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 Eight

Tok'ra Vessel

Shocked silence hung pregnant in the air of the small, repurposed Goa'uld cargo ship. Sitting at the pilots and co-pilot's stations respectively two Tok'ra stared in amazement at the scene before their eyes. They had arrived in this system in response to an order from the Tok'ra High Council apparently one of their listening posts had picked up orders from the Goa'uld scientist, inventor, and System Lord P'tah sending his deputy fleet lord and his small patrol/raiding force to this system, and the Council had wanted to know why. The Linkotean civilization had been destroyed by the Goa'uld over a decade ago so there was, to the best of the Council's knowledge, no reason to send Solec here.

Hence, they'd been sent after Solec to investigate since they'd been the closest available ship.

They'd arrived a few moments ago to see a battle raging between Solec's mothership, what had to be its entire glider wing and its supporting Al'kesh, and an unknown alien warship. An alien warship that seemed to represent something of a paradox as it was obviously extremely advanced and very powerful given that its weapons seemed to consist of particle cannons – which according to their sensors were firing a proton-based beam of formidable power – high-powered beam lasers and missiles with some type of plasma explosive warheads – which had swatted the Al'kesh like they were annoying insects - seemed to lack any form of defensive energy shielding. Instead, it seemed to rely entirely on armour for protection, armour that while it was stronger than anything they'd ever seen mounted on a ship was obviously being increasingly weakened by the plasma bolts spewing forth from the Ha'tak's staff cannons.

The same was also true of the Ha'tak's shields as from the way they were glowing and flickering – revealing the quasi-crystalline structure of the force fields energy matrix – both Martouf and Freyr could tell that the shields were nearing complete failure. Already they could see glowing areas on the motherships hull where individual shield emitters had overloaded from the strain of resisting the powerful alien weapons, overloaded and subsequently blown out starting a number of small plasma or electrical fires aboard the Ha'tak.

"I'm surprised that Solec hasn't tried to retreat yet," Freyr commented, "given the damage his ship has obviously sustained it should be obvious to him that this isn't a fight he can win."

"It is unusual," Martouf agreed. "Solec isn't a fool, when outmatched he normally withdraws from battle. But maybe he cannot run this time. Check his hyperdrive."

Freyr nodded and checked her sensor screens. "That explains it his hyperdrive is offline," she replied, "it looks like one of the primary control arrays has been damaged presumably when one of the shield emitter arrays blew out."

"So, his only choice now is to fight or to surrender," Martouf said knowingly. "And we both know that Solec is too proud a warrior to surrender to anyone other than another Goa'uld."

Freyr nodded in agreement, both her and her symbiote Anise, were well aware of how much pride Solec and other Goa'uld like him had in their combat prowess. It made there actions both relatively easy to predict while simultaneously very hard to counter. However, before either host or symbiote could reply a brilliant flash of light through the viewports drew all of their attention.

It was immediately obvious that the flash of light marked the final critical failure of the Ha'tak's shields. As they watched a pair of bright blue energy beams slammed into the unshielded vessel and began to cut into the hull. A moment later a massive explosion erupted from where the beams struck the hull, the blast spreading to envelop the entirety of the mothership as two more explosions in rapid succession enveloped the vessel in a raging ball of plasma flames and energy. When the blasts faded all that remained of the Goa'uld mothership was a vast expanding cloud of cooling plasma, dust and a few small chunks of semi-molten debris spinning away in all directions.

"What the hell happened there," Martouf asked knowing that the mothership shouldn't have exploded like that from just two beam strikes to the hull. Unless they hit something vital. "Did they hit the main reactor or the hyperdrive?"

Freyr's hands were already dancing across the co-pilot's station as she reviewed the information recorded by their sensors. "No," Anise answered after a moment. "It looks like the beams destabilized the naquada in the hull resulting in detonation. The sequential explosions were the hull itself spreading the energy and destabilization imparted by the beams. The effect is identical to what happens when Tollan or Asgard weapons fire hits the hull of a Ha'tak. Which makes sense."

"How so," Martouf asked neither he nor Lantash were scientists, though they knew enough to handle most situations.

"One thing Tollan, Asgard and whoever these people have in common with their weapons is they're all particle-based in the case of the former two the blasts are ion based whereas these aliens' beams are proton based. One thing all particle weapons have in common is they don't just burn and melt in the way plasma weapons do but they also impart a disruptive force on the nucleonic forces holding matter together."

"A force that the naquada in the hull would amplify even as it catastrophically destabilizes," Lantash said in realization.

"Indeed."

"So now what do we do," Martouf asked as Lantash yielded control back to him. "Should we leave and take these sensor readings back to the High Council?"

"We could though it would probably be better if we investigate a bit further first," Freyr commented. "Sensors are detecting some kind of subspace communication between the ship and something or someone on the surface of Linkotis. The signal is on a frequency band that we've never seen before and is heavily encrypted."

"You're thinking we should investigate it?" Martouf asked.

"Why not. Whoever these people are they obviously have an interest in this planet. The council will certainly want to know why especially as there is nothing of note mineral wise about this planet no appreciable quantities of naquada or trinium which is why neither Ra nor P'tah turned it into a slave world after their Jaffa conquered the planet."

"Good point. Alright we'll go down and take a look. Have you figured out where the signal is being directed?"

"Of course, the signal is being directed to just outside the abandoned bunker complex that houses this planets Stargate." As she spoke Freyr entered a command on her console causing the holographic heads-up display to appear showing exactly where on the planet the signal from the alien warship was being directed to. It was an open area just outside the entrance to the bunker complex – which was built into the foothills of a volcanic mountain range that ran like a spine up the eastern side of the continent that the Linkoteans had called Vallarta – that in the past had housed a small air base for the Vallarta nations embryonic air combat forces, which had been destroyed with contemptuous ease by the Jaffa pilots who'd taken part in the attack on Linkotis.

"Alright I'll take us down. Keep an eye on the cloaking device for me, will you? You know how twitchy the device on this cargo ship can get when we enter an atmosphere."

"Of course, we will," Anise replied, "though remind me to take a look at that when we get back to Vorash. It shouldn't be doing that whenever we enter an atmosphere under cloak."

"Not a problem," Martouf answered as he began directing the cargo ship onto a new course that would see them drop down into the atmosphere of Linkotis and from there to the location indicated on the HUD. It would only take a minute or two to complete the atmospheric entry manoeuvre and a minute or two after that to reach the surface and hopefully get some answers as to why some obviously technologically advanced unknown aliens were interested in such an otherwise unremarkable planet. Once they had some answers they'd leave and make their way back to the Tok'ra base on Vorash.

At least that was the plan.

Linkotean Stargate Facility

That Same Time

Jar'un offered no resistance as his captors marched him through the abandoned bunker complex, a complex that everywhere he looked on the main level showed evidence of the running fight between the Linkoteans and his fellow Jaffa that had taken place here. He knew better than to offer any sort of fight as not only were his hands bound behind him by restraining cuffs – that he could tell from the feel of them if nothing else, would be very hard for him to break even with his superior strength – but at least two of his captors had their rifles aimed at him at any given time. He did not doubt that they would gun him down in an instant should he try anything foolish like trying to escape.

What he did find unnerving though was just how quiet his captors were as they walked. There armour looked advanced and clearly metallic, as were their combat boots, yet they made virtually no noise as they moved. For someone who was used to the familiar, and to a Jaffa somewhat comforting, clank of heavy boots it was quite disconcerting. Though I suppose it makes sense they're quiet, he thought, they don't want their enemies to know their coming. When he thought about it like that it actually made far more sense than the sound Jaffa boots – like his own were still making – made as they marched towards battle or whatever other task had been assigned to them by whichever false god they were in service to.

A part of him had to wonder just why their boots had to make that sound.

He didn't have anymore time to think about it as they passed through the broken heavy doors – doors that had been shattered and half melted by a proximity blast from an Al'kesh dropped plasma charge, while thick steel was enough protection from the chemically propelled Linkotean weapons its effectiveness against the plasma energy-based weapons of the Goa'uld was distinctly subpar – into the bright light of the Linkotean sun. In front of them was a crumbling concrete carpark – with several burned-out vehicles that to Terran eyes looked like something out of the 1940's still present – that had been heavily damaged by Al'kesh bombing runs as well as death glider strafing runs. Beyond the car park – past the broken remains of a perimeter fence – grasslands ran for a good kilometre or so before the beginning of a tree line.

A rumbling sound from above caught Jar'un's attention and he looked up to see a large vaguely conical ship coming into land. He immediately noticed that its presence did not seem to come as a surprise to his captors, clearly, they were expecting it. Which meant that they had at least one warship in orbit, which had by now no doubt engaged and destroyed Lord Solec's flagship. Something that he knew would not go down well with Lord P'tah as the loss of any mothership was always a blow to a System Lords forces at any time given the amount of time and effort needed to build one but right now it would be even more so given the ongoing work with Sokar and his armies.

It also marked these aliens/humans or whatever they were, wherever they were from, as a potentially very serious threat. A threat that the Goa'uld, in the normal response to such things, would no doubt go all out to eliminate once they were in a position to do so. Something that he knew they were not right now, not with their empire gripped by its first all out civil war in many millennia. Still when he was inevitably interrogated by his captors, either on their ship or back on their homeworld, he would make them aware of the danger they had put themselves in by coming here and alerting the Goa'uld to their existence.

It would be the least he could, in good conscience, do for them.

Unaware, and in truth he wouldn't have cared if he had been aware of them, of his prisoners' thoughts Colonel Ferretti had mixed feelings as he observed the Frandlar Tiluvo-class dropship coming in to land. On one hand the Zentraedi dropship represented the quickest, easiest way off this planet at this time – something that was especially important at the moment given that both his team and Zentraedi cruiser had already been attacked once – which he was grateful for. But on the other hand, there was a part of him that remembered the last time he had seen one of those things during the war when it had landed and deployed an assault force of battlepods. Thus, the sight of the thing filled that part of him with fear as he knew what was likely to be inside it, even if they were not going to be deployed.

A quick glance around confirmed to him that he wasn't the only one with mixed feelings at the sight of the Zentraedi dropship. The war with them was still so fresh in everyone's minds – and the devastation that it had brought especially when Dolza bombarded Earth with reflex weaponry killing billions in seconds – he supposed it was a perfectly natural reaction for career soldiers, or indeed anyone else who'd been involved in the conflict in any shape or fashion, to have. As with everyone else it would take a long time, a very long time really, for him to truly come to terms with the horrors of the Robotech War and heal from it. Well as much as anyone could heal from a war that had killed three quarters of their entire race with many never having seen the faces of those who killed them, just felt the searing heat of immensely powerful energy beams before their lives were extinguished.

The dropship landing a few hundred meters away, kicking up quite a windstorm and a blizzard of grass pollen brought him out of his thoughts and memories. The downwash from the thrusters died away fairly quickly, though not before all of them got a thorough dusting in grass pollen. Man, I'm glad these helmets are NBC sealed, he thought knowing that quite a few of them, himself included, would have descended into a most undignified sneezing fit otherwise as he and grass pollen didn't get on at all. Which was why when it came to mowing the lawn at home his wife always did it instead of him, joking every time that he was a now genetically enhanced special forces commando but something as simple as a few grains of grass pollen could have him sneezing his brains out.

"Alright everyone let's move out," he said into the common communication frequency. Without waiting for a reply, he began leading the way towards where the dropship had landed, its embarkation ramp opening with the faint whirring of incredibly powerful and advanced hydraulics. His helmet HUD showed that the rest of the squad and their prisoner were following him, Peters and Wilson continuing to keep their beam rifles trained on the back of their prisoner - ready to gun him down if he tried anything funny.

They had almost reached the dropship when two full-size Zentraedi – dressed in what they considered light combat armour, but which to human sized beings was enough metal to build an aircraft carrier – carrying assault rifles emerged from inside and took up guarding positions on either side of the ramp. Ferretti resisted the impulse to laugh when their captive abruptly stopped moving, instead he turned slightly to see the Jaffa staring at the two fifty-foot-tall humanoids in shock, awe and if he wasn't wrong a small but completely understandable amount of fear.

"What, what are they?" Jar'un asked as he gazed upon the two giant aliens. In all the years he had served the false gods he had never, ever seen a living being that massive before. Indeed, to the best of his knowledge no Jaffa in their entire history – from the moment the Goa'uld first gave them their strength and combat prowess on Dakara – had ever encountered a being such as these. In fact, he was willing to bet that the Goa'uld hadn't either, not that they would ever admit it as it would mean admitting that they were not the all-powerful, all-knowing gods that they liked to claim to be.

"They're called Zentraedi," Ferretti replied and though he knew Jar'un wouldn't see it due to his opaque faceplate he smiled. "Never seen a literal giant before, have you? There whole species is like that." Well unless they choose to get micronized down to our size, he thought, then aside from slight differences in skin and hair tones they look no different to us. He wasn't about to mention that to their prisoner though, it would literally be like opening a can of worms and he had no desire to explain the differences between micronized and full sized Zentraedi and how it was possible to go between the two states. Frankly just thinking about that whole thing gave him the creeps, he could only imagine what it would be like to see the process in action as both Commander Hayes and Captain Hunter had that time, they'd been held prisoner aboard Commander Breetai's flagship.

"No," Jar'un replied unable to take his gaze of the impossibly tall creatures standing on either side of the ramp. There was no doubt in his mind that even one of these Zentraedi could annihilate an entire column of Jaffa by stepping on them if nothing else while their armour would likely not even notice the bolts from a ma'tok staff.

"You'll get used to them," Ferretti answered before gesturing with the tip of his rifle. Somehow Jar'un didn't find those words at all reassuring, in fact the prospect of spending more time with such massive beings was downright terrifying. It almost made him wish that the energy beam had hit his heart and killed him instead of inflicting a nasty wound on his shoulder, a wound that was already nearly completely healed due to his prim'tah. "Alright enough staring, get aboard the dropship."

Jar'un grimaced, glanced worriedly up at the intimidating figures who were carrying weapons big enough to be a Ha'tak's light staff cannon, before doing as he was bid. Carefully moving up the ramp into the interior of the dropship which was an absolutely cavernous space that was honestly bigger than any Goa'uld throne room he'd ever been in – which was saying something given how the Goa'uld liked to make their throne rooms large, elaborate affairs to show off their wealth and 'divine' power – and it wasn't empty either. Instead, all around the perimeter of the space were alcoves in which sat a huge vaguely egg-shaped machine with legs attached and a large number of what were obviously weapons systems. Though powered down and inert each still towered over Jar'un, and he inwardly shuddered to think just how big the machines would be if stood up, not to mention that he got the distinct impression that even one of these things could take on an entire army of Jaffa and annihilate it without breaking a sweat.

The sound of the door closing caught his attention, he turned around to see that the rest of the aliens had come aboard, as had the giants, without him hearing them. Somehow the idea that even the giants could move without being heard sent a shiver of sheer terror down his spine. Universe, he hoped that these people and his own never came to blows again, they would massacre the Jaffa regardless of anything they – or even the Goa'uld – could do to stop them. Whoever his captors, and these Zentraedi, were they clearly possessed a level of technology and capability that was almost beyond comprehension.

The door closed with a thud and a whirring of powerful locks engaging. A second later a rumbling sound filled the dropship, and he then experienced a curious sensation as though something was dropping away, though it only lasted for a nanosecond or two. We must be airborne, he thought.

"So now what are you going to do with me," he asked.

"You'll stay here with us until we rendezvous with Captain Serval's ship," Ferretti replied, "then one of the Zentraedi will take you to a holding facility where you will remain until after we've folded back home."

Jar'un grimaced but nodded. It was kind of what he had expected after all though what did Colonel Ferretti mean by folding? Then he realized it was obviously some kind of faster than light travel method, much like the hyperspace drive used by Goa'uld and just about everyone's from the Serrakin to the Asgard for interstellar travel.

Abruptly there came a dull thud and the dropship shivered slightly. More thuds followed and the dropship shivered each time.

"What the hell," Ferretti exclaimed before looking up at one of the two towering Zentraedi guards, who was talking on his helmet comm. The Zentraedi noticed he was looking and finished his conversation.

"Colonel Ferretti," the Zentraedi reported as more thuds made the deck beneath them shiver. "That was the cockpit they report that we're coming under primitive anti-aircraft cannon fire from the ground. The explosions are proving surprisingly powerful for such a crude weapon, it appears to have been enhanced through the use of powdered sekitan."

"Ack, ack well I suppose that fits with this planet apparent technology level," Ferretti replied, even as he inwardly wondered what sekitan was. He would have to look it up later as it was bound to be some reference to it in the database downloaded from the SDF-1 after she first arrived given that the Zentraedi knew the name. "Where's the fire coming from and how long till we're out of range?"

"The cannon fire is originating from concealed positions in the jungle," the Zentraedi replied as more blasts shook the dropship. "We should be out of range in another minute."

As the Zentraedi spoke a powerful explosion shook the dropship and the deck abruptly tilted sharply to one side making everyone stumble. The deck stabilized but then another blast shook the deck like a sharp, two-second earthquake and the distant rumbling of the dropships fusion turbine engines died away. It was immediately obvious that they had been hit and had lost engine power.

"Colonel the cockpit reports we've been hit," the Zentraedi who'd been speaking reported, "primary propulsion systems have failed. We're falling back towards the surface, estimated time to impact sixty seconds. They've deployed emergency chutes to slow us down to a safe landing speed. Sir allow me and my colleague to get you and your prisoner to a crash safe area."

Ferretti blinked but nodded. Immediately both Zentraedi squatted down and – with both incredible dexterity and incredible gentleness began picking the expedition team and their Jaffa prisoner up. Then once they had them all they began running for the nearest crash station.

Tok'ra Vessel

A Few Minutes Earlier

Martouf and Freyr blinked in surprise as they came upon where the signal from the orbiting alien warship was being directed. A large vaguely conical craft – that according to their sensors was a hundred and ten meters wide at its base and forty-three meters tall – had just landed on the surface of the planet, throwing up a cloud of grass pollen as it did so. Though absolutely enormous in comparison it was clearly the alien equivalent of the tel'shak used by the Goa'uld and served the same function as a dropship.

"Impressive," Freyr commented even as she started working the sensors to learn more about the craft. Immediately the results came in. "Interesting."

"What is it," Martouf asked a moment before a huge ramp-like door on the side of the craft opened and two impossibly huge humanoids in enough armour to cover a Cheops-class mothership came running down it and took up guard positions on either side. "Impossible."

"What?" Freyr asked before following his shocked gaze and gasping herself as she saw the giant humanoids. They can't be real we must be seeing things, she thought.

"If you and Martouf are seeing things then so are Lantash and I Freyr," Anise said to her, "check the sensors that will surely tell you if they're real or not."

"Good point," Freyr answered and checked the sensors. The results were startling, the aliens were real living creatures. Creatures that were bigger by far than anything anyone known to the Tok'ra had ever seen before - well to the best of both her and Anise's knowledge at least.

"Are they real," Martouf asked.

"They are," Freyr confirmed, "whatever they call themselves these aliens are literally giants and if I am reading these bio signs correctly – there is an odd energy signature there that I've never seen before anywhere let alone in a life form – they're a human stock species."

"Impossible humans cannot grow that big," Lantash objected.

"Not without some artificial intervention anyway though this is far beyond anything we've ever thought possible," Freyr answered. "And it appears they're not alone. We're reading a sizeable number of humans, and one Jaffa, boarding the dropship. The former must have come through the Stargate and the warship came here to pick them up."

"I'm surprised they didn't just go back through the Stargate," Martouf commented. "Unless they were attacked by an advanced squad of P'tah's Jaffa sent through the Stargate ahead of Solec's arrival. It would explain their prisoner and why their warship sent a dropship down to pick them up."

"A logical assessment," Freyr agreed a moment before her console gave a crystalline-sounding chirp. "The dropship is lifting off. Strange it appears to be using some kind of fusion-based reaction engines not an inertial engine."

"That's a bit strange," Martouf replied, "should we follow them back into orbit?"

"I don't see why not."

Martouf nodded and began guiding the cargo ship after the steadily rising dropship…

…a moment before puffs of black smoke began appearing all around both it and them.

"What the hell," he exclaimed as two near misses rattled the Tel'tak.

"It's anti-aircraft fire of some kind. Unguided, high explosive projectiles," Freyr answered scanning her sensors even as more ack, ack exploded around them. "Multiple points of origin concealed within the forest. Curious, the projectiles are exploding with more force than I would expect for such a primitive weapon."

"Naquada enhanced? We know that the Vallartan nation state was trying to get its hands on naquada. It was a raid of theirs on one of P'tah's mines that prompted the attack on Linkotis after all."

"No, the unknown signature in the explosives is not naquada, its not powerful enough. Neither I nor Anise have any idea what it is."

Martouf blinked but before he, or Lantash, could offer any response two tremendous impacts in rapid succession rocked the cargo ship. Sparks abruptly shot out of a number of crystal trays and a warning sounded.

"We just lost the cloak. Taking evasive action."

Even as he spoke, he started moving the cargo ship into a planned series of moves to thwart the aim of the hidden gunners below. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite quick enough as he had barely begun the first turning when three blasts in succession struck them and something vital in the rear compartment blew with a bang. A second later all his controls went dead as the Tel'tak lost all power.

"Shit main power's out," he exclaimed.

"We're on it," Anise replied getting up and moving towards the rear compartment to reroute the power using the various crystal trays.

"It's too late we're going down. Impact in thirty seconds get in the pods," Martouf replied leaping to his feet. Knowing better than to argue Freyr/Anise began racing for the closest of the sarcophagus-like escape pods at the back of the cockpit. There would not be enough time to launch them before they slammed into the ground, but the pods would at least keep them safe from the inevitable impact.

Martouf followed and within seconds they were both safely cocooned within a pod each. No sooner than the doors closed and sealed but the cargo ship bucked and shook knocking both Tok'ra back against the pod walls – robbing both of consciousness near instantly – as the cargo ship crashed onto the surface of Linkotis and skidded for nearly a kilometre throwing up great waves of dirt and grass before coming to a smouldering stop…

…several dozen meters from where the alien dropship they'd been following also smashed hard into the unyielding earth.

Vallartan Survivors Encampment

A Few Moments Later

"General."

Standing before the map table, where he had been carefully surveying suitable encampment sites for the coming winter as they couldn't stay here near the foothills of Mount Sarana, General Varen, formally of Imperial Guard now just one of a few hundred survivors of the Goa'uld attack a decade ago turned at the sound of one of his staffer's voices.

"Yes," he asked.

"Sir our anti-aircraft positions report that they've just brought down two alien aircraft," the officer reported, listening to the morse code-like message on his radio headset and translating it as he went along. "They were both attempting to take off from the vicinity of our former base. Sir one is Goa'uld, the other is of unknown origin."

"So, the Goa'uld have returned, and they've brought a friend with them. Probably to rob the bodies of those of our brothers who didn't get out of their alive."

"Looks that way sir. Orders?"

"Do we have any patrols in that area?"

"Yes, sir. Captain Nellin's patrol base is nearby. Given how dense the forest is at this time of year they'll be able to reach the crash sites in fifteen minutes."

"Send them have them search for and detain any survivors. Once they have them, they're to bring them straight here for interrogation. Advise our people to prepare."

"Yes sir."

As his underling scrambled to relay his orders Varen turned back to the table, though he no longer saw the maps of the terrain around here. Instead, his thoughts were dominated by the fact that after all this time the Goa'uld had returned to Linkotis and seemed to have brought a friend with them. The question was why as despite his words to the underling he doubted that grave robbing had been their goal, they'd already taken all they could salvage from the base though sadly they had not really had time to recover the bodies of their dead brothers and provide the proper funerary rites. Survival had sadly taken priority over all else, especially as the Goa'uld attack had come in late autumn just days before the first snows in fact.

No, he didn't think grave robbing was what they had come for. They'd come for something else, something that wasn't immediately obvious. The question was what had they come for? After a moment he shrugged and got back to work planning where to go this winter. There would be time to find answers to what had brought the enemy here again when Captain Nellin brought the survivors of the crashed ships here and they were rigorously interrogated for information.

Right now, he had a winter encampment site to find, the one they'd used last year being closed to them due to a lava effusion from Mount Sarana last month. Still, he would admit that there was a part of him that looked forward to overseeing the interrogation of the enemy, overseeing it and maybe getting a little bit of payback for what they had done to his people and the noble destiny of the Vallartan people to rule Linkotis that they had taken away from them.

Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. I admit I had great fun writing Jar'un's reaction to seeing full sized Zentraedi and seeing – thankfully for him inactive – Robotech battle mecha for the first time. Next chapter will hopefully wrap up the events on Linkotis, will Varen's people be able to take prisoners, or will the patrol find itself on the business end of robotech weapons wielded by pissed off STORM Commandoes and pissed off Zentraedi? Will the two Tok'ra survive or be taken prisoner. All should be revealed in the next chapter. Until next time.