Abandoned City,
Thracia
Disclaimer; In case you guys were wondering, I still don't own Stargate or Battlestar Galactica and still don't make any money off this.
Bullets slammed into the concrete above Major Tanner's head as another of the enemy machines attempted to kill him. The Major ducked and unleashed a pair of staff blasts at the approximate origin of the projectiles.
A loud boom from above him signaled his sniper team had found another target. That was at least ten in the last two minutes.
"Bloodhound, Bird Dog. Situation is critical. We are running low on ammunition. Where are you!" yelled Major Tanner.
"Bird Dog we have broken through opposition and are en route. Give us ten minutes." replied his 2IC.
"Good, what is the status of our reinforcements?" he asked.
"Negative, SGC has denied our request. Gate is under fire. They're not going to put more troops at risk. We're on our own."
"Goddamn it!" he yelled. "Ammo count!"
"Running low!" shouted Bird Dog Two.
"Low!" shouted Bird Dog Four from upstairs.
"Low!" shouted his sniper. Sergeant Phelps was too busy keeping Bird Dog Five alive so his ammunition had already been distributed.
"Conserve your ammo, make every last round count!" Major Tanner ordered. At this rate, his men had maybe five minutes of ammunition left, and that was assuming the enemy kept up their tactic of skirmishing.
"GET DOWN!" shouted Corporal Brown from the door. Without waiting to finish his sentence the young Brit was already leaping out of the doorway. Missing him by a hair, a rocket flew through the open doorway and slammed into the far wall.
The world became a haze as the shock-wave and shrapnel washed over the four men and the seven prisoners on the bottom floor. Major Tanner looked around dizzily, not quite comprehending his surroundings.
At some point Sergeant Phelps came to kneel over him.
"-an you hear me? Major! Can you hear me?" Tanner shook his head to clear it, and slowly nodded.
"Yeah... yeah, yes... I can, I can hear you. How, how's everybody else?" he asked with a slight slur.
"I don't know, I need you to cover the door while I check them. Can you do that?" the Sergeant asked.
Tanner nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Move on to the others." The Sergeant nodded and moved to check Bird Dog Two's vitals. Major Tanner tried to stand but a sharp pain in his abdomen caused him to decide against it.
Instead he crawled over to the doorway and saw that literally dozens of machines were advancing.
"Oh, shit." Major Tanner opened up with his rifle. He managed to shoot three of the advancing machines before their retaliatory gunfire caused him to roll to cover. He primed a grenade and tossed it around the corner and heard it detonate, as well as metal hitting metal.
The Major rolled back out and fired his staff weapon. The orange blasts of energy soared through the air and landed on the chest plating of another two machines.
"You can't stop them. They're coming for us, and you." said the balding gray-haired man in the corner. Without looking away from the door, Major Tanner upholstered his Zat'nik'tel and shot the man.
More loud booms from upstairs signaled his sniper was still alive. Red Dog Four came running down the stairs to assist Major Tanner.
"Major, we have at least three dozen hostiles coming from the front and another six dozen about a hundred yards out." As he said this, he leaned out and unleashed a burst of armor-piercing bullets.
"So, we're screwed."
"Seven ways to Sunday, sir." More bullet impacts against the inside walls.
Suddenly, an accented Israeli voice could be heard.
"Six coming in!" Inside of three seconds six pairs of booted feet had charged inside and taken cover in the empty room.
"Captain Biram, your voice may be the sweetest thing I've ever heard." said the Major to his notoriously coarse-voiced 2IC. "How much ammunition do your men have?"
The Captain shook his head. "Four mags between us, and maybe thirty staff blasts, tops."
"See any back-ways we could use to get out?" Asked Major Teller. Grim looks and shaken heads were his only reply.
"We were hoping you had one." said Bloodhound Eight.
"No luck. Its solid concrete in every other direction. Apparently this planet never heard of fire exits." said Sergeant Jackson, Bird Dog Four. Interrupting their conversation was another, longer burst of machine gun fire coming through the door and single now-smashed window.
The soldiers ducked close to the floor and, when the fire subsided somewhat, rose to return fire. Staff blasts and bullets flew out of the building like rats out of a burning subway tunnel.
The mass of ominously-slow walking machines were now getting disturbingly close.
"Grenade!" shouted Bloodhound Seven as he tossed two fragmentation grenades. The soldiers pressed themselves to the concrete as shrapnel flew over their heads.
"Sergeant Carson, Mike Thirty Two!" shouted Captain Biram as peered over the edge.
"Yes sir!" Bloodhound Nine immediately slung his HCR around his shoulder and grabbed his M32 Grenade Launcher. The M32 is essentially a revolver, but its the size of a carbine and instead of using small lead projectiles it used six 40mm grenades.
The soldier loaded the soda-can sized explosives into each barrel and pushed himself up to see out of the window. He emptied the weapon in seconds and ducked back down.
The high explosive rounds detonated in the midst of the enemy machines. Fragments were thrown in every direction as the shiny drones dropped when hot metal ripped through their bodies.
The six gaping holes in the enemy formation were quickly filled. The machines were now within fifty yards. To make matters worse, Lieutenant George Yule, Bird Dog Three and the team's sniper, stopped firing.
"That's it, .50's out!" he shouted from the second story. "And they're bringing up more reserves. We have at least sixty more inbound!"
Barely a minute after Lieutenant Yule announced it, several dozen more machines did appear.
They declared 'last mag' one after the other until nothing but staff blasts were being fired out of the building. Shortly afterward, even those stopped.
The men looked at each other as they ducked behind cover. They had pulled out their projectile sidearms.
"So, Alamo anyone?" asked Sergeant Jackson. They all chuckled, but knew this was it. Their pistols just didn't have the force to stop the enemy who had been reinforced with at least another hundred machines which had now advanced to within spitting distance. Their Zats had proved all but useless against the armored monsters.
Just before the men raised themselves to fire the last of their ammunition a voice came over the radio.
"Major Tanner, please respond." The voice was female and distinctly familiar. The Major pushed the transmit button on his radio.
"Colonel Carter, thank god, is that you?" He asked.
"Roger that, Major. We were in the neighborhood. The Hammond is in orbit of the planet. What is your situation?" She asked.
"Colonel, beam up all life signs in the city now!" He yelled into the radio. In an instant all twelve soldiers were enveloped in bright light and reappeared aboard the George Hammond.
Immediately the soldiers turned towards their prisoners and raised their guns. The Hammond's bridge Marines did likewise. The small crowd looked around in bewilderment at the turn of events. They had assumed they were about to be rescued, only to have those hopes dashed.
"Major?" Colonel Carter asked. "Friends of yours?" Major Tanner shook his head.
"No ma'am. Requesting permission to put them in your brig."
"Permission granted. Marines." Colonel Carter nodded her head and the Marines on the bridge moved to help carry the prisoners to their cells.
Before the Marines had even begun to move Sergeant Phelps was already back down attending to Sergeant Taylor.
Colonel Carter saw the wounded man on the stretcher and pressed a communications button on her chair. "Medical team to the Bridge!"
Within minutes the bridge became filled with armored Special Forces soldiers and medical personnel. They picked up the young Brit and put him on the stretcher. As they were picking him up the bandage on his leg suddenly became dark red.
"Damn it! The clamp came loose. He's bleeding again!" shouted Sergeant Phelps. He removed the bandage and immediately blood spewed out like a fountain and covered those present.
"Get me two bags of O- blood now!" he yelled. An orderly began hooking up a bag of blood to Sergeant Taylor's IV line. Phelps' hand was deep in the man's leg wound as he tried to clamp the artery.
His face contorted in concern and anger as he felt around the bloody mess. "I can't find the artery. It's retracted and I can't clamp it." The large party of people began to move toward the door and soon left the bridge for Sick Bay.
Major Tanner's team was left standing in the bridge, covered in blood, plaster, and dust as their dying comrade was wheeled out.
Colonel Carter turned to the Major and asked, "What the hell happened down there?" she asked.
Before she could get an answer her Weapons Officer announced, "Colonel, over a dozen ships just appeared five thousand kilometers away and closing rapidly."
Carter rapidly returned to her Command Chair and asked, "Where did they come from?"
The Weapons Officer shook his head. "I don't know. They appeared in empty space and I didn't detect a Hyperspace window. There was a burst of energy and they were just there."
"Have they shown any hostile intent?" she asked. He shook his head.
"No, but I'm detecting a lot of radio traffic. I think they're trying to hail us."
"With radio waves?" Carter asked. The Weapons Officer looked towards her and shrugged. It was unusual for space-faring civilizations to use radio waves as subspace communication was relatively simple once you mastered hyperdrive technology.
Colonel Carter shrugged and ordered, "Put it on speaker." Static began coming through the overhead speakers before it cleared into a male voice.
"-fy yourselves or you will be destroyed. I repeat, identify yourselves immediately."
"This is Colonel Samantha Carter of the Tau'ri ship George Hammond. We are recovering some of our people. Identify yourselves." she responded.
"Who we are is not important. What is important is what you are doing here?" he asked in a rather rude way.
Colonel Carter looked around at her crew and replied, "Like I said, we were searching for a number of our people and allies when we discovered the state of the planet below. Our people began to attempt to discover what had happened when they were attacked."
"Yes, we we have forces deployed on the planet below. You captured several of them. Release them immediately or we will destroy you." The man was beginning to sound more belligerent the longer the conversation went on.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. We are attempting to find out what happened to the people of the world below."
"I'll save you some time. We did it. Release the prisoners. Now." the voice ordered, all trace of civility gone.
"I can't do that." Colonel Carter said, becoming angry. These people had massacred several thousand people and now expected them to bow to their commands.
With the Colonel's answer came a warning from the Weapons Officer. "Colonel Carter, enemy ships are moving to surround us. They're launching fighters!"
"Have they raised shields?" she asked. Major Keen shook his head.
"No ma'am. I'm not detecting any either." he said back as he managed the Hammond's weapons. Colonel Carter was once again surprised, but she shook it off quickly. She had a ship to command.
"Raise the shields, arm all railguns and Asgard Beams, and scramble the 302's." she ordered. Earth had another enemy.
Okay guys review and tell me what you think. Once again I'd like to thank Hobobillybob for beta-reading for me. I really had difficulty completing this chapter and he helped iron it out. Also, if any of you were wondering about the limits on the Mini-staff weapons, miniturization made them less efficient. They're also Earth-made copies so the power source isn't as long-lasting due to the fact they lack the naquadah recources of the Jaffa Nation.