Well, finally done with season 3 of SG-1. Starting from the next chapter, we're diving into the fourth season of both shows and also bringing in Angel, which will feature in the story from time to time, but it, like Atlantis eventually won't play such a major role as the two core universes, but they will still get their time in the spotlight. There is still a great deal about this fic I have yet to reveal, the least of which is the origin of the trio's changes and the reason for them, so be patient. And yes, things are going well for our heroes at the moment, but things will begin to change in time. Anyway, all that's left is to say read and enjoy.
Chapter 18
"Jack, what the hell have you gotten yourself mixed up this time?" Buffy sighed.
"I'm on Thor's ship on route to Earth. The whole ship has been infested by these weird techno-bugs and they're controlling the ship. Carter suggested I contact you as well hoping you could have more ideas." O'Neill began.
"What can you tell me about these bugs?" Buffy's manner turned serious.
"They're called Replicators, they're literally eating the ship to make more of themselves. Thor says that once they have enough, they'll land on the planet and consume everything." O'Neill replied.
"How big are they, and how tough?" Buffy continued her inquiries.
"They look like spiders a bit bigger than my head, and while they're completely immune to energy weapons, we've been blasting them to bits with shotguns and machineguns." O'Neill answered.
"Alright. Give me thirty minutes and I'll have something ready. Target the center of the complex courtyard for transportation." Buffy stood up.
"One more thing. We have no way of getting off this ship. Whoever comes up, won't come down." O'Neill's tone turned serious unlike his usual carefree manner.
"Understood. I have an idea about that, so don't write out your wills just yet." Buffy grinned and walked out.
"Faith, we have an emergency situation. Get every Sister with armor ready at once and add an equal number of unarmored Sisters to them. Willow, I want all shotguns, the ammo for them and all the frag grenades we have moved into the central courtyard immediately. Willow, you're also coming with me." Buffy called out her orders over the vox as she walked through the complex.
"What's going on, Buffy?" Willow asked as she stood in the courtyard overseeing a crew of servitors moving crates from their warehouse and into the yard. A number of Sisters gave them curious looks but knew better than to ask.
"SG-1." Buffy said shortly, and Willow immediately nodded in understanding. "They're aboard an Asgard ship headed this way. Apparently it's been infested by some sort of technological insect."
"An abominable intelligence?" Willow exclaimed in shock. To the Mechanicus, artificial sentience was the greatest anathema.
"I believe so. I was told they are immune or at least highly resistant to energy weapons, but just in case, have the Celestians bring their meltas. Also, they're rather small, so bolters wouldn't be as effective as shotguns. We have enough frag shells for them?" Buffy asked.
"Plenty. Anything else?"
"Jack said they had no way off. How quickly can the others build a few drop pods?" Buffy turned towards her as the first Sisters began to arrive.
"A few hours, but it will be a REALLY rough ride. I'll tell Oz to get on it right away." Willow replied.
"Sorry Faith, but you're staying here." Buffy turned to the other Slayer as she walked up to them with her multi-melta in hand.
"What? Why?" Faith protested.
"If this mission goes south, I'd rather we didn't lose all our senior officers." Buffy answered.
"Then why are you two going? Either of you are more valuable than I am." Faith pressed on.
"Willow is coming because she's the most skilled at interfacing with technology, which we'll probably need if we want to succeed, and I'm going for political reasons. My presence will demonstrate a lot of good will towards the Asgard and I'll be able to establish diplomatic relations to them as soon as we've made contact. Yes, it's a risk, but it's one I'm willing to take." Buffy explained.
"You plan on dealing with these aliens?" Faith frowned.
"The Asgard have protected humanity for generations. I don't say I like working with aliens, but as far as xenos go, they're not so bad. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. You will be staying here. Understood?" Buffy gave her a stern glare.
"Understood. Catrina, drop that melta. You'll be using this instead." Faith turned to one of the two Celestians and passed her the multi-melta. Buffy noticed that the girl's face was painted as a skull and made a note to inquire about that if they got through this new mess.
"Everyone arm yourselves. We should be transported soon." Buffy commanded her troops. Other than the Celestians which had their meltas, the other Sisters all took large, drum-fed combat shotguns and a significant quantity of frag grenades. Even with the small armory they had on them, there were still plenty of equipment around them.
After only a couple of minutes, there was a bright flash of light that enveloped the whole group and whisked them away.
"Whoa. You've been busy." O'Neill gasped as the previously empty store room was filled with crates and massive armored figures. "Be careful, the bugs will be here soon."
"OK. Catrina was it?" Buffy turned to the Celestian with the multi-melta. With their helmets on, there was no way to tell them apart since the armors were identical.
"Yes mistress." The girl replied as mechanical skittering began to echo from the corridors.
"I want this ship cleansed of this infestation. Am I understood?" Buffy's tone was like ice.
"We will fight until the last if need be, but we shall not fail you." The Celestian's tone was unshakable as she replied.
"Excellent. You're in charge in my absence." With that, Buffy gestured to O'Neill to lead the way.
"Form up Sisters. Give no quarter to these abominations." Catrina shouted as the first wave of Replicators began to pour into the store room. The shotguns roared to life, sending a hail of death at the machines, shattering them to pieces. Still, even with hundreds of their brethren dead, the Replicators marched on, determined to overwhelm these new enemies with sheer numbers.
"Grenades." Catrina ordered as she took aim with her multi-melta. A dozen grenades soared far into the corridors where they burst into clouds of jagged metal that tore apart hundreds of the spider-like machines.
At the same time, the two Celestians opened fire with their meltas and the results were quite interesting. The ones directly into the path of the invisible beam of superheated particles were vaporized instantly, while those that were not hit directly still had the individual blocks that they were made of fused together, which limited their mobility or impaired them altogether.
"Any reason you brought so many people along?" O'Neill asked, reminding her about his warning.
"You needed help. And we got a way out of the ship. We're building orbital drop pods. If we fail to retake the ship, we'll find a way to destroy it and escape in them. It will be one heck of a ride if you're not wearing armor, but we should live through it." Buffy replied.
"Alright. We're in here." O'Neill led them to a small room. Daniel and Teal'c were sitting on a few crates while Sam was tinkering with a large pedestal-like device. Thor was also there, lying in a large pod device. Buffy's hand twitched almost unnoticeably towards her holster at the sight of the alien, but she managed to control the impulse before anyone noticed. Instead, she took a moment to observe the Asgard. The race was much shorter than humans, with frail, thin bodies and a large head with big black eyes. In fact, they looked just like the Roswell Greys.
"Thor, this is Lady Inquisitor Elizabeth Summers and Magos Willow Rosenberg." Sam introduced them.
"It is an honor to meet you." Thor said weakly.
"You're injured. Does this ship have a medical facility?" Buffy asked.
"Yes, but the bugs may have tampered with it." Jack replied.
"I'll take a look at it. Hopefully, if there was any tampering, I'll be able to detect and repair it. If not, we won't use the machines. Either way, we have nothing to lose." Willow suggested.
"What if the Replicators attack us?" Daniel asked.
"They have bigger problems to worry about. Catrina, report." Buffy tapped her vox.
"We have begun to advance mistress, but it's going slow. These fiends are relentless. It would be a good idea to have some direction, though. We need to strike and hold the key locations of this vessel." Catrina replied.
"Daniel, think you can take care of that?" Buffy threw the vox bead to the archeologist who managed to catch it and soon enough began directing the Sisters in their duties.
"Give me a few minutes." Willow pressed her hands onto one of the consoles in the medical bay, using her electoo gauntlets to interface with the device. Having established a connection, she sunk her consciousness into the device, seeking its machine spirit. It wasn't long until she did so, but it was under attack by a Replicator program. The Asgard construct was losing, until Willow moved in to support it. Together, they managed to destroy the invading program, and Willow explained Thor's need to the machine. Determined to save its master, the machine spirit moved quickly to ensure that everything was working properly while Willow was establishing firewalls to ensure the Replicators couldn't strike back while Thor was being healed.
"It should be safe now, but I'll monitor the machine just in case the Replicators try anything." Willow replied before suddenly collapsing on her knees.
"Are you alright?" Buffy asked as she helped her up.
"That took out more out of me than I thought. I've been working in the factory all morning before you called me up." Willow yawned.
"You should have said something. Get some rest." Buffy waited until Willow closed her eyes before she turned to O'Neill. "We should probably contact the SGC, tell them what's going on."
"Unfortunately, the Replicators shut down the comm. systems." O'Neill informed her.
"In that case, I'll have to contact Xander and have him relay the message. Give me a few minutes." Buffy told them and projected her mind down to Earth, seeking Xander. An insanely dangerous move in the Imperium, but here, there was no risk whatsoever.
By the time she had filled him in on the situation and returned her consciousness back to the ship, Thor's treatment was also complete, and the Asgard was eager to get back at the Replicators.
"How are they doing?" The group returned back to the small control room where Daniel was directing the Battle Sisters.
"They're advancing to the bridge. The Replicators have been hitting them hard though and they've already had to restock on ammo. The Replicators seem to have realized how important the ammo was and they ambushed the supply runners. Two Sisters were killed and three others were badly injured." Daniel replied.
"I see. That was a mistake by the Replicators. They just motivated the rest to hunt down every last one of them." Buffy smirked.
"You don't care that two girls just died?" O'Neill protested.
"Of course I do, but now's not the time to mourn. Protecting Earth comes first." Buffy replied. "I'm going to help them out. You're welcome to join me if you want."
It took two more hours before they managed to clear the bridge and they redirected the ship back to Asgard controlled space.
True to Buffy's words, squads of Battle Sisters spread across the ship to hunt down the rest of the Replicators.
"It will be impossible to completely cleanse this vessel from the Replicator infestation. As soon as we reach Asgard Space, it will be destroyed." Thor stated.
"We've managed to stop them this time, but they may try again." Buffy commented.
"Unfortunately, my people can do very little to combat this threat. We are barely surviving against them." Thor admitted.
"Perhaps we could help you. While our fleet is still being constructed, we might be able to help you in other ways." Buffy offered.
"I will bring your offer to the Asgard Council." Thor replied. A few hours later, they had arrived in the Ida galaxy, the home of the Asgard and after some communication by Thor, all the humans and most of their equipment was transferred off Thor's ship before it was obliterated.
"The Asgard people are grateful for the aid of Earth and the Imperium of Man in this recent crisis." Buffy, Willow and SG-1 met the council the next day.
"To be honest, our primary motivation was the protection of our own world, but now that we're here, we would like to offer our support to the Asgard." Buffy spoke first.
"We humbly accept your offer and would like to suggest the possibility of an alliance between the Asgard and the Imperium." This surprised SG-1, but Buffy was pleased. An alliance with the Asgard would benefit them immensely.
After that meeting, Buffy asked that the Sisters be sent back to Earth so that their fallen could be given proper burial, and SG-1 joined them, while Buffy and Willow remained on the planet Othala to continue their work with the Asgard.
"I mean no offense, but this ship design is very inefficient." Willow commented as she worked with the Asgard engineers on ways to modify Asgard technology to better combat the Replicators. Already, Asgard designed powered armor and kinetic weaponry were rapidly being distributed to Asgard ships, allowing their crews to better combat the infestation in the early stages.
"What do you mean?" An Asgard called Kvasir was the leader of the group working with Willow.
"Well, overall the design is pretty good. You have strong hulls, good shields, powerful reactors and fast engines, but you come up short in the weapons department. Yes, you have multiple weapons arrays, but they all use the same weapon. For comparison, an Imperial ship of equal size would have ten times the weaponry. Not just directed energy weapons, too. It would have plasma and kinetic weapons, not to mention various sizes of missiles, as well as fighter support." Willow elaborated.
"You are suggesting we add more weapons systems?" Kvasir asked.
"As many as the ship can handle. Also, missiles and kinetic weapons don't need as much power and can still do a lot of damage. Remember, there's no such thing as overkill." Willow had to explain the meaning of the saying, but the Asgard managed to grasp the concept quickly and moved to begin redesigning the nearly finished O'Neill battleship, and began designing new classes to be built at a later date.
"…and with the new designs, I expect you to be able to handle even the improved Replicator controlled ships and hopefully push them back before they have time to adapt." Willow was reporting her progress to the Asgard Council.
"We are most grateful for your assistance. What about the other matter we asked you to look into?" The Asgard had revealed that they were a dying race, suffering from genetic degradation from generations of cloning themselves.
"I'm afraid I have been unable to find a solution. But with a combination of Asgard and Imperial knowledge, we've managed to slow the degradation, giving you a few more centuries to hopefully find a solution." Willow replied.
"Even that is more than we had hoped. To formalize our alliance, and to thank you for your aid, we would to dispatch a team of engineers to Tollana to upgrade your new shipyard with the latest Asgard construction technology. We also offer you four neutrino-ion generators for your facility on Earth and a transporter satellite." Buffy released an internal shout of triumph at that. The generators were equal to about two of their plasma reactors, which would allow them to bring the Ancient constructor working at its peak capacity and still have power to spare. Also, the satellite would allow them to transport troops anywhere in the western hemisphere and even aboard ships in space.
If any Goa'uld dared attack again, they'd have the unpleasant surprise of having squads of Battle Sisters appear on their bridge.
"We thank the Asgard people for this gift, and the alliance we have formed." Buffy spoke.
After that, it wasn't long before they were on their way back to the Milky Way and Earth. Once the Asgard dropped them off to Sunnydale and deployed the satellite in orbit, went ahead to Tollana to aid the Tollan in the shipyard construction. Of course, due to the Replicator threat, the ship headed back to Ida, leaving the engineers and supplies behind.
With this latest crisis over, the group could turn their attention on their own agendas.
The big question was whether or not to go to college now that they were done with high school. For Buffy at least, the decision was easy.
"What do you mean you're not going to college?" Buffy's mom frowned when she was given the news.
"Mom, I already have an education that's light years ahead of anything available today, and to be honest, the work I'm doing right now is far too important to deserve anything but my full attention." Buffy replied.
"I see I won't change your mind. Just promise me you'll take care of yourself." Joyce gave her daughter a tight hug, showing her full support regardless of what her choice was.
Willow also chose to remain at the factory full time, but several members of the group decided to go to college, and they received full support from Buffy.
Meanwhile, new recruits were assigned to a wide range of groups. Several girls with experience in martial arts were placed in training for Callidus assassins, while Xander took about two dozen students to teach them about the Imperial Cult and how to perform missionary duties.
Meanwhile, Cordelia had decided to travel to Los Angeles to seek her fortune, and departed only days after Buffy had returned. Once everyone had made their decision on what to do after high school, things continued according to the plans that had already been established.
The one significant change to the complex was the large statue of a winged woman holding a sword aloft in the middle of the compound, and on the pedestal were engraved two names, Abigail Simpson and Tsuki Andrews, the first martyrs of the Order of Our Valiant Sister. Buffy could see how every Sister looked at the monument when they passed it, and couldn't help but feel deep in her heart that before this all was over, there would be many, many more names added to that statue.