As you guys know, I caught COVID, and it really laid me out and I've been fighting to get back into the swing of things as the story enters its next phase, but I figured that I'd share some advice for those wondering how best to deal with a more mild COVID case. For those who haven't had it here's some stuff that seemed like it helped me:

Hot steamy showers, seriously, it helps in the morning.

Nasal rinses, don't do them too often.

Keep your nose hairs trimmed, nasal discharge will dry up inside constricting air passage, don't make breathing any harder than it already is.

Spicy foods, that stuff was awesome, like spicy chicken or spicy shrimp ramen was pretty good, plus it's cheap. I recommend getting chunks of chicken or shrimp if you can afford it and adding some protein to it.

Stay away from candy, period. It seemed like it made it worse.

A humidifier helped me sleep, you will be breathing through your mouth a lot, so get some more water in the air so your mouth doesn't feel like you have cardboard lining it in the morning.

Have two or three different nose sprays and cycle them as you fight the symptoms.

Dress warm, sleep with socks, and when you're on the couch have a blanket that is yours and yours alone.

Rikola cough drops, you'll be popping them like popcorn at a good movie, get a couple different flavors to mix things up.

Find a good Youtube channel that's got a ton of content that you can binge or find a show on Netflix, it helps get you through the day. For me, the Great British Baking Show, the Kings and Generals Channel, and Meat Eater was my salvation along with buying Stargate seasons on Youtube.

Chapter 15

Location: Earth, Stargate Command

Date: February 24, 2022

Time: 0820

Walking through the Stargate came someone whom Carter had come to greatly respect, a certain IOA hierarch, Richard Woolsey. He was wearing a suit this day, considering he was soon to be dispatched to Caprica to assist with the ongoing negotiations as things got more and more tense and complex. The man saw Brigadier General Carter waiting for him at the bottom of ramp and nodded to her and smiled. She was wearing her normal OCP duty uniform, which was by far the most comfortable of the options available.

"Welcome back to Earth, Mr. Woolsey," Carter greeted him as she held a hand out.

"Might I say it is a pleasure to be back, Brigadier General Carter," Woolsey said politely, enjoying saying her new rank in its entirety. As he got there he shook the woman's hand, "I must say I can't think of anyone more qualified to run the SGC going forward to disclosure."

"Thanks Richard," Carter smiled back, more than a little tickled at the compliment from the longtime IOA attack dog paying her a compliment, "Come on up to my office, we'll brief there on the situation in the Pegasus, you said something's going on we should be aware of in your last communique?"

"Indeed, but it is best discussed in private I believe," Woolsey replied, and Carter nodded and the two stayed quiet until they reached her office where she closed the door.

"Want some coffee?"

"Oh no thank you, Dr. Beckett told me to stay off caffeine for two weeks, apparently it's the prime cause of some intestinal distress I've been having, I thought it was the feast that the Athosians threw for the birth of Teyla's daughter. But I guess I was wrong…" Woolsey chuckled, shaking his head at the memory of that particular celebration and the wealth of funny stories that were still spoken of with an air of awe among the Atlantis personnel.

"Oh, Teyla's given birth? What'd she name her?" Carter looked up, smiling at the news of her old friend giving birth to her second child, to which Richard smiled warmly.

"Elizabeth."

"Can't think of a better one," Carter sighed in agreement.

"Agreed, if Elizabeth could see what we've accomplished…she'd be so proud, which, is what brings me to the briefing I believe," he said and straightened up, and flipped open his briefcase which he never went anywhere without.

He produced a stapled-together stack of papers with some photographs on them, these were recon photos, taken from quite a distance away. One appeared to be a Wraith Hive Ship, but the other was just a blip, one which was not at all identifiable.

"What am I looking at?" Carter picked them up and began to take a look.

"The…next one gives you a clear picture, I'd hoped I wasn't seeing what I was seeing," Woolsey pointed, his tone betraying that this wasn't good news.

Carter flipped the page, and sure enough, the image was clear. She immediately looked up at Woolsey, her mouth agape.

"A Ha'tak? This shouldn't be possible, Gou'ald hyperdrives are several orders of magnitude slower than our intergalactic systems. How is this ship in Pegasus?"

"I don't know. We tried to track the ship down once we identified it to see what it was doing here but…it seems that we have lost it."

"How recent is this?"

"The image was taken forty-eight hours ago by one of the Borodino's 306's."

"Okay…so it's probably still in the Pegasus Galaxy's outer reaches," Carter nodded, "We can establish a sensor net to try to intercept this ship if it tries to return to the Milky Way."

"That isn't the worst news I'm afraid. The Ha'tak was detected sending databurst transmissions to the Hive Ship before it jumped into hyperspace prior to the Borodino arriving. The Hive departed shortly afterwards then we heard from Todd that he'd heard from some of his sources that a set of coordinates was being broadcasted across the last traditionalist Wraith factions left."

"Don't tell me," Carter groaned.

"The coordinates are for the center of the Milky Way Galaxy."

"The Wraith know where to go for a new feeding ground."

"Todd's already begun an offensive targeting traditionalist Hive ships, he'd destroyed four by the time I had to be recalled to Earth and our ships have also begun launching attacks, taking two more Hives off our list of things to worry about."

"How many does that leave?" Carter inquired, real worry setting in.

"Six, along with anywhere from eight to thirteen cruisers. From what we've gathered this is all that remains of the Human-fed Wraith's strength, once gone, Todd's treated Wraith will be all that remains."

"That still leaves this missing Wraith fleet, do we know that they were all confirmed as receiving these coordinates?"

"According to Todd, yes, every Wraith faction left in the Pegasus is now aware of the location of their long sought-after Milky Way feeding grounds."

"And it was provided to them by this Ha'tak…" Carter held up the image, shaking her head at such a downturn in strategic situations.

For years things had been quite quiet in both the Milky Way and the Pegasus. Todd had been steadily rising to power as the strength of the Wraith had waned as infighting, the Hoffan Plague, and starvation whittled away at their numbers and self-preservation provided him with Hive Ship after Hive Ship. Queen after Queen had also pledged themselves and their forces after the lethal Queen of Death had been defeated, eliminating the last roll of the dice for the Wraith traditionalist leaders who Todd had systematically eliminated, self-destructing one of his Hive Ships to eliminate four others using its blast wave. Using the Wraith retrovirus that Carson Beckett had developed, with Todd's input and blessing, tens of thousands of Wraith had removed their dependence on Humans for feeding, instead feeding as their once-prey did. While this had been a very tough adjustment, the Wraith had quickly put their drones to use as farm hands, leading to some territorial disputes with the Human populations who'd been more than a little disturbed with the unforeseen change of Wraith feeding on them to feeding on vegetables and other produce on their lands. Woolsey had certainly had his hands full with keeping the new Wraith from becoming somewhat tyrannical, and Todd had been reliably Todd-like in his shiftiness, routinely maneuvering and scheming to get some serious stuff from the local Humans in the form of tribute. But Todd had come around as the food situation had stabilized and peace had taken over for the most part.

But obviously, not all Wraith had come over, and the remaining traditionalists had finally found out what Stargate Command had fought for years to prevent them from getting. All of this progress was threatened by a single Ha'tak whose mission and purpose was unknown, and whose technical capabilities in getting to the Pegasus Galaxy left much to be figured out. But fortunately, there were surprisingly few people in the Milky Way Galaxy who could have possibly found out about the Pegasus Galaxy and the Wraith and had access to the technical abilities to upgrade a Gou'ald hyperdrive. Although the proliferation of upgraded hyperdrive designs from Sokar, Anubis, and, most recently, the Ori had made the standard Ha'tak five times faster than their former masters' ships had been twenty years ago. Ha'tak-Class ships were prolific and were more and more common, with shipyards building them for the Jaffa as well as for the Lucian Alliance. This type advancement as a general rule fomented additional experimentation and innovation. But Carter only knew of a handful of names who had such knowledge and resources, one of whom really jumped out at her.

"I need to speak to Teal'c about this. If I'm right…we've got a serious problem," Carter sighed unhappily, tapping a finger against this picture.

"You don't think a Jaffa could have done this do you?"

"It's the most probable option I'm afraid. I just don't see the Lucians introducing another major enemy into the galaxy after the war with the Ori."

"No, I agree, I've read up on the Lucians, they have nothing to gain from the Wraith showing up in the Milky Way, especially since they're the weakest of the major powers, the Wraith would certainly attack them first," Woolsey nodded.

"I think if there was an advantage to be gained one Jaffa in particular would do just about anything it took."

"Koramon," Woolsey guessed.

"Yes, he's apparently staying quiet about the election for Jaffa High Chancellor. The election was far closer than we had ever anticipated. But they haven't called it yet and because of that, things are getting testy, really testy. Bra'tac has told us Rya'c was wounded in a bombing and Teal'c has returned to Chulak to figure out what happened and therefore isn't available to officially accept the results of the election," Carter informed the Atlantis boss, "But he hasn't contacted us at all. We're worried what might be going on within the Jaffa Nation."

Rya'c's Residence, Chulak

Teal'c's grandsons had returned, and were carrying something which had surprised the other assembled warriors a great deal. They had between them a single man in olive green fatigues and a black vest. They were being rough, quite rough considering that the man had just assisted killing some of their friends and tried to kill them. But the two Jaffa had been good enough or lucky enough to win, killing three of this individual's comrades and were now marching him into their father's house.

"Grandfather!" Ronac declared, throwing the bound individual to the ground once they passed through the crowd of Jaffa surrounding the main veranda, they saw that the two humans whom they'd captured earlier had been taken away, leaving behind some dark drops of blood on the ground where they'd once been.

"What is this?" Teal'c turned to the seemingly familiar figure his grandsons had arrived with.

"This one and three others ambushed us. Our comrades are dead, as are his. His weapons," O'rek handed the P90 and the M9 pistol over to Teal'c, who took the familiar weapon and looked somewhat stunned as he looked at the individual, taking in his attire.

"Who sent you?" Teal'c demanded, but the man just grinned at him, and then he opened his mouth and crunched down on something, instantly the man's mouth began foaming.

"Poison!" O'rek growled as the man went down, convulsing and dying within a few moments.

"When have the Taur'i ever used poison?" Ronac asked curiously.

"They do not," Teal'c kneeled down and examined the man, noting that there was no patch on his uniform, no rank insignia, and that the uniform material wasn't quite the same as what the SGC used, nor was the coat sporting a tag in the back of the neck, "This one is not of the Taur'i, he is someone else."

"How can you be so sure Teal'c?" one of the older warriors asked.

"See here," Teal'c showed the missing tag in the back of the shirt, "There is a maker's mark in all Taur'i clothing. And see here," he showed the arm, "No patch marks, a Taur'i uniform possesses different material as well. Also, the Taur'i have begun to use a new uniform. This uniform style has not been used by the Taur'i for several years."

"But the weapons?" Ronac asked.

"The Taur'i distributed their weapons to their allies with great frequency," O'rek told him, "It is not difficult to acquire such weapons if one is willing to look."

There were murmurs of agreement among the warriors, they were seeing through the ruse with great ease. But the fact something like this had been so ably executed, even if the deception had failed, was worrying.

"Take the body, we will have it examined," Teal'c nodded and then looked to someone else, "We will assemble more warriors and return to the Chappa'ai and I will go to Dakara and we will dispatch a party to the Tok'ra, meanwhile, I want a strong guard to remain here. The election is of utmost importance, the future stability of the Jaffa Nation is at risk."

"It will be done," a friend of R'yac's said quickly, having agreed to lead the guard detail himself.

"Good, the rest of you, with me, we depart immediately."

The enlarged gathering of warriors had been heeding Teal'c's call all night, now more than two hundred Jaffa were present, all of them armored and armed in full Jaffa regalia. There were even a pair of Jaffa banners that now followed Teal'c and his two grandsons as the column began its march back to the Stargate. To many of the younger Jaffa there was a feeling of a march off to war, but to the older warriors there was a feeling of dread. They knew of the pains of conflict and war, but the younger warriors who had grown up on the stories of their fathers winning freedom for their people and therefore wanted to imprint their names and legacies on the young history of their people.

"Grandfather, do you think that this is the work of Koramon?" O'rek inquired quietly.

"It is the most likely explanation," Teal'c responded firmly as they marched by the fallen Jaffa who'd been killed earlier in the night as they passed on the road on a cart with another cart pulling the bodies of the fake Taur'i SG Team. The sight of this galvanized the group as they marched along.

"He will pay for this betrayal," Ronac declared vehemently, meaning every word of it.

"You will do nothing without my blessing, to take action against Koramon without proof is certain to set off a civil war."

"I think that is what he wants," O'rek guessed.

"Then he will lose," Ronac growled as the Stargate came into sight.

"He will indeed, but we will not fall for his trap," Teal'c told his grandsons quickly and firmly as they continued forward, soon reaching the dial home device and quickly dialed the Tok'ra homeworld.

It wasn't long before a group of Jaffa that Teal'c knew and trusted were on their way through and the gate was soon redialed for Dakara. There wasn't much else to do for the Jaffa there, and they went from the chilly early morning of Chulak to the middle of the night on Dakara as storm clouds began to brew on the rather warm and arid planet. However, something was different, the mood wasn't nearly as dark and ominous as the weather or as dark and dangerous as Teal'c's own mood. It was strange actually, and the strangeness only continued to surprise Teal'c as he walked up the steps of the main assembly hall while the company of warriors stayed behind and formed into a single block formation, eagerly awaiting whatever came next.

"Teal'c," Bra'tac's voice called out as he walked into the main entry.

"Bra'tac, what has transpired here?" Teal'c asked rapidly, walking over with his two grandsons in tow.

"You have won old friend, the office of High Chancellor of the Free Jaffa is yours by a vote margin that Koramon dared not argue. He has conceded the election," Bra'tac informed him, "What news of Rya'c?" Bra'tac inquired.

"He is stable, I requested aid from the Tok'ra, their powers of medicine will be able to heal him. I am certain," Teal'c spoke softly, "But…it was when we sent Ronac and O'rek to the Tok'ra that something disturbing occurred. We should speak where others may not hear," Teal'c showed the way into a side corridor where they ducked into a small office whose occupant was not present.

"What has happened?"

"Tell him," Teal'c turned his head and nodded to Ronac, the eldest of the two.

"Master, we arrested two humans pretending to be Jaffa standing guard at our father's house. There were no signs of an attempt on his life there at the time, but there were no other guards, no attendants. Just these two humans. Grandfather began an interrogation of them as my brother and I and six of our comrades were sent to summon the Tok'ra. But on the way to the Chappa'ai our party was ambushed by humans bearing Taur'i weapons and Taur'i uniforms."

"Or at least they appeared to be. We captured one of the four and killed the other three. But this one committed suicide with a poison-filled tooth."

"Describe this poison," Bra'tac snapped quickly, having heard of such a ploy in the past.

"The man's mouth began to foam, and he shook violently before he expired. He never said a word," Teal'c described the poison.

"I fear that you will not like this answer Teal'c, the poison you describe is one which I witnessed many times in what the Taur'i called 'movies'. I believe they called it cyanide, I remember O'Neill describing it to me as we watched together. I know of no other poison which acts in the manner you describe."

"So they could have been Taur'i?" Ronac inquired quietly.

"Unlikely. What purpose would they have in attacking Teal'c or his blood in such a manner, knowing they would be the first ones to come under suspicion?" Bra'tac stated and then sighed deeply as he took this all in, "Teal'c I fear that this leaves more questions than answers my friend."

"Master Bra'tac," O'rek now interrupted, "I believe that may be the point, to undermine the new Chancellor before the election has even begun. Nothing stokes the minds of the anxious like questions left unanswered."

"I believe you are right," Bra'tac nodded.

"I sense Koramon's hand in this," Teal'c growled, knowing that it was he who stood the most to gain from undermining his leadership.

"You are likely correct, but proving that is no small matter. And it is best left for another day, for now, we should savor this victory, for it has been a long time coming," the old Jaffa laid a hand on Teal'c's shoulder, "Now come."

Teal'c didn't take long to agree to that particular urging, and the great Jaffa leader was soon standing at the grand entryway to the Jaffa Council chamber and in full armored regalia, choosing to wear this as he felt it necessary to showcase strength in the face of Koramon and his warlord allies who stood in respect, or at least mimicking respect. Teal'c saw that the Jaffa bureaucrats had a single large Framatazzle long range communication device set up to be able to send Teal'c's image across the entirety of the Free Jaffa Nation. The spherical device was levitating silently, ready for Teal'c to begin and so he did.

"Brothers and sisters, Free Jaffa all," he began, "Hear me. I swear to you now, I will serve you and the interests of our great people. For generations, we the Jaffa were subjugated and made to live in fear, but now, we have chosen a path for ourselves, not through conquest, not through combat, but through the free will of the Jaffa people. I will honor the choice you have made in electing me your leader, I will defend the interests of our people, respect our ways, and if any outsiders choose to threaten us, the Jaffa, they shall know and learn to fear the fury of a true nation of Free Jaffa! This I swear."

It wasn't much a speech, to be honest Teal'c hadn't really wanted to give a speech. He had kept it short and to the point, with no confusion left as to his intents and loyalties. As he concluded the speech there was a round of applause from the council members, including Koramon and his supporters who appeared to be taking this all oddly-enough quite respectfully. But to Teal'c that made things even more infuriating, that the man could just sit there and smile and pay respects despite undoubtedly being behind the attacks on his family. As the crowd dissipated, Teal'c noted that Koramon approaching and he excused himself from the current conversation with the council's chief speaker.

"High Chancellor," Koramon gave a courteous nod of the head and held a hand out, "Congratulations are in order I suppose."

"Indeed," Teal'c took the hand, but then pulled him in close and spoke at barely a whisper, "But know this Koramon: I know what you have done, and when I find the proof I seek your life will end at my hand, and when I finish you will only be able to beg for something as a slow death…"

"I know not what you accuse me of, High Chancellor, I am merely offering the hand of friendship," Koramon smiled, infuriating both Teal'c and his grandsons, who simply turned away and left him. But the old Jaffa was left smirking internally as he walked back to his colleagues.

Sat'sun came up to him when beckoned, "Did you get that?"

"Every word," Koramon whispered, "Now…how best to use it?"

"One of my ships has located the system you ordered us to search for. You were right, it is the home of a powerful space-faring human power and there is a Taur'i cruiser in orbit over one of their worlds."

"Good, then I shall depart immediately, for we have friends to seek," Koramon smiled, pulling out a small device from under his cloaks as he and his comrades walked out of the room, "The real war is about to begin."

High Orbit over Caprica

Dropping out of hyperspace came the USS Hammond, fresh from its handover of command back on Earth and a quick workup and repair phase for the F-302's aboard the lone battlecruiser. But the ship wasn't here on a combat mission, instead it was here for a totally different purpose. Pulling alongside her older grizzled sistership, the Odyssey in formation over the planet. On either side of the two Earth battlecruisers were two Colonial Battlestar Groups, headed by two Mercury-Class Battlestars, each with a pair of Heavy Cruisers, Minotaur-Class, a pair of Ranger-Class Light Cruisers, and five Adamant-Class Frigates in company with the heavy battlestars.

All twenty Colonial warships maintained a respectful distance, with even more ships further away from them, the better part of five Battlestar Groups, again with five Mercury-Class heading up these formations that had the same unit makeup in terms of their escort groups. Although two of these groups had their pair of Loki-Class Support Cruisers alongside and three had their single Atlas-Class Heavy Carriers with their rapid-deployment Marine brigades aboard. A handful of other fleet units were nearby, including escort wings of Berserk-Class Escort Cruisers, Valkyrie-Class Battlestars, and Osiris-Class Corvettes. The Osiris-Class was a redesign of the older and now decommissioned Orion-Class Battlestar, stripping its very expensive stealth systems and masses of electronic warfare suites and then increasing the design's propulsion system's raw power and armor to turn the ship into a patrol, escort, and scout vessel that was used for law enforcement and local patrol in peacetime and as escorts and scouts for convoys in wartime.

Earth was learning this sort of thing rapidly. The Colonials' own basic fleet procurement plans and tactics and doctrine was no secret. The Colonial Fleet's long-term replacement program of the older Jupiter-Class Battlestars with Mercury-Class and Prometheus-Class Battlestars was nearly complete, with the final ship in the Jupiter line, a vessel that had been completed post-war, now being prepared for long-term reserve storage as the replacement Mercury working up to take over its group as flagship. The Mercury and Prometheus-Class Battlestars were obviously the Colonials' primary battle line units and were supplemented by their Cygnus-Class Heavy Cruisers for decisive engagements while smaller Ranger-Class Light Cruisers could assist but were meant for scouting and harassment of enemy logistics and hunting prospective Cylon raiding cruisers. The Colonials' old but very useful and modernized Adamant-Class Frigates were the primary fleet escorts and fleet scouts for these battle line units. But the Colonials had another set of ships for non-battle line assignment.

The most capable of these ships were the Valkyrie-Class Battlestars, which were Battlestar Group flagships in their own right, but had a totally different doctrinal purpose. These ships were more numerous, due to being smaller, more cost effective, and more economical choices for use in patrol and escort duties. When engaged these ships, alongside their small wings would hold the line until heavy strike units headed by either Mercury-Class Battlestars or if available, Prometheus-Class Command Battlestars could arrive. These escort groups of Berserk-Class Escort Cruisers, which held more Vipers than the Battlestars themselves, plus their own Adamant-Class Frigates, were the most common units in the Colonial Fleet, outnumbering the heavy strike units three to one. The Colonials also had also long-completed their procurement of Valkyrie-Class Battlestars and were developing a larger version of this ship to not just replace it in its intended role but to take on additional roles.

While the Valkyrie-Class was capable, the class as a whole was getting a little long in the tooth and was foreseen as being no match for whatever new Basestar the Cylons would bring to bear against them. The Colonials had successor class in the works that was intended to be capable of fighting in one-on-one combat by increasing the ship's overall dimensions to be, according to Colonial military news articles, around a thousand meters long with an air group complement and firepower on par with the larger Jupiter-Class while increasing its armor's overall protection scheme. This program was intended to provide the Colonial Fleet the freedom to be aggressive and assert control of strategic momentum and dictate the terms of a conflict far from their own homeworlds. These larger and more self-sufficient Battlestars would be able to help retire the aging Berserk-Class and free up resources to replace them with more modern and longer-ranged variants of Ranger-Class vessels. These sturdier longer-ranged patrol groups were envisioned as capable of slugging it out with Cylon units that they otherwise would need help in dealing with. But so far, Earth's battlecruisers and scout ships had yet to see such a replacement Battlestar undergoing construction in any of the Colonial Fleet's main shipyards.

"So, these guys have any fancy lasers or anything?" Lieutenant Commander Ernst Williams asked his CO, Commander Franklin Myer, from where the two were standing side by side looking out of the view port in the briefing room of the Hammond.

"Actually no, the Colonial Fleet's entire weapons stockpile we know of is kinetic in nature," Lieutenant Colonel Franklin, the Hammond's new commander, replied as he walked in behind the two SEAL's, his own Space Force BDU's contrasting to the DEVGRU SEAL officers' Crye-bought G3 AOR II uniforms with sleeves rolled up.

"Oh, so they're…like big battleship guns?"

"Sort of, but to be frank gentlemen the average Colonial Fleet weapons system is technologically inferior to our own. Nothing to worry about on this end,"

"So you've told us," Commander Myer nodded, running his hand through his beard as the two SEAL's took everything in.

"We have General Carter and Colonel Mitchell ready to provide you the mission brief gentlemen, if you'll follow me and muster your platoon?"

It was actually a point of contention between the Navy and the Space Force when the Joint Chiefs had made the decision to pull in a DEVGRU platoon. The source of the decision was that the IOA was refusing to approve deployment of what was decided would be three of the SGC's now few and far in between SG Teams from planetary reconnaissance of the Alpha through Epsilon Sites' planets escorting geologists and biologists who were trying to figure out every possible thing they could about five whole planets. Brigadier General Carter had lost twenty of her sixty teams due to budget reallocation. A quarter of the teams remaining were on going to be rotating in and out of extended leave, again, a product of their budget's recent shrinkage. This left thirty and ten of these had to be on Earth as part of an emergency quick reaction force, leaving twenty for deployment, and the five prospective planets picked for colonization by the IOA were taking up four each for the next few months, the teams rotating in and out of this assignment. Still, the Navy wasn't happy about losing a whole SEAL platoon to such a far-off deployment, even with Presidential and Joint Chief backing.

But for the SEAL's themselves, this was just plain old cool. To them, having been in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Colombia, the Philippines, and numerous sub-Saharan African countries hunting down insurgents, terrorists, and other asymmetrical opponents, this was a whole new challenge. Wargames had pitted SEAL's against conventional line infantry formations and the security forces of different branches to test the security capabilities of American and NATO allies' most sensitive installations, namely early warning radar installations, nuclear weapons storage facilities, and ICBM launch sites. While only a handful of the SEAL's present aboard the Hammond had ever partaken in such simulations and training exercises the lessons were always shared and disseminated across the teams. This platoon in particular had been chosen over all others due to the fact its ranks had the most collective experience and success in conducting such sensitive infiltration missions.

The SEAL's themselves were all in the ship's mess, gathered at the window looking at their first planet that wasn't Earth. They were easily-identified by their woodland NWU's compared to the OCP-wearing Space Force personnel who were effectively treating the situation as if it were no big deal. There was also a difference in apparent grooming standards, the SEAL's almost-universally possessed beards, partially due to a necessity to have the ability to blend in and bearded individuals were perceived to be less-likely to draw suspicion as members of a uniformed service undercover. At least this was the rationale, but considering that the Navy had a more relaxed view on grooming standards for special forces and the SEAL's frankly intimidated the officers of the Hammond and they had bigger fish to fry the group was left alone. But there were other USN personnel aboard such as their platoon armorer, a communications team of four, and a couple techs normally present for relaying positional and aerial reconnaissance from UAV's (Although these two personnel were currently being read into and working on a feed from the BC-304's and U-306's sensory suites.).

"Gentlemen, briefing room, time now," Commander Myer told the group.

"You heard the man, let's go," the team master chief called out, and the group of SEAL's began breaking away and filed out, led on towards the ship's briefing room.

It was only just big enough for the group, which was joined by a handful of the Odyssey's commander, the commander of the Hammond, as well as four pilots for the U-306's. The entire wall on the back of the room was a single large screen, which had a single large map as well as the logo for the Colonial Fleet, and some images of what looked like Colonial security personnel at the base they were examining.

The Colonial security troops wore a digital gray uniform, very similar to old Army UCP but in a winter cut, baggy, with goggles and balaclavas on protecting their faces from the whipping winter winds while wearing a helmet that looked like any other special forces ballistic helmet with built-in headset. They also saw some serious body armor, full sets of plate carriers and webbing with shoulder pauldrons and each man had a pistol on either their chests, hips, or thighs. The primary rifle appeared to be a bullpup-type weapon which, aesthetically, looked nearly-identical to the Beretta ARX-160 assault rifle.

"Damn, these dudes look like they got some nice toys," one of the SEAL's noted, seeing the extensive sights, grips, and laser emitters on the rail system of these weapons alongside the numerous addons on their helmets like red-light flashlights, helmet cameras, and other such gear.

"They do," Colonel Mitchell stated, walking in behind the SEAL's alongside Dr. Jackson, "Take a seat gentlemen, we got a seven o'clock thing down on the planet and the civilians hate being late."

"Alright, fellas, we have ourselves a classic reconnaissance op but we've got a twist to it, as the Colonel here is going to explain," the commander ordered his team and support personnel who did so immediately.

"Gentlemen, this is a classic no-contact infiltration. No patches, no identification, nothing for cameras or sketch artists to try and examine or replicate. This is a top priority for the program, the entity that we're in talks with is known as the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, a large interplanetary government with a massive military including ground forces and space forces. They've also got a massive nuclear arsenal that potentially dwarfs that of Earth, but what we're worried about is present at this facility," Mitchell pointed, and nodded to the crewman at the computer desk who tapped it to show a scale model of nuclear weapons yields with New York City as a way of showing the size of the weapons, "So we all know that our current missile warheads have yields of roughly 450 kilotons, enough to level New York City, no questions asked. But the Stargate program has warheads in its inventories of up to…" he turned as the view zoomed out, and the image showcased the yield of both the Mk. VIII and the Mk. IX, which enveloped basically the entire northeast seaboard of the USA, "Two thousand gigatons if we decided to crank things up. Now these guys, the Colonials as we call them, potentially have such weapons. We've been seeing a lot of activity at this facility over the last twenty-four hours and several of these warheads have been moved. Colonial security has also appeared to be stepped up.

The images that now flashed across showed large numbers of what looked like either military or civilian trucks and other vehicles moving about within the large parking lots, the snow-covered areas now slate gray with so much vehicle traffic. There was also a similar amount of traffic at a large spaceport on the large flat area within the north of the compound's grounds. It looked like hundreds of vehicles were moving around, and there was an increase in the numbers of Viper Mk. VII fighters and Raptor dropships positioned at the airfield nearby, the flight lines showing an increase in activity, with as many as six Colonial fighter squadrons being present and more than a dozen military shuttles being on the pads with vehicles lined up alongside them offloading cargoes and even more vehicles. It was certainly not a small buildup in activity going on here and was understandably worrying to the SEAL's who shifted somewhat uncomfortably at the prospect of their coming mission.

"This obviously has the brass worried if the Colonials intend to put these warheads into service. A team's gotta be boots on the ground to get eyes on this facility…and to get inside to give us eyes on target, the warheads. We need to know the following: What're they doing with them? What're the condition of these warheads? Do they have delivery systems present? And most of all, are they about to put deploy them? A mission is being considered for approval, but we gotta give the IOA a finished actionable plan before we're given the green light, Commander," Mitchell then nodded to the SEAL officer.

"And that's why we're here gentlemen, the Odyssey, our other ship out there, is being dedicated to this mission and some special programs are being prepped for some simulator chairs that have been brought in for us to run rehearsals using the input of the ships' sensors. As you know from the briefing packets you were given when we came aboard that we'll have access to a whole slew of gear to accomplish our mission," the Commander held up a case which when opened had a single Sodan Cloaking Device within it, "For when we're boots on the ground we're being given access to a unique type of cloaking technology that'll make us all but invisible," he said and then held up another tablet-looking device held in a case with a cover on it and an elastic band for going around the forearm, "And this is a lifesigns detector so that no one catches us offguard when we're down there. One thing you're gonna notice going forward is that we will have access to some really cool tech that'll give us exact ideas of what's on target and what sort of security measures are present," Commander Myer stepped forward, pointing to the changing screen which showed the blueprints and floorplan, "As the ship's sensors paint the picture in more detail and we learn how best to advance through the facility we'll refine the plan as needed. We've got time to figure this out, so let's make this one count. Is that still the case Colonel, Dr. Jackson?"

Dr. Jackson stepped forward to answer this one, sighing a bit as he did so.

"That's correct, we haven't detected anything in regards mobilization or readiness to deploy military forces on the part of the Colonial Fleet nor any other components of its military. So until otherwise informed no, there is no imminent threat. But the emphasis on what we need to know remains," Daniel told the group of operators.

"Thank you Dr. Jackson, you heard him, these guys aren't hostile but that could still change, so let's make sure we're hurrying this along in the event they do become hostile. Colonel, you have anything else for us?" Commander Myer asked.

"We're dealing with here nukes fellas, the kind that make the asteroid that killed the dinos look like a slingshot. I know what these things can do, I've seen footage of us launching a strike with six of these, that strike laid waste to an area the size of the size of the continental US. There's no screwing this up. That's all from me Commander."

"Thank you Colonel. Now, we're gonna scrutinize every square inch of this place until each of us can trace the floor plan from memory as well as where each camera and each sentry and each patrol goes and when it goes there. Let's get to work."

And so, like any other mission on Earth, the SEAL's got to work. This phase of the mission was not glorious, it was certainly not that exciting, but it was arguably far more important than anyone outside this room would have guessed. Mitchell and Jackson stepped aside to talk to the two SEAL officers, who were quick to ask about the Colonials' military standards, what sort of policies seemed to have been employed, and other such intel that the two thought could have been useful. Mitchell noted once more how the Stargate Program was changing, pulling in non-SGC personnel for a high priority offworld mission for the very first time. The type of individuals present was also different, these men weren't the breed of diplomatic, clean-cut, and measured Air Force operators used by the SGC for more than twenty years. These were rough-and-tumble fighters whose experience lay within the decades-long fight against terrorism, rarely ever encountering a peer opponent or ever being considered underdogs. They were about to be introduced to a very different opponent, one which was every bit as on par with the militaries of Earth which the SEAL's were kept well away from.

But, the pure focus that Mitchell saw was different in a way that made him nod in satisfaction that if the SGC were to use such men in the future then perhaps the change going on within the SGC wasn't so bad. Still, Mitchell had to do something very foreign to him, he had to leave this mission in the hands of others, and was soon beamed back to the embassy compound to get dressed, they had another formal event to attend, the Colonials were holding nothing back in terms of showcasing some of their best attributes, and the show was going to continue for quite a few days. Fortunately, Jackson was there, and Mitchell knew Jackson was having a fun time, and it was sure better than being shot at.