A/N: If anything feels out of character plz let me know.
Reviews are welcome!
Chapter 8 presentations and an Ashrak?
"Sirs, We're presenting you the anti-armour gun." Carter and Minos stood in the conference room where several high-ranking military officials, including O'Neill and General Hammond, were present. There were also several scientists, who helped design the weapon from area 51.
"Its primary function is to defeat the Kull warriors that form a threat to our planets. It was designed with the help of King Minos." She gestured to the young king. "and the scientists of area 51." She stopped for a breathing break.
"The armour that the Kull warriors of Anubis are wearing, is impossible to damage with other energy weapons because it absorbs the energy, and it is nigh impenetrable by normal bullets. The kinetic energy of a block of metal weighing about twenty kilograms flying with five times the speed of sound is needed to do enough damage to their armour to kill the host."
"But this weapon uses a different kind of damage. We've discovered a fatal flaw in the way that the armour spreads out the energy from a usual staff blast. If you fire several bullets, about five or six, extremely quick at exactly the same spot and with exactly the right amount and frequency of energy, then the armour will explode, effectively killing the soldier within.
That's why we have designed the anti-armour gun. It can disable any kind of armour that absorbs energy because we've enabled it to change frequencies. It fires specially made bullets which contain a small energy storage device, which unleashes the energy within on impact. The energy source of the gun is liquid naquadah, the same amount as used in staff weapons.
The gun is not really heavy, but it is quite large. Larger than our standard guns, but it is highly effective. We've tested it on a piece of armour of a Kull warrior. The explosive force was enough to wipe out the Kull warrior itself and several men standing close around it. We have sent the blueprints to Area 51, and they have built several guns. We can start equipping them to the teams most likely to encounter Kull warriors on their missions immediately.
The gun works exactly like our own guns, including the reload. There is a short waiting period between two shots too, because the bullets must be charged first. The waiting period is only one to two seconds. We have also produced several magazines of the special bullets. There is a production line being set up in area 51 to make a small supply of them."
After Samantha Carter had finished her presentation, the various officials fell into chatter. After a few minutes of this chatter, General Hammond ushered the room into silence.
"People, If you have any urgent questions, I recommend you ask them now. This meeting is ending in ten minutes. We would like the opinion of the president as soon as possible, so we can use these guns against the Kull warriors.
"Major Carter, are the six bullets really necessary to kill one warrior?" asked the representative of the white house
"Yes. But we have installed another mode on the gun in which only three bullets are used, thus stunning the warrior temporarily. But it takes all the six bullets to completely destroy their armour and kill the warrior inside."
"What material are the bullets made from?" asked one of the higher ranking military officials.
"The bullets themselves are made from lead, but the energy storage device inside uses a small amount of red mercury to store the energy."
"Is it really necessary to use red Mercury for energy storage?"
"Well, we could have used naquadah, but that would put enormous pressure on our naquadah supplies, and it would severely limit the amount of bullets we'd be able to make."
"How many guns are you able to make within the next week?" asked another official.
"We have so far built five guns, but with the right resources we can build around a hundred more by the end of the week. We have a small supply of bullets, about a hundred, but we can make a lot more once we automatize the process."
"Are these guns able to be deployed into the field directly?"
"Yes, they've been tested on various pieces of Kull armour so far, and they worked perfectly."
"Thank you for the presentation, Major Carter." Hammond interrupted the officials before they could ask any more questions. Everyone except O'Neill, Hammond, Carter and Minos left the room.
"Well, that went ok. We can finally defend ourselves against the Kull."
"We still have to wait for permission from higher up, Colonel." said General Hammond.
"Oh. Well I guess we should start praying, sir." O'Neill said, smirking at his own joke.
"The only thing you should be praying for, Colonel O'Neill, is that the paperwork does itself." Hammond retorted, though the amusement could be read from his face. "Dismissed, people."
O'Neill, Carter and Minos walked out of the room.
"I suggest we get something to eat."
"Good idea, sir. " answered Carter.
"Yeah, I'm hungry too." Added Minos.
They walked to the mess hall together. They met Daniel halfway, who was awakened from his studies by his stomach, who complained that he had missed lunch already.
"Hi guys."
"Hi Daniel. Finally back into the land of the living?" asked O'Neill sarcastically.
"Yep. I'm hungry. So, Sam. How did your presentation go?"
"I almost can't believe we've just designed a completely new gun from scratch in three days." Said Sam. "We just have to wait for the green lights from higher up to put it to use."
"Well, you had a whole team of scientists working at Area 51 too." Said O'Neill.
"No, sir. They helped building the bullets and guns themselves, but they didn't design it. That was just Minos and me. I had never expected you to be so good in designing things." She said to Minos.
"Ah, well. I just made up the ideas. You figured out how to put it together to make it work." He answered.
"Guys, what ..." Daniel started, but he was interrupted by a large ball of orange energy that was fired from somewhere in front of them. Minos launched himself into Daniel and they both fell against the wall. O'Neill immediately drew his gun to shoot whoever was firing at them, but he couldn't see anything. The corridor in front of them was empty.
Another bolt of energy suddenly came flying out of nowhere, and Carter had only just enough time to duck away. In the meanwhile, Minos had recovered from the fall against the wall, and he was now staring into the corridor in front of them, trying to spot the person that was firing at them.
Suddenly, he must have detected something because he sprinted forward. Another bolt of energy came out of nowhere, and Minos barely managed to evade it by diving towards the right. The momentum of his sprint made him roll forward over the floor, and suddenly he jumped up from the ground like a karate master. He set off from the wall with both feet, turned in midair, and made contact with something invisible.
He kicked the object away as hard as he could, and he heard a loud clash and saw a dent appearing in the wall opposite to where he was now lying on the ground. He stood up as fast as he could while O'Neill and Carter came running towards him, and he tried to kick the object that he had smacked against the wall, but he missed.
O'Neill and Carter now both had pulled their guns, but it was no good if they couldn't see who they were supposed to shoot at. Daniel had run to the other side, to the nearest alarm button. Suddenly, the hallway was filled with bright lights flashing on and off, and a loud siren. A metallic voice stated that level twenty-five was sealed off, although that would have little effect if they didn't know where the invisible assassin was hiding.
Minos stood up and just as he made a dive forward to the invisible assassin, a large yellow bolt of energy came surging out of nowhere again, and this time it his O'Neill in the side. Screaming in pain he fell down, just as Minos had grabbed the things that supposedly were the legs of the invisible assassin, making him fall down too. Minos suddenly grabbed something, and pulled hard. The object came loose.
It was the assassins cloak, which he broke in two pieces thus rendering the assassin visible permanently. Carter came running up to them, and shot the assassin in the legs while it tried to reach his blade with Minos still on top of him.
"Medical team and security to level 25, corridor C!" she yelled through her communicator.
"Carter, shoot the assassin again, in the arm this time." Said O'Neill weakly, as he tried to reach a sitting position which would ease the pressure off his wounded side.
Carter shot the assassin again, and his struggles became weaker. Daniel came running from the end of the corridor, followed by security and a medical team led by Dr. Frasier.
"Colonel, where did he hit you?" asked Dr. Frasier.
"side." O'Neill grumbled, obviously in pain, while the security team grabbed the assassin and cuffed him.
"Please lay still."
"Like I'm gonna bungee-jump now, Doc."
"Luckily you have no brain damage, colonel. It just appears to be a severely burned, but mostly tissue damage."
"What makes you say I have no brain damage, doc? I'd say that the grey mass up here feels a little clutched up at the moment."
"Colonel, there is no feeling in your brain because there are no nerve endings there. And your brain is not grey, it's blood red."
"But where do the grey hairs come from then?" he asked.
"They..." she stopped as she realised that the colonel was joking with her. "Colonel. This is not funny."
"Why not? I'm finding it quite hilarious." Said King Minos, who was still laying on the floor.
"Are you okay?" asked Carter
"No, I'm just enjoying the feeling of the soft floor over here. My leg hurts like hell."
"Well, what did you do with it?" asked Frasier.
"I kicked an Ashrak in the face. The bastard was wearing a helmet, and I may have hurt something on my way back down."
"We need to get you both to the infirmary, now."
"Frasier and the three nurses hoisted Jack and Minos on two gurneys and brought them to the infirmary, while the security teams searched the perimeter for other Ashraks with special goggles.
"Any idea how the Ashrak came in?" asked O'Neill to Carter, who was walking with them towards the infirmary.
"No, sir. It could have been any dial-in from the gate for the past several days."
"No, it wasn't." Minos butted in, "This Ashrak had only just come through. I'd have noticed him earlier if he had been inside this base longer.
"But he was invisible. How did you notice him in the first place?" asked O'Neill.
"by smelling, and then looking concentrated." Answered Minos
"By smelling?" O'Neill asked incredulously.
"How's that possible. We've tested the cloak of an captured Ashrak several times, but even with a microscope we couldn't detect anything visual. We've only managed to see them so far because they still give off heat."
"Yes, I can."
"What?" asked Carter.
"You were going to ask If I could see in the infrared spectrum of light. To answer your question, yes, I can."
"How's that possible?"
"Have you considered mutations?"
"Well, no. I guess it could be explained by that. Though it is really unexpected, because you live on a desert planet, so you would almost immediately be blinded in the infrared spectrum."
"Who said I lived my whole life on Avalon?" Minos asked.
"Well, we just assumed that... Because you where their king."
"Mayor Carter, I'd like to conduct some examinations on my patients. Can you please leave for a while? You can come back in twenty minutes."
"Yeah, ok. Bye sir, Bye Minos." She greeted as she walked away from the beds where the nurses had put O'Neill and Minos.
"Do these examinations involve needles?" asked Minos.
"No, where just going to check if your leg is broken." Frasier answered.
"Ok. I can live with that."Minos said.