Chapter 142: The Secret Base Part 2
Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)
Catra stopped and cocked her head at the door, but she couldn't hear anything from the area outside Taweret's quarters.
"Anything?" Adora asked.
Catra shook her head. "She's got good insulation. Probably paranoid about spies overhearing her," she said. "Any cameras you can access?" she added, looking at Entrapta, Sam and Bow.
"Nothing," Entrapta replied. "The electronics they use here are pretty simple."
"Anything more complex probably does not survive the experiments," Sam said.
Right. This feels like infiltrating a Princess Alliance stronghold, Catra thought. Just without the magic defences. "So… we just open the door then and deal with whatever guards are placed outside?" She flexed her claws in case anyone had any doubts about what she meant.
"There will be guards outside," Sha're said. "And they will be familiar with Taweret's servants. We can't fool them with a disguise, either."
"Yes," Jakar agreed. "I fear subtlety won't help us here."
"Then blunt measures will." Jack grinned. "That's more my style, anyway. But we should try not to alert the entire base."
Catra looked at Adora, then flashed her fangs and nodded. "No problem."
They positioned themselves, Jack and Bow behind them, zat ready respectively arrow notched, and waited for Sha're to operate the door. The servos whined - Entrapta mumbled that they were just a tiny bit underpowered - and the door started to slide open.
Catra dashed forward as soon as the gap was wide enough, then jumped to the side, vaulting over the guard to the left of the door. She twisted in the air, head pointed down, and lashed out, slicing into the man's throat with her claws, and whatever he had been about to scream turned into a wet gurgle as blood shot out of his mouth.
On the other side, Adora tackled the guard into the wall, knocking the breath out of him, then smashed his head into the floor, helmet still on.
Catra landed on the floor, legs bending, gathering power to pounce - but an arrow hit the third guard, glue covering his entire head, and he stumbled, trying to rip it off, only for his hands to get stuck. A moment later, he dropped, shot with a zat - like the fourth guard.
"Clear," Jack whispered.
Catra nodded and moved ahead, jumping over the growing pool of blood around her target. Her ears twitched, but she didn't hear any alerts going off or anyone moving nearby. That was… suspicious. Shouldn't the ring transporter be guarded as well if it was nearby? She reached the corner and stopped, crouching low on all fours to peek around it.
There was a door, armoured, but she couldn't see any guards. Was Apophis trying to hide it in plain sight? She moved past it to check the next corridor but found no guards there either - though she could hear a patrol below her.
The others had reached the door in the meantime, so Catra doubled back. "Careful," she hissed. "There should be guards here. And if they aren't outside…"
"...then they are inside," Jack finished.
"Peekablue would be very useful right now," Glimmer commented. "But we can't linger. Let's go in before we draw more attention. We can take out any guards inside."
Probably. Catra still had her suspicions.
But Jakar was already cracking the lock, so she moved to get ready for another charge.
When he stepped back and to the side and she heard the servos starting to work, she tensed, ducking low so the others would be able to shoot over her head. Almost… now!
She launched herself forward, landing on all fours, claws digging into the floor as she whirled, ready to launch herself at… nobody? She sniffed. The air had a touch of… locker room smell?
Before she could narrow it down, the others rushed in, weapons aimed, and came to a stop as well. The room was, but for the controls for a ring transporter, empty.
"Well…" Jack shrugged. "I guess even we get a break sometimes. Unless it's a trap. It's probably a trap."
"Scanning!" Entrapta announced. "I don't detect any explosives. Or poison. Or anything else."
"The controls are secured with a code, but I can crack it," Jakar announced. "It's not very sophisticated."
Catra expected that. Any security measures on stuff you used every day had to be easy to use, or half the troops would end up skipping them just for convenience.
"And done… It's set to automatically pick one pre-programmed location," Jakar said.
"Alright. First wave: Me, Adora, Catra, Glimmer and Bow," Jack said. "The rest of you come down once we give the clear."
That sounded reasonable to Catra, and she stepped into the transport area. The others followed. Sam looked as if she wanted to argue, but she held her tongue.
"Beam us down, Scotty!" Jack said.
Catra snorted, and Jakar nodded. A moment later, the transporter started. Rings rose around them, and Catra felt a tingling sensation while her surroundings faded away.
And then she had to suppress a sudden urge to retch. It stank. Worse than a cadet barracks a month without any inspection. Glancing around, she saw the source - they were in a large room packed with people. People who shied away from them. People dressed in rags.
"I guess that's where the slaves disappeared to," Jack muttered next to her. "Should have taken Daniel with us."
"Yes," Adora agreed. She smiled at the slaves, but they looked even more scared. "Let's call the others and…"
A rumbling noise, quickly replaced by a whining sound that kept growing stronger, drowned her out. Then, the entire room trembled, and Catra's ears were assaulted by shrieks of panic. She clenched her teeth and slapped her hands over her ears, hissing with pain. What the…
It stopped as soon as it had started. Replaced by a buzzing in her ears - no, near her ears.
Her communicator had frizzed out.
"My tablet!" Bow complained. "They must have run an experiment!"
Hell! Catra bared her teeth. That meant half their gear - if they were lucky - just got fried.
"Carter? Carter?" she heard Jack snap.
No answer.
They had lost contact with the rest of their group.
Holding Area, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)
Jack O'Neill stopped trying to use his communicator. It was obviously broken. As were all the communicators on them. It wasn't a catastrophe, though - they might have lost contact with half the team, but Carter and the others were at the ring transporter controls. They could just get them out again. And would as soon as they figured out that their comms had been wrecked. Which would take Carter about a fraction of a second.
Actually, she should have already used the transporter to get them out again. She would have tried to contact them after they had arrived - certainly after the experiment went off. That meant… "What are the chances this wrecked the transporter?" he asked.
"Uh…" Bow sounded evasive. That was a bad sign. "I don't think it would be destroyed. They wouldn't risk that, I think, would they?"
"I don't think they would keep doing those experiments if they wrecked their transporters every time," Catra said.
Jack agreed with that. But why hadn't the others transported them back yet? Had something happened to them?
"They're afraid of us," Adora whispered.
Right. They were surrounded by slaves. Jack looked around. The people were trying to put as much distance between them and Jack and his friends as possible - pressing themselves against the walls in some cases. At least there were no kids here - just adults. No older people, either. Yes, those were the missing workers. And they looked maltreated - gaunt in most cases. Starved.
"You don't need to be afraid of us!" Adora spoke up before Jack could think of the best way to handle this. "We're here to help you!" She smiled at them.
But the slaves just cringed and looked even more afraid.
That didn't deter her. "We're here to save you!" she went on.
Jack suppressed a groan. They had to find a way to save themselves first.
"I am She-Ra, Princess of Power. These are my friends: Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon, General Jack O'Neill of the Tau'ri, and Bow and Catra. We've been fighting the Goa'uld."
Jack winced. That could backfire - had backfired in the past. Some of the snakes' slaves took their religion seriously.
But there were gasps.
"She-Ra? The goddess?"
Adora winced at that. But before she could deny that, Jack whispered: "Don't deny it. They need to trust us." If they suddenly swarmed them…
One of the slaves - a young woman - slowly approached, almost crawling on her knees. "We've felt your blessing, goddess! You healed us!"
And speaking of healing… She had a barely healed wound on her leg, Jack saw.
"Please help us!" A middle-aged man added. He was cradling his left arm.
"We will," Adora said. " Ah… you don't need to kneel. We'll get you all out of here."
"As soon as our friends get the transporter working," Catra muttered under her breath.
"I still can't reach them," Bow said. "And my tablet is…" he trailed off with a grimace.
Broken beyond fixing, then. Jack nodded. Most of the slaves still looked afraid. Or knelt. Or both.
"If needed, Adora can restore magic to the planet, and then I can teleport us back to the others," Glimmer whispered.
Jack nodded. And Adora could blast a way to the surface with all the magic.
"Uh, that might not be the best idea, guys," Bow whispered. "That experiment broke my tablet and our communicators."
"Yes?" Jack looked at him.
"It broke the magitech in both," Bow said. "I checked."
Jack frowned. That meant…
"But the magic hasn't been restored to the planet yet," Glimmer said.
"They're experimenting with magitech," Bow confirmed. "Must be First Ones technology."
"Like the portal in the Fright Zone," Catra whispered.
"But… magitech works well with or without magic on a planet," Adora said.
"Yes. Normal stuff. But these are dimensional experiments…" Bow bit his lower lip again. "We don't know what they'll do with magic available. If the First Ones built whatever the Goa'uld here use with magic in mind, the experiments could have vastly different effects."
Jack grimaced. Things were already dicey enough without such a boost. "Let's save that for our Plan B."
"Yes." Adora nodded. "But we need to get those people out. We can't leave them here to suffer."
Jack looked around for a door or anything. They wouldn't just use a transporter to access this room, would they? Sure, it would improve security and make escaping all but impossible without outside help, but… None of the slaves were avoiding parts of the walls. They would, if they had ever seen such a door. "It looks like the snakes really limited access to the room to the ring transporter." Damn. Jack hated it when his enemies played it smart.
"Yes, they did," Catra agreed. She looked around as well. "But this doesn't look like First Ones style."
She was right! The walls were built in the same style, from the same material, as the base. "This was built by the snakes," Jack said. "And I don't think that they worked through the transporter for that." He didn't think they would have been able to start working in the middle of the solid rock and soil here. So… "They must have dug a tunnel from which they excavated the room," he said.
"And that might still be around - just sealed off!" Catra grinned and looked at the walls. "Time to check!"
Adora clenched her teeth and tried not to show it; these people were looking to her to be saved, and she couldn't do anything for them. Some were even praying! And their expressions… She didn't know what was worse, the fear or the hope.
She was such a fraud!
"Adora! Come here!" Catra called out, interrupting her thoughts. Her lover was standing at a wall, waving, while the poor people nearby were moving away - slowly, on the ground, as if they were afraid to stand.
Which they probably were. Adora clenched her teeth again and joined Catra. "What did you find?"
Catra grinned, flashing her fangs, and rapped her knuckles against the wall. "There's a hollow space behind this wall!" she announced with her ears twitching.
Oh. Adora couldn't hear anything like that, but she trusted Catra. "So Jack was right."
"I knew it!" Jack grinned and walked over to them, followed by Bow and Glimmer. They caused more movement amongst the prisoners - some cringing away, others slowly following them, shy, scared smiles on their faces as if they didn't dare to hope.
Adora had the sudden urge to crush every Goa'uld here for doing this to them. She struggled not to show her anger, though - the prisoners would be scared even more.
"So, do your thing, holder of the holy drill!" Catra quipped.
But the prisoners around them gasped, repeating 'holy drill', and more started kneeling.
Adora shot her lover a glare. That was her fault!
Catra snorted in return, apparently unimpressed.
Sighing, Adora changed her sword into a pickaxe, prompting even more gasps and prayers. She ignored them and stepped up to the wall. Glancing around, she made sure everyone was far enough away so they wouldn't be in danger of being hit by fragments, then raised her pick and hit the wall. Hard.
The wall all but exploded in a cloud of dust, and she felt shards and pebbles hit her. She drew her weapon back and watched the dust settle, revealing a crater almost a foot thick.
Behind her, Catra whistled, Jack made a comment about anger management, and the prisoners' prayers increased in volume.
Sighing, Adora swung her pick a few more times, opening a hole to reveal a wide tunnel. Wide but rough, she noted.
"That doesn't look very structurally sound," Jack commented.
"No, it doesn't," Bow agreed, moving forward to peer into the tunnel. "Most of the support struts look haphazardly placed."
"Guess they weren't meant to last long," Catra said. She cocked her head, frowning. "I think I heard some crack from them."
"Maybe Adora opening the hole has put more pressure on them," Bow guessed. "Or the experiment - the tremors we felt might be building up tension in the rock."
"And they probably have been running a lot of them - this was the second in a day," Jack added. "Better hurry up and get us out of here."
"And them," Glimmer said, nodding at the room.
Of course. Adora nodded, then turned to face the prisoners. "Stay here. We'll open a way and then get you out."
"Yes, goddess!" a young woman said, bowing her head amongst whispers and murmurs.
Adora wanted to correct her, but this wasn't the time for that. Instead, she turned and looked at the ceiling. If she restored magic and used the power it granted her, she could blow a hole to the surface. Like she had done in the Eurondan bunker. But that would endanger everyone above them, and if the whole thing collapsed… Better save that until they had no other option. She nodded, pressing her lips together. "Let's hurry!"
She stepped into the tunnel, but Catra dashed past her, leaving small tracks in the dust on the ground. Ahead of them, the tunnel turned, and Catra stopped at the corner, kneeling and touching the ground.
"It's wet," she said, rubbing her fingers and looking back at them.
"That's probably why they changed their heading," Bow said. "If there's a water vein ahead, they could have flooded the tunnel if they had kept going straight ahead. They also treated the walls here with some sealant." With an almost sheepish smile, he added: "My brother Dig is a miner."
Ah. Adora nodded and eyed the walls of the tunnel there. Yes, she could see some sort of coating there - but some water was still seeping through. On the other hand, there was no pool on the ground. Maybe it evaporated? The tunnel was pretty warm.
Catra, meanwhile, was already moving around the corner. "Damn! They collapsed the tunnel!" she hissed.
Adora followed her. She was correct - debris, rocks mostly, filled the tunnel. They were trapped! She would have to use magic to get them out!
Catra moved forward, picking up a rock and looking at it. "Blast traces."
Jack peered at it as well. "Yeah. Looks like from a staff weapon." He glanced at the ceiling, then at the rocks ahead of them. "If they shot the ceiling to collapse it, and the rock ended up here, then the blockade can't be too large."
Adora nodded. That made sense. "So, I could dig through it."
"You might bring down the ceiling if you do it, though," Bow pointed out. He glanced around. "We need to support the ceiling before you start digging."
"With what?" Jack asked. "Adora can't keep it up if she's also supposed to dig."
Bow smiled. "We can build stone arches. Like for bridges. Adora can cut the pieces from the walls of the prison."
That sounded doable. Jack looked sceptical, but Adora was already headed back to the prison. She trusted her friend.
And they had to hurry. People depended on them. The prisoners. And their friends back in the base.
She wouldn't let them down.
Apophis's Base, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)
Samantha Carter resisted the urge to once again try to raise the General on the comm. The communicators were fried - she had checked herself. Crystals shattered by whatever exotic effect those multidimensional energy experiments caused. It was almost certainly a magical effect - based on magitech, of course, since there was no magic available to directly power the technology used - to affect the crystals like that, although it was theoretically possible that a wave interacting with the crystals on just the right frequency would have worked as well. Theoretically. But that wouldn't have affected the other crystals in their gear, which had also broken when the entire room shook.
Maybe Apophis had realised that they used magic and was working on a countermeasure to counter their magitech-based weapons and sensors? And not merely their magitech gear, she added silently as she looked at the controls of the ring transporter.
"The transporter is out of action," Jakar said, straightening from where he had been bent over the console. "According to the readings, it's 'resetting'."
"Yes!" Entrapta nodded emphatically, her hair fanned out, holding up panels from where she was looking at the interior components of the transporter. "The crystal matrices have been knocked out of sync. Resynchronising will take some time, but I didn't find any critical damage. Except for serious wear on many components, though that's still within safe parameters. Just that they could really use some maintenance and replacements soon."
"It seems that the multidimensional energy discharges are severely affecting their own technology as well," Sam said. That wasn't a sign of a mature - or safe - technology.
"We knew that already from the way they avoid using sensors in the base," Jakar said.
"We suspected. We still suspect - this is just more support for that hypothesis," Entrapta told him with a grin. "But it looks sound. Although we still don't know what they are trying to do! We really need to sneak into the research base!"
We really need to contact the General and the others, Sam mentally corrected her friend. They were cut off, their only way back disabled - temporarily disabled. But they just had to wait, she reassured herself. As soon as the transporters finished resetting, they could get them back.
As long as the group stayed within the transporter area - the ring transporter swapped the entire area between the rings with the target area. But what were the odds of the others staying put? Sam clenched her teeth. After losing contact for too long, they would assume the worst and try to get back on their own. Probably fearing that Sam's group needed help. Any second those transporters took longer to reset increased the chance of their friends leaving the transport area. "We need to prepare a message in case they have left the area," she said. If only they could repair their communicators - or their radios. Those hadn't survived either. They needed tougher, hardened comms. With more redundancy. Keep backup systems turned off. That should render them more resistant to such attacks.
"Someone is coming," Teal'c interrupted her thoughts.
"Guards?" Sha're asked, zat'nik'nel ready.
"I presume so." Teal'c cocked his head. "Several walking in step."
A squad, then. Sam clenched her teeth. They should hide - if they were discovered right now, the mission would fail. And they would be caught in the middle of a base, with half their group missing, including their strongest. But hiding would mean abandoning the others… She pressed her lips together. She hated it, but they had no choice. "We need to leave," she whispered.
"But…" Entrapta started to say.
"Now!" Sha're cut her off. "We cannot get caught."
No one else argued. Jakar was already moving to the door where Teal'c stood. Sam could hear the steps herself as she joined them - still a bit away but closing in.
"This way." Teal'c led them into a side corridor.
Sam let the others pass, then followed them. Right before she turned the corner, she caught a glimpse of a Jaffa patrol walking past the side corridor towards the transporter room.
That had been close. Too close.
She could hear them talking but couldn't make out the words.
"One is complaining about the smell," Teal'c said in a whisper next to her.
Her eyes widened. The smell? They had cleaned up some, enough not to leave tracks on the floor, but… She felt herself blush, silly as it was.
"They blame it on the 'prisoners' - and someone not airing the room after the last transport," Teal'c went on.
Oh? Sam blinked. That smell - the stench of the air that the transporter had brought back when she had sent the General's group down! After swimming in an open sewer, it hadn't seemed too bad, but the Jaffa had noticed. And if there was no transport scheduled…
"They might blame it on a lazy slave," Jakar whispered.
Might. Or, if they were diligent, check the transporter logs. What were the odds for either? Should they take the guards out? Sam tensed.
Teal'c shifted next to her. "They said the transporter is now working again."
Sam gasped. That soon? "We have to take them out and secure the transporter!" she hissed. And then save the others!
But she could hear the transporter activating on the way to the room, and when she entered, the last ring was just vanishing into the floor. There was no sign of the guards.
"It smells different," Teal'c commented.
Then the Jaffa had chosen a different destination than the one the others had gone to. Well, that didn't matter - they still had the old destination in the memory banks of the transporter and could…
She blinked, drew a sharp breath and rushed over to the console. A quick check confirmed her fear: The memory banks had reset as well. They had lost the transporter's addresses!
Sam felt the sudden urge to shoot whoever was responsible for running these experiments under such conditions.
Holding Area, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)
Bow's idea had worked out. Or was working out - Catra watched as Adora finished the last support arc under his direction. Glimmer, holding a flashlight to illuminate the entire operation, was beaming as if she had come up with the idea, of course, but that was to be expected.
Catra glanced back towards the holding area, where a few of the slaves were peeking in. From their spot, they couldn't see anyone except Catra since she was standing at the corner - the perfect place to keep an eye on them and her friends. Well, almost perfect place; the wall was a bit too wet to lean comfortably against.
Two of the slaves realised that she had seen them - they must have good eyes since Catra was quite a bit away from them and the tunnel didn't have lighting installed - and ducked out, but the woman who had greeted Adora first stayed, staring straight at Catra.
Catra grinned and waved, and the woman bowed her head. She didn't try to enter the tunnel, though, so she wasn't about to disobey Adora's orders. Good. They couldn't fight whatever guards were in the area ahead with a bunch of poor slaves behind them.
On the other side of the corner, everyone took a step back as Adora started on the last part of the mass of gravel and rocks blocking the tunnel. A few hits with her magic pick reduced the stuff to rubble, which she scooped up after changing her pick into a huge shovel and spread it along the tunnel's walls, leaving a narrow path in the middle free. Catra would have to tease her about being a magical construction worker later. Once they were out of this pit.
She moved forward before Adora had finished fully clearing the blockade, quickly climbing over the remaining rocks and squeezing through the narrow opening on top.
"Catra! We don't know what's on the other side!" Adora complained.
"That's why I am going in," Catra replied, looking around.
"It's not safe! It could collapse!"
Catra eyed the ceiling. It didn't look particularly unstable or stable, so that was good enough for her. And it was only a few yards to a door - Goa'uld style, she noted - in front of her.
It should be safe enough.
She slid down the rubble on this side and approached the door. It was covered in dust and apparently hadn't been opened since the roof had collapsed. She could see where whoever had closed it had pushed back more rubble and rocks that must have fallen into the area behind the door. That was a good sign - it meant this part hadn't been abandoned. And the walls next to the door looked different. Familiar. She had seen that kind of metal before.
Behind her, she heard magic metal strike rocks, followed by a familiar grunting noise, then some huffing. Adora must have cleared away the last of the big rocks blocking the way and was squeezing through as well.
"Catra!"
"Just doing some recon," Catra told her with a grin before nodding at the door. "Look at the walls."
Adora peered at the metal, her armour shining brightly enough so even her eyes could see it, and frowned. "First Ones architecture."
"Yeah." Catra nodded. "Looks like we're at the underground base."
"Let's hope it's the right one!" Jack joined them, followed by Bow and Glimmer.
"Ring transporters don't have the range to reach other systems, and we didn't pick up any other potential bases in the system," Bow pointed out.
Jack grumbled in return. "So, can you crack this, or do we have to use my universal door opener?"
"Uh…" Bow smiled weakly and glanced at the ceiling. "I think we better don't use explosives." He moved to the lock. "I should be able to open this even without my tablet. It's pretty simple. Like the ones above."
Catra frowned. "So simple, the dimensional effects didn't wreck it?"
"Probably, yes," Bow replied, fiddling with the lock before he pulled off the dusty cover. "Yeah, definitely."
"So, they installed this after the experiments started?" Glimmer asked.
"Or they just didn't want to waste a better lock on a door leading to a tunnel they would collapse anyway," Jack suggested. He shrugged. "Whatever. Let's go through and see what we can do to ruin some snakes' day."
"And save their prisoners," Adora added, nodding firmly.
"Right."
"Let me check first if I can hear anything," Catra said, leaning forward to brush the dust off the door before pressing her ear against it. "No, nothing." Again, good insulation.
"Guess it'll be a surprise, then," Jack said.
Hopefully, for the snakes and not for us, Catra thought as Bow pulled out some more tools from his belt and started working on the lock.
A minute later, the door chimed and started sliding to the side - only to get stuck almost immediately. Catra heard the servos moving it whine as they strained.
"Ah… it looks like they blocked the door as well…" Bow said.
Adora scoffed and stepped forward. She grabbed both parts of the door, clenched her teeth and pulled.
Screeching, the metal bent as she tore it open, revealing a corridor behind it that looked very familiar indeed. First Ones style.
Catra cocked her head, listening. That noise would have alerted all guards in the vicinity. Though, depending on how big the base was, they might have gotten lucky and escaped notice.
Or not, she corrected herself when Adora stepped inside, and a figure appeared in front of her - no, a hologram. She scowled at the sight.
"Greetings, visitors. Please identify yourself," the hologram said in Light Hope's creepy voice.
"Ah, damn, here we go again," Jack muttered behind her.
Jack O'Neill was a human. Not an alien. That he had some alien genes that made some broken-down robot think he was an alien didn't change that. He wasn't a witch, either, but that didn't apply here. He had known meeting another Ancient AI was a possibility, but he had hoped it wouldn't happen.
Adora, though, was smiling. "Hello! I am Adora - She-Ra. These are Catra, Glimmer, Queen of Bright Moon, Bow, General O'Neill and Jakar/Mats."
The hologram bowed. "Greetings, Adora, General O'Neill. Welcome to Research Station Beta."
Jack sighed. Once again, the damn robot was ignoring everyone else but Adora and Jack. Wait… unlike Alpha, this bot hadn't told them that the station was at their disposal. "Who is in charge of the base?" he asked.
"That information is classified, General O'Neill."
Damn. Jack glanced at Adora, who was frowning. As were the others. Someone else had already taken over the base?
"There's a First One here?" Adora asked.
"That information is classified," the bot - presumably Beta - repeated itself.
"I'll take that as a yes," Jack said. "Whoever's in charge is working with the snakes," he said in a low voice.
Catra nodded and whispered: "Can't trust the bot."
Adora cleared her throat. "What about the prisoners in the room behind us?"
"Those are test subjects."
Test subjects? Jack clenched his teeth. So that was how Apophis was disposing of the slaves who knew too much!
"Test subjects?" Adora sounded livid.
"What experiments are they running here? More genetic engineering?" Catra asked.
The bot didn't react until Adora repeated the question: "What experiments are you running here?"
"That's classified as well."
"I don't think this is going to get any better," Jack said. "We should…"
"We want to talk to whoever is in charge," Adora said, taking a step forward. "I assume you have already informed them of our arrival."
"That is correct."
"How long until the guard spider bots arrive?" Catra mumbled, looking around. Before Jack could say anything, her ears twitched, and she hissed: "Incoming!"
"Take cover!" Jack waved, falling back to the door.
Adora, of course, took a step forward, sword changing into a shield. "We haven't attacked them," she said.
The hologram tilted its head to the side. "I'm following my orders."
"It's Light Hope all over again!" Catra snarled, moving to the side as Bow and Glimmer fell back.
Jack could hear running steps now - several of them. He crouched down and aimed his gun down the corridor.
"This is not necessary. We just want to talk to whoever is in charge of the base!" Adora said, raising her voice. "We don't want to fight you!"
The bot didn't reply.
A few seconds later, the first rank of the Jaffa rushed around the corner, and Jack greeted them with a burst from his carbine that struck the leading Jaffa in the chest, punching through the armour.
The Jaffa went down while his comrade fired his staff weapon.
Adora caught the blast on her shield and charged. She crashed into the Jaffa in the lead, sending him flying back - and into the second rank, who was just getting over the fallen Jaffa. All went down, and before they could get up again, Bow hit them with a glue arrow.
Then Catra landed next to them, claws slashing down. Blood flew, and she dropped to the floor a moment before a volley of blasts flew over her head. One blew a hole into the wall behind her, the others were caught by Adora.
Jack snapped off another burst but then had to hold his fire while Adora made short work of the rest of the Jaffa in close combat.
"I think we need to have a talk with the guy in charge about his hospitality," Jack said. A quite serious talk. Probably dead serious.
"Yes. And about their treatment of prisoners," Adora agreed, then turned and started running down the corridor.
As the rest of them followed her, Jack hoped she had an idea of where she was going.
He caught the bot's hologram fading out, smiling in that creepy way of hers, when he glanced over his shoulder to check their rear.
That rust bucket also needed a serious talking-to.
Research Station Beta, PU-9623, January 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)
The centre of the base had to be somewhere ahead of them. And there would be its current commander. Adora was sure. Pretty sure. She knew the layout of the base from their scans - approximately, at least; First Ones technology made scans from a distance a bit tricky - and Research Station Alpha was built similarly.
It didn't matter that much, anyway. The base wasn't that big, and as long as they kept moving, they would reach the command centre sooner or later. As she had been taught in cadet training, it was better to make a decision and act than do nothing.
She turned around the next corner, shield held in front of her - and caught a volley of staff blasts from a squad of Jaffa waiting in ambush on it. Clenching her teeth, Adora rushed them. They got off another, more ragged volley before she bowled them over.
Behind her, she heard a scream cut short, followed by a zat going off twice, and then Catra was at her side. "More incoming." She nodded at the corridor to their right.
"How many Jaffa are down here?" Jack complained as he joined them.
"As many as Apophis thinks are needed to keep our mysterious First One in line," Glimmer replied.
"Well, he's rapidly losing his safety margin," Jack commented, crouching to aim down the corridor.
"They've stopped!" Catra hissed. Her tail swished behind her.
Adora sighed and moved forward. If the Jaffa didn't charge in screaming praise for Apophis, they would either prepare an ambush or throw grenades around the corner. Neither would help them. This was a senseless waste of lives, and once Adora met whoever was responsible for this…
She heard a staff weapon going off, and a Jaffa was thrown out of cover, crashing against the wall to her side - hit in the back, she realised.
More shots followed, and she ran forward, turning the corner - just in time to see one Jaffa smash the face of another with the butt of his staff weapon, sending the warrior reeling, before flipping the weapon and firing point-blank into the man's chestplate.
Most of the gore and blood splattered against her shield. A few shards of the Jaffa's armour bounced off her own as the victim collapsed - on top of another corpse on the ground.
Before she could say or do anything, the remaining Jaffa dropped to his knees.
"Goddess! Please spare me! I have rejected Apophis for your wisdom and mercy!"
What? Adora blinked.
"I have seen your fury and felt your blessings on Saqqara when you showed your might against Apophis!" the warrior continued with his face pressed against the floor - halfway into a pool of blood, she realised. "Please accept me in your service!"
"Ah…" Adora hesitated, then forced herself to smile at the man even if he couldn't see her. "What is your name, warrior?"
"Atak, Goddess!"
"Killed his own squad," Catra commented in a low voice behind her.
That was true. Could they trust him? Could this be a ploy? Adora didn't know. But if he was genuine… Would Apophis really try such a trap? After going to such lengths to hide his defeat? And would the Goa'uld think of such a plan when they didn't trust each other at all? She didn't think so.
She slowly nodded. "Welcome to the Alliance, Atak."
"Thank you, Goddess!" the Jaffa loudly said.
Adora heard Jack groan behind her but ignored him. "Stand up and face us, please."
"As you command, Goddess." Atak slowly rose, averting his eyes.
"I am She-Ra, Supreme Commander of the Alliance," she told him, trying not to wince at the blood on his face. She could sort out that she wasn't a goddess later. "These are Glimmer, Queen of Bright Moon, Bow, Catra and General Jack O'Neill."
Atak bowed towards her friends. "Your chosen companions. I saw them fight at your side against Apophis."
So, he must have been among the guards they fought on Saqqara. And she probably healed him afterwards, when she restored magic to the planet.
"Yep. Our little dust off with dear old Apophis. How is he doing, by the way? And what are his people doing here?" Jack asked.
"And who's in charge here?" Catra added.
"The Goddess Taweret has joined Apophis as his queen," Atak replied. "She rules this world - and commands this base." He bowed again. "Apophis bade us to obey her as we would obey him. I have rejected her as I rejected him."
"Good," Adora said. But Taweret was in command here? She was a Goa'uld, not a First One. That made no… She blinked again. "Does the base - Beta - answer to her?"
"That's the blue glowing hologram," Jack added. "Talks about orders a lot and is generally annoying."
Atak nodded. "Yes, Goddess. The base answers to her."
Catra cursed next to Adora, as did Jack.
Adora wanted to curse as well.
Taweret must have a host with the First One gene. Or a First One.
Things were far worse than she had thought.