Chapter 10
Blood Harvest
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Samsara (Lunar Orbit)**
*USS Odyssey (Bridge) [two days later]*
The Odyssey dropped out of hyperspace and slipped off of even the most advanced radar screens as her cloaking field surrounded her. Moving at a reasonable speed, the Odyssey rounded the third moon of the Lucian Alliance farm world and started an active sensors sweep.
"The Intel's good, sir," Marks reported. "There's a sizeable Death Glider presence in atmosphere and in orbit. Between Galactica's flak cannons and the Colonials' combat experience, this will be a short fight."
"And the prize?" Colonel Davidson asked.
"They've already boxed it up and placed it on the tarmac. It looks like the harvest was good this season," Sam replied from her place in the back of the Bridge. "By my calculations, there's enough food here to not only make up for what was lost during the Cylon raid, but also to supplement that by an additional month or two of well rationed supplies."
"We'll have to send a ground team to tag the crates so we can beam them out," Marks added.
"Why?" Davidson asked.
"Because I can't get a beaming lock," Marks replied.
"But Gabi fixed the sensors," Sam said as she walked to the front of the Bridge to look over Marks' shoulder. "Shit," she swore.
"What's wrong?" Davidson asked.
"They've got a jammer," Marks replied as he noticed what Sam was looking at.
"If we take it out, we can just beam the food up. If we don't, we have to tag each individual crate and beam it out," Sam added.
"Then we need to get a ground team ready," Davidson said matter-of-factly.
"Sir, we don't want them to know we're coming until we're ready to start the assault. If we fail to get the jammer offline and the food beamed up before they get a message off world, we're screwed. Can I recommend we send in a team that knows how to do a stealth insertion?" Sam asked.
"Stealth insertion?" Marks asked skeptically.
"We don't have any ninjas onboard, unfortunately," Cam said with a shake of his head.
"No," Colonel Viride said, his voice making Mitchell jump as the man stepped out of the shadows directly behind him, "but you do have the next best thing."
"SG-1 can handle this, Colonel," Cam 'assured' him.
"SG-1 is a team composed of Spec Ops personnel, civilians, and aliens. I mean no offense, Colonel, but your team is a frontline assault oriented SOP. The key to this whole thing is keeping them from screaming, or making sure that no one hears them when they do. You have two aliens, only one of which is actually military trained, a civilian, a scientist, and a former pilot. I'm not questioning your combat capabilities, but I have a team of Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, ASIS Agents, and more all of whom were trained by the world's premier Black Ops personnel with an in-and-out without detection SOP. For now, we're sitting in your barracks waiting for the next boarding attempt, but that's what your Marines are for. This is what we do best, so let us do it."
"And I mean no offense to you, but I've never even heard of you or anyone on your team before. I'm still not entirely convinced you're SGC," Mitchell countered.
"You can question my loyalty to this crew all you want, Lieutenant-Colonel, but do not ever question my loyalty to Earth and her people," Colonel Viride said in a low tone that hinted at darker implications. It was an unspoken threat, but it was also one of the most obvious threats ever made.
"He makes the better argument," Colonel Davidson said matter-of-factly.
"Colonel…" Cam tried to argue.
"I'm not having this argument, Colonel," Davidson cut him off. "SG-1 has a reputation for getting the job done, but not for getting it done quietly. Colonel Viride, get your men ready."
"They already are," the Colonel replied as he turned on his heel and walked away without ever making a sound.
"We have a reputation for getting it done…" Mitchell began.
"Colonel," Davidson warned.
"They don't have a reputation at all!"
"This conversation is over," Davidson said in a tone of finality.
**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**
*Battlestar Galactica (Combat Information Center)*
"This is frakking insane," Saul said. "Why did we let them go?"
"We can't stop them from leaving, Saul, it's not our place," Bill replied.
"And what if they don't come back?" Saul asked. "What if they fixed their ship and decided to leave us? What if the Cylons know that they're gone and attack us again? We can't take another beating like that and everyone's nav computers are set for the coordinates they gave us. What if that's the trap? What if a Cylon fleet is amassing on the other end and they were just tagging along to find out where our strengths are?"
"What if the coordinates are designed to make our ships fall apart in transit?" Laura added. "What if they drop us out of FTL inside of a star? What if they drop us out in orbit of a black hole? What if, Saul, they're telling the truth and there's food waiting for us on the other side of this jump? What if they really aren't Cylons? And, if they were planning on betraying us, why did they leave their people behind?"
Saul cast a look over his shoulder. "Part of the trap, I'm just not sure how," Saul said in a low tone.
Bill shook his head and let out a sigh. "They've had too many opportunities to stab us in the back," he said. "If this is a trap, it's far too elaborate. Who would willingly sacrifice seventeen ships just to get one good infiltrator? The first two could've been used for set up, I'll give you that. The second attack could help seal the deal, but five ships in one go? And then that group of ten. They had us dead to rights with that assault. Why didn't they trigger their trap then? No, these people aren't Cylons. I'm certain of that, but I have no idea who or what they are."
"They're from Avalon, Midgard, Terra… their homeworld has more names than Zeus has moons," Laura said.
"That's an exaggeration I presume?" Bill asked.
"I'm not even sure," Laura replied honestly. "Professor Howard mentioned Avalon, Terra, Midgard, Asgard, Alteran, Texas, Canada, New York, and a few other locations, but I have a hard time telling what refers to what. The fact that he won't tell me their name for their homeworld is strange. I'm not sure if it's that they don't trust us with their planet, or that he doesn't trust us with his home-colony."
"You think they have colonies?" Saul asked.
"Why wouldn't they? They have warships don't they? Why would they have warships and nothing to protect?"
"They have their homeworld," Bill countered. "The Odyssey has proven herself a very capable ship, one that can take a beating far larger than a ship of her class should be able to. Either they're advanced to the point that the armor they put on that ship is cheap yet durable which supports a colonization theory, or their military force is so small that each ship has to be capable of taking on impossible odds which supports the single planet claim. I don't know enough about them to say either way, and I know for a fact that they won't answer a question aimed at gaining information on their military."
"Why not?" Laura asked.
"Imagine if our roles were reversed," Bill began. "If we found them drifting on the edge of Colonial space with enemies following behind them, do you really think we'd tell them what our military was capable of?"
"I see your point," Laura admitted.
"What about Doctor Baltar?" Saul asked.
"What about him?" Bill asked.
"What he said about them having a Cylon."
"I already knew about that. It's why I sent him over."
"What about their plan for a virus?" Laura asked.
"If they can make one, I say let them. Our computers aren't networked so they can't affect any of the ships in the fleet. If they can gain an additional edge over the Cylons, then so be it," Bill replied.
"Do you think it's possible?"
"They never had to live with the fear of the Cylons and what they can do to their computers, and they've already proven that they're more advanced than we are in that regard. Their computer technology now exceeds the best that we had before the first Cylon War, back when a computer was as thin as a sheet of paper and Holobands weren't a way for the Cylons to hack your brain," Saul replied. "If anything in this fleet can pull it off, it's their computers and Doctor Baltar's knowledge of Cylon codes."
"I'm surprised to hear that coming from you, Saul," Bill commented.
"I think they're growing on him," Laura agreed.
**Samsara Prime (Atmospheric Entry)**
*USS Odyssey (Starboard 302 Bay)*
To say the Odyssey was moving slow would be inaccurate. The Odyssey was currently entering the atmosphere of Samsara Prime at such a slow speed, that they were dangerously close to stalling and plummeting down to the surface, but it was needed. They didn't have a cloak-equipped shuttle to land the ground team, so they were doing it the only way they could. With the jammer online, beaming was out of the equation, so, instead, the Odyssey came down close enough to the surface that they were hovering mere inches above the tops of the tallest trees. Only with Marks at the helm would Colonel Davidson have even considered such a crazy stunt.
"How do you plan on surviving the fall?" Cameron asked the Colonel who was outfitted in all black gear.
The armor they wore wasn't the standard issue for the SGC. It was sleek, formfitting, and had a strange hexagonal pattern to its skin. There was a cloth hood with a similar pattern that came out of the neck of the metal to cover their heads, gloves over the hands, and even their boots were made of the same material. Whatever purpose the pattern served, Cameron wasn't privy to it.
Each of the members of the Colonel's team was wearing similar armor, but with a few customizations. One of them, a female, wore armor that was thinner than everyone else's while another, a male, wore armor that was thicker by far and had a more mid-evil look to the shoulder guards and gauntlets. They had different weapons too. The woman with nothing but cloth over her skin had a weapon that looked like an AA-12 and nothing else. The woman with thin armor had a large sniper rifle. The man in thick armor had a large cannon in his hands. The Colonel's XO had a simple shotgun. The Colonel himself had a pair of pistols on his hips and a quiver of arrows strapped to his back with a bow attached and several throwing knives strapped to his forearms. Mitchell eyed that with a sense of curiosity.
"What's with the bow?" he asked.
"It was a gag-gift," Oliver replied in an annoyed tone. "The bow was the first weapon I was ever trained to use when I was a kid, then, last year, Tommy figured out it was my birthday. Next thing you know, they've made me a bow. Why carry it into combat? It's my heavy weapon and the only thing I have right now with my rifle being… indisposed of."
"What does that mean?"
"Assault rifles make good face-shields when the Ori are shooting energy weapons at your head and you don't feel like dying," the Colonel said with a smirk before pulling a helmet over his head and turning to his team. "Once we break the tree line we're visible to their sentries. Keep low, move slow, and let your gear adjust to your surroundings. Keep it silent, keep it clean, stay alive," the Colonel ordered his men. The five of them, three females and two additional males, were currently checking their equipment which was complete with sound suppressors judging by the way that none of them made a sound when their metal boots hit the deck. That was definitely not standard issue SG gear. "Alright, Jack. You ready to play ball?"
The woman wearing nothing more than a layer of cloth over her flesh with hair so short it didn't really exist cracked her knuckles, her fingers no longer wrapped up despite only having two days to heal, and popped her neck before running towards the opening to the outside world at a dead sprint. She jumped out of the ship and spread her arms wide as she did a swan dive over the edge. The Colonel held up five fingers and counted down before motioning forward and the next person duplicated the same suicidal feat. Every five seconds there was a jump until the Colonel himself joined them and Cam ran over to the edge to see what the hell was going on. He was rather surprised to see the Colonel drop like a rock until he was about half way down at which point he slowed down until his feet touched the ground with the ease of simply walking down a flight of stairs.
"What the hell?" Cam asked no one in particular.
"The first one to have jumped is Jack," Sam said from behind him. "She's over three-hundred years old."
"How is that possible?" Cam asked.
"She is Subject Zero," Teal'c replied in his monotone way of explaining things.
"So she's the 'Perfect Host'?" Cam asked as he looked back at the ground only to find the team had already disappeared.
"We don't know," Sam replied with a shrug as she started walking towards the elevator. "She won't let anyone touch her but the one doctor she trusts."
"And who would that be?"
"The one who got assigned to the Zeta Site."
"The Zeta Site?" Cam asked as the elevator doors closed before them. "Why do I keep hearing that?"
**Samsara Prime (Surface)**
*Insertion Zone (Three Miles North of Target)*
The Odyssey kicked up a hot breeze as her atmospheric maneuvering thrusters fired in tandem to renew the fight against gravity as the ship broke for orbit at a far faster rate than it had entered. The wind died down, the leaves blowing across the ground the only noise created by the small ship, and the Colonel took stock of his surroundings before looking down at his hands. Already the adaptive camouflage system was turning the black cloths and metals that composed their armor a mixture of greens, browns, oranges, and yellows to better blend in with the autumn-like environment for this planet's current seasonal cycle.
"Alpha calls for comms check," Colonel Viride said as he hit his radio. The radio was built into the VATS system they all wore in combat and secured with advanced encryption algorithms to be sure no one could break it. Even SG teams would be hard pressed to hack their comms channels.
"Kappa hears and answers," Lieutenant-Colonel Jesse Sampson, Colonel Viride's Executive Officer, replied.
"Lambda answers," Lieutenant Cassidy Doyle replied.
"Sigma answers," Lieutenant Kimimaro Amani replied.
"Omega answers," Major Tomus Higgins replied.
"Zero still thinks that this only gets stupider every time you make us do it," Jacqueline Nils said as she stalked off into the woods.
"Stick with the team, Zero," the Colonel ordered.
"Let's see you catch six people as they fall from a spaceship and not need to take a piss," Zero replied.
"Make it quick," the Colonel sighed.
Walking over to him, Kappa said, "I'm getting concerned about her."
"That's one way of putting it," Lambda said as she and Sigma walked over with Omega.
"She should have a few more days of good health before we have to start worrying about her. I'm actually more concerned about her mental condition. If she gets tired of being cooped up, what happens to the Odyssey?" Omega asked.
"I know," Alpha agreed with a nod. "If her condition goes critical while we're on assignment, at least she won't tear the Odyssey apart in the process. If she goes critical while we're on board… let's just hope Gabi still has that kill switch."
"Or a Zat," Omega said sternly. "Stunning her would be better than detonating a bomb in her head."
"There's a bomb in someone's head?" Zero asked as she walked over to join them. "Sweet! When does it go 'boom'?"
"When I tell it to," Alpha replied as he drew one of his pistols and started walking.
"When is that going to happen?" Zero persisted.
"If we're lucky, it never will."
"What's the point of putting a bomb in someone's head if you're not going to use it?"
"Insurance."
"That's cold, even for you," Zero said as she drew her shotgun and double checked her ammo belt.
"If you knew my ex, you would be singing an entirely different song altogether," Alpha replied as they began their three mile march.
**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**
*Battlestar Galactica (War Room)*
"So what is the plan of attack?" Saul asked.
"The Odyssey went ahead to scout out the area and gain the exact details we need to plan out the assault itself, but I do have certain information for your pilots that they need to know," Gabi replied as she set her backpack on the table in the center of the room and started pulling out equipment. It took her a minute or two to get the system set up, but, once she did, the lights in the room flickered and dimmed before stabilizing again. "Sorry about that," she said as she reworked the wires and pulled a strange looking object from her bag. It was about the size of a standard footlocker with two large, bulbous spheres at either end and a slimmer shape at its core.
"What is that?" Saul asked.
"A power generator," the short woman replied.
With a soft hum of compliance, the generator came to life as blue lights on its spheres lit up. The equipment arrayed on the table also began to hum before there was a soft blue light that filled the room. A second later the center piece lit up and shot a column of light into the air, the four objects forming a square around it were quick to follow. Another second passed and the columns of light manifested into a three-dimensional holographic image of a planet with four moons.
"This," Gabi said as she pointed to the gas giant, "is Samsara, and this," she added as she pointed at the second largest moon orbiting the planet, "is Samsara Prime. The Odyssey would've dropped out in orbit of Samsara Minor, the smallest of the gas giant's moons and the closest planetary body to Samara. Due to the set-up of this particular system, Samsara Minor actually orbits Samsara Prime more than it does Samsara itself. I mention this solely because the gravitational fields being kicked out by the pair of moons combined with the planet itself are rather severe. This does, however, play to our advantage."
"How so?" Bill asked.
"Samsara itself is super active enough to mask even the most advanced sensors grids in the galaxy. If we hide the civilian fleet within the inner edge of ionosphere, they'll be completely invisible to even the Odyssey's sensors. However, that also means that they won't be able to see anyone either, even each other. It's a sort of gamble to put them there, but it's better than dragging them into the battle, and, if we space them properly with Raptors patrolling the area with Active DRADIS sweeps, we should be able to avoid any collisions."
"I thought you said their fighter presence would be minimal," Lee Adama countered as he walked into the room with the Colonial President and Professor Howard in tow.
"By our standards, yes," Gabi replied. "However, what you fail to realize is that these guys are advanced. The Lucian Alliance holds all the same technology as the Goa'uld Empire and the Free Jaffa Nation. Before you interrupt," she quickly added when Saul opened his mouth, "I know that those names mean nothing to you, but I figured you should know the names of our enemies since we know the name of yours. Now, to put it simply, a single fighter making it past Galactica could destroy a civilian ship with one well aimed shot, and not because their missiles are as strong as ours. They… actually don't even use missiles."
"Kinetic Energy Weapons?" Bill asked.
"Projected plasma bolts," Gabi replied.
"Directed energy weapons?" Laura asked in disbelief.
"Directed plasma weapons," Gabi corrected. "I know that there's not much of a difference to you, but to us there is. The Ori have projected energy weapons that can destroy a Lucian Alliance ship in one hit. The Lucian Alliance has plasma cannons that can't even begin to scratch an Ori Mothership. Again, I know that those names don't mean much to you, but I can explain if you give me time."
"How much time?" Saul asked.
"That depends on how many questions you have," Marcus replied truthfully.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***
**Minos (Outside Planetary Gravitational Field)**
*Relentless Flame (Combat Information Center)*
The Relentless Flame sat in silence as it waited for the prime opportunity to strike. She was a hunter, a wolf amongst sheep, and she had been patient. That time was finally here. Her target dropped out of hyperspace, a massive window forming to allow the massive bulk of the ship generating it to shift back into normal space. The large, triangular-shaped vessel was an experiment, the next step in the evolution of Ba'al's fleet. To say that the crew of the Flame wanted it destroyed was inaccurate, but the destruction of such a vessel would be far easier than its theft… unless it was assaulted while unfinished.
The four, oversized engines at the rear of the small ship flared to life as protons and antiprotons were sent colliding into one another, and the Flame shot forward at the speeds of one of the Tau'ri's thrice cursed fighter craft. It approached its target from behind with lethal intent and let loose with two of its plasma bomb emitters. One bomb struck the area that the ship's primary power plant was housed in, the heat of the plasma bypassing the unshielded hull and slicing through the main power cords that sent precious energy to the ship's primary systems, a secondary explosion breaching the reactor, but not destroying it. It was blind luck that the reactor didn't explode, but they had more pressing matters to attend to as they now had exactly thirty seconds before the secondary power systems came online and compensated for the loss of power.
The second plasma bomb struck the ship just aft of where the Bridge tower stuck out of the otherwise flat and featureless plane that is the armored hull. The explosion caused minimal damage to the Bridge itself, but did serve the purpose of causing the fire control systems to activate and force the crew to cover their faces to avoid the fire suppressant foam now raining down on them. That bought them an extra ten seconds.
The Flame roared past the far larger ship and slammed on the breaks. The small ship went from moving faster than a fighter to damn-near stopping completely before its maneuvering thrusters fired. The micro maneuvering thrusters on the bottom of the nose of the small craft fired down to force the nose up while the maneuvering thrusters on the back of the ship near the engines fired up to force the tail down. The resulting maneuver flipped the small ship over before its main engines flared to life again and the ship was shooting forward at a rapid speed once more, the pilot taking the craft through a simple barrel roll to correct their stance relative to their target.
As the Flame made another run on the far larger ship, its cloaking field was deactivated as the power in the system was diverted to the shields and weapons. Six more plasma bomb projectors powered up before the Flame reached the tip of its target's bow. The resulting bombing run left craters, blast marks, and gouges in the armor as the small ship made for the Bridge again. As it did, the hatch on the bottom opened and a group of six figures jumped out, their momentum carrying them towards the breach in the armor just behind the Bridge.
The Flame continued its journey through space and pulled another full halt followed by a flip and brought its point defenses online. As the fighters on the planet swarmed into space like a pack of angry insects, the small ship that had enough speed to outrun them turned towards their advance and gunned its engines. Laser cannons mounted on the hull of the ship spun into position before letting loose with their hyper-lethal precision beams. A bust of energy traveling at the speed of light was impossible to dodge and each blast had enough energy to melt through the target's hull and breach their reactor. As the fighters returned fire, their plasma rounds were harmlessly absorbed by the shield of the small ship which soon flew out the other end of their formation, a large hole in their ranks where its rapid flight had taken the small ship directly through the thickest part of the fighter swarm.
Another hard stop followed by a flip and the Flame pounced on the fighter group's rear flank and gave chase, the hunted now, once again, the hunter. The last of the fighters launched from the surface fell to the small ship's main anti-fighter guns, the razor thin red beams of light more than enough to destroy a simple Death Glider. That victory, however, was short lived. The Death Gliders were immediately followed by a pair of Ha'tak pulling out of their place in orbit to engage the small craft. One of them headed for the ship that was Ba'al's bid for galactic dominance. The other approached the Flame with its plasma cannons blazing.
Giant globs of plasmatic energy flew past the forward viewport as the pilot of the small ship punched the accelerator and aimed the nose of the Flame directly at the opposing Ha'tak. The Flame shot forward into the field of incoming fire and returned as much as it gave. The design of a Goa'uld Ha'tak was horribly primitive in terms of ship-to-ship combat, but still had some pretty advanced technology. However, the massive troop carriers were essentially just tools for terror, not weapons of war. The Flame was different. Its sole purpose was to burn its enemies until nothing was left but ashes in the solar winds. As such, the Ha'tak had only a third of its primary cannons aimed at the small, highly maneuverable ship that dodged most of the fire aimed at it while the Flame had its full complement aimed at the large, slow form of the Ha'tak. As an added advantage, the Flame had more than just plasma bombs and anti-fighter lasers for combat.
The Flame closed ranks with the Ha'tak and pulled up just before their shields had the chance to touch. At point blank range, the gunner squeezed his triggers and fired off a full barrage of plasma bombs, the high impact energy shells slammed into the Ha'tak's shield and caused the entire bubble to ripple and flare. Flying 'up' the surface of the pyramid's shield envelope, the Flame flew above its target, came to a hard stop, turned on a dime, and fired off a full barrage from all of the small ship's weapons systems save the anti-fighter laser cannons.
The orange bubble that surrounded the ship flared with every impact as the shields were stressed to the point of breaking. If one were to look out of a window on the Goa'uld-designed ship, the shield would appear as if someone had set fire to the sky itself. It would have been a short look, however, as the bubble burst under the sustained bombardment before a small, cylindrical shape fired out of a third port on the small ship's nose and slammed into their hull, the rod of solid Titanium bypassing the armor and flying out the other end. The reactor of the Ha'tak, now critically breached, overloaded and consumed the ship in a flash of light and high energy radiation.
"We've taken the command center. Get the Flame into the hangar and we will return to the Mimner with news of our victory," the pilot's Commanding Officer ordered over the radio.
"En route now," the pilot replied as he pushed the engines to the red line.
The other Ha'tak, currently hammering away at the now stolen vessel's raised shield, hovered in place above the large craft and sent troops in via the ring platforms that were bound to be present throughout the ship. The large ship, unnamed as is the custom of the Goa'uld, fired up its engines and pushed forward past its assailant. The Ha'tak turned its attention to the Flame, but the small ship was already zipping past it faster than the ship could be targeted. The Flame swooped up under the larger vessel and force-docked with the ship by blowing open its hangar bay and coming to a rest in the massive fighter bay that was, thankfully, still empty of fighters.
With an audible tearing sound, the massive ship tore open a rift in the very fabric of space and disappeared into the realm of subspace. Behind them in orbit, the commander of the Ha'tak was left to dread the call he was scheduled to make. He had to tell his Lord Ba'al that the greatest vessel in his new fleet had just been stolen, and by an unknown party at that.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Samsara Prime (Surface)**
*Overseer's Palace (Exterior)*
"And the satellite they found was larger than the tallest building on Samsara?" Lieutenant Amani mused as they stood before the tallest building they had ever seen on a planet other than Earth herself.
"That makes their satellite the size of the Empire State Building," Lieutenant-Colonel Sampson agreed in a tone of awe.
"The communications array is at the top of the tower and the generator feeding power to the jammer is below ground. We'll split up now and plant remote detonation charges. Rendezvous back here when you're done. If you're found, keep it quiet," Colonel Viride ordered as the six of them crouched in the dense brush just beyond the outskirts of the building that housed the soldiers and other Lucian Alliance officials who kept the local farmers oppressed through fear and violence.
"Who's going after what?" Jack asked.
"You're with me…" Alpha began.
"That goes without saying," Zero huffed.
"Lambda, you're with us. We'll head to the top of the tower and cut their vocal cords. Kappa, you take Sigma and Omega and wash the dirt out of our eyes," Alpha finished.
"Easy enough," Jesse said as the Colonel's team darted across the gap between their hiding spot and the target building. "Omega, you got the C4?"
"No, that's Sigma's job this time," Tommy replied.
"If you have to ask, I'll be insulted," Kimi added before the question could be asked.
"Then let's move," the XO said as the three of them slipped into the building unseen. Once inside, the colors of their armor began to shift again as a new pattern was created. The vibrant colors of autumn were replaced by the dull gray that coated the walls, floor, and ceiling. To say that this building had a drab interior was insulting to drab interiors everywhere. This was so bad it hurt Jesse's eyes just standing there looking at it. "You did pack something other than a sniper rifle, right?" Jesse asked.
"You could say that," Kimi replied as she took up her customary position at the rear of the formation, a strange looking weapon in her hands.
"We should get moving," Tommy insisted. "They're already ahead of us."
"They also have more ground to cover," Jesse countered as he peaked around a corner. "Elevator. Yes or no?"
"Elevator?" Kimi asked. "Don't you mean ring platform?"
"Same concept," the Lieutenant-Colonel countered as they carefully made their way down the hall that led to the quickest way to the lower levels.
"It's a bit too noticeable for my liking," Tommy said.
"It's also likely heavily guarded at the other end," Kimi added. "I'll go first."
"Radio us your findings," Jesse agreed as he and Omega took up defensive positions and Sigma stepped into the circle on the floor. There was a pulse of energy and a shimmer of light as the woman activated her Sodan Cloaking Device and disappeared completely. A moment later the rings activated and she was whisked away in a flash of light.
*Overseer's Palace (Sub-Levels)*
The rings deposited her into darkness, but her VATS system was already in night vision mode by the time the first ring fell back into the floor. She was standing on top of the fifth ring and jumping through the doorframe before the second fell, her hands grabbing the upper rim of the doorframe. With a heave and a twist she brought her body through the doorframe as the fourth ring fell and planted her feet on the wall just above her hands. The blast from the automated staff cannon emplacement slammed into the wall behind the rings as the fifth ring fell into the ground and Kimi activated her magnetic grappling boots, a short prayer going out to Athena that this would work.
As her Matron Lady would have it, the wall she was now standing on was ferromagnetic. That was the good news. The bad news was that the turret was most likely tied into a silent alarm system. That suspicion was confirmed when the lights in the room came on all at once and people started scrambling in with weapons drawn. They made a beeline for the ring platform and set up a defensive perimeter, but there was no threat coming from the small room, not anymore. Sigma was already on the move.
She jogged across the wall, always making sure that one foot was touching the surface to keep her attached to the walls and tilted her body against the pull of gravity. She reached the corner where two of the walls met each other and the ceiling and placed her back against the roof of the power distribution room for support before drawing the butt of her rifle, attaching the barrel, and spinning the silencer into place. There was a magnet in her back to hold the pieces of her rifle to her body without the need for straps. She used this to hold her back to the ceiling for extra support. Now she was ready.
"Activate the ring platform, but don't send anyone down," Kimi ordered over her squad's battle-net, the entire communications system housed within the VATS system.
"One distraction coming up," Omega replied before the rings activated again.
All attention turned to the rings as they activated again and one rather unfortunate man at the very back of the Lucian Alliance formation took a bullet through his skull. The second, third, fourth, and fifth all fell within seconds of the first and Kimi pulled her now empty clip out of the rifle before stowing it away in her utility belt and swapping it out for a fresh clip. She'd have to worry about policing her brass later, right now she had twenty-odd soldiers looking for the spider in its web.
Kimi let the magnetic holster holding her to the ceiling break loose before jumping away from the wall, her rifle clinging to the magnet to free up her hands. She landed on top of a large coolant tank with a roll and a slide before slipping off the edge and grabbing onto the side with her magnetic gloves. Once again she thanked Athena for having gifted her with such battle prowess and drew her side arm. Both of her primary weapons were too bulky to be used in a confined space like this, so she'd have to improvise.
She was good at that too. Athena was very generous when she gave Kimi her natural affinity for dealing out death to her enemies.
Two more guards took a round to their heads before Kimi dropped again and landed on a large pipe. Sprinting across the twelve-inch pipe was made all the easer by the magnets in her boots, but she still had to have grace and balance to pull it off. She reached the end of the pipe and swan dove off of the nearly two-story high ledge. She dropped down a full story and grabbed another pipe, her momentum allowing her to swing up and land with her feet planted on the ferromagnetic material of the coolant tank's sidewall. Now she was in a position to use her secondary weapon.
Swapping out the pistol for the latest design to leave their personal weapons labs, Kimi drew a rectangular shape from her back and let the rifle fold out into its full form. Even then, it was only half the size and weight of her Berretta, and had less firepower. It did, however, have a noise dampening system built into the casing and the added benefit of no casings to police. "I'll draw their attention, but watch out for the automated turret," Kimi said as she deactivated her cloak, popped out of cover and opened fire on the men below her.
All of their fire focused on her and she ducked around behind a pipe before dropping down to a lower balcony. She ran across it at full speed, firing precision rounds into the crowd. With all of them firing at her, the noise in the room was enough to hide the activation of the rings from all but the two Lucian Alliance soldiers standing closest to it. They turned to face a new enemy only to have Jesse stab one in the temple and Tommy to break the other's neck in a fluid motion that only his inhuman strength would allow for.
Kimi, running across the balcony, took a round through her calf muscle and fell to the ground, her body disappearing as she dropped and a hard-light hologram taking up the sprint. To the Lucian Alliance soldiers shooting at her, she had tripped and regained her balance mid-fall. To the two Humans accustomed to her style of fighting, she had just become a ghost in the wind.
Tommy shouldered his heavy machine gun and let loose with a nonstop stream of hyper-accelerated bullets. Those fortunate enough to avoid the opening attack on their rear flank scrambled for cover as the two males approached from behind and Kimi's hologram fritzed out. Jesse ran forward as fast as he could and jumped over the pipes one man was using for cover, his shotgun barking out his opinion of the man before he landed at a roll, got to his feet and charged his next target. Tommy more strutted than marched down the line of machinery and lit up the room any time he saw so much as a head pop out of cover.
As the two males advanced, the rings behind them sparked a few times before the lights on the controls went dead. A split second later, Kimi darted past them both, still invisible, and pounced on a group of three soldiers. She moved like water over smooth terrain. One attack led to another and everything flowed together until her task was completed. It started with the first being struck in the face by her invisible fist, her body twisting with the force of the blow as she drew a blade from her belt and brought it up in her other hand. Her spin gave her momentum which gave her force. When she brought her blade up, it sliced through another man's chest with an ease unknown to most Humans. That man fell to his knees with a cry of pain as Kimi continued her spin. She flipped the blade over in her hand and stabbed it into the eye of the third soldier before pulling her sidearm and putting a bullet through the first man's head. With their deaths, the room became instantly silent of combat. All that was left was the man crying in pain at the large cut on his chest, a noise that was silenced by a bullet passing through his skull, but the machines still hummed and buzzed around them.
"The Athamite Academy for Assassins," Tommy said as he and Jesse walked over to the woman.
"It's not an academy," Kimi countered as she pulled her blade from her victim's head and cleaned the blood off of the trinium-alloy blade. "You don't ask to join the Athamite Assassins, you get drafted when you're young."
"It's a wonder you and Six haven't hooked up yet," Tommy said with a shit eating grin. "What with him being KGB and you being the Greek version of the KGB, you two would…" He stopped speaking when that blade made contact with his throat. "Okay, I'll drop it," Tommy said in a pleading tone. He knew for a fact that she would kill him just as easily as she had the others. She was cold like that.
"The Colonel's not going to be happy about this," Jesse observed as he looked at all the dead bodies. There was no hiding this.
"We only have to keep them unaware of our presence long enough to take out the communications array. Once that's done, they can't call for help," Kimi countered as she led the way towards the control room.
"How do we know they don't already know we're here?" Jesse asked.
"Jammer," Kimi replied as she pointed at her back.
The armor worn by the teams under the command of Colonel Viride, those loyal to the sub-division of the SGC that did those things that Earth couldn't be tied to, was years in advance to the armor worn by the SG teams, but not because Earth didn't want the best for their men. The armor they wore cost more to produce than a 302 and had been acquired by making deals on the galactic black market. There were six classes of specialists, and each class's set of armor was different from the last. Infiltrators, for example, had a Sodan cloaking device built into them which meant that they also had a special layer of anti-radiation material between the wearer and the device to help them fight off radiation sickness. A Soldier's armor was thicker with mechanized joints to allow them to handle heavier weapons with ease and gifted them a speed not gained naturally. The other classes had different modifications to their armor as well ranging from different plates to different joints and armor in different places based on their combat styles. Kimi's armor being as thin as it is allowing her full use of her agility was a prime example when compared to Tommy's thick armor plating that would stop more bullets than hers would.
That having been said, there was a red light running up and down Kimi's spine where the jammer was built into her armor and tapped into the power supply that rested between her shoulder blades. The designs for these armor systems had been handed over to the SGC two weeks after they had been finalized and not a single one had been built in the eight months the SGC has had the designs because they really were that expensive, and the IOA argued that the 304 they could build with the funds and materials needed to outfit the SG teams was a better investment for global security.
Between the trinium armor plating, liquid naquadah power core, and other such technologies, it would bankrupt the SGC's fleet budget to produce the armor en mass, and ships were needed to defend the planet and take the fight to the enemy. It was the ultimate 'rock and hard place' to be stuck between. Should you save the lives of your soldiers who are out there taking the fight to the enemy and defending the planet by giving them advanced armor, or produce ships to defend the planet from the unimaginably large alien fleet and take the fight to the enemy before that fleet can be deployed to Earth?
"Which generator are we blowing up?" Tommy asked.
"I'll check their computers to make sure there's only the one and see if I can get us a map of the tower for the VATS system. There's a control room up there that should suffice," Kimi replied as she led the way up to the top of the large room.
*Overseer's Palace (Upper Levels)*
"Hold it right there!" a big burly man with a scar where his right eye should be demanded.
Cassidy rounded the corner and froze in place with a look on her face like a deer caught in the headlights. "Please don't hurt me, I'm just trying to find the exit," she pleaded in a weak tone.
"What are you doing here?" the man demanded gruffly as he drew his sidearm.
"I… I was…" Cassidy began as she let her eyes fill with tears. "I was at home. I wasn't doing anything wrong. The soldiers came and they brought me here. They… they…" she stuttered as she sunk to the floor and buried her face in her hands. She had already ditched her armor for the tattered clothes worn by the locals who lived under the Alliance to help sell the idea of being lost, but it was all just for show.
The man narrowed his one good eye in disgust and put his weapon away before carefully approaching the strawberry blond. "Who did this?" the man asked as he knelt down beside her. Cassidy flinched away from his touch and whimpered. The man let his guard down and leaned in a little closer. "I'm not going to hurt you," he began. "I want to hel…"
Cassidy reached up and placed one hand on his head, and the other on his chest. With one hand, her thumb pressed into his forehead and her fingers gripped his skull. With the other, she gripped his chest in a way that constricted the heart and caused it to beat erratically. She looked into his eye, spoke to him a soft tone, then removed the hand from his chest, and pulled a small bell from her sleeve. The bell chimed three times before the man's eye finally glazed over. She released her grip on his head and he rocked back on his heels. Blissfully unaware of his condition, the man carefully picked her up and carried her in his arms as she continued to cry into his shoulder. He took her past the other guards who merely smiled as the man walked past. A few of them winked at the one eyed man, but no one questioned him. He carried her to the ring platform and the two of them appeared further up the tower.
The man walked into the room, laid her on a table, drew his weapon and emptied the room with a threatening growl. The occupants promptly exited through a different set of rings at the other end of the room. As the scientists were sent down in a flash of light, the other two members of her team were brought up.
"You did well. Now go to sleep," Cassidy ordered in a seductive tone and the man dropped to the floor in a limp heap.
"You scare me sometimes," Jack said as she walked into the room with Cassidy's armor floating along behind her in a field of light generated by her glowing body.
"Well, that's one way to bypass their security systems," Colonel Viride added as he walked up to the main terminal.
"More inconspicuous than hacking the rings and setting off the alarms," Cassidy said with a shrug.
"This planet disgusts me," Jack said with in a bitter tone. "These bastards run around raping, killing, threatening, and stealing these people's food. It makes my blood boil."
"Calm down, Jack, you're getting too worked up," Colonel Viride ordered over his shoulder as the woman's body started glowing darkly.
"I just want to kill them all!" Jack hissed.
"You'll get your chance, but not now. First we need to keep them from calling for help," Cassidy said comfortingly as she started putting her armor back on.
"And we're no better!" Jack continued. "We're taking from the Alliance what they themselves took from the people who live here."
"We're not taking everything," Cassidy countered. "We're leaving the food that they keep for the locals and taking what they're sending to the Alliance at large. We're not going to leave these people here to starve."
"And if these fucking assholes take all the food that the locals need and keep it for theirselves?" Jack demanded.
"They won't be alive to," Colonel Viride replied in a low tone. "Plant the charges," he ordered as he tossed a bag of C4 to Cassidy. "We'll blow the tower and take out the upper echelon. With the rulers dead and the crops gone, the Alliance will abandon this world. They only want it for its food. Take that away and remove the symbol of control and the locals will have their moon back."
"What's to stop them from coming back a few years from now?" Jack asked.
"In a few years, we should have the Alliance on the defensive. Their foot soldiers are no match for ours and their fleets are pathetic compared to the Goa'uld. Ba'al will weaken them because he wants their territory, then we'll finish them both off. In a few years, the galaxy will be a far safer place."
"You left out the Ori," Cassidy pointed out.
"The Ori is the SGC's problem," Colonel Viride countered as he kept working at the computers. "Landry has us running interference against Ba'al and the Lucian Alliance because they're minor threats and we can handle them. Keep the two groups fighting each other and the SGC will be free to take on the Ori without Ba'al and the Alliance targeting Earth. If we finish with the Alliance and Ba'al before the SGC manages to take out the Ori, we'll be reassigned. Until then, we focus on keeping the Alliance and the Goa'uld too focused on one another to remember that we're a threat to them both."
***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***
**Dead Space (Location Classified)**
*Devastator (Combat Information Center)*
The name given to this ship was one that the boarding party had given it simply out of desire to give voice to the destruction it could cause. It was needless, but, at the same time, somehow needed.
"According to the internal sensors, there's close to fifty Jaffa aboard the ship," Ruavu reported.
"Isolate them and vent those compartments to space," Gluk ordered.
"It shall be done," Ruavu said with a nod.
"What's the status of the Flame?"
"Heed and Arasleon made it aboard safely. They're keeping the engines warm incase a quick escape is needed," Uekespin replied.
"Good, the Mimner will be pleased," Gluk said as he clasped his hands behind his back and stood at the center of the large ship's Combat Information Center. "Glozic, Diviak, now is the time."
"By the Mimner," Diviak replied with a small bow before disappearing from view.
"By the Mimner," Glozic repeated before walking towards the door.
"I have managed to eliminate the bulk of the enemy forces, but there are some groups that still remain," Ruavu reported.
"Borrub, Uekespin, hunt them to extinction," Gluk ordered.
"By the Mimner," the two replied in unison before arming themselves and exiting the nerve center of Ba'al's would-be-flagship.
"Any time now," Ruavu said, her voice coming from the speakers in Gluk's helmet.
"Let's hope this works," Gluk replied over the private channel that linked their suits of armor together.
"Have a little faith. Your plans never fail," Ruavu said comfortingly as movement behind them caught their attention.
A hologram shimmered into existence and strutted across the command center to stand before the two aliens. "Such a disgusting race," Ba'al said in a tone of displeasure. "Tell me, vermin, why have you taken my ship?"
"What the Mimner demands of the Impolans, the Impolans deliver to the Mimner without question or hesitation," Gluk replied.
"The Mimner? I have never heard of such a thing."
"This only proves your claims to be a god to be false," Ruavu snapped venomously.
Ba'al's two eyes shifted to meet her three, all of which were hidden behind the helmet that covered her face. "Do not presume that I cannot end you even now. I will give you one opportunity to return what is mine. If you do not, I will activate the ship's self-destruct…"
Ba'al trailed off when Ruavu entered the self-destruct sequence only for nothing to happen. "We have already disabled the command module that activates that system."
"So you have," Ba'al replied with a smirk. "Then I will send my fleet to hunt down you and your 'Mimner' until nothing is left of your species but decomposing corpses in the primordial muck you crawled out of."
"You do not stand a chance against the might of the Mimner," the Impolan replied, the entire conversation being held in Goa'uld. "Where you are a False God, a snake in the head of a man, the Mimner is a True God. He comes not from this galaxy. He crossed the distance between his pervious home and his new one by walking amongst the stars. You cannot claim to have done the same. This conversation is over," Gluk said before shooting the communications array with a bullet accelerated to beyond the speed of sound by the firing rail in the man-portable railguns they used for weapons. "Is the system dead?" Gluk asked.
"Damaged, but reparable, not that we really need it," Ruavu replied.
"Can he still see us?"
"No. We'd have to repair the system for him to get a connection."
"Good," Gluk said as he pulled his helmet off and let it drop into the chair behind him. "It's hard to breath in that thing," he added in an annoyed tone.
Ruavu pulled her own helmet off and let her long, dark brown hair fall down her back. "You're preaching to the converted," she said with a smile.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**
*Battlestar Galactica (Pilot's Briefing Room)*
"Death Gliders have thick armor and heavy weapons compared to what you've been up against," Gabi explained as a holographic image of a Death Glider appeared behind her. "Their armor is composed of a metal that puts everything you have to shame, but their pilots aren't really trained for fighter-on-fighter combat. The Lucian Alliance is a new galactic power on the rise that's nothing more than an alliance of gangsters, thugs, rapists, murders, and smugglers all trying to take advantage of the power vacuum left over from the collapse of the Goa'uld Empire. They don't train their pilots to be good, they just train them well enough that they know how to fly in a straight line and land when needed. Mostly they just bomb civilians who don't do what they want them to. However, their weapons will outright destroy you if they get a direct hit.
"They shoot slow, they fly slow, they turn slow, but their armor is strong. Yes, I just reiterated that for a reason. If you're going to take these guys down, you have to get behind them and take out their propulsion system or get a good shot at the cockpit. The problem with that second option is that they have superior targeting range. They'll lock onto you before you're even in firing range. If you can get behind them, you can take them down quick and easy. As for the Galactica, just pump out flak rounds and they won't even know what to do. They're idiots who fancy themselves pilots. This will be easy because they're not any good as a unified fighter force. It'll be hard because their armor is thick and their weapons are better than yours. Are you getting the picture here or should I reiterate the main points just one more time?"
"No, I think that that about sums it up," Starbuck replied in a smart-ass tone.
"Good, then get ready to launch," Gabi said as she started packing up her stuff.
"First time briefing a team?" Commander Adama asked as he walked over.
"The Colonel tends to handle that part of the pre-op pep talk. I'm not exactly good at it," Gabi admitted.
"It shows," Bill said with a nod. "Do you think they honestly understood what you meant?"
"If not, they should've said so before Blondie opened her mouth."
"Kara's a wild child, but she keeps us sane. I'll have a word with her later."
"That's not necessary," Gabi said as she put the last piece of her projection system into her bag. "I doubt I'll be giving another briefing on your ship, so it's not like it matters. If her attitude is what keeps people from going crazy, don't burst her bubble."
"I assume you'll be accompanying me to the CIC?" Bill asked.
"Unless you know how to run a subspace communications array," Gabi replied with a kind smile.
"There was only ever one in the Colonies. They built it on Caprica and we used it as a navigational beacon. That's all that it was ever good for. They couldn't do anything else with it."
"Well, at least you were close. Anyway, it's not really a subspace communications array. Galactica's power grid isn't advanced enough to handle the whole system so I just installed the receiver. We'll be able to receive updates from the Odyssey, but we won't be able to broadcast anything."
"So it's just the countdown clock?"
"Essentially, yes."
"What type of range does it have?"
"That depends on your power supply, condition of your array, and the technology behind it. We can normally phone home from anywhere in the galaxy, but, with the damage the Odyssey suffered during the battle with the Ori, we're lucky to be able to broadcast from Samsara to the last place we fought the Cylons."
"And you can really jump the fleet from here to there?"
"Whether or not it can be done isn't the question. The question is whether or not it's safe. Your FTL drives were designed by a true genius, but your navigational computers take that genius and limit to how far you're willing to risk traveling due to the drift factor. I can assure you, Commander, this is possible, but the strain you've been putting on your civvies' FTL drives, drives that weren't built to last by the military, concerns me. It's possible that their coils might give out if we do this too many times without letting them cool off properly. The jump to Samsara and the jump out of Alliance Space will put a great deal of strain on their coils. It'll take about a day for that to be relieved and that puts us at the mercy of anyone who finds us, which, I might add, is why we're jumping so far in the first place; to avoid detection. We might even escape the Cylons if we do this just right."
"If the Cylons do follow us to Samsara, would the Lucian Alliance be able to beat them?" Bill asked.
"It would be bloody, I'll tell you that much," Gabi replied with a smile. "They have better weapons than we do, I'll give them that, but their shielding system, which is to say their armor, isn't nearly as strong as the Odyssey's."
"An alliance of thugs and gangsters?" Bill asked.
"A violent alliance of thugs and gangsters," Gabi corrected him.
**Samsara Prime (Surface)**
*Overseer's Palace (Exterior)*
"Blow it," Alpha ordered as his team slipped into cover next to the other half of their squad.
Kimi pressed the button on the detonator and a rumble shot through the moon's surface as the underground power generators exploded. At the top of the tower, the comms array was blown apart, large pieces of satellite dishes and antennas raining down on the surrounding area. The tower swayed under the force of the joint explosions, but stabilized and remained standing.
"Fuck this!" Jack swore as she stood out of cover and let the glow consume her body.
The light danced around her form and her body lifted off of the ground as the very fabric of the universe bowed to her demands. A pulse of light and a spike in her body's temperature sent a wall of energy slamming into the bottom three stories of the tower. The wall of energy shattered the glass and ate away at the metal like a swarm of metal-eating insects. Building materials were turned to dust in the wind as the energy poured forth from her body, but this was just the precursor. With a cry of rage, Jack opened her clenched fist and let the light form an orb in her hand. She threw that orb with all the force of a fully loaded freight train moving at two-hundred miles per hour hitting a squishy target. The two fields of light met with a bang and the tower was consumed in rippling blue flames.
It wasn't a fire that burnt fuel and consumed oxygen. It was a fire born of fury, anger, and unexplainable power. It burnt through metal, stone, and flesh alike, the screams of the dying filling the air as the flames shot higher, scaling the tower in mere seconds until the entire thing was ablaze with Jack's wrath. In the top of the tower, people burned. Towards the base, the structure began to give out as the flames burnt through the supports.
A hand grabbed her own and pulled her back down to the surface of the moon before there was a flash of light and Jack's view of the fire was terminated. She could only turn an outraged fist towards the one that had taken away her victory, but her fist struck only a white field of energy.
"Calm down, and I'll let you out," Oliver ordered. "It's over. Take a deep breath, and let it all out." He spoke to her from the other side of a containment field designed to keep prisoners from escaping. This was always his way of keeping her from destroying something that they wanted to keep intact. She hated it, but she knew it was better than ripping the Odyssey's 302 bay apart.
Jack inhaled through her nose then let a cry of pain and rage escape her throat as she announced her displeasure to the heavens themselves. Her body glowed even brighter until her skin turned white and was nearly transparent. Her hair fell out of her head and yet she kept screaming even as parts of her flesh started to dissolve. Not until her lungs were empty did she stop. Her rage now burnt out, she dropped back to the floor where once she was hovering above it curled into a tight ball, and slowly began to return to a more Human appearance.
Once her skin was back to being lightly tanned and her eyes weren't orbs of black, the white field disappeared and she let out a slow, shaky breath. "What the hell is wrong with me?" Jack asked.
"You're destabilizing," Oliver said as he sat on the floor next to her.
"Colt said that he fixed this shit!" Jack replied, her voice raw and her eyes full of tears. "I just want to be Human again," she sobbed angrily.
"I know," Oliver whispered soothingly as he pulled her closer and let her rest her head on his shoulder. "It's your metabolism," he started to explain. "You're burning through the drug faster than it can get into your system and it's affecting your mind. You're relapsing and going through withdrawal at the same time."
"What am I supposed to do?" Jack asked as she began crying into his armored shoulder.
"Tell yourself the truth. You're stronger than this. You don't need drugs to keep you calm. You don't need to kill everyone you see. You can trust the people around you. We'll always have your back, Jack. Just tell yourself that and we'll get through this."
"You better be right," Jack sobbed.
"Hey now," Oliver said playfully. "Have I ever steered you wrong?"
"There was that one time on Vaccus," Jack said with a small smile in her voice.
"Hey now! Vaccus wasn't my fault," Oliver said defensively as he held the woman close and let her get it all out of her system.
"Thanks, Ollie," Jack said as she drifted into a state of unconsciousness, her energy stores thoroughly drained.
"Think you can keep that up?" Tommy asked as he walked over and pulled the last of the drug that kept Jack stable from the first aid kit he kept strapped to his back during missions.
"Which part?" Oliver countered, his own voice tight.
"The part where she doesn't go crazy," Tommy replied.
"I'll do my best, Tommy, but she's getting worse. She's a few days away from being like she was when we first met her."
"That was a dark time for her, Oliver. Even if she loses control of her body, her mind will never be that dark again."
"How can you know that?" Oliver asked as tears started forming in his own eyes. His, like hers, were tears of rage. She didn't deserve this, and he wasn't even sure he could kill her if it came down to it.
"You have that effect on her," Tommy replied as he went to work on her ravaged body. "You two share a past that's similar enough that she can draw strength from what you've made of yourself. You were an assassin, Oliver," Tommy continued sternly. "She was too. There's a connection there. You, as you are, is what she wants to be. Respectable, loved by her peers, and holding some sibilance of normalcy."
"What's normal about what we do?" Oliver asked angrily.
"Defending one's home from the things that go bump in the night? I'd say that's pretty damn normal considering there are millions of soldiers back on Earth doing the same thing. We just do it on a larger scale. If you want to help her, you have to be strong enough for the both of you, because without you, Jack goes back to being Mictecacihuatl, Queen of the Underworld, Lady of Death… whatever you want to call the Goa'uld that once controlled her, without you that thing comes back."
"No pressure, huh?" Oliver asked sarcastically.
"Just get her to the med bay so I can start wrapping those skinless parts," Tommy replied.
**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**
*Battlestar Galactica (Combat Information Center) [immediately after jump]*
"We did it, sir," Lieutenant Gaeta reported.
"Good news followed by even more good news," Saul said. "It looks like the Odyssey managed to save Lee."
"This is a great day for the fleet," Laura agreed as the first genuine smile to slip through her sorrow lit up her face.
"How long until the Odyssey regroups with the fleet?" Bill asked.
"Their FTL drive works differently from ours. I don't have the slightest clue," Gaeta replied.
"That's why he wasn't asking you," Gabi said with a small chuckle. "It'll take them about a minute to cross the distance."
"Why do you move so slowly?" Gaeta asked.
"Because we can maintain that speed indefinitely as opposed to jumping, cooling down, then jumping again. Our FTL drives are designed to operate on an intergalactic level. If the Odyssey wasn't damaged, we'd just jump into hyperspace and stay there until we got home. The damage to the drive is keeping us from doing that, so we're kind of stuck right now."
"DRADIS contact," Dee reported as a ghost appeared on their sensors. "It's the Odyssey."
"I was off by a few seconds," Gabi said with a shrug. "Permission to forward a post battle report, Commander?"
"Granted," Bill replied with a nod. Inside he was smiling. Outside, he was trying to appear calm. This was indeed a great day for the fleet.
"Sir, we're being hailed," Dee reported.
"Put them through," Bill ordered. "Colonel Davidson, how fairs the Odyssey?"
"We've got a contact on the long range sensors that matches the Galactica in general shape and size. Your son tells me that its IFF matches that of a Battlestar Pegasus," Colonel Davidson replied.