Psycho kept up to the rest of the team who'd moved ahead, all sobered by their first casualty. Psycho was used to the idea of losing men, they'd lost a few hundred in the past few days alone against the KPA and Aliens. That didn't even include all the deaths on the Constitution Battlegroup.
It didn't take long for the team to arrive at the bottom of the hill where Nomad had left the Mothership. Shards of broken Alien Scouts and troopers littered the area, as well as a few melted craters that Psycho quickly realized that they were vaporized nanosuits. Psycho had taken the easy way in and Nomad was inside fighting for his life.
Frosty looked up the cliff, there were gulleys and valleys that led up to the opening, as well as a few broken shacks and trucks. Immediately above them, the remains of a small village stood frozen and shattered from battle. Jumping up and examining it, she recognized it from Nomad's mission camera. "This is where Nomad found Prophet again. Stay loose, they ran into heavy opposition here."
The team acknowledged and spread out, they checked the remaining interiors of the buildings around them and cleared it. Frosty waved over Psycho and the two looked up at the tall cliffs ahead of them.
"We're going to spread out, layered defensive line."
Psycho grumbled and looked around. There were still frozen Marines around, their equipment now being policed by the rest of the squad. "Lots of ground, you get anything from Nomad?"
Frosty shook her head and looked around, it wasn't going to be an easy place to defend. "Nothing. Can't get any telemetry from inside." Frosty then pointed up to the top. "You and me - Up at the top. The team'll spread out so if they drop bombs we won't all get wiped out."
Psycho raised an eyebrow beneath his facemask. "Grim, you fight these odds before?"
"Remind me to tell you what the Ori were…" Frosty tapped her radio and spoke on the squad com. "Raptor three and four, stick in the village. Six and Seven set up halfway up. Nothing gets past us in the ship, we'll cover this place as long as it takes Nomad to finish up inside."
Psycho privately wondered what would happen if Nomad didn't make it out, but nah, that wouldn't happen. "Just pray these fancy popguns last us that long."
Frosty shrugged and waved up to the rocks. "Just climb you wanker."
Psycho chuckled as he moved ahead. "Now who taught you such foul language, love?"
"Only bad language if it's not true."
Psycho hopped up to the next level on the cliff, and heard Frosty come up behind him. He considered spitfiring something back at her, but he knew she was likely just venting from losing one of her teammates. So instead he just stayed quiet and climbed up.
"Doctors?"
Doctors Rosenthal, Jackson, and Zelenka turned from the observation and study of Nomad's suit information to the door behind them. A somewhat short white man in Air Force uniform stood – his posture strong and his aura quite professional. Doctor Jackson said. "General Davis? What's going on?"
Davis walked in and motioned to the screen they were working on. "Update. We've got three teams in the cryoshield right now. One is recovering any alien technology they can, Lieutenant Dunn and Colonel Hailey are inside the mothership as far as we know, and Major Vega and Sergeant Sykes are holding the perimeter of the shield."
"You sent Nomad back inside?" Helena's voice raised. "Radek's already told me that you've change their suits to emit the shield jamming frequency, but sending them in is suicide!"
Davis furrowed his brow and prepared to explain, but Daniel beat him to it. "We need accurate intel. Believe me Doctor Rosenthal, I've been doing this for most of my adult life. The earlier we know about who and what they are, the earlier we'll be able to mount a proper defense."
Helena gulped. "This is the first time Earth has been invaded hasn't it?"
The three experienced SG personnel gave each other grim looks, Radek brushed it aside and said. "Let's focus on the task at hand; Given how the Jaffa have reported that their plasma cannons are having little effect except in large numbers, and our own nuclear strike only fed their shield. We're going to have to rely on kinetic kill weapons."
Helena nodded. "Railguns you mean? Gauss weapons?"
Davis scrunched in between the trio and input his override codes on the screen where masses of mathematical text scrolled. Now it showed a 3D cross-section of the planet with several blips surrounding it. "So far it's been relatively contained. The Aliens that have left the island and the safety of their shield are spreading. I've gotten reports of them attacking Korea and Japan, they've already knocked out several power grids and both nations are calling for military aid."
Daniel snorted. "Korea asking us for help? Did they happen to forget this was their fault for not telling us?"
"Not my problem, Doctor Jackson. I just win wars." Davis sighed and pointed out several of the blips around the planet. "The majority of the fleet is on patrol and on our colony worlds. But we've got George Hammond, Britannia, Korolev 2 and Hector in orbit."
Zelenka sighed and shook his head. "All 304s. Only light railguns and missiles."
"Sadly." Davis switched back to the math scrolling screen. "The 305s are mostly in Pegasus. Last I heard from General Sheppard, the Wraith were still hiding out and raiding planets. We've dialed out to Atlantis and he says Hyperion can be spared for possible Earth defense, but it'd take a week to get here."
Daniel shook his head. "In a week, if we don't stop these things it'll be too late. I'm sure the President is already on damage control. The less people know the better."
Helena frowned and said."What? Why wouldn't you want to tell people that you have the technology to fight back?"
Davis shot a glance at Helena. "Would you like to explain to people why we haven't told them we've had access to intergalactic technology for over 20 years? Disclosure is coming, but we have to be careful."
Helena found she couldn't think of anything to counter with, so she pushed ahead. "Alright… yes I don't know half as much as you do about this, but I do know that if their shields are that strong for ground based units, I can't imagine what kinds of technology they might have. And you said they were on multiple planets?"
Daniel nodded. "Yes, the Jaffa have reported at least thirty others, and that's just on planets that are part of the Free Jaffa Nation. There could be hundreds out there. We just don't know." He raised an eyebrow. "You're taking this all in pretty well. Not everyone we've enlisted was so receptive."
Helena shrugged. "Well… I knew about aliens already… a wormhole network that spans galaxies and intergalactic spaceships? Why not?"
Daniel chuckled, Helena certainly had an open mind.
Psycho aimed carefully, and squeezed the trigger. Three hundred feet away, the scout that had lingered close from up above took several hits from the Gauss Rifle and shattered into pieces as it fell. The squadron of 8 scouts followed the vapor from the relativistic weapon and began to drop troopers.
Frosty aimed and took out another scout, both she and Psycho were prone in front of the large and intimidating looking aperture of the mothership. The scouts roared down and fired their shard cannons at the positions where Gauss rifles fired at them. Dozens of troopers skittered along the ground and tried to flush out the defenders.
Psycho knew they'd hold, and within a few minutes the scouts were shattered along the battlefield. The troopers were still searching about, but the rest of the team around them didn't have any issues taking them down.
Psycho checked his ammo, only about four hundred rounds left, but so far they'd only encountered mild resistance. He took the lull to calm down and try and find out a bit more. "So Frosty, where'd you learn to shoot like that?"
Frosty sat up from her postion and moved her arms, trying to keep warm. "Pegasus. Galaxy about 3 million lightyears away." She scanned the area beneath them with her binoculars, relaying positions of Troopers to her team below. "Fought the Wraith, imagine a vampire that feeds through its hand. None of that sparkly shit."
Psycho chuckled and took a breather himself. The cold was numbing and he had to pace to keep from losing the feeling in his feet. "Oh great, so these squidy robots aren't that strange to you? The bloody mothership behind us doesn't phase you one bit?"
Frosty just shrugged. "Wraith Hives are the same size. Trust me, at least these things aren't trying to seduce and feed on you."
"Seduce?" Psycho turned to Frosty. "Well that's-"
The ground beneath them began to shake, and Psycho stumbled forward towards the edge of the cliff. He couldn't hold himself from falling over. Frosty dove from her sitting position and caught Psycho's arm as he fell, switching to strength mode. "Hold on!"
Psycho felt his muscles stretch as he hung on by only Frosty's arm, if he switched to strength mode too he'd likely tear hers off trying to get back up. He had to rely on just her as the rocks around them began to slide down.
He saw the mothership above begin to shudder and groan, and the top half section began to split. What looked like pods burst out from the side and hung over. From them, a cold looking smoke began to emanate. Dozens of scouts flooded out amidst the haze, and finally the perch they were on began to shake and crumble.
Frosty finally pulled him up, and looking around screamed. "We have to fall back!"
Psycho reoriented himself and pulled out his rifle. "No! Nomad's in there!"
Above them, the mothership opened up even more and a large object with smoke flew out. It cast a shadow over Psycho and Frosty as it came down below them. Frosty screamed over her radio,. "Raptor Team! Incoming!"
It was too late as the object slammed into the village where two of the team members were spewing up geysers of dirt and ice. Both Psycho and Frosty backed off from the ledge. Using his binoculars, Psycho zoomed in and finally recognized the object. "Bloody hell! It's a red hunter!"
Frosty aimed her rifle down and used the higher power scope. "Shit! We'll burn our ammo if we take that on." She pressed a few buttons on her sleeve and Pyscho could hear a high pitched whine inside his head. Frosty screamed. "This is Vega to George Hammond! We need fire support now!"
Psycho shook off the pain and looked to her. "I thought we were out of radio contact?"
"Only one way" Frosty turned to him and pulled out an attachment for her rifle. "High powered subspace transmitter. Suits can't handle receiving, just sending." She then clicked her regular radio on as well. "All remaining raptor team members, switch to target marking mode and triangulate on that thing down there." She turned to Psycho. "Cover me."
Psycho looked down, and then looked up into the sky. Orbital fire support? "You're a nutter! Those two might still be alive!"
Frosty got two other signals from below, and steeled her voice. "They knew the risks. Now just cover me."
Psycho looked around, the scouts were beginning to swarm over, not really caring about much except spreading out. There were hundreds of them, each carrying at least a dozen troopers. Psycho aimed, but didn't fire at any of them.
Frosty crouched and aimed. Through the dust and smoke, a violet blue laser popped out and hit the Hunter at the bottom. Another pair hit from below, triangulating the position. Psycho watched as Frosty clicked her sleeve again. "Hammond! Our suits should have dropped its shields! We nee fire support now!"
Psycho kept his eyes watchful, there were so many ways things could go wrong. This was the craziest thing he'd done since SAS training. "What'll they shoot!"
"Railguns! "
Psycho had seen the Gauss cannons the American tanks used – for it to come from a ship in orbit meant something extraordinary was about to happen. "Shite!" Psycho took cover and kept his eyes on the skies.
A few moments passed, and the Hunter howled as it began to fire is freeze rays and ice shard cannons up to where the Lasers were hitting it.
Psycho saw it before he heard it, a stream of yellowish white hot bolts fly down from above. The shots steamed and left huge trails behind them, scarring the sky.
Psycho watched the shots slam into the Hunter, which cried out in agony as the shots punched clean holes through it before detonating underneath from the hypervelocity. Psycho felt the hypersonic shockwave even from his position and braced. The shots had torn the Hunter apart and he felt like cheering. "Yeah! Suck that you tosser!"
Frosty kept from openly cheering, but she called into her radio. "Raptor Team, Regroup. Stay low and cloak if-"
The shots must have woken up the Mothership, as it began to lurch to life and fire thrust out of the extended pods. Psycho gasped as he realized. "Oh fuck me. It's taking off!" They didn't have a chance at this range, nothing would survive from the rock slide. "Come on Frosty! One way out!"
She turned, and found Psycho motioning towards the slowly rising apature into the Mothership. "WHAT? Are you INSANE?"
Psycho didn't have time to argue, so he reached over and grabbed Frosty by her arm. "You wanna stay and die, that's fine with me!" Psycho then let go which surprised Frosty, and headed over to the aperture.
Realizing he was right, and there was nothing she could do about the rest of her team, Frosty bit her bottom lip and cried out on her radio. "Raptor team, fall back! Speed mode and get out of the shield! Call for evac from Obama Battlegroup!" She turne,d and saw him now seven feet in the air and rising as he stood on the edge of the door.
Psycho waved her over and screamed. "Jump! Come on Vega!"
Using her name brought Frosty back to reality, and she switched to strength mode. She rushed forward, and feeling the rocks around her pelt and sting, she pushed up with the nanomuscles that felt like they were on fire.
Psycho caught her as she reached up. Her momentum shoved them both deeper into the aperture, and suddenly they didn't feel any gravity. Frosty shrieked as she tumbled forward, and Psycho quickly recovered with his thrusters. Frosty saw him and reacted as well, the ship shaking around them. Both were freaked out by the sudden cange of mission, and the lack of inertia from the ship taking off.
Psycho controlled his flight and moved over to where Frosty had taken a hole of a large ice crystal near her. The large area around them was even colder than the outside, and Psycho unslung his rifle.
Their radios crackled to life, and Nomad's voice came through. "This is Nomad to any Humans! Do you read?"
Psycho replied instinctively. "Nomad It's Psycho! What the bloody hell'd you do to this thing!"
"Nothing much! Just some C4!"
Frosty chuckled and finally reoriented herself, she was twitchy as she aimed at any movement searching for a target, but nothing. "Well whatever you did it woke it up even more! We need to find a way off this thing safely before our ships take it down!"
Before they could continue, a strange sound came from ahead of Psycho and Frosty. Psycho aimed and held fire, now worried. "Nomad… you fine on your own?"
"No problem! Hailey's worked out how those damn speedy sucktubes work. I'm uploading the data to you." A pause, and Nomad's voice. "Did you find Prophet?"
Psycho wanted to look at Frosty. He noted the odd irony of both of them losing the majority of their teams. "That's a neg, mate."
Nomad said nothing, but Frosty spoke as she heard "I've got the information, we could probably meet up with Nomad and-"
Psycho held up a hand, and then sighted in. The distinct squid shape of an Alien popped his head up and Psycho didn't hesitate. The single Gauss Shot tore off the alien's head leaving behind a sticky mess.
The shot rang out as it shattered crystals behind it, but an alarm began to sound around them. Frosty held her rifle up as well and muttered as she racked the next round. "We're screwed."
Psycho moved slowly towards the interior of the craft, ready to continue the hardest fight of his life. "Oh cheer up, at least if we die we'll leave beautiful corpses."
Firing her own rifle and taking out an Alien that had jumped out. She then muttered. "Least you got something right about me…"
