The facility that had been termed 'Stargate Command' was built deep into the Ural Mountains of central Russia, rich in natural resources of metals and valuable minerals, several industrial towns had sprung up around the range over the years. Largest among these towns was Magnitogorsk, named after the mountain, Magnitogorsk held the largest metalworks in the whole of Russia, as such, it was not surprising that large quantities of mining and engineering equipment had begun filtering into the town in recent months. A small airport had even been build, only two runways, but now the sound of large Lisunov Li-2 transporters filled the air on most days.

Ostensibly, much of the material was going into the construction of a new military base in the mountains, a large area had been cordoned off as an artillery practice range, as well as enabling the brave men of the Red Army to conduct mountain-based training operations in order to better defend their motherland.

While it was certainly true that there was a military base being constructed, the function of the base was a lie. While an artillery base would certainly have underground areas, the majority of the base would be above ground. In comparison, Stargate Command was centred around a kilometer deep shaft, with different areas radiating off it like the spokes of a wheel. On the top level the primary barracks, with the canteen and other requirements of similar sort. On the next level a series of scientific laboratories and workshops. On the third several water reservoirs as well as a backup geothermal power plant. On the last level a secondary barracks, an infirmary and a long 'T' shaped chamber.

"Lieutenant!" bellowed the voice of Colonel Durov bellowed, "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

The junior officer in question sprang to attention and turned about, cigarette falling from his mouth in surprise.

Durov marched up to him and angrily ground the offending object beneath the heel of his boot. "You stand at the forefront of Soviet military power, you guard against whatever can come through that!" he stabbed a hand at the Stargate. "At any moment an army could rush through it and gain a foothold in the motherland! Do you want that?"

The officer was silent, understanding well that the question was rhetorical.

"Go now, and find some paint, then, I want you to write 'No smoking' on both of the walls up to here."

The lieutenant saluted, Durov returned it, and the soldier jogged off to obey the order. Durov found punishment in such situations superfluous, for the first offense, as long as it was a harmless one, the Colonel did not usually give any punishment, rather attempted to reinforce the lesson.

The actual reason for his presence in the Gate Room was to assess the defences. So far the main access to the Gate was through two main doors at the bottom of the 'T' of the room, two other doors at the end of the arms of the 'T' allowed access from alternative routes in case the primary ones were blocked. At the moment the DHD sat in the very centre of the room, facing the Stargate.

This was obviously problematic, as it would both provide cover to invaders as well as prevent shutting the gate down in a firefight. However, Durov was told it could be moved, which was good. Gate and DHD were overseen from above in the control room, protected by ballistic glass three inches thick and blast doors, the control room was the nerve centre of the operation, directing travellers to their destinations as well as computing something called 'interstellar drift' which was apparently important.

Durov, having seen all that he would see, walked back to the control room, climbing a short metal stairway to the platform.

"Colonel Durov, report!" barked General Abramovich.

The general had taken well to his new command, he had his prosthetic fitted with a rubber sole in order to grip better on the concrete floors and had been so far reviewing the reports of the officer in charge previously.

"I have completed my preliminary analysis sir." Durov stated.

"Excellent, come show me."

Durov pulled a sheet of paper to him from a pile on the desk. Then he retrieved the pencil he always kept in his breast pocket and drew a rough outline of the Gate room. "The layout is good, defensively it would be difficult to break without armour, even without defensive embankments and fortifications, however, as precaution against direct strikes through the gate, I would recommend some form of causeway or gauntlet the enemy has to pass through."

"Direct strikes?" asked Abramovich.

"I've been speaking with a few of the scientists about how the Stargate works, apparently it is one way, therefore, any attack an enemy force makes will be able to get through the Gate regardless, and any shots we get through the gate will not appear on the other side."

"So we can't just get a few machine guns and line them up?"

"Not exactly." Said Durov, drawing two half circles near the ring he had drawn to represent the Stargate, "I believe we should position two machine gun nests, DShK's for preference, or RPD's, however they should be offset, slightly, not directly before the Gate. Otherwise the enemy could have their own machine guns, or whatever, and just shoot through the Gate, leaving us unable to do anything. This setup will prevent any shots getting through, as well as allowing us overlapping fields of fire."

"Very good Vladamir," congratulated the General, "Do you have any other thoughts on it?"

"Well I'd like some flamethrowers…" said Durov, "but I'd worry about ventilation, as they would obscure visibility with the smoke, as well as using up air when they burn. Also, regarding the use of a bombardment before embarkation, I was thinking about having one of those PPSh-41 arrays they experimented with on the Tupolev bombers, that could work better than artillery for a destination Stargate in and urban area."

"A good point, I will bring up your concern with the engineering staff later today. You however, will now review our off-world holdings. Then, you will return and dine with me at lunch, and after, you will help me go through all the dossiers Comrade Vasilevsky has given me for the personnel on base."

Though as a matter of protocol there was a degree of formality between them, the bond forged on the Eastern Front allowed the Colonel some familiarity with his commanding officer, and often during the later months of the war they had dined together, discussing politics and strategy.

Durov threw a sardonic salute and marched happily off, retrieving his own PPSh-41 sub-machine gun from the armoury, as well as changing into his KKOs or 'Set Camouflage Uniform' from his locker.

Three weeks later Colonel Durov stepped back through the Stargate to Earth, a dozen high powered guns were trained on him as he slowly put down his weapon and walked to the infirmary, where two burly soldiers restrained him and the doctors began their tests.

This was standard protocol by now. As one of the scientists had pointed out during the first few missions, the aliens that had built the Stargates were obviously advanced; therefore there was no way to know their capabilities in the areas of subterfuge and espionage. This meant that each time they came back through the Gate they had to be checked and questioned to make sure it was really them and not some shape-shifting creature intent on destruction.

"Inform the General that he will want to debrief me here." Durov told an orderly and they nodded and left. For this particular mission Durov was under quarantine, as were the rest of his team. Drawing from the lessons of the Western colonisation of America General Abramovich had ordered all teams coming back having encountered alien civilisations to go through a check to make sure they hadn't contracted alien smallpox.

Professor Diakonoff had insisted on joining them through the Gate, arguing that he was the only Egyptologist on the payroll at the moment and therefore was the only one to be able to understand the people of Abydos, the first planet they had 'Gated' to. While Durov expected the Professor to tire of the great heat of the desert planet, the scholar had proved a hardy fellow, and kept up with the rest of the soldiers well enough.

The Colonel watched through a glass window into the observation deck overseeing the room as Abramovich hobbled in. "Colonel Durov, what is it?" the general asked.

"Bad new I'm afraid sir, or good I suppose, depends how you look at it." Replied Durov, "It was our assumption from the recognisance of the Abydosians that they were an agrian people, not that far socially evolved from their Egyptian ancestors. However we thought it unusual for a mainly agrian people to be doing so much mining."

"Yes I've read the report on the possible causes of their fascination with the practice." Said Abramovich is a questioning voice.

"Well," continued the Colonel, "we made contact as you ordered, speaking with the village leader Yenal, we gave them some chocolate and a couple of knives, nothing big, just to appear friendly, then Igor got to talking with Yenal's son Kasuf, who told us that all the material they mine, which is apparently called 'naquadah' by the way, is taken every hundred years by the Great God Ra."

"Ra the Egyptian Sun god?" asked Abramovich, stroking his chin.

"Well obviously an alien masquerading as him, but yes."

"And when is 'Ra' due to return?"

"On that point we're not as sure." Said Durov, "Yenal said that Ra last came 'when he was a boy' however that could mean anywhere between 1880 and 1910, given that we didn't know his age."

Abramovich nodded, considering the new information, "Good work Colonel, once your through quarantine come see me in my office."

"Sir."

"At least another two hundred catalogued today," continued Igor Diakonoff, "I'm going to need more equipment, paper, pencils, no typewriters or ink pens, they stop working because it's so hot out there."

"That can be supplied easily Professor." Said Abramovich, "what about personnel, will you be needing any more men? I can put in a request."

Igor frowned. "I'll need more chocolate," he said.

"Curious request." Noted Durov from where he was perusing through the Gate addresses in the pamphlet.

"I've sort of employed a few boys from the village; I taught them to copy down the hieroglyphs, on the walls, I pay them in chocolate. Apart from that more personnel wouldn't be particularly useful, it's a particularly tricky dialect that they use; I mainly need help with cataloguing."

"Well that we can do." Replied Abramovich.

"Also." Continued the Professor, "I would recommend more archaeologists, but for other cultures."

"Go on."

"You see, I have a theory regarding the aliens." Igor reached for a picture showing the god Ra holding the sun and a curved stick, "This is Ra, obviously the bird head could show he was an alien, some sort of bird person, but I think it's a mask."

"What's your evidence?" asked Durov, envying the General who had just ignited a cigarette, Durov used to smoke, but then he had been offered a cigar, and since he would not smoke the inferior cigarettes, only cigars, but he had been unable to procure any recently, even through the black market.

"Well the Egyptians had a pantheon of many gods, if we take Ra as an alien pretending to be a god, why not the rest of them? We can assume that these aliens have a familial structure, because so many of the gods are related, also, there are accounts of various feats of magic, such as resurrection, this could just be the work of advanced technology."

Durov nodded, it made sense, then he had a thought. "Ganesh." He said suddenly.

"Yes, yes!" Igor said excitedly, "That was my thinking…why just the Egyptians? Why not other cultures, there must be a reason for the popularity for animal-human hybrids in mythology. While that theory, of other cultures, Ganesh and Cernunnos notwithstanding, I am certain that there are other Egyptian deities out there pretending to be Gods. Maybe the mythical battles between different Gods were just the reports of actual battles, told by those too primitive to understand them."

"And have you recommendations toward the conduct of this program following these revelations?" asked Durov. In his eyes it didn't change anything, it just meant they had more enemies, and it wasn't as if the Red Army would ever fall just because they were outnumbered.

"We should begin immediate explorations based on the cartouche's addresses. This would mean a large expansion of the current project, I have some figures if you would like them?"

"Proceed."

"So far we have about six hundred addresses from the cartouche on Abydos, that's about a fifth of the writings, however a lot of it was just about the history of Ra, the size of his domain and the strength of his armies and so forth." Said Igor, giving them each a copy of his report, "I would recommend at least ten teams to go off world, preferably more, at the moment our engineering staff have very little to do, given we have as of yet not recovered any advanced technology other than the Stargate and the small quantity of Naquadah that Colonel Durov 'recovered'."

Durov had in fact snuck in at night to the mining centre and stolen a sack of the mineral, they had set a fire in the village as a distraction, then helped the villagers fight the fire and put it out to gain their trust. No one was hurt and everyone benefited.

"Hm." Abramovich grunted, "Perhaps you're right, if there are more 'gods' out there we must prepare for them. Meanwhile though, by what mechanism would you have us introduce ourselves to the people around the galaxy? To pre-industrial societies our weapons and equipment will look strange enough to appear to be from another village maybe, but to any advanced civilisation they will know the strangers who come through the Stargate are soldiers."

This was a point of some contention between Abramovich and Diakonoff, the former advocating a military approach in case the imperialist aliens were the next destination, while the latter believed the teams more likely to encounter more former slaves like the Abydosians.

"That can be addressed as is necessary; so far the robotic probe had been enough to tell us what the situation is without any risk of aliens coming back to our Gate."

"It would be useful to be able to stop a wormhole entirely though." Said Durov. Though the robotic probe had been employed thus far he could easily see it being weaponised, if the Stargate lead to a marketplace or similar urban setting, or perhaps a temple if it was revered as a symbol of the false gods they could just strap a bomb to the probe and send it though. The problem was the enemy could do the same.

"Engineering are working on a mechanism for that." Said Igor back to Durov, "They call it an 'Iris', it's a sort of shutter just in front of the wormhole, it prevents matter from fully materialising, they just need the General's permission to try and build a prototype on the gate."

"As long as it doesn't interfere with normal operations." Agreed Abramovich amiably.