Chapter 174: Ba'al's Machinations Part 6

Base Portsmouth, PT-9521, PT-9521-System, June 28th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"So, we've got a Death Star to destroy before it gets online. Anyone call Luke Skywalker?"

Catra snorted, once, at Jack's joke. She had expected that joke ever since she had seen the pictures from the spy bot. It wasn't that funny, though.

"Since the ship is still in the process of being built, this would be more like the second Death Star, and so I believe we should be calling Wedge Antilles and Lando Calrissian," Teal'c said in a serious voice. Only the way his lips barely twisted upwards showed that he was joking as well.

But he was correct. "Yes, it's more like the second Death Star. There are a few squadrons of frigates protecting it, together with a lot of Ha'taks and their escorts and a small army of Death Gliders," Catra said. "And it looks like a trap as well."

"A trap?" Captain Baker frowned. "What do you base this on?"

Mostly her gut feeling, but she couldn't say that. Instead, Catra told him: "Ba'al concentrating all his efforts on a huge base ship? Instead of building multiple yardships and factory ships to expand his fleet train, spread out so if he loses one or two, it's not going to be crippling his forces? That sounds fishy."

"Are you honestly suggesting that he would spend so many resources to bait a trap?" Captain Baker shook his head.

"If that's not a fake ship but a real copy of Horde Prime's flagship, then Ba'al will have more forces protecting it. Not just double the fleet he sent against us," Catra retorted. "So, whether this is a trap or not, if we attack it expecting to deal with a handful of Horde frigates and his upgraded Ha'taks, we will be jumped by a lot more ships."

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded. "Ba'al has a reputation as a cunning foe. He would not merely place his guard ships in the open but attempt to hide them so an attacker will underestimate him and be drawn into his trap."

"Well, then we will spring the trap - send in a smaller force, and once he sends in his real force, we jump them!" Jack said.

That sounded like a recipe for a hell of a mess. Four forces trying to entrap each other? And possibly more on the way? Coordinating such a battle would be a nightmare.

"Sounds good." Catra grinned. If Ba'al's forces had one weakness, it was that they were bad at improvising on the spot without orders. Even if Ba'al managed to avoid getting jammed, his ships would be slow to react to any surprise. The more chaotic the battle, the bigger the Alliance's advantage would be.

"But where did he get the plans for Velvet Glove? Not even First Fleet had them; Horde Prime took that data into the grave," Bow said.

"More like into a space plant," Jack commented.

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded several times. "Horde Prime didn't share that data with anyone. So… how did Ba'al get it?"

"Did he get it? He could just be trying to copy the appearance of Velvet Glove," Adora said. "If this is a trap, then it wouldn't matter if he had the real plans or not."

"Redesigning such a huge ship from scratch based on its appearance would be a challenge," Sam pointed out. She would know, having had to redesign the pieces of junk the Americans were building several times over. "You cannot simply scale up a smaller design - not with such a huge size difference. Just building engines able to move the ship at combat speed would be a massive undertaking. I sincerely doubt that Ba'al would have managed that in the time since Horde Prime was defeated."

"What if he started before Horde Prime was killed?" Daniel asked.

"How?" Glimmer shook her head. "Horde Prime didn't even tell his clones about his plans; how would Ba'al have managed to get such data?"

Catra nodded. That was a good point. And to nip the next question in the bud, she said: "And if Horde Prime were still alive somehow, or Ba'al had enough information to fake his survival, he'd have taken over the Lost Fleet much more easily - and likely a lot more Clones."

Daniel raised a finger and opened his mouth but closed it again without saying anything.

"Preliminary analysis of the data we have would indicate that Ba'al is focusing on the parts of the original design that served as yards and factories for the Horde," Sam said. "He might be planning to get those functional and working, and install engines at a later date. Or treat the ship as a semi-mobile space station and move it with tractor beams or smaller engines if it needs to be moved, though he would still need a hyperdrive capable of opening a hyperspace window of this size."

"Still makes no sense, though," Jack complained. "Why build a station as if it were a ship if you can't build such a ship in the first place?"

"It might be the psychological effect," Daniel cut in. "By rebuilding Horde Prime's flagship, or building a space station in its image, Ba'al could claim to be his successor. That would likely increase the loyalty of the Clones serving him."

"All that effort just to make a statement?" Captain Baker sounded doubtful.

"It would impress a significant number of our sadly still lost brothers," Padre said.

"And the Goa'uld love to make such gestures to impress their rivals - and their own people," Daniel added. "Horde Prime was not merely a System Lord - his Empire was a peer of the Goa'uld Empire, at least. By claiming Horde Prime's mantle, Ba'al is elevating himself above all his rivals."

That certainly was true. But Catra didn't think Ba'al would go to such lengths just to make an impression. Still… "Also, if he can make them think he actually has a second Velvet Glove - or Horde Prime's flagship, the other Goa'uld might not know yet that it was destroyed - a number of them might think twice about attacking him. Especially if his forces use Horde technology. He might scare some potential enemies into joining him."

Adora nodded. "So, this ship is a symbol that will help him recruit more people for his armies and it will be producing large numbers of Horde frigates and other materials soon, but it can't move or be moved yet. That means we need to destroy it before it can move and we lose track of it - and preferably before it starts production."

"Yep," Jack O'Neill said, "we'll have to destroy the massive space thingie before the evil space dictator turns it on and controls the Galaxy. And we'll have to deal with his entire fleet as we do so. All we need now is a commando raid to take out the thing's shields so we can destroy it, and George Lucas can sue us."

No one laughed. Carter even frowned at him, and Daniel rolled his eyes.

"You already made the Star Wars joke, Jack," Catra said.

Well, yes, he had - but a little humour never hurt anyone. Well, almost never. Some guys tended to react very badly to some jokes. Especially if they were about them.

"I have doubts that a commando raid would be useful for what seems to be a fleet engagement against a nonfunctional stationary spaceship of unusual size," Captain Baker said. "What are the odds that they have a shield generator ready to cover the thing?"

"Nothing we have seen so far shows a shield generator or preparations for one," Carter said. "Although the size of the ship means they could easily add multiple frigate-sized shield generators to cover it."

"Those generally cannot withstand the focused fire of a squadron of frigates, much less a fleet," Captain Baker said.

"Well… they would be harder to crack since they don't cover an entire ship, just a part of it, and so they could focus their entire strength on a single side." Entrapta scrunched her nose. "It would take four to six squadrons coordinating their fire to have the same effect on the shield, more or less - it depends on the exact shape of the shield and its size. If they spread it out so the surface area of the force shield remains the same as the surface area of a frigate's shield, then the overall strength, and the firepower necessary to crack it, wouldn't change compared to a frigate. Although the sheer size compared to a frigate means we'd need more firepower to actually disable and destroy it after the shields shattered."

"That's still a fleet target," Captain Baker said.

"Yep," Jack said. "But we also need as much intel as we can get - and that means boots on the ground. As soon as we know which ground to put them on, of course."

"We already know the target's location and that it currently cannot move - we have a spy bot observing the target providing us with almost real-time information," the limey protested. For the captain of a fleet transport, he seemed very fixated on not getting to drop troops somewhere. "What more intel do we need? We already know that their fleets are gathering at rally spots in deep space, not near a planet."

Jack shook his head. "We don't know enough about Ba'al's forces - not nearly enough. We've been stumbling into this half-blind, mostly reacting to his moves and rushing as soon as we get something. Now, we can watch that thing be built and take our time - the ship won't be ready any time soon, so we don't need to rush in before we get a bigger picture of Ba'al's realm."

"The longer we wait, the more ships he can build," Glimmer said with a frown.

"We're building ships as fast as we can as well," Jack retorted.

Catra nodded. "But we need intel to know if we're outbuilding him or not."

"The amount of resources going into this construction has to affect his other projects," Carter said. "This would be a massive drain for the Alliance."

"And what if he has the resources to spare? He's been at this for a thousand or more years," Bow said, "or so we heard."

"But he hasn't had access to Horde technology for more than a few years, tops," Catra pointed out.

"So we think," Glimmer shot back.

"Any way you cut it, we need more intel," Jack said. "And that means we need spies and scouts everywhere - including on that thing if we can manage that."

"The same spaceship we're about to destroy as soon as we get the orders to do it?" Captain Baker asked.

"Yep." Jack bared his teeth in a cocky grin. "Because one thing is certain: A snake as paranoid as Ba'al isn't going to let anyone else control that project. Sooner or later, he'll visit. And I don't know about you, but I think we should make sure to nab him this time."

"Unless he sends another clone of himself," Catra said.

That was a distinct possibility. But Jack somehow doubted that Ba'al trusted even his own clones. "In any case, we need more spy bots and more scouting missions in every system in the area here - and on that ship." That would also keep his troops busy and sharp.

"But we can't wait too long - sooner or later, the ship will be functional," Glimmer said. "At least partially."

Catra shrugged. "We'll prepare a plan to destroy it with a raiding force. Shouldn't be that hard if we can get an enhanced Naquadah bomb inside it."

"We need to ensure first that there are no slaves trapped on the spaceship," Adora said. "We're not going to blow up the ship with hundreds or thousands of innocents in it."

Jack suppressed a wince. That would be tricky. "We'll have to drop a team directly on the spaceship, then. That will be a challenge even with a stealth shuttle."

Adora nodded. "I know, but we have to do it."

Well, Jack had asked for that.

Base Portsmouth, PT-9521, PT-9521-System, June 28th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"...and based on the most recent data, we can extrapolate that parts of the ship's factory section will be activated in a few weeks provided that they do not step up their efforts. While not conclusive, the workers seem to focus on those modules instead of weapons and shields - or propulsion, though since they are using modular construction, that is not definitive; they could be adding weapon and shield modules quickly, as long as they construct them in the factory ships - they have the frames for the modules installed, and we, unfortunately, cannot tell from the data we have what exactly each factory ship is producing."

Adora nodded at Sam's report. That was what she had expected - a spy bot latched onto a ship guarding the construction could only do so much. It couldn't see into enemy hulls and any attempt to remotely hack the systems was impossible over such a distance even if they managed to get a connection to the Ha'tak's systems.

"So, it's about what we guessed - Ba'al is focusing on production. He wants a factory star, not a death star," Bow said.

Glimmer rolled her eyes, probably at his reference to Star Wars, but she nodded in agreement. "That supports the assumption that he is trying to build up his production capacity for Horde technology and is using his less advanced ships to keep us too busy to interfere."

"We don't have any hard evidence for that, though," Catra objected. "He launched one attack at this system; if he is trying to keep us too busy reacting to attack him to spoil his buildup, he would need to launch more attacks, both at this base and at others."

"Those attacks might still be happening; he might have sent out other fleets to strike at us - or he hasn't found more of our systems to strike at yet," Adora said. At least, with the spy bot network covering all of the Alliance systems and their surrounding areas, they would have some warning. Still, they couldn't cover every part with enough ships to repel a Goa'uld fleet with Horde technology, so they had to strike at the enemy's capacity to make war.

"As we keep saying, we need more intel about his plans," Jack said. "Old Ba'al is pretty frustrating that way."

"That's why we're going to sneak into his superfactoryship," Catra said.

Adora nodded again. They needed solid intel about Ba'als plans, the forces at his disposal, and the extent of his territory. They couldn't defeat him if he could hide and build up his forces after every lost battle. She looked at Sam again, pointing at the holographic projection of the ship under construction and the factory ships and guard ships surrounding it. "So, can we sneak in there with a stealth shuttle?"

Sam straightened just a little bit. "The fact that they haven't dealt with our spy bots yet would indicate that our stealth generators are still beyond the enemy's ability to detect. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that Ba'al's forces are aware of the spy bots and using them to feed us carefully curated information in an attempt to manipulate us."

"And how likely is that?" Glimmer asked.

"That is hard to say," Sam replied. "We lack the intel about Ba'al's plans to determine that."

Catra made an annoyed noise. "If Ba'al noticed the spy bots, he would be aware that his project's security is compromised and that we know about the ship being built, so he wouldn't have anything to lose by letting the spy bot keep operating and using the entire site as bait for a trap."

"Nothing except for all the resources that keep being poured into building the ship," Bow pointed out. "If this is a trap, he's risking losing it all."

"He might consider that a price worth paying if he can take out our fleet," Daniel said.

"But he doesn't know how many ships we have," Adora said. "He couldn't be sure if he did enough damage to us to make it worth losing those resources."

"Same as we don't know if he can afford to use this as bait or not," Jack said. "I say we risk it. The longer we wait, the less time we have to react if we discover something bad."

"Yes," Catra agreed. "We can't just keep attacking blindly."

"Given Ba'al's standard doctrine of compartmentalising his forces and keeping his commanders ignorant of his overall plans, even successfully infiltrating this factory complex might not reveal much more useful intel to us," Sam said.

"But it will give us more information about his ability to produce Horde ships and weapons," Jack said. "And we're bound to get a lucky break," he added with a grin.

Catra snorted. "That's not how it works."

Jack shrugged. "What else can we do? It's better than doing nothing."

"Only if we don't get caught," Catra shot back.

"We'll prepare a raid by the fleet as well," Jack said. "That way, we have the cavalry waiting in case we need a rescue."

"Yes," Adora said. They needed the intel. "But we need to check out the ship in construction, the factory ships and the command ship of the forces there. So, we either split up, launch multiple teams or prepare for a longer mission so we can infiltrate one target after the other."

"Never split the party," Jack said.

"Between Bow, Entrapta and Sam, we can cover all three parts at once," Glimmer objected immediately.

Jack shook his head. "Only if everything goes according to plan. It never does."

Splitting up or sending more teams meant Adora couldn't protect everyone in case something went wrong. A longer mission was more complicated and also increased the chances that something would eventually go wrong, but they would be together.

"We'll hit them one after another," Adora said. "We might get lucky and find what we need on the first attempt."

Catra raised her eyebrows - she probably wasn't fooled about Adora's real reason - but the others agreed, if a bit reluctantly, in Glimmer's case.

Adora nodded firmly. "So, let's start planning our infiltration."

Near Point Velvet, Deep Space, July 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter resisted the urge to personally check, once again, if the (slightly) improved stealth generator was working as intended. The readouts on her computer showed it was. And the improvements were nothing groundbreaking - just incremental improvements, increasing its power efficiency, dampening the already shielded emissions further and streamlining the routines that adjusted the stealth fields. Things they had done and tested on the way to the target while on board the flagship of this task force.

But a small part of her kept insisting that they needed more tests to be certain it worked, that they couldn't trust their current data, that the generator would fail in the worst possible moment.

The spy bot was still hiding, she told herself. The enemy sensors hadn't detected it, nor its transmissions. Of course, the spy bot was shielded by the bulk of the ship it was attached to - any stray emissions would either be absorbed by the Ha'tak's hull or attributed to the ship itself. That wouldn't be the case for the stealth shuttle here. And the stealth shuttle was significantly bigger than the spy bot, meaning its stealth field was bigger and had a significantly higher power demand, which in turn meant more emissions had to be shielded, which was why she had spent the days in transit working on improving the shuttle, together with Entrapta and Bow.

All their data, including the analysis of the most recent examples of enemy sensor technology captured at the last battle, showed that the stealth field should work even at close distances - up to touching an enemy hull. Unless, of course, someone or something flew directly into it. No stealth field could hide a kinetic impact. But the odds of that were… well, not as low as Sam would like. They would be higher if they were to dock with an airlock on an enemy ship instead of going EVA and opening a lock manually, but even so, the shuttle's size was a disadvantage.

"It'll work, Carter."

She turned to narrow her eyes at the General. "I wasn't worried," she lied.

He clearly didn't believe her but nodded anyway.

"If it doesn't work, we'll throw Adora at them and hightail it out of there while the task force moves in to wreck the ship." Of course, Catra had overheard them and had to comment.

"Hey!"

Catra rolled her eyes. "As if you weren't planning to nobly hold them back while we escape!"

"Well…" Adora pouted, and Catra smirked.

And Sam felt better.

"So… let's do this!" The General clapped his hands together. "Everyone's in place, and things won't get any better if we wait any longer.

Sam was, out of principle, tempted to argue that, technically, that was incorrect - she could think of several ways where the odds of the mission's success significantly went up if they waited, such as if Ba'al was on the way for an inspection, but she could also imagine several ways where things would get worse if they waited, so she didn't say anything and focused on her computer. The enemy sensors didn't have the range to detect them out here, but you never knew.

"Yes," Adora said. "Let's start the mission."

The General moved to the cockpit, and Sam heard him ask for permission to launch half a minute later.

Permission was granted, and the shuttle lifted off - Sam could only tell thanks to the camera and sensor feeds; the inertial dampener worked perfectly. They left the hangar and quickly accelerated.

Then, the stealth generator was activated, and the ship's sensors switched to passive. Sam felt as if she had gone blind and deaf for a moment as the data feeds on her computer cut out, but all systems were working as expected, and the feeds were replaced with real-time data from the spy bot network a moment later.

"No change at the target," she reported. Construction continued at the already observed pace - she could see the icons of various transports shuttling materials back and forth between the 'Ba'al's Glove' and the factory ships surrounding it. There was no change in the guard force, either.

Everything was going according to plan so far. But that didn't mean anything - they were still too far out for anyone to detect them even if they didn't use the stealth generator. And they would take a while to reach Point Velvet since they wouldn't be using the hyperdrive for the last leg.

"I miss the fireworks," the General commented suddenly.

"What? Do you want us to be detected, Jack?" Daniel sounded aghast.

"No, I mean the fireworks back home. It's the Fourth of July."

Sam didn't need to see the General to know he was grinning widely.

"Oh, ah…" And Daniel would be pouting, having realised that he had been had.

But the small joke had lifted some of the tension inside the shuttle - she could hear snorts and chuckling - and Sam felt better as well.

Smiling, she went back to checking the data on her screen. She still had a job to do.

Point Velvet, Deep Space, July 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

There it was: Ba'al's Glove. Catra liked the code name - it fit. Like a glove, Jack would say. And it removed some of the dread she couldn't help feeling when she saw it loom ahead. It looked too much like the original, well, like the original's lower-mid section. Same colour, same structure. At least from this far out. Up close, there were differences, as they knew from the spy bot's sensor coverage.

But they were approaching it, not yet close enough to make out such details, even with Catra's eyes, yet close enough so the missing parts didn't affect the impression it made as much any more.

She remembered her time on the original. Enough, at least, to feel sick. The days she spent afraid, trying to impress Horde Prime enough to be deemed useful, watching him play his sadistic games, his cruelness hidden behind false politeness and civility, until she couldn't take it - and her own guilt - any more and broke out Glimmer. And tried to die fighting the Clones, only to get captured and…

She shuddered at the fortunately vague memories of having the chip implanted in her neck, and her mind, maybe her soul, being changed - turned into a loyal drone of Horde Prime. The one thing she remembered most clearly from that moment was when her hair had been cut. She had done it herself, on his command. Let it fall to the floor.

And she remembered Horde Prime's frown at seeing the strands flutter around, spread across the room when she moved to kneel. The bastard must have hated it, but it had been his orders, so he couldn't complain. As far as payback went, it was very little, petty, but it was something.

And then he had sent her to fight Adora… Catra rubbed her upper arms with her hands when she remembered that. To fight her love - not that she had really realised, no, not that she had accepted that back then - all on the order of a sadistic megalomaniac…

She felt arms close around her shoulders. Familiar arms. Adora.

Her love didn't say anything, just held her. And Catra took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. She was free. This wasn't Horde Prime's flagship. It was just a cheap copy still under construction - barely a space station yet, and not yet operational. And she wasn't alone; Adora was here. Her love.

She leaned into Adora's side and whispered: "Thanks."

She didn't see but felt Adora nod in return, even through her spacesuit.

Good.

And Melog was there as well, warmth filling her. She reached out and patted their head.

She was amongst friends. They would not let her down. And she wouldn't let them down.

"Alright." Jack's voice broke the silence in the shuttle. "There's our destination - a nice little maintenance hatch. Get ready to disembark while we close in."

They had reached the ship while Catra had been… distracted. And the stealth generator was fooling the enemy sensors as expected - there was no reaction from all the guard ships and Death Gliders surrounding the Glove. None that they could see, at least. Ba'al might still be preparing a trap for them; he was the kind of enemy who would love such a ploy.

And they would turn it against him if he did. With a quip from Jack about George Lucas suing Ba'al, probably.

She smirked as she walked to the back of the shuttle, to the airlock.

Behind her, she heard Jack rise from his seat. "You've got the shuttle, Sha're."

"I've got the shuttle." Sha're sounded a bit resentful - she didn't like staying back while everyone else entered the ship, and she had made that clear beforehand. But they needed someone qualified to stay on the shuttle, in case something went wrong. Or if it needed to move in case someone else used that hatch to do some maintenance or construction on the hull.

Or if they had to drop Emily on the hull somewhere so she could shoot her way into the ship - the bot hadn't liked staying back either, but she was too big and too loud to sneak through an enemy ship. At least until Entrapta managed to fit a stealth generator into her frame.

Catra stood next to Adora and didn't listen to Daniel whisper to Sha're, nor to the sounds of them kissing, before he joined them at the airlock.

"Alright. Everybody is ready!" Jack announced. He talked a bit more quietly than usual - they didn't have to whisper; the vacuum outside wouldn't transmit sound even without the stealth field, but you just didn't talk loudly when you were about to sneak into an enemy base or ship.

"Let's go!"

The airlock on this shuttle had been modified to fit Emily, which had cut the cargo capacity down some but meant all of them would fit into the airlock without the bot. And that could be decisive in an emergency.

Catra felt the change in pressure as the air was pumped out, and a moment later, the outer door opened, and she was facing the maintenance hatch surrounded by the docking clamps surrounding it - non-magnetic since that apparently could be detected according to Entrapta.

"The section behind the hatch and airlock is clear according to our sensors," Sam announced.

So, no Jaffa waiting in ambush right behind this door. Good.

"Keep scanning for suspicious gatherings of guards," Jack ordered. "Don't want to walk into an ambush once we start exploring."

"Yes, sir."

Bow was already working on the door controls, and a minute later, the hatch slid open, and they entered the enemy ship.

Catra bared her fangs when she set foot in it.

Ba'al's Glove, Point Velvet, Deep Space, July 4th, 2000 (Earth Time)

As bizarre as it was, Jack O'Neill's first thought when entering the ship was that Ba'al had kept the Horde colour scheme. "It looks like Ba'al can't afford gold-plating his new toy," he said as the group moved through the empty hallway.

"It would clash with the theme," Glimmer commented.

Catra, already ahead of him, snickered, but Jack had to glance at Glimmer to check if she was serious or not - she sounded a bit off. Oh. She had been kept prisoner on the original Velvet Glove. Of course, she would be a bit stressed walking in the same corridors.

"Well, if he is planning to symbolically, and maybe literally, take up Horde Prime's mantle, he probably can't change the aesthetics of the flagship much, if at all," Daniel said. "I don't think we can deduce that Ba'al's suffering for resources from this."

Way to miss the point, Jack thought.

"Constructing such a huge ship would be a drain on anyone's resources," Carter cut in as they reached an intersection. "Just the construction crew we discovered so far will require huge efforts to train, house and supply."

That was good to know. And bad as well. Good because it meant blowing this ship up would harm Ba'al significantly. Bad because blowing up this ship would kill a lot of people whose only fault was having been born into slavery under the snakes. And Ba'al had proven that he would rather see his people die than flee or surrender.

Jack frowned. Maybe they could steal the ship with all the working crews on it? "So, the computer core you want should be in the central section, right?" He checked the map on his helmet's HUD display. Yep, down in the centre of the ship as it was built so far.

"Yes, sir." Carter nodded without looking up from her handscanner.

"I don't suppose it's the local nighttime, and we can just walk inside?" Jack grinned. He could see workers appear as the scanner updated their position.

"No, sir. They seem to be working around the clock. In two shifts."

"Ah." No eight-hour work days for Ba'al's slaves. Of course, even twelve-hour work days were more generous than Jack had expected, but maybe Ba'al had learnt that having tired workers build his ships was a recipe for faulty craftsmanship. Which would be bad, of course, for the Alliance, but good for his slaves, in the short term.

"There's a patrol of Jaffa headed our way!" Carter suddenly announced.

A moment later, the HUD display updated. Yeah, standard four-Jaffa squad on patrol. "Let's hide," Jack said, looking for a dead end… there! He marked the spot on the HUD and started walking. "Come on!"

The others followed. Carter slowed down a bit when she tried to operate her computer and hustle at the same time, but Entrapta picked her up with two hair tendrils, and they quickly caught up.

"Melog's hiding us," Catra announced.

Jack nodded. As he had hoped. The cat might be smug, but they were invaluable for such missions.

"They're coming!" Catra whispered.

Jack held his breath when he heard the Jaffa's footsteps. Here they came! And the leader looked straight down the dead end - if Melog weren't hiding them, his eyes would have met Jack's. And Jack would have shot him.

But as things were, the Jaffa patrol kept walking past, vanishing around the corner.

Jack glanced at Catra, who cocked her head to the side - would that help since she was wearing a spacesuit including a helmet? - before nodding. "They've crossed into the next section."

They returned to the door, Bow hacking it while Carter and Entrapta kept an eye on the scanners, updating their HUDs.

As useful as it was to have a fully modelled three-dimensional map at his disposal that showed the positions of everyone, including the enemy, in almost real-time, for a moment, Jack couldn't help feeling as if this was a video game. Between their sensors and Melog's illusions, they could just walk to the computer core room, get all the data they wanted, and be back with the fleet for dinner.

Almost takes the fun out of risking your life on sneaky commando missions, he thought as they let a bunch of workers with a sled full of components pass, once again hidden by Melog.

Still, they had to bypass a checkpoint by going through the ventilation ducts - Entrapta took the lead there - since not even Melog's illusions could make them pass through hatches watched by attentive guards.

Ba'al wasn't using second-rate troops here. Another hint that this was the real deal and not some bait - although a trap would be more effective if your best troops were already present when it was sprung…

Jack clenched his teeth and checked his carbine once more when they reached the computer room for this section, and probably for the entire ship. This was going a bit too smoothly for his taste.

"The computer room is not clear. Four people are using the consoles."

Adora nodded at Sam's report. She could see it on her HUD as well - and she really needed such a thing when she wasn't wearing a spacesuit. But would that work with She-Ra's armour? Something to ask Bow later.

Now, she had to focus on the task at hand: Getting access to the computers without being detected. "Can you reach a console from the air duct vents?" she asked Entrapta.

"Hm…" Her friend cocked her head and peered at her tool, then slid her visor down and tilted her head back and forth - she must be using the HUD inside to study the room. "Maybe? It's a bit of a stretch. I might have to get into the room if it is too far to the closest port."

"Melog says they can cover her in that case," Catra said.

They had done that before, but Adora didn't like letting Entrapta alone in a room with four enemies. Even though they were humans not Jaffa, and so they were workers, probably slaves, and not warriors. Ba'al's slaves were usually as fanatical as his warriors, and those were really bad.

"But they can't cover us in an illusion at the same time," Catra added.

That was… not good. There weren't many good spots to hide in the ship here - Horde Prime had had much cleaner designs than the Goa'uld generally used, and it showed - but they would have to manage. Adora didn't see any other way around the problem, and having everyone stuck in the air ducts would probably be worse if they were detected. "Do it. We'll hide nearby."

"OK!" Entrapta perked up - though Adora could only tell from her posture and voice; she was still wearing her visor down - and headed to the closest air duct, Melog padding after her - followed by Catra.

Adora bit her lower lip. Of course, someone had to go with them, just in case, and Catra was the obvious choice. Still… She didn't like it. "Let's look for a spot to hide!"

"There's a storage room relatively close," Sam told her.

Adora checked the marked area on her HUD. 'Relatively close' was stretching it a bit. They wouldn't be able to provide immediate support should anything go wrong in the computer room. But if Adora went all-out, she'd be able to reach them quickly anyway. Hopefully. And it was the closest hiding spot. "Good."

She watched Entrapta, Melog and Catra scramble up and disappear into the ventilation ducts, then moved to the storage room. They had to take a longer route this time since they couldn't hide behind illusions from the patrol, but they still made good time, and the storage room had plenty of crates to hide behind. Even Kyle would have managed to avoid detection from a casual glance here. Jack went as far as to claim he would take a nap in a corner since it was supposedly such a good spot, but everyone could see he wasn't serious.

"Alright! Here we are! I just need… Just a bit more… Ngh… Aw!"

"Entrapta's going in."

"Yes. It's just a tiny little bit too far. Even if I go half-in, which I did! Thanks for holding my legs, by the way!"

Adora closed her eyes and tried not to imagine how Catra and Entrapta must have looked right now.

"OK, here we go!"

Adora checked the HUD - no patrols nearby, and no workers coming their way, or toward the computer room. It shouldn't take Entrapta too long to hack the computers, so…

"And that's a good port! Download everything!

Not everything, Adora wanted to say, just the important data - but she knew that they couldn't tell what was important and what wasn't right away. So she had to wait and worry while Entrapta copied the database of what was a fleet base under construction.

"Almost done!"

Good. That meant...

"Fuck!" Catra's curse interrupted her thoughts.

"What?"

"What?"

"Entrapta, check the neck of the worker - check the necks of all the workers in here." Catra sounded very tense. But why?

"OK! We have to wait any… Oh!"

"What is wrong?" Adora hissed.

Catra replied in a flat voice: "The workers have Horde mind control chips."

Adora gasped and felt as if her stomach was dropping to the floor.