Disclosure
by Chaoseternus

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

As always, thank you to everyone who has reviewed.

Thirty-Seven

"Sirs," the Major walked up, his face lined, showing clearly the stress of the last few days, but there was a renewed gleam in his eyes, one that spoke of hope being slowly reborn within the heart of the cynical, battle weary soldier, "latest reports from the main front indicate Goa'uld forces withdrawing in all areas, our forces are currently regrouping and not as yet advancing"

"Excellent," General Hendricks said, his face showing a slight smile as he watched the status board in front of him slowly update, flickering spastically as inbound reports were slowly fed into its circuits.

"Operation Beachhead forces also confirm a secure perimeter but they are not as yet advancing"

The General glanced across, then nodded, watching as a wave of small indicators slowly advanced towards the force they had inserted in Goa'uld occupied territory, each blip queuing for its own chance to land and disgorge its few squads of troops.

"We may need to hurry that up, time is not on our side," he paused, glancing across at Major Penhall, "do we have any other craft available to assist in the airlift?"

Penhall shook his head, "too many airbases around here got hit during the initial assault, we lost nearly a hundred aircraft including those we would normally use for airlift operations. More are being flown in, but we have to remember that there are still Goa'uld anti-air batteries in operation. The Paladins can just drop in from orbit above their targets, avoiding the batteries but everything else has to fly over them"

"Hmm," Hendricks frowned, "any news on how many of the batteries are left?"

"No sir," Penhall shook his head, "we no longer have any contact with the few attack helicopters we were able to scrape up, last message was a tally-ho, then nothing. The bombers are searching but reporting only intermittent contact, the RAF boys think they are holding off now until they get a definite lock and well," Penhall shrugged, "our infiltration groups are too busy avoiding contact with the retreating Jaffa to make contact that often, and indications are that not all of them have been successful. At least three squads have reported contact, then nothing more"

"Damnation," Hendricks cursed, "how could we have beeen caught so off guard? How could such a travesty as an invasion of our homeland be allowed?"

"A lot of people are going to be asking those questions sir, but now is not the time, you have to complete the operation"

"Aye," Hendricks nodded, "any thoughts Master Gel'tec?"

The Free Jaffa General grimly looked up, turning his face from the displays, "I believe the Major is right, we need to concentrate on the now. Let others deal with the why later"

Hendricks resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "I was referring to the course of the battle"

"It goes well…" the General sighed, "but not well enough. Every moment Iblis holds that gateway is another chance he has to breech the dimensional walls and bring down the hosts onto this world"

"Da," Generál-leytenánt Vladin' added, "we need to be advancing but with the Gao'uld retreating, compressing aound our beachhead, we also need to be sure we do not overextend ourselves any more. You British have been taught the folly of that by recent events"

"These things had to be done," Hendricks frowned, "even you cannot argue with that"

"Perhaps," Vladin' nodded, "but still, if you had kept more units at home…"

"Then we would have a Goa'uld controlled army rampaging across the continent, ever expanding its numbers through their mind-control drugs. Or we would have an open hellmouth in Africa. Either way, there would be chaos"

"Indeed," Gel'tec replied, "this bickering does not help us however; we need to speed up the reinforcement. With the extra troops in place then we can advance"

"No," Hendricks replied, glancing swiftly across the tactical displays, "we need to advance, take some more ground so the Paladins have more space to land in"

Vladin's eyebrows rose, "that would work also, is there sufficient forces on the ground now for a small advance?"

Hendricks nodded, looking back up from the displays, "yes"

"Then I agree, order the advance" Gel'tec nodded sharply, once.

"Da, give the order"

"Penhall," Hendricks said, turning swiftly back to the display, signal Beachhead, I want… hills Baker-26, Baker -25 taken and the valley between prepared for airlift operations"

"Yes sir," Penhall replied, his hand already reaching for the message pad in his pocket.

"And while you're at it," Hendricks frowned, "ask if they have any indication where the Goa'uld controlled French and UN units have gotten too"

"For that matter," Gel'tec frowned, "where are the Supersoldiers?"

"Indeed," Vladin' noted, "I hope that Iblis has brought none, the reports suggest that they are quite… formidable, but I doubt it"

"I would guess that they are his reserve," Penhall sighed, "I haven't had time to read them thoroughly, but the reports from the SGC indicate that they had had some success in disrupting their production recently, Iblis may not have too many"

"No," Gel'tec sighed, "but even a few may be enough"


"General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands man Battle stations, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. Commodore Peters, report to Command. General Quarters…"

Cursing, Peters swung herself of her bed and swiftly slid on the holster for her pistol, checking once o make sure the small weapon was loaded before she raced to the bridge. She didn't get dressed, she didn't need too, she had learnt ages ago that during a crisis situation, if you managed to snatch some sleep you didn't get undressed, it just wasted time when you were called into action again. Her uniform showed clearly its overuse, and frankly, Peters doubted it would be salvageable once this mess was over. It didn't matter; it was inconsequential compared to the events in motion. Once Earth was safe again, then she could worry about minor details such as tidy uniforms.

She caught herself racing towards the Primary Bridge, and with a loud, paint-blistering curse, she changed course, swiftly flicking through the corridors and access ways to the secondary command centre.

She hated that her home was wounded so, but given present circumstances; it wasn't the time to whinge. Of course, it wouldn't stop her crowing once more at those idiots who thought the station would never need a back-up command facility. Armchair warriors like those had no place working for appropriations, Peters grimly thought, but unfortunately, that was always where they seemed to end up.

Carefully placing her hand on the cracked plate of the fingerprint scanner, she smiled grimly at the faces of the two visible guards stationed to protect the secondary command centre, hoping the scanner would work properly and let her in. Being man-handled by the guards was a humiliating experience she didn't want to repeat. She couldn't tell them off though; they had been following their orders very carefully.

With an assenting bleep, the doors slid open and the Guards stepped apart, allowing her to access what was, for the moment, the hub of the stations operations. A hub that she had decided was too small and had been left to slip too far behind the quality of the main centre. It was an issue she would have to sort out… when this mess was over.

Strange, she thought as she tepped through the door, not so long ago she was thinking in terms of 'if', now it's 'when', always 'when'.

No matter, she had more important issues right now.

"Report!"

"Cylon fighter patrols reported in the asteroid belt m'am"

Fuck.

They had no fighters available; they were all assisting on the surface.

Fuck, damn and bloody blast.

"Order Stingray… Damn!" Peters cursed, swiftly, fluently, "cancel. Order Invincible into guard position over Minehead, ditto for General Hammond and Coalmine. Then order what MTBs we have left into the belt itself to smoke those bastards out… send in those two Al-kesh as well"

Peters frowned, the jump-range of those fighters was surprisingly large considering their size, but still, it wasn't that large. There had to be another base-ship in the area.

"Do we have anyone available for local group recon?"

"Not without compromising system defence m'am"

"Damn," she cursed, "well, send me the lists. I'm going to have to free somebody up"

"Yes M'am"

Peters cursed, it never rained but it poured didn't it?

A quarter of the fleet either in or queuing for the body and fender shop, half deployed across allied territory and just a meagre few to protect home. They needed more warships… as always.

Damn, would she be glad when they got those babies out of her slips. Those extra few warships would make all the difference; still, they weren't ready yet… soon though, soon.