "Since you're a Replicator, and you're Sam's clone, your name should be RepliCarter."
"Harper!" said Carter, "Do you always have to be such a..."
"RepliCarter," repeated the clone. "RepliCarter. I suppose that's as good a name as any."
Carter looked at her clone. The thing was still developing, testing what it would be like to have a name. Maybe it had some humanity inside. It couldn't hurt to exploit that.
"You have to help us escape," said Carter.
"I do?" answered the clone. "I do," it said, with more conviction. "We have to get back to the SGC and warn them. But...I don't have a GDO, so they won't open the iris. And I don't even have a radio, so I can't send a warning when the wormhole is established. But...there is no stargate on this planet, so even if I..."
The Carter clone stopped talking and looked around in confusion. Then it became rigid, its head slowly turning to gaze coldly upon the team. "Yes, I must warn them," it said. "I must warn them...about YOU."
The massive column of Replicators came to life, advancing rapidly across the plain to surround the team. As the circle of Replicators tightened, the team members retreated until they were all back to back, facing outward against the enemy. Tyr spoke.
"Colonel Carter," he said, "When I was on your planet I came across a saying that applies in this situation. I do not fully understand it, but it resonates in my spirit, and I believe the author must have been Nietzschean. It went something like this:
Lo, there do I see my mother, and my sisters, and my brothers.
Lo, there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning.
Lo, they do call to me, they bid me take my place among them.
In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever."
"Indeed," said Teal'c, "This is a Jaffa sentiment as well. To die honorably in the service of one's God is considered to be a finer end than to die peacefully of old age."
"Well as long as we're all about to die," said Harper, "Is there any reason we need to keep HER around?"
Carter turned to look at RepliCarter. "No, there isn't," she said, coldly. "No reason at all."
The team members turned as one, and with gauss rifles on full automatic, they destroyed the human-appearing Replicator. It made no sound at all as it subsided into a heap of tiny writhing chips. The team fired into the chips for several seconds to make sure they were dead, then resumed their defensive posture as the surrounding Replicators came to life and began to move toward them.
"I don't know where Valhalla is," said Harper, "But it has to be a whole hell of a lot better than THIS place!"
Suddenly, their world came to an end.
Aboard the High Guard Atmospheric Attack Carrier Siege Perilous, four very surprised attack team members materialized in the quarantine area. They were immediately ordered by surrounding security officers to lay down their weapons and disrobe.
"Thor! Buddy! You rock!" said Harper. "Well," he said, leering at Carter, "I'm glad we get to see more of each other."
The ship's artificial gravity fields moved the team members to separate sections of the quarantine area as privacy screens dropped down from the ceiling, isolating each person from view of the others.
"Hey!" shouted Harper. "No fair!"
Urban Renewal Four
"South base this is Dylan. Batteries released."
The drop ships mass drivers began to fire. They were firing cluster munitions. Each round contained hundreds of marble sized anti personnel mines. The rounds were designed to burst in the air scattering their deadly payload. The height of the burst and the direction of the scattering could be controlled to achieve extremely precise distribution of the mines. With five mass drivers each firing at a rate of 20 rounds per second and the Odin providing final terminal guidance, the area around the administration center quickly became a minefield.
"Ok people move out. Fourth and fifth platoon will cover the north and east sides of the buildings. The Gremlins will take the south and west sides."
The troops and armored vehicles began to move out. The mines were designed to recognize the signal emitted by the Lancer's electronic jammer and ignore them as friendly. Anyone without the Lancer's equipment would be fair game for the proximity-fused mines.
As they began to move there was a flurry of fire from the complex. Most of the shots went wide, but one anti armor round, either by luck or because the person behind the weapon knew how to shoot, hit one of the Gremlins. The Gremlin's reactive armor stopped the round and the counter battery fire stopped the shooter.
Once his forces were in position Dylan started the next phase of his plan. He had no intention of having his Lancers go into the building, he was going to make the enemy leave their shelter and come out into the open where his mines, artillery and Lancers could kill them.
"South base, this is Dylan. New battery assignment. Tylon gas on these coordinates. Batteries released"
Tylon gas was specifically designed for use on enemy bunkers. It was heavier than air and would seep into the lowest corners of an edifice. The gas itself was a combination of a low toxicity nerve agent, a vomiting agent and a tear agent. The mixture did not have to be inhaled; skin contact was sufficient for the vomiting agent and the nerve agent to do their work. It was a low persistence gas and while lethal if no antidote was administered it was not a quick acting toxin. There would be time for the Lancers to enter the building and administer the antidote to anyone who did not or was unable to leave the building.
The rounds crashed through the roof of the buildings releasing their toxins in the upper floors. Within minutes armed men and women came stumbling out of the complex and into the minefield and the guns of the Lancers. They came out and died. For the Lancers it was payback time.
When the exodus from the building ceased, Dylan sent fourth platoon, acccompained by some of the local citizenary who had volunteered to help the Lancers sort out the hostages from their cptors, into the building to rescue the prisoners Mr. Ruiz had mentioned; for some inexplicable reason the Lancers were able to quickly locate the prisoners and administer the antidote to the gas but were unable to locate any of the dozen or so members of the Social Democrats who had been overcome by the gas until it was too late to administer the antidote.
With the civic administration center secured. It was time to check on the rest of his forces. Sergeant Major Beltran had taken the direct approach to dealing with the party fanatics holed up in the police headquarters. With no hostages to be concerned about he had simply called in the Phoenixes. Where the police headquarters had once stood there was now nothing but a glassy pit. Signifer Tran had met some initial resistance at first but after Andromeda had dropped a Strike Arrow missile on an unused portion of the ex High Guard installation and Tran brought up the Tweedles peace and harmony reigned in Hidalgo. The Victory's Crucible and Indomitable reported similar success. By now Dylan thought the inhabitants of the major cities were undoubtedly more afraid of the High Guard than they were of the political fanatics that had terrorized them, which on reflection was not necessarily a bad thing. Now that the military situation was under control it was time to start restoring basic services and distribute food. He had shown the inhabitants of Prime City the stick, now it was time to offer them the carrot.
After insuring that the ex hostages were returned to their families, the mines deactivated and the Tylon neutralized. He gave the orders for the column to head out to the water treatment and distribution plant.
The trip to the plant was uneventful. He was in the process of receiving reports and sending them up to the engineers on the Andromeda
When Rommie came up to him. From the look on her face he could tell that she was not bringing good news.
"Captain, Andromeda has received a message from the offices of the Triumvirate. You need to go to the Andromeda immediately to review it. A drop pod is on the way."
If Dylan didn't know better he would have sworn that she was trembling. What sort of news could affect her that strongly? He had visions of a major Magog attack, the creatures taking advantage of the distraction created by the Replicator menace.
The drop pod landed on schedule and Dylan, after giving orders leaving the Sergeant Major in charge of operations in Prime City climbed into the drop pod. Rommie clambered in with him. It was a tight fit her body pressed against his; he was right she was trembling. She also refused to tell him what the message was about insisting that he had to read it in person.
Everything seemed normal when they arrived aboard the crewmembers acting normally with just the usual excitement created when the Captain arrives unexpectedly. He hurried to the command deck so he could view the message, Rommie following closely at his heels. To his surprise when he arrived on the command deck Rommie's sisters Andromeda Core and Logic were both present and looking worried, no frightened, as well. He turned to face the viewscreen that Core was using as her interface with him.
"Let me see the message please Andromeda."
The message appeared to be a standard situation report. Rumors about the Replicators and their humanoid AI controllers had spread. On some worlds there had been attacks against AI's. Many of the AI's had fought back and on several worlds it had been necessary for the Home Guard to use lethal force to restore order.
Then he came to the last paragraph. He stopped, shook his head and reread it. That couldn't be right. He read it a third time and realized why Rommie and her sisters were so concerned. The last paragraph read
"In order to forestall any possibility of a High Guard warship's artificial intelligence command and control entity from joining forces with the Replicators, the commanding officers of all High Guard ships are ordered to erase the personality modules of said command and control entities and to deactivate and dismantle any and all ships avatars."
