"Colonel O'Neill have you ever been to California?" General Hammond asked the head of SG1.
Currently the entire SG1, as well as Dr. Janet Frasier were in the conference room with General Hammond. He had called them there for a briefing.
Colonel O'Neill wasn't sure what to make of that greeting, but decided to answer truthfully. "Aside from a 24 hour lay over about twenty years ago, no sir."
"Any chance this layover included a woman, Colonel?"
Daniel Jackson had just taken a drink of his coffee when the General asked that question and snorted coffee out of his nose.
Major Samantha Carter looked confused and Teal'C's eyebrow climbed north.
Looking just as confused as Major Carter, O'Neill answered. "No, sir. It did not. Why?"
"The President is temporarily assigning a specialist team to our base. They are loosely affiliated with a Top Secret Command that I will be briefing you on in a moment. The leader of this team, along with all but one member of the team, is from California. I was just wondering if there was any way the two of you might possibly be related."
"Um, could I ask why you think that sir?"
"Aside from the fact that there is something of a resemblance, the President told me that when he informed them of this Command and the Gou'ld, the team leaders response was and I quote, 'great, more craptastic idiots for us to piss off and blow up,' end quote. It immediately made both the President and myself think of you."
Daniel wasn't even bothering to pretend he wasn't laughing. Both Dr. Frasier and Major Carter were grinning and trying not to laugh and even Teal'C made an expression.
Colonel O'Neill looked thoughtful and said. "Sounds like someone I'd at least like to get to know sir. What can you tell us about him?"
"First off, what I am about to tell you, is as classified as the Stargate Program. I was not given all the details, and will likely not get anymore than I already have. The Gou'ld are not the only invaders on this planet. Scattered across the globe are what are being termed dimensional rifts. Tears in the dimensional fabric. Things sometimes come though the rifts. Approximately, 95% of what comes though, like to consume humans. At first they thought they were dealing with some sort of mutated animals, then they discovered many of them have language, culture and their own belief systems. They even manage to learn some of our languages and we've managed to learn some of theirs. It's hasn't helped. They acknowledge our intelligence and don't care. They still want to eat us. But it gets worse than that. These rifts are thousands, maybe even millions of years old. These things have been coming through for a long time, just not in that great of numbers. The Command I spoke of before, was established during the Civil War. It was during this time, that the U. S. discovered that the Native Americans were also aware of these rifts and had figured out a way of dealing with the things that came through them. It seems Africa and Australia had also been dealing with them as well and in the same manner."
"They have a way of making hok'taurs. The President is aware of the method. It's an extremely dangerous method and only about one in half a million people could successfully be augmented using this method. Even bigger problem is that it takes five years to successfully complete it and it can only be done on children and teenagers. The team coming here are from the Chumash People of California. They began the treatment when they were ten and completed it when they were fifteen. They are currently twenty two years old."
A stunned silence met General Hammond's briefing and then they all tried to ask questions at once. Daniel trying to get information on the culture and languages and figure out if there were references in history and mythology he knew concerning these creatures. Major Carter demanding scientific information about the rifts and O'Neill sporting an expression somewhere between outrage and shock.
Finally, General Hammond managed to calm them all down and Colonel O'Neill said. "Kids are fighting these things, whatever they are?"
"The Command I spoke of is a mix of Marines, Army, Air Force and Navy. These kids, which their people call Protectors, are mostly stationed on the reservations of the various Tribes. Outside the Chumash Reservation is a small city of about 40,000 people, Sunnydale. The Chumash have lent these Protectors to the city as a civilian militia under an agreement with the U.S. government and the Command. The city sits on top of one the largest of these rifts. Our military can't go there. But with this agreement, these kids can. Prior to their involvement, a very corrupt city government in Sunnydale covered up the fact that more 1000 children and teenagers in the area were dying on a yearly basis, killed by things that come though that rift. In the last seven years, thanks to these kids, that number has dropped to less than 200 a year. Cleaning up the local government has helped too."
"How did they manage to cover that up sir?" Dr. Fraser asked, stunned.
"By claiming the kids were run aways, drug addicts, victims of gang violence and animal attacks. For over a century. Most of what they deal with are bigger and stronger than Jaffa, but the biggest they ever dealt with was a sixty foot snake like creature capable of swallowing a man whole. The saw it consume two humans in this manner before successfully destroying it."
"Um, how?" O'Neill asked.
"They lured it into their High School and blew it up. It attacked during their High School graduation ceremony."
"Okay, I definitely want to meet these people sir." O'Neill told him.
"As do I, General Hammond. They sound like most formidable warriors." Teal'C said, somewhat in awe.
"Well they will be arriving later today. The team leader is officially designated as Alpha, with his second being Beta. His co-leader is actually his wife. As I understand it, the team consists of three married couples and one unmarried member. The two team leaders also have a child, a daughter, who's about a year and half. She's coming with, as well as their team medic and a research assistant."