Some people think Stargate travel is easy, well its not. Vampires have a tendency to combust on contact with sunlight, now although it only seems to be Earth's sunlight that is fatal, doesn't mean to say we won't walk into another one.
In this case, our next assignment was a more or less a desert planet, with a bright yellow sun like Earth's in the sky. No vampires ever went out without our 'makeup' on, which consisted of total sun block, just in case. We were wary, not stupid. With that in mind the sun was bright, but I was wearing 'regulation' shades, my skin might be covered, but my eyes could still burn. We always kept one finger, the little pinky, unprotected by sun block, if it burnt then we were sent back. Generals orders, no argument. I for one felt lucky that I had been chosen out of a lot of older applicants. But here we were, I raised my finger hoping for the best, and waited one minute. If my finger would combust it would have done so within seconds. "I'm clear, no burning"
"That's good, lets go towards the city and meet the locals" said my second in command Lieutenant Frank Teggerson.
The other two in my team, one was Franks' sister of all things; Marie was the linguist, and technical expert. She and her brother were both average, both have brown hair. The third was a hulk of man, Carlo Papovich ; was Russian special forces. He is about 6'5" and completely bald.
No one had ever been here, and we were the first. We turned around taking a surrounding view to check for any hostiles, we could all see a huge Goa'uld mothership in the air, about to land on a pyramid a good view clicks away.
"Why do we always run into those fucking turds"
"Easy lieutenant, lets just hope they're not changed", I said unlocking the safety on my P90.
"Okay, let's take it nice and easy and keep a watch for patrols" remarked Carlo moving his huge frame up to the top of sand dune. We all followed and I scanned behind us for any unwanted visitors.
"I've always loved the countryside and we get some forsaken shit hole full of sand"
"I never really pictured you as the outdoor type Katya" said Marie.
"Oh yeah. Fresh air, wild animals. Used to love climbing the highest tree I could find as a little girl"
"Well there's an image I just can't picture, you as a little girl"
"Thanks Frank. I was always a bit of a tomboy really. Used to beat up the other boys"
"How old were you and the boys you beat up"
"Same age. Honest. Did you ever get picked on Frank"
"Both me and Marie were always picked on. She was a geek"
"Hey" that was Marie
"Sorry sis but it's true. Just that I got to be quite a little bastard by the time I was in high school. Got fed up of the all big football types picking on me. Stopped a few of them making careers out of it"
"Really what did you do" asked Carlo. He beat me to the question on that.
"He broke legs and a few arms" replied Marie.
"We got company headed this way. 100 hundred yards and closing" Carlo remarked, and make the appropriate hand signal meaning to duck down for cover.
"What we got Carlo" I said making my way to the crest of the dune.
"Group of eight Jaffa, usual equipment, but they're moving funny, kinda like you do" I looked down. A lot of preternaturals as they get older get more graceful. In books and movies they explain that it's down to they becoming more powerful. Which to some degree is true. The reason for the grace is that muscle A does not connect to muscle C. Muscle A connects to B which connects to C. We grow new muscles and bones that enable us to be appear more graceful and fluid in our movements. And these Jaffa moved the same way, my senses screamed vampire at me.
"I think they're vampires"
"Like you"
"Not sure. Ssssh, enhanced hearing, remember" I said hoping they would shut up. Some vampires have hearing that would have heard every verbal exchange. Our guns were trained on them. We also had a slight surprise for them. I had a snipers rifle on my back, and removed it sighting along the scope. It had flash suppression and silencer as you'd expect, loaded with silver nitrate high power percussive rounds. If the lead got any close he could kiss head goodbye. We'd also come with a few other tricks, shrapnel mines loaded with silver nitrate, and incendiary grenades. Fighting these things was an expensive business.
All of a sudden they stopped and turned around making their way back. Part of me wanted to shoot & confirm they were vampires. I could see that my team were thinking the same thing. "Easy. Let's not start a fire fight yet. But I certainly want to bag one later and find out for sure"
"I'm with you on that" said Marie.