A/N: And this chapter is finally complete. Only 5 months in the making, and was only supposed to be a short filler chapter, probably around 1000 words. Yeah, that didn't really happen did it? It was only supposed to be a short filler chapter, probably around 1000 words. Yeah, that didn't really happen did it? 5 months and 3000 words later.

Next chapter is very likely to be a long one, so god only knows when I'll get it finished. If this chapter is any indication, then probably this time next year.

Oh, and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays etc to everyone out there.

Friday 7th February 2003

Prime Minister's Office, Number 10 Downing Street

Following on from both the shocking briefing and a discussion with Her Majesty the day before, Tony Blair contacted his opposite number in France, Jacques Chirac, the French President. In just over a 30 minute long conversation, the two men discussed the Stargate Programme, and more importantly, their initial plans, having now both been able to study the various briefings materials provided by the US, as well as bring various advisors and military personnel into the secret.

By the end of the conversation, both men were in agreement that neither of their countries could compete with the US, Russia and China individually. Their budgets, and more importantly their black budgets, which each government used to fund various classified projects, were each only a fraction of what each of the other countries had. However, by working together, and combining their funding, research and intelligence, they could, if not match them, then get close to the other countries in terms of contribution to the Stargate Program.

As part of this, each informed the other of their decision to deploy a unit of their special forces to the SGC, to provide several SG-Teams, as the most immediate contribution they could make. In addition, the two countries would provide both a military liaison and a diplomat to the SGC, though sharing the burden, so one country would provide the military liaison and the other would provide the diplomat, switching every 6 months. These two people would be fully authorised to speak on behalf of both countries in the event of any emergency, with the chosen military liaison assuming overall command over both special forces groups and the diplomat authorised to act as both countries representative at any diplomatic negotiations.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, both men agreed that the first military liaison would be provided by France, with Britain providing the diplomat, although a caveat is placed that both appointees have to be fluent in both French and English, in order to provide accurate reports and confer with the stationed troops without translation issues.

Following this conversation, both men then had to place further calls to their defence and foreign ministers to inform them of the decisions made during their conversation.

Monday 10th February 2003

Over the following week, both countries brief their selected special forces unit. For the British this is 18 (Mobility) Troop, D Squadron, 22 SAS Regiment (16 men), and for the French it is B Section, 2e Compagnie, 1er RPIMa (1er Régiment de Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine, 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment) (30 men).

In addition, both countries appoint their initial liaisons to the SGC, with Mark Evans of the Foreign Office and Commandant (Major) Sébastien Boucher of the French Army receiving a short briefing, very similar to that received by the Ambassador's to the US approximately three weeks before. After being convinced that this was not, in fact, a joke, they are dispatched to the SGC, arriving on the 12th and 13th February respectively.

Having been pre-warned of their arrival, the SGC has managed to convert several store-rooms on Level 17, a level that previously had only been used for the Summit including Earth into the Protected Planets Treaty, into living quarters and offices for the two men. The SGC were also in the process of converting the remainder of the level into living quarters, as well as a small gym and armoury, for the almost 50 troops that were soon to arrive from Britain and France, plus several support personnel due to arrive with them. Eventually, the entirety of level 17 would become the base for any British and French personnel stationed in the SGC, on average being home to almost 70 personnel.

Monday 17th February 2003

Prometheus returns from it's shakedown cruise. Although considered a success, there were several issues, both major and minor, identified during this cruise. The most major issue is with the hyperdrive. Under development for several years, and only made viable due to the discovery of Naquadria on Kelowna, it malfunctioned while in hyperspace, forcing the ship to exit to normal space and eject the reactor core before it went critical. Unfortunately, the ship had exited hyperspace above an inhabited world, and the EMP from the reactor core, when it eventually overloaded, not only severely damaged the ship but also caused damage to the planet and their infrastructure, leading the inhabitants to consider it an attack, and launching their own against the Prometheus. Luckily, the misunderstanding was soon cleared up, and, after landing on the planet to conduct repairs, SG-1 (who had accompanied the Prometheus on its shakedown cruise) were able to locate the planet's Stargate and contact Earth, swiftly allowing the replacement of the reactor core with one from a Goa'uld Al'kesh, and the return of Prometheus to Earth for complete repairs.

Tagrea Report Recommendation by Commandant Boucher and Mark Evans

See attached intelligence re. newly encountered planet designated P3X-744 (Tagrea)

Recommend pursuing alliance/trade agreement with Tagrea. Technology level is indicative of at or above standard Earth technology. Although weapons technology is not particularly advanced, and unlikely to be any more useful than current Earth accessible technology, it is possible that certain other technologies are more advanced, which would be useful to Earth, especially power generation or medical. Even if no useful technology available for trade, likelihood of trade for raw materials etc.

This report, submitted to both the British PM and the French President, would be the first, but by far not the last, that would be sent to the leaders of the two countries over the following years regarding newly encountered civilisations. While most would be reviewed and then left for the SGC to follow up as they see fit, some, like Tagrea, would lead to the British PM and French President pushing for closer contact and ties with them, initially for trade, but possibly developing into a formal alliance against the Goa'uld. This decision, started with Tagrea, would not see any positive outcome for several years, but would in time lead to several significant developments for multiple worlds.

Thursday 20th February 2003

Following their briefings over the past week regarding the Stargate Program, as well as numerous discussions over tactics, weapons effectiveness etc, the two selected units from the SAS and 1er RPIMa, arrive at the SGC. During their orientation and briefings, the two units would remain as full units, allowing them to move through the various briefings and demonstrations relatively quickly, and preventing the various SGC officers and scientists involved from having to repeat the same briefing five separate times. However, once they move into training, in particular off-world at the Beta Site, they will be split up into their respective SG-Teams.

Unlike the rest of the SG-Teams based at the SGC, the ones formed by the SAS and 1er RPIMa will be the first to be classified as "Heavy" SG-Teams. This is due to the number of personnel comprising their SG-Teams, with the 16-man SAS Troop forming 2, 8-man, SG-Teams, numbered SG-21 and SG-22, and the 30-man 1er RPIMa Section forming 3, 10-man, SG-Teams, numbered SG-23, SG-24 and SG-25, whereas the Russian SG-20 (formed several months earlier), and the American SG-1 through SG-19 were all formed of 4 personnel.

By the time the two groups arrive at the SGC, only a handful of rooms on level 17 have been converted, and are suitable for habitation. As such, for the next few weeks, the majority of the soldiers will be spread out across the entirety of the SGC, utilising several spare bunk rooms and even a few unoccupied visitor's rooms.

Friday 21st February - Monday 24th February 2003

Over the following 4 days, the 2 groups went through multiple briefings regarding Stargate Command, and both the enemies and allies of the SGC. Although both groups had received briefings on this before they arrived at the SGC, these were far more in-depth. While their initial briefings had focused on the existence and aim of the SGC, these briefings were more focused on the equipment and protocols used by the SG-Teams, with a particular emphasis on the GDO's and their codes.

As part of their various briefings, all members had a session in the base armoury, where they were introduced to the Goa'uld weapons they are most likely to encounter while on missions through the Gate, the Staff Weapon and the Zat'nik'tel. As well as a brief overview of each weapon, discussing the various benefits and drawbacks, they also got a chance to fire the weapons, and, in the case of the colloquially named Zat-gun, are shot by it, to help them recognise the effects, and begin to build up an immunity to the effects. In addition, there were demonstrations of the effect Earth weapons had on Jaffa armour, showcasing the differences between various ammunition types, including the new Trinium-tipped armour-piercing bullets being produced for the SGC, and indicating likely areas of weakness within the Jaffa armour that bullets could pierce through with relative ease.

At the end of this session, they were shown the effect that a Staff Weapon has on a human body (using an appropriate analogue), and the lack of protection that standard body armour has against the Staff Weapon blast. Although they had been briefed on this already, intellectually knowing that something they had all relied on in the past to protect them from enemy fire was in fact now useless, was not as effective as being shown the effects. As such, after the end of this particular demonstration, all the members of both 18 Troop and B Section gain a healthy respect for the power of the Staff Weapon. In addition, Commandant Boucher, who also happened to be attending the briefing, made a note recommending that both France and the UK made the research and development of a body armour capable of resisting a plasma blast a priority.

Tuesday 25th February 2003

Following their various briefings, the two groups are split up. The 3 French SG-Teams, are deployed to the Beta Site, where they will be run through multiple training exercises, alongside a couple of US SG-Teams.

For the past few months, the SGC has been developing the Beta Site to act as it's primary off-world training facility, as well as a fallback position and research facility, similar to the Alpha Site. Prior to this, the SGC had utilised an isolated training facility near to Colorado Springs for the majority of their training exercises, with final exercises taking place at the SGC itself, essentially shutting down all operations every few months for the duration of the exercises. However, there were several issues with this, not least being the possibility of classified information leaking out, due to the use of Intar's and other specialist technology during the training. Not to mention the impact on the SGC itself.

The other main issue with using a training facility on Earth was that they couldn't accurately train for missions involving Goa'uld ships and facilities. As such, one of the requirements that General Hammond had specified when he had been granted permission to create the facility at the Beta Site, was a mock-up of a Goa'uld base (which conveniently could double as a mock-up for a Goa'uld Ha'tak), for not only new SG-Team members, but current teams, to train in.

The majority of the base was still under construction, and although there has been an increase in the accommodation facilities, those have been mainly taken up by the increased personnel already stationed there. As such, there wasn't enough space available for both the SAS Troop and the 1er RPIMa Section to train there at the same time, so it was decided (based purely on the result of a coin toss) that the 1er RPIMa Section would deploy to the Beta site, while the SAS troop would conduct several training exercises on Earth, while waiting for more accommodation at the Beta Site to be completed for them.

In addition to the standard training exercises, the teams work alongside several Tok'ra and Rebel Jaffa on learning to to fly and repair a Goa'uld Tel'tak, on loan to the SGC by the Tok'ra. This training had been requested by both Britain and France, after reviewing multiple mission reports where a Goa'uld vessel had been essential for success, or where a team had had to fix a damaged vessel.

Wednesday 26th February 2003

SGC Elevator, Level 19

Colonel O'Neill sighed slightly as he waited for the elevator, having just left Carter's lab. It had been a long week, what with the arrival of the British and French contingents. As it was almost all of the SGC's missions had been put on hold where possible, freeing up the SG-Teams to help train the, in his opinion, excessively large contributions from those countries. He was conflicted about their arrival. On the one hand, it was good to see other countries begin to pull their weight in this fight, disregarding the fact that they had only been informed about a month earlier, as prior to that, the Russian's had only put in a token effort of a single 4-man SG-Team, content to sit back and reap the rewards earned with American blood. On the other hand, this could be the initial attempt of other countries to muscle in on the SGC, which may eventually evolve into a 5-way pissing match over the various technologies developed and who should have control over them.

Pushing that thought out of his head as soon as it arrived, he wasn't paid enough to worry about that problem at the moment, he turned his thoughts towards the planned training exercises he would be co-ordinating over the next few days. Luckily, the French contingent had been shipped out to the Beta Site training facility yesterday, so rather than having to organise exercises for almost 50 new personnel, in 5 teams, he only had to worry about 16 men, in 2 teams. Also, due to the far reduced numbers, the majority of SG-Teams that had had their deployments cancelled or delayed, were now starting to get back out there. Several had already left over the past day or so, and several more were scheduled to leave for diplomatic missions soon. Jack was just annoyed that SG-1 were stuck on training, rather than deploying themselves.

Almost on autopilot, he entered the elevator when it arrived, entered his ID card and pressed the button for level 27. He had a meeting with General Hammond, the commander of the SAS unit, Captain Macmillan, and his second in command, Lieutenant Price, in an hour to go over the plan for the exercises, and needed to get back to his office to go over it once more. Luckily, it wasn't going to be anything too heavy. Mainly just ensuring their familiarity with the weapons etc, while waiting for some additional housing to be made available at the Beta Site so they could do the more specialised training that they couldn't do on Earth.

Suddenly, the lights flickered a few times before going out, leaving only the emergency lights for him to see by and the elevator motors whined and stopped working. Slightly annoyed and confused, O'Neill looked around the otherwise empty elevator for a couple of seconds, before reaching for the emergency phone.

"Hello? This is Col . . . Hello?" Concerned as he was unable to even get so much as a dial tone from the handset, he tapped the hook several times, hoping to re-engage it, before hearing a quiet voice speak.

"Jack".

Now confused, O'Neill took the handset away from his ear and looked at it for a couple of seconds, wondering whether he had simply imagined Daniel's voice, before raising back up to his ear.

"Jack." Suddenly he heard it again, this time clearer, and obviously coming from behind him. Sure that he wasn't imagining things, he lowered the handset once more, and turned around, seeing Daniel leaning against the wall of the elevator with a small smile upon his face and giving him a little wave.

"Hi Jack."

A/N: During Proving Ground (Season 5, episode 13), General Hammond mentions about wanting to include an off-world training facility in his next budget. Although it was never mentioned again (as far as I can tell anyway), I decided to assume he was successful, and one of the off-world sites was designated as the training facility and built up accordingly. We know it wasn't the Alpha Site, as that is attacked in Season 7 by the Kull Warrior, and there is no indication the training facility was there, as it is mainly a research and fallback location. The Beta Site existed by that point at least, as the survivors of the Alpha Site were evacuated there, but we don't know anything else about it and it was never seen on screen. The Gamma Site we do see several years later, in The Scourge (Season 9, episode 17), but again it is a research base, not a training facility. As such, I've taken the liberty of having the Beta Site be the training facility, and as of this chapter, is still currently under expansion, hence the reason for only the 1er RPIMa Section being deployed there, rather than both them and the SAS Troop. That by the way literally came down to a coin toss as to which unit would go to the Beta Site and which would remain on Earth.

The last section, I've modified slightly what happened in the episode, as the transcript states that O'Neill was heading to level 28. I've changed it to be level 27 and his office. I don't know if it is ever mentioned that he has an office, and I don't know if it is ever shown on screen or mentioned which level it is, if he does, but as he is Second in Command of the SGC, then it stands to reason that he does have an office for the paperwork that comes with his position. As such, in lieu of any other information, I've decided to have his office be located on level 27, near to General Hammond's office.

Also, the names of the SAS commander and his 2IC should be familiar to fans of Call of Duty. I don't think there is an exact date when Macmillan gets promoted and Price takes over, within the CoD universe, just sometime between 1996 and 2011, so I've had Macmillan still be captain at this point.