London Exclusion Zone, Goa'uld Occupied Zone
Iblis was not having a good day.
The plan to destroy the Tau'ri had been simple, make a covert insertion in Paris and corrupt the city, making a nice distraction as he moved his forces en-masse on the nearby hellmouth.
Simple, so simple even a Jaffa could manage it.
Like every other plan that involved the destruction of the Tau'ri, it had gone quite thoroughly wrong. Okay, so it worked surprisingly well at first, the corrupted intelligence operative had been quick to inform him on the planned attack by the savages in Africa and it was little work to ensure they were reinforced and even simpler to ensure the hated Tau'ri found out what was about to happen.
Of course, it helped greatly that the Tau'ri were having internal difficulties, the sheer joy of seeing his hated enemy fighting themselves! IT made it so much easier, their militaries stretched far too thin in their own cities, France and Africa to respond properly when he made his move on the London Hellmouth. Doubly so when their own News Media informed him of an assault on the Stargate itself!
He hadn't planned on the blockade fleet being intercepted by the Tau'ri forces on the edges of Interstellar Alliance space, he hadn't planned on the fleet losing fourteen of its cruisers, fourteen!
If those extra vessels had made it, then the blockade would have held, he had little doubt of that, but they hadn't and the enemy managed to successfully toss his warships aside.
No blockade meant the Tau'ri could ship reinforcements in from their bases in the area, and they had. Not only was the so called 'Free Press' already crowing bout the 'successful defeat of an alien invasion force' in Africa, but his forces were reporting contact not only with fresh army units inside London itself, with more and more Tau'ri reinforcements revealing themselves by the hour, but scouts deployed to the far north of his territory had gone silent after reporting Free Jaffa forces on the ground!
How had the Free Jaffa managed to respond so fast, getting at least regimental strength deployed on the ground?
For that matter, how had so many of his heavy weapons been defeated? They were meant to toss the primitive, useless Tau'ri fighters burning to the ground, instead it was they who burned whilst the startling nimble atmospheric craft ripped his ground forces to shreds.
It was maddening.
Still, he held the Hellmouth and his magus were already at work, all he had to do was hold for a few hours longer.
London
Exclusion Zone, The Admiralty
"If our information from the Council of Watchers in correct, then we have mere hours to force Iblis off the hellmouth," General Hodges growled, annoyed, "whilst I have little doubt that with the fresh reinforcements from Russia and the Free Jaffa we can force Iblis off this world, I am not sure that we can do it that fast"
"The Fight progresses well," Bra'tac intoned, "however you are right, it will be days before we can assault the mouth itself"
"We do not have time to fight all the troops between us and the hellmouth," Commodore Thompson mused, his voice sounding loud and clear, her expression clearly contemplative as she gazed out of a large monitor set at the tail of the table, "therefore we must bypass them"
"Sound in theory," Hodges nodded; his expression weary, his face lined, dark rings around his eyes showing all to clearly how much sleep the aged General had not had the last few months, "but how do we bypass his forces with sufficient troops to assault Iblis's position?"
"The Free Jaffa have two Ha'taks, we have Paladins by the hundred," Peters grinned, "I think its time for the largest airdrop since Operation Overlord"
London
Exclusion Zone, Goa'uld Occupation Zone
Iblis was worried, half the war was knowing what your enemy was up and right now, he had no idea what they were planning. Trouble was, he had a pretty good idea they were planning something and if they knew the time constraints they were under, then that something would no doubt be bold. The Tau'ri were very good at bold moves when they wanted to be, witness the assault on Edonia Nebula, an assault that should never have succeded.
The Free Jaffa army to the north had vanished.
That was certainly worrying, he liked to know where his enemy was, doubly so when they break off in the middle of an assault they had already won and run off the battlefield. It meant they felt they had an urgent need to be elsewhere, and frankly, IBlis could only think of one place they would have an urgent need to be and he was in the middle of it.
They should be forcing there way through his forces, making a desperate assault on his position, yet they had broke off and he couldn't see them deciding it was a lost battle and fleeing the system, they did not have intelligence enough for that.
Worse, his scouts had finally found out where the reinforcements were coming in, the blasted airfields that surrounded this blighted city, and they reported that atmospheric craft were off-loading troops by the hundred.
Yet, those units were no longer appearing at the front lines, they were going elsewhere and his scouts couldn't figure out where, the convoys were moving too fast for them to follow and remain hidden at the same time.
Add that to those blasted atmospheric fighters, which had suddenly stopped trying to kill his troops and started concentrating on pinning them, stopping them going anywhere and… well, it didn't take a genius to figure out that you pinned your enemy only if you wanted them to stay where they were.
They had a plan;
it involved lots of troops and him not being able to move any troops. No, he
didn't like the situation at all.
Free
Jaffa Ha'tak
"You know," Lucien commented, "I never thought I would find myself aboard an alien warship"
"And certainly not be about to fight alongside those aliens to retake our homes," Paxton agreed, then glanced around at the shattered remains of his troops, "not that a single squad is going to make much difference"
"They died with honour, fighting for their country, for freedom and for everything the Army stands for," Lucien nodded grimly, "for that, they will always be remembered, and considering how many have died, they will have their memorial too,"
Paxton cracked a grim grin, "probably a movie about their life stories too, made by Hollywood of course, so naturally they will miraculously have been American all along…"
Lucien snorted, sarcastically agreeing, "And yet the movie will still manage to get away with a 'Based on True Events' sticker'. Bloody bastards… U-571 was the worst example of that kind of travesty I have to say"
"Been hundreds of others though," Paxton noted, "but I guess, so long as Hollywood is till around to make such a movie…"
"I guess," Lucien noted, "still, I know a few people who were talking about 'accidents' after that one came out"
Paxton snorted, "Understandable, still, enough morbid talk, we have an invasion to go too"
Lucien snorted, "And that doesn't count as morbid talk?"
Paxton grinned, weakly, "I see your point, still, I wish I could sleep"
Lucien grunted, "We'll have time to sleep once this is all over, until then…"
The SAS NCO reached down, checking his weapon and ammo one more time.
