Slayer Hunting
Part 3 Of Visionary
by Chaoseternus

BETA REQUEST: I need a beta for Slayer Hunting, any volunteers?

Thanks to the reviewers.
manticore-gurl071134: sorry, but i have far too many plotbunnies bouncing around in my head without adding challenges

Chapter 10: Ground War I

Hammond glared glumly at the tactical display slowly flickering as changes and updates were loading into its memory.

As had been expected, the African Hellmouth had fallen, they just couldn't get enough forces their in time to protect it, couldn't persuade the local governments, such as they were, that there was actually a threat. They believed America was just trying to get a foothold, ready for invasion and had ‘persuaded' the other advanced nations to help them.

Their paranoia had cost them, their militaries had been quickly shattered Along with the few reinforcements they had been able to get into Africa in time and now one of the Three was under Goa'uld control.

Cleveland and London were different propositions however, not only were regular military units fighting a fierce defence but they were aided by local Reserve or Territorial units, eager to defend their homes.

The Mountain was being fiercely defended too, its armour bolstered by dusted off plans which added hastily built pill boxes from which the defenders could fire with relative impunity, so long as the Jaffa didn't get too close, or get lucky.

It was showing, the Goa'uld invasion had been slowed but only slowed.

They were still winning, forcing the defenders back foot by foot.

Twenty troopships had landed, five at each target, each unloading a full Thousand plus Jaffa. Hammond smirked a little, except at Cleveland, which happened to have a Paladin battery in range.

Hundreds of Jaffa had died before the swarming Udajeets found the Paladins, a full thousand in a troopship that was bracketed before it could unload. The battery had been silent for thirty minutes now; Hammond wasn't expecting that to change.

Hammond looked up as Harriman approached, he wondered briefly at the smile on the technicians face.

“"Sir, The Kings Royal Hussars just flanked the Jaffa at London”"

Hammond nodded, that would put a major dent in the Jaffa ranks, might even turn the tide of that particular engagement.

"“Sir…”" Hammond glanced up again, wondering why the grin was still on Harriman's face, "“the Hussars are an armoured regiment”"

Hammonds eyebrows shot up.

“"Challenger main battle tanks sir”"

Hammond couldn't resist a chuckle, almost feeling sorry for the Jaffa. The grunt-crunchers had started to arrive.

“"How badly…?”"

“The Jaffa broke in several places before the Udajeet swamped the RAF squadrons deployed to their area, allowing several Udajeet to break though”

Hammond grimaced, “"The tanks got mauled then?”"

Harriman chuckled loudly this time, “"Well, you know we sent Ferreti to advise the limeys?"”

Hammond nodded.

“"He might just have mentioned to them that ‘hand held SAMs are your friend when gliders start to arrive'"

Hammond nodded, glancing at the display in time to see the icon representing the London Hellmouth flicker from the pulsing blue red of Contested to the very light Blue of Friendly Controlled, Just. The more the Royal Army could re-secure their position the bluer that Icon would get.

It was a start.

He frowned suddenly as the nearby Icon for London suddenly flickered, reducing from a deep blue to light. He tapped it, and an Info box opened up, telling him Jaffa had been reported moving into the City.

The limeys were going to love that.

“"Finn to Hammond, Priority!"” the radio next to Hammond crackled into life, and Hammond reached over, his mind instantly giving him a picture of the young Commander, now Brigadier General of the Initiative.

“"Go ahead General”"

“"We're under orbital bombardment here” Hammond slammed up straight with a curse, glancing across to the where the Icons around Cleveland had flickered over whilst he was preoccupied with London."

The Jaffa had shown surprising intelligence, they had hit the local Airfields, be they military or civil, first. That neatly reduced local air support.

“"Copy"” he barked into the transmitter, and then flicked the controls, shifting to the fleet frequency, “"Buffy, the five ships sent to escort the Troopships just started a planetary bombardment, we need to kill them and fast”"

Hammond grimaced as a series of curses in Goa'uld and English sounded over the radio;

“"They're fully operational, we're up to our eyebrows in repairs still” Buffy finally responded, “the O'Neill's especially need the repairs, they took the brunt of it against the main Goa'uld fleet. I don't like the odds of three damaged ships against five fresh Goa'uld vessels”"

“"We don't have a choice; Cleveland already lost the bulk of they're air defence capabilities, they're down to reserve strips and highways”"

The radio went silent for a moment, “"All remaining fighters, Prometheus, Tara McClay, Carter, Daniel Jackson, formate on me, Teal'c position yourself between the cripples and the hostiles and be ready to hold the line”