Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: Sg-1, Stargate: Atlantis or any other television programs, video games, books or movies used in the telling of this story. I make no money off of this work of fiction, and would rather not be sued anytime soon as I make very little money and need it to pay the bills, buy food and pay for the ridiculous cost of fuel.
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March 8th, 2187
Orbit of Planet Designated P3Y-737
UNSC SOCOM Stealth Cruiser Magnus
For Sergeant Major Allen, the act of dropping through a planets atmosphere with nothing but an inch of composite materials and a single-use shield between you and a horrible fiery death was just another day at the office, so to speak.
He made his way to stand next to the ovoid disposable craft that would take him on his next mission, running his hand over the smooth lines. Silently, he clipped his silenced assault rifle to a specially made rack within the OHEV, and shrugged his small knapsack off his shoulders and stowed it in a storage compartment. Beside him, a trio of technicians were going over the other three drop pods that would be used, while his team-mates stood off to the side, quietly conversing with each other.
This particular part of the ship was somewhat cramped, with only enough space for people to go to and from their assigned pods, and not much else. They were in the ventral missile bay, surrounded by dozens of 600 megaton anti-ship nuclear warheads and 450 megaton hydrogen orbital bombardment torpedoes. There were twelve OHEVs in view, but there were at least two dozen more hidden away in specially made internal launch racks.
With a gentle rap of the knuckles to the side of the pod, he turned and headed back towards his squad. As he grew nearer to them, the hushed tone of Shehadi's voice reached his ears.
"So what do you guys think about the rumours that these new guys are human?," he asked, brushing away an invisible fleck of dirt from his breastplate. Allen was interested in hearing what the others had to say on the subject, as he, like everyone else, had heard the rumours and dismissed them as over exaggerated retellings of the battle five days previously.
"Total bullshit," Weber replied instantly, "there's no way humans could have evolved on any planet other than Earth, and it's just not possible that any humans could be this far out from our territory.
"Much as it disgusts me to admit it, I have to agree with Jonah on this one, Mikey," Alexander spoke up, shooting a toothy grin at Weber. Weber glared back and flipped him off.
"You may be disgusted by me, but your mother sure isn't," he grinned back, resorting to a classic 'Yo Mama' joke, the joke itself being centuries old. Alexander didn't seem to be in the least bit phased. In fact his grin widened as he finally noticed Allen standing off to the side.
"So, you're finally admitting to being a necrophiliac, Weber? You know his mothers been dead for years, we were all at the funeral," Allen spoke up, returning Alexanders grin. Weber spluttered and started to stammer as he tried to explain himself. As the others continued teasing Weber, Allen just stood back from the scene and took it all in. His three arguing friends, the small group of technicians that were half-checking the launch tubes for any faults and half-listening to the Spectres conversation, the dull gleam of light reflecting off of the missile racks.
He tended to be most quiet and observant just before a mission started, knowing that it might be the last time he saw this ship, its crew or the only family he had left, Weber, Shehadi and Alexander. Suddenly, his musings were cut off by the sound of a feminine voice coming over the PA system.
"Children, please. As much as I would like to continue listening to your fruitless bickering, there is the matter of your mission parameters to attend to," Siobhan's voice cut through the small group, making Weber jump in fright.
"Jesus Christ, Siobhan! A little warning next time, huh?," he shouted as Siobhan's avatar appeared on a nearby holo display. Allen's grin returned as Siobhan rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.
"I have to get my kicks somehow, and what better way than frightening your pathetic human minds?," she replied a grin quirking across her blue lips. Shehadi looked hurt and was the next one to scold the sentient computer.
"Hey, hey, hey sweetheart, if it weren't for these 'pathetic human minds' you wouldn't even exist!," he half shouted.
"I sincerely doubt you three had anything to do with the creation of my kind," she replied wryly, "know if you 'gentlemen' don't mind, could we please get this briefing underway?"
When it looked like Weber was going to continue the argument, Allen glared at him and slowly shook his head. The younger man immediately closed his mouth, and his shoulders slumped slightly forward as he turned his full attention to what Siobhan had to say.
"Thank you. You're mission here is so absurdly simple even a one armed, lobotomized chimpanzee could do it. All you have to do is observe the local settlement for twenty four hours, then make peaceful contact with them to try and learn what they might know about our new enemy," she began, putting special emphasis on the word 'peaceful'.
"Isn't that more a job for the Diplomatic Corps than Special Forces?," Allen asked, frowning. The mission did appear to be very simple, and as far as the Sergeant Major knew it was a job that the Diplomatic Corps would be better suited to.
"For the most part, yes. However, I doubt if the diplomats could undertake the second part of the mission. You will be landing here, in standard diamond formation," Siobhan continued, her avatar disappearing, to be replaced by a map of the local area around the settlement with for blinking blue dots that formed the shape of a diamond roughly three kilometres from the village.
"Upon landing and initiating the self-destruct of your OHEVs, Corporal Alexander and Private Weber will split off and head North, to the indicated zone," another blinking dot appeared about two kilometres from the LZ, "and, should the locals prove hostile or alien forces show up, you are to begin a guerrilla campaign against them. If that should happen, the main objective will remain the same, and once you feel you have enough intelligence on the enemy, radio in and we'll send an extraction team to EZ Alpha, with EZ Bravo serving as a secondary site should Alpha be compromised."
As she spoke, two green dots appeared on the display, with the words Alpha and Bravo beside them.
"What are our chances of actually running into hostile forces, ma'am?," Shehadi asked, rasing his hand slightly.
"Right now it could go either way, even split. That is all, gentlemen, if you have no further questions, please head to your OHEVs and get ready for a hard drop," Siobhan answered. Allen frowned slightly as he stared at the now hi-res map. He titled his head slightly and sighed.
"What purpose does the wall around the village serve?," he finally asked. As he waited for an answer, her turned to look at his squad mates to see what they thought about it. All he got were a few shrugs of the shoulders and a shake of the head.
"Unknown, we assume it is probably used to keep any wild animals from wondering into the village. Anything else?," Siobhan returned. When no one answered, she nodded her head.
"Alright, off you go," she ordered, making a shooing motion with her hands before disappearing into the ships network again. The four men exchanged glances, then put their helmets back on and headed to their assigned OHEVs.
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The OHEV shook and rattled violently as it plummeted through the planets atmosphere, and Allen grimaced as the temperature rose considerably, making sweat bead across his brow. He stared intently at the small view screen in front of him, watching the other three pods falling in formation with his. With a quick tap of a key on the side of the view screen, the picture changed, now showing the fading flames of re-entry friction and the ground far below, rushing up to meet him at phenomenal speed.
Allen sighed and tilted his head to the side, trying to relive some of the tension that had built up in his shoulders. Despite all the latest technology, if the OHEV had come in on an angle just one degree off course, it would have burned up on the way down through the atmosphere. Now that they were actually within the planets atmosphere, the chance of dying a horrible - but quick - death had dropped considerably. There was, however, still a chance that the OHEVs computer system would miscalculate and blow the air brakes and parachutes to early, in which case they would break off of the pod and the unfortunate individual contained within would hit the ground at just over a hundred metres per second, an impact that no inertial dampening system known to man could protect against.
Of course, there was also the chance the brakes and parachutes would deploy too late, in which case the person inside the pod would probably survive but would be in such a bad condition that there would be no way to carry on with the mission. All in all, the 'hard drop' was probably the hardest part of any mission - the part where you had no control as to whether you live or die. You just had to trust in the computer programming to get it right and pray to whatever deities you may believe in.
Please, let this go right. Let this whole mission go off without a hitch. No hostile locals, no alien bastards trying to kill us, non of that. Just let this one be a cakewalk, so we can get the info and leave, Allen spoke to himself, eyes closed and face screwed up as he waited for the jolt that would determine whether he made it to the ground safely or ended up crushed to a fine paste within his pod.
Even though he had been waiting for it, the jolt came suddenly, knocking the air out of his lungs and jolting his head forward. Less than an inch from the view screen his head snapped back, the helmet banging against the headrest. A few moments later, just as he was starting to recover, another bone-jarring jolt snapped his head forward again, and a tremendously loud thud echoed in his ears.
"Landing successful," the pre programmed computer voice filtered of his OHEV filtered out over the small speakers set into his headrest, "have a pleasant day."
Somebody's idea of a sick joke, I'll bet, Allen thought, as he groaned and raised his head groggily. He shook his head slightly, trying to get rid of the dull, throbbing headache that had suddenly appeared behind his eyes, then set about unstrapping himself from his seat. He grabbed his rifle, unclipping it from the rack, then hit the switch that would blow the explosive bolts out from the door, allowing him to exit.
Immediately, the door blew off of its hinges, revealing a lush green forest some fifty metres away, and the grassy field in which he had landed. Squinting slightly, he stepped out from the pod and scanned his surroundings. The clearing was surrounded on all sides by thick forestation, although he noted what appeared to be a well used pathway roughly forty metres to the West. Twenty metres to his right, a the door blew off of another pod, and Private Shehadi stumbled out, a loud groan escaping his lips.
"Inertial dampeners my ass!," he shouted, straightening up and turning back towards the pod and reaching in. When his hand came back into view, it was clutching an assault rifle.
"I remember my first drop in one of these things. They said we wouldn't feel a thing, thanks to the latest tech. Well, that was ten god damn years ago, and it hurts just as much now as it did then," Shehadi continued ranting, sweeping his rifle back and forth across the clearing.
"Anyone ever tell you you talk to much, Shehadi?," Corporal Alexander spoke as he exited his own pod a further twenty metres behind the Sergeant Major and the Private, his own weapon making a sweep of the East side of the clearing. Allen turned to look back at the stationary pod that contained Weber, and frowned beneath the helmets faceplate as the door remained firmly in place.
"Alexander, check on Weber," he ordered, before returning his attention the gun sights. Alexander nodded once, then turned and started heading for Weber's OHEV, making sure to stay clear of the door should Weber activate the explosives to blow it out. He didn't feel like being crushed to death by a 160 kilogram door moving at 400 feet per second.
Alexander rapped his armoured gauntlet against the side of the OHEV, then accessed Weber's personal comm. channel.
"Hey Weber, you alright in there?," he asked loudly over the COM link. When he received no reply, he knocked against the hull of the pod harder, then repeated his question.
Well, shit. He must have hit too hard, Alexander thought. He sighed, then went around to the back of the pod, taking out his eight inch Kevlar/titanium knife as he went.
"Hey Sarge," he said over the squad channel, "looks like Weber took a knock to the skull, I think he's out cold. I'm going to hit the emergency switch, you guys might want to come over here."
"Roger that, we're ready when you are," Allen replied, walking backwards toward Webers drop pod. Something about the surrounding woods gave off a bad vibe, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was about it that made his skin crawl beneath his stealth suit.
Alexander nodded to himself, then set about unscrewing a small panel on the back of Webers OHEV with his combat knife. After he had taken out the four screws holding the panel in place, he shimmied his knife underneath the seal and used it as a lever to lift it off. With the panel off, he again used the knife, this time the hilt, to break the protective glass casing that covered a small red button with the words 'Emergency Door Release' written in bold lettering above it. With a quick press of the button, a muffled boom sounded out from the front of the pod and the door flew ten metres away, gouging out a decent chunk of grass and dirt from the ground when it landed.
As the Corporal came around the other side of the pod, he found Private Shehadi carefully pulling Weber from his harness within the disposable landing craft. Sergeant Major Allen stood off to the left a little bit, his rifle shouldered and sweeping back and forth across the clearing, ever watchful for danger.
"How is he, Shehadi?," Allen asked, his helmeted face turning to look back at the three other men for a split second, before returning to his rifle sights. Shehadi unclipped Webers helmet, then checked his vitals and shone a small flashlight into the other Privates eyes.
"Looks like a minor concussion, sir. Give him a few minutes and he should come around. He ought to be combat capable but he'll have one hell of a headache," he answered before reaching into Webers pod and unclipping the other mans assault rifle and grabbing his knapsack, which contained spare ammo, medical supplies and rations.
"Alright, stay with him Shehadi. Alexander, you and I'll get those doors into a pile, then I want you to plant some C12 on them," Allen ordered. After receiving affirmatives from the other two men, he and Alexander turned and started heading for the nearest two doors. Allen leant over on of the doors and, with a slight grunt, lifted the 160 kilogram lump of composite alloys.
With only a little bit of effort, Allen turned and began carrying the door back to where Alexander was carrying his. With a clatter of metal on metal, the two men dropped the doors on the ground, then turned back to repeat the action with the other two doors
"Hey, boss," Shehadi's voice came over the COM link as Allen dropped the other door, Alexander a moment behind. Although they were all within normal talking distance to each other, standard procedure for Covert Ops was to always talk to each other through a secure COM link. After all, you never knew who was listening.
"Yeah?"
"Sleeping Beauty's awake," Shehadi answered, standing from his crouching position. As he did, Weber sat up, groaning, and reached for his helmet, which was sitting on the ground beside him.
"The mission over already?," Weber asked, clipping on his helmet and pulling himself unsteadily to his feet. He looked around the clearing slowly, before turning back to Shehadi and holding out his hands.
"Nah, hasn't even started yet. You'd know that if you hadn't napped through the landing," Shehadi replied, handing over the other mans assault rifle and knapsack.
"If you're ready to go, Weber, then set the self-destruct on your OHEV for three minutes, and let's get moving," Allen ordered, before taking his suggestion and heading for his own pod. After a few seconds, the others followed suit, with Alexander setting the timer on the block of C12 High Explosive on top of the doors.
A few short moments later, the four of them had regrouped at the edge of the forest, and after a brief discussion as to who had the point position, they set off, Shehadi twenty metres ahead of the rest, not suspecting that they were being watched by hungry eyes.
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March 8th, 2187
Orbit of Planet Designated P3Y-737
UNSC SOCOM Stealth Cruiser Magnus
The Magnus had taken up a geosynchronous orbit above the small village shortly after launching the four Spectres on their mission, and had since launched a dozen Recon Drones, setting up a sensor perimeter two parsecs in a spherical circumference. Given that an Earth or Tau warship generally took about an hour to travel a parsec at top speed (which would cause the hyper drive to begin to overheat), and assuming that the enemy ships were just as fast but had better quality engines, that gave the Magnus roughly a two hour window with which to escape.
It was a valid assumption that the enemy ships would have better quality hyper drives, considering that both their shield and weapon technology seemed to be of higher quality than human ships. The only reason a human ship had greater damage output than the enemy did was because they were much more heavily armed and used many different types of weapons, where as the enemy had a smaller number of turrets, and relied entirely on what appeared to be some kind of advanced plasma cannon.
Deep within the bowels of the 850 metre long cruiser sat Commander Albert Burrows, going over the after action reports of the battle that had occurred at Outpost 31, looking for anything he could use should he be forced to fight against enemy ships. What he had read so far had been disheartening, to say the least.
It appeared as though the average ship, assumed to be a light cruiser or heavy destroyer because of its size, was about an even match for a Percheron-class light cruiser, a ship that was larger and more heavily armoured than the Magnus. The only advantage the SOCOM cruiser had was that it was more heavily armed than a Percheron, and the Ion Cannon was a devastating weapon that was set to be fitted to next generation battleships.
It got worse after that, as the next ship class identified looked almost exactly the same as the light cruiser analogues. The only difference really, was that it was perhaps another fifty metres in diameter, the pyramidal design with the star shaped outer hull remained exactly the same. Unfortunately, this ship class had been witnessed surviving a battlecruiser broadside, and its weapons had proven much more potent, making the ship an undisputed heavy cruiser in the eyes of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
The only other ship class that had been identified, aside from the vessels assumed to be gunboats, was assumed to be some kind of command cruiser or battleship. Its exact capabilities were unknown, although its shields had apparently taken as many as three battleship broadsides to bring down. After that, though, the other ships had formed a protective barrier between the command ship and it had taken only light fire for the remainder of the battle.
All in all, if the Magnus had to face off against anything more than one or two of the light cruiser analogues, Burrows would have no choice but to run, something he would never do if he still had people trapped on the planet.
Burrows sighed as he realized that if it came down to a fight, the chances of any human leaving this system alive were slim to none.
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March 9th, 2187
Goa'uld Battlefleet Staging Area
12 Parsecs from Tau/Human Colony Eden Prime
After several days of Al'kesh scouting missions, the System Lords had finally discovered what appeared to be a colony of the new humans and their alien allies. It had been decided that Apophis would lead this fleet, the largest gathering of Goa'uld ships in one place since the Wraith invasion 150 years ago. It would be more than enough to crush the defences orbiting the world they had targeted, and once that was done Apophis would have bombarded the planet from orbit.
Instead, Anubis had ordered him to land Jaffa and take prisoners. Apophis, like the other System Lords, seethed under Anubis' rule, but since Anubis had 'inherited' the fleets and armies of both Sokar and Yu after he had killed them when last the Goa'uld had tried to fight back, no one had the strength to fight him. And even if the System Lords could set aside their differences to deal with Anubis, and they actually succeeded in overthrowing him, it would sap their collective strength to the point where it would be impossible to survive against attacks from the new humans, or from each other, for that matter.
With the arrival of eight more standard Ha'tak and two upgraded Ha'tak, Apophis' fleet was complete. Now all that remained to do before departing was to get the ships into an attack formation. The fleet would no doubt be underway within the before the day was through.
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March 9th, 2187
Wooded area just outside of Native Settlement on planet designated P3Y-737
Spectre Team 19, Sergeant Major James Allen commanding
It was mid morning now, and after spending the night in the woods, Allen had finally put his finger on just what had been bugging him about them: it was the animals. Or rather, the lack of animals. Or insects. The only things that had been making any noise in the woods ha been the wind blowing through the trees and the Spectres themselves.
Even for veteran commandoes like Allen, Shehadi, Weber and Alexander, it had been a 'profoundly creepy' experience, to quote Shehadi. Also, to the teams annoyance, the wall surrounding the village was about twenty feet high, much to high to see over and they hadn't wanted to risk discovery too soon by attempting to climb a tree at the edge of the forest for a better view.
So now Allen and Shehadi sat, crouch and under the invisible shroud of the ACSIS, at the edge of the woods, forty or so metres from the North gate. The clearing around the village was fairly consistent, always roughly forty to forty-five metres from the wall, and each side of the wall had a single gate, facing North, South, East and West respectively. And as far as the Spectres could tell, the wall had been made fairly recently, with the trees that had been cleared out serving as the logs for the wall itself.
The plan was to deactivate the ACSIS while still under the cover of the underbrush, then Allen would step out and cautiously approach, covered by Shehadi's M66TR Designated Marksman's Rifle at all times, and attempt to make peaceful contact with the locals.
"Okay," Allen spoke, standing from his crouching position beside Shehadi, "here goes nothing. Keep me covered, you got that?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Don't get your panties in a bunch, old man," the Private answered, raising the rifle to his shoulder and leaning his head down slightly to see through the digital scope. He could have done with his helmets built in Picture-In-Picture system, linked wirelessly to the scope, but he preferred to do things the old fashioned way.
The Sergeant Major frowned behind the faceplate, then shook his head. He deactivated the ACSIS and removed his helmet, then activated the magnetic strip on his back plate and attached his rifle to it. Taking in a deep breath, Allen stepped out from the cover of the bushes and onto the path that lead to the gate.
He walked slowly, hoping that whoever was watching would take it as a sign of peaceful intentions, his head swivelling slowly from side to side, ever watchful for any possible danger. But none presented itself. As he got within twenty metres of the gate, he heard a shout from the other side of the wall, and instantly stopped moving.
He watched as the large gate slowly swung inward on its hinges, revealing three human looking people standing on the other side, one woman and two men. They approached him like they hadn't a care in the world, wide, friendly smiles on their faces. They came within about five feet of Allen, still smiling, and what next shocked the Spectre thoroughly.
"Good day to you, traveller. From where do you hail?," the woman asked, in plain English.
Holy shit!
"Ah, good day to you folks too," Allen returned the greeting, "I'm…ah, not from around here."
Real smooth, jackass, he thought to himself derisively.
The woman, probably middle aged and with a faded scar above her right eye, smiled wider at him.
"If you do not wish to tell us, that is your decision to make. You are not our first visitor from the stars," she said kindly, glancing at the man standing to her left. It took Allen a moment to realise that he was the tallest of them all, something that he, at five feet eleven inches tall, was not used to. Average height for a human male nowadays was six feet one inch. It also occurred to him that he was physically much larger, his muscles more well toned, an indication that these people may have been suffering from malnutrition.
"You've had others come here before, then?," he asked aloud.
"Yes," she answered simply. "Forgive me, where are my manners? I am Jorrah, and this is Mikel and Myrn," she introduced herself, then the man on the left and finally the man on the right.
Allen shook hands with all three as he introduced himself.
"I'm Sergeant Major James Allen, UNSC Special Forces, but you guys can call me James," he said, the surrealism of his situation not lost on him. First Contact with another human civilization, albeit a primitive one, and not only did they speak English, they also shook hands as a greeting! It was incredible, to say the least.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, James," Jorrah replied, a looked of mild bemusement on her face.
"You and your friends are welcome to stay and rest here as long as you need, but I must insist that you not wander beyond the wall after dark, it is not safe," Mikel added.
"How did you know there were others with me?," Allen asked, suspicious, "and what makes the woods unsafe at night?"
"I just assumed that you did not come alone," the shorter man answered, "and woods are unsafe all the time, its just that during the day you can see the beasts coming for you."
"We spent the night in the woods last night, and we didn't come across any 'beasts'," Allen said, trying to contain his scepticism, after all, the wall was there for a reason.
"Then you were fortunate. Ever since the beasts appeared several months ago, we have been forced to cower behind these walls. Only the very brave or very foolish venture out alone and unarmed," Myrn spoke, his own eyes raking across the woods behind Allen.
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"Hey, Carson," Weber muttered over the COM link as he shifted to a more comfortable position.
"What?," came the Corporals grunted reply. They had been sitting in a pair of trees spaced about fifteen metres apart for the last hour, constantly watching for danger.
"I've got this problem that's really been annoying me lately, and I was wondering if you could help me out."
"Fine. What is it?," Alexander sighed. Weber cleared his throat and shifted position again before speaking.
"Well, if a cat always lands on its feet, and toast always lands buttered side up, what would happen if you buttered a cats back?," he finally asked, not even a hint of humour in his voice.
"God damn it, Jonah, what did I tell you about asking stupid fucking questions?," Alexander shouted back over the COM link, although to an outside observer it seemed as though both men were totally silent.
"Aw, come on man, you can't tell me you don't wonder about these things. I mean -."
"Shut up," Alexander hissed back, raising his rifle to his shoulder.
"Alright, I'm sorry, but -."
"Listen! Don't you hear that?"
Weber instantly shut up and raised his own rifle, scanning the surrounding woods, his ears straining to hear whatever it was that had his friend spooked After several seconds of total silence, Weber sighed and lowered his weapon.
"Man, I know these woods are kind of creepy, but you can't let it get to you," Weber said, relaxing back into a comfortable position on his branch.
"I know I heard something. You just gotta listen," Alexander replied. Weber just nodded quietly to himself, and returned to his duty of watching the woods for any signs of movement. After another moment or two of silence, Weber suddenly sat up straight and his head whipped around as an unfamiliar sound reached his ears.
There was a crack of twigs snapping underfoot, followed shortly after by a low, gurgling sound that sounded suspiciously like the growl of a Sand Wolf, a vicious wolf-like predator found on Eridani Two, the neighbouring planet to the fortress-world Bastion.
"Tell me you heard that," Alexanders voice came back over the COM link. Weber nodded too himself as he raised his weapon again, then realised that Alexander couldn't see him.
"Yeah, I heard it alright," Weber answered, eyes wide as he looked around himself, trying to figure out where the noise had come from. With another gurgle, a large animal that looked like a mutated, partially skinned dog stepped out from behind a tree less than ten metres away, enormous teeth bared in a snarl, its eyes filled with murderous intent.
"I don't know what the hell that thing is, but Christfuck it looks pissed!," Weber heard Alexander speak. Weber kept his eyes trained on the animal, unnerved by the fact that it seemed to see straight through the ACSIS. He didn't know how, but that thing knew he was there.
Shit!, Weber thought, as the animal, clearly a carnivore, charged his tree, colliding with the thick trunk with bone shattering force. Already slightly unbalanced by the angle at which he had had to sit in order to see the animal in the first place, Weber lost his grip on the branch and plummeted twenty five feet to the forest floor below, his rifle flying from his hands and landing a good ten feet away.
Weber hit the ground hard, his ACSIS failing with an electric spark, but recovered quickly and fumbled with his sidearm. He stared straight ahead at the creature as it turned to face him, loosing another of its terrifying growls, before charging him again. With a colourful string of expletives, Weber finally freed his Martin-Kallum PP-29 Plasma Pistol and managed to fire three shots of sickly green super heated plasma at the animal.
One went wide, striking the tree Weber had been hiding in, the other two struck the animal in the face, blinding it in one of its eyes and enraging it even further.
With a bone-jarring thud, the animal collided with Webers chest and sent him falling to the ground, crushed under the creatures immense weight. He raised one arm to fend of the snapping jaws, while the other hand fumbled for his combat knife.
The animal snapped down with tremendous force on Webers forearm, the two inch teeth puncturing the armoured greave, which was designed to stop rail gun rounds, with ridiculous ease, digging into the human flesh it had been protecting. With a cry of pain, Weber swung his other hand around in a vicious haymaker that connected with the animals throat. Immediately, it let go of Webers arm and started gagging, giving the man some breathing space.
He scrabbled backwards quickly, trying to put some distance between himself and his assailant, when he heard the muffled coughing sound of a ballistic projectile weapon firing full auto over the creatures gagging, and the animals side erupted in an explosion of blood and gore. Alexander emptied all sixty rounds into the animals side, and as the hammer clicked on an empty chamber, the thing started to rise up a again, emitting another gurgling growl.
With a loud cry of rage and pain, Weber raced forward and seized the animals head, wrenching it to the side with all his considerable strength, once, twice, and finally, on the third try, a series of loud pops echoed over the creatures struggles and it finally lay still. Panting heavily, high on adrenalin, Weber stood up and stumbled backwards, dropping on his backside a few metres away from the now-dead predator, Alexander joining him after a moment.
Weber stared at the animal in wonder. Despite the various genetic, cybernetic and nanotech enhancements he had received since joining the Spectres, he had had to dig deep into his energy reserves to summon the strength needed to finally kill it.
"You alright, Jonah?," Alexander finally asked, ejecting the spent mag and fishing a fresh one out of his combat harness.
"Yeah. I guess we know why there aren't any animals in these woods, huh?," the other man answered, getting control of his breathing and standing up.
"Grab your gear, I'll call this in with the Sarge," Alexander said, standing and moving closer to inspect the animal.
The woods are empty my arse. I wonder how many more of these things there are.
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March 8th, 2187
Orbit of Planet Designated P3Y-737
UNSC SOCOM Stealth Cruiser Magnus
"Sir, we have a confirmed ping from the Recon Drones, looks like two enemy cruiser headed in our direction," Siobhan informed Commander Burrows. Burrows frowned and sighed.
"ETA?," he asked.
"Half an hour, maybe less."
"Half an hour! How did they get in so close?," Burrows demanded, as he reached for his desk COM link.
"I assume the drones sensors must have missed them somehow, because they are currently less than 15 trillion kilometres away and closing fast," Siobhan answered.
"Sound general quarters, all crew to battle stations, and send a dropship to pick up the team on the surface," Burrows ordered, "I'd rather not get caught in a fight if we can avoid it, so double time it if you will, Siobhan."
"Aye, sir."
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On The Surface
After receiving Alexanders report on his and Webers run in with the predatory animal in the woods, Allen had ordered them to come to the village and meet Shehadi at the North gate. Now, though, he was sitting in some kind of inn or tavern, speaking with Jorrah about the aliens that had attacked Outpost 31. What he had learned thus far had not been very reassuring, to say the least.
Sentient, parasitic snakes that took over a human host, took slaves, and were egotistical in the extreme, believing themselves to be Gods and expecting to be worshipped as such. The only good news was that there was apparently an incredibly powerful alien race that had taken this planet and twenty seven others under their protection, but even that had a sour note.
"We have not seen or heard from our protectors in many months, and since their disappearance the beasts in the woods have been terrorising us, and many people have witnessed the Gate To The Heavens opening, but nothing come out," Jorrah concluded their conversation. Allen shifted in his seat slightly, then grabbed his helmet from the table they were sitting at, making sure the mission camera had recorded everything.
"Can you take me to the Gate?," Allen asked. Jorrah smiled and nodded, standing up and gesturing for Allen to follow her. He clipped his helmet back on and began following her. On the way to the North gate, they had to step around a group of children playing some obscure puzzle game involving sticks and stones that reminded Allen of the ancient Snakes and Ladders board game.
As they neared the gate, Allen spotted the dark forms of his battle suited team-mates standing around the entryway.
"Alright guys, on me," Allen ordered, and immediately the three other men straightened up and turned to follow their leader through the now open gate, weapons at the ready. Ever since the attack earlier, the whole team had been on edge and constantly on the lookout for more of the creatures, more vigilant than ever after seeing the puncture marks on Webers armoured greave.
"Where we headed, Sarge?," Alexander asked as he walked quickly to keep up with the surprisingly fast moving Jorrah.
"Something called the 'Gate To The Heavens', whatever that is. I was told that its been opening apparently by itself, and nothing has been coming out of it," the older man answered, shooting a glance at Jorrah. She seemed a little unnerved, and Allen wasn't sure if it was the fact that they were going into predator-infested woods or that it was obvious the Spectres were communicating but they weren't making any sound that had her looking so anxious.
The trek through the woods was, thankfully, very short. They had probably only covered about two hundred metres when the came upon a clearing in the forestation about twenty metres in diameter. In the centre of the clearing, atop a pedestal, sat a large metallic ring of some kind, covered in runes and standing upright. A few metres to the right of the ring was an odd looking device, also covered in runes and with a large red crystal like object in the centre of its circular top.
"This is the Gate," Allen asked, eyebrow quirked sceptically. It certainly didn't look like any gat he had seen before, mainly because through the three metre hole in the centre of the ring he could see nothing but more forest.
"Yes, this is it," Jorrah answered, eyes flicking back and forth across the clearing. Sensing her growing anxiety, Allen motioned for the others to take up a defensive perimeter around the clearing whilst he examined the so-called 'gate'. As he stepped closer to get a better look, however, his COM link crackled to life and Commander Burrows' voice came to him from the Magnus.
"Spectre One, this is Magnus Actual, come in please."
"Here, sir," Allen answered immediately, still eying the 'gate'. He wasn't sure why, but it seemed awfully familiar somehow, like he'd seen it somewhere before.
"Spectre One, prep your team for immediate dust-off. We have hostile ships inbound and we need to leave before they arrive. Repeat, prep for immediate dust-off," Burrows stated, the slightest hint of urgency in his voice.
"Roger that, sir. We got some intel on the enemy, sending Siobhan the data packet now," Allen replied, following standard procedure in case the team got left behind. This way, the effort taken to gather the intel would not go to waste.
"Understood, Actual, out."
"Alright guys, prep for dust-off. We've got enemy forces incoming," Allen addressed the team. Behind him though, a sound not unlike stone grinding against stone echoed around the clearing. Allen turned around, just in time for the 'gate's interior to erupt, a roiling water like substance reaching out several metres, engulfing a screaming Jorrah, before settling back into a standing pool, leaving no trace of the woman.
"Jesus Christ! Did you see that?," Shehadi shouted over the COM link.
"No, man we're fucking blind! Of course we saw it!," Weber shouted back. Allen suddenly had a very bad feeling, and yelled a command back to the others as he started heading to the edge of the clearing.
"Defensive positions," the Sergeant Major cried out, as behind him armoured men carrying the same staff weapons as seen onboard the TRN Battleship Pious Inquisitor five days earlier, minus the helmets, charged out of the standing pool. Golden bolts of energy erupted from the heads of the staff weapons, the poorly aimed fire mostly hitting the trees or ground near the Spectres.
Allen's rifle coughed as he squeezed the trigger, the armour-piercing rounds cutting down two of the invading Jaffa. He ducked back behind a tree as more fire was directed at him.
"Magnus Actual, this is Spectre One, come in! Magnus Actual, come in," he shouted into his COM link, blind firing his assault rifle around the side of the tree, the thick trunk at his back shuddering under dozens of impacts.
"Spectre One, this is Magnus Actual, what's the situation?," Siobhan's voice came back over the sound of energy fire.
"We have enemy forces firing at us, method of insertion unknown, sending the updated data packet now," Allen replied, sending the update to Siobhan as promised. "We are seriously outnumbered and outgunned here, send evac double time!"
"Understood, dropship inbound, ETA is seven minutes."
"Copy that, we'll make a fighting retreat back to our original LZ, pick us up there. Spectre One, out," Allen said, not particularly pleased with having to stay on this world for another seven minutes - assuming they survived that long.
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In Orbit
In orbit, the Magnus was having problems of its own. The two ships that had been detected by the Recon Drones had arrive nearly nine minutes sooner than expected, and were currently a little over forty million kilometres away and closing at fifty thousand kilometres per second.
The Magnus turned so that the bow was facing the new arrivals, and for several seconds nothing happened as the two ships continued to close in. Then, finally, sixteen nuclear warheads were launched from the forward missile bays, eight for each ship. The missiles, guided by Siobhan, began a series of complex manoeuvres designed to fool an enemies point defences. Travelling at eighty-five thousand KP/S, the warheads quickly reached the enemy ships.
In a cloud of plasma fire and self sacrificing enemy fighters, five missiles were torn from the sky, one of them destroying nearly a third of the enemy fighter compliment. The others unleashed their nuclear fury on the shields of both capital ships, causing a bright golden glow to fade in and out of existence as the shields absorbed and deflected the massive energies of eleven 600 megaton explosions.
The two ships continued on through the expanding, and rapidly extinguishing, nuclear fire, seemingly unfazed. As the range continued to close, the enemy ships finally opened fire, golden plasma bolts battering against the stealth cruisers shields.
The cruiser responded as it tried to move away from its assailants, rail guns and laser cannons spitting fire at them.
The closest enemy ships shields failed under a hail of laser cannon bolts, and a rail gun volley followed, tearing one of the six points on the ships outer hull off. The plasma fire intensified, and the Magnus' shields flickered bright silver as the enemy fighters closed the distance, energy fire erupting from their cannons. The Magnus' point defence, the venerable Laser Net CIWS, returned fire, tearing the attacking fighters down in waves.
Again the Magnus fired, laser fire again puncturing the damaged enemy ships partially recharged shields, and another volley of rail gun rounds cored deep into the ships pyramid shaped inner hull, even as the Magnus' own shield failed under the strain.
Plasma fire immediately started pelting the ships hull, and several hull breaches along the port side of the vessel appeared. Finally, though, as the distance closed to just under a thousand kilometres, a two white beams of energy erupted from a point on the human ships dorsal hull, spearing into the damaged enemy vessel and carving a deep gash in its hull.
Normally, it wouldn't have been a killing shot, but thanks to the unique radiation of Ion-based weaponry, anyone within fifty metres of where the weapon had fired would die from intense radiation poisoning within minutes. If the ship didn't have appropriate radiation shielding - like the Magnus' Titanium/Tritium/Tungsten/Thorium composite hull plating - then the entire crew would be dead very soon.
The other ship continued pummelling the stealth cruiser, receiving only light laser or rail gun fire in return. With the Magnus' entire fighter group escorting the Firebird-class dropship to its rendezvous with the Special Forces team on the planet, the ship was a more vulnerable to suicidal enemy fighters.
The Laser Net CIWS was churning out thousands of laser pulses in intersecting firing arcs, but no matter how good the point defences, it was inevitable that some fighters would get through.
Even as plasma bolts melted through the armour plating on the cruisers starboard side, a trio of enemy fighters slammed into the already damaged hull of the port side, shearing off a laser cannon battery and causing an explosive decompression of the inner hull, ejecting crew and equipment out into the void.
The Magnus fired an under strength volley of nuclear missiles, half of its launching bays having been torn off or melted over during the brief battle. Of the seven missiles launched, only two made it through the enemy fighters and point defences, but it was enough. With a combined explosive force of one point two gigatons, the warheads were just enough to finally overwhelm the Ha'tak's shields, battering them down in nuclear fire.
A plasma bolt impacted dangerously close to the Magnus' bridge, tearing of a rail gun and several Laser Net cannons. The stealth cruiser responded, finally able to get a good arc of fire on the other ship, and sent dozens of bright red laser bolts and rail gun rounds into the pyramid shaped hull of its aggressor, cleaving a modest chunk of armour away.
The Ha'tak fired another round of plasma bolts, gouging a hole in the Magnus' side barely a hundred meters from the main engines. Again, the Magnus responded, this time with the dual barrelled Ion Cannon, shearing off the top of the Ha'tak's pyramid. The Ha'tak finally ceased moving, and no answering fire came from it. The Magnus, now grievously wounded, struggled back to its place in orbit of the planet, battle having taken it more than five hundred thousand kilometres from the worlds gravity well.
Although the exterior of the Magnus appeared to regain some of its peaceful aura from before the battle, inside was another story altogether.
"Siobhan, give me a status report," Commander Burrows sighed, sitting back in his command chair after having been thrust out of it during the fight. There was a thin haze of smoke permeating the air, and a trickle of blood ran down his forehead into his eyes, obscuring his vision.
"Sir," Siobhan's avatar flickered into view on the holo tank, her image fractured by a spider web of cracks in the projecting crystal. "I'm registering approximately twenty three hull breaches all over the vessel, nine of them large enough for a full grown human to fit through. An unknown number of stress fractures, possibly from kamikaze fighter impacts, are also detectable. Two shield emitters are down and there are power fluctuations in the shield generator."
"What about our weapons and engines?"
"Five rail guns and nine laser cannons are out of commission, four of our forward missile bays have been destroyed, five have been melted shut from molten hull plating hardening over them. Our sub-light drives are operating at forty three percent optimal efficiency, and anomalous readings in the hyper drive indicate we may only be able to jump thirty or forty light years at a time before temperature or fluctuating power levels will force us to shut them down," Siobhan answered. "The Ion Cannon is fully operational, however I advise against using it until we've restored at least ninety percent hull integrity."
Burrows closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before asking his next question.
"Crew casualties?"
Siobhan shook her head. "I estimate seventeen dead and twenty six wounded, nine critically."
"Any good news?," the Commander sighed, watching as Siobhan's head cocked to the side.
"Sergeant Major Allen's extraction should be arriving momentarily.
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On The Surface
For the commander of the Jaffa warriors invading this world through the Chappa'i, this was proving to be quite a thrill. It had been nearly fifty years since last he had had the pleasure of hunting down such resilient and resourceful foes. The four armoured humans were armed with primitive -yet deadly - weapons, and had thus far killed perhaps a dozen of his Jaffa.
They were using an unusual but effective method of escape - two of them would stand there ground and engage his Jaffa, the other twp would run thirty or so metres away, stop, and engage his Jaffa while the first two repeated the motions of the second. Had the commander known anything about human tactics, he would have know this was called 'leap frogging'.
The commander ordered his minions to charge forward, and instantly three were cut down in a shower of blood and sparks as the projectiles their enemy fired bounced off where they hit at oblique angles. Up ahead, the commander could see a large clearing in the wood, barely a hundred metres behind the enemy. He smiled as he realised that once they reached the edge of that clearing, they would either have to stand their ground to keep the benefit of cover the woods provided, or try and run across the clearing and risk being cut down as they ran.
Either way, when they reached that clearing, it would be that much easier to eliminate the only obstacle between his God, Baal, and his objective, the vast Trinium deposits of this world, abandoned by its protectors, the Asgard.
His smile grew wider, as when the enemy reached the edge of the clearing, they continued running straight ahead. Easy targets.
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Shit, shit, shit, shit! Allen screamed in his mind as he and the others charged out into the clearing they had landed in the previous day, the remains of their OHEVs still sitting where they had left them.
Beside him, Shehadi stumbled forward, just barely keeping his footing, and Allen noticed that his back armour plate was glowing red hot from a plasma blast. The ground seemed to churn up around them, wisps of smoke and clods of dirt filling the air as more and more fire was directed at them.
The twilight hours had set in now, the sky glowing a pink-orange colour as the suns rays slowly disappeared over the horizon. Allen didn't have time to admire the natural beauty, however, and as the team reached the remains of their OHEVs, they skidded to a halt and leapt behind the twisted hulks of burnt out metal, using them as cover.
"Any time, now, Echo 419!," Weber shouted into his COM link, and moments later a reassuringly familiar feminine voice replied.
"Don't worry guys, ETA right now. Got a lotta heat signatures at the East tree line, I take those are the boys that have been giving you a hard time," Carolyn "Hocus Pocus" Michaels, AKA Echo 419, said over the channel.
"Affirmative that, Hocus, sure would appreciate it if you gave them a spanking," Allen responded, a smile of relief crossing his face.
"Copy that, sweet thing, maybe when we get back to the Magnus, I can give you some of the same treatment."
As one, the other three men on Allen's team turned their faceplates to look at him, shocked expressions hidden by the silver reflective coating.
"Sarge…?," Weber gasped. Allen chose to ignore them as best he could. He responded the female pilot even as the Firebird dropship and its escorting Scorpion-class Interceptors came into view on the West horizon.
"Uh, Hocus," Allen started, ducking a little lower as more plasma fire impacted his hiding place, and Weber and Alexander fired their rifles in return, "this is an open channel."
The only response he got was a chuckle and a hail of high calibre rail gun rounds flying into the tree line from the dropships wing mounted rotary rail guns, spitting out an impressive 13,000 rounds per minute, and laser cannon fighter from the two Interceptors still with Hocus, the other six circling high over head.
From his position of cover, Allen could clearly see dozens of armoured figures being torn apart under the hail of gun fire. Hocus circled back around, coming in hard and fast, troop bay open, and stopped just a few metres form the Spectres. The four men quickly scrambled aboard, making haste despite the fact that there was virtually no fire being directed at them anymore. The two Interceptors made another pass at the tree line, before forming up with Hocus again as she took the Firebird vertical, headed straight to orbit with no fancy flying, for once.
It would seem as though, for now, Spectre Team 19 was safe and sound.
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March 10th, 2187
Eden Hyperspace Monitoring Station
2 parsecs from Eden Prime
The automated monitoring station logged every single hyperspace disturbance, o matter how small or how large, every hour on the hour unless it detected unauthorized ships on an inbound vector to the system. So, when its sensors suddenly picked up hundreds of hyperspace contacts headed in Eden Prime's general direction, the computer immediately made the decision that this was an invasion force, and the Eden Defence Grid and Sector Fleet were both warned of the incoming force within moments of detection.
Unfortunately for Vice-Admiral Alan Rickman, the early warning was nowhere near early enough. The invasion force had been detected three parsecs from the station, which gave him five hours, give or take, to prepare his defence. However, against a fleet that size, the modest defences of Eden Prime would likely be overwhelmed in record time. The only thing that could possibly make a successful defence was the Sector Fleet, which was eleven hours away at the Camden Fleet Yards, resupplying for an extended patrol of their sector.
That meant that Rickman's rag-tag force of cruisers and destroyers, and the Orbital Defence Grid, was going to have to hold back an enemy force that outnumbered them by a good six-to-one for six hours. If they couldn't, then the one hundred and forty million colonists on Eden Prime would be at the enemies mercy.
In any case, Rickman had a feeling this was going to be either the longest day of his life, or the shortest.
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March 10th, 2187
Orbit of Planet Designated P3Y-737
UNSC SOCOM Stealth Cruiser Magnus
After undergoing stop-gap repairs for the better part of a day, the Magnus was finally ready to depart. As a precaution, a Communication Drone had been sent to Sierra ahead of the cruiser. The ship was far from fully operational, and despite the best efforts of the crew and the aid of the Nano-Fabricators, an internal factory that use nanites to recreate damage hull plating and rail guns, the least complex of the Magnus' weapons systems, there was still a chance that the hyper drive would simply burn out and they would be stuck in-system indefinitely, or that the hull would not hold up under the extra pressure of hyperspace travel.
"We're good to go, sir," Ensign Charles Bowman, at the Navigation console, informed his commander.
"The lets get out of this gravity well and get underway," Commander Burrows said with a nod of approval.
As the damaged cruiser moved into position for the jump, unknown to anyone onboard, a nuclear warhead that failed to detonate during the battle the previous day drifted just a few hundred metres in front of the vessel. With a bright flash, the vortex into the alternate dimension of hyperspace was ripped open in front of the Magnus, and as the ship was sucked in, it clipped the warhead, causing it to detonate just as the stealth ship entered hyperspace.
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A/N: Just so you know, a parsec is a measure of distance, not time, and is short for the term "parallax of one arc second". It is equivalent to 30 trillion kilometres, or about 3.3 light years. Also, the speed of light is 299,792.458 kilometres per second, so anything below that is a viable sub-light speed for a ship to travel at.
A distance of one thousand parsecs (approximately 3262 light years) is referred to as a kilo parsec (kpc) and the Milky Way Galaxy is 30 kpc across, Earth being 8 kpc away from the Galactic Centre, and about 306 parsecs "deep".
Also, Thorium is another type of radioactive material found on Earth, believed to be more efficient than Plutonium or Uranium, and when inert, it makes an excellent radiation shield, although the scarcity of it means that lead or Depleted Uranium is most commonly used.
CIWS is an abbreviation of Close-in Weapons System, and Siobhan is pronounced Shuh-vawn.
In the next chapter, Lost In Space, we see how the battle at Eden Prime goes, find out just what happened to the Magnus, learn what the other Spectre teams got up to, the Tok'ra finally reveal themselves to the UNSC/TRN forces located in the Sierra system and the mystery behind the strange predators on P3Y-737 is revealed. Don't forget to review, and you should know the drill about flames by now, keep your criticisms constructive, folks.
