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Chapter 14 - Rescue

Jack had parked the Valkyrie in orbit over the Stargate of Ardema. When Lup-3 failed to return in 72-hours, Jack grabbed the ten rescue personnel assigned to the task and headed out for the last known location of Lup-3. Five of them were former Security Forces with extensive experience in heavy weapons and close combat. They comprised his Heavy Team. Five of them were former Cimmerians with extensive tracking and hunting experience. They comprised his Hunting Team. Since, Jack didn't know what kind of mess Lup-3 had fallen into, he took both teams.

The Hak'tyl were too newly infected to take yet. He could use the fighters, but they had yet to go through the first change. Teal'c had only brought them back to Sanctuary a few days ago. Jack felt that they needed time to settle into their new lifestyle first. Then they could bring the battle back into their lives.

As they sat in orbit above the planet, Jack was trying to get a read on the life signs. He wanted a handle on the situation on the ground. He would prefer to know the location of his Lup team. Jack was working on getting the sensors to find Gen'Lup life signs separate from human, jaffa, and goa'uld life signs, like it did now. His people still registered as human, even if technically they were not, even Teal'c. The Asgard sensors were sensitive enough, but just didn't know what to look for yet. Sam just needed time to play with them a little. For now, it didn't help him.

"Sir, all the life seems to be concentrated in that compound," Luke said. He was the leader of the Heavy Team. "Only a few on the upper levels. Most are in the lower levels. It looks like cells. All human."

"Except for that one," Olaf pointed out the lone signal by the Stargate. Olaf led the Hunting Team.

Jack looked over all the signals. "I'm sure Lup-3 is not at the Gate. Olaf, take the Hunting Team and take that guy down. Meet the rest of us at the compound. Valkyrie has only identified plasma guns and rifles. They don't seem to have anything too exotic. Armor up for speed and flexibility. Ranged weapons, Olaf."

"Very well," Olaf replied, grumpily. Olaf had expressed his preference for his axe over the bow.

Jack looked over the Heavy Team, "Remember, if you go to close combat with them, they have to be terminated. No exceptions."

"Yes, Sir," the team members replied in unison.

The two groups quickly dispersed and armed up. When Jack and everyone was armed up and ready, he sent down the Hunting Team first, then followed with the Heavy Team to the compound. Jack materialized with the Heavy Team in a room empty of living people. However, there were several bodies cooling on the ground.

Jack went over and checked them. They had been dead for about an hour by animal attack. His ship had not indicated animals, just humans. He smiled. "Keep your eyes open. Lup-3 is here somewhere and have already eliminated some of the bad guys. We DO NOT want to hit them."

"Copy," the farthest Heavy guy said while keeping his eyes on the open doorway to their rear.

"Understood, Sir," came another reply from the other side of the group.

Leading the way, Jack slowly rounded the corner of the doorframe and advanced on the hallway. Slowly, they worked their way through the upper levels of the compound. They found many bodies, but no living people.

Once the top floor was cleared, they worked to the next level. Finally, they found someone alive. The man was hiding in a tiny, hidden closet. They only found the closet because of the smell of stale sweat and fear. The man was absolutely terrified. They pried him from his bolt hole and drug him to the center of the room.

"You have to save me from them," the man cried, shaking

"From who?" Jack asked, not liking the look of the man. The man was not only dirty from hiding, but he was greasy and unwashed. Jack's new sense of smell could detect his overwhelming stench of fear layered over stale, unwashed body odor and rotten food. His smell of fear was nice, but annoying, like the man.

"The monsters. We…we thought they were people, but… they won't die…they just won't die…" the man trailed off.

"Uh huh. And why should we save you?" Jack asked, his distaste for the man coming through clearly.

"Because… Because, I'm human," the man stated with fear widened eyes. His fear stench increased as he felt he would be left behind with the monsters.

"Is that all? Because, I'm not. And I don't really like you," Jack stated with calm.

"But…"

"Hog tie him. Leave him for Lup-3, when we find them," Jack finished, happy to leave the man behind. Maybe he could breathe now.

The heavy team grinned and complied with the order, leaving the man in the middle of the room.

They finished their security sweep of that floor and met up with the Hunting Team at the entrance to the compound.

"Welcome," Jack greeted. "We haven't found Lup-3 yet. But, the compound is FULL of dead bodies. We have been clearing it from the top to the bottom. Lup-3 is around here somewhere, so watch your aim."

Olaf nodded and his team spread out. They pushed their prisoner forward and the Heavy Team guys hogtied him like they had the man in the room. One of the Hunting Team transformed into a wolf and had begun to sniff for the trail of Lup-3. Finally, he gave a short bark and started walking down the hallway with purpose.

"This way. Stay frosty," Jack said, unnecessarily.

The tracking wolf led them down the stairs and stopped at the hallway, breathing deeply. Jack stepped forward and also breathed deeply. He caught the fresh scent of Sloan and Torkel from Lup-3. Jack smiled.

"Sloan, Torkel, we're friendly. Acknowledge," Jack said aloud.

"General?" Sloan queried, from out of sight.

"Yeah, it's me. We came to rescue you, but it seems you rescued yourselves," Jack said with pride.

"Thank you, sir," Sloan replied.

"You can come out, O'Neill," Torkel added.

Jack came forward with the tracking wolf following closely. Soon the Heavy and Hunting Teams came out of the stairway as well.

"Where is the rest of your team?" Jack asked the two Lup-3 members.

"This way, sir," Sloan said, with a slight grin. She led them down one hallway. They passed several cells with prisoners still in them. The prisoners seemed to shirk away from the wolf. Finally, they had reached a guard watch room and found the remaining members of Lup-3 in a heated argument.

Jack grinned as Daniel was arguing with Cam about trying to free the prisoners now. Cam was arguing that some of them could try to gang up on Lup-3 and have to be killed, a situation he would prefer to avoid.

"Hi, kids," Jack greeted, stopping the argument.

Daniel grinned, "Jack, I knew you would come."

"Of course, undomesticated equines and all that," Jack replied.

"Finally," Cam sighed. "Did you bring Sam?"

"Um, no. Did I need to?" Jack asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Not especially. We just have a computer room that I 'think' we got the data off, but…Sam would know for sure," Cam said.

"Good point," Jack said. "Take me there and I'll see if the Valkyrie can interface and download it all."

"Thanks. That will help a lot in helping track down who is running this operation," Cam said with an angry sigh.

"Um, I thought you were on a recruiting mission," Jack said, as they made their way back upstairs with the others following.

Cam sighed, "We were. It morphed into a rescue of all the people who were caged here and used as entertainment in the 'Snuff Film' or 'Violence Epic Film' industry."

Vala piped up, "I happen to know that all 'civilized' worlds have outlawed the industry. But the films still sell for big money on the black market. And since this is an 'unpopulated' world…"

Jack sighed, "Definitely in our mandate then." He turned Cam, "Where do you plan on sending the people when you free them from their cells?"

Cam nodded, "Torkel suggested Cimmeria. Gairwyn trades with multiple worlds that these folks can relocate to after we move them there."

Jack nodded, "Yeah, we might want to give her a head up first." He turned to Olaf, "Olaf, send someone to Cimmeria. You know the symbols right? Ask for Gairwyn. Tell her that the Gen'Lup has freed a bunch of people from slavery and death and they need a place to go. We can send them to her or on to another world. Her choice."

Olaf nodded and then took off with another Cimmerian hunter by his side for the Stargate.

Jack turned to Daniel, "How did you plan on letting them out? Without getting us all killed? Again?"

"I'm not that bad," Daniel replied. "I was going to explain to them that they were free and let them out."

"That's it?" Jack asked, skeptically. "I would give them food at least, or wait to hear from Gairwyn first. Thank God Cam is your team leader now. You drove me nuts."

"I did not. And food is not a bad idea," Daniel added.

As they walked, Jack turned to Cam, "I found a couple of guys you missed. One upstairs and one by the Gate."

"Really," Cam asked. "Cool. I'll go interrogate them now. But first, the computer room."

Once in the computer room, Jack discovered that Luke, the leader of his Heavy Team, had a more than passing knowledge of computers. Apparently, Luke had dealt with SGC computers frequently, and while he didn't claim programming knowledge, like Sam. He was more than familiar with how most operating systems seemed to function. He volunteered to coordinate between Valkyrie and onsite to ensure the information was uploaded properly. With his help, the data transfer was very smooth and yielded the name, The Lucian Alliance.

"Crap, The Lucian Alliance was the group responsible for the kassa fiasco, wasn't it?" Cam asked.

"Yeah, and they were spying on Earth, and they tried to take over several of our operations," Jack said with a resigned sigh. "They are like dandelions. Never ending problems," Jack complained. "Okay, this operation is down. Let's get these people out of here and then make it messy as hell so they don't want to start it up again."

Cam nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense. You want me to keep one of them alive to report the mess to their bosses?"

Jack thought about it, then gave Cam an evil smirk. "Oh yeah, you have two, but only need one. Let's make sure the other one watches us while we cut up his friend with our hands."

Cam smirked, "Alrighty then." He left to make sure the two prisoners were taken to the same room. It just happened to be the one with two corpses in it already. Nothing like atmosphere to add to the horror.

Jack smiled at the man that had been hiding in the closet, "It looks like you get to be saved after all." The terrified man was still hogtied. "You can tie him in a sitting position. That way he can see better. We don't want him to miss anything." Once he was in a more comfortable position, he turned to Cam. "That is the guy that ambushed your team at the Gate." He pointed out the other hogtied prisoner.

Cam stalked forward and allowed the prisoners to watch his hand transformed into claws slowly. The tied prisoner started to shake and scream. Cam smiled and reached forward with his clawed hand and carefully ripped out the throat of the prisoner. Blood poured over the floor and quickly spread across the ground.

"Feel better?" Jack asked Cam, calmly.

"Not really," Cam replied with a small sigh, equally calm.

The sitting prisoner was staring in shock at the dead man on the floor and the two men who were casually standing in front of him discussing his friend's execution.

"I would think that would help. I mean, you came here in peace to help people. Some asshat treated you and your team poorly. You were able to 'fix' the problem. That guy," Jack pointed to the living prisoner, "is the only one still alive, after all.," Jack replied casually.

The prisoner blanched as he listened. He was the only one alive. And they were letting him live. Weren't they?

"So, technically you did help people. You should feel good about that," Jack continued, casually.

Cam gave another deep sigh, "I know. But he is STILL alive," he said with fierce passion as he pointed to the living prisoner.

The prisoner went still. That younger man wanted him dead. Maybe if he was very still…

"I know," Jack continued. "But how will they know that this kind of operation is a bad idea if we don't have someone pass on the message."

Cam gave yet another deep sigh, "Fine." Cam stomped out of the room.

Jack just shook his head, "He was so looking forward to killing you. But hey, no killing the messenger and all that jazz." Jack gave the prisoner a direct look, "You have one job now. Tell the Lucian Alliance that the Gen'Lup has shut down this operation. They can see for themselves if they want. No one will return. We'll cut you lose when we leave. Sit tight till then." Jack grinned and walked out with the guards, leaving the prisoner sitting next to the dead bodies and as he watched the spreading pool of blood, shaking.

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Olaf returned within an hour with a message from Gairwyn. The refugees were welcome on Cimmeria. Gairwyn was organizing people to meet them at the Stargate. She was grateful that her people were finding a purpose with the Gen'Lup.

In order to make sure that the former gladiators didn't try anything, Cam decided to release them in small groups of ten. Each group was escorted from the compound to the Stargate, or Portal as many called it. After they had been briefed about where they were going and that no Gen'Lup would be going with them. They would meet allies of the Gen'Lup on the other side of the Stargate. Once there, they could rest or go on to their Home Worlds, if they knew the Stargate address for it. Then each group was escorted from the compound to the Stargate. When the last was through, the remaining Lucian Alliance man was cut free and the Gen'Lup beamed away before his eyes.

With a great sigh of relief, Jack was glad to have everyone back on board the Valkyrie. "Val, set course back to Sanctuary." The ship eased into motion and hyperspace. "Go get some rest. We will be back at Sanctuary in about six hours." The rescue teams smiled and headed off to disarm and stow their gear. Lup-3 nodded and headed to stow their own gear and finally got some well-deserved rest.

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