Disclosure
by Chaoseternus

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

Fourty-Two

"This is rearguard four, we are being overrun, request assistance"

"Rearguard three, requests assistance. Under heavy attack"

"Rearguard five, enemy movement our sector, expecting immanent contact"

"This," Vladin noted, "is not good"

"We knew it was coming," Hendricks frowned, "we knew the Jaffa were making their way to assault our beachhead and we knew they were taking longer then they should. It is obvious they took the time to regroup and attack in force"

"That would appear to be so," Gel'tec noted, "I am diverting thirty of my Jaffa to reinforce their positions but finding more will be hard"

"For the reinforcements I am thankful," Hendricks frowned, his face falling easily into the expression it had worn so often the last few months, "if the line holds, then Iblis's Jaffa will be shattered between our lines and those of the advancing army and militia units following hard on their tail"

Vladin slammed upright form his slouched position, his battered, aged wooden chair clattering to the ground behind him, the sound echoing of the concrete walls of the bunker, "with the bulk of the Jaffa in our rear defeated, we could shift a mass of units to the assault on the fortress itself"

"It could prove decisive" Gel'tec noted, agreeing, his hand worrying at the black hair of his beard, "but can we afford the time it would take, can we afford to turn away from the primary assault long enough?"

"According to the last update from the Devon Coven sir, we have an two hours before the hellmouth opens fully, an hour before a partial opening" Penhall noted, not glancing up from his array of flashing, clattering displays, print-outs and radios.

"Even a mere partial opening would shift this hellmouth into most active status for the next thousand years," Hendricks frowned, "if that briefing was to be believed"

"I have not seen anything that would give me reason to doubt it yet sir," Penhall commented.

"True Major," Hendricks sighed, "either way, these events will force a permanent military presence here"

"Perhaps," Vladin suggested, "we should order the Paladin pilots to hot-drop their passengers onto the most threatened points of the line, remove the time required for the troops to move up to the front"

"That's an increased risk mission," Hendricks noted, "the Paladins cannot drop troops and maintain their shields at the same time, as such, the craft would be at increased risk of being shot down right onto our lines"

"On the plus side comrade, they have these pulse lasers, and I am sure weapons designed for anti-missile usage would have little difficulty tracking the much slower Jaffa"

"That is, if the programming of the targeting sensors allows for such," Hendricks pointed out pessimistically, before turning to Penhall, "order hot-drops where needed Major, and pass along Georgiys suggestion too"

"Aye sir," Penhall noted, his hands already flying across a keyboard as he prepared the altered orders for transmission to the commanders in the field.

"Incoming signal from Cheyenne Mountain General," Penhall's eyebrows flickered upwards in surprise, then slight relief as the contents scrolled across a secondary display, "mountain confirmed secure, rescue/recovery and engineering teams are now moving into the base"

"That is good to hear," Vladin noted, "but not as good as hearing of more reinforcements inbound"

"No can do, sorry sir," Penhall replied, sighing in weary disgust.

"Da," Vladin sighed, "I know, but it would have been nice"

Lucien growled, his staff riding on his shoulder as he charged towards the Jaffa position, the, to him, arcane device spitting fire with deadly accuracy despite the SAS NCO's lack of experience with the weapon. But, then, you didn't get to be his age in the SAS without knowing what you are doing, and being able to quickly adapt.

Jaffa were falling, bolts of energy, both staff and zat were flashing both direction along the corridor, the Jaffa firing there weapons with the ease of long experience, the humans, with the grim knowledge that they were dead and the sheer inhuman drive to at least finish the mission, to deal with the enemy before the end came, to defend their homes, to defend their families.

Fear was quick to come into the eyes of the Jaffa, they and their Gods ruled through thousands of years through intimidation and through fear, but they could see these humans were not afraid, all they could see was the certainty of death within the merciless eyes of the soldiers charging towards their position.

A few of the Jaffa shook of their momentary unease, their arrogance blinding them to the threat fast approaching, they had a God on their side, and who could truly threaten the servants of a God?

More Jaffa broke, seeing the inevitable death racing towards them the fled their positions, racing to join their comrades at the next defensive post, and finding only death as the final defensive line obeyed their orders unquestioningly and mindlessly, killing any who approached.

A handful placed down their weapons, feeling almost relieved as they gave up the fight, after all, the Tau'ri were not known for killing those who had surrendered, exactly the opposite in fact, they were known to die to protect their prisoners.

The eyes of one Jaffa flashed, zat'nik'tels rising as he turned his weapons upon those Jaffa still fighting, swiftly knocking them out.

By the time Lucien arrived at the defensive post, none of the Jaffa left within had the will to fight.


"Vladin," Penhall shouted, his excitement sounding through his voice, "You may just have your wish"

"Reinforcements?"

" Invincible just arrived off the coast; they're flying off their Harriers now, loaded for ground attack. They request tanker support nearer to the engagement area"

"That," Hendricks smiled, "is very good news. Do we have any tankers left?"

"Yes sir," Penhall replied, "one of the old VC-10 tankers, was being shifted to the national reserve but circumstances stopped that. Crewed by the survivors of one of the Awacs birds"

"Order them into position," Hendricks barked out, "and make damn sure there's a forward ground controller still alive with the beachhead forces who knows what they're doing"