SGU s04 e18

Rescue

Sam touched down the shuttle in a deserted area behind the alien looking building. It was four stories high, camouflaged in sandy colors like the surrounding area. A quick scan showed active electrified fields around the perimeter of the 200 by 100 meter building. Both her and Greer looked around quietly at where they were. The coordinates they had been led to by the Valeyian reconnaissance team had placed them in an un-forested clearing well away from any civilization. Except for the building directly behind them, there appeared to be only sparse vegetation and sandy dunes for miles. This was well and truly a very high security and remotely located facility.

Greer looked to Sam with a light hearted smile, "Okay Ma'am, I guess this is where we earn our money!"

Sam pointed to the far end of the building, "Sergeant, there are two men down there," she brought them up on screen.

They could see their human faces and standard Ori military uniforms along with an Earth like style of modern military firearms.

Greer studied the men carefully and said, "The taller dude looks like he's got a sniper's weapon, the other one looks like some type of light machine gun." He kept his eyes on the targets, "We do not want to find out the hard way how good they are; let's just wait a few minutes and see where they go."

Samantha ran some scans of the compound. "I'm picking up an internal power generator on the third floor that is highly active, but I have no idea if disabling this will turn off the outside field."

Greer heard a double tap on his earpiece. "Sounds like the others are here too." He continued to watch the two men who were now halfway across the open yard and headed toward the only other small garage sized building directly in front of the shuttle.

Their concentration was interrupted by three short blast of a loud siren—immediately after the two men entered the small dwelling, the electrical field came down. Following another long single blast of the siren, the men reappeared and swiped something across a pad on the door.

Sam smiled, "At least they turned it off for us, and we know where from!"

Greer's attention was turned elsewhere as he said with a disheartening resound, "Oh shit, exercise time! Get us off the ground Colonel, or they'll walk straight into the shuttle."

As they lifted off and turned around, several doors opened from the main building, and a mix of military personal and prisoners walk into the yard.

Greer tapped in Morse code on his radio to Sgt. Wallace; "Alt LZ," and the two shuttles headed for the middle of nowhere to meet up, about five miles from the compound. On the way, one of the men noticed two people just outside what looked to be a makeshift semi-covered shelter and notified Greer.

"Sir, there appears to be two people taking cover to our left," said the Marine.

Ronald got Sam to run another pass and checked it out. "Hey Stevens," said Greer. "Have you got that desert ghillie suit you been working on?"

Corporal Stevens checked his bag. "Don't leave home without it, Sir; why?"

Ron looked at him and smiled. "How about a real world test?"

The Corporal smiled back, "Yes Sir! It just slips over my armor too." He quickly fitted himself into the suit.

Ron was impressed with his work. "Okay, we're going to give you the drop on those two down there, as our LZ is within their sight, about 350 meters to the north. Never hurt to have some friendly back up, just in case they have some strange ideas of signalling someone to us."

Stevens asked proficiently, "Sergeant, do you need me keep watch or take them out?"

Greer shook his head, "Hell no, let's try not kill any inhabitants unless we're being fired upon; just keep watch son, that's all. We'll come get you shortly."

Sam landed about 200 meters from the targets, as Stevens dropped into the warm soft sand on his belly. Greer was even more impressed as Stevens' shape quickly vanished into the surrounding sand-scape as they lifted off to the LZ. Stevens then slowly made his way within 20 meters of the two targets.

At the LZ, both shuttles sat back to back as Sam increased the cloak field to join the two together. Bad move as TJ's shuttle fried a crystal in the adapted circuitry, causing the cloak to fail. Immediately the shields came online to suppress any signature of the ship's systems, but they were exposed and visible out in the open.

Greer quickly got out of the shuttle with his men, and helped the others drag an emergency camouflage covering over the exposed shuttle.

He turned to Sgt. Wallace, "Fuck me, what else?"

Wallace smiled, "You know us Marines, we improvise!"

Greer told him, "Did you see the two bogies on the ridge? Stevens is in a ghillie suit behind them, but they would have spotted us by now."

Wallace pointed behind Greer, "You mean the Sandman and the two kids coming down the hill over there?"

Greer turned and just shook his head in complete frustration. "Oh for fuck's sake! Now what?"

Wallace laughed at him, "That's why you got the stripes on your arm!" and gave him a wink.

Stevens marched the two teenage looking kids directly to Greer who asked them point blank, "Okay, what's your story, you two?"

The Girl said through her tears, "Please don't hurt us!"

Greer put his weapon behind his back. "My name's Greer, and we're not here to hurt anyone, I give you my word. But I do want to know what you two are doing in the middle of nowhere?"

TJ noticed the young girl had a makeshift bandage on her leg and forearm. She also looked rather dehydrated and worse for wear.

Tamara walked over to her and asked with a mix of kindness and concern, "Are you hurt? I'm a medic—a healer—can I take a look at your arm Sweetie?" TJ could see the weeping wound, as her caring instincts took over. She looked at the young man and asked politely, "Would it be alright if I took her just into the back of the shuttle? You will be able to see her all the time," He cautiously nodded his okay to TJ, knowing that she really needed help he couldn't give.

The young girl accepted TJ's help, still frightened of what was happening. Tamara carefully loosened the bandage to reveal an infected laceration about an inch long. It was very deep, and TJ knew she would have to be in a lot of pain. Greer turned his attention to the boy and introduced himself as TJ brought the young girl—who she guessed was about 14—into the back of the shuttle.

Greer sat down with the young man and started with the basics, as Stevens kept watch in a subdued way. "Can you tell me your name?" Ronald asked.

The boy answered just as curiously as Greer was about him. "Soltolis, but my friends call me Sully. Who are you guys? Are you from planet Janca?"

Greer pointed to the distant outline of the twin planet in the sky, that looked about three times the size of Earth's moon, "You mean there?"

The young man came back with a slightly cheeky answer, "Ah, yeah! Like there. We do travel between both worlds you know. Where have you been hiding for the last 1000 cycles?"

Greer liked his cheeky attitude, as it reminded him of himself as a young man. "Well, not exactly. We are not from your world, or Janca—or your galaxy."

Sully's eyes opened wide with questions, "You're from another galaxy! Total aces awesomatic! Where?" he could barely contain his excitement of meeting real life aliens from another galaxy who appeared friendly.

Greer put up his hands to calm him down, but smiled. "Okay, hang on Sully, we need to make a deal here. I'll answer some of your questions, after you answer some of mine. Sound fair?" Ronald kept a stern look in his eyes, but softened it after Sully agreed.

Sully thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Chilled Greer. Ask away."

Ron tried to stop smiling at Sully but couldn't, so he just kept it simple. "Okay, how old are you?"

Sully looked around and stared at some of the weapons around him saying blindly, "Seventeen cycles; my go now?"

Ronald shook his head, "No, I got a few more first. How did you guys come to be here; did you escape from the compound?"

The cheerful look suddenly drained from Sully's eyes as he recalled how they came to be there. "She's my sister, Na'cholle—we call her Nay for short—she was only twelve when we were found and taken to the outpost. Our family was one of the many who continued to resist against Genesis's armies of the sky. Ori; Origin—bunch of bird feeders if you ask me! Up their ox shit ways, was what my father use to say."

Greer had to ask although her feared the answer from this young man, "Where is your father?"

A tear ran down from Sully's right eye as he said, "He died protecting us, helping with our escape at the cost of his and our mother's life," he wiped the tears that had started to fall.

Ron looked to Wallace with heartfelt sorrow. Both of them knew that it was hard to fake real emotions like this, and took Sully at his face value; they believed him.

Ronald said with a gentle hand on Sully's bicep, "Hey, your turn now; ask me anything you want."

Sully looked up at Ronald and asked a tough one. "Are you here to save us?"

Greer answered as honestly as he could under the circumstances. "I can't make you any promises, but we will try. We're here to save a couple of our friends that have been brought to the outpost."

Sully looked at the two shuttles and tried to make sense of the cloaked one. He could see inside with the rear door open, yet the outside didn't seem to exist. He watch as TJ attended to his sister's wounds and said, "What is your friends name; we spent nearly two cycles inside that place, and I know everyone." He turned back to Greer, "And I hope you have bigger ships than these ones and lots of them!"

Greer smiled, "We've got a whole fleet of them Sully, with technology and weapons you have never seen the likes of..."

TJ had cleaned Nay's wounds and fitted healing belts around her arm and leg. "Now these will fix this up quickly for you, and allow you to move at the same time without any pain."

Nay grabbed onto TJ and began to cry uncontrollably. It had been so long since anyone had shown her any sort of compassion or caring—TJ realized quickly that she was in a very bad way emotionally and cradled her tight, offering soothing words of comfort.

Tamara looked over to Sam who was watching as she worked to restore the fused circuits and simply said, "Colonel..." Sam instinctively nodded her okay without even being asked. "Nay, you can stay here with me for now, okay?" She nodded silently, but clutched TJ's hand tightly.

Greer stepped into the shuttle. "Hi Nay," he said caringly. "I've just been talking to your brother; he has been trying hard to take care of you these last few rotations hasn't he?" Again she just nodded, but continued to hold TJ's hand tight.

Greer looked toward Sam, "Colonel, may I have a word?"

Sam passed the small motherboard to the tech savvy Marine assisting her. "Yeah, of course Sergeant."

Outside away from earshot they spoke. "Sully knows the layout of the entire building. His dad was in the resistance and taught him a few things, I believe he was a soldier. He has all the intel we need to make a strike. I say we make a plan and head back in darkness."

Sam agreed. "We have one problem, apart from this," she waved her hand toward the shuttle. "I sent a secure subspace transmission to Destiny, no deal. Eli had to flip the FTL loop after they came under heavy attack a second time. The Destroyer following them took out the Ori, but they can't get in close enough to cover us. In the last attack, one of the Ori ships tried to ram into Destiny but only grazed her—they're out there, but in FTL."

Greer nodded and looked down at the sand for a moment thinking. He lifted his gaze back to Sam and said, "So we go it alone. Okay, It's not ideal; but it's what we got to work with."

Sam questioned him about Sully. "What about the boy; are you just going to blindly trust him? And how do we know if he is even telling the truth?"

Greer's better judgment told him to be cautious, but his instinct told him the boy was on the level. "He has given us some intel that you collected when you scanned the compound; more precisely, the location of the generator and backup power supply in detail. He also knows the layout and it fits with what we already have—but you're right—I can't trust him fully, although something tells me he wants some payback."

Sam was not convinced, but knew they had to do something soon as time was running out. "Does he know if Castell or Traise is there?"

Greer smiled. "As of when the two of them escaped about a week ago, they were being held in sub-level two. Sully told me they found an old bunker on the ridge and hid until the patrols stopped looking for them a few days ago. I figured they probably gave up thinking they were dead." Ron watched Sam's reaction before adding, "Look, I know you think this is all wrong, but we have to try something regardless of where the intel comes from."

Carter conceded. "Okay Sergeant, I'll trust your instincts on this one, but TJ will have to drop you guys in as I won't have his sister Nay on our backup shuttle; just in case this is all a trick, we need an escape."

Ron agreed. "Okay Colonel, sounds smart to me." Their attention was drawn as the exposed shuttle suddenly became cloaked again; "Time to roll," smiled Ronald.

Greer and Wallace sat facing each other in the front of Greer's shuttle, along with Sam as they outlined a plan quietly between them. Stevens was sitting next to the boy with a thousand questions as Sully asked continuously about Earth and what it was like. The Corporal understood why and tried to answer as best he could without giving away any secrets.

Finally Sully asked, "Can I see your weapon?"

Stevens looked to Greer who had heard the question, and got a quick nod in return from him, understanding the young man's curiosity. He removed the 30 round magazine and cleared the chamber of the H&K 416, before handing it over to Sully with the stern words of, "Keep it pointed to the floor please!"

Stevens gave him a run through of the basics much to Sully's delight. He had never had the chance to hold anything like this before and being that it was also an alien weapon to him just added to his excitement.

Sully asked, "Is it really loud when you use it, cos it looks similar to some of our weapons and they are really loud."

The Corporal answered honestly but without the explicit details of its capabilities. "A bit of both; depends on where we are and what we need to do, but it still makes noise no matter what." He looked at Sully who wanted more, "And they're a lot of fun to fire too," he smiled.

Sully carefully handed it back to him, but then asked, "Can I have a look at the small one?"

Stevens rearmed his weapon and passed it to the Marine beside him to hold. "Okay, but be careful with this," he drew the blackened and engraved Springfield M1911 .45ACP from its holster, removed the mag and opened the action to check it, then let it spring shut. He closed the hammer before he passed it to Sully and continued, "My Father gave this to me when I was last home. It's not the standard issue sidearm, but it has a habit of stopping whatever you fire at—quickly."

Sully held it and kept it pointed to the floor. "It feels really comfortable in my hand; are they hard to use?"

Stevens explained and gave him a quick demo. "No, but they do have a bit of kick when you fire it. Once you get use to that, it becomes second nature to you. My Father had this custom made for me by an old friend of his; all the engraving pictures were done by hand."

Sully studied the picture of a deer in the forest engraved along the forward end of the slide. The blackish blue color had been finished in matte to avoid any shiny surface that may reflect light. "Wouldn't it look better shiny?" he asked.

Stevens smiled at him. "Yeah, it would; but not practical if someone can see it from a mile away."

The young man handed the pistol back and said excitedly, "Chilled; yeah!"

Destiny continued along in FTL and headed toward a distant red dwarf star. After dropping from FTL they came to rest in amongst some gas clouds full of radiation and other interfering elements. Beside her, the Valeyian Destroyer Ha'tinge also came to rest. For the first time, Warenz de-cloaked the ship and pulled in front of Destiny, allowing them to see the Destroyer up close.

Eli said what everyone was thinking, "Holy crap, we're being protected by a giant football?!"

Rush studied the ship in front of them and replied to Eli, "It's the smartest design for a ship of that nature; everything is hidden on the inside, and you would have to crack through the outside shell to get in. The bridge is located in the center of the ship, unlike us, it wouldn't be the first thing to get taken out in a fight." Nick admired their design before saying, "So Ev—are we going to talk to them, or just sit here and look stupid?"

Everett chuckled to himself, "No Rush, we can talk if you want. But what we really need is to get the next message from the shuttle, so we know what is happening. Sam said they have to wait until nightfall before they can commence."

Warenz hailed Destiny. "Greetings General Young, it's good to officially meet you; I am Second Commander Warenz of the Valeyian Fleet Destroyer Ha'tinge, at your service."

Everett smiled at the man on screen. "The same for us Commander, and thank you for your assistance so far, it has been lifesaving."

Warenz nodded, "Happy to accommodate you General, although I fear this is only the start. You will be happy to know that Captain Scott is jointly in charge of Commander Odin's Battleship, and I believe his wife Chloe is at the helm—damn good navigator I hear too!"

Everett chuckled, "That's our Chloe! She has an amazing connection to this ship." He paused for a moment then said, "We are waiting for a communication from the shuttles. It seems that they have picked up a couple of local kids, who had been taken prisoner by the Ori, but escaped. From what M Sgt. Greer was able to obtain, the people of the planet may not be willingly involved with the Ori, rather more like submitted than be killed. The young man's father was some sort of resistance fighter during the Ori occupation. Their technology appears to be somewhat advanced to our planets, but not by much so our strike team is set to go in another hour."

Warenz asked, "Have you been able to sense Castell?"

Everett's answer became slightly deflated, "No, not since arriving here. We have no idea if he is in the building or not, so it is only based on the intel at hand. According to the boy, both of them were there a few days ago, but to be honest, we're taking a guess."

"What about this other man, General Traise? Isn't he the one who attacked your ship—why rescue him from the Ori, may I ask?" said Warenz.

Everyone on the bridge looked to Everett as he answered. He gave a deep sigh and said, "Firstly, he needs to be held accountable for his actions and he did assist Castell to leave us a trail that helped in finding them here. I can assure you, if he gets killed in the rescue mission, no one here is going to be losing sleep over it—but he is one tough man, and just manages to keep surviving somehow."

Warenz nodded knowingly at Everett's situation. "Understood General. Now, one of my men has just informed me that you appear to have some minor damage to the forward end of Destiny. It must have been when the Warship tried to crash into you."

Nick and Eli both brought up diagnostic screen and searched for damage on the ship, with Eli reporting, "General, nothing has registered that Destiny was badly hit, just a minor deflection at the nose—like a graze."

Nick added, "Ev, all systems reported as normal, no hull breaches or air leaks. If there is damage there, our sensors aren't picking it up!"

Everett made a quick call to one of his men. "Sergeant, take a small well-armed team to the forward end of the ship and survey for damage. Wear full suits in case there is an air leak or hull breach, as the sensors in that area maybe offline, or not reading correctly."

The message came back quickly, "Roger General..."

Back on the shuttles the light was fading fast. Greer looked out toward the second planet in the sky, which gave itself up in great detail of a bluish green and brown world. "Okay people, this is going to be a fly by wire mission. We have a general idea of the layout, but full details are not available until we take out that power grid. Once that is done, all hell will break loose, but we can scan the building—so be ready. Do not shoot to kill unless they are shooting at you. We don't want to have any, and I mean any civilian casualties. Stevens and Lane: disable the electrical field controls in the small building. The rest of you, in two teams; Sgt. Wallace's team, or my team. Don't be afraid to make new doors where you need to, it's a great surprise. Everyone remember your NV G's, spray foam and C4. We're going in hot and hard."

Young Sully asked Ron, "Am I coming too?" hopeful of the answer.

Ron looked his friend, John Wallace in silence.

Sully added, "Come on, I know the place; where the guards are at, all that stuff!"

Greer asked him, "What about your sister? Shouldn't you stay here with her?" He knew what the answer would be.

Sully replied frustrated, "Come on Greer, you know she will be fine here. I can help you guys, you know it."

Reluctantly, Ron agreed even over his better judgment to say no. If Sully was on the level about what he knew, his help would be invaluable. Greer also had a plan just in case this young man was planted to lead them into a trap. Either way, it was a tough decision as Ron had taken a real shine to this kid, and just prayed he was being truthful.

"Okay Sully," said a reserved Ronald, "but your ass will stay behind mine all the way, you got me?"

Sully answered with a question that Greer was sort of expecting, "Do I get a weapon?" he asked hopefully.

The look on Greer's face said it all, "Don't push it!" then he said, "Stevens, hand me that spare set of NV G's and a radio piece."

Ronald placed the radio headset on Sully and instructed him on its use. He then fitted him with an armored vest, and the night vision goggles asking for the shuttle to be blacked out, so Sully could see what he was in for.

Young Sully's excitement was plainly evident. "AAHHH what! Awesomatic!" he bellowed as he looked at the guys in front of him in the darkened shuttle. He lifted them up to see darkness, then back down again to see everything again. "These things are total chilled!"

Greer got the lights back on and told TJ, "Okay; let's do this!"

Sam landed in the open area just in front of the small garage sized building that they hoped housed the perimeter switch. Stevens and Lane got out and quickly set a small silent charge on the door lock. The muffled explosion didn't attract any attention as they quickly got inside and set to work. There was a simple panel of switches and circuit breakers that looked to be from the 1970's along with a form of pictorial markings of a siren and fence.

Stevens looked at Lane with his finger on the switch, "Heads up, get ready to shoot!"

PFC Lane snuggled his H&K into his shoulder ready for action as Stevens flicked the fence switch. Immediately, the electrical fields came down with Sam confirming the okay. Stevens quickly pulled out all the fuses and damaged the board, while PFC Lane set several C4 charges on the exposed cables and spare generator. As they got back into the shuttle without attracting any attention, Sam suddenly picked up a signal from a nearby ship and immediately called Ron.

"O'oh..." she said worried, "Sgt. Greer, we're about to have company; a lot of company! You guys have got maybe ten minutes. Scans of the floors coming through now." Sam quickly uploaded all the info she could to Greer and Wallace's respective alien I Pad.

Looking over Greer's shoulder, Sully quickly said, "There, at the front; that's the first guard station," as he pointed out the position.

"Sully, are you sure?" he asked for clarity more than concern.

"Positive!" Sully replied without hesitation.

Greer got on the radio, "John, guard house in front of your position; check for armaments' signatures. All clear, blow that first then we'll go through the roof."

Sgt. Wallace scanned and x-rayed for weapon signature traces, and found an arsenal of various units. "On the money Boss, give me ten and we'll go in." He also worked out the best place to open a surprise door.

Spray foam explosive was quickly outlined on the blank wall, and set with a detonator. The men crouched down at a safe distance while Sam moved the shuttle out of the blast radius and aimed at the main generator. Wallace gave a silent countdown with his fingers then opened the door with a bang. Greer's men on the roof detonated their explosives just a second or two after followed by Sam's destruction to the main power supply.

Wallace's men stormed into the hole using their NV G's and took out all the guards systematically in the confusion and darkness before they could recover from the explosion. Greer's men made their way down the stairs, taking out anyone with a weapon in their path.

At the top level there was only relative darkness and cells overflowing with very scared people. Greer tried to calm them down. "We are not here to harm you, we only want our two people; General Traise, and Castell!"

A scared voice yelled out, "Sully! Sully!, I'm here!"

Greer grabbed Sully's arm as he tried to take off and yanked him back in behind yelling, "That armored vest you have doesn't make you totally bullet proof—stay behind me!" They headed toward the lady yelling out, down the eight foot wide passageway surrounded by iron bars. As they got close enough, Greer switched on his weapon light and widened the beam saying, "You know her?"

Sully nodded and said, "My mother's younger sister, Jassamine," He looked to Greer, "We gotta get her out!"

Now Ronald had to make a really tough decision. "Look, Jassamine; there is an Ori warship on its way here, and I need to get my men out first. I can't explain how important they are in all this, but we will be back shortly to get you. In the meantime, I need you to try and keep everyone calm while my guys get these cells opened. Do you understand me?" Ron kept a steely but compassionate look in his eyes as he asked.

Jassamine put her hand through the bars and cradled Sully's face saying with tears, "They told me you and Nay were dead!"

Sully cupped her hand and pressed Greer's question, "We're both fine, okay—please do as he asks, these people are from a different galaxy and have defeated the Ori before; we have to trust them aunty!"

She succumbed to the more immediate need of being released and nodded to Greer. "Alright, but keep him safe," she said while letting Sully go.

Greer smiled at her, "I will Ma'am." He called two men and instructed them to open all the doors starting with Jassamine's cell after the area was secured.

A message came over Greer's radio, "Sergeant, it's Carter; I'm going to have to engage the shields when the fighters come in."

Greer answered, "What's the bad news?"

Sam answered simply. "No cloak; we'll be visible, but protected. I've got incoming fighters now!" Sam cut it short as she de-cloaked the shuttle and brought the shields online moments before a barrage of shots from the several Ori fighters hit. She fired back, taking out two fighters with ease.

Greer continued to catch up with his men who had now cleared down to the first sub level and met up with Sgt. Wallace and his crew.

Ron asked Wallace, "How many prisoners you make?"

Wallace answered, "About 147 on this floor; you?"

Greer responded, "Over 300 on the top two—we need help, and fast! But first we gotta take out these guards. Our guys should be in sub level two."

Men continued to fire from well-protected positions around the sub-level stairwell: Greer looked at his I Pad and backed away several feet from the stairs and said, "Blow a hole right here, big enough to drop through. I'm over this shit!"

Stevens laid down the shaped charges in a ring and set the detonators, then cleared the area yelling, "Fire in hole!"

A large chunk of concrete like floor fell through onto the lower sub-level as M Sgt Greer and Sgt Wallace leapt down shortly after it. It didn't take long in a hail of bullets to remove the guards from their now exposed positions, being that they were also somewhat dazed from the explosion above them.

Greer yelled, "Clear!" over the radio, and watched as the men came down and took up defensive positions and moved forward toward the cells.

They had to contend with only a handful of guards and three heavy doors, using C4 to remove any obstacles in their way, only to find empty cells everywhere; except one.

Greer now stood in front of a man he hated with every fiber of his being. "Get your fucking ass up General Traise! Where's Castell?" he demanded.

Decca looked at him, "What, no hello, good to see you again?"

Greer called to Wallace without taking his eyes or line of fire off Traise, "Sergeant, cover this man; if he moves, put two in his head!"

Wallace took up a strategic position covering Decca, "Go ahead Sir, I've got him."

The cell door lock was quickly removed with a small explosive as Decca stood with his face against the wall as instructed. Greer quickly moved in and handcuffed him behind his back, then locked an Ancient explosive collar ring around his neck.

Decca knew what it was and said with condescending humor, "So now you can blow me?"

Greer turned him around and smiled saying, "Every one of my men have a trigger for this collar; just remember that next time, Asshole!" and he shoved him out of the cell.

Wallace did a final check of the confined passageway, calling out to see if there was anyone else there. To his surprise, a frail voice answered.

"Help me..." said the man cowering in the corner of his cell.

They quickly removed the lock and opened the semisolid and bared door, to find an older man with a withered face, white beard and light grey hair. He was sickly thin, as though he had been starved.

His next words were simple, "Water? Do you have some water?"

Sgt Wallace knelt down and handed him his open canteen. "Hey, I'm Sergeant Wallace, what's your name my friend?" The man drank fast and coughed, with Wallace assisting him to take it easy. "Woo, woo, woo there pal, slow down; small gulps man, small gulps."

He handed the canteen back to Wallace who put up his hand for him to keep it, "Thank you Sergeant Wallace," he coughed again and composed himself as best he could before saying, "My name is Eraion," (pronounced Air-ray-on) he took another sip of water. "Eraion Kil'ta, High Supreme Councillor; leader of this planet." He sounded breathless and injured.

Wallace assessed the situation quickly saying, "Eraion, are you injured; can you walk?"

Eraion answered quickly, "They have beaten me daily, I think several bones are broken."

Wallace called out, "Lane! Here now!"

PFC Lane ran back to Wallace, "Yes Sergeant?"

Wallace was precise, "Lane, carry this man carefully; he is badly injured with possible broken bones, try not to jolt him too much."

Lane snapped back and moved in to pick Eraion up, "Yes Sergeant!" He was more compassionate with Eraion saying, "Sir, I am going to put one arm under your legs and the other behind your back; tell me if it hurts too much when I lift you." Lucky for Lane, all the hours in training and gym were about to pay off for the solid built young man.

He hoisted Eraion into his arms and lifted him from the floor as a dead weight with ease. Eraion moaned but told him to keep going.

Wallace gave him a quick shot of Varro's pain relieving venom adding, "This will help with the pain, but it will make you feel a little weird, like you're drunk; do you understand what I'm saying?"

Eraion managed a crooked smile, "Yes Sergeant, I understand."

They headed out of the sub-level, without having to fire a shot.

Above the compound the real fight was unfolding. TJ was in the shuttle on the roof, with the shields expanded to cover enough of the building to keep the exit safe. The unfortunate side effect was no cloak, as Sam was doing her level best to take out the Ori fighters in the other shuttle, protecting TJ's position.

Carter was in constant contact with TJ, but it was getting overwhelming. "TJ, there's too many of them, I can't protect you!" she yelled taking out another fighter. Sam looked at the heads up display only to see the shuttle's energy core was depleting fast; but that moment of not watching cost her as a fighter rammed into the shuttle causing massive damage to the rear end, and destroyed itself. For the first time in a long time, Colonel Samantha Carter knew this might be the last thing she ever does—her nerves of steel failed her, as her mind spun out of control.

She cried out, "TJ, I'm hit and going down! Shields are failing, no control!" she struggled with the controls to keep the shuttle upright, but it was a losing battle. Another blast struck the shuttle and took out her remaining shields. With smoke pouring out from the shuttle and fires inside, Sam made one last attempt to save herself and headed for the soft sand of the desert. She yelled into the mic one more time, not sure if TJ could hear her, "I'm heading for the desert sand to try and land..." was all TJ heard.

The next thing Tamara saw was the explosion of the shuttle's impact. Tears streamed down TJ's face as Greer and his men began to load onto the shuttle. "Sam's down Ron, she gone!" she cried...

On the bridge of the Apollo 2011 Colonel Mitchell said with a smile, "Damn that was a close one Colonel, nearly didn't get you in time!" He quickly threw his arms around a weeping Sam, realizing how serious this had become, "It's okay Sam, you're safe now—we've got ya."

She let go moments later. "Thanks, but they need help now!"

Cameron calmed her down. "Colonel, we took out the Prior on the warship; the new weapon works a treat. While you guys were doing this, we attacked every Ori warship we could find; and took out all the Priors. Our 302's are defending TJ as we speak; they'll make mincemeat out of them!" Sam gave a deep sigh of relief. "Here," he handed Sam a new head piece, removing her damaged one, "Call TJ, tell them you're okay." Cameron put his hands on Sam's shoulders, leaned forward, and gave her a gentle peck on the forehead. "Don't scare me like that again Sam—too close," he said caringly.

Sam called TJ, "TJ this is Sam, I'm on Apollo 2011. They got me out just in time—how's things going down there?"

TJ came back on the radio, "Thank God your safe Sam! There will be some very happy people to know that down here. Hey, can Apollo pick up a few rescued people from the compound—about 600 maybe?"

Cameron cut in on the conversation, "Already ahead of you Lieutenant, beaming as we speak!"

As Sgt Wallace and PFC Lane made it back to the roof carrying the injured man Eraion, they stood and watched the last of the Ori fighters explode high in the air away from them. Wallace smiled and looked over to Greer, who was sitting in the back doorway of the shuttle, weapon still in hand.

Sgt. Wallace said, "Well I guess that takes care of the Ori for now..." and they were the last words he would ever speak, as a lone shot rang out from inside their entrance point.

Greer immediately leapt up and fired back, killing the single guard, but it was too late for Sergeant John Wallace;

He died instantly from a head wound, as Greer rushed to him.

*Dedicated to the men and women of all the armed forces who protect us serving their country.*

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember."

"Lest We Forget"