Chapter 77: The Intervention Part 2

Deep Space, On the Way to PZ-921, January 7th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"We got the first data from the spy bots in the system!"

Samantha Carter turned away from the preliminary analysis of the latest readouts from her experiment - the lab on the frigate wasn't as good as the one in the Mountain, much less the space lab, but she could still do a lot of work here - and went over to her friend. "What does it look like?"

"Hmm…" Entrapta cocked her head to the side as she looked at the screen held in her hair. "It looks like it confirms the data the Tok'ra shared. At least with regard to the presence of spaceships in the system. Scans show one patrol flight of Death Gliders near the asteroid belt, no other ships."

"Ah." That would fit the intel they had. Of course, if this was a trap by Heru'ur, then any fleet units would be hidden from long-range scans, and while the Alliance had better scanners than the Goa'uld - as far as they knew - they hadn't mounted the best scanners on the spy bots; the chance of them falling into enemy hands was just too great.

"Oh, wait - there's an Al'kesh in orbit around the planet!"

A single bomber? Sam leaned forward and confirmed it. Yes, indeed, a single Al'kesh was in orbit. "That's curious," she commented. But a single ship - and a small one, at that - wouldn't change the equations of the space battle. Not when facing multiple capital ships from Apophis fleet, much less the task force from the Alliance. "Any sign of bombing operations?" If the Goa'uld were dealing with a rebellion on the planet…

"Hmm… nothing going on right now - no explosions. Well, none big enough to show up on the scans. We'll have to get closer to get more detailed scans of the planetary surface."

That would increase the risk of the bots being detected, but not by much. They weren't true stealth bots, but they had a reduced sensor signature. "Yes," Sam agreed.

Entrapta sent the command, and then they waited. A bit more than six seconds to reach the bot in question, then another six seconds to see it starting to move… the lag was frustrating. Even more frustrating was that Sam hadn't been able to find a solution yet.

Finally, the readings started to change. Of course, it would take longer for the bot to reach a range where the scans were more effective. And it couldn't get too close, or the Goa'uld forces might pick it up.

On the other hand, if they just picked up a bot, with advanced technology, if not too advanced, then they would go on alert, and it might even be enough for Heru'ur to send more ships to the system, perhaps spoiling Apophis's plans without revealing too much about the Alliance's existence… No. Heru'ur was unlikely to send enough ships to deter the attack. Not if he was suspecting spy activities instead of an invasion. And he would be on the lookout for spy bots from then on, making their recon missions more difficult. And as the Tok'ra had pointed out - if Heru'ru found out about the planned atrocities, he might strike back with atrocities of his own no matter whether or not Apophis succeeded in the first place. That was how those things worked. No, they had to stick to the mission.

And speaking of the mission… "Let's call the others," Sam said. The Colonel wouldn't like to wait for the more detailed data, but he would hate not being told at once even more. And Adora and her friends could keep him in line.

"Alright!" Entrapta turned to the main screen. "OK… Aw. I really miss Darla. We should have taken her along." She pouted as her hair handled the intercom.

"She's rather distinctive," Sam pointed out. Horde frigates showing up might keep the Goa'uld guessing even if they were spotted, but Darla? A design last used by the Ancients? If the Goa'uld thought they were facing the Ancients, Ancients bent on destroying their empire and way of life, they would likely band together at once, no matter their past feuds. A common enemy did that. And that would make the war much harder to win.

"We could camouflage her! Make her look like… hm… a totally different ship! Or we improve her stealth systems!"

"If we manage that," Sam replied.

"Well, we'd also have to ask her if she wants to change her appearance. But at least we'll get good data on the Goa'uld sensors on this mission. Oh! Do you think we'll get to analyse a captured ship?"

"If we capture one." Boarding a Ha'tak… Sam pushed the memories that brought up away. They had been desperate, back when Apophis had attacked Earth. This time, it would be different - but it would also be more dangerous. Apophis wouldn't blow up a ship with him inside, but Sam didn't doubt that his most loyal Jaffa would rather die and take the enemy with them than allow their ship to be captured.

They had more troops now, but it was still a daunting task, even with Etherian support. Magic didn't work in space - unless you were She-Ra.

Before Sam could voice her thoughts, the door in their temporary lab opened, and the Colonel stepped inside. "So, I spy with my eye…"

Sam suppressed a sigh. She had heard better jokes from him - he must be more nervous than he let on about the mission.

"So, Heru'ur has a slightly larger force in space than expected," Catra summed up the data Entrapta and Sam had presented. "But it's a single bomber." Hardly a threat to either Apophis or their own forces. She frowned. "That doesn't seem much of a concern - though we probably need to take it out to stop them from alerting Heru'ur's main forces."

"The question is why Heru'ur would station a single Al'kesh on this planet," Sam pointed out. "Its main use is to bombard targets on the ground, but Heru'ur controls the planet."

"The planet's population might be rebelling," Daniel suggested.

"Our spy bots haven't found any sign of combat on the ground," Sam retorted.

"Unless the population was supplied with advanced weapons, the Jaffa on the planet would be able to handle them," Teal'c added. "Should they require air support, then the Death Gliders could handle it. Though they would be unlikely to do so - Heru'ur's soldiers are renowned as skilled and experienced, and highly motivated even for Jaffa; the false god focuses more attention on them than his rivals usually do since he is said to often fight at their side."

That had been in the briefing, Catra recalled. She hadn't thought it would be very relevant, though, since they didn't expect Heru'ur to be present. He would not travel in a single Al'kesh, at least.

"Wow, he sounds like one of the boys," O'Neill commented with a snort.

Catra narrowed her eyes at him. Princesses did the same - and she had taken the field numerous times when she had been leading the Horde. "A leader's presence can decide a battle," she pointed out.

"Yes," Glimmer agreed. "Also, Heru'ur fighting at their side would increase his troops' morale and their motivation, even in training. No soldier wants to slack or fail in front of their god."

Catra nodded. Not if they wanted to avoid getting punished, at least.

"It is a brave but dangerous tactic," Teal'c said. "Seeing their false god defeated in personal combat would strike a harsh blow against his followers' morale even if he manages to escape."

Which he wouldn't if he ended up facing them. Based on what they knew about the System Lords' technology, Catra wouldn't bet on them if they were facing an experienced princess, much less Adora. And Scorpia would probably just crush the snake, shield and all. And Catra had a few ideas about dealing with him herself, should she get the opportunity…

"Well, if he shows up, we'll do our best to teach him the error of his ways," O'Neill said.

Catra narrowed her eyes at him again. Was that some backhanded criticism of personally leading your force?

If it was, Adora had missed it - Catra's lover nodded with a grim smile. "Yes, we will."

"But back to the Al'kesh," Sam spoke up again. "We still don't know why it is stationed there."

"It might be used as a transport," Teal'c suggested. "Although a Stargate would be faster and more efficient for ferrying both cargo or troops unless the destination lacks a gate - or the Stargate is not under Heru'ur's control."

"So, he might be planning an attack of his own?" Bow asked. "With a single Al'kesh?"

"It's enough for a raid. Their cloaking device isn't going to do much against our new sensors, but against a peer-level opponent…" O'Neill shrugged. "Using a backwater planet like this as a staging area would make OPSEC easier, too."

"We'll have to take it out anyway," Glimmer said. "But as long as it stays out of the atmosphere, we need more firepower than the stealth shuttles can deliver."

Catra frowned. The Goa'uld shields were weaker in a planet's atmosphere, but they were quite strong outside - well, not against a frigate. "We could take a few Horde fighters with us, but that would increase the risk of getting identified. Of course, if it engages Apophis's forces with the Death Gliders, our task force can jump it and destroy it - but if it stays in orbit…"

"I can deal with it," Adora said. "I just need to get to it. And a stealth shuttle can get me there."

"Do you plan to board it, or are you going to cut it apart?" O'Neill asked.

"Destroying quickly is safer," Catra pointed out. That would stop any message from getting out. But…

"We can take it over - there might be prisoners on it," Adora said.

"I guess boarding action it is," Catra said. "Good thing I brought my space suit." Adora opened her mouth, but Catra cut her off. "You're not going there alone. And we've got enough officers to handle the ground targets." Entrapta, Bow and Sam would be busy dealing with any technical issue, but that still left Glimmer and Scorpia. And Jack, in case the other Alliance officers screwed up. He might not be in the official chain of command, but Glimmer could easily give him a field promotion or something to outrank whoever screwed up. It would cause some issues with the Earth generals, but that would be less of a problem than messing up this operation.

Adora was still frowning but didn't seem to have a counter-argument for that.

Catra grinned.

PZ-921-System, January 12th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"The spy bots have detected Apophis's forces," Carter reported.

Finally! Jack O'Neill managed not to blurt it out loud - that would have set a bad example. He wasn't just leading SG-1 here, after all - there was an entire platoon of marines in the shuttle. Sure, they were led by a marine lieutenant, and Jack wasn't in the man's chain of command, but that was only a technicality. The lieutenant's superior officer was back with the frigates of the task force, waiting outside the system, outside sensor range, to deploy once the vanguard in the stealth shuttles had secured the Stargate and taken out enemy communications. And that meant the man might as well be back on Earth - he might even arrive more quickly on the planet if he could use the Stargate, but you couldn't count on that; even if you took control of the gate, the enemy could dial in and block you from using it.

No, with Jack in the stealth shuttle, and him being the highest-ranking officer present, as well as the most experienced when it came to gate travel or fighting the Goa'uld, his advice and suggestions would be taken as orders. And his reaction to, well, anything would be closely observed.

So he yawned and stretched before getting up from his seat in the main hold of the shuttle. "Who won the betting pool? I had 'Apophis tries to be clever and attacks in a straight line from his holdings, to make Heru'ur think Sokar is trying to frame him'," Jack asked.

He was lying, of course - there was no such betting pool. But Carter played along. More or less. "He chose a vector that did neither point back at his territory nor at Sokar's expected holding."

He could hear Entrapta ask, "What betting pool?" over the link to Carter's laptop, but Carter could explain that later.

"Ah, so no one won. What's the status of our fleet?" he asked.

Carter, as usual, had anticipated that and had already done the calculations. "The task force is moving to intercept the attackers. They should be able to engage them in the outer part of the system, sir."

That, too, had been expected. With hyperspace travel, you couldn't intercept an enemy on the approach unless you got very lucky and stumbled on them during a navigational break or had their planned route in your computers. So, you had to wait until they dropped out of hyperspace and engage them. And that meant staying near the target, or you might get caught too far out to reach the enemy force before it reached the target.

Still, that meant that Heru'ur's forces would be able to observe the battle easily. "And that's our cue!" Jack said, loud enough so all the marines would overhear him. "We need to ensure that by the time the snakes get their butt kicked in space, we control the ground."

Soldiers, especially the noncoms, needed to know a mission's goal in case the officer's got taken out. They had been briefed, of course, but the forces being marines, it was better to repeat the information, in Jack's opinion. Maybe a few times.

"Alright, men!" the Lieutenant spoke up. "Check your gear and get ready!" He sounded more confident than his age and rank would make you expect - but then, the leathernecks would have sent their best for this mission. Just like the Air Force, Jack added to himself as he watched his team get ready as well.

"Alpha separating," Carter reported.

Jack nodded. That meant the shuttle carrying Adora, Catra and the boarding force to the Al'kesh.

"Beta, Gamma and Delta en route," Carter went on right after Jack noticed the acceleration of their shuttle. Beta meant them - the shuttle headed for the Stargate. Gamma with Glimmer and Bow would hit the main mining complex, and Delta would hit the second mine. Epsilon with Entrapta would stay in orbit as reserves.

Just as planned.

Which meant it was now time for things to go wrong.

"Alright!" And there was Scorpia, back from the bridge. Or cockpit. The huge woman smiled as she took her seat. "Let's crack some snake skulls!" She flexed her pincers, and Jack saw a number of the marines wince.

"Remember, don't shoot the control device!" the lieutenant bellowed. "Also, don't use it as cover!"

Jack snorted. That was good advice. No matter how well it had turned out for SG-1 with their unplanned trip to Etheria, you didn't want to risk a faulty gate forming.

Then the shuttle shook, entering the atmosphere, and Jack clenched his teeth. This was the most dangerous part of the landing. All the stealth in the world wouldn't be able to completely hide the thermal signature of that manoeuvre. And if enemy Death Gliders were close enough… They shouldn't be - the bots had tracked them - but Jack couldn't help worrying anyway.

After a few far too long seconds, the shuttle stopped shaking. Which meant they were now in the lower parts of the atmosphere, slow enough to be again hidden from sensors, now that they weren't imitating a meteor any more.

He slowly exhaled and checked his carbine. Not much longer now.

"Almost down!" Scorpia commented. Her stinger twitched above her head.

"Alpha reached the target," Carter reported, cool as always. "Ready elements of the Death Gliders squadrons are launching."

Which meant they were now on the clock. They had to secure the Stargate as soon as possible - or at least prevent it from dialling out and opening a communication link. FtL communications could be disrupted or hacked, whatever Carter called it, for a time at least, if you had enough tech and juice, but to block communication through a gate, you had to take the gate, or people could radio or even send a messenger through it.

"This is it, kids!" Jack said. "See you at the gate!"

A few marines chuckled at the reference. Daniel pouted, but Jack had expected. Carter and Teal'c didn't react, of course. And Scorpia grinned widely.

And then the shuttle shook once more - they had hit the ground. Then the ramp went down, and the battle started. Heru'ur's Jaffa were sharp.

Jack wasn't the first out of the door, but he was a close second behind Scorpia.

And it was like running behind a tank. Despite the staff blasts flying their way - most splashing against the shuttle's shield - the huge woman charged straight at, then into the line of Jaffa still forming up, sending them flying. Literally - Jack saw a Jaffa warrior, armour and all, catch a swing of her pincers and get thrown into the air, high enough to clear the wall behind him.

He put a short burst into another who was lining up a shot at Scorpia, dropping him, then fired at a Jaffa crawling on the ground to get his staff. Another, behind that one, was shredded by Teal'c's staff weapon while Jack opened on two more Jaffa trying to hold a gate in the base wall.

Another Jaffa, screaming like a banshee, went over the wall - no, into a Jaffa on the wall who manning a gun emplacement, both vanishing from sight.

"Teal'c!"Jack called out, pointing up.

A moment later, the whole emplacement vanished in an explosion.

The gates of the base began to close, but Scorpia barreled through the remnants of the Jaffa formation in front of it - Jack thought he saw staff blasts bouncing off her armour - and then threw herself into the gate, tearing it out of its hinges and smashing it on the Jaffa behind it.

Jack emptied his magazine into three warriors left staggering in Scorpia's wake and looked for the rest of his team as he reloaded his carbine. Teal'c was at his side, staff firing at another Jaffa on the wall, and Carter and Daniel were right behind him, with the marines fanning out to cover their flanks.

He turned and raced after Scorpia. The gate's remains were forming a small ramp, and Jack rushed it, shooting a Jaffa caught beneath it through the head, then jumped off, landing in a crouch.

They were in the main yard of the base - in front of the massive stone building housing the Stargate. A dozen Jaffa lay on the ground between the gate and the entrance to the building, some still moving, but more were arriving from both sides as Scorpia was busy ramming herself into the closed and reinforced doors of the building.

Jack switched aim and started shooting the Jaffa reinforcements on the right while he moved up to the building himself, Teal'c, Daniel and Carter, as well as a squad of marines, following him.

By the time Jack reached the building and pressed his back against it, the right wing of the Jaffa had collapsed, and the left wing was falling back under withering fire from the rest of the marines. Jaffa bodies littered the yard, but Jack spotted at least two bodies in camouflage amongst them, both still smoking from the staff blast that must have caught them.

Damn. He gritted his teeth.

"Just a second…" he heard Scorpia grunt as she struggled with the door. "This is tougher than I expected."

"Naquadah-alloy," Carter commented.

That made it super-tough. "We need breaching charges!" he yelled. To go through the walls.

"Just a bit…" The sound of screeching metal cut off Scorpia's words, followed by cracks as she managed to crush the left side of the wall holding the doors in place, stone crumbling under her pincers.

The doors started to shift, Scorpia grinning fiercely while she kept pushing, and Jack grabbed a grenade from his belt. The Jaffa would be ready behind the doors.

As soon as a gap opened, he moved ahead, pulled the pin and threw the grenade through it, then dropped to the ground at the base of the wall. "Fire in the hole!"

A second later, the grenade went off, and dust and smoke billowed through the widening gap, followed by screaming.

A marine ran up to the gap, sticking his gun through it, but before he could fire, a staff blast blew his head off.

Jack pulled out another grenade, intending to throw it through the widening gap, but the other wall was already also crumbling, and Scorpia threw the doors inside with a yell.

Then all hell broke off as she charged inside, staff blasts going left and right before she vanished in the cloud of smoke and dust covering the entrance.

Jack cursed under his breath. He wasn't about to charge blindly - literally - into that. But he couldn't leave Scorpia to face the remaining Jaffa by herself.

"Sir!"

The marine lieutenant drew his attention to the yard - no, to the sky above them. Jack glanced up and cursed.

Death Gliders.

Two of the things, and they were starting an attack run. The stinger team and the bot guarding the shuttle opened up on them. The missile hit one, causing it to whirl out of control and crash somewhere behind the walls, but the other kept going, the shots missing, and rained down blaster bolts on the yard and parts of the wall. One marine carrying two boxes of ammo was caught in the open and shredded by them, machine gun ammo spilling across the ground as he fell.

Then the Death Glider was past them, pulling up to turn around for another go. A second missile chased it but missed. The bot was still firing but didn't seem to be effective. And the Death Glider now had the perfect angle of attack to strafe Jack's entire force.

No choice, then.

"Into the building!" Jack bellowed. "Into the building!" he repeated himself as he started pushing his team into the thinning cloud of smoke.

In Orbit above PZ-921, January 12th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"We're on final approach on target. No sign of detection, Your Divine Highness."

Adora licked her lips and took a deep breath upon hearing the clone piloting their shuttle. Good. Just a bit longer, and they had this in the bag. Maybe she wouldn't even have to jump - maybe they managed to sneak up so closely on the Al'kesh, they could surprise them by docking and boarding the ship? Although Entrapta, Sam and Bow had told them that it was unlikely with their current stealth system…

"Target powering up shields, Your Divine Highness! Deploying electronic countermeasures to impede communication!"

Adora gritted her teeth and turned around, looking at the window in the airlock's inner door. Catra was standing there, scowling at her.

Adora smiled weakly in return. She felt bad about it - a bit - but as great as Catra was, she wasn't She-Ra. She couldn't do the same things She-Ra could. Like fighting spaceships in melee. Or disabling them so they could be boarded and examined to find out what their purpose was.

"Opening the airlock, Your Divine Highness!"

The door slid open, and Adora stepped up to the edge. Below her, she could see the planet's main continent. And to the side, starting to move, was the target - the Al'kesh. She could see the glow from its engines as it tried to evade the shuttle, but it had just begun to move - to change direction - and the shuttle was on an interception course.

She took a moment to watch it move. Enough to know where it would go. Then she pushed, launching herself into space, towards the Al-kesh, sword in hand.

For a brief, brief moment, it was… exhilarating. Like flying. Weightless. Unburdened. Free. Pure joy.

Then she saw the Al'kesh starting to bank and roll in front of her, saw the guns turn to face her and bared her teeth. The first shot missed her, the second she swatted aside with her sword. She cut through the vessel's shield on the backswing, feeling a tingling sensation on her glowing skin as the force field shattered. Yes!

She hit the hull feet-first, her boots adhering to the metal through She-Ra's magic. The turret was still trying to aim at her, but two strides brought her close enough so she could grab a barrel, stopping it in its track.

A slash with her sword cut the whole thing apart, the remains blowing up a moment later. She was already moving, though, sprinting towards the main communication array. It, too, blew up after a single swipe with her blade, and she continued to run, to the back of the vessel, her steps hammering the hull. There was the port engine.

Her sword sliced into it in passing - she kept going towards the starboard engine, easily compensating for the sudden heaving as the loss of one engine unbalanced the craft, and the pilot struggled to keep control.

Before the ship could stabilise, though, she reached the second engine, stabbing her blade through its casing, then twisted - and the ship shuddered as its propulsion died.

"Preparing to board the target, Your Divine Highness!" she heard the pilot over the radio.

"Show-off," Catra added with a snort.

But as she watched the shuttle manoeuvre to align itself with the Al-Kesh, the pilot spoke up again. "Incoming vessels on interception course from the surface, Your Divine Highness - Death Gliders."

Adora turned, scanning the planet below her. If the Death Gliders were launching from the surface, then… yes. She could spot four trails of glowing plasma, like miniature comets, angling towards her.

Towards the shuttle carrying Catra.

She clenched her teeth. They were not yet close enough to fire at the shuttle, but that wouldn't take much longer - now she could see the fighters themselves, not just the trails of their engines. Almost close enough… "Engaging!" she yelled through the radio, raising her sword and pushing off again as they started shooting.

They came in too fast, too focused on the shuttle, to react in time when they spotted her glowing form flying at them. She sliced the first fighter in two, both halves vanishing in a fireball behind her, and cut the right wing off his wingman before they started to evade - and she still managed to grab onto the wing of the third, twisting to land on top of its fuselage.

She could see the pilot gasp at her through the cockpit's windows, eyes wide with terror, as she raised her sword, then drove it through the cockpit and him, wrecking the craft as she killed the pilot.

The fourth Death Glider had gone past her, turning around with blazing guns. Outside the range of the shuttle's guns - the pilot was lucky or good. Probably good.

But not good enough. Not nearly good enough to threaten her lover and get away with it.

She jumped off the tumbling wreck, landing on the Al'kesh's hull a moment later, then jumped off again, straight at the strafing fighter. Before the pilot could evade, she ran her sword through the main cannon's casing, and the freed plasma obliterated it instantly.

"Show-off," Catra repeated herself over the radio.

Adora grinned as the shuttle finished docking with the Al'kesh, looking for a way to enter the ship herself.

Gate Area, PZ-921, January 12th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"Into the building!"

Samantha Carter was already moving, running while bent over, carrying the backpack with her computer in her arms as she passed the Colonel. She entered the gate building behind Teal'c and stepped to the side as soon as she was past the debris - and the corpses - at the entrance.

The smoke and dust were settling, but visibility was still impaired - she could barely see Teal'c's form as her friend stepped forward, blasting something or someone with his staff.

She didn't bother aiming her own gun - they had a platoon of marines with them. Most of them were already cleaning the rooms of the building with short bursts and grenades. She had other duties.

Sam dropped to the floor and flipped her laptop open. The communication module she had worked on with Entrapta during the last few days was already on, and the utility program she had written was… jamming Heru'ur's comnet. But she could see it wouldn't last - whoever was running the Goa'uld's communication was good. Better than expected. And they had a more powerful machine to use. Sam's laptop was linked to the Shuttle's mainframe, but the connection added just a tiny bit of lag - which could be decisive.

But now she was inside the building. "I need access to a sensor or radio!" she snapped as the Colonel ducked inside, dust and sand from an explosion outside showering him as he threw himself to the ground.

He would have waited too long outside, as usual. She buried the thought as he got up.

"Well, let's find it!" he said.

A loud crashing noise rang through the entire room, followed by an "Oops! Was that supposed to hold?"

"She is a walking tank," Sam heard the Colonel mutter.

"Yes, sir," she agreed. "But she's our tank."

He snorted at that and then moved forward, towards Teal'c, who had crossed the room and was now next to another broken door, peering inside. "Scorpia has secured the Stargate," he said. "But it might be damaged."

The Stargate? Sam's eyes widened. To damage a Stargate, you needed… "The D.H.D.?" she asked as she moved forward.

"The housing," her friend clarified.

That was putting it mildly, Sam realised when she reached the door - the gate was on the floor, facing down. She could see a pair of legs sticking out from underneath it. In a growing pool of blood.

"Well, that's one way to block it, I guess," the Colonel commented.

Scorpia laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry about that - I heard the gates were very durable, so… I guess the mounts were not?"

Sam checked the rest of the room. Half a dozen Jaffa, dead or disabled. "There should be more warriors," she said. The garrison had, according to their intel, several hundred guards. And this was the key stronghold.

"Yes. We didn't kill nearly enough for the snakes to run out of bodies to throw at us," the Colonel said.

"And Heru'ur's warriors are fanatical - even by the standards of the false gods," Teal'c said, scanning the room as if he expected a secret passage to open. Which, given what they knew about the Goa'uld, wasn't too improbable, actually.

"Well, I only saw those here - and the ones in the entrance hall," Scorpia said.

Sam wanted to look for the missing enemy guards, but she had to stop the enemy communication. She rushed to the D.H.D. The unit wasn't linked to the enemy comnet, but the radio next to it was - the guards would have used it to communicate through the gate and to announce arrivals to other bases. And while her laptop was a rather jury-rigged combination of Etherian magitech and Earth electronics, it also had a port that was compatible with Goa'uld technology.

She plugged it in - the radio had, fortunately, survived Scorpia's assault, unlike the guard who had manned it, whose broken body lay crumpled at the foot of the wall nearby - and quickly started taking over the Goa'uld comnet. The enemy operator was still active, so he hadn't been in the building here - or he was in a bunker in the base. But now that she had a direct line to the Goa'uld hub, it was quickly becoming obvious that as good as he was, Sam was better. And he would realise it as well. Would he crash the entire network to deny her access?

No, he was… broadcasting 'Avidan' to everyone.

"Gods are just…" Daniel translated. "Is that a battle cry?"

"Not to my knowledge," Teal'c replied.

Then it made no sense… Sam gasped. "It's a code word - he is signalling the guards here and elsewhere, knowing I am reading his comms. And now he's crashing the net," she added.

"Did I mention how much I hate competent enemies?" the Colonel complained before he yelled: "Lieutenant! Report!"

"The enemy outside is falling back, sir!" the marine yelled back from outside the gate room. "They've lost the second Death Glider."

But why were they falling back? They had to hold the building. Or… "They're planning to destroy it!" She quickly focused on her scanner. She hadn't detected any bombs on their approach, but…

Still no bombs. And unless the Goa'uld had found a way to fool Ancient technology enhanced with Etherian magic, that meant there was no bomb here. Not close enough to affect the gate, at least.

"They must be planning to bomb us," the Colonel said. "Joke's on them - we're taking their bomber!"

That was the logical explanation. Death Gliders didn't have the firepower to destroy the reinforced building - probably not even in a suicide attack. But an Al'kesh had the firepower - more than enough.

But Sam couldn't help feeling she was missing something. Keeping an Al'kesh stationed here just for that? That didn't sound like it would fit Heru'ur's standard procedure.

She ran another scan through the base and the area around it. But once again, no bomb showed up - the entire area to the lake's shore was clear. And any bomb placed further out would have to be too big to be hidden if it had enough power to reach, much less damage the gate.

And yet, what the Colonel would call a gut feeling insisted that she was missing something. Something crucial.

In Orbit above PZ-921, January 12th, 1999 (Earth Time)

Adora would be OK. She is OK, Catra reminded herself as she moved up to the airlock of the shuttle, pushing past the Earth troops - British Special Air Service. Which weren't part of the Air Force despite the name. But Catra was used to such weirdness - it was actually tame compared to what some princesses came up with.

"Ah, Ma'am…" One of them opened his mouth.

"I'm not going in first, don't worry," she cut him off, showing her fangs. "She-Ra's the one who can shrug off blasters." Her suit might withstand a volley, Entrapta did great work, but she wasn't betting her life on it if she didn't absolutely have to.

"And fly naked through fucking space," another soldier muttered.

"Smith! Shut up!" the officer in charge yelled.

Catra chuckled, then pulled her shock rod from the holster on her back. The engine noise was dimming slightly - they would dock any moment.

Then the shuttle rocked, a few soldiers having to grab the bars on the walls to keep standing. And there was the metallic noise of the magnetic clamps engaging - they had touched down on the Al'kesh's hull.

A moment later, the airlock opened, revealing the smooth hull of the enemy bomber. "Breaching charges!" the officer bellowed, but his demolition man was already moving forward and placed the device Bow had designed on the hull.

"Clear!" he yelled, rushing back - behind the shield-bot stepping up.

A beep followed as the shield sprang up.

"Blow it!" Catra snapped.

The charge went off, quickly melting through the armoured hull. For a brief moment, Catra wondered what it would have done to people - and if Bow had ever used the trick arrows from which he had claimed to have developed this on Horde soldiers.

Then the breaching charge finished, and the hull had a hole wide enough for two soldiers at once.

Or one shield bot moving forward. And not too soon - the bot had barely stepped inside the Al'kesh when the first staff weapon blast splashed against the shield. Obviously, Heru'ur's warriors were living up to their reputation. The average Horde troops wouldn't have reacted as quickly.

But the Jaffa were not facing average Horde troops. Catra grinned, flashing her teeth, as she moved forward, next to a soldier carrying a light machine gun - an Earth weapon. Two staff blasts hit the shield right in front of her, causing it to flicker.

But she had spotted the shooters' positions and flicked her rod at them. She hit the first one, lightning crackling over his armour as he went down, frozen with his muscles cramping up. The one next to him was riddled with the bullets the earth armies loved so much, falling against the wall and sliding down, blood flowing from several holes in his armour.

It seemed the armour-piercing ammunition worked as well as SG-1 had claimed.

The rest of the boarding team was now also inside the bomber, half of them going down the other side of the hallway, guns firing. They would secure the armoury and bomb bays.

"Alright, move it!" Catra snapped. "Bridge team with me!" She turned, moved forward, to the next corner, then peered around it. Three Jaffa were half-hidden behind struts, blocking the way. And one of them… She jerked back, and two staff blasts whizzed past her head as she dropped to the ground and rolled around the corner, catching the shock grenade the third had thrown with her rod's blast halfway in its arc.

It went off, lightning filling the hallway for a moment, and Catra pushed off, somersaulting away and behind a strut herself.

That let the soldiers with her round the corner and open up, and the three Jaffa went down - though so did one of the soldiers, half his arm blown away.

"Medic!"

Catra grit her teeth. They couldn't stop. She dashed forward, over and past the dead Jaffa, through another intersection, and caught a pair of Jaffa coming out of a passage to the side. Before they could react, she jumped, pushing off the wall, then the ceiling, and came down between them, lashing out with claws and shock rod.

Her left hand's claws went through the armour of her target as if it weren't there, tearing his throat out, while her shock rod hit the chest of the other, sending him to the floor in convulsions.

She dashed on, running on all fours, rod between her teeth. Speed was of the essence now.

A blast went over her head - another Jaffa, laying in ambush. She jumped over the next blast, and then she was inside his reach, jamming the shock rod into his side. One more down.

The door to the bridge was locked, but that didn't stop her. A few slashes with her claws cut it to pieces, and she side-stepped the volleys from inside. At least three Jaffa, judging from the number of blasts.

She clenched her teeth. She didn't like doing this, but… They had a nice choke point. And the soldiers were still coming up.

She gripped the grenade on her belt - a 'flash-bang', pulled the ring away and lobbed it inside, then slapped her hands over her ears.

The explosion still hurt, of course. But not enough to stop her. She dashed inside, where the four Jaffa were still reeling from the grenade going off. Her shock rod put one down, then she rolled beneath a swing from the next before lashing out with her feet, her claws slicing through the Jaffa's leg muscles and tendons. He collapsed, and she finished him off with a stab of her rod.

The two others were recovering - but as they were turning to face her, the rest of the bridge team arrived, and both went down in a hail of bullets as she rolled behind the closest console.

"Watch your fire!" she snapped as she rose. "But good work."

She quickly thumbed her communicator. "Bridge secure!"

"Engine and bomb bay secure!" the Lieutenant confirmed.

"Already? I just found the airlock!" Adora complained over the communicators.

"Slowpoke!" Catra shot back. But before she could tease her lover further, the spy bot that had followed the boarding team and connected to the computers started beeping.

"What? A bomb went off?" Catra gasped. "Where?" Had they missed one?

Another beep.

"On the surface?" she hissed. "Where?"

The screen lit up, showing the location. But that was… far from the Gate area. None of the landing teams should have been near it. Heh, it was in the lake there!

Catra blinked. The bomb was in the large lake that ended in a narrow bay right at the gate area. And she remembered the briefing about explosives and water from the Salineas campaign.

Cursing, she hit the button on her communicator, switching to the general frequency. "Beta! Watch out! You've got a flood wave incoming!"