Yay! I finally got back my other paper I never got to typer up before. Well, I'll warn you beforehand, that if that last one was a little sad and thoughtful, this one is downright depressing. It's everything-goes-wrong. Yikes! Etc. But really do hope you'll read it, and please do review so i know wht ya think. :) Thanks!
Round 4
It was chaos. Everything was falling apart. They'd tried to reason with the Ori and their followers, tried to appease them…but nothing had worked. The Ori would not stop until they were absolutely certain that all who opposed them or did not worship them as gods had been expunged.
The bigots.
The Ori followers had infiltrated the Milky Way, preaching their 'religion' and spreading the argot of Origin, gathering more followers. At times they had pretended to be peaceful, but when they had realized that there were just as many who were not accepting their message, they had become much more aggressive. Now the people of the SGC were, in the battle of a lifetime, just to keep control of their own galaxy.
At first, it had only been a few ships. Chulak had fallen first, then Dakar. Then more ships had arrived through the supergate to augment the Ori army, and they had come after Earth. They could have simply blown it to kingdom come like the others, but in their jingoism, they had sent in ground forces to capture the key aggravators--SG-1. They had surrounded the mountain, and all but called them out.
With the strange army around Cheyenne Mountain, the explosions in the sky, and the Ori ships in orbit visible even from the ground, there was no hiding it from the general populace. So when the Ori army had come forward in attack, Stargate Command had been free to defend itself--unsuccessfully.
That was why Daniel was here, on the ground outside the mountain, wondering what they could have done differently. Had it been negligence? No. They had done everything they could. Lying there, trying to staunch the blood flow from the gaping wound in his side, Daniel had to be candid with himself.
It was his fault--all if it. Maybe Vala had been there too, and she had been the one to alert the people of the Ori galaxy that something wasn't quite normal about them, by their standards…but that didn't matter. He had been the one who wanted to test that communication device in the first place. It was thanks to him that the Ori had ever discovered there were humans in this galaxy.
It was thanks to him that Earth would fall.
The strident tone of another energy blast rung in Daniel's ear, but when it didn't make him wince, he realized he was fading. His vision was going fuzzy and dark. There was a cry of pain above him that seemed faint. A heavy thump sounded beside him, and he managed to twist his head enough to look.
It was Vala, fallen like him, but already dead. Her empty eyes stared out, never again to look at him with that mischievous twinkle.
What was left of Daniel's mind couldn't even register the sorrow that should have been there.
It was only emptiness.
Somehow he thought to look up for what had hit her, and saw the Ori soldier turn the staff weapon on him now. His gaze wandered weakly to the man's eyes. It made the soldier hesitate a moment--but only that--before scowling angrily and firing.
Daniel closed his eyes.