Chapter 7: Calm before the Storm
Greetings once again internet; how's it going? So I just noticed that I double posted chapter 2 and never added chapter 3. I feel stupid right about now… I'm real sorry guys. Well it's fixed now so you guys get two for one this week. You guys are lucky. I don't own anything but my OCs and the story, everything else belongs to their respective owners.
Previously
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT! So you're telling me that you are one of these… witches!?" Sheppard asked flabbergasted.
Jean's smile grew huge as the image of the Borealis' liaison group and the crew appeared on the screen with her highlighted. She answered as she looked at Rodney and began to glow, "Honestly Dr. McKay, after everything Chris has told me about you, I expected you to find something different about me almost immediately." The glow subsided as her familiar, a goshawk, appeared with feathers sticking out of her head and lower back.
She turned to General O'Neill; ignoring the amazed expressions she was receiving and saluted, "Geena Vought, formerly Maj. Geena Preddy, Liberion Army Air Corp, Retired, reporting in Sir."
May 11, 2018 1230 Hours- Atlantis Conference Room
No one in the room spoke as they stared at Jean and Jack as the latter returned the salute. Cutting her salute she went to parade rest as she continued to grin, staring straight at him. Behind her while everyone else was distracted Chris carefully climbed out of the wheelchair and began sneaking to the door. "And where do you think you're going colonel?"
Vought froze as he slowly turned around to see Gen. Landry staring at him, gathering the attention of the remaining people in the room. "Uh… bathroom sir?"
He watched his wife begin to giggle as he looked like a deer caught in headlights. Defeated he returned to his chair. O'Neill stared him down; a frown visible on his faced as the silence continued. As he opened his mouth to tell Vought to continue his debriefing, his stomach gurgled loudly finally causing Jean to finally break down laughing. Dropping his head back to the table, he mumbled out, "Break for lunch. Meet back in… an hour." Standing up he hit the shutter controls and walked out, ignoring the people rushing away from the room. Standing up Landry shook his head while smirking and left as well.
Vought slumped in his chair as he glared at his wife; on the floor and laughing, "Smooth." Standing up he walked over and helped pull her back to her feet. She stopped laughing wiping her tears away as the three doctors and Sheppard walked up; Ross watched from behind him. Noticing Sheppard eyeing her ears she rolled her eyes, "Go ahead colonel, they are real, please don't pull on them."
Snapping himself out of his stare he grabbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Uh it's fine that was rude… sorry."
She shook her head, "No problem, now come on, you and I both know you want to see if they are real," she glanced at her husband, elbowing him in the chest. "Right sweetie?"
Vought staggered and cut the impassive stare he had been giving, "huh what?... Oh sure just please don't pull on them… she will stab you."
The four blinked in unison wondering how he knew that was how she'd react. She tilted her head towards him as Sheppard slowly reached up to feel her feathery ears; marveling in their realness. While this was going on McKay had already pulled a modified Life signs detector out and was scanning her trying to discover how the medical scanner failed to detect any abnormalities such as her abilities. The others stood back as Sheppard pulled his hand away.
"Wow… that's cool. Thanks Jean."
"No problem," she answered warmly as she dismissed her familiar sending McKay into a fit as the scanner lit up. He looked at her, "Can you do that again?"
"Ye-no sorry, maybe later. Come on love, I'm hungry," she stated with a wink to Rodney as she grabbed Chris's shirt and hauled him out; Beckett hot on their heels telling Vought he should really be in the chair still and Ross shaking his head.
Sheppard looked at the other two remaining men, "Well come on I'm hungry too. If I don't get a pudding I'm taking yours McKay so hurry up."
Atlantis Mess Hall- West Pier
The mess hall was busy as usual, filled with everyone talking to each other about various things. Most notably so was the return of the Lantean battleship; the doors opened letting Sheppard and company in. As the group entered the conversations died off as they noticed who had entered; they stood awkwardly in the doorway as the silence stretched on until a lone man stood up and began clapping. Soon the entire room was cheering and clapping welcoming the lost men home. The men and women of Atlantis came up to them and began congratulating Ross and Vought on finding their way back while the others stood back and watched.
Sheppard was noticing the glazed expression on Vought's face and turned to Jean, "How is he? And I mean really, not this bullshit he keeps spouting."
Jean's expression dropped and she sighed, "He's in bad shape; he blames himself for the people he's lost and it's tearing him up. He refuses to admit it but I've seen it; the shakes, the nightmares, the thousand yard stare; Frank and I both thought he had PTSD; the ship had no counselor and he needed to talk to someone. He wouldn't talk with me about it."
Sheppard looked back at the colonel, concerned, "Is there a chance that it isn't PTSD and he just needs closure or something?"
"Maybe but we won't know for sure until we convince him to talk. Don't tell the general yet, maybe… maybe reliving all of it will help him. I don't know; if he gets any worse I will tell O'Neill myself."
He looked back at Vought again, "what the hell happened Chris?"
May 11, 2018 1330 Hours- Atlantis Conference Room
O'Neill glared at everyone in the room as he shut and locked the shutters. "Everyone full now? No more interruptions then?" The room was silent as Vought stood nervously in the center of the room with Jean right next to him.
Nodding to himself Jack leaned forward in his chair, "Alright then you three, let's get back to business."
"Yes sir," they spoke in unison.
August 28, 1945 1000 Hours- 501st JFW Runway
Vought and his entourage stood on the edge of the runway watching the Ju-52 and its escort of Bf-109s land. He spoke to his right, "So any idea who they sent?"
Foss shook her head, "No idea sir, they would normally send someone like Air Marshall Maloney but after his last… command, the brass no longer feels that is the right way to go about things. What do you think Huberta?"
Huberta shrugged, "No idea," she began as people began to disembark the transport, "Though it looks like Lt. Hartmann does."
Turning to the 501st, he watched as Erica sprinted across the runway to tackle a witch exiting the plane. Staring at Hartmann he shook his head, he was seeing double. "She has a twin?"
"Ah right Ursula; she works with the Neue Karlsland Technisch Ministerium; Karlsland's technology development center. Last I heard she was attempting to fix the jet striker prototype."
"Jet striker? I'm assuming it's based on the Me-262 or the Meteor correct?"
Foss shook her head in wonder, he knew so much. "Yep the 262; the 501st was testing it earlier this year but it had a problem and Barkhorn crashed; twice."
He watched Ursula and some men interact with the 501st as they headed his way, "Wonder if we could help them in the engineering part of it? Bah, stupid timeline, I'll talk to Matt and Vitaly… see what they think."
A bump shook him from his thoughts as he noticed Minna and their new guest standing in front of them; saluting.
"Sir, Lt. Ursula Hartmann of the Neue Karlsland Technisch Ministerium, reporting for your review and inspection."
He returned the salute, "Nice to meet you lieutenant, I am Col. Christopher Vought, CO of the DSV Borealis." He watched someone else exit the plane, stretch and make their way over. "Friend of yours?" he indicated.
The witches turned around; noticing who it was Minna sighed as Barkhorn growled. Things just got difficult. The tall, blond haired witch made her way over, completely ignoring Barkhorn and Minna, and looked him up and down before speaking, "Hey sir, I'm Capt. Hanna Marseille." She winked as she spoke again, "So then how about w-" Gertrud clamped her hand over her mouth as she and Erica dragged her away. Minna sighed as she gave an apologetic glance to Vought, "Sorry sir, she's a little… unruly."
She turned to Ursula, "Really lieutenant, her?"
Hartmann looked down, "Sorry ma'am it wasn't my decision; Air Marshall Galland said she had a gut feeling she might be needed; she is my protection."
Vought and Minna frowned at this, this was not what they needed right now. While the 501st dealt with Marseille, Vought invited the observation group to the ship. He wanted to get started on wiping out these invaders.
August 28, 1945 1100 Hours- Borealis
While Vought and Dr. Lansby gave Ursula and her senior technicians a tour, the other men were given permission to explore the ship and record anything they felt necessary. One of these men was a Britannian photographer with the name Wells stitched on his uniform. Walking through the ship Wells took as many photos as possible, asking the crew what he would be able to document; he was in awe of the technology these people had available.
Finally finding himself alone in the large ship Wells cut his stupid grin and checked to make sure his hidden sidearm was loaded. Finding it was he slipped off through to the engineering spaces; he had a mission to complete.
15 minutes later
Wells peered around the corner making sure the coast was clear as he made his way towards the ships engines. He had found the primary weapon storage but two heavily armed and armored guards discouraged him from trying to enter. Hoping he wasn't seen, he wandered towards the rear hoping to find what powered this impressive ship. Approaching a door marked ZPG and finding it open, he entered the room, weapon out.
He lowered his weapon as he took in the sight of the ships primary power system, the Zero Point Energy Generator. Based on the Ancient's failed Project Arcturus, the energy generation system was McKay's baby. After his slight set back destroying a solar system with the Ancient's version, McKay had continued to work on it, developing the matter bridge. Further development and a little help from a certain owner of an aerospace company, he had finally managed to contain the volatile nature of the reaction allowing nearly limitless energy. Wondering how he could prove it worked he realized the answer lay right in front of him. Removing the Borealis' normal power system, he gained enough room to build his full sized prototype. Powering the system up remotely in the space between galaxies the generator started and held within acceptable limits; his creation had worked.
"Impressive isn't it?" A distorted voice asked from his side. Wells raised his weapon and spun only to find it easily pulled out of his hands. A man dressed in camouflage with a black vest stared back at him amused as he backed away slowly. "The Tau'ri never seize to amaze me… it is why they are a threat."
"Wh-who are you?" Wells asked as he panicked, backing away from the man.
The others eyes flashed yellow as he gave him an evil smile, "I am a man you can trust." He reached into his pocket causing Wells to flinch and close his eyes. The rustling of paper caused him to open them once again; the strange man was holding out a stack of photos and paper to him. Curious, he grabbed them and began to flip through them. They were photos and documentation on various portions of the ship. Finding the last one marked 'Important' he opened it. A picture of something called a Mark IX was displayed. "What is all this?"
The man grinned, "A gift… now I suggest leaving, these men have not radioed in for some time now." He gestured to the unconscious two behind him before he handed him a device that resembled a radio. "Give this to your boss, I will be in touch." With that the man turned and left.
Wells looked at the device in his hand before looking at the papers again thinking about what the man had said. Hiding the papers and the device in his camera bag he stared at the ZPG until he heard sounds out in the hall. Scared, he turned and sprinted out trying to find his way out of the ship.
From the darkness in the back of the room, Artyom watched as the support teams entered weapons drawn. He watched the men help the guards up and lead them from the room; they had been told not to search it. Once they moved on he left the safety of the darkness and pulled up his camera to check his photos. He frowned as he flipped through them; he had only gotten one photo of interest. The bulky Stargate member had kept his face hidden well; all identifying marks had been removed from his uniform. He would have finally captured or at least stunned the guy but then there was the unexpected turn of events. He looked at the photo of the other man who entered, he didn't get much but he knew they were with the team researching the ship. He reached for his radio, "полковник, we have a new situation."
He waited for the reply, "What is it призрак?"
He relayed the information and waited for orders, "призрак, meet me and give me your intel; I will show Crosshair."
"понятый moving to the rendezvous point." With that complete he silently left the room. "We must act soon; we cannot allow anyone to die."
August 28, 1945 1745 Hours- Borealis Bay 1
"Sir –," began CDR Ross as he entered the bay; stopping as he saw the situation. Col. Vought was fast asleep in a chair; his feet on a nearby workbench and a book open and lying on his face as he lightly snored. Near him were most of the witches trying to decide what do with him while the crew pretended to ignore them. Shaking his head he observed the scene with a small grin on his face; he still found it hard to believe these kids were soldiers. Preddy and Harris were watching in amusement as Foss was attempting to lift his shirt. Kostilev was in the corner talking with Eila and Sanya. The remaining witches and the 501st were crowded around Capt. Grant as he played some songs for them on his guitar and amp he had brought with him, somehow; Ross had no idea really. He turned to a passing crewman asking him what had happened.
He explained that Vought had seen the observation team off for the day and had come back in there to read. He continued to say about an hour in Vought finally closed his eyes and fell asleep; the witches had found him like that about 30 minutes ago. After that Grant walked in to find them all bored and decided he play a little music for him and went to get his equipment and that was it. Thanking the crewman Ross walked forward; an evil smile on his face as he realized what he could do. Reaching into his hip pouch, he grab onto a small white object as he approached them. "Evening everyone."
They all turned to him as Grant stopped playing, "Evening sir, what can we do for you?"
"Does that thing have a standard input jack?" he asked pointing at the amplifier.
Grant looked down at it confused, "Uh I believe so sir but wh-" he cut himself off as Ross drew the item and cord from his pocket; recognition on his face. He nodded eagerly as he quietly motioned for the girls to move while he unplugged the amp and moved it near the colonel and plugged the commander's mp3 player in; cranking the volume to 11. "You sure this is a good idea sir?" he whispered to him. The girls looked at him and the player curiously; they wondered what was going to happen.
"We'll see in a second I guess," Ross whispered back as he found the song he wanted. Motioning for everyone to get back he placed the mp3 player down, fast-forwarded some, and hit play.
"…I GET KNOCKED DOWN BUT I GET BACK UP AGAIN…"
As "Tubthumping" blared through the bay, Vought yelped as he sprang awake and promptly fell out of the chair landing flat on his back. He lay there groaning, as everyone in the hanger broke out laughing with Francesca, Erica, and Foss falling on the floor; laughing their asses off. Even the crew joined in as the technicians and soldiers dropped what they were doing to join in. Everybody continued laughing till the end of the song; most of them in tears by that time. When it was finally over, Preddy walked over and helped Vought back to his feet, "Thanks Jean," he groaned as he got up.
"No problem sir," she stated back; she was still giggling as she tried to hide her red face.
He looked at the assembled group as he tried to identify the culprit. Finally noticing whose mp3 player it was he growled, "Ross…" As the commander in question straightened up and tried to look innocent, Vought reached for the player as he began searching for a song.
"Yes sir, do you need something?" He stated with a straight face; the girls and crew snorting as they tried to contain their laughter.
The amp roared to life again as Vought found what he was looking for. Rubbing the back of his sore head as he watched the commander recognize the song playing, "Oh shit I'm dead."
Ross began to twitch nervously as the song played; desperately trying to find an avenue of escape.
"…RUN TO THE HILLS… RUN FOR YOUR LIVES…"
Ross finally lost it when Vought drew the particle magnum and placed it on the workbench. He promptly excused himself as he fast walked to the door; the crew immediately going back to work as the colonel stopped the song.
Looking at the pale expression on Grant's face he spoke, "I'm going to assume you were following orders correct captain?"
Grant nodded animatedly, "Yes sir, the commander made me do it." He looked at Shirley, "isn't that right Yeager?"
Staring at the unamused expression on his face she gulped as she answered, "uh yes sir, it's all true."
Vought stared at them before relenting, "Fine I'll kick his ass later."
He sat back in the chair as he rubbed the back of his head; he could feel a decent sized lump, "Damn that hurt." As he sat there trying to alleviate his pain Yoshika walked up to him as she activated her powers.
"Can I heal you sir, please?"
Grant and Vought were curious about this; they had only seen limited magic usage from the girls; most notably their shields and Eila's ability to dodge attacks.
"Uh sure… go ahead," he responded slowly. He removed his hand as she walked up to him and placed her hands over the lump. A bright blue glow formed around the two as she healed his injury. A few seconds later the glow subsided and she stepped back, dismissing her familiar. "There you go sir, good as new."
Vought blinked a few times as he felt the back of his head, "Thanks Miyafuji; that was an interesting experience."
She beamed, "No problem sir, I like helping people the best I can."
Geena looked curiously at the mp3 player as she picked it up; some of the others crowed around as they looked at the small screen. "What's this sir?"
"It's a MP3 player; it plays music and video files stored in an mp3 format." He stated as he reached for the device; she handed it to him. "And judging by the looks of it Ross has quite a lot of music stored on it. Jeez he has more songs than I can think of on it; he must have spent a fortune on music."
The girls all stared at the tiny device in amazement. "Can you play another song with it sir," asked Foss?
Vought shrugged; "Sure," he began to search through the player till he found something he thought they'd like. Hitting play "Everybody Talks" began to echo through the bay.
The girls listened in interest to the song. Once finished they were silent for a minute before someone spoke, "Does it have any songs sung by a woman?" asked Harris.
Vought nodded, "I thought you'd ask that," he hit the start button playing the next song, "Call Me Maybe."
Everyone in the hanger listen as Carly Rae Jepsen began singing her most well-known song. Glancing around the hanger Yoshika noticed movement coming from the opposite corner, "Hey what are they doing?" she asked over the song as she pointed. Vought and the girls turned to see what she was talking about; Grant and Vought facepalmed; some of the men in the corner were synchronized dancing to the song. "Ignore them they're being idiots." He blinked finally realizing something, "Hang on what are you all doing in here?"
The witches looked at each other before Erica answered, "We got bored; you guys are too good at keeping the Neuroi away."
"…Fair enough but why in here?"
Preddy answered, "Because you were in here, we thought you'd teach us something cool. When we found out you were asleep so they wanted to stay and mess around."
At this declaration Grant looked away and began whistling as he packed up his stuff. Vought groaned as he leaned back, closed his eyes and rubbed his face; the girls gathered around and stared at him as Grant tiptoed away.
He opened his eyes and nearly fell out of the chair again. "What?"
"We're bored and you just scared our entertainment away," responded Shirley.
He looked around only to find Grant out the door leaving him alone with the witches. He sighed, "Fine what would you like to know."
The girls looked at each other; no one knew what to say. Harris looked up, "Could you tell us about the ship sir? I mean why is it called what it is." Everyone nodded enthusiastically at this; they wanted to know as well.
He nodded; it was an interesting story. "Alright then take a seat; this might take a while." They sat on the deck and workbench as he leaned forward.
"So as I have said before this is a Lantean Aurora-class battleship and she is over 10,000 years old; not even we know exactly how old. From what we've managed to gather, she is the first of her class."
The girls' eyes widened as they looked around at the bright interior of the bay they were in; this was impressive information indeed.
He smiled as he watched their faces, "Anyway six months ago; while exploring a demolished Lantean shipyard, we found a massive door hidden under the debris of an unfinished ship. It took us days to clear away the hull but when we did we noticed the dimensions of the door matched that of an Aurora. Forced to hotwire the door, since the controls had been destroyed, we managed to partially open it and were able to rappel down inside. Eventually we got a generator down there and got the lights functioning again and what they lit up stunned us. We found another full sized Aurora-class."
Hartmann tilted her head, "What do you mean full sized."
He blinked; he forgot they knew nothing about the Ancients, "Oh right so the Ancients built about three different variants of this type of battleship. Why you ask? We have no clue; they won't tell us."
Everyone blinked when he said this, "Shit I hadn't meant to let that slip."
"I thought you said the Ancients had died?"
Too late, "Well you see… they kind of… I don't know how to put this really; they ascended to a higher plane of existence and they tend to interact with us from time to time. Some members of the SGC have done this."
He sat there with a cheesy grin on his face as he waited for their response, "WHAT?!"
He shook his head, "Another time maybe, that is another very long and very confusing conversation. Anyway this ship is one of the original 40 largest. Just looking at the ship we realized there were differences between this one and the others we had seen. For one it was a darker coloration than the others and it seemed… more angular compared to the others. The number of defensive turrets was another reason we knew she was different; she had at least twice the number of weapons the Aurora had. Getting inside we realized her heart still beat as lights began to flicker back to life. We explored the ship finding numerous systems tacked on and added as if an afterthought. Most Lantean warships are beautiful to look at; nothing but pure purpose. This ship looked like somebody had tacked her together out of spare parts; she matched but she just didn't look streamlined. We split up once inside; Dr. Rodney McKay, our top Ancient technology scientist, headed to the engineering spaces to see how much juice we had left while myself and another colonel headed to the bridge."
"When we made it to the bridge, myself and Col. John Sheppard flipped a coin to see who would try to activate the ship with the control chair. I won the coin toss and sat down as McKay radioed we could try to start her up. Crossing our fingers I activated the chair bringing the old ship back to life once again. I got out of the chair and walked around the bridge with Sheppard as the systems came back online." He smirked as he remembered the next part, "After a few minutes of startup McKay entered and tried to access a console to check the engines integrity; the last one we had found functioned but she had nearly zero power left and her engines didn't work. Touching the console a burst of light filled the bridge as a woman appeared in front of us. McKay nearly wet himself when she did; he screamed like a little girl it was great." He grinned as he remembered the event in detail, "Anyway after introducing ourselves, we learned her name was Serenity and she was the ships AI."
"What's an AI?"
"An Artificial Intelligence; an intelligent computer; she can think for herself and can control various portions of the ship." He waited for this info to settle in.
Von Bonin blinked, a lot, "A computer… that can think? Isn't that dangerous?"
He shook his head, "Kinda sorta; we have run into intelligent machines that have attempted to kill us numerous times," he ignored the horrified stares he was getting. "Anyway she told us she was added to the ship to monitor and control the ships systems; to make sure they worked in sync because the ship was a testbed for the Aurora-class and not all the systems liked to work together. She explained as much as we needed before she turned herself off to conserve power."
Barkhorn looked around, "Can we meet her?"
"Sorry but not right now; she's offline for the same reason we can't use our primary weapons. We need to replace the crystals before you can meet her."
"Oh"
"Don't worry you guys will meet her soon. Anyway where was I?"
"You said Serenity turned herself off to conserve power," responded Geena.
"Ah right thanks Jean, so she shut herself off to conserve power. About a week later we returned to the ship with enough generators to get her airborne and back into space. Once in space we realized she had never been named and were trying to figure out what to call her. It was at this same time we realized she had a cloak because she vanished from view causing the Daedalus to begin freaking out. The ship's cloak works fine; when activated. When deactivated the cloak will randomly turn itself on and off. Another thing we noticed was that the defense turrets would begin tracking targets that didn't exist; they wouldn't shoot but they would move around. Lights in various portions of the ship would begin flickering in weird patterns; it was really quite strange. One of the scientists happened to realize it resembled something he knew and decided to name the ship after one from a game."
"A game?"
He smirked as he realized how well the ship was living up to it's name, "Well the ship in the game was testing a teleportation system," he stopped as Foss smirked; he shook his head as he continued, "When they first connected the ship's power, it teleported away; along with half of it's dry-dock. They never found the ship," "Stupid Half-life 3; why you never come out?"
"Uh anyway," he began, "We eventually got the ship back to Earth where Dr. McKay installed his new power system to test and six months later, here we are," he flourished as he finished.
The girls clapped as he got up and bowed to them; as he stood back up he noticed Mio standing in the doorway with Marseille right behind her, "Ah Maj. Sakamoto, what can I do for you this evening?"
The girls all turned to the major with the 501st getting up, "Sorry to interrupt sir but the 501st is needed for dinner," she looked right at Miyafuji, "and training before said dinner." The girl in question groaned before going stiff as the major asked her what that groan was. Hannah entered the hanger and joined the remaining witches as the 501st headed back to the base, "See ya sir" Shirley stated as she waved over her shoulder. Marseille entered the hanger and joined the colonel's witches as he sat back down, "Can I help you captain?"
She shrugged, "Who knows sir, I'm bored what are you guys up to?"
"Shouldn't you be guarding Lt. Hartmann like you were ordered?"
"Relax Hanna she'll be fine for an hour or so; I wanted to see what you guys are up to."
The witches frowned at this; Hannah was being way too relaxed. They didn't care for her lackadaisical attitude towards everyone; including her superiors.
Huberta turned to Vought, "Sir I wish to apologize for her disregard for respect. Please don't think this is how all witches really are."
Everyone nodded as they glared at the captain; who was currently ignoring them as she studied some covered vehicles in the back of the hanger. "Hey what are these?" she asked as she reached to grab the cover. Two men clearing their throats and the sound of safeties clicking off caused her to stop. Glancing to her left and right she found two men dressed in fatigues and armed powerful looking metal and wood rifles, beckoning her to back up away from them. "Relax guys I just want to see what's under here," see grabbed the cover and pulled causing the cover to fall off and the men to walk forward with their weapons aimed at her. "Sorry boys I don't understand Orussian. Now what are these pretty things?"
Hearing somebody yelling at them to stand down in Russian, Hannah turned around and watched as Vought stormed over to her and ripped the cover from her hands. "Do you think there was a reason we kept these covered?"
She huffed, "Geez sir just trying to have some fun over here. So what's so special about these?" She indicated the vehicles as another officer walked in.
"Здравствуйте сэр, what seems to be the problem here?" Maj. Volkov asked as he viewed the scene.
He gestured to the cover in his hand and the witches that had gathered around to stare at the uncovered vehicle. Volkov nodded in understanding.
"Go ahead my friend, be my guest," he stated as he beckoned Volkov forward. Vought stepped back as he planned his next conversation with Adolfine about her choice in guards.
Alexei cleared his throat as he walked towards the vehicle, "Здравствуйте, um hello; as most of you know I am Maj. Alexei Volkov of the 4th Guard Tank Brigade of the Russian Federation. What you see before you is the pride of the Russian Ground Forces, the T-90U-1 Main Battle Tank."
The mint-green colored tank sat there in the bright lights of the bay; its angular surfaces and large gun making it look lethal.
"Main Battle Tank, what's that?"
Volkov smiled as he looked at Barkhorn, "да, main battle tank; after WWII most of the world determined that the time for the heavy tank and medium tank had ended. More powerful guns and projectiles negated heavy armor so the MBT was created by combining the gun from a heavy tank with the maneuverability and size of a medium tank. The first extreme example of this was the German Leopard 1. The Леопард had basically zero armor but was extremely fast."
The Karlslandic witches blinked at this declaration. After the heavily armored Tiger and Tiger II, this was very different.
"The tank was very quick and could accurately fire while on the move. Of course our first MBT worked well as well, the T-62. Eventually MBTs evolved to where they are today with the T-90 being at the top." He stated proudly as Vought rolled his eyes.
"So the –U must be a variant then? What is different between this and the others?" Geena asked.
Volkov smiled; she was sharp, "Indeed it is different, the T-90U-1 is equipped with third generation Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) and," he looked at Vought's curious face, "Арена."
Vought's expression grew in surprise as he looked at the tank. "I thought you guys only put Arena on the T-80s and a few BMPs?"
Alexei smirked, "да it is true; however we have experimented on this model, and a few others."
The two officers stared at each other while the witches watched; amused. Galina frowned; she had never heard of something called Arena before, "What is Арена, товарищ майо́р?"
The two males broke their stare as they turned to her, "Arena is an active protection system. It can identify, target, and destroy incoming projectiles heading towards it."
The girls stared in awe at the tank, a vehicle that could defend itself from attack; that was indeed a feat of engineering. Looking next to it Foss noticed another one and one behind it, "So you have three of these then?"
Volkov hesitated before nodding and answering, "да."
Frowning at Alexei's hesitation, Chris checked his watch, "Alright then ladies, that about wraps it up let's head to dinner, I'm hungry."
With this said Volkov led the witches from the room with Geena and Vought staying behind to help the soldiers re-cover the tank. Watching the colonel, interact with his men and the witch, brought a smile to his face. His friend was indeed a good man.
August 28, 1945 2200 Hours- Borealis CO Quarters
Chris lay on his bed as he reviewed the worrisome reports from Sokolov's man and from around the ship. Various secure areas had been breached; but nothing had been damaged, altered, or removed. Propulsion, power, weapon storage, computer core, it had all been accessed but nothing was wrong with any of them. This was what was worrying; the only reason someone would do that was if they were planning to raid something. Another issue he had was the member of the observation team that had been seen in various restricted areas of the ship. He frowned as he tried to think of why someone would want to potentially harm the alliance.
He looked at the photos that had been taken by the yet-to-be seen Spetsnaz operative who was a little too good at his job, "…They just had to be FSB didn't they… I really hope these guys don't turn on us or we're screwed."
He sighed as he put down the reports and turned off the lights. Just what was going to happen?
August 31, 1945 1000 Hours- 501st JFW Runway
"So we good then?"
Ursula nodded, "Indeed you are sir; at least according to me and my people. Give it another week for command to review and then you can help us wipe out the Neuroi." She finished with an excited smile.
The Borealis officers grinned; it was almost time to kick some serious ass.
"Thank you lieutenant for all your help; I hope we gave you some useful information," Vought stated as he helped her load the plane.
"I believe so sir, I haven't looked through all of it yet but it looks like it will help immensely. I-we can't thank you enough; you've done so much and will do so much more and we can't give you anything in return."
Chris shook his head, "You have helped us greatly and are still. Don't worry we will help end this threat once and for all."
At this passionate declaration, the witches swarmed the unprepared colonel as they knocked him flat. Surprised the other officers took a step back and chuckled as all except Heinrike and Hannah, attempted to squeeze the life out of him. Finally relenting, they helped him stand back up as he wheezed glaring at all of them; clearly amused.
"Anyway," he continued his glare, "We hope you have a pleasant trip back. Give the Vice Marshall our hello."
Ursula nodded again as Erica stopped hugging her, "Will do sir and good luck." With that final note, her and Marseille boarded the plane and the closed the door. Once it's escorts left, the tri-engine Karlslandic transport left the ground. Watching the planes pass once over they base, they formed up and flew off into the distance. Turning back to the assembled men and women he spoke.
"Alright ladies and gents let's get this show on the road. Get the 302s prepped and the ship ready for combat."
A chorus of "yes sirs," hit him as they began to burst into action, "Ross get a handful of Jumpers airborne and start finding us targets." Ross nodded as he too left. Vought turned to the witches, "Minna I don't need to tell you anything you don't already know. Prep your girls and let us crush these buggers into dust."
Minna smiled as she responded, "Yes sir." She turned to Mio, "Major, if you would please?"
Mio nodded, "Alright all of you; time to train! Miyafuji, Bishop, Clostermann, you three start running; 10 laps of the base should work for a start. Everyone else, exercise for 3 hours and then we start aerial training. Move it!" She punctuated this final order with a bang of her training sword on the ground. As the 501st burst into action Vought turned back to his group of witches, "Foss, do what you need. You have access to anything you may need or want from the ship."
Joe nodded, "Alright all of you grab your weapons; we're headed to the range." As the ship's witches left the area, Vought turned to Vitaly and Alexei.
"Alright товарищи, we need to make a move on our little guest soon. Vitaly if your man finds him tonight, he is to take him down; alive if at all possible."
He nodded, "Understood Chris; I will let him know." He left leaving him and Volkov.
"What do you wish for me to do Крис?"
Vought sighed as he looked to his friend. "Do you remember Afghanistan?"
"да"
"Just like back then, be careful мой друг."
He nodded, "I will, Пожалуйста. You be careful too." With that he left leaving Vought with his thoughts.
He turned to his ship, "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."
August 31, 1945 1200 Hours- 501st JFW Gun Range
The sharp crack and rattle of automatic weapons fire filled the air as men and women from both realities honed their skills with their weapons. 1st Lt. Alex Nemes dropped his spent mag as he slapped a new one in and resumed his firing. Emptying the magazine he put his P90 down as he observed his target. "Nice shooting lieutenant."
He turned around to find the ship's compliment of witches nodding at his target, "Thanks ma'am but that's nothing."
Lt. Col. Foss shrugged, "whatever you say Nemes; still looked good though. You need to let me shoot that thing when I'm done with mine." She patted the cut down M2 20mm cannon on her shoulder.
Nemes shook his head in amazement, the weapons these small girls could carry into combat was insane. He watched as each picked a lane and laid down their weapons; Kostilev had a 12.7mm UBS machinegun, Harris had a .30 cal M1919A6 machinegun, Preddy had an M2 Browning .50 cal machinegun, von Bonin had an MG34, the youngest Sayn-Wittgenstein, had an enormous modified 20mm MG151/20 cannon, but the one that stunned him and the others around him was Rudel. She carried a massive, full-sized BK 37, 37mm anti-tank cannon. Dropping it on the steel loading table, the ground shook with the impact.
"A twenty not enough for you ma'am?" he asked sarcastically.
She smiled as she shook her head, "Not at all lieutenant, if my striker could handle it I'd be carrying the BK 5."
He blinked, "The airborne 50mm cannon?"
She nodded, "The very same."
He beckoned them forward, "Go right ahead then ladies," they smiled at him as they loaded and moved into position. Noticing the Russian soldiers still staring he yelled to them, "What are you guys looking at, let them practice." The soldiers shrugged as they reloaded their -47s and -94s and resumed shooting.
Nemes sat back and watched as the ladies activated their magic, and began firing. The booming report of the 37mm caused the men to stop and stare. Watching them continue to shoot, he thought of something, "I hope these people stay friendly with each other because these women would be lethal in conventional war; who needs tactical nukes when you have them…"
September 2, 1945 0004 Hours- 501st JFW Runway
For the first time since making it to this reality, Vought had not gone to the runway alone. The past few nights, Maj. Preddy and recently Maj. Sayn- Wittgenstein had begun going with him to learn more about him and his reality. When Heinrike was asked why she chose to not go on the night patrols anymore, her response had been that there wasn't enough action for her immense skill; being nocturnal like all night witches, she still grew bored and decided to tag along.
Taking his usual spot, he sat down as he poured himself and the other two some iced-tea; he didn't want to be accused of getting the witches drunk now would he? Passing the two their glasses he sat back and stared at the stars; his ship lit up as men worked the graveyard shift getting her ready for their go ahead for combat.
Watching the colonel stare calmly up into the cloudless night sky, Heinrike rubbed her knees nervously before she asked a question. "Sir…" she met his blank stare causing her to stare at the ground; going red in the face. "Chris, why are you so fascinated by the stars; don't you explore them all the time?"
Geena looked at him as he dropped his gaze and thought. He turned to them, "I've told Jean before. I've always been fascinated by space; ever since I was a kid." He looked up again, "I always believed that we weren't the only intelligent life in the universe and I wanted to explore. I had always planned on being an astronaut; maybe going to Mars and exploring deep space and all that kind of stuff." He smiled, "There was a TV show I always used to watch, "Star Trek," and while I knew that it would never be like that, it was still fun to pretend. I had learned that the best way to become an astronaut was to join the military so I applied for the Air Force Academy and graduated to become an officer."
He dropped his gaze again, "Turns out I was too tall to safely fly so I had to do something else. I was recommended by an officer to become a Combat Controller since they got to parachute a lot; I took him up on the offer and became a member of CCT. Four years later I found myself a Lt. Col. and was being asked to meet with a man named General Landry. He told me about the Stargate and here I am." He finished with his hands out; a smile on his face. The two witches laughed at the goofy expression on his face, "I hope that answers your question…Princess."
Heinrike gave him a horrified look as Geena covered her mouth to stop her snort. She wished she had a camera to capture this moment. Before the frazzled major could retaliate, Vought's radio squawked.
"Crosshair here, go ahead."
"Sir an unidentified radar contact just appeared from behind a transport. They are inbound, they were not scheduled, and they are ignoring us."
"Why didn't the ship detect it?"
"Sensors went offline a few min-"
The transmission was cut as the ship went dark and an explosion rocked the base.
And so the fun begins; hopefully this chapter answers a few more questions and creates a few more. Sorry for the lack of action everyone, I've been leading up to something; I hope it works out well. Anyway I don't have much else; keep up the reviews guys. Thanks for the suggestions; some of them might be seen later in the story, who knows? See ya later readers, Ghostrider21 signing off.