ESS Avenger, 4 hours earlier.
The ship was being ripped to spreads from all angles, shields failed completely, and plasma bolts slicing into the armour and hull with ease, it was coming to an end, and the crew knew it.
Avenger IMPACT squad
"IMPACTS we'll set you up for the drop but its going to be close."
Colonel Winter was frantically trying to get his numerous seatbelts on, the captain had just informed that they were making their jump now, there was no other choice now. "IMPACT two, three and four, prepare retros and internal dampeners, anti-grav engines and jump jets on standby."
"Aye sir, the support crews are making a run to the escape pods, were on our own." IMPACT 2 reported.
The massive bay doors below opened, the trinium hull folded back into the ship to reveal the sparkling blue orb below, while it was clear the dark brown smudges caused by the occupation still plagued the world, he and his crew were going to stop it. "Final launch sequence, prepare the release docking clamps on my mark, activate firestorm shields as soon as we're clear."
"Aye sir."
"Roger that IMPACT leader."
"Aye Colonel."
Winter gave one last look at the ship and the chaos befalling it, explosions were gutting the innards, the ship was about to give way. "This is IMPACT Squadron, we're dropping now, god speed Avenger," the colonel breathed deeply, this was his first time doing this in a combat situation, "Okay release docking clamps and fire up the engines, we're going for planet fall in five…four….three…two….one...IGNITION!"
The four titans released from the ships, the small amount of force from the release of the clamps pushed the mechs downwards slowly, and out of the hanger bay, their rockets suddenly burst too life, as it pushed them down with all the momentum they needed.
"Activate shields now, we're going to breech the atmosphere in 26 seconds." The skin tight shields activated over the titans, giving off a low humming sound from the pilot's point of view. Winter watched as the Avenger gave off one last desperate attack, firing its remaining two torpedoes at a Ha'tak, as the ships infrastructure finally gave way, crushing under the constant force and exploding in a gigantic wave of naqaudah enhanced explosives from the ships core. The colonel shook his head, it went down fighting but why should it have gone down at all? "Sir we're entering the upper atmosphere." The colonel shook off the thought, watching as the giant flames erupted around his ships shields, growing larger and larger as the mech dropped vertically, something completely suicidal with anything lacking shields, "Fire retros, anti-grav engines at 40."
On the mechs feet, the massive rocket packs burst too life, spewing out a nova of flames, designed to slow the IMPACT's down on re-entry, it was amazing though that no one felt a thing, the internal dampeners were wonders as they made the fall that usually would have caused a person to splatter against the roof through sheer g-forces, had only felt like an elevator ride. 30 kilometres from the surface, the flames gradually died down, due to the retros slowing down the decent, the atmosphere was cloudy, not revealing the surface, the crews relying on their sensors. "Retros are drained, full power to anti-grav engines and prepare for jump jets on the final stretch." Winter ordered, letting the retro rockets break off from the mechs legs, the humming grew louder and more frequent, the falling was still incredibly fast, 13 kilometres and impact in less then a minute it was all or nothing.
The colonel punched in the last few commands into his console, "Jump Jets, FULL POWER!" the last engines burst too life like those before it, off limited power and use, but it was the most crucial part of the re-entry, the final phase. 4 kilometres off the ground, the slowing craft continued to do so, anti-grav engines stabilizing the fall as much as possible. 3 kilometres, the Titans gradually slowed down, jump jets off line again, gathering air particles ready for another boost, the gravity engines forced to hold it out alone. 2 kilometres too go and the city below was clear, it grew larger and larger with each passing second, it soon engulfed the entire view from the Titans windows. The final kilometre from the surface, the targeted landing zone was seen clearly, occupied by patrols of jaffa and heavy weapons emplacements, it was time "Activate jump jets, soften the landing as best you can!"
Jaffa Supply Depot
On the outskirts of the last 'free' city of Tegrea, the small base that was ready to accept the inbound legions of Baal, was left unattended, as the small contingent of Jaffa watched the inbound…things, with complete and utter fear. Some ran, some tried shooting it down, other simply snapped and broke down at the sight, but they all knew from the reports received on the new communication devices Baal had given his children, the Tau'ri were here. The four mechanical beasts slammed into the ground with quite a force, but it was clearly a controlled decent none the less, in the small creators of their own creation, the jaffa moved towards the closest. It was of strange design, very different from the 'tanks' that had been seen in use by the Tau'ri up till now, it had legs like a humanoid, but that is where the similarities ended, before they could study it further, one of the younger jaffa opened fire on it, seeing the plasma blast seemingly not effecting the constructs golden armour, the others joined in the assault, after a good 6 seconds of fire, and slowly itching into the mechanical creations armour, a blue field erupted in the attacks path, reflecting them, the titans had arisen to challenge the gods wrath.
IMPACT Titan.
"All titans, prepare to move out, activate all weapons!" The Colonel ordered, with the whirling of gears, the massive legs of the walker smashed through the sand rock, and, working their way up the small ditch of their own craters, emerging to face the small group of jaffa, hesitantly aiming their staff weapons at the giant walkers. Suddenly, on all four walkers, twin light cannons flipped from their hidden compartments. Winter smirked as he saw the jaffa looked confused at the halt, he waited till their confidence boosted, as they're staff cannons opened up with the fizzle of plasma energy, "Open fire!"
Blue bolts streaked out of the cannons at an insane rate, an almost stream like effect, as they sliced into the jaffa, imbedding them into the concrete surface, those that ran from the barrage, would not get far, as one of the Titans activated its jump jets, and flew directly over head, releasing power to the jets and impacting on the ground not 4 metres in front of the running jaffa. The pilot showed no mercy, as the Titan literally crushed the jaffa under its mechanical feet.
Major Haynes comm. Signal jumped to life in Winter's titan, activating the signal, the vid screen jumped to life. "Colonel, we're getting a signal from the Tegrean Government, patching it through to you now." The video feed was filled with static, before fazing to the image of a greying middle aged woman, the background showed the shattered remains of what must have once been a lavish office, the woman smiled warmly and thankfully, the colonel returned the smile, "We got your message madam President."
The woman grinned ever so slightly, "From what remains of our space scanning network, we can definitely see that Colonel, we thank you, but much of the planet is still under occupation, we need more then just the liberation of our system."
Winter nodded, "We're expecting incoming ground forces, a lot has changed since our last meeting, we've made huge leaps in ground force technology, don't worry, your planet will be in your control soon."
4 Hours later, Low Orbit Above the Main Goa'uld Stronghold
Amongst the massive amounts of traffic, a giant craft made its way through the numerous warships protecting the planet, not unlike the hundreds of dropships landing all over the planet, this craft was to deliver something for the war effort on the surface, something very special at that.
"We're taking her in, watch out for flak."
"Shields to full, defence cannons hot."
"Breaking the Atmosphere….now."
The crew of the GDI Super freighter Deep Strike, lead the giant craft downwards, breaking through Tegreans atmosphere, taking massive amounts of enemy fire from the strongholds defensive cannons, massive plasma bolts washed over the blue field of energy, the orange energy glowing brightly against the firestorm shield, as the ship ploughed through the barrage, taking hundreds of the blasts.
"Shields down to 43 mam, we're not going to make it to planet fall, suggest we use the carry-all." The XO of the Deep Strike said as he continually punched commands into the ships shield control, trying to push as much energy into the forward array as possible.
"Open the hanger bays then!" Captain Anderson ordered, turning on the comm. System to her cargo she practically screamed "Foley we aren't going to make it the full way, the Carry-All's going to take you down while the keep the guns off you!"
"Roger captain, good luck." Was the only reply
Anderson sighed slowly, 'to you as well.'
Cargo Bay
"Okay you heard the captain, we're making the drop, just a bit of a change in plans." The newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Foley ordered his crew.
"How? The Carry-All?" his XO asked, in which the Colonel gave a nod, "What? That thing was designed to drop us from a 400 metre height, not 20 KILOMETRES!"
Foley sighed, "Well now's a good enough time to test then ever, cause we're launching in 30 seconds." He finished with a small smirk.
The crew's eye grew wide at the statement, as they quickly returned to their station, Lieutenant Horgan, the vehicles pilot, switched from primary controls to Carry-All, as the massive support craft was controlled by remote.
"The Deep Strikes doors are opening, clamps are releasing in 5..4..3..2..1, we're a go!" The massive magnetic clamps holding the Orca Vehicle Transport, more commonly known as the Carry-All, let loose, as the transports free fell for a split second out of the docking bay, before its powerful engines, both VOTL and Anti-Grav, took over, gliding the craft towards the surface, as the Deep-Strike turned about, drawing the still active cannon fire away from its former cargo.
Foley gave the final orders. "Drop us right 10 kilometres outside their base, they'll pick us up but it doesn't matter, they won't stand a chance against this thing."
"Aye sir, ETA 15 seconds."
The Carry-All was suffering under the strain, as it moved through the massive dust storm that was building up, reports from Tegrea indicated that it was a common problem in these regions, problem in general sense, it made the perfect cover for the cargo. Cruising across the surface, the engines of the Carry-All gave one final burst of power Before letting the cargo touch the surface with a mighty shake.
"Release the clamps, set the Carry-All on the surface, we'll need her again later." Foley ordered, as the loud thump shock the massive Vehicle ever so slightly.
"We're released sir."
"Full power to shields, activate weapons."
"Done sir."
"Take us in."
Goa'uld Stronghold, 2 minutes later
Ever since the scanners had detected the small craft breaking off from the main vessel, the base had been on hot alert, the main anti-air guns had been set to face the incoming target.
"Damn this dust storm, we don't even know what's coming in!" The minor Goa'uld sent to occupy the planet, Sharmin cursed to no one in particular, 'Those damnable Tau'ri are ripping us apart, but they only send one thing to attack our main base?' he thought to himself nervously, ever since his fleet had been slaughtered by the Tau'ri in orbit, he had quickly prepared his fortress for the inevitable attack, the dropship overhead was the first sign, it was thankfully shot down, but not before it released something to the surface, and whatever it was, it was now coming this way.
Suddenly, his first prime walked into his chamber, bowing in respect, "My lord, our defence crews are hearing noises in side the dust storm, a faint shadow can be seen also ,the Tau'ri craft is coming."
"Order the heavy guns to fire at will, these new walkers the Tau'ri use are seemingly impervious to our staff weapons, even without shields."
The still bowing first prime nodded, "Yes my Lord." Rising from the ground, as he marched out of the chamber, his robe flowing in the slight breeze behind him.
Outer Wall
Hundreds of jaffa manned their stations, many behind heavy artillery cannons, some merely using staff weapons, gliders and al'kesh we're on standby, the anti-ship guns also ready to engage, albeit incredibly uselessly at this short range, everything would be used.
Inside the GDI vehicle, the crew watched as the faint out lines of the Goa'uld base revealed itself through the heavy dust storm, the constant thumping of the giant crafts legs, must have alerted the base defences if the sight of it didn't do already.
"We're entering close range now sir, we've got a full lock on all weapons, should we fire?"
"Not yet, keep moving us in, I want them to fear this thing like they should."
The craft continued to march through the heavy cloud of dust and dirt, less then a kilometre from the base, the further and further they walked in, the more detail on the defence grew. Suffice to say, it was massive, not even a full scale conventual force could break through, but then again, the Mammoth Mark Two wasn't really conventual.
Outer Wall
The thousands of jaffa in the base we out right terrified at what they saw, they had all heard the encounters about the Tau'ri walkers, how they fell from the sky like gods, and slaughtered like demons, how no matter what was thrown at them, they continued to march onwards, annihilating anything in their path. What scared the jaffa even more so, that if the reports we're accurate, they we're the small craft, this thing that approached them now, was a giant, larger then even 3 al'kesh bombers.
"JAFFA!" the first prime cried out, as he approached the defences, starring out to the Tau'ri walker without fear, "CREE!" as the thousands of defenders stood at attention, "Destroy that Tau'ri abomination in the name of your god, FOR SHARMIN!" he screamed out, pointing towards the walker, and waiting for the firing of cannons, what he got was a hesitant sputter of one or two staff blasts. He grew angry at the response, walking to the nearest heavy cannon, and looked at the young jaffa manning the gun, the nervous reaction, he gave a cold look "Why jaffa do you not fire?" he said looking to the young man, but referring to the entire group. "Don't you believe that your god will be at your side in this battle?" he then turned to face the entire legion, pointing once again to the approaching walker, "These Tau'ri, they are filth, they are worthless, less then slaves that the other humans are, they are unholy beings, denouncing the gods, even the heretic Sho'va's we're creations of the gods, they knew the honour and denounced it." He raised his staff weapon to the sky, "We however have the gods on our side, we are the personal legion of Sharmin, not the cowardly group of children you show yourselves to be in the face of the Tau'ri demons, even if we were to fall today, we would fall knowing we did not lose our faith, our birthright, and our honour!" the legion looked inspired once again, the First Prime nodded in satisfaction, starting again. "JAFFA! CREE!" the response was deadly, as thousands of staff blasts, dozens of artillery bursts, and even plasma salvos designed to take down capital ships we're fired at the now very close tau'ri walker.
Mammoth Mark Two
"Incoming staff bl……incoming everything sir!" the weapons station reported, as blasts of varied size directed their way, either flew past the giant walker, or impacted into its shields.
Foley frowned, 'wasn't expecting that' "That's it, prepare all weapons, charge the particle cannons, railguns to fire at computer control, missiles to fire at will."
"All weapons locks ready sir."
"Open fire."