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

6. The End of a Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my stories. Therefore it would be greatly appreciated if no lawsuits were sent my way or any criminal charges laid. I can promise that whatever you get from me it won't cover even a tenth of your legal fees.

Briefing Room, Twelve Days Later, Xander's POV

Another group mission? Well this can't be good, he thought as he walked into a room he'd dubbed 'The Hall of Woes' due to what was inevitably born from the room.

All five members of the group were assembled and, as usual, none of them were in a very good mood or looking forward to another layer of blood being added to their hands. Nevertheless, none of them were willing to risk being given another example of why defying Mayfield was a bad idea, especially given there was no way of knowing when the woman would decide on a lethal example. As much as it pissed all of them off to do so, their only option was to bide their time and wait for the opportunity they all hoped was coming their way. S.E.C.O.N.D was making progress from what he could make out of its statements but whatever solution it was putting together was only at seventy-three percent. At the rate it was going, it'd be at least another seventeen days before it hit one hundred percent and that wasn't even taking account understanding what the non-sentient artificial intelligence's solution would actually do once implemented.

He wasn't sure his friends could last that long.

The wear and tear was beginning to show on the faces of his friends, or voice in Giles' case, seeing as how he rarely took off the helmet of his Mjolnir armor these days. They were enduring as best they could and, in his opinion, their willpower was the match of any seasoned soldier or warrior on the planet Earth. Too bad even the greatest of walls or largest of mountains crumbled eventually, so the longer things went on, the sooner the pillar that was their inner strength toppled. He wasn't an expert on the human mind but his estimation of the minds of his friends put the day of the 'final straw' being roughly no more than three months away. When that day arrived it'd be suicide bomber time on Mayfield's skanky ass, with everyone throwing caution to the wind because none of them would care about the consequences any longer.

Hell would be preferable to continued servitude under Mayfield.

Watching as the flat screen TV snapped on, he just hoped that his own personal hell didn't turn out to be an eternity serving a Mayfield look-a-like.

Shuddering did not do what he was feeling justice.

"Glad to see you all again," Mayfield said, sounding like they were old friends. "I hope you've made use of the entertainment room I provided. After all there's no reason why your time in my 'employ' has to be completely unpleasant."

"Might need a few new controllers for the game system," he mentioned offhand with a little sarcasm. "Kinda broke it by accident."

"I'll see to it that replacements are purchased as well as a couple of spares," Mayfield said, ignoring the sarcasm entirely. "Now on to business. Your mission this time around will be to seize an Indian radar station hub that monitors all air traffic for a specific region of the country. Nothing enters the country or leaves it without this radar station seeing it."

"So what exactly are we to do with it once we have it?" he asked, figuring the sooner they got all the relevant mission data the sooner, the tv would switch off.

"You will shut it down completely and prevent the local military from retaking it until you're signaled to leave." Mayfield replied, turning to look at him directly. "Naturally lethal force is authorized but if you should come up with a means to retain your hold that does not require killing anyone, I'll permit it. You've done so well on your missions up until now, I feel like giving you a little operational leeway."

"Thank you," he said while making a face from beneath the nanosuit's mask that would piss most people off.

"Don't suppose you'd like to tell us WHY we have to take and hold the station?" Buffy asked, not hiding her true feelings more than absolutely necessary.

Hopefully it'd be enough to keep Mayfield away from the 'button of great pain'.

"The purpose of the mission is that I've made a deal with a citizen of India to have some 'merchandise' delivered. It's something quite illegal that I would rather not fall into the hands of the Indian government." Mayfield replied with a polite smile. "By seizing and shutting down the radar station hub you will deprive the government of its primary means of detecting my delivery aircraft, allowing it to enter and exit Indian airspace without them knowing. Once the transaction is complete and the package delivered, my transport will leave, allowing you to leave as well."

"Why don't you use the cloaking tech you obviously have?" Willow asked in an effort to take some of the heat off of Buffy.

"Sadly my current model cloaking device can only render something the size of the Pelican invisible for the time being." Mayfield replied conversationally. "The amount of merchandise I plan delivering would require two trips in a Pelican rather than just one, therefore it is simply more efficient to deliver it in a larger aircraft and utilize another way to keep it from prying eyes."

That made sense.

It was also something of a relief that Mayfield's tech hadn't grown too powerful just yet. It meant that she'd be beatable by the armies of the world if it came to a head on fight. True, they'd probably need some help with some of the more impressive stuff but, by his reckoning, the Scooby gang would either be free or suicidally ripping Mayfield to pieces by then. So basically it'd be simple enough to fix in either case.

Of course he had little doubt that Mayfield would keep trying to get her cloaking device to work on bigger and bigger things, but hopefully her eggheads were experiencing a major science block on that front.

"You will have one hour to gather the necessary information and equipment for the mission," Mayfield said with one final smile. "I'd recommend packing a little heavier than usual. The mission will likely be a couple of hours long."

With that the television shut down, leaving the Scoobies to their own devices for the next hour before they'd have to report to the hanger to hop on their transportation method of the day. Looking at the others, he just nodded before heading for the door, with the armory being his overall destination. He had a few ideas in mind for what he'd take on the mission and, contrary to what some might think, it'd be heavy on the shock and awe. In his mind the only way to minimize casualties was to make the local military too afraid to approach this radar station by air or ground. This would hold them back since they'd likely expend every resource they had that wouldn't damage the station itself before they'd say something like 'screw it. It can always be rebuilt' and bring in the heavy artillery.

When that happened he figured they'd likely be prepping for extraction so they could use up whatever ammo they had left to provide an opening for their transport to come pick them up.

Then it'd be over.

Hopefully with the bare minimum of casualties on the opposing side.

Hopefully.

Forty-Five Minutes Later, Willow's POV

Okay, let's go through the checklist. Seburo M5 plus three clips? Check. SPAS-12 shotgun with one full shell holder belt around the waist and another full one going from left hip to opposite shoulder? Check. Seburo C26A assault rifle with one full clip in the rifle and three more in my pack? Check. RPG-7 with seven rockets? Check. Well, that's everything.

She'd tried to choose weapons that would be of most use in a siege scenario while also not the sort of weapons that'd result in unnecessary casualties. While it was true that the shotgun wasn't very precise, most of the other guns were and it was her intent to use the RPG-7 more to destroy any vehicles that would be brought to bear against the Scoobies than for wanton slaughter. It was her hope that by destroying their vehicles it'd be enough to scare them off since not a lot of people were stupid enough to try going up against explosive projectiles without decent cover to hide behind. She also helped that given the recognizable appearance of the weapon would be enough to cause the people she aimed it at to get clear of the point of impact.

While she'd considered grabbing more, she didn't want to hamper her mobility any since, even with the five of them, they'd have to stay on their toes to maintain their grip on the entire radar station. She supposed that if the systems were compatible enough Cortana could hop into the systems, freeing up Giles a bit more, but she wasn't going to bank on it. Depending on how old the station was and when the last time was that they upgraded the systems, it was possible that there was not near enough memory for the artificial intelligence to even get her digital foot into it. As such they'd just have to hope that once they got everything shut down that they'd be able to keep anyone from penetrating deep enough to turn it back on.

Fixing her gray and black combat uniform to make sure everything fit properly, she then walked out of the armory to meet up with the others who'd gone ahead of her to the hangar. According to the mission data they'd been given, they'd be using the Pelican to get to India and then they'd be dropped off just outside of earshot of the radar station. They'd then approach on foot keeping to cover the entire way in order to avoid being seen and, once they were within a certain distance, they'd split up to infiltrate the building. With luck they'd be able to cut communications so that when they did reveal themselves to the people manning the station, it'd be too late for them to do anything about it. If they had cell phones it'd take them time to dial anything and, with the physical abilities that the Scoobies now possessed, no human would be able to get one up on them.

The entire shut down process of the systems in the station wouldn't take long but, according to the mission data, they were on a set schedule if Mayfield wanted to get her aircraft into the country undetected. They all had their assigned tasks and they were chosen in order to make everything happen as quickly and as efficiently as possible in order to keep things on track. Her job was to interface with whatever was run by computers, slice through the security programs and shut those systems down at the same time as the others shut down their systems. Giles and Xander would handle the systems not operated by computer while Buffy and Dawn kept an eye out for the first people to respond to the shutdown. Once the entire station was shut down, four of them would cover all angles of approach while one stayed at the main controls for the radar station just in case someone made it inside. Naturally all the anti-vehicle weaponry would be either near a window or on the roof since it'd do more harm than good to fire it inside.

According to the mission data, the entire operation from the moment they got off the Pelican to the moment they pulled out would be roughly eight hours, give or take a couple of minutes. While the mission data didn't say where the aircraft carrying the 'merchandise' would be taking off from, with the time frame given it'd have to be in one of the neighboring countries. Any further away wouldn't be practical and she didn't think that Mayfield would risk exposing a larger aircraft born from the knowledge she'd obtained from them for a simple business transaction. It was far more likely that she'd use conventional terrestrial aircraft to transport the merchandise in order to keep from giving her buyers a grasp of just what she had.

After all it was a fact that people that dealt in illegal and highly dangerous goods weren't the biggest supporters of morality and tended to get a tad greedy.

If Mayfield showed too much, her buyers might just decide to rob the delivery people blind and disappear.

Of course the buyers would likely find out within a week what a bad idea that was when the C.E.O hunted them down and ended them in the quite the terrible manner.

Hopefully these 'buyers' have enough business sense to keep their ambitions in check, or at least know when they're in over their head, she thought as she exited the main building before heading towards the hanger. Then again, Mayfield seems smart enough to pick her clients carefully so maybe she knows that she can trust her buyers to mind their manners.

Her mind wandered as she contemplated what the merchandise could be and hoped that it wasn't something that'd tip the balance of power someplace. Whether it be terrorists, government officials or simple criminals, if any got their hands on the advanced tech and weapons Mayfield possessed they'd gain a decided advantage over their enemies. If criminals were the buyers then many innocents would die during the commission of their crimes, since they'd likely be so drunk with their newfound strength that it would breed recklessness in them. If it was government officials it could mean anything from a potential coup de ta in the making or the Indian government becoming bold enough to seize territory from their neighbors. If terrorists were the buyers… it would be a worst case scenario since such people, by their very nature, targeted places where a high body count would be the result of their actions. It was the belief of such people that the only way to make others listen to them was violence and that fear would force the world to conform to their wishes.

The idea of Halo, Crysis, Metal Gear, Ghost in the Shell and Terminator technology in the hands of such people… 'horrified' did not do how she felt justice.

Mayfield was only SLIGHTLY better because she was a businesswoman and it wasn't good business to kill the people that'd be buying your products.

Then again, maybe the woman planned on killing a couple of handfuls of people and then telling the world 'buy my products or this happens to you. Buy A LOT', but that was just too insane to think about too much.

Entering the hanger, she could see the others waiting for her outside the Pelican with their various chosen weapons either on their persons or likely on board the aircraft. Like her they'd chosen their weapons based on what they expected to face when they arrived at their destination and what it'd take to maintain possession of the station until they were permitted to leave. She could make out a few of the weapons and thankfully they weren't the type to cause excess death unless the wielder got pretty sloppy with them or intended to get a high body count from the beginning.

Neither possibility was going to happen though because she knew her friends didn't like what they were being forced to do any more than she did.

They just had to hang on a little while longer.

She just hoped that, when they tried to come back over to the side of the 'White Hats', that they'd understand why they hadn't just killed themselves.

It wouldn't have done any good.

All that would've happened is that the world would be facing a force completely unfriendly with no way to oppose them immediately. Oh, she was sure that given enough time they'd be able to reverse engineer Mayfield's soldiers and the tech they'd be using, but that could take months. Of course that was assuming that the blonde businesswoman didn't have some kind of failsafe in the tech to ensure that there was nothing left to study. If she'd been running the show, she'd definitely incorporate something that'd fry every important circuit and melt at least two thirds of the hardware in the process. After all, the longer the White Hats were in the dark about how Mayfield's tech worked, the more she'd be able to do without any significant interference.

However, by doing what they could to stay alive and wait for an opportune time to escape, they'd be able to bring their collective knowledge to the good guys, hopefully in time to help them stop Mayfield in her tracks. So while they would indeed have to atone for the lives they had taken or hurt, their current method of handling their predicament was indeed the correct one.

Better that they have at least five augmented humans on the side of the light than none.

"You have everything you need, Wills?" Xander asked from his position on the rear hatch.

"Yep. Should be enough to discourage any new arrivals to the radar station from wearing out their welcome," she replied with a half-smile on her face.

"Then let's get moving," Giles said in the tone that had to belong to the Master Chief side of him.

With that the group got on board the Pelican and the last person in slapped the button to close the rear hatch. Once they were all in their seats the pilots went through their preflight checklists, upon the completion of which they took the aircraft into the air, leveling out at cruising altitude before accelerating towards their destination. It'd take a couple of hours and, while she didn't know what the others would do, she'd spend it reviewing all the mission data and then creating strategies for as many different situations as she could come up with in the time she had. Major Motoko Kusanagi had plenty of experience coming up with tactics and strategy for situations like this and she'd played a few military strategy games online, so she had some experience of her own.

With luck it'd allow her to counter any opposing force that came at them without hurting them unnecessarily or killing them.

She just hoped that nothing unexpected happened or else in true Scooby fashion things would probably go pear shaped in a spectacular manner.

Hours Later, The Skies Over India's Northern Area, Buffy's POV

I hope to GOD that this goes better than our last mission, she thought as she waited for the Pelican to land. I… I don't want to kill anyone.

It had been with this desire in mind that she'd chosen a loadout of weapons that could easily be used to injure and would require precision shooting in order to kill someone. She'd chosen a Ruger Mk. II rimfire tranquilizer pistol and had miraculously managed to get a reasonable supply of darts. This was contrary to what she'd expected from her 'boss' since Mayfield didn't care one bit about the moral qualms the Scoobies had about killing people. However she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth so she took fifty darts and put them into magazines that'd slide right into the pistol. She also selected a Heckler & Koch Mark 23 SOCOM handgun with five thirteen round .45 ACP magazines. She had a P90 hanging from a strap over her right shoulder with four plastic magazines held in custom belt holders at her waist to make it easy for her to yank them out and slap them into place. She intended to use these mostly to tear up the ground in front of any incoming troops to force them behind cover. Even if they had protective gear on, the impact of the rounds would be enough to sting like a sonuvabitch and like most people unnecessary pain tended to be avoided.

She also… reluctantly… had brought her high frequency sword along with a combat knife based on the same technology.

Ever since her assassination mission she'd been assaulted with a mix of revulsion and something she didn't want to believe might be defined as eager anticipation. 'Jackie' had been tap dancing on her nerves verbally off and on since about her fifth night of bad dreams, making her already bad mood even worse. At first it'd just been the usual nitpicking about her life and how she refused to admit certain 'facts' about herself, but then the bitch had started focusing on the assassination mission, started talking about how nicely she'd cut everything and everyone up, and gave her a few pointers on how to make it even more 'entertaining' next time. Then, of course, she started making a case for how she'd actually enjoyed the killing but didn't want to admit it, saying that she was getting to know her 'true self'.

Naturally she'd rejected every argument and reaffirmed her status as a protector of the human race, NOT some repressed psycho killer with a thing for cutting people into portions.

However, when she'd entered the armory hours ago and seen both blades hanging there, she'd experienced a flutter of something in the pit of her stomach. The only thing she'd been able to compare it to was the times in the past when they'd been facing a particularly nasty demon and been given the perfect weapon with which to kill it with. For a brief moment she'd even pictured parting flesh with the blades before revulsion surged, causing her to banish the image from her mind. She'd immediately gone over to the handgun and pistol section of the room to pick something else but, before she could leave the room, her eyes once more had drifted over to the high frequency blades. She hadn't wanted to take them with her but her mind considered some valid non-killing methods of using them that she felt confident that she could restrict herself to. Things like cutting through the armor of military vehicles or protecting the others by deflecting incoming fire were perfectly acceptable uses for the weapons that wouldn't harm anyone. With the speed and strength she had in her body, she could disrupt any attempts to present an organized effort to retake the facility by destroying their weapons and vehicles. So long as she didn't ignite any fuel tanks when she destroyed the vehicles, she could very well come out of this with a zero person kill count.

So with only a little reluctance she'd taken both the sword and the combat knife, strapping them to her waist as she'd done before.

Now… now they were minutes from being dropped off and she'd begun to wonder if she'd made the right choice after all.

"We're coming up on the drop off point," came the voice of the pilot from the cockpit. "Get ready to disembark."

She got to her feet and checked both her firearms to make sure that there was a full clip in both the SOCOM and the Ruger. Once she was satisfied she fell in behind the others as they waited for the rear hatch to open up while at the same time firming up her resolve to make things happen the way she wanted them to happen. They would accomplish the mission but she would not take a single life.

A moment later she felt the light thump of the Pelican touching down, the hatch lowered to the ground and they were on the move. At a pace just above a jog they began to navigate through the wilderness they'd been dropped into the middle of, making sure to stay away from strong sources of light that would make them visible to eyes, both organic and electronic. It was nighttime so darkness helped them quite a bit but that didn't mean that they could just waltz to their destination without a care in the world. There was no way to be sure how many eyes would be looking in their direction at any given time and being spotted was something that Mayfield would not like. True, they could've used those invisibility devices or thermo-optic camouflage but, for some reason known only to Mayfield, the use had been vetoed at the last minute. No one had been given an explanation, nor had they been in possession of enough time, so they'd left without the devices that would've been quite handy.

Drawing on their experiences in covert movement, both what they'd learned on their own as well as what they'd inherited from the latest casting of the Halloween spell, they made their way towards the radar station. While being fleet of foot they also did what they could to minimize the sounds of their own footfalls so that they did not give away their presence to any within earshot. Their covert methods of approaching the station might have slowed them down a bit but not noticeably enough to throw off the schedule they'd been given. She didn't engage what the Raiden part of her called 'ninja run' since that'd have thrown off electrical discharges, which would've made her noticeable to someone a significant distance away. Considering the soft ground they were on, their footprints would be unmistakably odd but hopefully anyone who found them wouldn't be able to make much of them in the end.

It took twenty minutes at a decent clip to reach the edge of the forested area but thankfully whoever had designed the place hadn't thought to remove all the vegetation outside of the fence for a good hundred yards, so they had cover to work with. Now they just needed to figure a way inside without being spotted and AGAIN she wished that they'd been allowed to bring artificial cloaking devices with them since doing it without them would be a cast iron bitch.

"Alright. It'll be easier for us to get inside if we split up like we did with Area Fifty-One and penetrate the perimeter from multiple vectors," Giles said while he took in the exterior of the station visible from their present position. "I'll take the North, Xander takes the West, Willow from the South leaving the east for Dawn and Buffy. I'll send a click through the comm units so we can all go at the same time. Understood?"

"Sure thing," she replied, liking the fact that her surrogate father figure would be taking the lead.

Despite all the time that'd passed and how she'd grown from being a transfer student to Sunnydale High School, she still saw the Brit more or less the same way. Plus she believed that now more than ever he'd make the right strategic decisions that'd make everything turn out more or less alright.

Once the others gave their consent to the plan they split up, using the maps available to either their memories or the HUDs to help them get into their designated positions. As she moved, though, she couldn't help but glance once at the thing her little sister had become and wonder about the chances of there being something of the young woman she remembered inside. It wasn't the first time she'd wondered but it had been awhile since her last contemplation of this question. Not once since they'd gotten back in control of their own bodies had Dawn shown even the slightest hint of her old self no matter what they did to try and bring it out. When she'd been told by Mayfield about the 'directives', she had been forced to realize that the reason for the lack of emotion, the lack of Dawnness, was due to them probably and her little sister wouldn't come back until they were gone.

At least that was what she'd chosen to think.

Seeing the look that was devoid of emotion on Dawn's face, she wanted more than ever to do whatever it took to get her back to her old self. However she was no computer geek and she didn't have the necessary tech to hack into the CPU in her skull to delete the directives, so she'd have to wait until Willow came up with a plan. She knew that the others were coming up with plans to get them out, so she'd wait for her orders to be given so she could play her part in those plans.

Until then she'd… she'd do her parts in their missions and like the others do whatever they could to keep the body count of their opponents to a minimum.

It was all she could do for the time being.

Just Inside the Radar Station, Ten Minutes Later, Giles' POV

"You know, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm used to security five hundred years more advanced, I'd think we were walking into a trap." Cortana said through the helmet's internal speakers.

"Fortunately there's nothing on the motion tracker to confirm that possibility," he said as he proceeded quickly yet cautiously towards the nav point on his HUD.

With a BR55HB SR Battle Rifle aimed forward and ready, he was heading to a set of system controls that weren't hooked up to the computer network of the facility. It'd be up to Buffy and Willow to take the main control room while Dawn, Xander and he took care of the rest. He'd noticed his former Slayer taking a tranq pistol with her so taking the main control room was ideal for her and she'd be adequate back up for the former redhead when the latter began to hack the station's network. According to some scenarios Cortana had run, they should have the entire radar station hub under their control and shut down within the next twenty-five minutes. After all, while the security programs and forces set up to protect this place might be alright against criminals and low ranking soldiers, he highly doubted they could even slow down five highly skilled enhanced warriors.

Just as he was about to turn another corner a red contact marker showed up on the HUD. Looking about quickly he found a janitor's closet a short distance away and with only a little noise got inside without completely obliterating the locking mechanism. Watching the contact marker approach, he began to consider what he'd have to do about the approaching person since just letting him or her walk on by wasn't an option. While it was inevitable that the locals would figure out that this place had been seized, limiting the amount of intel the response team had on WHO took it over would give him and the others a decided advantage. That meant that they had to keep any of the people who were working here under lock and key.

The obvious option would be to render whoever it was unconscious, tie them up and then place them here in this janitor's closet. The only possible problem with that would be the person getting loose in the middle of the firefight to come. While he'd like to think that any police officers or soldiers who responded to the situation would be trained well enough to check their targets before opening fire, there was no way to be certain. Given that the tactics the 'Scooby Gang' would be using emphasized making their opponents too afraid to venture in close, that very same fear might cause them to shoot without thinking.

That could lead to needless civilian casualties and that could not be permitted.

Waiting until the contact marker went by the door and was a good bit down the hallway, he then opened the door and began to stealthily close in on it. Once he had a clear line of sight he could tell that the red contact was in fact a security guard, no doubt going about his nightly rounds, so he placed an extra bit of effort in keeping his movements silent. Fortunately John had conducted many covert operations so, by drawing on those memories, he was able to close the distance without difficulty. Then all it took was a swift but controlled blow to the back of the head to render the guard unconscious. When that was done he dragged the unconscious body back to the janitor's closet, tied the man up using a roll of duct tape and then closed the door behind him before resuming his original course. Bringing his Battle Rifle back up, he picked up the pace a little to ensure that his little detour didn't complicate the overall timetable too much.

It was just a little past eleven minutes later before he reached the controls he'd be responsible for and then waited for the others to signal that they too were in position. With one eye on the motion tracker of the HUD while the other scanned his surroundings through the crosshairs of his rifle, he waited. While he'd do what he could to capture anyone he saw, he could not ignore the possibility that he wouldn't be given the chance to do so. There weren't a great many places where his large frame could be successfully concealed for ambush purposes, meaning the only alternative would be to shoot anyone who came along, injuring them long enough to knock them out then restrain them.

Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Hopefully Buffy would be the one to tranq the majority of the station employees, thus keeping the body count where they all wanted it to stay.

"All operatives, this is the Major," Willow said over the comm systems of the Mjolnir armor. "Main control room has been taken. Sound off on status."

"This is the Chief. I am in position."

"Prophet is in position." Xander said, confirming that he was ready.

"Raiden and Cameron in position." Buffy said, sounding a little strained for a moment.

"Then let's get this show on the road." Willow said with sounds of things scraping on the other end. "I will be interfacing with the computer network shortly. I will signal each of you when you need to do your part. Follow the procedures in the mission data and everything'll be fine."

After a series of affirmatives from the others the communications connection was dropped and he waited for the signal to begin his part of the procedure. It wasn't difficult since the instructions included in the mission data were fairly simplistic, making it clear they'd been written knowing the reader had no experience with this kind of technology. So while he waited he reviewed the steps, he'd have to take one by one in the correct order and sort of practiced with the controls in front of him without actually doing anything. This got old pretty fast but fortunately he didn't have to wait long before a signal came through his system. Turning a knob here, flipping a switch there and pressing buttons in a specific order until all the lights on the control board in front of him turned red. The light changed according to the instructions and confirmed that he'd done what he was supposed to do, so he moved to where he'd be guarding the station from Indian forces.

Going to the north side of the radar station, he knelt down on the floor and began to set out his 'surprises' for the Indian forces when they arrived. First up was the M392 Designated Marksman Rifle for mid-to-long range targets and, according to John's memories, it was quite effective at long range but wasn't quite good at close range. He also brought his old favorite from the last mission, the M41 Surface-to-Surface Rocket Medium Anti-Vehicle/Assault Weapon, since like the others he hoped that the presence of explosives would cause their innocent adversaries to keep their distance. He had eight rockets available and that hopefully would be enough to see him through the mission when combined with what the others had brought with them. Nevertheless, he'd felt like erring on the side of caution so he'd brought a grenade belt with a compliment of flashbangs and sonic grenades numbering five each. Both were non-lethal and would give him the time he needed to get in close and defeat the opposing troops without taking their lives in the process. The audio and visual filters of his armor would keep him from feeling the effects of the grenades, giving him a decided advantage.

Peeking out the window, he switched on the night vision function of his helmet and assessed the terrain to get an idea of who had the advantage. From what he could see, aside from some tall grass and some bushes there, was little in the way of cover for the Indian forces, making things quite defendable. However it worked both ways since they had a clear line of sight to his position and, with no trees or substantial vegetation in the way, it would be possible to bring in ground vehicles. While this would offer them some protection from his weapons, his M41 would be enough to take them out but there would in all likelihood be people in them.

This would defeat his desire to keep the body count at zero for this mission at least as far as he was concerned.

The best I will be able to do is selectively use the rockets to cause the vehicles to up end in a way that would prevent others from advancing on the station. This will give them cover to hide behind but if I am skillful enough, I may just be able to keep that cover far enough from the building so that it will not do them any good.

He knew that if they had heavy weapons of their own, his concrete cover would be blown away in a couple of shots. Still, there was the chance that they'd want to avoid damaging the radar station in order to keep it in one piece so they could turn it back on, but he wasn't banking on it. It was entirely possible that they were willing to accept a certain amount of collateral damage to the station so long as they got it back MOSTLY in one piece. So long as they were able to reclaim it and get it operational within a reasonable timeframe, that would most likely be good enough for them, so he'd have to be ready to relocate further into the facility since even his Mjolnir armor's shields would be knocked down if he just stood out in the open and took incoming fire nonstop.

Fortunately neither Rupert Giles nor John One One Seven were stupid enough to stand still and soak up fire, advanced armor defenses or not.

His armor's shields would regenerate given enough time and there was enough of a gap between current firearms and UNSC weaponry that it'd take a long time for anything to punch through the armor itself. So all in all he didn't foresee any problems in holding the radar station if all that was sent against them was infantry and land-based vehicles, with weaponry chosen for their limited damage potential.

"You do realize that if we hold this place TOO long they might just decide to bomb the hell out of it, right?" Cortana asked through the helmet's internal speakers.

"It won't come to that," he said, not believing that any government, military or police force would be so foolish as that.

Then again the whole shock and awe tactics that they were planning on using might just be enough to make them do something stupid.

He'd have to be ready for that.

Homeworld Security, Same Time, General Jack O'Neill's POV

KNOCK!KNOCK!

"Come in," he said as he continued to review the latest intel report from the feelers he'd put out to find something to appease the replacement IOAs and SecDef.

Two weeks, of course, wasn't nearly enough time to get anything substantial but that wouldn't stop the suits and the brass from breathing down his neck in the next few days. Everyone with even the slightest bit of clout was up in arms over what'd happened in the last month and they wanted something solid SOON or else. Of course the 'or else' could be anything from losing his position as head of Homeworld Security to being saddled with some NID 'help' to make up for his 'shortcomings'. Personally he'd prefer to lose this posting entirely than have some suit spooks looking over his shoulder for six months while they 'evaluated' his competence.

Looking up as the door opened, he was pleasantly surprised to see both Sam and her Dad Jacob but neither of them looked to be in the best of spirits, albeit for different reasons he imagined. Still, it'd likely be better than what he was doing at the moment so he set the report aside in order to give his longtime friends his undivided attention.

"Hey guys! So what's new with you?" he asked with his usual smile as he leaned back in his chair.

"Not much, sir. Analysis of the Groom Lake Crater has only confirmed the presence of black hole related phenomena and after effects." Sam replied, sounding frustrated by the lack of progress. "We're still at a bit of a loss as to how the black hole could've been generated in the first place or why it disappeared so soon afterwards. However we did get a bit of good luck when canvassing the nearest town."

With a quick reach into her jacket pocket, his blonde former XO pulled out two photographs and handed one to her father while he got the remaining one. Looking at the pic, he couldn't make a lot out but it looked like some kind of aircraft at a pretty decent altitude but it was impossible to tell what direction based the other objects in the photograph. Whatever it was though it looked like it was snapped halfway into invisibility but what was visible made it clear that the aircraft wasn't normal but at the same time didn't look entirely alien either. He saw a lot of shapes that made up the thing looked like parts of air force aircraft but that didn't necessarily mean that someone from Earth made it. He'd seen enough spaceships and aircraft with similar design components off world that made him think some things were universally constant.

"Based on the time stamp of the photographs and the reported direction the camera had been aimed, we believe this aircraft was what the people who destroyed Area Fifty-One used to get away." Carter explained, adding context to the photo. "As you can tell there is proof that it possessed some kind of cloaking device but it's unlike anything we've come across before. Whoever or whatever was behind the attack, sir, most definitely has access to advanced tech that we've never seen before."

"Nothing even close?" he asked, wanting to know just how bad things were.

"No sir. I've compared what we have to every known form of tech, ranging from Goa'uld to Asgard to Ancient, but nothing comes even remotely close." she replied with a shake of her head.

"Any ideas for how to deal with it?" he asked, hoping she at least had an idea for piercing the cloak or protecting their installations against whatever eradicated Groom Lake.

"Not the device they used at Groom Lake but I think I can make some upgrades to our orbital defense satellite network to pick up the atmospheric distortions left behind by the aircraft." She sounded as discouraged as he was at the moment. "They should give us some warning next time they approach on of our bases. Steps are also being taken to counter the wireless jammers that kept Area Fifty-One from getting out any details. With luck it'll give us an edge next time."

"Let's hope it does," he said, not wanting to explain another hole in the ground to the Joint Chiefs or the President of the USA.

"Anything on your end, sir?" she asked, hoping he had something as well.

"Nothing concrete. I've put everyone I've got trying to track down any terrestrial manufacturers or eggheads that could've equipped the assassins but so far nothing." Frustration was clear in his voice. "No body armor should've been able to take the hits the woman in England did without breaking bones or drawing blood. McKay is still working on the Easter Egg the killer at Strom's place left for us but I think it's driving him up the wall."

"You mean he can't break it?" she asked, sounding surprised at the news.

"Worse. He's sure he knows how it works but it's got some adaptive something or other that's pissing him off big time," he replied, remembering his last phone call with the Canadian genius. "Zero arrogance and maximum frustration if you get my meaning."

Indeed to hear a man that was usually arrogance personified talking like he was just about ready to pull out his hair and toss things around did not bode well.

"Wow." Sam said with lingering surprise.

"That's what I said. Anyway, the Russians have been a little stingy with the info on the attack that took out Chekov but what they have sent over confirms that some kind of directed energy weapon took him out. What's surprised them quite a bit was how powerful it was. According to them it had enough juice to punch through SIX Abrams tanks in ONE shot without much difficulty."

The wide eyes and slacked jaws of the Carters was almost enough to bring a smile to his face.

"As for what happened in Washington, the eggheads confirmed your theory about a high frequency blade. It took some serious peering down microscopes and tests I can't remember the names of but they confirmed it. Nothing found within two hundred yards of the kill zone to indicate a generator was close enough to give it power, though."

The idea that somewhere out there was someone capable of cutting through just about anything, even armor plating, like a hot knife through warm butter did not sit well with him AT ALL. It essentially meant that every supposedly secure vault, bunker or facility could now get a brand new door put in whenever and where ever they wanted. Considering the fact that the SGC's quarantine procedures relied heavily on the mother of all doors to be sealed shut, he worried about the possibilities greatly.

"I'll… I'll look into seeing if we can come up with some kind of energy barriers to act as backups." Sam said, sounding like she was a bit worried.

Considering what they'd both been through when they were with SG-1 and afterwards, that meant a lot.

"So what do you have, Jacob?" he asked, deciding to change the subject a bit.

"Well, I've spent most of the last two weeks trying to track down Lizzie and what I've been able to find out isn't good," Jacob replied, sounding like he didn't have high hopes for the future. "I called her contact number. Nothing. I flew to the latest address I had for her. The place was occupied but not by Lizzie. When I asked where she was or when she'd be back I got a cover story that reeked even more than your 'deep space radar telemetry analysis' cover story for the SGC."

"You think the person was hiding something?" Sam asked, sounding concerned at the news.

"I'd bet my house on it. At first I didn't think anything of it," Jacob replied, turning to his daughter. "We haven't exactly been to many family barbeques the last couple of years so it made sense that the person house sitting wouldn't recognize me and be a little tight lipped. I probably would've forgotten about the whole thing except I found myself getting tailed from my hotel to the airport the next day."

"Tailed? By who?" he asked, surprised a bit at the curveball that'd been tossed into the story.

"Don't know but it wasn't government funded. Too sloppy for them," Jacob replied sounding sure of his opinion. "I couldn't get a good look at who was driving but I was definitely being followed. As soon as I got on the plane I put a call in to some of my contacts in the area to see if anything odd had happened in the last six months."

"And?" Sam asked sounding a bit impatient.

"A little under six months ago someone set up tanks full of a highly potent knockout gas all around one of the trendier nightclubs in Rome." Jacob replied, looking at each member of his audience in turn. "The stuff was so good that you didn't need to breath it in for it to affect you because it could be absorbed right through the skin. It blanketed the entire area knocking everyone out cold for hours. The funny thing was that nothing and no one was taken as far as the police were concerned after canvassing the area the first few times around. However when they compared the people found on the scene with the security cameras from the nightclub they found out that two people were unaccounted for: Lizzie and her little sister, Dawn."

"They were kidnapped? Both of them!?" Sam exclaimed as her feelings for her cousins came forth.

"Yep. The police found the tanks the gas had come from and started asking around to all the local black market dealers while asking the local military to double check their own stock to see if anything was missing." Jacob replied with a nod of his head. "Funny thing was neither possible source had ever heard of the stuff and the tanks didn't quite match up to what they did have in stock."

"So either the stuff is home brewed or was privately created by some company." Sam theorized based on what her father had laid out.

"Exactly. Not the sort of thing you can easily get a hold of either way," Jacob said, sharing his daughter's sentiment. "It got me thinking that there might be more to Lizze and Dawn's abduction than originally thought. No run of the mill kidnappers would've been able to get something like this, even through black market channels. It started to smell to me like a mercenary group and a successful one at that, so I asked a friend who owes me one in the CIA to find out if any merc groups were in or around Rome at the time of the abductions."

"They find anything?" he asked, not liking where things were going.

"They did. A mercenary group known as the 'Blue Scorpions' was confirmed as having been at an airfield just on the other side of Italy's borders a few hours prior to the abductions." Jacob replied, turning towards the head of Homeworld Security. "My friend also confirmed that they'd have the connections to get a hold of the knockout gas as well. The only thing they couldn't tell me was who the Scorpions were working for at the time. None of their usual clients would have any interest in two civilians, even if they were related to me and Sam."

"Still, if your hunch about who was behind the assassination of the Chinese Rep, then whoever ordered her to do that is the one who hired the mercs to grab her." he pointed out, making connections in his mind.

"That's still a long ways from a complete picture," Sam said, shaking her head in incomprehension. "It still leaves the question of WHY someone would kidnap a civilian and HOW they'd managed to turn her into an assassin equipped with a high frequency blade. Anyone looking to keep their operations secret would have a much better chance by choosing someone from within their own organization than a random civilian."

"Unless it wasn't random." he said as a thought occurred to him.

"What do you mean, Jack?" Jacob asked, sounding like he hadn't figured it out yet.

"Well, think about it: in the last two months two targets connected to the SGC have been hit and hit hard. To me that says someone has it in for the SGC." he replied, laying out his thoughts, such as they were. "The fact that the same people behind the attacks also just happened to kidnap two people related to a high ranking member of the SGC makes me think it could be a personal grudge."

"That'd mean someone from the Trust or the Lucian Alliance," Sam said, working through the facts in her head. "Both of them have suffered serious defeats because of the SGC and both have access to the necessary technology. It also wouldn't be difficult for them to get access to Earth if they needed to especially if it turns out that they're working together."

"We'd better put eyes on all the members of the SGC that've earned a rep with the Trust and the Alliance," he said, already making a list of resources that were at his disposal to do just that. "Just in case."

"Good idea. Even if the people behind all this don't kidnap anyone else, if they really do have an axe to grind with the SGC and SG-1 personally then assassinations aren't out of the question." Sam said, sounding distinctly worried. "I'll pull double shifts to figure out a defense against these weapons and a way of capturing the assassins. If Lizzie really has been turned into a killer, we'll get her back and fix whatever they've done to her."

"Let's hope it's not too late for either," he said, unable to keep his pessimism from being voiced.

India Radar Station Hub, Western Side, Xander's POV

Shouldn't be long now, he thought as he checked the magazine of his Jackal fully automatic shotgun before slapping it back in. The station has been offline for a full fifteen minutes. There's got to be a response team of some kind heading our way.

Picking up his MK.60 MOD 0, he checked it as well since he wanted to make sure his medium range machine gun was ready to go. Between his shotgun and his machine gun, he was covered at most of the expected ranges, especially since there were quite a few trees on his side of the station about a hundred yards away. Nanovision would let him see them, even through the trees, since it gave him both thermal and night vision capabilities, but with the trees as cover he would have to wait until they exited out into the open. That meant he'd have to cut down or deter any oncoming threat before it could cross the hundred yard distance, or else things'd shift to CQC, potentially tying him up long enough for others to enter the building.

There weren't any windows on the western side of the building so he'd been forced to move one of the cars belonging to the employees into a position six feet from the western wall of the building. He'd picked the one that had the hardiest construction and then made sure that all of the gasoline was drained in order to make sure there wouldn't be any explosions caused by incoming fire to worry about. True, there weren't any armor plated vehicles in the parking lot, that'd have been too convenient, but he'd take what he could get given the situation. While the nanosuit would let him take some punishment, even the armor mode would fail under sustained fire, plus the mission mandate kept him from utilizing Prophet's usual method of operation. Usually the man was a stealth fighter, the whole 'pick off the patrol one by one without anyone seeing a thing' routine rather than someone who fought an enemy head on. However, doing this would increase the odds of someone getting inside while he was elsewhere and that could not be permitted for the mission to succeed.

He was about to try something else when he spotted something suspicious out of the corner of his visor, causing him to immediately go on alert. Bringing up his MK, he didn't point it anywhere yet but rather kept it ready to fire at a moment's notice.

NANOVISION ENGAGED

Instantly his night vision engaged, allowing him to see into the trees as easily as if it were high noon and he could see signs of movement. There were people there but he couldn't see them clearly enough for him to know who they were or what their day job was. Could be military. Could be police. Personally he was putting his money on the former since the latter weren't exactly trained to come at a place by the forest. Usually they'd just set up shop in the parking lot or something, so since that wasn't the case he upped his game to a higher level than would be necessary against police officers.

Watching as the power bar for the nanovision continued to dwindle, he was only peripherally glad that the lights on the exterior of the building provided some illumination. It wouldn't be as good as he'd prefer it but it would allow him to recharge the nanosuit's capacitors so he could use the nanovision again.

Bringing his machine gun up to his eye so he could aim, he waited until his eyes spotted a form the size of an arm before opening up with seven point six two millimeter AP rounds in bursts. He focused his efforts on near misses to let both of them know that they'd been targeted and hopefully make them rethink their approach angle. Wood was splintered, leaves were torn asunder and he could see visible signs of people scrambling for cover but not retreating more than a few feet back the way they came. Either they were made of some pretty stern stuff or they'd figured out he was aiming to miss, so they figured they didn't have to pull back. While not what he wanted stationary was better than advancing at this point, so he'd take it.

Gunfire from other parts of the area let him know that what he was facing was only one arm of a multi-pronged assault by the military from all sides. A smart move since doing so would allow them to, in theory, overwhelm an occupying force allowing them to retake the radar station hub quickly. Too bad they didn't realize that they were up against five of the deadliest soldiers they were ever likely to come across. He had little doubt that, if he and the others went all out with the intent to eliminate all hostiles, the Indian forces would be wiped out within twenty minutes at the longest. Fortunately for the soldiers the only situation where he and the others would go that far would be if their mission was in critical danger of failing or one of them suffered a serious injury. In his mind the ones most likely to be injured would be Willow or Buffy, since the rest of them were either protected by armor or weren't dependent on organic life support modules to keep on going.

If Willow suffered serious trauma to her prosthetic body or Buffy lost too much of her white blood, the things that kept their biological components alive would fail. He was no expert on what the point of no return was for cybernetic bodies so he had no clue how much damage they could rack up before death became a certainty. In such a situation, then, the only course of action was to treat them like they were human and go with what'd be fatal for a normal flesh and blood human.

So if any of them got hurt, he'd go from deterrence and non-lethal force to all out elimination of those that threatened the people he cared about.

All of them were guilty of a great many things since they'd been changed but he himself was prepared to take on the burden of blood and lives all by himself. For all the changes he'd been through and all he'd grown, he could honestly say that he still valued their lives above his own. If the price for keeping some sins off of them was piling them on his own shoulders, then it was a cost he'd gladly foot the bill for without hesitation.

Their happiness, their safety, was all that really mattered to him on a personal level when you didn't take the whole fate of the world thing into account.

Laying down another five bursts of fire from his weapon, he placed his shots a few inches closer than he had before lucking out and managing to inflict some flesh wounds. This got a better reaction out of Indian forces as they backed up even further while firing bursts of their own back at his position, with most impacting on his improvised cover.

When his nanovision failed due to lack of power, he fired one long burst from his MK before ducking back behind cover. Watching as the energy meter slowly begin to refill up, he thought about what more he could do to make the opposing forces back up even further. The best game plan he had for keeping the body count low was to make them too afraid to approach, keep them on the defensive, so, by the time they brought enough force to bear to win, they'd be free to pull out. If the Indian forces were allowed to gain any measure of momentum, any measure of progress, then the odds of things devolving into a bloodbath went up. So he would do his utmost to keep his adversaries on their heels for as long as he was able and hoped that the others would do the same.

After all, while he might've been good before the spell and made better by Prophet's donation, even he couldn't hold the enemy at bay on four fronts.

Maybe I should give them something else to think about besides my good aim.

MAXIMUM ARMOR

Stepping out from behind his vehicle cover, he marched thirty yards forward before taking shots at the approaching forces the second he got a big enough target. As expected the moment he left cover those soldiers with a clear shot at him opened up but, to his minor surprise, the drain on his suit's energy was less than what he'd expected. Major Barnes' memories indicated that the drain should be a little over sixty percent more but he wasn't looking a gift horse in the mouth. It made him last longer and look more impressive with how the bullets bounced off of him but he still felt the hits since each round transferred quite a bit of force despite the armor mode being active. So for those men or women who stayed too long out from cover, he used his MK to force them back behind cover so as to prolong his moment of invincibility as long as he could.

About five minutes of sustained fire, he thought as he watched the energy bar on his HUD dwindle even further. Not bad.

Moving back behind the cover of the vehicle at a casual pace so as not to let on that something was the matter, he crouched out of sight before disengaging armor mode. As he watched the power bar begin to recharge, he peeked slightly up to see what the Indian forces were up to and had to duck back down as the glimpse of a barrel poking out from behind a tree warned him of danger. A good thing too since a second later a bullet passed through the place where his head had been and hit the wall of the station a short distance away.

Hope this doesn't mean they've figured out my armor mode doesn't last forever, he thought as he popped up before emptying the rest of his MK's magazine at the approaching soldiers. Otherwise I'm going to have to raise the bar even higher on what I'm prepared to do.

Removing the spent magazine, he let it drop to the ground before attaching a new one and set things up to allow it to fire once more. Popping up over cover once again, he fired a short burst in order to dissuade his foes from thinking that he'd run out of ammunition. He only had two more magazines for the weapon before he'd have to shift to his shotgun, so he'd now how have to begin rationing his ammo a bit. By his reckoning only forty five minutes had passed since the radar station had successfully been shut down, so that meant he had another seven hours and fifteen minutes to hold this position. While he could always steal the weapons he needed from the Indian forces, that would require that he leave his position, thus opening a hole in the station's perimeter. While it would be temporary, it would still leave a means by which the Indian soldiers could enter the building and potentially blindsiding the others.

Well I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, he thought as he fired off another burst into the trees.

He just hoped things didn't go FUBAR before he got to the proverbial bridge.

Athena/Mayfield's Office, Four Hours Later, Athena's POV

"How is our reluctant band of 'heroes' doing, Mister Wesker?" she asked, looking at the real time vid-window on her computer screen.

"Thus far they have managed to keep the Indian military from getting closer than one hundred and twenty yards of the radar station hub." Wesker replied with little, if any, emotion. "Casualties have almost entirely been accrued by Agent Cameron, though a small number were the doing of Agent Prophet. As of five minutes ago only nineteen Indian soldiers have been killed while a little over twice that amount have been injured by your operatives."

"Impressive. Given the importance of the radar station hub, I expected the military to send a considerable force to reclaim it." she said with genuine respect for her four 'employees'.

"At present the force attempting to retake the station numbers forty-two, however according to our monitoring programs we have in the Indian military systems they are preparing to deploy three more squads of infantry as well as two gunships." Wesker said, further informing her on the subject. "ETA twenty minutes."

"Well then things are about to get interesting," she said as she interlaced her fingers. "How fares our transaction with Ganesh?"

"He is quite pleased with the weapons he's been shown thus far," Wesker said. "He sounds quite willing to place another order quite soon and will pay whatever price you name."

"Good. A pity that he'll have other concerns soon enough," she said, thinking on what was to come. "I trust the code has been entered."

"It has," Wesker said promptly.

"Good. I expect you to conclude matters shortly and withdraw." Her tone that made it an order, "Things are going to be quite… hectic… there in four hours and I think it would be best if you were not there when things got 'interesting'."

"Understood," Wesker said with a nod of obedience. "It should only take another twenty-five minutes to conclude matters with Ganesh."

"Then I will see you when you return." She terminated the vid-link.

This particular phase of her plan was proceeding quite nicely.

The hole that had been made by her unwilling minions in India's air monitoring system, the sale of 'merchandise', the drawing away of military forces and the impressive battle taking place at the radar station hub… all a part of her plan. True, there had been information delivered to her that had almost made her change things but she'd chosen to let things play out as originally intended. Her projects were coming along nicely so there was no real need to alter the variables any and her review of how things were likely to play out didn't indicate a drastic enough deviation to concern her. It did not make her believe that her foes in the SGC and their off shoot, Homeworld Security, would learn anything that would hasten their awareness of her involvement or where to find her.

All would transpire as she had planned.

Indeed, she had received another set of updates about projects Titan, Fallen Column and Horsemen, informing her that all was proceeding apace and would be finished on the desired date. Project Titan's combat trials were past their initial stage with some rather impressive results despite the fact two of the potential pilots had been killed when concentrated fire was directed at the cockpits by their opponents. It pointed out a clear weakness in the initial design but thankfully they had quite a few methods of fixing the flaw at their disposal and the scientists were already enacting the most effective upgrades to the design. Once they were complete they would be put to the test once more and until the battles ended in a stalemate either due to technology or the skill of the pilots. Fallen Column had completed hardware assembly and was now in the process of installing the necessary software in order for it all to work perfectly. They'd already been designed and put through simulation trials to get all the kinks out but, until they were actually installed and used in real life situations, there would be no way to know for sure.

As for Project Horsemen, the subjects who received the augmentations had fully recovered from the enhancement procedures and were being put through their paces by completing some rather ambitious obstacle courses. Utilizing the technology and weapons that had been made hers, the technicians had made each obstacle course progressively more difficult and lethal. The point was to not only get them to familiarize themselves with their new abilities at an accelerated rate but also weed out the weak while exposing the strong. She had enough subjects that she could afford to lose a few to such tests and competitions, especially since the end result would make the sacrifices well worth it.

Taking it all into account, she couldn't help but be pleased in her present as well as confident in her future.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to perhaps stack the deck a little more in her favor.

After all, recent history was rife with examples of how various System Lords had underestimated the Tauri and their forces, bringing about the end of their reigns either immediately or gradually. While she had indeed done much to cover all her bases, there was the possibility that she somehow was still underestimating them subconsciously. She would need to go one step further in order to ensure that she wasn't defeated like so many others had been before now. She would need an ace up her sleeve and, in taking the history of her people into account, she believed she had the correct concept upon which to build.

They preached to their slaves that they were gods and goddesses.

They taught the Jaffa that as deities, they could not be slain by mortals.

Perhaps it was time to make that more of a reality than it currently was.

T-minus Two Hours Forty-Five Minutes to Mission Completion

Willow's POV

Almost… almost… THERE! System is locked and encryption in place, she thought before returning to the waking world and disconnecting herself. Better get to Buffy and help her out. She won't be able to hold them off for much longer.

It'd been a bit of a risk for her to stay in the control room for as long as she had but the intel provided by the security cameras around the exterior of the building had made it worth it. While all the Scoobies had gotten an enhanced vision option to one degree to another, they couldn't always keep their eyes looking in the right direction with all the bullets flying. Through the cameras she'd been able to give constant surveillance intel to her friends, letting them know what the Indian forces were doing while their attention was diverted elsewhere. It'd saved each of them on more than one occasion and had given them a heads up on the movements of the gunships that'd arrived much to their surprise. None of them thought that the two choppers would be sent in since none of the weapons on aircraft like them were really precision instruments. Worse than that, the assaults by the choppers had nearly been enough to open a hole for the ground troops to penetrate the facility.

If it wasn't for the precision shots by Dawn damaging the choppers enough to make them pull back, thus giving the others the opportunity they needed to push back the infantry, she'd be mixing it up herself right now.

As it was she had been taking a significant risk not guarding the southern side of the building in person but she'd felt it was worth it to use the security cameras to support her friends. The Southern side of the building was thirty feet away from the edge of a cliff that dropped a solid three hundred meters. While she didn't have anything exact on the composition of the rocks all the way down, she didn't think that Indian forces would try entry from that side due to the lack of windows. With this in mind she'd figured it was worth taking the risk but, as of two minutes ago, she'd changed her mind when an explosion rocked the southern side of the building. It'd been all she could do to throw together a quick locking and encryption program but now she was free to intercept the intruders that'd almost certainly gotten into the building. Taking up her Seburo C26A assault rifle, she took one minute to verify that it was ready before making her way towards the door closest to the southern side of the radar station.

Too bad trouble showed up the second she left the main control room as a team of three Indian soldiers came around the corner. Knowing that she wasn't the most well protected of the Scoobies, she tore off one of her RPG rockets and threw it in the direction of the troops. The moment it was within range she snapped off a burst of fire from her assault rifle, detonating the rocket in the midst of the soldiers, killing them instantly.

She didn't like it, not one bit, but she knew that letting those three into the main control room was an unacceptable risk and, given that she did not have impressive body armor to soak up fire, she had no choice but to go on the offensive. Activating her thermo-optical camouflage, she began to do a sweep of the southern side of the building, looking for anyone else that'd managed to get inside. She couldn't let a single one past her if they were going to keep the station under their control for the duration of the mission.

Corridor by corridor she went, peeking in any doors that looked suspiciously like they'd been opened recently while keeping an eye out for more Indian soldiers. Fortunately it wasn't until she reached the hole that'd been blown in the wall that she encountered her next batch of opponents, thus she prayed that, aside from the three she dealt with earlier, these were the only ones inside. As part of her lockdown she'd also included an alarm program that'd alert her if her precautions were breached allowing access to the system. They'd still need at least four people on the job to bring everything online so if she could eliminate even half of that, then they wouldn't be able to bring the station online.

Personally I hope that the nothing happens but better to be prepared than unprepared, she thought as she began slamming the butt of her rifle into the faces of the troops.

Given that they couldn't see her movements, it was all too easy to dance between the military men to render them unconscious. Once they were down she looked around the immediate area and spotted the rope that'd no doubt been used to scale the cliff. Four quick shots with her assault rifle and the ropes were severed, entirely eliminating that avenue of infiltration into the radar station. Deciding to add one more bit of discouragement to things, she took the RPG-7 off her back, loaded a rocket into it and then walked to the edge of the cliff. It didn't take her long to spot the troops at the bottom so, with only a little care, she took aim just to the right of the group before firing. The explosion got their attention and got her message across that this angle of approach was not open or safe by ropes. She could see some being carried away while others hobbled as a result of their wounds, but no fatalities from what she could see.

No immediate ones anyway.

If any of them were injured severely enough that combat medics or hospital doctors couldn't save them, then they'd become casualties that she'd be responsible for until the day she died.

NO! I'll atone for every life lost! I just need to hold on long enough to break Mayfield's chains! Then it's payback on her and the road to redemption begins.

Her eyes narrowing as her resolve became as hard and as cold as stone, she gave one final look around the bottom of the cliff as well as to either side of the hole in building's wall. When she couldn't spot any other hostiles, she withdrew back into the building and prepared for the next assault to come. She might've scared them off for the time being but all that meant was that they'd come back at her ten times as hard with weapons that they no doubt would believe were capable of keeping her at bay long enough to get people on her cyborg ass. Best guess was that they'd toss grenades or some other kind of explosive her way in bulk and then scramble up the side of the cliff before she could push them back. The problem with that plan was that, without a good idea of where she was, it wouldn't be too hard to keep clear of the frag radius and, when their troops peeked their heads over the top of the cliff, she'd knock them off. Maybe leaving a few of them hanging on the ropes to force their friends to come up after them then bring them down to the ground before making another go. It'd take up time and that'd suit her just fine since the more time the Indian soldiers spent tending to their incapacitated comrades, the less time they'd have to try to take the radar station.

All good in her mind since it'd help to keep the kill count to a minimum.

"This is the Major. Southern front secured. Main control room locked down. Sound off on your status."

"This is the Chief. Northern front is holding." Giles said, sounding only a little pressured.

"This is Prophet. Western front holding but I think they're getting a feel for the nanosuit's abilities." Xander said sounding a little concerned. "Gonna have to up my game to keep them back."

"Do what you have to, Prophet, but ONLY what you have to," she said, reminding him of what they weren't at the same time he reminded of what they were. "If you need support, just say so."

"Acknowledge, Major. I'll keep that in mind," Xander said in a tone that made it clear he understood her hidden message.

"Eastern front holding. Zero enemy units have entered station perimeter." Dawn stated in an emotionless voice that chilled all who heard her words.

"Yeah… we're good here," Buffy said, sounding distracted but not by her little sister's words. "If Prophet needs help I can get to him quick."

"Hold off on that, Raiden," Xander said after some background noise of machine gun fire came over the channel. "Things have gotten tough but they haven't gotten that bad yet. If I need back up I'll yell for it."

"I'll keep an ear out then. Raiden out." Buffy said before breaking her connection.

So far so good, she thought as she took comfort in the fact that nothing had seriously breached the perimeter yet aside from the ones she took out earlier. I just hope we can keep it up until the mission's over.

It all depended on just how far the Indian military were willing to take things in order to reclaim their radar station hub and how quickly they'd be able to put their plans in motion. With a little luck it'd be more than four hours before they decided to use sheer numbers to overwhelm the Scoobies and retake the station. If assaulted in big enough numbers, she and her friends wouldn't be able to pull their triggers quickly enough to keep them back and once this went close quarters, they could be dog piled while others got the station back online.

Goddess, please grant us your favor. She thought in silent prayer while momentarily closing her eyes. Guide our actions so that we may leave the darkness and find our way back to the light.

They might be too far gone, hands covered with too much innocent blood, but her Goddess was merciful and that gave her all the hope she needed.

Vale of Kashmir, Outside of Srinagar District, Staff Sergeant Marcus Reynold's POV

One Hour and Forty-Five Minutes Later

"Alright people listen up!" he said to his squad as he called them to the center of the run down building that was their based of operations for the moment. "Let's review what we know before getting on with the mission."

One by one his squad fell in to form a loose circle in the center of the room until they were all gathered. Looking at them all, he couldn't help but feel confident about the outcome of this mission and it was a confidence born of being through so many shit storms with them while still coming out smelling like roses. They knew each other inside and out, from who preferred which weapon to how each of them would react in a given situation. It was this familiarity that had made them such an effective squad and why the brass had chosen them for this particular mission.

"One week ago a B83 nuclear bomb went missing from a high security armory north of Langley. An investigation into the incident indicated the use of sophisticated tech to circumvent the security systems and neutralize the guards inside. Fortunately one of the people behind the theft got sloppy just before leaving. Forensics found a partial fingerprint that matches up with a known major league arms dealer known as the Crimson Cranium, who has a rep for being able to get his hands on some pretty nasty shit.

"Military intelligence has spent the time since IDing his prints tracking him down and now we think we've found him. The latest reports show that CC is in Srinagar bargaining with a local Indian extremist called Ganesh for the nuke," he explained, evaluating the expressions on the face of his comrades. "If he gets the nuke, intel thinks he'll use it as leverage against Pakistan to force them to drop all claims to their piece of Kashmir to the north, do the usual 'give us what we want or we turn one of your major cities into ash' thing. The problem with that though is that the threat itself might be enough to piss off the leadership of Pakistan into a little aggressive initiative. Make no mistake, people, this could get really messy really fast for everyone. I'm talking lobbing nukes back and forth across the India-Pakistan border messy.

"So our mission is to infiltrate the lovely city you see out the window, get to the storage building Ganesh is using as his local HQ and recover the nuke. The bomb is top priority," he said, emphasizing his words to show that they carried weight. "If we can nab Ganesh and the Crimson Cranium agent in the process, fine, but only after we have bomb under lock and key. Make sure to check your fire once we enter the building. I don't feel like having my atoms spread about the countryside. Now let's MOVE OUT!"

After making sure that their local garb concealed anything that'd give away what they were or where they were from, they left moving at a brisk yet unsuspicious pace towards their destination. All of their weapons were concealable yet still up to the task of taking on the expected forces surrounding as well as within the building. Silencers were on all their weapons in order not to draw the attention of the rest of the neighborhood and to allow them to quietly eliminate potential hostiles one by one. Standing mission parameters made it clear that while some corpses were okay, a bloodbath would not be praised in the slightest upon their return to American soil. Fortunately for the brass back home, he didn't like making an excess body count since in his mind it was a sign of a sloppy operator. A true pro got the job done with as little collateral damage as possible whether that was people or property.

True, that wasn't always possible, but that didn't mean you shouldn't try just the same.

It took a little over half an hour for his team to get to an alleyway across from the storage room but, unless the locals were paranoid or unbelievably insightful, it was unlikely that they'd been spotted thus far. Peering out of the alleyway, he immediately spotted two guards by a door with a third walking casually up the street. Either these guys had absolute faith in their lookouts further out or they didn't think anyone dangerous knew where to find them.

Big mistake.

He gave a series of hand signals to his men outlining how they were going to handle things from here on out. Essentially it'd be the old distract and enter ploy since the guards appeared to have as much discipline as a bunch of redneck hunters hanging out outside the local bar. Miller would circle wide and use a smoke grenade to lure both the door guards and the roving one away from the entrance. Once the hostiles were far enough away from the door the rest of them would make for the door and after confirming that it was safe would enter the building. They'd then locate the bomb, the buyer and the seller in that particular order before securing each in order of priority. Then he'd signal the chopper that was waiting further out to come in to extract the whole lot of them back to an airstrip a couple miles away for the trip back to the USA.

All in all, things shouldn't take much more than thirty minutes to secure everything then a little under an hour after that to get to the airstrip.

Piece of cake!