Disclosure
by Chaoseternus

The Truth Is Out At Last, Are You Ready For It?

Okay, lots of reviews this time:
mikieb:
Impractical. Whilst it is certainly practical for the oil to be drilled for Alpha Centauris useage, if you want to shift it too Earth you need to transfer it somehow which means ships. No tankers or supertankers exist so you would have to build them, then arrange some degree of protection as they move between Sol and Alpha Centauri. Then, you would have to arrange somemethod of moving oil from surface to ship and ship to surface... Initial set-up costs: Excessive to the extreme. Running costs: Very High. In all likelehood, this would always run very much in the red.
As for the second point, short term no way in hell, long term, the guns are already planned, the shields arent. Put it this way, the Tau'ri analogues of the Tollan Ion weapons are largely untried, they have been test-fired but NOT used in any kind of combat. Would you put an untried highly advanced weapon system onto the surface of a politically unstable world? Plus, theirs the cost of such devices... best wait till the situation has cooled down, and the Ion cannons are more understood and improved.
greyangle: thank you, and yes, we will be seing more character interaction
rankukonalpha1: Discontinuity: Indefatigable is officially on hiatus
The sithspawn: No, they dont know what Anubis looks like yet, or that he is a fallen ascendent and probably bad, too many parrellels between Anubis and Lucifier...
and Sithspawn, not in a hurry, not for the intergate anyway, that item is dangerous as hell.
Banner: thank you
someone: discontinuity: indefatigble is on hiatus, but this one is going strong. as always, if you want updates before gets updated, join the yahoo group, link is on my authors profile page
2strive: there is, at this point in time, no plans for any discoveries on mars, and the story about chocky and the first attack on earth hasnt been written.

To all the reviewers, thank you!

Chapter 12

“"It's confirmed then?"” O'Neill asked, his face crackly and somewhat distorted on the screen, a side effect not so much of maintaining a communications link between two separate star systems and keeping it realtime, or the fact that this was a conference call therefore several individuals were sharing the same, limited bandwidth but rather a side effect of the excessive encryption needed for a classified realtime conference call and the limited bandwidth combined.

Whatever the reason, it didn't stop the expressions of each member of the call being easily recognised.

“"Not yet, but the President has asked us to start seriously considering how we will work this. And frankly, I am open to suggestions, there are certainly a few direct conflicts between how the RSS has organised and how the SGC has organised that will need to be dealt with”"

Peters nodded, her image blurring as the power compression routines sucked the computer dry of processing power, “"fingers are going to get trodden on, regardless”"

Thompson snorted, dryly, and somewhat amused, "it all comes down to that age-old sci-fi argument doesn't it? Who would really control warships in space? The Navy, as in the Royal Space Service, or the Air Force, as in Stargate Command?”"

“"Air Force in my opinion”" General Carter shrugged, "“but I'm more then a little biased. Air Force led the way, we started Stargate Command, with the aid of a few civilians, it was the Air Force which opened the Stargate and we certainly have the most experience..."

"“In ground warfare you have the most experience yes, but as far as ship to ship engagements goes, the RSS leads the way"” Thompson shrugged, “"and the RSS is Navy, more or less”"

“"This"” Peters said dryly, “"is not going to be an easy argument. There have always been arguments either way. Navy knows ships and ship to ship warfare better but Air Force tends to lead the way with new technologies”" she shrugged, her hands rising as she took a sip from her mug, “"plus some would say its an easier step from the sir to space then from water to space”"

“"Well, I know the US Government is going to argue that if we combine into... " O'Neill waved his arms, somewhat dismissively, "“a Tau'ri Star Service, or something, that the Air Force effectively becomes the new Navy, and you guys… Well, the Navy is the British Senior Service after all, and like Thompson said, RSS is navy therefore its is no stretch to guess what you guys are gonna push for”"

"“Tau'ri Star Service" Peters mused.

Carter shrugged, and O'Neill winced as the aged Air Force Generals eyes glowed, “"that is certainly the most... sane suggestion I have heard so far today”"

“"Selmac, nice to hear from you, but no, you can't use it”"

Thompson shot O'Neill an amused look over his shoulder, his voice rising just loud enough to be heard over his and the Generals mics, “"overruled General. Peters, add it to the list”"

“"Yes sir”" Peters smirked at the dismayed image of General O'Neill, "“I will make sure everyone knows whose suggestion it was too”"

“"No!”"

O'Neill was universally smirked at, and universally ignored and with a dismayed, almost theatrical huff, the General crosses his arms, annoyed.

“"Truth be told, there is a real chance we would win that argument”" Thompson said, his expression thoughtful, “"the RSS has just too strong a hold over space operations for that not to have a major impact on how that fight ends”"

“"You may be right at that"” General Carter nodded, unhappily, “"but whatever we do, we have to send the loser a major bone or there will be a real problem... but I don't like the situation anyway. We've been operating as combined forces for ages and splitting again is gonna cause a few problems”"

Thompson nodded, “"it has to happen though, the roles are too specialized for us to maintain proper chain of command and training as a combined force with the volume of build up we are now anticipating”"

“"Maybe..."” Carter remained clearly unhappy with the situation, but that was to be expected, there would be a lot of it going around.

Peters sighed, "“Best solution I can think of is to make the fleet's navy and the PDF forces Air Force. Ships have always been the Navies domain after all and our politicians could almost certainly argue for Naval control, Naval chain of Command for a combined... well, Navy. But with the exception of carrier based craft, Fighters have always been the Air Force's area and fighters make up the bulk of the PDF forces”"

“"The Royal Air Force, the US Air Force have always been offensive forces, you are talking about making them defensive. Those personnel who have transferred will not like that”" O'Neill commented, making no effort to hide his troubled expression, not in this company.

“"You know our orders, or at least the orders we are going to get before long"” Thompson shrugged, knowing he was pointing out the obvious, “"the politicians are pushing for a combined force for all the nations yet separated into the traditional Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine divisions and whether we like it or not, we are going to get the policy decisions on that one”"

“"We aren't gonna get a perfect solution”" Carter pointed out.

“"Certainly not, but Peters suggestion might be the best. Or at least, it's the first idea there which will not only work but we could actually get past the politicians"” Thompson eyed Carter and O'Neill warily through the screens, he heard O'Neills reply through the air of the conference room a full three seconds before it sounded from the speakers though.

“"Agreed”" was O'Neills weary and reluctant answer.

Carter nodded; his agreement and his dislike of that disagreement evident in his expression.

“"That leaves Army and Marines and whilst that may sound easy, I've already had deputations from both Forces asking for transport to Ravenbright to ‘'discuss' the issue”" Thompson grimaced as he spoke, sarcastically emphasising the word discuss.

“"Well… I may be missing something, but shouldn't the bulk of the ground forces be Army?”" Carter asked.

“"Certainly,"” Peters glanced distracted to one side, as she quickly, quietly accepted a report from an unseen member of her station crew, "“but where does that leave the Marines? What will be their ‘'niche'?”"

“"The GC teams are doing good work and frankly, they scare the bejeesus out of any Jaffa or Warriors when they show up on the battlefield but there numbers are limited by the expense of their equipment..."” Carter nodded, “"I think, and Selmac agrees with me, that the gatecrashers are the closest thing we have to the Marines and frankly, any die-hard marine supporters will love the thought that the Marine title will be dropped on such a deadly and effective force”"

A thoughtful expression crossed Thompson's face, then he nodded.

Peters however was not so sure, "“I know my contact with Gulliman has been minimal, and he has certainly written the codex on gatecrasher operations, but frankly, is he ready to command an entire military force? Is he ready to command every gate-certified Marine?”"

Carter didn't hesitate, “"yes”"

Peters nodded, accepting the formers Tok'ras judgement, “"fine... then its decided. Now, we just need to get the politicians agree”"

O'Neill grimaced, his experiences with politicians were hardly the best, “"Well, I have a few ideas about that..."