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 still are 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 Fourteen

Officers Mess

Fort Minotaur

That Same Time

"So, Admiral Gloval wants you to lead a mission to Mars?"

Idly chewing on a somewhat rubbery piece of farfalle pasta Rick Hunter nodded in response to the question from the woman sitting opposite him, enjoying her own pasta dish. Lisa Hayes had waited an impressive period before asking him just what it was that Gloval had wanted. They had gone through the appetizer making idle small talk while they waited for their food to be delivered. Now though it appeared as though Lisa's patience had finally reached its end.

"Yes, he does," Rick answered after swallowing that mouthful. "As soon as we get back to New Macross I will be meeting with the other members of the expedition that's currently being assembled. We'll then board one of the Zentraedi cruisers and fold to Mars."

Lisa scowled. "Why on Earth would he want you to go to Mars," she asked curious and with an understandable amount of tension in her voice especially when she mentioned the name of the red planet. Due to the fact that her first love and fiancée had perished there – along with everyone else on Base Sara, at the time they'd assumed to AUL sabotage but which they now knew from documents that had been recovered from the smouldering ruins of Alaska Base to be an attack from a scouting Zentraedi cruiser – Mars would forever, for Lisa Hayes, be associated with a place of pain and the source of a wound on her heart that, while it had become more bearable in no small part to the pilot sitting opposite her, would never truly heal.

The fact that they had both almost died there – along with everyone else on the SDF-1 when a certain purple-haired Zentraedi pest ambushed them – the last time they'd been on Mars didn't help matters.

"You know ever since we discovered the Stargate buried in Egypt that the Zentraedi have been methodically scanning the other planets," Rick answered, before taking another bite of his pasta. Lisa nodded back as she ate some more of her own. When he could speak again Rick continued. "Well apparently, they've found something in one of the caves discovered on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano, a faint energy signature. Due to minerals in the overlying lava rock, they couldn't ID it from orbit, so they sent a Cyclops down to run some low altitude scans over the volcano."

"An energy signature," Lisa repeated with a puzzled frown. "Wouldn't we have detected it when the SDF-1 approached the planet three years ago? Or during the month we spent in orbit after that first fracas with Khyron repairing the ships engines?"

"I would have thought so," Rick answered with his own frown as it had been puzzling him since the moment that Gloval had mentioned it. The sensors on the SDF-1 were some of the most advanced sensor systems known to exist, certainly they were both more advanced and more powerful than the sensors on the Zentraedi ships were. So why hadn't they detected the energy signature themselves when they'd been orbiting Mars? "The only explanation I can think of is that it was shielded somehow. Plus, if I remember my Martian geography Arsia Mons is near one end of the Tharsis bulge, almost three quarters of the way around the planet from the former location of Base Sara."

"I suppose that the distance could have been a factor," Lisa admitted, "plus if I remember right there was quite a sizeable dust storm raging over that part of the planet, given how charged those things can become it is conceivable that it concealed the energy signature from our scanners. So did the Cyclops reveal what is causing the signature."

"It's coming from some type of ship," Rick admitted, "they've even identified the power source as being sekitan based, whatever sekitan is. Unfortunately, the ship is so deep beneath the surface, being in the deepest reaches of one of the caves, and there is so much interference from the ferrous metals in the overlying and surrounding rock that they cannot figure out anything more about the ship."

"So, the only way to find out more about it is to go and have a look," Lisa concluded, "though to answer your question as I understand it sekitan is a coal like ore that can be an incredibly powerful source of energy. It's apparently more powerful than fusion but not as powerful as protoculture."

"Interesting," Rick commented before taking a sip of water. "But yeah, that's the only way we're going to learn anymore about this ship, where it came from and how long it's been there, is for a team to go and have a look. Admiral Gloval is putting me in charge of that team… I just I hope I'm up to it Lisa. It's going to be different to commanding Skull Squadron."

"You'll do fine Rick," Lisa said reassuringly, she could understand where he was coming from and why he was nervous about it. While he was a good squadron commander, and indeed had done quite an admirable job at commanding the SDF-1's air group after the death of Roy Fokker, commanding a team like this would be a new experience for him and completely outside his flying comfort zone. "Admiral Gloval wouldn't have assigned you the mission if he didn't think you could handle it, he knows – as do I – that you can."

Rick smiled slightly. "Thanks Lisa."

"You're welcome."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they both focused on finishing their meal before it got cold, both quietly enjoying each other's company. Soon enough they finished, and Rick felt compelled to speak up again and address a rumour that he had been hearing everywhere for the last hour or so. More than one of the people in the gym had been talking about it – he'd overheard them before he went into that private room to take out his anger over what had happened to Nathan on the punching bag.

"So, what's this I hear about an alien ship arriving in orbit," he asked.

"You know about that already," Lisa answered, surprised then she shook her head ruefully. "Well, I guess that it's true what they say that the only thing faster than space folding is scuttlebutt. But yes, a warship belonging to an alien race called the Asgard arrived in orbit a short time ago – gave both orbital control and the Zentraedi quite a scare from what I am told. Apparently these Asgard and the Zentraedi have a long and somewhat storied history involving shooting particle beams at one another."

"Sounds like the norm for relations between the Zentraedi and other races until they met us and Minmei's singing started breaking the conditioning that the Robotech Masters used on them," Rick commented, inwardly wincing at Lisa's words as he could easily see such a battle in his mind's eye. Hell, they had fought many such battles with the Zentraedi themselves, the biggest of which was responsible for the current mostly devastated state of the planet

"Tell me they didn't come here for a fight," he said, hoping that they were not about to get caught up in another one of the numerous wars that the Zentraedi had fought in the name of the Robotech Masters for who knew how long. He honestly wasn't sure that the planet would survive getting caught in such a crossfire.

"They haven't," Lisa said reassuringly, she had had the same worry as Rick when she'd been informed of the arrival of the Asgard battlecruiser. "Apparently someone from the Secretary of State's office has spoken with them and they'll be docking aboard the Factory Satellite in about half an hour prior to another more in-depth meeting."

"We really need to give that place a proper name," Rick commented, though he was aware that such discussion was ongoing among the UEG leadership – well when they weren't fending off the stink that some of the independent states especially EBSIS and the United Islamic Republics – which used to be the countries of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq – we're making about them possessing the station. Especially as they had somehow found out that the station was now repairing itself and would within two months be fully operational once again, giving the UEG an industrial capability greater than the entire planet had had before the outbreak of the Robotech War. So far the complaints from the independent nations – who were not being permitted access and wouldn't be unless they joined the unified government at least as associate if not full on members – had been of the diplomatic sort and mostly hot air as none of them were in a position to really do anything in practical terms about them possessing the station since it was out of surface to space missile range and none of them had spacecraft capable of reaching it without being stopped and challenged – hell aside from EBSIS none of them could make it even into low orbit.

Lisa nodded back. "We do though you know as well as I do that it is quite low on the list of the governments priorities especially given the diplomatic rows raging over the station's presence here in the first place," she pointed out. "You would think that getting almost blasted into oblivion by Dolza would get us over our distrust of one another."

"I wish."

Lisa nodded back, hearing the exasperation in Rick's voice over the way groups like EBSIS and the UIR were behaving. She – and frankly everyone who had been on the SDF-1 and fought a mostly one-ship war to protect all of Earth from the Zentraedi – shared that exasperation. She started to open her mouth to suggest that they change the topic but before she could begin to speak alarms began ringing throughout Fort Minotaur prompting her to shut her mouth and exchange a concerned and worried look with Rick even as they both stood up. They both knew what that alarm signified…

…for the second time in as many weeks Fort Minotaur was under attack.

Stargate Chamber

A Few Minutes Earlier

Sergeant Zackary Reed was bored as he, and three other members of the UEDF Army detachment assigned to Fort Minotaur, stood guard over the Stargate. Ever since the report that their first expedition through the ancient alien device had been attacked by aliens from the gate, who had obviously come from another world, General Richards had ordered the gate watched twenty-four seven. Most of the time that was done via security camera's, unfortunately the one that watched the gate had since broken down and they didn't have a replacement in storage. While one had been ordered and would come in the next supply shipment from Heraklion, who knew when that would be due to the storm. In the meantime, Richards had assigned squads like Zackary's to watch the gate. While the idea of standing as a guardian against a potential alien incursion through the damned thing had sounded quite exciting to him – certainly far more than playing nursemaid to a bunch of science geeks was – when his fireteam had been assigned a shift the reality of it had been somewhat, well, boring.

All he did was stand here, in full battle dress and carrying an AR-22 assault rifle, gazing at the device that looked almost like it was made from stone and not some insanely strong and exotic alien metal. Waiting for any sign of life from something that looked like it had stepped right off the set of Star Trek, well before the rising tumult of the Global Civil War had seen that show – and so many others – taken off the air. In the three hours since this five-hour shift had begun there was no sign of anything – indeed the only excitement they had had so far was a few minutes ago when some of the scientists had come in and began running some tests on both the ring and that odd vaguely mushroom-shaped pedestal device that seemed to be its control panel.

He shifted slightly uncomfortable. His legs were aching from the heavy workout he'd done this morning, after all he hadn't really been scheduled to be on duty today, so he'd felt fine about doing a heavier than normal squats and other leg exercises, indeed he'd pounded the weights to the point that his muscles had been screaming for mercy by the end of workout only to find out later, when he got back to barracks, that there was a change in the duty schedule and that he was on duty after all. The reason being the storm battering the island had stranded the squad that would have been on this afternoon in Heraklion. It was only a combination of training, the latest gene mods he – like everyone else who joined the UEDF – had been given when he enlisted and sheer determination that was letting him ignore his complaining muscles. Blasted storm had to screw everything up, he thought, especially one that wasn't forecast until just an hour before it hit.

Mentally he shook his head. Such surprise storms were not at all uncommon these days as the planets weather systems were still in an extreme state of flux after the Rain of Death. In addition to blasting countless amounts of dust and other fine particulates into the stratosphere the passage of the reflex beams from Dolza's fleet had heavily ionised all five layers of the Earth's atmosphere. The result was climatic chaos that even now, two years after the bombardment, was still springing the occasional unpleasant surprise on the people of their badly battered and bruised planet. Though at least this storm was simply wind and rain and not a white out blizzard like what some places – even places that historically rarely if ever saw snow – were experiencing and would only require some minor cleaning up afterwards instead of hours or days of shovelling.

A sudden rumbling, grinding noise that was almost like stone grinding on stone and a vibration in the floor brought him out of his thoughts. He looked over to see that the inner ring of the Stargate was spinning and as he watched the first of the chevrons around the outer ring made the odd locking motion that they did and the crystal above it lit up orange. The ring continued to rotate moving to make the next chevron do the same thing. With a jolt he realized that what the brass had been afraid of was happening, somebody was dialling in from off world.

After a second of dumbfounded astonishment training kicked in.

"Everyone get to your positions now and someone call for backup," he yelled, "all scientists and technicians get out of here now."

The handful of scientists and technicians in the repurposed wind tunnel didn't need to be told twice. They immediately began moving to leave the room while the troopers moved into positions to cover the gate with their guns, all except Corporal Stevens who was on his radio requesting backup. Zackary for his part trained his rifle on the gate as one of the scientists – who had been doing something off to one side of it – started to pass in front of the device.

A device that chose that moment to complete its dialling sequence and roar into life.

A silver-blue eruption exploded from the activating gate enveloping the scientist before he could even begin to react. In an instant the unfortunate man was completely vaporised by the unstable energies of the forming wormhole, leaving nothing to mark he had ever been there at all. Mercifully he hadn't even had the chance to scream. The unstable mass fell back into the ring and shimmering wall of the fully formed and stabilized event horizon filled the gate.

For a moment more nothing happened then, with a strange slurping sound, an object the size of a basketball, likely an automated probe that was made from a pale grey metal that nobody present could immediately recognise, came floating through the event horizon. It advanced three or four meters into the room before stopping and beginning to sweep the area with some kind of yellow laser-fan like beam that Zackary was willing to bet was a sensor of some kind. It seemed to be especially interested in all of them standing around – even the scientists who had stopped and were looking at it in interest.

The probe advanced a little bit further into the room before finally stopping its scanning and moving up towards the ceiling where it hovered just above the level of the top of the gate. Zackary resisted the impulse to look up at it, unlike some of the scientists who were following and tracking it with their eyes, some even starting to point their portable scanners at the alien drone. Instead, he kept his eyes, and his rifle, focused on the shimmering water-like wall of the event horizon.

Thus, he didn't miss it when the first alien - wearing the same kind of uniform he had heard the people who'd attacked them nearly a fortnight ago had worn and having a face concealing helmet that looked like some kind of winged animal and carrying an odd staff – emerged from the gate. Another followed him – and from his size and body proportions the being could only be male – and another. Over the course of about forty-five seconds eight of the armoured individuals came through. A ninth man – this one dressed in a slightly more ornate golden-coloured version of the armour, but minus a staff instead there was some kind of device wrapped around his one hand – followed at the end. Within seconds of the individual stepping through the gate shut down with a vapour-like flash.

For a moment nothing more happened, everyone staring at each other not quite sure how to react to the tableau before them. Then one of the scientists stepped forward, holding up his hands in as nonthreatening manner as possible. The aliens watched for a moment before the one in gold reacted.

"Jaffa kell nai shok," the being said in a deep distorted voice that was not in any way human.

Faster than anyone could react one of the aliens reacted grabbing the scientist and spinning him around and holding him immobile. Simultaneously the other aliens levelled their staffs at them, the bulbous ends opening with a strange electrical crackling noise.

"Let him go," Zackary ordered not at all intimidated by the obvious threat.

"Kree shak shell Jaffa," the gold alien said. Again, the response was immediately as one of the aliens touched something and a bolt of golden energy burst from the muzzle of the staff. The bolt crossed the s pace to one of the other scientists and slammed into the man with the force of a charging bull. There was a brilliant flash of flame, and a scream of pain, as the scientist was physically picked and slammed against the far wall by the force imparted. The scientists lifeless body crumbled to the ground, leaving a slick of blood on the wall.

Incensed by the sudden senseless murder Zackary pulled the trigger on his rifle hard enough to trigger a three-round burst. Within the AR-22 rifle drops of two separate liquids – that individually were completely harmless but when combined produced an explosive force that made any other propellent used by humanity during their long, bloody history look like a child's toy – combined and accelerated three projectiles down the barrel at hypersonic velocity, the 5.56mm rounds exploded from the weapon with a roar like an angry dragon. In a literal blink of an eye, they slammed into the torso of the offending alien, being designed to punch through even Zentraedi body armour, the rounds easily ripped through the thin trinium-steel mesh being used in the chainmail-like armour to rip apart the chest of the being underneath. The alien cried out in pain even as it collapsed and lay, unmoving on the floor in a rapidly spreading pool of very human-looking blood.

"Kree'shak Jaffa," the alien leader yelled after a second, surprise and anger clear to hear in its voice. It had clearly not expected Zackary to return fire so quickly and for the return fire to prove so devastatingly effective against its troops. The response from the alien troops to their leader's command was immediate as they levelled their staffs and opened fire.

Chaos ensued.

The handful of scientists and technicians who had remained in the room after the Stargate completed its activation sequence, screamed, and scrambled to get out of way. It didn't help as within seconds two of them were hit in the back and killed by the alien weapons. Zackary and the rest of his squad returned fire as best they could, trying to engage their attackers without hitting the scientists. The sound of gunfire, both the deep throaty roar of the AR-22's and the more high-pitched thumping whoosh of the alien energy weapons, echoed through the wind tunnel along with the yells and screams of people getting hit by the sudden deluge of weapons fire.

Faintly over it all there was the sudden blaring of klaxons, alerting the rest of the base to the sudden attack.

Zackary allowed himself as grim smile as he heard the alarms going off. Soon more army personnel and marines, all of them bristling with weapons including in the case of the latter lasers, would come storming into the room ready to kick some serious alien butt. Another alien went down in a burst of fire from his rifle, and he changed his focus to the golden one who was the leader, who he immediately fired upon. Only for the projectiles to detonate against a shimmering pillar of energy that appeared and completely encompassed the alien.

Though he couldn't see a face through the helmet he got the distinct impression that the alien was smirking at him as it raised the hand with the strange device on it. The alien pointed his palm and what appeared to be a crystal of some sort in a golden metallic housing at him. The crystal suddenly glowed and a rippling wave of force exploded from it and slammed into him with a force that felt like a battloids fist. Zackary found himself lifted off the floor like he was a leaf in a stiff wind – and not a six-foot tall, two hundred- and five-pound man – and slammed with both bone jarring and breath-taking force into the far wall. His rifle fell from suddenly nerveless fingers as he slumped to the floor dazed, his back screaming in agony from sudden bruises.

For what seemed like an eternity he heard the fighting continue – albeit in a distant, subdued fashion as though it was coming from some distance away and not just a few feet away – until as abruptly as it began it stopped. He faintly heard heavy metallic footsteps, the alien boots seemingly specifically designed to make a clank, clank, clank, clank noise as they moved, before he felt strong hands pick him up, he was still too dazed from the impact with the wall to offer any resistance and found himself face to helmet with the alien leader. The alien's faceplate parted in the middle revealing the face of a handsome man of Mediterranean descent, but it was the eyes that sent a shiver of dread down his spine. They were colder than liquid nitrogen and as merciless as the vacuum of space itself.

For a second the alien seemed to study him then his eyes glowed from within as if he suddenly had spotlights behind them. "You could indeed be the one," he said in English this time though with that same distorted, creepy as hell, voice. "Bring him. Jaffa kree ta chappa'ai."

"Yes, my lord," Zackary faintly heard one of the other aliens say, shockingly in a normal voice. Somehow Zackary had expected all the aliens to speak with that weird ass voice. Deciding he didn't want to go with the aliens, something telling him that it wouldn't be very pleasant, he began struggling to break free from his captors. He found himself wishing, not for the first time that regular troops like him would get issued the Tristan armour that the STORM Commandoes used, with the power aid of that things nano-muscle servos he would have no difficulty shaking off the aliens holding him. As it was it felt like trying to break free from a pair of vices.

"You have spirit indeed," the alien leader said with an amused chuckled before he raised his weapon again and brought it to just above Zackary's forehead. The jewel lit up again and suddenly Zackary felt all the strength leave his body and he slumped near boneless in his captors' arms. The alien withdrew the weapon and satisfied that he would offer no more resistance – that he couldn't much as he wanted to until the energy imparted by the weapon faded from his system – closed its helmet again.

Zackary could hear the Stargate dialling again and he felt himself being turned to look at it. He watched helpless as the inner ring repeatedly spun and one by one the chevrons lit up until the unstable vortex burst into existence before settling back into stability. The alien leader took the lead, and they began – well in Zackary's case he was dragged – to move towards it.

They were almost to it when the snap of laser fire reached his ears along with a scream from one of the aliens as he was hit. About time guys, he thought knowing the first marines had arrived, their laser rifles spitting beams of coherent, supercharged photonic death. He heard another alien cry out as they were taken down by the beams.

"Heeshak," the alien leader said sounding both enraged and fearful as the lasers began cutting his men down. The alien picked up his pace to a fast walk and disappeared through the event horizon of the wormhole, the two aliens holding Zackary doing the same…

…dragging him through with them.

Following behind the squad of marines who had responded to the security alert from the repurposed wind tunnel housing the Stargate Colonel Kowalski scowled as he observed three of the alien raiding party – and a captive – vanish back through the Stargate the rest of the raiders cut down by the marine's lasers, well those who hadn't been killed by the assault rifles of the army troops. Within a second of the aliens and their prisoner disappearing back through the wormhole it vanished in a vapour-like flash of energy.

"Damn it," he cursed, furious that they hadn't been able to stop the aliens escaping with their prisoner. He looked at the other marines. "Status?"

"Sir all hostiles terminated," the lieutenant who had led the squad reported, "one hostage recovered, it looks like the army boys got his captor with a headshot and he was able to escape into a ventilation duct during the crossfire. Only three of the raiders escaped with a prisoner."

"I saw that bit," Kowalski growled slightly, knowing that there was no way that the Defence Council would let this attack go. Whoever had attacked them was going to get it, and have it explained at the point of a particle cannon what happened to anyone who dared to attack them and take some of their people prisoner. That was if they could find out where they came from. "Tell me the camera's watching the dialling device and the Stargate are still working."

"The one watching the gate itself isn't sir it broke down yesterday morning and was awaiting replacement," the lieutenant replied, "that's why the army squaddies were in here in the first place to watch the gate while we waited for a new camera to arrive in the next supply shipment from Heraklion. However, the one watching the dialling device should be."

"Get someone to the security centre and pull its logs," Kowalski ordered, "see if you can find the exact symbols the aliens pushed, and the sequence they pushed them in. The Council is going to want them as there is no way they will let this stand."

"I understand sir I'll get them. When I have them printed out should I bring them to you or General Richards?"

"Bring them to Richards, he and I will have to report this to the Council anyway. In the meantime, have someone take the alien bodies to the medical section. Maybe the autopsies will be able to tell us a bit more about who these bastards are. As for the tech take it to the labs, Carter will be sure to have someone who can analyse it all."

"Understood sir I'll get right on it."

As the lieutenant began carrying out his orders Kowalski turned his attention back to the gate, mentally replaying their final flight through it. You better be sure to give yourselves a good head start, he thought, wishing he could somehow beam his thoughts across who knew how many light years to wherever the raiders had come from, because we'll be coming for you, whoever you are and mark my words you will pay for this unprovoked attack.

Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust I hope you all enjoyed it. The identity of the Goa'uld who just led the raid on Fort Minotaur – and got one hell of a scare when the counterattack came as while Goa'uld personal shields will stop a laser blast it won't do it for long as the power cell for the shield in the kara'kesh hand device can only keep the force field up so long when under fire – will be revealed in the next chapter. As will the fate of Sergeant Reed though I think you can probably guess what is going to happen to him, at least for a while.

With the madness of Christmas now only twelve days away said chapter probably won't be ready until the New Year – give you all something to look forward to lol – though I am hoping to get a new chapter ready for a different story before the big day arrives but naturally, I cannot promise anything, especially given how crazy it can get around here in the build up to Christmas. Until next time.