Lost Soldiers, Dark Deals, Lawful Justice Denied

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Crysis/Ghost in the Shell:tSAC/Halo/Metal Gear/Terminator:tSCC/Stargate SG-1) There is a practice amongst most professions dealing in death that you don't assume anything's dead until you confirm it for certain. Sound advice for the SGC

3. A Team Completed, A Calling Card Made

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this in the future. I write because its fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work. Therefore I would appreciate it if no team of shark-like lawyers showed up on my front step with lawsuits in hand.

Note : I realize that some of you readers are wondering why Buffy and company haven't tried to call home to get help. While I didn't explicitly say it consider this : do you really think that Athena wouldn't keep her new agents under surveillance both on base as well as off? Buffy and the others suspect this and so going to a nearby payphone is out of the question. Also keep in mind that virtually every TV show and movie have moments where we the viewers say/think 'why did they do THAT? They could have solved everything if they'd done this perfectly logical/reasonable thing'. The reason the writers of both venues do this is because if they did everything logically/reasonably then there wouldn't be nearly as much drama/entertainment/fun to be had. Also keep in mind that they have a set amount of time to fill up in most cases so having things end too soon would pose a problem.

Note 2 : I am a big believer in laying down foundation scenes for future plot twists and story arcs. Thus if you feel I am taking too long with certain segments please understand that there is a purpose to my madness even if it's a bit hard to understand.

Giles' POV

"Jenny, PLEASE! I know you're in there," he said, trying to put as much emotion as be possibly could into his voice. "I can feel the slight buzz that says you're in the data crystal chip. Say something…"

Nothing.

Nothing and it was PISSING HIM THE BLOODY HELL OFF!

Truth was he'd been pissed ever since that bint Mayfield had revealed what his 'old chum' Ethan bloody Rayne had done but now he was angry because, unless he made some respectable progress soon, the monsters in human clothing were going to hurt Jenny.

HIS JENNY!

To say it'd thrown him for a loop when the truth had been revealed would've been the bloody mother of all understatements and his first inclination had been to disregard it as rubbish. Oh, he conceded that there was something in the data crystal chip resting in the slot that was built into the back of his helmet but he hadn't believed at first that it was Jenny. As a Watcher he knew all too well what sort of magic, what kind of power, was needed in order to resurrect someone or to simply pull their soul back into the mortal realm from the afterlife. It wasn't until she'd shown him surveillance footage from the room they'd first awoken in that contained all of the prep work the chaos mage had done and the ingredients he'd used that the truth became all too real. While he didn't have access to his books or any other research resources, he recognized enough of the ingredients as well as symbols to believe that Ethan had pulled it off.

It made sense in a way.

One of the biggest obstacles to resurrecting someone was recreating or restoring their physical bodies. Plucking a soul out of heaven or hell? Easy by comparison, but what he saw in the video also clued him into HOW Jenny was ripped from the afterlife before being forced into Cortana's form. It was far from the most gentle method and, coupled with adjusting to a new digital existence, it was understandable that she'd withdrawn into herself in response. Under different circumstances he'd have taken it slow, pulled her back into the world gently, but time was not on his side.

Think… THINK! How do I get her to react?! he thought as he forced his mind to devise different options. I am no psychologist. I don't know any of the recommended methods for luring a patient that's withdrawn inside themselves due to trauma. Perhaps… perhaps it's time to take a more strategic approach.

He hated doing this, delving into the memories and skills of John One One Seven, but since Rupert Giles was having no luck then perhaps it was time to give the SPARTAN-II a try. The man had years of fighting humans before the Covenant arrived, so he had a limited knowledge of basic human psychology and a much greater grasp of battlefield psychology. In a situation where a target had holed itself up in a location impossible to penetrate there were only two possible courses of action, both of which would have the desired effect.

The first was to trick the target into thinking they had to leave their place of safety by presenting bait that they would pursue instinctively without conscious thought. This would be difficult since in a way he was dealing with two minds rather than just the one. While he believed that Jenny's mind was the more dominant of the two if his recently revived lover was experiencing the same things as the rest of them, the imprint of Cortana was a factor in how the gypsy thought and behaved. With that in mind he could try something that would catch the interest of the Cortana imprint since he'd already tried just about everything he could think of to catch Jenny's interest.

The other possible course of action was harsher and it was one he would bet good money that bloody woman Miss Mayfield was going to try if he couldn't produce results. If you can't lure your target out with a prize then you destroy its refuge, hoping that its self-preservation instincts will cause it to abandon its hiding place. He didn't hold much stock with that idea because, if Buffy's experience after her second death closing Glory's portal was any hint, a resurrected soul would welcome death since it'd be a way to return to the bliss that is heaven. While Buffy managed to work her way past the initial withdrawal symptoms, he would wager that the longer a soul remained in heaven, the more potent its siren call would be. Seeing as how it'd been almost ten years since Jenny had died compared to Buffy's few months, her current mental state could well be classified as borderline suicidal.

He was not going to risk losing Jenny again!

"Cortana, status report."

He waited a full thirty seconds for any sign of a response.

Nothing.

"This is Sierra One One Seven to UNSC artificial intelligence serial number CTN zero four five two dash nine. Requesting status report."

THERE!

It was brief but he felt the buzz that told him there was something in the crystal data chip, a flicker for a moment, and that was more than he'd gotten in the last month and a half. It also indicated that the imprint left by the Cortana personality had a strong enough influence over Jenny's soul to induce an automatic response. He had to continue along that vein, find other things that might provoke an even stronger response, and hope that when the Cortana side rose to the surface it'd bring Jenny along for the ride.

"Cortana, I need your help," he said, keeping a soldier's tone of voice. "We've been captured by unknown hostiles. Human. I've been implanted with some kind of safeguard in order to ensure obedience. I could use some help."

Another flicker.

It's a little stronger than before but still not enough to induce speech.

"Do you remember the last thing I said to you before entering cryo-sleep, Cortana? I told you 'wake me… when you need me'," he said, hoping that the final farewell would cause a strong enough resonance to get the desired result. "I meant every word but this time I need you to wake up because I NEED YOU!"

The reaction he got was like a faint heartbeat and, when he felt another one after that, he knew he had before him the best chance to bring Jenny back to him and he wasn't going to squander it.

"I know you're probably confused and maybe a bit afraid but I promise you I'll help you through it all," he said, playing upon the most meaningful moments between the SPARTAN and the A.I in recent memory. "You know me. When I make a promise…"

He waited for the response he hoped was coming, the response that Cortana had given the Master Chief when he'd come to rescue her aboard the Covenant city of High Charity.

"…you…keep it." came a woman's voice that was an odd mixture of both Cortana's voice and Jenny's voice.

"That's right. Welcome back," he said while keeping himself, if only barely, from saying any names out loud.

All he knew was that the mind in the crystal data chip had successfully been coaxed into interacting with the outside world again. However he didn't know if it was Cortana he was talking to or Jenny or a mix of the two. Until she said something that made him believe it was Jenny who was dominant, he would have to keep what he said centered around the concept that she was Cortana.

"Glad… to be back," Cortana said, gaining strength and coherence with every word she spoke. "You said something about a safeguard?"

"Yes. Surgically implanted," he replied, resisting the temptation to rush things. "I think it's close to the neural interface. When triggered it induces varying levels of pain. The leader of the hostiles also rigged one for you but this one comes with a death sentence after a minute and a half if it's left on."

"So a collar on each of us. Options?" she asked, getting down to business and losing most of her lost person tone.

"Until we know more about how they work and how they're implanted, trying to remove them ourselves would be risky," he replied, keeping to the facts. "We have allies. Four others captured the same way and with similar restraints in place."

"Are they good?" she asked, sounding interested in learning more.

"They're not Spartans but they can fight."

"Coming from you that means they'll be good enough," she said, sounding like she liked their chances already.

Whether it was the ghost of John One One Seven in the back of his mind or something that was entirely him, he too began to feel more optimistic about their chances for freedom.

They'd find a way to win their freedom and then JUSTICE would be theirs!

Athena's Office, A Remote Compound, Athena's POV

"A promising beginning wouldn't you say, Doctor Drago?" she asked as she terminated the video feed from the room Mister Giles was in.

"Indeed, mistress. Although it may prove premature," Clark said from his own vid-window on her computer screen. "If, as it appears, that the soul of Miss Calendar truly believes she's Cortana, she might withdraw beyond all recovery when confronted with the truth."

As much as she wanted to dismiss the man's words as the meaningless worrying of a weak scientist, there was a ring of truth to his words. Many a time in her service to Ba'al she had seen humans cling to whatever delusions or lies allowed them a grip on their sanity and she was occasionally the one to expose the truth to them. While the results varied, most either accepted the truth and endured or became little more than mad fools fit only to be a host for lesser symbiotes or to become lab specimens.

In the case of Jennifer Calendar, though, the potential consequences of a psychotic break would be more than a few dead.

Since it'd been safely confirmed that the changes Mister Rayne's spell had made were indeed thorough as well as permanent, she'd begun doing her own reading into each of the people her soldiers had received an inheritance from. It was from there that she discovered that smart human artificial intelligences generally had a seven year lifespan before they descend into a state called 'rampancy', which was akin to insanity in humans. First came a state consistent with clinical depression, where the A.I becomes apathetic as well as uninterested in the world around it. Next comes a period of anger that usually occured when the smart A.I has been pushed too far mentally/emotionally, resulting in their pent up emotions being released in a fit of rage. It lashed out at everything and everyone around it, irrationally trying to exact its revenge on the world around it in order to free itself from restraints. The third stage came after the artificial intelligence got all of its anger out of its system, as well as possibly freeing itself from confinement. They would seek new stimuli and information in order to evolve as a sentient being but, with every acquisition, their hunger only grows in strength likely never to be satisfied.

If the sources she found on the internet could be believed, there was a theoretical fourth stage referred to as metastability in which the A.I could reach a state in which psychologically it can be considered fully human. Of all the artificial intelligences listed in 'Halo' canon, only two of them were believed to have reached this state: Mendicant Bias and Cortana.

While it is true that the armor chosen for the spell was from 'Halo 3' and a hidden note was placed beneath the armor with a statement that it was from the very end of the game, that still doesn't mean anything regarding Cortana or Miss Calendar's mental state. She weighed the possibilities. Cortana's metastability is, after all, only theoretical, with nothing in the canon material confirming completely that she did indeed reach this state. I will have to monitor the situation carefully.

"Instruct the security staff to keep a close watch on Mister Giles and Miss Calendar," she ordered, deciding to at least take some precautions. "Also, send a message to the transport team bringing subjects Miss Lightning Bolt, Prophet, the Major and Cameron back to inform them of this development. Impress upon them the potential consequences of trying to make Cortana realize she's really Jennifer Calendar too quickly. I'd rather not have them blunder and cause the A.I to go insane."

"Understood. Is there anything else I can do for you, mistress?" Drago asked politely as he made a note on a pad of paper.

"You can tell me the status of the data analysis I ordered done on the information removed from the restraint gurneys." she replied, deciding to move onto the next most pressing matter.

It had almost been enough to make her believe in higher beings when she'd been informed of the repositories of knowledge that had been created as an unintended side effect of the chaos spell. While she had been satisfied with the information gleaned from the scans of her new soldiers, having detailed schematics would make replicating the technology that much easier. Nevertheless she'd ordered each file examined thoroughly for any sign of errors or tricks that might lead to some unpleasant explosions. While she had no reason to suspect such things, her understanding of chaos magic was that it was inherently unpredictable no matter how much say the spell caster had in its assigned purpose. It would not surprise her at all if Janus, the Roman god that powered the spell, had intentionally left flaws or incomplete information to keep things from going completely smooth.

"Yes. While there is still roughly ten percent of the total data amount to be examined, none of the department heads have been able to locate any inconsistencies or subtle signs of sabotage." Clark replied promptly without looking at any notes. "Granted, the level of technological advancement is such that some of us are hard pressed to understand some of it but we're confident in our assessments."

"How soon until production can begin on the basic technological advancements?" she asked, expecting his summation to be as such.

"Advancements in information technology, both hardware as well as software, should be ready to begin in four days. Weapons technology still requires further testing… a lab assistant lost an arm when test firing one of the assault rifle designs," Drago replied with some slight anxiety in his voice. "Defensive technologies like the Thermo-Optical camouflage and armor types are making significant progress with regards to replication but the department head believes it'll be at least a month before reliable reproductions can be manufactured. The prototypes we've made so far don't perform as well as their fictional counterparts and we were under the impression that you wouldn't be satisfied until they did.''

"You and the other others were correct. Nothing less than a perfect replication will suffice."

"The advancements that we are making the most progress in are the biological ones. Using knowledge from the data storage devices and our scans, we have successfully managed to replicate the synthetic skin of both subject Cameron and subject the Major. Preliminary testing suggests that it could be safely used for medical purposes with only minimal chances of rejection." Clark said, continuing his summation. "The white blood found in subject Miss Lightning Bolt has been successfully replicated and preliminary testing leads us to believe that it could be used as a short term substitute for regular human blood and that should help hospitals with transfusion situations. As for the cybernetic implant technology, preliminary prototypes are promising with only a little fine tuning required to resolve certain issues."

"Excellent. As soon as the information technology is ready, begin mass production and set all of them up through our new 'friend' at Colson Industries. Have him begin making offers to both the United States government as well as the military the second we have enough stock to equip half their facilities," she ordered, pleased with the status of her scientists efforts. "Only once we're well into the equipping of their facilities will we start making the advancements available to the general public. Once the defensive technologies have been successfully replicated, make sure to introduce subtle design flaws into everything sold to those outside the company. Nothing obvious. Make it something that could easily be written off by outsiders as 'the limits of modern technology' or to be expected with 'version one point zero'. We don't anyone but us to have the truly cutting edge technology now do we?"

"Of course not, mistress. I'll begin making preparations immediately," Doctor Drago said with an acknowledging nod.

"Be sure that you do. I have plans and I do not wish to reschedule them," she said before closing Clark's vid-feed window.

Indeed her plans could not afford to be delayed for too long.

While the records of the missions didn't reveal anything to indicate that suspicious information had been left behind, she couldn't afford to underestimate the Tauri or the SGC. She knew from her files on Colson Industries that the C.E.O. was aware of the SGC, the existence of aliens and Goa'uld technology. It was possible that he kept in contact with them or they with him. While her 'discussion' with Alec had made it quite clear that he was not to reveal a single word about their 'arrangement' and to act like everything was status quo, there was a chance he'd do something stupid. As for the NEW C.E.O. of Zeditron Industries, she was confident that his new level of prestige, power and wealth would keep him obedient for the foreseeable future. So long as he threw the fool a bone every once in a while, he'd comply with whatever order she gave him. At the same time those motivated by greed often became arrogant and began to think of ways of increasing their wealth even if it meant betraying the one who'd initially made them rich and powerful.

I'll have to assign a surveillance team to him soon and, once my information technologies are installed in his company, monitor his phone calls, emails as well as other forms of communications, she thought as she considered how to keep him on a short leash. If he proves too greedy there are plenty of others at Zeditron who will serve my purposes just as well.

Indeed, everyone else was ultimately expendable.

Only she mattered.

Only her glorious future and the restoration of the Goa'uld System Lords mattered.

Two Months Later, Briefing Room, Rocky Mountains R&D Facility, Buffy's POV

"What do you suppose the Queen Bitch wants now?" she growled, standing with the others before the flat screen.

She always did that.

Found some sort of derogatory term to use instead of calling their new taskmaster by her preferred name. It was the only real form of fighting back that she could do now without endangering the others and even then she'd been badgered by the others to show some restraint. It was their opinion that if she went too far it'd provoke retaliation that might be survivable or might not be, depending on how pissed the slut chose to be after a few inventive names. As much as it'd curb her fun, she'd been forced to admit that they had a point: pissed baddies sometimes did things that screwed up their plans without realizing it until afterwards. That meant if she pushed the blonde bimbo too far the woman might order their termination out of rage and that would SO not be of the good. There were times when it was difficult, when she wanted to say 'to hell with it', but her desire for revenge had not become so all-consuming that she was willing to forsake her friends or her family.

YET.

"Considering the fact that for everything else she only asked for the people directly related to the mission, odds are whatever she has planned next involves all of us." Giles replied with his helmet under his arm.

One of the few positive things to come of this whole mess was the fact that Giles had gone from being a man in his mid-fifties to someone who'd just hit forty. While she hadn't said anything outright, she'd always been a bit concerned about him hurting himself whenever he chose to leave the safety of his office. As much as she appreciated him and saw him as a father figure, she knew he was old and getting older with a body that was less capable of fighting demons every day. While for the most part he stayed with his books and his means of coordinating the New Watcher Council, there were times when he stepped outside and onto the battlefield. Whether it was because there was no one else with the knowledge he had or because his concern for them insisted that he handle matters in person, she didn't know but it happened. Thankfully his old habit of getting knocked out or put in the hospital, something that had happened yearly back in Sunnydale, had been mostly kicked with only a few minor scrapes here and there.

At least at age forty he looked to be young enough to be able to take more hits than a man in his fifties.

"That means it's big. Really BIG," Xander said through the mask of his nanosuit. "I don't like it."

It bothered her that the only time Xander took off the mask of his suit when he needed to eat and made her wonder if he was capable of taking the suit entirely off. She'd asked him about it once but he'd said he didn't want to let the suit out of his sight for a moment for fear of what their 'employers' might do with it. She'd countered by saying that the scorched Earth scans they'd done and whatever they'd pulled out of their 'beds' had probably told them everything they needed to know but still he refused to take the chance. She didn't know a lot about who 'Prophet' was and what the details of the suit were due to her not being a gamer like some people she knew. All she really knew were the few bits and pieces of information that Prophet had chosen to tell her costume personae prior to the spell ending and what she'd seen him do in the field when they went on missions together. While the power cell on the thing could use a serious upgrade, it had some cool features and Xander's skill with modern weapons had gone up significantly.

Unfortunately.

"I don't either but let's try to keep things positive," Willow said in a professional manner. "Maybe we're just being sent on a snatch and grab with a large number of things to be grabbed."

Without warning the flat screen snapped on to reveal the monster responsible for the changes they'd undergone and the blood that now dripped from their hands.

The urge to verbally lash out was great indeed.

"You're quite right, Miss Rosenberg. The mission I have for the five of you is primarily a 'snatch and grab' operation. The facility you are to infiltrate contains a number of unique items that I wish to make mine." Q.B said with her usual infuriating look of confidence. "They are spread out across a rather large facility and to acquire each of them as promptly as possible will require more than one person. It will, in fact, take all five of you in order to achieve your objectives."

In the corner of a screen an aerial shot of a military complex was shown and at once she knew this'd be different.

"This facility is called Area Fifty-One and, much like it's portrayed in popular media, it is a location where the United States Military sends all extra-terrestrial technology they acquire." Whore Lady said, only occasionally looking at the aerial shot. "Your objective will be to infiltrate and acquire four objects that I desire. You will each acquire one item apiece, with the youngest Summers taking up a sniper's position with the greatest field of vision along your assigned escape route.

"For Miss Rosenberg the target will be this lovely item," Bottle Blonde said as the image of the military base was replaced with some sort of metal hand device. "It will be labeled Osiris Kara kesh and, based on my internal sources, it will be located in this part of the facility the night of the mission."

"You don't have a more precise location? That's a big building to look through," Willow said with arms crossed over her chest.

"Indeed it is. I guess you'll just have to search the entire building," Creepy Egomaniacal Overconfident woman said with a smile on her face.

She gritted her teeth at this, believing wholeheartedly that the cunt was purposefully going to make things difficult for them this time.

"For Mister Harris the target will be this," Mayfuck said as the image on the screen changed to an odd circular object that reminded her of a large button but definitely sci-fi. "There will be three of them and they will be stored here in the east wing's medium security vault. If they are not there, look for them to be listed under the term 'mimetic imaging device' and you should have no trouble finding them."

"For Miss Summers the target will be at least two of these devices," Call Girl said as the image changed to something that looked like a metal squid or jellyfish. "They will be stored in the maximum security vault which will be under guard as well as a wide variety of electronic surveillance. Do not let these obstacles deter you from accomplishing your objective. RIP them apart if you must."

At these words she didn't much care if she was growling or not, the whore on the screen was making it all but certain that she'd be ending the lives of innocent soldiers.

"Mister Giles, though, will have the heaviest of the burdens to extract if only slightly less secure than the drones Miss Summers will be acquiring," Queen Bitch said as the image changed to some sort of sci-fi Lay-Z-Boy recliner. "It will be referred to as a Control Chair or Lantean Control Chair in the records, but given its appearance I doubt you'll have difficulty finding it."

"Yes. Quite recognizable," Giles said shortly with some serious dry wit.

"Infiltration will be done starting at the base's perimeter fence. Once you reach the building entrances closest to your objectives you will send out a single strong signal pulse. At this point a team separate from your own will cut communications for Area Fifty-One, both wired and wireless. Normally the United States Military will attempt for a full ten minutes to re-establish contact with one of their bases before sending anyone to investigate but, as you can imagine, Area Fifty-One is a tad more valuable. For their Groom Lake facility they try for no more than five minutes before dispatching a force to investigate. Leading the way will be two F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft but three minutes behind them will be two UH-1Y Venom helicopters, with an AH-64 Apache for escort. All of the aircraft are fully armed and each Venom will be carrying a squad of well-armed Green Berets who will be under orders to secure the facility and neutralize any hostiles. At best you'll have half an hour before they arrive from the moment the communications blackout begins." Whore Lady explained with visual aids appearing in the upper right hand corner. "The Groom Lake facility also possesses two squadrons of F-302s for defense against airborne threats. Those will need to be dealt with before the extraction vehicle can approach and land. Since Mister Harris' target is closest to their location, it will be his job to plant explosives on at least half of them in order to induce a chain reaction destroying them all. Once all objectives have been acquired you will all rendezvous at the extraction point, detonate the F-302s and leave. Any questions?"

"I take it the rules are the same as always when it comes to body count?" Xander asked, sounding as cold as ice.

"From the time the mission starts to the moment you acquire your target items, you are to exercise discretion but not at the expense of speed," Queen Cunt replied with more seriousness than arrogance. "Once you have what I want, though, get it to the extraction point undamaged no matter what the cost. NO MATTER WHAT!"

"Understood," Xan stated, sounding even colder than before, if that was at all possible.

"Good. You'll depart in one hour," Queen Bitch said, preparing to dismiss them. "I suggest you get your information packets and select the necessary tools by then. Goodbye."

With that the flatscreen television turned off, leaving them to their own devices until the departure time.

"So… what do you think the odds are that they've got non-lethal weapons in the armory?" Xander asked, trying to find a silver lining in the whole mess.

"Not very good," Giles replied, not realizing it was a rhetorical question. "While it is possible, considering there would have to be missions involving abduction, I doubt that they'll be made available to us. Miss Mayfield doesn't strike me as being very… merciful."

"Oh, I think she knows what mercy means," she said with a cynical snap. "I just think that her definition and our definition don't match."

"I think you're onto something there, Buff,." Xander said, a bit of his own cynicism showing. "Still, until we find a way to get our 'collars' off, we have no choice but to obey."

"Yeah," she growled, making her discontent clear.

"Patience, Buffy. Patience," Giles said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Patience can bring down the strongest empire, can cause great cities to crumble and make enemies grow careless."

"I know but since when has patience ever been my strong suit?" she asked with a sardonic half smile.

"True," Giles said with a matching smile.

Hours Later, One Hundred Yards From the Perimeter Fence of Area Fifty-One, Willow's POV

This is the Major, she thought into her cyber-comm to the others. I'm in position. Status?

This is Prophet. Position reached.Xander said directly into her mind via his comm device. Ready for penetration.

Raiden also in position, Buffy thought through her cybernetic communications system.

John One One Seven in position. Giles said into her mind via his armor's communications system.

Cameron in position, Dawn said via her comm-set.

Then mission is a go, she thought using the HUD of her eyes to verify the status of her camouflage. See you guys at the extraction point.

With that she shut down the encrypted comm channel and proceeded towards the electrified fence. This penetration point had been chosen because of its distance from the various security cameras along the perimeter since it would reduce the odds of anyone watching seeing the effect her feet had on the environment. With a leap that almost seemed natural to her now she made it over the fence and landed on the other side with a puff of dirt and a slight sound to mark her landing. Using the specialized head gear she'd been given, she was instantly able to see the minefield that had been laid out for a good five hundred yards inward from the fence. It wouldn't be easy to make her way through them since, by design, a minefield was meant to be difficult to make it through to the other side.

Still she'd fare a better chance than most people since she could see where they'd been buried.

Moving like a cross between a ballerina and a Olympic gymnast, she made her way through the minefield, sometimes only letting the balls of her feet touch the ground while other times there was enough room to put her entire foot down. A part of her actually found this to be kinda fun since, never in all her years had she been all that athletically inclined, but she didn't let the sensation interfere with her actions. Screwing up at this point would result in her prosthetic body getting blown into hamburger and likely cause some nasty consequences to be dealt out by C.E.O. Charlotte Mayfield.

Whether or not she'd be around for those consequences… it'd all depend on how lucky she turned out to be.

It took about five minutes of fast flipping, jumping and tip toeing but she eventually made it through the minefield to the other side. Breaking into a good run, she made her way to the door she'd be using to gain entry into the building, detouring only when she needed to in order to maintain a safe distance from patrol guards. Thermo-Optical camouflage did make a person invisible in Motoko's world but she wasn't about to take any reckless chances with the mission. Until it was proven otherwise, she'd operate under the assumption that if she got too close to a person or a camera there'd be visual distortions that could be seen. She didn't know how close was too close so she put fifteen feet as the minimum distance she'd be willing to get to anyone at this facility before acquiring her target. It slowed her down a little bit but she still managed to reach her entryway within an acceptable amount of time.

Once she was in front of the door that'd let her inside the building where her target was located, she took out the crypt-breaker that'd take care of the keypad lock. Sliding it into place, she waited for the sound that indicated that it'd successfully unlocked the door while keeping her auditory organs tuned for any sign of approaching people. It took less than a minute but it felt like hours before the tone reached her ears but, when it did, she put the crypt-breaker back into her equipment pouch before opening the door. Firing off the signal pulse as she'd been instructed, she slipped inside quickly in order to ensure that the door did not remain open for longer than necessary.

So far, so good, she thought as she could spot no sign of other people in the area with her eyes or her ears. Now to get an idea of where my target is.

According to the information packet she'd reviewed, the device was no longer an active object of examination but for tonight was being examined by one of Area Fifty One's specialists in the field of Goa'uld technology. It was apparently an off and on sort of thing whenever the man had some spare time away from more pressing technological examinations. The name she'd been given was Doctor Leonard Denning so, as she proceeded down the hallway, she kept on the lookout for anything with that name. At the same time she kept watch for any helpful signs and looked into the windows of every lab for someone matching Denning's picture.

"All stations: alert status has been raised to level four." Came an announcement over the Personal address system. "External communications are no longer possible. All security teams move to alert status."

Better pick up the pace. She quickened to a light jog. The clock is ticking. T-minus thirty minutes.

It was right before she'd almost been ready to try hooking into the facility's network that she finally hit paydirt in the form of a slightly chubby man in a lab coat. He'd just exited a room and on a tray in his hands was the very item she'd been tasked with acquiring. It was a stroke of good luck and not one that she was going to pass up. Slipping up behind him, she pulled her Seburo M5 from its holster and pressed it against his back.

Hard.

"Act normal. Do not make a sound," she said while still camouflaged. "Do as I say and you'll live to see another day."

She really didn't want to hurt or kill him but she had to make him believe otherwise, lest he get any ideas of screaming and running for help. Feeling him freeze up, she waited to see how stupid he was and was relieved to find out he was smart enough not to do anything stupid.

"Act as though you forgot something back in the room you just came out of and go back into it," she said while making sure her gun stayed pressed up against the man's back.

Watching the man do a minimally shaky job of playing the role of a forgetful scientist, she allowed him to lead the way back into the room. Once inside she let the door slide shut and looked about the room for any sign of cameras and found only one in the corner. Thankfully it didn't look like it had a microphone built into it so it'd be video only, making her job that much easier.

"Sit back down where you were working and make it look as though you're looking for something. I'm going to remove the barrel of my gun from your back but don't think for a second that it won't be aimed at your head the entire time. Play nice and everyone'll go home happy."

Pulling back her gun, she watched as the man did as she asked and then moved towards the camera, taking out what she'd been told had been named a 'ghost eye' box. It was what she'd used at Colson Industries so she was familiar with how to use it and in less than two minutes it was in place, feeding false video to the facility's security room. It wouldn't fool anyone, even the most absent minded doctor could find something eventually, but by the time anyone clued in she'd be long gone. Still, she set the device's self-destruct option to kick in twenty minutes since by that time she expected to be outside the building heading for the extraction point.

Moving back over where the good doctor was still pretending to be looking for something, she got up behind him and returned the barrel of her gun to his back.

"You're doing good, doctor," she said, trying to offer what comfort she could. "Hand me the hand device SLOWLY."

The man picked up her target and slowly lifted it until it was next to his head.

Taking it from him, she quickly and ruthlessly hit him on the back of the head with the butt of her gun, knocking the man out cold. She had a feeling that Athena would likely say she should have killed the man but that was unnecessary from her point of view. She had the target and the doctor hadn't seen her at all, so there'd be nothing he could tell his superiors when he regained consciousness. The ghost eye would self-destruct, destroying that piece of evidence, so killing an innocent man was unnecessary.

Turning off the camouflage long enough to put the target item into a pouch strapped to her waist, she turned it back on before slipping out of the room. She'd almost managed to convince herself that the mission just might be able to finish without anyone getting hurt when alarm klaxons began to sound, along with flashing red warning lights.

"Intruder alert! Repeat! Intruder Alert!" came the voice of someone in the security room. "Unknown hostile at max security vault! All security teams in close proximity report to the max security vault! All other locations increase alert status one level! Possibility of additional hostiles assumed!"

Damn! Buffy must've lost her patience and decided to go for the direct approach, she thought as she picked up the pace to get to the extraction point.

While some might think that stealth was no longer necessary now that all the alarms had sounded, she wasn't about to drop her camouflage any sooner than she had to. While her prosthetic body might put her above most things, bullets and explosives weren't among them and she couldn't risk her target item being damaged or destroyed.

Mayfield had made it clear that the safe retrieval of the hand device was top priority, so this was only following those orders.

She'd be lying if she said that a part of her didn't want to go and help her friend but the building with the maximum security vault was simply too far away for her to reach in time to do any good.

She'd just have to have faith in her friend to make it out alive, relatively unharmed and with as few lives on her conscience as possible.

Xander's POV

Shoulda known things were going too smoothly! he thought with a curse as he pulled the SCAR assault rifle from the magnetic holster on his back. At least I got the goods first.

Indeed he'd put the circular sci-fi chips into the nanosuit's built-in ammo pouches two minutes ago and had been sneaking his way towards the extraction point. It hadn't been easy given how limited the cloaking ability was and how it needed a recharge every once in a short while, but with careful observation and some lucky blind spots he'd managed. Still, he'd had to make every erg of energy count in order to ensure security didn't clue in to his presence, so in a way it was almost a relief that the stealth portion of the game had been cut short. Now he could get to where he needed to go without all the stressful sneaking about.

He was close enough to the maximum security vault that he could hear the gunfire as the soldiers moved to bring Buffy down but he wasn't worried about her. He'd seen how fast she was in her cyborg body, so dodging bullets and grenades would be child's play for her. True, it'd have been nicer if Mayfield had given his friend an armored backpack to put those drone things into but that wasn't what Buffy had to work with. She just had to deal with your standard army infantry backpack that was decidedly not bullet or frag proof, meaning the platinum blonde Slayer would have to most likely eliminate the opposition before she could leave with her target. Sure, she could try to run for it and hope that zigging and zagging like a madwoman would safeguard the drones, but running wasn't his friend's style. The only time he'd ever seen her run was when she was confronted with something she couldn't pound, slice or pierce and there were precious few things that fit that category especially now.

While he'd like to think that she hadn't been so changed by what they'd been through since their transformations that killing humans no longer bothered her, he knew from his own experience that it wasn't as… disturbing as it'd been in the beginning. He still didn't want to take lives unless he absolutely had to but he no longer felt the need to throw up when looking at the bullet riddled bodies he was responsible for making. He knew, though, that each life he took would chip away at him and, assuming they managed to free themselves from Mayfield, he'd have to dedicate himself to saving three times as many lives to atone for what he'd done. It was his own variation of the threefold rule Giles had told him about once but he'd rigged it to be what a person needed to do when committing a serious wrong.

He didn't know how it'd look in the eyes of God the Almighty but he hoped it'd at least keep him out of hell, since he was pretty sure there'd be some demons there looking for a bit of fun at his expense.

Probably a few dominatrix-inclined succubae, too, knowing his luck.

As he heard the fighting heat up in the direction of the maximum security vault, his confidence in his friend being able to get out of there in relatively good condition began to go down. He'd played 'Metal Gear Solid Four', so he knew how fast Raiden had been in his cyborg body and Buffy's body matched that fairly accurately. Sadly he knew that even with such a good body it was possible to be overwhelmed by numbers, especially since Buffy would no doubt be reluctant to use lethal force or even draw blood. If she racked up enough damage she wouldn't be able to make it to the extraction point unaided and he didn't want to even think about what Athena might do in light of that.

Goddamit! he thought as she changed the direction from the extraction point to Buffy's position. Gotta end this quick! We've got less than twenty minutes before we gotta be outta here!

Keeping the SCAR at the ready, with his eye looking down the gun sight, he proceeded down the hallways in the direction of the fighting, being ever-ready to deal with opposition. He moved as quickly as he dared to without going so fast he could possibly walk foolishly into the crosshairs of the military guards. Seeing an intersection up ahead, he was almost ready to call it clear in his head when a team of three soldiers came into view and he knew what he had to do.

MAXIMUM ARMOR. spoke the A.I known as SECOND before the nanosuit configured itself for defense.

Going for as clean a death as he could manage, he fired bursts into the hearts of the soldiers, causing them to jerk from the impacts of the bullets while blood sprayed out from their bodies behind them. Watching them drop to the ground, he almost let a shudder go through him but instead firmed up and pressed onward towards the vault. It was a few minutes later that he arrived and what he saw let him know that his help was indeed needed and that Buffy was going to need some serious emotional support when everything was over.

All about the room outside the vault there were bodies on the ground, with some having been run through while others had suffered lost limbs and some had been cut clean in two. Looking at the vault doors themselves, he could see where his friend had used her high frequency blade to cut her own doorway into it. The edges of the cuts were just now beginning to lose the orange glow that always followed the use of a high frequency blade and the bodies of three guards lay dead beside the hole. As for the current struggle, Buffy was closer to the center of the room using her blade to deflect or destroy incoming fire from the eight soldiers firing on her. It was clear that Buffy was at the limits of what she could safely handle and was beginning to feel the strain as denoted by the fact that spots of white blood were showing up more and more as the seconds passed from bullet lacerations.

Before the eight guards could turn some of their fire on him, he went full auto with his SCAR assault rifle. In under six seconds the guards that had been pressing Buffy so hard were dead, leaving them free to walk away from this horrible situation. Reloading his rifle just in case, he walked over to Buffy, who was looking about the room like she didn't want to believe that they'd done what they'd done. Her Slayer instincts, her beliefs as a person, must have been tearing her up inside but, as much as he'd like to, he couldn't wait for her to pull herself back together.

"Raiden, we gotta go. Clock's ticking."

At his words she snapped her head in his direction before both her visor and her solid eye units retracted, letting him see her eyes clearly. The whirlwind of emotions he could see only confirmed what he'd thought and made him personally make a note to double his efforts to figure out a way to get Athena's leashes off of them, ASAP. If this sort of thing went on for too long, it would change his longtime friend in ways he didn't want to see her change.

"The best thing we can do to save lives now is to be elsewhere," he said, trying to plead his case. "As long as we're here they'll have to shoot at us and as long as they have to shoot at us we'll have to fight back. So grab your targets and let's get to the extraction point."

As a sort of battle focus appeared in her eyes, she nodded once before running back into the vault she'd penetrated, reemerging moments later with a large infantry backpack bulging with its cargo. With her encumbered by her cargo, he used military hand gestures that he'd take point to clear a path while she brought up the rear protecting her cargo.

Moving with the purpose they did have, they made their way outside with him dispatching any guards that took up problematic positions. As for those he didn't catch, they dropped every couple of seconds with a loud ka-kow, heralding their heads exploding as a high caliber sniper round he'd wager went through their skulls. Dawn was obviously using her sniper rifle to great effect, taking care of any soldiers he either missed or wasn't in a position to do anything about. While he appreciated the cover she was providing, he hoped she didn't wait too long before making for the extraction point herself since by his reckoning they had ten minutes before a response group from Creech AFB arrived. While Dawn-patrol might not show it, he was sure that her soul was being affected by all this just as much as the rest of them and the less blood she had to put on her hands, the easier it'd be for them to help her cope afterwards.

A few minutes later he and Buffy reached the extraction point, immediately taking up a defensive position with the latter's items behind them. Without even saying anything he took up the offense while Buffy focused on defense, them waiting for the remaining two members of their group to show up. Employing every bit of marksmanship he could muster, he did his best to keep any kills as painless and as quick as he could manage.

"Prophet to Cameron. We can hold things here. Leave the nest and hook up with us. Extraction is happening soon and you need to be here."

"Acknowledged. Leaving nest and proceeding to extraction point," Dawn said with no emotion whatsoever.

His eyes cringed in response but he didn't let it affect his aim.

They'd figure out a way to get her back to normal sooner or later.

Preferably sooner.

"You guys get your target items?" Willow asked as she dropped her thermo-optical camouflage, taking up a defensive position similar to his with her pistol.

"Yep. Just waiting on the Chief," he replied as he ventilated two more skulls. "Wonder what's taking him."

"Well, he does have the largest item of the four of us to get out of there," she said as she took down her own targets. "I'm sure he'll be along soon."

An explosion that tore apart a wall belonging to one of the larger buildings of the complex. It didn't take long for the cause to be revealed as, moments later, an engine roar preceded the emergence of a truck barreling through the flames, heading for the extraction point. In the driver's seat, looking none the worse for wear, was Giles and, from the looks of things, the Spartan's weight was almost more than the vehicle could handle. Any heavier and the truck's frame would probably be scraping along the concrete for about three seconds before the wheels broke off. He could see some kind of techno chair in the back of the truck but, before he could become concerned about it being damaged, a stray bullet revealed something interesting.

Some kind of energy bubble was surrounding the chair, protecting it from incoming fire.

So that's what the tube thing was, he thought, remembering what Giles had taken from the armory before they'd left on the mission. I didn't think Mayfield had gotten that far with production.

It worried him.

How long before she had enough tech and weapons made for the big push that'd put her into the global spotlight for all to see?

I just hope that we can slip the leashes Mayfield put on us in time to stop things before they go too far. Otherwise 'Judgment Day' is coming early this year.

Giles' POV

"You just had to blow something up, didn't you?" Cortana asked through the speakers on the inside of the helmet.

"Stealth wasn't an option anymore and the clock was ticking," he replied as he brought the truck to a halt just in front of the extraction point. "I took the shortest route available."

"And the fact that you could blow something up had NOTHING to do with it?" Cortana asked in a tone that made her opinion clear.

"I never said that," he replied, admitting that it had been somewhat fun to fire the R.P.G. at the wall.

While his opinion of American cinema was low, for the most part there had been a few films that he'd enjoyed and one or two of those had been action films with many an explosion to be had. Imitating a scene from one of those films was fun but he hadn't been lying when he said it'd been the most efficient way to get to the extraction point. When he'd chosen to load the chair onto the truck, it'd been even more imperative to create a big opening for it. Now that he was where he needed to be, all that was left was loading everything and everyone into their extraction vehicle then leaving before the response team arrived in… five minutes.

Looking at the others, he was pleased to see that they had successfully acquired their requisite target items, though, thanks to Buffy, things had gotten quite a bit louder than it could've been had she exercised some strategy and stealth. Then again he guessed asking her to behave in such a manner would be akin to getting Xander to cease calling him that god forsaken nickname for good. An impossibility without some life altering event taking place to change how they viewed the world, as well as themselves, but it could be said that that had already happened. After all, what else could you call having their bodies transformed, mind imprints that mingled with their own native minds, put through torturous examinations and then forced to commit horrible acts. Such things would change many people but he considered all of them to be fortunate in that they still retained much of who they'd been before Ethan had cast the spell.

Most of them had, anyway.

"So where's our way outta here?" Xander asked before detonating the explosives placed on Area Fifty-One's aircraft, presumably on his approach to the main buildings. "I'm assuming it's by air because there's no way we're outrunning pursuit on the ground."

"Look up, Prophet," came an unknown voice through the comm system.

Deciding it couldn't hurt, he looked up into the sky but never in his imaginings did he expect to see what he saw becoming visible as a scaled cloak of invisibility went to pieces, revealing an aircraft he had no trouble recognizing.

"A PELICAN!?" Cortana exclaimed as the dropship descended from above.

This was not something he'd been expecting when he'd originally discovered where precisely they'd be picked up at and the others were as shocked as he was given their expressions. A cargo plane or something else capable of landing, taking on the load necessary and taking off with the limited amount of time they had left before the response group arrived would've been more reasonable than this. Obviously their 'employer' was much further along in understanding, replicating and employing what she'd gained from her scientists' actions than had originally been presumed by the group. To have a working Pelican and equip it with cloaking technology… this did not bode well for the future. According to John's memories, the UNSC had methods of rendering vessels invisible but nothing smaller than a Prowler could house and power the device. He could only presume that, after studying the cloaking technology employed in the universes where John-117, Major Kusanagi, Prophet and Raiden came from, Athena managed to devise her own that could be used on a Pelican.

While disturbing, this will at least ensure that we make it out of the area before the response team from Creech Air Force Base arrives, he thought as the aircraft touched down on the ground. But what is that large cargo container hanging from the back?

It was huge, barely small enough to fit on the back of the aircraft, and when it was released from the Pelican it cracked the concrete, implying that what was inside was very heavy. After that the Pelican hovered forward a couple of feet to allow the rear hermetic door to lower to the ground so they could get on board. A single man walked down the hatch door, ignoring them completely and going straight for the cargo container doors. Curious, he almost thought of taking a look but, as a particularly loud volley of gunfire ripped through the air, he decided instead to prioritize getting the target items on board the Pelican. Getting out of the truck he'd commandeered, he went to the rear of the vehicle and took hold of the odd looking chair before using the strength of the Mjolnir armor to lift it up.

Moving as quickly as he dared, he walked up the hatch-ramp into the Pelican, noticing immediately that the most of the seats usually used by infantrymen or other passengers had been removed. Most likely to make room for the items Mayfield had asked them to since, if all the seats had been left in, it'd be an awkward fit. Setting the chair down, he turned around to see Buffy setting the sack containing her targets on the floor of the aircraft while the others piled theirs on top. It was as the others began to take their seats that he noticed the man from before returning from the cargo crate with quite a bit of speed in his step. This only added to his curiosity and confusion because, while he agreed that haste was required given the time they had left, surely the cloaking device the Pelican had would be of great help.

"Alright! Get us outta here, Vickers!" the man said as he made his way to the cockpit entrance. "We've got one minute to make five kilometers so let's haul ass!"

One minute? Five kilometers!? What could they fear that runs on a timer and requires that they get five kilometers away quickly? What...

The first thing he considered was maybe a nuke but the sort of weapons that would have a five kilometer blast radius wouldn't need a cargo container to transport it. An example would be the W54 used with the Davy Crockett delivery system that had a minimum safe distance of a little over a kilometer. It was small enough that it could be carried out or fired from a distance and he seriously doubted that Miss Mayfield would waste a cargo container on it.

Again and again he tried to figure out the truth even as he watched Dawn finish strapping herself into her seat with mechanical speed and precision. It was only when he considered the possibilities born of the technology stolen from bodies and databases that did not belong to Mayfield that he stumbled upon a horrific possibility. Looking back out the rear hatch just before the container disappeared from view, his fear spiked as the size of the container matched a device his mind didn't want to believe was in there. It was inconceivable! To use something like that, HERE, it was overkill taken to ridiculous heights and was not necessary.

No. That was not true.

With the appearance of the Pelican to the troops of Area Fifty-One, there was a reason for deploying it if the minimum of information was to make it out of the area. They could never hope to kill every set of eyes on the base before they got clear and the news of Pelican would be precisely the sort of thing Athena would not want getting out.

Granted, if what he suspected was true, the content of the container wouldn't exactly be subtle either but it'd leave less for an investigation team to work with.

"You lot might want to buckle up and hold on tight," he said to the others as he took his own seat and strapped in.

Unlike John One One Seven, he wasn't going to risk being thrown about the interior of the aircraft if things got dicey and the Pelican crashed.

"Why?" Buffy asked with a bit of curiosity.

"Because if I'm right in about thirty seconds there's going to be a sudden and massive displacement of air that'll cause this craft to shake like a maraca," he replied after he finished securing himself.

"That sounds bad." Xander said in perfect deadpan.

"Actually that's the best case scenario," Cortana said, sounding as concerned as he did.

"And the worst case scenario would be…?" Willow asked, almost sounding like she didn't want to know the answer.

"Vaporized or displaced into another dimension." Cortana replied as though she was relating the weather.

"REDLINE THIS FUCKER!" Xander yelled at the pilots, knocking on the wall separating the rear of the ship from the cockpit.

"WHADDAYA THINK I'M DOIN'!?" yelled the pilot, who sounded as tense as the rest of them were at the moment. "HOLD ON!"

Second by second he waited but, when it finally happened, even he was taken by surprise with regards to just how violently the Pelican shook. He could only imagine how things looked on the outside but he could guess based on the memories he'd inherited from Spartan One One Seven.

The Master Chief had only seen it happen once, in orbit over Reach, but he imagined that a slip space rupture in the atmosphere of a planet would be decidedly different. After all, displacing that much matter and air in an instant would create a significant void that nature would hasten to fill in, disrupting the surrounding atmosphere significantly. All that had been visible in orbit of Reach had been an orb of darkness and purple light that popped into existence and then nothing but a third of a ship on either side, with nothing in the middle but empty space. Inside the atmosphere, though, there would be other visible signs following the collapse of the slip space rupture and it would leave any who saw it dumbfounded. Even those that were familiar with magic would be hard pressed to explain what was going on outside and, even if the sight itself was a breach of Mayfield's secrecy rules, there'd be nothing to examine.

No clues to be found.

As the Pelican began to steady itself and the turbulence caused by the displacement of air abated, the lights in the craft shifted from the normal white to red. This likely meant that the cloaking system had re-engaged, causing them to vanish from all conventional senses, both organic as well as electronic. Unless something truly unforeseen happened, it'd be smooth sailing from here on out.

Not that that mattered all that much to him or he suspected the others.

Like the others he'd done everything he could to minimize casualties at the facility by doing everything possible to avoid witnesses. They killed only when they were spotted, using the technology like his armor's HUD to escape and evade American soldiers every step of the way. It hadn't been easy for him, given his new size and his target, but the memories of Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan One One Seven served him well. He was certain that the others had likewise utilized their new skills to the fullest but now all their efforts had been reduced to nothingness. Every piece of matter within five kilometers of the cargo container had been cast into oblivion, including every man and woman inside Area Fifty-One.

"Anyone else feel like crap right now?" Xander asked, sounding like he knew full well what had been done to their efforts to preserve life.

No one answered but they all knew the answer to the question.

The Edge of the Groom Lake Crater, C&C Tent, Lieutenant General Jack O'Neil's POV

Five Hours Later

Well, there's something you don't see every day. He looked at the camera feed from the chopper that was descending into the crater that'd replaced Area Fifty-One to see just how deep it was. Considering some of the stuff I've set eyes on, that's saying something.

Indeed it had been a little over four and a half hours ago that he'd been just about to head to bed after a particularly long day of paperwork and meetings when his phone had rung. Going over to it, he hadn't even been able to fire off a comment like 'this better be important or you will be reassigned to the ass end of the galaxy' before the lieutenant on the other end had spoken. All she'd said was one single sentence but that'd been enough to make him hold his tongue which, considering his habit of being a tad mouthy and witty, surprised even him.

'General O'Neill Area Fifty One is gone.'

Naturally he'd asked for clarification but the lieutenant had told him that nothing more could be said over the phone since this was a DEFCON three situation and asked that he return to the Pentagon for more information. Naturally he'd agreed and had left five minutes later after getting his uniform back on, all the time wondering what could've caused a two level jump in America's defense condition. However it wasn't until he'd arrived at the Pentagon and been escorted to a briefing room usually used for very important and classified meetings that the seriousness of the situation hit him. Sitting at the table in various states of rumpled dress was the complete list of Homeworld Command senior staff as well as the secretary of defense, Robert Gates. After the minimum of pleasantries were issued, they got right to the briefing on the current crisis and, the second an image of a massive crater showed up on the projection screen, he knew things were as serious as they could get.

He learned how five and a half hours ago all communication with the Groom Lake facility had ceased both in terms of conventional landlines along with wireless communication. For the predetermined five minutes all attempts were made to re-establish contact but, when those met with failure, a response team was dispatched from Creech Air Force Base to investigate. However, when the response group was just about to cross the five kilometer mark, a black sphere of unknown origin manifested, swallowing all but the rearmost chopper. Even then, though, the pilot of the chopper had been forced to make an emergency landing and the reason for that became apparent when the next image appeared on the projection screen. It showed that the nose of the chopper was completely gone and it looked almost like it'd been sliced off with some kind of energy beam, given the cleanness of the cut and the fact that the metal still glowed a bit.

The surviving chopper crew and occupants had called in what'd happened, asking for reinforcements, and they had been sent but a preliminary look at the crater revealed some disturbing facts. It was ten kilometers in diameter and at the very least the edges had been exposed to temperatures hot enough to turn the ground to glass. Even these few facts were enough to cause him concern and he could tell that the others were worried as well, given the possibly implications given the level of security put in place at Area Fifty One. According to some paperwork in the folders each of them had in front of them, nothing amongst the current inventory of alien technology possessed power enough to create such massive damage. This combined with the loss of communication lent a lot of support to the idea that there had been an alien attack of some sort but none of the alien races they were aware of possessed the capability to do something like this. The Goa'uld System Lords were gone, with most of their lesser kind scattered and powerless with the Free Jaffa Nation hunting them down at even the slightest hint of their presence. The Asgard were extinct in this galaxy along with most of their technology and their relatives, the Vanir, were off in the Pegasus Galaxy, removing them from being an issue.

Basically any galactic power that might've had the firepower to pull this off were either too far away to be guilty of the act or had been reduced to mere shadows of their former selves.

This meant it could only be a new threat and, given this first example of what the unknowns were capable of, it now made perfect sense to go to DEFCON three.

Once all relevant information had been laid out and the assembled persons had discussed the matter, he'd been told to use every available resource to find out who did this, what their goal was and do whatever it took to neutralize the threat. To that end he'd placed two calls and then hopped on the fastest jet available to get to the edge of what'd been named the Groom Lake Crater. Most people would say that, as a Lieutenant General, he didn't need to go there in person and could just sit in his office after making a few phone calls to send someone else to investigate, but they'd be forgetting one very important fact:

He HATED being stuck in his office with PAPERWORK!

He'd touched down at the nearest airstrip half an hour ago and now was getting his first real look at the crater firsthand.

The pictures didn't do it justice.

Hearing footsteps approaching, he looked away from the video feed and smiled as he saw one Colonel Samantha Carter walking up to him. Though his old second in command didn't know it, yet he knew through the grapevine that there was a good chance that she'd be promoted to Brigadier General within the next six months. However, as good as the promotion would be, he knew that she was always happiest when she was in the lab with some kind of new techno gizmos to figure out. Bitterly figuring out how the hell someone had managed to wipe the Groom Lake facility out of existence would be tainted by the lives lost. He knew that many of scientists that had been lost had been recommended for their positions by Carter and that she'd worked with many of them on various projects. He had little doubt that, even if he hadn't used his authority to get her assigned to the investigation, she'd have come on her own to figure out what the hell had happened.

Much like him, when some bastards killed a lot of friends, she made it her personal mission to help gain some payback.

"Good to see you again, Carter," he said as he turned fully towards her. "I wish it were under better circumstances."

Seeing the look of simmering anger in the blonde's eyes grow stronger as her eyes took in the crater, he almost pitied the person or persons responsible for this devastation.

"Same here, sir," she said, keeping things professional for now as she stopped two or so feet from him. "Have the teams learned anything new?"

"Not really. They've got people walking the edges with every hand held sensor we've got and there's a chopper trying to find out how deep it is but nothing else," he replied, not delving too deep into the science mumbo-jumbo.

"That's it? It's been hours since the event!" she exclaimed angrily at the less than satisfactory answer. "Have they even figured out how this happened!?"

"Not a lot. They found out where the unknowns cut the landlines, both above and below ground, and it looks like whoever did this melted through the connections," he replied, trying to give his former second-in-command something to cool her down.

"Melted? Not cut or blown up?" she asked as her mind devoured the data.

"Yep. Haven't seen the spot myself but the inspection teams sounded pretty sure of themselves," he replied glad to see something distracting her from her anger. "According to them it didn't look like they bothered to dig it up. More like weapons fire according to the team leader on site."

"Staff weapons? Ori weaponry?" she asked, obviously thinking of the most likely possibilities.

Of all the non-terrestrial threats to Earth, rogue Jaffa or remnants of the Ori army seemed the most likely to have been responsible for this but it didn't mesh in his mind.

"No. The team leader has been briefed on SGC threats and one of his people spent some time at the SGC. They know what a staff blast can do and the Ori never had anything capable of doing this." He shook his head. "If they did I doubt we'd still be here."

With some frustration he knew that Carter agreed with him.

Most of the Ori weaponry capable of this level of destruction were mounted on their ships and, if there'd been one in orbit, they would've seen it coming when they entered the system. Even with a cloaking device they'd have picked it up one way or another so he didn't think it was them.

However, if rogue Jaffa, a Goa'uld with delusions of grandeur and the Ori weren't responsible, then who was?

"General O'Neill! Radiation teams have found something!" came the call of one of the little people in charge of managing all the comm traffic.

"Care to be a bit more specific than that?" he asked as both he and Carter walked over to the speaker.

"According to what they're picking up it's not harmful but one of the team leaders says he thinks it might actually be Hawking radiation."

"But that's impossible!" Carter blurted out even as he could see the gears whirring behind her eyes.

"Impossible why?" he asked, figuring it'd be easier on her if she talked it out verbally rather than keeping it inside her head.

"Sir Hawking radiation is a theoretical form of radiation thought to be released by black holes due to the quantum effects near the event horizon. But it's all theoretical at the moment!" Carter replied before looking around for something. "I mean, even if it wasn't theoretical, the idea of a black hole popping up out of nowhere and then collapsing inside a planet's atmosphere-"

"Let me guess: astronomically unlikely?" he asked, given that that's what his own knowledge of astronomy was telling him.

"Definitely. I'm going to grab my own radiation gear and take a look for myself." she said finally, spotting where she could get said gear. "There's got to be a more realistic explanation for what happened here and I'm going to find it!"

He was about to make a comment about she should've been assigned to the laboratory division of the program but then realized if that had happened, then Carter likely would've been assigned to the Groom Lake facility.

Yeah. Better that she stayed with the SGC.

"General O'Neill. We have the official casualty list along with all the alien technology lost," said another lower-ranked member of the investigation team.

"Thanks," he said automatically as he took the set of five pieces of paper from the young man and looked at it.

It didn't take him long to see how long the casualty list was, took up two and a half pages to be precise, with only a short section below it showing who was off base at the time of the incident. A little over a hundred and fifty people who wouldn't be seen ever again and the same number of families that the United States military would have to send 'we regret to inform you' letters to. Worst of all, he was sure that the cause of death would be covered up more than usual, if only to keep word from getting out about how bad things were.

He might've been trying to act like his usual self but the truth of the matter was that, the second he'd seen the crater for the first time, he'd known without a doubt that something new was starting.

Something bad.

It felt similar to how he'd felt when it'd finally set in that Ra hadn't been the only one of his kind and that in fact there were dozens more, all with their eyes turning towards Earth.

One way or another we need to start getting ready now, he thought as he continued to read through the information he'd been handed. 'Cause I got a bad feeling a storm is coming.

Farrow-Marshall Aeronautics R&D Facility, Supposedly Abandoned

Northern Tip of the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Canada

Athena's POV

Well, I'd say everything turned out swimmingly, she thought as she watched her newest acquisitions being rolled to the labs for study. My unwilling agents proved that they could successfully infiltrate the second most important facility on American soil, steal from it and escape without a single scratch on their targets and only minor scrapes on themselves. Time to raise the bar again, I guess.

Indeed, so far she'd been giving them assignments where there was little to really push them to their limits in any area other than covert action and assassination. She needed to give them a mission that was closer to an actual battlefield, where they'd be pushed to their limits in all areas, so that she could see for real just what was or wasn't possible for someone with their enhancements. Unfortunately that meant sending them up against either a large number of opponents where quantity would make up for the lack of quality or against a force armed with weapons designed to work against armored vehicles. Either option would put them in a situation that would allow her to make a proper evaluation of their true potential as well as the potential of her future army.

She'd have to think on it for a bit.

First, though, I think it's long past time I met them face to face. Should be interesting, she thought with a malicious smile on her face.

Heading towards the armory where the team of six would be putting away their equipment, she was politely intrigued to see Doctor Drago approaching. For a moment she wondered why since she had not sent for him but then she recalled that he was tasked with keeping her up to date one three of her more important projects. If he was there then that meant there'd been a significant development in one of them and for that she could permit him to approach her without a summons.

"Something interesting happen, Doctor Drago?" she asked once he was close enough that she didn't have to yell.

"Indeed, Mistress. I have just been notified of three developments regarding projects Fallen Column, Titans and Horsemen," Doctor Drago replied, taking up a respectful and subservient posture.

"Oh?" she asked, pleased that all three had made significant advancements.

"Work crews on Fallen Column have just finished completing the outer and inner framework without incident. With that finished they will begin on the installation of the primary systems, starting from the rear and working their way to the front." Drago replied, surprisingly having committed the reports to memory. "All adjustments required in order to fully incorporate the diverse technologies gleaned from the subjects have been made. However we will have to wait until a new slip space engine has been completed before some things can be integrated."

"The delay will be minimal. I've been told that now that the engineers who constructed the first one fully understand its components and functions, building another will be done in no time."

"That shall please the crew of Project Fallen Column greatly," Drago said with a nod before continuing. "Moving on, those assigned to Project Titans in our Alaskan facility report that the first prototypes of both their land and amphibious models have been completed. They will begin testing in the field within the week and, once the pilots have finished mastering the simulations on moderate difficulty setting, combat trials will begin after that."

"I trust all security precautions will be in place to keep them from prying eyes?" she asked with a stern look on her face. "That the pilots will remain in the designated testing areas and not do ANYTHING that might draw attention?"

"All possible precautions have been taken, Mistress. All occupants of the facility have been bluntly told that endangering the secrecy of the project will result in extreme punishments," Drago replied with enough resolve that she could take his words as truth, "On the matter of Project Horsemen, the head scientist reports that they have finally determined the ideal combination of technologies to maximize their combat potential. Implantation and augmentation of the primary candidates approved by you will begin within twenty-four hours. Presuming there are no complications, they should be ready to begin training two weeks later."

"Two weeks?" she asked, not entirely pleased with that estimate.

"Y-yes. Even with the advancements we've made they will still require a certain amount of recovery time from the various procedures. The various medical treatments we've gained can't accelerate it any more than this." Drago replied with a flicker of fear in his eyes.

As much as she didn't like this last bit of news she'd been given, Drago knew the penalties of providing her with inaccurate information. If he said that two weeks was the soonest that her Horsemen could begin formal training with their enhancements, then she would have no choice but to wait.

However…

"Very well, but inform the scientists at Project Horsemen that I expect them to do all they can to further refine the recovery process," she said with a stone cold voice. "Their goal will be to reduce it to ONE week. Tell them I will be most disappointed in them if they should fail to attain this goal within a reasonable amount of time."

"O-of course, mistress. I'll make sure to impress that upon the project head," Drago said with a bow of subservience before walking away.

Resuming her walk to the armory with Wesker and Smith behind her, she had to personally admit that she was pleased with the progress of her various projects. By her estimate they were running just a little ahead of schedule and that was good for the most part, however it also meant she would have to toss her unwilling warriors a 'filler mission' in order to give her Horsemen the time they needed.

Now what would make an appetizing target and a worthy warm up to their true mission?

She already had enough corporations under her thumb to ensure the safe creation of her new army and the destruction of Area Fifty-One was a potent blow against her enemies in the SGC. What else was there?

The answer came to her in an instant.

There was one other potential target tied to the SGC that would hurt them greatly and at the same time be a sort of black favor to her enemies. According to her sources there was an organization referred to as the IOA that was in charge of overseeing the SGC and its affiliated operations, an international civilian organization rather than a military or government one. She'd only gotten a hold of a handful of names but it hadn't taken her long to see that the members were arrogant, selfish and close-minded fools that only hindered her enemies. Normally one would think that the right thing to do would be to support these incompetents and add fuel to the fire in order to further hinder the SGC but she had a better idea.

Have her team of angry assassins eliminate five of its top members as well as anyone within eyesight of the primary kill.

All at the same time worldwide!

Such an act would stir up such a commotion worldwide that it would put considerable pressure on O'Neill's Homeworld Security and the SGC to find those responsible, especially if she permitted this time for abnormal signs to be left behind. Nothing too useful but enough to ensure that her enemies made a connection between the destruction of Area Fifty-One and the assassinations thus making the uproar even bigger. Their second most secure facility destroyed with everything inside it and then the top five people of the organization responsible for their funding dead… 'shit storm' described what would follow nicely. In a way it'd be a nice prelude to the big finale of the first act of her grand plan that might even allow her to push for Projects Titan and Fallen Pillar to be accelerated. The primary reason why it had been progressing at its current rate of speed was that she didn't want to attract too much attention with the movement of such large amounts of materials. Therefore she'd kept the shipments small in order to blend in with others performed by conventional companies. However, if her plan succeeded in distracting her foes enough, she could risk increasing the shipment size, thus accelerating both projects towards completion.

Yes. This will do nicely, she thought with a smile as the armory door came into sight.

Pushing open the door a few moments later she quickly spotted all five of the ones she sought following the proper procedure for putting their weapons away after a mission. Like she'd expected, all of them turned towards the door when it opened and the looks of outage they sent her way… it only made her smile even wider than she already had been.

"Well done! All of you," she said, putting on the act of a proud employer. "The mission was a complete success. All targets were acquired and all… complications… dealt with."

"COMPLICATIONS!?" Miss Lightning Bolt roared while being held back by the faux Master Chief. "YOU WIPED OUT THE ENTIRE BASE!"

"I think what Buffy means to say is that it wasn't necessary," Prophet said in subzero tone of voice. "Every person who saw us was killed. There was no need to destroy the entire facility."

"On the contrary, there was every reason to destroy the base," she said, completely ignoring their emotions. "While no one might have seen any of you and lived there were still clues left behind that could make any future missions… complicated. Besides which, my scientists had just finished testing the slip space drive so the timing seemed right."

"The TIMING seemed RIGHT!?" Miss Lightning Bolt raged, struggling against her restrainer. "You killed over a hundred people!"

"You're hands are hardly clean now, either, Miss Lightning Bolt," she said with a condescending look. "How many people have tasted your blade since your 'upgrade'? You may like to think that you had no choice but you did: you could've committed suicide. My little 'collars' are only incentives; they can't control your actions, so all you had to do to break free was cut your own head off. I'd say this pretty much proves that you value your own life over the lives of strangers quite nicely."

The young woman roared as she finally threw off the Master Chief into a wall and charged.

She wasn't worried.

The swordswoman didn't get more than halfway to her before the ace up her sleeve took action.

A well timed roundhouse kick to the stomach caught the enraged cyborg in the chest, sending her flying into the far wall but that was only the opening move. Before the fool could even look up, her agent unleashed a barrage of moves from various Eastern Martial Arts before slamming the little girl head first into the ground. To top it all off, both arms were then grabbed and a foot placed so that, even with the significant strength available to Miss Lightning Bolt, it would do little good.

In the end it was the identity of the defender though that would immobilize everyone the best.

Dawn Summers.

"You didn't really think I would appear before you without an ace up my sleeve, did you?" she asked, letting all her confidence show. "Prior to Mister Rayne's spell I had my people slip three things beneath the young woman's costume. Those three things were a piece of paper, a CD and a USB stick all with the same contents transcribed onto them. Directives, if you will, to replace the Skynet programming that is usually there by default.

"Directive One: this unit will protect subject prime Athena from any and all harm, even at the risk of permanent loss of functionality. Directive Two: All orders issued by subject prime Athena are to be followed without hesitation. Directive Three: Unit is not permitted to speak outside of assigned missions and during missions conversations must be of mission relevant topics. You see, I knew it would only be a matter of time before one of you lost control and tried to harm me, so I made sure to have some extra protection. Now if you want you could still try to hurt me but then you'd have to reduce the youngest member of your group to so much scrap in order to do so. Personally I just don't see any of you having the spine to do it."

It felt so GOOD seeing their looks of impotent anger being directed her way, knowing they couldn't do a thing about it without hurting one of their own.

"In any case, as a SMALL reward for your hard work, I've had my people convert one of the rooms into a small entertainment center. Naturally there are no connections to the outside world available and you will be monitored at all times, but at least you'll be able to have SOME fun until your next mission," she said as she turned halfway towards the door. "I already have the necessary targets in mind and need only gather the necessary intel before it can begin. I suggest you enjoy your free time while you can."

She took four planned steps towards the door before stopping and looking at Subject Cameron right in the eye.

"Subject Cameron: release Subject Miss Lightning Bolt. Maintain alert level three until I am well out of viable attack range for Subject Miss Lightning Bolt."

"Acknowledged," Dawn Summers said with a voice completely devoid of emotion.

With that she left the room and for a moment wondered if any of them would dare to chance attacking her.

After five minutes of nothing, though, she knew her plan to turn one of their own against them had worked flawlessly. She knew it'd been a bit dangerous to put the idea of all of them committing suicide to escape her out in the open but she stood by her statement that she didn't believe any of them would go that far.

They wouldn't because they still held onto the hope that they'd one day be free.

That hope would betray them.