Stargate:
Genesis
Written By: The Ascended Ancient
Chapter XIII:
"Worlds Lost"
A/N: Ok, some of you are going to hate me for how this chapter starts out...
On the planet Cimmeria, Gairwyn, a leader of her people, was hard at work on her farm. She looked up at the sky and praised Thor that it was a good day. So far that harvest season, the weather had not been pleasant for the work she knew she must perform. Today, however, was absolutely perfect, and she intended to take full advantage of it.
As she worked, she thought back to events that had happened so many years ago, when the travelers from Midgar arrived. Their arrival had changed everything for her. Now, she was burdened with the knowledge that Thor was not a god, though he possessed the powers of one. She had seen his true face, and was ashamed that she had been initially repulsed by it. God or not, Thor had been responsible for saving her people from the Etins, and for that, she was eternally grateful.
Suddenly, she was startled out of her reminiscence by a large explosion. She looked up quickly, staring off at the massive fireball in the distance. Suddenly, an orange ball of energy flew out of the sky and struck another spot on the ground. Before she knew it, the sky came alive, with thousands of these balls of fire falling from it. Gairwyn's eyes widened as she realized what it was.
The Etins! she thought. They have returned! Quickly, she turned around and ran into her home, dropping her tools on the ground. When she had finally reached her bedroom, she reached under the bed and pulled out an unusual box. This was the token that the travelers from Midgar had given her. Should she ever want to contact them or travel to their world, she must first send this box through what the travelers called the 'Stargate'. Clutching the box to her chest, she ran from her home. All around her, Cimmeria was burning. But that didn't stop her. Gairwyn ran along many roads, passed through a town, and, finally, reached the 'Stargate'. Along the way, she had called out to her people, beckoning them to follow her. When she reached the dialing pedestal, she pressed the buttons that would allow her to reach Midgar. With a loud fwoosh, the Stargate activated. Gairwyn threw the box through the vertical puddle and waited. The seconds ticked away slowly. Then, decided the people of Midgar had enough time to receive her signal, she raced through the gate. Following her were dozens of Cimmerians, all hoping to escape the devastation going on around them.
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In the S.G.C., General Carter walked up the steps into the control room on her way to General Landry's office. Rodney shouldn't have gone over her head and sent out those ships. It was stupid and reckless, and had accomplished nothing. Sure, they had destroyed one Zetharian ship, but they had lost three of their own in the process.
Before she was halfway up the steps to the briefing room, alarms began to go off. Carter quickly turned around and headed back to the control room. Moments later, the gate activated, and the Iris closed.
"What is it this time?" General Landry asked as he walked into the gate room.
"I don't..." Carter was cut off by a familiar thud on the Iris.
"Sir, we're getting some sort of radioactive signature from whatever it was that..." the gate operator began.
"Open the Iris," Carter ordered. "Now." Glancing quickly at General Landry, who nodded in approval, the gate operator placed his hand on the palm print scanner that controlled the Iris, causing it to open. Moments later, Gairwyn, followed by dozens of Cimmerians, ran through the gate. Carter quickly turned around and ran into the gate room.
"Gairwyn," she greeted.
"Captain Carter," Gairwyn said in turn. "I am glad to see you." Sam didn't bother telling Gairwyn that she'd been promoted; it wasn't appropriate just then.
"Gairwyn, why are you and all these people here?" Carter asked.
"Cimmeria has been attacked by the Etins," Gairwyn explained. "I gathered as many people as I could and journeyed through the Stargate to come here, to Midgar. Please, you must help us."
"Of course we will," Sam assured her, glancing up at Landry, who was watching through the control room windows. This could be a problem, Sam thought, sincerely hoping that her budding suspicions were wrong.
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"So the Goa'uld attacked Cimmeria?" Landry asked once Daniel, Teal'c, and Sam had finished going over their past experiences on the planet.
"Not necessarily," Daniel told him. "The Goa'uld are the only hostile, space-fairing race the Cimmerians know of. If it was just an orbital bombardment, like Gairwyn says, she probably just assumed it was the Goa'uld."
"So, we do think that this was the work of the Zetharian?" Landry asked.
"Yes, we do," Daniel replied.
"But I thought we were in the process of evacuating all the Zetharian's next targets?" Landry said. "Why weren't we working on this one?"
"Because it wasn't one of the Zetharian's next targets, sir," Carter explained. "So far, the Zetharian has been targeting planets that fall within an ever-expanding radius of P4X-337. Cimmeria shouldn't have been targeted for another few weeks. The fact that it was suggests that this wasn't just another conquest. The Zetharian selected this planet for a reason, and I think I know why." She took a deep breath. "It's after Earth."
"It's always been after Earth, General," Landry told her.
"I know, sir," Carter replied. "But now it appears to have made conquering Earth its top priority. Before it was content to gradually expand, but it just made a massive leap in Earth's direction. I'd say were a big target now."
"I guess the fact that we're starting to figure out weaknesses in its technology convinced it that we're a much bigger threat now," Daniel said.
"So how do you propose we deal with this?" Landry asked. Carter shrugged.
"Proceed with developing a weapon capable of destroying the enemy cruisers," she replied.
"Then I suggest you get back to work," Landry ordered.
"Yes, sir." Carter turned around and left the room, followed by Daniel.
"I shall have a Jaffa scout ship travel to Cimmeria to assess the situation there," Teal'c told General Landry before he, too, left.
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In the storage room that Leslie was contained in, Daryl Reynolds sat on a chair, staring at her intently. Leslie stared back, a look of annoyance on her face.
"Why, why won't you just leave me alone?" she asked. "It's bad enough being here; why do I have to endure your presence?"
"Because I'm not about to give up on her," Daryl replied. "I know Leslie's in there somewhere, and I will bring her out."
"But what about the war?" Leslie asked. "Shouldn't you be out there fighting my forces?"
"I'm partaking in a mission to P1C-251 tomorrow," Daryl told her. "Today I've got some time off." He stood up and looked her in the eye. "And with the weapon we're almost done designing, your expansion through the galaxy will be halted, and we'll have much more time to spend together." Without another word, he turned around and left the room.
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Leslie watched gleefully as Daryl walked out of the room. She had just discovered that in addition to amusement, she could also get valuable information from him.
Of course, she already knew about the weapon. Shortly after awakening in the infirmary, she had secretly infected the base computer system with a virus. Using the virus, she had accessed a great deal of data during her imprisonment. She knew all about the project to build a weapon that could pierce the hull of a Zetharian Cruiser and explode from within. The question was what could she do about it.
And, as she was finally alone to think, Leslie pondered this dilemma. Because one way or another, she'd find a way to take advantage of the situation.
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Carter, Hailey, and Daniel were hard at work in the lab when McKay walked through the door.
"Sorry I'm late," he said as he walked over to the computer the other three scientists were working at. "What'd I miss?" Carter sighed in frustration and turned around.
"What you missed was three of our ships being destroyed and four more suffering critical damage!" she told him angrily. "What you missed was the whole point in not attacking until we have a weapon that can fight these things. What you caused was the Zetharian to start sending ten-ship battle groups instead of three."
"What are you talking about?" McKay asked.
"You're plan to use concentrated fire to overwhelm Zetharian ships," Carter explained. "It worked beautifully, but the cost of success was too high. Cimmeria was just attacked by ten Zetharian Cruisers. Ten, Rodney. We can barely hold our own against three!"
"I thought it was worth a..." he started to say, but Carter cut him off.
"Rodney, the Zetharian has conquered seven more worlds in the past twenty-four hours," she said. "And we have been unable to even slow them down!" Rodney just looked at her, speechless. "If you go over my head again, I will have you on the first transport back to Atlantis, do you here me?"
"Well, maybe I should go back to Atlantis!" Rodney shouted. "At least there I'm appreciated!" Furious, he stormed out of the room. Sam just sighed and turned back to her computer.
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On the planet P6D-891, Lieutenant George Banks and Sergeant Donald O'Connor led the S.G.C. soldiers in a desperate push against the Zetharian foot soldiers. They were covering the escape of several hundred civilians from this planet to Earth, where they would then be relocated to another world. But first, they had to get these people to Earth, and that wasn't easy. Especially since the Zetharian fleet had driven off their air support in less than half an hour. Now Zetharian fighters were making raids on ground emplacements, their weapons blazing trails along the ground. And the foot soldiers just kept on approaching.
From his position behind a stone barricade, George spotted a straggler. He was a young boy, probably no older than five. And right behind him was a Zetharian soldier. George didn't think, he just acted.
The Air Force Lieutenant dived between the boy and the Zetharian, unloading his clip into the creature. But the bullets barely slowed it down. It slashed his gun in half using the claws on its left hand, then aimed the weapon on its right hand at George's head. Before it could fire, however, it was struck from behind by a grenade. Looking off to the side, George saw Donald standing up, holding a grenade launcher.
Moments later, the two men were reunited behind the barricade. George got a new rifle and continued to fight to hold off the Zetharian advance.
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In a lab in the S.G.C., Rodney McKay tinkered with a device on the table. So what if they don't think I can help, he thought angrily. I'll just prove them wrong. Finally, after several days of work, he was done. Rodney picked up the device and examined it. It was a wrist-mounted, rapid-fire staff weapon, the kind Anubis's super-soldiers used to use. Rodney knew that all plasma weapons had a higher blast radius than bullet-using weapons, though they were less accurate. That meant that a plasma weapon was the first step towards developing a truly effective weapon against the Zetharian. Over the past several days, Rodney had tinkered with this device, trying to increase the blast radius and the rate of fire. He'd succeeded in doing both. Now, the only problem was convincing the powers that be that this weapon was a good idea, but he could work on that later.
Carrying the weapon with him, Rodney left the room. He would talk to General Landry right away, and get this thing into the field as soon as possible. The fate of the galaxy depended on it (and, by extension, him).
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In the gate room, the refugees from P6D-981 kept on arriving. As they did, Air Force officers shepherded them out of the room and into the designated waiting room, where they would remain until they could be relocated. In the middle of the gate room, General Landry watched as the steady stream of refugees passed him by. Seeing all these people who had just fled their homes, and knowing that was only the tip of the iceberg, made Landry wonder if they even stood a chance against this thing.
Suddenly, and much to Landry's annoyance, Doctor McKay ran into the room.
"General," the out-of-breath scientist said. "I've got something you need to see."
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Back on P6D-981, the last of the refugees ran through the gate. Surveying the battlefield, both George and Donald knew they had to get out of there now.
"All units, begin a retreat through the Stargate!" Banks ordered into his radio. And, slowly, the troops began to retreat through the gate. Finally, it was just Donald and George. They backed up, guns blazing, as the Zetharian troops rushed them. As they stepped through the gate, one of the creatures launched itself at them.
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George and Donald stumbled back through the gate and fell onto the ramp.
"Close the Iris!" Donald shouted. The giant, metal disc spun shut, but not before one of the Zetharian soldiers exited the gate.
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In her cell, Leslie was startled out of her thoughts by a strange sensation. There is a Zetharian soldier on the base, she realized. A smile broke out over her face as she took control of the creature. This far away from any Zetharian-controlled world, it would be completely helpless without her direction. And as she surveyed the gate room though its eyes, Leslie smiled even wider. Oh, this is going to be fun...
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In the gate room, everyone stared in horror as the Zetharian soldier raised its weapon-arm and fired into the crowd. Soldiers and civilians fell as they were struck by the orange balls of plasma that flew from the creature.
Diving over the edge of the ramp, both Donald and George took up defensive positions and began to fire at the creature, but their bullets were useless. And since they had expended all grenades on the planet, they were essentially screwed.
Off to the side of the gate room, McKay kept his head down. He was afraid, and that fear paralyzed him. But as he looked around him and saw all the people who were dying, he knew he had to act. He raised the modified wrist staff weapon and fired.
A stream of golden plasma bolts slammed into the Zetharian's chest. Immediately, the plasma began to dig a hole through the creature's body. The Zetharian turned its weapon arm towards McKay, but the doctor merely adjusted his target. In a matter of moments, he'd shot off the creature's weapon arm. And he wasn't about to stop. He just kept on shooting the thing, non-stop, until, finally, it began to convulse. Moments later, the Zetharian foot soldier burst into flames.
McKay finally lowered the weapon and turned to General Landry. "That was what I wanted to show you, sir," he said.
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In her cell, Leslie watched in horror through the soldier's eyes as Doctor McKay used some sort of modified wrist-mounted staff weapon to destroy the creature. They're making more progress with this weapons research than I thought, she realized. Whatever I'm going to do, I have to do it soon.
End of Chapter XIII
A/N: Look, while Rodney may be an ass most of the time, he does come through for the good guys quite frequently. Which is what I had him do this chapter. Well, keep on reviewing guys, because I'm not even close to being done yet (I think).