The Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this.
Stargate Babylon
Chapter 3: Demon Hunting.
The freezing cold of night of Abydos finally gave way to the rising sun, quickly warming the desert up from its cold slumber. Everyone had been up since before dawn, since the day was thirty six hours long, and had donned both their skin suits and BDUs as they moved around the camp. Two hours before dawn the Stargate had activated again and Captain O'Neill made his report, detailing everything that had happened in the last day or so. The news of the death of the Petty Officer had truly saddened the General, though he didn't show it. He was also pissed about it and had given the Captain permission to open contact with the locals and to take down the creature if possible. He also sent two man-portable PPCs through on another FRED which Ferretti and his squad drove to base camp, leaving behind the initial probe sent through to act as a relay for any transmissions Earth sent though the Stargate.
At base camp the two PPCs were given to two of the heavy weapons specialists they had on this mission, one on each of the combat squads.
"Kawalsky, Ferretti, you two will take your squads and start searching the surrounding area. Stay in constant radio contact with the base camp." The two men nodded and moved out with their six man squads. "Carter you'll be in charge back here at the camp and help out with the mineral surveys," said O'Neill.
"Aye sir," Carter responded, slightly disappointed that she wouldn't be going along on the First Contact, something that she had wanted to do at least once in her career and was one of the reasons she had joined Earth Force.
Seeing the look upon her face Captain O'Neill said; "Don't worry Lieutenant, it's a big galaxy out there, your chance will come soon enough." Her face brightened at his reassurance then she got on her small laptop, checking up on the Eagle Eye.
"Doctor Jackson and the ambassador will come along with me and another four SFs to make contact with the locals. I don't have to remind you to be on your best behaviour now, do I?" he asked the last in a teasing manner.
"No sir," chorused the four SFs.
"Good, now let's mount up, we've got a long walk ahead of us," said Jack.
Kawalsky and Ferretti took their squads and headed out into the mountains, while Captain O'Neill, Jackson, Sheridan and the four SFs began the long trek towards the mine they had found the previous day. Lieutenant Carter brought the Eagle Eye back down to modify it with a ground penetrating sensor package to take a look inside the surrounding mountains for likely hiding places where the creature could be, while some of the other expedition members began to take down the ground penetrating sensors they had used in the days they had been on this planet to conduct their mineral survey.
The trek to the mines was a long and hot one, with the sun beating down on them; they were getting pretty hot under their collars, but they kept going.
As they made their way to the mine a small group of teenagers, who had been collecting a recently escaped and recaptured beast of burden, known to the locals as a mastadge, were bringing it back to the mine, spotted the group of seven men trekking in a straight line for their god's mines. One of them quickly mounted the mastadge and took off for mines at high speed, kicking up a good deal of dust as it ran across the desert, while the rest decided to shadow the strangers.
One of the young SFs, Petty officer Michel Lapin, saw a large line of sand getting thrown up in the distance. "Captain, I just saw something," he said as he trained his eyes on the sand cloud that was being kicked up and noticed its course. "I'd say the locals have seen us, I can see them sticking their heads up just above the sand dune to our course's three o'clock," the young SF continued. "Roughly two clicks away."
"Well, looks like they are going to be expecting us after all," Doctor Jackson commented.
Captain O'Neill sighed in resignation, though hopefully Doctor Jackson and the linguistics team back home had managed to get at least a basic understanding for the local language. "Let's keep moving," he ordered, and the party continued on to the mine.
Just as Captain O'Neill's group crested the sand dune that overlooked the opencast mine they paused and allowed the locals to see them before they walked in. A lookout saw them standing atop of the sand dune and called out and drew attention to himself and pointed them out to his people.
"They've seen us," said Ambassador Sheridan.
"Well then, let's go introduce ourselves," replied O'Neill, and they started down into the mine, sliding along the loose sand as they went. A lot of the locals looked at them in slight awe as they looked very much alien to them, having never seen people even remotely like them before. They were also a little scared, believing them to be sent by the gods.
Doctor Jackson noticed this and took a look at his party and saw what the problem could be. With the exception of himself and the ambassador all of them had a fully enclosed combat helmet, with a single slit across the eyes that doubled as an opening for the multiple sensors that were built in, the face covered by a featureless mask.
"I suggest you take off your combat helmets, I think you're scaring them," said Doctor Jackson.
Captain O'Neill thought it over a little and took a look at the locals faces and then at his SFs, and nodded his head at his men. They all took off their helmets one at a time, Jack first, then the rest followed suit, showing that they were human, the same as the locals. The locals were surprised to find that they were completely human.
A large mastadge carrying a small tent on its back approached them, being led forward by a young teen who was talking animatedly to the person inside. As the local creature came to a stop before them the tent on top of it opened revealing a middle aged man with a grey beard, who looked upon the expedition with curious and cautious eyes.
He climbed off his mount and approached the Earthers and bowed to them, hand to heart and introduced himself and welcomed them, though the translator wasn't exactly accurate. Only Doctor Jackson somewhat understood his speech.
"He's offering us greetings on behalf of the people of Abydos. He says his name is Kasuf, welcomes us and congratulates us on surviving the 'Evil Spirit of the Gods?" Daniel translated, though not entirely sure what Kasuf was talking about.
"Tell him we thank him and we offer greetings from Earth," said Ambassador Sheridan as he looked at Kasuf's face, which was bowed down at the moment along with everyone else in the mine.
"Jackson, why are they bowing down before us?" O'Neill asked.
"They think we're gods," Daniel answered.
"For crying out loud," Jack muttered under his breath. "Tell them that they don't have to bow down to us, we're not gods."
Daniel translated for him and uneasily Kasuf and his people rose up to their full height, then Kasuf clapped his hands and called out to his people. A moment later a line of women came forth, bearing cups of water for them. They all accepted the gift of water, realizing that water is a very precious commodity in the desert and to refuse such a gift from them could be construed as an insult.
Daniel recognized almost immediately the young woman before him as the one he had spied through his binoculars on the first day the expedition arrived on Abydos.
"What's your name?"
"Sha're," she answered, and placed her hand on her heart and turned her eyes down upon the ground.
"Ask Kasuf if he knows more about the creature that attacked us last night," Captain O'Neill ordered, he recognized the girl from the first time that he and Doctor Jackson had observed the mines and knew that the young man might do something stupid with such a beauty in front of him.
Doctor Jackson translated for the Captain again and Kasuf told what he knew. That it was a creature of the night and that it had a taste for human flesh, demanding a sacrifice of at least four people per year to appease the beast, lest if it went on a rampage and started killing everyone. Many attempts in the past had failed to kill the creature and they paid dearly for it every time, and those hunters that tried never came back. It was even said that the creature was impossible to kill.
Daniel asked in their native tongue if the creature was originally of this world.
"The 'Evil Spirit' was put on this world at the same time as we were created by our god Ra," Kasuf answered.
"Ask them if they know where it sleeps or dwells when it's not hunting humans," O'Neill asked which Doctor Jackson translated for Kasuf.
Kasuf gestured to a young man, Skaara, and his friends who were standing close by, watching the newcomers with a curious eye. "They know where the demon sleeps, they once followed it to its dwelling when one of their friends was taken," Kasuf answered.
"I can show you where it sleeps, it only comes out at night, it has no love for the light from the Eye of Ra," Skaara said pointing to the sun.
"It seems that the creature that attacked us last night has no love of sun light and this boy seems to know where it sleeps during the day," Doctor Jackson explained.
"Alright Doctor, have you been able to get the translation program properly set up for us?" O'Neill asked.
"Yes, but it's still very rough, it may not translate properly in some places and programming isn't exactly my strong suite..."
"Carter helped you with the programming, didn't she?"
"Yes," Jackson said uncertainly.
"Then it should be alright, we don't need to have long conversations, just enough to roughly understand each other."
Doctor Jackson nodded in defeat.
"What was the kid's name again?"
"Skaara," Doctor Jackson answered.
"Alright, then Skaara, Brown, Lapin and I will meet up with Kawalsky and Ferretti's squads and head for this creature's home, see if we can take it out."
"How are you going to take it out, it didn't seem to be bothered that much by our PPG fire," Doctor Jackson asked.
"We stung it a little, and when the turrets started shooting at it, it ran away, and as you know one bee sting may be an annoyance, but a hundred can kill you, plus we also got a couple of heavy weapons from Earth the last time they opened the gate. If we can catch it in its cave we'll have it cornered and hopefully dead soon after."
Doctor Jackson nodded in reluctance and asked Kasuf if Skaara would be willing to show O'Neill and his men where the demon sleeps. Before Kasuf could answer Skaara spoke up.
"I would be honoured to accompany you and show where the demon sleeps," said Skaara with no fear in his voice. Daniel nodded sadly at that and translated for O'Neill.
"Good, show us the way kid," said O'Neill, gesturing for Skaara to join him.
"Doctor Jackson, Ambassador, stay with the locals. Dieter and Gunderson, stay here with Sheridan and Jackson, make sure they don't get into too much trouble," said O'Neill, the two SFs stuck with the diplomat and archaeologist looked about to protest when O'Neill flashed them a steady commanding look which cowed them both.
"I know you two want to avenge your friend, but I need you two to look after Doctor Jackson and the ambassador."
The two nodded in understanding, they definitely didn't like it, but they could understand why they were being left behind.
"Make sure to stay in regular radio contact so we know you are alive," said the ambassador.
"Will do Ambassador," he answered. O'Neill motioned for Skaara to lead the way and he and Brown put their combat helmets back on, the heat was beginning to get to them, and was most grateful for the temperature control systems in his suit and helmet.
Skaara led them across the desert towards the mountains, the same mountains that just happened to overlook their base-camp. They moved into the mountains where they met up with Kawalsky and Ferretti's squads, almost two thirds of the expedition. They continued to follow Skaara further up the mountains and soon came upon a cave halfway up, in the shadow of the tall mountain and surrounded by black jagged rocks.
Captain O'Neill began transmitting on the general comm. channel so everyone could hear him. "Okay everyone, Skaara has led us to a cave, be advised we may lose contact once we get deep inside, Carter, has the Eagle Eye gotten us a picture of what's inside this mountain?
"Yes sir, I've got a live feed from the Eagle Eye from its ground penetrating sensors, looks like a long tunnel, possibly an ancient lava tube that opens up into a rather large chamber, could be where this creature makes its home," she responded.
"Roger that, Doctor Jackson, have you managed to get any more useful intel from the locals on this thing?"
"I've been talking at length with the locals and I think I might have found another weakness that you might be able to exploit." The Doctor paused.
"Well, let's hear it," said O'Neill annoyed.
"One of the kids said that he saw it outside its dwelling at dawn when it was returning. Before it could get back inside it was exposed to direct sunlight and the creature seemed to be in pain and blisters were starting to form. Captain this creature has absolutely no love of sunlight and if you can get it out in the open in the middle of the day direct sunlight may be enough to kill it."
"So it doesn't like the sun too much," said Jack. "Hasn't it ever heard of sun-block?"
Daniel ignored the last comment. "Captain this thing feeds on humans and usually takes three or more people a year. The locals usually sacrifice their eldest to appease the beast so the others may live, but this thing craves fresh meat."
"Oi," Jack groaned. "Well, if we were ever going to colonize this planet we would have to get rid of this thing anyway, and the mineralogical survey suggests that this world is loaded with Q50 and Q49 deposits, and Q49 as you know when refined becomes Q40, meaning we would have a healthy source of income for these people."
"I know, just be careful, we don't want what happened to Davenport happen to you," said Doctor Jackson, remembering the dead petty officer, who was little more than skin and bones and all of his internal organs had been seemingly ripped out of him without a single entry or exit wound.
"We'll contact you after we've taken care of this thing, Carter, you on?"
"Yes sir."
"I want you and your team to get ready for an attack, since base camp is so close you'll most likely be its first target, and if we fail to take this thing out it'll be up to the rest of you to take it down," said O'Neill.
"Aye sir!" said Carter strongly, though inside she felt a little fearful that they wouldn't come back, she definitely didn't want to face that creature after seeing what it did the last time.
Captain O'Neill then gestured for Skaara to remain outside, and Skaara seemed to agree, but O'Neill saw in the young man's eyes that he would follow them in.
"Brown, Lapin, stay behind and cover the exit, if that thing comes screaming out into the hot sun I want you to try and hold it out in the open, let the sun do the work just keep it pinned down until its dead, and keep an eye on the kid," he said in afterthought.
"Aye sir," the two chorused and took up positions on either side of the entrance while O'Neill along with Kawalsky and Ferretti's squads went into the cave. As soon as they got deeper into the cave and natural sunlight began to diminish they switched to Infrared night vision, giving them a better view of the cave than they would have had with torches.
As quietly as possible they ventured into the cave, though it was more of a long tunnel, oval in shape and seemingly smooth walls, too smooth to be just a lava tube, definitely not a natural formation, someone had to have dug this place.
Over the radio Kawalsky asked, "Sir, why don't we just collapse the entrance to the cave, then the thing would be trapped in here with no way out?"
"Because there may be an emergency exit that the Eagle Eye might not have picked up and this thing could very well dig itself out before it dies, now cut the chatter," said O'Neill as they approached a large chamber up ahead.
The chamber itself was a huge oval shaped sphere with a hole in the centre of the floor, a well? There was absolutely no natural illumination, the only thing that prevented them from bumping into each other was their night-vision optics built into their helmets. Right next to the hole was the creature in all its ugly glory, dozing softly yet everyone was getting increasingly nervous, but they clamped down on their fear and controlled it, not letting it control them. As they entered the chamber Jack noticed something on the ground and silently wished he hadn't looked.
Kawalsky looked down as he heard the first crunch and clamped his eyes shut as he tried to mentally erase what he just saw. He expected to see such things, but expecting and actually seeing were totally different. Skeletons, human skeletons, were scattered on the ground like so much refuse, the evidence of the creature's former meals. All seventeen of them stepped lightly into the chamber, careful not to step on any of the bones, but their stealth couldn't last forever. A young SF stepped on a rib and it cracked loudly like a gunshot.
The creature's eyes shot open and locked onto the source of the noise, instantly picking out the warm body of the young SF and lunged for him, killing him instantly with a swipe of its sharp talons, removing all of his internal organs and meat in an instant, not even giving him a chance to scream.
"Open fire," Captain O'Neill yelled and all of them opened up with their rifles and the two heavy PPCs, bathing it in red hot plasma, making it recoil back from the pain, starting off as something akin to a bee sting then grew to unimaginable pain as the heat poured on and the plasma impacted, making it stagger and fall to its knees. The SFs just kept pouring on the fire, making it pay for all the people it had killed, until it started to glow, white lines crisscrossed its body as it began to succumb to the fire then exploded, releasing the pent up energy stored within it in the form of a small pressure wave which knocked everybody on their asses. At the entrance to the cave the high pressure air wave came blasting out knocking Skaara flat on his back as he stood in front of the entrance.
In the cave everyone was picking themselves up, feeling like they had just been run over by a twenty ton truck.
"Is everyone alright?" Captain O'Neill asked, still trying to shake off his disorientation from being thrown up against the wall.
One by one everyone got up shakily back on their feet, between the frightening nature of the creature and the pressure wave created when it died, they were still deeply rattled. As they got on their feet they each sounded off, no one else had been killed, their helmets and armour protecting them from the pressure wave and subsequent crash into the wall.
"Collect his gear, we'll bring him back for a proper burial on Earth," said O'Neill. They quickly gathered up the unfortunate SFs body and equipment and headed out of the cave, the body in a sealed body bag so scavengers wouldn't smell it and get an easy meal. As they came out of the cave their mood was subdued, they had a second man dead on this mission and they truly hoped that their deaths were worth it.
They trudged back towards their camp and put the body onto one of the FREDs, while everyone else began to lend a hand in taking down the tents. Captain O'Neill called together his two senior officers, Commanders Kawalsky and Ferretti, and the officer in charge of the science team, Lieutenant Carter with Doctor Jackson and Ambassador Sheridan joining in over the radio. Off to the side was Skaara trying to listen in, but because he couldn't understand their language he couldn't hope to know what they were saying.
"Ok, now that we have revealed ourselves to the locals and taken care of their demon for them, what now?" Jack O'Neill asked. "We can't simply isolate ourselves from them."
"Sir I think we should stop taking down camp and stay put until Doctor Jackson can get the Stargate working again," said Kawalsky. "We only just met these people and even though they are fellow humans they have been removed from our home world for over four thousand years, and if you haven't noticed they greatly outnumber us, and at least here we have a defensible position."
"I disagree, they were very friendly towards us and your men, there's just a little bit of a language barrier which we'll be able to overcome with time, learning and translators, besides Kasuf has invited us to join them in a victory celebration in our honour" Sheridan rebutted over the radio.
"Besides this is a great opportunity to study an ancient culture that hasn't been around for centuries," said Doctor Jackson who was almost giddy at the thought.
"I agree sir," said Carter. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to go through another sandstorm like we had the first day we came here and the FREDs got a lot of sand in their gears which the rest of us spent a lot of time cleaning out all day afterwards."
"I think we've scored enough good will with these people to trust them, however we will still maintain a base camp out here, just in case we need a fallback position," he let the last part hang in the air for a second so everyone understood. "Ambassador, tell Kasuf that a small party including myself will be coming over to join in the festivities," he said smiling at his senior officers, after what they had been through they needed some good R&R.
"Very good Captain," said Sheridan just before he turned off his radio while O'Neill had a quick chat with the young Abydonian. Skaara got very excited and was soon off like a shot, heading straight towards his village at a fast pace.
"Carter, Kawalsky, mind joining me for this shindig?" the Captain asked, though his tone brokered no argument from his subordinates.
"We'll be there sir," said Kawalsky.
"And Kawalsky have your squad come with us, I'm sure they'll appreciate some fine local cuisine," said Captain O'Neill in mock seriousness, knowing that most of them would likely stick to their instant heat MREs.
"Aye sir," responded Kawalsky and started to get his squad together.
"Ferretti, you're in charge back here until we return." Ferretti merely nodded, though the captain could tell that the lieutenant was disappointed in not being able to join in the festivities that the locals were now going to throw them. "Don't look so sad Ferretti; there'll be other parties, though the next one will probably be a state dinner in Earth Dome." This one caused Ferretti and just about everyone within earshot to shudder in terror at the thought of all those predatory vultures that called themselves politicians rubbing shoulders with them.
Ten minutes later O'Neill, Carter, Kawalsky and his combat squad of six men moved out from camp in a slightly less melancholy mood, looking forward to hopefully a scrumptious home-cooked meal that the Abydonians were preparing for them and perhaps a local show.