Chapter 170: Ba'al's Machinations Part 2

Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States of America, Earth, May 27th, 2000

"Come in!" Jack O'Neill yelled when he heard the doorbell ring. "We're in the backyard."

"We know," Sha're told him as she stepped on the porch. "We saw it on the approach." She nodded at him, then at Teal'c. "Hello!"

Teal'c nodded back at her and then returned to watching the grill as if he expected it to attack him.

"I figured that was you," Jack replied. She had passed the test and was now qualified to pilot shuttles, after all - Daniel had told him. In detail.

"Oh?" She frowned. "Did I mess up the landing?"

"Not exactly. But none of the security teams coming in fly over my yard, and Carter always takes the straight approach," Jack explained as he shifted some of the plates with steaks and sausages around on the table after checking the spices.

"Hi, Teal'c! You did fine, honey," Daniel said as he joined them. "I dropped the drinks off on the table, and the potato salad is in the fridge."

"Daniel! You've got it backwards!" Jack shook his head with a snort. "The beer goes in the fridge!" He blinked. "Unless you brought it in the new coolers we got."

"We don't have one of those coolers," Daniel said.

"We're not in the Special Forces," Sha're added as she sat in one of the chairs on the lawn. "So we don't have access to one."

"And we wouldn't steal military medical equipment to transport beer even if we were." Daniel frowned at both of them.

Jack faked a gasp. "Steal? I'm testing them! Can't trust the lives of my troops to something that might break down in the field, can I?" Besides, if he wanted a portable high-tech cooler for his beer, he'd just ask Entrapta. OK, he'd probably get a fridge-bot that could float or something if he did it, but he'd get it. Carter would frown at him for it, of course, but mostly because she hadn't thought of it.

"Hm." Actually, a floating bot to dispense cool drinks and stuff in the field would be a neat thing. Like one of those Ice Cream Barges the Navy pukes used to have, just sized for a company or platoon. It could double as an emergency stretcher, too. And maybe make it heat up meals as well. On the other hand, all the power needed for the thing would probably make hiding from the enemy a lot harder unless it could use a stealth generator…

"Jack?" Sha're frowned at him.

Daniel sighed. "I don't know what he's thinking, but it can't be good."

"Daniel!" Jack pouted. "I was merely going over a potential addition to the Alliance arsenal in my head."

"Didn't you tell everyone that there wouldn't be any talk about the war this evening? If Sam hears that…"

Jack frowned at him. That was hitting below the belt! "It was just an idle thought," he said. "And don't you dare tell Carter, or she'll be behind her laptop all evening, doing some remote work on Etheria!"

"I think the communication lag makes that inefficient," Teal'c commented.

"I'm sure she can think of something she can do," Jack replied. Carter had mentioned once that it was actually possible to work remotely across the distance, but frustrating since you had to wait so long for everything, and some fine manipulations were impossible. "But not today! Today is for relaxing. Just us!" SG-1 (and Sha're, since she was kind of an honourary member by now). He hadn't invited the Etherians, but they were busy doing princessly or politician-ly things anyway, what with all the talk about horses' rights. If he didn't know any better, he'd thought that this was all a ploy to distract the idiots in Congress and in the media from the Clones rights issue. It was working, anyway - the news was full of people screaming about tradition or horse murder, not idiots talking about whether or not Clones had souls or were the devil's tools or whatever.

"And speaking of… She's late." He checked his watch with a frown. Should he call her to check that she hadn't forgotten the time while working on another alien problem?

"It's just been five minutes," Daniel said.

"It's Carter," Jack said. "You know how punctual she is. If she…" He trailed off and cocked his head to the side. That sounded like…

"I believe that that is her shuttle," Teal'c spoke up.

"Yeah." At least, Jack hoped so.

The shuttle did take the optimal route to the landing pad, set down, and lifted off a minute later — just enough time to drop off a passenger.

And half a minute later, the doorbell rang again.

"Come in, Carter!" Jack yelled, smiling. "We're about to start! If you have food, drop it off in the kitchen, if you have drinks, drop them in the fridge, if you brought work, in the trash it goes!"

"I didn't bring any work, sir," Carter said with a slight frown as she stepped on the lawn a little later. "Hello, Daniel, Sha're, Teal'c."

"Sam! How are you doing?" Daniel smiled at her.

"No talk about work!" Jack cut in at once. "I've spent the whole week discussing plans to deal with Ba'al before he builds up a clone army and fleet, I don't want to spend my weekend doing the same!" Not when they all had to wait until their recon ships, spy bots and Tok'ra operatives had still to find Ba'als other hidden bases before they could actually do anything but waste time on hypotheticals."

Carter frowned at him again, but there was something… was she smirking? "Alright, so I won't bore you all with talks about our latest project, new armoured uniforms and exoskeletons for the Alliance."

She was definitely smirking when she grabbed a bottle of beer and took a seat.

And now Jack couldn't ask for the inside information about the new armour Carter and Entrapta were building without looking like a hypocrite! He frowned at her, then at his grinning friends. Even Teal'c was smiling - kind of.

Grumbling, he grabbed the first two steaks to put them on the grill.

Etheria System, May 29th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"...and this is Her Divine Highness, She-Ra, Princess of Power and Supreme Commander of the Alliance against the Goa'uld!"

As Adora forced herself to smile and stepped forward, the Clones assembled in the hangar of the future flagship of the Fourth Fleet cheered loudly.

This isn't as bad as I feared, she thought as she approached the lectern at the edge of the stage. They're just cheering. That's normal.

As if someone had read her thoughts, the first row started to bow, followed by the other rows. It almost felt orchestrated - she couldn't tell who amongst the Clones was a veteran from Third Fleet now serving as cadre in the Fourth Fleet and who was a fresh recruit from the Lost Fleet of (formerly) Ba'al's forces - and she shot a glance at Priest, who had announced her, but the Clone's expression was as polite as ever. Which probably meant he had planned this - hadn't he asked Jack about fan choreographies or something recently?

Well, this wasn't the time to ask further questions. She stifled her sigh and addressed the assembled Clones: "Please, stand."

They straightened at once and changed to parade rest. If Catra were here - her lover had taken a detour to Alpha - she would comment about how sharp the formation looked, followed by some remark about how no unit ready for inspection was ready for combat.

"I am happy to see so many of you here, willing to not only leave your past behind you but to fight for your and everyone's future," she began. "The Alliance doesn't fight to conquer but to liberate. Not to destroy our enemies but to protect those in need. Not for revenge but for justice. Not with malice but with mercy. Those of you who were part of the Lost Fleet, those of you who fought the Alliance, we welcome you in our ranks, and we do not condemn you for your past."

She let her gaze sweep over the ranks, trying to impress on everyone how serious she was.

"All of us here - including me - once fought for Horde Prime." Indirectly, as she had served Hordak and Horde Prime hadn't even known what Hordak was doing on Etheria, and technically, she hadn't actually fought in the Horde war before she deserted, but she had been raised in the Horde, just like the Clones had. "And all of us realised how wrong that was." Some sooner than others, of course. But Adora wouldn't judge. "We realised this despite being manipulated from birth, raised in ignorance of the truth and indoctrinated to obey blindly and not question orders and rules - and learned to make up excuses for anything that didn't fit and to ignore that for which there were no excuses."

If she were speaking to Alliance soldiers on Etheria or Earth, there would be a reaction by now. For good or ill, people would whisper and shout and make themselves known.

Not the Clones. They stood in silence, at attention, listening intently.

Adora suppressed a wince and raised her chin. "All of us here are willing to fight to save others from the same fate. To free those who are held in slavery, in chains both literal as well as made from ignorance and lies, ruled by and worshipping false gods. This is what the Alliance stands for: The right of every sapient being to be free to decide their own fate. This is what we are fighting for - and this is why we fight the Goa'uld.

"They not only deceive people into worshipping them and brutally oppress everyone they can, they also possess people, dooming their hosts to become prisoners in their own bodies. They remove even the least shred of power, the least shred of dignity their victims have, all in the name of gathering more power and more control over everyone else.

"And they have done so for thousands of years, unchallenged and undefeated, spreading untold pain and misery across the galaxy.

"Until the Alliance. Until we decided to fight them. To save their victims. And to ensure they cannot oppress anyone ever again. That is why we - all of us, you and me - are here. We'll be fighting for everyone, and we will win!"

For a moment, silence reigned after she finished. Then the first Clone started to cheer, and a moment later, the entire hangar full of people was screaming and yelling.

Adora smiled. This was why she was serving as the Supreme Commander of the Alliance - to lead and inspire those who fought the good fight.

Then the chanting started. "She-Ra! She-Ra! She-Ra!"

That wasn't too bad, either. The Princess Alliance had chanted her name on occasion as well.

But then the Clones started bowing again.

Alliance Base Lübtheen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, May 30th, 2000

"...and this is the Improved Combat Armour Mark III! It is vacuum-rated, which means it also resists chemical and biological weapons, well, most of them - Alpha mentioned some First Ones prototypes of biological weapons that might eat through the armour, though you can argue that those are actually a physical attack just on the nano-scale, so while the effect is similar to acid, which would be a chemical attack, I think we still meet all the requirements the Alliance demanded."

Samantha Carter nodded when the General looked at her after Entrapta's short speech. "Technically, the nano-plague Alpha mentioned could be seen as a biological attack since the nanites are based on living organisms, yet the attack vector uses physical force, but the side effects include a fog made up from the disassembled material, which is often but not always toxic, especially when inhaled. Albeit if that were to be ruled a chemical attack, then any attack that sets a target on fire would have to be classified in a similar way since burning vehicles often release toxic fumes," she added.

The General stared at her. "I wasn't concerned with the legalities. I wanted to know if we actually have that stuff."

"No, sir. The samples were destroyed on the Supreme Commander's orders," Sam replied.

"But we could make a new batch if you wanted," Entrapta unhelpfully added. "We kept all the data in case someone else re-invents it and we need to counter it."

"That's very reassuring," the General commented with a grimace.

Entrapta completely missed his sarcasm and nodded with a beaming smile. "I know, right? Imagine deleting all the data!"

Sam cleared her throat and gestured at the soldier wearing the armour. "As you can see, this is just the armoured suit; we are still working on the armoured exoskeleton." She wasn't going to call it 'power armour'. Not after a quick internet search.

"It looks like a Horde uniform with the evil symbols filed off," the General said.

Sam frowned at that. That was factually incorrect in more than one sense. "This is a new design, sir. But as form follows function, similarities to existing designs could not be avoided."

"And that's a good thing!" Entrapta chimed in. "We think we can retool some of the factories in the Scorpion Kingdom to produce the suits. Or re-retool, in a sense, since those factories used to produce Horde uniforms."

Sam met the raised eyebrows and slight smirk of the General without flinching and continued: "It's composed of an insulated undersuit on top of which the armour plates and a sealant gel that resists kinetic and thermal energy are added."

"That sounds like you glued the plates on the suit."

"In a very simplified manner, that is correct," Sam said, smiling at the General's surprise. The gel was, after all, the real heart of the design. The undersuit was known technology, just a slightly tweaked version of Entrapta's spacesuit design, and the rigid armour plates were only advanced technology since they used the same material as Horde ships and vehicles. But the sealant was the key. Not only did it hold the plates in place and provided an additional layer of armour underneath them, reducing spalling and protecting the insulated undersuit, but it also absorbed both kinetic and thermal energy and served as flexible armour over the joints and other moving parts of the suit. "The sealant coating can resist a staff weapon blast, and the plates will repel multiple impacts."

"What about zats?" the General asked.

"An uncompromised armour will resist two shots from a zat'nik'tel. A third in rapid succession will render the armour non-functional, though the wearer should still survive it."

"Non-functional?"

"Mostly disintegrated, sir."

"I see. And how heavy is that stuff?"

"The weight depends on the size, but it is comparable to the full interceptor multi-threat body armour system used by the US Army," Sam replied.

"That means it's heavier than that stuff," the General said.

"The weight is better distributed," Sam pointed out. "And it provides much-improved mobility."

"Well, let's put that to the test, shall we?" He grinned.

"The helmet is fully sealed, with enhanced vision and a HUD display and offers both an air and liquid filter system and an autonomous air supply with carbon-dioxide scrubbers and an integrated communication system that can be upgraded to include FTL range, though this will require an additional repeater module to be carried by at least one person in the unit," Sam finished. She had prepared for the presentation, and she wouldn't let the General cut it short.

"And it can link up with other systems and sensors, providing you a complete picture based on all the data we have - everyone will know everything!" Entrapta beamed. "You can see through walls as long as one sensor in the network covers the area behind the wall, but that might cause a bit of disorientation - you need to be careful not to run into the walls if you use it."

"Alright. Sounds funky. Let's see how it holds up in the field!"

Sam nodded at the soldier serving as a mannequin, and he walked over to the other test pilots waiting at the edge of the assault course.

The General addressed the soldiers. "It's a live fire exercise. Make sure you're only shooting the bots. We don't want to test the armour the hard way."

"Oh, unless you're using armour-piercing rounds, the armour should hold up," Entrapta said. "We extensively tested it against small arms. Though if the rounds hit a non-rigid spot, it might still hurt."

The General frowned at her, then glared at his soldiers. "That doesn't mean you can get sloppy. I'll be watching the entire run and I'll rate it as an exercise. Don't disappoint me!"

The four soldiers nodded and grabbed their weapons, then started the test. Sam didn't think they were slowed down by the armour, but she wasn't as familiar with the Special Forces as the General, and he was watching in silence.

It wasn't until they finished that he nodded. "Decent time. We'll have to do a few more runs, but it looks like you've got a solid design there."

"We need more testing," Sam pointed out - these were prototypes, rushed to get into testing - but she agreed with his assessment. However, it would take some more time to get the design approved for production. Unfortunately, the work on the armoured exoskeleton was not nearly as advanced; they had only started on that while the armoured suits had been a side project for some time. And the exoskeleton would take much longer to get into production afterwards - if it was approved in the first place.

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 5th, 2000

"...and Ba'al's clone has tried twice more to commit suicide in the same manner despite the fact he must have realised that this would not work. Our analysts agree that he is becoming more unstable the longer he cannot obey the - implanted or imprinted - urge to kill himself, leading to a complete mental breakdown. Depending on the results, this might provide an opportunity to gain his cooperation."

Catra winced at the report from the intelligence officer. Not because she felt pity for the cloned snake since she could empathise with his mental state and he wasn't really to blame for it - Ba'al must have cloned him for this fate. No, it was the intel officer's hopeful tone at using that to break the prisoner that made her cringe. That wouldn't go over well with Adora.

"Colonel Lenny!" Adora snapped. "The Alliance does not let prisoners suffer mental breakdowns to interrogate them! We're better than this!"

To his credit, the Colonel didn't falter much under her glare. "Supreme Commander, we're trying all we can to help the prisoner, but the mental conditioning has proven to be too strong for our attempts so far - Ba'al's clone is resisting our efforts. We can only hope that once his mental state degrades further, this will change and allow us to help him."

Catra had heard excuses from soldiers for messing up before, and she wasn't convinced that the Colonel actually gave a damn about the prisoner, but Adora slowly nodded, seemingly mollified. Well, it wasn't as if they could do anything else - even She-Ra's magic couldn't heal whatever had been done to the clone's mind.

"So, basically, Ba'al's clone hasn't provided us with any actionable intel so far?" General Naird didn't sound like he was asking more than rhetorically.

"That's not entirely correct, sir," the Colonel replied. "He did boast about his future revenge, and how he will return, and has been getting more detailed in his threats as his attempts to suicide remain unsuccessful. This has resulted in several leads we can pursue with the help of the Tok'ra. We assume, based on some of his rants, that he's not focusing on building Horde frigates and other warships but planning to build shipyards, both mobile Horde fleet train units and planet-based shipyards such as the one we captured, while he perfects his cloning technology so he can then surge his enemies with rapidly expanding numbers of ships and crews."

Catra pressed her lips together. That meant that they had a shrinking window of opportunity to stop Ba'al without taking huge casualties in the process. She'd have preferred it if Ba'al had taken less of a gamble and gone for more warships from the start.

Naird, though, looked positively surprised. "So, we just have to nip his build-up in the bud before it reaches critical mass?"

"Effectively, yes, sir," the Colonel replied in a tone that clearly said that things weren't so simple.

Naird nodded. "Good. All that remains is finding his shipyards then. And taking them from him like we took his first base."

"We have to find them first, General," Adora pointed out. "And while the Tok'ra are focusing on this, and we're launching as many recon missions as we can, we have yet to find one of Ba'al's other bases."

Catra nodded. The bastard had taken a page out of Horde Prime's books and kept his forces compartmentalised. None of the Clones from the Lost Ships knew where the other parts of Ba'al's forces were. The captured Jaffa, those who had converted, had been a bit more helpful, but they only knew some planets under Ba'al's control, and none of those had any shipyards.

"And we'll have not only to staff the shipyards but also man the ships they produce," Admiral Biggs said. "That will take time."

Admiral Brown-Emerson shook his head. "If the most recently captured base is any indication, then we can expect the majority of the workers to convert to our side thanks to your efforts, Supreme Commander." He smiled at Adora.

And of Priest, Catra mentally added. "We cannot count on that for the future," she said. "We know that Ba'al is already cloning workers who are far more fanatical in following him." The ones they had found in the base had not shown any signs of defecting to the Alliance - or converting to the Church of She-Ra.

"But those clones have yet to observe the Supreme Commander's personal power," the admiral objected. "We know that such displays have shaken the faith of fanatical Jaffa warriors in the past - and of Horde Clones who were imprinted to obey Horde Prime unto death."

Adora shifted on her seat, Catra noticed. "That happened after I removed Horde Prime, not before," her lover said. "We can't count on that."

"And we shouldn't be using a made-up religion to convert the slaves of the Goa'uld," Admiral Biggs added. "They worshipped fake gods all their lives; they deserve better."

Adora blinked before she frowned. "Believe me, I don't like being worshipped, but that's a choice people made and I won't deny them their freedom of religion."

"But it's a made-up religion! Even you agree with that - and you are their idol!" Biggs protested.

"All religions are made up," Catra cut in, flashing her teeth at the man. "Yours isn't any better."

"Catra!" Adora hissed.

"I don't think this is the place for that discussion," General Steiner said. "Nor should the Alliance judge any religion's worth."

"Except for the Goa'uld's," General Naird added. "They are fake gods fooling their worshippers with lies and tricks."

"We don't prohibit people from worshipping the Goa'uld either," Adora said. "Freedom of religion applies to every religion."

The other members of the Command Council nodded at that, but Catra saw that Biggs and a few others did so rather reluctantly. Though, she suspected, for different reasons.

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6th, 2000

"...and in other news, Senator Smith has proposed a bill that would criminalise the production, importing and consumption of horse meat in the United States. When asked to comment on the fact that in many states, the slaughter of horses for human consumption was already illegal, he stated that this was another reason to ban the practice. Several agricultural experts pointed out that the United States exported significant amounts of horse meat, and that this would affect…"

Jack O'Neill switched channels. It might be un-American, but he was fed up with hearing about horses, flying or not. As if the world didn't have bigger problems! Hell, he'd even had to crack down on a discussion that got a bit out of hand among his soldiers over the damn thing!

"...allegations that the famous singer's relationship with the sorceress was merely an attempt to be able to tour Etheria despite the current restriction on civilian travel through Stargates - a restriction that has been challenged in court - were denied by her management, though anonymous sources…"

Jack switched channels again. He wasn't in the mood for celebrity gossip, either.

"...the Vatican has denied that the Pope has received the unofficial leader of the Church of She-Ra, the Horde Clone named 'Priest', for a private meeting and its speaker refused to comment on the Holy See's stance toward the rapidly growing new religion, or whether or not this was related to rumours about religious persecution of several religions including both Christian sects and the Church of She-Ra in China, though…"

Jack clenched his teeth and pushed the remote's button again. He definitely didn't want to hear about religious issues; he had to tell off several of his 'colleagues' who wanted to talk about why the people on the liberated planets weren't converting to Christianity instead of 'pagan cults' and what could be done to change that. "Maybe those idiots should consider the fact that bringing a book when the competition brings a miracle-working Princess who personally freed your planet doesn't work out too well?" he muttered. Better not, he thought - they might try to limit Adora's use of her powers or whatever.

"...and the police had to step in and stop several people from assaulting the suspected sorceress, leading to complaints about police brutality being raised in the county. The district's representative in Congress, Mrs Brown, released a communique stating that she would propose a bill to 'strictly regulate magic to ensure it didn't threaten the physical or spiritual well-being of the people' and refused to condemn what she called 'concerned citizens trying to defend themselves when the state refuses to take action', though…"

Jack O'Neill closed his eyes. Lynch mobs and witch hunts! "And here we thought that was a thing of the past. What's next, trying to outlaw D&D again?"

"...the rejuvenation of the Amazon basin continues on schedule according to the Brazilian government, citing new restoration technologies and a crack-down against illegal logging operations as the reason. They did not comment when questioned whether there was any truth to the rumour that several influential businessmen had been found dead in their beds, apparently killed by unknown magic, or why the government had refused to release information about which areas would be the next ones to have the rain forest restored, though they confirmed that Princess Perfuma of the Kingdom of Plumeria wasn't involved…"

If that was 'new technology', Jack would eat his shiny new helmet. And he knew it wasn't any of Perfuma's work - the Princess was tracked whenever she visited after a bunch of politicians finally understood what her control over plants actually meant. No, that stuff was magic, probably one of the old traditions of Earth he had heard about. And he would bet that this was payback for murdering environmental activists and inconvenient tribes. But no matter what it was, someone had to keep an eye on it in case it went any further. Especially if Brazil joined the Alliance, though that was a ways off at best, last he heard.

Well, his break was over now. Time to get back to work.

He sighed, turned the TV off and checked the next piece in his pile of mail. And then he sighed again. Great, some agricultural corporations wanted to develop cloning tanks to produce meat, allegedly so the Alliance could reduce the strain on its logistics by producing meat on the bases. And he was supposed to write a report about how that would affect Alliance Special Operations Command's missions?

He scoffed. His troops weren't deployed in numbers or locations that would make such production feasible. Which anyone trying to push this should know. Just as they should know he'd realise this was a thinly-veiled attempt to make the Alliance finance the research so the corporations then could sell the stuff to civilians.

Jack quickly typed a response that said it would be useless for his command. He didn't know if it would do anything, but he hoped it would. He didn't want to eat cloned meat. Whether in the field or at home.

He filed the report, then eyed the next item. Paperwork. How he hated it. If only the spooks would hurry up and find Ba'al's next base so he could get out of this!

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 8th, 2000

"...and while we haven't found one of Ba'al's bases so far, we did manage to acquire the address of one of his ship-mounted Stargates thanks to one of our operatives infiltrating Sokar's forces. If Ba'al keeps his bases off the Stargate network by using ships with Stargates stationed near their systems to allow faster travel, then this would mean one of his bases is near the ship's position."

Adora nodded at Jakar/Mats's report. The Tok'ra had come through, it seemed. Although… "How recent is the ship's address?" she asked.

"It's about two weeks old," Jakar said.

"Do we know how often those ships change their position?" Admiral Brown-Emerson asked. "If Ba'al's is keeping his bases compartmentalised, I doubt he's going to keep his ships at the same spot."

"He is likely moving them around quite a bit, but having his ships change between his bases would defeat his strategy of keeping them compartmentalised," Jakar replied. "So, we expect that this base is still within the same general area."

"If your address was taken when it was on station," Catra said.

"Yes. But since our operative could only secure this address, it is very likely that it is or at least was stationary for some time or there would have been more frequent updates," Jakar told her.

Adora nodded again. A Stargate mounted on a ship could only be reached if you knew the position of the ship, well, the rough position. So, Alliance policy with the few ship-mounted Stargates they had was that they would regularly update their position in case someone needed to travel to them, either by dialling another Stargate or transmitting their position through the Spy Bot Network if they were in range. Ba'al would be faced with the same limitations. "We'll redirect the spy bots to search the area as soon as possible," she said.

"We could try dialling the Stargate address we have and launch a boarding operation if it's still active," General Naird suggested.

"I'm not going to send my troops through a Stargate without any intel about what awaits them," Jack objected.

"According to your files from Stargate Command, you've done that more than once yourself, General O'Neill," Naird retorted. "That was how you made contact with Etheria for the first time, wasn't it?"

"In emergencies," Jack shot back. "When there was no other choice. This isn't the case here."

"Every day, Ba'al is growing stronger, according to our analysts. At some point, he will outnumber us and have equivalent technology unless we stop him as soon as possible. That seems like an emergency to me," Naird said.

"Sending in a boarding force blind is too much of a risk," Adora cut in. "Even if they managed to secure the ship without the crew scuttling it or escorts destroying it, the risk of the Jaffa on station alerting Ba'al before communications are secured is too high." She wouldn't take such a gamble. They weren't desperate. "Besides, it will only take a few days at most to search the area with the spy bots, now that we know where to look."

Naird pouted but seemed to accept that.

Catra whispered something about sending Naird first through the Stargate if he kept this up, and Adora had to stifle a chuckle.

"Once you have the position of the base, what will you do?" Jakar asked. "Will you take it over?"

"If there is a base," Naird said, a little snidely. "It's just an assumption so far."

"Taking over the base is a secondary goal. Our first goal is to get more information so we can dismantle his forces," Adora said. "He might keep all of them isolated, but they still have to report to him."

"You're planning a decapitation strike," Jakar said.

Adora nodded. "It seems the most effective way to deal with this threat. Take out the leader and have his forces wither on the vine."

"As long as we can secure his cloning facilities," Catra said.

"Yes," Adora agreed. "We will have to remain undetected until we have acquired the information we need before we strike, whether at the base or at Ba'al himself."

"Let's hope that this mission goes better than your last. Or the one before that," Admiral Biggs spoke up with a scowl. "You don't have the best track record lately."

Adora pressed her lips together. The man was correct, which was annoying since she couldn't contradict him.

"We still got a much better record, even on the latest mission, than your ships have." Catra, of course, didn't care about that. "How much longer do we have to wait until your 'frigates' are operational?"

"The Constitution II is ready for combat operations in the Solar System!" Biggs shot back.

Adora frowned. Why would the ship be ready for deployment, but limited to the Solar System? Was something wrong with its hyperdrive? But that was essential for battles, not merely for travelling. So… Oh. "That would be an emergency," she said. "But I don't remember the ship being ready for regular operations."

Biggs glared at her for a moment. "We expect to be ready for regular operations outside the Solar System soon."

Jack snorted, but neither he nor Catra pressed the point. Not that they had to - the troubles with the Constitution II-class were widely known at this point. Adora expected the press to pick up on it any day now, despite the information being classified - the Alliance couldn't really stop foreign news agencies. Not without becoming the dictatorship that other nations accused them of being.

But this had gone on for long enough. She smiled at Jakar. "Please convey our thanks to the Tok'ra and inform them of our plan of action."

"I will, Supreme Commander!" Jakar bowed.

And now, they had a mission to plan. Or, to be more precise, adjust the general plans already made to the specific situation. Once they had the information they needed.

Deep Space, Outside PT-9521, June 16th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Alright! Operation Lamprey is a go!"

Samantha Carter frowned at Entrapta's comment. It wasn't her friend's fault, of course - she hadn't named the operation. That had been the General. And Sam still disagreed with his claim that the Spy Bot Mark XI was a 'robo-lamprey'. The bot could attach itself to an enemy ship, yes, and unlike the regular space-capable spy bots, it was flatter so the chance something - or someone - would catch on its surface was smaller, but those were the only similarities. The bot used a magitech tool to adhere to a ship's hull, not some suction technology, and it had an advanced stealth generator to hide its presence even up close.

And it was shaped like a flat disc with a slightly rounded topside, not like a fish. But Sam had been outvoted by the others.

Ultimately, it wasn't a big deal. It was one mission, and while writing the reports wouldn't be a little annoying, it would be far worse if the General had managed to nickname the entire line of bots 'Lampreys'. That could still happen; Sam was aware of how such things worked, but for now, they were merely spy bots.

And they were the core part of the plan to deal with Ba'al. They better worked - Sam and Entrapta had had to delay working on the improved combat suits to do work on the bots, and even so, they were using hand-crafted prototypes for the mission.

"Launching spy bots!" Sam announced as she gave the order.

In the repurposed hangar of the frigate they were in, the half a dozen Mark XIs lifted off and left the ship, stealth fields flicking on as they vanished from view.

Sam switched her attention from the ship's video feeds to the spy bot network's data. The six new bots were already integrated, and she could track them through the network until they entered hyperspace, on their way to the Ha'tak Ba'al was using as a gate ship to access this area.

"Look at how eager they are!" Entrapta beamed. "I still think we should have made them smarter. They could do much more."

Sam knew that the spy bots' capabilities would be significantly enhanced by a sapient control unit instead of a merely advanced decision matrix. It certainly would have increased the missions' odds of success.

But Adora had put her foot down - the Alliance wouldn't create sapient beings whose only purpose was to send on missions that were, if not outright suicide missions, then close enough. Sam was forced to agree; given her experience with sapient bots, she doubted that such spy bots would have been able to refuse such an order since that was what they were built for and identified as.

The General had agreed as well, though he had been concerned about spy bots going rogue, starting up their own network and taking over the galaxy - a very unlikely outcome, in Sam's opinion.

However, it meant the spy bot Mark XIs needed more precise orders and were far more limited in their capabilities. They should be enough for this, though, at least in the first phase - all they needed to do was to sneak up on the target and attach themselves to the ship's hull. In the next phase, they would have to split up once they detected other ships to latch on - as long as the ships were large enough for the spy bots to hide on the hull without triggering sensors due to the mass difference, which limited them to Ha'taks.

The entire mission was a bit of a shot in the dark. Using prototypes on crucial missions, trusting their luck, at least to some degree… It's almost like we're back in Stargate Command, Sam thought with a faint smile.

Sure, this time, they had fleets at their back, but if they failed, the consequences would still be grave. If they couldn't stop Ba'al before he ramped up his production pipelines for both ships and crews, they would have to match him, and that would open a whole can of worms, as the General put it. They could ramp up frigate production, and were already doing this to some degree in anticipation of further casualties, but a huge build-up would require more crews than the Clones could provide given their current cloning rates. And that meant Earth crews.

At least, Sam thought with a scoff, in that case, the Navy would be forced to drop their boondoggle of a frigate design and switch to using stock Horde frigates, and Sam wouldn't have to waste time trying to fix whatever issue crept up this week.

An alert on her computer told her that the spy bots were about to drop out of hyperspace, and she focused on the screen, counting down.

Four… three… two… One… Zero.

The spy bots linked up with the network at once, and Sam checked their position - not quite on top of the target, as planned.

She followed on the slightly lagged feeds as they approached the Ha'tak. "Those aren't standard cannons," she said.

"They aren't Horde beam cannons, though," Entrapta pointed out. "Just upgraded Goa'uld designs. Slightly upgraded, or so it looked. And their sensors weren't upgraded either - they haven't noticed the bots!"

They better not have noticed them, Sam thought. If they had, that would have meant Ba'al had better sensors than the Alliance. And that would have been a catastrophe.

But as things were, the spy bots fanned out, picking locations on the hull to approach and latch onto, without anyone opening fire on them.

Soon, the last of them came to a stop, securely attached to the Ha'tak's hull.

Phase one of the mission was complete. Now they had to start phase two.