Robotech: The Stargate Saga

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Chapter Five

Wind Tunnel

Secure Laboratory Section

Fort Minotaur

Standing among a small crowd of dignitaries and base operations staff Major Claudia Grant looked through the permaglass wall at the apparent Stargate sitting at the far end of what had originally been intended to be a wind tunnel, though the massive fan needed for that purpose had yet to be installed. Thus, it made a perfect place to house the Stargate during their first attempts to activate it as nobody – not even the Zentraedi as their knowledge of the stargate or star portal as their legends referred to it was extremely limited – quite knew what would happen when they did so.

Thus, for safety purposes they'd carefully moved the multi-ton ring shaped device out of the main lab to this large wind tunnel, being placed at one end of the tunnel – where the fan would have been if the tunnel had been finished as originally planned, a plan that had been ditched due to the fact that the factory that would have made the fan having been incinerated in the Rain of Death along with the city in which it had been based – while the smaller pedestal device was at this end of the tunnel. For additional safety only one person was actually in the tunnel to operate the pedestal in this case Doctor Carter herself, and she was also dressed in full hazmat gear – just in case.

"Is everything ready," Generals Richards asked looking over at the scientists who were monitoring the feeds from a whole battery of instruments that have been brought in to record this event. Hopefully it won't turn into something of a damp squib, he thought, mentally crossing his fingers for good luck.

"Yes, general all recorders and instruments are online and synchronised," one of the other scientists, a Czech called Radek Zalenka, reported as he checked the instruments one last time. "Doctor Carter has a list of the potential symbol combinations on the computer tablet that she has with her."

Listening quietly Claudia smiled as she heard that. Though the central disk-shaped cover stone had been very badly damaged by having the weight of the Zentraedi cruiser pressing down on it – from its position it would have been directly underneath the forward most ventral heavy particle beam turret – being almost completely broken in two with three of the seven symbols damaged. Despite the damage they had been able to recreate the symbols through a combination of a laser scan and a computer comparison to the thirty-seven different symbols that were on the gate and the pedestal device. The fourth and fifth symbols had both come back as being one of three possible symbols, so the computer had carefully assembled the possible sequences in order of probability from most to least likely. I just hope one of the sequences is correct, she thought, as it would be a colossal shame to have gone through all this trouble to gain nothing out of it. Not to mention this Vosegus character attacked us to attempt to steal this stargate from us.

Mentally she grimaced at the thought of Vosegus. Whoever or whatever he was he had revealed himself to be a very cunning and dangerous opponent, one who didn't balk at the thought of fundamentally altering someone at a genetic level while also enslaving someone through initially some kind of mind controlling/altering agent and later by implanting a compliant personality into them using a neuro-somatic imprinter. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to learn that much more about him, whoever he was as Nathan Hunter was still sleeping – something that was not unexpected according to both Doctor Johnson and Exedore as it would take time for his brain to fully readapt to the restoration of his original personality matrix – and the operative who had tried to get him and kill him still sat in a cell. They had already determined that – as Rick had guessed – the operative was enslaved by the same mind-altering biological compound as Nathan had been before the imposition of this 'Prime' personality. So far, they had yet to figure out just how to get in out of his system without killing him as otherwise the operative was not being cooperative with their interrogation. Instead, he kept saying how his 'god' would punish them all for eternity for daring the thwart his will.

She was brought out of her thoughts by General Richards speaking again. "Doctor Carter this is General Richards begin entering the first sequence," he ordered.

"Excited," Claudia whispered to Daniel who was standing next to her, eyes fixed on the windows and the Stargate ring down the far end of the tunnel.

"I haven't been this excited in a long time," Daniel replied with a smile. He had really enjoyed his time here, translating the hieroglyphs on the cover stones – it had reminded him how much he used to like Egyptology, in the days before rigidly orthodox colleagues had laughed him out of the field for theories that they considered so farfetched that they bordered on blasphemy – and now he hoped there would be a big final pay off with this Stargate thing. If it worked then finally, after twenty years of ridicule and derision by the archaeological community – well what little of it was left after the Rain as it had never been a massive community and its numbers had been decimated during Dolza's assault – he might at last get vindicated and proven right all along.

Claudia smiled knowingly before turning her attention back to what was going on around them, as Doctor Carter began entering the first sequence of symbols.

Standing before the pedestal device, wishing she wasn't in this hazmat suit as the damned thing was hot but understanding why she had to wear it, Samantha Carter took a moment to glance at the computer tablet that she was holding. After carefully checking the first of the possible entry sequences created by the base computer, she searched for the first symbol on the pedestal device and pressed it. Immediately it lit up and a rumbling whirring sound filled the air and she looked up to see the inner ring of the Stargate moving until it stopped at one of the nine chevron-shaped structures spaced equally around the ring. The chevron made a locking motion, like it was scanning the symbol, before stopping and the crystal above it lighting up orange.

"So far so good," she muttered before entering the next symbol. Again, the gates inner ring moved until one of the chevrons locked and its crystal lit up. Confidence growing, she worked through the sequence with even the potentially suspect fourth and fifth symbols locking into place and making the gate crystals light up. Mentally crossing her fingers, she entered the last two symbols and watched as the dome in the centre of the pedestal lit up orange. Guessing she needed to do something with it, maybe it was lite a commit button of some kind, she reached out and touched it before pressing down. The dome moved easily…

…the response from the Stargate was both immediate and absolutely breath-taking.

Instantly a vibration, almost like an earth tremor ran through the floor around her and the very air itself seemed to shiver with some incredible, ethereal power. With a loud roar a mass of silver-blue energy – looking almost like some of the pictures she'd seen of the initial stages of the lateral blast from Mount Saint Helens during the May 1980 eruption – burst forth from the Stargate expanding several meters out from the ring. Before abruptly dropping back and stabilizing as a shimmering wall of silver-blue energy that looked almost like water.

"Incredible," she breathed knowing that she was staring at something that should not be able to exist inside a planetary gravity well yet here it was. She was gazing upon the event horizon of a wormhole, albeit one that looked very different to the whirlpool like appearance of wormholes in popular pre-Rain science fiction. A faint smile tugged at her lips as she realized something then and there…

… for good or ill their world had just changed again.

Gasps of shock and awe filled the control room as the Stargate burst into life. For a few moments silence reigned in the control room as scientists, soldiers and technicians alike gazed through the permaglass barrier at the shimmering water-like energy field that now filled the inner space of the naquada ring. After a few seconds of awe General Richards shook himself and spoke up.

"Doctor Zalenka what are we looking at," he asked making the Czech scientist jump before turning his attention to his instruments. Simultaneously every other scientist in the room with a workstation got to work again – snaping back to their duties.

"General if these readings are correct, we are indeed looking at a wormhole," Zalenka replied after a few moments of checking. "How it's possible for one to exist inside a gravity well like this I have no idea, but it is what we're looking. Whoever the ancient race who built the gates were they obviously had knowledge way beyond anything we've ever even thought of."

"Agreed. Send an Eagle through let's see if we can find out something about what's on the other side of this thing."

"Sending an eagle," Zalenka confirmed as he entered the command. For a moment nothing more happened then one of the doors to the repurposed wind tunnel opened and let an Eagle reconnaissance drone – which at seventy-two point six centimetres across was the much bigger and heavier brother of the STORM Commandoes Osprey mini-drones, though its larger frame and a protoculture flat cell allowed it to have far better sensors than just a high resolution camera not to mention pack a micro-fold comm aboard allowing remote control from light years away if needed – flew in with a gentle whirring from its six micro tilt-fan engines.

The drone glided along the length of the wind tunnel until it reached the shimmering wall of the active Stargate and went through. For a few seconds the screens showing telemetry from the Eagle drone went dark then brightened up again as the drone reached its destination and revealed what appeared to be the interior of a bunker. A bunker that was clearly abandoned and it was obvious why…

…someone, or something, had attacked it.

It was obvious as well that the initial attack had to have come through the Stargate. Facing the gate on three sides were barricades made out of what looked to be sandbags reinforced with a metallic meshing of some kind. Poking out above the barricades were three of what looked to be hand-operated gatling guns almost identical in appearance to what had been used on Earth when American inventor Richard Gatling first created the weapon that would ultimately spawn machine guns and electrically powered rotary cannons like the 55mm rotary autocannons used in GU-11 gunpods.

All three barricades showed signs of extensive damage having been blown through in numerous places that had alternately blown apart and – from the cooled rivulets of cooled glass and metal trailing from the impact points – melted right through them. Something that everyone in the military in the room recognised immediately as the tell-tale signature of attacks with directed energy weaponry. Skeletons in strange brown uniforms – that looked like something out of the nineteen forties – lay sprawled on the floor in random locations – some looking like they'd been retreating from the attacker only to be shot in the back – with rifles that looked for all the world like British Lee-Enfield repeater rifles discarded all around.

"Looks like whoever they were they were in one hell of a fight and lost," one of the technicians commented.

"Repeater rifles and first-generation gatling guns against someone with directed energy weapons that isn't even a fight," Colonel Kowalski pointed out from his own position in the room. "This was not a battle; this was a slaughter."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Richards said, "though I agree this does not look good at all. Doctor Zalenka, move the drone deeper into the bunker. Let's see if we can find out more about what happened here."

"Understood moving," Zalenka replied as he began directing the Eagle drone deeper into the bunker. Beyond the room with the gate – and he noted the pedestal device which was surrounded by its own barricade of sandbags – he found a heavy steel door leading into a wide concrete corridor. The door was lying on the floor, numerous holes – with the characteristic smooth edges of energy weapon inflicted damage – blown through it before it had been blasted off its hinges.

As the Eagle moved deeper into the complex, they saw more and more evidence of what had to have been one hell of a running firefight between whoever had owned the bunker and their attackers. Skeletons in the same brown uniforms were everywhere, and here and there they could see holes in the reinforced concrete walls some being small projectile impacts, but some were the size of dinner plates and looked to have been inflicted with energy weapons.

Sombre silence filled the control room as everyone beheld the sight of the futile battle against whoever it was who had attacked the base.

Eventually the corridors they were going down came to an end at a large open space. A space that clearly looked like it had been meant to be blocked off with a heavy two-inch-thick steel door. Only as with the other door the door in question was lying on the floor and displayed the same damage. Beyond was a wide-open space that definitely looked like a motor pool as several vehicles that looked like an odd version of a Sherman M4 medium tank from World War Two were parked in various garage spaces. Along with what had to be armoured cars and armoured personnel carriers.

It was here however that they saw the body of one of the attackers. The being was roughly human in size and proportion though his/its face was completely obscured by a helmet that looked like a stylized jackal. What caught attention though was the uniform the dead being was wearing, it was identical to the uniform that Nathan had been wearing when they pulled him out of the disabled Spartan destroid. Though it had extra forearm guards one of which had one of the coiled snake sidearms attached to it. A metallic staff that looked vaguely serpentine lay nearby still partially clutched in the dead alien's hand. The aliens cause of death was obvious as his entire torso peppered with bullet holes.

Beyond the motor pool another corridor led to a pair of open doors through which they could see daylight.

"General we cannot proceed any further," Zalenka reported, "we are at the edge of the drone control range now."

"Very well bring the drone back to the Stargate chamber. Survey anything along the way as there is bound to be far more to this bunker than we've seen so far. Doctor have we recordings of the flight so far."

"Yes, general we have."

"Transfer them to a USB drive please. I will need to present them to the Council."

"I will see to it immediately general."

United Earth Defence Command

New Macross City

Three Hours Later

Sombre silence ruled in the meeting room used by the United Earth Defence Council, every member keeping a respectful silence as they observed the recordings from the Eagle drone sent through the Stargate to the unknown planet. While the video of the Stargate activation was awe inspiring the drone footage of the aftermath of a battle that had clearly been lost by the planets inhabitants was anything bit. Instead, it was deeply saddening as it was clear that while the civilization there had been relatively advanced – from what little they'd seen of them at a level roughly comparable to Earth in the late nineteen thirties or early nineteen forties – they had clearly been no match for whoever had attacked them.

"Was the drone able to determine anything about who these people were," Secretary Anderson asked after the footage of the fallen bunker finished playing.

"Not at present sir," General Richards answered from the holographic screen displaying his likeness. "Most of the bunker appears to be sealed off by more of the heavy steel blast doors. As you know the Eagle drone is unarmed in its stock configuration like what we have here the only way we will get through those doors to see what's on the other side – not to mention what's outside the bunker – is to send people through the Stargate to actually physically take a look."

"Are you proposing that we send a team through the Stargate to this planet," Admiral Gloval asked.

"I am admiral. We're going to have to do it at some point anyway if we want to really learn how these gates work and how extensive the network is in our galaxy," Richards replied. "I see no reason why we should not start now, at least with this planet. We might find records of who it was that attacked the base and that might only help us in dealing with whoever or whatever Vosegus is."

"That is quite an assumption to make given only one body has been found so far wearing a similar uniform to what Nathan Hunter was wearing while under the control of the Prime personality matrix," Colonel Matthews commented, "though I grant it is a relatively fair one and searching the remains of the base and anything around it could indeed be quite beneficial to us. However, if we do this, we do have to consider how we are going to get the investigation team back to Earth as correct me if I am wrong, but we do not yet know Earth's Stargate address."

"True colonel however with access to the navigational star charts my people made while searching for Zor's vessel and images of the star portal glyphs it should not be that difficult for our navigational computers to determine this planet's likely coordinates," Exedore pointed out. "In addition, I can assure the Council that if it is deemed necessary Commander Breetai is fully prepared to dispatch one of our warships to the planet in question. The warship would then, if necessary, be able to retrieve the exploration team from the planet below through the use of a dropship."

Silence fell for a few moments as everyone considered what Exedore had just said. "If we do send some of our people through the Stargate to this planet, we should ask Breetai to do that anyway," Gloval replied after mulling it over, idly fingering his unlit pipe as he did so. "It would be better to have the cruiser there and not need to use it as a return or evacuation transport than need it and the vessel is not there."

"It is logical," Matthews agreed though he looked like he was sucking on a particularly sour lemon as he said that as the logical rational part of his mind was once again at war with his xenophobia and contempt for the Zentraedi. In truth he wished that they had their own ship to send – as to him and those who shared his beliefs it was beyond annoying to be reliant on the good graces of those who just a few years ago would have gleefully killed them all and had certainly had a damned good go at it - but at present none of their ships were capable of space folding, not even the nearly completed SDF-2 which was only at most a few months from going on her first shakedown cruise, though that would soon change.

Especially since the repair systems on the factory satellite have come back online, he thought recalling the reports that they had gotten this morning. Reports that indicated that at some time in the last few days the Robotech Factory Satellites automatic repair and maintenance systems had come back online. Prompting an army of robotic drones and advanced nanites to begin swarming through every deck and section of the gigantic station repairing and rebuilding as they went. Nobody quite knew what had caused the systems to come back online, though the current working theory was that the last shipment of protoculture sent to the station had pushed things past a critical point and caused the stations computer to reset the repair systems, not that it really mattered. What mattered was that the station would soon be fully operational again and once that was done, they would be able to seriously start rebuilding their space navy with newer and far more powerful ships – ships that would not be held back by the flawed, but at the same time totally understandable, reasoning of pre-Robotech War naval planners and shipwrights.

Then maybe he would have a chance of convincing the rest of the Council to do away with the Zentraedi.

He was brought out of his thoughts, and honestly daydreams of finally being able to put down the Zentraedi as the mad dogs they were as who else would murder nearly five billion people whose only crime was to exist, by General Markwell speaking.

"While we do need to know a bit more about whoever it was who attacked the alien bunker, especially if it gives us some more information on whoever or whatever Vosegus is are we sure we should send people through the Stargate now," he asked. "We still have enough problems to deal with here on Earth not just with the reconstruction after the Rain, but we have other threats to deal with like EBSIS not to mention the Zentraedi malcontents led by Khyron, Azonia and Zeraal. Do we really need to start going through the Stargate into the wider galaxy? It could conceivable garner far more trouble for us than we either need or can even deal with right now."

"I am not proposing we start exploring the entire Stargate network," Richards said after a few moments of considering the other officers concerns. To be honest he shared them, in reality they all did. "Just that we look at this particular planet in the hope that it could give us more information about what exactly is out there. We know from our Zentraedi friends that there are other spacefaring races in this galaxy, many of whom use naquada possibly as a power source in much the same way we use protoculture. If the people of the planet – whoever they were – used the Stargate on even a semi-regular basis there could be valuable intelligence on those races waiting, there for us to find."

"Intelligence that we could use to better prepare our own planetary defences not to mention our space naval forces, when we are able to begin rebuilding them fully, to face any hostile threat," Gloval added before frowning. "Even if the method of gaining that intelligence does feel a bit like grave robbing."

"You all raise some very valid points," Anderson replied with a frown before looking down as he considered exactly what they should do here. As the chairman of the council, not to mention the secretary of defence the course of action to recommend to the UEG leadership in regard to this matter was at the end of the day his decision to make. "Very well I will recommend that we send a small investigation team, and an appropriate security escort, through the stargate to the alien bunker to Secretary General Michaelson. Whether we proceed or not from their will be at the end of the day her decision. In the meantime, General Richards begin assembling your investigation team and you have authorisation to requisition a full unit of STORM Commandoes if you feel that they will be necessary. However, they are not to go through the gate until the Secretary General makes her decision."

"Understood sir," Richards replied.

"I will speak with Commander Breetai about preparing one of our ships to fold to the planet in question," Exedore added. "They will be able to leave as soon as the order to do so is given."

"Thank you Exedore."

"Your welcome Mister Secretary," Exedore replied with a smile before the door to the room opened and an aide came in, walked up to Admiral Gloval, and urgently whispered something into his ear. Whatever it was, it was obviously both shocking and important because the Russian man turned to look at the aid in shock and concern.

"Are you sure," Gloval asked.

"Yes, sir we checked the readings three times there is no mistake," the aid answered.

"Bring the analysis here immediately."

"Aye sir," the aide acknowledged before leaving to do as he was bid.

"What is it admiral," Anderson asked.

"Mister Secretary our satellites just detected a nuclear explosion somewhere beneath the Dolomite Mountains of Northern Italy," Gloval answered, drawing looks and gasps of surprise and concern from everyone in the room. "It wasn't particularly large explosion, barely equivalent to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War. But that isn't the point…"

"…the point is there shouldn't have been any nuclear weapons anywhere near there," Anderson finished, "even a low yield tactical one like that. How did it get there? Who the hell used it and why?"

"I have no idea," Gloval admitted looking grim. "Though given what Captain Hunter said about where his cousin disappeared for three and a half years before resurfacing as Prime, I can think of one likely culprit for the blast. Especially if that is where his base was."

"Vosegus."

"Yes."

A grim silence fell upon the defence council as they all considered this latest, and honestly most concerning, surprise that Vosegus had thrown their way. No doubt he had detonated the nuclear device to destroy a base he was abandoning for some reason – presumably being afraid of what they would be able to learn about it from Nathan Hunter whenever he woke up and assuming he would be mentally and emotionally well enough to be questioned after the ordeal he had been put through by Vosegus – but that was beside the point. The fact that he somehow had nuclear weapons – even low yield tactical level nukes – was a red blaring alarm that rapidly moved him up the threat totem pole from being a relatively minor annoyance to, alongside the likes of Khyron, being a very serious threat to the safety and security of their entire planet. A threat that they still knew far, far too little about…

…and that was going to have to change and change fast.

Authors Notes: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. Now before anyone says anything Vosegus actually doesn't have access to nuclear weapons – much as he wishes he did – instead he used a Goa'uld explosive device – one of a number of Scarab explosive chests that he has acquired over the centuries from various left over Goa'uld technology caches – to destroy the base beneath the Dolomites that he was abandoning, The sensors on the UEG's orbiting satellites just read it as a nuclear explosion based on the yield of the blast and the seismic shockwave it generated as they have nothing else to compare the readings to. Of course, it has now moved him up the threat totem pole though he will now not be easy to find as he will go to ground for a while though they don't know that.

Finally in the next chapter we will be going through the Stargate to the planet they've discovered. What they will actually find there when they explore the battle damaged 'alien' bunker – and what is beyond it as they're not going to stay in there – well you will have to wait and see. Until next time.