Disclosure
by Chaoseternus
The Truth Is Out At Last, Are You Ready For It?
Twenty-six"Fuck," Kennedy cursed, her personal weapon, a heavy broadsword, swinging in her hands as she followed the soldiers through the dark, and above all else, boringly uniform corridors of the complex, "how the fuck did I let that bitch talk me into this, working with soldiers"
Her associates shared, annoyed looks at the sneer evident in her tone, this they all agreed, was one arrogant bitch. Unfortunately, they also knew she was a necessary one. Already, she had spotted six terakens and one mercenary ambush before they had, as well as a number of booby-traps.
That meant that they would be professional enough to control themselves and work with her, didn't mean they had to like the brat.
"Ambush," Kennedy growled out, pointing towards a junction ahead, where one corridor joined theirs at a solid 90 degree angle, feels like two, maybe three Terakens"
"Grenade"
Contemptuously, Captain Gibbs handed over the demanded item, and then winced as Kennedy withdrew the pin and threw the explosive egg with far more then necessary force. She was surprised it didn't explode when it hit the wall, it did so with such force, but Kennedy had called it right, and the green shape ricocheted into the other corridor.
Seconds later, flames and debris burst into the corridor in front of them, scaring the wall but coming no where near the team, but Kennedy was already running, recklessly charging around the corridor.
Her body slammed back, peppered with bullet holes, blood already running from her mouth, her eyes turned in an instant from arrogant, spoiled, to lifeless, dead. Captain Gibbs couldn't find it in her heart to fell sorry for the young woman.
General O'Malley sighed as the first casualties reports started filtering out, at least two teams were gone, four had been forced out of the mountain by casualties, and several others reported losing members.
More then a handful of teams hadn't reported at all, considering how eager the Terakens appeared to attack all the teams other then Willows, he was beginning to wonder if there was something about that lady he hadn't been told, or that he hadn't quite understood.
Willows team had reported, by the simple method of dropping there progress into his Aides mind every fifteen minutes or so, and they certainly were reporting far more progress and less attacks then any other team.
He shrugged; he would take his blessings where he could, if the Terakens were reluctant to attack her, so be it. They were just giving him an advantage and he could live with that, of course, he could be misjudging the situation, but in warfare, that was always a risk.
Casualty reports from Bravo-twelve, O'Malley nodded his thanks, taking the hastily scribbled notes on their yellow flash-burn paper from his aide, and wished, not for the first time, that there were a few other senior officers surviving who could assist him. It wasn't easy commanding the all the armed units remaining in Colorado Springs and the mountains when the only person ranked higher then a Major was himself.
Sir, his aide was back, hand held to his head in a now familiar pained gesture, Willow reports that they have left the old SpaceCom areas and are now ready to rappel into the main SGC area
"Tell me again," Willow asked annoyed, as the line was fastened across her waist, "why we can't just use the stairs?"
Reeman looked at her incredulously, "you uncovered twelve booby-traps on the first flight of steps alone! Do you know how many flights there are?"
"Better then the long drop!" Willow shot back.
"We don't have the time" Reeman replied, "we really don't"
Willow sighed,"the first time was fun, but you know, this lift shaft is a little deeper then the one at the Initiative"
"Initiative?"
She blinked,"dont ask"
"Ready," Devon replied, stepping back from Willow.
"Okay," Reeman said, "Me, Devon, Willow first. Willow, concentrate on finding traps for us, if you can shield too, it would be beautiful, we are going to very vulnerable dropping down that shaft. Devon, concentrate on disabling any technological traps Willow finds, I will try my hardest to deal with any hostiles, understood?"
He glanced across at the rest of the team, "come down in twos, odd man with the last stick"
Gibbs cursed, swiftly working at her P-90. A jam, of all the damned times to have a jam, right when a group of four, maybe five mercs decide to use your team as target practise wasn't when she would have chosen.
Not that Murphy ever cared what she thought.
Strange thing about these mercs though, they seemed to be wearing the armbands chosen to identify the teams
"Ahh," a voice sounded behind her, and Gibbs whirled, P-90 dropped and knife raised in one fluid motion, "more toys for my command, excellent"
The tone sent shivers down her back, and Gibbs felt a primal shiver run up her back, a shiver she had felt just once before, right before a sniper had placed a bullet into her thigh which put her on the bench for three months.
She trusted that instinct, and let the knife fly.
It stopped, mid air, half-way between herself and the dark man whose very presence screamed arrogance and evil.
"Do you really think," he sneered, "you could kill me with a mere blade?"
"No," Gibbs calmly replied, smiling at the red stain that was spreading unnoticed across the mans silken shirt," I thought I could kill you with two"
He glanced down in shock, seeing the blade inside his chest. He looked up, his eyes uncomprehending, how could one so insignificant as her injure him?
Angry, he tried to raise his hands, to etch the sigils into the air which would bind her to his control, but his arm wouldn't rise.
Slowly, his eyes still screaming their disbelief, he fell to the ground.
Gibbs unholstered her backup weapon, the modified Desert Eagle that had been a present from her brother, and shot the mage at point blank range, the bullet making a small, dark hole in his forehead.
Glancing around, she spotted that the firing had stopped, that the other team, rather confused, had allowed themselves to be disarmed, and smiling, she slid her pistol back into its holster and reached for her main weapon.
She still had a jam to clear after all.
"Uhm," Willow drew her hadn back from the door, careful not to make any abrupt movement which might make her swing on the rappelling line, "we may have a problem"
Reeman groaned, "What kind of problem?"
"Oh, just the collapsing circuit kind"
"Shit" Devon succinctly commented, "means we cant disable the devices. normally a controlled detonation would be required, but we cant really do that here. Nor do I have any of the equipment that we could use to blow the explosive away from the detonators"
"I could have just magic'ed the explosive away from the detonators," Willow sighed, "but unfortunately, whoever did this rigged up a collapsing magical detonator circuit too"
Reeman and Devon glanced at her in shock, "a collapsing magical detonator circuit?"
She was not amused, "ike a experienced bomb man suddenly found out they could do magic and started combining the two"
"Okay," Reeman shrugged, "if the subtle approach's aint gonna work, what about unsubtle"
Willow glanced at him incredulously, "they have what feels like Ten Kilos of C-4 on the other side of that door, plus some other explosives. I think 'unsubtle' is covered"
Devon let out a yikes and Reeman blinked.
"Okay," he conceded, "unsubtle had been covered"
"That much explosive, "Devon said, glancing around the shaft, "would at the very least, collapse this shaft. We would likely be looking at the collapse of two or more floors within the SGC itself. We do not want that device going off"
"Can you magic the whole mess elsewhere" Reeman asked.
The witch shook her head," if all goes well then the effort would put me out of the rest of the fight, but I wouldn't bet on it going to plan"
"Right, "Reeman agreed firmly with that statement, he hadn't been in the services long, but he had been in long enough that planning for everything to go perfect was the height of stuipidity, "what about killing the magical detonator?"
"Collapsing circuit " Willow shook her head, "whoever did this wanted to brag, there was nothing to prevent even the least skilled witch looking, in fact, they were a few aides to such viewing built into the bomb, but the two circuits are even interconnected. If the physical goes, the magical detonates, if the magical goes, the physical detonates. There are random circuit tests on both..."
Willow frowned, then smiled, "There is too much power feeding into this and no signs of a power source, no links to an... astral power source" best not say God, not here, not in the place where the downfall of many a False God had been planned, "no magical artefacts being drained. The person has to be powering it themselves"
Devon grinned, "Going to trace the powerlines?"
"It would," Willow commented, "be very stupid of him not to have some sort of disable mechanism, and even if he has hidden it from himself, I can find it"
"Unless," Reeman pointed out, "he's paranoid and has tied in his physical and mental state to the detonator circuit... He dies and the thing detonates, his mind gets rummaged and the thing detonates"
Willow shot Reeman a Look," thank you for your pleasant thoughts"
"No problem" he replied, resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at the witch.
Willow sighed inwardly, it was something to consider off course, but she would rather do so from a safe distance, such as another continent. Sitting this close to so many explosives while rummaging through the mind of the magic user who had set it up wasn't her idea of fun. Experienced Dark Mages almost always set booby traps up in their minds, just in case, the only exceptions being those too arrogant to think anyone would ever succeed in reading them.
