Chapter 165: The Clones Question Part 5

Outside Ba'al's Base, PT-9511, PT-9511 System, May 17th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"They need better perimeter checks."

Adora agreed with Catra's comment as she crawled up a bit more up the ridge to get a better view of the closer walls surrounding the base in front of them. She'd have to use binoculars, but it was still better than relying on aerial pictures or adapted sensor data. There was just something to taking a look in person at the enemy. Especially as a commander.

"I've seen worse from the Horde," Glimmer said behind her.

"Must have been a rear-echelon unit, not frontline troops." Catra joined Adora next to her.

"We sneaked past frontline Horde guards as well." And there was Bow.

"You did. But it took you more of an effort," Catra said. "We slipped through their patrols without trying."

"If the enemy is screwing up, you won't see me complaining," Jack commented.

"It's a matter of professional pride," Catra said. "This is basic stuff."

"Indeed."

Adora focused on the base below. It was huge - it included a spaceport large enough to handle four Ha'taks at once and shipyards with three 'slips' for capital ships, open to the sky - she could see the beginnings of what looked like Ha'taks there. And next to those were factories for the various weapons and other parts that would go into the ships. At least according to their sensor scans. And there were more factories adjacent to the shipyard complex. And a high wall surrounded it. Constructing it would have taken a long time.

"That's not a forward base or even a supply hub," Catra commented. "That's an industrial centre. And we're barely past the border here."

"Very vulnerable," Glimmer said.

"That makes the guards' failure even worse. They should be better this close to the front," Catra insisted.

"They might not have considered this a potential front when they built it," Bow said. "It's close to Alliance space around Etheria, but we're further away from the known Goa'uld territories Ba'al is attacking."

"They should have reinforced it with better troops after they tried to kill us," Catra said. "Ba'al isn't a fool. And this is an important base. Can't he spare some elite troops?"

"Maybe he has even more such hubs in his core territory?" Daniel suggested.

Adora clenched her teeth. That would be even worse. But… "If he had such a broad industrial base, wouldn't he have a lot of guards as well?"

"The false god might rely on the ships in orbit to guard this facility," Teal'c suggested. "And he might be saving his veteran warriors for more important tasks than guarding his bases."

Catra scoffed. "Let's hope he's that stupid. Guarding your supply lines is crucial against a mobile enemy."

"If he's underestimating us, I'm not complaining," Jack said.

"Really? I think I remember…"

"Focus, Daniel! We're on a mission in Indian country, not on a trip down memory lane."

"But…"

"Speaking of troops…" Adora zoomed in on the barracks visible on the base. "If those are standard troop barracks, then there should be more soldiers around than we see."

"They might be housing workers there as well," Bow said.

"No. The false gods do not allow their slaves to stay in the quarters for their warriors," Teal'c said. "The slave quarters are distinctively poorer. And the warriors would not relax next to the slaves' quarters like those we see below."

Several Jaffa were hanging out, or so it seemed, in front of the buildings. At least they were not standing at attention but sitting, and a few were sparring, but it didn't look like the kind of organised training Adora would have expected. So, Teal'c was probably correct - it was too far for Melog to check with their senses. Then that meant that the workers lived… There, in the plain buildings next to the shipyard complex, she noted.

"Are those quarters full? Can you scan for capacity and check if the number of people matches it?" Adora asked.

"Yes!" Entrapta, who had stayed below the ridge, replied. "Let me just program the scanner for this… Done!"

A few seconds passed. Adora watched a Death Glider take off from a pad near the factory complex. Was that a test flight? Or a courier or shuttle mission? It didn't look like a patrol.

"OK… looks like the people present easily fit into the quarters we have scanned. They could actually fit twice the number in there!" Entrapta reported.

"So, they're planning to expand. Or that's for the crews for the ships they're building here," Jack commented. "Can you tell if the stuff down there is the stuff they looted from the planet they attacked?"

"One moment, sir - running a scan detailed enough to compare the details necessary for such a distinction will take some time," Sam replied.

Adora studied the defences visible from their spot. Towers with crew-served weapons, but no heavier weapons. Without the ships above them, the base would be helpless against orbital strikes.

"All that production capacity and no integrated defences worth a damn?" Catra echoed her thoughts. "Is this a trap, or can't he spare the resources?"

"Well," Jack said next to them, "that's what we're here to find out. Among other things. Let's see how we can sneak inside!"

"So? Any convenient openings? Like, an unguarded sewer?"

"No, sir." Sitting in front of her laptop below the ridge hiding them from view, Samantha Carter shook her head at the General's question. "The wall surrounding the base has been constructed quite competently. There are no openings for wastewater - according to our scanners, it's filtered on-site in underground treatment plants." She double-checked her scans, just in case she had missed something. She hadn't.

"Yes. That's quite environmentally friendly," Entrapta added. "The other Goa'uld bases we saw were much less careful about their ecological footprint."

"Figures that the one time the snakes care about the environment, it's to our detriment," the General muttered.

"I am quite certain that Ba'al does not care about the environment," Teal'c spoke up. "If he ordered this, then he did it because of security concerns."

"Yes," Sha're agreed.

"Or he figured that having his freshwater sources polluted would harm the base's productivity long-term," Sam pointed out.

"That would mean this base isn't meant to be a temporary installation," Catra said.

"Unless that's his standard procedure," Daniel suggested. "He might be more focused on long-term planning than most Goa'uld - although given their lifespan, most of them should be taking long-term consequences into account."

"They should, and some System Lords do, but Ba'al has not such a reputation," Sha're disagreed.

"His reputation might not conform to his actual actions," Daniel replied. "We only have second-hand information to judge him."

"Well, we're here to get some first-hand information," the General cut in. "So, let's focus on how to get into the base instead of analysing data we don't have, shall we?"

Sam nodded, feeling a bit stung by the reminder - she had not stopped analysing the data the scanner was providing, even though it hadn't given any actionable results yet. "Half a dozen gates offer access, but they are heavily guarded," she reported. A full squad of Jaffa outside the gates, backed by more inside, weapon instalments on the wall, and more sensors than the Goa'uld usually employed.

"Yeah, we saw that," the General agreed.

"And it doesn't look like the gates are used much except for patrols leaving and returning," Catra added.

"In a pinch, we could ambush a patrol, take their armour and clothes and sneak in like that - some of us," Bow said. "Though they would find out afterwards."

"And we'd be limited to four people, and all of them would have to be able to pass as Jaffa," the General said.

And unless they wanted to rely on Melog constantly keeping up illusions, all of them would have to be men. Teal'c, obviously, the General, Bow and Daniel were the only ones, though they might be able to dress up Adora, if changed into She-Ra, as a Jaffa guard with some work - she certainly had the height.

However, neither Sam nor Entrapta would be able to sneak in like that, and while Sam trusted Bow's technical skills, she really wanted to personally hack the enemy systems.

"And we've done that on Saqqara," Catra pointed out. "Ba'al might expect that trick."

That was also a good argument - fooling the sensors installed at the gates wouldn't be easy. Not impossible, but it would be a challenge, especially if they had to do it from afar.

"What are the alternatives?" Adora asked.

"Return the planet's magic, and I teleport us inside?" Glimmer suggested.

"They might notice Adora changing the surface of the entire planet," the General replied. "These kinds of side-effects tend to draw attention."

"I could do something else with the magic," Adora said.

"Something the ships in orbit won't detect?" The General raised his eyebrows.

"Maybe?" Adora frowned. "If I channel the magic into the ground… I could make a tunnel into the base!"

That sounded… possible, but Sam didn't like to trust the plan - and their lives - to Adora improvising a magic feat. That kind of gamble should be left for desperate situations, in her opinion.

But she couldn't see any alternative that was significantly better. The base was surrounded by cleared land that didn't offer any cover, so even if they hacked the sensors, they couldn't sneak up to the base. Melog's illusions couldn't turn all of them invisible out in the open like that, either. Although… "The raw materials!" She was already checking the sensor data - expanding it to cover more of the world.

"The raw materials?" the General asked.

"They need raw materials to build all those ships and other gear," Sam explained while she sorted through the data.

"They mine asteroids," Entrapta said. "That's standard Horde fleet train procedure."

"Yes. But there are some raw materials you can't get from asteroids. Like food." And a few others, of course, especially for chemicals.

"The Horde clones are used to eating food grown in tanks," Catra said. "The Horde never really cared about the quality of their rations."

"The grey ones were good, though," Adora objected.

"They were not as bad as the brown ones, but they weren't good."

Sam ignored the bickering and sifted through the older data.

"But the Jaffa aren't the Horde. At least the Jaffa warriors serving the System Lords we knew about generally don't live on a diet of vat-grown food," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "While it is not impossible that loyal warriors would bear such conditions, most warriors I know would consider it beneath them to live on such fare."

"We haven't seen farms around the place, though," Sha're pointed out. "And they could ship in food from other worlds."

"But that would be requiring more spacelift," the General said. "And you never have enough transport capacity. So…"

"...they will be mining and producing what resources they can on the planet," Sam finished his thought. "I've identified two mines and one aquafarm on the sensor data we gathered on approach, sir."

"Good work, Carter!"

She tried not to smile too much at the praise.

"Alright, folks - we have a transport to hitch a ride on!"

Outside Ba'al's Mine, PT-9511, PT-9511 System, May 17th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"For someone paranoid about security, this transport seems suspiciously easy to board," Catra commented as she looked at the vehicle below her.

"It's guarded by a squad of Jaffa and has integrated sensors," Adora commented from behind her. "And it's in the middle of the mine compound."

Catra snort. "As I said - suspiciously easy to board." Entrapta, Sam and Bow were already hacking the sensors, and the four Jaffa kept a close eye on their surroundings, but she didn't see them looking up very often.

"We're not going to sneak inside the compound, anyway," Jack added. "Let's get into position."

Catra nodded and crawled backwards until she couldn't be seen from below, then circled around the big rocks lining the ridge to join the rest waiting at the ambush point. Well, the boarding point - it wasn't as if they were going to attack the transport.

"I'm feeling nostalgic," Bow said as he arrived as well. "We used to catch Horde transports like that all the time back in the war."

"Only until I beefed up security," Catra told him. "You didn't nab many of the convoys."

"There were enough solitary transports to pick off." Glimmer said.

Catra shrugged. "Can't really send a convoy to an outpost when they only need a single transport. But it's no big loss, either." The Horde planning had always anticipated some losses when calculating supplies. Hordak and hers, at least - Horde Prime had been a perfectionist. Then again, when your supply lines were part of your space fleets, you didn't have to make the same compromises both sides had been forced to on Etheria.

Glimmer snorted. "When we got a convoy, though, half your front collapsed."

Catra forced herself to shrug again. "That was back when the soldiers were deserting en masse anyway." She might have been able to stabilise the horde forces, but… She didn't like to remember that time of her life.

And she didn't need to glance over at Melog to know they had changed colours.

Adora cleared her throat. "Anyway, get ready to board the transport. They won't take much longer."

"We'll know when they're starting to move," Bow said, holding up his tablet. "We can see everything their sensors see, and they're still loading up."

Catra snorted. Adora hasn't been very subtle in her attempt to change the subject, but Bow still had missed it. Whatever. She crawled ahead a bit, up the ridge and past a sensor they had hacked on the way in - Ba'al apparently hadn't the troops to spare to complement his sensor grid, which meant it was easy to bypass them with the right technology - and looked at the area below.

Hidden behind a scraggly bush, she could clearly see the dirt road the transports' wheels had dug into the ground in the last few months. The Horde might as well have paved the entire road; that would have been as obvious and would have allowed for higher speeds.

As things were, the transport would be going quite slow in the curve here - she could see dusty tracks and some traces of paint on the rock wall on the other side, showing that at least one transport had taken the turn with too much speed. So, it was the perfect spot to board it without anyone noticing.

They just had to drop down about five yards onto a moving vehicle to pull it off.

But that wasn't really a problem.

"They stopped loading the transport," Bow announced from below.

"Get up then!" Catra hissed.

The rest of the group started scrambling up the slope and spread out along the ridge.

"They've left the compound," Bow reported.

Catra's ears twitched - she could already hear the transport's engine. It wasn't Horde technology but more advanced than the usual Goa'uld setup. Then again, any kind of engine was more advanced than some of the transports used on planets ruled by the snakes.

"Get ready!" Jack sounded tense, but they had this in the bag.

And there came the transport, slowly taking the corner ahead of them.

"Sensors fooled, sir," Sam reported.

"Go!"

Catra waited a moment - she could have jumped already, but the driver might have spotted her from that angle - then launched herself off the ridge and through the air, landing lightly on the back of the transport in a crouch. She resisted the instinct to dig her claws into the vehicle's roof and quickly glued the lines she had carried with her to the top using Bow's gadgets.

Glimmer, Sam and Jack were sliding down from the ridge on lines before Catra could give the signal. Teal'c brought up the rear - the transport had already passed his position when he jumped off and slid down as well. Entrapta, propelled by her hair, didn't bother with the lines in the first place.

The hair tendrils cushioned her impact like a big spring, then unfolded - just in time to catch Adora, who was carrying Daniel and Sha're with her when she jumped. Next to her, Melog landed as gracefully and softly as any cat would in their place.

Catra sliced through the lines with her claws as soon as Teal'c was clear, then watched the things disappear thanks to Melog's illusions.

Good. Now, they just needed to get inside the transport and hide behind another illusion, and they would be set.

On the Way to Ba'al's Base, PT-9511, PT-9511 System, May 17th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Leaning back against the wall inside the transport, Jack O'Neill couldn't help feeling that this was a bit too easy. Of course, sneaking onto a poorly-secured ore transport - and rare earth, not Naquadah or anything else that was worth its weight in gold or something - wasn't exactly the same as sneaking into a System Lord's palace, but Ba'al was supposed to be a crafty bugger, and supply transports were an obvious weakness for the base he had otherwise locked up pretty well. With Horde technology, too, not just Goa'uld gear - although that could include Ancients tech as well, those snakes were worse than magpies, or submarine crews, when it came to getting gear.

On the other hand, Jack and his friends had magic, and the snakes didn't. And while Jack didn't like magic for several completely valid reasons, the least of them being that he wasn't a magical princess or witch and didn't want to be one, he liked having an edge on his enemies. And Melog's magic was very effective - anyone looking into the transport would just see ore containers and nothing else. Jack had checked it himself after they had sneaked inside. Coupled with Carter and Entrapta fooling the security systems, they should pass the inspection at the gates - the ones they had observed relied on scanners and the good old mark I eyeball.

Still, that was no reason to grow complacent. Overconfidence killed you. You underestimated your enemy at your own peril. And Ba'al, according to everything they knew, was a crafty little…

"We're approaching the base, sir," Carter's whisper interrupted his thoughts.

Jack sat up straighter, as did the others.

"Scanner-jammer's ready!" Entrapta announced.

"Checking with the shuttle… Bow's connection to the hacked security sensors is stable," Carter reported. "No unusual activity detected in the security system."

Good. Jack nodded. "Showtime, folks!" He gripped his carbine and ran a quick before-operations check out of reflex. The M4 was, as it should be, in perfect condition, loaded with the new armour-piercing-incendiary ammo the eggheads had come up with. It wasn't a magic bullet despite the hype and rumours, and it didn't use magitech but advanced technology to ensure that any Jaffa hit would be sporting a burning hole front to back. Probably the wall behind them as well.

Jack had reserved the entire first production run for his command, of course.

Carter wasn't checking her own weapon - she was too busy typing on her computer to deal with whatever technological thingie Ba'al's Jaffa were trying to detect them - but he trusted her not to neglect her weapon as he trusted Teal'c to maintain his staff weapon.

"We've arrived," Carter reported, though Jack had already felt the transport slowing down - and becoming smoother; they weren't shaken as hard every time the wheels hit a hole or rock or whatever any more.

Then they came to a stop, the engine's droning noise ending, and Jack took a deep breath. If they were spotted, they would be exposed to fire from at least two weapon emplacements from the wall and a squad of Jaffa up close. Adora could take care of the heavy weapons, but in a crossfire, she wouldn't be able to block every shot. And Bow would take some time to get them with the shuttle.

He glanced at Carter, who signalled with her hand. So, the scans had started. No shouting or shooting outside. One of the Jaffa would check the undercarriage, another would climb on a tyre to check the roof. Fortunately, they hadn't left any traces up top.

Did the transport just rock a bit? Jack didn't think even a Jaffa in full armour would be able to affect the ore transport, but…

The loading doors in the back opened, and Jack held his breath as he raised his weapon to aim it at the Jaffa climbing inside. If the man physically checked the containers…

But the Jaffa pulled out a familiar scanner - standard Horde gear - and slowly turned around, attention focused on the thing's screen as he pointed it at the interior of the transport. Seconds passed, then the Jaffa nodded and climbed out - jumped out - again, calling out as soon as he hit the ground.

A moment later, the loading doors closed, and Jack slowly released his breath. He glanced at Catra, whose ears were twitching, and she signed the all-clear.

Then the transport's engine started up again with a shirt whine, and then they were moving inside the base - headed straight to one of the warehouses, where the raw materials for the shipyards were stored. Being inside that huge structure would make it easier to slip out of the transport and hide somewhere.

About a minute later, the transport slowed down to a stop again - they must have arrived at the entrance. Catra winced a moment later, and Jack heard a faint screeching noise. Someone must have failed to lubricate the doors, he thought. That didn't matter, though - he doubted they would use the cargo doors when leaving.

Once more, the transport stopped. Now came the tricky part. They would have to slip out while the real containers were being unloaded. However, that shouldn't be too hard with the way the thing was set up. And Melog had assured them through Catra that they could keep them hidden for that.

The loading doors in the back didn't open, though.

And Catra whispered: "Something's hissing outside. And it smells awful."

Jack looked at Carter and caught her gasping. That was never a good sign.

"We're in the decontamination area," she said, eyes glued to her computer. "Where they wash the transports. But… they're not using cleaning solvents. It's poison!"

Ba'al's Base, PT-9511, PT-9511 System, May 17th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"Masks on!"

Poison? Adora froze for a moment as she put on her mask. That wouldn't stop nerve gas, though. She could heal poisonings. But… for how long? And if she released the magic of this world, they would be noticed. But…

"It's a trap!" Daniel gasped.

"I can't teleport without magic."

"I don't hear any alerts!" Catra snapped. "Might be standard procedure."

"Standard procedure or not, poison is poison!" Jack spat. "Can you identify and stop it?"

"Working on it, sir," Sam replied. Her fingers were flying over the keyboard of her laptop.

"Seal the compartment!" Catra blurted out.

"Working on it!" Entrapta's hair was whipping around, carrying several tools.

Adora heard a hissing noise and tensed, but it was coming from one of Entrapta's tools.

"I'm sealing the seams, but that won't stop a nerve agent," Entrapta said. "And we just got confirmation - it is a nerve agent! But it will slow it down. We don't have the gear we need to seal the compartment against chemical weapons. An unfortunate oversight."

"I've stopped the poison dispenser," Sam reported. "And I've blocked the sensors from reporting it. But we need to neutralise it before we can leave the transport."

"They have to decontaminate the transport before unloading the cargo," Sha're said. "We can just wait."

"By then, the agent will have contaminated this compartment," Sam said.

"Can you trigger the decontamination procedure? I can heal us until then," Adora said.

Catra narrowed her eyes at the ceiling. "I think I can hear it entering."

Oh, no! Adora drew her sword.

"I risk alerting the base guards if I do that. I'll have to fake a glitch," Sam replied. "And I think they open the cargo compartment for that."

"Do it anyway!" Jack said.

Adora started healing people. If only she could deal with the gas like that… But this wasn't the time to experiment with her power.

Catra cocked her head. "Hoses are working."

Adora didn't relax. Nerve agents lingered - they had learned that in cadet training.

"It's already seeping through," Glimmer pointed out - indeed, drops were running down the sides of the transport."

"That won't be enough to decontaminate the inside," Sam said. "We'll have to wait until they open the door and repeat it."

Adora winced.

And Catra cursed. "Do you know how much it takes to clean your fur?"

Adora knew. As did Melog, who looked green again - and Adora didn't think that was just reflecting Catra's mood. They really needed uniforms that protected against such agents. Masks wouldn't cut it. They could use the space suits, but as light as they were, they were still too heavy to be worn if there were better alternatives. She made a mental note to make it a priority - they had started a project for such uniforms after the encounter with the Eurondans, but as she dimly recalled, it was still held up in a committee where people argued over who got to make them for the Alliance.

The liquid started to run down the walls. At least, this was the decontamination agent, not the nerve agent. Adora still doubted that it was good for your skin.

"Quiet! I hear someone coming!" Catra hissed.

"Finally!" Jack muttered under his breath as Melog hid them again.

Then the doors were opened - by a worker, Adora noted, who wasn't wearing any protective gear - and as soon as the man had withdrawn, the hoses started up again - and two were spraying the stuff in the compartment. Adora closed her eyes and clenched her teeth when the liquid hit her.

It went on and on, and there was nothing she could do - she just had to endure this. Others had it worse, even. Catra was the worst off, Adora knew, with her fur and her big ears.

But after about a minute, the hoses were turned off again. Adora's skin itched and she had to struggle not to scratch herself - she would have to heal everyone again once they were out of this compartment.

But before they could leave, two Jaffa in armour climbed inside, and Adora tensed again. Had they been made? Was this a reaction to the 'glitch'?

They looked around for a few seconds, talking briefly in Goa'uld. Both snorted and left again.

"The first one said that if any escaped slave had been in here, they'd have died trying to open the doors, so there was no need to get wet climbing over the containers," Daniel whispered.

Adora gasped. So, that was why they poisoned the transports!

Daniel coughed. "The second said…"

"...that they would find any dead ones anyway," Jack finished for him. "No, I didn't understand him - that was just a guess. Guards will be guards."

Catra snorted, then cursed even more and rubbed her ears. "Let's get out now before the workers arrive."

"Yes." Adora looked at Melog. "Can you hide us until we're clear?"

They nodded, and everyone started moving to the loading doors. Adora peeked outside - the coast was clear. And they were hidden by magic, anyway.

"Sensors fooled," Entrapta said.

"Let's go!" Ador slid down to the ground - jumping would make noise - and started towards the centre of the warehouse. They could hide between the tons of raw materials stored there and plan their next move.

And she could heal them. She hoped they'd find a way to get clean as well.

They'd made it out of the transport just before the workers arrived to unload it. As Samantha Carter had expected, the slaves weren't wearing protective gear. In the rush to get away and into a hiding spot, she hadn't been able to see if the men and women showed any symptoms of health problems from long-term exposure to the decontamination agent, but she wouldn't be surprised at all if that was the case - agents used to neutralise neurotoxins were often toxic themselves. Certainly, Sam's skin was already irritated by the agent. And if Ba'al followed the usual Goa'uld policy of not offering any health care to his slaves, then he would have to replace those workers quite often to keep the output here up.

"Here, let me…"

Warmth filled her, and the irritating - and concerning, Sam was all too aware of the damage such agents could do - itching feeling vanished as Adora healed her.

"We need to get this damn stuff off us," the General muttered after peeking around the corner of the container behind which they were hiding. "We can't do the mission if you have to keep healing us every few minutes."

"We could tough it out," Glimmer suggested.

"Says the woman who has been scratching herself for minutes before Adora healed you." Catra sounded very irritated herself. Then again, as she had told everyone, her fur was sticky, and her ears drove her crazy. Her tail was whipping back and forth, either from tension or in an attempt to shake out more of the decontamination fluid. Maybe both, Sam guessed.

"We'll need to find a shower," she said - after briefly checking if the agent would react badly with water. It shouldn't, or the slaves' condition would be far worse, but you always checked such things because the cost of finding out after you already screwed up was usually horrible.

"Well, if we ask nicely, maybe the garrison will let us use theirs…" If she hadn't known already how frustrated the General was, his sarcasm would have told her. He usually was a little more constructive in those situations.

"We could build a shower. We just need a source of water," Entrapta suggested.

Sam blinked. Building a shower? That would… It sounded absurd at first thought - and she didn't want to think about the comments it would cause during their debriefing or the rumours it might create - but it should be a suitable solution for their problem.

"I'm looking for a source of water," she said, starting a search with her scanner. "We'll need a location where we can drain the water as well." Although Goa'uld tended not to care much about such details, someone might notice a slightly toxic puddle of water left where no such thing should be.

"And which offers us some privacy. Don't want to start any rumours," the General said, nodding emphatically.

Sam agreed wholeheartedly.

"Rumours?" Entrapta cocked her head and frowned. "About showering?"

Sam clenched her teeth and pretended to be focused entirely on her scanner.

"Ah, right - you guys still aren't used to mixed units," Glimmer said.

"We're used to mixed units," the General retorted. "Just not to shared showers."

"Must be rough in the field," Catra commented - and Sam could hear her smirk.

"We manage," The General replied blandly.

"But that seems inefficient," Entrapta said. "You'd have to either have a schedule or separate facilities, and either will add friction to your organisation."

"Not as much friction as shared showers would, trust me," the General said, and Sam knew without looking at him that he was grinning in that slightly lopsided way.

"That seems like a problem we need to address, then," Adora said.

She isn't wrong, Sam thought. Sexism was alive and well in the armed forces. She had met her fair share of soldiers and officers she wouldn't trust in such a situation. But they were in the middle of a mission, and this wasn't the time to discuss Alliance policies. Her skin was already itching again! "I think I found a spot, sir," she spoke up, pointing at the location on her screen. "It's not too far from here, quite isolated, and the sound from the processor next door should mask any from the water. Or from building the shower."

"Right, let's go! I'm itching for a shower," the General announced.

"Jack! That was bad even for you!"

"Less complaining, more moving."

Catra's fur was still wet. So was her uniform. Sam and Entrapta should have built a dryer as well as a shower - or 'improvised decontamination facility', as Sam insisted on calling it, at least officially. It was a shower, though. Not that anyone would care, anyway - they hadn't even taken off their uniforms to shower. They were wet, and it was uncomfortable.

She ran her hands down her bare arms, then gripped her tail and tried to squeeze more water out of her fur. Sneaking around would be harder if they left a trail of puddles. Then she shook her head, trying to clear her ears again.

"Hey!" Glimmer hissed. "Watch it. I don't need another shower!"

Catra snorted. "It's just a few drops."

"Then you shouldn't make a fuss over it!"

Catra glared at Glimmer. She was the one who had to deal with wet fur! Then she blinked and smirked. At least her wet uniform wouldn't rub against raw skin until it finally dried. If it ever did.

Glimmer narrowed her eyes in return. "What?"

"Nothing." Catra smiled sweetly.

"You just thought of something!"

"Yeah, that we need to dry off some more before we sneak around. Don't want to leave a trail of water for anyone to follow," Catra said.

"The squelching noise is also not going to help with that," Jack added. "We need to take that into account when making better uniforms."

"Already noted, sir," Sam chimed in.

"Should just switch to standard Horde uniforms," Catra said. "They're rated against environmental attacks."

"They're not rated for all chemical and biological weapons we know now, though," Entrapta chimed in. "We'd have to adjust the design. And we would have to either build new factories or re-repurpose the ones we repurposed to make other stuff after the war."

"We can't have the Alliance dressing up as Horde troops!" Glimmer gasped. "There would be an uproar back home!"

"Yeah. They didn't like my uniform either when I first joined them," Adora said.

"I was kidding," Catra flashed a grin that earned her another scowl from Glimmer. "But we do need better uniforms." She bent down and rubbed the fur on her feet.

"You've never worn a standard Horde uniform," Glimmer pointed out.

Of course not! Catra snorted and flexed her claws. "Even the Horde realised that they had to make adjustments for me."

"I remember!" Entrapta beamed. "I did warn you that such modifications would compromise the uniform's integrity, didn't I?"

Catra nodded. "You did." But the Alliance hadn't used chemical or biological weapons - well, not the poison kind - so it hadn't mattered much.

"Are we really discussing fashion in the middle of a mission?" Jack complained.

"No. We're talking shit while drying off until we can continue the mission without leaving wet footprints all over the site," Catra shot back.

"We could still build a dryer. We just need a few more parts and we need to hack the systems so the excess heat and additional power drain won't trigger the internal sensors," Entrapta suggested.

Catra knew from experience what her friend considered 'a few more parts' and shook her head. "No time for that."

"Yes. Besides, the people back home would never stop with the vacation jokes," Jack agreed. "We just have to tough it out."

"Just like trekking through a swamp in boot camp, right?" Daniel asked in a rather sarcastic tone.

Jack beamed at him. "Exactly like that, just without the mud sucking your boots off!"

Catra snorted at Daniel's pouty expression - he shouldn't try to outsnark Jack.

"Alright. Let's go," Adora spoke up. "I think we're dry enough."

Catra swallowed the first remark that came to mind and nodded. They could leave the warehouse through the side entrance they had scoped out from outside the base. From there they could quickly reach what Sha're and Teal'c had agreed was the main administration building of the base. They just need to ensure that the 'decontamination facility' was dismantled before leaving their hideout here.

"Wait!" Sam's voice made everyone stop and turn to her. "I've been going over the warehouse's manifest. There's a suspicious item we should check."

"Suspicious how?" Jack asked.

"It's listed as 'special supplies', but I can't match it to anything factory or repair installation in the base."

That did sound suspicious. "Special project?" Catra wondered.

"Let's hope it's not some 'special weapon'," Jack said.

"Let's go check it out," Adora said.

Catra took point as they left their hideout and led them through the maze of containers and stacked other materials to the site Sam had identified. It was a sealed container. Horde-style, far more advanced than the cargo containers in the rest of the facility.

Hacking the lock didn't take long, though - Ba'al might have access to Horde tech, but the Alliance had been hacking their security for years at this point. After half a minute, the doors of the container opened with a slight hissing noise, and Catra moved ahead of everyone else to take a peak.

It was dark inside, but her eyes adjusted easily - and she gasped.

The container was filled with pods. Pods containing people - humans. Identical humans.