CHAPTER TWELVE

In orbit over PJ3-176, onboard the USS Odyssey,
the Milky Way Galaxy.

Again, another gun emplacement on the planet opened fire on the USS Odyssey as the battle-cruiser passed by high overhead. They had passed by a number of these defensive positions so far, and there was still quite some distance to their target destination, the city of Alden.

This anti-air battery was hundreds of miles below them, and was spraying a wide area of the heavens above with energy-bursts in the hopes of a few of them striking the vessel – but the problem was, a few of them were, and those that actually did hit the Tau'ri ship did considerable damage to their shields.

"Sir, shield strength down to 74," said one of the officers at the bank of computer terminals at the back of the bridge section.

"At this rate, the Ori are probably going to blow us out of the sky before we're halfway to Alden," Colonel Emerson said gloomily. "Colonel Carter, I'd be happy to take one of your patented brilliant solutions right about now!"

"And I wish I had one to offer you, sir!" Sam replied, as the ship was rocked yet again from the impact of one of the Ori followers' cannon battery shots smashing against the underside of their vessel. "But at the moment I'm all out of ideas."

The shielding absorbed much of the punishment, but an eletrical port over by the doorway to Carter's left shorted out, and something with a combustible element exploded above her head. Choking smoke quickly flowed down over her, and soon Sam's lungs were burning and full of it. One of the ship's junior-grade officers rushed over to put out the small eletrical fires this damage had started with one of the emergency portable fire-extinguishers.

"Well we can't just keep going forward the way we are," Major Conner spoke up, stating the blatantly obvious.

"That's a fact, Major," Emerson shot back, a little more savagely than he had actually intended. Quickly, he favoured the other man with an apologetic smile. "Look, there has to be a way around these defensive positions to the city of Alden. Another path, maybe a very short jump into hyperspace... come up with something we can use, people. I don't want to come this far, only to get forced back a few yards from the finishing line."

"Roger that, Colonel," Sam said promptly. Over by the other side of the observation deck, Major Frank Conner nodded in agreement. He knew it wasn't worth getting involved in this mess anymore – Carter would be the one to get them through this, because if anyone onboard the ship could it would be her.

It was all up to the blonde-haired Air Force officer... the rest of them were just along for the ride.

# SG1 #

Planet PJ3-176,
Milky Way Galaxy.

Artan wasn't going to last long, and at a glance it was obvious enough to the three original members of SG-1. He had been wounded badly by the shot to the left side of his body, which had only been a glancing hit but which was packed full of deadly energies that were even then wracking him with intense, gripping pain.

If anything, the Jaffa warrior had come to grow on them all, in his own way, despite who and what he was – a loyal dedicated fighter for a Goa'uld Lord.

Teal'c himself couldn't begrudge Artan anything, as he himself had been right in the very same position the other Jaffa was, when he had served the Goa'uld Apophis with dedication and unswerving obediance. With Mitchell's gentle help, the two of them propped the severely wounded Jaffa up against a nearby wall, helping him into a more comfortable position before they all crouched down around Artan, and watched on in respectful, silent patience as the fighter struggled to force himself back to some form of lucid clarity.

"I don't know what that energy shot was made of," Daniel said softly to the other two men, as he stepped up and away from checking to Artan's cauterized wound, "but it's done some severe damage to some vital organs, and he seems to be in a lot of pain. He doesn't want to take anything for it, though. Says it's hardly worth it, and his symbiote is helping with much of it."

"No doubt this is true, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c glanced away for a moment, as if comtemplating how to broach the one subject that was on all of their minds. "What do we do about him, though? We must make our escape, before Ori followers arrive and see what has happened here..."

"Look, I can't go on any further and we all know it," Artan spoke up at last, his voice croaking with the strain that was exerted on him just to speak those few words. "There's no way you could take me with you and escape from here."

Cameron snapped his head around, and dropped straight down by the Jaffa's side. "No way, Artan. We started out on this mission together, and we're finishing it together. That's what being part of a team is all about. We've got your back, you've got ours."

"But... y-you don't owe me... Carter..hostage-" the Jaffa stammered, before tensing up as another bout of agonizing pain tore through him. He tried to mask it as best he could, but the toll that the energy-shot was taking on the Jaffa's body was undeniable.

"That was not your doing, Artan," Teal'c said solemnly, crouching down as well, on the other side of the dying warrior. "You are a warrior of bravery and valour, my friend. Although," and this, the Free Jaffa Nation co-founder said with a hint of a smile, "you serve a false god..."

The wounded fighter grinned, and let out a low chuckle. "Thank-you, brother..." he whispered. Then, more strongly and to all three of the men around him, Artan said with conviction, "Go now, all of you, before this place is overrun with Ori followers. I'll do my best to hold them off, then once you've gotten far enough away, I'll detonate the explosive device we were meant to use anyway, and destroy this whole building."

"No way, there has to be some other-" Mitchell said, almost shouting, his frustration building up deep inside him til his vision started to cloud over in a red haze. He couldn't believe this. Artan had been nothing but reliable and dedicated, only doing what he had to do in this bitter, ugly business. Now, he was offering this one last self-sacrafice, so that the rest of them could escape from this temple.

"There IS no other way, Colonel, and we all know it!" Artan argued diligently. The silence that settled over the little group was telling. They all gave their unspoken consent to Artan's staying behind in that pause. When at last someone did speak, it was Cam Mitchell.

"Thank-you Artan... for everything."

"And I thank you as well, Colonel Mitchell," the Jaffa replied with a genuine smile. "This has been an experience I do not regret, despite the outcome."

Mitchell patted Artan on his armour-plated shoulder, then rose and turned away. He took a few steps back into the chamber where the extensive fighting had mostly taken place, took a long look at the dead Ori Prior with a level of grim satisfaction, then waited as the other two SG-1 members said their own personal farewells to the wounded warrior.

There was no way they could have expected to take him with us, Cam kept on telling himself. And this way, at least he can do some good one last time before he dies...

Still, somehow this all felt wrong to Cam. It was his own personal ethos of never leaving a comrade behind in the field, he guessed. Well, this was hardly the time or the place to let his own personal credo get in the way of what had to be done – and, this was something that, despite his own ill-givings, had to be done and Mitchell knew it.

Once they were all finished with their goodbyes, the three SG-1 troops checked what remained of their gear over in the battle-scarred chamber room, then headed out back they way they had come, towards the secret passage that they had used to gain entry into the High Temple. No-one looked back at Artan, and nobody spoke of what they had done just then.

It was a painful burden they would each have to bear privately, and on their own.

# SG1 #

Finally, they have left me, the Jaffa Artan thought, as he detached the auto-cannon off his arm and dropped it down onto his lap for easier use.

He was aching all over, and the intensity of the pain was only increasing with the passage of time. There was also a numbing sensation around the deep wound to his side, which Artan did not like. His vision was fading in and out, at times, which also had him concerned. The Jaffa warrior hoped he lasted long enough to help the rest of the team one final time...

The last mission for Lord Tel'mar had been near-hopeless from the start, and was always expected to be a one-way trip. Artan had not expected to grow so attached to the Tau'ri from Earth and the sho'vah, Teal'c, but the way they had acted and worked as a smooth, cohesive, loyal team had shown him that these warriors were indeed a special group.

Artan had felt ashamed, by the time they had approached the High Temple, of his own participation in this scheme, and his service to the Goa'uld ruler. The Jaffa was not a fool – he knew full well just what Tel'mar was, as did most of the Elite Guard and the few heroes of his armies that still remained after the bitter fighting in their civil war across the planet.

This was the perfect way for him to die... as the whole world died with him. There was little hope for his homeworld, Artan realized with a wave of horror that threatened to overwhelm his own pained senses and send him plummeting down into a pit of dispair. No matter which side triumphed in the end, the people were doomed to a life of slavery and hardship.

There was nothing he could do about it, though. Not anymore...

The sound of boots thudding against the ground off to the side pulled Artan out of his gloomy reverie, and he instantly reached down to snatch up the Goa'uld-designed weapon in his lap. The device was designed to fire energy bolts out of its cannon-mouth just like the Jaffa staff weapon, but at a much greater rate of fire.

Unprepared enemies could be chopped to pieces before they realized the danger that they faced – it's invention had single-handedly revolutionized the art of warfare amongst the Jaffa sects, and led to the deaths of millions inside of a year of its adoption on a wide scale. The Kull warriors, before their eventual demise along with the Goa'uld's stranglehold domination of the cosmos, had two of the weapons built into their own personal armour suits.

Now, Artan waited for the eventual combat to come. He had the explosive charge laid down by his right side, so when the time finally came to detonate the weapon and blow this temple into oblivion, it was within easy reach as well.

There had to be enough time for the team to clear the secret tunnel and put some distance between themselves and the High Temple, first... but he also knew that there was little time left, this shot from the Ori staff was killing him, and there was also a chance that the followers of Origin that were coming could kill him outright in the firefight that was to come. Nothing to do about that, though.

Suddenly, the first human follower of the Ori came bursting around the corner, his staff weapon clutched tightly in both hands; the device was active and ready to be fired in an instant. The warrior was not quite ready for Artan, laying lower to the ground and propped up against the far wall the way he was – but the dying Jaffa was ready to deal with him, and fired his own weapon at the enemy, killing the man outright and sending his corpse flying back off his feet.

Then there were two more warriors of Ori, racing around the corner together in a pair – they were both Jaffa, and acted faster and with more experience than the first man, managing to loosen off a couple of shots as they charged into the hallway. However, Artan's rapid-fire cannon cut them both down before they had gotten very far, and their bolt-shots weren't aimed at any target in particular anyway.

One more human popped around the corner, and quickly ducked back again when Artan's shots slammed into the wall right by the side of his face. A few long moments later, he stuck his staff weapon around the corner and started firing blindly down towards the Jaffa – a couple of the shots were close to the mark; Artan winced and tried to pull himself tighter in, so his sprawled-out body made less of a target.

Another Ori warrior suddenly made a dashing run across no-man's land down the hall from where they were firing from – Artan's shots chased him across the gap, but none of them caught the man, and soon he was in the same position as his comrade on the other side of the corridor, firing down the hall towards the wounded fighter without exposing himself very much at all to dangerous weapons-fire.

There was little that he could do to change this worsening battlefield situation, and Artan knew in his heart that he had no more time left to act. They were going to kill him soon if he did not do what had to be done – and then, he would die anyway. This was his final sacrifice to the people of his world, and to his fellow warriors, on both sides of the fighting, who had fallen in battle before him.

As he reached out to trigger the bomb by his side, Artan offered up one final prayer to whoever would listen to him, diety or no; for the very soul of this planet to survive beyond the war that had ravaged it so completely... then, the blinding white flash engulfed everything, and the Jaffa warrior's spirit knew true peace at last.

# SG1 #

Outside the High Temple of Tel'mar, and about two miles back through the winding, twisting streets and back alleys of Alden on their way back out of the city, the three members of SG-1 felt the rumbling vibration through the ground. Then, they all glanced back towards the imposing building that they were fleeing from, to catch a blinding, almost painful flash of bright white light rocket out of a massive hole that suddenly, inexplicibly appeared in the side of the temple complex.

A few moments after the painful light started spreading out of this new, gaping huge hole in the temple building, a deafening, torrential roar ripped through the city, forcing Daniel, Teal'c and Cam all to drop down onto their knees, and shove their hands over their ears in sharp agony. Then, the sound and the light retracted inwards, and the towering behemoth of a building began to fold in on itself, huge clumps of stonework and epic carvings crumbling down into dusty, complete ruin.

For the longest time, the three of them were shaking off the ringing screech that rang in their ears, and it was hard for any of them to understand what each other were saying – but this was only temporary. Artan, it had seemed, had come through in the end and completed the last part of their mission, giving up his own life in the process. He had stopped the responding Ori followers from mounting an immediate chase after the team, and had destroyed the High Temple completely. Way to go, Artan!

Cam was, as he remembered his grandma saying once or twice, as happy as a pig in mud. He couldn't help but chuckle out aloud at the analogy.

"What?" Daniel asked sharply. By the look on his face, the good doctor obviously didn't understand what could be so humorous, under the circumstances.

"Oh nothing," Mitchell answered with a cheesy little grin. "Just glad that Artan went out the way he ought to, is all – now come on, you guys. We have to keep moving. Can't just stop now and watch the fireworks."

The team set out again on their journey out of the city proper. There were still dangers ahead – no doubt because of what had happened to the High Temple, the followers of the Ori were going to be even sharper and more alert than usual.

They knew now that their borders had been penetrated and there was an enemy presence in this city. That made this final part of their mission – the escape – even more hazardous.