Chapter 17 Raid In Progress
Darkness had fallen over the land as a convoy of trucks moved out from Likna and linked up with another convoy of trucks coming out of a large woods near a highway leading to the Race's Capital at Nysha. The convoys merged into a single column with their lights on as they headed out onto a highway designed by the race. The Highway was very similar to highways across every Tau'ri world with the only difference being that three lanes was the most common type instead of two.
For the Tau'ri this was a bold plan that counted on the simple fact that people and hopefully lizards tended to not pay attention to details and saw only what they expected to see. The first and last vehicle were in fact Race transport trucks taken from the parking lot of Likna police station. The stolen trucks even had police markings however the bulk of the trucks where Tau'ri Camel transport trucks. With those trucks in the lead and with the darkness of night it was believed that any members of the race passing by would assume that it was a convoy of Race trucks. It helped that since the Opochti people couldn't fit in the vehicles designed by the Race and therefor the Race were the only people on the planet who could drive. The ploy was actually straight out of WW2 where first the Nazi's and then the Soviet Red Army snuck whole tank columns past enemies line in the night by having a captured enemy tank in the lead and rear to fool foot soldiers.
Mixed in with the heavy trucks where other vehicles which where unlike anything the race currently had on the road, there was a handful of Puma recon vehicles armed with heavy machine guns and mini guns and six wheeled Cougar APCs. There was also two of the new Alligator light recon armor, the eight-wheeled light tank was similar to the LAV-25 which was used by the Canadian Army and American Marine force until they where merged into the entire Tau'ri military. With it's mini rail gun autocannon it could take on much larger targets with ease and would be the fist in this attack.
In each vehicle where multiple Tau'ri special forces members along with Opochti freedom fighters. All the Tau'ri where wearing the most advanced power armor and armed with suppressed weapons, while the Opochti freedom fighters wore their traditional padded armor which would be good against swords and arrows but was next to useless against bullets. The Tau'ri had offered body armor however an issue had arisen because design of the armor. The shoulders of the Opochti where too small for the body armor straps and the placement of the holes for the arms was all wrong. In the end Tau'ri body armor could be worn by their Opochti allies, they did however take the belts which held multiple magazines for the AKM assault rifles which they could use. In the limited training they had one how to use their new weapons showed the Tau'ri that because of their four legs they had a very stable base that helped with aiming their rifles.
Multiple cars drove past them and none of the members of the race behind the wheel even noticed the strange trucks, the darkness along with the simple fact that it wasn't something they ever thought of seeing allowed them to mass unnoticed in the open. They followed the highway, thanks to some pre-mission planning resistance fighters had gone out and destroyed the street lights. The race didn't use overhanging street lights using strong lights along the side of the road at ground level. That made it ever so much easier for the fighters to destroy and for sure the Race drivers noticed that more then they noticed the Tau'ri armor rolling past them.
The convoy turned off an exit and headed through a small roadside town which had gone up by the Race after conquest. All the buildings where cube shaped or the same types of rectangles, there was nothing that really made them stand out. All the buildings looked the same, some did have different plants outside but that was about the full extent of the differences between the buildings.
"Not much of a night life." noted one of the Tau'ri drivers as he looked at the few lizards walking through the streets. Most traveled in groups of threes and fours and looked like groups of friends out and there were no signs of couples out on a date. They passed by a restaurant and a gas station, well a hydrogen station since they used hydrogen to power their vehicles unlike the Tau'ri who used Nahquada based fuel-cell and power cores for their vehicles. For the most part everything was quiet as they headed out of the city and headed toward the reeducation camp.
The camp had a wall which stood 14 feet tall and made of reinforced concrete with strips of razor sharp metal around the top instead of barb wire. Then there was a second and smaller barrier made out of just the metal razor wire with a path large enough for patrolling males of the race to walk around. There were towers in each of the four corners but none by the main gate itself. The main gate was in fact just a large roll away metal gate similar to what could be found around a gated housing center. Standing at the gate where four Race guards who looked nothing but board. They turned their attention toward the coming convoy but seeing the first vehicle was one of their trucks they didn't get alarmed in any way.
"There is a second drop off tonight?" inquired the younger male as the convoy began to slow down.
"Not according to the schedule, I got." Said the higher-ranking male, "By the emperor if they messed up the schedule again, I will kick someone in the tail stump for it.
"Will it do any good sir, some officer in scheduling has head up his own…well you know." Said one of the males as he lifted a small flask like item from a belt around his waist.
"I should report you for that but your right." admitted the higher ranking male as they let the first truck come all the up to them past the razor wire and right up to the gate. That is when they noticed for the first time that the windows where tinted to such they couldn't see into the cab.
"Superior sir, something is wrong." Said the younger male but he never had a chance as all four males of the race dropped within seconds of each other.
"Good shooting." Said the Tau'ri driver in the first vehicle over the radio to the sniper teams which had dropped all four males of the race. Out of the back of his truck came eight Tau'ri special forces jumped out of the truck, behind his truck more Tau'ri jumped up and formed up. Eight on either side of the gate with two more four men team split off as they headed down the guard paths to clear them out.
The gate swung open as the trucks moved forward as they did the teams moved in a second behind it and began to spread out.
"We are in." reported strike team leader as some of the nearby guards and workers on night duty turned an eye turret toward the gate but at first paid it no mind as the first truck in was one of their own. The trucks rolled on by and as they did at different points the Tau'ri raiders jumped out of the fabric covering sides and hit the ground. The sound of them landing did draw the attention of the Race but they were not expecting a fight and not one in which they were outmatched. The Tau'ri commandos opened up with pine point fire from their suppressed weapons dropping them without alerting the entire compound, from there they began to spread out as they began to process of taking control of the compound. The race was under attack and they didn't even know it.
The first building the Tau'ri reached was a much like any other building, a large rectangle with no signs of windows. A simple key pad kept people out but that was easily solved as they placed a small charge on the door and with a pop the lock was blown off. With that the 8-team strike force entered the building. For a brief moment the Tau'ri thought they were in a public high school on a Tau'ri world. White tiled floor with bare walls aside from a few posters which much have been educational in nature by the general feel of them. The corridor was smaller than most but the strike force moved down it with ease. All the lights where off and the team advanced using the night vison sensors in their own helmets to see through it. With their life signs detectors, they passed by multiple rooms with only a glance through small windows cut into the door to show classrooms including desks. Finally, the life sign detector beeped as they neared a corner and saw light coming from it. The point man moved forward and poked his gun around the corner. At the end of the barrel of his rifle was a small camera which feed into the heads up display.
He raised two fingers and pointed down the hall, with that one of the other team members moved across the hall to the opposite corner and aimed his rifle around the corner. He saw two members of the Race sitting behind a desk, one was facing away from them and the other was turned toward them but seamed to be paying more attention to the program on the small TV.
"I'll take the far one you take the TV one." Said the point man as the second one nodded his head and took aim at the one watching TV. "Three…two…one…execute."
Both of them fired three short bursts which sounded like six small pops followed by the metal clang of the gun expelling and loading the next round. Both of their targets where hit and the one watching TV had his or her head explode out of the back of it's head. The Tau'ri moved forward and reached what looked to be a night desk of some kind. As they got closer the number of life signs on their systems exploded with contacts.
"My God look at the number of contacts." said a point man as she looked at the number of life signs detected.
"Calm down, the Opochti have two hearts so you are reading both of them." Said the leader as they reached the desk. It was set up with three large doors, one on each wall. The sound of footsteps caused one of their numbers to turn to look down the hall only to see another Tau'ri round the corner along with three Opochti freedom fighters.
"Sir, we have found what we think is a dorm of some kind." reported the officer as they lined up on one of the doors. They opened it and headed inside to find four rows of bunk beds which stretched the entire length of the room and seamed to go on for at least a 50 yards or more. There was a strange sound coming from the darkness, sounds like low level clicks.
"They are crying." Said one of the freedom fighters as the Tau'ri team leader found a resisted button on the wall. Almost instantly bright lights turned on and the rescues saw the rows of bunk beds full of nude Opochti children. They all where about the same size which showed that they where likely around the same age, all of them looked at the Tau'ri in the lead with fear in their dark eyes. "Those immoral monsters, they didn't even separated the genders and they took their cloths, they have no shame."
To the Tau'ri they couldn't tell the differences between males and females Opochti they all looked like giant mantis with only slight color changes and that seamed more like skin tone then gender related but the Opochti's and the Race themselves had trouble telling Tau'ri men and women apart. The children appeared to have some sort of blue paint on their bodies in multiple thin strips across their arms and across the chest. It was something like what they had seen with the race as a sign of their rank and job, so the likely answer was that was a student level body paint. Some of the children where holding onto each other like siblings would do to comfort each other in difficult times.
"Children." said the freedom fighter as he stepped forward past the Tau'ri so that all of them could see him, "We are here to rescue you and to bring you back to your parents and families. This strangers are our allies and we are getting you out of here, but you need to move quietly and quickly or this will fail."
The children rushed forward forming a line at the door as they began to file out of the room. Some turned and thanked the Tau'ri or asked about other children. The Tau'ri said nothing aside from keep moving and stay as quiet as possible. With the first group cleared out the team opened the next room to find it full of multiple padded shelves each one tiny in scale with what looked to be a large plastic bag filled with water on it.
"What the hell?" asked one of the Tau'ri as they turned on the lights to see that the entire room was filled with these strange bags each on it's own shelves no children at all. "Sir what are these things?"
"No idea." Said the commander as one of them shinned a light on the bag only to jump back. Floating in the bag was large hand sized half formed Opochti child. "Is this some sort of lab of some kind? Are we in some mad man's torcher room?"
"Those monsters even took the unborn from mothers." Said one of the Opochti freedom fighters as he picked up the plastic bag. That is when it hit the female member of the Tau'ri strike team.
"They must have eggs with no hard-outer shells kind of like frogs. Think see through eggs." Said the female member as she looked at all the rows of plastic bags which wasn't actually plastic bags but instead unborn Opochti contained in a semi harden membrane. "This is a nursery of some kind."
"Well this makes our life harder, but we need to get them out of here." Said the Tau'ri commander looked around and saw multiple push carts as suddenly gunfire broke out in the distance. Their cover was broken, the countdown clock to pull out had just started. "Great it just got even more complex."
"Sir, we entered the other room and it is full of children, maybe they can carry the…what do you call them babies? Eggs? Or what?" inquired another Tau'ri
"Doesn't matter get them in here and let them carry them out." Ordered the commander as more gunfire broke out.
Before the alarm was sound Kassquit wanted nothing to do but go back to her room and get some sleep. She wanted to observe the processing of the last group of new students and that meant she was up instead of asleep on her sleeping mat. She stood in the main hall processing, as she stood monitoring the new arrivals processing, this time she was on the floor itself watching as the young males and females of her own DNA kin was being processed. Some looked at her with hope in their eyes until they saw the body paint and they knew she was loyal to the Emperor and the Race.
"Traitor." Said a male about her own age. "Traitor to your kind."
"In time you will be like me and embrace culture of the Race and the truth which is the spirits of Emperor's past and you and I will be the same, loyal citizens of the Empire." said Kassquit as suddenly the sound of gunfire caused everyone even the infantry males in the room with them to look in confusion as the hissing sound which was the alarm began to go off.
"By the emperor we are under attack." said Kassquit.
"Superior Sir, do you hear me?" hissed a nearby guard into his radio but it wasn't working. "Anyone else got command?"
"No sir." came back everyone.
"That makes no sense, radios just don't fail." snapped Kassquit as suddenly the sound of gunfire right outside their building caused her to look toward the line of windows which looked out on the world. There was a large park lined with bushes, their black disks marking them as being originally from home. She dreamed for a moment of seeing home, but the cold sleep technology had yet to be developed for her species. She wished she was a female of the Race again, like she did every day when she saw a male of the Race taking cover behind a small wall which separated the park from a roadway begin to fire down the road.
"Our families are coming to get us." said some Vantic savage behind her.
"Your families" countered Kassquit putting as much distain in the word Family as she knew possible "Are being slaughtered by the Soldiers of the Emperor."
She cast her eyes down and looked up and out just in time to see the solider who had been taking cover behind the wall disappeared along with part of the wall in a cloud of smoke. Other males fighting back seemed confused for a moment, then Kassquit saw it to and shared in their confusion as a vehicle which was different than anything she had ever seen before came out of the smoke.
At first glance she thought it may be a land cruiser, but it was too small and it had eight wheels not tracks. It had a turret which was shaped differently and the front of it was partly slopped upwards for some unknown reason. The turret turned toward the males of the race who were firing at it and with a roar the heavy machine cannon on it spoke as it tore the males of the Race. The low wall which was designed more to mark a path than anything else was not designed or able to stand against the slamming rounds which ripped into them. The walls could stop a bullet but not a cannon shell, the males went down in pools of blood. The vehicle turned its turret away from Kassquit and toward something she couldn't see and fired again. She turned to see more males and females of the Race had been murdered by this strange vehicle. Some of them had been soldiers while others where members of the staff here who had come out to see what was going on and paid for it with their lives.
Kassquit stood there in stunned amazement as the members of the Race, the most powerful species in the galaxy was tossed aside like trash. Then out of the smoke flanking the vehicle came more of those strange vehicles and two more types she had never seen before. One looked more like a regular military car and even had a machine gun on top, but instead of a male of the race at the controls a strange creature dressed in wrappings like a Vantic controlled the gun. It had a covered helmet which prevented Kassquit from seeing what it really was. The other vehicle looked to be a much larger version of a heavy army truck. Then more of those creatures appeared in the center of the school complex along with local Vantic.
They walked on two legs with no tail stump, they wore wrappings and armor, she couldn't see anyone of their faces because of what looked to be a full visor helmet and all of them where armed. Behind them moving much more carefully where Vantic, only these Vantic where armed with guns and guns she had never seen before. They were different than the ones the creatures carried but they were not made by the Race either.
"By the Emperor." said Kassquit as she moved toward the door only to see flashes of gunfire coming from outside. She stood at the door in pure terror then for a moment everything stopped and it was as if time itself had stopped. Then the doors flew open and four of those creatures stepped in and with bursts of fire from their guns dropped the few males of the race in the room. The bullets coming so close to her she heard the snap of them flying past her head. She lifted her hands up to the side of her head toward the holes which allowed sound waves to enter her hearing cannel.
Reacting out of pure animal instinct she ran for the opposite door, she was about to reach it when it too opened and another pair of those creatures along with two Vantic armed with strange rifles burst in.
"Don't worry, we are saving you." said one of the strange creatures with a voice that sounded like it came out of a computer.
"Be calm, we are going to get you all out of here." Said one of the Vantic as multiple clicking sounds filled the air.
"She is a traitor she is a follower of the oppressors." said multiple of the Vantic young that she had been processing only moments earlier. One of the Vantic warriors raised his strange new weapon at her only to have a nearby creature place a hand on the barrel forcing it down.
"Our orders are to rescue all your people, we will take care of her." said the creature as the primitive which was going to gun her down glared at the creature for a moment before lowering his rifle.
"Very well." Said the Vantic solider as he turned to look at the young in the room. "Grab your cloths and follow me."
They ran out and disappeared down the hallway leaving Kassquit alone with six of these strange creatures. They spoke to each other using grunts and groins she never heard before only to finally have one of them turn to her again.
"Come with us, we will take you to the Alligator." said the creature
"I am a citizen of the Empire and you have no right to take me anywhere." said Kassquit as suddenly one of them raised a pistol and aimed it right between her eyes.
"Listen, we have a team in your command center and we have all the video records of what you do here. Taking kids away from their parents and other families and force them to follow your belief. If it wasn't because I half way believe you had the same thing done to you I would shoot you right here and now and move on." Said the creature "Now move or else I will have to reconsider if trying to save you from your own brainwashed self is really worth putting my men at risk."
"I am a citizen of the Empire and I demand to know who you are." Said Kassquit even as she began to move.
"Well we are Tau'ri from Earth but you may know us better as Tosevites from Tosev 3." Said one of the creatures, a Tau'ri as they call themselves.
"Impossible Tosevites as sword swing savages." Stated Kassquit
"Maybe 900 years ago but things change a lot faster for us then they do with your Empire. We have warships over Home as we speak and if your little Emperor doesn't accept our terms you can kiss his scale covered ass goodbye." Stated the Tau'ri as they walked outside, the smell of smoke and the stink of death caused Kassquit to stop in her tracks almost as fast as the insult to the Emperor had. The Emperor was the beating heart of the Empire, he was the one who would sit in judgement of their souls and to insult him was inconceivable. She was about to say so when she spotted one of the Tau'ri standing by that strange vehicle which looked like a wheeled Land Cruiser. Unlike the others he or she had his helmet off and she was able to see the slightly deep brown tone of his flesh and black fur on the top of his head. That was a Tosevite, she had seen the videos from Tosev 3 and he was on Vantic five and armed no less.
As she passed him by she noticed he was showing off what looked to be a bullet mark on his helmet to another solider. She had seen that before where some males showed off battle damaged gear to other males and females to show how they had been in danger. Then she was forced into this Alligator, it was one of those land cruisers only it had a fighting compartment in the back like an infantry carrier. She was forced in that and restrained with plastic ties and rope all at gun point. Then two Tau'ri got in with her and closed the door, then she waited.
The Tau'ri military base on Aquaria had to currently have the strangest mix of aircraft sitting on it's massive ship parking area. The base itself was massive in size and held all four main branches of the Tau'ri military in some way or another, with the army, Air force and Marines holding the bulk of the area. The Navy had a smaller imprint then one would normally think but they did have a massive floating space station/defense platform floating overhead which was dominated by them and the marines which countered the lack of navy personal ground side. With eight large runways and massive hangers and outbuildings it was in the second largest Tau'ri military base outside of Tau'ri space, with only the base on Tollan beating it and then not by much.
Tollan was special in multiple ways it pretty much sat in the middle of a tringle formed by Earth, Lanagara and Vahalla and as such held major importance to the Tau'ri fleet as a communication and staging center. The horrible history of Tollan and her people who had been among the most advanced humans until the Goa'uld Anubis all but whipped them out. A civilization who once had millions of citizens had been reduced to a few thousands. The Tau'ri military and civilian personal on Tollan actually outnumbered the locals and the process of rebuilding what was lost in a few short years would take untold generations if it was ever possible to begin with. They were an independent power officially but unofficially it was clear that they would be brought into the greater Tau'ri alliance.
While Tollan may have the largest base outside of a Tau'ri world it was clear at the moment Aquaria had the strangest mix of aircraft on the ground. Sitting on the tarmac was over a 100 colonial vipers and across a runway from them sat Tau'ri Eagle space fighters and Taita's fighter bombers, that alone wouldn't have been too odd but hidden in the massive hangers behind the Eagles and Taitas where a mixture of Wraith Darts, Death Gliders, Ori Fighters, Pre War and Post War Cylon Raiders all of them where being made ready to launch. In the case of the Cylon fighters a small group of Cylon centurions worked on their crafts.
In the hanger next to the gathering of strange crafts the newest ship class in the Tau'ri Navy the frigate Normandy sat. While being the smallest ship of the Tau'ri navy it took up the largest hanger that could be found on the base.
"So we are going to pit 100 colonial pilots against different types of aircrafts and then test them against the Normandy?" inquired Joker as he sat in the pilot's seat of the Normandy.
"For the most part." answered the ships AI, EDI as she sat down in the copilots chair. As only a hologram of the ships AI system she actually didn't have to sit but she did anyhow. "Command, wants to test these pilots to become trainers for the worlds we are giving Vipers too for self-defense. I believe they are going to take the top 20 or so and send 10 to Tollan to train pilots and another 10 to a world in Pegasus, not sure where."
"And since they are colonials they are more likely to actually want to shoot us down and as such we get a more realist fight then if we went up against the Cylons or Free Jaffa nation in training." Said Joker as he leaned back a bit in the leather pilot's chair.
"That is the idea." Said EDI as Joker let out a breath, on some levels he didn't feel comfortable with an AI on the ship. He knew that the AI of the intelligence EDI had was considered a Tau'ri citizen and after her tour of duty could if she wanted to be downloaded into a cloned human body and live the rest of her life as a human. Still it reminded him too much of the movies where the AI went crazy and tried to kill everyone. That the designers had put in safe guards like limiting her access to weapons and putting in hard blocks to prevent her from shutting down life support provided some insight that they weren't sure about AI yet either.
The sound of the airlock door opening in the side of the ship beside him caused Joker to turn in his chair as a man and a woman walked into the pilot's cockpit located at the front of the long neck which came out of the main body of the Normandy. The man wore a Tau'ri marine uniform and wore patches showing that he served on the front lines during the Colonial invasion. The other was one of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and looked as if she belonged more in a playboy centerfold not in a pair of black jeans and a white top with a black leather jacket over it all.
"Flight Lieutenant Moreau." Said the man in an accent that Jeff couldn't place, he did a quick glance and saw the Kenyan flag just below the Tau'ri flag on his shoulder. Jeff had the American flag under the Tau'ri one on his uniform. It wasn't officially needed anymore everyone was still Tau'ri but it marked there local home, no one said anything and it wasn't even required on their uniforms. "I am Major Jacob Taylor and this is Pr. Miranda Lawson."
Jeff blinked as he looked at Pr. Lawson and checked to see if she wore a patch on her jacket showing her birth nation but it was pure black leather no sign pointing to her home nation. But black hair and white skin did point more toward European descendant but not fully.
"Welcome on board the Normandy, it may be brand new but as far as we know everything looks good." Said Joker
"I should hope for, I helped designed her systems." said Miranda in a voice that pointed more toward Spain which caused Joker to be more confused than ever because she didn't look Spanish in any real noticeable way.
"If I am interrupt Pr. Lawson but I think Jeff is trying to figure out where on Earth you are from." Added EDI who had a knowing smile on her holographic face.
"I see." Said Miranda as she looked at Joker. "I am not from Earth, I am from Lanagara."
"Ah, I see no wonder I couldn't place your accent." Laughed Joker "Now how can I help you?"
"Just taking a tour of the ship, I have been busy with other projects and setting up this test of the Normandy and the new variant of the Eagle which will be tested alongside this ship." said Miranda as Joker blinked, a new variant of the Eagle wasn't anything unexpected they had been updating the Eagle since it came out all the way back in 2002. There was talks that a replacement was being devolved but it seamed that the powers that be went instead of a new variant.
"What is special about the new one?" inquired Joker "More missiles I assume, they are always doing that. The first ones had 4 missiles and now they are up to 10."
"No the new one only has 8 missiles but it now has a fully functioning long range hyperdrive." Said Miranda as Joker blinked, the Eagle had always had a hyperdrive but it never really worked properly at first and later the range was very limited. During the war Eagles flying out of Valhalla couldn't make it to the colonies while their bomber counter parts could. "Also we have found a way to make it take up less room on a ship meaning we can fit more aircraft on a carrier."
"How?" inquired Joker
"Well we finally figured out how to fold the wings without breaking any of the complex internal items." said Miranda as she pulled out her phone and showed a photo, it did show an Eagle fighter only with its wings about a third of a way down from the cockpit folded up so that head on the aircraft took on almost a triangle like outline. "With this we will be able to at least double if not triple the number of Eagle's we can fit on our ships which would increase our striking power of our forces almost at once. Better yet they we can modify the Eagles already in serves. That is my job, I study and find ways to integrate new technology into our equipment and now it is time to test them"
On Earth President Carter sat behind her desk looking at the holographic display before her, she was in the middle of a conference call with over a dozen captains of the 1st fleet and the Admiral in command of the Fleet as a whole.
"So you can pull this off correct?" inquired Carter
"With ease Madam President." reassured the Admiral in command of the Yamato "Total mission time is under 30 minutes and our sensors give us over 24 hours of alert and growing with each new array we put up. Even so our defensives satellites are more than enough to hold the line while the fleet is gone."
"I know." Admitted Carter.
"I don't like it either Madam President but the 7th fleet is currently over Home, the 2nd fleet is at Lanagara and they are in more danger then Earth is, they are near where war will likely break out. The 3rd fleet is over Valhalla and the 12 colonies, the 4th fleet is at the Ori supergate and the 5th and 6th are on border duty elsewhere and to pull them back would take more time and put other worlds and outposts at risk. We are the only fleet that can do it."
"Alright, I wait until I give the speech and them active the virus and move in to clear them out." ordered Carter as she ended the call and turned her attention to the small broadcast crew waiting for her to speak. This speech wouldn't be live, they wanted to record it and then send it out to Home and the Race already translated and with subtitles for the viewers on Home to read.
The sound of gunfire had awoken Senior Researcher Felless and after attempting and attempting to contact guards to find out what was going did she leave her room. She actually had a home only about an hour or so away in Nysha however after such a long day she didn't want to risk her life driving home so tired, so the staff had offered her a guest room. Now she was risking her life in another way as she stepped out of the hallway. She looked out a window into the court yard only to see multiple dead members of the Race. They had been gunned down and strange vehicles along with strange figures moved around in the courtyard, she saw one of them pick up an assault rifle and study it for a moment before tossing it aside like trash. She stood by the window transfixed as she saw the young Vantic hatchlings she was working so hard to reeducated into being proper males and females of the Empire rushed onboard trucks to be taken away from all culture and enlightenment.
In her mind it made no sense, then she saw Kassquit being loaded into the back of what looked to be a wheeled land cruiser of some kind. None of it made sense, the crawlers where too primitive to make anything that could threaten the race but now they had land cruisers. She tried her phone only to find that it wasn't working which was another impossibility, the phone network was full proof. It had been tested and tested again before cell phones where introduced to make sure it worked perfectly the first time and now it wasn't working. She was about to throw her phone in anger when she heard it.
The hissing alarm of the door in the lobby in the floor below her open up swinging open and the sound of strange footsteps followed by gunfire. Fear took over as she skittered for her life like her ancient ancestors would have done on home to escape a predator. She had to get away, she had to get outside and get out of the compound or at least find a hiding spot. She ran to the far end of her floor and down the stairs to reached the ground floor. When she reached the bottom she poked an eye turret around the corner and saw something she had never seen before.
It was as tall as a Vantic which made it almost double the height of a female of the race, it was dressed in strange dark wrappings. They wore helmets that covered their faces and each one of them held military style rifles but not the kind the race used.
"What are they?" whispered Felless as she hoped they didn't spot her. Then she looked to see where she actually was and what was on the other side of the door the creatures where about to enter. She turned an eye turret toward the window and saw the reflection of the sign above the door in the window. It was a dormitory for young hatchlings, hatchlings of the Race, then the creatures began to speak grunts and groans. She was about to warn them not to enter the room, that room was full of hatchlings and hatchlings before they were civilized had habit of attacking anything they didn't know or saw as a threat and that fit these things for sure.
"We have multiple life signs on the other side of the door." said Private as he looked at his life sign detector. "Strange not as many as in the other ones we came across, must be smaller group of locals."
"Well lets go save the kids." Said the leader as he moved into the room, he turned on the switch and was instantly greeted by dozens of lizards, all of them about half their height and looking right at them. All of them had their long claws out and their mouths opened showing rows of needle like teeth. They all had their little eye turrets focused on the three Tau'ri who had entered the room.
"Shit." cursed the private as suddenly all them rushed forward the Tau'ri in a mass of teeth and claws. They yelled for them to stop but they didn't and as they began to back out of the room the Tau'ri opened up going full automatic on the charging mass of lizards. There was no time to aim and the Tau'ri sprayed and prayed as the bullets ripped into the oncoming mass of lizards as the Tau'ri backed out of the room for their lives as the mass kept moving forward.
"Grenade out!" yelled one of them as they tossed in a grenade as the mass neared them. When it went off it tore apart the lizards and made them into mincemeat. The expolostion caused the race to back off for a moment and that moment enough time for the Tau'ri to get out and seal the door.
"Anyone hurt?" inquired the leader all of them still aiming their weapons at the door waiting for it to open.
"No, but sir I think I need some new pants." admitted the younger solider "That was like something out of horror version of Jurassic Park with all these little raptor like dinosaurs coming at us ready to eat us."
"Well, I won't say your wrong." said the commander of the team as suddenly his radio came alive.
"Be aware, the Race has children here as well and they are not friendly they attack on sight and there are whole rooms of them, one man already lost an arm to them." said a voice over the radio "If there is a dark red mark on the door do not enter, that is their rooms do not enter them. They are in buildings 11-16, we are not going to place explosives charges there leave them alone."
"Now they tell us." complained the Tau'ri as their commander checked in to report what had happened and how they had to open fire to escape.
"Understood sounds like you had no choice, we are preparing to pull out get back to the transports." said the voice over the radio "We don't have time to clear out the entire place and we need to get the civilians to a safe area. The Races records show that only buildings 1-6 had Opochti and 7-10 is office/school center. We are going to destroy all of those and leave the others standing."
"Fall back." Ordered the leader as the Tau'ri strike team pulled back the way they came. They never turned the corner which would have lead up the stairs and where Felless was hiding. She didn't know it but her life sign had blended in with the mass of life signs in the room next to hers and as such the Tau'ri didn't notice her. She ran toward the nearest office in building 13 and picked up the phone but it wasn't working by then she noticed the attackers pulling out and watched them from the corner of a window as they pulled out.
The Tau'ri pulled out leaving nothing but death and destruction behind them as they pulled out. They used the same trick to escape notice leaving the base that they used to enter the base. Once again they went unnoticed by the members of the race on the road. As they turned onto the highway and headed back toward Likna they announced their raid as the explosive charges left behind by the Tau'ri special forces in the empty buildings went off. The massive fireball lit up the night and caused a few drivers in their cars to slam on the brakes as they stopped to look at the fireball. The convoy kept moving and when they reached the wall surrounding Likna they kept moving and with a quick stop to unload the Tau'ri special forces the convoy kept moving heading down the tunnel which would lead them to the Stargate.
Standing on the outer most wall of the city was General Jager, Colonel Drugov and Prince Unia, they stood there overseeing the last of the defenses being put into place. The moment the last Tau'ri vehicle entered the city, Tau'ri soldiers, freedom fighters boosted by aid brought in from across the planet and from the local citizens moved the cars used by the now dead Race Military police into the road to form a roadblock.
"I still wish we could get your armor in the city sir." said Drugov
"Too tight for them to move easy and armor in a city is a death trap, I don't even like leaving some self propell and towed guns but it has to be done." Stated Jager before turning to Prince Unia "Are you sure that you wish to stay here and fight? You can come back with me to our camp and await our armored thrust?"
"No, a leader must be at the front with his warriors." Said Prince Unia "He must be seen, he must put himself in danger with his warriors."
"Caesar and his red cloak." Said Jager as Prince Unia tilted his head to an angle which would have either hurt a human to do the same or killed him but it was natural for them. "Long ago a General later turned Emperor named Julius Caesar used to wear a red cloak into battle to show his men that it was him and to inspire his man."
"There is an enormous difference between ordering someone forward into hell and telling them to follow you into the teeth of hell." added Drugov
"I bet you wish you hadn't requested to come here?" inquired Jager as Drugov laughed.
"Hell no sir, I was getting board dodging colonial gun fire time for something new." laughed Drugov "There is only so many times to can drop down into Sagittarian or Gememon, hell Gememon is getting more and more boring. They are finally getting it through their heads that we aren't going anywhere."
"Well Colonel, Prince I will leave the defense of this city in your hands." said General Jager
"Thank you General." Said Prince Unia as Jager turned and walked a short distance to the nearest staircase which lead down to the road. There a command car was waiting to take him down the Tok'ra tunnel and back to the gate hidden in the forest along with the Tau'ri strike force building there.
"Tell me Colonel, how do you see this battle going?" inquired Prince Unia as Drugov looked at him, he wore his helmet just like all the other Tau'ri where doing. The automatic translator built into the power armor helmet was key to communication, even so Prince Unia had a feeling that the Tau'ri solider was giving him a somewhat knowing look.
"It will be slaughter, at first and in the end. The Race doesn't know that you aren't alone in here and when they find out that will throw them back." Stated Drugov, that caused Prince Unia's hopes to go up, then he went on. "Then if this Fleet Lord Straha is as much of a hard ass as you say, he will come down on this city like a firestorm. We will be forced back and that is good. We will lure them out and then General Jager and his armored forces will come sweeping down on them from the flanks crushing them. Once that is done, it is just a short drive to the Capital."
Drugov turned his attention to the city before him, it was a maze of narrow streets with only five of them large enough for true vehicles to go down with ease. Four of them led out of the city and meet in a center market while the fifth made a crazy path around the city without touching the center market but ran through a half dozen smaller markets instead. All those roads had roadblocks now in place and the using drones the Tau'ri had created a map of the city for their forces to use but this was still going to a local fight. All over the city the Tau'ri force which made up the smallest percentage to the defenders showed the Opochti people how best to use the new weapons.
"This is about to get interesting." stated Drugov as two Tau'ri technicians came up to them one holding a tripod with a mini camera on it and the other with a computer in hand. "Time for your broadcast to the people."
Well I hope you liked this chapter, I hope to give you one last chapter before Christmas so until then please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.