A/N: School starts today (yeah, on a wednesday, I know), so the next few update times may become a little bit erratic. Instead of 9 am it'll probably be 4 pm (gmt +2), and writing the chapters will definitely slow down. a lot. Lucky for you I still have some chapters in storage.
Reviews are welcome!
Chapter 16 – Ground Battle part 2
The gigantic mother-bug that was now threatening to destroy Minos and SG-1 was a hideous creature. Several 'limbs' of all kinds stuck out from everywhere, and it looked like someone had created a mutated giant superbug.
"RUN!" screamed Minos when he saw that the mother bug was heading straight for him. SG-1 and Minos sprinted away from the mother bug as fast as they could, killing all the other spiderlike replicators in their path. But they weren't fast enough. The giant replicator mother-bug was faster than all of them.
"KEEP RUNNING!" Minos screamed.
"YOU'RE COMING WITH US!" O'Neill screamed back. "YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT ALONE!"
Minos ignored O'Neill and he stood still, waiting for the Mother-bug to come. The mother bug almost reached Minos, and she stood still, surprised by the courage, or maybe stupidity, of her enemy. She shot out several large spikes, each the diameter of one of the smaller scout-bugs.
Minos's swords flashed, cut and hacked away through every replicator spike he could find. Dozens were shot at him, and he barely managed to evade them al. Suddenly a large burst of spikes came, one hundred in one time.
Minos had to twist himself in a really strange way in midair to evade all the blows. Excalibur and Durandal flashed, but they weren't fast enough. He couldn't cut all spikes so fast, and they kept coming! Minos thought it would be his end, but suddenly he was surprised by the sound of bullets flying his way!
SG-1 stood their ground and O'Neill and Teal'c were now firing at the mother-bug that was shooting Minos with spikes. The Mother-bug turned her attention towards the two figures that were shooting bullets at her. Though she was gigantic, the bullets still managed to cut away some replicators that formed the bug.
She shot spikes at SG-1, but she missed because they ducked away. In the meanwhile, Minos had cut himself free from all the spikes that were surrounding him, and he was no charging right into the mother bug. Swords flashing, hacking away as fast as he could manage, Minos dove straight into the mother bug. He was absorbed.
The replicators that formed the mother bug had suddenly retreated to form a large hole, large enough for Minos. Minos stumbled in that hole, driven by his momentum. He caught himself with a quick turn, and started swinging both swords above his head. He was now inside the mother-bug.
"Oh Fuck." Minos said, as his eyes adapted to the light and he finally saw what was around him. He was surrounded by replicators. Dormant ones beneath his feet, and awakened ones above him. He swung his swords to cut off the replicators that advanced on him. He had to turn so quickly, that he almost became dizzy.
"MINOS!" O'Neill screamed as he saw how the Ancient boy was absorbed by the Replicator Mother-bug. He knew that there was little he could do but fire as hard as he could at the mother-bug. He did exactly that, but with little effect. The gargantuan mother-bug was so big that bullets did not really do any harm. He needed something powerful. Perhaps some C4?
But as O'Neill reached for his C4, he saw a bright, yellow-white flash coming from above. He looked up, and saw an energy bolt coming from the sky, aimed straight at the mother-bug. The energy-bolt itself did little damage, but the impact of it did enough. The upper half of the Mother-bug was almost completely shot away. Another shot would definitely kill the bastard, but it would also probably kill Minos.
Minos was just busy cutting one of the groups of replicator bricks that had advanced a little too far for his liking, when suddenly a massive tremor occurred. The replicators that were assaulting him stopped, and he saw his opportunity. Minos slashed away as hard as he could into one direction. He followed it up with a large barrage of slashes that cut an opening just large enough for him to jump for.
O'Neill watched in terror as he saw a second bolt of energy coming straight for the mother-bug. Minos was still in there, and he wasn't going to survive this. He closed his eyes and prayed for the Ancient to live.
Minos was mid-jump, and half outside the Replicator when he saw it. A massive energy bolt, which looked like it was Asgard, came from above. Minos estimated that he had about one second before the thing would hit, and he jumped as far as he could to stand clear from the replicator.
O'Neill felt the ground tremor and he heard the impact the energy blast had created. He prayed that Minos had somehow found a way to survive the blast, and when he opened his eyes his jaw almost fell to the floor in astonishment.
Minos had found a way to escape. The kid was somehow flying straight towards him. The blast had pushed Minos away further and harder than he had expected, and he was now flying straight towards SG-1. He could land safely, even with this speed, but he'd probably snap an ankle or something.
He turned himself to minimize the damage from his fall, and he braced for impact. But instead of the hard, replicator-made ground, he felt four strong hands grab him at the same time. O'Neill and Teal'c had caught the kid out of mid-air!
"Thanks." Minos managed to stumble as the two men put him down. All of them suddenly looked up as they saw a huge barrage of bright energy blasts coming. They soon realised that they weren't aimed at them, but at the advancing replicator armies. Billions of scout spiders and larger spiders fell, and before long hundreds of mother-bugs had fallen too.
"Come on! We have to hurry!" screamed Minos above the roars of the blasts and the replicators.
The team ran as quickly as they could to the exact location of the chair. But when they arrived there, after they'd cut a way through several hundreds of replicators, they saw nothing. Only a flat, rocky, surface.
"The chair is here." Said Minos as he saw the rest of the team was in terror because there was no chair. "It's directly underneath us."
"What are we going to do?" asked Daniel, who looked tired from all the fighting.
"We go downwards. Everybody stand in a half circle behind me. I'm going to kill the cloak that we're standing on, and there's a large slide directly underneath, going in circles."
"A slide? Seriously? Here?" O'Neill said.
"Just stand in a circle. A bit more to the right, Teal'c. You too, Jack. Everybody ready?" Minos asked.
"Probably." O'Neill said.
"OK let's go." Minos said as he raised his arms and suddenly the ground seemed to disappear beneath their feet.
The team fell onto a large slide that went steeply downwards as far as they could see. It was almost a metre wide, and it curved downwards in large circles.
When they'd overcome the initial surprise of the fall, the team had noticed Minos's laughter. He was in front of everyone, and he laid calmly down on his back, letting the gravity do all the work. His laughter was apparently a bit contagious, because not soon everybody else was sliding downwards with a large grin.
"How far is it yet?" asked Carter after a few minutes of sliding. "My butt's starting to hurt and I'm kinda dizzy."
"Only a few more corners to the first stop." Minos said. He was right, because after only a hundred metres of sliding, they came onto a large platform. In the middle of that platform was a hole, and to the edges of the platform lay several large mats.
"We need to grab one of these mats, quicly!" said Minos. "The replicators are coming."
Everybody grabbed a mat, and they all followed Minos when he jumped into the large hole in the centre of the floor.
"This is way better!" yelled Carter as the group slid downwards in slightly larger spirals this time.
"These mats are a blessing!" yelled Daniel. "But how far is it until we reach the chair."
"Oh, only several miles downwards. I guess we reach it in about ten minutes. But I can make that nine if we all cling together." Said Minos.
"Nope, I'm fine." Said O'Neill, who was enjoying the ride though he was slightly dizzy.
And indeed, after ten minutes of sliding, the team came to a large platform. In the middle of the platform stood a chair. An Ancient control chair, blue energy pulsating at the rate of an heartbeat. But there was no heartbeat.
The group reached the chair, and they were shocked. In the chair was Minos!
"What the...!" O'Neill yelled.
"That's impossible." Minos said.
The Minos in the chair opened his eyes.
"He's a replicator!" said Minos. "A highly evolved replicator. Nanobots instead of bricks."
"You are correct." Said the Replicator in a metallic voice that sounded an awkward lot like Minos's own. "Now you will die." The Replicator said.
The replicator charged forward with extreme speed, grabbing O'Neill and Teal'c and swinging them against the wall. Minos barely managed to draw his own sword before the Replicator version of himself could charge him.
The replicator's arms became metallic in appearance, and they formed swords exactly like Excalibur and Durandal. Minos and the Replicator engaged in a sword fight. Their swords moved too fast for a human eye to see, and they were each other's equal in speed, power and reflexes. Both used tricks and counter-tricks for their opponent to fall into their swords, but neither of it had any effect.
It looked like Replicator-Minos was going to win when a clone of himself, this one made of bricks, appeared. Minos could only barely handle the nanobot-replicator, and he was sure he couldn't handle one more.
But just as the replicator made from bricks charged at Minos, he was destroyed by gunfire. SG-1, who had all been smacked into the walls of the stone chamber they were in, had gathered their senses. O'Neill and Teal'c fired at the Replicators, while Daniel took car of Sam. She was hit the hardest by the replicator, and she was still unconscious on the floor.
The brick replicator copy of Minos exploded into a small pile of loose bricks, their electronic bonds severed by the kinetic energy of the bullets. The nanobot-replicator that Minos was fighting called another two clones of himself from the replicators that came in through the slide.
Minos had so far held out against the barrage of his opponent, but he was unsure how long he was going to hold. He had to end this, soon.
His rescue came from SG-1, who had turned their attention from the replicators made from bricks to the one made from nanobots. Though their bullets didn't really do much damage, they managed to distract the replicator from Minos long enough.
Minos swung Excalibur around, creating a deep gash across the chest of the replicator. Another swing, this time with Durandal, added a vertical scar. The replicator screamed out in pain as Minos stabbed him numerous times with both Excalibur and Durandal.
With a final scream, Minos cut off the head of his own replicator clone. The clone exploded into a fine dust of miniature particles, now inactive through the damage done.
The brick replicators, now in the form of bugs and spiders, kept gushing in through the slide. Minos made a huge jump for the chair, and landed smack in the middle. He concentrated deeply, focussing all his power in the simple thought of 'shut down'. It worked. The replicators closest to the chair were the first affected. They stopped mid-movement and they collapsed in on itself.
The shut-down command spread across the planet like a wave. Spiders stopped, bugs stood still, Mother bugs halted mid-step and fell apart. The only problem was that the planet was made of replicators. The planet began to collapse in on itself!
"We must get out!" Minos yelled, as he grabbed Daniel and Sam and laid them down in the middle of a close circle they had formed.
"Thor!" Minos screamed.
Suddenly, the team was on the bridge of the commanding Asgard ship in orbit around the planet where they all looked stunned by the simple thought that they survived.